Guernsey

Tuesday, April 30, 2013, Guernsey, Channel Islands

We had a disappointing announcement this morning.  David Eisenhower had been hospitalized but is now released.  He’s not able to join us for the lecture tonight and will not be on the beaches of Normandy tomorrow with us.  He and Julie will join us for dinner tomorrow and he will lecture to us tomorrow night.  Oh well….

This morning we had a lecture introducing us to the phenomenal story of Juan Pujol Garcia, a self-made double agent during WW II.  To make a long story short, he created an entire squad of German sympathizing Spaniards, French, and English who didn’t exist, and fed surprising amounts of false information to the Germans.  They so believed in him that they awarded him (quietly) the Iron Cross, and he is the only person to have an Iron Cross and to have been knighted by the Queen of England!  Meanwhile, British intelligence took him in, and helped him feed substantial false information to the Germans.  He was instrumental in directing German military assets away from the Normandy invasion and may, single-handedly, have been responsible for the failure of the Germans to repel the invasion!  It’s an amazing story and one of which I knew nothing.

Following lunch we went on a visit to Guernsey in the Channel Islands which had two purposes.  One was to introduce us to this wonderful and beautiful island, semi-autonomous (but very English).  The political history is fascinating; suffice it to say that each of the Channel Islands is an autonomous republic, sort of part of the EU, but only as an affiliate, and Guernsey has its own currency and stamps (although it also uses British pounds).  Anyway, the small port town of St. Peter is lovely:

 

And the island’s coast is beautiful:

 

The primary focus of our time on Guernsey was the German occupation, from 1941-1945.  It’s a strange story.  It is the only part of Great Britain (although it really isn’t) which Hitler conquered and occupied, and as such, he set out to defend it against attack.  The island is only 25 square miles, is not strategically important, but Hitler spent enormous sums of money and stationed (depending on which story you hear) 17,000 or 40,000 troops here.  It was referred to as Hitler’s folly, as the cost in men, in materiel to build all of the bunkers around the periphery of the island, and in the support of such a large contingent was stupendous.  It was so large that the allies thought it better to just let Hitler alone, spending so much of his assets here that it detracted from his ability to wage war elsewhere.  The explanation for such a folly is political and propagandistic: Hitler didn’t want to risk loss of his occupation of part of Britain, and would spend anything to avoid it.

Here is an 18^th century fort which the Germans added bunkers to:

 

And here are other German instillations:

 

There is a wonderful occupation museum here, with treasures including an Enigma machine:

 

And here is a motorcycle with side car:

 

Tomorrow we arrive in Normandy and will visit the beaches, the American cemetery, and the Bayeux tapestry.

Belle Ile en-Mer

Monday, April 29, 2013, Belle Ile en-Mer, France

This morning we had two lectures, one pretty detailed and focused on the French discovery of Spanish painting and the removal of Spanish art to France by somewhat nefarious means.  The second was a preview of the Bayeux Tapestry which we will see on Wednesday afternoon.

After lunch we visited Belle Ile en-Mar.  Belle Ile is a small island about 12 miles off the coast of Brittany, on the North Atlantic coast of France.  It has much history dating back to Roman days, but is most famous because of its beauty, and because two people found it special—Claude Monet as a place to paint, and Sarah Bernhardt who spent many summers here.

The total population of the island is about 5000, half of whom live in the major town, Le Palais.  Today the island is supported by tourism (summer vacationers, mostly) and fishing.  Here is La Palais:

 

There is a huge citadel above the town, built in the mid-1800’s to defend the island and the coast of France.  It is massive:

 

And it has a massive moat:

 

After touring the citadel we visited a couple of special places on the island, one being the most picturesque of the many estuaries, which was a favorite of Monet’s to paint:

 

And here is the old small fort which Sarah Bernhardt had repurposed into a summer home on another small estuary.  Note the lighthouse in the background.  There’s nothing else nearby.  I guess if you live as busy a life as she did, isolation for your summer holiday makes sense.

 

Tomorrow we tour Guernsey Island as we begin the study of WWII and the German occupation.  The last lecturer (of three tomorrow) will be David Eisenhower who will talk on “Operation Overlord”.

Bilbao, Spain

Sunday April 28, 2013 Bilbao, Spain

We sailed overnight last night with only a gentle rocking motion, and we slept well.  This morning we had a lecture on Spanish Wars in Art with an emphasis on Goya and Picasso which was just wonderful, and was a great prelude to the temporary exhibit at the Bilbao Guggenhiem.  At lunchtime we docked in Santander, a town we had visited many years ago when we were able to see the cave paintings at Altamira, something which is no longer open to the public.  We went by bus to Bilbao, about an hour’s ride.

We are now in Basque country, along the northeast coast of Spain, which incorporates three Spanish provinces as well as some part of France.  The Spaniards have recognized the Basque language as a valid (and legal) part of Spain, and have granted the three Basque provinces substantial autonomy.  We were told that 94% of the taxes collected here stay here and only 6% go to Madrid.  The aggressive (and sometimes murderous) Basque separatist movement is now somewhat mollified by the actions of the central government and have become somewhat quiescent.  As a result of some pretty competent planning, the old grimy town of Bilbao has been rebuilt over the last 20 years, and a centerpiece of that rebuilding was the partnership with the Guggenheim Museum which led to the creation of the Frank Gehry masterpiece building which houses it.  Currently Bilbao and the Basques are doing quite well with an unemployment rate of “only” 15%, while all of Spain is at 25%!

Bilbao is now a lovely city!  The streets of the old city have been turned into pedestrian only walkways:

And valuable old buildings have been reconstructed or rehabbed.  Here is the train station:

The centerpiece for a tourist is, of course, the museum, built on a river.  Here’s a photo from across the river:

The skin is titanium which has a silvery color of its own and reflects colors around it:

There was a competition to incorporate the bridge over the river into the view of the building, and it has been done very successfully with a sort of sculpture over the bridge truss:

Some of the art is outdoor sculpture:

The interior is spectacular.  No words or photos can do it justice; it has to be experienced:

Photos are not allowed in the galleries, but they are wonderful.  The temporary exhibit is on war, as depicted in painting, and on painting as influenced by being done in wartime.  It is wonderful, but we had limited time to see it after gawking at the building on our tour.

We’re well, finally pretty well rested, overfed, and looking forward to the visit tomorrow to Belle Ile, France.

Santiago de Compostela

Saturday, April 27, 2013 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

We had a very rough night last night.  There was a huge wind blowing as we set out from Porto, and immediately the ship began to rock and roll pretty dramatically.  Swells were about 20 feet, whitecaps were crashing, and the water was washing up over the windows of the dining room which is on the second level.  Barf bags were hung on all the railings, and only about half of the passengers showed up for dinner.  Of those who did, many left before finishing, as did we when Joyce couldn’t take it any more.  She looked bad enough that on the way out of the dining room the staff handed her a barf bag and a green apple, saying the apple might help.  She took a bite or two and was somewhat better.  We tried to go to sleep, and the crashing, the falling of things off shelves, the opening of drawers and the intense pitching and rocking made it very hard.  It was a long night.

We made it to breakfast and to a wonderful morning lecture by the Smithsonian lecturer on pilgrimage in the medieval world, as today we went to a major pilgrimage site, the Cathedral of St. James (Santiago) in Santiago de Compostela, about an hour’s ride from the dock in La Corona.  This part of Spain, the northwest corner, is called Galicia.  It has a fair degree of autonomy from the rest of Spain, and it wealthy and proudly different from the rest of Spain.  Its origins are Celtic, bagpipes are among the native instruments, and there is a Galician language closer to Portuguese than to Spanish.  There are close ties to Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but not to England.

The cities of La Corona and Santiago are beautiful, with lush gardens, clean broad streets, flowers, and well-kept public buildings and parks.  There is a minimum of graffiti.  Clearly the economic problems of most of Spain don’t reach here.

The stories and legends about St. James (Santiago) are many; suffice it to say that there is a cathedral here which is one of the major pilgrimage sites for all of Catholicism.  To this day people walk, ride animals, and even bicycles to make a pilgrimage here.  There are rules as to how far you must come in each of these ways to get certified as a pilgrim.

Here is a small square in Santiago:

And here is part of the University:

Here is the front of the Cathedral, originally Romanesque from the 11^th c. but with a Baroque façade added later:

The gates are amazing:

The altar was added later:

The adjacent monastery is enormous:

There are groups of pilgrims on foot and on bicycle, but we saw none on horseback.  To be certified you need to have come 100 km. (62 miles) by foot, or 200 km. by bicycle or animal.  The town has beautiful side streets with lovely cafes, restaurants and shops.  Very enjoyable.

Off tonight for Bilbao and the Gehry museum tomorrow.

 

Running through airports; Porto, Portugal

April 26, 2013 Oporto, Portugal

Well, we did it again.  Flight from hell; running through airports. 

When we booked our flights for this trip, we said to each other, it’s April, no snowstorms, no need to go early.  Who ever thought of something like a sequester?  We were scheduled out of Rochester at 5 PM with almost four hours layover in JFK before flying to Paris, connecting to Lisbon.  Our flight was to arrive in Lisbon at 2 PM and our boat left from the Lisbon docks at 5 PM.  Lots of time.

Well we sat in the Rochester airport, and sat, and sat.  Our plane was at the gate, but we were told we couldn’t go because JFK couldn’t allow us to leave.  Our connection time in JFK was becoming very tight, when finally, at 8 PM they announced that our flight was cancelled.  At the next gate was a flight about to leave for Detroit, and rather than standing in line for the agent at the cancelled flight gate, I went over there, hoping he could do something for us.  This great agent put us on the flight to Detroit, said he didn’t have time to do anything more, but we should run to the departure gate for a Paris flight in Detroit which we just might make.  Of course we arrived at the Detroit terminal and the Paris flight was leaving from the other terminal in 15 minutes.  We ran.  We ran from the smaller terminal, through the underground tunnel, to the very long terminal and of course, the gate was at the far end.  We ran on the moving walkway, brushing past old ladies and children, and when the gate came into view about 100 yards away, they were closing the door.  I waved frantically and ran ahead of Joyce and they saw me and waved back.  We got to the gate out of breath and with no boarding passes and asked them to look in the computer.  We were there!  The Rochester agent had us on the flight!  They printed out the boarding passes, put us on and closed the door behind us.  We had a tight connection in Paris to get to our original Paris-Lisbon flight, and we made it.  Fortunately we had not checked any luggage, but are traveling with carry-ons.

Le Boreal is a smallish ship, holding about 200 people, and very French.  Here’s a photo of our ship (in front) and a big cruise ship behind. 

 

Here’s our cabin which is very nice.

 

 

We left port at 6:30 PM, had a life jacket drill, and then dinner with the Smithsonian group, of which we’re part.  There are other groups on the ship also, from Brown University, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and others.  French wines are served at lunch and dinner (all you want, part of the cost, and poured like at a big party) and the table was lively.  We finally got to sleep at about 10:30 and despite considerable rocking and rolling, slept until 7 AM.

This morning we had a lecture on the history of Portugal, why it is what it is, going back to before Roman times.  It’s a very complicated history, with invasions of many peoples from Moors to Visigoths, and the culture and language reflect the complexity.  After lunch we toured the city of Porto (Oporto in English) which has a wonderful history.  This is the second-largest city of Portugal and the major port.  It also is famous for the port wine which is central to the history of the city and the region.  We stopped at the glorious Palacio de Bolsa—a palace to commerce, a UNESCO World Heritage site, built in the 19^th c. and filled with amazing halls.  Here’s a view of Porto from the terrace of the Palacio

And here’s a view of the Douro river.  Across the river are the long buildings with tile roofs where port is aged, and on the river you can see one of the boats which used to be used to bring casks of port down from the vineyards.  They’re mostly now used for tourists.

 

The most magnificent room in the Palacio is the Arabian Hall, modeled after the Alhambra in Granada.

Nearby is the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a magnificent 14^th c. Gothic church with phenomenal carvings and literally tons of gilt over much of the carvings.

 

 

Finally we walked the Ribiera, the harbor area, full of cafes, shops, and tourists.

 

 

Tonight we’ll set sail during dinner for our next adventure up the coast of Iberia.