New Orleans' best attractions

 ... that is, aside from the ubiquitous, marvelous jazz scene!
As promised in my previous post, below are the two sites that impressed us the most. Obviously, New Orleans has more to offer; but there's only so much one can do in four days.

The National WWII Museum is unabashedly didactic. Not that I blame them; they state their educational mission right on the front page of their website; it is a huge undertaking, in partnership with Arizona State University. It is anything but "merely" a museum.  

Personally, I didn't come to learn more about WW2; I came to see how that complex period is displayed. The management and the designers went to great lengths to make the concept of war and the reality of this specific war as tangible and explicit as can be, without actually scattering disfigured dead bodies around... It is aimed mainly at the younger generation, and is intended to be visited several times, by students accompanied by teachers. I hope it is accomplishing its purpose.

As it happens, I wasn't dressed for the occasion. By which I mean that I wasn't prepared for the icy air-conditioning. So I couldn't bear to spend much time there. I hurried through "battle scenes", trenches and weapons, aiming for the more open pavillion, which was also closer to my heart: the "Warbirds" display of old aircraft. Can't help it -- I'm partial to fighter planes of every sort. As I mentioned in one of my Alaska trip posts, my father worked for the Israel Air Force most of his life, and used to take me with him to "his" air-force base occasionally, where I got to see IDF aircraft up close and personal, from old Pipers and Dakotas to the French Mystere and Mirage. So I like old airplanes, and took more pics than you care to see, so I'll be brave and limit myself: 

B-17E-BO Flying Fortress "My Gal Sal"

The Sculpture Garden at NOMA

The museum has a world-class collection that contains something for everyone; whatever your preferences are in art, you're likely to find some "nice stuff", to put it mildly. The docent who took us on a short tour, for instance, chose to concentrate on the Photography category. Sorry to say I don't remember a word of what she said. After the tour, left to our own devices, we wandered, gaped and gawked until we were dizzy and needed some fresh air. 

Wise move.

Mirror Labyrinth, Jeppe Hein

Even without the statues, the garden is beautiful; as it says on the website, it "... is located within a mature existing landscape of pines, magnolias and live oaks surrounding two lagoons". 

As you can see from this map, there's no way you can do it justice in one visit. (What else is new...) 

History of the Conquest, Hank Willis Thomas

Diana, Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Whether you prefer modern, abstract art, mind-blowing original creations, Greek/Roman looking torsos, or intricately decorative works, you'll find them all here.

  Naturally, we took pictures like there's no tomorrow. Even though our mobile-phone photos aren't as good as the ones provided by the museum. Nonetheless, we were enchanted by this sculpture garden, and I'll just upload a very few favorites, in the hope of whetting your appetite.

RIACE WARRIORS, I,II,III,IV

Frink, Elisabeth

Window with Ladder, Too Late for Help; Erlich, Leandro

Overflow, Plensa, Jaume

America the Beautiful - part 2, New Orleans

... so when the Internet was buzzing with updates about Hurricane Barry threatening Louisiana, I got really worried. The horrors of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina were revived in my memory while the driver who picked us up from the New Orleans International Airport acted as tour guide (for a few extra bucks), pointing out landmarks, explaining stuff, and generally giving us an informative introduction to New Orleans and environs.

We don't actually know anyone in New Orleans; this was our first visit there: 4 nights, 3 full days plus two half-days. Just a taste. A smattering. But this one-of-a-kind city drew us in, engulfed us, fascinated us. When Barry came charging (July 13th), I immediately thought of the staff of Melrose Mansion, our home-away-from-home. So I dropped them a line, to let them know I was thinking of them and hope they were all hale and healthy. The only thing that bothered me when writing was that I didn't remember the names of our hosts! Very untypically, I hadn't written a single line in my [handwritten] travel journal during our stay. There was simply no time. For once, I was experiencing rather than recording. Sure, I took pictures with my iPhone. And I did jot down the occasional two-word note on my phone, saying to myself that that's better than nothing and will jog my memory. Ahem.
Long story short: this post will be more pics than text. Also, I'm delighted to say Melrose Mansion graciously and promptly answered my message, saying "Thank you! We are all safe!" (Keana Holmes, Reservations Supervisor.)

Entrance to our spacious room

Our bedroom

Our bedroom

Incidentally: See the neat woven rug on the floor? Well, here's a close-up of it: 

Woven rug -- coarse and unpleasant to the touch

It was the worst item in the room. Ours looked and felt brand-new, compared, say, to the one in our friend Lynne's room, which was a bit worn and therefore not as coarse. A half-decent mat or carpet are important to me, for my sun-salutations routine. This thing was unpleasant to walk barefoot on, let alone place your hands, knees, shins, or any other part of your body on it. I ended up spreading a bath-towel on it, which helped to a certain extent.

Our bathroom

Note the open umbrella in the bathroom; an indication that, though the weather was hot on the whole, it also rained, enough to require an umbrella.

We all settled in comfortably: My husband and I, and our dear friend Lynne, who flew over from Dallas, TX, to spend some time with us at the same hotel. Melrose Mansions only offers breakfast. Luckily, just across the road is Buffa's Lounge, a cozy restaurant-bar with a decent menu and a separate room for musical performances. That took care of lunch, and was an easy solution on other days as well.

Michael & Lynne crossing over to Buffa's

What else did we do? Walk around, of course, as far as The Port of New Orleans, (see below),

ate at several good-food, good-music places such as Adolfo's and Crescent City Brewhouse,

Inside Adolfo's; cozy and pleasant

611 Frenchmen Street, NOLA

Our friendly waitress, Joyce, took this pic of the three of us at the lively Brewhouse

and clapped and stomped to the upbeat music with the rest of the crowd diagonally-opposite Adolfo's, next to the Frenchmen Art & Books corner:

Possibly because I wasn't writing in my journal, I recorded some of our experiences on Facebook, complete with pics, of course. But not all my readers are on Facebook, believe it or not! 

I will quit here, and save the two most impressive locations we visited in New Orleans for the next post. I'm referring to The WWII Museum, and the Sculpture Garden of the New Orleans Museum of Art.

... and here is the post: https://nina-makes-tracks.blogspot.com/2019/08/new-orleans-best-attractions.html

Enjoy!

America the Beautiful - Part 1

Just got back from nearly a month in the U.S.

But before I start telling you where I was and what (and how much) I ate, I'd like to share with you some tips and insights. Which may or may not be relevant to you. So how about if I first lure you with a few pretty pics (no, not of food), then get down to the nitty-gritty.

Our friends' yard in Princeton, NJ

The above pic is an example of one of the things that took my breath away throughout our trip: the greenery. The trees. Along roads, along streets. Tall and luscious. Of course, such abundance of greenery is evidence of plenty of rain... and when we were caught in a horrible downpour on a winding road between Lancaster, PA and Richmond, VA , I was less than thrilled with it :-)

New Orleans Museum of Art sculpture garden

Hope you don't think me morbid for choosing the skull over any other of the stunning pieces of sculpture... It may have something to do with my affinity for the character of Death in Terry Pratchett's novels...

Poe Returning to Boston, by Stephanie Rocknak

This one, it turns out, quickly became a huge success, and has been one of the most photographed piece of sculpture since its unveiling in 2014, 165 years after Poe's death.

And now for some tips and observations:

1. Get a good haircut before your trip. One that will require the least amount of fuss, no blow-drying, no (or a minimum of) spray, styling foam/gel/cream, no hair rollers, curlers or straighteners. Yes, it is possible to not fuss with your hair and still enjoy your trip!

2. Go to the dentist before your trip. The last (or next-to-last) thing you want is for that iffy tooth of yours to suddenly wake you up in pain.

3. Travel light. Yes, I know you've heard that tip umpteen times. So have I, yet I ignored it. Started out with a reasonable number of items, then gradually added one "what-if" after another... until I had way too many shirts, socks, pants and panties; way too many creams and lotions, scarves, pencils and pens. On the one hand, I had the weather-excuse: In Boston it was still cool and rainy; in New Orleans it was boiling hot (outdoors) and freezing cold (indoors). Still, how many scarves does a woman need, especially considering the fact that most of the time she (i.e., I) was staying with family/friends, who would be only too happy to lend me a scarf, hat, sweatshirt, or mittens had I needed them!

4. Of course I did some shopping. Some travelers go a bit(?) overboard with shopping. I tend to go overboard with toiletries, though I generally stick to the drugstore-priced items. Also, I try to buy my fave brand of sneakers -- either Asics or Saucony -- mainly because these are very pricey in my homeland, Israel, but reasonably-priced in shops such as DSW in Silver Spring, MD. But the best buy was a good-as-new long-sleeved denim shirt, of the sort I'd been wanting for ages. Found it in a yard-sale next to our lovely B&B, the Red Rose at Witmer, a small town outside Lancaster, PA, in the heart of Amish country, no less. Price: $2.-

Yard sale at Red Rose B&B, Witmer, PA

5. Stop eating. Now, before your dish is empty! Or else you'll probably regret it. If you're an American, maybe you don't realize that portions tend to be smaller in other countries. Or that food isn't as abundant and in-your-face in other countries. But if you're a "foreigner" visiting the U.S., you've probably realized that food is, for the most part, both plentiful and rich (in fat, salt, and sugar, inter alia), with the result that you eat far more than your body is accustomed to. Yes, of course you can make exceptions. You want to try yummy stuff you can't get at home; you want to indulge on your vacation; you want to enjoy your hosts' superb cooking, as well as the restaurants they take you too. But even so, I'd suggest trying not to overdo it.

6. Pharmacies. If it's only some band-aids or Ibuprofen that you need, no problem, you can get them at any gas station small shop. (That's "petrol station" to Brits.) But if you need anything more serious, perhaps even to consult a pharmacist, you'll have to find the nearest CVS or Walgreens. (Yes, there are others, but these two are the largest.) Not that they're difficult to find. But still -- I had to get used to the idea that small, private pharmacies are a thing of the past. As opposed to the plethora of pharmacies in the big cities in, for example, Georgia, which I described in my blog post Georgia - It's the Little Differences - Part 2 (scroll down the page.) Mind you, it looks like Israel is going down that path, too, as small, private pharmacies -- where you're on familiar terms with the same chemist for years and years -- have been closing down, pushed out of the market by the largest drugstore, Super-Pharm, and the 2nd largest, ex-NewPharm, which has been sold to the Supersol chain and is now called Be (ugh! A name that to my copywriter's ear sounds like a choice made out of desperation, at the end of a long, fruitless and frustrating "creative" session).

7. If you dislike jazz and blues, skip New Orleans' French Quarter. Or perhaps just skip the city altogether, since live jazz will greet you and follow you in scores of other spots in NOLA ;-) But more about this fab city in a separate blog post.

- to be continued...

Guernica is Alive and Kicking

Until a short while ago, the only association I had with the name Guernica -- or Gernika, the town’s official Basque name -- was the famous huge painting by Pablo Picasso. I first saw it on our trip to Spain in February 1999, at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. It was awesome in the original sense of the word, i.e., truly awe-inspiring. And scary and heartbreaking. The kind of art that can give you nightmares if you look at it carefully, at length.

Then, just recently, we watched Season 2 of the TV series Genius. The 10 episodes of this season were dedicated to Pablo Picasso. Though I’m sure some will find fault with the series, I found it interesting and well-made, and it filled a few gaps in my education. Though the series didn’t go into the story of the bombing of Gernika at great length, it did provide some background, and even made me curious to find out more.

Anyway, when we were planning our trip, the first company we consulted (but ended up not hiring – too expensive) suggested popping over to the town of Gernika-Lumo as part of our route. So we did.

Gernika, Oct 2018

Gernika, Oct 2018

 It was Friday, October 12, which happens to be no less than Spain’s national holiday, commemorating the arrival of Columbus in the Americas. The streets of the pretty little town were full of strolling families, the bars and cafes filled with local residents enjoying their day off in the fresh air, quickly filling it with cigarette smoke, drinking vino or cerveza, and having the time of their lives. I sort of wished that whichever Nazi had given the order to bomb Gernika in April 1937 could see them now.

We were given to understand that the main point of going to Gernika was to visit the Museum of Peace. So we parked our rented car among all the other cars on one of the main streets, and went to the museum.

Museum of Peace, Gernika

Museum of Peace, Gernika

War museums are designed to be unsettling, I suppose. But the trick isn’t to say that war is hell; that’s been said and shown in countless novels, documentaries, and movies – War and Peace, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Longest Day – to name but a few well-known ones; and more recently, the TV series Sharpe which, though riveting, caused me to leave the room every once in a while, when the cruelty and bloodshed got too much for me. (My son dissuaded me from reading the books, saying they are even more gory…) Here’s the series’ theme song. (Apologies. I’m a Sharpe fan.)

In January 2017 we toured Vietnam. When in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), we went to the War Remnants Museum. Keep in mind that, if you Google “Vietnam War Museum” you’ll reach an American website of a museum in Texas… For the Vietnamese, it was “the American War”. A matter of perspective, obviously. Anyway – I’m afraid I didn’t have much patience for all the blood-curdling photos and relics. (Unlike my American cousin who felt morally obligated to scrutinize and contemplate the displays.) I know what war is. I was born on a kibbutz in pre-State Israel and lived through all of Israel’s wars. In fact – I’m lucky to be alive: the nursery that housed the kibbutz babies was bombed by Egypt the very day after we, the babies, were evacuated…

Babies' nursery, kibbutz Hatzor, 1948

Kibbutz Hatzor dining room, 1948

Kibbutz Hatzor living quarters, 1948

Kibbutz Hatzor public toilets, 1948 (there were no private toilets!)

Later, in the IDF, I didn’t serve on the front lines… But my then-husband did; and some of my school friends never made it back alive. I’d like to believe that anyone who has lived through a war would be ardently pro-peace. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case.

But I digress. The whole idea of the Peace Museum is not to commemorate war, but rather to encourage and extol peace. As one visitor wrote: “I was touched by the initiative to promote peace rather to condemn war”.*

Which doesn’t mean that the Museum completely refrains from touching that [exposed] nerve called The Horror of War. They have a short audio-visual show that places you in the pleasant, comfy home of a family, where you sit listening to a very convincing narrator representing the mother of the family… when suddenly the siren sounds, the bombers fly overhead, the bombs fall, and the next moment you’re sitting in a pile of ruins. It made me sick to my stomach.

It also reminded me of a TV series we watched recently, based on Terry Pratchett’s Johnny and the Bomb, a novel for young readers. Though the main theme may be time travel, the parallel theme is war, and the way it affects civilians: ordinary people living in an ordinary town. You know – like Gernika, or Coventry, or [insert city name of your choice.] I think a film like that is perfectly in keeping with the Peace Museum, whose entire objective is to encourage people from all over the world to work for peace. One cannot travel in time; we can’t change the past. But changing the route that leads to a future of war is still a possibility. Or is it simply an ineradicable feature of the human race?

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* Thing Thing Lee, contributor to Google Maps