The Big Cities of Europe

Well, I was feeling bad about not having written in a while, but I just looked at the fact that the last blog post had zero views and I felt better. This is mostly a record for us, but we have spent so much time just rushing around looking at places that everything is kind of a blur. I thought our lives might slow down now that we are in Ferrara for five weeks, but when I think of everything that has happened this week, it is clear that isn't really happening much.

Anyway, let's see... highlights of the great cities we have been in - London! Paris! Barcelona!

London was rainy a lot. We took double-decker buses everywhere and saw all the sights. We walked for miles and miles. We saw St. Paul's in the sun, in the rain, and everything in between. The dome lit up at night, before and after the wonderful production of Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe theater, was like a beacon welcoming us to London. The mammoth interior on a Sunday morning, when we went to hear the choral mattins service, loomed over us. We ducked into pubs and ate pies and chips. We went to see The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales theater and laughed our heads off. My students had always told me to go see it, and they were right! Our hosts, Bill and Jane, were just delightful. They gave us space to do our own thing, but were also engaging and fun to hang out with. Bill has known me since I was four - one of my dad's oldest and dearest friends - and I love hearing his stories about my dad.

The biggest surprise for me was the Tower of London. I had never done any really touristy stuff in London, except for once we had lunch at Harrod's when Jack was a baby, and I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, and the Tower, and Trafalgar Square, and all those things with Matt. I really expected the Tower of London to be sort of fakey and silly, for some reason. But it was actually incredible and awe-inspiring. When the Beefeater (who was an incredibly nice man and told us all about the requirements for being a Beefeater, and how he became one because of his son's school project) mentioned things like "there's the spot Sir Isaac Newton lived when he was master of the Mint," or "here is where Anne Boleyn came through the gate" I got goosebumps. And the ravens were just magical as well!

Matt and Tower Bridge

Paris was sunny and 70, and again, we walked and walked and walked for miles. We went to the opera to see Bellini's I Puritani, which was magical. It was Queen Victoria's favorite! We didn't go up the Eiffel Tower, mainly because you had to have reservations like weeks in advance, but we did go on a cheesy and delightful Seine river cruise, which was, again, surprisingly wonderful and just corny enough. I had never been to the Pantheon, and seeing all the heroes of France buried there, especially Voltaire and Rousseau, was an incredible highlight.

Matt enjoys art

In front of Notre Dame, which was closed because of the fire

The Louvre was super annoying because they had moved the Mona Lisa back into the main building, which meant there was a two hour line just to get up to the floor where she was. Thus, we did not get to see all the other really great art, including one of my favorite paintings, Ghirlandaio's Visitation, that is up there next to her. We did, however, spend all day there, and say the "Dying Slave" of Michelangelo, the Raft of the Medusa, Liberty Leading the People, and this wonderful Spanish painting by Murillo where a monk is having mystic ecstasy in the kitchen. We went to cafes and restaurants and farmer's markets and lived in a little apartment on the fifth floor, under the eaves, near Les Invalides.

Barcelona was dreamy, even with the huge protests that were going on because the Catalan separatist leaders were sentenced the week we were there.  Here is a link to an article about it if you are interested in learning about the issues.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/catalan-separatist-leaders-given-lengthy-prison-sentences

Basically, every night there would be a bunch of people wearing masks, running around the streets right by our hotel, throwing projectiles at the police and lighting garbage cans (and later, cars) on fire. This was distracting, but honestly I don't feel like it detracted from our visit because we were staying with Dad and Susan in a really nice hotel with a rooftop swimming pool. Susan and I would play Scrabble every afternoon on the rooftop (she mostly trounced me, but on my birthday I was very lucky and got two seven-letter words in the same game and was able to beat her for once) and Dad and Matt would relax and read the paper.

Sagrada Familia

At the Opera in Barcelona

Spices in the market in Barcelona

Sagrada Familia was one of the best places I have ever visited. It was absolutely thrilling to be there during the Angelus prayer. The architecture and designs by Gaudi are mind-blowing. Other highlights: just walking around the city, Parc Guell, the Liceu Opera House, where we saw a production of Turandot that was set in space, the Palau de la Musica Catalana, where we saw a Flamenco performance, and of course another city full of incredible food!

So that's the brief story of the three big cities where we spent about a week each. I did make little travel movies about both London and Paris, and will work on one for Barcelona when I can. In the meantime, I hope to start writing about the experience we are having in Ferrara, the city of the Este family of the Renaissance.