Back in the US

We're back!

Following our return from holiday in Greece, our last week in Cambridge consisted of cleaning, packing, and visiting friends one last time.

On Saturday, we visited our long-time friends Steve Zdancewic, Stephanie Weirich, and their two daughters. We have known them since we lived in the same apartment complex in Ithaca, NY, when they were graduate students at Cornell, and I was a post-doc there. They had arrived in Cambridge in early August to begin a year-long sabbatical similar to mine: starting at Microsoft Research and finishing up at the Computer Laboratory. One of their daughters, Ellie, who is 4, really enjoyed playing with Annie (the feeling was mutual - Anne likes to be the big sister!) and made her a nice going-away card that we received later in the week.

On Sunday, Colin went to his friend Louie's for a birthday party. The "Fab Four" (Colin, Louie, Matteo, and Noah, all fast friends at St. Philips) were all together for the occasion.

On Monday and Tuesday we did various business and cleaning tasks. Mike had a paper due.

On Wednesday we had planned to go to the Botanical Gardens, but the event was rained out. Nevertheless, we managed to meet up with our friend Lauren and her two kids, and had a nice lunch. In the afternoon, we left our kids with the Ribichs (whose daughter Stephanie is especially good friends with Anne) and headed out to London to see The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie. It's a murder mystery that has been running for 57 years. It broke all of the longevity records decades ago! We really enjoyed the play, and also enjoyed a pint at a pub called The Cambridge afterward, just around the corner from the St. Martin's where the play took place.

On Thursday we started cleaning and packing more in earnest. The kids got into the act somewhat. They actually did a pretty good job of washing the windows!

Colin had one last visit with his best friend, Matteo, during the afternoon, and Tim had a visit with his friend, Aidan. In the evening we met up with Steve, Stephanie, Gavin, Peter, and Americans Suresh Jagannathan and his wife Hema, and three kids. Suresh was my intern supervisor when I was a graduate student, and we've stayed in touch for the many years since. He and his family are also beginning a year long sabbatical in Cambridge. We enjoyed food and spirits at the Fort St. George on Midsummer Common. The event served as a "passing of the bikes," as we gave our bicycles to Suresh and Hema, and gave Colin's bicycle to Ellie. We also enjoyed the new Cambridge 12o9 ale, brewed on the occasion of the University's 800th anniversary.

On Friday we finished up most of the packing and redistribution of stuff, and had a nice curry with Gavin at our place following a quick pint at my favorite Pub, the Empress. We also wandered around town a bit, checking out some of the beauty of Cambridge for one last time.

On Saturday we packed our last bag, and finished cleaning. We had literally just put the vacuum cleaner away when the landlord showed up in the doorframe (10 minutes early). The walk through went swimmingly: no deductions from the security deposit, as the landlord was pleasantly surprised how clean it all was.

Afterward, our neighbor Steve cooked us a proper English dinner (Sunday roast, but on Saturday), with roast pork, peas, carrots, Yorkshire pudding, and gravy - yum! We had a little time to relax and share a raki (a Greek digestif we brought back from Crete, distilled by Polyvios' grandfather) before the taxi arrived to take us to our hotel near Heathrow.

On Sunday, there was a little drama moving our 10 bags and 6 carry-ons from the hotel to the shuttle, and from the shuttle to the check-in counter, but otherwise things went smoothly and we arrived in the US on time. We were picked up in our van by my father and at their place in Virginia enjoyed a meal of sweet corn, fresh tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, blueberries and watermelon. We had especially missed good corn whilst living in the UK.

On Monday morning, we drove the last leg to Burtonsville and arrived at our old house. Let the unpacking begin ...

It's been a wonderful year. We'll miss many things about Cambridge, but mostly we'll miss the friends we made there. We hope to see many of them again! The Ribichs may be moving to the US soon. Louie's grandparents live in Baltimore, so we hope to see Louie and his family. Gavin's brother's theatre production's version of Hamlet will soon make its Broadway debut, and if he comes to see it (starring Jude Law!) we may join him. If any of you have an inkling to come to the US and visit the DC area, look us up!

Coming Home

We've been quiet lately because we've just returned home from 12 days in Greece. We plan to post some photos and anecdotes soon, but please be patient with us. Mike is facing a deadline, and I've been preparing the house here in Cambridge for our departure. God willing, we will be back on US soil on Sunday and back in our home on Monday. We are looking forward to seeing our families and friends again. We have truly enjoyed our time in Cambridge. We will miss the many friends we have made here.

Greece: Food

Greek food definitely left an impression on us. (I now know that "impressions" can be measured in inches of girth!) Indeed, the habits of growing, preparing, and consuming food, and the socializing that occurs in the process, comprised a major theme of the trip.

Polyvios' parents grow lemons, grapes, pomegranates, oranges, zucchini, tomatoes, greens, onions, and cucumbers at their family home, and raise hens (for eggs) and rabbits (for meat). They also have a country property referred to as "the village house" which is near their own olive and orange groves. Wild herbs like thyme, oregano, and sage grow in the area, and at the end of the dry summer, they harvest dried herbs right off the plants. It was really nice for the children to see where food comes from before it appears on grocery shelf. It was even better to enjoy the really fresh and delicious produce and eggs.

This is a view near the family olive groves in south Crete. The olives ripen in December or so and are pressed for olive oil. During our visit we learned about the benefits of olive oil as a staple of the Cretan diet. Mainly we learned that we haven't been using olive oil nearly enough. This is the vat that Polyvios' family keeps on hand at the village house. It was full to the top.

Olive trees are everywhere on the island. Some in the cities are bred sterile to prevent the abundance of fruit from dropping and being tread throughout the streets and buildings. The trees are quite hardy with some living hundreds, even thousands of years. Below is a picture of some very old trees. The young ones look more like the small apple trees grown in orchards.

From the moment of our arrival, Polyvios and his mother, Hara, cooked for us. Apparently the mark of a good Greek host is that her guests are well-fed. If that's the test, then our hosts were off the chart! We already knew from parties in Maryland that Polyvios is a wonderful cook, and now we've learned he inherited this trait from his mother! He has his own blog on cooking which Mike wants me to use as my new cookbook.

So, we ate. And ate. And ate some more!

Breakfast might include Greek yogurt with local thyme honey and walnuts, olive-oil cake (baked nearly every day, since during our time on Crete there were 10-12 people to feed), pastries, rice pudding, freshly squeezed orange juice, and Turkish coffee (similar to espresso).

Lunch might be large and then dinner would be leftovers, or lunch would be simple like omelettes, souvlaki, or gyros. The main meal of the day, whether at lunch or at dinner, often consisted of several dishes all set on the table at once for diners to help themselves as they chose. Our hosts laughed that in Greece there is no notion of the French style of serving courses. At home there would be several large dishes available. In restaurants you could order many small plates to sample and share. We ate chicken, fish, lamb, rabbit, and pasta pie, plus many potato and vegetable based dishes.

Desserts included plenty of ice cream (far more abundance and variety than we found in the UK), and various combinations of phyllo pastry, honey and nuts. Dinner often concluded with a small (and complimentary) shot of raki, a digestif similar to grappa. Of the several that we tasted, Mike and I liked best the one made by Polyvios' grandfather from his own grapes.

Which brings me to the social aspects of food.

I've already mentioned the goal of a Greek host is to entice guests to indulge again and again in the delicious offerings. And there's no such thing as the "clean plate club." If you have eaten everything on your plate, someone will just put something else there. The same rule for food applies to drink: If you empty your glass someone is sure to fill it again.

Nearly all of our meals were eaten outside. The weather is so often perfect for al fresco dining. It encourages unhurried eating, conversation and relaxation, especially when the children's food droppings could be easily swept or rinsed away rather than scrubbed with detergent and elbow grease to remove stains from a carpet in a rented house. The Cretan houses tend to have terraces, which are often shaded by balconies or trees.

Meals tend to be later and more spread out: breakfast at 8 or 9, lunch around 2, and dinner at 9ish, with dessert or watermelon appearing around 11:00. We found it interesting that this schedule is assumed by the schools, which go until 2, with children eating lunch when they get home. To handle such long days, children often take a nap for an hour or two after lunch. But despite Polyvios' mother's urging, our kids refused to sleep ("sleep is evil!"). After many tries, she shook her head with a smile as she went off to nap herself.

There's more I could tell, but it feels like I've written a chapter already. Still, I'm going to use this topic as an excuse to add photos of a couple of the views we had while eating on Crete.

The top photo is a view of the Irakleio harbor which we could see while having cappuccino freddo (iced cappuccino) and doughnuts. The bottom one is our view of Chania harbor as sat on a stone wall and ate pizza while watching the sunset.

I may not be able to replicate these gorgeous vistas, but with the help of some genuine Cretan olive oil and my (other) new cookbook Olive Oil - The Secret of Good Health, I certainly intend to try to reproduce some of the wonderful flavors we enjoyed in Greece.

Athens: Ancient sites

In between lounging on Greece's great beaches, we also took in some of its notable archaeological sites.

We began our trip in Athens. During our two full days there we visited the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and the Athens Acropolis and its nearby sites, including the Greek (and later, Roman) agora, or marketplace. We also took in the Parliament building, Syndagma Square, and the nearby National Gardens.

The Archaelogical Museum houses many examples of ancient sculpture, metalwork, and pottery. This is a statue of either Poseidon, god of the sea, or Zeus, the thunder god (and ruler of the gods); some archaeologists believe the figure once held a trident, wielded by Poseidon, but others believe it once held a thunderbolt, hurled by Zeus. Who knows if they'll ever resolve it?

We spent a half day at the Acropolis, at which is located the Parthenon, a grand temple from classic times of the Greek goddess Athena, the namesake of the city. Apparently there was once within the temple a massive, 40 foot high statue of Athena that was the center of religious festivals. Too bad that's not still there to see (though there is a reproduction within the reproduced Parthenon in Nashville)!

Also on the Acropolis is the Erectheum, a temple dedicated to Greek hero Erechthonius. This temple is notable for its caryatids, which are sculptures of women that serve as pillars. The originals are located in the new Museum of the Acropolis (below), while the ones outside are replacement copies.

The top floor of the museum also houses arrays the sculpture that adorned the top of the Parthenon, but many of the works on display are copies; the originals are in the British Museum (we've seen them!). With the opening of this new museum the Greek government is urging the return of these antiquities to Greece, but the British authorities are resisting!

We visited the agora in the afternoon, and it was quite hot. I was particularly moved by the ancient Church of the Apostles, which dates from 1000 AD.

Probably the most famous bit of the agora is the temple of Hephaestus, the Greek god of metal working. It is the best preserved ancient Greek temple, dating from about 450 BC (the same time as the Parthenon). Over the centuries it was also a Greek Orthodox Church (from the 7th century until the mid-1800's), and then a museum until 1934, when it obtained "ancient monument" status.

After the hot excursion, we decided dessert and chilled coffee was in order. Colin enjoyed himself the most, I think!

Crete: Beaches

On July 26, we left for a 12-day holiday in Greece, hosted by my friend and former Ph.D. student, Polyvios Pratikakis, a native Cretan. We met in Athens, spent three nights there, and then flew to Iraklio, Crete, his hometown. For the rest of our holiday we drove around the island with Polyvios in a 9-seater van he rented, seeing ancient sites, enjoying excellent food, and, as much as possible, relaxing on Crete's wonderful beaches. Our frequent companions were Polyvios' sister Maria and his long-time girlfriend Despoena (both of whom quickly became Anne's newest best friends!).

I've divided up our trip into several different posts, by theme, rather than chronologically. More will appear soon. Today's topic: the beaches!

We arrived in Crete on Wednesday afternoon, July 29. Our first trip to the beach was on Thursday morning, a short drive to a place called Agia Pelagia.

Many of the Crete beaches are small bays, with clear water, and varying amounts of waves. Agia Pelagia is small and shielded from any rough sea. The water was warm, but cooled us off in the hot sun. Very enjoyable!

The next day, Friday, we went to Plaka, on the edge of Elounda, not far from the city of Agios Nikolaos (translation: St. Nicholas). The first beach we went to had large stones that were hard to walk on, so we drove a bit further down to a beach with shallower water and smaller pebbles.

Across the water from where we sat we could see Spinalonga, an old Venetian fortress that used to guard entrance to the bay, and was later turned into a leper colony! We had a pizza lunch in Agios Nikolaos.

On Saturday, we went to one of the many beaches near Chersonisos, a very touristy, crowded location. The water was rough, and though we had fun, I'd say this beach was the low point, despite what the tourist books say.

On Sunday we drove to Rethymno, a pretty city to the west of Iraklio. After lunch there, we began to drive to Chania, the prettiest Cretan city in my estimation, and stopped at a beach along the way. This was the largest beach we went to, with vast amounts of sand, but with very few people on it. The waves were probably the biggest we encountered (though not very big by most standards!). Reminded me very much of an American beach, e.g., in southern California.

On Monday, after spending the night in Chania, we drove south through the mountains to Elafonisi, in the southwest.

The water is very shallow between the mainland and a small island several hundred feet out. Never more than 4 feet deep probably, and crystal clear. Check out this satellite photo. This was nearly everyone's favorite beach, almost like a vast, outdoor pool (with sand and salt water!).

We drove back to Chania to catch the sunset, before proceeding back to Iraklio.

On Tuesday we drove south to Sivas, where Polyvios' father grew up. The family still owns and maintains an olive grove nearby and we stayed in Polyvios' grandparents' old house. In the afternoon, we went to Matala, famously a popular site with hippies in the sixties.

Next to the beach are a series of caves that served as a Roman cemetary. We could climb around inside them and see faint remnants of cave paintings. I wonder what the caves were used for by the hippies ... ?

On Wednesday we went to what was my favorite beach, Agiofarago, which means "Holy Gorge." It is so named because the beach at the mouth of the gorge is reputedly the site at which St. Paul landed toward establishing the Christian church at Crete. It's a rough drive through most of the gorge, concluding with a half-mile hike to the beach. All around us were goats climbing the cliff walls. It was quite astounding to see how agile they are, and how fearlessly they climb the hundreds of meters' high sheer cliff faces! Here's a small byzantine Church in the gorge still in occasional use by nearby monks; notice the goat on the roof!

The beach itself was idyllic - nearly empty, with deep blue water that was clear and cool. The water became deep very quickly. If you looked down you could see your feet just below you, and apparently the sea floor just below them. But if you then stuck your face in the water, it would be apparent that the sea floor was 30 feet below you! We spent the whole day there relaxing and swimming.

On Thursday we drove back to Iraklio, prepared to fly back to London the following day. It had been an exhausting but wonderful exploration of Crete's many beautiful beaches!

Lasts

This has been a week of "lasts" for us. (Warning: long, self-indulgent post to follow!)

Though we still have 3 weeks abroad before we return to the US, we only have one week left in Cambridge, since today we are flying to Greece for a two-week holiday. So this week, and the end of the last week, presented our last chances to do some things and to say goodbye to friends.

The kids' last day of school was on Friday, July 17. Anne and Tim went to our friends', the Schofields, for an ice cream party, and saw some of their friends fo the last time. Colin was really upset the morning before, and insisted he didn't want to go to school. Kim believes he was responding to the realization that school was about to end, and he didn't want it to.

The day before, we'd had dinner with some American friends Greg Erbach, Romana Nowak, and their two boys Max and Linus. They had been in Cambridge on sabbatical as well (Romana is at UIUC in the Animal Science Dept.), and Max attended Tim and Anne's school. We went to our favorite Pub, the Salisbury Arms, for a last pint and some fish and chips.

On Tuesday, we had a last dinner of pizza (for the kids) and curry (for the adults) with our friends Gavin, Mateja, and their girls Hana and Lina. They all left for a Holiday on Thursday, and we won't see most of them before we leave. The food was great, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

This week, we spent time again with our friends Steve, Rebecca, and the boys. Rebecca is going back to Switzerland for a time, and she will leave before we return from Greece. So they kindly hosted us on a trip to Wells-Next-the-Sea on Thursday. At this point the kids are pros on the English beaches.
Of course, Steve and Mike had to do a bit of showing off.

Wells is apparently typical of Norfolk beaches in how flat it is. (Hunstanton was also very flat.) Thus there is a dramatic difference between high and low tide. In fact, a large area can be covered so quickly that there's a danger of being caught out too far, so a siren will sound with the tide starts coming in. I was really surprised to see dozens of boats aground in the harbor.

The same Thursday we went to the beach, our friends the Sewells were kind enough to have us to dinner. Becky teaches at St. Albans, and Ollie, their youngest, was in Tim's class. Their oldest, Imogen, was a reliable babysitter for us, and much loved by the kids. It was nice to get to know Mike and Will a bit better before we head out. After dinner I ran off to the Pub for a last pint with a Microsoft Research friend, Andy Gordon.

Friday was my last day at the Computer Lab, and I cleaned out my office and packed up my books. It's been a great place, and I'll miss it. By the time we get back from Greece, the office will be occupied by Suresh Jagannathan. Suresh was my supervisor as an intern at NEC Research many years ago, and we've stayed good friends. He'll be on sabbatical with his family for the coming year.

Before leaving the Lab I stopped in for the weekly Happy Hour that's hosted there, and say some goodbyes. Charlie, who runs the affair, always makes the announcements worth reading:

Forty years ago today, the astronauts of Apollo 11 were feeling distinctly smug as their landing capsule returned successfully to Earth, splashing down somewhere in the Pacific ocean. Celebrate this historic moment in appropriately oceanic style with a pint of Aphrodite, the goddess who (of course) arose from the sea, apparently created from the severed testicles of the sky god Ouranos. Sounds like a load of dubious mythology to me, but that's enough about the Moon landing.

Fishbowl fun at 5. See you there.

When I got home, Kim cooked a Mexican dinner for us and Steve, Rebecca, and the boys. It was well received by all. Yum!

Yesterday, Anne had 5 girlfriends from her class over for her birthday party. She turns 7 in a week's time, but this was our last chance to have a party that most friends could attend. It was really fun. I particularly enjoy how Anne, unknowingly, turns on her English accent around her friends, but turns on her American accent around her family. She's bilingual! Hah.

In a few hours will be in a taxi heading for the airport to begin our last foray into Europe. Athens, here we come!

Finally, the Last Day of School

Yeah! Today was finally the last day of school. All of the children are so happy to be on summer holiday. I'm relieved too. The last few weeks have been long and tiring for all of us. But today we celebrated the end of the year with pizza and ice cream. St. Alban's had an end of year Mass, which was a nice way to close the term. It was also the last time we will see many people here in Cambridge.