Trip Synopsis 2001
| This one is a corrected version of a trip summary sent to a friend
at Somerton, England, Donna Fowler, which is why the UK was mentioned first. I found the British quite friendly over all. At least, the various station personnel and bus conductors were very helpful and supportive. I really enjoyed my time in London and walked everywhere, miles and miles around town, all along the river, from William the Conquerer's London Tower to the House of Lords, Westminster Cathedral, Downing Street, the Palace, Hyde Park, Oxford Street, and Picadilly Circus and more. I also liked that I could workout for free at all of the LA Fitness clubs there. That added to the experience, and again, personnel there was extremely accommodating. The Tube was kind of a pain. There seemed to have been not a day without delays or problems. From London I made an excursion to Bradford, the Museum of Film, etc. (I've got it written down somewhere). Which had, at that time, a very nice little Star Wars exhibit going. I also liked Bath, and the Roman bath there, as well as the old Minster and covered bridge. I visited Portsmouth and the real-deal Lord Nelson's HMS Victory there. It's a place where I wish I had a little more time to spend than I did. The Stonehenge was interesting and surprisingly small. After I left the London area, I went on to York. Another very friendly and interesting place (wall-to-wall walls). It's history enriched with Roman and Viking lore. I stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast there. York, and its huge Minster, may well be my favorite English city. From York it was off to Edinburgh and I had a long talk with a cop there, who used to be in the Royal Navy, and had done a tour of duty off Vietnam. Took-in the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle to the Royal Palace, and then participated in an all-day bus tour that went as far as Loch Ness. From Glasgow I flew to Dublin. I spent a few days in that happy and bustling city, and took the chance to tour all around the Emerald Isle (great Celtic Crosses and let's not forget the Book of Kells) via bus and trains. Then it was back to Glasgow and on to rainy Liverpool (what a let-down), and then back to London, and via Eurostar express, to my travel "hub" Paris (where I worked out free at any of the Club Gymnase fitness centers). Love Paris and, based on many traveler's feedback, expected to hate the French, but they too turned out to be really nice. In France I visited WWII battle-scarred Caen, Brittany's old university and party town of Rennes, historic and cathedral-adorned Bayeux (I just had to see the Normandy beaches and the old tapestry depicting the entire conquest of England in 1055 - all 70 meters of it). From Rennes I took the local bus to the amazing Mt. Saint Michel. Later I flew from Paris to Madrid, stayed in lovely Cordoba and let myself be surprised and overwhelmed by the magnificent Mosque, that has a Catholic cathedral in the center of it, courtesy of Karl IV. I visited the very colorful Seville, and then I took the train to Algeciras and ferried to Tangier. The ferry ride gave me a nice, albeit hazy, look at the Rock of Gibraltar. In Morocco I flew from intriguing and crowded Tangier to shocking Marrakech (the crazy market, Djemma El Fna is known around the world with its snake charming and dancing performers) and from there to convoluted Fez, center of Moroccan arts and crafts. Got a high-speed automobile ride to old Mekenes and ancient Roman Volubilis as well. Then I decide to give the Moroccan railroad a chance and was pleasantly surprised. The trip from Fez to Tangier by train was the only time I was in an air-conditioned environment in Morocco. Back to Algeciras, Madrid, and Paris, and off by bullet train (TGV) to Southern France, with a nice long stay at Avignon. From there I visited Nimes and Arles and ogled their lovely Roman artifacts, and then off to provocative Marseilles. What an interesting place, easily worth much more time than I gave it. Nice and Cannes, the latter my favorite, were just a short train ride away, and I even go to see stuffy Monaco, where all of the noses are up in the air and the corners of the mouths are down. After that I went to very awesome Chamonix. My absolutely favorite little place in Europe, where I got up close and personal with icy Mt. Blanc and the blue ice of the glacier Mer de Glace. Following that I went to infinitely rich and boring Geneva and then to a great time in pretty-as-a-picture Luzern, maybe one of the prettiest towns in all of Europe. Up, on foot on Mt. Pilatus and down on the other side via the world's steepest cog railway. What a trip, what a day! From there to Munich and day trips to Herren Chiemsee, Füssen (Mad Ludwig's Castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau), to Berchtesgaden (place of my birth) and the totally smooth and Alpine mountain-rimmed Konigssee, and to Salzburg, Mozart's hilly and beautiful hometown. After that it was north to Düsseldorf (the city where I grew up, but hadn't been back to in over 30 years), Cologne (the great dome and more 24HR Fitness workouts). To Ulm, where I ascended the highest cathedral steeple in Europe, and Aachen, to say hello to Karl the Great = Charlemagne, who is entombed in the very old, pre-gothic cathedral there. I managed a train ride to Trier to finally see the Porta Nigra, the Roman Black Gateway, and sample the delicious local Mosel wine. I made a side-trip to Liege and was awed by the Tour De France cyclists, and delightful, fantastic adorned central plaza of Brussels, and bicycled along the peaceful canals of Amsterdam. Then I entered deep into Viking territory. Near Hanseatic Lübeck is the ancient southern Viking port of Haithabu (archeological site and museum), and just outside of Copenhagen, the famous Roskilde Fjord Viking ship museum. As luck had it, there was a 24HR Fitness center to be found in every Scandinavian capital. Copenhagen was sunny and delightfully crowded. I took the X2000 Swedish Express to Stockholm. I remember that one fondly, because, at least in 1st Class, they feed you as they do on airplanes. Stockholm was wonderful and a place I could live in (in the summer ;-)). I let myself be astonished by the Vasa, the ship that had lain in the harbor's silt, under water, for 333 years. Stockholm's Adlon Hotel was surely my favorite hotel on this trip. The nearby 24HR Fitness gym, and capable instructor Åsa, kept me happy the rest of the time. From there a long train ride to Oslo and the land of the Fjords, but also home of the famous and most ornate Oseberg and Gokstad Viking ship museum. A magical place. Then a nightride to Berlin and within its hustle and bustle the incredible Pergamon Museum, as well as the Egyptian museum, which has the real and unique bust of Nerfertiti on permanent display. I left Berlin to take a train ride riddled with surprises through formerly curtained-off Eastern Germany, now much restored and rebuilt. The train ride snaked along a beautiful cliff-edged river on the way to the Czech Republic and the city of Prague. Prague was even more beautiful than I had imagined. That city had survived history without ever having been sacked and it shows. It is totally mind-boggling medieval and ornate to the n-th degree. While much of the neglect of the Communists worker paradise has already been eliminated, much remains to be done, but what is there is well worth a visit. A lovely lady-lawyer from Florida, Ilene, made that an even more pleasant stay. From there it's a straight drop down south to venerable Vienna. Almost too big for comfort, but easily navigable via the U-Bahn, and the coffee is superb and the Sacher Torte sweet and fattening. I discovered, to my surprise, the German Imperial Treasure there, virtually intact. My schedule then took me to Venice. A disappointment only because I had expected it to be much better maintained than it was. I believe that there isn't enough money in Italy or even Europe to restore all of it and so it will slowly deteriorate into an ever worse condition. Much has been lost, and much more will be. A least it had stopped sinking, but now the oceans are rising, (global warming - no finger pointing - it's the normal cycle of the Earth) and the effect is the same. The heart-stoppingly beautiful city, a veritable photographer's paradise and a center of fine arts and crafts, I believe, is doomed. The next stop was Florence. What a neat place! I loved it and the incredibly and supposedly impossible-to-build Duomo (domed cathedral). Near the Uffizio one can view, out in the open, a precise copy of Michelangelo's statue of David, among other great statuary. From there, ever south to Rome. Rome, what can I say? Everywhere we see only traces of the Roman empire, and here the remnants, however raped and looted by the inheritors, are plentiful and powerfully in evidence. The Forum Romanum, the great triumphal arches, the Colisseum, and of later vintage, the Sistine Chapel, are all among the sights and experiences to last a lifetime. The Catholics are close to heaven here, and even I, not a religionite by any stretch of the imagination, went to see Pope Paul 2 during his usual Wednesday public mass. Let's view it as an anthropologically significant experience. From Rome I made I quick stab at Pisa, to make sure the leaning tower had not toppled over. And indeed, this is the first year since 1993, I believe, that the tower could be seen without external scaffolding. It has, at last, been saved for posterity. Then back to Rome and a quick flight to Athens. I kind of love it, especially now that it is being all spruced up for the Olympics. The airport was brand new (the old one, near Piraeus is shut down) and very efficient, however it's located far outside of town. I also loved the Acropolis (even the leftovers, after Lord Elgin was finished looting it, are impressive) and had to go to Delphi to consult the oracle. I divined that I will live happily for a little while longer. Delphi was really impressive since it is high up in the mountains and in its heyday must have been an amazing sight, all white marble steps, and temples and shops. Then a day's outing to the picturesque Temple of Poseidon, majestically overlooking the Aegean Sea and then off to the Peleponnese. I vacationed in the picture-perfect Nafplio and met my lovely day-tripping, globe-hopping friend Beata there, and visited towering Mykonos and Epidaurus with her (9/11). While there, I got the news from New York. Disbelieving it, until I saw the impossible on TV. The Greeks were very emotional about it and very sad. High above Nafplio there is an Ottoman keep and a steep stairway with 1000 steps lead to the back-door. I did that climb sometimes twice a day. After a short trip to Corintos, and a power-walk up to the Ottoman fortress above the interesting ruins of Archeo-Corinth, I headed back to Athens for a final sunset visit to the Acropolis, a self-guided tour through the eye-popping museum of antiquity, and then flew to back to Rome. A very long night-train ride took me from Rome to Sicily. Much to be seen there including finer Greek ruins that in Greece itself. Antiquity abounds, and the Archeological Museum of Siracusa is absolutely the best of its kind in Italy. From Catania, I went in an all-wheel-drive vehicle up on Mt. Etna, but got bored riding and walked back down. Much better. I should have walked up as well. There were some real hot spots there in the most recent lava flow, where you could drop a piece of paper on the ground and it would catch fire. I visited Palermo, but the weather wasn't with me and, I was drawn to the fabulous Greek temple ruins outside of town on the sunny days. From Palermo, and its incredible Normal Chapel, I went back to Naples. Breath-taking views, but again the weather didn't play the game. Instead, I let myself be preoccupied with the unearthed time-capsules of Pompeii and Herculanum. Two days very well and satisfyingly spent. To walk the ancient streets of the 2000-year-old Roman cities is quite an experience. You can almost hear their echoes all around you, and even can see some of the former citizens in the shape in which they were frozen at the horrible moment of being buried alive. They were lively and lusty places as can be seen from the many carvings and paintings. Small, carved stone penises would direct the non-Latin speaking visitor to the pleasure centers in town. At this point it was time to pull chocks and head for home. I rode trains for a total of 28 hours to get from Naples to Milan, to Nice, and by high-speed TGV back to beloved Paris. I spent a quick day soaking in the special Parisian atmosphere, along the Seine, and in and around Notre Dame and the Basilica of St. Etienne. The latter, because I had just finished reading Ken Follet's "Pillars of the Earth" - what a great historical novel - and then, on the 26th of September, 184 days after my departure (26 MAR 2001), I returned to the US. |
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