Tag: pen

The Not Taken Vacation: Tram Ride in Lisbon

Lisbon is a very hilly city! Can you imagine huffing and puffing your way home, to the market, to the sea, to the museum, to the doctor, to the park, to your mother’s Sunday dinner, to anywhere?

No?

Me neither. (My days of training for the Olympics are long gone.)

Enter the tram. To learn about the history of the tram in Lisbon, Portugal, Wikipedia has an interesting and fascinating article. Some of them are two-way, meaning one on the left and right of a main street, and others, such as this one, go one way up and down narrow, winding roads.

I am sure that there are many things which typify Lisbon, but for me, a tram ride would be my first thought. This way you can see the streets of the city, look at houses and architecture, see people away from tourist spots. A single track – such as here – chugging through they neighborhood – with very narrow sidewalks on either side makes, in my imagination, for a rather scary experience. And cars in front of such a tram? A child chasing a ball? How fast do these trams go?

My mother recalled the electric buses which ran throughout Chicago and its environs as a kid. It was often the only way to get anywhere for most people. Horse-drawn ice wagons, too, are part of her childhood memories, as were the Cossacks on horseback in Poland those of her parents. I have driven since 16, and have used public transportation very little. Cars are my way of scooting around. However, the cable cars in San Francisco are world-famous and first class fun – I would take those any day. But, for now, I must suffice myself with an imaginary ride on a tram up and down the hills of Lisbon.

The Not Taken Vacation: Rock of Gibraltar

So . . . we continue at sea, bypassing A Coruna and visiting Lisbon and Porto (oops! I forgot my sketches of Lisbon!) before heading east into the Strait of Gibraltar and heading into the Mediterranean. If I recall my geography and geology, Africa and Europe were once connected here, which is why the famous monkeys of the Rock of Gibraltar exist today. And the Rock of Gibraltar, an English outpost on the tip of southern Spain, dominates the scenery as you sail through. Cruise ships land here, and while we did not, let us pretend we did (since this whole Not Taken Vacation is imaginary) to climb the rock and see the sites.

From the sea, the Rock of Gibraltar rises up, formidable, stately. At times it is shrouded in clouds, other times sharp and crisp against the sky, or softened by moist sea air. Beneath, at the water’s edge, is where people live. Apartments and houses are expensive. Spaniards cross the border daily to work for higher wages but not getting the social benefits such as pensions (my understanding) that they would pay into if working in Spain. English and Spanish are spoken here, and while English is the dominant language, Spanish is not a bad thing to know.

There is a lot of history and a lot to see in Gibraltar. I chose to climb upward to see what I could see. Africa to the south. Coastlines to the east, mountains to the north. And monkeys! Really, Barbary Macaques, which are protected and the unofficial national animal of Gibraltar. They are friendly – but they do bite!

I sat here awhile, visiting with and ignoring the macaques, watching the world below and above, basking in the sun, and thinking up a song of “basking with macaques” which will soon make it to the Top 10 list of rock-n-roll songs.

The Not Taken Vacation: Torre de Hercules, A Coruna, Galicia, Spain

I am typing with two hands, ten fingers, no toes! It is so exciting to be able to return to a relatively normal life even though it was extremely difficult for a few days. My arm is nowhere near as strong as it once was – not that it ever was – but at least I am getting some skills back. Two-fingered typing was getting efficient, but two-handed is much better.

So, where are we today on my untaken vacation? We have sailed from Liverpool south, down the coast of France, perhaps watching the coast as we cruise past Normandy and down through the Bay of Biscay – or further out to sea to meet up with the western bit of the Iberian Peninsula as we head to A Coruna. But! Alas! We could not make it into port in A Coruna – probably the same sucky weather that prevented our mooring in Ireland.

What do we miss? An old city. What do we see as we bypass this port? The one thing that struck me as most-likely-to-be-seen was the lighthouse known as the Tower of Hercules – formerly Farum Brigantium. A bit of research shows a genuinely amazing bit of history as it is the oldest known extant lighthouse, one dating from the 2nd century AD (CE if you want!), and possibly erected by a Roman emperor. For me, one who lives in a SoCal suburb, such history is hard to consider, much less a building of such age.

Read the blurb on Wikipedia – when I looked it up, the Torre de Hercules was astonishing. My humble sketch does not do it justice.

The Not Taken Vacation: Come Walk With Me

Knowing that we would be visiting the Ness Botanic Gardens while moored in Liverpool (the Land of the Scousers), I decided to go into town in Liverpool in search of another set of pan paints. We went to Cass Art (see above!) and found a lovely set made by Rosa, an artist supply manufacturer in the Ukraine. I chose the “botanical set” that has colors found obviously in nature, and flowers in particular. It includes the reds and pinks and violets that I couldn’t make in my other little set with its 12 colors. While those 12 colors are good for mixing almost anything, there was absolutely nothing that would provide a lovely violet of any shade or any pinks. So, if you’re in a garden, what are you going to do? Well I know what I would do: Go shopping!

As you can see, this botanical set has some really beautiful colors in it as well as multiple greens. A lot of artists like to mix their greens, and while I find mixing greens is fun, having a few pre-made ones from which you can make even more greens is even better. Yes, I am breaking all those artistic rules someone has determined, but so what?!

The first thing I did during this non-taken vacation fantasy was to just look at the different flowers that are available throughout the year at the Ness Gardens. They have lots of flowers, trees, open space, buildings, and just about anything you could think of, as well as walkways and paths and places you can wander in. A good botanical garden is always a pleasure, and one needs color to do it justice in paint.

So, since I was griping about a lack of pinks and lavenders or purples, why not do hydrangeas? White, pink, lavender, and blue. The color depends on the acidic or basic qualities of the soil. I just mixed these vaunted colors together and had a good time.

Sadly, I could not find any map online of the Ness Botanic Gardens, but I can assure you there are buildings to go into as well as pathways to follow. One such building is this one, whose purpose remains a mystery me (shown above), but I thought rather lovely as it had woods behind, and colorful trees and flowers in front of it.

And, relying on photos for my fantasy walk, I took this pathway into the woods beyond. You can see just how beautiful it is with layers of colorful flowers, shrubs, trees, and everything in between.

The Ness Botanic Gardens was going to be one of my high points of our voyage – that and being driven on the left hand side of the roadways! I always enjoy going to botanical gardens because it’s so much fun to learn about plants, see plantings both formal and informal, as well as the variety of trees, flowers, birds and insects. It is all too easy to forget the abundance and beauty of Mother Nature.

Next stop: A Coruña, Spain.