Georgia: Yup, That Georgia

Georgia is a crossroads nation of almost 4 million people that sits between Russia, the Stans, Iran and Turkey and is a branch of the Silk Road. Georgia was founded as a single independent kingdom in the 12-13th centuries, which is often referred to as the Golden Age. Not many countries get to have an epic chivalric poem of 6,648 lines that defines their country’s heroic destiny, but Georgia does: The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli, written around 1200. However, Georgia’s fate was also to have to deal with large adjacent Iranian, Ottoman and Russian states until finally absorbed by Tsarist Russia in the late 18th century. Georgia had a subsequent but brief period of independence starting in 1917 before being occupied by the Soviet Union in 1921.

Georgian Parliament Building with Demonstration

It’s a brilliant country to visit, with a very diverse geography contained in a relatively confined area, from its Black Sea Coastline in the west, the Caucasus mountains in the north, and a desert border to the south and east with a 8,000-year old wine country in between. This trip covers journeys to Tbilisi, north to Kazbegi at the Russian border, and finally east to the wine country and south to the monastery in the rocks, Davit Gareja.

Tbilisi. Some orientation from the Narikala Citadel, Tbilisi’s long standing fortress. looking north towards downtown Tbilisi. The old town is pretty much where the hill rolls out below, and further north from the old town is the mainly Soviet-era city center that starts at Rustaveli Avenue (named after the renowned Medieval-era poet), which is Tbilisi’s main avenue going north, loaded with Tsarist- and Soviet-era buildings.

Here we look east towards the new cathedral in the background and the Metekhi Church (c. 1280s) in the foreground, over the Mtkvari River, that flows from the Caucasus south into Azerbaijan.

Tbilisi has a combination of traditional Georgian building styles, Islamic influence, Tsarist and Soviet Russian, and more modern development post-independence. If you have a couple of days, you can have a pretty full itinerary between the old town, the usual museum/early medieval church/fort combo, pretty great restaurants and a very interesting wine culture. I visited in April when the weather was cool and pleasant. You can also bathe in the sulfur bath Hamams located in the Maidan neighborhood, dating from the 1700s and still very much open. Pushkin visited. The city has many hot springs. There are two worthwhile museums in town, the National Gallery (Rustaveli 11) and the Museum of Georgia (Rustaveli 3), which has some pretty stunning pre-Christian gold artefacts.

Traditional Georgian houses line a riverbed, before the Tbilisi Central, or Juma Mosque, built in 1895, and the hills beyond. The mosque is unique in that both Sunni and Shia muslims can pray together.

There are plenty of traditional balconied wooden houses, which provide relief in the dry hot summers.

More Russian-era housing is evident, much of which is in need of some upgrade.

There are plenty of neighborhood upgrade programs going on. Much of old town Tbilisi is being progressively renovated by the city to revitalize the older central areas.

Tbilisi’s Tsarist-era opera house has eastern touches that you’d expect from colonial administrators attempt to evoke the atmosphere of a country that they are already in.

You should try the local mineral water which has lots of fortifying chewiness. I liked Borjomi, which was reportedly Stalin’s favorite non-alcoholic beverage, but wouldn’t kick the Nabeghlavi out of bed either. I declined the Stalin desk flag souvenir at the time but now regret doing so. Stalin, Georgia’s most famous son, whether they like it or not, was born in Gori, a small town west of Tbilisi. His birthplace was made into a museum and can still be visited.

North to Kazgebi along the Caucasian Military Highway. The first road trip out of Tbilisi was north to Kazbegi in the Caucasus Mountains. The first stop is at Ananuri, a chapel overlooking a lake. The main buildings are from the mid-17th century although the watchtower is from the 12th.

The main road north through the Caucasus to Russia is the two-lane superbly named Caucasian Military Highway, that continues to Vladikavkaz in Russia. Here is an ex-military GAZ truck passing by for atmosphere. Basically anyone going north to south goes over this road, that started as a horse trail at the dawn of time and has improved into a pretty rough in places blacktop.

Heading north, the Caucasus mountains take form as you increase altitude.

And the sovbloc cars keep on coming.

Finally you hit snow conditions – in April.

There are plenty of barrier-free hairpin turns and happy grazing roadside cattle to support concentration.

And then once through the snow you coast down towards Kazbegi (or Stepantsminda) and the huge truck line waiting to clear the Russian border.

Kazbegi. I hiked up to the Gergeti Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) in Kazbegi, which was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Gergeti hike is a good day trip, although it can be done in half a day if you’re reasonably fit. To get to the church, you walk west out of town, cross over the Tergi River bridge and go through Gergeti village to reach the hillside tracks.

Gergeti village has traditional stone dwellings that look ready to deal with a long hard winter.

The effects of the war on a small Georgian town must have been significant, reflected in Gergeti’s Soviet-era war memorial.

You can cut up to the Gergeti church through the switchback vehicle service tracks until you find open hillside. It’s rather steep, although running shoes worked ok.

One the way up, looking east you can see the town of Kazbegi nestled in a bowl amongst the mountains.

The Gergeti church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries and is even more impressive when the surrounding mountains are in the background.

I then had to get back down the highway in the afternoon, which was as interesting as the ride up, with more whiteout and trucks.

The roads could be a bit rock-strewn, although the road was open and clear of snow.

I soon found that the periodic Soviet-era road tunnels lacked for lighting but not atmosphere.

And down into the misty wooded foothills.

The Wine Country and Signagi. From the Caucasian Military Highway, I headed southeast to spend the night at the Schuchmann winery hotel near Telavi. Telavi sits in the Alavani River valley, a major wine growing region. Georgian wine is worth a look, and Saperavi, a dry red, is usually obtainable overseas, along with a range of whites that include Rkatsiteli and Mtsivane. Georgia has been making wine for about 8,000 years, and still have a traditional line of production that involves fermentation in kvevri clay vessels. The following day, I continued east to the walled silk road trading city of Signagi, which sits on a high ridge overlooking the valley. Sighnagi was mostly built in the late 18th century, and was recently spruced up by the government so looks quite neat.

Signagi was protected by an extensive fort built in the late 18th century, that commands the Alazani River valley below to this day. It is huge and in pretty good condition, with a view northeast to the Caucasus range.

Davit Gareja. I made my way south to the cave monastery of Davit Gareja, just north of the Azerbaijani border amongst a set of rock formations. The original habitations, founded in the 6th century, were rock caves that then grew into a walled and towered monastery. The monastery is still active so be careful where you wander.

The monastery complex is a combination of cave dwellings, a large keep and chapel, partly surrounded by walls and towers.

Driving in Georgia involves a lot of unintentional tracks; this is the road in and out of Davit Gareja, which is best done in daylight.

Logistics.

Tbilisi airport is easy to use and a cab into town is quick (20-30 minutes) and reasonable. The airport rail gets you to Tbilisi Central Station (which is about 4km north of the old town however) in 40 minutes and connects you into Tbilisi’s Soviet-era metro, which is efficient and worth using within the city.

I stayed just north of the old town on the west side of the river, and was able to walk around for the most part. Whole sections are under redevelopment so don’t be surprised to find a lot of construction. Restaurants are excellent and I’d recommend (addresses are findable):

Barbarestan – good traditional Georgian food and more than the usual khachapuri (bread with a cheese center), although the kinkhali dumplings are great here.

Schuchmann – cellar restaurant, worth going to check out the different wines. Georgian grapes are mostly unique to the country. Their hotel is located in Kisikshevi with details at: http://www.schuchmann-wines.com/hotel/contact/

Samikitno – cafe-type Georgian, good for staples such as khachapuri.

Shavi Lomi – Georgian fusion in a subterranean venue.

There are plenty of wine bars in town given Georgia’s range of production – some worth visiting include Tsangala’s and Code de Vino. Some of the major wineries, like Schuchmann, Shumi and Mukhrani have their own wine bars in the old town.

Driving. Car hire is reasonable in Georgia and the roads are well signposted. The standard of driving and road manners was good. There are major freeways on the main routes that are good, but many of the secondary roads can be slow going given the terrain. Be aware that Georgia relies more on dirt tracks between significant communities than you may be used to in the west, so if you’re going between smaller towns the roads are usually fine but check the grade, just in case.

Rail. If you plan to head east or west out of Tbilisi, Georgian Railways are worth a look http://www.railway.ge/en/passenger-traffic/, and also provide international service to Yerevan and Baku. Turkish connections can be obtained via the border city of Akhalkalaki. Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan have recently cooperated on a passenger and freight route between Kars in Turkey to Baku in Azerbaijan, which involves a gauge change at Akhalkalaki.

Trogir: Split Petite

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Trogir is a small port city located on an island a bridge away from the Croatian coast, about 21 km west of Split. Inhabited for over 2,300 years and a recorded Greek and Roman settlement, Trogir was sacked by the Saracens in 1123 and built up by the Venetians from the 1400s, now having one of the best-preserved medieval/renaissance city cores in Europe.

Split gets the obvious attention, however Trogir is a smaller and more relaxed town, as well as being a handy layover destination if you ever change planes at Split airport, which is just 6 km away. Once you are done with the winding and shaded streets, and have circuited the shell of a Venetian castle – used for summertime concerts, you can dial it down further along the waterfront promenade. There are places to step in for a swim in the Adriatic – such as by the fortress.

The mainly romanesque Cathedral of St. Lawrence, built on the site of an early Christian cathedral destroyed in 1123, was largely constructed in 1200-1250 with the bell tower built later in the 14th-16th centuries, from which you get great city views.

It has a pair of Venetian lions guarding the ornate marble portal, which was inscribed as being completed by a Croatian stonemason in 1240.

Trogir is a good place to check out some medieval alleyways, soak up the sun on the waterfront, and observe the yachts in the marina. The 13th-century Venetian Loggia faces about as large a town square as you’ll see here, and a good place to hang out.

If you need to get a walk in, you can cross south over the Ciovski bridge onto the next island and walk west to get a view of the town and the 15th-century Venetian Kamerlengo Castle.

Logistics. The simplest way into Trogir from the airport is by taxi, and there is a regular bus service via the airport to and from Split. Croatia is on it’s own currency, the Kuna, so a visit to the airport ATM is in order unless you want to try using Euros, which are often accepted. The bus service to and from the airport (No. 37 bus – which also serves Split) that stops at the bus station on Kneza Trpimira just northeast of the main bridge onto Trogir island, Trogirski Most.

There are plenty of hotel options in the immediate area if you want to spend a night here, from the rather grand XII Century Heritage to smaller guesthouses like the Villa Sveti Petar – which is always a good way to get a sense of the place once the day trippers have moved on.

Ypres: The Salient

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Ypres (or Ieper) is a small city in Western Flanders that grew as a trading and manufacturing city in the medieval and renaissance eras. Destroyed by artillery in World War I, the mostly redbrick city and its medieval Cloth Hall, originally constructed in 1304, were restored in the 1920s.

Cloth Hall

It’s a nice town for a stopover although the main reason many people visit is that it provides as good a place as any to understand how World War I was fought. Ypres was militarily important because when the front lines formed in Autumn 1914, the Allied forces held the area around the town, in a salient that stuck into German lines. This meant that it was a useful launching point for offensives, and an area that the Germans were challenged to defend. The Germans sensibly dug in on the higher ground to the east of the town, creating a heavily fortified zone that included the ubiquitous trench lines interspersed with major bunker complexes called Stellungs. The town is surrounded by many military sites and memorials that mark battles throughout the war.

Ypres was always behind the lines, but well within German artillery range, and was flattened in the war. The town was restored to its red bricked medieval and renaissance glory in the 1920s, but there is a degree of uniformity in many of the houses that it hard to place until you realize that many of them were built at the same time.

The Menin Gate. Ypres’ main memorial is the rather imposing Menin Gate at the east town entrance, inaugurated by the British Government in 1928.

At 20:00 hrs (8pm) every evening, last post is sounded by two buglers from the local volunteer fire department, a practice that goes back to 1928 with an interruption in 1940-44. That event gets very crowded, so go at least 15 minutes before and work your way to the outer side of the archway if you want to get close to the bugles.

The interior walls of the memorial list 54,896 missing soldiers who were not buried at the military cemeteries in the area, by regiment, rank and name. It’s worth noting that the British Army was very much a Commonwealth Army and soldiers from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and Pakistan also are present here.

WWI in the west was one long stalemate until Germany’s economic collapse in 1918, with various offensives moving the lines back and forth in a futile and limited way that changed little except the number of dead and wounded. The Ypres salient experienced major offensives in 1914, 1915, 1917 and 1918, although Ypres stayed in allied hands throughout. Formally, the battles around the area are considered as:

First Ypres (Autumn 1914): German offensive and Allied counter attacks.
Second Ypres (Spring 1915): German offensive, including the first ever use of poison gas.
Third Ypres, or the Battle of Passchendaele (Summer/Autumn 1917): Allied offensive.
Fourth Ypres, or the Battle of the Lys (Spring 2018): German offensive.
Fifth Ypres (Autumn 1918): Allied offensive.

One way to understand the terrain is to get a guided tour, and this can be done by bike to get the best sense of the terrain. Equally, you can rent your own bike, pick a set of military memorials and cemeteries and navigate round them by smartphone map. The roads are excellent and even if there is no bike lane, Belgian drivers are usually respectful of cyclists. The cemeteries were usually located close behind the front lines and so map out where the fighting happened. The most notable in the area, Tyne Cot, was a field medical station located in a captured German bunker complex, that was converted into a major cemetery postwar. Before going, you could visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) visitor center near the Menin Gate https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/visitor-centres/ieper-information-centre

Ypres Salient Cycle Tour. The following is a clockwise route from the north and round to the east of Ypres, with about 38 km of moderate cycling, 10 or so stops and a break for lunch, lasting about 6 hours overall. There are many more sites that you can visit, so take this as a starting point.

Google maps link to provide navigation guidance at: https://goo.gl/maps/Aj6SSsbp2A9Lgfo89

The land is mostly flat, but you will begin to understand where the higher ground is soon enough. Key points along the route, identified in the map link are:

The Yorkshire Trench. Heading north along the east side the Ieperlee Canal, you first enter an industrial estate where there is a recovered section of 1915-1917 period British trenches.

Welsh Cemetery (Caesar’s Nose). Located east of the Yorkshire trench, this small cemetery for 1917 mainly occupied by the graves of Welsh soldiers, faces German positions that were just to the east in a salient called Caesar’s Nose. You’ll cycle along minor access roads to then go north and then northeast towards Pilckem Ridge and Langemark.

Welsh National Memorial. The Welsh Memorial is quite recent and memorializes the regiments of the Welsh Division that fought over this land. It sits on Pilckem Ridge, in the German lines just west of the village of Langemark, and was in the path of the July 1917 British offensive that included Welsh units such as the 38th Division. The Battle of Pilckem Ridge (July/August 1917) was part of the opening offensive of Third Ypres, that advanced allied lines until the German Spring 1918 offensive.

Langemark German Cemetery. Heading through the village of Langemark, you are in a key part of the German defenses north of Ypres. The cemetery was established over part of a bunker complex at the end of democratic Weimar era, in 1932, and has a very different feel from the Commonwealth cemeteries.

Heading southeast towards Passchendaele along Zonnebekestraat, you’ll pass the Canadian Army and Hertfordshire Regiment memorials – the latter indicating the furthest advance the unit achieved at Third Ypres in July 1917, before falling back. Passchendaele was a key terrain feature, which sat on high ground and was heavily fortified.

New Zealand Division Advance at Passchendaele. As you head towards Passchendaele you’ll pass the New Zealand Division Memorial at Roeselarestraat and further along on s’Graventafalstraat, there is a display that shows the New Zealand Division’s advance in July 1917.

You can then cycle up the road which was roughly in the middle of the route of the advance over mostly open ground. The farm and treeline are different now but the area had similar features in 1917 that crossed open ground.

Tyne Cot Cemetery. Tyne Cot was initially a casualty clearing station at the site of a German bunker complex, just south of Passchendaele, that was overrun by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in 1917. Its name was coined by British soldiers from Northumberland who remarked that German pillboxes resembled Tyneside cottages. It’s the largest cemetery in the area, with almost 12,000 graves and the names of almost 34,000 servicemen who had no known grave and who were not listed at the Menin Gate. There’s a good visitor center adjacent to the cemetery.

Heading northeast from Tyne Cot, you pass by the memorial at Keelarhoek and get on a trail that in places was a railway cutting used by the Australians in their advance on Passchendaele in October 1917, before entering the town.

Passchendaele is a good place for a break with a cafe in the center. The Moeyart Bakery (Statiestraat 3) is good for takeout if you just want to get something to eat in the square.

Polygon Wood. You then cycle south to Polygon Wood, which is just 8 kilometers east of Ypres and was repeatedly fought over. It was a Belgian Army training area pre-WWI that was held by the Allies in 1914, lost in 1915, retaken and then lost in 1917 before finally being recaptured in September 1918. The wood itself was blasted treeless in the war and was often a muddy morass lined with tenches and pillboxes, some of which remain in what is now a forest park.

There are two military cemeteries, Buttes New British Cemetery, which is principally for Australian and New Zealand forces with a New Zealand Memorial that sits on the butte, and the smaller Polygon Wood Cemetery, which is an irregular, front-line cemetery that includes a single German. As you leave via the south corner of the wood, you’ll see the memorial at Black WatchCorner, where the regiment helped stop the Prussian Guard’s advance towards Ypres in November 1914.

From Polygon Wood, you then cycle west back to the Menin Gate, along the Menin Road, which was a major supply route for the Commonwealth forces. What was once called Hellfire Corner, because of the incidence of artillery bombardment, is now a busy highway roundabout.

Logistics

Ypres is quite compact with the railway station about a 20-minute walk west of the center. There are a decent number of hotel options and I stayed at the Novotel Ieper (Sint-Jacobsstraat 15) which was fine as Novotels usually are. There are a number of solid Belgian restaurants in town, most of which are around the center. The Marktcafé Les Halles (Grote Markt 35) has well-prepared Belgian standards and a great beer selection, including some local breweries, and In ‘t Klein Stadhuis (Grote Markt 32) is a more traditional place. Depot (Menenstraat 18) is a more modern take on Flanders cooking.

It’s worth spending one night in Ypres, particularly so that you can start early and do a decent tour of the area. Having achieved that, it is only a little more than an hour by train to Ghent if that is a next stop, so it’s quite practicable to finish cycling by late afternoon and be in Ghent at a reasonable time. It is Belgium so there are great beer options, particularly Kaffee Bazaar (Boomgaardstraat 9), which has a superb local and national selection, and also Brasserie Kazematten (Bollingstraat 1), which also offers food. The Ypra Inn, just west of Menin Gate, is a good place to observe the crowds who gather for the Last Post.

There are a few cycle shops that will rent you a bike, including Chez Marie (Neermarkt 6) and Biking Box (Menenstraat 15). Go online to find the various battlefield tour operators of which there are plenty.

Dublin/ Dubh Linn

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Dublin – one of Europe’s great mid-size capital cities, with plenty to do without having to deal with a crushing metropolis. Established in the 9th century under the Norse-Gael Kingdom of Dublin, at the confluence of the Liffey and (the now underground) Poddle rivers, which formed a “dark pool” – hence the Gaelic name Dubh Linn. The Poddle now flows underground via Dublin Castle and a stone tunnel into the Liffey.

River Liffey

Dublin is a very cosmopolitan city with a strong component of EU citizens working or visiting and a largely Georgian and Victorian feel, in part owing to English/British control or occupation since the mid-1100s through independence in 1922. Being an island in the Dark Ages meant you had to put up with invaders. First of these were Norse raids which started in the 8th Century, followed by occupation such that the eventually assimilated Norse-Gael kingdoms became a dominant military and social force. The traditional neat dividing line between Norse and Irish dominance of Dark Ages Ireland is the Battle of Clontarf (1014), where Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, defeated the Norse-Irish alliance but lost his life. More recent historical interpretation suggests the transition between Norse and Irish rule of Ireland was more protracted; but either way, Clontarf today is a pleasant coastal suburb of Dublin.

Dublin is very walkable and compact and you can cross the core areas easily enough. Here are a few ideas of places to go.

GPO Witness History Visitor Centre, O’Connell Street Lower. Located beneath the General Post Office, which the leaders of the Easter 1916 uprising used as headquarters, this is a good insight into the events leading up to and during the armed rebellion that led to Ireland’s independence in 1921. The post office was shelled by the British military, along with other parts of the city, and largely destroyed during the uprising and so this is a rebuild from 1929.

Dublin Castle, Dame Street. Dublin has been a major Irish city since the Norse invaders and the castle has been on its high ground location since the Dark Ages. The Norman invaders of England in 1066 then moved on to invade Ireland in 1169 and built a stone castle in the early 1200s, of which one complete tower survives above ground. The current castle compound is more of a Governor’s palace dating from the 18th/19th century and is now the Irish Government’s ceremonial center. It’s very grand.

As always, more fun can be had going below ground (guided tour only) to observe the original medieval castle wall and boat landing stages that would have fronted the River Poddle, with ground water still leaking up into the base of the excavation.

National Gallery of Ireland, Merrion Square West. The national gallery has a comprehensive Irish art collection from the 18th century onwards and a wide European collection. There is a great portrait section that captures a range of figures from Anglo-Irish artists to modern cultural icons.

Notable is a huge painting of the fair at Donnybrook, which has leant us the word for a fight or other disturbance.

St. Stephen’s Green. A large Central Park downtown, it’s a good place to grab a bench and a lunchtime sandwich and play at being an office worker. There are also various memorials scattered around amongst the well-tended flower beds, including this rather natural memorial to Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, the Fenian leader.

You can also walk a few hundred yards northeast to Merrion Square Park, opposite the house where Oscar Wilde grew up, where there is now a statue.

National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Kildare St. Ireland has a rich archaeological heritage and the museum displays Bronze Age, Viking and medieval artifacts with plenty of context.

Trinity College, College Green. Established in 1592, Trinity College is Ireland’s oldest university and the repository for the Book of Kells, a 9th Century illuminated gospel book. It’s worth a detour to see where Edmund Burke, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Beckett studied. Book ahead online if you want to see the Book of Kells Exhibition in the library.

Little known fact: Samuel Beckett is probably Ireland’s most recognized 20th-century playwright, and worked as a lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris at the outbreak of WW2. Despite being a citizen of a neutral country, he joined the French Resistance as a courier and was awarded the Croix de Guerre, but never really mentioned it. Samuel Beckett is also one of the few writers anywhere to have a warship named after them, an Irish Navy offshore patrol vessel.

LE Samuel Beckett

EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, Custom House Quay, North Dock. This is another innovative museum detailing the emigration experience and is particularly with a visit if you have forebears who came over, including a family history center for genealogical research.

National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street. The National Library has on ongoing museum on its lower level for important Irish writers; as of 2019 it has an excellent exhibit on the life and works of W.B. Yeats which is worth a visit. For some reason, Yeats sought research data from the Eugenics Society – which actually still exists, renamed, although while apparently membership peaked in the 1930s, its association with fascist ideology may have caused a subsequent decline.

Logistics. Dublin is very manageable and easy to get around with a very walkable central core. The airport is about 10 kilometers from the center, served by the 700/747/757 buses with a 10 euro fare each way. I stayed at the Castle Hotel on Gardiner Street which had good rooms and a solid breakfast.

F&B. There are excellent food options beyond traditional pub meat & two-veg, although those aren’t bad either. The area south of the river and east of the Castle, bounded by Trinity College in the east and St Stephen’s Green in the south, has a high concentration. Some good traditional pubs serving meals places are O’Neills (2 Suffolk Street) and Arthur’s Pub (28 Thomas Street), with L. Mulligan Grocer (18 Stoneybatter) and Delahunt, 39 Camden Street Lower, offering a higher end take on Irish food.

Given the strength of the immigrant community, there are plenty of overseas options as well such as Zaytoon (Persian, 15 Parliament St) and Admiral (Russian, at Marlborough and Cathal Brugha Streets). Obviously, the Irish pub finds it’s highest expression in Dublin and it’s hard to provide any great insights, although The Hairy Lemon (Stephen Street Lower), The Brazen Head, 20 Lower Bridge St, and Mulligan’s (8 Poolbeg St) are worth a visit. Live Celtic session music is common. Craft beer is making it’s entry into what is a well-served market and decent places to try Irish microbrews include The Brew Dock (1 Amiens St), The Beer Market (13 High St), and the Black Sheep (61 Capel St).

Paris through the Side Door

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Paris, center of global overtourism. Fancy going? If so, minimize your impact, use public transit and avoid getting sucked into crowded situations with your fellow visitors. Going off-season still helps but off-season isn’t as off as it used to be.

Let’s start with some basic ideas:

Try the East. Paris is organized into neighborhoods (the Arrondisements), sequentially numbered in a clockwise spiral. The 10th-11th are northeast and east of the center, running from around the Gare due Nord through Place de la Republique south to Place de la Bastille. These are regular neighborhoods with plenty of local amenities, great restaurants and good markets.

You’re also quite close to Gare de Nord, which takes you on rail routes north and is convenient for the train accessing Charles de Gaulle airport. You are also just east of the Marais, which is an interesting if post-hip windy medieval neighborhood, and a short metro ride south to the Left Bank areas.

Chez Janou, Marais

Place de la Republique gets it’s share of demonstrations and there is usually something going on. In 2015, it was piled with lit candles after the Bataclan terrorist attacks, in 2019, it was the turn of Algerian residents to suggest a change of their government.

There are plenty of good markets to pick up stuff in the neighborhood either for lunch in a park or to bring home – try the Marché Popincourt along Rue Richard Lenoir north of Rue Oberkampf; further south, the Bastille market along Rue Richard Lenoir north of Place Bastille; or just west in the Marais, the Marché Des Enfants Rouges, Rue de Bretagne, 75003.

The Metro is your Friend. The Paris metro gets you around the central part of the city in about 20 minutes – if you like to walk, and you should, just buy a 10-ticket pack for about 15 Euro at the vending machines by most of the entrances. In short, you don’t need to be near what you want to see. There are a lot of quirky and ironic posters to distract you around the metro:

Avoid the High Points. You can always save the Louvre, Eiffel Tower or Montmartre for another time, or never, but in doing so you avoid heavy traffic. Having said that, the Sacré-Cœur cathedral at the top of Montmartre is a funky pile, completed as recently as 1914, and you get a good view. It just depends how much you like tourist trams.

But enough of the caveated negativity. Here are some ideas of things to do.

Atelier des Lumières, 38 Rue Saint-Maur. A former 19th Century factory, the Atelier hosts great sound and light events. The Van Gogh exhibit running through 2019 is worth seeing, but book ahead, online. https://www.atelier-lumieres.com/en/home

Monsieur Matthieu, 101 Rue du Chemin Vert is a good place to get lunch nearby.

Gare Musée d’Orsay, 1 Rue de la Légion d’Honneur. If you want to see just one art exhibit, go here for the most comprehensive collection of 19th-20th century French art worldwide. It will likely be very busy although it appears to cool off mid-afternoon onwards. As ever, you can book ahead online.

Centre Pompidou, Place Georges-Pompidou. Easily sighted as a 1970s-era big square building with structural frames and mechanical/electrical systems placed outside the building, it houses the National Museum of Modern Art. If you are limited to just two art exhibits, make this your second. The Louvre isn’t going anywhere.

Grand Palais, 3 Avenue du Général Eisenhower. This hosts periodic exhibitions rather than being a permanent display. They can be pretty cool. The history student in me enjoyed Rouge – Soviet art and culture, which is running in 2019.

Petit Palais. Opposite the Grand Palais, and worth a pass through with free entry, and there is a good selection of mainly French art through the ages.

Musee de Cluny, 28 Rue du Sommerard. This is a medieval art museum, however the real treat is in the basement, to see some well-preserved 3rd Century Roman baths. Paris developed as a major city of Roman Gaul, but there are few significant remaining structures, in part because of constant redevelopment from the medieval era onwards, when there was less compunction about demolishing ancient buildings and re-using the materials. In contrast, Rome has a ton of preserved structures in part owing to depopulation after the implosion of the Roman Empire, not seeing its imperial level of about a million inhabitants restored until the early 20th century.

The Left Bank. The Left Bank, located in the 6th Arrondissement, is anchored by the Paris-Sorbonne University area and is a general place of residence for it’s prolific intellectual class and student population, as well as various literary migrants such as Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, etc. It’s just a nice place to walk around. Most US-based literature undergrads will make a beeline for Shakespeare & Sons, a 1920s-era English language bookstore, so skirt round that. There are plenty of unironic specialty bookstores, many catering to academics on most subjects under the sun, whether it be run by Russian emigres pining for the Tsar or offering technical documents in Brazilian Portuguese.

Logistics

Paris has excellent public transit – walk for the view and then take the metro or the regional transit rail (RER) for speed. If you arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), the RER journey is about 20 minutes to Gare de Nord for a bit over 10 Euro one-way. You can purchase a multi-day travel card although if you are walking a fair bit then a 10-pack of tickets (a carnet) is about 15 euro. RER and metro tickets are interchangeable within the (Zone 1) city area, so if you are planning to day trip out to Versailles or Vincennes, it’ll be a specific RER ticket. This website is helpful https://www.ratp.fr/en/

The Paris Pass. This is rather useful if you plan to cram a lot in a shorter visit, as it covers or discounts museum entry and the metro, as well as providing fast track entry to some of the busier museums such as the Louvre and the Orsay https://www.parispass.com/how-it-works/. There are also museum and attractions-only variants and it comes in 2, 3, 4 or 6 day versions.

Catering. No shortage of good places to go, obviously. Places visited in the east along bistro lines included Le Baratin, 3 Rue Jouye-Rouve; Chez Janou, 2 Rue Roger Verlomme; Bistrot des Vosges, 31 Boulevard Beaumarchais; and Café de l’Industrie, 16 Rue St Sabin. All had great French standards without being fussy about it. There are plenty of good West African restaurants in the area, including Le Village, 86 Avenue Parmentier and the Waly-Fay Senegalese Restaurant, 6 Rue Godefroy Cavaignac.

Craft Beer. This is now a thing in Europe and of course needs careful reporting. France is a little behind compared to the Italians but there are decent outlets featuring mostly French craft beer, in the eastern part of the city, including:

Le Fine Mousse, 6 Avenue Jean Aicard: Roughly translated as “beer froth mustache” this place probably has the best selection and overall space to hang out in. Their sister restaurant of the same name, which aims to pair food with beer, is nearby.

Hoppy Corner, 34 Rue des Petits Carreaux: Another comprehensive selection although a bit of a sweatbox in the main rear sitting area.

Les Berthrom, 35 Boulevard Voltaire: Excellent mostly Belgian draft selection with a great bottle menu and a kitchen available. A few non-Belgians on tap as well.

Le Trois 8, 11 Rue Victor Letalle: Smaller selection and a small space but worth a visit.

Express de Lyon, 1 Rue de Lyon: Belgian-focused with a food menu, right opposite the Gare de Lyon.

Ostend: On the Beach

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Ostend is Belgium’s prime seaside resort, dating from the first flush of post-independence national pride in the 1840s. It is a bit more workaday now, with much of the 19th century buildings demolished by war or more recent wrecking balls. The beachfront has fallen victim to developers of 10-storey apartment buildings, which appear empty of people, at least in March, to complement the wide, wind-blown off-season beach. Busier in the Summer, Spring is the perfect time to come and take a look.

There is plenty of marine stuff to see, including a 1930s-era sail training and scientific expedition ship, the Mercator, moored in the main marina opposite the railway station http://www.zeilschipmercator.be/en/mercator/.

Ostend is worth exploring if you want some sea air and are done with the crowds and renaissance quaintness of Bruges, just 30 minutes away by rail. The bracing seafront allows for beach time in the summer, but not at other times of the year.

Retreating Artists. Like many corners of countries, Ostend has it’s claim as an artist’s hideout, notably Marvin Gaye, who came here in 1981 at the invitation of Freddy Clousaert, a concert promoter, to recover from a period of drug abuse. One good way to get a structured walk around the city is to follow in Marvin’s footsteps with the city’s Midnight Love tour as he recuperated and wrote a few songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IpLIR8IImc Head to the tourist office to upload the tour https://www.visitoostende.be/en/marvingaye. The painter James Ensor was from Ostend and lived there for almost his entire life, and has a good display at the local art museum.

Mu.ZEE. The Mu.ZEE, Ostend’s contemporary art museum at Romestraat 11, is worth a visit as it gives good insight into an energetic period of Belgian art, with focus on artists such as James Ensor and Leon Spillaert.

Léon Spilliaert, Self-portrait.

The MuZEE is a good way to see some of Belgium’s often eccentric 19th-20th century visual art tradition which includes, for reference:

Rene Magritte (1898-1967), surrealist painter.
James Ensor (1860-1949), expressionist, surrealist painter. Liked Ostend and stayed there.
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), occasionally surrealist but very dreamscapy.
Léon Spilliaert (1881- 1946), symbolist and expressionist painter.

The Atlantic Wall. Ostend was badly shelled in World War II, although heavily fortified against coastal invasion by German occupiers both in World War I and more extensively in World War II as part of the Atlantic Wall, which ran from western France to northern Norway. This section was one of the most heavily fortified, because the Germans incorrectly assessed the main invasion threat as being in the Pas de Calais area, just west of Ostend, when in fact the Allies did two things (1) conduct an extensive intelligence deception effort to confirm that belief, including running fake military radio networks and (2) invading further west in Normandy.

There is an excellent preserved complex, the Raversyde Atlantikwall, 6 kilometers along the coast southwest of town, which you can access in a 15-minute coastal tram ride. These fortifications are in good condition, in part because the war passed them by and they didn’t get flattened. Buy your out and back tram ticket and get on at the Marie Joseplein tram stop, getting off at the Raversijde Domein stop (not the Oostende Raversijde stop). You cross over the sand dunes by the steps and path just east of the stop; once over the dunes head east to the entrance: https://www.raversyde.be/en/atlantikwall

Depending on your level of interest, you can easily spend two hours roaming the well-preserved and restored battlements and bunkers, including a faithful recreation of the commanding officers’ cottage.

The Kursaal. Depending on the season, the Kursaal Casino, apart from being a fine example of post-war Belgian modernism, has an extensive concert program which kicks in towards summer, and their calendar is worth checking before you go, especially if you miss 80s Europop and other eclectic acts, including a Frank Zappa homage. https://www.kursaaloostende.be/nl/kalender Check out the Marvin Gaye at the piano statue – he performed here during his retreat.

Logistics. Ostend is quite compact as befits it’s 19th century origins, and the rather grand Victorian railway station is a 10-minute walk on the quayside east of the city center. If you finish your Belgian trip here, you can connect to the Eurostar at Brussels Midi railway station.

There are plenty of food options and the Apero Fish Palace at Nieuwstraat 5 is a great seafood place. Café Botteltje at Louisastraat 19 has a comprehensive and well-kept Belgian beer selection and also serves food. Mussels are a local specialty (with fries of course) and two places to go are the Het Mosselhuis on Nieuwstraat 14 and Kombuis on Van Iseghemlaan 24. There is plenty of apartment accommodation on airbnb and the central hotels are decent – I stayed at the City Partner Hotel Ter Streep on Leopold II-laan 14, which was fine.

Ghent: Go and Boil your Bottoms, Sons of a Silly Person

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Ghent is Belgium’s third largest city, a major university town, and an excellent base to explore Flanders. It sits at a strategic location on the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers, where fortifications against French, Viking and other invaders were constructed by the Counts of Flanders in the early 900s onwards. West Flanders is flat, by the sea and accessible to dueling empires (more on this later) and so is a place where you want to be able to button up your castle and tell people to sod off.

Ghent is a right-sized walkable city with the railway station 30 minutes south of the center. A larger city than it’s prettier but inbred neighbor, Bruges, a 30 minute train ride away, Ghent grew as a medieval trading and manufacturing center – especially wool and cloth – connected by canals to the North Sea and to what counted as global trade in those days. Ghent experienced more recent development as a regional center of modern Belgium (founded 1830 if you were wondering), and was a major industrial center from the 19th century onwards, retaining an atmospheric medieval/renaissance center.

The city’s main canal, developed as a medieval trading route, is a magnet for hanging out. You could start here, and there are plenty of things to see just a short walk away.

Saint Bavo’s Cathedral (St-Baafskathedraal), Ghent’s main cathedral, is a 13-14th century Gothic beauty and also holds one of Europe’s most important religious art treasures, Jan van Eyck’s Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (c. 1430), better known as the Ghent Altarpiece. If you don’t want to pay the admission into the side space to see it live, there are replicas in one of the east side chapels. It is worth reading up on before you go as it consists of a series of panels, ordinarily folded shut: at the top level God, flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, angels and Adam and Eve post-Garden of Eden expulsion. On the lower level, the work shows the Lamb of God on an altar, surrounded by martyrs, prophets and saints, in an early imaginary and very spacy landscape that resembled the low countries of the time. Note the missing lower left panel, one of two stolen in 1934 that is still unfound. The altarpiece, largely intact after almost 600 years, has been lucky to survive the reformation, multiple changes of ruler (Protestant and Catholic) and wars, being most recently stored for safety in a German salt mine during WWII.

The cathedral interior has remarkable natural light and the past bishops look to be having a relaxing nap on their tombs.

Gravensteen Castle. After a general wander round, the imposing 11th-12th century Gravensteen Castle is worth a look. It is surprisingly compact for a major medieval military castle, sticking up amidst the city, and the funky, oversized turrets suggest a creative approach to architecture by the Counts of Flanders. The main square opposite was used for public punishments at the time but now has a couple of cafes and the tourist office.

Phillip of Alsace is perhaps one of the best known of the Counts of Flanders, and developed the castle substantially in the late 1100s, building the large central Donjon (or keep), as a means to cement the power of Flanders as he played off the English and the French. Phillip died of an infection while on his second crusade at Acco, Palestine, in 1189. Philip also sponsored popular culture and enjoyed the chivalric romance novels of the medieval era, commissioning the publication of The Story of the Holy Grail, about King Arthur and his Knights, a best seller of the day. Given that, the following is relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DCAFUerzs

General Strolling and then Beer. The main canal is empty of commercial traffic, apart from tourist boats, and is just darn pretty for a stroll. Many of the main medieval era buildings and spaces, including St Nikolaas’ church, the Korenmarkt and Groentenmarkt squares, the Stadthuis and the Graslei guildhouses, are all within a small distance of each other.

Ghent comes into its own when the sun goes down. Useful here is an excellent selection of beer pubs discussed in more detail later.

Ghent’s Design Museum is just west over the Graslei Bridge at Jan Breydelstraat 5, and if you want to understand the city’s history, the STAM – Ghent City Museum further south at Godshuizenlaan 2 is worth a visit.

Graslei Guildhouses and Sint-Niklaaskerk Spire

Day Bike Trip. I didn’t take advantage of this but day cycling trips work really well in flat, compact and historical Belgium – you could head east along the Scheldt River to the well-preserved medieval cities of Dendermonde or (more ambitiously) Mechelen. Do your own searches but if you plan to get thirsty along the way, you’ll see that the nationally ranked breweries of Duvel Moortgat, Het Anker (i.e. Gouden Carolus) and Karmeliet all lie between Dendermonde and Mechelen. If you decide to explore beyond Dendermonde (about 32 km from Ghent), you may well need to take the train back, which is a practical option given Belgium’s rail network.

More Art. The Fine Art Museum (the MSK), at Fernand Scribedreef 1, has a repository of Flemish renaissance art as well as being comprehensive on more recent painters including James Ensor and Rene Magritte. It is just north of the railway station, so if you are short of time you can go on the way out of town, and conveniently put your gear in their free basement luggage lockers. Belgium works. If you have the time, the Contemporary Art Museum (the SMAK) is just next door and has a comprehensive post-WWII selection. I have no idea what the airship is about but when it’s 1974 and you’re in the Belgian avant-garde, it just has to happen.

Logistics. Ghent is quite compact although the railway station is about a 30-minute walk from the south. I stayed at the Hotel de Flandre, just west of the main canal, which had spacious modern rooms and a decent breakfast for a reasonable rate. If you plan on box ticking the attractions and prefer to use public transit, consider the 72-hour Citycard Gent, https://visit.gent.be/en/tag/citycard-gent which you can buy from most of the itineraries or the tourist office at Sint Veerleplein south of Gravensteen Castle. In 2019, they also include a day’s free bike rental, which is a great way of making you stay an extra day.

Here is a limited but effective list of good beer locations:

Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant, Groentenmarkt 9. Classic waterfront pub with great tap selection. Start here. Outdoor seating.

Trappistenhuis, Brabantdam 164. A slight walk out of the old town but worth it for the superb bottle beer menu. Food also served and a nice space. It is also just south of the local brothels, which are hard to walk by without noticing the Amsterdam-style glass-fronted display.

Trollekelder, Walter De Buckplein 4. Another winding wooden interior and an extensive beer list.

Bruges: How Can a ing Fairytale Town not be Someone’s ing Thing?

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Bruges is one of the largest preserved medieval-era cities in Western Europe, and was part of the Hanseatic League network of trading cities that stretched east to Tallinn. Bruges fell into economic neglect in the later medieval period, in part as it’s North Sea access via the River Zwin was lost in the early 1500s. The Southern Netherlands (which was mostly today’s Belgium) was ruled under the dead hand of the Spanish and then Austrian Habsburg Empire from the 1550s until seized by the French in 1794, and faced neglect and Napoleonic warfare until becoming part of the United Netherlands in 1815 and Belgium’s formation as an independent state in 1830. In contrast, the provinces of Holland to the northeast were able to gain independence in the late 1500s from the Spanish Habsburg Empire and started a period of independent prosperity. The Southern Netherlands also suffered from numerous wars, such as the Thirty Years War (1618-48), that devastated the region. Bruges avoided significant damage in the wars of the 20th century, although, less romantically in WWI, the canals that connect Bruges with the industrial seaport of Zeebrugge were used to refit German U-Boats that went out to wreak havoc on Allied shipping. History’s loss is today’s gain however, in terms of a preserved medieval city.

Bruges is also the setting for the 2006 Irish black comedy, In Bruges, which you should see before you go, if not to practice the varieties of Irish and Thames Valley swearing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp50aAVNc-U The tourist office will provide an In Bruges itinerary where you can follow the heroes as they swear and sightsee their way around the city. Bruges gets A LOT of visitors into a fairly confined area, although if you work around weekends and the mid-morning to 4pm day tripper avalanche, and avoid the summer in general, that will help.

Bruges has a very well established itinerary that you can take as you wish – I did not go up the Belfort Tower (dating from around 1480), or spend much time at all in the busy main square, or get on a canal boat, but things that worked out well include the following.

Early Starts and Late Strolls. Bruges empties out and shows it’s earlier self. It’s not hard to get a quiet view of what is a fairly intact medieval city. Bruges had a population of over 200,000 in the 14th century, while the city center population today is about one tenth of that, so it has a somewhat deserted feel to it once the daytrippers have cleared off.

You can also stroll round the grounds of the Beguin House (Begijnhof), a still operating medieval womens’ community dating from 1245, which sits across the canal from the gathering site of Bruges’ famous swans, just north of the Minnewater, which was a city harbor in medieval times.

Groeninge Museum. As with most Flanders towns, you couldn’t swing a renaissance-era cat without hitting a Flemish painter. The Groeninge has a great collection of medieval religious and renaissance era Flemish art as well as more recent 18th-20th century Belgian art, and is a must for Hieronymous Bosch fans or those looking for Magritte.

Basilica of the Holy Blood. A very ornate chapel that claims to hold a phial of Jesus Christ’s blood, said to be brought back from Crusades in Palestine around 1150, or just obtained from the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. The phial is taken around town in a religious procession every mid-May. Faith is a beautiful thing, but from a reality check standpoint this ranks up there with the remains of St. James being located in Santiago de Compostela. You can walk in any time to see the upper chapel, whose original interior dates from the 15th century, with major renovation in the 19th. The lower chapel is less ornate and dates from the original 12th century construction.

Jerusalem Chapel. Off the beaten track, the 15th century Chapel, a copy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, has an ornate macabre sculpted marble altarpiece and the tomb of it’s founders, Anselm and Margaretha Adornes, in the center. Also used in the movie to highlight themes of death and damnation.

Day Bike Trip. Renting a bike and heading out along the canals or even into Holland is a good way to enjoy some peace while the town fills up. The route Bruges – Damme (7km) – Sluis (Holland 11km) – Knokke-Heist (10km) – Oostkerke (9km) – and home (10km) is a flat but scenic ride along excellent bike trails (with some roadway bike paths) that you can break up with some interesting towns. Sluis is a good-sized town for a break; Knokke-Heist is on the ocean although pretty functional; and Oostkerke is a neat medieval village.

Heading northeast for Damme (your first stop), the bike path takes you along canals that originate from around the 1200s, when Bruges and the surrounding towns were important trading and industrial areas. The canal to Damme gave Bruges sea access in the 1300s, with Damme acting as Bruges’ seaport. Damme was the location of a combined naval and land battle in 1213, where the English sailed into the town and sacked the 300-strong French fleet that was at anchor. The French army was able to return from besieging Ghent to drive the English off, but the seizure of ships and general looting was a disaster for the French.

From Damme, you can cycle over the Dutch border to the commercial center of Sluis, which has plenty of lunch options, a windmill and fortifications. The nearby 14th century church of Sent Anna ter Maiden is very tall.

From Sluis, you could either head back to Ghent or alternatively go north to the seaside town of Knokke-Heist. Knokke-Heist is actually quite drab and modern but has a bracing seafront. After that, head south to the now rather isolated town of Oostkerke, which has a large medieval church (destroyed in WWII and reconstructed) and a scenic medieval manor house out in the middle of the fields. From there you can go south to regain the Damme-Bruges canal road and head back.

Subterranean Beer Bars. Bruges has an excellent selection of beer bars as well as the nationally recognized De Halve Maan brewery, whose blonde (Brugse Zot) and tripel (Straffe Hendrik) beers are worth trying. Pubs to consider include:

Le Trappiste, 33 Kuipersstraat. Widest draft selection, although it’s Belgium so bottles are still a good way to go to try the national selection.

‘t Brugs Beertje, Kemelstraat 5. A bit more local with a large bottle selection, and serves meals as well.

Huisbrouwerij De Halve Maan, Walplein 26. You can tour or just beer. Food served also.

‘t Poatersgat, Vlamingstraat 82. Another subterranean medieval beer joint.

Logistics

I stayed at the Hotel Lucca, Naaldenstraat 30, which had large, comfortable, traditional rooms and was close to the center.

Food-wise, the further away from the main square is as always a good idea. The Sint-Anna area in the northeast of town has a couple of good choices that are a bit more local, including Lion Belge (Langestraat 123) and ‘t Gezelleke (Carmersstraat 15). Belgian cooking is filling and flavorful, and best accompanied by a local beer.

The railway station is located about a 30-minute walk south of the main square, so be ready to drag your rollaboard across cobblestones and through the crowds, or just get a rucksack. While it is an idea to base in say Ghent and just day trip it the 30-minute rail journey into Bruges, since both Ghent and Bruges railway stations are both about 30 minutes south of their respective centers, it does add an hour to what is a short rail trip; frankly it’s better to just stay overnight in both places.

Bike rental. I rented from Bruges Bike Rental, Niklaas Desparsstraat 17, which had a decent range of bikes. The tourist office will provide recommendations. The standard bikes are more the urban upright seated configuration, although you can request road bikes. Always take a trip round the block to make sure the gears work etc as most of the renting is intended for short trips around town.

Teotihuacan: Pyramid Alley

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The abandoned city of Teotihuacan, just outside Mexico City, is one of the largest pre-Columbian (i.e. before the Spanish turned up) city sites in the Americas. Most of what you can see today was built between 100 and 250 CE, at the start of the classic era of Mesoamerican civilization (which more broadly was around 250-900 CE), and the city’s population is believed to have peaked around 450 CE at around 150,000-200,000. The city was in full use until it was burned and sacked around 550 CE, possibly as a result of civil war or invasion by another group. In this time, what is now Mexico and Guatemala was organized around various city-states; the Teotihuacan city-state dominated the Valley of Mexico, in the vicinity of Mexico City.

Southwest View from Temple of the Sun

Teotihuacan is organized along a roughly north-south axis along a central roadway, the Avenue of the Dead, with three principal temples, which from south to north (your usual visit route) are the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Also notable is the Cuidadela, a large sunken square facing the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl located next to the Pyramid of the Moon. Along the way is a range of smaller temples, dwellings, stores and other buildings, as well as a water collection and distribution system that fed off a diverted river. The Avenue of the Dead is engineered at a slight downward slope from north to south to provide water flow. Site orientation is based on cardinal compass points that also related to the sacred calendar and provided guidance as to the timing of religious events. The photo view below is from the (north end) Pyramid of the Moon looking south.

The city originated as a religious center around 100 CE and grew to be the largest in the Americas. An issue with Mesoamerican naming is that the original language and meaning of hieroglyphics is mostly lost and so the name used by later arrivals is used. Amongst many names, Birthplace of the Gods is a main candidate, from the Aztec Nahuatl language, which is often used for Mesoamerican terminology. Another name is Plain of Reeds, derived from hieroglyphic texts, which fits with a geography that once included swamps and lakes. An idea of the regional geography in the Valley of Mexico is provided in this recent painting of Aztec-era Mexico City held at the National Anthropology Museum there:

Source: National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

The Mesoamericans used ceremonial religious centers to anchor their cities and much of the religious symbolism here is believed to relate to their creation myths. The first structure you come to at the south end is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl, which is a highly decorated pyramid, constructed around 200 CE and set in its own ceremonial complex, the Cuidadela. The temple staircases and edges of each level are decorated with feathered serpent heads, with the serpents in the ledges also alternating with those of a snake-like creature. The structure would originally have been painted, with polished obsidian placed into the eyeholes of the snakes and serpents.

Temple of the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl

Beneath each of the ledges there is a side view of a serpent. In 2009, following discovery of a sinkhole in the Cuidadela, archaeologists excavated and entered an underground passageway that runs over 300 feet between the Cuidadela and the temple platform. They unearthed artifacts that included spiral shells, beetle wings in a box, hundreds of metallic spheres and greenstone statues. In the underground complex they also discovered a miniature mountainous landscape, with liquid mercury pools representing lakes and golden powdered pyrite in the roof representing stars, that is believed to represent the underworld.

The Cuidadela complex, a sunken rectangular area which sits in front of this temple, served as a main gathering place for the city population, with a large surface that could be flooded to provide a reflecting pool against the then colorfully painted temple pyramid.

Temple of Quetzalcoatl complex looking north to Pyramid of the Sun

The second main structure, further north along the Avenue of the Dead, is the 71-meter high Pyramid of the Sun, constructed around 200 CE, which stands as the third largest pyramid in the world after the pyramids in Giza, Egypt and Cholula, Mexico.

Pyramid of the Sun

While the structures are now bare stone, archaeologists identified many of them as being covered in plaster and then painted over, likely in dark red and with murals.

There are almost no remaining painted surfaces except for the jaguar mural off the Avenue of the Dead, which survives on a partly enclosed wall. There are also other murals inside the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl.

Jaguar Mural

The stone posts standing out of the Pyramid of the Sun once held a painted plaster surface in place. The pyramid is built over a 4-chambered cave and aligns with the Cerro Gordo mountain to the north and perpendicularly to sunrises and sunsets at significant dates of the year. For example, the pyramid aligns with sunsets 260 days apart, which was the number of days in the Mesoamerican sacred calendar.

Pyramid of the Sun

The entire complex is a massive engineering feat constructed over hundreds of years, considering that the wheel and domesticated pack animals were unavailable to the Mesoamericans; everything had to be carried or dragged by people. There are theories regarding the similarity of the 3-pyramid layout here to those of the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt, which start to take you down the road of ancient civilizations, aliens and UFOs, or at a minimum, trans-oceanic contact between Mesoamerica and Ancient Egypt.

Northeast View from the Temple of the Sun

Mesoamerica roughly extended from modern Mexico through to northern Costa Rica. The city-state group that dominated the Valley of Mexico centered their activity around Teotihuacan, until their collapse around 600CE and replacement by other groups – if this is confusing, a trip to Mexico City’s outstanding anthropological museum is a good way to understand the dynamics. The final pre-Columbian group were the Aztecs, who dominated much of Mesoamerica at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519.

The final structure to see is the Pyramid of the Moon, constructed between 100-450 CE as a ceremonial platform for the Goddess of Teotihuacan, the goddess of water, fertility and the earth.

Pyramid of the Moon

It is also close to the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, which has a restored courtyard and a set of murals from around 200 CE.

Palace of Quetzalpapalotl

Logistics. Teotihuacan is about 45 km northeast of downtown Mexico City and generally hiring a vehicle is the simplest way to go. Haven’t considered Mexico City as a destination yet? Start now and here are some ideas –

General visit tips – https://wp.me/p7Jh3P-vp

Trotsky museum – https://wp.me/p7Jh3P-wT

When you go to Teotihuacan, take a hat, sunblock and water; it’s a good 2-3 hours of walking and pyramid climbing with almost no cover from the sun – and the pyramid steps are large ones.

A complementary destination to Teotihuacan is Mexico City’s stunning National Anthropology Museum https://www.mna.inah.gob.mx. It may be better to go there first to get the context and then go and see the real thing after; although probably not on the same day.

Vilnius, Wilno, Vilna, Vilne

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Lithuania – today the most westerly of the Baltic trio that includes Estonia and Latvia, but in the past the capital of the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which united with Poland in 1569, until it was incorporated into Russia in the late 18th century. Medieval Lithuania was for a time one of the largest states of Central Europe, extending southeast from today’s Lithuania, controlling what are now parts of Poland, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and played a decisive part in defeating Mongol invaders in the 15th Century.

Gedimas Castle Tower, 15th Century.

Independent in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian empire, occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Germany until the Soviets returned and stayed between 1944 and 1991, Lithuania is independent again. Vilnius missed out on independence in 1918 however, as it was claimed by the also newly re-independent Poland. After back and forth between Lithuanian, Polish and Soviet forces it was annexed by Poland in 1922, remaining under Polish control until the Soviets occupied Poland in 1939. The Lithuanian government was able to regain control of the city for a brief time until 1940 in exchange for Soviet military basing in the country.

Apart from some medieval remnants, Vilnius has a mix of Polish renaissance and baroque architecture, a lot of functional 19th century Russian buildings that give a typical Eastern European feel, balanced out by Baltic German buildings and of course postwar Communist brutalist concrete.

There is a cathedral center next to the remnants of the original fortified city, highlighted by the 15th-century hilltop Gediminas Castle Tower. The Kalnu park just east of the tower is good for a stroll overlooking the Neris River.

Grand Duke Gedimas Statue

Like many former Soviet Bloc countries, Lithuania experienced the heavy hand of Soviet totalitarian oppression, and have converted the former KGB building into the Genocide Museum, at Auku 2A (immediately south of the City Courthouse at Gedimino 40). It’s a grim experience, but then so was being stuck behind the Iron Curtain.

Rather like the House of Terror in Budapest and the KGB Building in Riga, personnel record photos of the KGB staff – both Russian and local hires – were located post-independence and are displayed. I would not want to be interrogated by some of the characters who worked here. Lithuania had a partisan resistance movement based in its extensive forests, that ran from 1944 to about 1953 and which was eventually crushed, and so there was armed rebellion for some time. The museum also explains the role of Lithuanians in supporting the Nazi occupation and genocide between 1940 and 1944.

Of course, any fascist police state needs its finance department. You can just imagine the budget discussions and complaints from the Interrogation Division about how the bean counters are always getting in the way.

And because, whether it is GE, McKinsey or the KGB, people always come first, so your supportive HR team is here to help. These guys look like the more cooperative type.

What surprised me was that inmates at the much feared Vorkuta prison camp – part of the Gulag Archipelago described by Solzhenitsyn where many Lithuanians were deported to – got to send Christmas cards back home. The Northern Lights and the reindeer are a nice touch and the camps by 1955 might have been relatively liberal compared to the 1930s, but still quite rough and likely to wreck your health assuming you were ever able to leave. Lithuania experienced two major waves of deportations to the Soviet Union, in 1940 and then post-World War Two.

If this isn’t enough to absorb, you are reminded that Vilnius was one of the largest Eastern European Jewish communities (around 55,000) before WW2, with Lithuania having a significant Jewish population. Reminders of the Vilnius ghetto are placed at some of it’s entrances.

The Holocaust Exposition on Pamėnkalnio 12 is worth visiting, which records much of the Jewish community’s pre-war life as well as documentation of the genocide carried out once the area was occupied in 1941.

After that, a walk in the snow is a good idea. Some other places worth a look include:

Lithuanian Art Museum, Didžioji 4 – mainly regional art and a neat 19th century photographic exhibition.

National Museum, Arsenalo 1.

Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Katedros 4.

Logistics. I stayed at the Shakespeare B&B on Bernadinu Street, close to the city center which was a comfortable and low-key place. The main culinary range is traditional Lithuanian through to more modern Baltic/Scandinavian-style places, along with traditional Eastern bloc favorites such as Georgian. A few recommendations are:

Etno Dvaras, Pilies 16 – a local chain that hits all the high points for Lithuanian cooking. Not elaborate but a good menu and reasonable prices.

Busi Trecias, Totoriu 18 – traditional pub restaurant that brews its own beer.

Lokys, Stikliu 10 – higher end new Lithuanian.

Aline Leiciai, Stikliu 4, – another casual local place.

A few places that are good for trying Lithuanian microbrews:

Alaus Biblioteka, Traku 4 – good range of taps and bottles and a lighter space. Staff are very helpful on the local recommendations. As ever in the Baltics, there is interesting craft beer with neat labels.

Bambalyne, Stikliu 7 – basement retreat with a good bottle selection.

The airport is a 10-minute cab or uber ride; and the railway station is about a 15-minute walk, located on the south side of the old town. You can buy your tickets on the train, so don’t need to mess around at ticket offices; just get on board.

Aero Trekka

The World Has Many Corners, Let's Go See Them

Georgia: Yup, That Georgia

Trogir: Split Petite

Ypres: The Salient

Dublin/ Dubh Linn

Paris through the Side Door

Logistics

Ostend: On the Beach

Ghent: Go and Boil your Bottoms, Sons of a Silly Person

Bruges: How Can a ing Fairytale Town not be Someone’s ing Thing?

Logistics

Teotihuacan: Pyramid Alley

Vilnius, Wilno, Vilna, Vilne