Papilles en Éveil – May event

While in Lyon I (Anna) have been  participating in an AVF cooking workshop,  Papilles en Éveil (roughly translated as “awakening tastebuds”), led by an incredible (force of nature) woman named Brigitte.  Brigitte has managed to organize a very diverse group of women to meet monthly to prepare and enjoy a three course lunch.  Each meeting is limited to eight of us to keep it manageable and typically lasts from 10 AM to ~3 PM.  We each chip in to pay for the ingredients which are supplied by the person in charge of that course.

Last week we met in the beautiful apartment of Marie-Noëlle.  Her apartment is without a doubt

Enjoying an apéritif before lunch

the most lovely apartment I’ve been in in Lyon – and perhaps anywhere.  It is in a gracious, old building and retains the large rooms, high ceilings, and decorative detail of an old building but has a very modern kitchen that would be a joy to have in any country.  (Alas, the French are known for their cooking but not for their kitchens - although they are making progress and one sees apartments advertised as having “Cuisine Americaine”.) Marie-Noëlle (French) provided the ingredients and recipe for the main course (and of course, the wine); Gillian (English) was in charge of dessert; and Isabel (French) was in charge of the first course, or entrée as it is known in France.   (I am the only American and, without a doubt, the least fluent in French.  Our group also includes ladies from China, Brazil, and various other countries.)

The lovely table

 

 

 

 

 



L-R Isabel, Anna, Gillian, and Marie-Noëlle
 with the entrée with accompanying wine.

Isabel’s entrée, Gougère Béchamel Jambon, was a delicious (rich!) pastry ring with a ham, cheese, béchamel sauce filling. Marie-Noëlle added the dried flower petals that provided the perfect finishing touch.  It was delicious and could easily serve as a summer meal with a salad.

 

 
Then came the main dish (plat, in France),Veau au Pamplemousse et au Poivre Vert (veal with

Veau au Pamplemousse et au Poivre Vert

grapefuit and green pepper corns).  Marie-Noëlle had us prepare  spätzle  for the starch, although one could also have potatoes, noodles or whatever.  This dish not only looked lovely, but was incredibly tender and tasty.

 

 

And then, on to dessert.  Gillian had us preparing Tarte au Citron Meringuée (Lemon Meringue Pie) – but the recipe was completely different from any I’ve ever used.  For a start, the pie crust included

Tarte au Citron Meringuée

egg yolks and was totally mixed and shaped by hand – no rolling pin!  Then Brigitte did some artistic magic with the meringue and added some sugar crystals to the top of the pie before it went into the oven. The result was impressive and tasted delicious.  (David was the happy recipient of the leftover pie – thanks to Gilllian.)

 

 

 

 

Enjoying the fruits of our labor. 
 L-R Marie-Noelle, Isabel, Anna, Gillian, and Ling

As usual, we lingered over coffee and conversation before we said à bientôt  (see you soon) and went our separate ways.  Another very successful, and delicious, Papilles en Éveil gathering.

Sentier Géologique, or Geology Trail

Since David was educated as a Geologist, we jumped at the chance to go for a Geology hike in the Beaujolais hills north of Lyon.   We rented a cute little Fiat 500 (bright yellow) and drove, with a backpack and picnic lunch, about 25 kilometers to the village of Chasselay where everyone was to meet at 9:15.  What with the usual formalities involved in picking up our car, at the FranceCars agency near us, we arrived in Chasselay with only a few minutes to spare.

Chasselay Village Gate

We joined the group of about dozen, plus our leader Nicole, and set off up the hill.  This was a marked hike with a series of eight stops with descriptive panels explaining the geologic history of what we were seeing on the trail.  In addition to the geology, we also walked through very scenic woods, with occasional views across the lovely Beaujolais countryside.

Our Leader & Group at one of the Signs

It was an interesting group – all people who were new to us, all French, mostly couples.  We each chatted with various people during the day – everyone was very friendly and curious as to how we came to be in France and in Lyon. 

David and Sign

The geology was interesting – we were in an area mostly from the Jurassic Era when the region was covered at times by seas of varying depths.  Many shellfish fossils were observed and our leader had other types of fossils in her backpack that she had found on other outings in the area.

After a couple of hours, we reached the top of the hill, which sits, by the way, on a buried military command-and-control center for the French air force, and we looked at the views and found a grassy area on which to sit and eat our picnic lunches.  [Surprisingly, we were the only ones to have included a bit of wine with our lunch!] 

The Group Having Lunch

Military Area - No Photos!

After lunch, we took a different route down the hill to our cars and convoyed off to another village, St Jean-des-Vignes and its museum of the geology of the area.

The museum was a small, well-done facility exhibiting mostly minerals and fossils from the nearby area.  We had a volunteer guide who explained things in great depth.  The museum is near a limestone quarry run by Lafarge, a French worldwide cement company.  They often uncover fossils in the course of their excavations, and when that happens, the experts are called in.  They also bring amounts of fossil-rich rock to an area outside the museum where children can make their own discoveries.  Seems to be a great partnership.

One of the highlights of the museum, and this could only happen in France, was a wine tasting, presumably to show the effect of the terrain on the wine!  Our guide led this also, explaining the wine, how to taste, and what to look for.  We enjoyed two excellent Beaujolais wines, a red and a white.  A perfect way to end our visit.

Wine Tasting - Museum Guide in Center, Walking Guide to Right

We spent a full day hiking and learning and generally enjoying ourselves.  With a rental car, we had to leave just a bit early, before the walk through the botanical garden adjacent to the museum, but we certainly got in most of the activities.

Philippe’s Maxi Burger and Lunch with Bernadette and Delphine

Our friend, Philippe, at Viténature across the street, makes an amazing hamburger.  It’s different from an American hamburger although it has many of the same ingredients, but it is delicious and very popular with his clientele.   We had been watching for it to appear on his schedule, but, since we hadn’t seen it, we decided to ask when he was planning to serve it again.  After some calendar

Philippe's Maxi Burger

consultation and head scratching, the date was set for Tuesday, May 27^th.  We made our reservations (definitely necessary when his hamburger is advertised!) and were happily contemplating diving into a “MaxiBurger.”

In the meantime, we had been hoping to bump into Bernadette, a friend who lives just down the street from us.  Although we all go to Viténature  often, our paths had not crossed.  We especially wanted to connect with her since we had heard that her husband had recently died and we wanted to spend some time with her.  (See blog posting “Guests of a Chef” July 4, 2012 http://aubrysinfrance.blogspot.fr/2012/07/guests-of-chef.html  )  Then, coming home from the local MonoPrix grocery store the other day, Anna just happened to meet Bernadette in the street outside her apartment building.  After hugs, bises, and a nice long chat, they agreed to meet for coffee (with David, of course, and Delphine, Bernadette’s daughter) the next morning at Viténature .  That meeting for coffee lead to a plan to meet for Philippe’s burgers.  Now you have all the pieces – WHEW!

So, at our reservation time, we arrived at Viténature to find our favorite table waiting for us with a “reserved” sign on it.  We chose our drinks (Anna had a beer, the rest had wine) and settled back for

David, Delphine, Bernadette, and
 Anna getting ready to dig in.

some fun conversation in anticipation of a delicious lunch.  We always have a good time with Bernadette, and it was great to see her laughing and enjoying herself again.  Then the burgers came - Philippe calls them “Maxi” for good reason.  They were every bit as good as we remembered.  From what Angeline said, lots of other customers thought so, too, and the burgers had been selling very well.  We took our time working our way through the burgers, frites, and salad and then moved on to dessert.  (This IS France remember.)  Anna had a slice of their delicious tarte au pomme (apple tart), one of her favorites, and the others had eclairs.  And, then on to coffee..…    

Delphine had somehow pre-arranged to pick up the tab for everyone for lunch – not at all sure how that happened!  But, that just means we’ll have to set up another lunch date with OUR turn to pay.

Découverte de la France – Art Nouveau

We’ve enjoyed attending our twice-monthly Découverte de la France (Discovering France) classes at AVF since we first came to Lyon.  Andrée-Anne, our very able maîtresse, has been a wonderful guide as we learn about various regions, architectural and design styles, history, geography, and culture in France.  This month we have been discussing Art Nouveau and, to a lesser extent, Art Deco. 

Art Nouveau is a special favorite of David’s so we tend to notice it in our explorations around

In the entry hall to side of building

France.  (Very simplistically, Art Nouveau was in vogue from about 1890 to 1910 or so and incorporates asymmetrical designs using elements of nature and flowing lines –in the US, Tiffany is a good example.) It was a very popular design form for furniture, buildings, stairways, stained glass windows, lamps, vases, etc.   We often walk past a building near the Prefecture with some beautiful Art Nouveau windows as these photos show.

Lovely gates to the main entry.

Stained glass door seen 
through the front gates.

Front of Salle de Rameau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School building and gate.

During our last class we walked around Lyon with Andrée-Anne pointing out Art Nouveau features on various buildings.  Two buildings across the street from each other are particularly interesting.  The first building, Salle de Rameau, was built as a concert hall in 1907-1908 and has lovely mosaic designs and ornamentation on the exterior.  The second building was built as a school for girls and has a very impressive gate as well as mosaics and other ornamentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our favorite example is also one of our favorite restaurants, Brasserie des Brotteaux, which celebrated its 100^th birthday last year.  And, that’s where our class gathered today for coffee.  Very civilized way to learn about France – don’t you agree?

Exterior of Brasserie des Brotteaux

 

One view of the interior of the restaurant.

The Next Great Bike Trip - To the Loire Valley

Roger, our landlord in France, and I been planning a bike trip down the Loire River ever since we finished doing the Rhone River valley [see blog posts in June 2012 and 2013.] This is a mythic region in France, renowned for its châteaus, wine, cuisine, and beautiful scenery.  From our standpoint, it is a fairly flat area, has a system of bike trails, and, as we discovered, an excellent guidebook for the trail system paralleling the river.  We each bought a guidebook last fall so we could become familiar with the route and the area.   

Just an Idea of the Scenery

Meanwhile, Roger had discussed it with Gerard, his brother-in-law, and with Tom, a retired American doctor with a British wife now living in Britain.  We knew both people as Gerard lives in Lyon, and Tom had lived and worked in Lyon up until last year.  Both men expressed interest in joining us, so we now had a group of four.  Or, as Dominique, Roger’s wife put it, ‘now there will be a doctor in the group to patch up David when he crashes’.  [As it transpired, the only injury we had was to Tom himself who lost his balance at one point and wound up with a scraped knee.] 

We had two different skill levels, as Gerard was a real bike enthusiast, and Roger bikes regularly. [Roger took it upon himself to see that everyone stayed connected while we biked by ensuring that we did not get too spread out.] I had only begun biking again three years ago in preparation for these excursions, and Tom had not done much adult biking.  Tom and I were using borrowed bikes while Gerard and Roger had their own good-quality bikes adjusted to their sizes and styles.  [I was completely familiar with the bike I used, as it belongs to Dominique, is a quality Dutch bicycle, and I have been using it here for three years.  It has only three gear speeds, but since that is what I am familiar with, it was fine.  Gerard professed himself impressed that I could undertake trips like this on a three-speed.]

Over the winter and early spring Roger and I exchanged emails with various ideas for the trip.  The trail covers about 680 kilometers from end-to-end; we decided to start in Nevers, a good-size town at the eastern end of the river and trail system, and cover about half the trail in five days this year, and look at doing the rest next year.  We needed to begin and end in towns with train stations as even Nevers is about 250 km from Lyon.  We decided to drive to Nevers in Gerard’s car, with the rest of us paying his expenses, as Gerard’s car had bike racks that could hold all the bikes.  We would then bike down the valley for five days and take the train back to Nevers and the car on the sixth day.

We had been watching the weather warily as it had been quite blustery and showery, but with Tom and his wife Christine coming from Britain just for the expedition, we had to do it on the dates chosen.  We did have a fallback plan of going south if the weather proved impossible in the Loire.  The predictions for the week said that Monday and possibly Tuesday were showery, and improving the rest of the week, so we decided to go to the Loire.

Spring 2014 - Back in Lyon!

We returned to our “second home” in Lyon on April 23^rd.  People often ask just where Lyon is and what we do here for three months at a time, so we’ll attempt to give you an idea of what our lives in

France are like.  We won’t bore you with every detail, but here’s a quick rundown of our first few days…

We left on the non-stop from Seattle to Paris on the 22^nd, and then took to TGV (fast ! train) from the airport to Lyon and arrived 2 hours later on the 23^rd.  As always, we were pretty wiped so our plan was to go immediately to the apartment, unpack some essentials, get our stuff out of storage in the basement, catch our breath, and then go across the street to ViteNature  to say hello to Philippe and Angeline, pick up something very light for dinner, and crash.  Well, we did all that, but not in the planned sequence.  Philippe and Angeline were sitting outside and saw us dragging our rollerbags to our apartment building; they rushed across the street and greeted us with bises and hugs.  What a lovely way to begin our stay!

The next day, Thursday the 24^th, we had lunch with the Del Cano Club, an organization primarily for British ex-RAF folks and spouses that has kindly adopted us “colonials.”  Del Cano meets monthly for lunches, often has a speaker, and is always reliable for interesting conversations.  No speaker this time, but we did have some fascinating conversations.

A View of lovely Lyon - our apartment
is near the building that looks like
a pencil, and is called "le Crayon"
 (French for pencil).

Then on Saturday we had lunch at a local café with Dominique and Roger, our landlords and good friends.  We’ve communicated in email, of course, but it’s always good to see them and chat in person.

Then we sort of settled into the pattern of our “French lives.” Word got out that we were back so there soon was a note in our mailbox to set up tea and conversation with Anna.  We checked in with Estelle, our French daughter, and set up a lunch date.  David took some bike rides (with and without Roger).  And, soon we had lunches/dinners with friends, explorations, and events and classes at AVF scheduled.

So there you have our first few days in Lyon.

Civitavecchia/Rome – November 10-11th

We walked around the Coliseum and came to a huge arch, possibly the most famous in Rome, the Arch of Constantine. As you can see, it has a large central archway and small ones on each side.  It

Arch of Constantine

 was started in 312 AD and completed in 315 AD.   Very impressive!   (And, how long do they think it will take to complete the new  section of 520 and Evergreen Point Bridge?  But, we digress.) In order to speed up its completion, the builders reused works of art from other Roman monuments to decorate the facades, inside the attic (yes, it has an attic!), and inside the large central archway.  They have actually identified pieces from the period of Hadrian, a tribute to Marcus Aurelius, and pieces from the area of the Forum of Trajan that are used in various places in the Arch. There are six sections in low relief over the side arches that tell the story of Constantine's military campaigns and his arrival in Rome. The inscription in the attic says (with the help of a translation), “To the emperor Flavius Constantine, the Great, pious and fortunate, the Senate and People of Rome dedicated this arch to mark his triumphs, because by divine inspiration and his own great spirit he simultaneously freed the State from the tyrant and from all factions.”    Quite an impressive tribute and monument!  As you can see, it is undergoing repair and restoration work.

The Via Sacra

From the Arch of Constantine, we walked along the Via Sacra (Sacred Road).  This was actually the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of the Capitoline Hill, through some of the most important religious sites of the Forum, to the Coliseum.  It was part of the traditional route of the solemn religious festivals and the magnificent triumphs of victorious generals.  It was paved and, then during the reign of Nero, it was lined with colonnades.  It also served the locals as a place gather in the Basilicas to chat, throw dice, engage in business, or secure justice.  The road is lined with ruins in various stages of repair, including the colonnades, shrines, temples, and other buildings.   Since we began at the Coliseum end of the road, we saw another impressive archway at its end.  This turned out to be the Arch of Titus.

The Arch of Titus was constructed around 82 AD by the Roman Emperor Domitian shortly after the

The Arch of Titus

death of his older brother, Titus, to commemorate Titus' victories, including the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  It appears to be in pretty good condition and remains imposing although  we are told the original gold and silver lettering and decorations among other features have vanished through the ages.  Interestingly enough, the Arch of Titus has provided the general model for many of the triumphal arches erected since-perhaps most famously, it was the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.

As you can see, we did see a lot, but as we explored, we became more and more aware of what we hadn’t seen and still want to see.  We’ll have to save that for our next visit.

Civitavecchia Rome – November 9th - 11th

Our cruise ended in Civitavecchia, Rome’s port city.  There we boarded a bus for the ride into Rome and were entertained by a chatty and humorous guide.  (“In Rome those red and green lights at intersections are just Christmas decorations; nobody pays much attention to them.”)  Once in Rome, we got into a taxi for the ride, again complete with a narrated guided tour, to our hotel.  (As a side note, we stayed at the Napoleon Hotel on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and highly recommend it.)

The Roman academic Silvio Negro is quoted as saying, “Per conoscere Roma non basta una vita” (in order to know Rome a lifetime is not enough).  Don’t know about a lifetime, but we can assure you three days is definitely not enough!  Our hotel was located within walking distance of many of the well-known “must-sees,” and we did our best to see as much as we could.  But, there are so many things to see that it’s really a bit overwhelming.  People were wonderfully pleasant and helpful – one man even retraced his steps and came back across a street to ask us, in English, if we needed directions because he had noticed that we were pouring over a map. 

We always try to check out some small cafés for local color, food and wine.    So we stopped in a very small, corner café for a light lunch and enjoyed one of those magical moments that make these

The exterior of small café

adventures so memorable.  First of all, neither of us speaks Italian, and no one in the café speaks English so communication was somewhat limited.  The walls of the café were covered with family pictures of weddings, christenings, birthdays, and various certificates and awards, etc. – it was very obviously family-owned and had been for some time.  We each had a glass of wine, and Anna ordered a bruschetta, and when it came,

At the end of the meal...note the
family memorabilia on the wall.

it turned out to be two very large ones.  The owner asked if we liked it, and we said yes.  Then he told us that their specialty was ravioli.  David made polite noises, and, suddenly we were sharing a huge plate of raviolis.  Not what we had anticipated, but who’s going to argue?  They were absolutely delicious!  We gestured our appreciation to the cook (Mom?  Grandma?) with everyone else watching us and beaming.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound - right?  So, we next had one of those amazing homemade Italian desserts and coffee.  Neither of us was in the least bit interested in dinner that night!

We soon learned that at this time of the year it is not unusual for rain to happen instantly, thoroughly drench everything and everybody, and then disappear. During each rain squall, men appear from out of nowhere selling umbrellas and ponchos; then they disappear when the rain stops.  It’s almost like magic – they are here (everywhere, actually) one minute and gone the next.  It was also in Rome that we learned that the raincoat Anna had bought in Lyon was not sufficient to keep her from getting soaked to the skin.  But, enough of that and on to sightseeing.

One of our first stops was Trajan’s Baths. The site was once a palace built by Nero then Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian took turns building their own edifices on the site. (The Romans definitely

A part of Trajan's Baths

believed in recycling materials, and each emperor, for instance, would make sure his monument either displaced or was greater than the previous ones.)  Then the Emperor Trajan came along and built this enormous (approx. 1,000 ft by 700 ft) bathing and leisure complex.  The facility was used mainly as a recreational and social center by Roman citizens, both men and women, and was in use as late as the early 5th century. 

Circus Maximus

Then we were off in search of the Circus Maximus where the chariot races were held.  Up to 350,000 spectators gathered here to cheer on their favorite teams (four teams raced at a time and each had its own colors).  The teams had to make, or attempt to make, the seven circuits of the track.  It was wildly popular!  It finally was abandoned at the end of the Empire, and became a source of building materials for other structures. 

We, of course, had to see the Coliseum (aka

Anna in front of the Coliseum (and
wearing the "rain coat.")

the Flavian Amphitheater).The Coliseum, as we have all heard, was site of spectacles like wild animal hunts, gladiator fights, re-enactments of famous battles, dramas based on classical mythology, and the occasional execution. It is considered by many to be the greatest monument in the Rome.  And, in spite of numerous earthquakes and fires, it remains impressive today.  We’re told the Venerable Bede said, “As long as the Coliseum exists, so will Rome, and when the Coliseum falls, Rome too will fall; and when Rome falls, so will the world.”  Thankfully, restoration and repairs are ongoing so we should be safe for a while.

To be continued…

Salerno – November 8th

This stop was another one of our “must sees” on this trip.  Salerno is a port city that was important

1st view of Pompeii from parking lot

for us because we had signed up for a tour of Pompeii, about  an hour and a quarter bus ride out of town.  Thankfully, our tour guide turned out to be excellent, and, in spite of having heard about Pompeii and Vesuvius all our lives, we were impressed by the very detailed tour of these amazing ruins.  Needless to say, this was another of David’s favorites!

Our tour began in the afternoon – an unusual occurrence for us.  This unfortunately precluded having lunch ashore which we like to do because it gives us an opportunity to meet the locals and get a feel for a bit of the local culture.

Original entry gates-imagine all the people
who went through these before us!

Pompeii was much bigger and more elaborate than we had imagined.  Excavations have been going on for almost 200 years, and a large area is exposed.  There is no sense of it having once been buried because in the areas we saw the volcanic ash has been completely removed and some restoration has been done. 

 

 

 

That being said, the details of the town’s life are

Note the wheel ruts

Various artifacts in storage

there – ruts worn in the paving stones of the streets by the iron-rimmed cart wheels, frescos on the walls, casts of the bodies of some of the victims, various household furnishings, etc.  There are streets laid out in a grid between the walls of buildings that stretch away in all directions.  One gets the sense of the size and prosperity of the town before its destruction in 79AD by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.  

The mountain still looms over the town, and over 30 eruptions have been recorded since 79AD. Some of those eruptions have destroyed villages and killed people.  The most recent one, in 1944, destroyed a US airbase.  Nevertheless, at least 750,000 people currently live in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. 

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

After the tour and before our return to Salerno and the ship, our tour group stopped for a chance to buy souvenirs, get a quick bit of food, or, in our case, enjoy a leisurely glass of wine and the company of our hosts in the café.    Unfortunately, we were a little too leisurely because it was time to climb back in the bus before we finished our wine.  What to do?  We obviously couldn’t take our glasses onto the bus, and we each had about half a glass of nice red wine left.  But, the folks at the café saw our dilemma and came to our rescue with disposable cups.  They poured our wine into the cups, and, after lots of “grazies” and “arrivedercis” we were on our way, sipping our wine during the ride back to the ship.

November 6th – At Sea and November 7th - Messina

At Sea

We had a couple of ‘sea days’ aboard ship, where we were en route to our next stop.  The leg between Santorini and Messina in Sicily was probably the most exciting.  The weather in Santorini had been gorgeous – blue skies, 70+ degrees, etc.  But between Santorini and Messina during the night before our arrival in Messina, we encountered a bit of a storm.  According to the Captain, the storm included rain and winds gusting to 70 knots [80mph].  This caused a good deal of rolling, even in a ship as large as the Queen Elizabeth, to the point where our sleep was interrupted by the motion.  Our cabin was on the highest level, eight decks above the main deck, magnifying any rolls the ship took.  (There were crews scraping salt off of windows and then cleaning them, when we went to the dining room for breakfast, and our outside seating area was sticky with salt.)  We got up late, a bit bleary-eyed, the next morning – it was a good thing we had decided to explore on our own.

Messina

Mosaic map of city donated by local
 Rotary Club as its centennial project

Messina is just across the Straits of Messina from Italy.  It has been an important port for centuries

Messina & harbor with Madonnina (135' pillar with
 30' statue of Virgin Mary) on opposite point 

on an island that has been ruled and fought over for literally millennia.  That being said, while we enjoyed exploring the town, looking at churches and other old buildings, we did not find Messina to be a very interesting place for simply wandering around.  It has wide streets, low-built houses, and large new buildings – quite a change from the sites we’ve become accustomed to on this trip.  Why?  Mostly because of a great earthquake in 1908.  About 2/3 of the city’s population (60-80,000 people!) died in the quake, and gone were the narrow streets and lofty houses.  Then the air-raids of 1943

Duomo (Cathedral) with campanile with one
of the largest clocks in the world - showing
astronomical faces

reduced much of the reconstruction to rubble and killed another 5,000 or so inhabitants.  So, now the city is modern in appearance with lots of trees and flowers and mini-parks.  Attractive and easy to navigate on foot, but not very interesting from a history standpoint.

We did have an interesting lunch off the beaten path in a sidewalk café called the American Bar where no one spoke much English, but everyone was cordial, and we all managed to communicate by various means.  We seemed to be the only tourists there which is what we prefer.  Anna went in to order our desserts from the

Anna in front of fountain

ample pastry selections in a refrigerated case (delicious!), and was greeted by our waitress who introduced the person on the staff who spoke English.  When Anna greeted him in slow, simple phrases, he got a panicked look on his face.  Poor guy – he didn’t know he would have an oral exam that day!  So, no American English spoken in the American Bar, but we still had a good time.

Santorini – November 5th

This was one of the high points for our resident geologist, David.  (Note from Anna:  That’s putting it mildly - he was in geology heaven!)

Because of its geography, we took a tender from the ship to the island.  Santorini is another Greek island off the Turkish coast; it was the site of a cataclysmic volcanic eruption about 1500 BC.  Before 

Inside the caldera with the distant white
buildings of the village of Santorini

the eruption, the island was a prosperous outpost of the advanced Minoan civilization centered on the island of Crete, about 60 miles away.  This eruption caused ash falls and Tsunamis that reached Crete and may actually have played a part in the subsequent collapse of the Minoan civilization.  It has been speculated that these events may have given rise to the legend of ‘The Lost Continent of Atlantis’, supposed to have foundered in the ocean.

The eruption produced Santorini itself, a huge caldera that now serves as an anchorage for ships.  The island started out as a roughly circular island with a diameter of about eight miles.  Most of that island was destroyed in the eruption, and a city, Akrotiri, has been found buried 

Akrotiri today

under ash and lava, similar to Pompeii in Italy.  One of the interesting things about this buried city, is that, while only a small part of the city has been uncovered (excavations continue), no human remains or valuables have been found, suggesting that most residents left before the event.  What happened after they left is an intriguing mystery.  Did they evacuate to somewhere they thought would be safe and then perish in the Tsunami?  Were they trying to reach safety in boats that got swamped?   Some of the evidence found in the excavations suggests they assumed they would return.

Our tour of the ruins of Akrotiri was a real eye-opener!  It once housed about 30,000 people and is 

A View of some of the discoveries.

about 4,000 years old.  The civilization was really quite advanced and had three and four-story houses, definite main and side streets – even indoor plumbing and a city sewer system.  But, it existed and was destroyed before writing came into play so, unfortunately, there are no written records.  We both agreed that this was the best tour of the trip.  Our tour guide was extremely competent and informative and the site was fascinating. 

After the tour of the remains of Akrotiri, we were deposited in a village perched spectacularly on the edge of the caldera, overlooking the harbor, with the Queen

A view of the QE II from the village.

Elizabeth and another cruise ship anchored below.  (We now recognize this view of blue sky, white buildings, and beautiful blue water below on many, many tour guides and pamphlets.)




Anna in the restaurant.

We asked our guide for suggestions for lunch spots, and she recommended a couple of restaurants.  We chose one with tables on the second level, looking out over the water.  We had one of the best meals of the cruise, with a menu that included no souvlaki or baklava (“too touristy and clichéd”) – unusual for a Greek tourist restaurant! 

After lunch we wandered around town, bought a couple of souvenirs, and headed for the spectacular cable car that transported us down 

We chose a cable car.

the almost vertical walls of the caldera to the 

A brave soul on a donkey.

dock.  (Another option was to ride down on donkeys or walk.)    At the dock we caught a tender for our short ride back to the ship.