Gloucester

I made an enjoyable visit to this interesting and historical English city and county town a few days ago. Founded as long ago as AD 97 by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, it was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II. It has a radical past in both its politics and its religion. In the English Civil Wars (1642–1651) it took the side of the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) against the Royalists (Cavaliers). It has been the home of Christian dissent and now boasts, for the city and the region, an excessively large number of churches; 159 of them.

Bishop John Hooper (c.1495-1500 – 1555) represents the theological battles going on during his lifetime, on both sides of the English Channel. He had reformist views, tried to educate his clergy, lived simply and cared for the underprivileged and the poor, but was disapproved of by the Crown and the established church, and was executed by burning in Gloucester itself. His writing influenced the Puritan movement during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

The Anglican cathedral is magnificent with its enormous round pillars, many superb stained glass and numerous plaques and statues memorialising local worthies of whom the most imposing monument is the canopied shrine of King Edward II of England (1281-1327). He had a colourful life and in Berkley Castle an unfortunate death. He was murdered. (But to his credit he was the first King to establish colleges in Oxford and Cambridge!). I did the guided tour and was impressed but strangely not greatly moved, and I’m not sure why. I must visit again.

I enjoyed the local Folk Museum, its emphasis on homes and customs including a wide variety of fishing tackle, appropriate for a town which has the distinction of being Britain’s most inland port. The River Seven, which defines so much of the area between East Wales and South West England, reaches right into the city. I tried to visit the Maritime Museum but I think its must be undergoing development. I walked around the Docks for a while, prevented from staying longer by a sudden wind that made walking difficult.

Like so many towns in England during the present recession, there were empty shops in the high streets and much publicised sale offers. There wasn’t a buzz about the town but a relaxed everyday feeling about it. I had lunch in an African café, which was a surprise, and bought some local Double Gloucester cheese from the market, hard and tangy and very different from the mild variety that is normally on offer. A second visit is certainly required, and not just for the cheese!

B.R.

Ephesus

Can a city long in ruins, situated more in Asia than in Europe, find a place amongst these glimpses of contemporary European cities? Probably not, but never mind. Last month we visited this amazing ancient site close to the modern town of Selçuk, as part of our brief tour of western Turkey, and although mostly now in ruins, its size and importance in world history makes any visit an impressive experience.

Once a major port on the Aegean Sea, we walked its wide road which once led right down to the coast. On either side houses are currently being excavated. Everywhere there are significant reminders of the city’s past glories as one of the great Greek cities of Asia Minor, some would say the greatest. Its later importance during the Roman period of governance was second only to Rome. With a population of a quarter of a million in the 1st century A.D., it was the second largest city in the world.

Completed around 550 B.C., the Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. A single column is all that remains now of its marbled magnificence, after its destruction by a mob energised by the St.John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Ephesus. The Greek Artemis was a goddess of virginity, women’s concerns, the hunt and the underworld; a fairly comprehensive list. There are two huge and extraordinary and well preserved statues of the goddess in the excellent Ephesus Museum, with many decorative protuberances on her body and person, the significance of which is assumed to be images of fertility. It was believed that she oversaw marriage, childbirth and assisted with child-rearing.

St Paul caused a riot on the second of his two visits to Ephesus when he preached against the Artemis cult, to the disapproval of the local silversmiths whose trade depended on it. It was quite something for us to sit in the still largely preserved Great Theatre from where he delivered his sermon. Other less authentic bits of Christian history is the House of Mary built to commemorate the house she was supposed to live in, and the vast Basilica of St.John built by Emperor Justinian in the sixth century over the traditional tomb of the apostle. There is a superb model of what the Basilica must have looked like and there is an undeniable atmosphere in the House, the result perhaps of the many prayers that devoted people have offered there.

We saw more mundane signs of the Ephesus that was once a living reality, such as the 1st-century Roman latrine and the remains of a brothel, once a large building of two floors. More interesting was the huge library and mausoleum built 92-114 A.D. by Tiberius Julius Aquila, in memory of his father, Celsus Polemaeanus. Once the home of 12,000 scrolls, the façade of this two story building has been restored and as you approach it, makes an awe-inspiring impact on visitors such as ourselves.

B.R.

Oxford

We were in Oxford earlier this month. It was only a fleeting visit but enough on a warm summer’s day to be affected by a city made prominent by its medieval university – the oldest in the English-speaking world - but now with a population of just under 165,000, a bustling and it seems a very prosperous town in its own right.

Its buildings demonstrate examples of every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, and yet the poet Matthew Arnold described the city as one of ‘dreaming spires’ because of what he claimed was its harmonious architecture. It certainly is an impressive town centre with narrow pavements but broad streets. It is many years since I was last here for some conference I can no longer remember, so it felt a bit like meeting again a long forgotten friend.

We had come mainly to visit the Ashmolean, a museum of art and architecture, recently substantially redeveloped – with still more work being done to house a new display of Egyptian culture, open later this year. This is Britain’s first public museum, its five floors devoted to revealing how 'the civilisations of the east and west have developed as part of an interrelated world culture’. It feels like a museum of life and living, more about domestic realities of the past than kings and empires, so that it felt we were near to the people however long it has been since they lived.

It is superbly presented and annotated, with ‘story lines’ that link the exhibits and provide a narrative which brings the past and the present together. We were there for three hours and needed longer. It’s a place to come back to, which we shall try and do. We only had time for example to glimpse the gallery devoted to European Art from 1800 . ‘Asian Crossroads’ occupies the first floor and is centered on the trading routes that connected the Mediterranean to Asia in early modern times, and was of particular interest to us following our recent visit to Turkey.

The brilliant archaeologist Arthur Evans was appointed Keeper of the Museum in 1884. One of the conditions of the Keepership prescribed travel and lectures and apparently he took full advantage of both. He excavated a Roman villa at Frilford in Oxfordshire and an Iron Age cemetery at Aylesford in Kent. He resigned from his post in 1908 and devoted himself to his Cretan researches maintaining a close connection with the Museum as Emeritus Keeper. There are many references to him in the museum. In his will he left what remained of his antiquarian collections to the Ashmolean.

Before we left we had time to visit Oxford’s delightful Botanic Gardens, devoted to medicinal plants, and close to the River Cherwell, with its punting enthusiasts, some as we saw more successful at managing their punting poles than others. We hope to return before the year is out.

B.R.

Revisiting Frankfurt

My first visit to this notable German city was in 1994 and I wrote an enthusiastic blog about it in June 2006 (see Frankfurt). I came then as part of a sabbatical break during which I visited five continental cites. I was looking for Churches that have significant social projects; wanting to learn from their experience, which hopefully I did. In Frankfurt I stayed with K.P., a Lutheran pastor with responsibility for several care homes for the elderly. One consequence was that we have become good friends. J. and I came home a few days ago, after an immensely enjoyable four days with him.

There has been, and continues to be, massive building schemes going on in the city and there are huge cranes everywhere; it felt as if it was city under reconstruction. We had no sense of the financial crises that has hit so much of the prosperous world. Frankfurt gives the impression of – after all it is a major financial centre – of being very prosperous indeed. We sensed a contentment about the place and its people.

Skyscrapers define the city, several of them built since I was there. One of them – the Comererzbank Tower is described in a City Guide as Europe’s ‘momentarily’ highest commercial building at 259 metres. The moment is over! In 2005 it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace in Moscow in 2005 and now Shard London Bridge in London. We visited an area by the river Main, now being developed from dock warehouses into the site of the new European Central Bank, and that will include a 185-metre-skyscraper. Earlier we ascended another high building, and on a bright clear day, delighted in a panoramic view of the city and its environs.

The Old Opera House has a baroque exterior like a wedding cake, but inside is a handsomely redeveloped concert hall in a typical russet brown décor favoured by many of the older buildings. We sat outside for an evening meal and watched a stream of appropriately soberly dressed men as they entered the hall for a Concert sponsored by one of the local banks. Outside several limousines were parked to whisk the men in suits home when the concert – and perhaps the hospitality - was over. There is an interesting mix of fine old, reconstructed, and new buildings, some of which we met on a walking tour one morning.

It felt as though we were in Little Italy at times, for we saw a lot of cafes selling ice cream, well patronised by large numbers of people, one just near to where we were staying – for the locals the equivalent of an English local pub. We joined them and enjoyed both the ice cream and the shelter from a brief but sudden thunder storm.

We like Frankfurt!

B.R.

Istanbul (2)

There was no time to get to the coast, which has a tourist industry of its own, but we had a mini-cruise on the Bosphorus, and it became apparent at just how huge and varied this amazing city is. The river was bordered by a seemingly endless number of magnificent houses and palaces – and numerous mosques, a castle as well –giving us an insight into the city’s more fashionable metropolitan life, which didn’t fit into our modest six day tour. I had been surprised at the general condition of buildings in the main city area, some very dilapidated or derelict and many constructed it seemed of concrete rather than indigenous materials.

Apparently in the past many of the older houses were made of wood, and were considered therefore to be more able to survive the earthquake tremors which are frequent in this area. In fact an earthquake in Izmit in 1999 resulted in 18,000 deaths and was, with a magnitude of 7.4, the most recent quake of a series, along the plate border between the Anatolian and the Eurasian Plate from east to west. That could mean the next one could take place south of Istanbul. The city has, thus, a threatening earthquake risk.

Our visit was in the Spring, before the warmer weather which brings in the crowds of visitors. But it was still very busy when we were there, with a lot of street life from local people which I referred to in my previous blog. There was a sense of pride amongst them we felt, men in friendly clusters, often sitting in public places in animated conversation, or just sitting and watching – tourists like us no doubt! Women were less visible and usually in traditional dress, but there were young couples too, arm in arm, doing as they wished despite the legacy of history with its tension between a determinedly secular administration and a majority population of practising Moslems, making a more European statement in dress and manner. There was a buzz about the city which we enjoyed.

One of the things we learned. Tulips originated in Turkey and they were evident everywhere in the city, as colourful if not as variegated as in Holland. It’s a matter of pride that the Dutch borrowed the idea. Another surprise was that Turkish Delight, which was on sale everywhere, is much more interesting with many flavours, than the sickly lumps I remember as a child. I rather wish we had brought more of then from the Spice Market than we did. One couple in our party bought a carpet in the Bazaar. Three cushion covers sufficed for us!

B.R.

Istanbul(1)

We ended our recent package tour of the western part of Turkey by spending three nights in a city I have wanted to visit for a long time. Unable to do anything like justice to it in a couple of days, even less is it possible to give a sense of the place in a couple of blogs! With a teeming population of 15M and a history that goes back through the Ottoman, Byzantine and Roman empires, with buildings that represent so much Christian and Moslem history, it was for me a completely new world of sights, sounds, smells, food and street life.

We visited some of the major sites – the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome – no longer a place of sport and display but now a public meeting area, the Grand Bazaar, the Spices Bazaar, The Haghia Sophia – the greatest church in Christendom until converted into a mosque in the 15th century, and the Topkapi Palace, the latter two both disappointing me a little. Immensely impressive in size and setting, I had hoped to get a sense of numinous in the church/mosque, and a feeling of what it must have been like when the Sultan and his wives and courtiers lived there. Instead both have been turned into museums.

One evening we were taken to a ‘typical’ Turkish restaurant, in a road consisting entirely of such eating places, many of them bursting out into the street and patronised by local people. During our meal we were entertained by a music group of six men with loud drums, and a violin etc, accompanied notably a belly dancer who moed from one male to another, half enveloping them and clicking her tiny cymbals until we yielded to her charms(i.e.’extortion’), and gave her money. I enjoyed the food.

This was but one example of the constant hassling by street vendors as we moved around the city. With the exception of the restaurant, whilst it was an inevitable part of the scene, we found it not at all threatening. People accepted our ’no thank you’s’ , and moved on. All of them were men, many of whom thronged the streets. Where there were women, they were always together in a tight bunch and mostly, though not always wearing Moslem dress. No burkes.

A café we went to near our hotel - the excellent ‘Titanic’(which permanently shows the 1997 film on its TV’s!) was typical of the division of the sexes, but also of the importance of family life. An elderly man, obviously the father, his two sons and a young grandson served us (excellent falafel) – the cooking done by a woman out of sight. We talked to the father, a Palestinian. He had been in London in 1984. People always asked us where we came from and tried to make a connection....more next time.

Bryan

Barcelona - again (2)

We visited two other Gaudi buildings, Casa Mila La Pedera and Casa Batllo, both showing his characteristic rejection of traditional straight lines, adopting a flowing open design to the rooms and especially to the windows, only one of the ways in which light and ventilation entered the rooms. His trademark of originality was nowhere more apparent than in the roofs of both buildings, especially La Pedera with its walkway and huge personalised chimney pots!

We visited two cathedrals, the traditional gothic one, its nave ringed round with a series of gilded chapels and a high decorated alter, conspicuously lacking the light and airiness of the Sagrada Familia. We were more impressed with the Santa Maria del Mar, a beautiful and important 14th-century church, considered to be the finest and most complete example of Catalan Gothic architecture anywhere, its tall interior and soaring vertical lines said to have influenced Gaudi. I loved the spacious simplicity of the building. In contrast we also visited the Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp (St. Paul of the Countryside - the church was once surrounded by green fields). It’s the oldest church in Barcelona and a rare example of Romanesque architecture.

The city is much more than an archive of splendid buildings. We had a delightful last afternoon there walking by the immense red brick Arc de Triomf (our compass point for our trip), created for the 1888 Great Exhibition of Barcelona, and the portal to the Park de la Ciutadella, where we enjoyed seeing local families and young people sitting in the sunshine and having fun rowing little boats. On another day and like all good tourists we joined the crowds and walked down La Ramblas and then on to St.Josephs Market, the largest covered market in Europe, with amazing displays of food, meat and fish. There are of course many good eating places around the city, reasonably priced as well as other more expensive ones. We had a delightful lunch overlooking the Marina.

The only Museum we had time for was the one devoted to Picasso, set in the heart of the old city and made up of a conglomeration of buildings, including one that was once a palace. Although it houses quite a small selection of his work compared to the one in Madrid, and concentrates on his blue and rose periods, it shows how he reinterpreted the work of old masters and was influenced by them. On our previous hasty visit we had been to the Miro gallery, but the massive Barcelona Museum will have to wait another time – and the Chocolate Museum!

We felt there was an unusual sense of composure about this city that made us feel welcome. My wife and I try always to visit new places, rather than return to ones already visited. In the case of Barcelona we may have to break the custom!

B.R.