Luxembourg: The Balcony of Europe

Some call Luxembourg jewel of Europe. And that is not exaggerated. It was autumn when I visited Luxembourg, so I could see all colours of nature together.

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is situated between Germany, France and Belgium. So, no wonder the Luxembourgish language sounds a bit of French and a bit of German but actually it is none of them. But no panic. I could communicate with the locals in German and in English. Language is not a problem at all.

I started my tour from Tour Muenster. Then walking the whole way down, I reached the Casemates.

                                                                                            The Tour Muenster

The casemates were not just offering a natural fortification. They have strong bounds to the history of the city. They witnessed many wars. Since 1994, they are on the list of UNESCO World Heritage.

Don't surprise when you see a sign saying: "Don't forget the sand!". At the time of the second World War, the casemates were used as shelters against air attacks. And at that time there was no running water in the toilets.

                                                                                             To the Alzette river...

Like all mystic cities, Luxembourg has myths, too. The most famous one is the legend of the beautiful Melusine:

According to legend, Melusine was the wife of Sigefroy, the first count of Luxembourg. On their marriage, Melusine required her husband never to see her during a particular day of the week. But Sigefroy could not resist his curiosity and spied his wife in her bath through the keyhole and discovered her fish's tail. Melusine noted that Sigefroy was watching her and vanished forever into the torrents of the Alzette river.

After visiting the casemates, I crossed the river and had a look at the Neumuenster Abbey which has been serving as an art centre.

Getting hungry, I headed to Gëlle Klack at the Rue Sigefroi (Sigefroy Street). Their monk fish served in a jar was really delicious and the prices were normal compared to the other places in the city.

Since I was in Luxembourg, I took the opportunity of visiting Villeroy & Boch atelier. Just don't dare to imagine the prices are cheaper here...

                                                                                 Villeroy & Boch atelier

This small and rich city was a mixture of classical and contemporary and it worth seeing it.

Old City Reloaded: Eskişehir

Eski-şehir means "Old-city" in English. I remember Eskişehir as a cold and old provincial city of middle Anatolia. Last time I visited this city I was very positively surprised. Thanks to its mayor Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Büyükerşen and its two universities, the whole city metamorphosed into a glowing city and a culture hub.
The city was founded by the Hittites in about 14th century B.C.. Following them Phrygians in 11th century B.C., Lydians, the Persians, the Macedonians in 4th century B.C .and the Romans in 2nd century prevailed on the city. In 1074 A.D. it is conquered by Turks.
The city of Eskişehir is sited on the banks of Porsuk river. Eskişehir is the place of Turkey's first aviation industry. The railway industry, boron, meerschaum and magnesite mines are also the locomotives of the local economy.

Kurşunlu Mosque

Kurşunlu Mosque and Kurşunlu Külliyesi (complex) is one of the main attractions in the historical quarter "Odunpazarı". It was built with the order of Selim I.'s leading vizier Damat Melek Pasha between 1515-1525 by the palace architect Acem Ali. The part caravanserai of the complex was built by Mimar Sinan (the architect of the Sokullu Mehmet Paşa Bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Entrance of the Kurşunlu Mosque

Külliye is composed of a mosque, schools, dormitories, bazaar and some other buildings. Bazaar has been used as hand crafts bazaar. Dormitory rooms are transformed into workshops and meerschaum museum.

Hand crafts bazaar

Meerschaum - before

Meerschaum - after

Calabash (Su kabağı) on the wall of a house.

We continued our tour in the Odunpazarı. The way among the old houses took us to Atlıhan which is a bazaar built in 1880 by Takattin Bey.

Entrance of Atlıhan

Interior of Atlıhan

There are many meerschaum and Turkish calligraphy workshops in Atlıhan. The small tea canteen is a nice place to have a break and taste the Turkish tea served in thin belt glasses.
We were hungry and ate in Köfteci Ahmet. Köftes (a Turkish meat ball dish) were really delicious.

Köfteci Ahmet is right in front of the Atlıhan.

Historical Odunpazarı houses are typical examples of middle-Anatolian architecture.

A pretty old-timer in the Oldcity.

This historical place has been used as movie plateau time to time. As this time ...

We went to Köprübaşı, the traditional shopping mile of the city, and shopped some local sweets. Met helvası is a sugar and flour based sweet typical to Eskişehir. Pestil is a fruit based sweet and it is made by drying the crashed fruits such as grapes, mulberries, plums etc. in the sun.

Helvas

A place identified with Eskişehir is Kara Kedi (Black Cat) Bozacısı. Boza is a typical winter drink in Turkey which is made of fermented wheat and chickpeas. It is usually served with cinnamon on top and with some roasted chickpeas.

Boza

In terms of natural springs Eskişehir is a very rich place. The hot springs have been used in Hamams and even in the city center there are several of them. The most famous spring water of Eskişehir is Kalabak. Almost all drink water of the city is supplied from Kalabak. Which tasted so good after our wild tourism marathon.

A small hamam in Köprübaşı.

This house in Kırmızıtoprak Mahallesi is my favourite house in Eskişehir...

Lisbon

Some weeks ago I had the chance to spend a few hours in Lisbon, in my way to a conference in Coimbra. I arrived at Sta. Apolonia station with the night train from Madrid. The train could be modernized to make it more comfortable but, on the other hand, this way of travelling still gives you the chance to share time and conversations with other travellers.

With the time difference between Portugal and Spain, we arrived at the train station about 7:30 am of a Sunday morning, so there was almost nobody on the streets and I had the opportunity to walk through the meandering streets of Alfama (the fishermen's quarter) without crossing anyone. This is a nice experience, walking on your own in a new city, having nothing but your own senses to fully experience it.

In this walking around, I could see the many building with tiled façades that Lisbon has. This gives it a very distinctive image, which I had not seen before. You can also find some noble building, like the "Casa dos Bicos" (House of Beaks), built in 1523, and that soon will be the home of the José Saramago foundation. It is remarkable the contrast of this very nice house with its neighbour. Indeed, Lisbon is full of contrasts between buildings, with some of them apparently about to fall down, which just gives to it a special air.

Casa dos Bicos in Rua dos Bacalhoeiros

Another colourful image of Alfama

But walking around makes you hungry! So it was time to find some nice breakfast, and following a suggestion of my guidebook, I headed towards to central quarter of "Chiado" and in particular to the Café A Brasileira. This is a very nice café with an art nouveau interior and a sculpture of Fernando Pessoa outside that captures the attention of all passerby. I had a simple caffè latte ("meia de leite") and a pastry and the price was quite ok even been in the very heart of the city.

Café A Brasileira, 120 Rua Garrett

Lisbon is well known for its tough orography, which led to the construction of several elevators and cable cars to join different quarters of the city. Nowadays most of them are no longer working, but you can still catch the Ascensor da Gloria ("Glory cable car"), which is a National Monument, from Praça dos Restauradores to the nice viewpoint of Sao Pedro de Alcántara. The only elevator still in service is the impressive Elevador de Santa Justa.

Ascensor da Gloria at its bottom station,
ready to climb the Calçada da Glória

After visiting Praça dos Restauradores and the nearby Praça do Rossío --the heart of Lisbon--, I walked through the streets of the Baixa quarter. These streets link the center of Lisbon with the Praça do Comercio ("Commerce square"), so named because it's just next to the Tagus river, so it was the natural entry point of goods into the city. Not a surprise then that these streets are named Rua Ouro (Gold st.), Rua Prata (Silver st.), and so on.

You shouldn't visit Lisbon and not go to the Castelo Sao Jorge. There is in fact not much left of the castle, but the views from the hill are said to be impressive. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make the queue, so all I could do was go to the nearby "Largo das Portas do Sol", which has this nice view of the Tagus river and Barreiro, the town opposite Lisbon over the Tagus. Tagus is so broad here, that sometimes you have the feeling you're already seeing the Atlantic ocean rather than a river!

The Tagus in Lisbon