Where East Meets West

After a few days in the mountains of Switzerland, Katie and I decided to go somewhere completely different – Istanbul. When I mentioned our plans to Dan, he opted to join us. This was a place that opened up new vistas for all three of us. We spent four nights in this historic city and were sorry to leave; we could easily have spent four more.

The view towards the Blue Mosque through the upper window of the Hagia Sofia.

Since we saw so very much over our time there, I have decided not to tell the story of our visit in one blog entry. Here is part one.

One of the many shops on the Ordu Cadesi open in the evening  

From the beginning, we had very good luck on this trip. The hotel I found through Trip Advisor, the Hotel Niles, was ideal in many ways: the staff arranged pick up and drop off at the airport; we were greeted warmly with my new favourite drink, apple tea, and Turkish Delights – of course; a delicious breakfast was included as part of our very reasonable cost; we were a few minutes walk from the tram line; and we were also well within walking distance of major attractions. All of this made us feel quite comfortable in the city from the beginning. In fact, as soon as we settled in, after getting a map and a recommendation for dinner from the man at the desk, we went out to explore the city in the evening.

The Hagia Sofia at night

Ordu Cadesi, the main street near our hotel, was busy even on a Wednesday evening in the off-season. We window shopped as we made our way to the park area where we could see two famous landmarks at night: the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia. Dinner was at Amadros where we were given the red carpet treatment. We enjoyed the food and ambiance so much, we returned to this place on our final night.

We ate inside at Amedros, as it was raining lightly and a little too cold to be outdoors.

The view from the Hotel Niles to the sea

The next morning, after breakfast on the upper story of the Hotel Niles where we had a view of the Sea of Marmora, we returned to two of the great churches of Istanbul.

The German fountain in front of the Hagia Sofia

By putting my thumb into this cavity in a copper column in the Hagia Sofia (St. Gregory's Thumb Hole), I have been cured of all my ailments.

The Hagia Sofia, once the greatest basilica of the Byzantine Empire, later an imperial mosque, is now a museum. Although part of it was under scaffolding, it was still breathtaking. I loved the interplay of Orthodox Christian and Islamic symbols in the place. Its long history is apparent in its many special features.

Part of the Hagia Sofia.

This mosaic from 1261 is very impressive.

Nearby, we visited the Basilica Cistern, an underground water supply for the city built in the 6th Century. Among the wonders in this rather eerie place were two columns with the image of Medusa carved into them, one of them upside down.

Red lighting adds to the eerie quality of the Basilica Cistern.

Between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque is the Hippodrome of Constantinople, a former Roman circus area on which are erected several important monuments. These are reminders of the former empires that have held sway in Istanbul.

The Obelisk of Thutmose III (1490 B.C.) on the Hippodrome

The Blue Mosque is probably Istanbul's most famous sight; it certainly was very crowded on this day. Before entering, all visitors must remove their shoes and place them in a plastic bag (provided). Katie and I had purchased pashminas so that our heads would be covered too, but had we not, scarves would have been given out as well.

Even in the courtyard, women should cover their heads.

Inside, the space is very grand. Most of it is out of bounds to non-believers, however, as only Muslim men can enter beyond the barrier that separates us from them. Unlike the Hagia Sofia, this is a living place of worship; several times over our stay in the city, we heard the haunting call to prayer inviting believers to enter the mosque closest to them. I came to love hearing those voices.

The beautiful ceiling of the Blue Mosque

Inside the Blue Mosque.

Our next stop was the famous Grand Bazaar. What a place!! There are some 4000 shops there, so it is understandable that merchants can become quite aggressive. I must say I heard a lot of good sales pitches during my visits to this market. Our main goal was to look for a carpet for Katie. She was very cautious in her pursuit; Dan and I tried to help where we could. On our first visit to the Grand Bazaar, though, we came away empty-handed, with the full knowledge that we would return before we left.

Lamps everywhere at the Grand Bazaar.

Dan and Katie explore the Grand Bazaar.

Carpet selling can be very physical work.

As a Christmas gift to me, Katie had made a reservation at the Hareki Hurram Sultan Haman, for an authentic turkish bath - an absolutely heavenly experience! We were pampered for 90 minutes, in a place where turkish royalty used to go. I have never felt cleaner, really. The bubbles were my favourite part, by the way.

Our turkish bath was in this building.

The reception area of the Haman. 

For dinner that evening, we headed in the direction of the Marmora Sea, where many fish restaurants vied for our patronage. We chose Fener Restaurant - very good.

Family Time

The halfway point of the NJC school year was marked by a week's holiday. Some students chose to travel home to see their families, but, in most cases, it was the other way around. Parents and siblings made the trip to Switzerland to participate in a week of fun in Zermatt, one of the great ski resorts of the world.

The view over Zermatt from the Hotel Tschugge

As a non-skier, my first instinct was to enjoy my time off somewhere else, but when I mentioned the school trip to my elder daughter, Katie, she became very excited. Skiing Zermatt was on her bucket list, so she made her way here from Calgary to do just that. I was content to see the place and to walk around the village and surrounding area for a few days. Après-ski all day for me!

The Matterhorn looms over Zermatt.

On Saturday morning, Katie and I were on one of the two buses heading southeast to Zermatt. My job was to act as a supervisor to the "orphans", the students whose parents could not get away this week but who wanted to be part of the experience. There would be four of us in this role over the week: Lyn and I in the first half, and Terry and Sandra in the second half.

An electric shuttle bus in Zermatt.

Our bus to Zermatt stopped at Täsch, where we boarded a train to complete the trip to the village. Zermatt, I discovered, is car-free. There are electrical shuttle buses serving the many hotels, but otherwise, the only ways to get around are by foot or by train.

On the way to Hotel Tschugge

Group meeting in the lounge at the Hotel Tschugge

The 15 students staying at the Hotel Tschugge had to climb up a hill to get to our accommodation, while the others, staying with family members, headed in the other direction to the Hotel National. During our time there, we frequently went back and forth between these two hotels. The National was fancier and closer to ski lifts, but also more crowded and noisier; I was content with the Tschugge's quiet location and views over the town.

One group at the National

Clearly, these folks are happy to be on vacation with each other - and their families.

Arriving at about 15:00 on the first day, it was too late to ski, so Katie, Lyn and I merely explored the town to get our bearings. On the second morning, however, the two of them headed upwards to ski while I chose to play indoor tennis with Bill. It had been some time since I had swung a tennis racquet but I competed gamely; I think I got more exercise on the tennis court than the others got on the ski hills!

Jen joins Katie and Lyn on the first day of skiing.

Bill  dominated me on the court. It was like playing John Isner for me.

This was a beautiful day of sunshine, a bluebird day, as they say in skiing parlance. In the afternoon, I wandered around the town window shopping, before stopping for hot chocolate with Kienan and his parents. At 17:00, the week's organizers, George Hardy Tours, scheduled a reception for parents where I enjoyed chatting with many of them in an informal way. Dinner was at Hotel Tschugge where I was reunited with my family member, my Katie, Lyn and our group. Liam's dad, who had just arrived, dined with us as well.

I decided to take a photo into the direct sunlight and see what would happen. I like this one.

On the second day, the light was flatter, creating less than ideal ski conditions, but the day was fine for hiking. I had arranged to meet Becca's mom, Mary, at the Hotel National. The concierge suggested we make our way to Zum See, about an hour's walk away, where we would stop for lunch. There are many hiking trails in the area and this is one of the more popular ones. The restaurant in the hamlet of Zum See is delightful. Mary and I sat in a glassed-in section and warmed ourselves under the blankets provided, while we split a rosti dish. As we were leaving, we met with Andrew's mom, Julie, who joined us on our walk back to Zermatt. (We tried a short-cut first - which became a "long-cut", so we retraced our steps to get down the mountain.)

The restaurant at Zum See is in a 300 year-old building.

Hiking buddies, Julie and Mary

At 17:00 that afternoon, George Hardy had reserved the local skating rink for a friendly hockey game between parents and students. This was an entertaining event, with very relaxed rules. It was hard to tell who was on each team since there were no uniforms; there was no body checking, of course – that might have killed some folks; and the skill level was greatly varied. The Swedish import, Viggo's dad, was an impressive player, as was Sierra's father, wearing the Boston Bruins jersey. To add authenticity to the event, Matt Nunziata and Lauren's dad staged a glove dropping fight in centre ice part way through the second period. In spite of the best efforts of goalies, Jesse and Mr. Boyer, both teams scored a couple of times. The official score was a tie: 3-3, I think.

Lots of players in this game!

After the game, frozen, Katie and I headed out for dinner at an authentic Swiss restaurant, the Weisshorn, where we enjoyed a tomato fondue. That warmed us up!

Zermatt's main street at dusk.

The view as we reached the top of the tree line.

The next day, Tuesday, the sun was shining again – time for me to take the Gornergrat Bahn, a train that stops several times on its way up to its final stop where the Matterhorn can be viewed in all its glory. On the ride up, I shared the car with many, many skiers, but on the way down at 11:00, I had the car to myself. This allowed me to take picture after picture because the views were magnificent.

The Gornergrat Bahn on its way down.

I could not take my eyes off the Matterhorn - what a majestic sight it is! The photos tell the story of my 30 minutes at the top. I have only posted a few of them.

How exhilarating it must be to ski here!

This guy was posing for the tourists.

I was there!!

At 13:30, Katie and I boarded a train to return to Neuchâtel. We missed out on the skating party and the curling matches that took place later that week, but our family time in Zermatt was very enjoyable nevertheless. We were not finished our holidaying either, as you will discover in the next blog post.

One last view of the Matterhorn. 

January Jaunts

January was a busy month for me, what with end of semester tasks to complete; there were exams to mark, final marks to calculate, and report card comments to write. Still, I managed two trips outside of Neuchâtel before the mid-semester break began. In both cases, Dan suggested the destinations and offered to drive, while his colleagues, myself included, were happy to tag along.

Jen and I in Stein am Rhein

On January 11^th, Dan suggested a day trip to Stein am Rhein. This small town north of Zurich registered with me since my son had visited it about 6 years ago and had commented on its beauty. Jen and I hopped into Dan’s car after breakfast. The journey took about two and a half hours, so that we arrived at our destination just in time for lunch. On this day, the weather was not always cooperative; we had a little of everything from rain and snow to bright sunshine mid-day but the trip was well worth taking nonetheless.

Another group braved the cold to wander the streets of the town

Stein am Rhein means “Rock on the Rhine”, by the way, but there is nothing rocky about the place. The town is like a picture postcard with its colourfully painted half-timbered buildings. On this chilly Sunday, it was pretty much deserted. There were a couple of die-hard merchants open for tourists so we did our best to support them, but mainly we meandered along the main street and took our time enjoying the town’s unique character.

Typical building in the town

I love the paintings!

Heading west, we followed the Rhine River until we arrived at Schaffhausen, near the famous Rheinfall. We decided to view this impressive sight from two vantage points. Pulling over to the side of the road, we were able to get a clear view from above, but when we made our way to a tourist parking lot for an even closer view, the weather turned so ugly – raining sideways – we decided to return to the comfort of the car. Of course, as soon as we did that, the sun came out and I got one last gorgeous shot of the church and gate before we headed home.

The Rheinfall

Just a few minutes before I took this shot, it had been very windy and rainy. 

The following weekend, Dan, Paul and Jen convinced me to join them for an overnight trip to the French Alps. (Usually, I do not need much arm-twisting to travel but on this weekend I had my exams to mark.) Our destination was Grenoble, famous for hosting the 1968 Winter Olympics. Again, the January weather made conditions far from ideal some of the time. Emerging from a tunnel just south of the French border crossing, we found ourselves very suddenly in a blizzard. That was a shock! I suppose this should have been no surprise since we were climbing to higher elevations as we traveled. Fortunately, Dan is a very good driver and we made it to our destination with no difficulty.

The mountains looming over Grenoble.

Local cheese at the Saturday market.

Grenoble is an impressive city of 150 000 which is surrounded by mountains. Its Saturday market was a great way to begin our explorations. As we walked through the pedestrian area of the city, we discovered that Stendhal, a 19th century French writer, was born here, and that civic unrest in 1788 near the former Hôtel de Ville was a precursor to the French Revolution.  It was called The Day of the Tiles.

A monument to the Day of the Tiles

One serendipitous moment occurred when we entered Eglise Collégiale St-André as mezzo-soprano, Dominique Dumas, was rehearsing for a concert the next day. Her voice was splendid, so much so that we did not want to leave the building, and when she finished one piece, we all burst into applause. Another special part of our day in Grenoble was our dinner at La Girole, an outstanding restaurant. Dan was thrilled that the wine list included two of his favourite reds, but I particularly loved the meal we were served and the presentation. The French certainly know how to prepare and serve food!

The Isère River flows through the centre of Grenoble

In the morning, we headed back toward Switzerland by way of Annecy, a return trip for me to this gorgeous town of canals. We were fortunate to stumble upon a Sunday market which livened up the place. We also really enjoyed our lunch. I sampled the local specialty, a tartiflette – in our waiter’s view, the Annecy version of poutine. 

Gorgeous Annecy

Another view of Annecy

Annecy is just as lovely in summer and as it is in winter. I was particularly pleased that Jen and Paul were able to see the place, just as Bob, Terry and I had in August – clearly, it is one of Dan's favourite escapes. (There is a blog post about Annecy from late August so if you would like to know more about Annecy, you can have a look back at that entry.) With Paul headed back to Canada at the end of January, this would be his last trip with us.

A gentle man and a gentleman, we will miss Paul Duckett. Photo taken in Grenoble.

By late afternoon, we were back in Neuchâtel, thankful again that Dan was so eager to travel to so many places in Europe. We were all grateful for his generosity. I my case, I tackled those exams with renewed vigour. A little play makes the work much easier to bear.