Holiday in Greece

ATHENS, GREECE - I arrive this morning in Athens, Greece to join a friend who teaches in Liverpool for a university trip in Athens, Delphi and Corinth. I have to pretend to be an academic again by reading a couple of articles and making a presentation on a topic but the rest of the time it is soaking up Greek food and culture!

As I write this, I sit on the balcony of our room looking at the Acropolis and Pantheon bathed in soft yellow light. The moon is a sliver that periodically peaks through the clouds. The glow of Athens stretches to the mountains and there are two other well-lite rock formations as high as the Acropolis that seem to stand guard over the city.

Athens is an interesting city and nothing like Paris, Vienna or Rome. Some of the architecture in the city center is well maintained and the transit system is good due to hosting the Summer Olympics in 2004. But after the city center, the architectural interest drops off. It is a city that has been lived in for 7000 years so it is bound to have some wear and tear.

In some ways it is a dumpy city filled with smells, exhaust, graffiti, squat, non-descript buildings with flat or red tiled roofs and metal pull down shades or angled awnings. But there is also a vibrancy in the chaos and once I looked beyond the disrepair of streets and buildings, it was clear the city is a living organism with people rushing around, the mandatory Mediterranean scooters and men and women surfacing after dark and hanging out at cafes with a beer or a coffee.

I took the bus one hour from the airport to the city center and then a taxi for the short ride to my hotel. Of course, it is an old city with very narrow one-way streets (forget US SUV's) which are twisted into an almost indecipherable maze. At one point, my driver had to ask for directions and then a helpful fellow on a  motorcycle led us out of the neighborhood but after driving in a circle, we ended up in the same neighborhood where we started. Finally, the driver figured out the hotel was at the top of a hill, pointed up and dropped me off. After approximately 30 steps, I was at our hotel.

But with a second floor room and a small balcony, I have my view of the Acropolis and Pantheon.

Bus Trip to the End of the Road

SOUNIO, GREECE - We took a two hour bus trip from Athens along the coast to Sounio which has been a sacred site since very ancient times. The "sanctuary of Sounion" is first mentioned in Homer's The Odyssey and the Temple of Poseidon that now stands at Sounio was built in 444 BC atop of older temple ruins. 

After we visited the ruins we walked down to a Fish Taverna by the beach and had dinner. A good Greek salad (onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and a block of feta cheese) and atherina (sand smelts) which are considered a humbler, perennial local fish which is lightly dipped in batter and eaten head and tail. They are only a couple of inches long so it is just like throwing popcorn in your mouth and they are delicious. Very little fishing is done here from the end of May until mid-October so sand smelts and sardines it is!

We found a short cut along the beach and walked up the hill back to the Temple where we could watch the sunset and had a spectacular view of the Aegean Sea. During the day the water was turquoise but as the sun reflected back on the clouds, there was a mirrored reflection of pink on the clouds and the water.

All was calm and quiet with the world.

The Reunion with My Bike

What a glorious event, the reunion with my bike! On the evening of January 1, 2014, I returned to Leuven by train from Munich. I arrived in the evening and took the bus to a friend's flat who was out of town for the holidays. The next day, I walked to the place where I had parked and locked my bike 6 1/2 months earlier. Would my trusty steed still be there? Or would there be a gaping hole where someone had broken the lock, picked up my bike and taken her away.

As I crossed the small bridge over a stream, I could see the bike rack had been moved from the covered location to outside the small building. I peeked around the corner and there she was in all her glory. My grey and black bike with bright pink flowered saddle bags. She was a little dirty and of course wet, it is Belgium after all, but she was there and I could tell anxious to be on the road again.

I should stop here and explain how important a bike is to the life of a person in Leuven. Without a bike in Leuven, you are a walker and probably a tourist because everyone has bikes here. It is like being a cowboy without a horse.

The University has 43,000 students and I bet at least 75% of them have bikes and this does not include every person under the age of 18 and adults in the community. We have bike parking for 2,500 bikes at the Leuven train station and I can never find a parking place - that's how many bikes we have here.

And of course, there is the history that I have with my bike. I bought her in late September 2007 when I came to the University. I took the bus to a bike shop 15 minutes outside of town, because it was the only one I knew of at the time and picked up my freedom machine for about 450 dollars. Of course, like many businesses here, he would only take cash. So I had to walk a half a mile to a cash machine that did not work and then find a second to withdraw the money that I needed. But in no time, with a pair of saddle bags, I was on my way and the world around Leuven was mine to discover.

A picture of my bike in front of a holiday high heel (I guess this is art) with St. Pieter's Church in the background.

My first major adventure was when I bought a large wooden horse collar with hand wrought iron hinges at the flea market. This is a horse collar made for a draft horse and was a steal at 30 Euros ($40). It also weighed about 30 lbs. So I balanced the horse collar on the stem and seat of my bike and walked the mile back to my flat. The horse collar was part of my life the 5 years I was in Leuven and it now resides in the basement of a friend's home as I try to figure out how to get it back to the U.S.

My bike carried me through driving rain storms, stayed upright as I skidded on snow covered cobblestones and carried me along the canals and trails around Leuven.The saddle bags carried groceries, wine and picnic items and the various treasures I found at the flea markets.

I wore out the peddles, the kick stand, one pair of saddle bags, two dynamo headlights and two tires. I have added a bike bell and tire reflectors that I salvaged from abandoned bikes. The seat is held together with duct tape but she runs like a dream. And when I get on her during my visits to Leuven, I feel like a 10 year old flying through the streets and alleys of the city.

My first couple of days back, I had to work the moisture out of the seat. I think the bike had been sitting outside for a couple of months based on the water that kept oozing out of the seat as I rode which is why I tried to find covered parking. Though a wet rear end in the shape of a bike saddle is actually a badge of honor in Leuven as it shows that you are not a fair weather rider but will brave all the elements.

So, as I wrap up my time in Leuven, I have been scoping out a safe place to leave my bike. I have found a new covered bike parking location and decided to purchase a second lock to deter any would be thieves. She is not the prettiest girl in the bike rack but is reliable and with so many good memories, I cannot imagine a visit to Leuven without her to share the adventures.

The Heiliger Abend (The Holy Evening)

I am back in Germany for my 12th Christmas and the highlight of the Christmas season here is the Heiliger Abend or Holy Evening. Though the title is a bit of a misnomer as the day, December 24th starts with the local church bell ringing at 6:00 am. I roll over but at 6:15, the bells ring with the urgency of an invasion and I have no choice but to get out of bed. I roll into the church, two blocks from my flat at precisely 6:30 am for Mass. By now the church is packed with probably 250 people and another 25 standing in the back.

Over the years, I have learned church etiquette in Germany. Heating is based on the body mass index, the more bodies, the warmer the church. But even a full church does not ensure a truly warm church. Do not stand by an outside wall as in a short period of time, you will feel like you are standing in front of a freezer with the door open. I have felt breezes coming through the church walls. Some years, it is so cold in the church that I can see my breath as I sing and attending midnight mass is more like going to a Green Bay Packer home game. The only item of clothing I was missing that year was my snowmobile suit. So no one takes their coat off and most wear hats and gloves.

The early morning mass is beautiful complete with a choir and organ. I do notice a few of the older women slipping to the back of the church after communion holding their cloth bags - a sure sign that the next stop is the bakery.

I am standing in the back of the church so I am well positioned for the next major event of Christmas Eve - the sprint to the bakery. Purchasing bread daily is an important part of the German diet and bakeries are closed on the 25th and 26th so stockpiling bread is very important.

Mass ends at 7:15 am and I am walking rapidly to Benedict Sikt, the best bakery in Partenkirchen based on the line outside the door on the 24th. I pass Tegelmann's the local grocery store which of course is already open. The bakery is two blocks and I arrive in time to be 4th in line. This is a very important exercise because in no time there will be 10 people in line. Also, I am feeling the pressure because once it is my turn to order, I need to know what I want and to be able to say it precisely in German. The bakery is amazing as there are probably 10 kinds of brochen or rolls and 10 kinds of bread. My order is modest in comparison to others but I still receive the complimentary small loaf of stollen the store gives away on the 24th.

By 7:30, I am on my way to my other food shopping stops like the butcher and the dairy store. The morning shopping is critical as most stores close between noon and 2:00 pm. Many family businesses close the 23rd and don't reopen until the 30th. In Bavaria, Christmas is about the coming of the Christ child and spending time with family and so the shopping exercise is really secondary once the 24th rolls around.

By 2:00 pm, even the cafes are closed and the streets are deserted as everyone heads home to decorate the tree or prepare the evening meal. At this time, I like to visit St. Anton's the Franciscan Church that is a 10 minute walk up the mountain. It is an interesting church because the covered walkway of the Church is filled with hand carved wooden plaques commemorating the fallen of World War II. Many plaques have a small holder where flowers can be placed. This time, I noticed two women decorating plaques with greens and small ornamental balls. I went back to look at one that had been decorated. There was a picture of a couple, she died at the age of 39 in 1945 during the bombing of a German city. He died 6 months later in Russia. I found myself wondering who was the family member that would be decorating this small memorial to a couple that was killed almost 70 years ago. This attention to detail and commemoration of the dead was the perfect lead-in to my next experience.

During morning coffee with my landlady and her husband, she encouraged me to attend a 5:30 pm, Christmas light ceremony at the local Catholic cemetery. So at 5:00 pm, I made my way to the cemetery. I had not been there before and so was trying to follow my map. Suddenly, I was part of a larger crowd, all walking in the same direction. It felt like the wave of people in the States who are going to the 4th of July concert and fireworks. I walked along with the crowd and as we entered the cemetery, people peeled off in different directions to find their respective family grave sites.

I moved toward the large tree in the center of the cemetery decorated with white lights and complete with the local Alpine band playing in traditional dress. The bell of the chapel started ringing at 5:30 pm followed by the band playing Christmas music. Family members would gather in a semi-circle in front of the grave site which was decorated with Christmas greens, a red 8 day vigil light (so-called because it burns for 8 days) and a miniature Christmas tree about 2 ft tall decorated with ribbons or ornamental balls and real candles. A family member would light the candle and then all would stand silently while the music played. This went on for 15 minutes, no one moved or said a word. The last song was Stille Nacht, (Silent Night) and after three verses the music stopped, everyone clapped and then amidst quiet talking, family members left and went home.

A small Christmas tree with lighted candles on a family grave site.

The large Christmas tree in the cemetery.

By 6:00 pm, as I walked down the pedestrian only street of Partenkirchen, the town seemed abandoned as everyone was safely in their homes and continuing their Heiliger Abend celebration. But the evening was not over. At 10:00 pm, the organ concert started in the church followed at 11:00 pm by the Christmas Eve mass filled with incense and the heart tugging singing of Silent Night in a church lit only by candles at the end of the service.

The Heiliger Abend in Germany is much more than an evening, it is a community celebration that permeates every aspect of the life of the community and I look forward to participating every year.