MOUNTAIN FOUNTAIN

Friday, May 1st had started out wet, and it ended wet as well but in a rather nice way.

A long day found us walking around most of Barcelona, but after rested and dinnered we headed up to Montjuic. Literally "Jewish Hill" it was a place where historically the Jewish people were allowed to live in days before Ghettos and before Barcelona spread onto reclaimed land that once had been sea. Nowadays Montjuic has been reclaimed for all Barcelona as something of an exhibition and entertainment zone.

There is still an old Baroque Palace on top of the hill, not sure what it is or why, but the only thing that really matters is the 'Magic Fountains'. Dazzling displays of arial acqua lit with vivid colours dances for 45 minutes to a spellbound audience, eventually concluding with Freddy Mercury singing "Barcelona". We was there, see the pictures, enjoy.




Before we reached Monjuic a Labour Day procession passed our hotel to the sound of drums beating, megaphoned chanting and much colour and banner/flag waving, shown here. Amusingly the procession was watched from above by Helicopter, and behind it followed a band of police motorcycles, roadsweepers and refuse carts, and an ambulance. It all looked a bit too controlled.



Today is Saturday, May 2nd and this is likely to be our last WiFi transmission from the lobby of Aparthotel Gutenberg

PARC HELL WITH A GEE

Saturday May 2nd was our last day in Barcelona, but since our flight was not due to take off until 19:20hrs, we still had a day to fill and headed for Parc Guell. This was a mistake.




It was a mistake to head to Gaudi's Parc Guell on a sizzling Spanish summer saturday when at least half the population of Spain, and most of the tourists within 1000miles also had the same idea. Crowded; just a little.



The pity was that much of the Gaudi architecture now lay behind or beneath the sunning masses who stood in front of it, sat on it, or otherwise covered it. Yes, I suppose Gaudi intended them to do exactly that, but it didn't help me to view it or photograph it. I gave up trying to photograph IT and chose instead to photograph THEM.



When I had had enough of tripping over kids in or out of prams, I suggested to Juris that we should head off somewhere else and he wanted to go to CaixaForum near to Espanya Metro.

The structure of CaixaForum was an old textile factory that had been turned into an exhibition space, and what a joy of red brick, pinnacles, and glass it was. The undulating roof space provided excellent views over sun-drenched Barcelona.

Inside we visited 3 exhibitions. The Mersad Berber. Retrospectiva was a slightly strange experience of almost life-size semi nude men and Horses! I don't mean that to sound disapproving because the work had a certain quality and a definite character. In time it could grow on me.

By contrast, Richard Rogers + Arquitectes. De la casa a la ciutat reinforced my intolerance of modern architects. I remember the Lloyds Tower opening in London and the Pompidou Centre in Paris and we were all told that this was 'Post-Modernism'. At the time we all nodded our heads and pretended to understand what 'Modernism' had been and therefore we knew what 'Post Modernism' was. But it was all tosh really, deep down we all thought the buildings had been constructed inside out and weren't at all good looking.

Last autumn I revisted the Lloyds Tower, now 20-odd years old and looking so much the worse for it. Downright tatty in my view, not cleaned (it would be impossible), and now standing shabbily in the shadows of that great glass penis known as 'The Gherkin' (you can see the Barcelona version 'Torre Agbar' here). I was pleased to see that about 60per cent of the Rogers projects never reached construction stage, and I became even more cynical when reviewing his projects and uncovering his wilful abuse of each site for his own purposes.




Gaudi is a God by comparison. Organic, aesthetic, original, and using earth-borne materials and biological forms in place of the dead stuff and broken pieces of spacecraft that Rogers uses.

A dash back to Aparthotel Gutenberg to collect luggage, and then BCN Aeropuerto bound for LBA on Jet2.com and home to Bradford.

HOLOCAUST HONOUR

"Work makes you Free"

The motto on the gates of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp at Orienburg, near Berlin.
Sachsenhausen was a Work Camp for Political prisoners, and many of the deaths here were due to the harsh working conditions, brutality and starvation. Work set nobody free here.


HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY (HMD)
The Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on January 27th and this date has bneen chosen as Holocaust Memorial Day.

The idea of HMD is to commemorate and to educate people about the Nazi Holocaust, but this commemoration is inclusive of all the victims, not just the Jews. People of religions other than Israelites were persecuted by the Nazis, and also people seen as 'political' or anti social or just selected for punishment. Gypsies, Criminals, Priests, Homosexuals, Disabled, Prisoners of War were all victims of the Nazi Holocaust and HMD seeks to commemorate those lives as well.

Whilst the events of World War Two may be considered as 'The Holocaust', sadly it is now recognised that there have been many more holocausts since 1945 and even today people are being persecuted and 'ethnically cleansed' in a manner all too similar to the Nazi ways.

Recent holocausts include Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur, and HMD seeks to ensure that such genocides are not forgotten and are not repeated. For Jewish victims of The Holocaust there is a rememberance day in April each year.





Almost everybody knows of the yellow star of David worn by Jewish prisoners, but in fact this was two yellow triangles put together. There were many other triangles, such as red for political prisoners (an apex up red triangle was used for Prisoner of War such as captured airman, seaman or soldiers). Pink Triangles for male homosexuals, green for criminals, brown or black for Gypsies, and lots of combinations.




A memorial to male homosexuals. Some 50,000 men died in camps having worn the pink triangle to indicate their sexual orientation.



"Behind this Gate the earth moans"
Another country, another camp. Latvia was occupied by the Nazis on their way to the Russian front, and very quickly the concentration camp ethic was installed. Salaspils near Riga had a Transit Camp/Work Camp whose brutal regime caused the death of about 50,000 people from the Baltic States and from eastern europe, mostly gentiles.

For more information on Latvian camps, click on Salaspils



Polish writer, victim of the Warsaw Ghetto, contributor to the Warsaw Uprising, and one time inmate of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, pens an epitaph to the Holocaust. Oh, if only things were that simple. Human differences will cause more holocausts as one group try for supremacy or eradication of a pereceived different group.
In Kenya on this very day The Holocaust will seem like a million miles away, but will seem very, very close to those who are being burned in their churches or hacked to death on the streets.

STOP IT.

Sachsenhausen, Berlin	Salaspils, Latvia

FROWEINACHTEN: CHRISTMAS IN BERLIN

Here are a few images portraying Berlin at Christmas


Gendarmenmarkt for Christmas, Berlin, December 2007


Arkaden Shopping Centre, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Christmas 2007


Christmas Tree made of Lego in the Beisheim Centre, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Christmas 2007


Santa Claus and Reindeer made of Lego in the Beisheim Centre, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Christmas 2007

BERLIN: THE MAN, THE WALL, THE GATE, THE STAG, AND THE CAMP

Before reunification, Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany, the joins coming together in Berlin where the city was partly in the West and partly in the East. There were many differences, such as the Tram system being mainly in the East. Traffic was also different, East Berlin designed a 'friendly' little signal to protect its pedestrians from Ladas, Moskvitch, Skodas, Trabants, and Wartburgs, and these have been retained in parts of Berlin today, due to popular demand. West Germany had a generic Green Man to guide people across in front of its BMW, DKW, Fords, Glas, Merecedes-Benz, NSU, Opels, and VWs. The picture below shows East and West versions.

Ampelmännchen (on the left) was created in 1961 by an East German Traffic psychologist hopeful of getting obedience by appealing with a friendly little hatted mascot. On Re-unification Germany tried to impose its generic Green Man (right) on its eastern roads, but the citizens would not let go of their Ampelmännchen.

In 1961 Berliner Mauer went up to prevent the leakage of people from the Communist East to the Capitalist West. The picture shows a small section left standing after The Wall was broken down in 1989. Don't be deceived by this neat, smooth faced wall with its softly rounded top. This was only the wall that faced the West, on the inside there were lines of barbed wire, moats, ditches, mines, automatic guns, lights, sensors. And if you got through all that, the Stasi took vengeance on those you left behind. In other parts of Berlin, the route of the Berlin Wall is traced on the ground with lines of cobbles.

The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and pulled down in 1989 and formed the the most notorious part of the 'Iron Curtain'. Some 128 people are recorded as dying trying to escape from East to West Berlin. Apparently 5000 people escaped from East Germany to West Germany, some 2000 of those being Border Guards. (The wire netting is a modern attempt to stop the wall being chopped up for souvenirs or being plastered with graffiti - some hope!)


Here is the Brandenburger Tor, a triumphal gate erected by Freidrich as an entrance to Berlin on the road from Brandenburg. It has always been symbolic for Berliners, and therefore for others who seek to make a big entrance to Berlin. When the Berlin Wall went up, the Brandenburg Gate became a rallying point for opposition to Soviet Rule and for Peace events. Since 1990 it has become a rather tame tourist attraction and now has ghastly modern architecture Embassies, businesses and posh hotels alongside it.


Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1788 to a classical design based on the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens. Topped by a fraulein (Viktoria) in a Quadriga (Chariot) because Mercedes-Benz were not yet made. She represents Victory, but has indeed been a victim of defeat, being stolen in 1806 by Napoleon when he defeated the Prussians, and then hauled back to Berlin in 1814 when the nasty little Corsican upstart got his come uppance. Viktoria got a bit bent and her chariot's wheels went flat during the struggles in 1945, but eventually she got dusted off and renovated to symbolise victory over communism when The Wall came down in 1989.


Modern Architecture knows no bounds, witness to this is the collision between a glass pudding bowl and the German Parliament building; the Reichstag. Opened in 1894, "Reichstag" was the parliament of Germany until 1933 and this was the Reichstag building. After the little Austrian Dictator came to power, the Reichstag building burned down amidst rumours of Communist plots but also of Brown Shirts vandalism; who knows. The result was that the building became a ruin and stood as a metaphor for the ruins of the German government. When democracy returned after WWII it returned to Bonn and the parliament then was called "Bundestag". The fall of the Berlin Wall determined the Bundestag to return to the Reichstag building and to get Sir Norman Foster to destroy it or renovate it. You decide.

Berlin's Reichstag houses the German Parliament ('Bundestag'). It was re-opened in 1999 having been almost derelict since the fire of 1933, although some bad reconstruction was made in the 1960s. Sir Norman Foster won the 1990s competition and added the immense glass Cupola onto a building he gutted to a bare shell. I am not a fan of modern architecture, and wonder about the purpose of this glass pudding bowl; it looks like a superfluous gesture of attention-seeking rather than anything with any true function


Sachsenhausen was opened on the outskirts of Berlin in 1936 for mainly political prisoners. It housed approximately 200,000 prisoners who were sent there principally for 'crimes' such as political, or anti-social. This prison housed Gypsies, Criminals, people with disabilities, foreign prisoners of war, Jehovahs Witnesses and other religious groups, including 2 entire huts of Priests. It was for men only, although there were also some youths who were used for medical experimentation. The picture shows a memorial to Homosexuals who were sent here and identified by Pink Triangles, I use the word 'Camp' in my title to give extra emphasis to the forgotten thousands who died in these camps. See Salaspils Seen for my Blog about a Latvian Nazi Work Camp. The history of the Holocaust is often very partial.
Memorial to Homosexual men who were victims of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Homosexual men were regarded as criminals or ant-socials by the Nazi regime, and this was enough to get them sent to Work Camps such as Sachsenhausen. Forced to wear Pink Triangles on their striped uniforms, at least 50,000 Pink Triangles died of the harsh work.


(see Wikipedia for notes on the badges worn in these camps).

TOURING TRUTHS

September has become the month that my sister and I meet up (we live 400 miles apart) and travel together on some touring holiday.

Miss (British) Italia [left] and Bridge of Si(mon) [right]

Neither of us can tolerate those London airports, and Archers gives a wide choice of regional airports for most of its tours. Usually we meet half way at an airport in the Midlands, but I was a little smug when my sister agreed that Leeds Bradford airport just over the next hill from me also suited her requirements.

Jet2 then launched us onto our holiday without fuss or bother, and with our homemade egg sandwiches in the overhead locker!. By lunchtime we had been bussed in the Venetian sunshine to our hotel for an overnight gathering of clans!

With Archers, people from all over Britain join tours and are collected together in an hotel on the first night of the holiday. You meet many different, and interesting people, but also as we have found you meet some people again; this year we joined two couples who had shared Archers holidays with us previously.

I chose to use up my first afternoon by making my own way into Venice rather than resting in my hotel, and I visited the Venice Gheto.




Continuing to explore on my own I came across other sights not usually seen by Venice's tourists.




The word “organised” may put people off joining an organised tour, but only the essential parts of the holiday are arranged. Outside of the essential you have the choice to wander alone like I did, or to join the arranged.

If you ride with the arranged itinerary then it is only a matter of getting breakfast and going down to the coach on time. On our holiday, the bus took us to Mantova where arrangements had been made for us to enjoy freshly cooked local food in an intimate family run restaurant, and afterwards a local guide collected us and walked us around the town giving expert explanations of what we looked at.




My photos show similar guided walks in Piazza del Signori (Verona) and inside the Baptistery in Parma.

Each afternoon we were brought back to a comfortable hotel and sat down to a good evening meal. In our view the right balance between relaxation and excitement.



Our tour started on the waters of eastern Italy and took us across to the waters on the western side. But we returned to La Serenissima for a memorable evening meal and a morning flight back to Yorkshire.

Venice	Verona	Liguria and Emilia Romagna

SMELLY SERENISSIMA

DOES VENICE SMELL?

My first acquaintance with Venice was Boxing Day 1998 (with Page & Moy) when La Serenissima greeted me with ice covered boats. In such gloriously chilly conditions, no smell was evident from the watery Venice.

In 2000 I visited Venice in the heat of a warm September and in the chillier month of December for my birthday, and both times found no awkward aromas.

October 2002 found me again in Venice in a surprisingly hot week, and even after a high tide had flooded St Marks smells there were none.

September 2005 (with Cosmos), Christmas Eve 2006 (with Just You), September 2007 (with Archers Direct) I again took the vaporetto from the Tronchetto along the Giudecca into Venice and ambled around the many canals and along the Grand Canal without horrid humours.

No Venice does not smell !

Enjoy the watery reflections I have attached

LILAC LAND: ESTONIA AND LATVIA BLOOM

I visited Latvia and Estonia at the end of May 2007.

Everywhere I went there were Lilac trees growing wild and in full bloom. The flowers were mainly a kind of paleish purpley colour (Lilac, maybe ?!?!?), but a few were in white.

The fragrance from all these blooming Lilacs was lovely.

Enjoy



Here is a small traditional dwelling on the island of Muhu off the coast of Estonia with Lilacs growing around.



This is the Muhu Museum where a hamlet of traditional Muhu dwellings is preserved as a Museum. (see Museum Website)



Pirita is the ruins of a Nuns Convent to the east of Tallinn on the sea coast, and here you see Lilacs embracing the historic site. (see Pirita Website)



You see above a contrast between the LIBERTY of free growing Lilacs and the shabby stern soviet-built tower blocks that represent an altogether different existence.



A 500year old tower, part of the old city wall, in the Old Town of Tallinn on the street called Viru, very close to where we stayed. (see Tallinn Website)

I have a growing collection of Baltic Albums on my Picasa site:

Saaremaa: Island Estonian	Muhu: An Estonian Egg	Baltic

VENI VIDI VICI VENICE

I came, I saw, I conquered some bits of Venice ... or at least I got to see some more of the lovely La Serenissima on Christmas Eve 2006.

This post shows the high points (!);, well okay that's a pun because this post is actually about TOWERS but there are heaps more pictures on Picasa and Simon's Red Pages if you click on those links.



My first "tower" is not actually the gorgeous Campanile of La Madonna dell'Orto in the Cannaregio, but the even more impressive towering Dolomite Mountains above almost 100miles distant!



My second "tower" is the Campanile of Saint Apostoli, though you are probably looking at the Gondola on the Canale Grande below this turret.



My third "tower" is actually a leaning one, though still in Venice. When you push thousands of wooden piles into a muddy lagoon and then build a heavy stone tower on top of it it is inevitable that some of these towers "relax". This one is San Giorgio - there are others too. And if you want to be reminded of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa then just click here.



My fourth "tower" is a Snail! Pietro Contarini's Palazzo with external circular staircase which caused it to be nicked named "Contarini del Bovolo" = Of the Snail.



My fifth "tower" is an Island. The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in the Canale Di San Marco. Oh you might see lots of other bits of Venice in this view too, including in the foreground the Doges Palace.

But if you want to see the thing that I shot those pictures from - The Campanile di San Marco you will have to wait until I get back down to the ground and then click below:

Venice