ow many times have I passed the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church at the end of the Kurfenstendam In West Berlin, and not gone in? I’ve remedied that now. I not only sat quietly for a time admiring the blue Chartres glass walls of the Memorial Hall, but I bought a ticket to the concert tonight.

 

 

Popular classics performed beautifully by the Berlin chamber Orchestra, and some excellent soloists. I’m also a sucker for a Toccata and Fugue on the Schuke organ with its 63 registers and more than 5,000 pipes.

I was drawn more into the music tonight than listening in a concert hall or at home. The lady who sold me the ticket gave me the choice of being near the cello or amongst the violins. I chose the violins – the horse hair of the bow was swishing at such a pace across the strings I could almost feel the friction.

 

Requiescant in Pace

 

IAN ANTHONY MUSGRAVE +RIP
2.11.1935 – 24.8.2019

After a stoic battle with prostate cancer over more than ten years, my eldest brother Tony breathed his last this afternoon amongst his family at home.

We remaining siblings, Michael, Anne and Mark feel blessed to have had the opportunity to spend time with Tony as late as yesterday cheekily ‘jousting’ about many memories of good times past.

Rest in Peace Tony+

 

 

 

 

A very fruitful relationship

he whole week, from June 23rd to 28th, was a very fruitful and memorable time for the eighteen of us from St. Canice’s who spent the whole week in Timor.

We visited the Railaco parish including surrounding villages in the mountains, as well as the Jesuit schools in Kasait.

The aim of the visit was to see the reality and the progress of the Railaco parish in the programs St Canice’s supports: feeding program, mobile clinic, NOSSEF high school, water project, and other projects of the Jesuit Social Services. . . . . .

Please click here to read the full PICTORIAL MAGAZINE:
 

Meeting the people of Railaco – GOLD!

 

 

Children delight at eating tasty food

This video is about Children eating tasty food brought by the Railaco Jesuit Mission in the remote sub-district Cocoa in East Timor.

It’s quite incredible that 100 children turn-up in the small sub-district of Cocoa outside Railaco today to greet us. Some are just babies carried in a sling by an older sibling, and others are nursed by their mothers. After announcing our arrival with the bagpipes, Khoda’s enthusiasm and passion sees him serving meals to the kids, and relating immediately to these youngsters through sparkling eyes, and the simple language of love.

Parishioners of St Canice’s Sydney initiated this children’s feeding program with Fr Bong of the Jesuit Railaco Mission way back in 2004, and they have been the main benefactor ever since. The sense of joy we take away is more than reward.

We leave a trail of happy kids following us in a cloud of dust.

Click on photo to open YouTube video:

Our Neighbours in Timor

T

he word neighbour derives from those near-by. When the neighbour is drawn into the exchange of kindnesses, our human-ness is enhanced by the enabling of goodness.

This is what the relationship between St Canice Elizabeth Bay parish and the Jesuit Mission in Railaco is all about – simply being neighbourly, the mutual comfort each of us derive from having good neighbours.

Introduction to the Immersion Experience

We are ambassadors of St Canice Parish in its long-time involvement with Railaco.

Our visit to Timor is an ‘immersion’ experience. As ordinary people, we go to Railaco to listen to the voices of others who speak of ordinary needs.

Please click on article to open in an attachment

Smooth sailing for two days through the heart of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ between Bahamas and Bermuda on Ponant’s ‘Le Boreal’.  At dock in St George Bermuda

mooth sailing for two days through the heart of the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ on Ponant’s ‘Le Boreal’ between Bahamas and Bermuda, (with the Atlantic Ocean up to five kilometers deep in places).

Bermuda, is a British Overseas Territory UNESCO World Heritage municipality. We dock away from the capital on St. George’s Island, the territory’s first English settlement. Would I want to live here? No!

The homes are built in the Bermuda tradition and sit amongst trees and gardens on the side of hills dipping down into a green sea. All have a ridged white roof treated with lime and designed to capture rain water. The walls are painted in bright pastel colours and make for a quaint experience, but that’s where my fascination ends.

The homes have a ridged white roof treated with lime and designed to capture rain water, and the walls are painted in bright pastel colours

It was from here in Bermuda that in early 17th century that British colonists landed in Jamestown, Virginia, to help replenish the dwindling colonists. They provided the starving Jamestown folk with food brought from Bermuda and, via John Rolfe, one of the new arrivals from Bermuda, provided them with tobacco found growing in Bermuda which later became a major American industry.

The capital Hamilton, at the other end of the island is the financial hub. Most of the quaint buildings there have now been replaced by glass and steel.

My fellow sailors, Jim and Eddy have settled in to this lazy life at sea very easily.

A fine Swiss specimen amongst the blooms - Eddy

Amex days on three continents hold many memories. But none so important as friendships forged. Leaving Hector and Dolores behind in Phoenix last weekend, I land in Miami to stay with old friend Edmundo. Perhaps it’s through the depth of his close friendships that I, in turn, have made so many good friends here over the years. One week is not enough.

And, this evening, two more Amex friends of nearly fifty years will come to dinner at Edmundo’s – Eddy from London and Jim from New York. We three ‘old farts’ are embarking on a two-week cruise across the Atlantic tomorrow on Ponant, the French shipping line – to Lisbon. First stop the Bahamas, where yet another Amex alma mater from London Days, Robert will entertain us.

Chocolate Easter eggs from Brazilian friend Ricardo - with crushed Brazil nuts make wonderful Easter gifts.

A rose (Tere) among the thorns - Hailing from many countries of the Americas - 3 Cubans, 2 Brazilians, 1 Venezuelan and 1 USA

Reynier and Natalie

Happy Easter to all!

Check the Photo Album here

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REUNION OF FOUR WHO FAREWELLED AMEX IN THE 1990’S
Edmundo Perez-de Cobos hosted a wonderful dinner party this evening in his home in Coral Gables to mark a reunion of four old Amex friends, all of whom retired in the 90’s. Michael from Frankfurt; Eddy from London; Edmundo from Mexico City, and Jim from Moscow.

Edmundo, Michael, Eddy and Jim at Edmundo's home in Coral Gables

This ancient iconography is very profound; it encapsulates the true Easter message; death and resurrection; the gift of Christian Hope that all we baptised believe is ours forever, with Him, in heaven when we die.

Jesus descends into the underworld after his death. We see him surrounded by the key characters of the Old Testament – the royalty, the prophets and law-givers. Under him all the instruments of death are falling into the abyss with the bound-up Satan.

Yet his first task – quite phenomenologically – is to take Adam and Eve physically by the hand and to wrench their bodies from the grave.

My mother always told me that ‘we are on this earth for but a short time, on our way to our eternal reward’. As I head towards eighty, her words ring ever loudly.

Susan Kelley and I worked together in Amex New York back in 1975. We were both 34 when my mother Connie braved the journey on Pan Am all the way from Sydney to visit me; and Susan entertained us to Tea on the front terrace of her Gramercy Park Manhattan brownstone. (Mum was most pleased that I had met such a nice lady. The fact that Susan was married didn’t seem to come into the equation.)

Tonight, Edmundo Perez-de Cobos, my good friend and my host here in Miami, and I drive up to Miami Shores in his noisy new soft-top convertible red Fiat 500 to have drinks and dinner with Susan and Bill. Again, such welcoming hospitality with the many decades passed counting for nought.

Four ‘Scotties’s scurry to meet us but Cupcake and Winston insist on sitting on laps for a photo shoot.

Four ‘Scotties’s scurry to meet us but Cupcake and Winston insist on sitting on laps of Michael Musgrave and Susan Kelley for a photo shoot.

Simple sightseeing pleasures made all the more pleasurable with simple home hospitality by Hector and Dolores at their home in Phoenix. How many years is it since we were working together in London, and eldest daughter Alexandra’s wedding in Madrid? Three decades and four grandchildren later, we are together again kicking-back with a coffee, stroking nuzzling dogs, and catching-up in the comfort of home as if it were yesterday.

Saturday morning, a walk down Main Street of old Scottsdale reminds me of my first visit to Arizona with Des Whelan while attending my first Amex ‘Outer Space’ Meeting in 1971. (From here we flew in light planes to the Grand Canyon and on to Las Vegas. I’m not sure whether this ‘boy from the bush’ (as Des would taunt me) truly understood how lucky he was to be doing things like at age 28, and every year till moving to the US to work five years later.)

Then, tacos in America had to be ticked off my list. That done, Hector and I drive out to the Desert Botanical Gardens to meet Dolores and go walk through the blooming cactus and other desert plants in colourful Spring bloom.

Driving home, and stopping-by their local Franciscan church, preparations are well under way for Palm Sunday services outdoors ‘on the grass’ in the shade of tall palm trees.

We skip this in favour of going to Mass in the morning, in Sedona, a couple of hours drive north. The ‘greeting’ from smiling ladies and gentlemen (who must have abandoned their walkers to get up and welcome us), and a well-meaning choir of white- haired songstresses make it a little difficult to concentrate on the Mass.

Lunch at Mariposa Grill with Hector and Dolores in Sedona, Arizona

A road-trip to Monument Valley has always been on my ‘to do’ list, but I’m running out of years. The red in the mountains and rocky outcrops in mountains surrounding Sedona has more than satisfied my hankering. And to stop for lunch, at a restaurant, magically located right on a bluff with full view of the surrounding red mountains and outcrops, puts the icing on the cake. A few extra squeezes of fresh lime into my Margarita made for a grand welcome cocktail as we settle in to our prize dress-circle table and wait for lunch to be served.

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME
Seeing cherry blossoms in bloom is the main focus of this, my first visit to Tokyo in 50+ years. And the sun is shining on a perfect blue-sky day.

My ‘tours by locals’ guide Hiroshi, a calm retired businessman, is somewhat non-plussed with the request, but with a little zigzagging around Tokyo in trains and taxis respectfully playing to my eccentricity, he delivers in spades (and blooming blossoms).

I wonder what the excitement is about?

Walking through the fish market stalls, there is no cherry blossom; only fish. But a quick taxi ride away, and a walk in the park, I’m rewarded. Blossoms keep falling on my head in the cold gusts of wind, (even land on my lip as you’ll see in one of the photos). Trellises of budding wisteria around the lake trigger a momentary impulse to return in a month’s time for more joy and beauty. (“By learning to see and appreciate beauty, we learn to reject self-interested pragmatism,” so says Pope Francis in ‘Laudate Si’.)

A stop for a cup of the bitter ‘matcha’ green tea in a traditional Japanese teahouse on the lake presents an opportunity to know little more about the growth of Tokyo since my last visit. Away in the distance through today’s soaring skyscrapers is Tokyo Tower, the tallest building in all of Tokyo back in 1966, even taller than the Eifel Tower.

I am not expecting to see Mt Fuji, but Hiroshi knows just the 40th floor vantage point. The winds have blown all clouds away, and there it is in all its glory in the distance, beyond the glass, framed by Tokyo Tower and taller office buildings.

I wonder why most of the other diners in our stop for a Teppanyaki fish lunch are decidedly more elderly (and quieter) than the masses on the streets. Surely it couldn’t be the ten-dollar price tag? No, the owner once ran this as a leading seafood restaurant before the tall building was built, and older customers (including Hiroshi obviously) continue to patronise his establishment.

Seemingly half-way around Tokyo by train and we alight at Ueno Park with its five-storey Buddhist Pagoda and golden Shinto Toshogu shrine; in the gardens, giant peony blooms, sheltered from the sun under paper parasols, add the colour to replace the now fading cherry blossoms floating in the wind.

The cherry blossom was also important to the samurai of feudal Japan; it was their duty to simultaneously realise the inevitably to death and release any fear of it. Their lives, marked by battle and conflict, were often cut short, and the fallen cherry blossom became the symbol of that short life.

Requiescant in Pace

Please click on links to open:

DESMOND WHELAN Liturgy Booklet Click to read.

BE THOU MY VISION

 

FR STEVE INTRODUCTION

EULOGY – Michael Musgrave

EULOGY – Ray Harris

READINGS – Lily Horneman

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 11-13
A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians.

Love is patient, love is kind, Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong-doing but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we shall see face to face.
Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.

And now, faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

POEM ‘The Isle of Innisfree’ by W B Yeats – Lily Horneman

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to wear the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all the glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

 

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

HOMILY – Fr Steve Sinn SJ

Fr Steve Homily transcript Click to read.

I’m glad there are many rooms because there are rooms for all of us in my Father’s house. There’s no one way. It’s interesting to hear that story. ‘When I told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you’. It’s a lovely stanza, ‘He’s gone before us and he’s prepared a place for us, each one of us. If I’ve gone to do that, I will return and take you to myself, so that whereby you also will be’. So that again is a lovely image that He can’t be without us.

And it’s a kind of image that we kind of had a taste of that with Des. He had gone to prepare a place for us, whether it was around a BBQ, around a bar, so that where he is, we are. We’ve had a little taste of the future.

And the one who said that He has been through death and promised to take us to himself to the place he has prepared for us. When that promise says, ‘but we don’t know where we’re going’, he says, ‘you know the way’. We say ‘we don’t know the way’, but then we do. There’s no book. The way is the relationship. ‘I am the way’. There’re no descriptions, no rules. It’s a relationship we have with one another. It’s the way. We know that in our hearts, and Des embodied that. He was priestly. He showed us the way. He showed us the power of communion; the power of relationships; the power of being together. So this is the truth. This is the way. This is what life is.

And so I just thank Des for showing us the way, and the truth and the life.

 

Ave Maria (Schubert)

 
 
The Parting Glass – last few lines

 
 
Go Silent Friend

 
 
Galway Bay

 
 
(to come)
 
 
 
 

here’s lots to like about the ‘French’ touches on this Ponant 30th Anniversary Cruise on which we’ll be sailing to little visited islands of the South Pacific, and east to French Polynesia. Pity I left my reef shoes and ‘budgie smugglers’ at home. I learn that there’s a lot more wet landings and ‘swimming in idyllic waters’ opportunities than I imagined.

wonderful twilight dinner at the Blau Weiss Tennis Club with hostess Carla Eysel and friends in this very leafy setting and sporting establishment of Berlin-Grunewald since 1899.

In this ‘enclave of privilege’, large families gather for a meal, and attractive young people relax (in their regulation white tennis gear), chatting after their games, (and then pay with dad’s credit card). I can only hope that their education gives them an appreciation for the ‘want’ that exists in the world. An intriguing feature is seeing that all are well-versed in the ‘art of conversation’ and none has their nose in a mobile phone!

So much more laughter and conversation here in the late afternoon than when we were ‘trapped’ on a cruise boat drifting along the River Spree taking in the sights and forests of both East and West Berlin yesterday. (And waiting for the water to empty at two locks along the way) for nearly four hours thinking that this will never end.

If this were a first time for a cruise on the upper deck of the slow-moving boat, it would be most interesting, with Berlin having more waterways and bridges than Venice. However, yesterday‘s experience with pollinated white wisps of irritation (loosed from the newly-greened trees in the wind) flying up the nose and in the eyes and down my throat was quite a trial.

Thank you, Frank for the river cruise and later for the Sicilian ‘snack’ and bottles of wine. And thank you Carla for the wonderful farewell meal as the sun disappeared over the white-clad players on the clay tennis courts and the evening cooled down.

arents entrust their sons from a young age to the care of the Cantors at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig for their education and training as choristers up until they are ready to attend university.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of these cantors for twenty-seven years here at the Thomaskirche back in the 18th century. He was hired by the City of Leipzig to compose music for special Court and Church occasions, and to develop the choir.

We attend a special performance of the St Thomas Boy’s Choir and sit in pews ‘choir style’ so as to get a good view of the organ and the choir. I simply close my eyes and ‘imagine’ during the Bach organ solo pieces.

MUSIC – The significance of Leipzig is so much more than the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Here in the mid-18th century, as Cantor of the Thomaskirche, Bach composed most of his music.

We enjoy listening to the students of the University playing the Bach organ (newly constructed to replicate the identical musical tones as that used by Bach himself in the 18th century). Tomorrow evening, we are going to hear the St Thomas Boys Choir, (whose history dates back to the year 1212), singing in the church.

LEARNING – More than forty thousand students attend University here in Leipzig. Many are studying the Humanities or attending the famous Medical School.

Leipzig is also the home of Goethe, a literary celebrity by the age of 25, who was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1782 after taking up residence here. Students from all around the world come to study German here in the Goethe Institute.

The over-filled outdoor cafés and bars, so noisy with laughing and conversation is testament to this. And it is the season of white asparagus. Wundabar!
TRADE – In the middle ages, Leipzig was the cross roads of Europe’s trade routes – from France in the west to Russia in the East, and Italy in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. Leipzig remains a major centre of trade today with its Trade Fairs that commenced centuries ago.

It was here five hundred years ago that Martin Luther translated the Bible from Greek into German for the first time. And with the advent of the printing press around the same time, Luther was able to have the ‘Word’ distributed throughout the land, and also disseminate leaflets explaining his disagreements with the Church of Rome.
REUNIFICATION – Prior to the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, Leipzig was a major industrial centre with eight hundred factories, coal mines, and no protection of the environment; in fact, choking pollution. All factories closed and there was ninety percent unemployment.

Porsche, BMW, DHL and other companies lead the return of industries after the Reunification, and today Leipzig is a thriving city with unemployment at just seven percent.
THE PEACE MOVEMENT – In 1982, even under the rule of the dictatorial German Democratic Government, a Lutheran Reverend at the Nikolaikirche here in the centre of old Leipzig, started weekly ‘Peace Prayer’ gatherings in the church.

This movement developed the momentum that eventually influenced the collapse of the Berlin Wall seven years later. In October 1989, the Military, in tanks, surrounded the church of people defying orders from the State Security to cease the Movement. Ten thousand other people gathered in the Square outside.
The famous conductor, Kurt Masur, loved by the people, broadcast a message into the square, “We want peace. We want calm”. Soldiers were listening to this local hero, and no order was given to shoot.

The Reverend then told the people inside to leave the church, carrying a candle at their breasts, and shouting out, ‘No violence”. The Military phoned Security HQ where there was no answer. They then phoned East Berlin, while the crowds swelled to seventy thousand people and marched to Headquarters of the State Security demanding change.
This was followed by a Peaceful Revolution in which half a million people from all over the GDR marched on the State Security Headquarters again, and occupied it.
One month later, the Berlin Wall came down!

OLD FRIENDS – Four of us, who have shared friendship since our days working with Amex, are here on this little adventure, and to share a reunion.

You might say that we are privileged to receive keys of the city during our special sightseeing tour in Dresden today.

My old friend, Fr Frank introduces us to another of his ‘colleagues’ from his years in the seminary. Fr Christian is a local man, not only well-versed and ready to explain all about this beautiful ‘royal’ town, but also one who carries the keys to the Royal tombs located under the Katholische Hofkirche. This was once the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony and is located on the square next to the Castle.

But first, we meet the affable Fr Christian in the Old Market Square and start with a visit to the imposing Protestant Frauenkirche. After lying as rubble for decades since World War II, this imposing edifice has finally been rebuilt using 45% of the blackened original stones. The church was not bombed, but in the bombing of surrounding houses by the British towards the end of the War, the building simply collapsed in the heat (like the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001).

The enormity of its circular tiered-interior with decorations in soft colours of a ‘Bauern Baroque’ (farmer’s simple baroque) style, catches my eye. Inside of the dome contains paintings of the Evangelists and the Virtues (better appreciated when seen enlarged in the viewfinder of my camera).

We then walk along the impressive outer wall of Dresden Castle (known as the Fürstenzug, Procession of Princes). It is the largest porcelain artwork in the world, 100 metres in length, made of twenty-three thousand Meissen porcelain tiles. It features a mounted procession of the rulers of Saxony from the twelfth to twentieth century, Including one of August the Strong, The Catholic King of Saxony (which incorporated much of present-day Poland at the time), with his horse stepping on a red rose, the symbol of Protestantism at the time.

Now, for the keys not of the city but to the crypt, to view these Royal ‘catacombs’ of large bronze tombs, and hear the stories that embrace the history. The Saxons were also the Kings of Poland during those centuries and all are buried here in the Catholic Hofkirche, previously the Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony.

In the crypt, there’s a shrine for the eminent ruler, August the Strong, with the message, “I have to be buried where the Kings of Poland are buried, in Krakow, but my heart belongs to Dresden”, and we see this heart, in bronze, next to the tomb of his wife, who bore him sixteen children. Harkening back to the Fürstenzug, the mural of Meissen porcelain tiles, we now better understand a detail in his portrait showing his horse stepping on a rose, the symbol of Protestantism.

Back to the world of the living, and we find ourselves in an empty Catholic Hofkirche. As if by a divine signal, as we enter, the organ begins to play a rousing welcome. The organist is rehearsing for a special Ordination Mass tomorrow, not for us. But we sit and enjoy anyway.

In a local restaurant, just off the wonderful Promenade overlooking the River Elbe, a dish of beef, marinated in sweet black beer with spiced apple and dumplings, and red sauerkraut is my lunch treat.

Now time to drive back to Leipzig in time for a special performance of the St Thomas Boy’s Choir. We sat in pews ‘choir style’ (like Fr Steve Sinn introduced at St Canice St Canice’s KingsCross Sydney ) not so much as to ‘create community’ but so as to avoid a stiff neck turning around to get a good view of the organ and the choir. I simply closed my eyes and ‘imagined’ during the organ solo pieces.

Thomaskirche in Leipzig is where Bach composed so much of his music for Church and Court occasions. He was also cantor and the instructor of the boys in the choir there back in the 18 century…

apoleon was defeated here in 1813, but Eddy and I march on!

I first met long-time Swiss friend Eddy in 1972. We were in a seaplane flying to an Amex meeting at Kawau Island on the North Island of New Zealand.
Now, forty-six years later, we are meeting-up with other Amex friends in Leipzig, Germany.

While others recover from jetlag this morning, Eddy and I go out to visit the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, which opened in 1913. This is built on the site of an historic battle here in Leipzig in 1893. The unified armed forces of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden prevailed in a decisive victory over Napoleon and his allies on German soil.

This incredible stone temple is a monument to death, victory, and fantasy architecture. It’s impressive, but has a very cold, militaristic feel. Nothing like the ‘roundness and warmth’ that creates a sense of community as in Byzantine architecture that we came to appreciate from Fannie our guide in Greece earlier this week.

I walked up too many steps and now the left cheek of my derrière is reminding me with sharp jolts of pain. Thankfully, intermittent rolls of thunder and rain beating on the window pane as I lie on the bed seems to soothe it some.

Thessaloniki is the second city of Greece. We all ask ourselves how this very lively spot on the Aegean Sea seemed to be off our radars for so long.
 

Enjoying an easy morning of sightseeing in Thessaloniki

 
What brought us here to northern Greece were two archaeological sites not far from Thessaloniki, at Vergina and at Pella.

As we soon discover, Thessaloniki is well worth the visit too, and the archaeological sites are so much more than a ‘pile of old stones in a dusty landscape’!

Far from it. This is the home of Alexander the Great, and the commencement of the Greek Hellenistic period.

What draws our interest is that the discoveries are so recent. World class small museums have been constructed on the actual sites where the palaces and tombs were discovered. Both sites are within easy driving distance of Greece’s lively and youthful second city, Thessaloniki.

Vergina

Vergina is best known as the site of ancient Aigai, the first capital of Macedon. It was there when in 336 BC Philip II was assassinated in the theatre and Alexander the Great was proclaimed king. The ancient site of this first capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia, was discovered in the 19th century.

The most important remains are the monumental palace, lavishly decorated with mosaics and painted stuccoes, and the burial ground with more than 300 tumuli, some of which date from the 11th century B.C. One of the royal tombs in the Great Tumulus is identified as that of Philip II, who conquered all the Greek cities, paving the way for his son Alexander and the expansion of the Hellenistic world. It was discovered in 1976 and excavated under the leadership of Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos.

What’s fascinating is that the Museum is built underground ‘around the actual tombs’! They are still intact! Exquisite, precious items of gold and finely carved ivory miniatures were found in the tombs. They are beautifully displayed along with other funerary objects placed in the tombs for their use in the afterlife.

When Philip II’s tomb was discovered, it was so well camouflaged. It was never disturbed or looted as so many others before this. It was such a surprise for Andronikos, who realised that his years of work finally proved that this place was the site of the traditional capital Macedonian Kingdom of 2,400 years ago.

This discovery has current day political significance too, as it proves that Macedonia is in mainland Greece. The claim of the bordering state in the former Yugoslavia, to be the real Macedonia, is simply not true.

Edmundo and the statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki

 

Pella

Philip and his son Alexander were born in Pella. Here, we see a re-creation of the Summer Palace of the Macedonian dynasty. It’s a large building with a rectangular atrium – as a reference to the central peristyle courtyard of ancient houses in Pella.

We walk easily through four themed well-curated rooms. It’s so easy to understand aspects of daily and public life in ancient Pella. We view amazing original mosaics lifted from Pella’s sanctuaries (the carefully chosen pebble used as the eye of the deer is of a size and has the right angles and colour that brings the animal to life). And, in another thematic group on a higher floor, we see the findings from the city’s cemeteries.

Our guide helps us to know so much more about the mighty Alexander. He was a student of Aristotle, but also learned much from his father as to how to respect and govern his people. It’s hard to believe that he lead his first campaign at the age 18 and was dead by the time he was only 31.

He was a brave leader, a man of the people, who conquered lands all the way east as far as India. His great legacy was uniting his people in one great state.

Alexander had a ‘deep appreciation’ for his friend, the handsome Macedonian fellow warrior, Hephaistion. In those days, it was very customary for members of Alexander’s Army to take fellow soldiers as lovers while away on Campaigns. It is said that this made them all the braver as they had strong motivation to protect each other when going into battle.

Alexander married the beautiful Roxana of Bactria, and fathered at least one child, Alexander IV of Macedon, born of Roxana shortly after his death in 323 BC.

n a region of almost inaccessible sandstone peaks, monks settled on these ‘columns of the sky’ from the 11th century onwards.

We left the cruise this morning. After getting through the morning traffic of Athens, we headed straight up Highway 1 to the east coast town of Lamia, on the Aegean Sea where we stopped at a Greek Fish Tavern for lunch. Then on to Meteora.

We couldn’t wait till tomorrow to go see these amazing monasteries on pillars of amazing rock carved by nature over many millennia. So I bring you into the picture, and share a couple of pics tonight.

Next morning, we brave the 169 steps winding up to the top of one of the pillars of rock, the mountain, to visit the Varlaam Monastery.

On the way up, we can see that the unique ‘geological formations’ like pillars of stone here in Meteora are no more than small stones and rocks that have washed down from rivers past over the millennia. What remains are these hardened pillars on which many monasteries have been built.

We are fortunate to witness first-hand how all this came to pass, and still exists today with seven monks living in this particular monastery.. The story is worth reading.

In 1350, an ascetic monk named Varlaam climbed this great rock and settled at the top. He built three churches, a cell for himself and a water tank. No one chose to follow his lead, so after his death the site was abandoned.

In the early 16th century, two priest-monks ascended the rock and founded a monastery. They renovated Varlaam’s church of the Three Hierarchs, erected the tower, and built a katholikon (1541-42) dedicated to All Saints. We visit this today and hear the monks singing.

Using ropes, pulleys and baskets, it took 22 years to hoist all the building materials to the top of the rock. Once everything was at the top, the construction work took only 20 days.

Varlaam Monastery was continuously occupied by monks (about 35 at a time) throughout the 16th century and into the early 17th century, after which it began to decline. Steps were first carved into the rock in the early 19th century and have been altered several times since.

The frescoes in the main church were painted by the celebrated iconographer Frangos Katelanos of Thebes in 1548 (the date is inscribed on the south wall). They appear as colourful today as they must have when first painted.

Our guide Fannie described in evocative terms the different symbolism in the architecture of ‘Gothic’ Catholic churches and ‘Byzantine’ Orthodox churches.

Fanny explained that the pointed arch of a Gothic cathedral ceiling was designed to draw the eye up and reflected the belief that ‘God was in heaven’, while the curved dome and ceiling of a Byzantine church reflected the belief that God dwelled in the church ‘among the people’. This thought is also reinforced in the art and beauty of the church.

We see in the old tower the old windlass and rope basket (1536), which used to transport monks and supplies to the monastery. When asked how often the rope was replaced, a 19th-century abbot famously replied, “Only when it breaks.” It was used as recently as 1961-63, when the refectory was renovated into a museum of religious artefacts.

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