IN THE WORLD’S WINE CAPITAL

One of the highlights of the year was my visit to France to attend the Bordeaux Fete du Vin.

Bordeaux is a beautiful city, in France, on the Garonne River. Its derelict warehouses and littered quays have been cleaned up and it has emerged out of it reputation as a gritty city. Futuristic trams whiz by and limestone facades, stone mansions and beautiful  balconies make it a gorgeous city to walk through. Today it has one of the largest urban areas on the UNESCO List.

The Wine Festival had some quirky larger than life wine bottles designed by artists from Hongkong. There were more than 80 appellations that had stalls along a two kilometre stretch next to the river.

There were special tastings of the Grand Crus wines- the absolute Holy Grail of wines with a passport to note down the tastings. My kit had a glass and holder which you could take to each stall for a tasting.

Every night there was a fabulous fireworks display and a sound and light show which was projected on the buildings of the Place de la Bourse.

We explored the city and discovered some exquisite churches and grandiose buildings and parks. I loved these mascarons- faces in stone that you find above each door and windows of old buildings.

 This is the attractive Esplanade des Quinconces, with statues of philosophers like Montaigne and an ornate fountain.

One of my favourite places in the city was the Le miroir d’eau, a shallow pool with water jets that reflected the classic Place de La Bourse with kids and pets splashing about in the puddle.

Another atmospheric place that I visited was the Cafe Utopia housed in a 17^th century church. It is also a cinema and art complex which screens alternative cinema. They serve gargantuan platters of salads and baguettes.

Bordeaux has one of the finest flea markets in the shadow of the Saint Michel Church with vintage furniture, clothes and bric a brac. I spent a lovely morning browsing through the clutter.

On a  completely different note  I loved Rue Catherine, supposed to be one of the longest pedestrianised shopping streets in Europe full of boutiques and shops.

I also walked through a colourful food market beside the Garonne River where people stood in queues for oysters.

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LIFE IN A ROMAN PIAZZA

When the ancient Romans built their towns, they began with a grid based on two roads and where they crossed was considered sacred ground. Here there was a majestic temple, a civic forum and shops. Today, in Rome, an Italian piazza is still the centre of public life, a mosaic of the colour and vitality that this city represents.

Our favourite piazza is the gargantuan Piazza Navona in Rome, thronging with life night and day.  This piazza is ringed by brown and umber buildings, three magnificent fountains, and filled with caricature and portrait artists, buskers, and flocks of pigeons, street shows and fashionable alfresco restaurants. This used to be a stadium- the scene of Chariot racing, medieval jousts and games during the reign of Emperor Domitian.

The largest fountain here is the Quattro Fiumi, by Lorenzo Bernini, where there is an ancient, red granite obelisk, and four figures, representing the rivers in each of the Continents. According to a local story, Bernini carved the arm of the statue lifted up, to avoid seeing the church, which had been constructed by his arch rival Borromini!

A walk from the Piazza Navona takes us to the famed Da Bafetto Pizzeria for a genuine wood fire pizza. Crammed in a table with many others, it’s short on ambience but more than makes up in taste.

Opposite the Pantheon is the Piazza Della Rotunda. Like all self-respecting squares, it has a fountain too. Sparkling water spouts out from grotesque masks and elongated dolphins, topped by an ancient Egyptian Obelisk, designed by Giacomo Della Porta in the 16^th Century. This magical square, lined with cafes and gelato shops, is a favourite hangout of the young at night.

 I  also fell in love with the Piazza di Spagna with the iconic Spanish Steps where, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn meet, in Roman Holiday, after an adventurous but chaste night spent together.

The vibrant Piazza Del Popolo was for centuries, the northern entrance to Rome. This big oval piazza has an imposing, three thousand year old Egyptian Obelisk brought by Augustus, and fountains that represent the four seasons. This is the favoured local spot for political rallies, open air exhibitions and concerts due to its dimensions.  The church of Santa Maria Del Popolo is tucked into the gates of the piazza with two Caravaggio masterpieces and the Chigi Chapel designed by Raphael (remember Angels and demons?)

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A day at the Elephant Orphanage

We are at the Pinnewala Elephant orphanage about two and a half hours from Colombo. During the many years of civil strife, the Sri Lankan government started an elephant orphanage for the elephants that had lost their mothers or been separated from their herds or injured. Many elephants were injured by stepping on landmines as fallout of the civil war.  The farmers in villages keep out the marauding wild elephants by means of deep ditches. Sometimes baby elephants get trapped here and separated from their herds.

Elephants are used on all occasions of pomp and pageantry like the Kandy Perehara. During the times of the Sinhala kings, the elephants were protected completely by a royal decree and the punishment for killing an elephant was death. An estimated 3000 elephants lived in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the British in 1815. In the 1960s this was close to extinction!

There are more than 60 elephants at the orphanage. There are volunteers here who learn the nuances of elephant care over two to three months like feeding, giving them a wash in the river and grooming them.

The little ones are fed infant formula; the others are fed about 75 Kg of green matter everyday. We watch the elephants trundle down the dusty road in disciplined rows to the Maha Oya River led by their mahouts. The road is lined with souvenir stalls and curious tourists who watch the elephants and their antics. Once they are in the river they splash and gambol in the waters and the mahouts scrub them. The younger ones are the crowd-pullers as they hide beneath their mothers or cover themselves with a mud-pack, eliciting cries of “Awww, he’s so cute!” from the groups of Japanese and British tourists!

We hear that the rehabilitated elephants and those born in captivity are sent to other wildlife parks in the country or gifted to temples. There are elephants which have even been sent to foreign zoos.

We see a board advertising elephant dung paper and intrigued we enter the shop. There are sheets of paper, gift bags, wine bags, gift tags and even small storage boxes all made out of the elephant poop. The friendly owner explains that since the elephants are poor digesters of their food like bananas, fruits and leaves nearly 60% of what they eat is excreta!

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Green Haven

One of the most unique hotels that I have stayed at was the Kandalama Hotel, in Dambulla, Sri Lanka…

Apparently the design kept to the natural topography of the rock face. No rocks were injured during the building of the hotel; instead rooms and corridors were built around them!

The Kandalama Hotel is one of the world’s first eco-friendly hotels built much before ‘going green’ was fashionable. It was the brain child of genius architect and design guru the late Geoffrey Bawa.

Though it’s seven storeys high, it’s almost invisible from a distance as it has been sensitively fitted to its surroundings and covered with ficus, grass and jungle creepers.

It has won many awards and was the first hotel in Asia to receive the prestigious Green Globe 21 certification.

The rooms seem to be a natural extension of the verdant forest around as Hanuman langurs shriek and chatter, peering into our rooms from a ledge. The bathroom has a Jacuzzi facing a glass window with spectacular scenery outside and we voted it the best ‘bathroom with a view’.

We took a boat ride on the ancient Kandalama reservoir, and were astounded by the boatmen’s rich knowledge of bird life on the lake- Brahminy kites fly in the thermals, fish eagles swoop down on their daily catch, egrets and cormorants sit in the rushes, bee-eaters and colourful orioles flit by and the magnificent flight of the hawks is mesmerizing in the burnished gold of the setting sun.

Our days at the hotel were busy. The hotel has the unique distinction of being within the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka and is surrounded by UNESCO World Heritage sites. We visited the Dambulla Rock caves filled with frescoes and Buddha statues one day, and trekked up to Sigiriya, the ancient pleasure palace of King Kashyapa the next.

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Prehistoric mystery...

There are places that cast a spell on you.. Newgrange is  on that list. A pagan dream of esoteric ceremonies and mystical dances. Time and space frozen into stone... Newgrange  which is a 30 minute drive from Dublin, Ireland, is older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge..

Newgrange is part of a heritage trail in Ireland, called Bru na Boine which includes the burial mounds of Knowth, Douth, and the Hill of Tara among others.

 The Newgrange site sits perched on a hill in the Boyne Valley with lush green pastures and hills all around. 

 

  The exterior of the mound is decorated with 97 large kerbstones(that are carved with intriguing spiral designs).

This tomb is called a passage tomb because of the long corridor leading to a central burial room. Were these sacred temples or astronomical observatories? Or territorial markers? Or were they a pagan homage to the seasons?  Nobody knows for sure.

 Our guide, Karlos warns us that those who are claustrophobic should think twice...We crept into the narrow passage, squeezing ourselves between closely placed rocks. The path went on a slight incline and then widened into an inner burial chamber built in the shape of a crucifix. 

The overlapping stones form an intricate conical roof and have been packed with burnt clay and sand. For millennia, the roof has been intact and kept the inner chamber dry.

 Many of the stones are decorated with ancient art- symbols like triangles, waves, spirals, lozenges and circles. Karlos tells us that this place has two thirds of all the known Neolithic carvings and they are similar to Aboriginal representations found in other parts of the world.

Maybe they represent symbols from nature: the sun, sky and the air? 

Newgrange is famous for its winter solstice when the rays of sunlight enter the roof box at the entrance, crawl into the passage, and fall on the inner chamber, illuminating it with golden light- the event lasts just 17 minutes. This incredible event is a great tourist attraction and tickets are sold by luck-of-the-draw lottery.         

                                                                                                 

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