IL Postcard

Checking out the Silver Coast off Season

Date: 07/02/2007

The U.K. has just celebrated Bike Week, with commuters being encouraged to leave their cars at home and taste the freedom of cycling. Organizers of the Tour de France are hoping it will pump up interest in the world’s most famous cycling competition (launched in 1903). This year it kicks off in London on July 8. In the first leg, cyclists race through Kent to the ancient city of Canterbury before the major circuit in France itself. The competitors finish up, as always, in Paris on the Champs Elysées.

This week in The European we
freewheel through the flat fenlands of Cambridgeshire, explore property samples in rural Istria, and hear what Steenie Harvey thought of “the fig tree at the mouth of the river” off season.

Enjoy,

On your vélo While cyclists are generally respected and treated courteously on the roads outside of Paris, the capital has not always been so bike-friendly. But more cycle paths are being introduced and a new automatic service will soon offer visitors and residents the use of a pool of bicycles around the city. Check www.velib.paris.fr for details.

Leigh Fergus
Editor, The European

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Figueira da Foz: Too much development?

by Steenie Harvey

Figueira da Foz is one of the largest resorts on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. Stretching north toward the fishing village of Buarcos (now more a resort suburb than a village), Figueira’s fine golden sands are vast—it takes almost five minutes to walk from the promenade to the shoreline.

The town center is a mix of new-build apartments, brutish 1970s-style concrete blocks, and dilapidated old houses. A hypermarket is on the outskirts—but all I can find downtown are dowdy mini mercados. While many bars and restaurants are open, most are empty. The busiest place seems to be the Boa Sorte Chinese restaurant on rua Bomneiros Voluntarios. It looks inviting, and prices aren’t bad: roasted duck with orange ($8), a bowl of rice ($1.30), and half bottle of local Dao red wine ($4.60).

Low season, low prices
Temperatures are lower than on the Algarve, but so are property prices. Just a 20-minute stroll from the beach, one recently built 86-square-meter apartment is $123,500 through www.habitatglobal.com. Though she speaks good English, Isabel Clara couldn’t give me any square meter average. However, looking at prices, you can certainly find apartments for the €1,000/$1,300 per square meter mark in the non-seafront part of Figueira’s central parish of Sao Juliao and also in Tavarede parish.

For ocean lookouts, the main areas are along Avenida 25 de April, Avenida do Brasil, and in the expanding village of Buarcos. Here rates are more like $2,000 per square meter and upward. A 116-square-meter (1,248-square-foot) condo apartment in a Buarcos development with sea view and communal pool is €195,000 ($253,000).

There’s plenty for sale everywhere, including bars and shops as well as apartments. Maybe too much. The resort gets jam-packed in high summer, but right now, off season, there’s a strangely distressed air to the place, almost a ghost-town feel.

Figuera da Foz has a casino, but it’s not crowded, either. It may well be busier at weekends—this is a Thursday night—but unlike Las Vegas, there are no free drinks and some of the clientele looks truly desperate. (Is this why so many businesses are for sale?) One old boy is actually asleep at one of the equally tired-looking slot machines. It’s only 10:30 p.m., but for once I don’t feel like lingering.

Maybe I'm being a bit unfair to the town. Summer may have a very different buzz, and you might well enjoy having a vacation home here. So go check it out. Of course, the same applies to Figueira da Foz as anywhere else: It makes sense for property buyers to get a feel for a place in the low season as well as during the busy months.

P.S. The name apparently translates as “fig tree at the mouth of the river.” One folklore snippet says a fig tree that once grew at the water’s edge was where fishermen tied up their boats. Obviously, it must have been a very large fig tree...

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The lowdown on the Lode villages of Cambridgeshire

by Paula Griswold

The isolated Fens* of East Anglia have always evoked mystery, and on moonlit nights unearthly forms were said to rise out of the marshes, accompanied by eerie noises. Early Christian communities and great towns were established here, and solid waterway canals called dykes or "lodes" were built, mainly by the Romans, to connect them to the rest of the country, carrying goods, supplies, and soldiers through the wetlands.

Some lodes connected with rivers and others reached to the sea from far inland: The Romans built Car Dyke (which runs along the western edge of the Fens) to connect ancient Cambridge to Lincoln, and settlements along the lodes became important port villages. After the fenland was drained for farmland, and trains began making regular stops, most of the lodes were no longer needed and the port villages dwindled to port hamlets.

But most visitors to Cambridge today know nothing of the region's remarkable waterway history.

Here are four for you to discover:
Stow-cum-Quy
Known as Quy to locals (it’s Anglo-Saxon for Cow Isle), this village is just over four miles from Cambridge and was recorded in the Domesday book**. It dates back even further however: The 14th-century church of St. Mary's was re-built from a Saxon church that stood on a pagan site. Among the sights here are Quy Fen Nature Reserve, at the far edge of the village, and Anglesey Abbey. Across from the church is Best Western-owned Quy Mill Hotel—the original watermill was also recorded in the Domesday book.

Bottisham
Close to Quy, this could be called a "perfect English village" with its long main street of saffron and Suffolk-pink thatch-roof cottages and grange, Tudor manor, tea shop, pubs, and 14th-century Holy Trinity church. It was an evacuee center for Londoners during WWII and U.S. Army Air Corps pilots were also stationed here. You can see the Roman-built Bottisham lode-canal from the B1102 road.

Lode
Lode was an important Cam river port attached to Bottisham until 1898 and backs up to Anglesey Abbey. The abbey was initially an Augustinian Priory abandoned after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, but where, in the 1920s, Lord Fairhaven created a stunning home and garden park. It’s now a public National Trust property with an outstanding art collection.

Swaffham Bulbeck
This village, 10 miles northeast of Cambridge and seven miles from Newmarket, is where the early botanist, Rev. Leonard Jenyns, lived. He was to have accompanied Captain Fitzroy on the H.M.S. Beagle, but sent his friend Charles Darwin in his place. A busy commercial center has sprung up along the Roman-built waterway here and the village still grows reed for thatch roofs. The lode is about one mile from the village.

Down-loding travel essentials
Visit by bus—driving in Cambridge is a nightmare in the summer. Stagecoach sells a Dayrider PLUS ticket ($7) for one day's unlimited travel: Buses X11 /111 and X12/112 crisscross the villages and schedules are posted at most stops.

Anglesey Abbey, Lode, Cambridge CB5 9EJ. Tel: (01223) 810080. Open March 21–Oct. 28. Entrance: $12.50; the house is open Wed to Sun. 1–5 p.m.; the grounds: 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

* The Fens are a type of British swamp, originally stretching from the flat areas of Lincolnshire to Norfolk: wetlands, peat bogs, fresh- and salt-water marshes that were eventually drained and reclaimed for farming by the early 20th century.

** The Domesday Book was a survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085 of the over 13,000 English settlements that he gained control of when he won the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

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Rural Istria

by Steenie Harvey

Picture sunlight dappling through woodland glades, verdant hills crowned with tiaras of honey-colored medieval villages of loggias, archways, cobblestone streets, and little squares. With its community of artists and musicians, one of the loveliest of Istria’s rural towns is Groznjan. In 1910, it was under Austrian rule. The census of that year shows a thriving population of over 1,600 within the town, and another 4,000 in the outlying area. By 1956, two-thirds of the population had emigrated and only a handful of families were left within Groznjan’s walls.

An art town
Then, in 1965, Tito’s government decided to turn it into an art town. Artists from all over Croatia and the neighboring Yugoslav region of Slovenia were invited to take over the houses and save the town from further decline. They’ve been here ever since, maintaining Groznan’s postcard-perfect wrought iron balconies, cylindrical chimneys, and architraves bearing ancient coats of arms. And they’ve been joined by classical musicians. During summer, the sweet sound of string quartets can be heard amongst the renovated houses.

On top of a dramatic rocky perch, another medieval gem is Motovun. Its walls,
gates, towers, and piazzas are a legacy of the Venetians. Reminders of them are everywhere. Venetian lions guard the town gates, and numerous buildings display the coats of arms of La Serennissima. In late July and early August, Motovun’s streets and squares host a five-day (and night) International Film Festival, with open-air showings of around 80 avant-garde films from Europe and the U.S.

Strange stories
St. Barbara’s leg, the undecayed tongue of St. Mary of Egypt…the head, spinal column, scapula, and neck muscles of St. Sebastian (the neck muscles were still intact when his head was torn from his body)…: For gruesomely weird sights, you’d look long and hard to find anything stranger than the church of St. Blaise in Vodnjan. Over 350 assorted body parts belonging to 250 saints are preserved in the church. A number of saints are completely mummified—the clothed bodies of St. Leon Bembo, St. Ivan John Olini, and St. Nicolosa Bursa lie in what are effectively glass coffins.

In the woods near Vodnjan, the church of St. Foska has a reputation for being one of Europe’s strongest points of “bio-energy.” Hoping for a healing experience, many new-age types visit the site.

And here’s something for the kids: Rumor has it that the pirate Captain Morgan once stayed in the village of Mrgani. Apparently he stashed a cache of buried treasure somewhere nearby...

Property samples in rural Istria:
--A small renovated traditional stone home on three floors in Motovun village with two bedrooms, a basement that could be converted into a small shop, and an attic to be refurbished with a view of the Istrian hills. Price: $134,000 through Croatian Sun.

--Apartments are available in Svetivincenat—a charming Istrian village. This
small inland village has a rich history and exudes a special charm. The apartments
are located in the center of the village, not far from the main square where one of the best-preserved castles of Istria can be found. This renovated old building has seven apartments and several business spaces. The apartment finish is up to “roh bau” (rough finish) level—the final finish is left for the buyer to decorate to his or her preferences. Two-bedroom apartments (700 square feet) are available for $82,200 through Croatian Sun.

-- Country house in Hreljin village near St. Vincenat and Zminj, 16 miles from the coastline. This semi-detached house of 1,290 square feet has four bedrooms on two levels and 7,500 square feet of land with an additional 4,300-square-foot plot across the street with a barn. Price: $175,000 through Croatian Sun.

[ Editor’s note: This article is an extract from our Croatia: Owner’s Manual.]

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Keeping time in Munich

by Bartosz Nabrdalik

Munich is Germany’s third biggest city, but pulls in the most visitors. No wonder, since every survey confirms its popularity: Most Germans would love to live in the Bavarian capital that runs like clockwork.

To the east of the city’s central square and transport hub, Marienplatz, is Munich’s oldest church, Peterskirche, first built in the 11th century—the current building is Gothic and dates back to the 1280s with a tower decorated with not one but eight clocks. (Next door, however, Saint Muntidia, patron saint of single women, is no longer concerned about the passage of time. Her relics are in a glass casket in the 14th-century Heiliggeistkirche, worth visiting also for the gilded high altar.)

The sound of bells
The northern side of the square is taken up by the massive New Town Hall where every noon, visitors and locals are treated to a clockwork performance on its tower: A jousting tournament of mechanical figures commemorates the marriage of Wilhelm, duke of Bavaria, back in 1499. And, just below, dancing figurines representing coopers celebrate the end of a plague outbreak in 1517 (this city has a long memory) accompanied by peeling of the 44 bells atop the 262-foot high tower.

When all the clocks strike noon for lunch, you can head to the oldest city marketplace, the Viktualenmarkt, behind Peterkirche. No longer just a farmer’s market with local produce, you can now find fresh fruit juice here, sushi, and all manner of other exotic fare to while away the day. The atmosphere is lively even after the stalls close—a lot of drinking goes on in the beer garden around the Maypole. These tall masts, found in all Bavarian towns, are typically painted in the alternating white and blue bands, the national colors of Bavaria—each town tries to outdo the others in putting up the prettiest maypole.

At night, the jet-set head to Jackie O on Rosenkavalierplatz 12 in trendy Bogenhausen—but be warned: Only those who look rich stand a chance of getting past the doormen. Among the city’s myriad bars, the Havana Club on Herrnstrasse 30 stands out for its extensive cocktail concoctions (my favorite was beer with coke and lemon juice on the rocks). But the classic beer garden is the Hofbrauhaus on Platzl 9 where prices have not moved too much with the times.

Munich Travel facts
The city has six subway lines and more than 20 tram lines. The best value for traveling around the city is with a day card for 5 euro, or a weekly pass for 20 euro (a single ride costs 2 euro). Ticket machines have an English language option.

Market hours
The Viktualenmarkt is open Mon. to Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m; Sat. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Beer at the Hofbrauhaus is 4-5 euro ($5.30-$6.70) per Maß or liter jug.

Tourist offices
The main IT Office faces the train station at Banhofplatz 2. Open Mon. to Sat. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; tel: 089-233-0300; fax: 089-233-0300.
A more centrally located office is at Marienplatz inside the New Town Hall. Open Mon. to Fri. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. See the tourism website to book accommodation.