Meanwhile, in Heaven...

OK, doing my best to resuscitate the blog here.
After Carcassonne, I went up to Burgundy, partly because I had heard it was beautiful, and partly because there are a whole slew of people named Morey who have vineyards in the region.
Well, I didn't actually get to see any French Moreys face to face, but I did get to enjoy some great wine and beef stew. And I got a bottle of Burgundy from a vineyard in the town of Morey-Saint Denis. I'll be filing for the property rights later.
The scenery was lovely, too.




Why I love travel




















Chalon-sur-Soane main square. 10:30 pm the town is pretty deserted... because everyone's here.













To Europe, from Monica: In every thing that's light and gay, I'll always think of you that way.

















Bank of the Soane River. No cure for wanderlust.

Things are getting desperate; start feeding the pig.

View from the castle at Carcassonne: along the wall and down the hill.

Oh, PS, I went back to France.

First stop: Carcassonne. Carcassonne is an impressive walled city in South-central France. This spot has been inhabited since about the 6th Century BC. You know the rub: Iron Age folks, Romans, Visigoths, Francs. It's had quite an interesting history. I'm sure some very scintillating things happened here during the Iron Age, but my favorite anecdote is the legend of how the city got its name.

Once upon a time, there was a lovely city on a hill with high, strong walls and a prime location. Now, along came the day when Charlemagne decided to try to conquer the city. Charl and his troops besieged the city for months and months but couldn't penetrate it's walls. However, they figured that eventually the surrounded city would run out of food and supplies, and the inhabitants would give up. Indeed, after a while things started to look pretty grim inside the city. In the eleventh hour, however, one of the city's illustrious citizens, Dame Carcas, had an idea. She asked that the city's last pig be fattened up with the last bits of grain and then tossed over the town walls onto Charlemagne's troops. Charl and the boys beheld the porcine missile and drew some conclusions. If the townspeople still had enough provisions to keep their pigs porky and toss perfectly good food over the wall with reckless abandon, then they were probably not going to be starved out anytime in the near future. So the army gave up and went home. Well, of course the townspeople were just thrilled, especially Dame Carcas, who ordered that the town bells be rung in celebration. Which brings us to the naming of the city: Carcas Sonne (Carcas Rings).

Castle walls and ramparts as seen from the ditch between the castle and the rest of the walled city.

Medieval altar. Even if you were a total stranger to the story of Jesus, I think you'd be able to look at this sculpture and determine that the outlook does not look good.

Rocks, Airport bus, Monastery, Easter, etc.

After all the pageantry of Semana Santa, I guess pretty much anything would seem a little anti-climactic, but it's hard to compete with a natural wonder. Especially one with high elevation and funky-shaped rocks to its advantage.
After returning to Barcelona, Andrew and I made a day trip to the Monastery at Montserrat. The Monastery and neighboring Basilica actually center around an iconic statue of the Virgin and Child known as the Black Madonna of Montserrat. Legend has it that this statue of was carved by St. Luke in 50 AD, but the scientific-type crowd estimates it was made closer to the 12th Century. Regardless, the Black Madonna has a shrine on top of a 4,000 ft mountain with 80 monks and a boys' choir. She is also reported to be responsible for not a few miracles, and is the patron saint of Catalonia.


Above: view from the Monastery, and arches near the Basilica





Spring Break is over, back to the classroom-Andrew heads back to the good old USA. Thanks for visiting, Andrew!















After an eventful Holy Week, Easter in Barcelona' Cathedral

More Semana Santa

Practice session in Madrid: setting down the float for a break. Teamwork, people.

White Nazarenes in the street at dusk.

If it looks like I'm serious about this job, it's because I am.

Once a procession reaches the cathedral, everyone (including the float) goes into the church for a blessing.
Black Nazarenes crossing the High Altar.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in."

Jesus enters the cathedral.

Semana Santa

Well, eventually, Anna had to go home. *frown* But then my friend Andrew came and we went down to Seville for Holy Week!

I really think that Holy Week (Semana Santa) in Seville deserves some gesture of speechlessness. But leaving out an explanation probably wouldn't work so well on the blog, so, anyway.
Starting on Palm Sunday, the different brotherhoods in Seville make processions through the streets to the cathedral...

Nazarenes in white robes.

There are a lot of Nazarenes walking with each procession (up to a couple thousand), including kids. It's a lot of walking. Each procession starts at the brotherhood's home church, goes to the cathedral, and then goes back to the home church. So, depending on where your home church is, this can be A Lot of walking. I think the longest procession that Andrew and I saw on the schedule was expected to last for 14 hours. The arduous walk is part of the point: the Nazarenes are supposed to be meditative. Their robes and hoods enable meditation and also have a dramatic visual affect on all the people watching in the streets. The hoods come off on Easter Sunday (or, if you're a kid, when the weather gets too hot).

Penitents bearing the cross.

The Penitents are fraternity members like the Nazarenes, and they participate in a physical act of penitence by carrying one (or sometimes two) wooden crosses in the procession. A lot of them go barefoot. We didn't see a lot of kids doing this one.

Paso with Jesus in a purple robe.

So the strange conglomeration of men carrying a wooden scaffold that Anna and I saw in Madrid was actually a fraternity practicing for Semana Santa. With each procession, there are usually two floats (pasos): one with a scene from Jesus' Passion, and one with a figure of Mary mourning her dead son. The floats are decorated with carved wooden figures, flowers, and candles. The Semana Santa tradition goes back to the 1500s, and a lot of the floats are almost that old. Also, some of the floats weigh up to a metric ton...so it takes a lot of coordination and raw muscle mass to haul them down the streets for 14 hours. Each float has about 20-30 guys underneath carrying it on their shoulders.

Drum Line

Each float is followed by a band that plays Fraternity Marches during the procession, and drummers who help keep the pace. The men carrying the floats walk/shuffle exactly in time with the drummers, so that Jesus' robe or Mary's canopy are aways swaying in time with the music. Kind of makes Jesus look like he's walking. Very hypnotic.

Trumpets

Costaleros, off duty.

Yeah, the costaleros are usually big guys. They always wear four things: headdress, hernia belt, espadrille shoes, and sweat. The roll of fabric in the headdress is where the crossbeam of the float sits on their shoulders. Once they get under the float, pretty much all you can see of them is their feet. They can't see anything either, so there are men that walk along side the float and tell them when to start/stop/turn a corner.

"One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things."

Henry Miller

Black robes, too (each fraternity has its own colors).

On a mission

Seville, Palm Sunday

Girls' trip through Spain: Scrapbook Part 2

After Madrid, Anna and I went to Toledo for two days, and then to Granada.
Toledo is a really cool smaller medieval city on a hill with a great cathedral right at the top. It used to be the capital and the city's history, as well as its architechture, has experienced Muslim, Christian, and Jewish influences.

The cathedral square, kids playing ball.

Toledo is a city on a hill. Here's a view from the top the hill.

Inside the cathedral: Crucifix over the High Altar.

Mary with her child(ren).

Granada

The highlight of Granada for us was visiting the Alahambra (although we also found a really good teahouse). The Alhambra is a kind of royal complex on a hill above Granada that consists of an old fort, a Moorish palace, a (Christian) Renaissance palace, and huge garden area. Granada itself is a cooly unique city. It was the last Moorish hold-out in Europe before the Christians took it in 1492 (I guess that was really a banner year for the Spanish Monarchs).

Sculpted trees and shrubs along the path to the Alhambra palace.

The Islamic architechture in Southern Spain is so beautiful. I think that part or what makes it so eye-catching is that it just looks really different from anything else in Europe (or the US for that matter). I don't know how well the details in these arches will come across on the blog, but really, it's incredible.

Uh oh, look what I found at the Alhambra...You know it's a quality place when there are orange and white cats around.

Chamber inside the palace (the second row of windows is actually just light coming in from the windows on the opposite wall.
Arches and columns in the Lions Courtyard at the palace.

Garden with orange trees near the Palace

Oh boy! Time to take the night train back to Barcelona! The Granada-Barcelona night train service is pretty posh. We got free toiletry bags and a sink in our compartment! Cool!

You wouldn't believe the people they let onboard the Spanish trains...

Girls' trip through Spain: Scrapbook Part 1

Well...

My friend Anna came to see me in Spain! Here we are at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, doing a little tour of Barcelona before heading off to Madrid.

Ocean wave arch at Parc Guel in Barcelona (designed by Gaudi, the same guy who designed Sagrada Familia).

Madrid!

Um, yes. Well, we conducted some in-depth research into the Urgent Care facilities in Madrid. The official, press-release explanation for this photo is that Anna had a little mis-step during an encore Flamenco performance...

Fortunately, the doctors said that she could walk through the Prado Museum the next day...and that her ankle sprain wasn't serious enough to end her career in Spanish Dance.

Prado Are Museum. Lovely Place.

When we were walking back to the hotel from the Prado, we ran into this strange sight on the street:

We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure what was going on here, so I'm not going to explain it right now. Are they prisoners, it is some sort of military exercise,...a Masonic initiation? Ha ha.

We had a favorite Tapas bar in Madrid that had really excellent grilled asparagus...and sangria. Girls' night out!

Action shot: Anna. Sangria.

As always, the picture of refinement and decorum.

Stuttgart, noch einmal

Enroute from Berlin to Spain, I paid another visit to Stuttgart and the "Hotel for Americans named Morey in Southern Germany," also known as Claudia's House. In addition to catching up on some sleep (looking back, I was suffering from a bit of fatigue), and seeing some familiar faces, I arrived just in time for Stuttgart's Lange Nacht der Museen. "Long night of the museums" is a special night where the approximately 10 frillion museums in Stuttgart stay open unitl 2 AM. You buy one ticket and can visit as many museums as you want plus there are free buses and trains to get you from place to place. Pretty cool. Claudia and I went to the Wurttemberg State Museum, a couple art museums, and the Mercedes-Benz museum. All in all, a very enlightening evening.

Another day, Claudia and Uli took me to the Ritter Sport chocolate factory and university town of Tuebingen (Half-timbered houses, narrow streets, a church, and a castle. On the Neckar River. Beautiful)

I have really nice friends.

The woods in Leinfelden, in front of Claudia's house.

Midnight at the Mercedes Benz museum with a couple thousand Germans (Claudia in foreground)

Tuebingen, view from the church tower.

PS Yeah, the Mercedes museum is pretty amazing.

Berlin 2

OK, I know in the whole scheme of the world, the East/West Berlin setup shouldn't seem so crazy to me. You've got a few large powers dividing up a major city at the end of a war; it turns out said powers don't all get along so well, and the city becomes literally divided. But then you've got West Berlin, walled-in, just sitting in the middle of East Germany during the Cold War...crazy.


Another great thing about Berlin is the museums. Scores of the! Plus, on certain nights after 6PM, many of the museums are free. So I had myself a little after-dark romp through the Egyptian museum and the Pergamon museum. Yep, wild and crazy times in Berlin.

Nefertiti: the original "look"













21st Century A.D. woman inspects 14th Century B.C. woman















The New Synagogue, from behind a tree.

The Reichstag with German flags and Germans. (And tourists)









The Reichstag is Germany's Parliment building. The German Republic was proclaimed here in 1918. It almost burned down in 1933. The Nazis blamed it on Communist conspirators, but there seems to be some skepticism about that one...
The Nazis made their last stand here in April 1945, when it fell to the Allies.
The building didn't see much action until 1995, when it was wrapped in silver cloth for its 101st birthday (I bet that felt nice). Then it was rebuilt to be back in action. You can actually walk all the way up the glass dome at the top (very cool view). From the dome, you can look down into the legislative chamber and watch the government at work. Nice touch.

All together now: the Brandenburg Gate