My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Chapter 6: Paris to Milan

P.S. to my previous post about Paris -- I have found the photo I took while crossing the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe on foot.  Here it is:

Now . . . Paris to Milan!

 

From Paris we took 4 or 5 days (I don't remember exactly how many) to travel to Milan by way of  Strasbourg; Basel; Zurich . . .

Limmatquai, Zurich

. . . Lucerne, where we bought watches and other Swiss jewelry creations . . .

Harry Ruttimann's jewelry store, Lucerne

. . . Lauterbrunnen (a Swiss village in the Bernese Alps with the magnificent 974-ft Staubbach waterfall, the highest free-falling waterfall in Switzerland) . . .

Lausanne; Geneva, where we drove by the Palace of Nations, home of the United Nations in Geneva and originally intended to house the League of Nations . . .

. . . Chamonix; then through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy.

Mont Blanc tunnel, Italian side

Here's a map of our general route:

Somewhere along the way -- I think it was at the Grindelwald youth hostel (a very popular winter skiing and summer hiking destination) -- our itinerary intersected with the other group's.  They had added the letters "US" to one of their van's rear windows with medical adhesive tape, so when we were departing the next morning (before they did), we added "SR" to the other rear window:

We didn't wait around to see their reaction, and of course the "SR" didn't last very long, but it was a fun prank . . . and we heard about it from them later in the trip.

I don't remember what time we finally arrived in Milan, but we didn't do much exploration because we had planned to stay only one night -- we were more interested in Venice. Milan is Italy's second-largest city, a major international center for industry, finance (the Italian stock market is located there), art, fashion, science, and music (La Scala opera house is there).  Looking back on it now, it's clear that there was a lot more to see in Milan than we allowed time for.

Most of our time was spent in the Piazza del Duomo, where the magnificent Gothic Milan cathedral is located.

Construction of the cathedral began in 1386, and with an ever-changing parade of architects, engineers, and politicians, the building was about half finished by 1402.  But construction stalled until 1480 due to lack of money and ideas, and changing political regimes.  The work proceeded intermittently throughout the 16th through 19th centuries -- longer than Gaudi's now almost finished Sagrada Familia in Barcelona! -- and the last portal was inaugurated in 1965, a year before we arrived.

(For comparison, construction of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris began in 1163 and was substantially completed by 1260.)

Because of its contrasting styles (principally Roman and Gothic), the cathedral has been praised and panned.  John Ruskin, the influential Victorian art historian and critic, said the cathedral "steals from every style in the world: and every style spoiled."  In 1875 Oscar Wilde called it "an awful failure . . . it is, however, imposing and gigantic as a failure."  But Mark Twain visited it in 1867 and in Chapter 18 of Innocents Abroad wrote "What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems . . . a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!"

Another Milan landmark that opens onto the same plaza as the cathedral is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.  It's a high-end shopping arcade built from 1865 to 1877 with an iron and glass dome covering broad pedestrian hallways.

That's it for now.  Next post:  Milan to Venice, and the Very Bad/Very Good Day.

My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Chapter 5: On to Paris

 

From Birmingham, we headed south and east toward the white cliffs of Dover, where we embarked via ferry for the Continent and the remainder of our six-week trip.

We crossed the Channel . . . 

L to R: Chris, Judy, Hank, Susan, Bill

. . . landed at Ostend, and immediately set out for Brussels, and a day later drove from Brussels to Paris, arriving the day after Bastille Day.  Reviewing stand bleachers were still in place along the Champs-Élysées.

Instead of lodging in a youth hostel with large communal sleeping areas, in Paris we had the luxury of small individual rooms (but no private baths) in a pensión near the Place de la Bastille, complete with a birdcage elevator that would barely accommodate two people . . . or just one with luggage!

In Paris, you're never far away from a wonderful small bakery, so Tom would make a breakfast run every day, and we indulged in fresh bread, croissants, butter, and jam.  I don't remember many meals on the trip, but those breakfasts were great.  And I must say that at dinner in a very nice restaurant on the Champs-Élysées I had the best French fries I had ever tasted.

We made all the mandatory tourist stops.  Here are a couple of photos of me for the record:

(Yes, that's the tie I bought at Hawkes & Co. in London.  But now I'm wearing a jacket instead of the sports coat that was stolen in Birmingham.)

At the Louvre, we had fairly close-up access to the Mona Lisa:  no timed tickets or hordes of viewers when we were there.  And for an art form at the opposite end of the cultural spectrum, after a group discussion about appropriateness for minors and everyone's comfort level about seeing female nudity, our group voted to go to the Folies Bergère.  We were definitely not in Oklahoma (or Kansas) anymore, Toto.

As enjoyable as Paris was, it was easy to get overloaded with art, architecture, history, food, and the sheer energy of the city.  But there's one place . . . and one moment . . . that stands out in my memory of Paris.  

The Eiffel Tower is the graceful, soaring, iconic landmark on all the travel posters.  But the Arc de Triomphe, commanding the western end of the Champs-Élysées, has the gravitas of war, remembrance, and national pride.  

August 25, 1944
Photo courtesy of Imperial War Museum

August 29, 1944
Photo by Jack Downey,
U.S. Office of War Information

A rare absence of traffic on the Champs-Élysées
Mid-July, 1966

We approached the Place de l'Étoile (renamed Place Charles de Gaulle after his death in 1970) from the southeast on Avenue Marceau.

Notice the big Chevrolet Impala on the right!

A few of us were crazy enough to cross through the traffic in the circle.  Here's what it looked like (what was I thinking??): 

We went up to the roof and got great views of the city.

Looking east at the Champs-Élysées

Completed in 1836, the Arc de Triomphe is also the location of France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, marked by an Eternal Flame.  France had about 1.4 million military deaths and 4.2 million wounded in World War I, compared to approximately 117,000 deaths and 204,000 wounded from the United States, so honoring the War dead was (and still is) a major national commitment for the entire country.

The flame was first lit on November 11, 1923, five years after the end of the War.  Since then it has been rekindled every evening at dusk, even during the Nazi occupation in World War II, with a ceremony organized by the Flame Committee under the Arc de Triomphe, Flame of the Nation.  Over 500 organizations from all over France are members of the Committee.

We were fortunate to be there at the ceremony one evening.  At 6:30, everything around the Arc stopped (including traffic), and the area beneath the vault of the Arc was cleared (except for that pigeon), with gemdarmes stationed in front of the crowd every few feet.  No barriers, no ropes . . . just respect.

Then the organization responsible for that day's ceremony assembled in the traffic circle and marched forward with a wreath.

I am still puzzled by the flag the group carried.  It's not a national flag of any country that I know.  Perhaps it's an organization or regional flag.

Nevertheless, it was a very solemn and meaningful ceremony, and we were privileged to be there to witness it.

My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Musical Interlude #1: Out of Time

 

I brought a small transistor radio on the trip -- the social media device of the 1960s -- and would tune in to whatever station I could find.  One night during our first week in England I heard a song that I really liked, sung by a male vocalist whose voice I didn't recognize, but he kinda sounded like Tom Jones.

I learned his name was Chris Farlowe, an English journeyman blues and rock singer unknown in the United States.  He had started singing professionally in 1957 with a couple of different groups, and became a solo act in 1962, with little success.  In 1965, however, he signed with a record company headed by the Rolling Stones' manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and began covering Jagger/Richard songs including "Satisfaction" and "Paint It Black."

In early 1966, Oldham got Jagger to offer Farlowe a song called "Out of Time."  The Stones had recorded the song for their Aftermath album, released in the U.K. on April 15, but it was dropped from the U.S. edition (along with three other now lesser-known songs) because the U.S. distributor wanted a shorter album.

With Jagger as producer, Farlowe recorded "Out of Time" in late April and early May, and it was released June 17.  It entered the UK Singles Chart at #36, and reached #1 on July 28, where it stayed for one week.  "Out of Time" exited the UK chart in September.  It was Farlowe's biggest hit.

You can hear the song on YouTube here.  Listen carefully and you'll hear Mick and the boys singing back-up.

Enjoy!

My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Chapter 4: Oxford, Stratford, and . . . Birmingham!

 

After Stonehenge, we traveled up to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon – two towns with obvious attractions for visitors from the Colonies.  My family had a friend who had been a Rhodes Scholar at Lincoln College in Oxford, which also has a connection to early Methodism, so naturally, being Methodist kids on a Methodist-sponsored trip, we had to stop in there.

Lincoln College, Turl Street, Oxford

The college was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, to nurture “true students of theology who would defend the mysteries of Scripture against those ignorant laymen who profaned with swinish snouts its most holy pearls.”  Those “ignorant laymen” were the Lollards, non-academic followers of John Wycliffe (1328-1384), an Oxford professor who was dismissed from his post in 1381 for heresy and is now considered a precursor to the English Reformation a hundred years later.

Like all the Oxford colleges, Lincoln has some distinguished alumni (besides our Rhodes Scholar friend) including Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), and David Cornwell (aka John le Carré).  Three hundred years after its founding, Lincoln became the cradle of Methodism when John Wesley, a fellow there from 1726, held religious meetings of his “Holy Club” with his brother Charles.  The rest of the university fellows called them “Bible moths.”  A portrait of Wesley hangs in the Hall, and a bust overlooks the front quad.

L to R: Kay, Hank, Susan, Bill in Lincoln College Front Quad

Lincoln College Front Quad today

Up the road from Oxford, we made our pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace.  It's part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, an independent charity that cares for Shakespeare heritage sites in and around Stratford.

1966

The house was built in 1530; Shakespeare was born there in 1564.  Over the centuries, however, the house fell into disrepair, and in 1846 was put up for sale.  Not surprisingly, in classic American huckster tradition, P.T. Barnum proposed to buy the structure and ship it “brick by brick” to the United States.  In response, the locals (including celebrities like Charles Dickens) formed a committee and raised the money to purchase the building and restore it to its 16th century state.

Shakespeare's birthplace today

We also peeked into the nearby Royal Shakespeare Theatre (it was "dark"), and walked around the Shakespeare Monument, a bronze and stone installation featuring a seated statue of Shakespeare in the center, flanked on four corners with smaller statues of iconic characters from Shakespeare's plays (Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Prince Hal, and Falstaff).

Falstaff cast a bemused eye on Tom, the husband of our chaperone couple.

The Monument was designed and constructed by Lord Ronald Gower, who, as a gay nobleman in Victorian England, led a checkered life.  Of course, in 1966 we were not aware of his existence or history.  At the monument’s unveiling in 1888, Oscar Wilde read a poem dedicated to the monument written by the wife of the headmaster of the local grammar school.  What a hoot that must have been!  You can read more about Lord Gower here.

From Stratford we motored on to Birmingham.  Birmingham??  Why Birmingham?

Most nights on our trip we stayed in youth hostels, but in Birmingham we stayed overnight as guests in the home of Ivor and Bobs Whitehead.  This visit was on the "must see" list of our chaperones, Tom and Kay, because Ivor and Tom were both dentists and had become friends when they met in oral surgery residency in Birmingham, Alabama (who knew?!).

Now at the Birmingham (U.K.) Dental Hospital -- a teaching hospital of the University of Birmingham’s School of Dentistry -- there’s an Ivor Whitehead Prize awarded annually to an outstanding oral and maxillofacial surgery student.

Not to be outdone, Ivor’s wife, Bobs, was a top-ranked squash player, competing at the British Open (considered the premier world championship of squash) for nearly two decades, including being the sixth seed in the 1963 Open.

Ivor and Bobs Whitehead with their son, Mark.

Three significant things happened to our group in Birmingham. 

    1.  At dinner at the Whiteheads’ that evening, Bobs served Baked Alaska for dessert – a culinary first for me; it was delicious!

    2.  Overnight our minivan, parked in the Whiteheads' driveway, was broken into, and various items were stolen, including my sport coat.  Fortunately, our valuables were safe in the house.  (We had another mishap with the minivan later in the trip, which I will recount in a future post.)

    3.  Since we were in England during the Swinging Sixties, one of  the girls in our group, Judy, worked up the courage to buy a miniskirt, hemmed about an inch above the knee.  She was quite self-conscious about it, but she wore it well.

My Excellent European Adventure 60th Anniversary - Chapter 3: Stonehenge

 

View from SSE looking NNW

                                                     " . . . old stones that cannot be deciphered."

                                                                                   -- T.S. Eliot, "East Coker," Four Quartets

After a few days in London, our Morris mini-van was delivered to the German YMCA.  We loaded up and set out for other iconic destinations in England.  Tom (the husband of our chaperone couple) was our driver, an American in a right-hand drive van driving on the left-hand side of the road.  There's no need to keep you in suspense:  Tom did a terrific job; we did not have any accidents . . . although we did have a few mishaps with the vehicle that I'll describe in future posts.

First stop was Stonehenge, one of the most famous landmarks in the UK and a place on everyone's "must see" list.  The structure is prehistoric, constructed in several phases over 1,500 years beginning about 3100 BCE and continuing until about 1600 BCE.  For reference, the great pyramids in Egypt were constructed between 2700 and 1500 BCE.

The earliest portion of the site consisted of a circular embankment and ditch with a ring of 56 chalk pits, called Aubrey holes, named after the late 17th century antiquarian John Aubrey, who noticed some of the depressions on a visit in 1666.  The Aubrey holes are the white dots in the diagram below.

Drawing by Adamsan, after Cleary et al.

Here's what they look like from ground level:

Despite decades of argument and analysis, their purpose is still unknown.  However, 25 of the holes contain cremated human remains dating from about 3000 BCE, which makes Stonehenge the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles.  And there is some evidence that the holes originally held small pillars (called bluestones, quarried 140 miles away) as markers for the cremated remains.

Image from NOVA "Ghosts of Stonehenge" (Season 44, Episode 14)

At some point, the bluestone grave markers were removed and the holes were filled in.  Beginning around 2600 BCE, and for the next 200 years, the huge vertical megaliths (called sarcens) and capstone lintels familiar to us were brought to the site -- some weighing as much as 50 tons -- and were rearranged multiple times during that period.  

There is also evidence that between 2600 BCE and 2400 BCE as many as 4,000 people may have gathered at the site for mid-winter and mid-summer celebrations, as the megaliths of the stone circle are clearly oriented for the summer solstice sunrise and winter solstice sunset.

Northeast side, looking southwest (direction of winter solstice sunset)

As I recall our visit (though my memory may be faulty), in 1966 there was no visitor center, no entrance fee, no explanatory display panels . . . just a small parking area near the site, from which we could walk anywhere we wanted.

These days, there's a very modern visitor center about a mile from the site, with a shuttle running between them.  Entry fee now for a family of five (2 adults, 3 kids) is roughly $90.  And except for special occasions (like the summer solstice) and private parties, you can't go into the stone circle.  (See walkways in the image below.)

Stonehenge today

However, as you can see from my photos above and below, when we were there, you could walk within the stone circle.  There were probably 50 - 60 people (including a group of schoolboys), and we were free to touch and climb on the fallen stones.

Four years later, when my wife (before we were married) visited Stonehenge with a group from her college, people were still walking in the stone ring and climbing on the fallen sarcens.

In 1978 UNESCO began designating World Heritage sites; Stonehenge was named a World Heritage site in 1986. (What took so long?)  

If you are interested in learning more about Stonehenge, there are thousands of articles, scientific papers, television documentaries, and more for your consideration.  Here's a link to a NOVA program on YouTube about Stonehenge and the evidence for clues about the people who built it.

Needless to say, for us Stonehenge -- far, far older than any of the monuments and buildings in London -- was an awe-inspiring place.

Lightning !

 

I got some great lightning pictures last night from about 10:15p to 10:30p.  Enjoy the beauty of this world!