History – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Alcatraz

During our stay in San Francisco we decided to visit Alcatraz. The audio guide was very informative. The prison on Alcatraz island was initially a military prison – those imprisoned included WW1 conscientious objectors and soldiers discovered to be gay. From 1934 to 1936 it was used as a state prison. Prisoners from other prisons were sent to Alcatraz if they had been behaving badly. There were several escape attempts but only one was successful and it is not known whether the three men who escaped together actually survived the attempt. They disappeared without trace and may well have drowned in San Francisco bay. (click on the images to enlarge).

Nature had taken over in some of the areas outside the prison and whilst waiting for the ferry we were observed by this bird.

For me, by far the most interesting aspect of Alcatraz was learning about the Indian occupation of 1969. When you arrive on the island you can see graffiti on the walls and the water tank, declaring the island to be Indian land. There is a room on the island devoted to this occupation with information around the walls and a video to watch (see below).

Here is the video (in four sections) of the Indian occupation of Alcatraz. It is well worth watching.

Carmel

While we were staying at Monterey we took the bus to Carmel, a very pretty town a little further along the coast. There are flowers everywhere, in all the public spaces and in the many perfectly tended gardens. There are also lots of “fairytale” houses which look a bit like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel. They were built in the 1920’s by a man called Hugh Comstock.

We were told that Carmel-by-the-Sea, to give it is full title, is rated the Number 1 dog friendly town in America and we certainly saw a lot of dogs, clearly all pedigrees and all immaculately groomed.

As well as strolling round the town we took a walk along the beach and enjoyed the beautiful soft white sand.

Carmel Mission

A friend who grew up in San Francisco told us we should try and visit a mission while in California, so we made our way to the Carmel Mission Basilica which was founded in1771by Father Junipero Serra, who is buried there. Spain built a chain of 21 missions across the length of California each approximately a day’s horseback journey apart. The Carmel mission had a very pretty garden and two museums, one with artefacts which had belonged to a prominent Monterey family, the Munras family, the other with artefacts, furniture, documents etc from the mission itself. Extracts from Fr. Serra’s diary were on display, talking about how helpful the indigenous people who had converted to Christianity had been, but themuseum did not seem to have any critique about the impact of colonisation on native Americans.

Santa Barbara

In Los Angeles we picked up the RV (motorhome) and arrived at our first stop, Santa Barbara, in early evening. The next day we walked along the beach, passing lots of sailing boats moored there until we reached the town centre. We then walked up the very pretty main street of Santa Barbara, State Street. It’s a pedestrian street with lots of palm trees, restaurants and interesting little shops. We had delicious empanadas in a Mexican restaurant and then visited the famous court house, which is still in use as a court house but is open to visitors. The building is in Spanish Colonial style and was completed in 1929 after the previous courthouse was completely destroyed in the 1925 earthquake. Like many of the buildings in Santa Barbara it has red tiled roofs, white stucco walls and various balconies. Inside it is gorgeous, with terracotta floor tiles, ceramic tiled walls and lots of interesting paintings showing historical scenes. It also has the amazing Mural Room featuring scenes from Santa Barbara’s history. It is such a beautiful building that it is frequently used for weddings – including that of US Vice President Kamala Harris -and a wedding was taking place in the garden on the day we were there.

Tenement Museum

Rogarshevsky’s apartment

We found our visit to the tenement museum at 97 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side fascinating. It was home to an estimated 7,000 peoplefrom over 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. The five-story tenement was built with 22 apartments, each consisting of just three rooms, and housing what was often a large family. We had a very good guide who showed us two different apartments, furnished as they would have been at the time. She told us about the lives of the two families:

A Russian Jewish family called the Rogarshevskys who lived in the building in the 1910s and an Italian family, the Baldizzis who lived there in the 1930s . The building was empty from the 1940s but in 1988 it was turned into a museum. The founders of museum advertised in the local press to find people who had lived in the building and managed to track down the daughter of the Baldizzi family and record her memories. We listened to some of the recording which was wonderful to hear.

Afterwards we wandered round the Lower East side and Harriet showed us the site of her father’s store there. She also showed us the famous Jewish knish shop, Yonah Shimmels and Valerie had her first knish.

Watten/Eperlecques

For our last couple of nights we stayed at a very good French camper stop in the village of Watten (N50.83139, E2.20879). We chose it because it’s only a 40 minute drive to Calais.

We discovered that the neighbouring village, Eperlecques, played a significant role in World War II because the Nazis chose it as the site for the “Blockhaus” (bunker) which was originally intended to be a launching facility for the V2 ballistic missile and a factory for the production of liquid oxygen. It was constructed using thousands of prisoners of war and forcibly conscripted workers.

It was never used because the Allies found out about it and subjected it to heavy bombing including ‘Tall Boy’ bombs which drilled down 30 metres into the ground and created a mini-earthquake. It has been turned into an open air ‘history park’ which provides a lot of information not only about what was going on there, but about World War II.

We walked there not knowing quite what to expect and were astonished to find in the middle of a beautiful forest this enormous, 33 metre high block of concrete and a replica of the 14 metre long V2 rocket. The plan was for 36 of these to be launched each day for three days and the target was England.

what the V2 bomb would have looked like coming to the launch pad

The photographs don’t give a realistic sense of the size of the place and how chilling it is. I found it quite terrifying. Half of it was destroyed, but in the other half the Germans went on to manufacture liquid oxygen which they then used to launch the V2s on mobile launch pads. Over 1,400 V2s were launched on Britain and over 1,600 on Belgium – mainly London and Antwerp. After the war many of the scientists and engineers working on these rockets were invited to the United States to become part of the US space program.

Delphi

We felt we couldn’t go to Greece and not visit Delphi again as it’s such a magical place. It’s hugely impressive, because of the beautiful location, the height of it, and the sheer number of monuments, even though many are just the pedestals of statues, and you have to imagine what they would’ve looked like with their enormous statues on top.

In ancient times Delphi was considered the ‘navel of the earth’ and was home to the Oracle of Delphi and the Temple of Apollo.The location is extraordinary and you can understand what drew the ancient Greeks to this site.

Archaeological investigation in Delphi started in the second half of the 19th century, but it was not until 1892 that a systematic excavation began under the direction of Théophile Homolle and the French Archaeological School of Athens. The site was buried beneath layers and layers of stone and there was a village on top. The village had to be totally uprooted and relocated so that the archaeologists could uncover the ruins.

Archaeological Museum

The museum is definitely worth visiting. It has some amazing statues. We especially liked the one of the dancing women and the one of the charioteer which in its original form would have had also the chariot and horses but only the charioteer had survived.

Delphi Camping

We stayed again at Delphi Camping – a wonderful site with stunning views over the Gulf of Corinth. The campsite is owned by the Kanatas family and they also produce olive oil. This olive oil called ‘Mer des Oliviers de Delphes’ is produced from olives of the olive groves of Amfissa – Delphi. These groves have existed for over 3,000 years being the oldest in Greece . Here the ancient Greeks cultivated olives and produced oil before any other part of Greece did and the Kanatas family have cultivated olives and produced olive oil for hundreds of years. The olive oil is called by a French name in order to honour the French team who discovered the Delphi site and worked on the excavations.

Ioannina

Again we stopped for a few days in Ioannina staying at the campsite by the lake and walked into town drifting between cafes.

Folk Museum

We visited the folk art museum which is housed in a 19th century Ottoman Manor House.

It displays traditional costumes of the area , musical instruments and household items such as looms and old kitchen utensils.

Many of the outfits were felted overcoats with rich embroidery elaborated with red silk strings

Wooden Carvings

We went to a fascinating exhibition called “Carving wood, sculpting memory with the shepherds of Haliki” housed in the Gadi Foundation in Ioannina.

For centuries shepherds have taken their flocks up from the lowland plains of Thessaly to summer in the cooler pastures of Haliki in the Pindos mountains.

Natasha Drisou-Lemonos, who curated the exhibition, has interviewed shepherds over many years. She transcribed their words to accompany some beautiful black and white photographs mainly from the 1950s to the present day.

The shepherds use wooden crooks which they carve with intricate patterns. Some were displayed in the exhibition together with some beautiful crooks, boxes and other objects carved by the wood sculptor, Christos Gevrou.

Jews in Ioannina

The old synagogue is located within the walled Castro.

It is likely that the synagogue survived the German occupation as a result of the actions of the mayor of Ioannina, Dimitios Vlachides. It seems he convinced the Germans that the Greeks would use the building as a library and that the Torah scrolls and other sacred material should be placed in the municipal museum.

After the war the handful of Holocaust survivors returning to Ioannina sent these to other synagogues including Jerusalem. Many Israelis visit this area and there are three direct flights to Ioannina from Tel Aviv every day!

We have written more about the Jews in Ioannina in our 2019 trip.

https://judyandvalerieontheroad.com/index.php/category/trip/greece-2019/

Thessaloniki

After staying at the Sakiá campsite for about 10 days we went off to Thessaloniki, staying at the same park4nite parking lot by the sea where we had stayed in 2019 (N40°35’23” E22°56’41”).

We were able to get into town easily on the number 5 bus for 1€, although always very crowded! We love Thessaloniki – it has such a history and mixture of cultures. It had been conquered by the Ottomans in 1430, and only became part of Greece after the first Balkan War in 1912.

As well as spending quite a lot of time in cafes and the bazaar/market, we went to various museums, churches, Roman remains and to the area right at the top of the city to see the city walls and fortress. The city also has an extraordinary number of sculptures, both old and contemporary, which you just come across when wandering around.

Museums

We went again to the Archaeological Museum and to see the stunning collection of beautiful Macedonia gold items recovered from cemeteries dating from 4th- 2nd century BC. Here are some photos.

Jewish Museum

Before the Second World War 50% of the city’s population were Sephardic Jews, because when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many settled in Thessaloniki. Between 1941 and 1943 the Nazis deported all the Jews in Greece to Auschwitz and Treblinka where of course they were murdered.

The museum provides a grim chronicle of the destruction of Greece’s Jewish population by the Nazis, but also a fascinating insight into Jewish life in the city over nearly 500 years.

Churches

The city’s best loved church is Agios Demetrios, dedicated to the city’s patron saint. The church was almost entirely reconstructed after the huge fire in 1917, but the first church was constructed on the site in the 4th century AD. It has several beautiful mosaic panels dating back to the 8th century.

Arch of Galerius

The arch was built to commemorate the victory of Emperor Galerius over the Persians in 297AD. Its piers contain weathered reliefs of the battle scenes and it is quite an extraordinary sight on Egnatia Street.

The City Walls

The city was initially fortified right after its foundation in the late 4th century BC but the present walls are dated back to the early Byzantine period around 390 AD. Their defensive abilities are quite impressive! They were 7 kilometres long while at some points they were up to 10 meters high and almost 5 meters thick. A number of fortresses and defensive towers were added during different periods of history like the Tower Of Trigoniou.

The walls originally went right down from the top of the city to the sea and you can still see fragments of the wall now and then throughout the city.

Statues and Sculptures

The sculptures throughout the city are really impressive particularly the national resistance memorial which commemorates the courage and sacrifice of the Greek resistance during World War II and the Holocaust memorial. This made in 1997 and depicts the seven branched menorah and flames in a complex of human bodies. The memorial is situated in Eleftherias Square where the Nazis rounded up the Jews in 1942 to torture and humiliate them.

In the second sculpture below the ‘branches’ have lights hanging from them powered by solar panels and light up at night. The piece aims to raise awareness about renewable energy.

For more information on the sculptures see this link https://thessaloniki.travel/exploring-the-city/art-culture/sculptures-monuments/

HS Velos

Walking along the seafront we saw a strange site – a war ship – HS Velos. This ship belonged to the US Navy during the second world war but later became part of the Greek navy and played a vital role in bringing down the military dictatorship which had controlled the country since 1967. Below is the information in front of the ship.

Rotunda

The Rotonda is a huge, circular building which was constructed by the Romans, then consecrated as a church in the 4th century AD, became a mosque in 1590 and was once again consecrated as a church in 1912, when the Greeks captured the city during the Balkan war. Inside there are no seats and no altar. It is a big, bare, very peaceful circular space with lovely mosaics on the walls and ceiling.

Yugoslav Wars

The Yugoslav wars in the 1990s took the lives of over 100,000 people. After Tito died in 1980 there was a period of instability in which the Serbian politician Slobodan Milosevic emerged to assert Serbian nationalism. He instigated a plan which involved setting up a “greater Serbia” by swallowing large sections of the other parts of Yugoslavia – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. Serbia used the force of the Yugoslav army against these countries and from 1991-92 Dubrovnik came under bombardment for seven months.

Driving through these countries we became more aware of the complexity of the conflicts.

Dubrovnik

From Kučiste we drove to Mlini, just south of Dubrovnik and stayed at a lovely little campsite, Camping Kate. We were glad we got there early as it was full by the evening. From there we took the water taxi to Dubrovnik, a beautiful half hour journey which took us right to the entrance to the old town. Through a website called Freetour.com we had booked a tour guide called Marco who took a group of about 15 of us on a just under two hour tour of the city. Marco was great. He spoke good English and he spoke loudly and clearly. He was very engaging and very interesting. We learned all sorts of things, including that Dubrovnik was founded by Greeks in the 7th century, managed to avoid being taken over by Venice and was an independent state for 500 years until Napoleon turned up in 1806.

Dubrovnik is very beautiful with its pale yellow stone buildings. Its pavements too are made of yellow stone and are very shiny, making the whole city seem very light. It’s also very clean. It has lots of narrow cobbled streets, enticing gift shops and wonderful gelati. What it doesn’t have much of is ordinary shops because, as Marco explained to us, ordinary people don’t live there any more. Instead they rent their properties to tourists. It also has no advertising in the streets. Shops are only allowed to advertise on street lamps!

Dubrovnik was the main filming location in Croatia for King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms in Game of Thrones and the city is full of shops selling merchandise. Some tours take you around all the filming locations.

The view of Dubrovnik from above was stunning with its red roofs. Our guide Marco told us that originally the roofs had been the yellow / grey colour of the local stone, but as a result of the attack on Bosnia during the homeland war in 1991 many buildings lost their roofs. When the war ended, France donated new roofs to help with the restoration of the city and those were terracotta.

Campsite

Just across the road from the campsite was a restaurant where we were able to have a delicious meal on our last night in Croatia.