Great Britain: York

Cheers! We went up north (brrr) to Great Britain on an extended Easter holiday and spent 2 nights in York, 2 in Scarborough, and 2 in Edinburgh. The highlights:

• We got to speak English. Not that we were always understood, but the possibility was there!
  
• We now have more of a context for British history: seeing abbeys that Henry VIII destroyed, being in the room where Mary Queen of Scots birthed James, and seeing where Cromwell's Parliamentarians had laid siege to Scarborough Castle!
  
• Daisy's new favorite food is baked beans. They are part of the traditional English breakfast. In the mornings, she would gobble up her portion and we'd end up giving her ours, too! She'd also have them with dinner. I just bought a can and served them this morning, much to her delight.
• Chris' new favorite food is scones with cream and jam. He has been talking about various job possibilities in England and Scotland, but I know that really his mind is on the teatime tradition. (ha)
• By train, you glide by fluffy green grass spotted with fluffy white sheep. But we also had a springtime bonus: hundreds of frolicking baby lambs!!! Oh my.
• We heard some great live street music, including a huge, talented drum and bagpipe ensemble on Easter Sunday.
  
• In Scotland, I bought a cashmere tartan scarf that complements my red wool coat, and we also got a nice red wool throw blanket. I love them.
• On the subject of souvenirs: Scarborough. Final count: 3 posters, a "Scarborough Castle" souvenir guide, 2 bookmarks, a souvenir plate, a magnet, a patch, 3 pencils and a pen.
  
• Scarborough was better than we imagined; a very fun seaside resort, with a changing tide like I've never seen! It was actually the first such resort in the UK, beginning in the 17th century. (Now, though, there are cheap airfares to the Mediterranean islands.)
• Not quite sure if I want to call this a highlight, but rather a memorable (painful?) experience: We took a wrong train. Not just any wrong train, but one that was an express, nonstop service to London from York. 2.5 hours there, 2.5 hours back, and then we continued with our original plan. (How did this happen with English over the loudspeakers?! We were on the right track for our train, but this express train had been delayed by an hour and a half and zoomed in on our track minutes before ours was supposed to arrive, and we just didn't check. Grrr.) We were wondering if this was the worst travel mistake we'd ever made, but then Chris brought up the time we had driven to Canada, and we were halfway through Michigan before he remembered that his passport was still at home! Yep, that was worse...
  

Here are some York pictures with explanations. Scarborough and Edinburgh are coming soon. (Later, I will also post a link to a larger picture collection.)

YORK

York Castle Museum: This is on the site of the 13th century castle, but does not really have anything to do with a castle. Instead, it is a wonderful collection of English civilization from the 17th century to the present, filled with furniture, appliances, clothes, toys, all presented in a very clever and engaging way. Daisy was unleashed from her buggy and we all explored the recreated rooms and streets. For example...

A recreated Victorian street with changing weather and times of day
and costumed guides roaming around or sitting in their "shops."

A recreated Victorian parlour. You can't see the stuffed doggy or the fireplace,

but those were Daisy's favorites.

A collection of swimming attire - notice the Scarborough ads featured on the wall?

(We bought a print of the one on the right.)

The Heslington Baby House, circa 1715, one of the earliest dolls' houses in the country.

(Some of the tiny pewter plates are stamped "1695.")It was made for the Yarburgh children, who lived near York. I loved imagining children playing with these wood-and-wire

little dolls, also from the 1700's...

Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey

An old street called The Shambles.

York Minster: We toured this in the afternoon, and then later came back heard an exquisite rendition of Psalm 88 by the choir during the Evensong service. Sadly, the coloring book then lost its charm and we had to go.

We walked on the old city walls and finally got some
reasonable views of this huge cathedral.

The pretty heart window on the facade.

Constantine was in York when his father died and the Roman troops declared him

Roman emperor here in 306 AD. (In 312, he legalized Christianity,

and in 314, the first bishop came to York.)

National Railway Museum: wow, there are a lot of old trains here. We didn't see much, but did enjoy seeing the first Japanese "bullet train" and Queen Victoria's fancy royal train. They actually filmed part of Chariots of Fire here, as well as a few places in Edinburgh. We'll have to watch that movie again.

Part of our afternoon tea. Daisy had chicken tenders, baked beans (surprise) and hot cocoa. (But she calls it Kakao, or, actually, "cow-cow.")

So fun! More to come...

Eye of Greece

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts / And eloquence.
- John Milton

The Ancient Agora: Marketplace and center for Athenian government since the 6th century BC. Socrates dialogued here. The apostle Paul did, too. I loved how green everything was - our reward for coming in the winter! There was tons of fresh citrus on trees all throughout the city, and wildflowers everywhere.

We had the playground - I mean, the ancient ruins - to ourselves.

We are posing with a view of the Areopagus (aka Mars Hill), the rock that you can see tiny people on. It used to have big buildings on it. Paul delivered his "To an Unknown God" sermon here (Acts 17), and there's now a large plaque commemorating the speech.

The Acropolis: There is evidence of habitation here since the early neolithic era (6,000 BC). Most of the buildings remaining were constructed under Pericles' reign during Athens' "Golden Age," 460-430 BC. The Erechtheion, Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, and Propylaia still adorn the top of the rock of the acropolis.

The famous "Porch of the Caryatids" at the Erechtheion, a temple worshipping both Athena and Poseidon. This location was, according to myth, "the site on which Athena and Poseidon held a contest, judged by their fellow Olympian gods, to determine who would possess Athens At the touch of Athena's spear, the first ever olive tree sprang from the ground, while Poseidon summoned forth a fountain of sea water Athena won, and became patron of the city." I have actually always loved Greek/Roman mythology, and I'm inspired to read up on it again. (As an aside, one of these Caryatid-women was taken by Lord Elgin and is one of the controversial "Elgin Marbles" in the British Museum.)

A Daddy column with an Ionic Daisy capital:

The Parthenon: famous and architecturally interesting, as I'll try to show by quoting my guidebook: "To achieve the Parthenon's extraordinary and unequaled harmony of design, its architect, Iktinos, used every trick known to the Doric order of architecture. The building's proportions maintain a universal 9:4 ratio, not only in the calculations of length to width, or width to height, but in such relationships as the distances between the columns and their diameter; many other proportions apparently follow the so-called "Golden Ratio" of 1:1.618. Additionally, any possible appearance of disproportion is corrected - all seemingly straight lines are in fact slightly curved, an optical illusion known as "entasis" (intensification). For example, the columns (their profile bowed slightly to avoid seeming concave) are slanted inwards by 6cm..."

The Theatre of Dionysus: This was likely the most exciting place for me to visit. When it was rebuilt in the 4th century BC, it could hold 17,000 spectators. One third of its original 64 tiers of seats survive. Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Euripides all premiered their masterpieces here, on the hillside of the acropolis. The important people (magistrates, priests) had designated seats with names engraved. There was an especially prominent throne for the representative of the Delphic oracle, who would come for the festivals. I also learned that the citizens (men) of Athens would take turns being members of the chorus. An interesting part of one's civic duty!

The National Archaeological Museum: They transported this entire (beautiful springtime blossomed-frescoed) room-with-shelf from Akrotiri on Santorini Island (where we had just been) to the national museum in Athens. Some propose that Akrotiri was the legendary lost city of Atlantis, devastated by the enormous volcanic explosion in around 1600 BC. Layered in ash for centuries, this is exceptionally preserved (akin to Pompeii/Vesuvius) and I thought it was beautiful.

We also had time to visit the museum of ancient Greek folk instruments, an attractive display in a converted mansion. They had headphones with great listenings and we had the place to ourselves.

I bound over generations as I trace my heritage and land in Athens. It seems like most aspects of my life can be traced to the ancient Greeks - with their political, architectural, artistic, philosophical, and scientific mode of life. This trip was like visiting a newborn Western world who was marveling at its hands, cooing in its bassinet.

Münster

Last Sunday, we took a day trip to Münster, named for its monastery built in the early 800's during Charlemagne's missional expansion of his empire. This church was consecrated as St. Paul's Cathedral in 1264, and its architecture represents the transitional style between Romanesque and Gothic.


Our (only) American friends here, Neil and Megan, accompanied us on this trip. We have a tradition of getting together every Sunday, and this trip was perfect because we could all travel together on a group ticket. This photo is from our very German lunch in the city center.


Münster was 90% destroyed during World War II and quickly restored in the 1950's. The tall facades and the pointed arches on the fronts of buildings are very charming. This particular image shows the Town Hall in the Prinzipalmarkt, where in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years' War.


Another interesting part of Münster's history involves a short-lived (1534-1535) Anabaptist theocracy, led by John of Leiden. Adult baptism is still a main tenet of the denomination, but this was a radical group. They called the city New Jerusalem, burned all books except the Bible, proclaimed shared ownership of all property and goods, and practiced polygamy. The leaders of the Anabaptists were tortured and killed when the city was reclaimed, and their bodies were displayed in cages hung from a church tower. While the bones were later removed, the cages still hang today and it was startling to see them in person.


The city is known for its bicycles and its large university(3rd largest in the country with over 40,000 students). An old palace has been converted into part of the university, and there is a botanical garden in the back where we let Daisy run around and play. We are needing to do that more and more on our travels!

Alexander von Humboldt Study Tour

On Monday, 22 Humboldt Fellows and spouses/partners came from all over Nordrhein Westfalen to the Bochum main train station to find the bus that would take us all over Germany. Unfortunately, children were not able to come, which precluded Holly joining me. I told her I wouldn’t go unless she found a good alternative for her and Daisy, which she found in the Mediterranean. Our group consisted of four of us without an accompanying spouse/partner (all because of children, with one Japanese man, a man from Cameroon, and a man from Nigeria), a Japanese couple, a British/Kyrgyzstani couple, a Polish couple, a French couple, five Chinese couples, a tour guide and a raucous bus driver. Our fields of expertise included chemistry, biology, and literature. The tour was all in English. During the trip, we were to have five dinners paid for by “Uncle Alexander,” a night at the theater, a wine tasting, a few city tours, and a meeting at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation headquarters. Aside from two city trains in Berlin, I did all the site-seeing by foot, an exhausting feat.

On our first day, we drove to Bremen, a new city for me. I was impressed: a beautiful old downtown square, and a cozy district called “Schnoor” filled with closely-packed half-timber houses with an array of not-so-touristy shops and restaurants. A poster informed me that Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, would be giving a talk that night in the city center in the run up to the national elections this month. Unfortunately, we were told that we would hold our first “Uncle Alexander” dinner during the speech. After ordering our food that night, many of us revealed that we would love to see Merkel, and as she was speaking just around the corner, we snuck away for about fifteen minutes while our meals were being prepared (much to the chagrin of our tour guide, we later learned). Merkel’s speech sounded great, although I don’t think any of us really knew what she was talking about.


Alley in Schnoor, Bremen


The next morning, we drove to Hamburg, which Holly and I very much enjoyed visiting a few months ago. It was nice to see some favorite sights again, although the second time taking a 1.5-hour boat tour around the harbor in German is slightly less thrilling than the first. That night, we held our second “Uncle Alexander” dinner on the water right in front of the beautiful Rathaus (town hall).


Waterfront terrace where we enjoyed our second "Uncle Alexander" meal by the Hamburg Rathaus


The next morning was spent at NDR Fernsehen headquarters, a major German television station. We enjoyed pretending to be newscasters in front of a blue screen on the set of the “Tagesschau,” a mainstay of German nighttime news. We then got back on the bus for a day trip to Lübeck, the former capital of the Hanseatic League and now a UNESCO world heritage site. The brick architecture was charming, and the apparent obsession with skeletons in the local churches was a bit surprising. We then returned to our hotel in Hamburg to pass the night.


The gate into Lübeck


Lübeck's unique cathedral decor


In the morning, we headed to Rostock, our first day in the former East Germany. Rostock is on the Baltic Sea, and swimming there was one of the highlights of the trip. The water is very shallow: you can walk out about a quarter mile into the water without the water reaching your shoulders (well, I can). There were hundreds of tiny jelly fish, which I found quite alarming at first until I saw children playing with them. I was assured that they were harmless, so I went out to swim in the cold waters of the Baltic. I was about as cold as I remember being swimming in Lake Superior. That night we held our third “Uncle Alexander” dinner, and the members of the group began to bond. We started talking about science, and before long, I saw the all-too-familiar glazed look on almost everyone’s faces (except the Brit, with whom I had a number of excellent scientific discussions).


After swimming in the Baltic Sea, Rostock


The following morning was spent driving to Berlin, where we stayed two nights. Holly and I enjoyed Berlin immensely when we where there two months ago. It is a gem, with so much architectural and cultural diversity derived from a rather complex recent history. I had tea with John, a friend I had met at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, who was also passing through Berlin on a different Humboldt tour. During the afternoon, I watched as the competitors in the men’s marathon of the World Championship in Athletics ran down Unter den Linden, many of whom I recognized from the last Summer Olympics. That night, we enjoyed our fourth “Uncle Alexander” dinner. The following night, we attended an experimental musical theater double-header put on by a small private troop. Berlin is known for this sort of thing, and I found it very unusual and not at all to my liking; it was, however, very well received, perhaps demonstrating why Berlin is Europe’s hotspot for budding artists.


Largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall


Our next stop was Potsdam, very near to Berlin. Here, we saw the palace where the allied leaders (excluding the French) met after the war to decide the fate of Germany. We also saw the palace “Sansouci”, built by Fredrick the Great, an enlightened despot, as a getaway from the troubles of ruling Prussia. It was pretty, but I had just visited Versailles, which it was supposedly modeled after, and which it did not really compare favorably against (of course). That afternoon we drove to Weimar, home at times to people including Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Luther, Anna Amalia, and Franz Liszt. Franz Liszt made surprise appearances all over the city, appearing behind Goethe and Schiller on a famous statue, and with a paper-mache bust of his head covering other statues in the city, including one of William Shakespeare. All over the city, signs read “Liszt Lebt!” (“Liszt Lives”). It was creepy. Weimar is a real gem. It is in the heart of the cultural center of Germany, and it is a beautiful and serene place. Too bad we only had a few hours to see it on a Sunday night.


Fredrick the Great's Sansouci Palace


Palace gardens


Famous Weimar statue of Goethe and Schiller, with Franz Liszt making a surprise appearance


Our next morning, we travelled to nearby Erfurt, the capital of the German state of Thüringen (English Thuringia). I quite liked the shallow stream that lazily wound through the city, and the charm of the medieval-style downtown is hard to resist. I took Thüringer Bratwursts for lunch, which is one of the best kinds of bratwurst in Germany I think. In the afternoon, we drove a short while to Bamberg, also a UNESCO world heritage site, and for good reason. Our hotel was a converted palace, and the town was celebrating its annual festival, with food stands everywhere. The old cathedral, royal residence, and monastery were classic, accessible by cobblestone streets. We ended the night by watching the fireworks that marked the end of the annual festival.


Medieval house-bridge, Erfurt


Bamberg riverside homes


Bamberg square


The next morning we travelled to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of Germany’s best-preserved medieval towns. Holly and I had visited in the winter while we were living in München. As with most things, it was much nicer in summer. In the afternoon, we traveled to Würzburg, also on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. Würzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Erfurt, Bamberg, and Weimar would, in my opinion, make an excellent medieval vacation. These are my favorites of the German towns. The royal residence is breathtaking, and I enjoyed walking to the only castle on the tour. That night we had a wine-tasting at the Bürgerspital winery (home to the world’s oldest bottle of wine, 1540 A.D.), which also serves as a home for the elderly. The residents here are allotted 250 mL of Bürgerspital wine every day, and double on Sundays and holidays. The average age is 90, and the waiting list is very long.


Rothenburg ob der Tauber


Royal residence in Würzburg


World's oldest bottle of wine, Würzburg


Our last trip was to Bonn, the formal capital of West Germany and home to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We enjoyed lunch with the staff of the foundation. It was there, we were told, that our applications to the foundation were scrutinized by the infamous “selection committee.” It is a remarkable foundation, paid almost exclusively by government grants. The goal of the foundation is to create a word-wide network of scholars with ties to Germany by providing funding for foreign post-doctoral scholars to conduct their research in Germany. Uncle Alexander has been very good to us.

The last morning we returned to Bochum, said our goodbyes and went home. I had had a wonderful trip, but was more than ready to see Holly and Daisy again. It had been way too long. It’s remarkable that the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation would put so much money into its scholars’ experience of Germany, but I’m very grateful that they do. It was a trip I’ll never forget.