Easter ushering in the new

As we began

During the processional hymn, the clergy filed into the church, in resplendent vestments, rich in colour, the Bishop of Manchester, The Right Reverend Dr. David Walker, with mitre and shepherd’s crook and always to my fascination, sandal-shod, bringing up the rear.

He was the president of the Easter Sunday Sung Eucharist as a surveyed the church in which I stood, barely a seat vacant, the fullest it has been since before the pandemic. The worship conventions suffused in the mystique and mystery of Latin hymns sung by the lay clerks, but for the English translations, we would be in another heaven of tongues roaring like thunder to our hearing.

Onto the new

The sermon was predicated on newness excerpted from part of the Collect, “Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him.” We were encouraged to begin to see the new in a new from that which we once knew. The new normal will never be back to normal, but it has to be a better normal in every aspect of life.

After the dismissal, we were in for a surprise treat, the Bishop said we could follow the clergy out in the recession where we would all congregate outside on the grounds of the church, socially distanced with essential safety measures to then sing the recessional hymn together. For the first time, we sang as a congregation in well over a year, it was uplifting and rousing. The first line introducing us to the amazing story of Easter. ‘Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son.’ [Wikipedia: Thine be the glory]

After a short chat to the Bishop, leaving church, I thought I will get a few things from the shops, it never dawned on me as I have rarely been in the UK at Easter to realise that like Christmas Day, the main shops and shopping precincts are closed for Easter Sunday. I guess you always find that you learn something new.

Of the plans and the times

Signposts of the Passion

Two Easter weekends ago, I had arrived in South Africa, met up with Brian in Johannesburg, and we both travelled to Cape Town where we spent 12 days, the blossoming of a new relationship and probably one of the most exciting times in my life. It was an opportunity to get to know each other better, after the sudden opportunity to meet in Johannesburg in late February 2019.

The Easter meeting had been planned from mid-January, I just knew I wanted to see him again and find out if there was a prospect of something between us. After that April meeting, the plans to meet over the summer were thwarted that it was not until September and then December that we met again.

By then, I was sure I was ready for a lifelong relationship with all the formalities that would establish us as a couple and married. My projection was for last year’s Easter, but the pandemic had taken hold, I was out of work and we were in lockdown. Every prospect of meeting up just looked ever so distant, opportunities quickly fizzling out as our host country was not accepting guests and England ended up in a second lockdown.

The plan waits for its time

Surely, when we next meet, I thought again, we could get it done, tie the knot and finalise the formalities. That is what I thought we would do when we met up in December after 11 months apart, but things did not go our way. Bureaucracy, officialdom, and an absence of waivers even in the midst of a pandemic meant we had to schedule it for another time. However, we now knew what to do.

I cannot say we would have been able to consider it this Easter weekend, much as I would have loved to get or steal away. There is an international travel ban from England and our countries are in various forms of lockdown that militates against our plans. We are hopeful and looking forward, and even if our apparently well-laid plans have been tossed by circumstances beyond our control, I have the feeling that by the next Easter weekend, we would be telling a different and amazing story. 

We will see us in Geneva

Genf, it is

Geneva [1] had us for Easter this year and it was a beautiful break with the weather being fine, sunny and clement. I was meeting up with my good friend of 25 years for a long weekend.

The journey to Geneva was a long train ride from Amsterdam to Basel on the German Deutsche Bahn ICE [2] trains and then a change to the Swiss railways ICN [3] train to Geneva.

The journey which should have been just under 3 hours took almost 5 hours because someone now realizing he was not Superman had jumped in front of a train – I saw a covering and possibly some entrails – I averted my gaze before I took too much in as I let out a guttural urgh!

The trains, the views

One thing I have always liked about train journeys is that it takes you through places neither cars nor planes venture as you view nature sculpted by God or man through forests, overlooking rivers, viewing mountains and hills, not to forget the lakes – and Switzerland [4] has quite a few.

From Basel to Geneva, I took quite a few pictures from train we probably traveled the whole length of Lake Neuchâtel which was as picturesque as you will find on a sunny day, it just went on and on.

For a country were 4 languages are spoken, it is important not to be lost in the Babel of city names, because Geneva is Genf in German, but I had to be careful to realize that Lausanne was definitely not Lucerne in another language and Fribourg in Switzerland is not Freiburg in Germany.

Geneva, I like

For an international city, Geneva is both interesting and almost boring, there is a lot to see about nature, in which case, it is the Lake Geneva, the International Red Cross Museum was closed for the Easter period and one can be fascinated by the United Nations buildings.

Strangely, when we enquired of the hotel reception at Hotel Rotary Geneva, none had much to say for Geneva, we were advised to go to Nyon or Veyrier.

We walked out into town, visited by the lake, avoided the spray of the great fountain [5] and hopped on the mini train ride that talked about features around the lake until we got to the Flower Clock [6] in the English Garden which apparently has the longest second-hand in the world.

Then we went out to the Veyrier border with France and up the cable car to The Salève [7] where the views are breathtaking and paragliders seek their thrills, it was interesting to note that depending on the wind paragliders do not necessarily go down, there was one a good 200 metres above his starting point at one time.

A trip in Lausanne on Sunday was fun, we might not be back in Switzerland soon, but I share the memories of my visit in this slideshow – Enjoy!

Slideshow – Geneva – April 2009 - Flickr

Sources

[1] Geneva - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Intercity-Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] SBB-CFF-FFS RABDe 500 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] The map of Switzerland

[5] Geneva Tourism - Discovering Geneva - Water Fountain

[6] Geneva Tourism - Discovering Geneva - Flower Clock

[7] Geneva Tourism - Excursion by Cable Car

Note: We will see us is a typical German-speakers’ error in English which means I will meet you.

My Spanish Indecision - Easter in Madrid

Madrid for Easter

A long weekend and my thoughts were in overdrive about where I had never been before. I had the choice between Copenhagen and Madrid, I ended up with Madrid because it had hotels belonging to the Accor chain which Copenhagen did not, I had decided on a 4-star Sofitel smack bang in the centre.

This means, I have still not visited a Scandinavian country ever, sad, but I have till now resisted every attempt to get me off to Norway for official business, I have cried I am from tropics, do not send me to the North Pole, that grovelling supplication has kept me out of those lands all winter.

Then to learn that Madrid would be colder and wetter than Amsterdam over Easter, it would make one think the weather travelled with me.

My flight over was quite lovely and as we approached Madrid the cloud cover was not so bad that I even took pictures from the flight being able frame in the shadow of plane I was in.

Per hotel per issue

I seem to have my share of problems with hotels no matter how will appointed, this time with was first the LAN connection which got fixed after the receptionist lost me an important write-up, I should have kept him miles away from my laptop.

The next day, suddenly, the television would not recognise that there were 2 guests in my room and so would not provide a menu of other service options, just television channels and no LAN link.

When I called reception about the problem, the man was about to start with telling me the service is not a primary hotel facility, I cut him off with a terse - Don't give me that kind of line, it is unprofessional and annoying to guests. My requirement is a room with a full service of Internet access and television services, please arrange this as you will see in my reservation request.

The television did not get fixed till the next morning, but I ended up with a free 24hr wireless LAN connection access, which was helpful but then some service-oriented businesses try to cop-out with a compensation offer rather than providing the service or ensuring the service is available.

Basically, I hate compensation, it cheapens the whole idea of expecting and receiving the service you have requested.

Doing Madrid

We have done a few things, good Spanish food but we have never been about to get a decent restaurant before 22:00 even when we got the reception who are slowly redeeming themselves to book a table in the restaurant that serves the best paella in Madrid. La Paella de la Reina 39 - reservations recommended.

The Royal Palace in Madrid has had my custom, a whole day spent looking through the opulence of Spanish royalty or possibly the rape of the people for the aggrandisement of the privileged few - sometimes visiting such places does tempt one to become republican.

After 4 hours of museum saunter, neck ache from looking up at frescos of megalomania and idolatry, masters by the hands of Goya, Valasquez and Caravaggio to name a few, my back ached like I had been given the Spanish Inquisition version of a back massage, thankfully, my cane did help in succouring the pain.

It definitely became clear why the Spaniards had the temerity to challenge England to many wars, many of which they lost, the Royal Armoury was quite a feast of weapons wrought to damage other fellow human-beings and how royal kids were groomed for a life of the savagery of war.

No flash photography was allowed within the palace walls which meant some rooms were too dark for photography to produce the best images, makes one wish for a camera that develop the real colour of the objects even in the dark, something like infra-red but more colour than green.

Another procession

As we returned to the open courtyard outside the palace, one long procession of religious relics, a guard of horse-riders, people in black and red hoods that could instil the terror of the inquisition, ladies in Spanish comb headdress looking almost too regal but definitely sophisticated - indeed, a Spain steeped in Roman Catholic rituals preserved in the formaldehyde of time - a sight to behold.

There is so much to do in Madrid, and we have hardly done anything, we sighted a cable car service (Teleférico) from the palace and went looking for the 2.5 kilometre ride the next day which was quite good - in all I have taken about 500 pictures, it is possible to suffer repetitive strain injury just clicking away with amateur paparazzi abandon?

Visit my Photo Album to see Madrid and Madrid Tour, I still need to give descriptions to most of the material and there are still about 400 pictures to upload.