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This Woman Was Here

A Do-It-Yourselfer's Life Journey

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Old Town, Prague by night and concert in Clam-Gallas Palace

We had an eight hour bus ride from Budapest to Prague, time to get in some writing for Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). Despite my commitment to get up early to write, the days have been too long, full, and exhausting to keep up the pace of 1,600 words a day, so I will have some catching up to do when I get home. After leaving Hungary, we drove through Slovakia before entering the Czech Republic. The highways in the Czech Republic (23 years ago Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia) has wooded overpasses that allow deer to cross the highway.

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The weather has been surprisingly warm and sunny. We arrived in Prague to blue skies and temps in the high 60’s or low 70’s. We took a tram into old town and crossed the Charles Bridge just as the sun was setting.

Prague is one of the few cities that wasn’t bombed during WWII, and old town is a wonderfully preserved window into the past. Many of its buildings date back to the 1400’s.

 

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When we saw a sign for a concert by the Prague String Ensemble in the Baroque Clam-Gallas Palace, we couldn’t believe our luck. We had just enough time to grab dinner–duck with regular, potato, and bacon dumplings–and get back to the concert.

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IMG_3864The hour long concert included Mozart, Pachelbel, Albinoni, Boccherini, Back, Dvorak, Brahms, Strauss. The music and the location were transporting.

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After the concert, we wound through the cobbled streets to Old Town Square where the astronomical clock is a marvel that dates back to the 14th century and

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We had a wonderful first night introduction to Prague.

 

 

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Castle Hill and Old Town, Prague

Although the day started gray and wet, by the time we reached Castle Hill, the rain had stopped and the sun was out. We visited St. Vitus Cathedral, begun in the 14th century and not completed until 1929 when the rose window made from Bohemian crystal was installed.

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Rose window of Bohemian crystal

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Two styles of stain glass side by side

Two styles of stain glass side by side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Charles Bridge from the Vlatva River.

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Old Town astronomical clock from 14th century

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Old Town square

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Built in the 14th century and facade added in 16th cent; Franz Kafka once lived here

 

 

 

 

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Art Nouveau facade

 

 

 

 

 

 

concert hall in the Klementinum from 1722

concert hall in the Klementinum from 1722

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I took a guided tour of the National Library or Klementinum. In the 11th century, the Dominicans built a monastery with a chapel dedicated to St. Clement. The Jesuits later contributed to making it the second largest building complex after Prague Castle and the 3rd largest Jesuit college in the world. In 1619, Kepler is said to have used the observatory to create his Laws of Planetary Motion. Unfortunately, the baroque library hall can’t be photographed but it is one of the most beautiful in the world and remains unchanged since it was completed in 1722.

I climbed the observatory tower to get some wonderful photos of the rooftops of Prague.

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Charles bridge from the river

 

Here’s a video of the rooftops of Prague shot from the Klementinum Observatory

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El Prado and El Escorial

Today we did a tour of Madrid, stopping at the Cervantes monument.

Monument to Cervantes

Monument to Cervantes

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We also spent several hours in the Prado seeing amazing paintings by Velasques, Goya, Reubens, El Greco, Ingers and too many more to name. It is one of the best museums in the world for a reason.

In the afternoon we went to El Escorial, an hour outside of Madrid. El Escorial is a mausoleum built by Phillip II to burry his father, Charles V, and all future Spanish kings, as well as a monastery, library, palace, and basilica. It was built in 21 years, from 1563f to 1584. Built of grey granite blocks and black slate roof, the building appears stark and military from the outside, but inside it is filled with magnificent frescoes.

El Escorial

El Escorial

Dome of Basilica or El Escorial

Dome of Basilica or El Escorial

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The mausoleum beneath El Escorial is built of red and black marble and houses the remains of almost all of the Spanish kings and queens since Carlos V. Phillip II was king of much of the world at the time: the Netherlands, much of France, Italy, Portugal, the Americas and the Phillipines.

Mausoleum

Mausoleum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

frescoes

frescoes

Although the palace quarters are austere compared to the Palacio Real in Madrid, the ceiling frescoes throughout are marvelous.

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That night we try a restaurant a block from the hotel,  Vinicola Mentridana, full of locals. We order at the bar two dishes we saw on the blackboard outside—bruchetta, wild rice with octopus, and black rice and calamari—all of them delicious. With five glasses of wine, the bill came to under 21 Euros. The neighborhood one street over from Calle Atocha is filled with locals and local shops and tavernas.

Vinícola Mentridana

Vinícola Mentridana

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Toledo

Toledo is an hour southwest of Madrid, built on a mountain rock that the Tagus River wraps around, providing a natural mote on three sides.IMG_4924 (1)

The Romans built a city here they called Toletus in the 2nd century BC near the Roman road that connected east and west. The Arabs built a walled city with an alcazar on the highest point. They ruled southern Spain for almost 800 years.

When the king of Castile, Alfonso VI re-conquered Toledo in 1085, he allowed freedom of religion and Toledo was known as the kingdom of three cultures. Toledo became one of the most important Jewish cities in Spain.

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Unfortunately, in 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella re-conquered Granada, religious tolerance ended and Jews and Muslims were given a choice of conversion or exile. Toledo lost 1/3 of its population. The synagogue of Toledo (which had been built in 12th century by the Arabs) is the second oldest in Europe (the synagogue in Prague is the oldest). All of the synagogues and mosques in Toledo were destroyed except this one because it was turned into a chapel of St. Mary.

The synagogue of Toledo

The synagogue of Toledo

synagogue interior

synagogue interior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

synagogue capital

synagogue capital

street door in Toledo

street door in Toledo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bridge between buildings

bridge between buildings

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Cathedral of Toledo

Cathedral of Toledo

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IMG_4965El Greco lived for many years in the city and painted “The Burial of Count Orgaz” in the Cathedral of Toledo.

Toledo is a Medieval town of narrow winding cobbled streets, many with doors or gates that could be closed at night.

From Toledo, we drove to Granada through La Mancha through planes of olive groves and blooming almond trees that gave way to rolling rocky hills of olive groves and almond trees. (Olives were brought to Spain by the Phoenecians.) The closer we got to Granada, the more rocky and mountainous the terrain but the rows of olives still stretched as far as we could see. We stopped in a small town with a central courtyard and a display of the many editions of Don Quixote.

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The mountains outside of Granada

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Salmon Rissoto

 

 

Salmon Rissoto
 
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I made this risotto from a leftover serving of salmon and the rag-tag ends of sour cream and cream cheese. It’s a great way to turn one serving into four.
Recipe type: main course
Serves: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
  • 2T olive oil
  • 2T butter
  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • ½ C white wine
  • 4 cups hot chicken broth
  • 2 chopped scallions
  • 2 oz cream cheese
  • 2-3 T sour cream
  • 2-3 T half and half
  • salt and pepper
  • Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Sauté rice in olive oil and butter for 5 min, add wine and stir until evaporated. Add ½ c or one ladle of hot chicken broth at a time, stirring until absorbed. Mix cream cheese, sour cream and cream, and microwave until soft 30 sec to 1 min. Stir to combine. Add green onions and add to rice after all broth is absorbed. Add Parmesan and sprinkle with green onion if desired.
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Escargot

escargot  
Escargot
 
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Recipe type: Appetizer
Serves: 2-4 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 can escargot
  • 2 T butter
  • 1 T flour
  • Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Sauté escargot in butter; add flour, stir to blend, then add Parmesan. Serve with garlic bread.
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turkey test

The city is bustling with traffic and strollers along the waterfront and vendors selling roses to stalled traffic. We arrived at the Legacy Ottoman, a gorgeous century old hotel with a lobby of marble, four foot chandeliers, the most amazing collection of carved chairs and sofas I’ve ever laid eyes on, and walls covered with paintings depicting scenes from the Ottoman Empire, located in the bustling heart of old town.

Legacy Ottoman lobby

Legacy Ottoman lobby

Lobby or ornate chairs

Lobby or ornate chairs

We opened the windows to our room overlooking an ancient many domed building that seems to function as a shopping mall, a mosque to the left, and a view of the Blue Mosque in the distance.

View to the left of our window

View to the left of our window

Building directly in front of our windows

Building directly in front of our windows

The wailing call to prayers that fills the evening air sends chills down my spine. We are in another country.

Our group is small, 19, from all over the world—Australia, South Korea, Canada, and US, and they are quite the world travelers. During dinner on the 6th floor overlooking the bridges crossing the Bosphorous, we listened to tales of trips to Miranmar, Abu Dabi, India, Thailand, Jordan, South America. This is a group of people who like to travel. About ¾ have done Gate 1 tours before and the rest of us are newbies. Interestingly, they often travel independently, but choose to do tours in areas where independent travel would be difficult (the very reason we chose this tour).

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Day 4, Hellfire Pass and Death Railway

We left the hotel at 8 for the drive to Hellfire Pass. Jordan and Brooke chose to stay at the hotel for a day of R&R, probably a wise decision given the heat and the steep climbs down into the pass and back up again.

The museum, funded by the Australians, who lost many men here during the construction of the railway, was closed for renovations, but we hiked down steps into a deep ravine where the Japanese insisted on cutting the rail line through solid rock. The purpose of the railway was to supply troops in Burma in order to attack the British in India.

More than 60,000 Allied POW’s and 200,000 Asians were forced to work on the railway. This section was the deepest and longest cut along the entire line. The men used manual drills hammered with sledge hammers in order to install dynamite. The line was cut in two sections, one 73 meters long and 28 meters deep and the other 450 meters long and 8 meters deep. 

The men worked 18 hour days, the night work lit by torches.  

They did their best to sabotage the work by moving termite mounds near the trestles, substituting balsa wood for timbers and filling support holes with dirt to weaken them. If they were caught, the penalty was death. It is hard to imagine the hell they endured. They managed to keep track of the war effort by fabricating ingenious radios from salvaged parts.

We hiked down the trail to an overlook of the valley. The camp the POW’s stayed in was several kilometers away near the river and they had to carry supplies including cement to the site each day.

We also visited a waterfall popular with locals for picnics. Unfortunately, there has been little rain and therefore little water over the falls.

After a family style lunch near the railway station, we boarded the railway for about a half hour ride along the old narrow gauge rail line with views of the mountains and river.

 


We walked from there to a vantage point where we could watch the train cross the original trestle bridge built by the prisoners. 

Nearby, there was a cave that was used as a hospital facility for the POW’s. Today it houses a shrine.

 

 

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to feed the mountain monkeys.

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Day 10, Elephant Care Farm, orchid farm, silk factory, parasol factory, home dinner

Today, we visited the Elephant Care Farm up in the mountains. Again, we boarded trucks to take us into the facility. I had reservations about this trip because I don’t want the animals to be exploited. However, this facility takes care of wounded animals that have been sent to it (for example, one elephant that lost part of a foot by stepping on a land mine in Myanmar). It also takes care of elephants that have been retired from the logging business. The forests are now closed for logging, but the elephants still need to be cared for. They eat 10% of their weight each day and drink 150 liters of water.  About 1/2 of Thailand’s 7,000 elephants live in the jungle and the other half have been domesticated and must continue to be cared for. In the dry season there is not enough food and water for wild elephants and many raid people’s crops. The government has to airlift in food and water for them.

This facility has 79 elephants, but we interacted with only 5 of them. We learned each elephant’s name. Baby Doi (5 yrs old)was a real show-off. We learned the differences between Asian and African elephants (larger head, smaller ears, 5 front toes, 4 back toes, and only male have tusks). Females carry a baby for almost 2 years, and they will not have a second baby until the first has left (3-10 years). They generally don’t have more than 4 babies in a lifetime. The average life expectancy for wild elephants is 60 years vs 80 for domesticated ones. Their oldest elephant is 93. Each elephant has a mahout or trainer/mother.

The mahout demonstrated how to climb on an elephant.

We also learned the commands for go (bye), move left or right (ben with knee pressure), and stop (how).

Jordan, Brooke, and JP were the first to ride.

The baby loved to give kisses.

After that, we got to wash the elephants in the river. They need to wash several times a day.

The elephants returned the favor by spraying us.

Then we prepared food for them. One mixture was tamarind, brown sugar, salt, and herbs. Another was sticky rice with brown sugar, salt, and herbs. The boys claimed to be top chefs.

We also fed them bananas and sugar cane. The elephants take food with their trunks, but if you say “bon,” they will open their mouths and you can stick food on their tongue. One of the elephants spotted the bunch of bananas I had set down and snatched the whole thing up and ate it in one go.

After the feeding, we got to take pictures with the elephants. Brooke seemed to have a particular affinity for the male elephant and he for her.

They all got elephant kisses from the baby. We all fell in love with the elephants and agreed that interacting with them was an exceptional experience.

The elephants were only too willing to accept our tips and then hand them to their mahouts. The baby would bow and swing his trunk around. He was clearly the rock star.

We were sad to leave the elephants behind, but next we went to an orchid and butterfly farm for lunch. 

After a two hour break at the hotel, we loaded up again and headed out to see a silk factory, where we saw the life cycle of the silk worm as it eats mulberry leaves and then spins a cocoon (white and yellow).

We then saw how they boiled the cocoons and drew the silk from the cocoons into thread.

The thread  is dyed with natural colors.

The spinning is done by hand (pots of dye in front).

For patterns, the thread is counted and rolled out, then woven by hand.

Only one loom had the shuttle automated (somewhat.)

Next, we went to the parasol factory, where they make their own paper and bamboo frames.

The parasols are hand painted. Only two artists were left by the time we arrived, but I had a dragon painted on the back of my phone.

They made beautiful displays.

Next, we went to a home-hosted dinner at a home made entirely of teak.

Our host showed us how to make appetizers from a paan leaf that we filled with ginger, onion, fried tofu, peanuts, brown sugar syrup and coconut. They were delicious. Our host then showed us how to make green curry and prepared gifts of curry paste and a recipe for u to take home with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The meal was served in dishes set a dugout canoe. It was the best meal we have had so far, and we have had some great ones. Our host owns a restaurant and beer garden (2,000 seats, 4 bands, and 20 food trucks). After dinner, he gave us a tour of the house, which was several single-family houses incorporated into one. He showed us the Buddha room where the family puts, not just religious icons, but photos and items of significance to the family. It was a lovely glimpse into a family’s life and we were grateful the family chose to share it with us.

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Maui, Mama’s Fish House

We woke this morning to rain threatening but it didn’t stop us from grabbing our snorkeling gear and heading down to the empty beach. The snorkeling was fantastic. We felt like we were in an aquarium with fish drifting in front of us on the ebb and flow of the pull of the waves. We saw almost as many fish as we had at the aquarium. The rain came in again, but we headed out to Mama’s Fish House where we had an reservation for lunch. We retraced our steps to Kahului along a coast filled with mile after mile of golden sand beaches that line the side of the road. Folks can pull off along the road and jump in the water anywhere for miles. Part of the road is covered with a canopy of monkey pod trees, which remind me of live oaks in shape.

 

Mama’s came highly recommended from everyone we’ve talked to. It sits on its own cove, open to pounding waves, but protected by a steep beach and rock. The interior is filled with lush flower arrangements.

Our table was set with an anniversary congratulations, and I was given a fragrant orchid and tuberose lei.

 

The food, while expensive, did not disappoint. We ordered a ahi tuna appetizer that was delicious.

Our two main courses, fish curry and lobster and crab stuffed fish with crusted macadamia nuts, were out of this world. Some of the best dishes I’ve had.

 

The rain continued when we left the restaurant, so we decided to abandon our plans to drive the first part of the Road to Hana after lunch. We returned to the hotel, fat and happy, and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing in the trade winds by the pool.