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This blog provides an insight into the world of our motorhome (MoHo) life. It is intended for our family and friends but we invite comments and questions from all travellers.

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Portuguese Bull Fight

Saturday 27 February 2016

OF DEATH, REMEMBRANCE & CUSTOM

"WE BONES HERE, FOR YOURS AWAIT" read the grim words above the entrance to the Chapel of Bones. The intention is to cause the viewer to reflect on the transitory nature of the human condition and thereby bring about repentance during our wait for what might lay beyond the grave. 

This ossuary is one of several that we have discovered and while the tradition of preserving and decorating a chapel with human remains may leave many squeamish, this is more due to the differences between our own cultural practices and those of that we have encountered on our travels.




In the setting of the convent of San Franscico, Portugal this dim and gruesome place lays in stark contrast to the church alongside which is notable for the recently completed restoration. Both the exterior and interior are presented in all their dust free and splendidly detailed magnificence.








Not as well presented and yet as equally macabre and fascinating is another ossuary hidden away in Elvas, a few kilometres from the Spanish border. For the entry price of 2 Euros you can enter the small chapel and wonder at the sight of countless human bones entirely covering the walls and ceiling  in decorative patterns. Another sombre reminder of our mortality. 





In these deeply religious countries we are currently in the approach to Easter and traditions and rituals abound. It's the time of year to polish the Saintly statuary and dress the processional figures for the annual round of community festivities.




Wood and paper mache figures from 1740 await their costumes before being taken to the streets.




Everywhere we travel preparations are in progress for this important Christian celebration of the final days in the earthly life of Jesus, the crucifixion and the resurrection. Representations of these biblical events are to be found in every church and have historically been the subject for artworks in every media, by the greatest of the masters.


  Ivory sculpture of The Crucifixion. 17th C.





The ancient lands of Europe have seen the rise and fall of numerous civilisations and their popular belief systems. The aspirational architectural of the religious and ritualistic is often all that remains of these once powerful societies and we delight in hunting down what has been preserved of this record. Often these structures exude an air of the magical or spiritual and their attraction is much to do with the unanswerable questions they pose.

Much of what remains intact represents the cultural beliefs surrounding death and remembrance. The following examples explore some of these practices beginning with places so ancient they remain beyond our understanding.

Throughout Spain and Portugal we have driven dusty roads between cork and olive trees and cursed inaccurate GPS coordinates in search of the primitive stone assemblages called Dolmen. Thought to be ceremonial sites and probably burial chambers, these structures date from between 3000 & 5000 BC and are remarkably well preserved. They stand as a testament to the ingenuity of a lost race






Some of these stone buildings which have stood for around five thousand years have been repurposed by subsequent communities such as this tiny chapel in Pavia, Portugal:




Sometime prior to 200,000 years ago hominids wandered this landscape and there is evidence of Neanderthals coexisting with humans as recently as 10,000 years ago in Iberia. They were followed by the Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians and eventually the Romans.

Roman grave near our lakeside camp.


Empires continued to rise and fall and what is now Portugal had previously fallen to the Vandals, Alans, Visigoths, Suevi,  and the Moors before they in turn were overcome by the christians who began their surge south from Porto in 868.

We have visited some fine examples of Romanesque churches, aqueducts & bridges but it is the Christians who now dominate the architectural and ideological landscape.




Monumental gothic cathedrals, ornate chapels and the ever present influence of Catholicism adds an enduring richness to the built landscape. Even the smallest of towns retains it's calendar of festivals and local traditions. Inhabitants long past are interred in cluttered cemeteries with crumbling caskets inside lichen covered tombs.




The management of mortal remains is governed by local tradition and current religious practice.
In the museum of the damaged cathedral of Lisbon we found Egyptian and Peruvian mummies amongst other relics which now stand testament to the former wealth and influence of the Portuguese empire.

                   



Amongst the strangest of experiences was when we visited the church just outside Viana do Alentejo. A modest but attractive building from the exterior the corridors we wandered into beyond the alter were covered in a weird collection of memorabilia to lost relatives and prayers for the living.

               

Countless photographs, locks of hair, toys, uniforms and just about everything you could imaging including a stuffed python with dentures created and erie but fascinating visit.






Of course such things are a matter of taste and we are constantly surprised by the experiences we are privileged to have. It seems that every decent sized town immortalises an historic figure in the bronze form of a mounted nobleman or a robed monk.
                        




If you are looking for the off the scale unusual is can be found at the Catacombe dei Cappuccini in Palermo, Sicily. Here the mummified remains of some 8000 distinguished persons have rested since the 17th to 19th centuries. Preserved in a what now seems a bizarre local tradition the bodies are presented fully clothed. In this vast crypt many of the deceased are affixed upright to the walls of the crypt and arranged in sections such as Children or Virgins. The remains were tended to by the relatives who would periodically change the clothing. This is not one for the fainthearted and it is difficult to reconcile with our current Western practices.

    
  




Returning to the more modern and conventional there are some fascinating spaces crafted by great architects to pay homage to fallen heroes and martyrs. One of the most memorable was a crypt we visited under the Cadiz cathedral. Recognised for it's outstanding acoustics and the massive domed ceiling that supports the main alter, the ambience and design of the tomb is unsurpassed.




Of the many deeply moving sites we have come across one of the most memorable would have to be the Ossuaries de Douaumont. Located at the site of the battlefield of Verdun, France, this massive structure is in fact a 137 m long ossuary that contains the bones of the 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers who were buried in mass graves and later relocated. The solemn atmosphere of the memorial is intensified by the cemetery below that contains 15,000 crosses and speaks of the terrible atrocities that fraternally united some 800,000 men who lost their lives in this area.







Those of us who meet a humble end may eventually rest in a more contemporary style and we should remember that our survivors choose the decorations. These glass fronted cabinets contain the casket and a collection of items representative of the deceased. We found many of the displays quite moving and it was apparent that they had been arranged with much affection.



As we walk the cemetery grounds we can't help but wonder about the events that filled the lives of the faces that look out from fading photographs. The rituals, trials and tribulations of more ordinary people who inhabited these lands for a short time and who now rest amongst their companions, family and community.






All cultures have their traditions and beliefs and our journey through these countries is an exploration of rich history and local customs. The practices involved in death and remembrance leave us with only one certain conclusion......

"WE BONES HERE, FOR YOURS AWAIT"

                        

***







Monday 15 February 2016

BIRTH OF OUR BLOG SITE FEBRUARY 2016


After nearly two years and various experiments with methods of keeping in contact while travelling, we have made the technological leap to a blog site.

After days of self taught site design here it is......

The previous posts included here are from updates we have written along the way for you to reminisce over and we intend to add new posts from time to time.

Please give us your feedback and become involved as the intention is to stay in better contact with you all.

For anyone who has wandered into this site out of interest then we hope you enjoy the visit and we would love to hear from you.

SUBSCRIBE:

If you would like to receive email notifications you can "Follow us by email" by entering your email address in the box under the main photo on the right.

The theme of the site is our journey in our motorhome through Europe and other than simply a chronicle of our experiences the blog will hopefully become a source of practical information for those who love the MoHo life.

To anyone who lingers here we hope you enjoy the visit.

Happy blogging,

David and Belinda.


THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY NOVEMBER 2014

It's now been nearly 7 months since we left Australia and started our European adventure. In that time we have seen and done so much so the following is just a snapshot of what we have done.

We spent our first four weeks in the UK beginning with a visit to Belinda's brother and his family in Perth, Scotland. We had brought with us over 120 kgs of luggage, including David's bike, courtesy of Emirates, who kindly and possibly by mistake didn't charge us extra.




After leaving the bulk of it in Scotland we spent a delightful week with Belinda's father and his wife driving the backroads of Yorkshire, a week in Wales and a week in the Lakes District. We then returned to Scotland for a few days and then hopped on a plane to Dusseldorf, Germany. The objective now was to begin the hunt for a motorhome/camping car so we hired a motorhome (MoHo) for two weeks and took a drive down the Moselle River into France and then back to Dusseldorf.

It was on this trip that we first made acquaintance with the Niesmann-Bischoff showroom in Polch and met the person who was to make our dreams come true.

With lots of questions and few answers we decided to kill some time until the big motorhome exhibition in September, so we headed off to Greece to catch up with our good friends from Perth, Australia and do some sailing with them in Greece. We flew ito Mykonos where they were waiting to take us aboard for what would be a wonderful aquatic adventure.

Initially we had expected to spend around ten days on Miranna but the weeks went by quickly with delightful days visiting small islands away from the normal tourist routes. Our course took us Eastward and then North towards Turkey as we stayed in picturesque bays swimming, eating drinking and relaxing. The long days sailing were appreciated by some more than others and David was in his element at the helm and making constant adjustments to the rig.



On a yacht water is a scarce resource so showers are few and far between and regular dips in the crystal waters provide more than a refreshing swim. Without a hair dryer Belinda rediscovered her curls and by the end of six weeks we had taken on a new feral persona.

We entered Turkey through the Dardanelles and when we docked in Cannakale we were reminded how small the world can be when we came across a couple we knew from Bunbury. Carol and Terry had been sailing the world for three years and happened to be in Cannakale at the same marina. Carol had been a teacher at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar and our children are friends.

At Cannakale we left Acky and Patti but not before we all hired a car a did a self guided tour of the Gallipoli Peninsular.

The bus brought us to our next destination was Istanbul. This amazing city which we find every bit as exciting as New York was open for discovery. Our apartment in a residential area on the north side of the Bospherous and hence away from the tourist areas presented us with a side of Istanbul that we hadn't seen before. More wonderful cuisine and some memorable museum experiences left us with a promise to return.




An important factor in the routes we took was a desire to avoid spending time in the Schengen Zone. Our next commitment was to meet a group of ten expatriates in Croatia for a long lunch. The cheapest and most fun way to get there was to fly to Montenegro so we arrived, hired a car and spent a week driving the length and breadth of this pretty country. Pretty that is except for the coastline that has been spoilt with bland and congested developments.

Having book some "apartment" accomodation we learnt that this usually meant staying in a section of someone's home. This of course led to some strange experiences, especially when no English is spoken. In this beautiful country of only 250 sq. kms. there are amazing mountains, deep lakes, beautiful beaches and arguably the worst drivers in the world.

The bus trip from Montenegro to Croatia was scheduled to take five hours. After starting two hours late and delays at four border crossings we eventually arrived eight hours later then needed to catch another two buses to get to our destination, all for 25 Euros.

Sensing that we had overshot our stop we got off the bus and were kindly picked up by a passing taxi driver who dropped us to our apartment in the charming village of Kastle Novi. This village is one of seven which almost merge along the Dalmation coast. All have their own castle hence the name and we came here because our friends from Bunbury have bought an apartment here.

Being a thirty minute bus trip from Split makes it an ideal location, not to mention the great beaches and the delicious food served up at the local restaurant. After ten days we started to feel like locals and even managed to meet with another friend from Perth who's father was born in the region and was visiting on holidays. Small world indeed.

Some of the locals we were introduced to by our friends organised a couple of outings one of which we were just told was to "The Laundry". It turns out that we were taken to a clandestine still in a basement where we were treated to a seemingly endless sampling of home made liqueur. After a comprehensive loading of rocket fuel we were then taken by 4WD up a steep dirt track to a winery.

With views over the ocean to Split and a hearty meal cooked by the winery owners we took in the sunset while being entertained with tales of Croatian viniculture.

The sun was shinning so we hired bikes and rode along the waterfront towards Split  which brought us to where filming was taking place for "Game of Thrones".  Security was tight and whilst you couldn't get too close we were able see what was going on.

All of this fun was had while waiting for the Caravan Salon in Dusseldorf which was to be our big research opportunity and a make or break point for the whole MoHo plan. The Salon runs for a week and is the largest  caravan and motorhome exhibition in the world. The figures are staggering and the event is overwhelming. After four days of literally running from one exhibiter to the next we had eliminated a lot of manufacturers. The sticking point was that we still didn't even know if we were allowed to buy a vehicle in Europe.

It is very complicated but it turns out that it is impossible for a non-resident to register and insure a vehicle in Europe. Aside from our Schengen issues that limit us from being in the EU for more than three months every six the motorhome dream was over.

Our only hope was the representative we had met months earlier in Polch who had said he could make it happen. We were still sceptical which in hindsight was unfair but Niesmann-Bischoff manufactured a vehicle that was upmarket but perfect for our needs. We agreed to make the trip to Polch (1.5 hours by car) the next week and view one of their showroom vehicles which was the configuration that we wanted.

Long story short, we bought the MoHo and the registration and insurance was facilitated by N-B. At last we had overcome the big stumbling block but we had to wait until late October for a few modifications to be made before we could collect it. As a showroom vehicle it already had a fantastic package of options but we thought air-conditioning (rare in Europe), an external gas outlet, a shower in the garage and a few other modifications would be useful for our needs.

Not wanting to waste our precious Schengen days we headed back to the UK (not a Schengen member) and initially spent a week in London. What a great city but sooo expensive. We decided to hire a car for two weeks and drove to Scotland to collect some of our gear then rented apartments in Devon and in the middle of nowhere in Bristol. The car was a fantastic Golf with full sports pack which was a delight to drive and at an unbelievable bargain price of 7 pounds a day plus insurance.

Both rentals were through AirBnb which may sound like an advertisement but it is a cheap and easy way to travel. No horror stories and each place we stayed was as described or better. In Devon we had a two story cottage in Apledorn that overlooked a tidal inlet and in Gloucester we had a lovely stone cottage on a horse stud. Very interesting.

Improbably we only had one day of rain and it was now early October but and that ended as we crossed the border back into Scotland where we had five days of rain. Sean and Alison's house is nice and warm, so we were very cosy and we were made to feel very welcome.

From Perth we sent most of our luggage across to Germany and with the wait of years of expectation we collected our new home on the 27th of October 2014.

It's now the 10th of November and we are well and truely settled into our mobile home. It's 9.23m long and 2.45 m wide and weight about 7 tonnes. Quite a handful and David is enjoying being a truck driver while Belinda is yet to drive the beast and is content with the role of spotting road signs that warn of roads that are too narrow, bridges too low or weight restricted roads. So far so good.

We have 17 more days left in the Schengen Zone and our only options are the Uk or Croatia. Deciding it is better to head south for the winter, yesterday we crossed north to south through Switzerland without stopping. It seemed that half the trip was through tunnels one of which was eighteen km long.

We are now in Northern Italy on a lake near Como. The only problem is that it has rained all day and you can barely see the lake. This was to be expected given the time of year but we really have no choice but to move towards Croatia.

The MoHo is well heated and cosy and we are loving the new space and discovering how to operate all of this amazing technology.



The plan from here will be to spend time in Croatia until we qualify under Schengen rules to re-enter and then head to Southern Italy os Southern Spain to find warmer weather.

Saturday 13 February 2016

TOUR DE RHUR OCTOBER 2015


I should begin by declaring a fascination with the aesthetic pertaining to the industrial age. My genetic lineage stretching back to the height of the steam age has embedded in me an appreciation of the beauty in machinery of all sorts. I accept that not everyone has an interest in such things, but for those who marvel at the architecture, design, inventiveness and the enduring legacy of this fading time, it is reassuring to know that its best features are being preserved. With a few weeks to fill in before we return to Polch for MoHo servicing, Belinda and I decided to follow the course of the Lippe River, which runs for about 120km from Detmold before adding it’s volume to the mighty Rhein at Wesel.

The Ruhr region is dominated in every aspect by its historical role in industrial Germany. The relatively flat landscape is punctuated with enormous mountains of discarded rock from the numerous coalmines. Here the abundant supply of power and raw materials allowed heavy industry to flourish and ultimately attracted the vengeance of allied bombing during WW II.

The war obliterated much of the urban environment but led to a new time of prosperity for industry and the subsequent march of modernity brought ambitions for a better life to the citizens. Whilst industry remains the economic focus of the region, the push for a better environment and improved leisure options has resulted in a massive project of urban renewal.

The main objective was to preserve the historical heritage by converting disused infrastructure into community facilities and reclaim the damaged landscape for recreation.

So it was that we followed the “Industrial Heritage Trail” for almost two weeks and immersed ourselves in what had once been an ocean of ugliness now in the process of beautification. There have been too many wonderful experiences to relate them all but I will try to do justice to some of the high points.

Many of the formerly unsightly tip mountains have been revegetated and are now peaceful places to walk or cycle through refreshing forests.


The first of these we came across unknowingly when we took our friends Liz and Lloyd to visit a massive sculptural piece called Tiger and Turtle – Magic Mountain near Duisburg.

I had seen images of what looks like a rollercoaster but it is in reality a looping staircase that serves as a lookout on top of a disused mine “tip”.


I have created a Flickr album where you can view more detailed images theatre in this blog. Just click on this link: http://www.flickr.com/gp/davidponton/30396c

It had us bemused and enthralled at the time we visited but having now travelled the “Route der Industrielkulture” and seen many of the other oversized sculptural installations adorning the hilltops it makes more sense.

Another similar installation is the Tetraeder (Tetrahedron).



















Here after a solid walk up the hill and several hundred steps you can view the peculiar magnificence of the Ruhr region.





















We both agreed that the highlight of all the attractions we visited was in a town called Bad Rothenfeld, which is a spa town. These centers for remedial therapy are popular in Europe and this one like several others is based around an enormous “gradierwerk” or graduation tower.

















These magnificent wooden structures were originally built to concentrate salt by running water over an almost vertical surface of densely packed brush bush and allowing the wind to evaporate the water.
















They have found a new use for the several nearby health clinics, as the salty, humid atmosphere is believed to cure many illnesses.



















Light Sight is a festival of projected video held every second year between September and February when a number of world-class videographers are invited to exhibit their work that is projected onto the side of the towers.
The audience simply walks the paths at the base of the towers and takes in the amazing spectacle. We spent three hours the first night and were so enthralled by the images that we stayed another night to see them again.

One artwork by Ryoji Ikeda from Japan spanned a hundred meters of wall space and I estimate 20 meters in height. It is projected with 25 massive projectors mounted on tall poles. Other artists included William Kentridge of South Africa and Daniel Crooks of New Zealand. This event has gone on our must do list for 2017 and is one of the most amazing art exhibitions we have ever witnessed. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words so I would encourage you to visit the web site…….. http://www.lichtsicht-biennale.de/uk/start/

Staying on the theme of art museums and light we also visited the unique Zentrum Fur Internationale Lichtkunst. Located at Unna and utilizing the enormous and labyrinthine underground spaces of a disused brewery this museum is the world’s first (2010) and only museum dedicated to light art. http://www.lichtkunst-unna.de/en/start-page.html

The permanent collection includes the monumental work by the illustrious James Turrell called Third Beneath which uses a camera obscura to project a sky image into a dark room underneath an observation room in the form of a “open sky” installation.

The newly opened temporary exhibition called “!DARK!” was also a delight both for the outstanding art works and to enjoy the underground facility.

IMAGES from DARK

1)CONNECT, BACK TO BACK. Regine Schumann (2012/2014) Acrylic




















2)TUNNEL of TEARS for UNNA. Keith Sennier (2002) Neon and Argon.















3)LOTUS SHADOWS. Rebeca Horn (2006) Copper, glass, steel & light.













4)THE NIGHT IS THE EARTH’S SHADOW. Vera Rhom (2005)

















What do you do with a 110 meter tall, obsolete gasometer?















Turn it into and art gallery and produce another surface on which to project an intriguing 20 minute video work.
This time the images are projected not on the outside but on the inside of this industrial behemoth.

Two lower levels of gallery space for temporary exhibitions lead to the open cavity, which again uses many projectors to create illusions and patterns on the internal walls of the gasometer cylinder. Had it been any longer than twenty minutes we may have nodded off in the comfort of the bean bag chairs.





Top all of this off with a glass elevator ride to the roof of the structure for an overwhelming vista of the Ruhr with it’s snaking railways, steaming power plants, green canals and clustered urban communities.




















Along the way we found some interesting places to spend the night. Belinda has become adept at finding diamonds amongst the coals and we have enjoyed everything from carparks by canals to paddocks next to pubs. Every site has its advantages and in the midst of these congested urban environs we always enjoy a restful nights sleep but can’t always manage an outdoor BBQ.

Several of the obsolete industrial sites have been renovated and turned over to community usage in the form of theatres, museums of every theme and conference/function centers. One such site we visited and were granted the privilege of a personal tour was Wunderland in Kalkar.

This gem of repurposing is the brainchild of a Dutchman who in 1995 bought an unused fast breeder nuclear reactor and turned it into an utterly bizarre amusement park/convention motel. You can climb the cooling tower, ride the usual amusement park rides or take to the numerous themed bars including the Wild West and Egyptian, or take a competitive challenge in the bowling alley bar.

It all seemed too improbable to be true but when we asked our guide we were told that there was 100% occupancy for that weekend. This seemed a weird clash between children’s entertainment and adult bucks/hens nights. Welcome to Wunderland!

Next on our list of disused industrial relics turned into tourist attractions was the Aquarius Wassermuseum. Where do you house a museum about water? In an historic water tower of course. These inherently beautiful water towers made from brick and steel were critical to the growth of industry and the communities that worked in the Rhur.

Many have been preserved because of their obvious elegance and this one near Mulheim has been cleverly adapted to house a museum dedicated to all things to do with water. Although it is aimed mainly at school aged “kinder” we enjoyed seeing inside the structure and pressing and tweeking the many knobs of the interactive displays.






To Belinda’s delight and my disappointment several of the bigger museums were closed the Monday that we were close by. Enormous halls that used to pulse with the rhythm of heavy machinery and bring the contradiction of employment at the expense of health or life now lay silent except for the footsteps of museum visitors.













We did manage to visit a few museums where intriguing displays have been crafted from collections of gargantuan memorabilia. Steam trains, blast furnaces, cannons and drop forge presses are presented in splendid context that describes their lost place in the modern workplace. It is a terrific experience to see that so much effort has been put into preserving this heritage, which seems so brutal and yet so magnificent.

The alluring industrial architecture where aesthetics found harmony with purposeful functionality has not simply been preserved but reinvigorated into recreational facilities to perpetuate the memory of a fading era.

On this site the entire former colliery along with the coking plant which “was the most modern and beautiful colliery in the world”, has been given a new life as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The vast Ruhr History Museum sits in contrast to the Red Dot design museum that focuses on prize winning contemporary designs. One is left to admire the vision and creativity that has turned these monuments to industry into places charged with ambience for relaxation and education.

The roads in this congested metropolitan region present challenges of many kinds when you travel in a large MoHo. Fortunately after almost a year and 27,000kms under our belt, I am much more at ease with driving and maneuvering our 7.5 tonne home on six wheels. In all truthfulness I love driving the MoHo and if we are camped for more than a couple of days I really look forward to hitting the road again and seeing the world pass by from our elevated seating.

When you have the opportunity to saturate yourself in something that is so absorbing as this region, it is easy to have too much of a good thing. Yesterday we realized we had reached our limit of the urban environment and headed for what in the guidebooks looked to be a quite camp by a lake in nearby Netherlands.

Some much needed nature therapy was required and once again Belinda found a peaceful camp right on the shore of a pretty waterway with only one other motorhome for company. We keep a record of the places we stay and rate them out of “5”. This one is definitely a 5. A rosy sunset and some duck breast on the Weber brought the day and our peripatetic “tour der Rhur” to a restful end. N51.7324 E05.9168