WolfeStreetTravel

A Prolonged Foray to Europe: Taormina, Sicily (Parte Seconda)

Posted on June 10, 2023 by WolfeStreetTravel

Taormina offered three notable experiences during our stay:

The town itself
An epic hike to Castelmola high above Taormina
Taormina’s spectacular Roman theater

Our last post addressed the first item above. This second one will bring completion to the triad.

Hike to Castelmola

To reach Castelmola, we hiked the Sentiero dei Saraceni (Path of the Saracens):

But to reach the trailhead, we first had to leave our place on the water, take the gondola to Taormina’s centro storico, then wind through town, and then finally deviate from the well-trod Corso Umberto to climb through the labyrinthine streets in the old town’s outskirts. THEN the real climbing began.

The trail takes its name from the ancient road used by Arab forces during their siege of Taormina in 902 AD.

The path itself is an old trazzera — a Sicilian dialect word for a country track — worn into the landscape by the constant passage of mules and horses through a wild terrain of fig trees and prickly pears.

Although not nearly as taxing as the Path of the Gods (Sentiero degli Dei) that we hiked on the Amalfi Coast earlier in the trip, the 7+ mile hike did have 1220 feet of ascent. And we also hiked on a pretty hot day. (In addition to the route on the map below, you can also identify Isola Bella and our AirBnB location on the right side.)

The path is an ancient way to access Castelmola from the southern slope of Monte Tauro, the mountain that looms above Taormina. Starting from Piazza Duomo in Taormina, the initial walk winds through the town’s streets, then the trail transitions to a combination of dirt and rocks — mostly steep stone steps.

You definitely get rewarded with some great views along the way.

And a forest of cactus.

A sign that we’re reaching the apex of our hike at the hill town of Castelmola:

The site was first fortified by the Byzantines around 800 AD, serving as an outpost for and above Taormina. In 902, the fortification fell to Muslim forces after fierce resistance. The Saracens broke into Castelmola’s forts and destroyed much of the village, sparing only the castle — and the access gate to the historic centre is still called the Porta dei Saraceni because of this event.

In 1078, Norman Count Roger I reconquered the area and built a new castle incorporating the original walls. Most of what remains today dates to a 16th-century version of the structure. A 10th-century plaque with Greek-Byzantine engravings on the cathedral façade reads: “This castle was built under Constantine, patrician and strategist of Sicily” — almost certainly referring to Costantino Caramalo, who defended the territory from Arab attacks in the 9th century.

Throughout later centuries, Castelmola sided with the Swabians and Aragonese against the Angevins, eventually becoming part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1738 and then the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

In addition to some great historical context for Castelmola’s many lives, this recitation also recalls the convenient history-of-Sicily-on-a-t-shirt introduction in our first Sicily post. (The t-shirt, as it happens, actually was spotted during our stay here in Taormina.)

Regardless of the events that led up to Castelmola’s current iteration, it proved to be a pretty charming little hill town.

With a little cafe just for WolfeStreetTravel’s resident figeater:

And then there’s Castelmola’s chief attraction:

Bar Turrisi, or. . .

the dick bar.

The bar was founded in 1947 by Salvatore Turrisi, who later had three sons in 5 years and decided to celebrate this by absolutely filling this place with dicks.

It’s a riot of phallic symbols (all of them, btw, created exclusively by Sicilian artisans, for what it’s worth):

After some beers and pizza, we headed back down to Taormina, where our oasis awaited.

Definitely a welcome respite after the hike.

Roman Theater

Taormina’s Teatro Antico offered the last of the three highlights during our stay.

Although its known for the role it played during the Roman period, the theatre originally was constructed during the Hellenistic period, circa 265–215 BC. It is one of the oldest theatres in Magna Graecia to feature a curved cavea rather than the older trapezoidal design. The structure was carved directly into the rocky hillside of Monte Tauro, using the natural slope in the classical Greek manner to create optimal sightlines and acoustics.

Originally designed for dramatic performances, it hosted plays by ancient Greek playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. These performances were often part of religious festivals and reflected the myths and social issues of the time. Acoustics were engineered so that even whispers on stage could be heard in the highest seats.

During the Roman rule over Sicily, the Romans did not merely maintain the theatre — they systematically rebuilt and repurposed it over roughly two centuries, in three distinct phases.

Phase I & II — Expansion under Trajan and Hadrian (98–138 AD)

The major Roman renovation expanded the cavea, modified the retaining walls to run parallel with the stage, and constructed an elaborate multi-story scaenae frons (the ornate architectural backdrop behind the stage). This phase created the theatre in its most magnificent form. The first intervention enlarged the theatre’s capacity with the construction of an external ambulatory and a complete reconstruction of the scaenae frons. Scholarly research confirms the architectural ornament of that stage front is definitively Trajanic or Hadrianic in style — and the architect of the theatre at Taormina used illusionistic column effects closely similar to those at the South Theater at Gerasa, suggesting Eastern influence on its design.

Phase III — Conversion to Arena (Late 2nd / Early 3rd Century AD)

The second Roman intervention involved changes to the stage and an expansion of the orchestra to transform the theatre into an arena capable of hosting gladiatorial games. A ring corridor was built, closed by a raised parapet, along with underground spaces used as shelters for equipment and animal cages. Three vaulted passageways were built under the scaenae frons to provide access for gladiators and animals.

Phase III — Conversion to Arena (Late 2nd / Early 3rd Century AD)

A view up to Castelmola, the destination of our hike the previous day and home to the dick bar.

The theatre has a horseshoe-shaped cavea with a diameter of 107–109 meters, an orchestra measuring 28–29 meters across (later expanded to 34 meters during the arena conversion), and a seating capacity estimated at 8,900 to 11,150 spectators across more than 40 rows divided into nine cunei and three maeniani (levels). It is the second largest of its kind in Sicily, behind only the Greek Theatre of Syracuse.

The setting is arguably the theatre’s most famous feature. Oriented to face south-southwest, it frames a panorama of Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea simultaneously — a view that has captivated visitors for millennia.

During the Middle Ages, parts of the theatre were reused to build private residences and religious buildings, including Taormina Cathedral. It was the Grand Tour of the 18th and 19th centuries that restored the theatre to international fame. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited in 1787 and wrote in his famous Italian Journey: “Never has a theatre audience enjoyed such a view.” His words became perhaps the most quoted description of the site and drew generations of European travelers in his wake.

The theatre today is far more than a museum piece — it remains an active cultural venue. Since 1983 it has hosted the Taormina Arte festival and other cultural events. Since 1971, the Taormina Film Fest has been held in the Ancient Theatre, with premieres and new film screenings taking place here.

Final night in Taormina (and in Sicily):

On to Malta!

Categories: A Prolonged Foray to Europe, Sicily | Tags: Sicily, taormina, Taormina Teatro Antico, Taormina theater, Teatro Antico, Turrisi, Turrisi bar | Leave a comment

A Prolonged Foray to Europe: Valletta Area, Malta

Posted on June 10, 2023 by WolfeStreetTravel

From Taormina, Sicily, we flew a very short hop to the island nation of Malta, country no. 79 for WolfeStreetTravel (and one we’d been eying ever since planning The Smallest 5 for the Big 5-0 trip to Europe’s micronations in 2017).

Malta also represents the third-to-last leg of our post-retirement prolonged foray to Europe trip, the overview and map of which are posted here. We’d spend 4 nights in Malta, and the dry little island nation did not disappoint.

Malta’s Grand Harbor upon arrival:

The island’s history includes Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman occupation before the Arabs transformed it between 870 and 1090 AD, leaving a lasting imprint on the Maltese language, which remains Semitic at its core.

The Normans then took Malta, beginning a long stretch of Christian rule that culminated in 1530 when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted the island to the Knights Hospitaller after the order lost their previous base of operations, the island of Rhodes, to the Ottoman Turks. (The emperor also granted them the city of Tripoli in modern Libya, but the Ottomans ran them out of town there, as well, leaving them with only Malta [and a small town in the Holy Roman Empire, which they controlled until the early 19th century and Napoleon]).

While under Hospitaler control, the Ottomans continued their westward expansion across the Mediterranean, and targeted Malta as their next conquest. In 1565, the Hospitallers – left essentially to fend for themselves – repelled a prolonged Ottoman siege in one of history’s most dramatic defensive stands. Pretty epic tale. (And a good read – we finished Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World before we arrived to give us a good feel for what we were getting into; definitely recommended if you’re into that sort of thing.) After fending off the siege, the Hospitalers transformed some fortifications opposite the Grand Harbor into their capital city and named it Valletta after Jean Parisot de Valette, their Grand Master, who led the defense of the island.

Britain took control of Malta in 1800 after helping the Maltese expel the French forces that had occupied the island following Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion in 1798. Although Britain initially intervened as an ally, it retained Malta because its central Mediterranean location and excellent natural harbor made it a vital naval base for protecting British trade routes and projecting military power. Britain refused to return the island as required by the Treaty of Amiens, and Malta remained a British colony until it gained independence in 1964.

During Britain’s rule of the island in WWII, Malta became a critical naval hub and endured one of the most sustained aerial bombardments of the entire war, earning the troops the George Cross collectively from King George VI in 1942. Fort Angelo on the peninsula of Birgu, which was manned by the British Navy during WW II, seen from across the harbor from the peninsula of Senglea (we’d eventually visit it):

Malta gained independence in 1964, became a republic in 1974, and joined the European Union in 2004, completing a journey from ancient temple-builders to modern European democracy in one of the Mediterranean’s most strategically contested stretches of rock.

Our hotel in the background was located in a decommissioned fortress on Senglea, one of Malta’s historic Three Cities on a spit of land across the Grand Harbor from Valetta, the capital city.

First lunch in town on Senglea – pretty great start to our stay (we’d return there for our final dinner):

Walking along the Grand Harbor; we stayed on the left, the peninsula of Senglea; the parallel peninsula of Birgu is to the left, and Valletta itself is straight ahead.

The fortifications around Valletta, passed as we arrived from the water taxi stand many stories below the city elevation (there’s an outdoor elevator to get you from there to here):

The narrow and atmospheric streets of Valletta:

Punctuated by the city’s uniquely characteristic and multicolored gallarija:

“The gallarija is considered a descendant of the Maltese muxrabija, and it is closely related to the mashrabiya which are typical in Arabic architecture. . . [which consist of] an ornate timber screen, perforated with an intricate network of holes, tightly fitted into a window or loggia. . . Muxrabijet had the task to keep the interior of the building cool by allowing circulation of air through the carved wood. They were also used as cooling device for storing water, and as a security measure to observe the outside without being seen.“

Pretty much every single street in Valletta was flanked by gallarija.

A city of limestone, punctuated by brightly colored wood elements. Pretty picturesque.

Water taxi ride back to Senglea:

Our hotel occupied one of the Hospitalers’ old fortresses, which was freakin’ awesome. The walls in the rooms were 3′ thick and you could feel the history. Plus, this pool:

Pretty great perch of the Grand Harbor.

View from our room’s cannon embrasure-cum-window:

Very cool little harbor area off the Grand Harbor on Birgu that was, um, harboring a very nice restaurant.

Access to the restaurant was gained through the abandoned tunnels of Fort St. Angelo.

After walking around, sailing around, and walking under Fort St. Angelo, we finally decided to actually visit the place.

“The fort was garrisoned by the British from 1800 to 1979, at times being classified as a stone frigate known as HMS Egmont or later HMS St Angelo. The fort suffered considerable damage during World War II, but it was later restored.“

Map of the fortifications with dates delineating the evolution of the fort from the Hospitalers’ era in the 1500s (and even earlier to 1091 for one of the chapels that predated – by a long stretch – their arrival) to the 1940s:

View over to Senglea across the harbor:

Inside a watchtower on the very tip of the fort and of Birgu; the tip of Senglea is out the right window, but you can’t tell.

Another evening in Malta after a day trip to Mdina, which will cover in another post. Unbelievable weather the entire time, though.

Unexpected fireworks towards the end of dinner:

The dome of Hospitalers’ (Order of St. John’s / Knights of St. John’s) St. John Co-Cathedral in Valletta:

St. John’s Co-Cathedral was built between 1573 and 1578 by the Knights of St. John as their conventual church following the Great Siege of Malta, with its austere exterior designed by Maltese architect Girolamo Cassiere concealing one of the world’s most lavish Baroque interiors.

It’s a co-cathedral (we had never heard of this before) because the original (and still) bishop’s seat on Malta was in the interior town of Mdina at St. Paul’s Cathedral. But the Hospitalers new one got recognized by the Pope, as well, and he granted it equal cathedral status, as a co-cathedral. One bishop, two cathedrals. Pretty wild.

Today, the co-cathedral is Malta’s most important religious and artistic monument, symbolizing the power and legacy of the Knights Hospitaller while serving as one of Europe’s finest examples of Baroque architecture and a centerpiece of Valletta’s UNESCO World Heritage status.

Spectacular ceiling of the co-cathedral

Way better to us was the floor – the entire place was occupied by elaborate tombs of the Knights of St. John:

Most of which included macabre elements, to our delight:

One of the greatest treasures of St. John’s Co-Cathedral and one of the masterpieces of Western art is Caravaggio’s The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608). It’s the cathedral’s most famous work and the reason many art lovers travel to Malta.

It’s significant for the following reasons:

It is Caravaggio’s largest painting. Measuring roughly 3.6 × 5.2 meters (12 × 17 feet), it is the largest canvas he ever painted and one of the few works created specifically as an altarpiece.
It is Caravaggio’s only signed painting. If you look near the pool of blood beneath John the Baptist’s neck, you’ll find the artist’s signature: “f. Michelangelo” (“Fra Michelangelo”), written in the blood. He signed it this way because he had just been admitted as a Knight of the Order of St. John—a unique moment in his tumultuous life.

Saint Jerome Writing, also by Caravaggio, painted around 1607–1608 during his stay in Malta, depicting Saint Jerome translating the Bible into Latin, with the skull symbolizing the fleeting nature of life.

Check out the discrete Maltese cross Caravaggio included in the bottom right of the painting, paying homage to the patrons who funded it. . .

Next up: Mdina, Malta, and then, finally, some biking.

Categories: A Prolonged Foray to Europe, Malta | Tags: Birgu, Europe, Fort St. Angelo, Gallarija, history, Hospitalers, Malta, Senglea, St. John Co-Cathedral, travel, Valletta | Leave a comment

A Prolonged Foray to Europe: Mdina, Malta

Posted on June 10, 2023 by WolfeStreetTravel

While staying in the Valletta area, we grabbed an Uber for a field trip to Mdina, the Maltese capital’s forerunner until the 16th century. After the Knights of St. John made the new fortified town of Valletta their capital after the Great Siege of 1565, Mdina faded in significance and slid into backwater status significantly enough to be nicknamed the “Silent City.” Based on our stroll throughout town, this is pretty apt, although Silent Sunburnt City may be even more on brand.

Founded as a fortified settlement by the Phoenicians around the 8th century BC, the town later became the Roman city of Melite. Under Arab rule beginning in the 9th century, it was reduced and fortified into the compact medieval city that became known as Mdina. (The Arabs also separated the fortified city from the surrounding area—creating what became Mdina, literally the city, while the adjoining suburb became Rabat, meaning suburb or quarter in Arabic. We’d visit both during our little field trip.)

Mdina’s Baroque Main Gate, dating from 1724. Built during the rule of the Hospitallers, it replaced the medieval entrance that was destroyed during the 1693 Sicily earthquake nearby (which gave rise to the Baroque Towns we visited just prior, in Sicily).

The gate is flanked by two lions, which are associated with Antonio Manoel de Vilhena, the Grand Master of the Order of St. John in Malta during the late 18th century, as well as Vilhena’s coat of arms over the gate proper.

Extant fortifications of the city on either side.

Inside Mdina proper, on the other side of the Main Gate:

And this is what the entire town is like: sun-baked, narrow alleyways flanked by golden limestone:

Punctuated occasionally by colorful doors and knockers:

Heading back through the Main Gate, and down the street. . .

to Rabat, the ancient suburbs of Mdina. Replete with Valletta-style gallarija.

And down the street, much to the excitement of one and definitely not the other WolfeStreetTravler, to. . .

More catacombs! This will be our fourth set on this trip alone; first in Matera, then, the absolute grossest in Palermo, and TWO in Syracusa.

St. Paul’s Catacombs, located in Rabat just outside Mdina, form one of Malta’s most important ancient burial complexes, dating primarily from the Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine periods, but they continued to be actively used into the 7th or 8th century AD.

Carved into the island’s soft limestone, the underground complex contains an intricate network of burial chambers, corridors and rock-cut tombs that once formed part of a much larger cemetery outside of what was the Phoenician (and later Roman) settlement of Melite that predates Mdina and Rabat.

Hundreds of tombs across a complex of 24 interconnected catacombs are down here.

Most are now empty.

Some most certainly are not.

Every space was optimize to fit more bodies in.

Although tradition associates the catacombs with St. Paul, who was said to have been shipwrecked on Malta in AD 60, there is no archaeological evidence that he ever visited or was buried here. What makes the site especially compelling is the coexistence of pagan, Jewish and Christian burial traditions, offering a remarkable glimpse into Malta’s religious and cultural transformation during late antiquity.

Heading back out.

What to do now that we’re back in the glorious sunshine of a Maltese afternoon?

More catacombs! This time St. Agatha’s, just down the road. (This pretty much put an end to the catacomb visits; one of the WolfeStreetTravelers definitely had enough of this nonsense during the current trip, although her indulgence up until now was pretty amazing.)

Unlike St. Paul’s, which has one central entrance, the catacomb complex at St. Agatha’s offered multiple, small individual entrances / access shafts.

Entering each catacomb was a little reminiscent of Maxwell Smart and the phone booth at the start of the show.

As with St. Paul’s, St. Agatha’s catacombs complex contain a mixture of Phoenician/Roman, Jewish and Christian burials.

Some of which had fresh tomb tops (not to be confused with mummy tube tops).

One of the occupants:

Back on Senglea and the Grand Harbor, our final dinner before heading to France for our penultimate leg. We bookended our stay on Malta by dining at the same restaurant at which we had our first, awesome lunch upon our arrival. Good call.

The experienced enhanced by these dudes rowing by in a plastic crate.

Next up: back to France!

Categories: A Prolonged Foray to Europe, Malta | Tags: catacombs, Europe, history, Malta, st-agathas-catacombs, st-pauls-catacombs, travel, Valletta | 1 Comment

A Prolonged Foray to Europe: Chantilly, France

Posted on June 10, 2023 by WolfeStreetTravel

The penultimate leg of our prolonged foray to Europe: France! We’ve already hit mainland Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta (trip overview, including legs, is here).

We flew from Malta to Paris to bike through Normandy with Thomas and Lisa, but left a day early to guard against any flight issues or other delays that might impact our connecting with them when they arrived from Atlanta the next morning. Rather than stay in Paris, which we had visited three times and which, frankly, we didn’t particularly like, we headed about 30 miles north to the Chateau de Chantilly and its little town.

We checked in to our hotel a short walk away from the chateau, headed down the street for some lunch, then headed to the chateau itself.

The chateau largely dates from the 19th century, when the Duke of Aumale rebuilt the structure on the foundations of a medieval fortress.

The chateau’s formal gardens were designed by the same landscape architect credited with designing the grounds of Versailles.

Pretty cool rival to the chateaus we visited during our bike trip through the Loire Valley back in 2015, but they offered a deeper history than Chantilly.

The chateau’s chapel, right inside the gate:

Barrel-vaulted, highly decorated ceiling above the grand staircase:

Mosaic above the fireplace in the Salle des Gardes depicting the Rape of Europa by Jupiter:

But it’s not just a 19th-century French mosaic, it’s a Roman mosaic dating to the 1st century AD recovered from around Herculaneum, where we wandered just a month or so ago on this trip. Freakin’ crazy to have this just mounted here.

Libery:

The Rotunda of the Musée Condé at Château de Chantilly, created by the Duke of Aumale to display his art collection, with Henri Chapu’s marble Joan of Arc at Domrémy beneath Paul Baudry’s ceiling painting of the Abduction of Psyche

Just your normal decorative French fire screen; nothing to see here. . .

Heading to the stables. . .

Just as grand as the chateau itself.

Stables: huge. Horses therein: not so much.

Old-school carriages:

Just a pretty cool suspension and paint job.

Stage coach driver uniform:

His boots were not worn, but instead affixed directly to his saddle.

We spent the night at a nice Relais & Chateau hotel next to Chateau de Chantilly, then woke up the next morning to meet Thomas and Lisa upon their disembarkation in CDG from their redeye from ATL. But WolfeStreetTravel’s Chief Adventure Officer, who’s in charge of the entire itinerary, mistook their takeoff time (at around 6:30 PM) for their landing time (at around 9:00 AM) and so we left the hotel WAY too early, missed a nice breakfast, and ended up trying to sleep a little more in the lobby of one of the airport hotels at CDG while we waited for Thomas and Lisa. One more screw up, but luckily a minor one (although the WolfeStreetTravel Navigator was pretty annoyed that she lost sleep over this, literally).

Next: Bayeux and biking!

Categories: A Prolonged Foray to Europe, Paris | Tags: Europe, France, history, Paris, travel | Leave a comment

A Prolonged Foray to Europe: Normandy Biking Day 1 – A Tale of Two Invasions

Posted on June 10, 2023 by WolfeStreetTravel

After a lag day / risk-mitigation buffer day between Malta and Normandy in Chantilly, France, we headed early the next morning to CDG to pick up Thomas and Lisa from their red eye that departed Atlanta the evening before. (We did not, in fact, need to head out early the next morning, as noted in the Chantilly post. Because one of us is an idiot).

From CDG, we headed to Bayeux in Normandy to kick off some kick ass biking.

Bayeux is home to a pair of invasions, albeit separated by a millennium. The first, by William the Conqueror (or Billy the Conq, as David Crowther would say) occurred in 1066, and the invasion rolled out east to west: the Norman conquest of England.

Our very first activity after checking into our hotel was a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry to check out this 1000-year-old graphic novel depiction of the invasion.

It did not disappoint (other than the museum’s insidious approach to keeping the viewing line moving using the audio tour prompts to move you forward to the next scene much sooner than you would have liked).

Taking photos was prohibited, but WolfeStreetTravel is nothing if not an opportunistic, determined, scofflaw.

The penultimate caption about Harold Godwinson:

Aaaand, the ultimate Harold caption, right above the infamous arrow in the eye:

Infamous – and inaccurate, apparently. The earliest known account of the Battle of Hastings (which, of course, is what’s being depicted above) states only that Harold was killed. It does not say how. Moreover, it seems that the arrow in the Bayeux tapestry (which also is not actually a tapestry but an embroidery), was not part of the original 11th-century stitching, but part of a 19th-century restoration. According to an 18th-century drawing of the tapestry, the arrow originally was a spear and the dude holding it was actually a spearman. Harold most likely is the ax man on the right who has just been slain. All of this and quite a bit more is from this fascinating article on Medievalists.net.

After being prodded along the entire, 70-meter length of the tapestry by the pushy audio tour, we exited and headed to another of Bayeux’s 11th-century sites: Notre-Dame de Bayeux, built in 1079.

Consecrated in the presence of Billy the Conq, himself, the cathedral was the original home of the Bayeux Tapestry.

It’s considered to be the finest example of Norman-Romanesque architecture in the world.

And it was consecrated by Odo, William’s half brother and the most likely patron of the Bayeux Tapestry’s creation.

Dinner our first biking night included a little celebration of Lisa’s (the other Lisa) new job.

Pretty good French cuisine to start this leg of the trip.

Night falls on Bayeux and the cathedral. Tonight we rest. . .

for tomorrow we ride!

Perfect weather for the first day of biking in France.

The Longues Abbey, which was founded 1168, peaked in 1257 with 22 monks and four priories, declined in 1526 during the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War, was trashed by Protestants in 1562 during the Wars of Religion, and finally was disbanded by the Bishop of Bayeux in 1782.

The absolute highlight of the day was the WWII, German Longues-sur-Mer coastal artillery battery.

Which brings us to the second invasion, this time west to east: the Allied invasion of Normandy during WWII, a millennium after the Battle of Hastings.

The Longues-sur-Mer battery shelled Allied naval forces off Gold and Omaha beaches on June 6, D Day, but was damaged by Allied shore bombardment the same day.

It was captured by British ground forces on June 7 and played no further part in the Normandy campaign.

The battery is the only one in Normandy to retain its original complement of guns.

Heading to the coast.

And the battery’s fire control post.

On the coast, the remains of Mulberry Harbor B off Arromanches, named Port Winston. The two Mulberry harbors were designed by the British to be towed across the channel during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

“The Mulberry harbours solved the problem of needing deepwater jetties and a harbour to provide the invasion force with the necessary reinforcements and supplies, and were to be used until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after repair of the inevitable sabotage by German defenders. Composed of floating but sinkable breakwaters, floating pontoons, piers and floating roadways, this innovative and technically difficult system was being used for the first time.

The Mulberry B harbour at Gold Beach was used for ten months after D-Day, while over two million men, four million tons of supplies and half a million vehicles were landed before it was fully decommissioned.” (From here.)

And just up the hill, the town of Arromanches. (With another WWII military artifact – we were delighted to come across these (mostly tanks) everywhere we rode our first 3 days of the tour.

A Mulberry dock pier, codenamed “whales.”

Memorial to the invasion of Gold Beach here in Arromanches. A British beach, obviously.

Heading out of town to our next WWI site.

Passing a cool church with an even cooler tree on the way. (A little reminiscent of the even awesomer trees on either side of the church door in Stow-on-the-Wold during our Cotswolds road trip.)

More WWII hardware on the coast! This is One Charlie, a British Churchill AVRE engineer tank that landed at Graye-sur-Mer on D-Day with the 79th Armoured Division, became stuck in a flooded crater, and was used to help support a makeshift crossing; four of its six crew members died, and the tank was recovered in 1977 and has stood as a memorial ever since. The ashes of its driver, Bill Dunn, were scattered at the site in 2014.

And even more hardware – a Sherman in town as we head to lunch.

Super cool rotating canal bridge:

Our first taste of Normandy oysters in Courseulles-sur-Mer. Freakin’ amazing. This would be the first of dozens and dozens we’d enjoy down the coast as we proceeded through our trip.

And moules, natch.

The Canadian cemetery in Normandy.

Very serene and impactful.

Back in Bayeux at the end of our first day of biking.

Very cool half-timbered medieval house in town.

Yesterday’s cathedral looming over centre ville.

And, we soon learned, it was France’s national Day of Music – Fete de la Musique – where every town in France explodes into dozens of little tiny desk concerts.

Including Bayeux.

The locals were definitely digging it! (Aided, we’re sure, by the high-octane Belgian trappist ale, Delirium Tremens.)

Pretty good start to this leg of the trip!

Categories: A Prolonged Foray to Europe, Normandy, Normandy, France | Tags: d-day, France, history, Normandy, travel | 2 Comments

Christmas 2022 – Baltics and Back to the Netherlands: Trip Overview

Posted on December 25, 2022 by WolfeStreetTravel

After intentionally foregoing Europe at Christmas for the last 4 years, a few factors drove us back this year: nostalgia for winter weather in the season, a truly authentic Christmas experience, and the paucity of other options with availability and reasonable travel costs. One day we’ll get to Namibia or Peru for Christmas, but not this year.

We initially targeted all three of the Baltic states for this year’s trip: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania:

Northern Europe to meet the winter climate criteria
Great Christmas tradition (Tallinn holds the distinction of hosting the Europe’s first public Christmas tree in 1441)
Have not visited any of them before (they would put WolfeStreetTravel’s country count over 70)

However, WolfeStreetTravel flight criteria and the need to keep the trip limited in length due to work resulted in the following refinements:

Lop Lithuania off the itinerary (maybe we’ll get back there when we can also visit adjoining Belarus; we certainly can’t go there now, with Putin stooge and corrupt autocrat Lukashenko in charge)
Bookend our stay in the Baltic states with some time in another country with direct flight in and out of Europe

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Old Town Tallinn, Estonia, from atop the castle hill of Toompea:

Riga, Latvia, from the spire of St. Peter’s Lutheran Cathedral in the center of town:

Regarding the direct flight bookend, we found a perfect candidate in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. United offered direct flights there from IAD, and BalticAir offered direct flights to Estonia and Latvia from Schiphol. Plus, we’d add a few days in Haarlem on the front end and a few days in Amsterdam on the back end to break up the flying time.

Haarlem decked out for Christmas:

The canals of Amsterdam during our stay:

In the middle, we’d fly direct:

From Amsterdam to Tallinn, Estonia, then
From Tallin to Riga, Latvia, then
From Riga back to Amsterdam

Between the direct flights to and from Europe and the direct flights to, within, and from the Baltics, we planned this perfectly to minimize the impacts of inevitable flight delays. Nothing could go wrong now, with no connecting flights that could be impacted by delays on the initial leg – the bane of any traveler’s existence.

Then, more than a month after we bought our tickets, United saw fit to eliminate the direct flight from IAD to Amsterdam, screwing things up and requiring some rework and now unavoidable two-leg flights in and out of Europe. Not a disaster by any means, but it just meant more risks.

Which, of course, did materialize into actual problems, although none too bad, in the great scheme of things: our connecting flight on the way in got cancelled when we were in the air, and the connecting flight on the way back resulted in total travel time almost twice as long as the time the original direct flight would have taken. But, we weren’t impacted by domestic air travel calamity wrought by the massive Christmas snowstorm, and got back on time on December 28, so we consider ourselves relatively lucky.

After arriving (late) at Schiphol, we beelined it to Haarlem, where we stayed for the next 3 days (including watching the World Cup Final, where we were cheering on Argentina and the Dutch were rooting for France simply because Argentina beat them in the Semis, which was fun).

Haarlem’s Christmas lights throughout the city were the profile of the town’s landmark cathedral:

The functioning Molen de Adriaan windmill right in the heart of town, which we toured while there. Super cool.

From Haarlem, we flew northwest to Tallinn, Estonia, which was still initially blanketed by snow, which is exactly what we were hoping for.

Heading into the town square, dominated by Tallinn’s 15th-century town hall and host to the town’s Christmas Market.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Toompea in Tallinn, a vestige of the Russian Empire’s role in Estonia’s history (and also, we got some good snow!):

Tallinn was mostly undamaged during WW II, and its medieval walls and defensive towers are still intact:

Dining highlight during our stay at the Chef’s Table of 180 Degrees Restaurant, which lasted 4.5 hours. This was about an hour and a half longer than it needed to be.

Due to Tallinn’s latitude, the sun set at 3:20 during our stay, resulting in lots of surreal, perpetual twilight afternoons in town:

After 3 days in Tallinn, we headed a little south, to Riga, Latvia – country # 70 for WolfeStreetTravel:

23 degree weather on Christmas Eve!

Riga’s Christmas Market was actually better than Tallinn’s.

And boasted multiple stalls across the market hawking mulled gin, which was a new one to us. It was fine, but we prefer traditional gluhwein (they had that too).

Riga still maintained some of their town’s fortifications, as well.

And was also home to Europe’s greatest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture, since Riga’s prosperity peaked at the same time as this arts and architecture movement at the turn of the century, and Riga wasn’t bombed into oblivion during WW II, preserving the buildings in this district.

Christmas night dinner at 3 pavāru restorāns in Riga, which bested the much fancier 180 Degrees a few days earlier in Tallinn.

After Christmas in Riga, we headed back to the Netherlands, this time to Amsterdam, which we had visited in 2015 at the end of our bike trip through Holland.

Very nice Christmas trip, overall. We’ll post more on each of these locations after we get through a lot of backlog from three previous trips.

Categories: Estonia, Europe, Latvia, Netherlands | Tags: amsterdam, baltics, baltics christmas, Estonia, estonia christmas, Haarlem, haarlem christmas, Latvia, latvia christmas, Molen de Adriaan, Netherlands, riga, tallinn, tallinn christmas market | 2 Comments

Protected: Christmas 2022 – Baltics and Back to the Netherlands: Haarlem

Posted on December 25, 2022 by WolfeStreetTravel

Categories: Europe, Netherlands | Tags: amsterdam, Europe, Netherlands, the-netherlands, travel | Enter your password to view comments.

Christmas 2022 – Baltics and Back to the Netherlands: Tallinn

Posted on December 25, 2022 by WolfeStreetTravel

After a couple of days in Haarlem, we headed to the first of our actual Baltic destinations: Estonia and its capital city of Tallinn. We were hoping for snow, and we got some! (Initially, anyway.)

Tallinn’s main square and Christmas Market on our first evening – perfect!

But the next day (and throughout our stay), the snow on many of the streets and squares turned a little slushy.

Definitely more of a winter, Christmas atmosphere than Alexandria, but still. . .

Tallin’s settlement dates back thousands of years but the first fortress appeared around 1050 AD, demonstrating the importance of the town to the north Estonia region.

As a trading town on the Baltic coast, the town (then known as Reval) became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1285. We previously visited the Hanseatic towns of Lübeck and Hamburg in Germany and Bergen, Norway. (Riga, Latvia, another Hanseatic town, would be our next stop on this trip. Apparently, Berlin, Cologne, and Krakow also were Hanseatic towns due to the river system, but we have decided to ignore this because they’re not on the Baltic coast.)

Snow still covered some streets – very cool medieval town.

Tallinn Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The spire of Tallinn’s Town Hall:

The town hall was first mentioned in 1322,

but the structure actually dates back to the 1200s.

It’s the oldest surviving town hall in Europe.

At the top of the spire stands Old Thomas, first placed there in 1530.

The figure memorializes a peasant who became famous for winning a crossbow competition held by the Baltic German Elite.

The tower – and Old Thomas – was damaged in 1944 during a bomb attack during the war. A new Old Thomas went up with the repaired tower in 1952, but it was weathering too much, and the Estonians put another one up there in 1996. The 1952 Old Thomas hangs out in the Tallinn City Museum. Nice codpiece.

Viru Gate – one of the original eight gates in Tallinn’s city walls.

The first wall around Tallinn was ordered to be constructed by Queen Margaret of Denmark in 1265 (Denmark controlled northern Estonia from the early 13th century until 1346, when the Danish king sold it to the Teutonic Knights).

Fully taking shape during the next three centuries, Tallinn’s city wall was one of the strongest defense systems in Northern Europe at the time.

Plus, there are chunks that are still intact and walkable (that’s Tower behind Monks in the background)

Not a lot of snow, but Tallinn proved to be pretty atmospherically wintery, nonetheless:

Located across town, we found Tallinn’s Great Coastal Gate, first mentioned in 1359:

The Great Coastal Gate was the most important gate when Tallinn was a Hanseatic town because it protected the main route for traffic between the port and the market square.

Above the gate stands an impressive dolomite carving bearing Tallinn’s coat of arms (from 1529):

Protecting the Great Coastal Gate? FAT MARGARET! Dating from the early 16th century, Fat Margaret not only served as a fortification against invaders of the town’s port but also a military monstrosity to impress visitors arriving by sea.

Michelin 2* dining experience at 180 Degrees:

Pretty good perch at the Chef’s Table

where we could watch all the cooking and prep work for multiple courses.

Heading up the next morning to Toompea, Tallinn’s central hill district, which is home to. . .

Estonia’s Parliament, the Riigikogu:

And also the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built in the late 19th century:

Crests for local noble families along one wall:

Because the church was built when Estonia was part of the former Russian Empire, and because it represents Russian Orthodoxy, and because the Estonians are outraged by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, there’s a movement in Tallinn to raze it and replace it with a park.

Back through the walls:

To yet another stretch of Tallinn’s extant city wall. Here, we have Kiek in de Kok (“Peek into the Kitchen”) on the left, an artillery tower so named because the garrison could see into the kitchens of the nearby houses; and Maiden’s Tower on the right.

And a creepy, faceless monk statue perched on one segment of the wall. This is one of three faceless monks in this area; this one is “Observing Monk.”

More city wall-and-towers action:

Loewenschede Tower:

Enough with the tower names; here’s a buttload of towers. Definitely a cool, preserved medieval town.

Heading to dinner one night; one cannot escape the walls, man.

Rataskaevu Street, where the novels featuring Melchior, the 15th-century Tallinn apothecary / amateur sleuth are set (or at least where his apothecary is located). The first book – pretty good! The second – should have been tossed down that well.

Featured in the Apothecary Melchior novels are Tallinn’s medieval guilds. The Great Guild hall, dating from the very early 15th century is right off the main square. It was used as the headquarters of various merchant and artisan guilds until as recent as 1920.

Aaand, the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads. Also featured in the Melchior novels.

Described as a social club for single merchants and other tradesmen in the Melchior books, it “was a professional association of ship owners, merchants, and foreigners dating from the 14th century.“

“The House of the Blackheads was visited by several Russian Emperors including Peter I, Paul I and Alexander I who also became honorable members the Brotherhood.“

Just some Art Nouveau architecture down the street, which was pretty cool. (But NOTHING like we’d see later in Riga.)

Toompea at night.

Tallinn’s Victory Column on Freedom Square, commemorating the Estonian War of Independence at the end of WW I.

More winter scenes from Toompea’s stretch of wall.

Next stop: Riga!

Categories: Estonia, Europe | Tags: Estonia, Europe, tallinn, travel | Leave a comment

Christmas 2022 – Baltics and Back to the Netherlands: Riga

Posted on December 25, 2022 by WolfeStreetTravel

From Tallinn, Estonia, we headed slightly south to the capital of Latvia: Riga.

Although not a walled, medieval, historically preserved town like Tallinn, Riga nonetheless offered its own flavor of charm and architectural notability. Case in point, Riga’s own House of the Blackheads. As with Tallinn’s House of the Blackheads, Riga’s building housed the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried merchants, shipowners, and foreigners in Riga.

Unlike Tallinn’s modest townhouse (albeit with a very cool door and lunette), Riga’s House of the Blackheads is huge and ornate. The original building erected in 1334 was the largest public building in Riga at the time.

Unfortunately that building, updated over the centuries, was bombed out of existence in 1941 during a battle between Germany and the Soviets. The Soviet government razed what was left in 1948, but it was rebuilt in the late 1990s based on extensive archeological studies.

Right around the corner from the Blackheads lies Riga’s capitol building. Very unassuming, we thought.

Riga’s Christmas market in the shadow of the Dome Cathedral was pretty great.

But some stalls were actually branded, which we’d never seen before, and gave areas of the Christmas market a commercial taint that we didn’t welcome:

Nonetheless, the overt booziness of the place was pretty cool – not just glühwein, but all sorts of booze, including – weirdly for both time and place – gin stalls.

Lots of food. . .

which had a distinct eastern Europe flair – check out the pig snout:

Or maybe it’s an entire pig submerged down there? Who knows.

Pigs a poppin’ in this place:

Riga’s Powder Tower, originally built in 1330 as part of the defensive wall system, that one was destroyed during an attack by the Swedes on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1621. (Livonia [which encompasses parts of multiple modern Baltic nations including Latvia] was a fiefdom at the time).

The current iteration dates from 1650.

Next door lies Jacob’s Barracks, built in the 18th century to house the garrison, the structure continued to be used until 1997 by various militaries as the area’s geopolitics evolved over time. The length of the barracks are now home to bars and restaurants, but the end, with its depiction of the coats of arms of Latvian towns and municipalities, was the most intriguing to us.

Portions of the old city wall running along the barracks:

The Swedish Gate – the only portal in the medieval city walls to still exist. Beyond lies Trokšņu iela (Noisy Street) which ironically is one of the quietest and most charming street in Riga now. I’m sure we walked through here and down this apparently amazing street, but we have no visible evidence of this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Instead, here’s some pics of Riga’s mammoth Central Market.

Absolutely any variety of food one could desire is available here.

The Riga Central Market (there’s a bird’s eye view later in the post) is composed of multiple, massive, hanger-like structures and is not only the largest shopping destinations in Latvia, but one of the largest markets in Europe.

The aforementioned bird’s eye view would come courtesy of St. Peter’s Church steeple.

Built in chunks over centuries, the first St. Peters was constructed as early as 1209; then a few decades later, in the middle of the 13th century; then the early 15th century; then at the end of the 17th century. Pretty plain brick church though, much like the Scandinavian Gothic brick churches encountered in Denmark.

As with Tallinn’s cathedral, portions of the interior are adorned with local noble family coats of arms (one of which looks dangerously close to the esteemed crest of the Connells):

Something in the crypt we think? Dunno – pretty cool though.

Views from St. Peter’s steeple observation deck – pretty awesome perspective on the town.

Renaissance facades in front of the Dome Cathedral:

Another, higher view of the Powder Tower:

Riga’s Central Market hangers:

Down the street lies Riga’s Freedom Monument. A large statue of Peter the Great astride a horse once occupied this plaza, but it disappeared during WWI and the Latvians weren’t eager to replace it. Instead, the Freedom Monument was erected in its place in 1935.

Flowers are allegedly placed at the foot of the monument each day (we didn’t see any) as an act of defiance – such a gesture was punishable by deportation to Siberia during the Soviet era.

Dinner at 3 Pavāru Restorāns – definitely the dining highlight of our stay.

Riga’s Art Nouveau district on our Christmas Day walk. Riga’s period of peak prosperity happened to coincide with the Art Nouveau arts and architecture movement between 1890 and the outbreak of WWI. Although not at all unique to Riga, the town benefited from not being bombed into oblivion during WWII, resulting in a concentration of buildings in this style not seen anywhere else in Europe.