Tag Archives: Museums

Wonders in Wellington

21 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in New Zealand

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Wellington is not a large city and though it is hilly, the downtown is along the water and easy to walk. Even driving on the left it wasn’t too difficult to navigate. We’ve always been able to find parking and figure out how to pay for it. There are about three coffee shops on each block and not a Starbucks among them (There are only two or three in all of New Zealand). Coffee is served strong, no need to ask for extra shots!

We’ve now been to Wellington twice–both great days. We had to begin with a day of doctor visits. Fortunately, the morning visit was shorter than expected (!) and we had time to visit the Zealandia nature park. It’s a green fold in the land just above Wellington center. I don’t know why it wasn’t developed, as there are suburbs all around. It’s about the size of Central Park in Manhattan and a section of the park is walled and fenced to keep out non-native species. In New Zealand, there are no native mammals, so everything from cats and dogs to opossums and stoats are predators. Native New Zealand animals, including kiwis, never learned to hide from ground predators. There’s even a ground-dwelling parrot in New Zealand. They’re all endangered. We saw tuataras sitting at mouth of their burrows. They look ordinary but are the only surviving descendant of an ancient line of reptiles. For an animal-centric view of this country, read “Notes from New Zealand: A Book of Travel and Natural History,” by Ed Kanze.

There are bird feeders at Zealandia, where we saw Kaka, one of the native parrots. These clever birds have to operate a handle to open their food dish, both to keep them engaged and to keep the other birds from stealing their food pellets.

The walk was lovely and not difficult. One area was closed off to protect the nest of a Takahe, an oversized purple gallinule that is only found in New Zealand (endemic). I overheard a staff member excitedly chatting with a visitor–the egg is due to hatch in a week! We get so excited about the little things.

Our second trip to Wellington was entirely by choice, focusing on the Maori collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, called Te Papa. The Maori exhibit was fascinating. The sculpture is highly detailed, it is a shame that photos aren’t permitted beyond the entrance. There were some massive canoes, all highly decorated, along with sculpture, clubs, and tools.

From the museum, we crossed the Sea to City Bridge, an art piece on its own, and window-shopped on Cuba St. This is a lively neighborhood of restaurants and shops. Around the corner, we bought a loaf of multi-grain sourdough bread at Leeds St. Bakery just before it closed, and finished with lunch at Florinda’s where Jonathan’s tuatua pasta (pasta with clams) was so delicious that we decided to go clamming the next day.

Our final stop on both trips was Evans Beach. I found a web site that shares places around the world where you can look for beach glass, and I looked up Wellington. Our beach in Te Horo has lots of driftwood but not much glass. Evans Beach in Wellington was said to have beach glass, so we made our way there. We didn’t find a beach, just a few rocky stretches connected by cement walls holding up the highway. We found a less-developed stretch where we could pull over, but most of the shore was rock. The tide was low, so I went down to look at a gravelly spot–and there I found a great spread of beach glass! Jonathan was surprised that I found anything. It was such a surprise that we made a return trip the second time we were in Wellington to return the larger pieces and pick up smaller ones that I can use in my jewelry-making. Wellington is truly a something-for-everyone place.

The Wellington waterfront from Te Papa.

Northland, New Zealand

14 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in New Zealand

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We wanted to see the far north of New Zealand. We didn’t get to Cape Reinga, the tip of a long finger of land that points north from the rest of the island, but we got to the knuckles, around Doubtless Bay. One long sandy bay after another stretches along the north end of New Zealand’s north island. We left our spot on the beach near the town of Mangonui to see Tokerau Bay farther along. When we got there, it was the same gorgeous sand beach stretching for miles.

Beachcombing turned up lot of interesting shells, though only a couple of pieces of beach glass. Fragments of mussels and pen shells have iridescent interiors that reflect the sun in stripes of blue, green, and purple. Jonathan found the live oysters growing on the rocks irresistible.

We stayed at the Old Oak hotel, built in 1861 as the Mangonui hotel, renovated many times, and lovely. The small downtown area of Mangonui has photos showing buildings that have been in place since the 1890s. The only difference between then and now is that the buggies have changed to cars.

One of our goals in Northland was to see Ninety-Mile Beach. It spans the entire west side of that northern finger of New Zealand. Vehicles can drive the length of the beach at low tide and it’s a popular tour. We didn’t really want to drive for two hours up and then back, so we went for a look, and saw marks of the wheelies on the sand–at the end of the tour? Jonathan found people clamming along the shore and wanted a bucket so he could take home his own clams, but we’re not going to be home to the stove for two days and that might not be good for either the clams or for us after eating them, so we watched enviously while they worked. I admired the work of the woman who was clamming with a bucket in one hand and her cane in the other. That’s spirit for you.

Our chief souvenir from 90 mile beach was a flat tire. We changed the tire in record time and when we stopped at a wood carving shop just down the road, a woman directed us a few hundred yards to Awanui Tires. According to the young man fixing tires (tyres), the Monday morning rush had just ended and we chatted while he fixed the hole. He held up a strange piece of metal, neither bolt nor screw, that made the hole. We shook our heads and thanked the two men. The entire process from flat to fix had cost us less than an hour. We understood most of what they said…..New Zealanders can speak their own language when they want to and tourists–we’re on our own.

Last stop in the north was Whangarei (Fhan-gar-ey) the only city north of Auckland. Highlights included the Town Basin area where there is a sculpture walk along the water and shops and galleries selling beautiful local crafts. Polished and carved wood and resin from the kauri tree, distinctive and now rare, was one of the highlights.

Among the sculptures in the downtown area of Whangarei is an unusual small building covered with colored tiles and mirror. This turns out to be a prototype of materials and forms to be used in the Hundertwasser Museum. Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist and architect who was captivated by New Zealand and moved here in 1975 and spent the rest of his life near Kawakawa, outside Whangarei. I became aware of Hundertwasser’s imaginative paintings when I was in college. He drew floating cities with forests for roofs, presaging green roofs by quite a few years. He turned to fanciful architecture, building structures in Europe that resemble the work of Antoni Gaudi. He designed public toilets for the town of Kawakawa, a project that proved to be his last. Now, after years of public debate and fundraising, the Hundertwasser museum is under construction in Whangarei, to open in 2020.

On our way out of town we visited the Quarry Arts Center where a number of artists have studios in a delightful tiny neighborhood filled with sculptures of all kinds..

We ended up at Kiwi North, SW of Whangarei, to see the kiwi. They live in a controlled environment that leads them to believe day is night so they will come out to eat. What funny birds! They look like the back half of a cat with a long beak in the front that they use to snuffle about in fallen leaves. When startled, they zip back into their cave-like nest. We watched them in the dark until a keeper brought out food. That drew them out into what little light there was. After eating, the pair scuttled back into their burrow and we went on.

Kiwi North is a central place for culture in Northland, including historic structures moved from elsewhere, a small museum, rotating exhibits, the kiwi, and a series of regional museum/clubs including medical equipment, old cars, rocks and minerals, and others. These are not open on any particular schedule, but the campus-style setting provides a place for aficionados of different things to have a clubhouse/museum. It looks like a good arrangement for all.

Church made from a single tree’s lumber
Looking through a hollow log.
The tardis?

By this time, we had to make our way back to Piha. We packed a lot of looking around into a few days in Northland. There’s lots more to see–we missed the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa! That will have to wait for another time.

 

The Spondylus Route to archaeology, Ecuador

24 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in Ecuador

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Romantically named, the Ruta del Spondylus highway borders the the ocean in places, then dips inland around high hills, making its way from northern Peru to northern Ecuador. It is named after the spondylus shell, brilliant orange or deep purple species that were used to make beads and jewelry by the ancient people of both Ecuador and Peru. These mollusks are only found in warmer waters–no spondylus were harvested in the waters off Peru, but the bright colored shell was traded south from Ecuador into Peru by 3000 BC, or perhaps even earlier.

Over-harvesting resulted in a crash of spondylus and today it is in danger of extinction. The Ecuadorian government is supporting experiments in repopulating these species. We found no trace of spondylus in the many tourist souvenir stands along the roadway, though we found a local monument to these lovely shells. Jewelry made from spondylus shells is very popular among tourists visiting Peru, though the shell comes from all over the world. The romance of having something made from shell that was valuable to the Inca and their even earlier ancestors still captivates visitors.

In Ecuador, however, the greatest enchantment is in the beaches that line the route. There are well-known stops such as Playa Los Frailes or Playa Rosada (pinkish sand), and lesser known beaches that lack umbrellas and chairs for rent, but provide long stretches for a walk or a swim. We are visiting during the off season, the dark of winter to many Ecuadoreans because of the cloudy weather. It has not rained, but the sun has been out only two days of our first seven here. The Santa Elena peninsula, where we are located, is one of the driest places on the Ecuadorian coast. In GoogleEarth, it shows up as a grayish brown finger of land pointing out into the Pacific.

Part of the attraction to us is the deep history of the area. Ecuador was home to very early villages that formed by 3800 BC in places like Real Alto. We visited the museum at that site on one of our first days in the area and walked around. It’s a difficult sell for tourism, however, because there is nothing to see on the surface. The raised area where people built their houses is barely distinguishable from the surroundings, and even when the excavations were first being carried out, the astonishingly early remains consisted of the stones that formed the base of clusters of houses. There was never anything on the surface. You need a good imagination to  build a circle of oval thatched houses in the brush that covers the area today. We enjoyed chatting with the young woman excavating some test units as part of a thesis project at ESPOL (Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral).

Our next archaeology stop was the Museo des Amantes de Sumpa, just down the street from our house, in the town of Santa Elena. We wanted to see the famous skeletons of a young couple buried together in an embrace. What we found was an excellent local museum with information on the ancient people of the region that was never boring or preachy (as a lot of museum text seems to be). In addition to the archaeological exhibits there was a recreation of a local house from a century ago that showed the very simple possessions people are likely to have had. Having heard a lot about hat-making in Ecuador (home of “real” Panama hats), we were interested to see that the equipment for making straw hats is unchanged between today and the 19th century. It was a lovely visit–I only wished they had a gift shop! We were impressed by the entire museum, which is carefully tended. The exhibits are not complex or high tech, yet they are absorbing. The meeting room of the museum was in use during our visit with a training program (according to the guard). It is nice to see the public spaces of a museum in use.

Our next stop was the museum at Valdivia, site of the oldest pottery in the New World when it was originally reported in the 1970s. Jonathan and I studied archaeology when this site was the next big thing, and Betty and Clifford Meggers and their Ecuadorean colleague Emilio Estrada, proposed that Validivia showed a connection between Japan’s ancient Jomon culture and the earliest ceramic-makers, as early as 4000 BC. Today this seems like an unlikely proposal. The similarities between Jomon and Valdivia pottery are related to the fact that there are only so many ways you can decorate pottery that is made and decorated by hand with no tool more complex than a pointed stick.

The Valdivia Museum is run by the community and has almost no budget. There are volunteer docents who were pleasant and knowledgeable, but there was almost no labeling and many of their photographs had disappeared or disintegrated. We enjoyed our visit. I was astonished to hear that the museum is built right on the middle of the excavated site. The town has grown up on and around it, covering up the site entirely. We stared at a low dirt embankment in the parking lot as though potsherds would be lying there waiting for us. Since none appeared, we asked whether anyone sold replicas of ancient pottery and were referred to a house around the corner, the home and studio of Juan Orrala, master replica-maker. We chatted and looked at his work, all the copies stamped with “Replica-Juan Orrala” in the clay of the base. His contemporary work inspired by ancient designs is beautifully made, so we took home some of each. What you see below is the replica figurine we purchased (8 in long), a whalebone figurine in the museum (about 24 in long) and a monument outside the town of Valdivia (about 6 ft. high). The museum holds hundreds of fragments of smaller clay versions of the “goddess.”

We also bought a matching plate and bowl set that we are already using as serving ware.We are happy to have met the talented Sr. Orrala.

Colombian Gold

10 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Colombia

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We came to Bogota for a single reason: to see the best gold museum in the world. The Museo De Oro is full of gold panned from streams around Colombia, hammered and cast into amazing shapes. One of the fascinating parts of this history is that several regions of Colombia made gold objects in clearly recognizable styles. One of the first exhibits you see takes you through these areas. This could exhaust anyone.

The Sinu style of gold-working used a lot of wire to make detailed shapes and poses, including the coolest gold artifact in the Americas, the golden raft.

Quimbaya work was thicker than the others because they had more productive sources of gold. Pieces were made with exquisite detail. The museum has so many different artifacts that hundreds of them are shown in a very short light show. It’s difficult to take in how many pieces there are. There are a few chunks of Colombian emerald, too.

This is a sample of what is in the museum. It’s worth a trip to Bogota. Our hotel in Bogota, in the historic Candelaria neighborhood, was lovely. Decorated with furniture from an elegant private home, The Orchids also served the best arepas we’ve eaten in Colombia.

Sucre and the Tarabuco Market

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Bolivia

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 We spent three nights in Sucre. The Hotel Monasterio used to be a monastery and still has some great decor–Bolivian Baroque? It was comfortable and placed us in the heart of Sucre. We walked down to the central plaza for dinner each night and found good places, La Taverne (French-Bolivian), Cosmo Cafe, and Cafe Florio (Dutch-Bolivian).

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During the day we visited the central market

The ethnographic and Indigenous Art museums.

Tarabuco weaving
Airplanes over farm fields
Three tupus/pins on a traditional dress
What Cholitas wear today for special occasions.
Virgin Mary on a rock

We happened to be in Sucre on the day of the Tarabuco Market 65 km from Sucre. We hired a driver to take us there, wait three hours, and return us to Sucre (300 Bolivianos). The market is known for textiles and there were wonderful items all over the place. We looked at rugs, ponchos, wall hangings, table cloths, bags and lots of other things. There was a regional gastronomy competition. The dishes seemed to consist of potatoes, wheat berries, broth and chili peppers, though I don’t think it was very spicy. There was chicha to drink, but neither of us are fans of fermented corn. Most of the women wore traditional dress to enhance their presentation.

We strolled the main plaza and side streets looking at weavings.

 

 

 

I tried on one hat that looked like it escaped from a marching band.

 

 

 

Another is modeled after Spanish conquistadors helmets. Both men and women wear them.

We bought a bright red patterned rug and a salmon-colored tablecloth as well as a crocheted hat for me and a suitcase to carry it all home.

Something new: the toe of Manhattan

13 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in Lyra, New York

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Wall Street with the spire of Trinity Church in the background.

I thought I knew about Manhattan, having visited quite a bit while growing up and having lived in couple of neighborhoods. I’ve ridden on the Staten Island Ferry and been to the Statue of Liberty. Both require you to go to the toe of Manhattan. What I skipped over until this trip was the neighborhood just inland from the Battery that includes Wall Street. Now that Lyra lives there, we stopped in for a visit and it is a very enjoyable part of the city.

We stayed at the Wall Street Inn (on S. William St.), a very comfortable small hotel with an excellent breakfast included. It’s also near subway stops, but its greatest asset is being located right around the corner from our daughter’s apartment, by Delmonico’s. (We did not eat there on this trip.) We did take in the sights nearby and there are many. We stopped in front of Federal Hall on Wall St. where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the US.

 

 

 

We saw historic Trinity Church and its churchyard.

Lady Liberty at the Museum of the American Indian

 

 

The former US Customs House, just down the street from Federal Hall, overlooks Bowling Green. Today it is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian and holds the collections that were formerly the Heye Foundation. It was difficult to visit before moving to the Customs House, because the building was largely storage and had limited display of collections. The museum was located way off the beaten path on 155th St. and Broadway. Now the museum is at the Bowling Green subway stop and the new exhibits show the rich collection of materials from North, Central and South America. I particularly enjoyed seeing the pottery from Costa Rica and Panama that reminded me of the time I spent in Costa Rica while working on my dissertation and how much I admired archaeologist Olga Linares for her book on the imagery on Panamanian pottery, “Ecology and the Arts in Ancient Panama.”

A scary plate from Panama.
“The Thinker” as a rabbit, from Costa Rica

There is also the Wall Street Bull, though it was ass deep in tourists. The “Fearless Girl” statue facing the bull was put in place in March 2017 and was still there.

Just two blocks beyond is the shore, lined with a walkway that is used by strollers and joggers alike. Once you get beyond the area where visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island congregate, it is a relatively peaceful and uncrowded part of the city. The view out over the water to Liberty herself and Ellis Island are sublime. It’s a great neighborhood.

 

Last stop Dublin, and what’s Good to Know about Ireland

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Our last day in Dublin was spent inside the National Museum of Ireland. Lyra was wonderful in agreeing to stay with her crazy parents in the museum all day when all of Dublin was beckoning.

Ancient Goldsmith’s tools
(R) Gold bracelet from Donegal

After visiting many archaeological sites around Ireland we had often read reference to finds made at a site followed by “now at the National Museum of Ireland.” I was most intrigued by reference to a purse-shaped reliquary of St. Patrick’s Tooth from the church of Killaspugbrone, now at the end of the Sligo airport runway. The church was first built by Bishop Bron, a contemporary of St. Patrick in the early 500s (!). When St. Patrick visited his friend, he either tripped and knocked out a tooth or it fell out and he gave it to his good friend who treasured it.

Much later, the relic case was made for the tooth, and after a trail of owners is now in the National Museum of Ireland. The relic case has images of Sts. Patrick, Brigid (missing), Brendan and Columcille on it as well as one of the earliest depictions of a harp in ireland.

Great jewelry of Ancient Ireland. Chains and amber, what’s not to like?

We went through with an eye for anything from our travels and found carvings and artifacts from all over. It was a pleasure to match some of the objects with their places of origin.

We saw the two most recent finds of people preserved in bogs (2003). Clonycavan man is an example of (possibly) the first man bun, held together by hair gel that originated in France or Spain.

The other find, Old Croghan Man, had very long arms and big hands, suggesting he had been 6’5″ tall (missing his head and lower body, it was difficult to be sure). His well-manicured nails suggested he was not a laborer, but of high status.

 

There was a leather scabbard recovered from a bog with an axe still inside. Leather preservation is impressive–single shoes from all over Ireland.

 

We moved to our hotel by the airport, readying for our 7 am flight to Naples and the next chapter of Llywinda Travels.

Good to Know About Ireland

♣ It rains. It may rain some portion of every day you are in Ireland, so be prepared. Bright sun can shift to a brief downpour in a few minutes. Carry an umbrella, wear a raincoat or be ready to run for cover. Forget about cute shoes. There are sunny days–appreciate every one of them!

♣ It is never hot. Ireland is a great place to go to escape the heat. July-August temperatures along the west coast were in the 60s, rarely breaking 70º F. Beachgoers of all ages wear heavy gauge wetsuits. You rarely see parents sitting on the beach staring at their phone while kids call to them from the sand—the rain would ruin their phone. We saw more families together on the beach here than in other countries.

♣ Driving on the left is always a challenge. Roads are narrow in some places and you have to be ready to pull over or back up to let an oncoming car pass.

♣ We found almost everyone to be friendly and helpful. We shared a table at the potato festival and enjoyed chatting with people from Dingle. We chatted with people on buses and at the store. It was easy to get directions. (That’s handy, because not all streets are marked.)

Some wonderful things about Ireland.

♣ Nature–The west coast is full of beaches and cliffs to walk on. The Burren, Benbulben, Bunglass cliffs are all in amazing landscapes, too. Archaeological sites are everywhere amid gorgeous views.

♣ There are some stunning gardens. Some are tiny house fronts, others are extensive yards. The mild weather keeps blooms fresh for a long time. These are the pinkest hydrangeas I’ve ever seen. Fuschia may be non-native, but forms high hedges along many roads. So do blackberries–we made jam and pie.

♣ We saw puffins, and possibly a whale or dolphin.

♣ The friendliness and good will of people we met was a real pleasure.

♣ Boxty, Irish whiskey, cheeses, butter.

♣ An appreciation of whimsy. Though fewer people today may believe in fairies, places where people saw fairies in the past are still marked, like the fairy bridges in Bundoran, or holy wells. There are decorative fairy houses, too. On a larger scale, you occasionally see a facade decorated with shells and broken pottery in seaside towns.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

♣ You can visit archaeological ruins all over Ireland. Many are marked on maps and listed in guidebooks, while others are not. Guidebooks don’t always list how long a walk it is to the site from the car park, and the walks can be very muddy. Sometimes only a vehicle with high clearance can drive to the end of the road, making the walk to a site a half hour each way. Be prepared.

Cliffs of Bunglass, Slieve Lieg

♣ Weather can get in the way of your views. We visited the Slieve Lieg, also called the Cliffs of Bunglass, some of the highest cliffs in Europe, but the top was in fog. The top of these cliffs is usually in fog, though they are still worth visiting. This is also true of Benbulben, a distinctive feature of the landscape between Sligo and Bundoran. Still worth visiting.

♣ There is a peculiar toll in Dublin, the M50. There are signs along the road that indicate it is an automatic toll. If you rent a car, ask your agency whether they cover the toll. If they do not, you have to go online and pay it (not much). If you do not, there are all kinds of threats of huge fines. Apparently rental cars are not fined as promptly but you are still expected to go to the eflow.ie webpage and pay. Our car rental company did not mention this until I called a couple of times in a panic.

♣ As in every country, the most highly publicized sights and attractions can be very crowded. We were in big crowds at the Cliffs of Moher and at the Giant’s Causeway. We skipped the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge when we found out that even with timed tickets the wait was often 90 minutes to walk across. We did not kiss the Blarney Stone. There can be 20 tour buses parked at such places. Brace yourself or don’t go. In Dublin, the Book of Kells had a long line. The National Museum of Ireland was full of wonderful things and had no line at all. Go there.

♣ If you are returning to the US from Ireland, you may be required to pass US customs in Ireland. This saves time when you arrive in the US, but takes at least an extra hour. Fine, except your airline may not mention that this takes place. Thus, everyone needs an extra hour at the airport but doesn’t know it. Lyra went through all this process at 6 am, including loading the plane an hour early (!). After that, they all sat for 45 minutes waiting for latecomers who didn’t know about customs and weren’t chronically early to the airport.

Hill Towns of all Sizes

02 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by in Tuscany

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We visited three of the smaller hill towns: Monteriggioni, Montepulciano and San Gimignano. All of these have most of their ancient encircling walls intact, and a central area with narrow streets and relatively tall buildings that date from times when people  felt safer living within the walls. Each town has its charms.

Visitamos tres de los pueblos amurallados: Monteriggioni, Montepulciano y San Gimignano. Todos estos tienen la mayoría de sus antiguas murallas intactas y un área central con calles estrechas y edificios relativamente altos que datan de tiempos en que la gente se sentía más segura viviendo dentro de las paredes. Cada ciudad tiene sus encantos.

San Gimignano is known for the 13 towers that remain from more than 70. They are very imposing from up close. While some are stark towers like those on the left, others have windows and other decoration.

San Gimignano es conocido por la 13 torres que quedan de mas de 70. Son muy imponentes de cerca. Mientras que algunas son torres severas como las de la izquierda, otras tienen ventanas y otra decoración.

 

 

Main gateway of Montepulciano.

Each town had a main gate. Today these often mark zones that limit automobile traffic. Tuscany is known for wines and these towns are involved in wine-growing and the wine business generally, especially Montepulciano. At the same time, tourism is an important part of their economy. We saw lots of Asian tourists, but also Australians, Americans and people from all over Europe and Russia.

Cada ciudad tenía una puerta principal. Hoy en día suelen marcar zonas que limitan el tráfico automovilístico. Hoy en día la Toscania es conocida por los vinos y estas ciudades se dedican a la viticultura y el negocio del vino en general, especialmente Montepulciano. Al mismo tiempo, el turismo es una parte importante de su economía. Vimos muchos turistas asiáticos, pero también australianos, americanos y gente de toda Europa y Rusia.

Both pictures were taken in San Gimignano

All these towns were started before 1000 AD, and you see remains of columns and wall decoration that have been reused in later structures.

Todos estos pueblos amurallados se iniciaron antes de 1000 dC, y se ven restos de columnas y decoración de paredes que se han reutilizado en las estructuras posteriores.

Siena is too large to call a hill town, but it was at one time and has a central tower like Florence does. The city encompasses several hills and getting to the Duomo involves a steep uphill walk.

Siena es demasiado grande para llamar a una ciudad de la colina, pero fue en un momento y tiene una torre central como la de Florencia. La ciudad abarca varias colinas y llegar al Duomo implica una empinada cuesta arriba.

 

 

 

The Siena Duomo has its own tower, even if it’s called a campanile (bell tower).  Inside the Duomo is a riot of decoration that the Florence Duomo lacks.

El Duomo de Siena tiene su propia torre, incluso si se llama campanile (campanario). Dentro del Duomo es un alboroto de la decoración que el Duomo de Florencia carece.

The Duomo in San Gimignano has a similar explosion of religious painting. Some of the artists came from Siena.

El Duomo en San Gimignano tiene una explosión similar de pintura religiosa. Algunas artistas llegaron de Siena.

Here’s a fresco of the Last Judgement from San Gimignano showing sinners going to Hell.

Aquí está un fresco del Ultimo Juicio, en el Duomo de San Gimignano que muestra a los pecadores que van al infierno.

Good to Know: Tuscan hill towns in a nutshell.

The terrain is steep and will involve walking uphill. If you have a car, try to park as far up the hill as you can get.

 

San Gimignano
Montepulciano
Monteriggioni

The towns were walled and gated in the ancient past. Admire the battlements and walk around the tops of the walls if you can. There are great views of the Tuscan countryside.

Stop for a coffee or lunch. Sitting in a cafe in a hill town watching the world go by is one of life’s great pleasures.

Don’t worry about shopping. They may be lots of interesting things, but most of them can be found elsewhere. That being said, if you see something you like, don’t hesitate.

Quit while you’re ahead. Remember you have to walk back to the car or bus. If your legs are killing you, that may be all you remember of the day. (Another reason to take a break in a cafe.) You don’t have to visit every hill town. There is no “best” or “must see” town.

Visiting local museums and churches is a very individual pastime. Some people don’t want to miss a single church (Nora, this is for you). I like Joyce’s “church of the day” plan. Unless you take notes you may not remember more than one church unless you are a big fan or specialist in some related topic (a specific saint, church organs, or opus sectile). This is neither Gandalf nor Dumbledore, but it is an example of opus sectile (pictures made of inlaid stone).

The same is true of museums. Most towns have a museum of some kind, or several. Many of these were private collections that made their way into the public domain or were opened to visitors. There is a certain sameness to these collections: a selection of paintings by local artists, home furnishings, collections by the former owner (medals, stuffed birds, porcelain). If you are captivated by one of these themes, by all means explore the local trove, but if you are not on a quest they could start looking much the same after the third one.

Tuscan hill towns are highly varied in size and liveliness, and people vary in which is their favorite. I recommend them all.

Bueno saber: las ciudades toscanas amuralladas en breve.

El terreno es empinado y implicará caminar cuesta arriba. Si tienes un coche, intenta aparcar lo más lejos posible de la colina.

Las ciudades fueron amuralladas y cerradas en el pasado antiguo. Admire las almenas y camine alrededor de las tapas de las paredes si usted puede. Hay excelentes vistas de la campiña toscana.

 Parada para un café o almuerzo. Sentado en un café en una ciudad pequeño viendo el mundo pasar es uno de los grandes placeres de la vida.

 No te preocupes por ir de compras. Pueden ser un montón de cosas interesantes, pero la mayoría de ellos se pueden encontrar en otros lugares. Dicho esto, si ves algo que te gusta, no dudes.

 Retírese mientras usted está adelante. Recuerde que tiene que caminar de regreso al coche o autobús. Si tus piernas te están matando, eso puede ser todo lo que recuerdas del día. (Otra razón para tomar un descanso en un café.) No tienes que visitar cada ciudad. No hay “mejor” o “debe ver.” Todos tienen algo especial.

 Visitar museos e iglesias locales es un pasatiempo muy individual. Algunas personas no quieren perderse una sola iglesia (Nora, esto es para ti). Me gusta el plan de “iglesia del día” de Joyce. A menos que tome notas, puede que no recuerde más de una iglesia a menos que sea un gran fan o especialista en algún tema relacionado (un santo específico, órganos de la iglesia o “opus sectile”).

Esto no es ni Gandalf ni Dumbledore, pero es un ejemplo de opus sectile (cuadros hechos de piedra incrustada).

Lo mismo ocurre con los museos. La mayoría de las ciudades tienen un museo de algún tipo, o varios. Muchas de ellas eran colecciones privadas que llegaban al dominio público o se abrían a los visitantes. Hay una cierta similitud con estas colecciones: una selección de pinturas de artistas locales, muebles para el hogar, colecciones del antiguo propietario (medallas, aves rellenas, porcelana). Si usted está cautivado por uno de estos temas, por todos los medios explorar el tesoro local, pero si no está en una búsqueda que podría empezar a buscar mucho lo mismo después de la tercera.  

Ciudades toscanas son muy variados en tamaño y vivacidad, y la gente varía en la que es su favorito. Los recomiendo a todos.

Cuba!

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in Cuba

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Actually getting to Cuba is the first part of the tour’s adventure, as it turns out. 10-16-16-meeting-before-cuba-002We met our group the night before departure and they proved to be a congenial bunch.

We had to be at the airport three hours ahead of time (boring), but we saw the array of goods that people take to Cuba. We later heard that every Cuban who visits the US may take two televisions back with them each year, and we saw clear evidence of this in the Miami airport….55 inch screens seemed to be popular. Despite our tour company suggesting we bring a 22 lb bag, we found the luggage limit for travel to Cuba is three 70 lb checked bags. People definitely were aware of this option.

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Marlon sings karaoke with “Bailando” on the bus.

We traveled with Insight Cuba, on their Classic Cuba tour. Our logistics person was Alfredo from Costa Rica, and our local guide was Marlon. Our driver was Manuel. The team was excellent. The tour ran smoothly, there was daily communication about plans and any changes being made. They handled all issues and Marlon is full of Cuba content. As a former teacher, he knows what life is like in Cuba for most people, and he was diplomatic about issues of politics and race.

Though a lot of waiting was involved, we got to Cuba pretty painlessly and no one in our group was stopped or inspected with any particular scrutiny. 10-16-16-revolution-sq-havana

We visited Revolution Square in Havana on our way in, and I found it much bigger and less park-like than I expected. The iron faces of heroes were impressive.

 

 

We had a welcome dinner at Los Naranjos, one of Cuba’s paladares, privately owned restaurants that began in homes, though many are now full-fledged restaurants with room for tens of diners.

We heard a lecture on architecture, visited Old Havana and a center for elderly people who sang us a song and were charming to chat with for a few minutes.

I managed a swim in the hotel pool at the end of the day before we left for dinner. The next day we went to the market, where we tried to purchase food for an entire meal with 1 CUC (US $1.13). It was possible, but not easy (no meat). We also visited a dance company, a museum of the great Literacy campaign of the early 1960s in Cuba, and an animation studio.10-17-16-animation-studio-havna

Here are my new animated friends.

 

 

 

 

 

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Our restaurant surroundings were lovely for lunch and dinner every day, but the lack of ripe tomatoes, fresh fruit and vegetables and the same entrée choices started to become apparent by the third day. The next day was a visit to the huge Cristobal Colon cemetery (Jose Marti is not buried there), followed by a medical clinic, and after lunch the studio of a well-known ceramic artist, Beatriz Santacana. We got on the road the next day for Cienfuegos, and stopped at the beach for lunch and an excellent talk about the national park adjacent to the Bay of Pigs. Our only swim in the Caribbean was here and it was wonderful.10-20-16-bay-of-pigs-005

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This fish is a pentyptych ? (five panels) painted bas relief.

I was ready to sit under an umbrella all afternoon, but it was not to be. We were due to stop at the museum that tells the Cuban story of the Bay of Pigs and move on to our stay at “casas particulares” private home B&Bs in Cienfuegos. Jonathan and I had a room that was pretty basic, but the air conditioning worked. The public areas of the house were very pretty and airy, though we had little time to sit with our feet up. The next day we visited Trinidad, a town preserved by a big economic slump during most of the 20th century. There we walked on the old cobblestone streets, visited the architecture museum, met with a priest of Santeria, and saw the studio of a very creative woodcarver, who began using old cabinet doors as the material for his bas-relief portraits when artists materials were scarce during the 1990s and beyond. I think everyone slept on the bus back to Cienfuegos.

The next morning we were back on the bus, first visiting a printer’s studio that specializes in wood block and linoleum prints. I did buy an eight-color lino print that I like a lot. Later I found out that most of the people who work there are not paid but live off their government ration cards and what they make from selling prints.

We next heard the Cienfuegos Municipal Orchestra play and they were wonderful, full of energy, as well as very good. There are eight musicians and all teach in the local art school as well as performing concerts twice each month.

10-22-16-lunch-road-to-havanaFrom the orchestra we headed back to Havana, stopping only for sandwiches on bread shaped like a Cuban crocodile.

 

 

 

Before arriving at the hotel, we stopped at Hemingway’s house outside Havana. The man knew how to live. The house is comfortable and airy, with a big pool and beautiful gardens surrounding it. Decor is heavy on dead animals, but we knew he was a big-game hunter. The cape buffalo head is pretty massive and would be a bit strange presiding over a cocktail party.

This was our final full day in Cuba, so we celebrated by going to the famous Tropicana nightclub show. Dinner began at 8:30pm and the show started at 10. The dinner was utterly uninspired, but by purchasing it on top of our admission fee we qualified for good seats by the stage.

We rode home with our heads full of the colorful frenetic dancing. But that wasn’t the end. The next morning we made one last stop at the fanciful compound of artist Carlos Fuster, who has developed a project to cover his home and neighborhood with mosaics. 10-23-16-casa-fuster-havana-043It looks a bit like Gaudi’s mosaics in Parque Guell in Barcelona, doesn’t it?

img_4114We decided on a group photo in front of one of the community-made mosaics by Casa Fuster. Then we said goodbye to Cuba.10-22-16-hemingway-outside-havana-006Our week in Cuba is a bit compressed because I was unable to get internet access and had to wait and post when we returned. Still to come are my posts on vintage American cars in Cuba and Cuban architecture. Last but far from least will be my opinionated “Good Things to Know About Cuba.”

What happens when you twist your ankle?

04 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Norway, Paula

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Occasionally, people ask how we will deal with illness or injury as we travel, particularly since US insurance rarely applies outside the US. Travel insurance only covers injury during travel. My macular degeneration is considered a chronic condition and therefore not covered (see amdontheroad.wordpress.com).

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Jonathan sprained his ankle on one of our last days in Kjerstad (June 28). We’d already reserved 2 nights hotel in Oslo to have a day in the city. The Oslo airport is a 40 minute train ride from the city, and there is a lot of walking in a one-day visit, so we had to rethink.

 

We rented a car and each chose a place we wanted to see, settling on the Viking Ship museum, the stave church at the Norwegian folk museum and the Vigeland sculpture garden in Frogner Park. The Viking ships are impressive, even though the gold and other loot was long gone by the time they were excavated.

I’ve wanted to see a stave church since I wrote a paper about them for an anthropology class in college. The oldest portion of this one dates to about 1200. It was originally built in Gol, Norway and when the city was going to tear it down in 1880, the king, Oscar II, had it saved and restored in its current location among many other structures from around Norway in the Norsk Folkemuseum.

DSCN4416Jonathan rested his foot in the cafe while Paula and I did a bit more walking around the Folkemuseum. The costumed people manning the stops were well informed and we chatted with the man in the stave church for a while, the the silversmith and the pottery studio. It was raining in earnest by this time, so we headed to the cafe for a few minutes before leaving.

IMG_0510Our final tour stop was Frogner Park to see the Vigeland sculptures. Jonathan was only able to manage a short walk, though we pulled out our binoculars to look at birds splashing about in the rain.

From there we went to an early dinner at Markveien. It was delicious (see Jonathan’s review on TripAdvisor). We headed back to the hotel, having made the best of a day that could have been much more difficult. We were happy to have the car in the morning to get us back to the airport. Our flight was not until 11:40 am, so we had plenty of time to get there and give Jonathan time to walk slowly to the gate. We successfully spent the rest of our Norwegian kronor, to the last one.