Journée à Rouen (Day Trip to Rouen)

I happen to know a former coworker who is currently staying in Paris for six months and in lieu of a travel blog, she's been sending email updates with photos of her travels in Paris and around France. Two weeks ago, she sent out an email with a beautiful picture of the old town in Rouen, containing cobblestone streets and medieval style buildings with what appeared to be the vertical, horizontal and diagonal wooden struts that are common to that era. Since Rouen is only a 70 minute train ride from Paris, I figured I'd check it out. The city was small enough that all of the major sites were within a short walk of one another, and so by not visiting any museums, I managed to see the notable parts of the city within five hours.

The Tour Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc Tower). The interior contains a very small museum on the tower's three floors, outlining various facts about Joan of Arc (she was executed in Rouen in 1431). The roof was sealed so you could not climb to the very top, but there did not appear to be any viewing areas at the top of the tower anyway.

North of the old town is a small park called Square Verdrel. The park contains a small pond with a beautifully designed waterfall as well as two swans.

The most famous landmark in Rouen is the Gros Horloge, a large clock on an archway in Vieux Rouen (well actually two clocks; there is another one on the other side). Both clocks were one-handed and I did not notice any ringing/chiming from them. Next to the clock is a tower that you can climb to get a view of the old city, but there was a moderately long lineup for this tower throughout the day.

There are several fancy cathedrals in Rouen and the largest of them is the Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen. The interior was very tall and spacious, with vertically-lined white columns giving the cathedral an ever taller appearance. (See the Saint-Ouen picture further below to get an idea of what it looks like.)

Place du Vieux-Marché contains several of the medieval style buildings that attracted me to this city. The one caveat to these buildings is that the medieval lines on the exterior are painted; they are not wood seams nailed to the building like I originally expected.

The Église Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc de Rouen is part of the Place du Vieux-Marché and is a more modern church. The exterior has a unique curvy roof and the interior contains a set of stained glass windows along one side.

A shot of the Seine (Rouen is downriver from Paris). In the distance, you can see the two lift towers of the Pont Gustave-Flaubert.

This is the interior of the Abbatiale Saint-Ouen. This looks just like the interior of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Rouen, except Saint-Ouen is smaller and has fewer chairs set out on the floor. Notre Dame also has more artwork in its interior.

Behind the Hôtel de Ville and the Abbatiale Saint-Ouen is the Jardins de l'Hôtel de Ville, which was moderately busy during the afternoon.

So that was a short excursion to Rouen. The tourist traffic was light enough during most of the day that it didn't feel too crowded (except on the main shopping street in the late afternoon). Overall, the city is much calmer than Paris and still retains a bit of a small town charm, which made for a pleasant change of pace on the weekend.

Budapesti Delegációja (Mission to Budapest)

Last week involved a three day mission to Budapest in order to attend a meeting with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a conference hosted by the International Social Security Association (ISSA). I did not book any vacation days to append the mission, which meant that I only had one afternoon and two evenings free to do any sightseeing. However, it turned out that by not visiting any museums, I had enough free time to take a cursory look at most of the main sites in the city.

Budapest was originally two cities: Buda which is on the west side of the Danube and Pest which is on the east side. Several of their most impressive sites are along the bank of the river and I found that the best photos of many of the larger sites on either bank are the ones taken from a distance on the opposite side of the Danube.

A shot of the Buda Castle while standing on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. The brightness of the sun overwhelmed my camera so the photo looks hazy but the air was actually very clear.

The Music Fountain on Margaret Island. As a performance was not scheduled during my short visit to the island, there was no music played while I was there but the water was still sprayed in various rhythms and patterns.

Shoes on the Danube Promenade. This is a memorial to victims shot on the Danube by Arrow Cross Militiamen in 1944-1945. There were also two jet skiers on the river.

The main altar of Szent István Bazilika (St. Stephen's Basilica).

The Mace Tower at the back of the Buda Castle. While the front of Buda Castle has an ornate design akin to a Royal Palace, the rear has walls and this tower which resemble more typical castle fortifications.

I climbed to the top of Gellert Hill where the Liberty Statue overlooks the city.

A view of Budapest and the Danube from the top of Gellert Hill. This photo was taken in front of the Citadella facing north. Margaret Island can be seen in the distance, further upriver past the second bridge.

A distant shot of the Országház (Hungarian Parliament) on the east bank, taken from the west bank. This building is incredibly pristine for a structure of its size, white colour scheme and age (completed in 1904). Also, if you're on the other side of this building and want to cool off during a hot day, there is a great pedestrian fountain that you can walk through while it sprays a cool mist of water. I did not have time to visit the interior.

At the east end of Andrassy Street is Hősök tere (Heroes' Square). This shot was taken at sunset and my camera could not do justice to the dark blue of the sky that evening. On the far right is Vajdahunyad Castle, which was sufficiently illuminated on the exterior to view at night.

So that was Budapest over an afternoon and two evenings. While I missed the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion, I felt like I still managed to see most of the other main sites. The city is elegant and tourist friendly, plus it had great weather (sunny and around 30ºC the whole time) while Paris in September has already cooled down. I did not see many migrants during my time there, although I didn't visit the train station where the clashes with police have taken place (and apparently a lot of the migrant traffic had already shifted towards Serbia and Croatia by the time of my visit).

Cinc Dies a Catalunya (Five Days in Catalonia)

While I had already visited Catalonia via my trip to Barcelona last October, that initial trip was taken at a point where I was much less strategic in my travel planning. It was a few months later that I realized that I had gotten that first trip wrong in terms of both when to go and what to see. A second trip would allow me to correct for those earlier misses. Moreover, the timing of this trip in late August was selected so that I could attend one of the more noteworthy festivals in Spain... La Tomatina.

Buñol

The first day of my trip was planned such that I would attend La Tomatina in Buñol, Spain. For those of you who don't know about the festival, it's basically a giant hour-long food fight where everyone throws tomatoes at each other. There is a bit more to it than just the tomato hurling. There is a wide variety of events that occur during the entire week, although the Wednesday tomato fight is the main draw.

During the hours preceding the tomatoes, there is a contest to see who can take a ham down from the top of a greased pole placed at the center of the street where the tomatoes will be dumped. It doesn't take long for most people to figure out that you have to work cooperatively to form a human pyramid, with the heaviest people on the bottom and the tall, skinny kids climbing to the top. Even with this strategy, the pyramid would continually collapse under its own weight before anyone could reach the ham. This year was particularly challenging as there was one guy of above average size (he looked around 6'1", 180 pounds) that wanted the glory for himself and would often try to climb the pyramid against the instructions of the rest of the crowd, and the pyramid would rapidly collapse before he even climbed within 6 feet of the ham. I uploaded a short clip of one of these instances here: Climbing The Pole. The closest anyone got to the ham was a skinny kid of about 80 pounds, who got within about 3 inches. So close.

One of the many human pyramids that tried to reach the ham at La Tomatina.

As for myself, I did not make an attempt for the ham. I didn't even expect to get that close to the pole, but I was lucky in that I checked through security at around 9am and so I was able to get a central spot before the crowds gathered. While the tomato fight started at 11am, the central area was jam-packed by 10am, so much so that you really didn't have a choice as to where you were moving as your body was simply pushed in whichever direction the crowed swayed. During the hour of tomato tossing, there were five/six dump trucks that drove through the street every five-eight minutes and slowly spilled tomatoes onto the street, while people standing in the back of the truck also threw tomatoes at the crowd. The fun didn't really begin until after the second/third truck, as by that time there was then plenty of ammo to throw at the truck attendants and the other participants in the street. 

This was me about half way through the tomato fight. Between truck arrivals, there were still people trying to get that ham off the pole.

As for equipment, I was glad that I brought swimming goggles to the event. While tomato juice doesn't sting the eyes that badly, there were a lot of people who didn't follow the rule of squishing the tomato before throwing it, and taking a solid tomato to the face can stun you for a few seconds (not painful but disorienting) so the eye protection was a good bet. However, I made the mistake of using aqua socks for footwear, which worked well for standing in 6 inches of tomato puree but which did not work well for protecting my feet from the many times someone backed into me and landed their heel on my toes. If you ever plan on attending La Tomatina, wear crocs or cheap sneakers; they'll protect your toes better during the very crowded and very chaotic tomato fight. I was also limited in the photos and videos I could take, as I was trying to minimize the amount of tomato juice getting into my camera. While my camera started to malfunction near the end, I'm happy to say that it survived the trip.

The central part of the street at the end of La Tomatina. If you look at the white building closely, you'll notice that there are two small ledges where people can sit and, based on the tomato splatter, they ended up as targets for the rest of the crowd.

By about 45 minutes into the fight, after the last truck has spilled its contents, the projectiles evolve from tomatoes to tomato puree. So everyone is now throwing slop at one another. If you see photos in newspapers of people swimming in tomato sauce, those are usually taken after the fight is over, when there is enough room to lie down in the street and when there is less risk of people stepping/falling on one another.

On my way out of the festival, I found a tomato that was still intact. Everything else was squashed and mashed to bits, but this one tomato survived. We can call this the last tomato of La Tomatina 2015.

Kudos to the local residents of Buñol. After the fight, many of them came out with garden hoses and sprayed down the participants such that we were (somewhat) presentable for taking the train/bus back to Valencia (or Madrid or Barcelona). The water was cold though, so I ended up catching a mild cold from being soaked by tomato and then cold water.

Overall, I'll say that La Tomatina was a really fun experience. While I met a few people there that were repeat visitors, most of the people there were doing it as a one-time bucket list activity and most of us agreed that it was better to do it only once. The magic would be lost on a second time. And don't think this is an event for only teenagers and twenty-somethings, there were a few middle aged people and even the odd senior in the crowd, although I think they were as young at heart as anyone else there.

Valencia

My trip to Buñol was based out of Valencia, so I decided to stay there for one day to see what the city had to offer. It turns out that the tourist rush in Valencia happens during the two/three days before La Tomatina, so I got to see the sites with smaller crowds and shorter lineups. The downside was that I was still a bit tired from the day before and my hotel was retaining a sour tomato smell. (It wasn't just from me, everyone tossed their tomato-covered shoes and shirts in the hallway so the cleaning staff had extra work that day.)

I started the day by heading towards the old town section of Valencia. As I approached from the northwest, the old town was demarcated by the Torres de Quart, a 15th century tower that was part of the city walls built in the 14th century (the walls are no longer there). I first visited the Mercado Central, which is a market filled with vendors selling fresh seafood, fruits/vegetables, ham and various Catalan delicacies. While there were plenty of tour groups walking through the market, it looked as though the locals were buying more of the food there, so Mercado Central felt more authentic than central markets that I've seen in other cities. From there, I headed northeast towards the two main cathedrals in the city.

The main altar of the Valencia Cathedral. This cathedral is filled with several interesting side chapels and also has a tower which you can climb to get a great view of the city.

The main altar and ceiling of the Basilica of the Virgin of Los Desamparados. This basilica is small, but both the exterior and interior are beautifully decorated. This was the best looking church that I've seen in Spain.

Heading north, I exited the old town via the Torres de Serranos, another tower that formed the 14th century city wall. From there, I crossed through the Turia Gardens to the Museu de Bellas Arts de Valencia, a medium-sized museum containing Spanish paintings from the 14th to 17th centuries. There were at least three paintings by Goya there as well as several colourful works from the Renaissance that made it a worthwhile visit.

The Torres de Serranos.

From the Museu de Belles Arts de Valencia, this is The Baptism of Christ, by Pedro Orrente.

I then walked southeast along the Turia Gardens (a long greenspace that twists through most of the city) towards the more modern part of Valencia. I visited both the Jardines del Real and the Jardines de Montfort, which were both pleasant parks. Del Real felt more like a plain public park but it contained two fountains that were both interesting as works of art. Montfort was much smaller but it was very well maintained; I got the sense that it may have been the gardens of a wealthy aristocrat at some point back in time.

The southeast corner of the city contains three modern sites and I had enough time to visit two of them. The first was the City of the Arts and Sciences, which was an interactive science museum. I especially enjoyed the exhibits that involved some assessment of my own body, such as the one where I could stand in front of a camera and see thermal imaging of myself, or another one where I stood on a weigh scale while a camera analyzed my body shape in order to estimate my body fat (13.4%). Unfortunately, the museum was either poorly maintained or had too many abusive patrons, because about a quarter of the interactive exhibits did not work properly.

The City of the Arts and Sciences is housed in a beautifully designed modern building. The water surrounding the building is very shallow; I was tempted to get my feet wet and walk across but I don't think the staff would have liked that.

The second site that I visited was the Oceanografic. Tourist websites rated this as one of the top places to visit in Valencia but I went there expecting a bland museum about the ocean. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Oceanografic is Spain's version of SeaWorld. There were elaborate aquariums for tropical, temperate and arctic/Antarctic marine life. Both the tropical and temperate sections had walk-in glass tunnels where you could view a wide variety of fish, sharks, eels and stingrays swimming around you. The Antarctic section included a penguin display where the penguins looked more active and playful than what I'd seen in the Boston Aquarium. There was a also a dolphin show in the evening where they performed an assortment of synchronized tricks for the audience. While the Oceanografic is better suited for kids, it was still fun to see so many different types of marine life using innovative displays.

One of the tunnels in the Oceanografic.



I spent the following morning taking the train from Valencia to Barcelona. As I chose the regular speed train, the trip took about three hours, although there was not much with respect to noticeable scenery along the way.

Andorra la Vella

One of my other key misses from my first Barcelona trip was that I did not take an excursion to Andorra. I had read mixed reviews about visiting the country, and most of these reviews were anecdotal and based on individual taste to the extent that I felt like I just had to go there and judge it for myself. It turns out Andorra is not as bad as the negative reviewers make it out to be, but not as great as the shopping-focused tourists (who are often the most positive reviewers) say it is either. For one thing, the country gets a reputation for great shopping because of its very low VAT (it didn't even have a VAT a few years ago), but I found that the prices there weren't much better than other southern cities in Europe (except for alcohol, which seemed to be incredibly cheap). However, the city still has a pleasant atmosphere, a few sites to see, and relatively fresh mountain air (some reviewers exaggerated about the pollution).

I didn't have enough time to climb any of the mountain trails in the area, but I did look around the capital city, Andorra la Vella. Aside from a shopping district, the city also has a very small old town section and a central park. I managed to find a couple of sites in the old town.

This is the back of the Casa de la Vall. The sculpture in the foreground was made by Emili Armengol in honour of the men and women of Andorra who launched the country's constitution in 1993. This is a south-facing shot with the Pyrenees in the background.

This is a distant shot of Sant Esteve Church. I took the shot facing north in order to show the mountains on the other side of the valley.

This is a distant shot facing west overlooking the valley containing the city of Andorra la Vella. The glare from the sun makes the air look smoggy in this photo but the air was clear that day.

 

If you're wondering why I didn't visit Andorra via a trip to Toulouse, I looked into it and found that a trip to Andorra is much easier when entering from the Spanish side than from the French side. Coming from Spain was a better fit anyway, given how culturally Andorra is more Catalonian than French. The other bonus from approaching on the Spanish side is that I got to see Montserrat from a distance on the way between Barcelona and Andorra, although I couldn't take any decent photos through the bus window.

Barcelona

Counting the evening after my train arrival, the evening after my Andorra excursion and the morning before my flight, I had about a day to look around Barcelona. I used a large chunk of this time to rest from the Valencia and Andorra portions of my trip, but I still took the time to visit a few places that I had missed on my first visit to Barcelona.

The Cathedral of Barcelona. I think this site is popular because of its location in the Gothic Quarter and proximity to Las Ramblas.



I finally caught a show at the Magic Fountain of Montjuic. This meant that I missed the FC Barcelona game against Malaga, but apparently Barcelona didn't play very well that night and only won 1-0.

I uploaded a video of a recording that I made of the Magic Fountain, although the speakers were facing away from me so the sound of the water drowned out the sound of the music.

 

A lot of my visits were also geared towards sites that were more laid back than usual, so I spent some time at Barceloneta Beach, Bogatell Beach, and Parc de la Ciutadella.

The pond at the Parc de la Ciutadella. There were also a few geese swimming amongst the sea gulls.

I missed the interior of the Sagrada Familia on my first visit, so I finally went inside. The interior is spacious and is tinted by various stained glass windows. This side has a yellow/pink hue while the altar (to the right) has a dark blue theme. The opposite side of the cathedral has a light blue hue, but the sun was not shining through those windows during the afternoon when I visited.

While visiting Catalonia in August allowed me to participate in La Tomatina, it also meant visiting Spain when it was much hotter (it was around 34ºC each day) and more crowded in Barcelona compared to October. Still, I managed to complete two of the stranger items on my to-do list (La Tomatina and Andorra) and was pleasantly surprised by the variety of historic and modern sites of Valencia. This was definitely a fun trip and a good example of how strategic planning can help one get the most out of short trips in Europe. Next up will be a short trip in Eastern Europe.