As
usual, we started the New Year of 2016 at Nancy and Harry’s farm home having a
nice, relaxed visit with our friends. Before
they left on another of their OAT trips, we had brunch with Larry and
Carl. Diane continued to attend her
monthly Salon meeting. I was still serving
as Muleskinners treasurer, keeping track of the financial records. Diane and I attended their Friday noon
meetings, and the speakers were especially interesting because this was an
election year. Several candidates would be
at the meetings, and we would attend many of their fundraisers.
This was also a big financial year for
Diane. It was the first year she had to
take the Required Minimum Distributions from her retirement accounts at
Vanguard and annuities with Transamerica.
With her agreement, I set up the withdrawals.
We were still very active women. We attended our Tai Chi classes at least
three times a week and walked indoors or outdoors at least twice a week. Our musical interests were fulfilled by the
Saturday Metropolitan Opera performances shown Live in HD at the Forum Theater,
the Odyssey Chamber Music series, occasional attendance at the Murray’s Jazz
series and University faculty recitals.
There were plays at Stephen’s College, the Columbia Entertainment
Company and occasionally at the University, and there were movies at Ragtag,
the Forum and Hollywood theaters. We
attended Osher classes and events at the Boone County Historical Society (of
which we were members). We were continuing
to get our monthly massages with Lori. I
was still helping several of my friends with taxes.
My sister, Earlene, arrived early for
True/False on Sunday February 28, making it possible for her to attend the
Democratic chili supper on leap day, the 29th. One of Diane’s Salon members was a docent at
the University of Missouri’s Museum of Art and Archaeology. The next morning, she gave us all a great
tour. Larry and Carl met us for lunch
and that evening the BOATS (Based On A True Story) conference began, followed
by the True/False Documentary Film Festival. After a day to recuperate, Earlene flew back
to New Jersey.
On Sunday, March 13 we attended a reception
in a private home featuring an appearance by a very pregnant Chelsea Clinton
who was speaking on behalf of her mother’s Presidential campaign. We had been making regular donations. The event was intimate and informal. The host’s young children attended her talk,
and Chelsea encouraged them to ask questions.
Two days later, Missouri held the Presidential Preference Primary
election. In the state of Missouri, Hillary
Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by half a percentage and Donald Trump beat Ted Cruz
by two tenths of a percentage.
In early April, we began a driving trip to
the East Coast through Tennessee and Virginia. We planned
on continuing our strategy of touring state capitals and museums to familiarize
ourselves with the history of each state. Neither of us knew much about the former
Confederate states other than what we learned in the Osher classes on the Civil
War. We started with Nashville, the
state capitol of Tennessee. It was easy
to find as it sat atop the highest ground in downtown Nashville, surrounded by
government office buildings. It is one
of twelve capitol buildings that does not have a dome. Its interior was beautiful with many murals
depicting historical events in the state.
The high school juniors who had been elected to Boys/Girls State were
meeting in the legislative chamber. We
then walked to the state military museum.
The displays started with the Spanish-American War and went through the
World Wars featuring men and women from Tennessee.
Tennessee State Capitol building
Boys/Girls State
After lunch, we visited the Hermitage, the
plantation home of Andrew Jackson who, from 1804 until his death in 1845, was
the seventh president of the United States.
The house and slave quarters were restored with period furniture.
House dining room
Slave quarters
Leaving Nashville behind, we drove to Oak
Ridge, Tennessee where we toured the American Museum of Science and Energy
(AMSE). It is focused on energy,
especially nuclear power, and documents the role Oak Ridge played in the
Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.
What fascinated me was the importance of the roles women, including
black women, played in the early years of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories
since so many men were off fighting WWII.
Picture of woman working on the Manhattan
Project
The next day, we drove to Knoxville where
we toured the Museum of East Tennessee History.
After this tour, we realized how different the West and East sides of
Tennessee were from each other. While
West Tennessee was sympathetic to the South, the majority of East Tennesseans
remained loyal to the Union.
We started the next morning by having
brunch with Marcia, our “Baby Doc,” who after graduating from the University of
Missouri Medical School was now interning in the maternity ward of a local Knoxville
hospital. She had yet to stop saying
“like,” but was happy with her work. In
the afternoon, we all went to see the play Book of Mormon.
Diane, Marcia and me in front of the Tennessee
Women Suffrage Memorial
The next day we were back to nature. We avoided the interstate and headed for a dip
down into the Great Smoky Mountains. We first drove to a trail leading to a
waterfall known as the Sinks. Then, while
driving along the scenic road from there toward the Sugarlands Visitor Center, we
came across an area with cars pulled over and the occupants looking up. We finally spotted the little black bear
sitting very high up in a tree. Whoopee! After a drive on the Roaring Fork Motor
Nature Trail, we found our Tudor Inn B & B high up a mountain overlooking
the town of Gatlinburg.
The Sinks waterfall
The next day, we finally left the long
state of Tennessee and entered Virginia, stopping at the Booker T. Washington
National Monument. It is located on land
that was part of the tobacco farm on which Booker T. Washington was born into
slavery on April 5, 1856. We saw where
he was born and heard the story of his rise to become a leading African
American intellectual of the 19th century, founding Tuskegee Normal and
Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1881. We spent the night nearby in Roanoke.
After breakfast the next morning, we found our way to the entrance of
the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed stopping at the scenic lookouts starting
with the Roanoke River Overlook and ending with the James River Wayside
Exhibit. I had childhood memories of being
with my parents as we drove this route to attend my older sister’s college
graduation.
View from a scenic overlook
The next morning, we crossed into another
state, West Virginia, to visit the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. It focused mainly on the 1859 raid of
abolitionist John Brown and the Civil War battle in the town. We were already familiar with what John Brown
did in Kansas several years before the Harper’s Ferry Raid. In 1856, he led antislavery guerrillas in a
battle during the period called Bleeding Kansas. It was a small civil war that was fought
between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory
of Kansas. His goal in Harpers Ferry was
to seize the United States government Armory and Arsenal and begin freeing
slaves. We enjoyed the exhibits and also
took a hike out on the Winchester and Potomac Railroad Bridge which was now a
foot/bicycle path. From it, we could see
three states: Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
Gun making equipment in the Armory
Me on bridge
As we drove further north, we stopped at the
Antietam National Battlefield where we took the ranger led tour. On September 17, 1862, after twelve hours of
savage combat, twenty-three thousand soldiers were killed, wounded or missing,
the bloodiest day in American history. The
Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first
invasion into the North and led Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation.
Battlefield at Antietam
After the tour, we continued driving north
to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where we spent the night. In the morning, Diane had some alone time
with her sister while I stayed in the motel and walked to the Thai restaurant I
liked for lunch. On Saturday, Diane and
I drove to visit the family of Diane’s niece Tracy in the morning and then
drove back to Stroudsburg. We spent some
time with niece Kelly’s family at their house and then they, sister Susan, her
husband Joe Sr., Diane and I all went to nephew Joe Jr.’s house where we visited
with his family.
In the morning, we had breakfast with Susan
and Joe at Compton’s Pancake House. We
then drove south to the Golden City Chinese Restaurant in Colmar, PA to have
lunch with Chao-Min before ending up at my sister’s house in Princeton,
NJ. The next day, Diane, my sister and I
had lunch with a couple Diane and I met during our tour of Ireland with Road
Scholar, Rick & Karen Anderson. It
was a pretty drive over the Delaware River at New Hope, PA to Pipersville. After lunch, we followed Rick to the Bowman’s
Hill Wildflower Preserve where he was a docent, and he gave us a great tour.
Karen and Rick Anderson
We had a relaxing next day in Princeton, going
on a docent-Earlene tour at the Princeton Art Museum, seeing a movie in the
afternoon and visiting my nephew Craig’s widow, Mary Ann and her three
children. Diane even cooked dinner. She and I then sprinted back home, spending
one night on the road at the half-way spot of Columbus, OH.
The rest of April, May and up to mid-June,
we continued with our usual activities and enjoyed seeing our friends. Diane decided to join me in discontinuing
bicycle riding and gave her bicycle to Lori, our masseuse, for her family’s
use. The political fundraisers were
frequent with the August primary and November general election looming. Joe and Karen made their annual trip to
Columbia to visit us. We would miss most
of the Hot Summer Night’s symphony performances, but were able to attend the
chair sponsor reception.
On June 20 we left for Lisbon, Portugal,
arriving early the next day. We checked
in to our lovely hotel, the Memmo Alfama.
Since the Olivia tour hotel was downtown, I booked our pre-trip hotel in
an older part near the harbor. Our meals
were served on a terrace overlooking the harbor and the Tagus River. The next morning, we discovered there was a
walking tour of the area that started from the hotel. We joined a group and first walked to the
Santa Luzia viewpoint overlooking the red-tiled roofs below. Then we saw the blue murals on the walls of
the nearby Church of Santa Luzia which depicted a battle scene of the fall of
Lisbon. Nearby we saw a quirky cartoon
history of Lisbon painted on a wall tucked away below the Portas do Sol
viewpoint. Then we descended into the
narrow pathways through the colorful old city.
The stained glass windows in the Lisbon Cathedral were beautiful. The cathedral was built in 1155 after Lisbon
was taken from the Moors, and renovated in 1755 after the earthquake.
View of the harbor from the hotel
Red-tiled roofs
Mural depicting the battle
Portion of the cartoon depicting history
Old city narrow streets
Next, we went to the resistance museum,
Cadeia do Aljube, located in a former prison.
Until 1820, the prison housed those convicted through the Ecclesiastical
Forum and then women accused of common crimes until the end of the 1920s. There were many exhibits about the struggles
against the dictatorships in Portugal and for the liberation of Portuguese
colonies. What a discovery this hotel
turned out to be.
Poster in resistance museum
The next morning, we took a taxi to the Olivia
tour hotel to drop off our luggage before taking another taxi to the Calouste
Gulbenkian Museum. It houses one of the
world's most important private art collections. It includes works from Ancient Egypt to the
early 20th century, spanning the arts of the Islamic World, China and Japan, as
well as the French decorative arts, Impressionist painting and the jewelry of
René Lalique. Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian
was a British-Armenian businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum
reserves of the Middle East available to Western development and is credited
with being the first person to exploit Iraqi oil. He was nicknamed "Mr. Five Per Cent"
because he secured a personal 5% share of the profits. He had been living in Paris, but after the
outbreak of the Second World War, he settled in Lisbon and spent much of his
fortune on this museum.
Art Museum
After lunch in the museum cafeteria, we
needed to take a taxi back to our hotel. I had great fun trying to catch a
taxi, finally deciding we had to walk to a busier street. There, much to Diane’s horror, I ran out in
the traffic, waving my arms to flag down a taxi. Back at the Tivoli Lisboa hotel, we met the
Olivia group for a walking tour. It was
a leisurely walk with stops to discuss the history, different buildings,
architecture and stories of Avenida da Liberdade and the surrounding area.
The Santa Justa Lift (Elevator) in downtown
Lisbon
We had a tour outside Lisbon the next
morning, taking a motor coach to the village of Obidos, a well-preserved
example of medieval architecture having both Roman and Moorish heritage. A local guide gave us a walking tour on the
cobbled streets. There was an ancient
house decorated with an amazing blue azulejo panel of tiles showing Portuguese
history. The traditional stone-walled
medieval Obidos Castle had been turned into a hotel
so we couldn’t go inside. We did go up some
steps so we could walk on the medieval city walls. After the walking, we were ready to sit down
and have a taste of the traditional cherry liqueur, Ginja de Obidos.
Blue tiles showing history
Walking the cobble streets (cherry liquor
vendor on right)
Obidos
Castle
City wall
The next stop on our tour was at Bombarral,
home to Companhia Agricola do Sanguinhal, well known for its historic beauty
and great wines. We toured the
vineyards, cellars, wine presses, and then were served lunch with ample glasses
of wine. After lunch, some in our group were
taught and tried their hands at painting a Portuguese tile. Diane and I excused ourselves and went back
out to walk around the beautiful gardens. Back in Lisbon, dinner was on our own, so
Diane and I walked to the A Gina restaurant.
Guide with wine casks
Lunch
Garden
The following morning, our motor coach tour
began with a visit to Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that had many 19th
century architectural monuments. It
was a foggy morning which meant the Palace of Pena stood atop a fog shrouded
rocky peak, one of the highest points in the Sintra Mountains. A local guide showed us around the colorful
exterior and the well-appointed interior.
Then we had time on our own to explore the town and eat lunch.
Partial view of the Palace of Pena
Me and Diane on balcony
We reboarded the coach and headed toward
the Lisbon coast and the Cabo da Roca, Roca Cape, the westernmost point of
Europe with its views and lighthouse. We
stopped in Cascais, a harbor that Portugal's last kings turned into an elegant
seaside resort with a large sandy beach.
That evening, we left our hotel and went by coach to the Estufa Real
restaurant, located in what was once the royal greenhouse in the 18th century
Ajuda Palace botanical garden. After a welcome
cocktail, we were served a three-course meal while overlooking the Tagus River
and the gardens. We were serenaded by a Tuna
Band, or group of university students in medieval dress who played traditional
instruments. As dessert was served, a
local Fado singer entertained us with the Portuguese singing that is renowned
for its expressive and profoundly melancholic character.
Beach in Cascais
After we left our hotel the next morning,
we went on a motor coach tour of Lisbon and two UNESCO World Heritage
Sites. First, we joined the queue to
enter the Jeronimos Monastery. It is one of Lisbon’s most elaborate
buildings. Inspired by Vasco da Gama’s
voyage to India, King Manuel I commissioned the edifice in the 1500s to thank
the Virgin Mary for a successful journey. For 400 years, the monastery’s monks gave
guidance and comfort to sailors. I will
remember it for the snack they served us after the tour. It was a Portuguese custard tart, a rich tart
pastry made using eggs. This classic
tart was first made by the catholic monks of the monastery around 300 years
ago. They used egg whites to starch
their clerical clothing. So, they began
thinking of ways in which they could use the yolks. They then came up with a recipe of sweet tarts
made using the egg yolks. Yum, yum,
bless the monks.
Queue at the Jeronimos Monastery
Our tour coach stopped so we could watch
the marching honor guards at the Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar, or
memorial to the overseas fallen soldiers.
From the early 1960’s to the mid-1970s Portugal fought a controversial
campaign in Africa, attempting in vain to keep hold of its colonies there. This conflict took the lives of over 9,000
soldiers, many of whom came from the Lisbon area. The bloody war was a factor which led to the
toppling of Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar whose right-wing regime had held
power since 1932. The memorial consisted
of two large black and white pillars that sloped together to form an inverted
V-shape above an eternal flame. The
walls surrounding the monument contain the name of all the Portuguese soldiers
who lost their lives. Most would now
agree that the conflict should never have taken place.
Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar
We then proceeded to the Tower of Belem. It is a 16th-century fortification that
served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers
and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. Finally,
the coach took us to the port, and we boarded the Windstar Wind Surf. The ship soon took us north along the coast
towards Porto.
Tower of Belem
Windstar Wind Surf
The next morning at Porto, we took a tender
to shore and then boarded the Riverfront Tram Ride. These were electric cars that followed a
unique route along the banks of the Douro River between the historic center of
Porto and Jardim do Passeio Alegre, a 19th-century garden that is flanked by
graceful old buildings and dotted with willowy palms, sculptures and
fountains. Then we had a guide for a walking
tour of the old city. In the afternoon,
we boarded one of the traditional boats for a sail up the Douro River. The boat cruised along the Douro passing
beneath some of the many bridges connecting the two parts of the city allowing
us to admire the views of the historic district with its narrow streets, houses
and buildings that slope picturesquely down toward the riverbanks. For our amusement, there was more Fado
singing along with Portuguese wine.
Douro River boat
Fado singer
We started the next day in Vigo, Spain,
taking a motor coach tour up to Mount Castro where we had great views of the
harbor and our ship. The remains of hill-forts that constituted the early
settlement of the area were located amidst the forests and leisure areas. We continued by coach along the coast to
Baiona, one of the most important fishing villages of the Galician coastline. There, we visited the remains of the old walls
dating from the 16th century and viewed monuments that showed the importance of
this village through history. Entering the
Romanesque Collegiate Church built in the 13th century we could view the
marvelous Romanesque rose window in the main façade. We visited the Monterreal
Palace (really a fortress) that occupies the whole of its own small peninsula. We walked up for a close view of the 17th
century Tower Castle.
Replica of the Pinta in Baiona
Walking up to the Tower Castle
Overnight, our ship sailed up the coast of
Spain to the port at Ferrol. There we
boarded a coach for the short ride to the Spanish naval base (still in use),
its museum and a short visit to Prioriño's Cape. The Ferrol Arsenal is the
principal support base for warships and naval installations in the Cantabrian
Maritime Zone, intimately linked to the history of Ferrol. We stopped for a
tour of the interesting exhibits in Spain's National Exhibition of Ship
Building or "Exponav."
Reboarding the coach, we enjoyed a panoramic city tour on the way to
Prioriño Cape for a unique view of the bay area. We visited the Interpretation Center which
consisted of the following: 1) a building housing exhibits about the defensive
batteries and expansion of the port of Ferrol, 2) the Punta Viñas Battery, an old
fort, 3) the Prioriño Chico Battery, a fortification of great historical value,
4) an ornithological observatory for sea and migratory birds and 5) the Prioriño
lighthouse. Then it was time to go back to the ship for dinner and an evening
of Olivia entertainment.
The Ferrol Arsenal
Diane at the Spanish Naval Museum
After a day at sea sailing across the mouth
of the Bay of Biscay, our ship next stopped at Brest, France. It was a rainy day. Our coach drove to Guimiliau where we saw the
castle, which housed a Maritime Museum, and the Tanguy Tower which dated from
the Middle Ages. A local guide gave us a
walking tour of the Guimiliau Parish Close. As the name suggests, a Close is a
completely enclosed church yard, usually with a commanding entrance arch. Dating to 1675, the Dallam organ pipes and
their enclosures at the Church of Saint Milieu were beautiful. We continued
in the coach to the little manor house of Kerveleoc to sample some specialties
of Brittany. We tasted some local paté,
pastry and the famous Breton crêpes, served with cider and Chouchen (local
liqueur). On our way back to Brest, the
coach made a photo stop at Landerneau for a nice view of the Rohan's Bridge,
built in the 16th century, one of the last inhabited bridges in Europe.
Parish Close
Dallam organ pipes
Tastes of Brittany
Rohan's Bridge
We woke up the next morning anchored off St
Mary's, the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of
five inhabited islands and other small rocky islets off the most south westerly
point of the British Isles. With an
exceptionally mild climate, and numerous sandy beaches, Scilly is a big tourist
attraction. We were met by a local guide
and given an introductory talk about the history of the isles and then given a scenic
tour of the town, harbor area, beaches and flower-strewn footpaths around St.
Mary’s. We met with artists, and saw
ancient sites. We enjoyed coffee in the
16th century Dungeon Bar of Star Castle before continuing on our
walk, returning to town and our ship.
Walking on St Mary's
We arrived the next morning at the Irish
port of Waterford. Diane and I did not participate in the shore tour since we
visited Waterford on our Ireland trip the year before. We took a shuttle from the dock into town and
decided to do our own tour of the “Viking Triangle.” We visited three places. First, we walked to Reginald’s Tower. It was
originally built by the Vikings. We
walked up the spiral stairs and saw the remains of a 19th century prison cell,
artefacts from Waterford’s Viking history and the sword of the Chief Constable
whose family were the last residents of the tower. The Bishop’s Palace was our second and the
Medieval Museum was our final destination.
After taking the shuttle back to the dock, we packed for the trip home the
next day.
Reginald’s Tower
Viking Diane
The next day, we flew from Dublin to St.
Louis via Toronto. We arrived home to
hear neighbors setting off fireworks on the evening of July 4th. We had enjoyed our time in old Lisbon, the
Olivia entertainers and sailing on the Wind Surf.