Due to Ryan Air promotion all my future flight are now ordered. So the rest of my wanderings are more or less set.
I am in Meknes, Morocco now and hope to cross the Strait of Gibraltar around March 10 by ferry. Plan to visit Gibraltar, possibly Sevilla, and move fast to Southern Portugal. Around March 21 will be in Madrid and by March 25 be in Girona near Barcelona.
March 26 flight Girona -- Tenerife South...FR9725...6:10 -- 8:50.
Return from Canary Islands April 6 flight Fuerteventura -- Girona...FR9722...12:55 -- 17:15.
Visiting Barcelona -- Balearic Islands by ferries -- Valencia.
April 16 flight Valencia -- Rome...FR9678...21:35 -- 23:25.
Have 3 weeks for Rome, perhaps more Florence, from Livorno to Corsica, return to Genoa and arrival to Milan before May 7.
May 7 flight Milan -- Brussels...FR4523...8:30 -- 10:05. Almost 2 weeks for Belgium, possibly Netherlands.
May 20 flight Brussels -- Dublin... FR47...19:00 -- 19:15.
May 23 by American Airlines flight Dublin -- Chicago AA93...10:30 -- 12:30, flight Chicago -- New York La Guardia AA362... 14:20 -- 17:30.
This was the first time I was traveling in Europe during wintertime. So I decided i will at least enjoy opera. Alas for different reasons I cannot boast too much.
Bucharest season was opening only on October 14 when I already left.
Sofia opera house was closed for long repairs couple of days before my arrivals.
In Athens I did enjoy Rossini's La Cenerentola -- though in simplified children version.
The greatest disappointment was Italy -- no opera performances when I was in Naples, Florence, Venice. Milan.
But in Barcelona I did listen at last the performance of Richard Strauss" Electra with Deborah Polanski and Eva Marton. First Class! I even have changed my unfavorable opinion on R. Strauss.
Maybe I will be more lucky in Rome.
Besides, in Belgium the city of Liege has had two celebrities: Simenon and Gretry.
While everybody knows Simenon's inspector Megre very few people remember Gretry -- the most popular opera composer in Paris before the French Revolution. Though hard core opera lovers know about him, as the old countess in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades sings a melody from Gretry's opera Richard Coeur de Lion. But Liege does remember her favorite son -- in front of the opera house they erected his monument and they do perform his operas. I'll try to attend one.
Another cultural story about Neapolitan painter of 17-18 centuries Salvator Rosa, who by mid-19 century was counted among the greatest. but after that his fame faded away. But to my surprise in Naples they do remember him -- and are having a personal exhibition now, unfortunately a week after I left Naples.
Ok,
bye-bye now!
Leo
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