tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49450054249225881352024-03-13T06:39:57.888-07:00Pas grand-choseKaren @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-21635968346676190432018-01-15T09:52:00.001-08:002018-01-15T09:52:46.859-08:00A walk around Gallipoli<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Puglia is having a bit of a moment as a destination, since being widely dubbed </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">the 'new Tuscany' by weekend travel supplements</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> A little more remote to reach, compared to the more popular Tuscany and Umbria, it's the long, thin stiletto heel of Italy's boot, with olive groves, vineyards and a national park in between long beaches and two seas -</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> the Ionian to the west and the Adriatic to the east. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My encounter with Puglia last summer began here, in Gallipoli, a small port town on the Ionian, very close to the bottom tip of the stiletto.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'd driven up the arch of the foot along the Gulf of Taranto, bypassing the city of Taranto (known for the Tarantello, the famed fast and frenzied dance invented to ward off the effects of tarantula bites) - a large, industrial and economically depressed region where we saw migrants from north Africa walking along the roadside - a glimpse of the harsher aspects of Italy's poorer south.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bridge connects from the mainland to the old town part of Gallipoli which is a tiny island consisting of a castle fort and two ports - one commercial and one for fishing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Away from the crowded cafés and restaurants of the port areas, there's a labyrinth of narrow streets to explore ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with Baroque churches, small shops, and evidence of neighbourly street life</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... all ultimately leading back to the sea-front, where at sunset you could contemplate horizons stretching to the seafaring routes of the Mediterranean.</span><br />
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-34001693218347908542017-08-05T06:06:00.000-07:002017-08-05T06:06:22.710-07:00Ruins, buffalo and lizards in Campania<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Only an hour's drive south of the Amalfi coast, heading down the geographical boot of Italy, is a wee detour well worth the taking - to the archeological site of Paestum, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The ancient Greeks built a large city here in 600 BC, with three huge temples, and named it after the god of the sea, Poseidon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of the city walls, forum and amphitheatre, only the foundations remain, but the three temples, dedicated to Hera, Athena and Poseidon are mostly intact, with their massive golden coloured stone pillars still standing after more than two and a half thousand years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">The Romans later took over the city and (as they did) changed its name from Poseidonia to Paestum, while renaming the temples Juno, Minerva and Neptune : same gods, rebranded. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> The massive Temple of Neptune/Poseidon</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It thrived throughout the Roman empire and only fell into disuse and neglect in the Middle Ages, to be rediscovered and protected from around the 18th century when the likes of Goethe and Shelley inspired a touristic interest in Italy's antiquities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There's a wonderful photograph of a company of soldiers in the second World War in the ruins of the Hera temple where they'd set up office in preparation for the landing beaches nearby where the Allies would invade Italy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Paestum felt far more impressive than Pompeii, was better preserved, and without the crowds that pack Pompeii a much more worthwhile experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From Paestum a short drive up into the hills gets you to <a href="https://www.ilcannito.com/en/">Il Cannito</a>, guest house in the wilds of the Parco Naziionale del Cilento.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is buffalo country - though the buffalo are reared on farms, not wild, and are the source of Italy's mozarella di bufala. While getting lost on dirt roads in the hills trying to find the isolated Il Cannito we had a close encounter with some mozarella-producing buffalo, but I was too surprised to take a picture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Owned and run by the Gorga family, father Luigi found the ruins of a farmhouse in this remote spot in the national park and reconstructed the original stone house to a simple guest house with only four rooms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved the interiors - simple, with a fantastic eye for modern design, paintings by artist friends of the family and daughter Antonella's photographs (the one below of her brother Nicola swimming in the nearby Tyrrhenian sea). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cooled off in the pool with bright green lizards for company and later had a drink on the terrace watching the sun go down - this time with owls for company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dinner was cooked by Mama and was fresh, simple and delicious, including this ravioli filled with buffalo mozarella (naturally) topped with white summer truffles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breakfast outside the next morning was a perfect start for the drive south ...</span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-36231374639270480722017-07-04T14:07:00.000-07:002017-07-06T05:07:33.594-07:00Amalfi blues<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Amalfi coast is a frustratingly mixed-bag experience: both dreamy coastline and commercialised, tourist-riddled nightmare. I have the same response to it as to (for example) Venice and Cinque Terre: if only one could magically vacuum-suck out the massed crowds (along with the tacky industries that support them) and make them vanish, leaving the unadulterated experience (in my head at least) of 1960s dolce vita glamour and drop-dead views. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But that would include me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nonetheless, I discovered some perfectly lovely, less frequented places on my last trip there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After a short walk around the Pompeii ruins in the rain (the site underwhelming even if it was the worst weather in which to see it: not well maintained, its historic educational potential sadly underused) ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Pompeii city walls</i></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This specialist guide was patiently explaining some historical facts to a lucky private group</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Hazy view of mount Vesuvius from the Pompeii ruins</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... and having braved some hectic traffic around Naples, we crossed from Sorrento to the other side of the peninsula, the Amalfi coastline, along a winding cliff-top road with fantastic views, and dipped down into <b><u><a href="https://www.summerinitaly.com/guide/nerano">Nerano</a></u></b>, where the sun was shining in this little sea-side village on the tip of the peninsula nearest Capri.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>View from Taverna del Capitano, Nerano</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The destination was the T<b><u><a href="https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Restaurant/NERANO_MARINA_DEL_CANTONE-80061-Taverna_del_Capitano-139635-41102">averna del Capitano</a></u></b> in the middle of the village on the sea-front. The taverna is basically a handful of rooms attached to a restaurant of the same name with a great local reputation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rooms are very small and basic, but totally comfortable and clean, and best of all, have windows and doors opening directly onto the sea, with these views ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... and a night-long sea breeze and gentle lapping of waves - <i>after</i> discovering that the restaurant's reputation is fully deserved - the work of chef <b><u><a href="http://www.altissimoceto.it/2016/08/02/taverna-del-capitano-massa-lubrense-na-chef-alfonso-caputo/">Alfonso Caputo</a></u></b>, who owns and runs the tavern with his wife, mother and a handful of staff who give attentive and genuinely warm personal service.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Early next morning - before coffee on the little balcony terrace of the friendly Capitano - I watched the beach being prepared for the day </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and boatmen getting ready for the day-trippers who would soon be flocking down the path for boat rides to Capri, Positano, Amalfi and Li Galli</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Capri had been a tempting, possible plan for the morning, but quickly lost its attraction after seeing the coach-loads being disgorged to queue in massively long lines for the boats.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We decided to drive on instead along the scenic corniche towards Positano and Amalfi ... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... only to encounter wall-to-wall (or cliffside to mountainside) traffic: a painfully slow congestion along the narrow roads (constructed in a time when these were fishing villages with no tourism!), which were also lined with parked cars wedged up (illegally) against the sides as people parked and walked many many kilometres into these popular towns.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Added to the melée were oversized tour buses, suicidal Vespas, pedestrians braving their lives, plenty of tempers fraying, and much pointless, frustrated hooting</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even out of season, parking in or anywhere near either Positano or Amalfi was impossible, and - considering the crowds and tatty souvenir shops - not even desirable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(no wonder the Italians invented the Vespa and tiny (stylish of course, that comes with the territory) cars!) ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the other hand, past Ravello, the little seaside towns of <b><u><a href="http://www.positano.com/en/s/maiori-and-minori">Minori and Maiori,</a></u></b> lacking the celebrity status of Positano and Amalfi, were amazingly crowd-free - just locals enjoying their beaches (of which there are many more, and larger).</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I loved watching families enjoying the beach - here a grandfather with grown children and grand-children </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>here two stylishly dressed women chatting barefoot in the sea</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jZKLSzK24M0/WHqpx3TAObI/AAAAAAAAPq4/ccObLsISyHM4uOHLQDTpd5Y5R7l_5yMzwCLcB/s1600/Maiori%2Bbeach%2BgentB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jZKLSzK24M0/WHqpx3TAObI/AAAAAAAAPq4/ccObLsISyHM4uOHLQDTpd5Y5R7l_5yMzwCLcB/s1600/Maiori%2Bbeach%2BgentB.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>and here an elderly man who'd parked his chair in the lapping waves!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Maiori harbour</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The same is true of <b><u><a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/praiano">Praiano</a></u></b>, less congested, and perhaps less picturesque but more authentic in my view, than its better known neighbours</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tucked away in the cliff face below Praiano is the entrance to <b><u><a href="http://www.casangelina.com/">Casa Angelina</a></u></b>. Its access is via an alarming series of unimaginably narrow hairpin bends, at the end of which you're rewarded with a fantastic modern design. The all-white interior is a deliberate neutral backdrop to a collection of artwork, sculptures and Murano glass creations ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... and to the main event - huge picture windows with views to die for of the Amalfi coast, all the way from Capri in one direction to the toe of Italy in the other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Casa Angelina is a little gem of understated luxury, whether to stay or just drop by for a drink or lunch on the terrace.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I took the opportunity to work off lunch by walking down a very very long cliff-face path to the sea below</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boy, did I regret it walking back up ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But regret seeing this part of the world? Not a bit.</span><br />
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-65224986255291962612016-11-21T06:25:00.001-08:002016-11-21T06:25:35.194-08:00Off the beaten track in Abruzzo, Italy<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">South of Tuscany and Umbria, and along the spine of the Appenines in the east, you wind upwards into the mountains of Abruzzo. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Abruzzo region of Italy, from the heart of the Appenines to the Adriatic sea</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I fell in love with one part of this region two years ago when I visited Norcia (link <u><a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/monti-sibillini.html">here</a></u>) and it's heartbreaking to know that this beautiful town has now been all but destroyed in the latest of the series of earthquakes to have hit Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The open spaces, distinctive yellows and greens of rolling hills where bears and wolves roam, the edge of natural, wild beauty make this in my opinion one of the most underrated and worthwhile destinations in Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Steering clear of the Amatrice area that had been the epicentre of the last-but-one earthquake only a few weeks before, we headed instead to the province of L'Aquila, the region of the 2009 earthquake, figuring it was likely to be relatively safe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> This area gets covered in deep snow in the winter. Even in early September having left a still-hot Tuscany and Umbria behind, cl</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">imbing higher into these rugged mountains, the temperature</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> began dropping noticeably.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the perched village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a fortified medieval village in the Gran Sasso national park, we wandered along steep, narrow cobbled streets in search of the unmarked Albergo Diffuso Sextantio. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Like the capital city of L'Aquila, this little medieval town was also damaged in the 2009 terramoto, and government-led building restoration has been painfully slow. The church atop the little town is still sadly completely destroyed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many buildings are secured with temporary scaffolding and wooden supports. It's not clear if some of them are inhabited. I'd be somewhat nervous myself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">San Stefano is an ongoing project in preserving a traditional way of life: local people are supported in producing regional food and traditional arts and crafts; the centuries-old Albergo Sextantio is kept with all its original rustic features intact (though thankfully with modern heating!). </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Click </span><u style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.classetouriste.be/saving-santo-stefano-di-sessanio/">here</a></b></u><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> for a visual glimpse into the restoration of the town and the unusual Sextantio Albergo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The place is a rare and authentic experience. Which is why the series of earthquakes is so sad, both for what has been destroyed and the impact on visitors to the region.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even with on-off rain and the slight sense of unease that comes with hoping the earth will not decide to move at this particular time, this place made a huge impression on me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> And oh the food: we had an absurdly reasonable and delicious dinner in this tiny family-run restaurant, Gepetto's (below), where an energetic local chef and his elderly parents produced a succession of antipasti of local salumi and cheeses, ravioli filled with ricotta and zafferano (another regional speciality), perfect lamb, potatoes and salad. Feeling like stuffed pythons with no room for dessert, kind Papa brought local liqueur as a digestif.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next day we left early and decided to take a longer, scenic route instead of the fast Rome-bound motorway, through the Abruzzo national park - beautiful even under cloud cover and in light rain ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">keeping a watchful eye out for any bears who might think of crossing the road </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Abruzzo national park and protected nature reserve ensure the survival of an impressive 75% of Europe's living wildlife species, including bears, wolves, chamois and eagles. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Surrounded by the Majella mountains are the lake towns of Scanno, below, which Henri Cartier-Bresson fell in love with and photographed extensively (see <u><b><a href="http://www.lifeinabruzzo.com/skirting-scanno/">here</a></b></u>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Barrea, 'pearl of the Abruzzo', above and below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This part of Abruzzo has a very different landscape from the rolling hills and plains of San Stefano and the capital L'Aquila: the mountains are rocky and much higher, and there are natural lakes (amazing to see at well over 1000m above sea level) with the most fabulously deep blue turquoise water, clean and rich in fish and bird life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you're put off by the tourist hordes and commercialisation of so many of Italy's better-known destinations and want an authentic Italian experience in a place of natural beauty, Abruzzo has so much to offer. '</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forte e gentile</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">' is how Primo Levi summed up the character of the landscape and its inhabitants, and I can't think of a better description.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Abruzzo, Italy, September 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-56464025007727225062016-11-09T13:40:00.000-08:002016-11-09T13:40:29.503-08:00A drive through Chianti, Tuscany<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Past Milano, the northern Italian motorways whizz one along efficiently south-east, past Parma and Modena, until, close to Bologna, you turn sharp south. And before long there are iconic sights of hilltop towns with ochre roofs, vineyards and cypresses, to let you know unmistakably that you're in Tuscany.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Between Firenze and Siena to its south is the Chianti wine-growing region</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where, outside the town of San Casciano, there's an overnight stop in Mangiacane (the great dog), a pinky-orange Medici villa </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">surrounded by cypresses</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">set on a hilltop </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">overlooking the Chianti vineyards</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After a long day in the car there's a pool to relax in, and one of my favourite pleasures that only a warm climate can offer: an outdoor shower</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the peaceful courtyard garden I was surprised to find Zimbabwean soapstone sculptures - slightly out of context, but they look well here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A sudden heavy rain shower cleared up in time for dinner in the garden: antipasti of local cheeses and charcuterie, a pasta of fresh truffles, and obviously a bottle of red Chianti. What could be more perfect?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Chianti, Tuscany, Italy, September 2016</i></span></div>
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<br />Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-58750511683118629672016-11-07T02:16:00.000-08:002016-11-07T02:16:01.265-08:00Crossing Lake Como with bikers<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On day 2 of the Italian road trip, s</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">outh of Basel, we entered the 17km long Gotthard tunnel that bores under the Alps and pops you out in Italian Switzerland - to drive alongside the beautiful Lago di Lugano with gorgeous homes on the edge of the lake surrounded by mountains. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Lugano is right on the border with Italy; we cross over and minutes later have the first sightings of serene Como in muted shades of blue and green under an overcast sky.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At Cadenabbia we drive onto a car ferry. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These ferries cross the lake every half hour and we're waved on with little concern for order, cars and motorbikes filling up the boat deck higgeldy piggeldy, Italian style. At the back, with a fabulously un-British finger to health and safety there's a basically pointless loose rope across the open end of the boat, where the bikers are standing and chatting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we pull away from the west side of Como lake, we join everyone else on the roof deck of the ferry </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(including a wee and clearly cosseted dog)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">from where we have perfect views of a receding Cadenabbio, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where Mary Shelley stayed and lingered - was she one of the first of the 19th century Brits to become obsessed with the beauty and quality of life in Italy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and watch the 'pearl of Como', Bellagio, drawing near</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The wee pooch sped off the ferry in a stylish open-top red car, bound for who knew what Sunday adventure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Byron adored Bellagio and Flaubert declared that one could 'live and die here', but could we find the smallest sliver of a parking space?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sadly no, so it was onwards and upwards along the coastal shore of this uniquely gorgeous lake, where locals were soaking up the last of the summer sun on jetties and tiny beaches</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">looked over by peeling ochre mansions and olive trees</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Lake Como, Italy, September 2016</i></span></div>
<br />Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-28352518808983698692016-10-16T11:53:00.000-07:002016-10-16T11:53:44.857-07:00Floating down the Rhine in Basel<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My latest European road trip, last month, began just across the channel in Lille, in cool 6 am darkness. Somewhere around Reims or Épernay there was a pit-stop at a roadside L'Arche for coffee and a croissant, before driving on through French farmland, and by 11.30 we were well into the Vosges and Alsace. Things were getting German. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At lunchtime we were in Basel, Switzerland, looking down on the Rhine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a hot Saturday, 29 degrees, and in the Rhine were not only pleasure boats but also loads of swimmers - or floaters, rather.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Rhine runs through the centre of the city in a strong, fast current. All through summer, the thing to do in Basel is jump in the river upstream and let the current sweep you along.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's nothing to do but float, enjoying the sun on your face, for miles ... with a specially designed waterproof bag that sells everywhere here for keeping your clothes and belongings dry, doubling as a flotation pillow to hang onto. And when you hop out, there's a bus to take you back to where you started! Swiss efficiency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before I dipped a toe in I was going to need to know how clean the water was! Pretty damn clean, it turns out. Billions of euros have been spent on cleaning up the Rhine and keeping it that way. I'm in awe of how Switzerland and Germany manage to be industrial and manufacturing power-houses of Europe (Basel is the hub of the pharmaceutical industry) and at the same time the leaders in green-ness and preservation of the environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Les Trois Rois, one of Basel's grand old hotels, is the perfect place to drop in for a drink or lunch on the terrace with a view</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a distinctly people-friendly city, I discover, as we walk across one of the bridges closed to all traffic except for the trams which silently criss-cross the city. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Public transport is not only efficient and 'green', but also cheerful ...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the Marktplatz and Theaterplatz everyone was enjoying the last of summer days</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">and street food ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This may be one of the most expensive countries in Europe, but hugs were free from this friendly guy!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the Basel Münster there were games of boules under the trees</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and at the extraordinary Tinguely fountain where mechanical sculptures play with water, children were dipping their feet and dodging the spray.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides pharmaceutical company headquarters, Basel is most famous for being a major art centre of the world. There are more art galleries and museums concentrated here than in most far bigger world cities </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Kunstmuseum Basel</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was impressed by how well older buildings blend seamlessly with modern ones. Town planning here (as in Germany) and protection of the natural environment are fantastically well done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I mention that Basel is spotlessly clean? I watched street sweepers cruising the streets at the crack of dawn, and people carefully hand-sweeping the pavements in front of shops and hotels for the odd cigarette butt or stray leaf. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was sorry to leave Basel on Sunday morning, after a last linger on the bank of the Rhine where early swimmers were already doing their floating thing, and cyclists were freewheeling alongside the river. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a civilised, liveable city. All I need is a Swiss bank account and I'm moving right over there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Basel, Switzerland, September 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-74787824343777265522016-08-29T07:56:00.001-07:002016-08-29T07:56:29.144-07:00Cape Town mountain walks and an inspirational woman<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When my mother drives to work, as she does every day, this is where she goes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Her 'office' is Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, one of the most famous botanical gardens of the world and surely the one with the most spectacular natural setting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As one of Kirstenbosch's leading guides, an expert on the region's flora, she has walked and talked many many hundreds of visiting botanists and plant enthusiasts from all over the world around these gardens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(See <b><i><u><a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1007">here</a></u></i></b> for why this UNESCO World Heritage listed area is one of the world's six Floral Kingdoms - by far the smallest yet by far the richest in diversity)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For her family, this means we score with the best possible guide for the mountain walks and trails that Cape Town has in abundance, and which she knows like the back of her hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leading the way - on Table Mountain paths, in May last year ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and at Silvermine Nature Reserve, April this year ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inspecting the cycads at the gardens of Babylonstoren, April this year ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Passion for her work and for life is what has always driven her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">On her 80th birthday, her gift to herself was an abseil - she fulfilled a dream by launching herself 1000 metres into vertical space off the top of Table Mountain ... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been a little afraid of what she might have been planning for today, her 90th birthday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Celebratory lunch two days ago (photo Ann Swanepoel)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The only thing I'm sure of is that she'll continue to be an inspiration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy 90th birthday, Mom! May the paths continue to open up in front of you </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">with many great adventures ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Cape Town, 2015 & 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-91597223977178754902016-08-22T06:58:00.004-07:002016-08-22T06:58:42.277-07:00From the Alps to the Black Forest<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From Innsbruck the Fern Pass connects the Austrian Tyrol with Germany, a fabulously scenic route with views to the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And just as well there were pretty sights, since we encountered an Alpine traffic jam over the Fern Pass (the beginning of European school holidays) and were obliged to inch forward in a slow crawl -</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as the weather shifted from cool with dramatic clouds ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to stifling (even this high up) July heat. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I watched enviously as the driver in front raised the doors on his vintage Mercedes Gullwing to let fresh air flow through - what a fantastic design!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By mid afternoon we reached the Black Forest and the spa town of Baden Baden. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'd posted (<u><i><a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/taking-waters-in-baden-baden.html">here</a></i></u>) about taking the waters here in the autumn a year ago, and was really excited to be back in this lovely town in full summer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Baden Baden has such a solid, prosperous feel. There's conspicuous affluence but it's understated and undershot with a sense of the history of this town</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bxY_POIu-KA/V7hGovFj6pI/AAAAAAAAPPs/hlWOg-4fG3IiDejZ34rworjenkdmbpGCQCLcB/s1600/Streets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bxY_POIu-KA/V7hGovFj6pI/AAAAAAAAPPs/hlWOg-4fG3IiDejZ34rworjenkdmbpGCQCLcB/s1600/Streets.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and cushioned in the surrounding natural beauty of the Schwartzwald.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Walking from the town centre we passed the colonnaded Trinkhalle (pump room) for tasting the restorative spring waters</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to the less salubrious </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kurhaus (casino) where Dostoyevsky famously gambled his earnings away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In front of the casino, the July Sommernachts fest was in full swing, with food and drink at outdoor tables. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Crossing the road at the grand Theater, in the style of the Paris Opera,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> we headed along the Lichtentaler Allee, the parkland that runs along the river Oos, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lined with elegant classica</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">l villas</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">where well-dressed people were walking well-groomed dogs </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">past the Museum Frieder Burda, designed by Richard Meier, which has one of Germany's biggest collections of modern art</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1r0Hk_ABbBM/V7c809Nc7BI/AAAAAAAAPPM/QSZIeKVKvjwBm5npMEcG_3PMdVbJXabLACLcB/s1600/Allee%2Bmuseum1B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1r0Hk_ABbBM/V7c809Nc7BI/AAAAAAAAPPM/QSZIeKVKvjwBm5npMEcG_3PMdVbJXabLACLcB/s1600/Allee%2Bmuseum1B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ending at the grand 19th century Brenner Park Hotel </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for a drink in the terrace gardens, before heading back into town in search of dinner.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And to contemplate the end of a fantastic 8-day road trip from London through France and Belgium to <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/salzburg-by-road.html">Luxembourg</a>, <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/salzburg-by-road.html">Austria</a>, <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/lunch-with-tito-lake-bled.html">Slovenia</a>, <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/trieste-adriatic-city-of-nowhere.html">Italy</a>, the <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/flying-high-in-austrian-alps.html">Austrian Tyrol</a>, Germany </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Baden-Baden, Germany, July 2016</i></span></div>
<br />Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-34781966485105182012016-08-15T02:25:00.000-07:002016-08-15T02:25:54.520-07:00Flying high in the Austrian Alps<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From sunny Trieste on the Adriatic we drive up through the Dolomites and over the Brenner Pass into Austria. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Stubaital, very close to Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol, there are enticing views to the Stubai glacier.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sadly a trip up to the glacier was a no-go as the lift was under repair. But the Kreuzjoch mountain peaks are accessible via a cable car that whisks you up well over 2000 metres - </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">to some pretty fabulous close encounters with the Stubai Alps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In summer this is fantastic walking territory with the dozens of trails that are mapped out across the alpine landscape full of hikers. But the Stubai Alps and the Kreuzjoch in particular is also flying paradise for hang-gliders and para-gliders. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's something to do with wind conditions and thermal lift - whatever, there were countless human birds floating well above the height of these dizzying peaks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I watched as Birdman here made awkward progress towards the take-off platform, suited in a contraption not designed for walking on terra firma ...</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YLzfQ-GROl8/V6xnQM9xUWI/AAAAAAAAPME/D2QChKVqBfEZBqGTq1v8jfzy3Xdg74YYQCLcB/s1600/Birdman1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YLzfQ-GROl8/V6xnQM9xUWI/AAAAAAAAPME/D2QChKVqBfEZBqGTq1v8jfzy3Xdg74YYQCLcB/s640/Birdman1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and stood for a very long moment on the edge, perhaps considering the wisdom of the terrifying leap he was about to make (well, I would too) ...</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLnu31S-TqU/V6xnQNPYOSI/AAAAAAAAPMI/wFcpYJuq7Ygsq9Ppt_5NK-HOchIe4vNzACLcB/s1600/Birdman3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLnu31S-TqU/V6xnQNPYOSI/AAAAAAAAPMI/wFcpYJuq7Ygsq9Ppt_5NK-HOchIe4vNzACLcB/s640/Birdman3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before tipping himself forward over the precipitous edge </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z28zAKVhKHI/V6xnQ7qFGCI/AAAAAAAAPMM/1I46TkBw2u4drH3p5B8n81m3Mwy7JQHFQCLcB/s1600/Birdman4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="528" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z28zAKVhKHI/V6xnQ7qFGCI/AAAAAAAAPMM/1I46TkBw2u4drH3p5B8n81m3Mwy7JQHFQCLcB/s640/Birdman4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and into flight.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-emSaAOeqajQ/V6xnWbbfi5I/AAAAAAAAPMQ/4WJdnYRL4McRcrerMiSxOkWxLc_L9HtHACLcB/s1600/Birdman%2BawayB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-emSaAOeqajQ/V6xnWbbfi5I/AAAAAAAAPMQ/4WJdnYRL4McRcrerMiSxOkWxLc_L9HtHACLcB/s640/Birdman%2BawayB.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This one, in contrast, less encumbered by gear and on a different slanted platform like a ski jump, didn't stop to think, just ran madly headlong downwards and off ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Walking along an alpine trail I was glad to have the earth under my feet but couldn't stop wondering how incredible it must feel to be floating at these heights, light as air</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxCQybHiFnE/V6xoClFlc6I/AAAAAAAAPMs/uTOwtngJ8hkFAV2-0X1xF7Km3CbRWBO2ACLcB/s1600/Flying%2Bover%2Bpeaks2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RxCQybHiFnE/V6xoClFlc6I/AAAAAAAAPMs/uTOwtngJ8hkFAV2-0X1xF7Km3CbRWBO2ACLcB/s1600/Flying%2Bover%2Bpeaks2B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the chalet style café there is local beer, sausage and strudel served by dirndl-ed waitresses</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and the less adventurous enjoy the views from benches</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Give me a ski resort in the summer months any time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Kreuzjoch, Stubaital, Austrian Tyrol, July 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-33698530976601096562016-08-09T08:29:00.001-07:002016-08-09T08:29:46.521-07:00Castles on the Adriatic<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Just along the coastline from Trieste is the gorgeous Castello di Miramare</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">built mid-1800s to be the summer home of Habsburg Archduke Maximilian of Austria and his wife princess Charlotte of Belgium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charlotte's royal family relations were legion: daughter of king Leopold I of Belgium (her brother became Leopold II, infamous for his brutal exploitation of the Congo), she was grand-daughter of the Queen of France and first cousin of both Queen Victoria and Albert, as well as of King Ferdinand of Portugal. And completing a triumph of genetic inbreeding, her husband Maximilian (younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria) was her second cousin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">None of this (or being one of the richest women in 19th century Europe) helped avert a bad ending for these two.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UWgrgtLwHmA/V6CGYOSEXGI/AAAAAAAAPH8/AtZZwobZVdMXocwLxDIllR7iKsMrMxBhgCLcB/s1600/MM%2BGate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UWgrgtLwHmA/V6CGYOSEXGI/AAAAAAAAPH8/AtZZwobZVdMXocwLxDIllR7iKsMrMxBhgCLcB/s640/MM%2BGate.jpg" width="489" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maximilian, eager for a more impressive title, sailed off to the new world with Charlotte to take up the crown of Emperor of Mexico, made a series of poorly judged political and life choices (the least of which was sending home a request for 2000 caged nightingales) and was summarily shot dead by a firing squad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charlotte sailed home to live alone here at Miramare castle where she went certifiably mad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And only a little further along this coastline, the thin finger at the bottom of Slovenia created to secure Trieste within Italy's borders ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">is Duino castle - in different style but more dramatically located on a cliff-top overlooking the Gulf of Trieste</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Called Castello, Schloss or Grad - reflecting the fluid national borders of the last century - Duino belongs to the von Thurn und Taxis family.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1E9JwCKsOU/V6C42FizOYI/AAAAAAAAPJY/T_-_cea5TRYtcr-nhCX9GRKugqvfBPXUwCLcB/s1600/EntranceB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1E9JwCKsOU/V6C42FizOYI/AAAAAAAAPJY/T_-_cea5TRYtcr-nhCX9GRKugqvfBPXUwCLcB/s640/EntranceB.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was also built as a summer home in the 19th century and the gardens and chapel have a distinctly Italian Tuscan feel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's a view down to the ruins of a much older castle from the 11th century.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rilke famously spent a lot of time here, having an affair with princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis and wandering along these cliff-top trails - both inspiring him to write his Duino Elegies, considered his best work and dedicated to princess Marie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked the family dining room ...</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ninJcs9LSw4/V6C41H2ddUI/AAAAAAAAPJQ/J_9-tr9O5-QfTybNYeUPOYi1jq6WAKliwCLcB/s1600/Dining%2Broom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ninJcs9LSw4/V6C41H2ddUI/AAAAAAAAPJQ/J_9-tr9O5-QfTybNYeUPOYi1jq6WAKliwCLcB/s640/Dining%2Broom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with french doors opening to a balcony</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with these views down the cliffs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where swimmers were just visible, lazily floating in the calm sea.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tcEVsL7SiTk/V6C44UJxSSI/AAAAAAAAPJk/REGdJGp9DKkIehJgrXOQbnsoxD1Jsy-gwCLcB/s1600/SwimmersB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tcEVsL7SiTk/V6C44UJxSSI/AAAAAAAAPJk/REGdJGp9DKkIehJgrXOQbnsoxD1Jsy-gwCLcB/s640/SwimmersB.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These were my last views of the blue Adriatic before heading back north to the Alps.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Castello di Miramare and Castello di Duino, Gulf of Trieste, July 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-88301956035158379972016-08-01T07:57:00.002-07:002016-08-01T07:57:28.586-07:00Trieste, Adriatic city of nowhere<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trieste sits perched on the very edge of the deep blue Adriatic</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as do <i>Le Sartine, </i>the little seamstresses, who dangle their legs above the waves on the sea wall in front of the sea-facing Piazza.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was once the major commercial sea-port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a legacy only too visible in the serious, imposing insurance company buildings, still headquartered here, that flank all three sides of the huge Piazza dell' Unità d'Italia</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Assicurazioni Generali</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">reflecting an era when every commodity bound for Europe from the near and far East, Brazil and north America bore a "via Trieste" lading bill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Lloyds Triestino</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the car journey to Trieste I read Jan Morris's <i>Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere</i>, about her love for the city she (then he) had first visited as a young soldier at the end of the second world war. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'Nowhere' because of its nationless, diasporic, unplaceable character, this cosmopolitan city claimed by Austrians, Germans, Italians and Slavs, the junction for European Jews headed to Palestine and Europe's intersection with the rest of the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe this quality of nowhereness is what has attracted expats and exiles here for centuries. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">James Joyce lived here for many years, as an impoverished English teacher at the Berlitz school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here on the Canal Grande di Trieste he's immortalised, in the city he called <i>Europiccola</i>, where his first child was born and he wrote prolifically, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">finishing <i>The Dubliners </i>and starting on <i>Ulysses</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked the unobtrusive, almost incidental, way he's placed, having a casual stroll across the bridge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Trieste Joyce taught English to Italo Svevo, then an aspiring writer who Joyce helped get translated and published in France, thus making his name. Svevo (born Ettore Schmitz), who Joyce used as the inspiration for Leopold Bloom in Ulysses, is also captured wandering the city, in a little piazza not too far from the Canal Grande, on his way to the public library.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is clearly a city that celebrates its literary figures. Umberto Saba, poet and novelist, is caught walking out of his bookshop where he made a living from 1919 selling old and rare books</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Libreria Antiquaria Umberto Saba</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For all its nowhereness and geographical oddity - only just inside Italy, at its northeastern edge, almost completely surrounded by Slovenia on one side and the Adriatic on the other (according to Jan Morris, in a 1999 survey 70 percent of Italians did not know it was in Italy at all!) - after driving through Germany, Austria and Slovenia, I felt instantly, getting out of the car on the sea-facing piazza, that I was in Italy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something to do with Vespas in the sunshine </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Verdi</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a particular way of relaxed and animated people enjoying life in cafes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Caffè Specchi on the Piazza Unità d'Italia we watched functionaries from local government and insurance companies on their unhurried lunch breaks, casually and beautifully suited</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and had fabulously good, simple food, bread and wine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trieste is also quite literally Europe's home of coffee - another legacy of its commercial sea-trading past when Trieste received coffee beans from all over the world and supplied the Austro-Hungarian empire, including Vienna's coffee houses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It's home in particular to Illy coffee. I stocked up on beans in their fab flagship store and admired their Artist Collection of espresso cups. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Illy espresso is served in every cafe (probably helped by the fact that Signor Ricardo Illy, head of the coffee dynasty and MP, was mayor of Trieste for some years!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The piazza and Adriatic view at sunset made me nostalgic to leave, planning a return ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Trieste, Italy, July 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-26605993657467893142016-07-19T01:20:00.002-07:002016-07-19T01:20:57.809-07:00Lunch with Tito: Lake Bled<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">South of Salzburg you head up into the Tyrolean Alps and cross into Slovenia - a country that seems quite inordinately blessed with natural beauty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We're en route to Italy, but a lunch-stop in Slovenia, here at Lake Bled, seems irresistible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Driving alongside the lake away from the town of Bled, the castle comes into view on the far side (above).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then we're at the entrance to Vila Bled, once the summer residence of President Tito, now a state-owned hotel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After Tito's death and the break-up of Yugoslavia, Slovenia was the lucky Balkan state that got Lake Bled and the villa. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Inside, they've kept the 1950s modernist decor, communist (luxury) style ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and in a corner of the foyer, above the desk he used, there's a portrait of the man who had a truly remarkable life - the son of poor peasants who became a country president, world statesman and the man who stood up to Stalin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The terrace is the most perfect lunch spot I can imagine. I didn't notice my salad much, transfixed by the views.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I couldn't wait to take the stone staircase down to the lake afterwards </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to get a closer look at tiny Bled island, the jewel in the lake</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with the Church of the Assumption, where ringing the bell, according to legend, guarantees wishes granted and prayers answered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everything I'd read about Bled warned that this place swarms in mid-season, so it was a pleasure to find how peaceful and quiet it actually was on a summer's day in early July.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Walking along the shore of the lake from the villa, there was hardly anybody - an occasional walker, a few paddle-boarders and the odd boat passing lazily by. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A small sign to a 'café' on the lake pathway leads to a steep upward climb through the forest</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... to what used to be Tito's private belvedere - a distance away from the villa and completely secluded, perched high above the lake</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The interior is pretty uninviting with standard soviet era fittings, and the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">café is </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">low-key and ordinary - but with the most perfectly stupendous views. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I couldn't get over how few people were there and how under-used and little exploited this incredible place is. Perhaps this is its greatest asset, though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wondered how many world leaders had retreated to this hideaway to carve up Europe's borders between them, and how many mistresses of Tito (who famously had very many).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Re-purposed grand piano below Vila Bled</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we headed south again, I felt I'd had an overwhelming injection of visual beauty wrapped up in a history lesson. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Bled, Slovenia, July 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-80324781950178994072016-07-16T11:43:00.000-07:002016-07-16T11:43:03.011-07:00Salzburg by road<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I may have mentioned once or twice my love of road travel (see <a href="http://athousandmiles-k.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/road-trip.html"><b>here</b></a>). No crowded airports, dependence on schedules or faff about luggage and weight restrictions. Just throw all you like in the back of the car and drive to your own tune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Schengen Europe sans frontières, country borders tend to whizz past quite frequently, and with nothing more to mark them than a discreet sign on the roadside; blink and you've missed it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So the week before last, taking in eight countries in eight days was less frantic than it sounds, involving a leisurely, unhurried pace by car.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Remich, Luxembourg, in the wine-making Moselle valley</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leaving London at lunchtime on Saturday, I was in Luxembourg, via France and Belgium, by late afternoon, for a night stop-over in picture-pretty Remich, on the bank of the Moselle river and vineyards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The next morning we were in Germany in under 5 minutes, driving south-east ... bypassing industrial Karlsrühe and Stuttgart ... taking the ring road around Munich (sadly, it's been on my bucket list for ages) ... to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salzburg - only about 10 kms across the border of Bavaria. We've crossed the Moselle, Saar, Rhine and Danube in one day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First impressions: entering the city in a summer rain shower through this extraordinary archway cut into the rockface was my first indication that Salzburg would not disappoint.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The setting is rather fairytale: there's the Salzach river (the old transport route for the salt that was the source of the city's wealth) with the domes and spires of the Altstadt ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>View of Salzburg: Altstadt, river and fortress from the Mönchsberg</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">below a 900 year old fortress, the Hohensalzburg, and a circle of Alps as the backdrop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> There are the expected tourist icons: Mozart everywhere (fair enough, it's his hometown), fiakers with pretty ponies, baroque palaces and fountains, dirndls in every shade and style in shop windows ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but no tackiness, an authenticity preserved</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i4iJ9t7cGjo/V4JOPW5YIVI/AAAAAAAAO50/jmAUSr5JBv8q9-AgNTqQtVXulKKmvrLGACLcB/s1600/Red%2Bcar%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i4iJ9t7cGjo/V4JOPW5YIVI/AAAAAAAAO50/jmAUSr5JBv8q9-AgNTqQtVXulKKmvrLGACLcB/s1600/Red%2Bcar%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Getreidegasse, smart shopping street, with original shop fronts</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1NXmglq4QQ/V4aM9KcAnqI/AAAAAAAAPB4/3G1n-V6JxEIQaS0xavse-RSUstk5AUYUgCLcB/s1600/GetreidegasseCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="508" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y1NXmglq4QQ/V4aM9KcAnqI/AAAAAAAAPB4/3G1n-V6JxEIQaS0xavse-RSUstk5AUYUgCLcB/s640/GetreidegasseCollage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">leads to the DomQuartier, home of princes and archbishops, where Mozart played some of his first concerts as a child prodigy</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and from where you get a birds eye view from the roof</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to the Residenzplatz circled by palaces</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Altermarkt with outdoor cafés </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a fleet of waiting fiakers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the cathedral around the corner is the font where baby Mozart was baptised. Later he served as organist here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hills and mountains are the backdrop everywhere you look</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>View to Hohensalzburg fortress from the Grosses Festspielhaus - both concert venues</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Love locks on the pedestrian Makartsteg bridge</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Fiaker on Residenzplatz</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And parts of the city are built theatrically into rockface</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as here at the Mönchsberg, where a lift whizzes you way up to the top, to the Museum der Moderne</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with the most </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fantastic views of the city</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back down in the Alter Markt there's Café Tomaselli, supposedly a favoured haunt of Mozart back in the 1700s and von Karajan (also a native Salzburger) some two centuries later </span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U967ptPGVE4/V4Ja6FUjanI/AAAAAAAAO6w/qAZdt2lkkvM2qTQDmDejsbNgeqGiyBhrgCLcB/s1600/Tomaselli%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U967ptPGVE4/V4Ja6FUjanI/AAAAAAAAO6w/qAZdt2lkkvM2qTQDmDejsbNgeqGiyBhrgCLcB/s1600/Tomaselli%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for coffee and sachertorte.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following Mozart's haunts definitely gets you brownie points here, one feels. He is after all the city's most famous and favoured son</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But don't mention the Sound of Music - </span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZKoLUlsCBFA/V4gE5GUyxoI/AAAAAAAAPCY/GRg8KpWI-uEFeBMBiuTC8vdM54alJ9FpgCLcB/s1600/sound%2Bof%2Bmusic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZKoLUlsCBFA/V4gE5GUyxoI/AAAAAAAAPCY/GRg8KpWI-uEFeBMBiuTC8vdM54alJ9FpgCLcB/s400/sound%2Bof%2Bmusic.jpg" width="333" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Warning in a fragment of an installation in the DomQuartier, part of an exhibition exploring Austrian identity (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Raum, Zeit, Identität). </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Salzburg, Austria, July 2016</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-55818947950946018112016-06-24T14:21:00.001-07:002016-06-24T14:21:10.838-07:00To Europe with love<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because I'm bloody gutted and angry and heartbroken that today my right and privilege to be European has been taken away from me ...</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vlgQhUS3-pg/V2Qr51DWsYI/AAAAAAAAO20/Dzcs-BiJymogOQd3wVRR8j1W2pj9wTpEACLcB/s1600/Gent%2BbridgeB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vlgQhUS3-pg/V2Qr51DWsYI/AAAAAAAAO20/Dzcs-BiJymogOQd3wVRR8j1W2pj9wTpEACLcB/s640/Gent%2BbridgeB.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm compelled to post on a little city in Europe's heart, and close to its capital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact that it's called Ghent, and also Gent, and Gand, depending on whether you are speaking English or Dutch/Flemish or German or French expresses to me perfectly the whole point and beauty of the European Union - that it is possible to maintain our uniqueness while appreciating and benefiting from our combined value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As everywhere in Belgium there's no shortage of high-end fine dining here</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMww1C6Hpv4/V2r_m7shSaI/AAAAAAAAO4Q/3n14sQLqwhQiZ2jpC7dRc9Zsoc9recN-gCLcB/s1600/Dining%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="636" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMww1C6Hpv4/V2r_m7shSaI/AAAAAAAAO4Q/3n14sQLqwhQiZ2jpC7dRc9Zsoc9recN-gCLcB/s640/Dining%2BCollage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Vrijmoed Restaurant, Gent</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but there's just as much concern with the quality of ordinary, everyday food </span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DPUuRgkTMg0/V2QsK7YAweI/AAAAAAAAO3M/oaC4R5TkxzE_rTI7t60RtBtZuOjPCMW5QCLcB/s1600/Beer%2B%2526%2BfritesB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DPUuRgkTMg0/V2QsK7YAweI/AAAAAAAAO3M/oaC4R5TkxzE_rTI7t60RtBtZuOjPCMW5QCLcB/s640/Beer%2B%2526%2BfritesB.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belgian beer and frites</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4N9r1RTPp3o/V2QsYBdB2HI/AAAAAAAAO3g/JtSSwB1-1F8s8CIbgWmZgOoz0lbjucNqACLcB/s1600/Gent%2Bbeer%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4N9r1RTPp3o/V2QsYBdB2HI/AAAAAAAAO3g/JtSSwB1-1F8s8CIbgWmZgOoz0lbjucNqACLcB/s640/Gent%2Bbeer%2B2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belgian waffles, of course</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oB-4Jg-v7Mk/V2QsLR4WvuI/AAAAAAAAO3Q/IlBdWFD6Wz8pOxPKaJa875K3TiHnLiUeACLcB/s1600/Belgian%2BwaffleB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oB-4Jg-v7Mk/V2QsLR4WvuI/AAAAAAAAO3Q/IlBdWFD6Wz8pOxPKaJa875K3TiHnLiUeACLcB/s640/Belgian%2BwaffleB.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sole with <i>garnaaltjes</i> (crevettes), the small grey shrimps from the North Sea, with ... frites, obviously</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0ELH6VeACc/V2W_4eXEIdI/AAAAAAAAO38/gnBhBb66rlUcZZFEkjfk0i5A1bY48E5LACLcB/s1600/Sole%2Bdeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0ELH6VeACc/V2W_4eXEIdI/AAAAAAAAO38/gnBhBb66rlUcZZFEkjfk0i5A1bY48E5LACLcB/s640/Sole%2Bdeck.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And less traditionally, the new vegan venture of Alain Coumont, founder of the world-wide </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Le Pain Quotidien - </i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">one of my most favourite places in London to stop in for a bowl of decent coffee and good Belgian bread and patisserie. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XY_S4OMmxvc/V2QsEBifx4I/AAAAAAAAO3A/TxAv_da5c4YPiJOiqYsHtmJUP6vqJy9IwCLcB/s1600/Le%2BBotanisteB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XY_S4OMmxvc/V2QsEBifx4I/AAAAAAAAO3A/TxAv_da5c4YPiJOiqYsHtmJUP6vqJy9IwCLcB/s640/Le%2BBotanisteB.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It's called <i>Le Botaniste</i>, and the</span> combination of old apothecary interior and delicious organic vegan food has been replicated in a second opening in New York recently. (Will he want to bring it to London now?)</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WpPIgrYU4Yg/V2QsEaWklYI/AAAAAAAAO3E/xasDVTL0q68Uohju95cuZY8y1WZXwEa5ACLcB/s1600/Botaniste%2Bint2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WpPIgrYU4Yg/V2QsEaWklYI/AAAAAAAAO3E/xasDVTL0q68Uohju95cuZY8y1WZXwEa5ACLcB/s640/Botaniste%2Bint2B.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm sorry, Europe, that we've </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">forgotten the lessons of history and fractured our union</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lr-t350bFyo/V2QsX6DqjxI/AAAAAAAAO3c/TYWTw9t8PQIQbqyuM5CBfBcI6q8OEigzACLcB/s1600/Avenue%2Bof%2BtreesB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lr-t350bFyo/V2QsX6DqjxI/AAAAAAAAO3c/TYWTw9t8PQIQbqyuM5CBfBcI6q8OEigzACLcB/s640/Avenue%2Bof%2BtreesB.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>forested suburb of Gent</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">that we've allowed a discourse of 'us versus them' to blind us to the fact that we can celebrate what's uniquely ours while enjoying our differences</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">that mistrust and fear and stupid politicking have prevailed over solidarity and sharing of resources and languages and culture.</span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLBsuCsQ9ds/V2sAf340GGI/AAAAAAAAO4c/zF7_RW6Aol4cHtbkfDzYSV3Od8eZVqd3QCLcB/s1600/Ostend%2Bbeach2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DLBsuCsQ9ds/V2sAf340GGI/AAAAAAAAO4c/zF7_RW6Aol4cHtbkfDzYSV3Od8eZVqd3QCLcB/s640/Ostend%2Bbeach2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>the beach at Ostend</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But most of all I'm sorry that we've diminished ourselves.</span><br />
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-66826420651792202812016-02-21T14:03:00.000-08:002016-02-21T14:03:36.640-08:00Bayreuth<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bayreuth will forever be associated with Wagner. But the driving force behind the beauty and cultural reputation of this town was actually a pretty extraordinary woman who lived a century before him</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zXJJo__y_Ec/VqvsIEa9_LI/AAAAAAAAOrE/nj05OkrUPiw/s1600/Opera%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zXJJo__y_Ec/VqvsIEa9_LI/AAAAAAAAOrE/nj05OkrUPiw/s1600/Opera%2B2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i> Markgräfliches Opera House, Bayreuth. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">... the Margravine (Marquess) Wilhelmine, daughter of the King of Prussia, who survived appalling physical abuse as a child to become a composer, writer and painter of apparently enormous energy. She also transformed Bayreuth from an ordinary town to an intellectual and cultural centre of Germany, founding a university, constructing buildings and rebuilding its opera house (above), all before dying at only 49.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wQLe8wtgQU/VqvrwSHTHPI/AAAAAAAAOqU/PgwH9YveHU8/s1600/Cafe%2Ban%2Bder%2BOper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wQLe8wtgQU/VqvrwSHTHPI/AAAAAAAAOqU/PgwH9YveHU8/s1600/Cafe%2Ban%2Bder%2BOper.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The architecture, palaces and parks of Bayreuth are mostly Wilhelmine's design, and even on a grey winter's day the place is undeniably impressive.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s1xoDnQszas/VqvsJe4AadI/AAAAAAAAOrM/-VXkVNVYFa8/s1600/Opera%2Bfacing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s1xoDnQszas/VqvsJe4AadI/AAAAAAAAOrM/-VXkVNVYFa8/s1600/Opera%2Bfacing.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Wilhelmine's Neues Schloss, front and back views above and below.</i></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dwMKuK109f4/VqvsK6u5kbI/AAAAAAAAOrU/y6G0AanrEUM/s1600/Palace%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dwMKuK109f4/VqvsK6u5kbI/AAAAAAAAOrU/y6G0AanrEUM/s1600/Palace%2B1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Hofgarten next to the palace is a peaceful place of ordered trees and lakes.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qMsTxgycZ5Q/VqvrxpcYjxI/AAAAAAAAOqg/juqZa1s5gXA/s1600/Hofgarten2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qMsTxgycZ5Q/VqvrxpcYjxI/AAAAAAAAOqg/juqZa1s5gXA/s1600/Hofgarten2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sWjeDFI-BV8/Vqvr0zPjcQI/AAAAAAAAOq4/W8ANNCImDTA/s1600/Hofgarten4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sWjeDFI-BV8/Vqvr0zPjcQI/AAAAAAAAOq4/W8ANNCImDTA/s1600/Hofgarten4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-32TdsyT1bII/Vqvr0hUvYjI/AAAAAAAAOq0/lM3lhxM4JJ8/s1600/Hofgarten6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-32TdsyT1bII/Vqvr0hUvYjI/AAAAAAAAOq0/lM3lhxM4JJ8/s1600/Hofgarten6.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was Wilhelmine's opera house, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the Markgräfliche Opernhaus</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (in the first photograph), all rococo red, gold and blue with frescoed ceilings, that she commissioned the Italian architects of her day to construct, that drew Wagner to Bayreuth. He had his sights set on it as the most impressive venue in Germany to stage his work.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abaEN8YP1HA/VqvrxrANhbI/AAAAAAAAOqc/idzsD8eKzro/s1600/Hofgarten%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abaEN8YP1HA/VqvrxrANhbI/AAAAAAAAOqc/idzsD8eKzro/s1600/Hofgarten%2B1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As it turned out, Wagner decided that the 500 seat interior was too small for his operatic creations, so he built his own Festspielhaus on the edge of town which 100 plus years later is the centre of the annual summer festival.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And he built his own house, Wahnfried, peace from madness or delusions, on the edge of the wooded Hofgarten ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">a grand neoclassical house in golden coloured stone at the end of a line of trees, where he and his wife Cosima, Franz Liszt's daughter, lived until they died and were buried in the garden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bust of mad king Ludwig graces the entrance - appropriately enough, since Ludwig bankrolled Wagner through many financial crises ...</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Efr05OPsndo/VqvsNH0M8yI/AAAAAAAAOr8/GwP_vDTXcGI/s1600/Wahnfried.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Efr05OPsndo/VqvsNH0M8yI/AAAAAAAAOr8/GwP_vDTXcGI/s1600/Wahnfried.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Beside the house is the Richard Wagner Museum, which had only just reopened after a long renovation when I was there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No need to be a Wagner fan to appreciate this fantastically well designed and presented museum built in contemporary style with interactive scores and multimedia displays</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz-sxpiseE0/VqvsmfMqVDI/AAAAAAAAOtY/GLHUZaJMx8c/s1600/Museum%2Bint4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz-sxpiseE0/VqvsmfMqVDI/AAAAAAAAOtY/GLHUZaJMx8c/s1600/Museum%2Bint4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bayreuth, Germany, November 2015</span></i></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-1579941240940476272016-01-25T16:45:00.001-08:002016-01-25T16:45:24.726-08:00Getting elegiac about Marienbad<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No doubt that the prize for the most interesting place I visited in 2015 goes to the town of Mariánské Lázn</span><span style="line-height: 23.4px; text-align: start;">ě (just hearing the name pronounced in a gravelly eastern European accent gives me the goosebumps) ...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">... otherwise known by its German name of Marienbad ... in the Czech Republic.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZiNlU7BshU/Vp6Slv8RqwI/AAAAAAAAOns/CUkksiac1Do/s1600/Park%2Bview%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RZiNlU7BshU/Vp6Slv8RqwI/AAAAAAAAOns/CUkksiac1Do/s1600/Park%2Bview%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything about this place, especially out of season and semi-deserted in November, has a palpable sense of nostalgia, past glory and faded beauty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Almost all its buildings date to the town's golden era in the 19th century when Czech spas were for a while the salons of Europe and this was the place to be seen: regulars were Tsar Nicholas of Russia, England's King Edward VII and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, besides Goethe, Kafka, Chopin, Mahler, Dvo</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23.4px; text-align: start;">řák, Wagner and Freud, who all came to take the curative waters of the natural carbon dioxide springs in the surroundings of the green mountains of west Bohemia.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Krizovy Pramen, site of one of the springs</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Here in the colonnade spa-goers would go to promenade and be seen </span><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Maxim Gorky colonnade, 19thC image (i</i><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.czechtourism.com/tourists/stories/marianske-lazne/">mage source</a>) </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Colonnade today, with Singing Fountains (in the summer every 2 hours the fountains dance to a choreography of musical compositions)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">or wander in the parks surrounded by stately pavilions and mansions, faded and gently peeling now from neglect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Goethe is celebrated here too - in part for his late-life love obsession with the 17-year-old Ulrike von Levetzow who he met here in Marienbad in his seventies. Her mother sensibly intervened, putting an end to his thoughts of marriage, and the spurned Goethe retreated inspired to write some of his best love poetry: the Marienbad Elegy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A statue remains in the park to commemorate Goethe and Ulrike</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Another abrupt ending came with the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, when the country became sealed off from most foreign visitors. It was only after 1989 and its exit from the soviet bloc that big efforts were made to restore the town as a spa resort with a unique history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Most visitors when I was there seemed to be from eastern Europe or Russia. And I discovered quickly that English gets you nowhere. For local people, besides Russian, the second language or lingua franca with visitors is German. I had to stretch my very poor German skills very far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The yellow-painted spa hotels, in grand style, are all at the top end of town, alongside a patchwork of parks with statues, lakes and fountains, and bordering a mass of pine forests behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the Nové Láz</span><span style="line-height: 23.4px; text-align: start;">ňe spa the atmosphere was clinical and utilitarian, certainly more soviet-bloc than western pamper-style. I was booked for an alarming-sounding 'gas bath' as part of a room deal - which turned out to involve no water, just dry CO2 from one of the local springs. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.4px; text-align: start;">A sturdy woman in clinical whites instructed me in German to remove my clothes and step into what looked like an oversized bin-bag (or body bag, as my over-active imagination decided). I then lay on a bed while she tied the bag tightly around my ribs, then poked a thin pipe into it which pumped gas into the bag until it blew up around me. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alarm turned to mild hysterics when she left me in the room like an inflated humpty dumpty, unable to move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Much more relaxing was a leisurely float in the Roman baths. I also had one of the most spartan and functional but seriously effective massages of my life. And later on the serious-looking men and women I'd seen filing in and out of clinical treatment rooms in their white dressing gowns turned up in the cavernous dining room piling their plates with potato dumplings and apfelstrudel. So all round a pretty memorable spa experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Marienbad / Mariánské Lázn</span><span style="line-height: 23.4px; text-align: start;">ě, Czech Republic, November 2015</span></i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-55724105380628661112016-01-19T11:22:00.002-08:002016-01-19T11:22:35.543-08:00Weimar reflections<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm with Alain de Botton when he says that "we're missing a trick always wanting destinations [on our travels] to be 'lovely'; it narrows where we go to an astonishing and unhelpful degree".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Visiting Weimar recently brought this point home to me - not because it is unlovely (actually it has loads of physical beauty, set in densely forested hills of eastern Bavaria), but because of the deeply uncomfortable ways in which culture and history collide here.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goethe and Schiller outside the National Theatre</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Weimar is in many ways Germany's cultural heart and pride: it's been home to many of its greatest writers, musicians and artistic movements; the place where Luther (in nearby Wartburg castle) translated the bible and sparked the Reformation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Goethe and Schiller both lived and wrote here, as did Nietszche. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Liszt, Wagner, Strauss, Bach and Carl Maria von Weber lived, composed and performed here. Artists from Cranach to Kandinsky painted in Weimar, and Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus school here. A pretty exceptional cultural repository then.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schiller's home</i><br />
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Anna Amalia library, with one of the biggest collections of German literature</i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The literary connections are heavily exploited in kaufhauser, delis and rooftop quotes</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The town is small and lovely, a world heritage site - mostly due to the fact that it escaped major destruction in the war and afterwards became a kind of showcase of cultural heritage for the DDR, located deep in East Germany. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's full of outdoor cafés, bookshops, street music</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In Ilm park we walked across to Goethe's garden house, his retreat a short walk from his main home in the town, where he wrote and received his mistresses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Goethe's secluded gartenhaus in the distance between trees</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i>Reflections in the Ilm river</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">An uglier, disturbing side of the place is very much here to be seen too, though. Weimar has been the site of some of some of Germany's most painful history. As the birthplace of the Weimar Republic, Hitler understood its symbolic value and made it a central meeting place for his party.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here on the Marktplatz, the main town square ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is the famous Elephant Hotel where</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hitler commandeered mass rallies in the square from this balcony (below, designed for the purpose by his architect Hermann Giesler who he had rebuild the hotel) and plotted the Third Reich from the Keller in the basement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Elephant itself has a pretty extraordinary history, like the town itself, with a dizzying guest-list that includes (in random order) Goethe, Schiller, Tolstoy, Gunther Grass, Bach, Liszt, Schumann, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Pink Floyd, Kandinsky, Klee, Walter Gropius, Hitler and Putin! After Thomas Mann stayed here he immortalised it as the setting for <i>Lotte in Weimar</i>. The interiors are fabulous examples of Art Deco and Bauhaus, with a huge collection of modern art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And then, just a short drive outside of the town in jarringly-incongruent surroundings of beautiful woods (<i>buchwald</i> means beech forest), there is Buchenwald, concentration camp and slave labour site where 43,000 died. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The sights and history offered inside (and there is no shying away from the facts) are literally unspeakable, so I leave with just a picture taken as we drove out, of the remains of the railway stop, the end of the line for trains.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Weimar, Germany, November 2015</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-5136979195187945642016-01-14T05:41:00.001-08:002016-01-14T05:41:49.901-08:00Taking the waters in Baden Baden<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've always loved the sound of that phrase, evoking 19th century European spa/casino glamour (and somehow mixed up in my mind with a young, sexy Glenda Jackson and Helmut Berger in the Romantic Englishwoman). But I never imagined I would write those words from personal experience - until I visited Baden-Baden in autumn last year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It can be disappointing seeing a place you have only vague, glamourised associations with, but Baden-Baden fully lived up to expectations for me. In the foothills of the Black Forest (the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, the scenic route through the Schwarzwald from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt begins here), this is a seriously and solidly wealthy, immaculate town with a timeless feel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I walked around in the early evening, overwhelmed by the art nouveau villas, colonnades, grand casinos and chic boutiques</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-afdYQ-bSqXA/VpdxueW1QCI/AAAAAAAAOfM/g-xU1dWaKF0/s1600/Home%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuggWy6XEAI/Vpdx1HXhw9I/AAAAAAAAOfY/s8LH3OKQVgM/s1600/Theatre%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MuggWy6XEAI/Vpdx1HXhw9I/AAAAAAAAOfY/s8LH3OKQVgM/s1600/Theatre%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GLT58p6tI1w/Vpd04hjQzZI/AAAAAAAAOg4/f4sqUayNBB4/s1600/Shops2%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GLT58p6tI1w/Vpd04hjQzZI/AAAAAAAAOg4/f4sqUayNBB4/s1600/Shops2%2BB.jpg" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all threaded through by the gentle Oos river, its banks lined with grandiose hotels and private mansions</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the gardens of the Lichtentaler Allee park and arboretum</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">where Richard Meier's stunning modern design of the Frieder Burda museum (containing one of the best modern art collections in Europe) is a complete contrast but fits perfectly into the park surroundings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>the Frieder Burda Museum of modern art, Lichtentaler Allee</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the main attraction is obviously the <i>baden</i>, the ancient baths built by the Romans on hot mineral springs, where Dostoyevsky lost his shirt at the casino and wrote The Gambler, where Berlioz found relief from his irritable bowel syndrome by taking the waters, along with Wagner, Offenbach, Gounod and Brahms. Mark Twain swore he left his rheumatism behind here, and even David Hockney claimed 'I can go in on my knees and come away dancing'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And yes, I took the waters - not in the palatial Friederichsbad where Glenda and Helmut lazed beside the Roman pool, but in the equally impressive Caracalla Therme where the waters flow from inside to the open air.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Fe9SMLddeI/VpeTRX7rfbI/AAAAAAAAOhI/ZZIrKBmfAD4/s1600/Spa%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Fe9SMLddeI/VpeTRX7rfbI/AAAAAAAAOhI/ZZIrKBmfAD4/s640/Spa%2BCollage.jpg" width="640" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Friedrichsbad left, Caracalla Therme right. <span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo source: www.carasana.de</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though I have no photos to prove it. Germans take their spas very seriously (state-subsidised spa treatments are a mainstay of the health system), though in a reassuringly pragmatic and down to earth way (nudity being a great leveller) - but photographing the experience would be a serious no-no. Instead, my last shot before nightfall, after café tables had been deserted for warmer interiors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Baden-Baden, Germany, September 2015</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-42980837946743434972015-10-18T13:54:00.001-07:002015-10-18T13:54:17.247-07:00Trolls in the Alps<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">High in the Italian Alps a chairlift is an altogether different experience outside of the skiing season. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nq_fS2K7Vcc/VhwMeH8tF-I/AAAAAAAAOa8/4hord2bf_p4/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nq_fS2K7Vcc/VhwMeH8tF-I/AAAAAAAAOa8/4hord2bf_p4/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having already taken a cable-car to a dizzying height (below) to reach the base point of the <i>sessellift</i>, it seems incredible to be going higher still.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e-9TRGks4o8/ViPnlEp0j6I/AAAAAAAAOeY/vQjhdi6aLLc/s1600/Cablecar%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e-9TRGks4o8/ViPnlEp0j6I/AAAAAAAAOeY/vQjhdi6aLLc/s1600/Cablecar%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the views from above the tree-tops are pretty spectacular and I much prefer this mode of fresh-air transport to being in an enclosed bubble.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZghFOfASD9o/VhwMlOGlPoI/AAAAAAAAObE/CCfnnP8Lh3A/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2Bview%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZghFOfASD9o/VhwMlOGlPoI/AAAAAAAAObE/CCfnnP8Lh3A/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2Bview%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some odd things start to happen as I float gently upwards suspended from a wire. The pure silence you get on mountain peaks is penetrated by the sounds of eerie music, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">while down below, some not quite normal-looking people appear, dotted around in the forest under the chairlift's path.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rrPR-tgiyQ8/VhwM7ZdoV4I/AAAAAAAAObg/RyIYFUNLayc/s1600/Troll%2Bdoffing%2Bcap%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rrPR-tgiyQ8/VhwM7ZdoV4I/AAAAAAAAObg/RyIYFUNLayc/s1600/Troll%2Bdoffing%2Bcap%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They turn out to be trolls. A fact that surprises me but not the Alpine cows who seem unmoved by the sight of these strange folks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some are playing traditional instruments</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mVXOOy_0Iqo/VhwM7N1YYmI/AAAAAAAAObc/aFD1KNGx650/s1600/Troll%2Bin%2Bgrass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mVXOOy_0Iqo/VhwM7N1YYmI/AAAAAAAAObc/aFD1KNGx650/s1600/Troll%2Bin%2Bgrass.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and soon they begin to seem perfectly natural in these surroundings.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xlosPsv6alI/VhwM562iYeI/AAAAAAAAObU/WTS5Y1NbYtU/s1600/Troll%2BBB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xlosPsv6alI/VhwM562iYeI/AAAAAAAAObU/WTS5Y1NbYtU/s1600/Troll%2BBB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even some of my fellow-travellers-in-space are trolls, friendly types who smile without speaking</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DFijyY2qKUQ/ViKqDiYmfOI/AAAAAAAAOeE/SMmWwRe99go/s1600/T1%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DFijyY2qKUQ/ViKqDiYmfOI/AAAAAAAAOeE/SMmWwRe99go/s1600/T1%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />(this one hanging precariously from a tree; I worried about her)</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z7sLsy2SYJI/VhwM8qMkCUI/AAAAAAAAObs/Y9py8aXze2g/s1600/Troll%2Bin%2Btree%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z7sLsy2SYJI/VhwM8qMkCUI/AAAAAAAAObs/Y9py8aXze2g/s1600/Troll%2Bin%2Btree%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our trolls turn out to be a Norwegian (what else!) group of travelling artists, bringing the traditional music of the area alive, in an unusual and unforgettable performance.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8JKk5QKRxus/VhwNWD1-A4I/AAAAAAAAOcE/O9ci8Z88lNI/s1600/Viewfromthetop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8JKk5QKRxus/VhwNWD1-A4I/AAAAAAAAOcE/O9ci8Z88lNI/s1600/Viewfromthetop2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hopping off at the top, there are hiking trails to be followed in crisp, cold (and thin at nearly 2000 metres) mountain air ... </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alpine donkeys</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and a tiny church perched at the highest point (whoever comes here? I wondered).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then some hours later the ride back down</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGcyNGFyyb8/VhwOBQ4uR3I/AAAAAAAAOcs/s8qd5KjaLs0/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2Bdown%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGcyNGFyyb8/VhwOBQ4uR3I/AAAAAAAAOcs/s8qd5KjaLs0/s1600/Ski%2Blift%2Bdown%2B2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">past a picture-perfect chalet.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNBQ4t26Knc/VhwNjCdop8I/AAAAAAAAOcQ/0gosVEQsn3g/s1600/Alpine%2Bhouse%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNBQ4t26Knc/VhwNjCdop8I/AAAAAAAAOcQ/0gosVEQsn3g/s1600/Alpine%2Bhouse%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the cable car going further down still, the lush valleys of the South Tyrol filled with vineyards and fruit orchards extend behind the window reflections</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AhXWZYQo9C0/VhwOQvH0FjI/AAAAAAAAOdU/vYkWZWosYjc/s1600/Cablecar%2Bview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AhXWZYQo9C0/VhwOQvH0FjI/AAAAAAAAOdU/vYkWZWosYjc/s1600/Cablecar%2Bview.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then it was time to hit the road north to Innsbruck ...</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0bHC3-GC1sY/VhwOO26bwxI/AAAAAAAAOdE/LhIsTwDx6OI/s1600/Road%2Bto%2BInnsbruck%2B2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0bHC3-GC1sY/VhwOO26bwxI/AAAAAAAAOdE/LhIsTwDx6OI/s1600/Road%2Bto%2BInnsbruck%2B2B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Vigiljoch, near Merano, Italian Alps, September 2015</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-2425496458792573622015-10-05T13:35:00.001-07:002015-10-05T13:35:16.594-07:00Alpine passes and some goats<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <u><a href="http://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/austria/3357-timmelsjoch-high-alpine-road-austria-2.html">Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road</a></u> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">connects the Austrian and Italian Tyrol, starting not far from Innsbruck and leading down on the south side to Merano in Italy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's Austria's highest border,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> open only for a few months of the year between June and October, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and breathtaking to experience.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HExm4J4YNuE/VhDx-jg3bzI/AAAAAAAAOXA/ai4Yao6srrs/s1600/T5%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HExm4J4YNuE/VhDx-jg3bzI/AAAAAAAAOXA/ai4Yao6srrs/s1600/T5%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At hairpin bend no. 5 (there are twelve, it turns out) you are already at a seemingly dizzying height</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8s7Q4drkRHE/VhDzTsuwSeI/AAAAAAAAOXQ/OmHwg3mrj5E/s1600/Kehre5%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8s7Q4drkRHE/VhDzTsuwSeI/AAAAAAAAOXQ/OmHwg3mrj5E/s1600/Kehre5%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even the bikers who love this route (and how I envied them experiencing it en plein air) stopped to gawk at the incredible views.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> At the summit of 2500 metres there was a posse of Porsches parked outside the café and viewing hut.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BnCI462RvQ/VhD5scgIQNI/AAAAAAAAOYA/Dok9sMKHc8w/s1600/Summit%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7BnCI462RvQ/VhD5scgIQNI/AAAAAAAAOYA/Dok9sMKHc8w/s1600/Summit%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I discovered later that this is a well known Thing (see <a href="https://drivingexperience.porsche.com/en/travel-club/events-and-services/tours/alpine-tour-2016">here</a>) that Porsche drivers do. But when this lone cyclist emerged puffing and weary at the summit ... well, that was impressive.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I0aoHcReoI4/VhDyWO8MKVI/AAAAAAAAOXI/l_2SDHRg4Jc/s1600/Cyclist%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I0aoHcReoI4/VhDyWO8MKVI/AAAAAAAAOXI/l_2SDHRg4Jc/s1600/Cyclist%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved the strange colours and textures of the mountainsides high above the treeline</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the summit the views across peaks and glaciers are spectacular.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Winding down on the south side towards the Italian border I had to jump out to say hello to these friendly Alpine goats.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vsWpSSFDg5I/VhEOd7bXxJI/AAAAAAAAOZA/8eG29r_W_ng/s1600/Goat%2B1%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vsWpSSFDg5I/VhEOd7bXxJI/AAAAAAAAOZA/8eG29r_W_ng/s1600/Goat%2B1%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uwu3nGxRBf4/VhEOdwfkD3I/AAAAAAAAOZE/kkXIw10Ngg4/s1600/Goat1%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uwu3nGxRBf4/VhEOdwfkD3I/AAAAAAAAOZE/kkXIw10Ngg4/s1600/Goat1%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This curious chap was an absolute pro at posing for pictures. I just wish I could send it to him!</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KbP-IM8kQW8/VhEOdypt0ZI/AAAAAAAAOZM/_6k9aNIpJ40/s1600/Goat2%2B850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KbP-IM8kQW8/VhEOdypt0ZI/AAAAAAAAOZM/_6k9aNIpJ40/s1600/Goat2%2B850.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Timmelsjoch Hochalpenstrasse, Austria, September 2015</i></span><br />
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-81004920947288631242015-10-03T11:26:00.001-07:002015-10-03T11:26:14.884-07:00Schloss Neuschwanstein<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">King Ludwig II of Bavaria's fantastical folly appears suddenly on the approach road, perched on forested mountain-tops </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0oJiLH5vGE/VghhCqYdefI/AAAAAAAAOUc/QRbtYAtG7IU/s1600/Castle%2Bon%2Bthe%2BhillB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w0oJiLH5vGE/VghhCqYdefI/AAAAAAAAOUc/QRbtYAtG7IU/s1600/Castle%2Bon%2Bthe%2BhillB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but the image is so inescapably etched in my mind as a Disney castle that the real thing has lost some of its impact.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qC6pYXFstxE/Vgwkxi8T7uI/AAAAAAAAOVo/4tQ2ALOAEGk/s1600/1200px-Neuschwanstein_Castle_LOC_print%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="449" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qC6pYXFstxE/Vgwkxi8T7uI/AAAAAAAAOVo/4tQ2ALOAEGk/s640/1200px-Neuschwanstein_Castle_LOC_print%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Photochrom print c 1900 of front facade of Neuschwanstein (<u>p<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle#/media/File:Neuschwanstein_Castle_LOC_print_rotated.jpg">hoto source</a>)</u></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dramatic setting is undeniable though. Young Ludwig, obsessed with his friend Wagner's operas, designed it as an extravagant stage-set - </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">complete with private grotto with artificial lake, waterfall, stalactites, swan boats and special lighting effects where operas were performed for an audience of one. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What else was a young gay king forced into conventional roles to do with his fantasies?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The opera house in nearby Fussen trades on the Wagner connection. Poster at foot of Neuschwanstein.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even (just) out of season, the crowds were there. The access road is steep, and we joined a queue for a horse-drawn carriage (why not go the full touristy shebang?).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt for the horses, powerful though they looked, dragging heavy carriages upwards, but was entranced by the surroundings</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Es1bracrGM/VghjFv44YTI/AAAAAAAAOU0/O_dHg6q-Z0U/s1600/Horses%2BviewB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Es1bracrGM/VghjFv44YTI/AAAAAAAAOU0/O_dHg6q-Z0U/s1600/Horses%2BviewB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">plodding past pristine ravines and waterfalls in the forests of German mythology</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lSSN6Q2Qwl8/VgwlG25ffbI/AAAAAAAAOVw/WRCh18fGhls/s1600/Forest%252Bwaterfall%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lSSN6Q2Qwl8/VgwlG25ffbI/AAAAAAAAOVw/WRCh18fGhls/s1600/Forest%252Bwaterfall%2BB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Close up, the fairytale references become legion</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_xVz3M4JvFM/Vghj-EjjmaI/AAAAAAAAOVI/hVIbIB-fS_s/s1600/Castle%2BwallB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_xVz3M4JvFM/Vghj-EjjmaI/AAAAAAAAOVI/hVIbIB-fS_s/s1600/Castle%2BwallB.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't join the tours of operatic-themed lavish interiors but admired the 360 views loved by Ludwig before taking a slow walk down through the lush <i>wald</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Neuschwanstein, Germany, September 2015</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-38383221371285903222015-09-27T07:45:00.001-07:002015-09-27T07:45:15.136-07:00Snapshots from Bavaria<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Passing through the pretty provincial town of Memmingen in southern Bavaria on overcast, rainy days of early autumn</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PnvGJiP4vck/VgeuYz8sn5I/AAAAAAAAOUE/rnKMVGc2jaU/s1600/Memmingen%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PnvGJiP4vck/VgeuYz8sn5I/AAAAAAAAOUE/rnKMVGc2jaU/s1600/Memmingen%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... in search of a place for dinner, of which there were plenty to choose from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I passed on the bratwurst and Knödel (dumplings) but did sample some good local Bayerische beer.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0b7fuaztePA/VgernGqf11I/AAAAAAAAOSw/vZGSpMOnegI/s1600/Memmingen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0b7fuaztePA/VgernGqf11I/AAAAAAAAOSw/vZGSpMOnegI/s1600/Memmingen.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>A perfect rainbow over the central town square</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In nearby Ottobeuren the next morning, the landscape was typical of towns in this prosperous region, A-framed houses and well-kept farmlands</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8UldViaYUsw/Vgeuv6YzYeI/AAAAAAAAOUM/gzkLn9A-KmQ/s1600/Ottobeuren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8UldViaYUsw/Vgeuv6YzYeI/AAAAAAAAOUM/gzkLn9A-KmQ/s1600/Ottobeuren.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the main attraction being the grand <u><a href="http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/E/Germany/Bavaria/OttobeurenAbbey.htm">Benedictine abbey</a></u> of Ottobeuren </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gpSRKY1STTQ/VgesE6wfgJI/AAAAAAAAOTU/oLThq633AyU/s1600/Abbey1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gpSRKY1STTQ/VgesE6wfgJI/AAAAAAAAOTU/oLThq633AyU/s1600/Abbey1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">founded in 764 by the sweetly-named Blessed Toto, but rebuilt in its current form by Bavaria's King Ludwig I in the 1800s</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">whose extraordinary interior could be described as baroque-over-the-top</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-dSHWPueQc/VgesEQSg3jI/AAAAAAAAOTE/_Tpa6o2kytU/s1600/Abbey%2Bceiling%2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-dSHWPueQc/VgesEQSg3jI/AAAAAAAAOTE/_Tpa6o2kytU/s1600/Abbey%2Bceiling%2B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">with no fewer than three grand organs (one below). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">All was empty, quiet and clean and neat as a pin. You had the clear impression that every ornate rococo curlicue, taper, garland and petal is kept minutely cleaned and the chairs lined up with a ruler. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EBmh-28pbeQ/VgesENWjjeI/AAAAAAAAOTA/SnRFowU_Bpo/s1600/Abbey%2Borgan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EBmh-28pbeQ/VgesENWjjeI/AAAAAAAAOTA/SnRFowU_Bpo/s1600/Abbey%2Borgan.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If all was serious here, it was about to get a little crazy. We were headed further south to this Ludwig's much quirkier grandson's place in the mountains ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Bavaria September 2015</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-24077798777685188222015-09-20T01:45:00.001-07:002015-09-20T01:45:24.098-07:00Pyrenees and pilgrims<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a photo of myself aged 21 walking down a station platform in Irun in mid-winter (in standard jeans, parka and backpack of Eurail student) taken by the boyfriend I was travelling with from Lisbon to London (the trip a birthday present from my parents) - my expression reflecting some dismaying news about non-arriving trains at the same time as a clear delight at the adventure we were having - and in the background is a wall covered in colourful graffiti, proclaiming Basque separatist ideology (those were radical times for the ETA). </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The political stuff was interesting enough, but that weird language intrigued me just as much. I knew back then that it has no modern language relatives and its origins are a linguistic enigma. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lcSJdEDhSEA/VfcwUDQBnBI/AAAAAAAAOQw/TH1I5LS5e8Y/s1600/Basque%2Blanguage%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lcSJdEDhSEA/VfcwUDQBnBI/AAAAAAAAOQw/TH1I5LS5e8Y/s1600/Basque%2Blanguage%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">which is why on this trip I was compulsively snapping signs in Basque on the drive out of Pamplona towards the Pyrenees and France. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEdvq__iLlM/Vf5xs0dSUdI/AAAAAAAAOR4/joo5bCebwj0/s1600/Camino%2Broad%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEdvq__iLlM/Vf5xs0dSUdI/AAAAAAAAOR4/joo5bCebwj0/s1600/Camino%2Broad%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were firmly back in Camino territory and the road was dotted with pilgrims heading in the opposite direction towards Compostela. Several sections of the route are on motorways (not much fun for walkers?), so pilgrims take detours through the forest and mountain paths whenever they can.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2e4tWjveAFY/Ve4LQ1Bbt2I/AAAAAAAAOOk/sCBdk9rowm0/s1600/Pilgrim%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2e4tWjveAFY/Ve4LQ1Bbt2I/AAAAAAAAOOk/sCBdk9rowm0/s1600/Pilgrim%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pretty soon we were climbing high into the Pyrenees, where Hannibal marched with his elephants en route to the Alps and Italy.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qo-KGvpNV4/Ve38Z-HbRjI/AAAAAAAAOOM/qEMbcCQ_m3U/s1600/Pyrenees%2B2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Qo-KGvpNV4/Ve38Z-HbRjI/AAAAAAAAOOM/qEMbcCQ_m3U/s1600/Pyrenees%2B2B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ko-Y3LaXN2U/Ve4NGrD2HiI/AAAAAAAAOPc/n82x5J-Qfgk/s1600/Pyrenees1B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ko-Y3LaXN2U/Ve4NGrD2HiI/AAAAAAAAOPc/n82x5J-Qfgk/s1600/Pyrenees1B.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First stop was Roncesvalles, where Roland famously blew his horn in vain according to legend, defending Charlemagne against the Basques.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sqk7mRxaf1c/Ve4M6jQjraI/AAAAAAAAOPQ/wmAMunt4EBk/s1600/Roncesvalles%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Sqk7mRxaf1c/Ve4M6jQjraI/AAAAAAAAOPQ/wmAMunt4EBk/s1600/Roncesvalles%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Memorials to Roland in the centre of Roncesvalles</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The views are just stunning in these mountains, and just as beautiful in summer as I remembered them under deep snow from my winter train trip at 21 and from childhood journeys en route to skiing. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But on these narrow winding roads there are very few places where one can safely stop to photograph all this beauty</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At some point one crosses the border imperceptibly, the only indication being that the language of road signs becomes French.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And we wind down to the pretty town of St Jean Pied de Port.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the starting point for many Camino walkers and shops do a roaring trade in kitting them out for this now highly commercialised walk. Sitting across the road from this place I watched many a hopeful pilgrim walking out with bulging bags containing the full kit ...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">while the baguette and French beer suddenly assumed a significance, marking our exit from the Iberian peninsula to this side of the Pyrenees and the end of our trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That evening in Saint Front de Pradoux, near Bergerac, there was a pool to take the edge off the heat, a friendly house labrador, and dinner in a garden where the sun set after 10, before the long drive the next day of 1000 kms back to London.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 21.56px;"><i> Pyrenees, Spain and France, June 2015</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 21.56px;"><i>Day 13-14, Iberian road trip</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4945005424922588135.post-23018808990360237592015-09-06T14:47:00.002-07:002015-09-06T14:47:57.480-07:00Gehry and bull-running in Spain<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On day 12 we drove 600 kms across Spain, from south-west to north-east. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From Extremadura across Spain's biggest central region, Castilla y Leon: mile upon mile of open, dry, arid, minimally-inhabited countryside where cattle and bulls are bred. Heading over the top of Madrid and skirting Salamanca, Valladolid and Burgos (if only there had been more days) ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... all the way to La Rioja, Spain's small but most famous wine-producing region. Where the surroundings become more varied and hilly, and expanses of vineyards appear in patchwork with fields of wheat and the Sierra Cantabria in the background.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was general consensus that it would be unthinkable to pass through La Rioja without stopping at a vineyard, so we headed to the winery of <b><u><a href="http://www.hotel-marquesderiscal.com/en">Marques de Riscal</a></u></b>, where this amazing sight awaited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's Frank Gehry again, who (post Bilbao-Guggenheim) designed the hotel on this historic wine estate</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">using his signature massive undulating waves - in this case of bright purple titanium (echoing the mass plantings of lavender?)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rooms are apparently spectacular (and extremely expensive), but in the stylish wine bar it was possible to sample some of the amazing wines produced on this historic estate (see <b><u><a href="http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/marques-de-riscal-turns-a-corner">here</a></u></b>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the bar terrace there are incredible views of surrounding vineyards ... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... and of the town of <b><u><a href="http://www.afar.com/travel-guides/spain/elciego/guide">Elciego</a></u></b> (as an act of deference, Gehry deliberately set his building a metre lower than the church tower!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortified by the pit-stop (and Rioja, obviously) we headed on to Navarre, and its capital Pamplona - full circle back to Basque territory. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Plaza del Castillo in the early evening was filling up with people in sidewalk cafés, bars and benches. And a strong sense of anticipation: this was just a few days before Pamplona's annual fiesta of the running of the bulls, the <i><b><u><a href="http://www.bullrunpamplona.com/">Encierro</a></u></b>.</i> Around a million people were about to pour into the city, where from </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">windows and balconies, bright blue <i>toros</i> looked down.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OJmD_WbRi8o/Veb_ZtT8gwI/AAAAAAAAOMg/gjyyAQDRjTk/s1600/Toros%2BCollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OJmD_WbRi8o/Veb_ZtT8gwI/AAAAAAAAOMg/gjyyAQDRjTk/s1600/Toros%2BCollage.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Pamplona's most famous hotel, the La Perla, whose balconies are the most coveted for watching the fiesta.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few blocks away the Monument to the Running of the Bulls by Bilbao sculptor Rafael Huerta captures a frozen moment of danger, power, fear, in the stampede ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hemingway's obsession as a young man with this city (he visited Pamplona nine times in the 1920s) provided mutual fame: it led to his first novel, <i>The Sun Also Rises</i>, and created a global reputation and mystique around the city and its annual fiesta of San Fermin. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>One of the narrow streets where the bulls run</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Glad to be missing the fiesta, I was much more interested in the incredible profusion of restaurants, bars and charcuteria lining the streets, happy to trade the excitement and cruelty of the bull-race for a leisurely pintxos (Basque for tapas) crawl ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">... ending late at night, appropriately enough at Hemingway's favourite café, the Iruña (Basque name for Pamplona)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.3999996185303px; line-height: 21.5599994659424px;"><i> La Rioja and Pamplona, Spain, June 2015</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.3999996185303px; line-height: 21.5599994659424px;"><i>Day 12, Iberian road trip</i></span></div>
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Karen @ Pas Grand-Chosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14735158798201053231noreply@blogger.com6