Tag Archives: Travel

Three Days of Travel along the Coast of Northern Spain

May 16, 2015 jd

Text by Judy J. Pinegar, Pictures by John J. O’Dell

After leaving Bilbao we spent three days getting to A Coruna. Our first stop was Cuervas de Monte Castillo, a site with several caves with prehistoric wall paintings by humans since 150,000 years ago. We had a 45 minute guided tour of the cave which has 275 paintings and engravings of bison, deer, goats mammoths, hand prints, and other mysterious symbols dating from 26,000 to 11,000 BC. Unfortunately they wouldn’t allow pictures so you just have to take our word for it… I did get a picture of John standing outside the entrance, by a big rock, some flowers which appeared to be growing out of pure rock, and the scenery of the area!

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When we stopped at the Villa Rosario hotel in Ribadesella, a beautiful, beachfront hotel, a classic century old mansion built by a returned emigrant from Latin America or the Caribbean (with money), I thought I must have really gone off my budget of 70 euros a night. But it turned out we were in the newer addition (black glass and grey rock across the street, for only 55 euros)… still very nice, almost luxurious inside, really…. and we had breakfast for only 9 euros each in the all glass beachside restaurant next to the older hotel. The town was nice with lots of boats and a fantastic beach… too cold of course this is the Atlantic. They had our same London plane tree, but cut back like a fruitless mulberry (pollarded I think it is called), with the branched grown together within and between trees. Very interesting.

The we were on the way to Ribadeo, stopping first at Cudillero, with streets winding down an impossible steep cliff side to end at a picture perfect harbor, this tiny fishing town now gets many visitors in the summer, luckily we are before tourist season to start in June. However the food here was still about three times the average for a meal an any of the towns we have been visiting so we moved on.

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Then Ribadeo with plenty of time to explore the small town. We visited Santa Clara Convent, built in the Middle ages and still operational now we heard singing from a half open door and the sign said earlier in the day they sell almond cakes to make money. Then the Moreno’s Tower built between 1914 and 1915 following the design of an Argentinean architect, which is now the best known building in Ribadeo. Then down to the port past a tiny staircase path to houses above, and a tiny shop filled to the brim with everything you can imagine! After walking the town for several hours, we had to go back to the hotel and wait because restaurants don’t even open until 8PM. Still at 8:30 we were the only ones there until 9PM. This is true all over Spain on this trip. The waiters tell us most people come to dinner between 10 and 11 PM. People working on roads, parks and in stores start at 9 or 10 until 2 PM then a siesta until 4PM then continue working until 7PM. So dinner is Later!

Next the city of A Coruna and visiting John’s mom’s birth town of Buno!

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Travel

Vernazza – the History, the Disaster and the Recovery Part 3

September 1, 2013 jd

vernazza-painting-doors

The Recovery

Vernazza’s First Farmacia and Restaurant and Re-Open: On January 21, 2012 Vernazza’s Farmacia (Pharmacy) reopened. By Italian law, a pharmacy is allowed no more than 90 days closure before the proprietor loses his/her license. Therefore, the work to restore the pharmacy was rushed to completion. The walls were empty and there was only a table, chair and the pharmacist, but the pharmacy was open for business!

vernazza-farmacia

June 2012: Bars, restaurants and places to stay are open and doing business in Vernazza. Of the twenty-two restaurants, bars, pizzerias and gelaterias, only two are uncertain, or are not opening in 2012. Of the twenty-three stores and banks only four are not open, and of the thirty-three places to stay only three are not open. Children play on the beaches again and people are shopping, eating and enjoying vacations in the town. Of course many things are still being repaired, but the pace is furious.

A blogger on the Travel Advisor Trail Updates on the Save Vernazza website said that she and her husband “hiked the 5 cities on June 25th and 26th. We did all 5 cities in one day. The hikes were beautiful. The only trail closed was between Manarola and Corniglia.”

July 2012: Vernazza has accepted architect Richard Rogers’ generous donation to design and oversee the Project for the Reconstruction of Vernazza. Richard is with

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) which is an international architectural practice based in London. Over three decades, RSHP has attracted critical acclaim and awards with built projects across Europe, North America and Asia.

On his most recent visit to Vernazza, Rogers brought his friend Renzo Piano, an Italian architect born in Genoa and educated in Milan who leads a firm called Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Both architects have won the Pritzker Prize (the Nobel of Architecture) and are considered two of the world’s leading architects. Together they designed the Pompido Centre in Paris.

Rogers and Piano believe that Vernazza’s reconstruction should be elegant in its simplicity in order to preserve Vernazza’s unique character as an authentic Italian small town.

January 2012: The removal of a million square feet of mud and debris from the main part of Vernazza revealed extensive interior damage to dozens of buildings. Plumbing, electrical wiring, phone lines, floors, walls, windows, doors, fixtures — everything will need to be replaced. Workers and machines excavated the canal that once ran through the upper town, and rebuilt the main sewer line. Next, a network of landslide barriers was built in the hills surrounding the town. Vernazza was extremely vulnerable to more flooding until this job was completed.

The doorways of small businesses along main street, Via Roma, have been boarded up since the flooding and mud slides. But on the morning of January 6, 2012, over 50 artists showed up to breathe inspiration and life back into the desolate ghost town. Organized by painter Antonio Barrani, their mission was called “Un Arcobaleno di Solidarietà per Vernazza” — A Rainbow of Solidarity for Vernazza. Each painter took a lifeless, boarded-up doorway along Via Roma and transformed it into a work of art.

More than just decorating the Via Roma, this avenue of art was designed to inspire all who love Vernazza to play a role in her recovery.

Then on January 23, 2012 the restaurant Belforte re-opened. This restaurant was above water level, high along Vernazza’s waterfront, so there was no structural damage, although all services were lost. The military cooks that had provided meals for crews and volunteers were required to leave Vernazza on January 7, 2012. Now, workers again had a place to go for a hot meal and break from the work.

One Saturday in January, a train pulled up and some tourists got off, as they came down the stairs, their expressions told that they had no idea what had happened in Vernazza on October 25, 2011. Residents and workers put together on-the-spot, the first Save Vernazza Information Center.

March 2012: On March 9, 2012 Mayor Vincenzo Resasco, detailed Vernazza’s strategic plan for reconstruction, and updated the progress made thus far and the plans for Vernazza to reopen for the tourist season.

Sewage: completed
Canal: includes roadwork as well as enlargement of the canal itself (enabling the canal to withstand future storms such as that of October 25, estimated to occur once every 200 years)
Landslides: project focuses on securing the slides that directly impact the canal and reconstruction of the canal banks and bed in such a way as to decrease the velocity of the water.
Water: continuing on schedule, approximately 90% of all homes with running water
Aqueduct: continuing on schedule
Electricity: continuing on schedule
Via Roma: This week, temporary asphalting of Vernazza’s main street
Gas: By the end of June 2012, a temporary methane gas containment system will be in place to provide methane gas to Vernazza.

Residents and children are now playing in the square and some older residents are coming home to live. Tourists are walking the streets, restaurants are opening and on March 9 the weekly street market returned. Vernazza is moving forward…and forward with a new focus.

April 25, 2012: Travel guru and Cinque Terre promoter Rick Steves visited Vernazza and was shown the remarkable progress made in the past 6 months and the work still yet to do. All people who have read his Italian travel books know how much he loves the Cinque Tierra and Vernazza in particular. On seeing the Vernazza, he shed tears for her damage, and voiced hope for her recovery. His website has been providing continued support and coverage of Vernazza’s recovery efforts. Rick Steves has plans to return soon with his crew to film a new Cinque Terre travel special. To read about Rick’s day in Vernazza see his website

Let us all hope that Vernazza will be brought back to full life and even greater beauty very soon.

Two important ways you can help:

1. Visit the Cinque Terre in 2013, or as soon as you can. This corner of Italy — especially Vernazza — needs travelers to keep their economy afloat. A family-run hotel or restaurant will not survive waiting a year or two for business to return. If you can’t make it in 2013, think of what you’d normally spend during a day in Vernazza and donate that amount to one of the groups listed below!

2. Donate to trusted local relief groups.

Save Vernazza is a very active and engaged Italian non-profit organized by three American women who have lived in Vernazza for years: http://savevernazza.com/. There are some fascinating before and after shots and many other updates on the home page of the website.

Una pietra per Vernazza is a non-profit fund set up by the municipality of Vernazza:

3. Purchase from Save Vernazza Fundraising Partners who donate all or part of the proceeds of artwork, photos and music to the recovery effort.

4. Tell Others Save Vernazza has free posters you can download, print, post and distribute to your local community center, coffee shop, library, or Italian restaurant. http://savevernazza.com/donationflyers/

Authors Note: The Cinque Tierra town of Monterosso was also damaged in the flooding of October 25, 2011, but not as severely as Vernazza.

Article by Judy J. Pinegar – Published in Corriere della Valle

Vernazza – the History, the Disaster and the Recovery Part 1

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Travel

Monterosso and Pisa, Italy

May 24, 2010 jd 2 Comments

Buranco Agriturismo where we stayed in Monterosso al Mare

Getting ready to leave Monterosso and Buranco Agriturismo on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, we were greatly aided when the owner’s wife, Loredana offered to drive us to La Spezia, (where we were going to end up after an expensive taxi ride or an impossible walk with our packs and a train ride through the first 5 Cinque Terra towns!

Quickly (quite quickly, in fact very FAST) she drove us over some hills, down the other side, through some neat inland towns, fantastic views, quick switchbacks, passing cars about every five minutes on a narrow road where you could not see and were completely in the other lane, I think you get the idea?? She gave us a running flow of information, most of which we understood, and if we didn’t we said “Si” anyway, and we watched her have several incidents with other drivers where she made the famous Italian gesture over her shoulder with the right hand (hers was very refined – her husband is a member of Parliament – and not accompanied by any words… if you get my drift.)

Again, quite quickly, we were on the train station, and then on the train to Pisa. The Hotel Milano was quite nice and VERRY close to the train station. We unloaded and began our walk of the town. We got a little lost (although Rick Steves recommends doing that… and had a great meal at a sort of Turkish/Greek place with fantastic filled pita bread meal). I think because of this misdirection we also got to see the remains of a Roman bath, not even on the map for Pisa (See pictures)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X1LUE4a5UE

Then we walked toward the “Field of Miracles” from the Leaning Tower end of the field. Amazing… even after seeing hundreds of pictures in my life, I was still floored by seeing it in person, how huge it is, you have to walk far way away to get a decent picture.

The Duomo (Cathedral) and the Baptistery were equally fantastic, and we went to a museum to see the original drawings of the murals that cover the inside of the Camposanto Cemetery. The dirt inside the Cemetery is “holy dirt”, brought back by Crusading Pisasanos from the Holy Land. The “Holy Land” dirt is supposed to reduce a body into a skeleton within a day.

Really fantastic.

After all that we spent 20 minutes finding a Hostel for David, as our hotel would not take a third person.

The next morning we rented a car and were off to the Hill Towns of Tuscany…

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Travel

Monterosso al Mare, Corniglia and Vernazza, Italy

May 22, 2010 jd 1 Comment

Finally, an internet connection to blog with!

May 16, 2010

Monterosso al Mare, Italy… arriving by train, we knew that the Agrotouristico Baranca was uphill about 10 minutes away, so we called to have our luggage carried uphill for us to our place that we were staying at for two nights. The train arrives in what they call the “new” town, divided from the “old town” by basically a small mountain. After a snack, we walked around the rocky cliff that fronts the sea. One of the more expensive restaurants Ristorante Tortuga (Turtle Restaurant) is built right into the cliff wall (under the walkway). Walking further we enter the old town, and out to the breakwater. From there we can see the two bomb hardened bunkers built by the Germans in the occupation of the town. The Allies tried to bomb the train tracks, but only succeeded in taking out the Town Hall (it has been rebuilt on the same site.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIe7V-_do3A

After wandering a bit we came to the main church in town, Church of Saint John the Baptist. It is built of black and white Italian marble in a Romanesque style, and next to it the Oratory of the Dead (also black and white) this was built by a brotherhood of good works, like a Rotary Club called “confraternities”. The town had two, the black and the white. This building was the oratory of the Black group, and their good work consisted of arranging funerals, taking care of widows, orphans and the shipwrecked. Here is their symbol, a skull, crossbones and an hourglass…death awaits us all… (nice huh?)

We followed the suggested walk so we could explore the town and see the sights according to Rick Steves. We went back to the waterfront to start our walk to the Church of the Capuchin Friars (a lot of steps in the “Switchbacks of the Friars”, but great views at the top. This church was also black and white, but a closer look showed no marble, just cheap 18^th century stucco!! But the inside was nice and there were some nice paintings attributed to Antony Van Dyck.

Then we walked further upward, to a cemetery, built around and within an old castle. Very nice views. But lots of dead people. Following the Rick Steves map, we continued uphill, for some distance!!! Hard walking (a real hill!!) finally a sign for Buranco Agrotourismo. Down, down, down a hill. Finally, a big party (the owner is a member of Parliament and) had a big party going on. But we had wine tasting and leftover snacks, from the dinner verrry good!! Our place was very cute, sleeps three, basically a small house, over the wine room itself. Only after getting here, a strenuous walk of about an hour, did we get told that there was a 2 minute shortcut to the town!! Oh well, we got to see the sights, I guess.

The next day we visited first, the town Corniglia, high on a hill, we took the bus up (I was so glad), then walked down through the town, nice views, nice food. David hurt himself again (with his sore leg from the Heidelberg bike accident) trying to walk down the 400 stairs.

Then we took the train to Vernazza, it had a nice harbor, we walked to the top of the town, then back again, watching the stream, which in this town, has not been covered by a road. Nice town, but we were on the way back to Monterosso al Mare. A nice dinner and a night at the farm. See the video of our experiences.

Next we move to the Hill Towns of Tuscany, see you tomorrow

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Travel

Florence, Italy

May 10, 2010 jd

Early in the morning, May 4, 2010 the alarm rings and our day starts, a drive to Sacramento where it takes a map and a phone call to find the address of the person storing the car and driving us to the airport. Not a good start for a 6 week trip to Europe.

But everything is fine from there on, United Airlines is on time and arrives early at Dulles International Airport. The flight from Sacramento to Dulles Airport normally takes four hours and eleven minutes. We had a tail wind so we arrived a little early. A decent lunch and we await the next leg, Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany. So far it has been painless, as I read the paper and do Sudako, Judy has finished one book on the new Kindle. The next trip will be the grueling one, but an overnight trip, so we shall see.

The wait for our next flight is four hours. But somehow we end up at the wrong gate and miss the connection. Another one leaves an hour later and we arrive in Frankfort just an hour after our planned flight…however, the problem is our flight to Florence has left, and all flights are full until the next day.

So it is a night at a German Hotel by the airport, and a trip to downtown Frankfurt on the subway for the day of May 5, 2010. We find this fantastic shopping center called “My Zie” which has a glass tube going through it from the front to the top of the building. Very modern (and expensive inside) At the Food Mall there was every kind of food (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Italian) except German. So we went on the street for some German food. And the good news was we were able to change both out reservations in Florence and the Walking Tour of Florence and famous art galleries to the following days without added costs.

Arriving in Florence, it is raining. Luckily I had brought an umbrella, and Judy had a hood on her coat, and our room at Katti House were only a few blocks away. After lunch, we explored the town, (all within a 20 minute walk from our rooms. I recognized all the 14^th century buildings and main historical sightseeing spots from my three months of playing “Assassin’s Creed II, a Play Station 3 video game!! Assassin’s Creed II is set in the 13^th century with a very realistic recreation of the cities of Florence, Rome, Tuscany and some other minor towns. The historical buildings are in the game with a history of the time they were built and by whom.

We visited both the Galileo Science History Museum, and the Da Vinci Museum, to find tons of fascinating inventions and scientific findings, that were then somewhat lost through the dark ages to be rediscovered later.

On Friday we had three (3!) different Walking/Art Tours of Florence. The first walked us through the history of the city from Roman times, with a small walled city and tiny streets, through the Renaissance, with a second set of walls, further out, and then a third set making the town very large, to now where of course the city expands past all those walls, most of which were ripped down and re-used to build other buildings, churches, etc. We went inside the Beautiful Duomo, once the largest Church in Christendom, made entirely of white, green, and pink marble from Tuscany. Fantastic! You could see one side, recently cleaned and the other being restored with much soot and dirt on its outer walls. Luckily the current mayor of Florence has 4 weeks ago ordered all traffic diverted from the area, so hopefully the dirt build up won’t happen so fast. Much better for us pedestrians too!

Via Pietro Metastasio, Over looking the City of Florence

See Google Map below for location

The Uffizi courtyard was filled with famous originals (and some copies) from famous Renaissance sculptors. The Orsanmichele Church, in the 9^th century was a market place, later turned into a church (with grain stored in the top two floors) because miracle started happening in front of a picture of the Madonna in the market! And Point Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence, filled with gold sellers, and the crossing place for the “Prince’s passageway” the Vasari Corridor, allowing the ruling Medici family to go from the Pitti Palace ( their home) to the Uffizi (the center of government) without having to go out in public (including the smells), or be subjected to the dangers of open courtyards (the ever ready thief or assassin). We then toured the Uffizi itself ,packed full or famous artist’s works, and then to the Accademia, to view Michelangelo’s David, a truly amazing sculpture carved out of marble, with no models, working from the top – down to the feet.

By the way, I have a new Samsung camera which has GPS built in. That way, I get a map and location of where the pictures were taken. Kind of neat, since I’ve taken many pictures and wondered later where they were taken.

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Travel

On the California Delta

May 31, 2009 jd

Why a trip to the California Delta? Well last summer Judy and I were at “the Taste of the Delta”, food, wine and vendors all together in a one day festival. At the conclusion of the event there was a raffle, and we actually won! It was a two night stay at the Delta’s Dockside Boatel, along with two massage treatments. So we finally got around to scheduling the trip last week. After a day exploring the area on the way from Sacramento down Hwy 160 from Sacramento, and only getting lost only a time or two, following the “Delta Loop” near the intersection of Hwy 160 and Hwy 12, we arrived at our destination.

Called the “Easy Breezy” she is a 40’ Bluewater yacht, which remains dockside as a “boatel”. If you had a boat you could come in to the “boatel” from Stockton, Oakland or Sacramento, as there is plenty of tie-down space (up to 22 feet) on the same dock. It is located on the calm Georgiana Slough of the Mokelumne River. But, since we were driving, we came on board from the land. It is a very open floor plan, sleeping at least 6 or 7, and the two of us had lots of space. There is a full galley, the head and private stateroom below, a spacious cockpit, and fly bridge sundeck above. A great breakfast was included, both days, and the rest of the time we just sat and watched the world go by (a few boats), and lots of birds, fish and insects. Water, water everywhere, all very calming and relaxing. If you are interested in trying the “Easy Breezy” yourself, call Sue at (510) 919-2197.

Looking at the Delta from the sun deck of the "Easy Breezy"

Oh and we highly recommend the massage treatment too – just a few miles away in Isleton, with Pam Roum Certified Massage Therapist, (cell 209-366-4474) was wonderful. An interesting note is that Pam is also certified to do equine massage, if your horse is also in need of some relaxation! Isleton is a cute town too and we ate at Rogelio’s the Chinese – Mexican – American – Seafood – Italian restaurant in town! If you can’t find something on that menu to please everyone in your family it will be truly remarkable, with the complexity of the menu available.

The California Delta is a unique spot, in many ways not changed from the pioneer days when gold hunters and adventurers trekked to the ports of Sacramento and Stockton via river steamers. Today instead of paddle wheelers and steamers there are thousands of pleasure boats. There is a certain remoteness to the Delta, not easy to find elsewhere. There are 55 major Islands, and 1,000 miles of navigable waterways. I am sure we would have gotten a better feel for the Delta if we had been able to rent or had a boat, but it was a great mid-week getaway all the same!

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Travel

A Journey to Locke, California

May 30, 2009 jd 1 Comment

Main Street of Locke. Can you see the ghosts of the Chinese Immigrants walking on the sidewalks?

We took a trip to the Delta and on the way, we passed the little town of Locke, a town rich in the heritage of the early 20th century Chinese settlers who moved there to work on the farms. In 1913, the Chinatown of nearby Walnut Grove was destroyed and burned after an accidental fire, thus causing the migration of Chinese into the neighboring areas.

The land was leased from George Locke, as California law at the time forbade the selling of farmland to Asian immigrants. Many Chinese immigrants were facing massive discrimination in the major cities. It is a town built completely “by the Chinese for the Chinese” and can be considered a distinct rural Chinatown enclave. A Hong Kong developer bought the town in 1977 from the Locke heirs, and sold it in 2002 to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. In 2004, the agency finally allowed the sale of land to those who had been living on the land for many years.

Although more places are closed now, probably due to the recession, a few places were open, and the town still boasts about 80 residents. The town hasn’t changed much since the earlier settlers and there are several interesting museums taken care of by local volunteers. There is a Chinese language school museum, the Locke Boarding House Museum and a museum where the Chinese used to gamble, complete with the old gambling tables, the old safe and other artifacts. It’s said that they kept as much as $6,000 in the safe and it was never robbed. That amount, in a period when men worked for one dollar a day is saying a lot. And it is saying a lot for the security, which included letting the dealers live upstairs of the casino.

There is still is a restaurant, “Al’s Place” on the sign, the only non-Chinese business in town, however it has been known as Al the Wops since 1941. Al died in 1961, but his place remains as a bar and restaurant which is famous for its steak dinners.

Then there is the famous toilet garden put together by Constance King, who likes to be called Connie. Connie took decommissioned toilets from different old building in Locke and has used them as planters, growing flowers in them. Connie is known as the honorary “Mayor” of Locke and at a young 85, is still going strong.

More on Locke can be found on the website Wikipedia of Locke.

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History

The Historic Holbrooke Hotel, Grass Valley, CA

March 20, 2009 jd

Photo courtesy of the Grass Valley Downtown Association

A gem in the beautiful City of Grass Valley is the Holbrooke Hotel. Perhaps better said, the Holbrooke Hotel is a nugget of gold, since Grass Valley is a City born of the gold rush of the 1800’s.

The history of the building of the Holbrooke Hotel started with Stephen and Clara Smith being among the first to invest in the then boom town of Grass Valley. They built the Adams Express Office and the Golden Gate Saloon which sadly, were destroyed by fire in 1855 along with most of Grass Valley. The Smiths rebuilt the popular saloon as a one story fieldstone building with a brick façade, making it safer from the threat of another fire. The Golden Gate Saloon, an integral part of the Holbrooke Hotel, is the oldest, continuously operated saloon west of the Mississippi River.

In 1862 a relative, Charles Smith, built the current structure and named it the Exchange Hotel. It was noted for its convenience to the local Gold Exchange. When the Gold Exchange was closed, 18 ounces of pure gold was found. In 1879 the hotel was purchased by Ellen and Daniel Holbrooke who gave the hotel its present name.

Over the years, the Hotel has hosted many famous guests that included Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, James Garfield and prize fighters, “Gentleman Jim” Corbett and Bob Fitzismmons. Famous authors Mark Twain and Bret Harte were also guests of the Holbrooke Hotel. The hotel was also frequented by entertainers Lola Montez, Lotta Crabtre and Emma Nevada. Some say that the infamous highwayman, Black Bart was also a guest of the hotel.

In 1974 the Holbrooke Hotel was declared a California State Landmark and proudly displays a plaque at the entrance to hotel commemorating that declaration.

The hotel is now under new management and will continue to provide top notch service. They have a splendid dining room; the Golden Gate Saloon is there much like it was in the 1800’s. You have a choice of staying in Victorian appointed rooms or suites. If you would like to relive a little of the past, with fine food and service, I recommend the Holbrooke Hotel to you.
For reservations, go to this link Holbrooke Hotel

Travel

Buenos Aires, March, Friday the Thirteen

March 16, 2009 jd

The smaller building on the right is the Metropolitan Cathedral accross the street from The Plaza de Mayo

I decided to go to the Museo de la Polica Federal on Friday the 13^th . My trustee handbook of Buenos Aires (three years old) said that the museum was open Tuesday through Friday. Therefore, of course, it was closed. Do not carry a three year old guide book with you, spend the money and buy an up to date tour book when you travel. I already found a couple of night clubs that were permanently closed that were mentioned in the book as a good place to go.Anyhow, the museum focuses on uniforms, badges and weapons over the ages. According to the guide book, it also has a truly gruesome room dedicated to forensic medicine, which includes dismembered bodies and other unpleasant sights. Not mentioned in the museum is the sadistic role the Federal Police had in the Dirty Wars of the 1970’s. Maybe it’s just as well that the museum was closed. The museum is located at San Martin 353 if you are in Buenos Aires and care to visit it.San Martin Street is near the Plaza de Mayo.

The Plaza is the exact location that the Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo marched for many years, during and after the dirty wars of the 1970’s. The mothers were women who had had their children kidnapped by the military to be tortured, murdered and never heard from again. The women marched to bring public awareness of what atrocities the military government was committing during the 1970’s Dirty War. This was a period when the military overthrew the government and took control of Argentina. They were responsible for up to 30,000 people disappearing. The mothers’ bravery finally put enough pressure on the military government to restore the country back to an elected civilian government.So leaving the closed Mueso de lan Polica, I walked over to the nearby Plaza de Mayo. Across one of the streets of the Plaza de Mayo is the Metropolitan Cathedral. The present building’s construction started in 1752 and built under the direction of Antonio Masella. The design is that of a Latin cross basilica. It was finished in 1822 (And you say your contractor is slow?) In 1827 a portico was built in a French neoclassical style. This is a wonderful building which is really a piece of art, I highly recommend a visit to the Cathedral if you are in Buenos Aires.

Inside the Cathedral. Notice the huge columns.

Leaving the Cathedral I walked over to the nearby National Historical Museum. The location that houses this museum was originally built in a location chosen by Juan de Garay when founding the city in 1580. It was remodeled in 1621, however in 1632 it was abandoned due to the threat of collapse.In 1731 the building was totally reconstructed and remains now almost as it was originally designed. The museum is a curious mixture of different things, as are many of the Buenos Aires museums are that I’ve gone to. There is an exhibit of lighting throughout the ages, such as candles, candle molds all the way to the present day florescent energy saver lights. Then there are portraits of famous Argentineans, pictures of jail scenes, a reconstruction of an old jail cell (The original structure had a small jail) and stocks. What I mean by stocks are those wooden blocks of wood with hinges and holes in them so you could stick a person’s head or legs through them as punishment. (I’m sure some of the people who had their money stolen by Bernard Madoff would like to see stocks make a comeback)

Real Estate, Travel

Trip to a Museum & Bits & Pieces in Buenos Aires

March 7, 2009 jd

Friday I went to the Museo Nacional De Arte Decorativo or National Museum of Decorative Art. First an update of what’s happening here. The peso was propped up Thursday by the Central Bank and state run banks as they heavily intervened in the market to stop the peso from further weakening. The US gained two cents on the peso Friday, its highest value since 2002. When the banks offered $100 million dollars of its reserves, the peso settled at 3.622 pesos to one dollar. It’s the pesos lowest level since November of last year.

If you think that your credit card interest rate is high, how about the interest rate for commercial construction in Argentina? Argentine President Christina Ferandez complained about “the usurious interest rates” banks are charging private companies for infrastructure works. “Local banks have offered rates of up to 40 or 41 percent” she blasted. Of course Argentina is presently having a 20 percent inflation rate and real estate in Argentina is bought for cash, no low down payment and 30 year mortgage.

Back to the museum, the original structure was built by Mr. Matias Erazyriz and his wife Mrs. Josefina De Alvear. They resided in this huge palace with their two children. The palace was the hub of many major social events until Mrs. Alvear passed away in 1935. The remaining family sold the palace along with the art collection to the Argentine Government shortly thereafter.

The museum is huge, with four floors and a basement that was used for servants, boilers and garage. The museum holds over 4,000 exhibits, some dating back to the 15^th century. It is well worth going to this museum if you happen to be in Buenos Aires. Just the workmanship of the building itself is worth the trip. The museum is located at Av. Del Libertador 1902 in Buenos Aires. Their website is Nacional De Arte Decorativo

So I called the bank again, after paying to rent a computer to get all the information the previous agent wanted. I gave a new agent my card number, social security number and said, now do you want my mother’s name, my address and she cut me off and said “Oh, no you’ve given me enough information.” (Grrr!) She got off the phone for a few minutes, came back and said they were upgrading my card, which was the problem, they were taking care of the problem now and I should be able to use my card in a few hours. So today, I was able to use my card, its fun dealing with a bank, NOT!

Professional Dog Walkers, There are many of Them in Buenos Aires

Prior to traveling abroad, I advised my bank that I was traveling to Buenos Aires. What a surprise when I went to draw out some money and my card was rejected! Calling the international toll free number listed on the back of my card, (which does not work here in Buenos Aires), I was asked for my card number, my social security number, my address, my mother’s name, and then what was the last deposit or what was the last expenditure or my account number. After 10 minutes, having none of that information, I gave up, went on line and got all the information that the agent for the bank requested.

Let us all hope that Vernazza will be brought back to full life and even greater beauty very soon.

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