[Rhodes22-list] What I did on my summer vacation

[Steve Alm]

Hi everybody.

We just got back from Europe and here's how it went.
Trip overview:
3 days in Amsterdam: 3 days in Paris; 6 days in Lisbon; 2 days in Tavira
(southern Portugal); 3 days in Seville, Spain; 2 days in Ericeira, Port.

Details:
In Amsterdam, we immediately took to the streets and started just walking
around, enjoying the sights--and what great sights they were.  The canals
are loaded with every kind of boat you can imagine.  Even tall-masted
sailboats that were stranded between two low bridges.  Many were old-wordly
looking lap strake vessels with big, fat, high bows. We took a boat tour
around the canals and went to the house boat museum where we saw everything
from old to new, inhabited and abandoned.  The people that still live on
their boats often sit out on their canal side decks and greet you as you
boat by.  People were very friendly and inviting and most spoke English.

Our favorite part of the city is an area called Leidesplein, with very
narrow cobblestone streets lined with shops, restaurants, night clubs and of
course the famous ³coffee houses.²  We ate most of our meals at sidewalk
cafes.  They arrange the seating so everyone faces the street.  It¹s like
sitting and watching a movie.

We visited the Rembrandt Museum where we saw, among others, the wonderful
³Night Watch.²  I¹ve only seen pictures before and they hardly do justice to
the real thing.  We also went to the van Gogh museum and ditto to that.
Mary Ann is something of a painting historian so it was nice to have my own
personal docent.  I learned a lot as we both gazed in amazement at these
extraordinary works.

And speaking of gazing in amazement, we also toured the red light district
and saw the hookers in their little street-side windows in various states of
undress, waiting for customers.  One simply walks up to the window, slips in
a 50 euro note and gets invited in for about fifteen minutes.  Not very
romantic but, well...enough said.

They say there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than people.  They have
parking ramps for bikes instead of cars.  There are no ramps for cars.  Even
older men and women all dressed up for work in coats and ties or even high
heels are riding around on bikes.  The public transportation is incredible.
trains, trams, metros, busses, you name it.  It¹s very easy to get around.
Nonetheless, we got around mostly on foot and by the third day we had
blisters, shin splints, aches and pains galore!  We bought foot powder to
soak our feet at night and I broke down and bought a funky, old walkin¹
stick.  More about my cane later.

We said goodbye to the land of tulips and took the high speed Thalys train
to Paris.  We arrived at the train station and took the metro from there to
the city center near our hotel in the Latin Quarter.  Upon emerging from the
underground, my first glimpse was Nortre Damme!  Whew!  We checked in and
hit the streets.  Mary Ann lived in Paris years ago, so she knew her way
around and speaks French.  Dining was the first priority so we found a cute
sidewalk cafe and indulged.

Napoleon mandated that all buildings be the same height, so all you see are
six story (the attic is actually 7, but that¹s typically reserved for the
servants) structures with all that frilly French design.  Again we, the
intrepid walkers, wondered around the narrow streets, stopping for snacks
and wine whenever our feet got too tired to go on.  These rest stops seemed
to get more and more frequent.

We went to the modern Pompidoa museum where they had paintings by Dali,
Picasso, others.  At the Louvre, there was a special Leonardo deVinci
exhibit that was utterly wonderful.  deVinci only painted 30 something
paintings, but he filled up pages and pages of little technical drawings of
everything from human anatomy to flying machines.  Absolutely fascinating.
We decided not to stand in the long line to see the Mona Lisa which is in
its own room.  What bothered me about the Louvre is that the labels next to
the artwork are only in French.  You¹d think that they¹d have several
languages like they do everywhere else, but no.  Nortre Damme was perhaps
the highlight for me.  I had no idea that the place is actually still open
and free to all.  Not only do they still give Mass there (with the Cardinal,
no less, presiding) but they still play the pipe organ which we got to hear.
I was profoundly astonished.  It blows my mind to think that before it was
built in 1133, some architect had to put pen to paper and say, ³I think we
should build it this way.² and that the people responsible for approving it
said, ŒYeah, that looks reasonable.  Go ahead!²

Paris is extremely expensive so we tried to shop at grocery stores and bring
food back to the hotel whenever practical--  baguettes, cheese, sausages and
wine, but it was hard not to stop at the creperies and various other
sidewalk eateries.

I know you¹re probably curious how we were treated by the French.  More on
that later--let¹s go to Lisbon.  Our friend, Eddy Goltz, has been a
professional musician there for 20 years.  He stays with us once a year when
he comes home to see his family so it was cool to do the reverse.  Lisbon is
a beautiful and very old city.  Founded by the Phonecians thousands of years
B.C. and subsequently inhabited by Celts, Romans, Moors, Safardic Jews and
Portuguese.  The antiquity of the place is hard to wrap your mind around
when you come from a neighborhood that was built in the 1930¹s.  One of the
best natural ports in Europe, Lisbon is a bustling shipping and
boating/sailing haven.  We saw everything from full rigged tall ships to
kayaks; ocean going container ships to PWC¹s.  There are aquaducts, a middle
ages castle, monuments and cathedrals abound, and of course, sidewalk cafes.
We took a double decker bus tour where we got to see the sights and get
ourselves oriented to the city.  There are many lovely beaches along the
coast but the Atlantic is pretty cold so we only waded a bit which felt
great on our sore feet.

I got to play three gigs in Lisbon.  The first was a jazz big band that
played for the Lisboa Escola de Danza (School of Dance).  They were doing a
show featuring various selections from American musicals ranging from
Cabaret to Chicago.  The band was pretty good but the dancers were
fantastic.  The other two gigs were in nightclubs.  One was a trio--myself
and two other Portuguese dudes who spoke little English and didn¹t know my
arrangements very well but we managed to speak the international language
pretty well.  The last gig was a quintet with Eddy and Mary Ann on the 4th
of July and us Yanks rocked Œem good.  Tons of fun!

We left Lisbon to go to the southern Portuguese area called the Algarve,
known for its quaint villages and beaches.  After quite a mixup in the
bus/train ride, we finally got to Tavira at about 11 at night.  They
happened to be celebrating San Pedro that weekend so the town was all
dressed up and decorated with flowers.  The whole town was out dancing in
the streets to the various bands, eating sardines and snails and drinking
beer.  It was really very sweet.  We took the water taxis to the beaches
which were beautiful indeed but too windy to enjoy for long so it was back
to the sidewalk cafes for more beer.

We took the bus to Seville in Spain.  Wow, what a fantastic city--my
favorite of the trip.  Everything is clean and well kept.  We stumbled
around a little and found a hotel, checked in and then, you guessed it, hit
the streets on foot.  What a beautiful and enchanting city!!!  It wasn¹t
long before we happened along a group of people at a bar who had spilled
into the street, all singing in harmony, dancing and playing
guitars--Flamenco Sevillana!  It was just wonderful.  I¹ve seen Flamenco
performances in the States, but like pictures of great art, it¹s a whole new
experience when you¹re there where Flamenco was born.  We went to several
other Flamenco shows too and they were all fabulous.

We found the double decker bus tour here as well and the sights were
spectacular.  The Moorish Alcazar palace from the 900¹s, the Cathedral of
San Cristobal (where Christopher Columbus is buried)--almost as impressive
as Nortre Damme,  fortresses, a whole modern area built for the world expo
in 1992 to celebrate 500 years after Columbus discovered America, and yep,
sidewalk cafes.  We ate lots of tapas and gaspacho to die for.  The sights,
sounds, smells, and tastes of Seville are truly a delight for the senses.  I
can¹t wait for my next visit.

We bussed back to the Lisbon area and spent our last two nights with two
newly acquired friends Stephen and Vanessa who are transplanted from Belfast
and London.  They live in the little fishing village of Ericeira, out on the
coast northwest of Lisbon.  Very charming and down scale.  Crab dinners and
lots of Irish whiskey.  It was nice to cap the trip off with a couple of
relaxing days on the ocean front.

People and attitudes:
There is no shortage of anti-American sentiment in Europe.  Virtually every
person we spoke to felt the same about Bush.  Fortunately however, they were
able to distinguish between American foreign policy and us two travelers and
the image of me in my Panama hat and cane gave most the impression I was a
Brit or a German--fine with me.  Nobody gave us a hard time about it
although they all wanted to talk politics.  Most agreed that if there had to
be just one major super power in the world, better the US than Russia,
China, Japan, or any one else.  In Amsterdam, the folks were very friendly
and affable.  In Paris, they were just being Parisians--they hate anything
that¹s not French and they¹re pretty snobby about it.  But I didn¹t get the
feeling they were singling out America as the center of their hatred for
things not French.  In fact President Chirac just gave an address urging
people to smile and be nice to Americans because they¹re losing too much
money in tourism.  Americans are staying away from France in droves.  The
Portuguese people, on the other hand, make the French seem like happy little
school girls.  They¹re truly horrid people, especially the Lisboans.
Portugal is the most backward country of western Europe and it gives them an
inferiority complex.  They have few natural resources in their little
country and they view themselves as have-nots.  They take every opportunity
to be indignant and sour.  They¹re not outwardly rude, but if you go into a
restaurant, the waiter will look at you as if to say, ³What are you doing
here?  Can¹t you see I¹m busy being miserable?²  The Spanish were just the
opposite.  They¹re happy and glorious.  We were treated like the king and
queen.  I just can¹t say enough about Seville.

I took about a hundred and fifty pictures with my trusty 35 mm.  After much
debate, we decided against a digital camera so we can put the photos in an
album and pass it around, rather than trying to get everyone to gather
around the computer.  I¹m having them put on a disk too but I don¹t have a
web site or anything to post them on.

So there you have it.  It was a great trip with many new memories and
friends........and I¹m thrilled to be home!

Slim
S/V Fandango