PRAGUE,

We were last in Prague in 2007. Our immediate impression was that there were many more people (tourists)! However, as we stayed with our friend Jarka outside the city centre and only ventured in for specific purposes it did not affect us too much. We went to a Black Theatre production, which we enjoyed. And the next day to the palace of the Lobkowicz family, just next to the royal palace. It contains a great collection of portraits, mainly with a family connection. The one which really struck a chord with me was Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza! A cousin of his married a Lobkowicz in the C16th. We stayed in the palace for a chamber concert (piano, flute and viola). Probably the same concert that we heard in the same place in 2007!!

BERLIN

In Berlin we stayed with friends Sophie and Leo. The city is huge and varied, and impossible to do justice to in the three days at our disposal. However we had an enjoyable time as well as taking in some of the historical and cultural highlights. Magda had been in 1990, just after the wall came down, and found things very changed. This was my first visit.
We saw the inevitable sights - Brandenburg Gate, Unter den Linden, Checkpoint Charlie, a preserved stretch of the Wall. While all important, they are so commonplace as to lose some of their impact. The same cannot be said of the Jewish memorial, two and a half hectares of big concrete slabs in sight of the Reichstag (parliament building) as a conscious reminder to legislators that ”never again....”
We climbed the cathedral dome (completed 1905) for a view over the city centre. Downstairs was a photo of von Ribbentrop coming out of the cathedral after his marriage in I think 1935 to a younger actress whose name escapes me. Opposite the cathedral is the site of the old imperial city palace. It was destroyed in WWII and replaced in the 70s by a new GDR government building. This has now been pulled down and the huge new Humboldt Forum is being built behind reconstructed palace facades. The decision has been criticised as resuscitating Prussian imperialism... Having said that, much of the city centre had to be reconstructed after the war when it suffered very severe damage. In the Soviet zone, which included most of the mediaeval city, not much money was available for the purpose, so less was done.
We saw the Concert House and Frederic the Great’s great matching catholic and protestant churches, all of which have been restored (east zone).  We also spent a day walking round the huge estate at Potsdam with its collection of mainly C18th palaces. The Bode Museum offered an exhibition in which European works of art were shown together with superficially similar African works, and a comparative analysis suggested. We also went to a concert of C20th composers from the old Soviet bloc, all of whom had suffered official disapproval of their art. The venue was an old warehouse full of old pianos and parts of instruments.

VILNLUS, LITHUANIA

Unlike the other two BS, Lithuania has a previous history of statehood. Indeed, it is claimed that in the late C14th the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea!
Actually, things were bit more complex, as Lithuania was closely linked to Poland for several centuries, and together they fought off both the Golden Horde and the Teutonic knights (with the help of Henry Bolingbroke). The King of Poland was usually also Grand Duke of Lithuania - both elective appointments; or sometimes brothers, and when one died the other ‘inherited’ the title. As from 1569 they formed a ‘commonwealth’ while remaining nominally independent. Lithuanian power waned and it was incorporated into the Russian empire in the C18th, when Vilnius was the 3rd largest city in the empire! It was also Polish between WWI and WWII when both states finally recovered their indepndenc (till 1939), and the Lithuanians had a hard time getting their capital back.

Vilnius was known as the “Jerusalem of the north” (among others by Napoleon, who stopped here twice) for its huge Jewish population (64,000 in the C19th). The whole of Lithuania contained 260,000 Jews in 1939, 95% of whom were ‘liquidated’ by the Nazis. We walked through the Small Ghetto  — it is now a tourist area, but I found it a bit creepy and we did not stop for dinner there.

Another difference from its neighbours is that Lithuania is catholic, although their baroque churches are fairly sober - especialy that of St Casimir, a mediaeval member of the ducal family who embraced the most ascetic version of cathlicism. I thought this was merely the aftermath of communism until we entered the Polish St Dominic, which was far more extravagant.

RIGA , LATVIA

A 5-hour bus journey over a rolling, sandy plain brought us to Riga and another new world, at different times the biggest city in the Swedish empire and the greatest port in the Russian. It is indeed a big city, making Tallinn look quite provincial. The old centre on the east bank of the Daugava river contains a much modernised fortress and several mediaeval churches. We visited St Peter, but it was closed for a service on Sunday morning; however we went to St John were we heard an organ and flute recital. Going west one enters an area of broad boulevards, parks, a canal with little boats, the opera house and other signs of C19th bourgeois life. We went to a Strauss extravaganza by the national ballet (“An der schoenen blauen Donau”) in the evening. Full house.

On arrival we discovered that we had hit off the national holiday commemorating 150 years since the foundation of the Latvian Society (to promote national sentiment) and 100years since the declaration of independence!Furthermore it was the 817th anniversary of the city's foundation. So the whole city was in party mood - and buses and trams were free! We found folk music and even folk dancing, lots of handicrafts, local foods etc. Tourists were in a minority, in contrast with Tallinn... Due to this festival we did little conventional sight-seeing. We visited two venues where different regions displayed their wares -  Selonia in the south and Latgale in the east. Wool items (and knitting!) were very frequently offered, as well as wood-working, honey, linen and cheese.

Latvians seem very patriotic and independent - more markedly so than in the other two BS; but that impression may be the result of our visit coinciding with the Riga Festival. Russians make up nearly 30% of the population and seem to coexist without too much friction, although the Latvians have plenty of reminders of the Soviet occupation, including a museum devoted specifically to the subject. Our hotel catered almost exclusively to Russian men, and English was of little use. After 1991, ethnic Russians had to pass an exam in Latvian language and history to obtain Latvian citizenship. Some 250,000 have never done so and are non-citizens; however they will die off over time as anyone born in Latvia gets citizenship automatically.

An attractive characteristic of the Latvians is their love of flowers - there were many stalls selling, and plenty of people buying... our (not very smart) hotel was conveniently sited on the edge of the old centre next to the bus station and the market. It was full of Russians, but when you went out of the front door you were in a paradise of flowers with the overpowering scent of lilies.

TALLINN, ESTONIA

The contrast as we entered the mediaeval city of Tallinn could hardly have been greater! The narrow, irregular, switch-back streets are lined with tall, gabled houses, almost all hundreds of years old and carefully restored. A sprinkling of art deco provides a more modern note. Massive stone walls are dotted with towers that could have been transplanted from Carcassonne. At the top of the old citadel, a strongpoint since at least the 9th century, the pink parliament building faces a large Orthodox church from ca.1900. The walled town centre is full of tourists, and every other house is a shop or restaurant. The area, controlled from the iron-age hill fort, was christianised by the Danes in a crusade around 1219, when the Dannebrog (Danish flag) was sent down from heaven. Construction of the mediaeval town began shortly afterwards. The Olaviste (St Olav) church was, so they say, the tallest building in the world when it was built in the 13th century, over 160 m! After two rebuilds, shorter each time, the spire is now just over 120 m tall and provides great views over the city. The nave roof is also impressively lofty... The Niguliste (St Nicholas) is similar in age and design, tall and spacious with clear glass and light gothic tracery. We went to a concert there of 15-16th century music. This was associated with an exhibition in the city’s main art museum, KUMU, of an exhibition of paintings by Estonian artist Michael Sittow 1469-1525 (look in Wikipedia). He was one of the foremost portrait painters of his age, employed in the Spanish court for 10 years and commissioned to paint - among others - Henry VIII and his sister Mary Rose, and Christian II of Denmark. Walking up to KUMU, I passed Kadriorg Palace built by Peter the Great (in 1718) after he conquered Tallinn from the Swedes during the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. One of Peter’s earliest war aims was to acquire the site on which to build St Petersburg. Mediaeval Tallinn was a Hansa port. Most of the territory that now makes up Estonia and Latvia, apart from the Hansa ports and associated trading towns (most of the cities), consisted of the small or large fiefs of the German land-owning class descended from the Teutonic knights who manned the crusade to convert the region in the C13th. This situation persisted almost up to WW II. The history of the area is incredibly complex, but basically the three Baltic States declared independence in 1918 (like Finland) based on shared linguistic and cultural grounds. Estonian is a Finnougric language distantly related to Finnish; they are not mutually comprehensible. Latvian and Lithuanian are Baltic languages with something in common with the Slav group, but you wouldn’t know it without doing a PhD on the subject. Estonian nationalism started to grow in the C19th, and many of the works in the KUMU reflect how artists (as well as writers, poets, etc.) sought to create a national identity. One striking C19th painting was called “The Sermon on the Mount”. Christ does not appear, just a crowd of Estonian peasants listening... It was remarkably effective.

EUROPE 2018 - HELSINKI

Here we are in Helsinki in the northern summer, with a very short night. We fell into bed after midnight, after the very long journey from Chile. Even so I took a while to get to sleep with a seven hour time change. A good breakfast set us up for a day visiting the city. We started in the old centre round the original port, where the traditional market on the quayside has been tarted up into “boutiquey” little shops. Helsinki was founded further west by the King of Sweden in 1550, but moved to its present location a few years later. ‘Finland’ did not exist when the Swedes took control of this sparsely inhabited coastal area around the 13th century; they held it until the Russians attacked (not for the first time) in 1808. It then remained Russian - as a semi-autonomous Imperial Grand Duchy - until 1917, when the Finns took advantage of the Revolutionary chaos to declare independence. Around 1812, the Russians built a monumental square to form the administrative heart of their new city, still called Senate Square. On a mound overlooking the square, but built only in 1852, stands the sober, white, classical Lutheran cathedral; it is light and airy, and boasts a splendid organ. On another hill half a mile further east is the Orthodox Uspensky cathedral; brick outside with shining onion domes, dark grey marble within, it forms a heavy contrast. By chance, when we visited on 15th August (Assumption of the BVM - surely not a coincidence), we found it full of Russians, many in traditional costume, for the 150th anniversary of its inauguration in 1868. Priests were chanting, everyone crossing themselves, some of the women in headscarves - back to Russia, which after all is not far away. We saw the lights of Petersburg in the distance as our flight approached Helsinki. We went next to a midday concert of Sibelius’ music - piano and violin. It was organised by an ex professional horn-player, full of information and stories in at least four languages. The final piece was Finlandia, which he analysed as having 5 “Leitmotifs”: evil, prayer, aggression, battle and freedom. He claimed that the idea is original and becoming accepted in Finland... The concert was given in the (ex-?) Kamp Hotel with stone carvings on the facade and wood carving inside representing elements of Finnish folklore. In the afternoon we went to an open air museum on Seurasaari (island) with over 80 houses and other structures brought from all over Finland. All of wood, naturally. In the sea were a pair of great crested grebes... On the way home we stopped at the Sibelius monument, a structure of pipes with a metal mould of the composer’s face. Before dinner we went to the roof-top bar of the 1930s Torni Hotel for the view over the city. The second day in Helsinki we visitedthe excellent City Museum andthe Ateneum art gallery. No photos until I solve the technological difficulties!

HUASCO VALLEY SEPT 2016

We went to the Norte Chico for a long weekend. From Vallenar up the Huasco river valley to Altos del Carmen, where we stopped to look at the church despite a band of evangelist christians playing electric guitars in the square! Then on up the ever narrower valley with contrasting coloured rock and bright green vines and other plantations in the irrigated flat bottom and climbing the sides. We stopped for lunch in the hamlet of San Felix - comida típica (chicken and peas!), followed by a sietsta outside in the square. Then down the valley again to the coast. A few miles short of Huasco is Freirina, famous for a C19th church and a slightly earlier classical style wooden house named for Diego Portales. Both were undergoing major restoration. We diverted south on 40 km of dirt road (seeing a burrowing owl on the way) to see some industrial archaeology - one of the earliest copper foundries in Chile (1846), with two elegant, slender chimneys built of bricks imported from England. On the road there were a couple of abandoned villages and a cemetery. Also several little farms with herds of goats. Supper in a fish restaurant in Huasco. The next day we went to Llanos de Challe national park some 40 km north where we walked on the trails. We saw some ancient corrals, a lot of dried up vegetation but no flowering desert which was our aim. However we saw two guanacos, which was quite special, and ate our picnic lunch beside a wetland at Carrizal Bajo where we saw coscoroba swans. There was a charming church with the town library beside it. On the way back we stopped at an olive farm where they have 400-year-old olive trees, brought in by the Spanish in the 16th century to compensate the natives for having virtually enslaved them under the encomienda system...