Kathryn & Rick World Travelers – Page 35

April 8, 2018

Sorry this is a long entry but the mosaics were spendid.

After a really good night sleep and breakfast at the hotel we started our mosaic trek.

First stop, Battistero Neoniano which is the most ancient monument in the city. The octagonal brick structure was erected at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century and finished at the end of the 5th century, at which time the mosaic decorations were added. The octagonal design of the building symbolizes the seven days of the week plus the Day of the Resurrection and Eternal Life. Here is a picture of the outside.

The ceiling mosaic depicts John the Baptist baptizing Jesus standing waist high in the Jordan River. To one side stands the personification of the Jordan river, with a reed in one hand and a garment in the other. The twelve apostles surround the center mosaic. Here are pictures of the dome.

Here are other pictures from inside the battistero.

Then we went to the Museo Arcivescoville. In the museum relics of early Christian Ravenna are preserved, including fragments of mosaic from the first cathedral church, and the chapel of Sant’Andrea, dating from the Gothic kingdom. We couldn’t take pictures but here are a couple I downloaded from the internet. The first is an ivory bishop’s chair and the second and third are mosaics from the chapel of Sant’Andrea.

Our last stop of the morning was Basilica Sant’Apollinare Nuovo which was erected in the first quarter of the 6th century. Here are pictures of the church and the mosaics.

After that we stopped in a workshop where they made mosaics and a very nice lady told us about how mosaic are made and gave me the name of a glass shop in Venice that I hope we can go to.

We thought about about having some lunch but neither of us was very hungry so mom had a gelato and I had an apple. We hung out in the room for a little while to make sure mom’s stomach was ok and then headed to the last two mosaic locations.

First, we went to Mausoleo di Galla Placidia. Here are pictures from here.

Last and certain not least, actually it’s considered the best, was Basilica di San Vitale which was consecrated in 548. Even the floors were amazing.

After touring we came back to the room to rest up for dinner.

We had a nice dinner at a restaurant recommended by the fellow at the hotel. After dinner we came back and packed up because we are going to San Marino tomorrow.

April 7, 2018May 28, 2018

April 7, 2018

After a better night’s sleep we packed up our stuff, went to our breakfast spot and had our juice and croissants. We returned to the apartment to collect our stuff. I double checked that I had my passport before closing the apartment door. (Two years ago I closed the door and left my passport in the apartment which meant we missed our flight, etc. etc. but not this time!)

As we were leaving the wheel on my mom’s suitcase started to break but we pushed forward and essentially dragged it the 1/2 mile to the train station. We are traveling from Padova to Bologna and then on local trains from Bologna to Ravenna. This meant we needed to go to two ticket offices to purchase the tickets. Tickets secured, our next challenge was the ATM, after several tries we got money. We are very accomplished travelers.

We had to wait about an hour for our train. The train worked well for us. We traveled through farm lands. All the trees and plants are greening up with spring. Farmers were out planting. Here’s a picture of mom on the train.

and a picture of the landscape.

Switching trains in Bologna was easy. When we arrived in Ravenna we walked 0.4 miles to the hotel. Mom’s doing great with all the walking. Ravenna seems like a very cute little old town with a nice shopping area. Our hotel is very centrally located.

After getting checked in and settled we went out for a late lunch. We were told that piadina, essentially stuffed flat bread, is a specialty of Ravenna so that’s what we had. While it as tasty, it didn’t agree with mom so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the room.

We didn’t go out to dinner (gave mom’s stomach a rest) and just stayed in. You might have noticed I added categories to the blog!

Tomorrow . . . Byzantine mosaics!

April 7, 2018April 7, 2018

April 6, 2018

Mom slept pretty well all night. I was up from 3 until 6 and then was really sound asleep when the alarm went off at 8. I guess I’m still struggling with jet lag and it seems she’s worked through it. Oh well!

We were up and out by 9 because we had tickets to the Scrovengni Chapel at 10:15. We had breakfast, fresh orange juice and a croissant, at a little local coffee shop. Then we walked over to the Scrovengi chapel. Here’s a picture of the outside of the chapel, unfortunately it’s somewhat obscured by scaffolding.

We had trouble finding our way into the chapel and met a woman who is from Wisconsin, living for a year in Florence and working on her Ph.D in Islamic art studies. Her dissertation is on Turkish tents. I am only including it because she showed us an amazing picture of a Turkish tent.

Eventually we found our way in. We watched a short video about the chapel and then were allowed to enter the chapel for 15 minutes.

It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto which was completed about 1305 and is considered an important masterpiece of Western art. Giotto and his team covered all the internal surfaces of chapel with frescos, including the walls and the ceiling. The largest elements are two extensive cycles showing the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin. The wall at the rear of the church, through which the chapel is entered, has a large fresco of the Last Judgement. There are also panels in grisaille (monochrome) showing the Vices and Virtues. It was beautiful. Here are pictures.

Then we walked through the pinacoteca, the painting museum, and went to the multimedia room to watch another video about the chapel. By this time we were hungry for lunch so we had sandwiches at the museum cafe.

After lunch mom rested on a bench in the park and I tried to go to the ATM (no luck so we are still working on getting some Euros for mom) and I brought her purchases back to the apartment which was right around the corner from the chapel.

Then we walked down to the Basilica of Saint Anthony. The original structure was built between 1233 and 1310. Saint Anthony is buried here and therefore the basilica attracts a lot of pilgrims. We walked around following Rick Steves’ tour which included the relic room. The most prized relic in the glass case at center stage was Anthony’s tongue. When Anthony’s remains were exhumed 32 years after his death (in 1263), his body had decayed to dust, but his tongue was found miraculously unspoiled and red in color. Other relics included his lower jaw with all his teeth impressively intact and his vocal chords, discovered intact when his remains were examined in 1981. How appropriate for the great preacher who, full of the Spirit, couldn’t stop talking about God. Pictures were not allowed inside (sorry no picture of the tongue) but here are some pictures from outside.

Here are several pictures of his tomb that I downloaded from the internet.

And here’s a picture of the relic room.

We walked back from the basilica and returned to the apartment. I worked on figuring out the train for our trip to Ravenna tomorrow as well as blogging. At about 7, we went out for some dinner. In the square there were lots of stalls set up selling various types of food, some vegetable stands and some speciality food stands.

We found a restaurant, had a lovely pasta dinner and then came back to the room and went to bed!

April 6, 2018April 7, 2018

April 5, 2018

Today was primarily a travel day. I left Boston yesterday at 7:15 pm and arrived in London at 6:50 am. Luckily the plane was quite empty so I was able to get a row of four seats to myself. I ended up sleeping most of the way. Unfortunately my mom was not able to sleep on her flight. I found her easily in London and we flew to Venice. In Venice we managed to find the bus to Padua or in Italian, Padova. I wasn’t totally sure which bus stop but we got off at the right one and took a taxi to our Airbnb apartment.

Our apartment is small but just find for the two of us.

After a nap and a shower we went out for some dinner. The place we had selected was in the old section so we wandered around for awhile. We were a little early because we arrived at 6:30 and they started serving dinner at 7:00. We ended up have pizza which was a dinner appetizer and then stopped at a gelato shop for dessert. We took the long route back to the apartment and were ready to collapse.

Here are some pictures of Padua.

April 4, 2018April 7, 2018

April 4, 2018

I leave for Venice today. I’m meeting my mom there and we are going to Padua, Ravenna, and San Marino. Next Wednesday Rick, Nancy, and Mike are flying to Venice and my mom is flying home. Then for the next 2 weeks, we are spending time in Venice, Cinque Terra, Florence, and Rome. Then Nancy and Mike return home and Rick and I go to Switzerland to visit his family. Stay tuned for more updates!

March 25, 2018April 7, 2018

Some general thoughts about our S. American adventure

I feel like I should share some deep thoughts about our trip but I’m not sure what they are.

This was primarily a nature trip. We saw many amazing, pristine, and vast landscapes in Antarctica and Patagonia. I hope they remain that way but I am not hopeful for any reason other than I see how disrespectful humans are to this planet! While not pristine, Iguazu was really, really cool. The wildlife on S Georgia was like watching a National Geographic program.

Experiencing the history and culture of Easter Island was spectacular. I have seen many pictures of moai in books but it’s nothing like seeing them in real life. I would recommend this goes on everyone’s bucket list.

In general my top three sights/experiences on this trip were

The wildlife on S. Georgia
Easter island
Iguazu falls

Patagonia and Antarctica are close behind.

In summary, as with all of our trips and our exploration of this world . . . AMAZING. I feel extremely lucky that I have had this experience.

March 21, 2018April 7, 2018

March 6, 2018

Today is our last day in South America.

We had breakfast and then headed to Valparaiso, about 1 1/2 hour drive from Santiago. Valparaiso is on the coast and is dominated by hills, San Francisco type hills. It’s known for its steep funiculars and colorful, clifftop homes. It got foggier and foggier as we got closer to Valparaiso.

We decided to visit Neruda’s Valparaiso house first, hoping that the weather would improve while we were in the house. I liked it better than Neruda’s Santiago house because I felt like I got a better sense of the man. It was actually three houses blended together. Pictures of the interior were not allowed however here’s a picture of the view of colorful houses from Neruda’s home.

After leaving there we headed towards Cerros Concepción and Alegre to see the colorful houses and graffiti. We wandered for awhile, just taking in the grafitti. There was grafitti everywhere you looked. Also there were interestingly decorated houses.

Here’s picture of just some of the graffiti.

Here are pictures of the area.

We had a wonderful lunch in a small restaurant that we just wandered into. After a late lunch we headed back to the car.

Our flight didn’t leave until 9:50 so we had some time to kill. We decided we would stop in winery in the Casablanca valley. A cool climate and temperatures that vary greatly from day to night have made this valley halfway between Santiago and Valparaíso one of Chile’s best regions for fruity Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs and Pinots. Randomly we picked a winery called Viña Indomita. We were lucky and got a private tour of the winery from a very nice young man who’s English was great and who was studying to be an industrial engineer. We learned a lot. Here are a couple of pictures of the winery.

After the tour we tasted the wine. Here are the labels of the wine we tasted.

It had been a wonderful day but now it was time to head to the airport. We had no trouble finding the airport or returning the car. However at the airport I opened my suitcase to get some pants out for the trip home and the zipper on my suitcase broke. Luckily I was able to get it shrink wrapped and even luckier TSA didn’t feel the need to open it. We flew all night to Atlanta. Unfortunately neither of us slept much. Then we headed home to Boston. Vacation is over. Good news is the next one is about a month away!

March 21, 2018April 7, 2018

March 5, 2018

Today is a travel day. We had a free morning before our flight. We tried to do some shopping but didn’t end up buying anything. We left for the airport at about 12:30. Here is a picture of the airport.

Because we had trouble getting tickets for this flight we ended up in business class. It was pretty nice and we tried not to get spoiled by it.

We landed in Santiago around 10:30, picked up the car, and went to the hotel. It was a long day.

March 21, 2018April 7, 2018

March 4, 2018

Today was a free days so we continued to explore the island on our scooter. We went to sites where we wanted to get additional pictures.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is all the horses. According to Patricia, horses used to be a sign of wealth because there were critical to traveling and farming. Today people still use horses as a status symbol even though they are not really used anymore. There are horses everywhere mostly roaming freely and eating the vegetation. They are branded so they are owned by someone. Here are some horse pictures.

That evening we had to return our scooter. Here’s a picture of Rick on the scooter.

We had hope to see our friends, David and Alison, people we had met on the ship and whose itinerary overlapped with ours. Unfortunately their flight was 5 hours late so we didn’t connect. Hopefully our paths will cross sometime in the future.

March 21, 2018April 7, 2018

March 3, 2018

We were up early to take pictures of the sun rising over the moai. We set off on our little scooter and after getting lost once or twice ended up at Tongariki, the site with 15 standing moai. There were a lot of people there taking pictures. It was beautiful to see the sun rise behind the moai.

We went back to the hotel and had breakfast before Patricia picked us up. She took us to the local museum and then showed us several more standing moai. Some that where aligned celestially and facing the sea, as a tribute to the orginial polynesians who arrive on Easter Island. Most of the moai face in land so that the isanders could receive the benefit of the moaik’smanu. Here are some pictures.

The island is really beautiful. Here are some pictures I took of the island.

Here is a picture of the typical house hundreds of years ago and one of an original foundation.

By the time of the European arrival in 1722, the island’s population had dropped to 2,000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 20,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, to a low of only 111 inhabitants in 1877. Today there are about 9,000 inhabitants living on the island. Virtually all 9,000 people live in Hanga Roa, the main town on the island, because electricity and water are only available in the town.

The name “Easter Island” was given by the island’s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday (5 April) in 1722.

Easter Island was annexed by Chile on 9 September 1888 by Policarpo Toro by means of the “Treaty of Annexation of the Island” (Tratado de Anexión de la isla). Toro, representing the government of Chile, signed with Atamu Tekena, designated “King” by the Roman Catholic missionaries after the paramount chief and his heir had died. According to Patricia, shortly after signing the treaty the Chilean government rented out the island to a company for sheep farming. Until the 1960s the Rapanui were confined to Hanga Roa, the main city. The rest of the island was rented to the Williamson-Balfour Company as a sheep farm until 1953. During this time, the islanders could only work for the company and shop at the company store; they were essentially slaves because they had no other way to earn their livelihood.

That afternoon we learned about the Birdman Cult. After the fall of the Moai carving era society, new Gods replaced the Old ones while there was a struggle for power. In order to settle this in a non-violent manner, the Birdman Cult competition was established to help decide who would lead the Rapa Nui each year.

The process was simple, each year, elders would make a bid for leadership and choose one of their champions to honor the God Make-Make, deity of fertility. What a better way to honor the God of birth than to steal eggs, right?
The chosen ones of the Birdman Cult would then dive down dangerous cliffs of Orongo, a village located meters away from the Volcano Rano Kau. They would then swim to the small inlet named Moto Nui and wait for the first manutara (sooty tern) egg of the season, swimming all the way back to Orongo with the egg safely secure in order to win the crown for his elder, who would then be considered the supreme ruler for one year, until the next competition.

Here is a picture of the volcano.