NORTHERN IRELAND, ARMAGH: ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL (CHURCH OF IRELAND)

 July 11, 2024

It was time to get back on the road, so we headed south from Belfast in our rental car, a definite upgrade from the one that had broken down on us a few days prior.

I should reiterate here that I am so grateful for Bob's excellent wrong-side-of-the-road driving skills. He does a great job handling manual shifting with his left hand and staying on the left side of the road. (The rental cars have reminders for tourists posted on the windshield.)

On our way out of Belfast, we saw this huge piece of geometric art looming over the freeway. Google Image has helped me identify it as RISE, a sculpture designed by Wolfgang Buttress that consists of a geodesic dome suspended inside a 98-foot diameter sphere. According to Wikipedia, "The inner sphere represents the sun rising over the bogs and the outer sphere represents the sun's halo, while the angled, steel supports are to represent the reeds of the bog meadows that extended more widely across the area before it was developed."  Wow, I'm glad I have Wikipedia. I never would have surmised all of that by looking at it.

It's still a bit of a shock for me to see King Charles's face in place of Queen Elizabeth's. The Northern Irish seem to have made the adjustment just fine.

SICILY: TAORMINA

 March 16, 2024

We took a 5:30 AM cab to the Naples Airport for our flight to Catania, Sicily, aboard an EasyJet plane, our first for that airline. We not only had to pay for our carry-on bags, but there was truly NO legroom. It was probably the tightest seating we've ever had. (Reminder to self: Say "no" to EasyJet in the future.) Luckily, the flight was just 50 minutes long. 

We picked up our rental car from Alamo--a VW Golf that was much too small for the four of us and our carry-ons, but we had no choice but to make do. One of our first sightings was Mount Etna. One of the tallest and most active volcanoes in Europe, it was impossible to miss. It's current height (subject to change in the next eruption) is 11,104 feet. In 2021, Etna had so many eruptions that its height actually increased by 100 feet! I read that it is two-and-a-half times taller than Pompeii, which really surprises me.  It has a hiking trail and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, but this was about as close as we got to it.

Our first destination was a viewpoint at the top of a very narrow, very steep, very windy road, but we were compensated for our discomfort by views of the Ionian Sea, the section of the Mediterranean Sea that basically lies between Italy and Greece.

We pulled off in a place where our car would (hopefully) not be hit so we could admire the scenery and some old stairs.

We noted that the climate and vegetation reminded us of Southern California, but perhaps a little more lush.

PORTUGAL: EVORA, PART II - EVORA CATHEDRAL, ROMAN RUINS, A LOST CAR, AND DINNER AT TABERNA TIPICA

 July 2, 2022

As I noted in the last post, we realized that we hadn't really paid attention to where we had parked the car, and so we decided we had better retrace our steps before we went any farther. We knew the more places we went, the less likely we'd be able to remember how to get back to the starting place. By the time we had walked about two blocks and made two turns, we realized we had no idea where to go next. There were so many narrow, twisting alleys and staircases that looked the same. We also disagreed on the general direction to go to find the car. I was sure it was one direction, and Bob was convinced it was another. We had no real landmarks in mind. We were in serious trouble.

However, in our wanderings, we did come across several other sites on our list, starting with the mid-gothic Cathedral of Évora, the oldest and largest medieval cathedral in Portugal. Construction started in the 12th century and was completed in the 14th century, although significant changes and additions were made up until the early 1700s. This cathedral is one of the structures cited in the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for Évora.

A few years ago I read the book The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris, which tells of the author's experience living in a Benedictine monastery for nine months. I think of her quiet, soul-searching prose every time we stroll down a cloister walkway, and somehow at the Évora Cathedral the laughter of running children made this particular experience that much more spiritual.

Off the cloister is a funeral chapel that contains the tomb of the cathedral's founder, Bishop King Peter, as well as the Archbishop of Évora who died in the 20th century. (However, I am not sure if I have these labeled correctly because there are also a few other tombs connected to the cloister.)

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART II - CATHEDRAL, CLERIGOS CHURCH AND BELLTOWER, AND A LUNCH DETOUR

 June 28, 2022

The Portuguese word Sé is used to mean "cathedral" or a diocese with a bishop. Typically, the word Sé is reserved for the main or ruling church of the community. 

We could see the Romanesque Sé do Porto, located on a hill in the middle of the historical city center, from all over town. 

On our way there, we passed the Fountain of Mouzinho da Silveira, built in 1875 as a monument to a Portuguese statesman who died in 1849. This landmark was dismantled in 1920 to make room for two businesses. In 1966, however, the businesses were gone and the fountain was reconstructed after a model of the original one. I'll bet it is beautiful when it has water in it (if it ever does).

Did you notice the cool reflection on the vehicle in the lower left corner of the photo above?

JERUSALEM: THE LAST SUPPER ROOM

At the beginning of the last week of his life, Jesus returned to Jerusalem in what is known as "The Triumphal Entry," a day that is now celebrated throughout much of the Christian world as Palm Sunday. The event is one of the rare stories actually recorded in each of the four Gospels.

When I was growing up, the painting below was the image I had of this event: Christ riding on a little white donkey, men and children waving palm fronds, women reverently placing their cloaks on the ground in front of the procession:

Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem by Harry Anderson (a devout Seventh-day Adventist painter who
was commissioned by the LDS Church in the 1960s to paint this and at least two dozen more paintings
of Christ, many of which hang in just about every chapel and temple owned by the LDS church)

When we were in Egypt later on in our trip, on several occasions we saw boys riding around on donkeys, and what struck me was 1) how feisty the donkeys were, and 2) how bouncy the ride was. Riding a donkey is not like riding a horse. 

Egyptian boy on a donkey

The traditional telling of the nativity says that Mary rode a donkey into Bethlehem, although that is not scriptural. (However, my husband says it is in the Protoevangelium of James.) If it is true, it could not have been a comfortable ride. And yet, there is something symbolically symmetrical and touchingly ironic about a pregnant Mary entering Bethlehem on a donkey just before she gave birth, and Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey just a few days before his crucifixion.