London

 I know everyone is sick of blogs about my trip, so you can all silently cheer this is the LAST ONE!  We flew from Athens to London for a final five days of vacay in London.  Our focus was museum oriented.  [Aside:  Well, that's a big surprise isn't it?]

The trip to Athens and seeing the Parthenon made us start our London museum exploration at The British Museum to see the Elgin Marbles and other odds and ends the British helped themselves to in Greece at the beginning of the 19th century.  Lord Elgin set the precedent by getting the government out of Constantinople, which was ruling Greece at the time, to agree he could take anything carved or sculpted.  He took anything he wanted and packed it off to England - thus "The Elgin Marbles".  He immediately helped himself to the only intact column sculpture left standing at the Parthenon.  [Full disclosure:  The Parthenon was shattered when a Venetian artillery shell exploded an Ottoman powder magazine inside the Parthenon during a war between the Ottomans and the Doge of Venice]  Since the British considered themselves to be superior to other nationalities, Lord Elgin undoubtedly thought of himself as a preserver and protector of these antiquities.

The British Museum also reconstructed the friezes from the outside of the Parthenon.  Most of the material are the original sculptures.

These friezes went all around a huge room

In addition to the sculptures picked up around the Parthenon, the British brought back entire tombs and other sculptures from the zenith of ancient Greek culture

I also loved the animal sculptures

I went so crazy taking pictures at the British Museum, that I actually depleted my iphone battery to less than 5%. I had to borrow Drake's phone to take my outside pictures of Trafalgar Square.  The British Museum is one of the cornerstones of Trafalgar

Yes, I'm wearing a workout shirt because it was much warmer 
in London than we anticipated.  This is overlooking Trafalgar Square

The guy standing on top of the column
is Lord Nelson, the Admiral in
command of the sea battle at Trafalgar.
He died during the battle

If you want to see the pictures from the British Museum, click on the link.  I will admit I got carried away.

The British Museum

And, if you think I got carried away at The British Museum, I went nuts in the National Gallery of Art.  Wonderful pictures from Medieval times forward.  Vermeer:

There were three hanging Vermeer's including this one.  Drake and I really like 16th century Dutch paintings such as Jan Steen painting not religious scenes, but rather pictures of the common people doing ordinary things.  As Protestantism surged, commissions from the largely Catholic rulers dried up for the Dutch.  Here's an example of Jan Steen entitled "The Effects of Intemperance".

The other subject the Dutch loved was 'the sea'.  Considering the geography of The Netherlands, I'd be amazed if they didn't love sea pictures.  Here's an example from Jacob van Ruisdael.  

This is also the time of Rembrandt, and the National Gallery had some wonderful pictures.  I did take a photo of his most famous self portrait, but it was this picture which caught my eye.  Rembrandt illustrated a story from the Bible concerning Balthazar and the mysterious writing on the wall.  I especially like the startled looks when the writing appears on the wall.   

It felt like every major artist was represented in this museum.  Peter Paul Reubens, Titian, Caravaggio,  had multiple pictures from this era.  Caravaggio is one of Drake's favorites.  Caravaggio was a scoundrel who changed art - he was the first to use live models and paint light in a new way.  He died very young - stabbed to death as a result of a bar fight, so there are only a few known pictures.  Here's one called "The Supper at Emmaus".  

If you like 'flower pictures', here's one painted by a female artist.  Not only was it hard for a woman with artistic talent to obtain training, but women of a certain class were expected to stay home.  Thus, most pictures by female artists were restricted to what they could observe inside their houses.  Rachael Ruycha definitely had talent.

There were Gainsborough's, Reynolds', Sargent's, El Greco's, Constable's and Velazquez paintings.  I could go on and on - but you can see as many or as few as you would like by clicking on my photo link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tqcSCxTjAcpatmTF7

I found another museum which was filled with two hundred years of 'collecting' by one aristocratic family whose fortunes were buoyed through marriage to an American heiress.  This museum is called "The Wallace Collection", and it was chock full of furniture, chandeliers, knick-knacks, clocks, sculpture, and paintings.  Lord Wallace's museum displayed in his London home was the inspiration for Henry Frick to display his own collection.  

Somehow, Lord Wallace managed to obtain the quintessential painting of the Rococo period - that time of excess just prior to the French revolution at the end of the 18th century.  It's called "The Swing"

Every room in this multi floor mansion in the heart of London is decorated within an inch of it's life.  Then, there are other rooms filled with weapons and an armor clad knight mounted on his armor clad horse.

At this point, I wondered what else  could possibly in this museum.  The second floor was a gallery of salon hung paintings by Reubens, Murillo, El Greco, Rembrandt, and Velazquez.  

If you love beautiful porcelain, fabulous furniture, lovely paintings, miniatures, and ornate knick-knacks, you will love my pictures of The Wallace Collection.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fNsvvsKWz8ESJBKT8

By this time you'd think I'd be finished with art museums, but there were two more which captured our fancy.  The first was Tate Britain.  This is basically a collection of famous painting by mostly British artists.  We were really lucky to see an exhibition of Constable paintings.  Constable was beloved during his lifetime together with Turner.  Here's one of my favorite Constable paintings.   He loved the theme of Man vs Nature.  

Here's a Turner painting called "The Field at Waterloo".  The carnage at Waterloo was as extreme as some of the American Civil War battles.  Entire villages flocked to see the casualty lists printed and posted by their local newspapers.  In Turner's picture there are bodies piled on bodies as far as you can see.  

As well as gorgeous paintings, the Tate Britain is a beautiful building.  If you're interested in classic British art, click on the picture link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PRXpZCqDU1hYqKR76

The final museum in London was The Victoria and Albert.  This is a museum of 19th century curiosities.  It contains a mish/mash of art.  I especially liked the porcelain collection.  I went a little nuts in this area.  Here's an example:  

If you like clothes, there's a knock out exhibition of clothing through the ages.  

Tie Dye anyone?  This is just one window of 50 or so.  If you want to see more, click:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Edzh6ndrRh464nfV6

We enjoyed tooling around Central London in the traditional black cabs.  It takes cab drivers an average of two years to master "The Knowledge" - knowing every road in London.  A London cab driver doesn't use GPS, he uses "The Knowledge".  You give him an address or even a building, and he drives right to it.   We did most of our building/fountain/sculpture viewing from the cabs, 2/3rds of which are now electric hybrids.    

Churchill in front of Parliament

The Queen's Park - they mean Victoria.  

There's another collection of pictures similar to the above:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jvch1yJdmzsVtUA47  

The final photo album is a collection of flowers and landscapes in both the Mediterranean and in London

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GxbexGKMUbcMwcZQ9

of all the pictures I took on this trip, this one, the sunset at sea, is fitting for the end of this entry.

 

 

 

 

 

I



 

Athens

I can't say we saw 'all' of Athens.  We were there only a few days, and what follows are my impressions of a small sliver of this ancient city.  This is a packed together city reminiscent of the heart of other major cities.  The buildings are jammed together with little green space.  Here's the Athens twist:  Nothing is over six stories tall because it is legislated no structure can be taller and obstruct the view of the Parthenon/Acropolis area of Athens. That means you can see the Parthenon suddenly just by looking up!   

We took a taxi to a funicular and then rode to the top of a hill overlooking Athens.   I clicked several pictures.  The funicular ends at a small chapel, surrounded by panoramas of Athens.  It was lovely - built all in white marble - but for me it was treacherous.  I literally missed an unmarked step which was almost invisible, and I fell heavily to my freaking knees!  In my defense, this was not carelessness; even Drake didn't see this hazard.  I was pretty shaken up, and I wasn't able to enjoy the view.  Mainly, I just wanted to sit down since my knees were screaming at me.  

    It was while I was sitting on a marble shelf used for seats when I discovered an actual stonemason repairing part of the low wall surrounding the chapel.  I watched him for quite a while, and then I went over to try and to talk to him.  His son, who happily spoke English, came over and served as a translator.  He and his father were in partnership selling stonemason services.  The father had been a stonemason his entire life.  The old guy was visibly tickled I was interested in what he was doing, (well, duh!), and he graciously assented to a picture. Athens is actually a place a stonemason can make a living today.  According to the son, their business is always busy with small and large projects.  I can believe it.  I've never seen so much marble in all my life.  This place has more marble than Rome.  

The big tourist draw in Athens is the Acropolis area and the Parthenon.  The Acropolis is a large area on top of a hill.  Athens grew around this big hill.  We took a tour to the Acropolis, but I was only able to walk about 2/3rds of the way up.  I could have done the last multiple staircases, but I would have been slow and held up everyone else.  I parked myself on another marble ledge to wait for our tour to walk by, and I still found pictures to take!  Drake is responsible for the pictures close to the Parthenon.  According to him, it was so cold and windy, all everyone wanted to do was leave. 

The areas around the biggest tourist destinations was denser than Manhattan, New York.  I was grateful it was only moderately warm while we were there; I can't imagine this place in the heat of the summer.  Just rolling down the taxi windows gave the olfactory impression of being trapped below ground in a car parking structure during the heat of the Texas summer. The air was literally poisonous.  Aside:  Sometimes we forget how bad the air was when I was growing up (50's/60's); we have taken the government cleaning up the air for granted.  The center of Athens felt like a throwback in lots of other ways too.

This is a great city to walk about.  This is also one of the few places the shopping bug bit me.  It baffled Drake since I rarely get caught up in shopping.   I had to curb the amount of time I really wanted to spend shopping.  I came home with a few goodies anyway - olive wood olive fork.  I realize now I should have gotten a set of olive wood utensils.  They had some really nice ones.  I did buy more sponges.  I bought t-shirts, magnets, a table runner, and knickknacks.  The antique shops looked intriguing.  We stopped into one because I had seen some old embroidery pieces.  I thought if I could find one I liked, it would be a cool souvenir.  We were the only people in the store, so she was happy to bring out the embroidered piece.  It was $1,200 euros!  I just sighed and said it was too pricey not that it wasn't beautiful.  We chatted for a couple of minutes while I got a cursory look around.  I think it was the open air stalls - entire streets of stalls - that did Drake in.  He'd really been plugged in and mildly interested, but he finally threw in the towel.  I took pity on him, and we moved onto something else.  

We took a lot of taxis. I enjoy taxis just like I enjoy taking subways, buses and ferries.  I learned to use Google/Translator.  One helpful thing I did was write out the address of where I wanted to go whenever we went by taxi.  I wasn't too impressed by the hotel.  Genteel would be the pleasant way of saying shabby.  The service was impeccable which was a real plus.  Currently, this seesaw is tipping more toward a feeling of shabbiness.  

There was also a transportation strike.  There were no flights entering or leaving the airport.  Some of the people we met on the cruise were stranded an extra day in Athens because their flights were cancelled.  Fortunately, we had already planned to stay over a few days.  There was a big demonstration in the center of the city.  We would have been about 55 years too old for that event.  We skirted the demonstration by leaving our hotel early and going out away from the city center.  We also had the best 'off the ship meal' here at a Wine Bar just down the street from our hotel.  We had wine plus a charcutier 

plate we designed ourselves.  I had the best rose' I have ever tasted.  Like an idiot I didn't take a pic of the wine label.  Although, it really doesn't matter, since I'm sure I couldn't get it over here.  

Everywhere we looked, there was something being excavated or displayed all over the city.  We also went to a wonderful archeological museum of the antiquities of 

Ancient Greece.  We discovered the other place to see Greek antiquities was the British Museum.  I'd always heard of the 'Elgin Marbles'.  It turns out that Lord Elgin, a British peer made a deal with the ruling government of the time (early 1800's) to take anything he wanted from the Acropolis.  The British Museum today has most of those antiquities displayed including the only complete statue from the Parthenon. 

In reflection, I was happy to be able to see sites I'd read about my whole life.  Athens is really a unique place.  As always, I took a ton of photographs in two albums.

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/oVCihiH8y6ahKwqx6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7WhUr5S4vsuXC8Nk6

John Sargent Exhibition

 Quick post today.  We’re in NYC, and we hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to see the John Sargent exhibition.  I’ve been really eager to see this.  Most people consider Sargent to be one of the finest portrait painters because he captured the nature of the person in his portraits.  

Basically, I just snapped pix.  I mostly didn’t bother with explanation placards since this exhibition was super crowded, and portraiture is pretty self explanatory.  Sargent grew up overseas in Florence, Italy.  He went to Paris when he was 18 to paint, and he was a sensation.  He was incredibly young when he was painting portraits of important people.  Portraiture is not like snapping a photograph.  You have to 'sit' for the painter sometimes for hours.  Sargent was not the moody, tortured artist.  He was a fun guy who liked people and they liked him back.  He painted many people in their homes, and he was often a 'house guest' during many of the paintings.  He was so charming that his personality often got him his next commission.    

The Met owns his most famous portrait - It’s called Madame X, and was considered to be scandalous because SHE USED COSMETICS.  The dress was also quite suggestive for the time.  Sargent wanted to paint one of the dress straps falling off her shoulder, but changed it at the last minute since he considered he might be pushing the portrait past good taste.  Well, turned out he was, but that didn't stop the picture from being a sensation that everyone wanted to see.  He sold the portrait to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916 commenting that it was his best work.  Aren't we lucky it is in a museum.

 

Enjoy the other pictures by clicking on the link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Rz2Buqz26c3Wlznbc9

Hellenistic Gold

When you travel on a small boat, things like arriving and leaving can sometimes become flexible.  A weather front came through and the Captain decided to stay in port cozied up to the dock rather than sail in bad weather.  The upshot was we got extra time in Athens by skipping one port and heading straight there.  The ship's entertainment staff worked overtime to produce some 'tours' in Athens at the last minute.  

One of the tours was to the Benaki Museum.  It has bunches of the traditional Greek treasures like black and orange pottery, but what I wanted to see was the Hellenistic Gold exhibition.  (I had already marked it out as something I wanted to see even before we arrived.)  The young flustered tour guide didn't care for my demand to see the exhibition, but I hardly allowed her displeasure at my request to bother me.  Drake and I and another woman peeled off and went in search of the gold.  We found the gatekeeper (aka the ticket seller to the special exhibition) and bought tickets for 7 euros each.  

We walked into a large space filled with glass topped museum cases displaying exquisite beaten gold in many forms.  I especially liked the leaves and flowers.

In addition to the Greek version of tiaras, there were pendants, necklaces, rings, earrings as well as some pieces of beaten gold fashioned into loose leaves.  Something I'd never seen fashioned out of gold were the snoods.  A snood is a net fashioned to be worn over a bun.  It's a hair ornament that comes and goes in popularity over the centuries.

While 'snoods' may have fallen out of fashion, I did see something in this collection which reinforced the idea that 'there's nothing new under the sun' especially in fashion.  Bell bottoms are back!  Mini skirts are probably next.  In this exhibition, here's something which made me smile.

Sequins!

There were also some very lovely small sculptures and other knickknacks which were easy to imagine gracing this Greek woman's house.  Here's her jewelry box.

 

While the pieces were extraordinary, I found the probable story of how all these precious objects came to be found to be the most interesting.  Every item in this exhibition was found stuffed into a large buried amphora.  Archeologists supposed this could indicate everything was owned by one person who buried the amphora to save the contents from being taken.  Think Confederate women burying their silver to save it from the Yankees.  In my opinion, this makes the discovery more personal and relatable.  Imagine the woman who owned all of this, and what could have caused a burial to hide it all.

If you'd like to see the additional pieces hidden in the amphora, click on the pix.

Hellenistic Jewelry

The Corinth Canal

 One hallmark of the 19th century (1800's) is the development of complicated construction projects.  The leading example was the railroad, arguably as big an element of change to the 19th century as the computer was to the 20th century.  Railroads aside, there were other construction projects which heralded consequential economic change.  One of these is THE CANAL.  Erie Canal 1825 put New York State and New York City on the map.  The French constructed the Suez Canal, the first modern canal.  It had immediate economic success.  It connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea.  You could now sail/steam from the North Atlantic Ocean through the Mediterranean Sea, thru the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, and into the Indian Ocean, an entry point into the Far East.   

In the late 19th century, the French, flush with the success of the Suez Canal, start construction on a 51 mile canal to cross the Isthmus of Panama.  After 9 years and 20,000 lives lost mostly to Yellow Fever, the French abandon the project.  In 1904 under Teddy Roosevelt, the Americans take up the construction of the Panama Canal cutting through the Isthmus of Panama connecting the Caribbean Sea (North Atlantic) with the Pacific Ocean.  There were still difficult construction problems as well  the persistent Yellow Fever problem, but Americans completed the Panama Canal in 1914.

In 1882 the Greeks decide they can internally improve trade by cutting a 3.9 mile canal across the Isthmus of Corinth.  Nero started this project, but the canal idea was dropped with Nero's demise.  The canal would allow ships to cut across the Peloponnesian Peninsula (see inset picture) instead of sailing around it.

This was  literally digging (blasting) a trench through limestone cliffs, but there were no locks since the length of the canal was at sea level.  It is only 26 feet deep and is quite narrow (82 feet wide at the water level/69 feet at bottom of canal).  Today, this is more of a tourist attraction.  Modern ships can't use it since it's too narrow and not deep enough.

It was a good tourist attraction.  Led by a pilot boat, so we could stay in the deepest part of the canal, we sailed down the canal towards Athens with the towering limestone cliffs on both sides of our ship.  They were so close, it felt like you could reach out and touch them.  We also saw birds nesting in pockets and holes in the limestone.  I kept focusing my camera to try and catch some to identify.  I was surprised to see 'rock doves'.  You will know them by their new urban name:  Pigeons.  Cliffs were their preferred nesting sites until they discovered skyscrapers in the urban environment of humans.  

The Corinth Canal, opened in 1893 (11 years of construction) was never the expected economic boon.  Railroads, automobiles (trucks) and construction of larger and larger commercial trading ships quickly made it almost obsolete for trade vessels. 

It was really fun to sail through.  Initially, we started viewing at the front of the boat, but even competing with only 180 people, it was crowded.  We moved to the back of the boat with fewer people, and really enjoyed this experience.  You can still see some of the blasting marks on the limestone, as well as this mysterious group of letters.

There are two submergible bridges at each end of the canal, as well as railroad bridges and an automobile bridge over the canal today.  As always, the pictures tell the story.

Corinth Canal Pictures   

   

A UNESCO Site: Hosios Loukas Monastery

One of the greatest things about this trip was several of the excursions were to UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  The Hosios Loukas Monastery built in the 10th century was one of those sites.  The monastery was located on top of a mountain - well, actually, a big hill.  The scenery outside the bus ride was lovely.  It was early spring and the trees had just leafed out.  We also passed a cloister on our way up to the monastery.  

When we arrived at the site, we walked up a set of terraced stairs.  On each side were fields of wild flowers.

These are poppies, and there were also daisies and lots of other delicate early spring wildflowers.

From the first view of this church/monastery, it was obviously a very special place.  This is a working monastery, so there are some parts which are off-limits.  This church is famous for it's frescoes and mosaics which show the Byzantine influence when this church was built.

This is one of the paintings on the ceiling surrounded by mosaics

The frescoes are in rough shape in comparison to the ceilings.  

They also had a 'tomb' to show what one from 1000 years ago actually looked like when it was originally dug.

No one mentioned who was removed from this tomb.  

Everywhere I looked, I just kept thinking about the people who were the original builders right down to the stones picked and laid down as walkways prior to 'concrete'.  

I think the pictures really tell the story here.  This was a great outing.  Instead of being annoying, the bus ride to the site was interesting, and short.  This site was steeped in a 1000 years of history without shoving lots of details in your face.  It felt holy and spiritual.  There were lots of places to just sit and enjoy the beautiful day and contemplate the atmosphere of this marvelous place.

Here are the pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MrsmDbcVxstquf787