Lisboa em Grande

A view from Coelho Park (see below)

Yes, we had decided at Christmas break in Italy that we would concentrate on seeing Eastern Slovakia before we went elsewhere in Europe.  We took a cold trip to Banska Bystrica and Kosice (remember the blog post?) in late February to honor that pledge.  But then…we heard from a couple of friends that they had a wonderful time in Lisbon, and it seemed a shame that we had spent so much time in Spain without so much as putting a toe on Portuguese soil.  To make up for past mistakes, we broke with our intent to spend our remaining holidays in Slovakia, and forced ourselves to fly to Lisbon over Easter break.  That is our rationalization, and we’re sticking to it.

A day view from our flat

A night view from our flat

We arrived at 5 P.M. on Thursday and went to our apartment, a one-bedroom flat with a lovely kitchen and living area.  Alex(andre), our host, met us and led us to the fourth (fifth, by U.S. standards) floor; no elevator, so we felt right at home from the beginning. The view from the flat is spectacular.

See?

That first evening we traipsed down to the Mini Price Market to stock up on breakfast things and snacks.  When we say DOWN, we mean DOWN.  Lisbon, like Rome, is built on seven hills, but in Lisbon’s case the hills are steep and high.  If streets in Lisbon do not go UP and DOWN, then they probably got wiped out in the famous 1755 earthquake, flood, and fire that took out a goodly share of the central city.  When we walked, we exercised well, and we took public transportation a lot.  Of course, Lisbon is a big city, with a metro area population of nearly three million. 

Many Lisbonites, and most of the people in the rest of Portugal, observe the second half of Good Friday as a holiday, so we thought we would spend time getting acquainted with the city.  We set out fairly early and immediately got hailed on.  (In truth, the weather cooperated most of the time we spent there; the only other rain came as we queued up at the airport to return.)  If we had been clever we would have taken pictures; Alex said it had rained “little rocks” the day before, rare enough that he knew neither the English nor the Portuguese word for the phenomenon.  The skies gradually cleared as we headed down the street to catch the tram. 

Another view from Coelho Park

The castle, from across the valley

Along the way, a park dedicated to Eduardo Coelho (who founded Lisbon’s biggest newspaper) offered us wonderful views across the valley in between the hills (the part that took the heaviest damage in 1755) to the castle and cathedral.  From the tram stop, we took number 28 up into the historic area, The castle, Sao Jorge, overlooks the city from the other side of the valley than Coelho park, but in a much more spectacular way. First built by the Moors and captured by crusaders in 1147, Sao Jorge served the kings of Portugal until the earthquake and flood, and then in other roles until the early part of the nineteenth century.

Renovation began in the 1940s and it now serves tourists, cats, and peacocks well. 

Walk down from the castle through the winding, twisting medieval streets and encounter some peculiar diversions!

Central Lisbon, rebuilt after 1755, looks like many other eighteenth century European cities, with many of the same stores.

The Tower of Belem--watchtower, prison

The part of the city called Belem has a rich seafaring tradition; many of the fifteenth and sixteenth century explorers launched from there.  And most things are free on the Saturday before Easter! The church of Santa Maria de Belem is in the Monastery of San Jeronimo.

The explorers' monument

Santa Maria de Belem

  

The Moorish castle in Sintra

Venturing outside the city toward the Atlantic coast makes things change dramatically-- first, to Sintra,  a bit inland with another Moorish-built castle that provided a view of the coast and warning if enemies approached.   

Then along the coast past Estoril to Cascais to see what Portugal's Atlantic Ocean looks like.

 

Wildlife in Cascais

 

 

Most folks explore the central and historic parts of Lisbon and not much more.  We, however, went further.  The truth is, not much opens on Easter Monday, except for the huge Oceanarium (aquarium), the second largest in the world.  The Oceanarium stands as the centerpiece of Expo ’98 architecture, which dramatically altered the landscape of north Lisbon.  If you work it right, a cable car takes you there! The Oceanarium features all of the world's ocean ecosystems on several different floors.

Fearless underwater photographer

Penguins in Portugal?

We did return to a “see Slovakia first” agenda; as a matter of fact, this post comes from Strbske Pleso, or Strbske lake, on the edge of High Tatras National Park in Eastern Slovakia.  But that is a post for next time!

A "Quarterly" Blog Post?

Us!  Well, maybe not.

Have we lost interest in the blog?  By no means! The problem is time and energy.  We have been very busy since January (our last entry), particularly on weekends, when these posts typically happen.  Much of the busyness derives from school work that teachers have (as opposed to homework, that students have) so we don’t want to talk about it. Oh, yes, the 5th year students did have their traditional costume day; pictured is Paula in her Latin American teacher garb.  The students--namely the student council--sponsored the 4th annual school formal dance, or Ples as it's known in Central Europe.  Like Mardi Gras, Ples has to be held before Lent.

Bratislava reopened the Reduta, the home of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, at the end of January.  The hall had been closed for renovation for two years.  The revitalized hall is very fancy and very useful with two concert halls and a number of recital rooms.  The staff puts on a purple light show at the end of the orchestra's concert.  That information is added so you will know that the purple hue on a couple of these pictures is not from the camera.

Some of the attendees

The International Church in Bratislava got a new pastor, Miriam Schmidt, in mid-February.  The previous pastor, Arden Haug, remained as coordinator for Europe for ELCA Global Mission, so we had the unusual experience of having the outgoing pastor install the incoming pastor. That process required extra work for Paula, since she served on the committee of three to provide the “hail and farewell” luncheon for the two pastors.  Connection with the school helped, since the congregation could hold the event in the cafeteria of the gymnasium, the Evangelical Lyceum’s elementary school, a block away from the church.

SNP Square, Banska Bystrica

We had committed to spending time in Slovakia during our semester break at the end of February instead of gallivanting all over Europe, so the day after Ples we left for Banska

Another side of SNP Square

Bystrica and Kosice in the central and eastern part of the country.  “Banska” means “mine” (a hole in the ground, not a possessive) in Slovak, so you know where Banska Bystrica’s money

The SNP museum

came from, at least until gold and silver deposits petered out. (See our June post from last year).  BB was also at the center of the Slovak national uprising (SNP is the acronym derived from the words in Slovak) against the Nazis in 1944, so houses the modern looking SNP museum.  

As a side trip we went to Kremnica, site of the Austro-Hungarian, and then the Czechoslovak, and now the Slovak mint.  Euros are not made there now, but many commemoratives are.  The mint also

Kremnica's main square

supplied coinage to many countries that chose not to do their own coin manufacturing until the beginning years

From the Castle Church tower

Another view

of this millennium.  An example is Algeria; we, certainly, did not know until this trip that in the 1970s Paula might well have been using dinars made in Slovakia!  As you can see, we were cold during our trip.  That's not surprising, since we were on the edge of the mountains at the end of February.

Main square, looking back

Castle exit (or entrance)

St. Elizabeth's Cathedral, Kosice

Kosice is the country’s second-largest city, and there is a Lutheran school there as well.  We had dinner with an ELCA colleague.  As noted, Kosice stands as the edge of the Tatra mountains, so it is industrial; U.S. Steel is one of the big employers in the area

and one of the sponsors of the technological museum there.  Though minerals taken from

Entrance to the church tower

the earth meant wealth for both cities, different mining in separated eras led to unique development.

View from the church tower

We just finished Easter break, during which we broke our commitment to see Slovakia first!  Some friends had gone to Lisbon and raved about it, and February’s cold weather got to us, so we ended up in Portugal.  But more about that next time! And the time after that, God willing, we'll explain wooden churches

Relocated to Kosice

and say more about Eastern Slovakia.

Christmas Break, Trieste (Triest? Trst?)

a crystal dish and one of six

First of all, a rapid review of a fine Christmas.  Our Christmas Eve church service started at 4:30PM, but we went to the Pastor’s flat an hour before to rehearse our choir numbers.  Pastor Haug hosted a reception after the service, and then all of us came back here to Svoradova for Christmas Eve dinner, not at our flat but at Fredell’s, two flights down.  We made two trips to the Vienna Airport early Christmas Day, one to deliver Arden Haug so he could go to the United States, and the second to fetch the son of one of the teachers, so he could visit his mother.  She cooked a turkey for him (and the rest of us), so we ate well that day, too.  In between trips and eating, Jim gave Paula crystal and Paula gave Jim clothes!

A new shirt and pants!

On December 27 we tripped to Trieste.  Trieste? Where is Trieste?  Perhaps we should have been wary when the best travel book turned out to be Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris.  Never you mind that The New York Times told us not to overlook Trieste. 

Trieste is in Italy, just around the Adriatic corner from Venice, and is the capital of the autonomous Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.  Perhaps we should say Trieste is in Italy again.  Ruins date

Trieste, from the Karst (see below)

from Roman times, but from the sixteenth century to the end of World War I, Trieste served

Trieste's Roman amphitheater

as the main seaport for Austria-Hungary.  Then, as the Allies broke up Austria-Hungary after the Great War, Trieste came into Italy.  When the Italians surrendered to the Allies in World War II, the German Army moved into Trieste and made it part of the Reich, headquarters for all German military matters in the Balkans.  Two armies pushed the Germans out in 1945—the New Zealanders  and Tito’s Yugoslav partisans from the east.  The two armies served powers with different agendas.  Tito thought Trieste would make a wonderful Yugoslav port, and the Soviet Union agreed.  The Allies, on the other hand, had no intention of providing a window on the Adriatic for the Soviet sphere of influence.  So Trieste became an international “free city” for a decade, only returning to Italian control in 1954.

Trieste attracted us primarily for three reasons real estate people tell us to buy property—location, location, location.  The city is in a part of the world we want to see, close to Slovenia, Croatia, even southern Austria.  Second, its location made it strategically important and its fate, like that of Bratislava/Poszony/ Pressburg, came to be decided by others.  Third, Venice lies two hours by train. A host of secondary reasons drew us south as well.  Traveling

Hot chocolate is better without a cold...

from Central Europe to Italy in the winter is nearly always a good thing.  Trieste is the coffee capital of Italy, and one of

the prime coffee places in the world.  Trieste is NOT a hot tourist destination, even in the summer, so that means quiet in the winter.

Part of the Karst--and hordes of tourists!

The Caffe San Marco--better than Vienna?

The city has had three names, like Bratislava/Poszony/Pressburg. Austrians called it Triest. Italians added a vocalized –e.  To the Slavs, the city is Trst. Tree-est-eh is fiercely proud of

The Piazza del' Unita d'Italia

being part of Italy--at least, the Italians are proud of it.  Italian unification in 1871 fostered the irredentist (unredeemed) movement among them, and gave the empire’s secret police

Trieste's Cathedral

something to do. When Allied powers handed the region to the relatively new government of Italy in 1918, irredentists rejoiced. 

Tree-est’s tourist draw, however, comes from her Austro-Hungarian, commercial past, especially after Maria Theresa came to the throne in the eighteenth century.  Most of the heroic architecture comes from this period and into the nineteenth century. With the German-speaking Austrians

came the Protestants, too; to us, one of the most interesting churches in Trieste is the Basilica of St. Sylvester, built in the twelfth century but supplanted by a bigger church, taken over by the Lutherans at the time of the Edict of Tolerance in 1783. 

St. Sylvester

Move out of the city, however, and the region’s Slavic roots show.  Friuli-Venezia Giulia is officially bilingual, Italian/Slovene, and signs outside the city carry two languages, including directions to Trst.  Inside the city, we saw only Italian.  You can read an account of the treatment of the Slavic (especially Slovene) minorities by Italian Fascists on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trieste), along with more history if you’re interested.   We went with the intention of visiting Slovenia and perhaps Croatia, especially the Slovene capital, Ljubljana, because the two cities are so close and because several of our friends praised Ljubljana.  However, public transportation does not encourage day visits to Slovenia from Trieste, and the ferry to Croatia runs only in the warmer months.

Trieste has a reputation for melancholy coming from the tendency of its citizens to look to the past for times of glory—or so we learned from our reading.  Tourism focuses on the nineteenth century and trade for the empire.  Italy between the wars made a show of valuing Trieste (“you should have been here during the Fascist times!,” one source quoted an older resident).  But we saw a much more dynamic city, bustling about its business with polite regard for us tourists and a willingness to help, but neither an undue urge to please nor cynically arched eyebrows spoiled the experience.

The Karst, rising above the medieval castle

Weather could have dampened our enthusiasm, but rain came only two days, Our readings also warned us about the bora, a tremendously strong wind that comes down from the Karst, a steep limestone rise to a plateau over 450 meters above the city.  We only had fierce winds one day, and they lasted just a couple of hours.

Miramare

Maria Theresa’s grandson, Franz Joseph, came to the Habsburg throne in 1848.  His younger brother, Maximillian (Ferdinand Max), head of the Imperial Navy and then Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, began building a castle for his home in Trieste after he retired in 1859, and named it Miramar (Spanish) which became Miramare in Italian.  Both mean the same—a beautiful view of the ocean.  Although he had been approached by Mexican royalists to become Emperor of Mexico, he did not agree until 1863.  He departed in 1864, even before workmen finished

Paula at Miramare

Miramare,  but Benito Juarez overthrew the short-lived empire in 1867 and executed Maximilian.  The Emperor’s wife, Charlotte of Belgium, had returned to Europe and lived a few years at Miramare, but she became increasingly mentally imbalanced.  Habsburgs visited occasionally between Charlotte’s departure and 1918, but for the mort part the castle stood empty until Amadeo, Fifth Duke of Aosta, moved in with his wife and two

daughters in 1931.  He remained until he became Governor-General of Italian East Africa in 1937.  He, too, died abroad, in a British prisoner-of-war camp in Kenya in 1942. The German Army established its high command in Miramare in 1943, as did the Allies during Trieste’s “free city” occupation from 1945 to 1954.

Our trip to Trieste (and thence to Venice) involved many kinds of art.  Only in the last forty years or so have the Italians recognized that many Triestans contributed to literature, painting, and sculpture.  Two palaces, the Revoltella and the Sartorio, show many works of art.  We followed Umberto

Two Jameses--one's a better writer

Saba’s poem to three streets in Trieste. James Joyce loved Trieste; he completed most of Dubliners there, as well as most of Ulysses; he met and encouraged Italo Svevo, whose Confessions of Zeno is perhaps the greatest Italian novel of the twentieth century.

Since we couldn’t get to Slovenia or Croatia, we were forced to go to Venice twice.  Oh, throw us into that briar patch!  Each time we concentrated on modern art.  On New Year’s Eve day we went to Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, and the second time (January 2) to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. We toasted the New Year in with some excellent prosecco--and then Davide, our B&B host, brought us more when we got back to our room, to make sure we had done the deed!

I guess, from the length of this, we had a good time.  Wait until we show you the OTHER pictures!