PORTUGAL, LISBON: GETTING THERE IN THE TIME OF COVID

 June 21-22, 2022

This post probably has a bunch of information in it that no one but Bob and I care about, but since this blog functions as our trip journal, I want to put it down here anyway. Feel free to scan or skip.

Three weeks before we were scheduled to leave for Portugal, when we were babysitting our granddaughters for a week while our daughter and son-in-law were on a getaway to Mexico, Bob started feeling ill. He test positive for Covid on the evening of May 30th. I took him to the Urgent Care the following morning. They did another test, also positive, and prescribed Paxlovid, an antiviral developed to treat high-risk Covid patients. He went into quarantine in our daughter's basement.

Two days later I woke up sick, tested negative, but went to Urgent Care, where I tested positive. Later in the day our oldest granddaughter also tested positive at home. It was clear we needed to go home before we infected everyone. Our daughter and SIL canceled the remainder of their trip and booked a flight home. Feeling that it wasn't right to expose a plane full of people to Covid, we rented a car and drove the 650 miles home.

After three days on Paxlovid, Bob tested negative (at home) for Covid on June 4. It was ten days before I tested negative on June 11. However, Bob had a rebound on June 10, something that occasionally happens with Paxlovid. The rebound commonly lasts three days, but on June 20, the day before our trip, Bob still hadn't had an official negative test, which was required for entry into Portugal. (As far as we could tell, Portugal was one of the last EU countries to require that, and it was on every site we looked at. I see that the requirement was officially lifted on July 1.) It was 21 days since Bob's original positive test. He hadn't had any symptoms for days, so a friend who is a Physician's  Assistant wrote a letter for him that cleared him for travel, but we were still nervous about Portugal's requirements.  We weren't sure if the letter would be accepted as it wasn't on an EU form, which seemed to be required, but visitors from outside the EU can't use the EU forms. So complicated. 

AMSTERDAM, PART 4, The End

One of the things that really impressed me on this particular trip through seven Central and Western European countries was the importance and prevalence of large Jewish communities in Europe.  There are areas of Los Angeles where we sometimes see Orthodox Jews, but for the most part the Jewish community blends in like most other religious communities in the United States.  That may be true in Europe today as well, but it definitely was not true prior to World War II, and the Jewish Quarters we toured in almost every country we visited testify of that.

At one time Amsterdam was the center of the Jewish community in the Netherlands. However, 80% of Amsterdam's 80,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Since coming home, I have learned that the first Jews deported from Amsterdam by the Nazis were sent to Austria's Mauthausen, the concentration camp we had visited with the Joneses earlier in this trip.  Later deportations were to the Polish camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor.

Today, there are 15,000 Jews in Amsterdam (about 1.8% of the population of the entire city), and they are respected and prominent members of the community. In fact, the mayor of Amsterdam from 2001 to 2010 was Jewish.

We visited the Jewish History Museum, which was actually established before World War II.  However, the Nazis destroyed or stole most of the collection.  The museum reopened in 1955 and slowly rebuilt its collection, which now includes 13,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and historical objects (only 5% of which are on display at any given time).

Hmmm. Do you think this one dates back to Noah?

This painting is of the Torah scroll being rolled up to be returned to the Ark (1859):

The museum has a nice collection of Marc Chagall paintings.  Chagall (1887-1985) is probably the most prominent Jewish artist of the 20th century.  According to a plaque in the museum, "Chagall owes his widespread popularity to his nostalgic depictions of a Jewish world long gone, enchanting love scenes, lively circus performers and his exuberant use of color."

On the left, The Inspiration of the Artist (self-portrait). On the right, The Rabbi and Torah:

Man with a Whip

The museum also has a ritual bath, or mikveh, which is used for ceremonial cleansing, such for a married woman after her menstrual cycle or for men and women (separately, of course) before a wedding ceremony. A sign noted that "Proselytes, before they are accepted into the Jewish faith, also immerse themselves in a mikveh":

I'm not sure what this poster represents, but it seems to express some anti-Nazi sentiment:

We also visited Amsterdam's Biblical Museum, housed in side-by-side canal homes dating to 1662. I'm guessing the carpet is not original.

The interior contains some beautiful Bible-themed art and high-quality models of ancient Biblical sites.

Herod's Temple

Jerusalem in the year 70 AD

The Temple Mount

 A rather random artifact was this head of a mummy man from about 1330-1070 BC. The face was covered with black resin, which resulted in almost perfect preservation.  Just a bit creepy.

Finally, we strolled through the Biblical Garden behind the museum.  All the plants are either mentioned in the Bible or grow in Biblical lands.

These giant stone heads covered with moss were very . . . um . . . unique:

No post about any foreign city is ever complete without a few words about the food.

I'll forgive them for that apostrophe. I'm impressed they have hot dogs at all!

I don't know why we have a photo of this poffertjes stand but no picture of the actual product!

This is definitely a different way of getting your daily chocolate dose:

I'm guessing that the same people who use the above might also use the goodies below:

One of the "must eats" in Amsterdam, according to Rick Steves and many other sources, is an order of Dutch fries smothered with mayonnaise.  They are very good, but definitely not good for you. They can be doused in other sauces, such as curry or peanut sauce, but we went for the slightly sweet mayo, the most popular, most traditional version:

Chris, I found one dish that could give gelato a run for the money: Pannekoeken, plate-sized Dutch pancakes available with dozens of different fillings.  Did we eat some of these before you guys flew back to Montana?

We had them more than once during the day we were in Amsterdam after you left. 

The warm waffles, doused in powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate, were also delicious:

Well, it's time to finish writing about this most amazing journey. All told, I think I've written forty-four posts. We toured the Czech Republic and Austria with Chris and Stan, added Julie and Alex to tour Hungary, then joined the remainder of my siblings, Angie and Pete, Doris and Reid, and Dave and Bonnie, in Switzerland. From there we traveled the Rhine River through Germany and France, ending in the Netherlands.

Bob and I have other adventures planned,and I'm sure there are more exciting trips ahead, but I don't think we will ever be able to top the feeling of being in Europe with all of my siblings and all of their spouses.

What a trip. What a family.  Mom would be so proud of us!

I'll end with just a few final pictures: Amsterdam's flower market:

AMSTERDAM Part 3--Two Places to Stay and Two Churches

Amsterdam is an interesting blend of old and new, modern and traditional, ornate and humble.  To illustrate, I've chosen two contrasting "places to stay" and two contrasting churches.

FIRST, TWO PLACES TO STAY

I don't usually blog about our hotels, but we stayed in one so unique in Amsterdam that it deserves mention here. After scouring TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, and other sites, we settled on citizenM Hotel.  The price was right and the reviews were extremely good. While it isn't in the downtown tourist area, it is located just a few blocks from the train station and right on the main bus line.

(Internet photo)

CitizenM is by far the most unique hotel we have ever stayed in.  It is made of shipping-container sized rooms, put together off-site and basically stacked atop each other during construction. Below is a photo of a photograph of citizenM Amsterdam that was hanging in the hotel.  I think some of the guests should close their blinds, don't you?

The rooms are tiny but incredibly well designed.  There is a wall-to-wall king-sized bed at the far end under an equally large window.

To get there, you have to weave through the "bathroom," a toilet area and a shower that each have a circular glass enclosure.  (This is not a room to share with someone you are not very comfortable with.)

There are lots of fun touches, like a "mood pad" that controls the TV, window blinds, temperature, wake up alarm, and lighting.  You can even turn the room purple or orange or whatever other color fits the mood you are in. Even the toiletries have a unique style:

 The hallways continue the world traveler theme:

Quotes about travel are painted on the door panels:

Pretty fun.

There can hardly be a bigger contrast to citizenM than the Anne Frank House, also located in Amsterdam.

When we were there, the line to get in snaked around the block.  We had been told that a special mutli-attraction ticket we bought would get us right in, but we couldn't figure out where to go to make that happen.  After standing in line a while, we realized that we were in the wrong line and went to another line.  Turns out we had been in the right line, and we had to go back to the original line, but to the end, effectively doubling an already long wait.

Once we finally made it inside, I pulled out my camera and had taken several pictures before I was sternly told that photography was not permitted.  Here are a few of my pilfered photos:

It was exciting to see the real diary, and later to see the attic rooms where Anne and her family lived for two years before being discovered and shipped off to concentration camps. While it was definitely not the citizenM, I was surprised by how large the living space in the hidden annex was. I wish I could have taken more pictures, but there are a lot of good pictures on the internet.  (For example, see here and here.)

One other thing I got a picture of before I was shut down was the display telling about the 1959 movie The Diary of Anne Frank, which won three Oscars.

Shelley Winters, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mrs. Van Daan, donated her statue to the museum:

The view from the window of the upper story of the house is beautiful.  I wonder how much of this Anne was able to see?

SECOND, TWO CHURCHES

Like all European cities, Amsterdam has many churches.  Nieuwe Kerk (or "New Church") is a 15th century church located on Dam Square and is only used as a church for important state events, such as weddings or investitures.

Nieuwe Kerk is the burial site of some famous Dutchmen, including Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676), the country's most famous naval officer:

In contrast to the richly ornate Nieuwe Kerk, the humble "Our Lord in the Attic Church" takes up the top three floors of a row house. It was built in the 1660s during a period when Catholicism was illegal in Holland.  When Catholics were finally allowed to build a regular church in the 1880s and worship openly, this attic church was turned into a museum, making it the oldest museum in the city.

Its quiet intimacy was very appealing after all the huge cathedrals we had visited during the previous two weeks, and the hidden rooms were eerily similar to those in the Anne Frank house.

Floorboards

The confessional:

COMING UP: One final post on Amsterdam, including food, Judaism, and the Flower Market.