Family Visits

With just a few weeks before our departure from London we got some very welcome family visits. First, our youngest daughter, Jill came to visit from May 22nd to 29th. For part of that time we also enjoyed the visit of Debbie Peoples, Jill's aunt. They arrived together after some time in Germany and a few days in Paris -- Debbie left to return to Germany after a couple of days, but Jill remained with us for a week until she left for the US and home.

It was great to have them both here -- they did what we usually recommend for all our visitors -- toured London on the open-top, get off-and-on bus. It's a great way to get oriented to the city and to see what sights to return to.

Jill and Kathi went to see "Mary Poppins" on stage -- the second time for Kathi, but she said it was as great as it was the first time. Jill really enjoyed it, too -- of course it's one of the best shows we've seen since our arrival in London, so we really did expect her to like it a lot. To continue with our now traditional affiliation with West End theater, we also took Jill with us to see a newly opened musical comedy called "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the Novello Theater. (Chuck has a soft spot for that theater, as he had (and has) several cousins named Novello.)

After some difficulties with Continental Airlines at Gatwick Airport (they cancelled her ticket to return to the US -- for some reason they decided she hadn't made her flight to Europe a couple of weeks earlier) she did finally return home safely to San Diego.

Lisa Caldwell, Kathi's cousin, and Lisa's uncle David Wood (who is not related to Kathi) were our next guests, arriving on 10 June and departing on the 20th. David is a committed Anglophile and has, for years, imagined visiting England and the UK. For most of the 10 days he was here he was on cloud nine. He's active in several aviation-oriented on-line groups where there are a number of other participants from the UK. David had arranged to visit several of these "internet friends" while here, so in the midst of the visit he took a couple of days to visit some of these friends in Southampton and other places. Lisa went with David for some of the outside-London visits, but returned to us a day sooner than David did.

Lisa, too, found London and the UK equally enjoyable. Once again we recommended that she and David take the open-top bus tour of the city to get the "lay of the land" and to see what sites they would want to return to. Among their activities were visits to the British Museum, the British Library, the aviation museum at Duxford (outside London) and others. Lisa and Kathi visited Windsor Castle and had high tea while David was visiting some of his friends outside the city.

While here they attended "Phantom of the Opera" at the Queen's Theater. They were also kind enough to take Kathi and Chuck to dinner and a play. Since we had enjoyed "The Drowsy Chaperone" so much (and because there were not many plays available at the half-price booth on that day) we went with them to a second viewing (for us) of "The Drowsy Chaperone". David and Lisa both found this madcap, but highly original show very enjoyable.

Barcelona 2007

We made our second trip to Barcelona in early June -- while Chuck attended a conference at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and discussed some cooperative research agreements with two faculty members there.

As we reported after our visit there a year ago, architecture is a big subject in Barcelona, coming up in all sorts of circumstances. This, of course, is to be expected in a city with so many striking buildings which was the center of the Modernisme movement in the early 20th century and the home of Antoni Gaudi, the best-known practitioner of the genre. This time we got to vist Gaudi's famous Casa Mila which seems to be considered by many as the premier example of the style.

Quoting from www.architecture.about.com: "The final secular design of the Spanish surrealist Antoni Gaudí, Casa Milà Barcelona is an apartment building with a fanciful aura. Wavy walls made of rough-chipped stone suggest fossilized ocean waves, while doors and windows look like they are dug out of sand. A comical array of chimney stacks dances across the roof.

This unique building is widely but unofficially known as La Pedrera (the Quarry). In 1984, UNESCO classified Casa Milà as a World Heritage site, and it is today used for cultural expositions."

The tour included a typical apartment within the building, furnished in the style of the 1910s -- and it was truly spacious and light-filled. Of course, the apartments in this building, which must have been a marvel of their time were intended for the upper-middle class or even wealthy.

Some of our Barcelona pictures are at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2976771#161073431

Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

Quoting from www.knowitall.com: "Lucca is the most wonderful small town; its famous walls enclose a place that can be wandered or pedalled with ease yet remains full of secrets.
One of Italy's finest mediaeval treasures, the centre is relatively unspoilt and is sprinkled with palazzi, towers and almost countless splendid churches. The surrounding hills produce some excellent wines and arguably the finest olive oil anywhere, whilst the beaches and nightlife are but a small hop away."

We arrived on a day with a rain-threatening sky, but happily, the clouds receded and the sun emerged holding the rain off until we were returning to the parking lot outside the city walls. As mentioned above, Lucca is famous for it's 15th century wall -- huge, very thick and virtually 100% intact. In fact the wall is so wide that the top has become a favorite foot and bike path around the city and a great vantage point for looking down into the gardens and at many of the old buildings in its nearly-intact medieval center. The pictures here show one of the city gates and a small section of the wall.

By the way, we may never have mentioned it, but there is an obscure Italian law that says anyone traveling with Susan DeCorpo (she and Jim were with us in Lucca) is required, at least once each day, to stop to buy gelato. That's why, when you look at our Lucca pictures, below, you will see a picture of a gelato shop on the Piazza St. Michele.

An interesting feature of Lucca is the Piazza Anfiteatro, on the site of an original Roman amphitheater. Over the centuries, various buildings were built along and among the amphitheater's walls and its original purpose was lost. It is now a beautiful oval-shaped plaza, surrounded by buildings built along the original lines of the outer wall of the amphitheater. The buildings now house shops and restaurants on their ground floors and an outdoor table at a cafe in the Piazza is a lovely place for a cup of coffee or a meal. We enjoyed lunch at one of them.

Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini, by the way.

Like so many Italian towns, Lucca has a wealth of beautiful churches. St Frediano has a magnificent 13th century mosaic on the facade and St. Michele is adorned with a bewildering variety of marble carvings (Lucca is not far from Carrara, the home of the classic white marble) including numerous pillars carved to many different designs. Amidst all this ancient beauty, there is a vibrant, living town, with many modern shops and services -- but with all of them made to reside peacefully with the town's ancient fabric.

For our pictures of Lucca, go to:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2976123#161031623

Lerici, Carrara, Aulla, Italy

Lerici is a beautiful waterfront Italian town on the Bay of Poets -- named for Shelley and Byron, both of whom spent holidays there. We stayed there for 4 nights while Chuck was involved in business at the NATO Undersea Research Center (NURC) in nearby La Spezia. Our hotel, the Doria Park, overlooked the heart of the town and its harbor on the bay. We were joined there by Jim and Susan DeCorpo (Jim was Chuck's predecessor in his current job as Chief Scientist of the Office of Naval Research Gobal, and Jim is now head of the international office of the Department of Homeland Security). We also visited friends Jeff and Maxine Haun -- Jeff was a colleague of Chuck's and Jim's at ONR Global, leaving about a year ago to become a researcher at NURC.

In addition to the usual local explorations of the beautiful Italian coast and the town of Lerici, we enjoyed dinner on two evenings with the Hauns as well as the DeCorpos. We also had the chance to visit the Hauns at home on a steep hillside that overlooked the local mountains.

One of our dinners together was at a restaurant the Hauns recommended, located at the top of one of the local mountains overlooking the Bay -- a restaurant serving traditional Ligurian food, but without a menu. Diners declare their preference for fish or meat for each course and are served a variety of delicious dishes for each of the courses. Naturally, we all upheld the ancient tradition of eating more of this delicious food than we should have.

Our photos of Lerici are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2975155#160973528

Along with the DeCorpos, we spent two days driving in the local area. On one day we drove, with the DeCorpos into nearby Carrara, site of the quarries for the world-famous marble. (When driving past Carrara, it is not uncommon for travelers to think the mountains above the town are snow-covered when, in fact, what they are seeing is the large expanses of white marble.) With Chuck at the wheel (and with a bit of trepidation on his part) we found ouselves driving up very steep mountain roads, pulling aside to let enormous trucks, loaded with heavy loads of marble, pass by. There were quarries on all sides. One can't help but be impressed by the fact that Michaelangelo took the very marble for some of his masterpieces from the same quarries -- and that after centuries there is still marble to be quarried.

On the way back from Carrara we made a short stop to visit the Castle Potentiana, only to find that the castle was closed on that day -- and that it isn't even visible from the car park. So we contented ourselves with some pictures from the castle heights.

We also made a short stop in the town of Aulla as we passed through it -- having noticed that a street fair and market were in progress. We joined the locals for an interesting and entertaining hour, picking up some gadgets and snacks in the process. Then on to Lerici at dusk, another fine dinner (followed by a gelato, of course.)

For photos of the marble quarries of Carrara, as well as Potentiana Castle and Aulla, go to:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2975387#160990982