Roaming to the Pantheon: November, 2008

Miguel de Cervantes said, “The road is always better than the inn.” While I'm not sure about always, I do think it is important to take pleasure in reaching our destinations, because we do spend a lot of time on the road.

With specific highlights marked on our map, we were free to enjoy the journeys between them. Bob Dylan was right when he sang, “Oh the streets of Rome are filled with rubble. Ancient footprints are everywhere. "

The Pantheon was said to be the site of a temple for various (or possibly all) gods of ancient religions since several hundred years B.C., but most historians put the date of construction for the first Pantheon at 27 A.D. It was burned down in 80 A.D. And rebuilt, only to have been struck by lightning and burned to the ground again in 110 A.D.
The Emperor Hadrian, who considered himself a poet inspired by Hellenic culture, rebuilt the Pantheon, this time a far more elaborate structure in the spirit of a Greek temple. His realized design includes a magnificent dome, making it the oldest domed structure in Rome.
Apparently Hadrian, who purportedly looked like a Greek god, saw himself enthroned under the dome at the center of the universe. When the great Michelangelo saw the Pantheon, which by that time was a Christian church, almost 1400 years later, he described it as "angelic and not human design."

Scotland's Cuisine (Featuring Stirling)

Our B&B in Callander.

Haggis.

With the properly disgusted contortion of face and body language, Jay Leno regularly makes the “Tonight Show” audience laugh by merely saying the word, “Haggis,” despite the fact that most Americans have never tried it.

You probably don’t want to give any more thought to how Scots make haggis than what Americans put in hotdogs, but when I ate haggis with my full Scottish breakfast at Red Squirrel on our first morning in Edinburgh, I found it tasted very much like delicious American breakfast sausage but with the texture of deviled ham.

While not everyone ate haggis, we all agreed with my son Jay’s assessment that the morning feast at Red Squirrel was “epic.”



St. Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh



The full Scottish breakfast also came with egg, hot tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, English banger (more like a short, fat hotdog than an American breakfast sausage) and bacon (to my American eye it was pan-fried sliced ham). The coffee also proved to be very good.

So, despite warnings about Scottish cuisine being horrible, I found it quite satisfying.

I enjoyed slight variations of haggis when I had similar full Scottish breakfasts at our B & B's in Ayr and Stahray, so it wasn’t exclusively Red Squirrel’s take on Scotland’s signature dish.

Another mainstay of Scottish cuisine, pub food, proved to be consistently edible if not always aces.

Wes and Jay at the Castle Arms in Edinburgh.

In the UK and Ireland, I’ve tended to order fish and chips frequently in pubs, always finding that ubiquitous meal delicious, and the same holds true in Scotland. The best was on the Isle of Skye at the Hebridean, which was basically the only choice for dining within walking distance of our B & B.


Unlike a cruise, where onboard watering holes are a short walk from our room, on a land trip there are unfamiliar roads and traffic rules, including driving on the wrong side of the road and shifting gears lefthanded in the UK, turning an already risky proposition of driving after alcohol into something considerably more perilous, so we simply won’t do that. And for me, enjoying pub food for dinner includes tipping a pint or two of Guinness or some local beer like Belhaven’s Best, so I almost definitely will do that.



Isle of Skye

The fried haddock at the the Hebridean was enormous: thick, wide and too long to fit on the dinner plate that also held a mountain of chips (British for French fries). As usual, plan to throw away the odd-tasting pub vegetable side dish. Eating the chips with salt and vinegar rather than the American way with ketchup completes the perfect pub meal.

We ate at the Hebridean twice, and the second night I had the house specialty, smoked salmon in sweet chili sauce, which was tasty but not nearly as filling or satiating to me.

Guinness (an Irish brand that enjoys international fame including across the short sea crossing to Scotland), English bangers and sweet chili sauce for the salmon foreshadow my point; Scottish restaurants do not serve haggis and other native foods exclusively. After centuries of fighting off foreign influence, it’s easy to recognize that Scotland now welcomes it.

Wes kayaking on Loch Lomond

Still, Scotland held out about as long as possible from intermingling with the civilized world. An internet joke said the Scots have only two levels of security preparedness alerts: pissed off and let’s get the bastards. Make no mistake, everyone was nice to us, but historically Scots have not taken kindly to aggression.

When the Romans arrived in Scotland after civilizing most of Europe and the surrounding Mediterranean region, they found primitive tribes of red-haired savages who painted their faces blue, rattled their sabers and fought with all their might. After several unsuccessful military campaigns, the Romans finally had enough.

Edinburgh Castle from park below

Roman Emperor Hadrian basically said, “Look what we can do, you crazy Celts. We have the technology to build a tall wall longer than you can see to seal you off from civilization, where we have the best modern products, clean water in city fountains, public toilets and baths, theaters, restaurants, hospitals, roads and coliseums for gladiatorial games. You can keep your haggis on your side of the wall.”

In ensuing decades, the Roman Empire didn’t so much fall as morph and split into new empires, but Scotland carried on alone.



Statue of Robert the Bruce at Stirling Castle

England, on the other hand, after absorbing the cultures of conquering Romans and Normans, grew to international prominence, and naturally they saw Scotland as a connected territory to be brought into the British version of civilization.


The Scots fought the English off, winning and losing control of their country several times. At our B & B in Skye, we watched a terrible movie about Scottish hero Robert the Bruce, who won independence (at least for a while), for Scotland, and of course there’s real-life wild man Mel Gibson’s masterpiece “Braveheart” that tells another story of their struggle for independence.

If you’re like me, perhaps you found history in high school boring, because it only seemed to deal with date memorization and wars, but the stories of the changes of power and the subsequent societal evolutions are fascinating, especially when you visit the lands where it transpired.



I respect the Scottish love of freedom from outside rule, but being self-reliant doesn’t mean you have to ignore what others do well or avoid copying it. That would be the definition of ignorance.

Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh

So, while Scottish cuisine is not the horror you may have perceived based on jokes, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have other options. At “our pub,” Footlights, which we found on our first evening and returned to each night we were in Edinburgh, they combined everything you would want in a Scottish pub, from fresh beer taps to darts to rugby or European football (soccer) on TV. While I'm not saying you must go to Footlights, it is fun to have your "own pub" during a short stay. It allows you to get comfortable taking your usual table, playing darts and just feeling like one of the locals.

Footlights' menu broadened from simply Scottish foods to include multicultural treats like Cajun Chicken Nachos, which turned out to be excellent.

The British influence has become ingrained in Scottish culture over the centuries, but I still found it surprising that what I assumed was simply a tourist trap, Café at the Palace by Holyroodhouse, served a light, delicious scone that was better than any I’ve tried elsewhere.

Views on the hike to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

Three of us purchased a cherry-berry scone and tea while waiting inside for Jay to get back from hiking to Arthur's Seat, which I'm a little ashamed to say I decided wasn't worth ascending the final 150 feet of vertical when harder rain was imminent. What started as a somewhat obligatory purchase to justify taking up a table and seats in the winter garden turned into a treat.

Other traditional British dishes, including Sunday roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with gravy, new potatoes and veggies, were featured at the Old Racehorse Hotel in Ayr (hopefully that wasn't an old racehorse we were eating, but if it was, I wouldn't say, "Nay-a-a-a-ay.").  It was a wholesome meal for 7 pounds 99. 

The British Empire ruled India for decades, so it's no surprise that Indian food is widely available. When we visited Stirling, a strategically important city for control of Scotland in the Middle Ages, we found a delicious, modestly-priced Indian buffet at Mr. Singh’s Indian Cottage.

Jay and Amy on Seal Boat by Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye

This was perhaps the best meal of the trip, with great quality meat as well as vegetable dishes and freshly cooked-to-order naan bread included for 6 pounds 99. Jay and Amy, who have a lot more experience with Indian restaurants than Julie and me, agreed it was the best Indian buffet they’d ever had.

We found good Chinese food served family style in Edinburgh at a nice but far from ostentatious restaurant, Shanghai. In addition, I saw a Jamaican café, French restaurants, pizzerias, kebob joints, tapas lounges, Mexican food and other international foods, but American cuisine had a greater foothold in Scotland than most, probably due to the American desire to have tastes of home even when traveling in far off lands. We found a great hamburger, chips (British for French fries) and soda for 6 pounds 99 at the Castle Arms, a beautiful, upscale pub just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but we also had one of the worst burgers, albeit at a great price of 4 pounds 99 for a burger, fries and pint of beer, at a pub in Callander near our B & B.

Edinburgh Castle at night

Our Callander B & B was Cragshotel, which has a pub with the hardest working bartender/hotel front desk receptionist in Pubdom, constantly pulling taps for a pub full of customers eager to buy 2 pound 40 pints between intermittently showing guests their rooms, and that was NOT where we had the bad burgers.

What made the burger so bad? To start, it was very fatty meat that resulted in a greasy end product. What bothered me most, however, was that I kept chomping into little sticks which I assume…make that hope…were matches to relight a faulty grill and ended up beneath my burger as it cooked. Why did I keep eating it? Good question. I will point out that this was one time I didn’t clean my plate. Fortunately for that pub, I don’t remember its name.

Awkward photo of Jay and Amy in Sterling

My point is that sticking with "safe" American fare proved to result in the worst meal of the trip, and it’s not always what you expect….except at McDonalds.  While we didn’t have McMuffins for breakfast or McDoubles for a quick and cheap lunch abroad, we did stop in for 69 pence vanilla ice cream cones a couple of times when someone needed a loo (restroom) break while driving, and as usual for McDonalds, they were as good as back home.

Taking it all full circle, we also went to what I would call an Americanized version of a pub in the otherwise somewhat odd town of Stranraer the evening before taking the ferry to Northern Ireland.



Dunscaithe Castle ruins on Isle of Ske

The village didn’t seem that odd to me, but Jay and Amy seemed to think it was right out of the Twilight Zone, and the suped-up little cars driven by young people that kept circling the streets fed their perceptions. I should have referred them to “American Graffiti.”

Anyway, the Custom House was the size of two to four normal pubs and served a TGI Friday-type menu of foods. We split a couple of big orders of chicken wings, and they were delicious. The fact that an emcee was leading trivia games, like on a cruise ship, seeemed a bit odd, especially with questions geared to Scots about which team won some regional finals in Rugby six years earlier, obscure Scottish politicians and TV shows I’d never heard of.

As one final pub food twist, on our last night of the trip at the Fiddlers Arms, Amy ordered a deep fried Mars Bar while we enjoyed some live, acoustic music.

Jay at Grassmarket in Edinburgh

I’ve already rattled on way too long on this subject, but if you’re still with me, I should point out that not only was Scottish cuisine international, the employees working at the restaurants were too. Indians operated Singhs and Chinese ran Shanghai, but we also, for example, were served a Scottish breakfast by a Polish waitress at the Coffee Mill Café in Edinburgh. She was a cute little pixie who I first thought was French. I’m not sure if the owner of the place was also her husband or Polish, but he was not Scottish.  He was very friendly, at least to paying customers. When one passerby walked in to use his restroom, he called her out on it. After she left, he said, “You’d think she’d at least buy a tea or coffee.” Then he came over to our table to talk to us.

When he learned we were from California, he put his arm around Julie and said, “How ‘bout we trade. I take your wife and go to California, I give you the keys to my café and you stay here. We trade, no?”

Statue of Adam Smith by St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh

By the way, that was a great breakfast, and our host custom made a huge bagel sandwich that Jay and Amy split, combining ingredients from a couple of different sandwiches.

Three hours later, at the counter of Auto Europe where we picked up our rental car to begin the motorways and backroads portion of our trip, the representative said she was also from Poland. As in America, there are lots of people born in other countries working in the service sector in Scotland, drawn to the freedom and opportunity of Adam Smith's free marketplace world.

Better service leads to better trips!

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Door to Church of St. Catherine
in Bethlehem

In a humble shack built to shelter a few barnyard animals, a frightened but exhilerated teen named Mary gave birth to a sweet baby boy she named Jesus, as she'd been instructed.  Her young husband Joseph lay the babe in a trough lined with straw that served as a makeshift crib.

An unusually bright star shined above, attracting three wise Magi from the east who saw this as the final sign to guide their quest for a newborn king.  They stood outside the small manger, amid peaceful livestock in this tiny oasis in the desert.

I suppose I should have rationally imagined a barn, but I can't honestly say that I thought there was a wall to keep the elements out.  I simply imagined a life-sized version of that manger scene my sweet mom set out every Christmas, a tradition carried out by Julie in our home.  I'm sure you've seen similar displays, including life-sized civic recreations that used to be more prevalent before a handful of intolerant atheists began suing communities that re-created them in order to protect their freedom to be killjoys.

Wes in Bethlehem

However, as this linked Los Angeles Times article from twenty years ago attests: "It is widely agreed that Jesus was born in a cave used for housing animals."

It makes perfect sense in an age before energy-smart homeowners could self-install R30 insulation that in the desert, where temperatures fluctuate dramatically, livestock would have been sheltered in caves. In the 1970s I read many Mother Earth News articles advocating earth-sheltered dwellings that have naturally high R-values in order to save heating and cooling costs.

Grotto's Eastern Orthodox adornments unfortunately
appear garish to Westerners.

After repeat warnings in everything from the online excursion description to the port presentation on board to guide speeches that the manger would be crowded and quite possibly too crammed for us to enter, we received a pleasant surprise.

Nobody was there when our group of 32 arrived, so we had the manger to ourselves. No, it was not a private tour like the Pope or President Obama would receive, but it was definitely possible to see everything and experience the ambiance.  And yes, it is a cave.

Our group sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem" in the Grotto. 

Our Palestinian guide seemed quite knowledgeable about Islam, but his smiling persona and enthusiastic presentation of the Christmas story hinted that he's probably Christian.  He suggested singing an appropriate Christmas carol. Someone called out, "Jingle Bells," which elicited laughter, given 95 degree sunshine outside.

Our guide suggested "O Little Town of Bethlehem," which is a song of special significance to our family because my sister's husband Brooks is a descendant of the lyricist, Phillips Brooks, the Episcopal priest who wrote the poem following his visit to Bethlehem in 1865.  For those keeping score, that was two years ahead of Mark Twain's visit to the Holy Lands.

View of kibbutz buffer area in distance from Bethlehem

Before coming to Bethlehem, we had stopped for lunch at a modern restaurant operated by a kibbutz.

A kibbutz is a communally-owned farming community set just inside Israel's borders, in this case abutting the Palestinian-controlled West Bank.  The Israeli farm land doubles as military buffer against ground attack.

Shrine at the star venerated as the exact spot of Jesus's birth,
as indicated by the star in the marble floor.

All of the food in the buffet had been grown on these collective farmlands.

This particular kibbutz had apparently been quite successful at creating bountiful harvests that created surpluses, funding construction of that large complex serving tourists.  The hotel/restaurant is also communally owned and operated.

 

I don't personally understand how anyone other than Mary and
Joseph could possibly know the exact spot of birth,
and I doubt they marked it before heading  home to Galilee.

The kosher food served was diversified, plentiful and quite palatable.


To actually reach Bethlehem, we had to pass through an armed gate into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, which is essentially a separate nation within Israel.

Our Israeli guide had to be replaced by a Palestinian guide, although Miki didn't have to leave the bus at the border, as we had expected.

John the Baptist Souvenir Shop in Bethlehem

The general appearance of Bethlehem is somewhat drab and outdated, often making a mockery of names revered by Christians, but the streets are clean.

There's a great deal of controversy about whether Palestinians have been deliberately mistreated by Israel or they have simply squandered aid intended for schools and other civic projects by diverting the funds to buy weapons and build tunnels under the wall in order to conduct terrorist activity against greater Israel.

KFC apparently appeals to Palestinian palates.

We visited Bethlehem on Friday, which is the Islamic day of rest and worship, like Sundays for Christians and football fans in the USA.

The Muslims seem to take an approach more like orthodox Jews (who basically stay at home or walk to temple on their Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), because there seemed to be almost no locals out on the streets in cars and few on foot.

I couldn't help thinking some sacred shrines in the Church of
the Nativity looked more like gypsy fortune-telling booths.

Back to history, why were Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem in the first place?

You may have read Shakespeare's play about Julius Caesar in high school and know he was assassinated by Roman Senators.  "Et tu Brute?"

Shortly before the murder of Julius Caesar by politicians, he unexpectedly adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius and made Gaius Octavius his heir.

After the assasination of his new father Julius, Gaius Octavius formed the Second Triumverate with fellow generals Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus in order to rule the vast Roman Empire together, assuming none could fill Julius Caesar's sandals alone.

Our good-natured guide.

The Second Triumverate immediately began avenging the death of Julius Caesar by hunting down the perpetrators.

There had been a First Triumverate, made up of Julius Caesar, Marcus Crassus and Pompey the Great, who captured Jersualem when he was still only a Roman General.

Just as Uncle-Father Julius Caesar became Emperor as the last man standing from the First Triumverate, the man born Gaius Octavius became Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus after eliminating the other two contenders.

The Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem.

Facing certain defeat at the hands of Julius's adopted son, Marc Antony commtted suicide.

Marc Antony is the same guy you may remember from a movie featuring his hot romance with Egypt's sultry Queen Cleopatra.

Before Cleo went with Marc, however, she had previously had a stormy affair with Julius Caesar that resulted in a son, Ceasarian.

Tying up loose ends, Octavius (soon to be Emperor Caesar Augustus) ordered his step-brother Caesarian killed, too, even though he was just a child.

The new Senate apparently took a considerably better view of Julius Caesar than the assassins, because they named him a god, post-mortem.

As such, coins minted under Caesar Augustus included many bearing the new Emperor's profile with a caption, "Son of God."

Yes, Julius Caesar (JC, just like Jesus Christ) was called "god," and his successor Augustus was called "son of god," in the closing decades Before Christ, a rather dramatic bit of foreshadowing by God the author.

Stained glass at Church of St. Catherine

Anyway, back to how Mary and Joseph ended up in Bethelehem, according to the Gospel of Luke, Caesar Augustus ordered a census.  In that primitive time, this required everyone to return to their ancestral homes.

Bethlehem had been the childhood hometown of Joseph's forefather David and the place where the prophet Samuel anointed David King of Israel.  Hence Bethlehem was the City of David to which Joseph returned for tax assessment reasons.

I find it a bit confusing that Bethlehem was called the City of David for those reasons, but Jerusalem was also called City of David, because it was the capital from which King David ruled.

Another door at Church of St. Catherine

In any case, it played out that finding no room at the inn, Joseph and Mary took shelter for the night in a manger exactly where three wise men from the east found them beneath an amazingly bright light and delivered their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrhh to honor the newborn King.

The Church of the Nativity houses the cave in where Jesus arrived on earth.  The Church was built between 327 and 339 AD on the site designated by Christian Roman Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena.

The original basilica was destroyed by the Samaritan Revolt (not exactly being Good Samaritans) and rebuilt by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century.  Please note that all this occurred before the birth of Mohammed, who founded the religion of Islam.

In 135 AD, Emperor Hadrian (whose statue we had recently seen at the Athens Agora) had built a temple to Adonis, the Greek god of desire.  It happened to be directly above the Grotto, according to Helena.  Make of that what you will.  Perhaps Hadrian intended to stomp out the legend of Jesus before it could grow, beginning with His birthplace, or alternatively maybe Helena was misled by opportunists seeking royal coin.

Monument to Christian Crusaders
in Church of St. Catherine

The Church of the Nativity certainly deserves its UNESCO World Heritage designation, but aesthetically, nearby Church of St. Catherine is far more beautiful, primarily because it was re-built in the late 19th Century using more Western standards.

The Church of St. Catherine has a great deal of historic significance it its own right, built on the site of a Crusader church and monastery.

That monastery had been built on the site of an even older 4th Century monastery.

In 1347, a small chapel within a Franciscan Convent on the site was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, the martyred daughter of a governor of Alexandrian Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire.

Upon seeing a supernatural vision of the Madonna and Child, Catherine had converted to Christianity.

An outspoken scholar despite being only a teenager, Catherine went before Roman Emperor Maxentius and protested the persecution of Christians.

The emperor brought in fifty top pagan scholars to debate Catherine, but she defeated their arguments, eventually resulting in 200 conversions to Christianity among attendees, including the Emperor's wife.

Church of St. Catherine

Maxentius tried to force her to recant her faith with torture, but Catherine stood by her religion.

The emperor changed tack, proposing that he would marry this beautiful and wise virgin, but she refused like a nun, saying she was married to Jesus Christ.  As a result, Catherine was sentenced to be killed on a spiked wheel, but it broke.

Jerusalem Cross, or Crusader's Cross, on doors to church

One legend says the straps holding her down miraculously snapped, with spikes spinning off to kill many accusers who were onlookers at the torture.

Shortly thereafter, she was beheaded anyway, and the 200 Christians converted by her were also martyred, so it wasn't exactly a happy ending, but she did have this beautiful church named after her.




Overshadowing the rest of history of Bethlehem, however, remains the fact that it was the birthplace of Jesus Christ, who would be tortured and crucified for claims of divinity.

The Agora

Winners Monument for Equestrian Games in 360 BC

If the Acropolis was the fancy cupcake of Athens, the Agora was its souvlaki and gyros.  

It was the primary hub for cultural, social, political and commercial engagements.

Entry to Odeion of Agrippa, 15 BC

The Agora of Athens was more accessible in every sense but especially in terms of physical exertion to get there.

It didn't require the long uphill climb all the way to the top of the fortress mesa, though the terrain does slant upward approaching the Acropolis.

Theatrical and athletic performances were held in the Agora during Greek times, making it the hip place to go in your coolest toga.

After the Romans supplanted the Greeks and just before the time of Jesus in 15 BC, they built a magnificent concert hall, the Odeon of Agrippa, and the entryway statues still (for the most part) remain.

The Agora is where the Council of 500, the Boule, met to conduct government administration, but the Ekklesia, with 5000 men attending an average session, would have created too much of a traffic jam if they met in the city hub regularly (make a note, San Fernando Valley residents).

When the punishment of ostracism, which could be up to ten years and was a tough sentence for convicted criminals within the purview of the Ekkelsia's horde of citizen representatives, they held hearings in the city center rather than the Pnyx, probably to be sure that any citizen with an opinion on the matter weighed in, since the outcome would be based on simple majority rule.

The Agora would have been a natural place to gather for discussing trade and conducting business.

"All we are is dust in the wind, dude."

Being Greece, of course, there would have been discussions of philosophy.

Socrates taught children outside of the Agora, because only adults only were allowed inside, but he undoubtedly must have ruffled a few feathers in town with his religious theories, because he was eventually executed for his philosophy.

The Hephastion

Around the real time of Socrates, in about 500 BC, magnificent stoas, with large open porticos surrounded by columns, surrounded the Agora, much like the place where Bill and Ted found Socrates during their Excellent Adventure.

Two stoa remain.

Julie at Stoa of Atallos (Agora Archaelogical Museum)

One is the Temple of Hephastos, also known as the Hephastion.

The other is the Stoa of Atallos, which was re-constructed from the ground up in the 1950s to house a museum of antiquities.

Roman Emperor Hadrian, 130 AD

Admission to the Agora Archaeological Museum of Athens is included with a ticket to the Agora, and while the collection is not large, it is well worth seeing.  It includes wonderful artifacts and statues from several amazing eras.

As silly as it now sounds, Julie and I hesitated to buy admission because we really didn't have time to give justice to the Acropolis by the time we saw other places in Athens on this trip, but eventually we decided 12 Euro each wasn't such a bad deal to see ancient sites where western civilization developed as long as we were already halfway around the world from our home.



It turned out our assumption was wrong, and we could buy tickets to just the Agora for 4 Euro each. 

Greece recently decided to raise prices on admission to historic sites and museums, so expect to pay more.  With the Greek financial crisis, it is logical for them to tap these tourist attractions to raise hard currency, because tourism is their major industry.

Wes at Our Hotel's Rooftop Bar with Acropolis in Distance

Acropolis View from Hotel Elevator Area