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Greece – Athens, Tinos and Delos – Part 1

Posted on 11 December, 2016 by pierreo

In May 2016, Bee and I spent three weeks in Greece, mostly visiting the Cyclades Islands on another Wilderness Travel adventure.

Before we joined the group, we had a couple of days in Athens on our own.

We explored the small streets of Plaka before ending in Monastiraki, which I remembered well from my first visit in 2009.

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The is the daylight view. I had taken this night time view of people in front of the church back in 2009 – I was publishing smaller photos at the time.

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Another church is this one, the Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea, situated in the middle of the main street from Monastiraki to Syntagma Square. We were able to see it inside – by pure luck as we saw someone getting out and managed to convince the cleaning lady to let us in as well, for just a few minutes.

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As if often the case in Athens, the church is a lot older then the neighborhood around it. It is thought to have been built in the 11th century, probably around 1050 (according to Wikipedia). It may have been part of a convent at some time.

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We spent the first night at the Hilton, and our view of the Parthenon and Acropolis was blocked by a construction crane. When we joined the tour group, we moved to a different hotel, much closer to the Acropolis and we had this great view f the Parthenon from our room.

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Travel

A wet week in Provence

Posted on 12 April, 2015 by pierreo

In November 2014, Bee and I took advantage of the 11 November holiday to spend a week in Provence.

Part of the reason was to spend some time with my parents who spend a lot of time there; part of the reason was also to get away from the bad weather in Belgium and discover a region of France that we did not know well.

Unfortunately, we hit the worst weather week in Provence for a long time. The weather had been generally bad all over Europe for most of the summer (see also my recent blog entry on the Dolomite in August 2014) but we were particularly unfortunate.

Our first “Road Trip” was to Moustier-Sainte-Marie, the Gorges du Verdon and finally Grasses. We skipped the Lac de Sainte-Croix as the weather just did not allow us to enjoy it.

Moustier is renown for fine pottery and ceramic. There are many workshops, some mostly with ‘tourist’ good, others with very nice ceramic. The town has also maintained its medieval atmosphere and is built on such a steep slope that a lot of streets are still impractical with a car. We walked around town until it started to rain a lot harder and ducked into a local restaurant to escape from getting really wet.

We ate at “Les Santons” (www.lessantons.com) and had a very nice lunch.

After lunch we drove through the top of the Gorges du Verdon, France’s Grand Canyon. There were very nice views, unfortunately not very photogenic, so I decided to experiment. I did not have my big camera, so I took my first panorama using my Samsung Phone. Here is the result.

It is not bad, and quick and easy, but not quite the same as the results I am used to when I use my big camera and I then assemble the photos using Photoshop. It is clear that the one shot facing the sun was more exposed than the others and the camera was not able to correct entirely for that.

I also took three photos of the mountain facing us and assembled those in Photoshop and here are the results.

Much better from a blending point of view. So I will have to be careful in the future if I want to use the ‘panorama’ feature of my phone.

From Les Gorges du Verdon, we went on to Grasse, the World Odor Capital. We stopped at the Fragonard Factory where we did a very nice tour of the facilities. Fragonard sells their own perfumes and Eau de Cologne in totally plain containers, as opposed to some of the other companies who sometimes spend more on the bottle than the perfume! Fragonard is also one of the few remaining “Nose Schools” in France. Students are trained to recognize some 300 different odors and the “Experienced” nose can tutor up to 12 students at a time. We saw the ‘school’ room, but class was not in session.

We had spotted a few potentially good restaurants on Trip Advisor, but all of them were closed when we were there. We stopped at La Voute for dinner and had a good meal there.

The next Road Trip took us to Les Baux-de-Provence, a small town in the Alpilles that has become an artist community. Just outside of town there are abandoned stone quarries which are now used for sound and light shows called “Carrières de Lumières” (www.carrieres-lumieres.com). Every year, they have a different show that runs roughly from March to December. The show last show in 2014 was on Klimt and Vienna. Images are projected around the whole quarries while beautiful music plays and it is definitely worth the visit.

We had lunch in Baux and then went to visit the Castle, which as per custom sits at the very top of the village.

The view is quite spectacular, but again, the weather was not really good enough for good photos. I likes better the view of the ancient town from the castle

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Culture, Food, Travel

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast – Part 2

Posted on 9 February, 20159 February, 2015 by pierreo

After 5 days in Naples, Bee and I moved to the relative tranquility of Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, on the Amalfi Peninsula, and the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Capri. We had ten more days to explore this part of Italy, rich in History, Art and Nature.

We went to Capri on our first day there – the weather forecast was not ideal for the week to come and we thought we wanted to take advantage of a reasonable day to explore the island.

Unfortunately, two cruise ships had arrived overnight, and all passengers from the ships were also going to Capri. Our ferry into the island was full and we could not get the return trip we wanted, so had a return earlier than we wanted initially.

Still, the day started positive – we booked a boat trip around the island, which included a visit to the Blue Grotto and wandered around the harbor while waiting for the departure. It was very interesting to see that even though this is a very touristy island, there are still people here doing traditional work, such as fishing out of small boats.

Here is a general view of the main harbour. On the side of the mountain in the background, you can see the first few houses of the second town in Capri called Anacapri.

Taxis on the island have been somewhat modified to cater to the expectations of local tourists. It is obvious that the maximum expected speed on the island is very low, or this type of roof on a car would not survive very long.

On the trip around the island, we first passed by the Blue Grotto. We were told that unfortunately the tide and the wave were too high to be able to visit the grotto that day. The entrance is very tight and it is often impossible to go through. However, it looks like some people are making it, so I am not sure if the boat captain was telling us the truth or not.

At the Western tip of the island, on Punta Carena, stands a very tall light house. It is critical to mark the entrance to the Bay of Naples where there has been a busy port for many centuries.

Again, we can see that normal life continues around tourism – this gentleman was fishing probably in the same way they were doing it 100 and 500 years ago!

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Travel

Napoli and Amalfi – Part 1

Posted on 15 September, 201413 February, 2015 by pierreo

If it is not obvious already from the amount of time that I spend there, I love Italy. I have been there many times and every time I do, I come back more enchanted and convinced that I should come again.

In all my previous trips, I had spent a grand total of 3 or 4 days in the area around Naples, and all of that when I was 11 and 13 years old. I had memories of Paestum, Monte Cassino, Heculaneum and Castel del’Ovo. But these were very vague, and I was not sure what was what any more.

Bee and I decided to spend the time between Easter and May Day in and around Naples so that we could take advantage of two holidays. We arrived in Naples on 19 April, rented a car and drove to our hotel right in the center of the city. The hotel was situated on a pedestrian street and so had left good instructions of where to park. We found the parking and walked to the Hotel Il Convento. We had booked a room with balcony, at the very top of the hotel and it was very nice.

We went for a walk in order to discover the neighborhood. On Piazza Plebiscito (Suffrage Square), we saw this sight of a cruise ship leaving harbor. Naples and, as we will see later, Sorrento are major stops on the cruising Italy scene.

There was not much going on in the low town around the square, so we decided to go up with one of the old cable cars (Funicolare Centrale) up to the Vomero Hill. The car runs underground all the way up to the top of the hill.

We first went to visit the Castel Sant’Elmo, located right at the top of the hill and built by the Spanish in 1538, with spectacular views of the city and Mount Vesuvius just behind it. At first, I was not sure that it was Mount Vesuvius, as I did not remember the second “hump” on the side of the mountain, and all the photos and paintings of the volcano showed it more with the typical conical shape. However, comparing with the location of Vesuvius on the map, and when we went there, I can confirm that the big mountain just outside the city is indeed Mount Vesuvius.

Here is a wider panorama of the Bay of Naples. Vesuvius is on the left and then you can see the low hills of the Amalfi Peninsula. The last two dark spots on the right of the photo are the two hills of Capri – we had excellent visibility that day as the sun started to come down.

After the castle, we went to the Certosa di San Martino, located only 100 m from the castle. It used to be a Monastery, build in the 14th century and rebuilt in the 17th. A constructed view (180 degrees) of the cloisters inside the monastery – this is Chiostro Grande.

There are ancient carriages used by the former occupants of the Certosa – I guess the chief abbot was used to travel in style!

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Culture, Travel

Andalusia 2013

Posted on 1 February, 2014 by pierreo

Our trip to Andalusia continued in Cordoba, another city that was heavily influenced by the Moors who occupied it until late in the 15th century.

Cordoba was ‘freed’ earlier than Granada and Ferdinand and Isabella established their royal seat here while they were fighting for Granada. They lived in a former Muslim palace which is now known as the “Alcazar de los Reyes Catolicos” or Palace of the Catholic Kings. It is clear, however, that the origin of the buildings and gardens has nothing to do with catholic kings.

One look at these gardens and you know immediately who designed them.

The palace itself is not very interesting, and there has not been a significant effort to make the interior look like it must have either during the Moors’ occupation, or the later royal affectation, which was not very long as the royal court eventually moved to Granada instead.

However, the gardens are the real attraction of this palace.

There are fountains everywhere and several different levels which are all just slightly different from each other.

This group was added later, I am sure. It is the representation of Christopher Columbus requesting funds from Ferdinand and Isabella for his trip to India via the Atlantic Ocean. We all know how that ended.

However, there were conflicts in what we heard from different guides. Granada was freed from the Moors in January 1492 and the court moved there soon thereafter. So in Granada, they claim that this discussion took place in the Alhambra. In Cordoba, they claim that this occurred before the court moved and therefore it happened in Cordoba. Looking at several sources of information (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and Royal Greenwich Museum) there is consensus that the decision to go West was made in January 1492 but only Wikipedia mentions that this occurred in Cordoba while Britannica does not say where the final agreement took place. It could be that it is not documented and therefore both cities have a legitimate claim!

The other major attraction of Cordoba is the Mezquita, the most confused building in the world. It started life as a Mosque and is now the Cathedral of Cordoba. There are contrasting views throughout the building, with clearly Muslim architecture surrounding obviously catholic details.

When they established (and built) the cathedral inside the old mosque, a lot of the building was left unchanged. There are thousands of columns supporting the roof around the core which is now the cathedral. This is an “illegal” photo! I took it with the camera sitting on the floor so that I could have a longer exposure. Immediately after I took this photo while sitting on the floor, I was told to stand up as sitting is not allowed!

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Culture, Travel

Portugal – Part 2

Posted on 18 November, 201326 January, 2014 by pierreo

After Coimbra, we spent a few more days in the area and went to the Natural Park da Serra da Estrela which includes the highest mountains in Portugal. We stopped at the highest peak where there is a weather station and what looks like army radar installations. The weather was good, but cold and very windy – you can still see that there is a lot of snow left on the ground and this was at the end of May.

We did some walking in the park too but no great pictures. We stopped for lunch in Manteigas, right at the center of the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela where we saw an old car rally but no pictures of that either. I was not in the right mood for photos that day!

We then had to head towards Lisbon, but first we made a stop on the way in an old Roman town called Conimbriga which has some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the Iberian Peninsula. We were very pleasantly surprised.

There is a house with exquisite floor mosaics (above) and an incredible atrium with really nice fountains (below)

We discovered that by putting a 1 euro coin in a slot, we could get the fountains to actually work. You can see the water spays (white arcs) against the red bricks, if you look carefully. The sound was actually better than the sight! I wonder if they still use the original plumbing?

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Culture, Food, Travel

Portugal – Part 1

Posted on 13 October, 201326 January, 2014 by pierreo

In May, Bee and I spent two weeks traveling around Portugal. I had only spent a few days in Lisbon and therefore most of it was a new discovery for me as well.

We started in Porto. A beautiful ancient city on the Douro River. Walking around town, we ended up near our first church, not a major attraction as it is not even listed in our guide-book, called the Church of the Clergy (Igreja dos Clerigos) but decided to go in and marvelled at the intricate decorations inside – baroque at its finest (for some people I guess!)

What is more remarkable, and listed in the good book, is the Torre dos Clerigos, the church’s bell tower. The view from the top is reported to be quite nice, but 225 steps on a small spiral staircase and the line to buy tickets dampened our enthusiasm…

Much more impressive is the fortress-like Igreja da Misericordia. There is a small park in front of the church from which there is a spectacular view of the Douro River and the other bank, full of storage and ageaing warehouses for the Port.

This was taken inside Igreja de Sao Francisco, one of the best and most elaborately decorated churches in Porto. It is next to the Palacio da Bolsa (the local Chamber of Commerce) and attests to the wealth of the merchants, at one time, in this city. We visited the Bolsa as well. Continue reading “Portugal – Part 1” →

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