Autumn is here and The Grandma has decided to go on holiday. As you know, she doesn't like crowds and this is the main reason because of she prefers travelling in this season.
She wants to stay some months travelling around Europe and Asia and she has chosen The Orient Express, the famous train.
First of all, The Grandma has arrived to Milan where she's going to take this historic train accompanied by an old friend Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective.
Let's go to join them in this unforgettable experience...
The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). The original route, which first ran on October 4, 1883, was from Paris, Gare de l'Est, to Giurgiu in Romania via Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria, to pick up another train to Varna. They then completed their journey to Constantinople by ferry.
The route and rolling stock of The Orient Express changed many times. Several routes in the past concurrently used The Orient Express name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Constantinople (Istanbul), the original endpoints of the timetabled service.
The Orient Express was a showcase of luxury and comfort at a time when travelling was still rough and dangerous. CIWL soon developed a dense network of luxury trains all over Europe, whose names are still remembered today and associated with the art of luxury travel – The Blue Train, The Golden Arrow, North Express and many more.
Schedule of The Orient Express
In 1977, The Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul. Its immediate successor, a through overnight service from Paris to Vienna, ran for the last time from Paris on Friday, June 8, 2007.
After this, the route, still called The Orient Express, was shortened to start from Strasbourg instead, occasioned by the inauguration of the LGV Est which affords much shorter travel times from Paris to Strasbourg. The new curtailed service left Strasbourg at 22:20 daily, shortly after the arrival of a TGV from Paris, and was attached at Karlsruhe to the overnight sleeper service from Amsterdam to Vienna.
On 14 December 2009, The Orient Express ceased to operate and the route disappeared from European railway timetables, reportedly a victim of high-speed trains and cut-rate airlines. The Venice-Simplon Orient Express train, a private venture by Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. using original CIWL carriages from the 1920s and 1930s, continues to run from London to Venice and to other destinations in Europe, including the original route from Paris to Istanbul.
In March 2014 Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. was renamed Belmond.
Today, The Grandma wants to talk about the Rosh Hashanah the Jewish New Year.
Jewish Community had an important presence in the Iberian Peninsula (Sepharad) and nowadays this culture is very apreciate in places like Girona, Besalú, Tortosa, Palma (where the Jewish are named xuetes), Tarragona, Valls and Barcelona. If you have the opportunity, don't forget to visit these cities and learn as things as you can about the semitic culture because is an incredible experience.
Rosh Hashanah, literally meaning the beginning of the year, is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah, literally day of shouting/blasting, sometimes translated as the Feast of Trumpets. It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days specified by Leviticus 23:23–32, which usually occur in the early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere.
Rosh Hashanah is a two-day celebration, which begins on the first day of Tishrei. Tishrei is the first month of the Jewish civil year, but the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year.
A Jewish man with a shofar (sjofar)
According to Judaism, the fact that Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year is explained by it being the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, and their first actions toward the believed realization of humanity's role in God's world.
According to one secular opinion its origin is in the beginning of the economic year in the ancient Near East, marking the start of the agricultural cycle.
Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn, as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to raise a noise on Yom Teruah; and among its rabbinical customs, is the eating of symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to evoke a sweet new year.
The Mishnah contains the second known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the day of judgment. In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah, it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, where in the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded.
The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life and they are sealed to live. The intermediate class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to reflect, repent and become righteous; the wicked are blotted out of the book of the living forever.
The Jews' greatest contribution to history is dissatisfaction! We're a nation born to be discontented. Whatever exists we believe can be changed for the better.
Tarraco is the ancient name of the current city of Tarragona in Catalonia. It was the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula, founded during the Second Punic War by Scipio Calvus, and became capital of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior, and of Hispania Tarraconensis during the Roman Empire.
The municipality was inhabited in pre-Roman times by Iberians who had commercial contacts with the Greeks and Phoenicians who settled on the coast. The Iberian colonies were mainly located in the Ebro Valley. Evidence of Iberian colonies in the municipality of Tarragona has been dated to the 5th century BC.
During the Roman Republic, the legal status of Tarraco is not entirely clear. It was probably organized as conventus civium Romanorum during the Republic, with two magistri at its head. Gaius Porcius Cato, consul in the year 114 BC, chose Tarraco as the place of his exile in the year 108, indicating that Tarraco was a free city or perhaps an ally at that time.
In 68 AD Galba, who lived in Tarraco for eight years, was proclaimed emperor in Clunia Sulpicia. The territory, which since ancient times consisted of urban areas and a land divided by tribal organizations, was transformed into areas organized around urban centers, whether in colonies or municipalities, thereby facilitating tax collection. A rapid increase in construction took place, possibly due to the reorganization of the province. The amphitheater, the temple area and the provincial forum at the top of the city were probably built during this period. Most of the statues at these locations were probably placed there between 70 and 180 AD.
In 476, following the collapse of Roman defenses along the Rhine, Tarraco was occupied by the Visigoths and King Euric. There is no evidence of destruction and apparently the capture of the city was relatively quiet. The Visigoths probably took over existing structures by establishing a small group of nobles, which the existence of Christian tombs in this period seems to confirm. The end of the ancient history of the city came with the arrival of the Muslims in 713 or 714.
In 2000, the archaeological ensemble of Tarraco was declared a World heritage site by UNESCO because they meet two criteria:
I. The Roman remains of Tarraco are of exceptional importance in the Roman development of planning and urban design and served as model for provincial capitals elsewhere in the world.
II. Tarraco provides an eloquent and unparalleled testimony in the history of the Mediterranean lands in the Ancient times.
Tarraco urbs est en his oris maritimarum opulentissima - Pomponius Mela
CASTELLERS: FORCE, STRENGTH, BALANCE & COMMON SENSE
Castells, an ancient tradition
A castell is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia. At these festivals, several colles castelleres, group of people who do these towers, often succeed in building and dismantling a tower's structure.
The tradition of building castells originated in the Ball dels Valencians in Valls, near the city of Tarragona, first documented in 1712. Over the course of the 18th century, they spread to other towns and cities in the area, including Vilafranca del Penedès and Tarragona, though it wasn't until the last 50 years that the practice of building castells began to spread to the rest of Catalonia.
A castell is considered a success when stages of its assembling and disassembling, can be done in complete succession. The assembly is complete once all castellers have climbed into their designated places, and the enxaneta, the smallest child, climbs into place at the top and raises one hand with four fingers erect, in a gesture said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag. The enxaneta then climbs down the other side of the castell, after which the remaining levels of castellers descend in highest-to-lowest order until all have reached safety.
Aside from the people who climb to form the upper parts of the tower, others are needed to form the pinya, or bottom base of the castell, to sustain its weight. Members of the also act as a safety net if the tower structure collapses, cushioning the fall of people from the upper levels.
The castell is built in two phases. First, the pinya, the base of the tower, is formed. People forming higher levels of the tower move to a position from which they can easily get to their place in the tower. This is done slowly and carefully, and as subsequent base levels are completed the castellers in the pinya determine if their base is solid enough for construction to continue. Then, when the signal to proceed is given, bands begin to play the traditional Toc de Castells music as a hush comes over spectators of the event. The upper layers of the tower are built as quickly as possible in order to put minimal strain on the lower castellers, who bear most of the weight of the castell. The disassembly of the castell, done amidst the cheering of the crowd, is often the most treacherous stage of the event.
Castellers de Vilafranca in Tower Bridge, London
There is a form of the Castell, generally referred to as rising, in which each successive layer is added from the bottom by lifting the castell into the air, stage by stage. It is held that this form takes even more skill and strength and a great deal of practice.
The sash, faixa, is the most important part of their outfit, since it supports the lower back and is used by other castellers in the team as a foothold or handhold when climbing up the tower. This tasselled piece of cloth varies in length and width and depends on the casteller's position inside the tower and also on choice. The length of the sash ranges from 1.5 to 12 m, and usually is shorter for those higher up in the castell. Performing castellers usually go barefoot as to minimise injuries upon each other as they climb to their position and also for sensitivity when balancing and to have better feel and hold each other.
The arrangement of castellers can be into a multi-tiered structure and the highest has a height spanning of nine or ten people from ground up.
The motto of Castellers is Força, equilibri, valor i seny (Strength, balance, courage and common sense).
Castellers in front of Big Ben
Strength: A casteller is usually a stocky person. The first castellers were peasants that were accustomed to holding great weights and were under much physical exertion.
Courage: The most important characteristic for castellers, especially for young children forming the highest levels of the castell.
Balance: For supporting other above in the castell while relying on those below for support requires a strong sense of balance and trust.
Common sense: Rehearsing and performing requires a great deal of planning and reasoning. Any error can cause the structure to fail and break apart.
Nowadays, there are more than 100 colles castelleres, some of them are placed out of Catalonia: London (UK), Andorra, París (France), Montreal (Canada), Hangzhou (China) or Santiago (Chile).
On November 16, 2010, castells were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity with these criteria:
I. Human towers are recognized by Catalan people as an integral part of their cultural identity, transmitted from generation from generation and providing community members a sense of continuity, social cohesion and solidarity.
II. Their inscription on the Representative List could promote intangible cultural heritage as a means of reinforcing social cohesion, while encouraging respect for cultural dialogue and human creativity.
Berbers or Amazighen (Berber: ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ) are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Niger River.
Historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Since the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the seventh century, a large number of Berbers inhabiting the Maghreb have acquired different degrees of knowledge of varieties of the languages of North Africa.
Today, most Berber people live in Northern African countries, mainly in Algeria and Morocco; a small Berber population is also found in Niger, Mali, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Egypt, as well as large immigrant communities living in France, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and other countries of Europe.
There are some twenty-five to thirty million Berber speakers in North Africa. The number of ethnic Berbers (including non-Berber speakers) is far greater, as a large part of the Berbers have acquired other languages over the course of many decades or centuries, and no longer speak Berber today. The majority of North Africa's population is believed to be Berber in origin, although due to Arabization most ethnic Berbers identify as Arabized Berbers.
Berbers call themselves some variant of the word i-Mazigh-en, possibly meaning free people or noble men. The name likely had its ancient parallel in the Roman and Greek names for Berbers, Mazices.
An Amazigh tent in the desert
The name Berber derives from the Latin barbarus and from Greek bàrbaros, βάρβαρος. A history by a Roman consul in Africa made the first reference of the term barbarian to describe Numidia.The use of the term Berber spread in the period following the arrival of the Vandals during their major invasions. Muslim historians, some time after, also mentioned the Berbers.
The Maghreb region in northwestern Africa is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC. Local cave paintings, which have been dated to twelve millennia before present, have been found in the Tassili n'Ajjer region of southern Algeria. Other rock art has been observed in Tadrart Acacus in the Libyan desert.
A Neolithic society, marked by domestication and subsistence agriculture, developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean region, the Maghreb, of northern Africa between 6000 and 2000 BC. This type of life, richly depicted in the Tassili n'Ajjer cave paintings of south-eastern Algeria, predominated in the Maghreb until the classical period. Prehistorical Tifinagh scripts were also found in the Oran region.
The areas of North Africa that have retained the Berber language and traditions best have been, in general, Morocco and the highlands of Algeria, most of which in Roman and Ottoman times remained largely independent. The Ottomans did penetrate the Kabylie area; Turkish influence can be seen in food, clothes and music, and to places the Phoenicians never penetrated, far beyond the coast. These areas have been affected by some of the many invasions of North Africa, most recently that of the French.
Extension of Amazigh language
Around 5000 BC, the populations of North Africa were primarily descended from the makers of the Iberomaurusian and Capsian cultures, with a more recent intrusion associated with the Neolithic revolution. The proto-Berber tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age.
Uniparental DNA analysis has established ties between Berbers and other Afro-Asiatic speakers in Africa. Most of these populations belong to the E1b1b paternal haplogroup, with Berber speakers having among the highest frequencies of this lineage. Additionally, genomic analysis has found that Berber and other Maghreb communities are defined by a shared ancestral component. This Maghrebi element peaks among Tunisian Berbers. It is related to the Coptic/Ethio-Somali, having diverged from these and other West Eurasian-affiliated components prior to the Holocene.
The Maghreb today is home to large Amazigh populations, who form the principal indigenous ancestry in the region. The Semitic ethnic presence in the region is mainly due to the Phoenicians, Jews and Arab Bedouin Hilallians migratory movements which mixed in. However, the majority of Arabized Berbers, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, claim an Arabian heritage; this is a consequence of the Arab nationalism of the early twentieth century.
Regarding the remaining populations that speak a Berber language in the Maghreb, they account from 50% to 60% of the Moroccan population and from to 15% to 35% of the Algerian population, besides smaller communities in Libya and Tunisia and very small groups in Egypt and Mauritania.
A Tuareg in Algeria
Tuaregs are Berber people with a traditionally nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. They are the principal inhabitants of the vast Sahara Desert.
The Berber languages form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic family, and thus descend from the proto-Afro-Asiatic language.These Berber speakers are mainly concentrated in Morocco and Algeria, followed by Mali, Niger and Libya. Smaller Berber-speaking communities are also found as far east as Egypt, with a southwestern limit at Burkina Faso.
The Berber languages comprise many closely related varieties. Among these idioms are Riff, Kabyle, Shilha, Siwa, Zenaga, Sanhaja, Tazayit in the Central Atlas Tamazight, Tumẓabt in Mozabite, and Tamasheq, as well as the ancient Guanche language. Tamazight is a generic name for all of the Berber languages.
I only have my nails to scratch with and my feet to walk on
Tina is in Lleida today. She’s enjoying the big party of the city because today is Sant Miquel (Saint Michael) one of the patrons of the city.Lleida is an old city full of tradition with a history of more than one thousand years. Since the Iberian tribes to nowadays, the city has resisted dozens of attacks and its population has survived to different invasions.
If you go to Lleida, don’t forget to taste the most popular local dish Cargols a la llauna(grilled snails) and try to visit the most emblematic places: the river Segre, the Paeria (City Hall), the Roser Convent, the old Hospital of Santa Maria, the Sant Martí Church, Champs Elysees and especially, the Seu Vella, the most beautiful building of the city, an incredible cathedral built on the top of the mountain which was a mosque, a cathedral, a prison and nowadays is a cathedral again and a museum.
Geographically, Lleida is located in the Catalan Central Depression and it is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with recorded settlements dating back to the Bronze Age period. Until the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the area served as a settlement for an Iberian people, the Ilergetes. The town became a municipality, named Ilerda, under the reign of Augustus.
Indibilis and Mandonius
The history of Lleida talks us about Iberian tribes, Roman, Visigothic, Muslims, the Crown of Aragon, the Succession War, the Reaper's War and the Spanish Civil War. In all these ages, Lleida had an important role and today is one of the four Catalan capital cities but if there's a legend that all the citizens explain is the story of Indibilis and Mandonius the local heroes during the 3rd century BC. Indibilis and Mandonius were chieftains of the Ilergetes, an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula. Indibilis fought against the Romans and sided with the Carthaginians at the Battle of Cissa in 218 BC, when Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus fought them. Indibilis was defeated at this battle and became a prisoner.
In 217 BC, Indibilis had regained his freedom and, with his younger brother Mandonius, decided to harass neighboring Iberian tribes that were friendly to and in alliance with Rome.
The two brothers soon abandoned the Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and sided with the Romans. In 209 BC, they concluded a treaty of alliance with them. They then collaborated in a campaign against Hasdrubal Gisco which ended in a victory at the Battle of Baecula in 208 BC.
Indibilis and Mandonius with their influence over all the territories of Iberia participated in a rebellion against the Romans but they soon realized their mistake. In a battle with the Romans, the Iberian tribes were alltotally destroyed. Indibilis was killed in this battle and Mandonius escaped with the remnants of the army. He was soon given up by his own tribesmen and then killed by the Roman generals.
La veu Mandoni i les cadenes trenca, i estén los braços de genolls alçant-se... Mes ai que xiula la destral, llampega, i un tronc desploma’s i una testa salta.
La mare al poble gemegant la mostra: -Què has fet, oh raça de tants hèroes? Guaita, i a eix preu te vens a los botxins? Desperta!
Today is a great day for History fans like The Grandma who is totally excited with the news: the secret services of the British Government, the MI5, have aired new documents about the WWII and we can read some interesting new information about this important fact, especially for us, the documents about Joan Pujol Garcia, codename Garbo in the UK, codename Arabel in Germany, a spy for the Allies who had a key role in the success of Operation Fortitude, the deception operation intended to mislead the Germans about the timing and location of the invasion of Normandy near the end of the war.
Joan Pujol Garcia MBE (1912–1988) deliberately became a double agent during World War II, known by the British codename Garbo and the German codename Arabel. Pujol had the possibly unique distinction of receiving decorations from both sides during World War II, gaining both an Iron Cross from the Germans and a Member of the Order of the British Empire from the British.
Joan Pujol Garcia in the German Embassy
After developing a loathing of both the Communist and Fascist regimes in Europe during the Spanish Civil War, Pujol decided to become a spy for the Allies as a way to do something for the good of humanity.
Pujol and his wife contacted the British and American intelligence agencies, but each rejected his offer.
Undeterred, he created a false identity as a fanatically pro-Nazi Spanish government official and successfully became a German agent. He was instructed to travel to Britain and recruit additional agents; instead he moved to Lisbon and created bogus reports from a variety of public sources, including a tourist guide to England, train timetables, cinema newsreels, and magazine advertisements. Although the information would not have withstood close examination, Pujol soon established himself as a trustworthy agent. He began inventing fictional sub-agents who could be blamed for false information and mistakes. The Allies finally accepted Pujol when the Germans spent considerable resources attempting to hunt down a fictional convoy. After the initial interviews carried out by Desmond Bristow of Section V MI6 Iberian Section, Juan Pujol was taken on. The family was moved to Britain and Pujol was given the code name Garbo.
The Garbo Network
Pujol and his handler Tomás Harris spent the rest of the war expanding the fictional network, communicating at first by letter to the German handlers and later by radio. Eventually the Germans were funding a network of twenty-seven fictional agents.Pujol had a key role in the success of Operation Fortitude, the deception operation intended to mislead the Germans about the timing and location of the invasion of Normandy near the end of the war.
The false information Pujol supplied helped persuade German intelligence that the main attack would be in the Pas de Calais, keeping two armoured divisions and 19 infantry divisions there for two months after the Normandy invasion.
Garbo's lifewas reproduced in cinema with a film that explains his interesting and fascinating life.
This morning I have explained some experiences of my visit to the City Hall. One of the reasons of this visit has been searching information about a civil refuge built by civil people during the Spanish Civil War.
Barcelona is full of these refuges although not all of them are in conditions of being visited. When the war started, the population knew that it could be very difficult to win and the best option was the resistance. Thousands and thousands of people participated in the construction of these refuges but before they were built the population used the metro like a refuge. Some years later, this story repeated in London with TheTube.
Barcelona had got one line that crossed the city from south to north. Nowadays, this line is still working and it's Line Number 1 or Red Line. Other lines were under construction and they were also used like a protection, refuge and a safe place against the bombs.
After the war, the reconstruction of the city and the creation of new suburbs and metro lines changed the old urban planning and nowadays Barcelona has an interesting list of ghost stations, that is to say, some stations where the metro doesn't stop.
What scares me? I kind of believe in ghosts. I believe they can wander around, so that scares me. But the stuff that really scares me are the catastrophic events like my husband or children or my family being harmed, or something like that.
