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!

 

St. Stephen Among the Holy Innocents on Boxing Day

A merry Christmas and happy new year to y'all!  This blog sends our holiday greetings to the thousands of you (well, a few less than that) who read the blog. It is actually being written on Boxing Day (if you're in England), December 26, which would be a couple of days before the commemoration of the martyrdom of the holy innocents, and a day known in Central Europe as St. Stephen's Day.  So everything is closed in Bratislava. 

Much has gone on in Bratislava since our return from Lutherstadt Wittenberg (see the previous blog entry), but if the truth be known we haven't taken many pictures!  Many of our activities went on last year as well, with different participants, so I guess you'll have to conjure up images from previous blogs.

The Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt

Not too many days after we got back from Germany, we took a trip south of here by car to Eisenstadt, Austria, with Pastor Arden driving.  The Esterhazys, princes of the Hungarian Empire, made Eisenstadt their family home in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries.  Eisenstadt was convenient for royal travel, since it sits about two-thirds of the way to Vienna from Budapest. The Esterhazys had a lot of money and a lot of influence, since the house fought for the Hapsburgs.  The palace is most famous for being the place where Joseph Haydn did most of his composing in the last part of the eighteenth century, and where he died (and so is doing most of his decomposing as well).  A local boy from Bratislava (or as it was known then, Pressburg or Poszony, depending on whether you were from Vienna or Budapest), Johann Nepomuk Hummel, succeeded Haydn.  And, we found out a couple of weeks ago, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Mass in C Minor at the behest of an Esterhazy and premiered it in Eisenstadt in 1807.  The Prince didn't like it, Ludwig stormed out, and that, as they say, was the end of that!

We took time to go to Lutsmannsburg, just south of Eisenstadt.  That area, Burgenland, is noted for its red wine, and this year and last were especially good.  It so happened that we

The barrels of this year's harvest

came to Lutsmannsburg just on the Saturday of the wine festival.  Arden knows one of the families well, since they are active in the Lutheran parish there, and we were treated to wine (except for Arden, of course, who was driving) and a tour of the winery.

Paula went to a couple of stuzkovas (which, if you remember, are the fifth -year students' we-hope-for graduation parties at which they receive their stuzkas, or green ribbons which they wear for luck), and Jim got invited to one, too!  We found out this year that the parties and the ribbons are traditions only in Slovakia.  Like weddings, stuzkovas have gotten more elaborate (and expensive) over the years, but the students were dressed wonderfully, the food was delicious, the programs were good, and the dancing was... well, good when other people were involved.

Paula' centerpiece graced both parties

We got plenty of Turkey on Thanksgiving!  As with last year, there were two parties. The students took pity on their poor American teachers and put on a Turkey Party on Thanksgiving Day after classes.  The school chef (and she is one, too) did the turkeys, potatoes, and dressing.  Students and teachers provided the rest.  Then, on the next

Birds get carved....

Saturday, American teachers came in from the rest of Slovakia and Poland for another Thanksgiving.  Again, the school cooked turkeys and provided the setting, and the Americans (and

The Turkey Party spread

invited Slovak friends) celebrated and ate.  Later, the "It" game got a little wild... The International Church benefited the next day, too, since many teachers stayed over and provided extra music.

The Christmas markets started in Bratislava and Vienna, and of course we went. We added Budapest this year, but that's a long one-day trip!  We got to see the Oslo Philharmonic with Joshua Bell during the Bratislava Music Festival.  Oh, yes--teaching went on, too!  

We'll blog about Christmas and Trieste next time.  We leave tomorrow.  The reaction we get most often is, "Trieste!  How wonderful! Where's that?"  Our concern is that the main book is Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, by Jan Morris.  We'll see, and let you know.

Thin Places

The Evanjelicke Lyceum, being what it is and where it is, offers a fall break over Reformation Day and All Saints Day.  We took the opportunity to visit Leipzig and Wittenberg, Germany. 

Martin

In our minds these two cities, stomping grounds of Bach and the reformers, are thin places.  In Celtic spirituality a “thin place” is a physical location where the veil between God and the world is especially, well, thin, where people experience God more directly and clearly.  Theologically we doubt whether we should use this metaphor, since it implies that the distance between God and people is generally “thick,” and we know that God is everywhere.  Our experience, however, tells us that places do exist where we feel closer to God, whether it is true or not. 

The Leipzig market

Against the law to have a REAL monkey

We took the overnight train on Thursday from Bratislava to Dresden, changed trains, and went on to Leipzig.  Walking a bit brought us to our hotel, which was grand.  New remodeling and total electronics took us far and away from our much more humble flats in Bratislava.  Based on the recommendation of our traveling companions, we went first to the tourist office and signed up for the guided walking tour a couple of hours later.  It just so happened that the market opens on Friday, so we strolled through the booths and ate our lunch in the open air--bockwurst and reformation bread.  Imagine a bit of Christmas bread with raisins and then add some red jam on top, covered with icing or powdered sugar.

Tomaskirche

Having noshed a bit (but not in the Naschmarkt-- see below), we found our way to the Tomaskirche where Johann Sebastian Bach was choirmaster and organist for over a quarter of a century., We went along to the tourist office again and caught our walking tour, one stop of which was our hotel!

After walking around some more and having a bit of a rest at the hotel we went to a motet (etc.) concert at the Thomas Church.  The famous boychoir was on vacation so adults from town, including some alumni from the boychoir, acted admirably as a fill-in group. We went on to a fine dinner and then went back to the hotel.

At the Leipzig Naschmarkt

Nikolaskirche

The next morning we did some shopping near the Naschmarkt.  Unlike in Vienna where the Naschmarkt is really a market, the one in Leipzig is a central square behind the old city hall where Goethe and the boys played.  We then went to see the St. Nicholas Church, a large structure with a substantial plaza outside, where the "Velvet Revolution" (the fall of the Soviet Bloc) began.  Monday demonstrations started in September of that year after peace services led by the pastor of the Lutheran congregation, Christian Fuhrer.  The demonstrations grew, and many people gathered in the plaza on October 9, 1989--about 5,000.  Police arrested some, the Army supported the police, and the authorities told the rest of the people to disperse or be forcibly evicted.  Fuhrer invited all of the demonstrators (all five thousand) into the church, and faced with the prospect of continuing demonstrations from the people of Leipzig and the East Germans who had taken refuge in the West German embassy in Prague, the East German government crumbled.
 

Inside the Nikolaskirche

In the middle of the nave of the church is a candelabra with 40 candles for the Jews' 40 years in the wilderness, 40 days of the ark on the water, Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, etc, and "Our 40 years in the wilderness, 1949-1989."  Very moving and very touching.

The "Theses Door," now bronze

 

That afternoon we took a train to Lutherstadt Wittenberg.  We first located the hotel--one of us (he who must not be named) suggested following the driving sign which took us about twice as long, twenty minutes instead of ten.  We walked in the old town, locating the town church (St. Mary's), the castle church, and the tourist information office. The Castle Church is the place where Martin Luther purportedly posted his 95 theses against indulgences in 1517, the publication of which ignited the Reformation. We came to Wittenberg expecting to learn a lot about Luther, which we did, but we came away with the idea that Lutherans in the United States sorely under-appreciate Luther's co-reformer Philipp Melanchthon.  Of course, we are glad that the movement is

Luther's House

named after Luther.  After all, who would go to the Melanchthonian Church?  Perhaps more will follow about that in another blog.  We went to an English-language church service that night and then got turned away by a bunch of restaurants until we ended up in a Tuscan themed place, which turned out to be wonderful.

Katarina von Bora--Katy Luther

Guarding the Wittenberg old town hall

Sunday we walked around the city, including the newer part.  Wittenberg has about 50,000 residents, of whom perhaps 10,000 are Christian, the vast majority of whom are Lutheran (well, Evangelical,which may include several denominations near to Lutheranism).  During the time of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) those who publicly professed Christianity risked at least repudiation and sometimes persecution. We went to a museum that afternoon showing what life was like in Communist times.   Sunday night we went to one of the restaurants that had been recommended to us for the night before, but which had no room.  Arden Haug joined us; he is pastor of the International Church here and newly appointed director of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Wittenberg Center.  

Arden Haug preaching

Soup's on!

Monday, Reformation Day, dawned foggy and cold, and the weather did not improve much.  Nevertheless, it was a good say with an English language service at the Castle Church at 8:00 A.M. (well attended), the festival service (mainly in German) at 10:00 (overflowing, perhaps a thousand or more attending), and the Renaissance Fair for the rest of the day.  Pastor Haug conducted the English service and served as a liturgist for the second.  He preached from five meters above Luther's grave.  The Old Town area was also packed. We had bratwurst, fresh mushrooms, and cherry beer for lunch.  Lutheran churches from around the world are sponsoring a tree garden, 500 trees representing the 500th anniversary of the Reformation which happens in 2017, and at 4:00 P.M. we went to the latest ceremony adding 19 trees.  Another concert happened at 5 at the Castle Church, this time focusing on gospel music relating to the theme of the weekend, freedom. Finally, we went to the Festival Concert at the Town Church at 7:30, Bach, Elgar, and Rutter.

The Town Church

The Castle Church

Services in the Luther Garden

Dedicating a tree in the Luther Garden

Where did we feel close to God?  Each of the cities provided a host of places.  Concerts, church services, trees, people--all gave us an encounter with a thin place.  Will we go back?  God knows, but we want to. 

"Ein Feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress)"

What We Did Last Summer

A little B&B in Porlock

Now that summer has officially ended and we are back at school in Bratislava, we can tackle the age-old first-day-of-school assignment--"Write an essay about what you did last summer."  We kept busy.  First, we met friends in England to tour around and stay in quaint little bed and breakfast places; visited parish churches;

braved the wilds of Exmoor and the fearsome Exmoor ponies;

 

Asthall Manor

relocated to Oxfordshire while scoping out our future home, meanwhile staying in another small B&B; and finally took in the "Oxford Experience" at Oxford University in Christ Church College, where we

Tom's Tower, Christ Church

learned about English cathedrals and Shakespeare, Alice Liddell and the Jabberwock, and Harry Potter.

Wells Cathedral

The Globe Theater, London

 

The "Jabberwock" Tree

The Hall (dining)

Off, then, to the United States, specifically Virginia, where we celebrated the marriage of our eldest daughter and her husband and rejoiced with Flounder, her eldest cat;

 thence to Colorado, where we hiked (walked?) in Rocky Mountain National Park with our youngest daughter and her husband, and went to the county fair with Paula's brother and his family;

4-H barrel racing!

 and then to Boston where we visited our middle daughter and trekked (well, drove) to Concord, Massachusetts to see both Orchard House where the Alcotts lived and Walden Pond, the site of Henry David Thoreau's cabin.

Orchard House

Thoreau's cabin site on Walden Pond

All in all, we had a great time, leading to all of those semicolons and dashes.  We send a big thank-you to all of the people who put up with us.  Once again we proved the old adage to be correct--too many places, too little time. Slovakia and Central Europe beckon us.  We would go back to Oxford and the UK again.  We have seen too few places in our own country.  And then there are all of those places the New York Times tells us about.  Sigh.  Satch, you're right--what a wonderful world!

Since we've returned, we've started a new school year, renewed acquaintances with students and teachers, met new students and teachers, had a visit from friends from Virginia and went with them to Prague, and started a new concert season with the Slovakia Philharmonic.  But all of that, friends, is grist for future mills!