Tag: Sketchbook

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: Icelandic Turf Houses

For our next adventure into Iceland I thought it would be really interesting to explore what life was like historically. In a country where there is obviously a lot of rock and turf, and a seeming dearth of trees, what better thing to think about than how people lived for 1000 years before modern architectural technology?

I googled “traditional Icelandic houses”as Reykjavik is full of modern buildings and not a lot of older ones that I could see. This made me curious. Native resources created perfectly warm houses. People need shelter, and creatively use what is at hand. Early on around 950 CE, native birch trees were for building, and later wood from shipwrecks or detritus found on the beach was used.

There’s a really great website called The Ultimate Guide to Turf Houses in Iceland and it is filled with the history of preserved buildings, including houses, barns, churches, and schools. Turf buildings deteriorate quickly if not maintained.

Below is a really good video on that web page, which I’m linking below. It has some great information in addition to the aforementioned web page.

Next? Plants!