Languedoc in October- Carcassonne - (Howard Speaks!)

In the south of France, Provence gets all the press, so Kathy decided that we needed to see something different; how about Languedoc? On the border with Spain, Mediterranean Sea, mountains, perhaps some sun? Languedoc, say it fast 10 times. "Long Doc", means "language of Oc" Oc was the original way to say "yes" in the region, and back between the 10th and 13th Centuries, the northern way of saying yes became dominant after Languedoc was conquered by Northern France, "Oui, Oui".

Carcassonne is a unique town with a full fledged hilltop walled city complete with moats, drawbridges, towers, ramparts and a town. It is a World Heritage Site as well it should be. Apparently as the legend goes the town was under siege by Charlemagne and on the brink of starvation. A clever woman named Madame Carcass fed the last pig in town their last grain, and threw the pig over the wall as a middle finger to Charlemagne, "see we can outlast you, we can spare this pig, you pig". Charlemagne was fooled and called off the siege and left. Madame rang the celebration bell (or sonne): Carcass-sonne.

Here is a rather unflattering statue of Madame Carcass.

Enough history, get a load of these pictures.

Here is a shot of the Canal du Midi-Completed in 1681, this sleepy, 155-mile canal connects France's Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts.

Cathars, who the heck where these people? Christians who lived in southern France between the 11th and 13 Centuries; Vegetarians, believed in re-incarnation, peaceful, saw life as a battle between Good and Evil (or the Spiritual vs. the Material, so we know where they would fit today). Oh, did I mention that they were Christians? Oh, but they were a bit different and not of the Roman style persuasion, so of course they were wiped out by the year 1321, by who? Well by the pope denominated Roman style Christians, of course. Can't we all get along?

They had very cool fortresses though, and apparently alot of time on their hands. They also must have been very hardy walking up and down these mountains, which are about the height of Mt. Diablo.

These pictures are from the Chateau du Queribus, the last Cathar fortress to be conquered. The border between France and Spain in the Pyrenees is just south of here. Apparently back then, this was the border.

After a lovely visit in this part of Languedoc we drove to the sleepy little town of Collioure on the Mediterranean.

Languedoc in October- Collioure- Sun at Last! (Howard Speaks!)

Collioure is a quaint and traditional feeling Mediterranean village complete with a fortress, beach, harbor, lighthouse and a very laid back feeling. We were fortunate to have a hotel room across the harbor with a million Euro view of the town. Above is a shot of the beach below the hotel and below is looking back from the town to the hotel we stayed at on the cliff.

Views of the city from the hotel beach.


A band broke out in song one afternoon in town. We have no idea who they were or why they were playing but enjoyed them all the same. Because the town is so close to Spain, we had fantastic Spanish seafood each night for dinner. Fantastic!

Our terrace and pool.

This is a outdoor watercolor painting class that was being taught to a German tour group staying at the hotel. They were painting the beautiful view of the town across the harbor. They were alot of fun.

Rexlaxing in the sun!

The hills above Collioure were beautiful. Vineyards covered the hills and went all the way down to the ocean.

One day we drove to Spain, thinking we would go to Figures to see the Dali museum, but we forgot our passports and they turned us back. They were searching people entering Spain due to the Basque separatist bombings recently. When we tried to explain that we left our passports at our hotel in France- the stern group of Spanish Guardia Civil (police) eyed us and yelled- "back to France you go!" That is the first time we ever have been stopped at an EU border! When we turned around to go back we were met by the French police asking to see our passports to be let back in. Yikes! We almost got stuck in no man's land. But they understood and waved us on.

Up above the cities hiking up to some ruins.

Waiting for five hours for our delayed plane. A cabin crew member was ill and had to be taken to the hospital. The replacement had to be brough via taxi from Barcelona to Carcassone- About a two hour drive. We all settled in with books and iPods and NO FOOD. We were in a very small airport without many facilities. For those of you in the bay area- think Concord airport.

Prague in September

We went to Prague in the Czech Republic for a long weekend. We had wonderful, sunny, warm weather. We stayed in a great hotel that was a famous old art nouveau building that had been updated with newer, modern features. The service was fantastic. A river runs through the town splitting it in half. On one side is the castle area as pictured below.

And the other side of the river is the central square. We climbed to the top of the tower at the square to get this picture.

At the central square is the Astronomical Clock. With revolving disks, celestial symbols, and sweeping hands, the clock keeps serveral versions of time. Two outer rings show the hour Bohemian time with times of sunset and sunrise and then Modern time. Even though we read through the description, we still couldn't quite figure it out.

Everywhere we went there was wonderful architecture. Below is an old building with some traditional paintings on it.

Then there were the modern buildings! They call these two buildings Ginger and Fred because they say they are dancing!

More beautiful buildings.



Alfons Mucha was a famous Czech Art Nouveau designer. He designed the stained glass window below and also designed all of those Art Nouveau posters that we've all seen. We went to a museum dedicated to his work and it was fantastic. His influence is seen all over the city.

More Art Nouveau.

Here is one of his most famous buildings- the Municipal House. They consider it the pearl of Czech Art Nouveau. Both the interior and exterior are fabulous! Mucha's design again.

Here's a shot of the interior.

Prague's Jewish Quarter neighborhood with multiple museums and sites was well worth the day we spent visiting them. As the Nazis decimated jewish communities in the region, Prague's Jews were allowed to collect and archive their treasures here. While the archivists were ultimately killed in the concentration camps, their work survives. Below is a picture of Howard at the Old Jewish Cemetery. From 1439-1787 it was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews of Prague. Because of the limited space, the Jewish belief that the body should not be moved once buried, and the sheer number of graves, tombs were piled atop each other. With its many layers, the cemetery became a small plateau.



Below is one of the museums near the cemetery. The museums and synagogues contained tremendous amounts of information on Jewish traditions and history. We were both facinated by it and learned a lot.

Dublin in September

So after a VERY rainy summer here in Belgium, I headed over to Dublin for some sun and to speak English. Well anyone knows that there is no sun in Ireland but it turns out that often English is a little scarce also. Between Goidelic and then all of the immigrants, I hardly got to speak any English.

Here is a shot of a debtor's prison that we visited. It was a horrible place and the stories the tour guide told us made it seem even worse. Many political prisoners were locked up there and
eventually executed. Even more debtors died here. Can you imagine that instead of declaring bankrupcy you'd be locked up and probably die. That would curb the credit card debt!

Here was a graphic at the prison...Pain or Pleasure. Sums it up.
OK, so here's the story... Many years ago when the queen died, the Irish were told to paint all of their front doors black. So instead they painted them other colors such as red, blue or green. Gotta love those Irish!

Here's a shot of Temple Bar- the most famous of the 100s of pubs in Dublin.

And another one. The buildings are beautiful. We went into this pub to hear traditional irish music one night. The band got up on stage, tuned their instruments, and started playing Johnny Cash. Sigh...

One of the patrons of the pub!