Travel

5 or 6 Things About Valencia

General Facts

Valencia, on the eastern coast of Spain, is the third largest city. It has a 2000-year-old history dating back to the Romans, Visigoths and Muslims, since it was established in 130 BC. You can catch a bus into the Old Town in the city centre and view the spectacular architecture of the buildings down through the ages.

The Old Town

The Cathedral sits at the centre of The Old Town of Valencia. It is said to house the silver chalice linked to Jesus. We got off the tourist bus at the central Plaza del la Reina, and took photos of the buildings and vibrant scenes surrounding us on all sides. It’s an impressive cathedral that spans a variety of architecture styles, including baroque, Romanesque and gothic.

It was Sunday, and we sat inside the church during a mass. The size of the congregation was impressive, due to the faithful being joined by itinerants such as us. This mingling of crowds did not seem to bother the priest; we basked in the peaceful and beatific atmosphere that churches always instill in one, whether one is part of the religion or not.

The adjoining plaza holds the famous Church of Santa Catalina, one of the oldest in the country. The beautiful and graceful eighteenth century Baroque tower housing the belfry is one of the most picturesque sights in the city. One can admire the five storey construction crowned by a small dome-covered temple. The tower of Santa Catalina is a landmark in Valencia, as well as marking the entrance to the popular markets.

We had lunch in a bistro facing Santa Catalina and admired the lovely yellow facade of an apartment building in the Square. We decided it was a very livable city.

The inside of the Basílica de la Vírgen de los Desamparados (Basilica of our Lady of the Forsaken), Church of the Virgins, reminded me of Stendhal’s tendency to faint and suffer dizzy spells in the presence of architectural and artistic spleandour, which gave birth to the name of the Stendhal Syndrome.

After lunch, we walked around the city in search of the bull ring, where brave matadors and, perhaps, tragically doomed bulls, used to perform for the public. On the way, we came across this building with a lion on its front façade. Beauty everywhere! The Bull ring was silent and, although reminiscent of Rome’s Arena, it appeared to be defunct and of no interest to tourists or to the citizens of Valencia.

The Climate

The land is flat and the climate of Valencia is dry, with 320 rain-free days each year. A river, the Turia, used to run through the city. However, in 1957 Valencia experienced a devastating flood, which led to a dramatic decision to divert the river and reclaim the land for the enjoyment of the populous. Today, several world renowned architectural monuments stand on the reclaimed land and compete for aesthetic appreciation with the structures in the Old City. Bridges now cross parkland boasting lush greenery with spectacular monuments on all sides for the feast of the eye.

The New Town

The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the end of the former riverbed of the river. This majestic building, designed by the Valencia architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, means that both the city and the Region of Valencia have the best infrastructure available in order to participate in international circuits, especially those of opera and major musical shows. The Hemespheric, also known as the planetarium or the “eye of knowledge,” is the centrepiece of the City of Arts and Sciences.

Another striking monument is the garden of palm trees enclosed in an aesthetic structure that showcases it to tourists and locals.

The Beach and Marine Culture

We stayed in a boutique hotel on the seafront, just outside the main city centre. It was close to the pleasures of the coast, including sea bathing and lots of restaurants. It was in proximity by bus or bicycle to the centre and other parts. People in Valencia seemed to be always on the point of breaking into song or dance, and the sound of drums and music could be heard across the seas from a far-off nightclub that was open from dusk until dawn. I walked and cycled around the area. Others choose to ride electric scooters or to catch buses. Close to our beachfront hotel was the marine area that spoke of a past history of a seafaring nation. I admired the marine decorations on some of the older buildings as I explored the area.

The Cuisine

Valencia is the birthplace of paella, the saffron coloured rice-based dish that requires special knowledge and culinary skills on the part of the chef in order to perfect it. In the beach area and in the Old City, restaurants serving seafood, chicken and mixed paella dishes abound. We tasted several superb dishes while in Valencia, and Mark is now motivated to invest in one of the shallow pans, and some saffron, in order to try his hand at cooking the dish once again. Our favourite eating place was a plain tapas bar near our hotel. The fact that it was frequented by lots of locals was a sign for us. Our instincts proved right, as it was friendly and good. We ordered two small pans of Valencian and Seafood paella that we shared between the two of us. It was delicious and inexpensive.

May 29, 2019 0 comment

Travel Writing

Return to Cavtat…uvijek!

We’re here in Cavtat on the southern coast of Croatia, for the 4^th International Symposium on Stuttering that my husband convenes. Participants come from more than a dozen countries, from Europe, Asia, the UK, America and the Pacific region. We are a going to visit Zagreb where the Croatian convenor, Suzana lives, and stay one night in her country getaway near Samebor. After Croatia we plan on spending a few days relaxing on the Spanish coast at Valencia.

Coming back to Cavtat is like waking up in Paradise all over again. It’s the Mediterranean like it once was many years ago. It’s the light, the wavy sea, the village stones and ancient buildings, the hotel that Tito built nestling on the cliffs like a sparkling cruise ship, the seagulls gliding outside the glass. It’s everything about this magical place. If it’s not heaven, then it’s a little piece of it. (A little bit of paradise: ‘malo raja’ in Croatian).

The first site for this hotel was further back from the edge of the cliffs. Once work began on the original building, it was discovered that Roman ruins lay beneath the ground and the plans had to be revised. The hotel is now perched like one of the huge seagulls from this area, and looks out over the Adriatic Sea. It can accommodate up to 1200 guests. The seagulls like to hover over the waters on the winds outside our top floor unit. I think of the arms of the cliffs that mark the entrance to the harbour as being like the claws of crustaceans, so prolific in this region.

The colours and the weather change very quickly here. We went to bed with clouds over our unit that fitted in perfectly with the grey/olives of the hilly landscape, and awoke early to a full moon in a blue sky over blue blue waters.

George Bernard Shaw, when he visited Croatia at the turn of the century, said ‘those who seek paradise on Earth should come to Dubrovnik,’ which he called ‘the pearl of the Adriatic’. That city is truly spectacular, with its magical Old City, its ancient ramparts, modern shops and restaurants; it has rightly become a tourist’s dream destination.

However, Cavtat, which was many years ago overtaken by Dubrovnik as a cultural and commercial centre, is today a haven of peace and beauty.

The monastic-looking building at the top of the village is actually the Racic Family Mausoleum, ‘Our Lady of the Angels’, from 1922. An inscription in the cupola states: ‘Know the mystery of love, and thou shall solve the mystery of death and believe that life is eternal.’

Down below is the Monastery of ‘the Lady of the Snow’ dating back to the 15th century. One of the items inside that has always morbidly fascinated me is the wall pulpit with an arm bearing a cross hanging out of it.

The Alter: Our Lady of the Snow Monastery

May 25, 2019 0 comment

Australia Travel

Magnetic Island will pull you in…

Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef. Just outside our unit is a marked underwater reef that one can follow, either with a snorkel or by renting a flat board, to view the coral. The island is shaped like an equilateral triangle. Each side of the triangle is 11 kilometres in length. The edges are scalloped by numerous inlets or bays, with sandy beaches where you can swim during the “safe” season.

Magnetic Island is a suburb of Townsville, which is only a 20 minute, 8 kilometre ferry ride away. A very independent and environmentally aware population of 2,000, resides on the island. The council has erected a large solar panel, which enables the island to supply 40% of their electricity needs, given that they are blessed with over 300 days of fine weather. It’s part of the “dry tropics” with rain falling only in summer. The guide who drove a group of us around the island has brought up his young family here and is passionate about it.

June 28, 2018 0 comment

Travel

Return to Croatia

En Route to Croatia

We just flew over the mountains of Eastern Europe en route to Frankfurt from Dubai. Qantas have teamed up with the United Arab Emirates airline, so we did the first leg from Sydney to Dubai with Qantas, and the second one from Dubai to Frankfurt with Emirates.

I really enjoyed stopping over at Dubai this time, as we were able to marvel at all the strange dress codes in the shopping arcade corridors, and then relax in the Emirates flight lounge until our flight was called. They’re much better than Qantas in terms of service at the moment.

Looking down on the snow-tipped mountains just now. I think of student days travelling by deux chevaux from Paris to Ukraine during the Cold War, when Russian troops marched into Prague and stopped us from going there. (See “My Travel Journal” posts on this blog).

March 15, 2018 0 comment

Travel Writing

A Tuscan Village Holiday

Italy: Fast Cars

Driving on the autostrada is a relief after Rome. Watch on the right, my partner says repeatedly, having been traumatised when the mirror on our rented manual Fiat Punta was flattened against a truck in Rome’s crowded streets. I’m the driver, having learnt to conduire à la droite in France, as a student there. Mark will prepare lots of fresh dishes, based on heavenly tomatoes, plucked straight from the fields. When we get to the outskirts of Siena, we ask for directions to our destination.

Tonni: an Etruscan Village

A rusty sign on a hedge, after winding roads and an unsealed gravelly stretch, marks the hamlet. First settled during the Etruscan era. Dogs, cats, a few children and a smiling woman with false teeth greet us. Several small cars are parked on the narrow gravel street, mediaeval buildings, the lot set in field and forest—oak, laurel, elms, conifers, and the ever-present cypress pines.

February 3, 2018 2 comments

Australia Travel

5 things about Coogee

aanne-entrance-giles-baths

We live at the northern end of the beach in Coogee. This was once the “poor cousin” side of Coogee Bay, with dilapidated buildings and a rusting dome on top of the Coogee Palace. It’s now a favorite place to dip and swim for young and old alike. At high tide on these early summer mornings, the smell and taste of salty sea and brine is as invigorating as the fresh feel of the 21 degree waters on the skin. For a long while these baths were privately owned as part of a men’s only baths.

We downsized from a house to an apartment in 2011, after our children had grown up and left home. Moving into a smaller space without storage was difficult, but we’d found a flat in walking distance to the sands of Coogee Beach. My husband likes pointing out the little bit of our building that he can see through the trees, when he is in the ocean. He has decided that this will be where he has his ashes scattered—in the sea—after his passing. I find it hard to think forward to the next cup of tea. But I love this place too.

The Gateway to Giles Baths

giles-baths-entrance

The arch by which you once entered the original baths building has been retained by the council. On the wall inside this arced structure is a sombre list of the names of Coogee residents who were killed in the Bali Bombings of 2002. Eighty-eight
Australians were killed, out of a total of 200, including twenty from Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Five of them belonged to an amateur rugby league team called “The Dolphins”, who were celebrating the end of the footy season.

The young women in the photo at Giles Baths (above) are reading the names of those killed in the Bali Bombings.

Giles is now unenclosed and open to all today. Surprisingly, there are “women only” baths on the southern side of Coogee Bay, next to the larger “Wylies” public baths.

May 8, 2017 2 comments

Travel Writing

Travel to Croatia

A highlight of 2016 was travel with my husband to the cooler climes of Croatia and Bosnia Herzogovina for a week in their autumn (October), followed by another week in the freezing weaher (for us) of Budapest and Copenhagen.

My husband was in Croatia to lead the 3rd International Symposium on Stuttering, held at the gorgeous award winning Hotel Croatia. where we stayed, overlooking the Adriatic Sea. From the sea, it resembles a dazzling white cruise ship, perched on the cliff of “the Mediterranean Sea unspoilt like it used to be” at the southern most tip of Croatia.

I have recently spent some time uploading videos that I took during these unforgettable holiday destinations (posted on Vimeo and YouTube).

The video below shows the breathtakingly beautiful harbour of Cavtat,

Now, while posting this video of a perfect summer’s day in Coogee, I am forced to scratch beneath the surface of the beauty and the pleasure of the sand, sea and sky, to suggest a problem we need to look at…

Environmental Degradation?

I realise that many countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including beautiful Croatia, are experiencing freezing conditions at the present time. Extreme polarities between highs and lows in different seasons and locations are part of global warming (or climate change), which is one of the biggest challenges that we on earth will face in the coming years. We must all join together, at least in acknowledging this reality: of our precious earth’s atmosphere being degraded. We cannot afford to put our heads in the sand like the inimitable ostrich, or like Donald whatshisname, and rest in denial. Actions are needed on all fronts, from Paris to technological research and beyond. Which countries and individuals will take up the challenge and receive awards for fighting and solving ecological degradation?

The Goldman Environmental Prize
is known as the “Green Nobel” and is awarded annually to countries and individuals who are heroes in the fight for the earth and its resources.

The Craft of Writing

That said, I am pleased to upload this, my first post for 2017, focusing on climate records broken on a global scale, and a small blogging award for me.

I am proud to announce this Blogging Award for my website, “The Craft of Writing”, which has been placed among the 20 best writing blogs online according to Feedspot.com. As well as being a wonderful incentive for me to start the new blogging year, this award lists other exceptional creative writing sites, some of which I have been following.

Visit the Feedspot Award page by clicking here or by clicking on the badge in the margin of this site.

Topics for 2017

Apart from creative writing and environmental issues, I would also like to continue to write about the other previously stated topics of interest to me, which include psychology, especially destigmatising mental illness; spirituality in its broadest sense; travel; mythology and supporting minority groups, especially refugees and immigrants.

Please continue to follow and comment on my posts. I love and thrive on feedback.

Now, with the hottest January on record here in Sydney, and no relief during the nights, I am creating this post on a very humid day with a high of 35 degrees celsius. And I am pleased to announce a blogging award.

Top 20 Creative Writing Blogs on the internet

Thank you for including me,

Feedspot

http://blog.feedspot.com/creative_writing_blog

January 25, 2017 2 comments

Travel Writing

The Bridge at Mostar

The bridge is pleasing to the eye. It’s perfect in its simplicity. You can only appreciate the grace of its arcs from a distance, or from the pebbly beach down below.

Looking up you see a figure standing on the topmost point of the arc. A man is waiting until the amount of money offered by spectators on the bridge reaches a certain point. Jumping is dangerous. If satisfied with the offering, he will jump into the Neretva River below the bridge. It’s a drop of twenty-four metres. The water is always cold. A young Australian man died last year when his body hit the cold water. Up above, the temperature had reached nearly forty-five degrees celsius. He died from a heart attack.

mostar-man-waiting-to-jump The Mostar Bridge is in Southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country today inhabited by 113,169 people. The bridge was destroyed by shelling in 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak war. The Old Bridge, an Ottoman structure, stood for 427 years. Reconstructed with international aid, gathered by UNESCO after the war, it has become a World Heritage structure. It is constructed of 1556 stones.

I first learnt about this bridge from a Bosnian refugee in Sydney during the nineties. He was giving a cultural talk in a Second Language class I was teaching at the time. This inspired me to one day visit Bosnia-Herzogovina and see this bridge for myself. I got the chance this month while staying in Croatia, a three-hour bus trip away. We had to pass through three border stops, as a slim coastal strip belongs to Bosnia.

The bridge is whole once more, but the people in Mostar remain split, torn asunder by trauma left over from the war. Moslems live on the east of the town, worshipping in mosques, while Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbians are on the west. Healing takes a long time in these situations. The three entities tend to choose segregation rather than forgiveness at this stage. stones-mostar-bridge-2015

October 15, 2016 2 comments

Travel Writing

Copenhagen is Amazing!

It’s on the opposite side of the earth from Sydney, the language spoken is very different, and it’s much colder in autumn. But Copenhagen is an amazingly liveable city. We felt surprisingly comfortable there, and were impressed by this city during our brief visit.

There were 18,000 doctors visiting the city for a cancer conference, so we were lucky to find reasonably priced accommodation. Some of the medicos stayed in Sweden and commuted by car across the bridge joining the two countries. Hotel Nora, recommended by Trip Adviser, was comfy and relaxed. Admittedly, my visit was short, but here are some first impressions of the city and its people:

The Traffic

cyclists-rule-the-roads-copenhagen

The city is flat and cyclists fly along the streets along dedicated bike paths, sharing the space with pedestrians and cars. Helmets are not prescribed by law. There are two bicycles to every person in the city. Cars are fewer and smaller than in other cities. As a result, noise and carbon pollution are much less. Motorists must give way to cyclists, and the latter to pedestrians, in the final analysis. Only one taxi driver felt that motorists were unfairly treated by the laws.

A Caring City

preschoolers-pram-minder

We saw evidence of small refugee children being expertly cared for by middle-aged Danish women, almost certainly on a volunteer basis. The Danish babies were well looked after too, as evidenced in the photo above.

The Buildings

typical-danish-buildings

Aesthetically pleasing. There’s a seamless mingling of old and new, with evidence of expert architectural input at work down through the centuries. I thought of our Sydney Opera House, an iconic building that had been designed by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon. And I thought about how, as a young nation, we hadn’t been quite ready to benefit fully from Utzon’s expertise for the interior of the building.

Food and Entertainment

restaurant-copenhagen-lunch

We had lunch in a Copenhagen cafe, and ordered a traditional open rye sandwich called Smorrebrod, with cream sauce and seafood. Our friendly Ethiopian taxi driver had told us that the Danes only enjoy one outing per week; he was still missing the dance/music culture of his native homeland, thirty years on. It made me wonder about the multicultural system in Denmark by comparison with the one that we have here in Australia.

The People

They seem happier than the citizens in many other countries. This reminded me of my sister’s thoughts on the people of Bhutan. In Buddhist Bhutan Gross National Happiness (GNH) is used as a measure instead of gross domestic product (GDP). I wondered if Denmark had been influenced by this idea. At the same time, the work ethic in Denmark is very strong, and citizens are proud and patriotic. This was evident at a glance.

Taxi Drivers

Many of the drivers we met were from Ethiopia and other African countries. They were able to discuss cultural differences in a sophisticated manner, indicating their easy assimilation into the society. The only problem for one of them was not being able to fall asleep easily in summer, when the sun is still up until 10 o’clock at night.

The Royal Family

“We love her,” people said when questioned about Princess Mary, originally from Australia. “She learnt the language so quickly and adapted to our ways”. She also gave birth to four children, heirs to the Danish throne.

oryal-palace-amalienborg

October 15, 2016 0 comment

Travel

The Great Beauty

In the movie “The Great Beauty”, the 2013 Italian film by Paolo Sorrentino, a tourist, after taking photos in Rome, collapses and dies. The message is clear: See Rome and die!

Like the protagonist in the film, my abode while in Rome (in my case, the Palatino Hotel) was almost overlooking the Colosseum. A flight of stairs opposite the hotel led up through an archway between walls covered by vines to the top of the hill. From there, you looked down on the ancient stadium, constructed for gladiatorial events two millenia ago.

At one stage in the movie, the ageing protagonist, Jep, thinks back on his life, which has also been the life of the city, and realises he has spent most of it searching at parties on the rooftops and in the gutters for what he calls la grande bellezza – “the great beauty”. He actually finds the underbelly of the city: gangsterism, triviality, hypocrisy and decadence.

We could walk in any direction for hours, to be overwhelmed by ancient beauty. Ten minutes’ away to the west was the Roman Forum. You had to pay twelve euros to wander around in here. It was well worth it, and there was less chance of being relieved of your wallet by pickpockets in here.

An ancient street in the Forum

Statue of twins suckled by the wolf

Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, were said to have been suckled by a she-wolf, after their mother was forced to become a vestal virgin. Roma was named after Romulus, who favoured the Palatine Hill on which to construct the town that became Rome.

I took many photos and videos on my i-phone while wandering around the ancient ruins in the Forum, visited on 15th October, 2015 one day before our 40th wedding anniversary; which we celebrated in Rome and in Paris, two of our favourite cities. The following photos I found online:

The Roman Forum

The Garden containing Statues of the Vestal Virgins was beautiful and full of pathos. It harks back to an ancient cult of which little remains today. The virgins were chosen from aristocratic families to watch over the eternal fire that represented the city’s life force. One of their more macabre tasks was to prepare the mixture containing salt to be spread over sacrificial bodies.

The Vestal Virgins

As in all cultures, but particularly as regards “the Eternal City”, there is an underbelly, symbolised by the ruins of the Colosseum, where unspeakable acts of horror were committed at another time.

the-movie

September 15, 2016 1 comment