France and Spain

Moving swiftly Westward our next country was France and Monte Carlo. This is where the money is. We had to take a tender in as there was not enough berth space. Coincidentally the weather was a little rough and this slowed operations so our time ashore was limited.

After making our way around the harbour and its many extravagant boats… 

the beautiful façade of The Hermitage looked down on us as we walked up the hill where, in 2008 Le Tour started with an individual time trial event (see the 2008 blog).

At the top of the hill is the famous Hotel de Paris. Here the view is across the many Rolls and Bentleys parked outside the Casino. There are certainly more luxury cars per linear metre of road than any other part of the world. Being "seen" in a Ferrari just does not seem to be quite up to snuff!

I suspect most will recognise the Monte Carlo Casino. As I use Monte Carlo simulations a lot it was a shame there was not time for me to  go inside what has precipitated a 10 year affair.

The following day found us in Barcelona for a two night stop. We had booked tickets on line to overcome the queues for Sagrada Familia. Although we had been outside the Basilica (see September 2013 blog) we had not been inside. There is still construction work but at least there is now a target to complete by 2026 to align with the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi’s death. 

I found the outside interesting but very busy and with too much to look at let alone comprehend. The inside however, is just stunningly beautiful. The height and volume of the space is the first striking aspect. This was quickly supplemented by the clean uncluttered design compared to the outside although it is quite different to any other cathedral.

Each column has “branches” at the top and reflects the tree design. There are burls at the top of each trunk. In engineering terms it is unusual to see branches at an angle and at various slopes.

The windows along each side give marvellous light with green and blue giving a watery feel to one side and reds, oranges and yellow on the other side reflecting sun and sand. The light is just beautiful.

Over the alter the Christ figure could be parachuting into the church or being caught by an uplift on the way to heaven.

Certainly the internal design of the tower above the crossing has a heavenly feel to it. 

The whole design really underpins the amazing imagination of Gaudi. His challenge would have been how to describe this to those with lesser imaginations. He did this with the help of models. There are four on display that show the migration from the rather dull pre-Gaudi design to his final basic structure.

Gaudi realised that a catenary cable (in tension) was effectively an arch in reverse (which is largely in compression). He produced a model with twine and small sandbags to show the design using a myriad of catenary cables. Thanks to a mirror (at the top) the planned “look” could be seen.

We were joined on our tour by newlyweds Geoff (my nephew and star of the August 2012 Brugge blog) and Livia who married on the Saturday before our departure in Sydney. By coincidence they were honeymooning in Europe and were in Barcelona at the same time as us. A late luncheon pint after our prolonged tour of Sagrada Familia was required.

The following day we headed off to the Gaudi gardens. The core area which could be accessed by all in our 20?? visit is now restricted to ticket holders only. As they had sold out for the day we had a walk around the perimeter of the gardens.

The structures remain impressive

Helen was initially very impressed by this guy’s core muscles until it was appreciated that he was defying gravity. He may have lost his head but it was still a pretty smart act.

At the West end of the park is a viewing platform that Geoff and I climbed however the girls decided they could content themselves by looking at us. (They were actually on speaking terms but just wanted the bench to themselves.)

After saying goodbye to G & L we left Barcelona and set off for a sea day arriving at Ajjacio in Corsica in the evening. It is a situated in a huge natural bay (18 X 18 kms) and at night was very picturesque.(A bit less so during the day.)

The town’s claim to fame is as the birthplace of Napoleon. There is a statue of him overlooking the town with 50 steps to the top.

We decided on a wine tour and visited two wineries. The mural at the first stop was quite a work of art. 

The wine was not bad either despite the vats being unromantic concrete boxes lined with epoxy paint. The barrels used for maturing some of the wine “were never older than 4 years….” which rather flys in the face of other vineyards.

We were fortunate to be visiting at the time of bottling some Rose. A noisy a process with one of the team feeding empty bottles to the machine while others removed the full bottles into a crate on a forklift at the other end.

After the tour, suitably fortified, we headed to the town for some “L’eau avec gas”. We sat down next to a small but aromatic market. The olives and range of marinades provided an amazing variety of bouquets.

Which were only surpassed by some local cheeses. They may not look too attractive but their smell was mouth watering.

Regrettably we then had to head back to the ship for our last night where we enjoyed the sunset with a cocktail or two before tackling the packing.

Italy - Salerno, Citivichia and Livorno

Our first close up of Italy was through the Straights of Messina the very narrow strip of sea between Italy’s toe and Sicily. They have been threatening a bridge between the two much to the chagrin of the ferry operators. Mind you the power cables have all been moved subsea but improving the landscape was clearly not a driver as the old 1954 cable towers are now heritage listed. (Isn’t engineering beautiful?)

I know many of you will be wanting to know where our cabin is. It is on the starboard side (right for you landlubbers) on the foremost kink on the 8^th level which is the same as the bridge. The kink gives us a bigger balcony (plenty of cocktail room for five) as well as a larger state room (no cabins here).

Italy is proud of its higher risk nautical profile with the pilot happily jumping off ship at 12+ knots rather than the usual 6 knots used in other countries. (It helps to explain Concordia and why we like the Queens!)

What was interesting was the old fashion manoeuvring of tugs when you have a ship steered only by rudder and no bow thrusters. These tugs worked very hard to moor this tanker around QV and then reversing into her berth.

Salerno was a working port with rolls of steel and aluminium ingots occupying much of our berth. In town however there were some wonderful old churches. This is St Benedict.

Pigeons as with many countries are a nuisance and despite the numerous spikes still managed a foothold on these arcade lights. It’s almost a two finger act.

The Church of the Annunciation had a wonderful tiled roof which looked good against the backdrop of the Etrusco Sammitica Acropoli.

As we left Salerno with a jug of Pimms on the rear deck a storm brewed with much lightening striking the nearby hills. One strike started a fire.

However, to the South the smoke from this “hill’ was not from a fire but the menace of a potential eruption of the Vesuvius volcano. 

It was all a bit distracting as the captain was trying to reverse, turn 180 degrees so we faced the right way and then travel through two more 90 degree turns to get out of the harbour.

Our second port was Citivichia (sometimes called the port of Rome albeit the latter is 50 miles away). It was a lovely Italian seaport. The treatment of heritage buildings in this part of the world has some pluses and minuses. Here one of the historic gates is hard against a recent block of flats.

While this gate tower has been extended to include flats with the usual drying facilities.

The market was very colourful set up amongst trees with shade cloth added for extra shade. There were some characters here which reminded me of the mafia whose foothold in Melbourne is at the fruit markets.

Not that they were all members…

The port is huge with a large seaward wall accommodating several cruise ships.

The following day saw us in Livorno which has a famous statue of four Moors. It reflects the port and also the Duke of Tuscany’s success over the pirates that used to roam over the Mediterranean. The Moors are significantly larger than life and were quite a challenge of Bronze casting given its 1638 construction.

Livorno also has a Venetian quarter with many canals designed by Venetian engineers.

At the centre of the canals is the Fortezza Nouva (completed in 1605)

The  main square is unusually large and would have been able to hold huge crowds and events in its past however, it looked almost abandoned when we visited. There is a tunnel under the square that forms part of the canal system.

Meantime access to the fort was also via a quite large tunnel and was a considerably warmer atmosphere with its subdued lighting than would have been the case originally.

Livorno was the last of our three Italian ports. Now its off to France and Spain.

Ephesus and Greece

After a day at sea travelling through the Dardanelles we berthed in Kusadasi on the West coast of Turkey. Although the main attraction is Ephesus our first stop was the house where the Virgin Mary lived in her last years. It has been re-built and is a simple affair. 

A slightly more modern statue (1996) was of the Virgin Mary presented by the American Society of Ephesus (who else would have such a society?).

Turkey is economically successful and quite entrepreneurial. Their humour was also apparent in the stall approaching the entry to Ephesus.

Ephesus at first glance seemed relatively compact. However, beyond the initial gate and amphitheatre the site moves down a valley and the excavations kept expanding. At its peak it was a city of 250,000 - about the size of Canberra. The main street was lined with shops most of which had Greek writing. Although the Romans ran the administration it was in harmony with the main inhabitants.

Some of the shops and houses were a bit grand with several floors and magnificent arches.

The sanitation system was sophisticated if not exactly private. Water from the uphill baths flowed into the trench below the seats and a small dished drain in front allowed access to water for personal cleaning. Recycling has been around for a long while! 

Further down the street were the more upmarket Guchi type shops. Here the path was level and decorated with a  large mosaic. Behind these were a series of terraced houses. The scaffolding in the background covered a large area where many more terraced houses were being excavated.

Down the road was the library. As an administration building it was one of the few that had Roman lettering. It has been rebuilt following various earthquakes using as much as possible of the original stones.

Towards the bottom of the city was the main amphitheatre. This seats some 45,000 people – it is massive. We were due to have an evening orchestral recital here as one of the Cunard excursions but unfortunately it was cancelled due to a lack of numbers. Elton, Joan Baez and others have all held concerts here – they must have been spectacular.

 It certainly occupies most of its hillside.

This is the port road leading to many miles of agricultural land. The river slowly silted up over the years and now the shore is a 20 minute drive away. Like many cities the top properties overlooked the water and the area is now the subject of  a fresh dig to uncover what is likely to provide some pretty expensive properties as well as valuable discoveries.

There were many carvings/sculptures along the way. This is the quite famous Angel of Ephesus.

Our tour guide suggested a small extension to our 5 hour tour and took us into a large shop where we found ourselves sat at walkway watching a fashion parade of leatherware. All nine of us thought many of the jackets to be just brilliant and walked away with one each. That is of course except for our two extremely fashion conscious members Helen and Martin who each bought two!!

I regret to say this was then followed by a carpet factory. The workmanship was really on display. Imagine doing one carpet for some 6 – 12 months. Although the work would be shared with a colleague working the left side you would certainly have to get on with her. Knotting with one hand was an amazing albeit very repetitive talent.

What looked a lot more fun was making the silk threads. A rough brush was used to snag a few wet cocoons and then this was fed into a guide and wheel type frame.

Each cocoon comprises about 1Km of thread. It is also amazingly strong – much greater than steel of the same section. 

After the demonstration came the tea and display of many carpets. We did not need one but eventually ended up ordering a small special one for use in our newly decorated bedroom. Jo saw one she liked but it was too expensive. After much ringing of hands and having walked away from a deal on some four occasions she eventually gained a reduction from £2300 to £1000.

On our return to QV we found ourselves alongside a new ship that was about 20 metres longer and 2 decks higher. Italian and probably Concordia’s replacement. Interestingly she was not full so maybe a maiden voyage.

We then sailed into Greece and Santorini. It is a great spot where we had spent a week for our 30^th anniversary. However, 5 cruise ships made both the main towns of Oia and Firra very crowded.

Getting to shore was by tender – thanks to the Boatmans Seaman Union. Our tenders and boatman stayed on board. Still it all presumably helps the Greece economy.

Regardless of the crowds the views in Santorini remained spectacular. Here the small boat harbour.

An example of the many Bougainvillea displays.

Whitewashed alleys.

And of course the famous blue domes

I am guessing most will have seen this shot.

It was taken from our lunchtime venue.

Jo and I walked down the path to the sea shore. Quite a challenge for those in Birkenstocks who spent much time slipping down the path while facing donkeys charging up the path.

Back on board our cabin the leather corner had to be negotiated ……

 

to access the balcony for drinks.

Our last stop in Greece was Olympia. We travelled by bus for the 25 kms trip to the site. What was noticeable were the many lay byes packed with rubbish. Presumably there has been no money to pay the rubbish men. At the risk of being political Greece has a cultural problem. In Oli Helen wanted to buy some bracelets for the girls and asked what the discount was for buying three. The girl advised if we were paying cash she would take the 10% tax off. She was happy to discount the government but not her profits! Changing this culture will take a generation. We did not buy.

Olympia was extraordinary with the first games held in 8BC in honour to Zeus. There are many magnificent sites. The ruins of Phillippeon (4BC).

The Palaestra

And arch to

The stadium itself

The officials and athletes all had to swear an oath to honour the games but just like present day they had cheats. Once discovered the cheats were fined and the money used to build a bronxe statue of them which formed a corridor leading to the stadium arch. All who entered the stadium were reminded of the earlier cheats and that their names were forever sullied. Maybe this is an approach worth re-visiting.