Hoy invitamos a H y T para celebrar el cumpleaños de H. Durante muchos años H y E han mantenido la tradición de cenar juntos para celebrar el cumpleaños de cada una. Solían ir a restaurantes pero recientemente han preferido celebrar en casa. Este año E ofreció hacer una paella y H aceptó. Okay. Es verdad que aquí en Corvallis no es fácil conseguir el arroz correcto para paella, pero habíamos pedido varios elementos de una tienda online. La tienda, que se llama “La Tienda¨ esta ubicada en Carolina del Sur y los dueños son Americanos, no Españoles. Pero sí tienen un surtido interesante de comidas y utensilios de cocina procedente de España, incluyendo jamones Ibéricos que cuestan entre 100 y 200 dólares cada kilo. Afortunadamente, nuestra cocina is mas vegetariana que carnívora. Whew. Teníamos mas interés en arroz para paella, aceitunas rellenas de anchoas, y un tipo de bombones de higo que se llaman Rabitos Royale.
En nuestro cena de celebración empezamos con lomo y manchego (que sí son fáciles de comprar aquí) y continuó con paella y ensalada. Después había un poco de helado y al final los Rabitos. ¿A todos nos gustaron los Rabitos? Oh yeah.
Sidra espumosa para la homenajeada y vino para los demás.
H entre paella y bonbon
Martes, 16 de mayo
Estuvimos muy ocupados con varios recados y citas, pero también paramos unos momentos para disfrutar del muy buen tiempo. “Spring has sprung,” como se decía en tiempos antiguos. En esta época, nuestro jardín está lleno de iris y peonias.
¿Mencionamos citas? Citas dentales, por ejemplo? En una oficina dental que solía ofrecer cupcakes gratuitos a los pacientes, un costumbre que terminó cuando empezó la pandemia? Pues, hoy en la misma oficina E estaba encantada de encontrar una clara señal que la pandémia había terminado.
Miércoles, 17 de mayo
Por la mañana estuvimos ocupados preparando para ir de camping en las montañas Cascadas. Ibamos a pasar solo dos noches y debía ser fácil de preparar, pero resultó difícil. Siempre hay tantas cosas y decisiones. Salimos de Corvallis a la una and llegamos al Camping Trout Creek un poco después de las dos. Este camping–cuyo nombre significa ‘arroyo de trucha’–es un lugar que hemos pasado docenas de veces por la carretera sin pensar en pararnos. Parecia demasiado cerca de Corvallis con un clima no muy diferente. Pero en esta temporada nos pareció que podría ser un destino interesante para pasar un par de noches. Más arriba en las montañas haría frío con mucha nieve.
Acampamos al lado del Río Santiam del Sur en el sitio 13. Elegimos el numero 13–a pesar del riesgo de mala suerte–porque tenia su propia playa rocosa y una pequeña cascada estacional al otro lado de rio. Como es normal en esta temporada el río corría alto y rápido. También era ruidoso. E dice que hubiéramos dormido mejor con tapones para los oídos.
Jueves, 18 de mayo
Hoy nuestro proyecto fue una visita a los Lagos Gordon. Estos dos lagos pequeños se encuentran en un sitio bellísimo más arriba en el lado sur del cañon. Un lago está a 150 metros del otro y también está a quince metros más arriba. Hay un hermoso riachuelo que desciende del superior al inferior. Los lagos no están muy lejos de nuestro campamento,–no más de quince kilómetros en linea recta. Pero también están a 650 metros más arriba. Otra cosa es que había mucha nieve este año y no sabemos la condición del camino, que es nada mas que un camino forestal. Con todo eso, sabíamos que el proyecto no estaba asegurado de tener éxito. Sin embargo, con temperaturas en los 80’s (F) y mucho sol, fue fácil imaginar que fuera possible. Subimos a la camioneta y conducimos por la carretera hasta que encontramos Forest Road 2044. Allí giramos a la derecha y nos dirigimos hacia arriba.
El siguiente problema fue localizar el camino particular para Lagos Gordon. Después de seis kilómetros en Road 2044, lo encontramos y giramos otra vez a la derecha. Yes! Al mismo tiempo, también hemos notado algo más–pequeñas islas de nieve al lado del camino estrecho. Hmm. Pero estábamos viajando directamente en dirección de los lagos. ¡Adelante!
Pero no por mucho tiempo. Las pequeñas islas se hicieron cada vez más grandes.
Dejamos la camioneta y empezamos a andar
Estábamos pensando que los lagos podrían no estar demasiado lejos, pero lo estaban.
Después de caminar dos kilómetros por el camino cubierto de nieve, decidimos que seria más prudente dar la vuelta.
E odia no llegar a un destino. En este caso echa la culpa a la nieve. Primero la pisotea…
…y luego la patea. Nuestros estimados lectores comprenderán que M tiene cuidado de no interponerse entre E y sus objetivos.
Incluso sin ser pateada, la nieve en el camino está en peligro mortal. Se está derritiendo rápido. De regreso a la camioneta pasamos por este tramo, al que llamamos Calle de los Cuatro Ríos.
A media tarde estábamos de regreso en el campamento. Aquí E encuentra una manera de relajarse junta al río.
Viernes, 19 de mayo
Esta mañana nos despertó a las cinco y media un ruidoso arrendajo de Stellar justo afuera de la ventana de nuestra tienda. Los Stellars son pájaros vulgares pero bastante guapos.
(This photo courtesy of the internet. Our jay moved too fast for our photographer)
¿El pájaro nos inspiró a salir de nuestros cálidos sacos y comenzar un día nuevo a las cinco y media de la madrugada? No. Por fin nos levantamos a las siete y media, y a las nueve y media nos dirigimos a casa.
Sabado, 20 de mayo
No sabemos cómo sucedió, pero hoy nos encontramos comprando aún más plantas para la jardín. Ahora tenemos más trabajo para plantarlos. ¿No tenemos suficiente trabajo? Locura.
En cuanto a los espárragos, esto is lo que tenemos después de dos años y medio…
Domingo, 21 de mayo
El viernes pasado nuestra amiga J tuvo una cirugía de reemplazo de hombro. Está recuperando en casa. Tiene cuidadores que vienen en turnos para ayudarla durante los primeros días. A E le tocó un turno hoy y mañana le tocará otro. Afortunadamente J se está recuperando bien.
M plantó cuatro patatas y dos pimientos dulces. Estos y los espárragos son los únicos cultivos alimentarios que tendremos este año. Admiramos a los jardineros que producen alimentos saludables once meses al año, pero sabemos que no pertenecemos a ese grupo.
We had H and T over for dinner today to help celebrate H’s birthday. About a week ago E had offered to either take H out to a restaurant of her choice or to make a paella. Paella was chosen, so E has been preparing to produce one along with a few accompaniments. But to promise someone paella, you really should have paella rice, which is not easy to find in Corvallis. It’s easier to go on-line. Fortunately we had recently put in an order to La Tienda, a place in Williamsburg, South Carolina that specializes in imported Spanish food and cooking utensils. Being half vegetarian, we passed on their Ibérico style hams, of which they have a good selection and for which they charge between 50 and 100 dollars per pound. Instead, we got rice, anchovy stuffed olives, and a much too small box of eight Rabitos Royale. These last are bonbons made with figs and dark chocolate.
We started off with some locally procured lomo and manchego, continued on into the paella and salad, and then had a little ice cream before finishing with four of the bonbons, which turned out to be awfully good. Shoulda ordered more of those things.
There was sparkling cider for the honoree and wine for the other guests.
Here is H smiling, even before she had her bonbon.
Tuesday, May 16
We were busy with chores and appointments, but also managed to notice that the weather is warm and spring has sprung. The back yard is bursting with iris and peonies.
Did we mention appointments? As, for example, a dental appointment? At a dentist’s office the used to offer free cupcakes but stopped doing so when the pandemic started? Well, E was overjoyed to find this definitive marker that the pandemic is over!
Wednesday, May 17
We spent the morning packing up for a little camping trip into the Cascades. We left at about 1:00 and got up to Trout Creek campground just after 2:00. It’s a place we’ve passed by dozens of times without ever thinking to camp there. Too close to the Valley, with an altitude just 1,000 feet higher than our house in town. At this time of year we thought it should be good because spring would be well along there, unlike the higher places where the snow lingers into June.
We camped next to the South Santiam at campground site # 13, which–on the plus side–has its own rocky beach and a little seasonal waterfall just across the river. These days the river is running high and fast.
The minus side of site #13 was that the river was noisy; E wished she had brought earplugs for the nighttime.
Thursday, May 18
Our main project for the day was to see if we could get to Gordon Lakes, a charming spot up high on the south slope of the canyon. The two lakes are about 200 yards apart and the northernmost lake is maybe 50 feet higher than the southern one, which makes for a lovely tumbling stream that links the two, the outlet of one and the inlet of the other. The lakes weren’t far away from our campground, probably less that ten miles away as the crow flies. They were also 2,000 feet higher than our camp and we’d had a fairly heavy snow year. So yes, getting there was going to be an iffy proposition. But with the temperatures in the 80’s and lots of sunshine, it was easy to imagine we might make it. We drove up the highway to House Rock, turned off on Forest Road 2044, and headed steeply upward. We found the unsigned turn on the nameless road that leads to Gordon Lakes. But already we were seeing bits of snow in the shady spots–first little bits and then not so little bits.
Just because you can imagine a clear road to your destination doesn’t mean you’ll find it. We parked the truck here and decided to see if we could walk the rest of the way.
We were thinking that it might not be too far, but it was.
After walking about a mile and a half up the mostly snow covered road, we decided we had had enough. A disappointing result but not a disaster. It was nice up there and we managed to find a dry spot to sit down to lunch.
E hates not getting all the way to a destination. She seems to have found a couple of ways of expressing her feelings about the presence of so much snow. First she stomped it…
…and then she kicked it.
Even without being kicked, this snow is in trouble; it’s melting fast. At one point, about a mile from the truck, we found an almost clear area of road. We named it Four Rivers.
By mid-afternoon we were back in the campground. Here E finds a way to unwind by the river.
Friday, May 19
We were awakened at 5:30(!) by a noisy Stellar’s jay, who seemed to be just outside the window of our old “Hobbitat” model REI tent. The Stellars are considerably handsomer than the Western scrub-jays that we see in our yard, but their vulgar behavior seems similar. Despite the bird’s best efforts, we did not get up at that time. It was around 7:30 when we made a multifaceted breakfast of cafe mocha, instant oatmeal, yogurt, trail mix, orange juice, fruit and a Clif bar. After that, we started packing up.
Once packed, we started up the truck and headed back out to the highway. Before turning west toward home, we made a brief stop just across the road at the start of the Walton Ranch Interpretive Trail. That turned out to be an easy quarter mile zigzag up the north slope of the canyon. At the end of the trail there is a viewing platform from which you can get a look at the site of an old ranch on the south side of the river. The information at the viewing platform says that the ranch house was a popular stop in the 1890’s when the Santiam Wagon Road crossed through the area. The sign also says that “European-Americans first settled the area in the 1980’s.” We’re pretty sure one of those dates is wrong. The ranch house and barn are mostly gone and the area is now managed as elk habitat.
On our way back home, we had to pass through the town of Lebanon, Oregon, which is home to Hazella, a Scandinavian bakery that we had never visited before. We picked up a few treats for the weekend.
Saturday, May 20
We don’t know what possessed us, but somehow we found ourselves at Shonnard’s, buying more plants. Now we’ll have to find time to get them into the ground. As if we didn’t have enough to do harvesting our suddenly productive asparagus patch. When did M plant asparagus? It was so long ago we don’t remember. Probably about two years ago. And now suddenly here they are, We don’t have too many spears, but enough for us to notice that when they decide to pop up, it doesn’t take them long. We’d swear they grow several inches an hour. Keeps you on your toes.
Sunday, May 21
Our friend J had shoulder replacement surgery on Friday and is recovering at home. She has caregivers coming in shifts to watch over her for the first few days. E had a shift today and another tomorrow. So far J is doing well. M worked in the yard and planted four Yukon Red seed potatoes and two sweet peppers. As far food crops go, that will be it for this year. We admire gardeners who are able to produce great quantities of wholesome veggies ten months of the year, but we know that we are not they.
For our last few days in Spain we stayed with Lesley and Marciano at their house in Rivas. Lúa, Ke, and Buddy reside at the same address.
Lesley invited some of E’s old friends to lunch today, giving us a chance to see them one more time before we leave. The temperature was around 70, nice enough for a dinner outside. Lesley outdid herself with a multi-course banquet: fondue in a bread bowl, mushroom soup, Chinese vegetable salad, followed by the choice of salmon or cod in hollandaise. Then came two awesome desserts: brownies with a thick coconut topping–contributed by Margo–and Lesley’s fresh fruit pieces in port wine sauce over blueberry ice cream. Wow.
It was a shame that we only had half an hour to rush through this meal; we really should’ve planned better…Nah. Just kidding. We gave this meal the time it deserved–more than three hours.
Wondering about all those initials? Left to right: Paco, Margo, Marga, Lesley, Marciano and E. Photo by M.
Sunday March 26
We went to downtown Madrid today for some last minute details, including half a kilo of magical powder:
Monday March 27
Another nice day. We went for a walk through an old olive grove, and later on we grilled some halloumi cheese to help with the midday meal. Also, of course, we packed up the suitcases. We are really tired of packing.
Tuesday March 28
Marciano and Lesley got up early and got us to the airport by 4:00 AM so we could catch our 6:00 AM flight. Heroes both of them! By 8:30 we were in Amsterdam and by 10:30 we were on our way to Portland. The bad news was that our plane’s in-flight entertainment and wi-fi were both down. You can imagine the groans that greeted that announcement. In other areas the Delta/KLM service was wonderful, including the main meal, which was very tasty and healthy too.
We finally got back to our little house at around 4:00 PM, 21 hours door to door.
Wednesday March 29
When we arrived yesterday, Oregon seemed cold and damp; but the sun came out today, long enough to dry out the long grass in the back yard. M took the opportunity to break out the mower and go on the attack. Inside the house, both of us got back onto our computers as soon as we could. Besides being really tired of suitcases, we were super tired of small screens.
E took a walk and was happy to come across a new friend from the animal kingdom.
Thursday March 30
Cloudy today, but not raining. In the morning we worked on our taxes. In the afternoon we did some weeding and cleaning up outside. Jet lag is making us feel sluggish. We woke up at 3:00 AM wondering if it was time for breakfast.
Today marks the 4th wedding anniversary for the ANDEES. E sent them a gift of flowers, since an internet source said that flowers or fruit were the appropriate gift to signify the deeper blossoming and ripening of the relationship.
Friday March 31
Progress on the jet lag front: this morning we didn’t wake up till 4:00 AM. In the afternoon we took a forest walk and saw lots of Trillium and a few tiny yellow violets. Also we saw that the Indian plum is leafing out. It’s always the first. When we got home, we took a closer look at our two Indian plums, and sure enough, they have new leaves too–and blossoms.
We are reminded once again that spring starts early here but then seems to proceed very slowly. Besides the not very showy Indian plum blossoms, we have a few nice hyacinths and some long rows of daffodils, but these all look a little forlorn since so much else is just barely getting started and there’s a lot of brown around. It doesn’t help that the weather has turned dark and rainy and is predicted to stay that way for the next week or so. Of course there are buds everywhere and new red leaves have appeared on the roses. If we look closely we can see that the flowering currant is on the verge of flowering and that the forsythias are about to turn yellow.
Saturday April 1
It’s nice to be home of course. It’s comfortable and there’s an easing of tension. Certainly there is tension involved in traveling, especially when you’re older. But we kind of got used to it and now we miss it–at least a little. Today we were trying to figure out something about our finances and had to go over our credit card transactions for the last couple of months. It was so exciting to see all the transactions from the trip. Look, there’s the Senator Hotel. Remember that? And what was the Hungry Grill? Must have been in an airport. What was the 62 dollars at Puerta del Sol? Was it the purse? Remember the purse quest? Etc.
Our Visa cards are issued by our credit union. We used them a lot, but we were always a little nervous because they didn’t always work. E ended up calling the credit union twice to try and get them working again. This helped some but did not solve the problem completely. On our unexpected descent into the Lyon subway system, for example, we found that the ticket machines didn’t like our cards. The machines took cash, so it wasn’t a serious problem, but it was disconcerting. Has anyone else experienced such issues with credit cards in Europe?
One thing that worked well was Apple Pay/Apple Card. It was especially handy when used in combination with the Trainline app on the iPhone. Trainline makes it easy to arrange train travel in Europe. You just enter where you’re traveling from, where you want to go, and the date you want to travel. You then push a button and it gives you all the different train types along with all the possible departure and arrival times and all the prices. You choose what you want and then pay for the tickets by choosing Apple Pay and pressing one button on the phone. Then you’re done. Trainline sends you an e-ticket that you can show to the conductor when the time comes.
Of course Trainline is not that easy the first time you use it, because at that point you have to input all your basic information: name, address, email, age, passport number for everyone you are buying a ticket for. You can also enter any discounts you may qualify for. In our case, we got a Dorada (golden) card from the Spanish rail system, which provided a 40% senior discount on long distance tickets. Other EU countries honor the Spanish discount and Trainline remembers it all. Using Trainline costs $5.00 per ticket, but it’s worth it. (It should be noted that Trainline is not idiot proof, as M demonstrated on our trip to Granada, but we won’t go into that.)
Sunday April 2
Damp, gray, calm. There’s a bit more yellow on the forsythias.
We spent the morning finalizing our itinerary for the next ten days: France, Switzerland, Germany, then back to Madrid. We have friends in Switzerland and Germany. We have no good reason to stop in France, but we’re doing that anyway.
Tuesday March 14
In order to travel a bit lighter, we’ve leaving one of our suitcases behind in Madrid, where L has kindly agreed to keep it for us. So today, we packed it full of this and that and made the trip out to Rivas to drop it off. Turns out we also got a wonderful lunch: a kind of Catalan paella made with pasta called Fideuá.
Then it was back to Calle del Trinquete (Topmast Street) to spend our last night in the rental apartment. Six weeks it’s been. We had a very light supper because after the sumptuous banquet at L’s, we didn’t need a big one. The menu was green salad with tuna dressed with oil from the can. As always, we could look out from the dining nook to see a small slice of city.
Wednesday March 15
Up at 7:00 for a bit of breakfast, then out the door for the last time. We rolled our suitcases down the familiar 12–minute walk to the Manoteras metro stop. Then it was four stops to Mar de Cristal and a transfer to Línea 8 for the ride out to the airport. By 10:30 we were settled into our seats for our flight to Lyon. Compared to the seats on the intercity trains, the ones on the Airbus 320 looked like folded postage stamps…but they sufficed. The worst thing is that we were seated in row 31 of a 31 row aircraft. Thanks, travel agency, great work.
We landed at the Lyon airport at around 12:40. We were in no hurry, so we decided to have lunch there. The weather was a bit cooler than in Madrid, but still mostly sunny. After lunch we took the airport train into the city center. Once there, as soon as we walked out of the main railway station, we could see a rank of waiting taxis just across the street. It’s true that everyone was speaking French instead of Spanish and E kept wondering if we had somehow gotten to Quebec, but other than that, what an easy life.
As we approached the taxi rank, we saw that the driver of the first taxi in line was out of his car and was engaged in conversation with a potential customer, one who did not look pleased about how the conversation was going. We looked at the driver of the second cab in the rank, who looked back at us but then got out of his car and said something to the other driver before looking at us again. E told him where we wanted to go and he shook his head and got back in his car. Just then, the other customer walked away and first driver turned to us to explain that it was not possible to take us anywhere near where we wanted to go due to the manifestation.
We had already heard that French president Macron had proposed raising the French retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. France has the lowest retirement age of any developed country and a lot of French people think that that is an excellent state of affairs and shouldn’t be messed with. Hence, strikes and demonstrations have been ongoing. So..how could we get to our hotel? Possibly by Metro, was the answer.
Being modern people, we next asked our phones how to get to the hotel. Siri suggested a combination of tram and bus. And just up the street was a tram hub. Off we went to find our tram line. Once there, we found a small difficulty: an electronic sign at the stop was showing the message Service Interdite. We may not know too much French, but we could guess what that meant. It meant that the tram couldn’t get through either. So, back to the Metro idea. But how to do it? E phoned the hotel. The receptionist kindly gave us instructions in English and off we went, down into a nearby metro station. Our motto? Onward!
Four stops and one transfer later we emerged. We were still a ways from our hotel, but it was walkable. Just as we were getting our bearings, however, we noticed something else—the imminent arrival of a large and rather noisy manifestation at exactly our location!
Well, that was exciting. After taking in the sights for a bit, we edged around the fringe of the crowd and set off toward our destination, the Hotel Citadines (on the) Presqu’ile. This was near the oldest part of Lyon, which dates from the Roman era when a camp and later a city were established at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. For a short distance, just before they meet, the two rivers run parallel to one another, less than half a mile apart. The land between isn’t really an island, but it kind of seems like one. Hence the name in French, Presqu’ile, which means “almost island, or peninsula.” But whatever its meaning, what we’re wondering—after all the effort it took to get here—is whether this is a good location for a hotel in 2023? Well, as we discover, yes it is. For one thing it’s close to the extensive Roman ruins and their associated museum and for another it’s right at one end of restaurant row: a dozen or more interesting restaurants just a few steps away. Thanks, travel agency, all is forgiven.
Lyon cooking is famous all over France; some consider it to be the country’s culinary center. And indeed we had a fantastic dinner. We don’t have the expertise or the vocabulary to describe it all, but we do remember this much. They have a thing called quenelle, which is sort of like a large croquette. But it is cooked in broth like a dumpling rather than fried. It is then served in a sauce. They make it with various fillings and various sauces. E’s was made with pike and was delicious. Even better was her first course: a poached egg floating in a sauce made with a special cheese. The name of this dish is Oeufs Cocotte au Saint-Marcellin.
Thursday March 16
We spent the next day exhausting ourselves by walking across the Saône and trudging up the thousand foot hill on the other side. Our goal was to see the Roman ruins and the newly rebuilt museum. We also thought we should take a look at this basilica that we could see from down below.
We took this picture from just halfway up a long, long hill.
On the way up we stopped to see the ruins. There is also a large museum at the site, but the museum is built into the hillside and camouflaged in such a way as to be invisible. Here’s the view we got from the basilica. Our hotel is somewhere in there, just to the right of the bridge and one street away from the river. Those snow covered things in the far background are the Alps.
Once we got back to our hotel, we wondered what was going on with the political situation. It was bad, but how bad no one really knew. Lyon seemed calm, but there were riots and burning vehicles in Paris and there were calls for a nationwide rail strike. Yikes. Might we be marooned on this almost island for days or weeks or years? Well, maybe not years. Still, we are scheduled to leave Lyon by train tomorrow. We hope that works out…
Friday March 17
And in fact all went well. A taxi(!) took us to the train station. A French train took us to Geneva; a Swiss train took us to Bern; our friend Urs picked us up and drove us to the suburb of Belp, at which point we had a delicious fondue dinner. Urs and Ursula (The Bears) are old friends of E’s, also from her time in Chicago when Roberto was in graduate school there.
Here’s a view out the train window. At this point, we’re in Switzerland near Geneva.
The last ice breaking up on Lake Geneva.
Here’s a view from inside the Geneva main train station. This restaurant offers a Whiskey Burger made with “beef carefully selected from our own Swiss farms.”
Our dinner was extra special because our hosts’ daughter Eva found time to join us. In fact it was she who brought the fondue. Eva is a heart surgeon these days and the mother of twin ten-year-olds. Way back in 1993, though, she was a high school student spending a year living with E in Corvallis, Oregon. During that year, Eva convinced E that humans were meant to eat butter and that margarine was not a good thing. Another example of the benefits of intercultural exchange.
Saturday March 18
We went train touring today. We had a one day pass to ride free on any form of public transport anywhere in Switzerland and a little bit of Italy. We went all over the place, including a few places in the mountains where whoever built the tracks must have been both very competent and a little crazy.
The pastures are just turning green while snow lingers on the Alps. Good time to visit.
Just for a bit we dipped down into northern Italy. This is the town of Domodossola, where pretty much everything is cheaper than it is in Switzerland. Up on the side of one mountain, looking over a few more.
We got back to Bern around 10:00 that night, having definitely used our train passes to advantage. Since we’d had a lot of pizza in Domodossola, dinner was a light repast of ham, cheese, bread and beer. Okay, maybe not super light, but it was awesome.
Sunday March 19
Today we visited Gruyère. We went by car this time; it was about an hour’s drive. The town of Gruyère is on a hill overlooking a broad valley of green pasture land dotted with farms and villages. It’s such a pretty view that it would be a shame to spoil it by building a highway through it. Yes, but what about the thousands of visitors who want to visit? A high capacity road is needed. What to do? How about putting some of the highway into a tunnel that goes under the farmers’ fields? Would that work? Well, apparently it would.
Today’s excursion was to the town of Gruyère, traditional home of the eponymous cheese. Did we get on yet another train? No. We went by car. It was about an hour’s drive away. As we neared the town, we came into a valley of green pastureland dotted with farm houses and small villages. The whole place is so pretty looking that it would be a shame to build a busy highway through the middle of it. But what about the thousands and thousands of people who want to visit Gruyère every year? Well, why not build a couple of tunnels to take the road underground and leave the pastures undisturbed? Which seems to be what they’ve done. The old fortress town of Gruyère is on a hill overlooking the farmland.
The old city is more a monument than a town at this point and is definitely a tourist magnet.Here’s what the main drag looks like looking down the street from the castle.A view from the old castle fortress at the top of Gruyère city. This newish church is outside the city walls and down the hill a ways.
Below the town of Gruyère there is a demonstration cheese factory. Naturally, we had to check it out. Here’s a photo of the maturing room. The cheese is aged for six, nine or twelve months. At this factory there are around 7,000 wheels being aged at any one time.
These wheels weigh 80 pounds and have a retail value of about $2,000 each.
Monday March 20
Time to say goodbye to our friends and hit the road for another day of traveling. We went from Bern to Zurich by train, Zurich to Hamburg by air, and then got another train to get downtown. Here’s the Hamburg main train station, from which we finally emerged.
Northern Germany was gray and damp, but it was nice to be outside for a while as we took a short walk from the station to our hotel.
Tuesday March 21
We had chosen the Senator Hotel ourselves, sight unseen. It turned out we were pretty good travel agents because it was to a wonderful place. It gives a modest first impression and yet it has all that one could ask, including a delightful breakfast room on an enclosed terrace overlooking the street. We would like to have stayed in Hamburg another night or two, but we had places to go and promises to keep. We only had time for a couple of hours to take an unguided walking tour of nearby sights.
The old city hall, (the Rathaus in German) was wonderfully ornate.
St. Nikolai church was mostly destroyed by bombing in 1943 and 1944. The spire remains intact along with a small part of one wall. The entire site remains as a reminder of the impact of war.
Pretty ornate toward the top there.
In the afternoon we took another train, this time to Rostock, Germany, about two hours away. We stayed at a cheap, new, and trendy hotel called Motel One. It wasn’t too bad.
Wednesday March 22
Our friend Umut picked us up this morning and after dropping off our luggage at his place, we set off on an expedition to Lübeck, our goal being the marzipan museum. Yes, another food related project. Do we detect a theme here? Of course there is much more to Lübeck than marzipan.
For one thing, they have Easter decorations (made of marzipan).
And they appreciate literary figures like Thomas Mann (also made of marzipan).
And of course they have a lot of history. It’s just a coincidence that all of these things involve marzipan.
We also visited the St. Petri’s, a place with quite a history. Originally a large Catholic Church dating from the 13th century, it was taken over by Lutherans a few centuries later. At that time, all the ornate carvings and metal work were removed. The gold was melted down and used to fund whatever war was going on at the time. As per Lutheran principles, the interior walls, ceilings and supporting pillars were all painted plain white. The building survived until 1942 when it was mostly destroyed during a British bombing raid. The raid came in response to an earlier German raid on the British city of Coventry. After the war, the ruins of St. Petri’s were partially covered to preserve them. Then, in the 1980’s, a campaign was launched to rebuild the church. To mark the project’s completion in 1987, a choir from Coventry came to the church and joined a Lübeck choir for a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Requiem for War.
We rode the elevator to the top of the St. Petri’s spire. The space up there was memorable for two reasons: great views of the city and a biting cold wind.
The thing with the twin spires was one of the main gates into town in medieval times.There was another big church nearby. These Lübeck people do love their spires.
Thursday March 23
We’re staying a couple of nights with our friends Umut and Jacqueline in the town of Kröpelin, which is just a few miles from Rostock. This area is in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. To the north is the Baltic Sea; to the east lies Poland. We kept closer to home today, spending much of the day exploring the coast. We passed one place where you can buy yourself a four-story beachside chalet if you like. Prices start at around 10 million dollars. The weather was cool and windy, not totally different from the Oregon coast at this time of year. The great difference, though, is that the Oregon coast is mountainous. But here, on the Baltic coast, the land in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is flat as a board.
In the afternoon we had a look around the town of Kröpelin. The town name has the same Germanic root as the English word ‘cripple.’ And, in fact, the town was named after a differently abled person. The story goes that a man who couldn’t walk made a bet with the king that he could get himself from one end of the county to the other before sundown. The king took the bet and lost. The name Kröpelin commemorates the events.
This is the town symbol as preserved in the small Kröpelin Museum.
The town museum is in an old building with three stories. A public library occupies the first floor; a museum of town history is on the second floor; and on the third floor we found something unexpected: a shrine to East German rock bands of the sixties and seventies. It was called the Ostrockmuseum Kröpelin. There were dozens and dozens of photographs, posters, album covers, and articles of clothing, plus quite a collection of period guitars, drums and audio equipment. Had we ever heard of the bands? No. In that era East Germany—whose official name was the German Democratic Republic—was behind the iron curtain. The band members couldn’t travel to Western Europe and we doubt that many bands from the West ever toured the GDR. But rock and roll itself was alive and well, and here was the evidence to prove it. If you’re ever in Kröpelin, you need to drop in. Admission costs 1.50 Euros.
Soon it was time to head home and start thinking about packing up for an early departure the next morning. It was a short but quite wonderful visit.
Friday March 24
Up at 5:00 AM to begin another long travel day: Rostock to Hamburg to Brussels to Madrid. By 5:30 PM we were in Madrid, having completed our great European tour.
We took the train south to Córdoba today. Our train was an Avant, which are high speed trains that make more stops than the intercity expresses. But even with a few stops, the 190 miles to Córdoba went by in less than two hours. So comfortable, so much leg room, and so much elbow room—just three seats across: two seats, a wide aisle, then one more seat on the other side.
The Romans founded Córdoba sometime around the year 150 BC. The oldest part of town is on the north bank of the Guadalquiver River and eventually, in around 75 BC, the Romans got around to building a bridge to the south bank. Eight centuries later, the bridge remained but the Romans had gone and the Muslim Umayyads ruled southern Spain. Somewhere around the year 750 the Umayyads did a major renovation of the bridge. After that, the bridge remained in continuous use until the middle of the 20th Century. Until 1940, it was the only bridge in town. These days it’s still in use, but it’s pedestrian only.
The building in the background above is the Great Mosque of Córdoba. But, you may object, if it’s a mosque, what’s that Christian-looking bell tower and cross and stuff.? Well, that’s because since 1356 the place has had a new owner. Like many new owners, they’ve been doing some remodeling. And they’ve turned it into a cathedral.
It’s still very mosquelike inside, light and airy like most mosques, even though it was built 1200 years ago.
It’s a huge space. The building is a rectangle a block long and most of a block wide. Presumably all the interior walls at one time looked like this….
…or this.
Only a few of these original Umayyad style interior panels still exist. Dozens of others have been replaced by elaborate Christian-type niches. There’s also a huge organ, an elaborately carved wooden choir box and a beautiful basilica.
The lower part of the basilica
Much of the Christian stuff is beautiful in its way, but the overall effect is as if someone planted groups of showy exotic flowers at random places in a tranquil natural landscape. But never mind, much of the original effect is still there, especially in the Patio of the Orange Trees shown below.
In the afternoon we took a tour of the city. Here’s our tour bus. It was called a tuk-tuk, but being electric, it didn’t do a lot of tukking.
One stop on the tour was the 13th Centrury Santa Marina church, which was built soon after the Muslims were forced out of the city by King Ferdinand III. The site previously was occupied by a mosque.
Tuesday March 7
Responding to a reader request, we also visited the old Córdoba Synagogue. It was a ten minute walk from our hotel through a maze of medieval era streets.
The upper floor is the women’s section..
Here’s the menorah…
…and here is an inscription just above it.
The inscription reads: “Provisional sanctuary and abode for the Testimony completed by Yishaq Moheb, son of Mr. Efraím Wadawa, in the year of seventy-five. So return, Oh God hasten to return to Jerusalem!”
On the way back from the synagogue E stopped to talk with Maimonides, the great 12th Century philosopher, scholar and physician. Maimonides was born in Córdoba, but alas, he was born a hundred years too soon to have worshipped in the synagogue we had just seen.
Amazingly, while E was there the Maimonides statue actually bent down and spoke to her! M quickly snapped a photo but found later that it had disappeared from his phone! E has not revealed what it was that Maimonides said.
After visiting the synagogue and doing a little shopping in the morning, we got back onto a train in the early afternoon. Before long we were in Granada and safely into the Hotel Grisol de Guadalupe, up on a hill, just across the road from the Alhambra. That evening we took a walk down the hill for a ways and got this view of the oldest part of the city.
Wednesday March 8
Granada is a city of about 225,000 people and, to be honest, most of it doesn’t look at all like the old part shown in the last photo. Granada is home to a number of universities and, of course, to one of the most popular tourist attractions in Europe. One of our taxi drivers said that education and tourism are the only two things that keep the city alive. He claimed that the Alhambra gets an average of 8,000 visitors per day.
The Alhambra is a large complex of palaces and gardens on a hill overlooking the city. It consists of three main areas. The Alcazaba is a fortress dating from the 11th Century. The Nasrid palaces were built later and were home to the rulers of Muslim Spain for about 300 years. The Generalife is a garden complex on a hill above the palaces. The Nasrid palaces are the star attraction and access is by appointment only. Our appointed time was 2:00 PM, so we went into the complex at a little after 12:00 and went to the Generalife first.
One of the nice things about these Muslim era gardens is how much water there is: in pools, in fountains, and best of all, flowing in small stone runnels along one’s path or across the courtyards.
A view from the Generalife down into other parts of the complex.
Here are a few photos from inside the Nasrid palace. They hardly do it justice.
Thursday March 9
We managed to get back to Madrid today, despite an unexpected two hour layover at a new high speed rail station in the middle of nowhere.
Was it lunchtime? Yes. Was there a cafe at the station? No, there was a vending machine. Did the cellophane wrapped sandwiches all have a little blurb that said Improved Recipe? Yes! What exactly had the recipe been improved from? Very hard to say. And who, you might ask, is to blame for this scheduling catastrophe? Well, you might ask, but we might not say…
Sunday. March 12
Nice spring weather these days with highs of around 70. We are pausing to rest up and plan our next phase. It’s almost time to say goodbye to our little apartment. We’re visiting some of our local shops for the last time. While M was busy working on the blog, E took an excursion to visit her former neighborhood downtown. She walked through the Retiro Park and found that Avenida Menéndez Pelayo #37 was still intact. Roberto’s family owned three apartments in the building. E lived on the second floor in the back. E remembers that most buildings in Madrid were dingy looking back in the day. Pollution levels are much lower now and everything seems spiffier.
Later, as she returned to her current Madrid neighborhood and emerged from the dark caverns of the metro, she was greeted by this sure sign of spring.
