Suez Canal: Dr. José Rizal and his Padalas

Another effect of the shortened time and travel distance through the Suez Canal from the Philippines to Spain is the accessibility of trade goods. For the expatriate community like Rizal, trade goods can only mean padala of specialized Philippine food. This must be understood  by examining three things:

Scene Rizal must have seen entering the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.   Today's scene:  August 2011.

1.  The Filipinos in Spain are always hungering for Filipino food. No doubt about that.  In fact whenever they have get- togethers, they most often serve Filipino dishes: lechon, pancit, adobo.

2.  The opening of the Suez Canal shortened the time for food transport.  It has become easy to have neatly packaged and air-tight-sealed native delicacies not to spoil and prolong its travel- life.

3.  And most importantly, today, as it was during Rizal's time, the Filipino syndrome of padala was a common trait.

Let's peek into one of Rizal's letters.  Reporting on political doings and proposing social solutions within their circle--the Circulo-hispano filipino in Madrid, in the next paragraph he suddenly goes left field into a request for food!!!
...Sanciangco ...is going there and plans to return very soon. If you want to send me something, through him, you can do so, such as ...sweets, jellies, bagoong, pickled mangoes, tamarind...
   In-house stories tell (source: my father who heard his uncle Dr. Maximo Viola relate this story) that Rizal's bagoong clay jar broke during the passage at the Suez Canal. The sustained stink it created, mixed up with the salty-desert air, must have contributed to the erosion of the 2,500 year old sphinxes that lined the river Nile banks.

Meanwhile, Rizal is undaunted. In another instance, through Paterno this time, Rizal's bagoong was prepared air-tight and sealed properly. We know this because of another letter thanking them for their food padala and more request for various food igredients.

In one of Saturnina's letters, she complains that fruits are so scarce that she was not able to make preserves. However, she's sending him guava jellies instead. She adds that "through the next one who will go there" (of course through padala), she  ordered hand-woven piña embroidered handkerchiefs from Lipa.

We also learn that Rizal, paying court to Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, (the lovely daughter of Don Pablo Ortiga  the house owner where the Circulo hispano-filipino is held) gave a present of hand-embroided piña handkerchiefs.

Rizal receives (through padala parcels that he orders) all  kinds of noodles, (he must be cooking pancit), and esoteric Filipino ingredients  like "angkak" not available in Madrid.  What is that for?  I wonder if he must be preparing a lot of "buro" food!!!

It's interrelated: the opening of the Suez Canal and the exporting of specialized gustatorial support for the Filipino expatriates in Europe.

Suez Canal: Through Dr. José Rizal's Eyes

I

Southern Exit Suez Canal.

What an international buzz the Suez Canal created in 1868 at the opening ceremony!!! The Egyptian Pasha pulled all the stops.  The guest of honor was Empress Eugenie, Napoleon's wife.

The effect on the Philippines was overwhelming. The voyage from Manila to Spain which normally took 4 to 5 months, now averaged about a month. The so called "filibusteros" of 1872 (the Three Martyred Priest, Burgos, Gomez, Zamora) would have been saved had they self-exiled themselves via the Suez Canal to Spain, where the environment was more liberal than in the colony.  Many illustrious Filipino families like Pardo de Taveras took advantage of the Suez opening and emigrated to Paris and Spain.

Many sons of well-to do Filipinos were sent to Madrid to study and become lawyers (Paternos, Lete; doctors (Pardo de Tavera, Apacible, Cabangis;  artists (Luna,  Resurrecion, Figueroa); writers, (Sanciango, Lopez Jaena, del Pilar);  musicians, (Calero), residents, skilled workers, and many more. The Suez Canal passage made the trip easy, affordable and worthwhile.

It was not one-way though. Many Spanish functionaries were assigned to posts in the Philippines to enlarge the Peninsulares' population in Manila. Communication and liberal ideas from Europe flowed more freely to the islands.

Rizal left Manila on May 3rd and was at the Suez Canal Port Authority on June 2nd. His first trip abroad, he was like the proverbial bull in a porcelain shop. He noted everything. He sketched the scenery. He was loquacious and full of self-importance. He traveled First Class! He mailed postcards to friends and sent long letters to his parents at every sea-mail stop. He fed his daily journals with descriptive observations and factoids!!!

...It's not straight throughout its length; it has curves but small ones; sometimes it flows into a lake where it is believed Moses passed, and again enters the desert.  It crosses three lakes in its course.  On both banks, which are all yellow and white, where it is a real jewel to find grass, are erected some telegraph stations placed at several intervals.  (p. 18, Letters Between Rizal and Family Members, 1876-1896. NHI, 1962).

He wrote about people, animals, food, phenomenon.

...We have seen a traveler on a camel and two magnificent Arabian horses.  One of these, mounted by a customs officer attracted the attention of everybody.  


In my re-tracing of Rizal's footsteps, the Suez  I experienced was different. Instead of the mounted customs officers on Arabian horses I noted Army soldiers standing hawk-eyed along the canal.  It was  the end of August and I was caught up in the Arab Spring revolution in Cairo that brought Mubarak's fall  as president of Egypt.  Everyone on the Canal was on security watch.

II

Army sentry on the Canal.

I was unfortunately an unwilling participant in the Alexandria demonstration, having been swept into the throng.  I thought I was evading a street riot by docking into a street alley by the mosque.  Wrong turn!

Rizal made his readers' mouth water by the various fruits he tasted  in Suez:

...Here I have tasted cherries, apricots, and green almonds.


Rizal was extremely taken by witnessing a curious spectacle, a mirage:  in his own words...the reflection on the desert of seas and islands that do not exist.


In my re-tracing of José Rizal's Suez, the only camels I noted were dressed with tassels and draped with colorful Bedouin woven cloth saddles to attract tourists for a photo-shoot.

I did sample their green almonds. Great taste, a little bit tart but makes one chew with character (kasi ma-asim).  I came during the season for dates (August).  It was also the beginning of Ramadan when I arrived Suez.  That meant all the devout were on fast from sunup to sundown.  However, this is what I learned that Rizal failed to document: When Muslims break their fast, they sip a glass of water first and the first bite of solid food they take is a date fruit.  It is fresh, and very sweet, ensuring that a sugar-packed natural energy food is taken in first.

However, I admit that Rizal has the last word here.  He said he ate a fruit named dates!

The Suez Canal: Through Dr. José Rizal's Eyes

It was May 1882.  José  Rizal was on his way to Spain.  From Manila he took a boat to Singapore, changed to an ocean steamer, the Djenmah,  traveled on through the Indian Sea by way of Colombo Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, and then on to the Arabian Sea.  He got off the boat at Aden, Yemen (http://penelopevflores.blogpot.com), and then his boat entered the Red Sea, the entrance to the Suez Canal.

My trip to the Suez Canal was a product of serendipity.  I was commissioned by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Mr James Espinas, the curator of the Rizal Exhibit,  to paint a Rizal Mural Travel Map for the special Rizal 150th Birthday Celebration and Exhibit. This mural (50" by 70") was to indicate his European trips and trace the routes he took.

I had been re-tracing the footsteps of Dr José Rizal in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain for the past several years and delight in blogging and sharing my experience with my many followers.

This site (Suez Canal) however was out of my radar sights at that time.  As I drew Rizal's itinerary from Manila--through the Indian and Arabian Seas, and then through the Suez Canal on to the Mediterranean and Europe--I realized Rizal had traversed the Suez Canal five times!!! (1882, 1887, 1891, 1896 twice).

Why had I not read any article written on this topic?  Answer: Because none had been published. To be sure timelines and matter of fact statements are found in Rizal biographies, but an article on his unique experience  in going through the Suez Canal several  times was sorely missing.

By default, it was left for me to fill up this gap, so  read on to my next blog.

José Rizal's papers were processed in this Suez Canal Port Authority building, 1882.

Dr. José Rizal on the Suez Canal

Image via Wikipedia

Suez Canal in 1882.

My trip to the Suez Canal, July, 2011 was the product of serendipity.  I was commissioned  to paint a special canvas for the Rizal 150th Celebration exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center curated by James Espinas. It was to be a world map of Rizal's travels.  As I started tracing the routes Rizal made, suddenly the top of my head lighted up as a function of a hovering light bulb. Rizal passed the Suez canal five times!!!  1882, 1887, 1891, and 1896 twice.  Why has this Suez trip never been analyzed, explained, or elaborated? By default, it has become my luck to be the one to explore its significance in relation to Rizal.

The canal was the brainchild of a Frenchman:  Ferdinand de Lesseps.  It was began in 1859 and completed 10 years.  Rounding Africa takes  12,300 miles. Going through the Suez Canal shortens the distance to 7,200 miles.

Ismailia canal supplies filtrated drinking water to Suez and Port Said workers.

Tanker on the canal, view from street.

Captured Israeli tank, Suez

Ismailia canal, parallel to the Suez canal.

Peace Bridge across Suez canal, donated by the Japanese Governent, 2005

Penélope re-tracing Rizal's trip through the Suez Canal

R

Right canal, right camera. Shoot!

Port Said--Two Girls: a Greek and a Turk, just as Rizal described

An Ismaili girl and her clay water jar.

Suez: Where the Red Sea ends and the Mediterranean Sea begins.

On the highway to Suez, Port Said

Suez Canal toll booth

Immigration Stop. Rizal's papers, his first passport read Jose Protacio Mercado y Alonso.

Signs in Arabic

Tanker navigating the canal seen from the street.

Fond Memories: Dr. José Rizal in Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld Slideshow

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PenelopeVFlores: How Dr. José Rizal immortalized Wilhelmsfeld in th...

PenelopeVFlores: How Dr. José Rizal immortalized Wilhelmsfeld in th...: On my last day in Heidelberg, my Knights Of Rizal hosts brought their Noli me tángere books. The first was the large centennial volume in R...

How Dr. José Rizal immortalized Wilhelmsfeld in his novel Noli me tángere.

On my last day in Heidelberg, my Knights Of Rizal hosts brought their Noli me tángere books.  The first was the large centennial volume in Rizal's own penmanship. From Rizal's strikethroughs and insertions,  I marveled at how his mind worked.  Did he have the plot and scenes formulated in his mind?  How did he have such a flowing penmanship and smooth text rendition?  His concentration and creative genius was on display on this facsimile volume.  The second volume was a Rizal signed copy of the Noli me tángere, a gift  from Dr Paz P. Mendez, the National HIstorical Commission scholar, who with Pastor Gottlob Weber, helped keep the memory of Rizal in Wilhelmsfeld alive.

Upon reading Chapter VII, "Idyll in an Azotea"  the Pastor, who had become an ardent Rizalist, recognized the scene that Rizal described.  It was of Wilhelmsfeld!!!  In his book, the pastor red -pencil -marked the margin page .

Let's take a look at this particular scene.  Note my annotations,  in bold, after having been on the Odenwald forest where Rizal wandered by foot, (me by car going and by bus returning) during his hike through the valleys and trails.

                               --Excerpts from Rizal's  Noli me tángere Chapter VII--

On the balcony, Maria Clara asks Ibarra:  "Did you not forget me on so many trips  So many big cities? With so many beautiful women?"

Ibarra replies, "How can I forget you?'  ...

"...(T)he whole time I was in Germany, as night fell, as I wandered  in the forests inhabited by the fantastic creatures of its poets and the mysterious legends of its past generations, I called upon your name.  (Rizal walked three hours starting from Philosopher's Walk through the Odenwald forest returning from a day 's work in Dr. Otto Becker's Heidelberg Eye Clinic).

Rizal could hear the peasant's songs from his room, as they returned from a day's work in the fields.

I thought I could see you in the mist that rose from the depths of the valleys, I thought I could hear your voice in the  whispering of the leaves (Wilhelmsfeld is a valley town between two north western hills above Heidelberg).


 ...and when the folk songs of the peasants sang as they returned from their work would reach me from afar, they only seemed to harmonize with my own interior voices (In the pastor's vicarage, Rizal's room faced the street where the farmers' songs could have wafted through his open window).


...which sang for you and give reality to my illusions and dreams  (Could Rizal be referring to his  trails on Philosophen Weg on to Wilhelmsfeld?)

...and night, which falls slowly there (Rizal was in Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld in February where nights are long).


...would find me still wandering, searching for the trail among the pines, beech and oak (those trees still stand there today).

Then, if the rays of the moon floated down through the openings in the thick canopy, I thought I could see you in the heart of the forest, like a vague, loving shadow shimmering among the light and the darkness of the thicket  (Riding on number 34 Wihelmsfeld bus,  I too, could discern those shimmering light as we passed the forest canopies).

And if perchance I could distinguish the varying warbles of  the nightingale, I thought it was because I could see you and you were a muse.

Did I think about you?

The passion of my love for you not only brought life to their mists but color to their ice."

p 48. Chapter 7, Augenbraum  (2006) translation. (p 48).  (Get this translation.  It 's an easy contemporary read).



Later, Rizal mentions Germany again,

"Cruising on the Rhine on evenings lit by a slumbering moon,  I asked myself if perhaps you were deceiving my fantasies, so that I saw you between the elms on the river bank, on the rock of Lorelei, (I asked my host to take me to the rock of Lorelei, but was told it's 150 kilometers away from Heidelberg) or amidst the water ripples, singing in the silence of the night like the young fairy of consolation in order to enliven the solitude and sadness of those ruined castles."  (Rizal must have meant the Heidelberg ruined castle above the Neckar River,  In 1886, he toured this ruins and noted its lonely sadness).    

From Lacson-Locsin (2006 reprint)  translation, pp 45-46. If you prefer to savour the lilting cadence and Rizal's flowery turn of words, read this translation.

PenelopeVFlores: Day 3 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. Jos...

PenelopeVFlores: Day 3 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. Jos...: On Day 3 of Three Perfect Days in Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld, I formulate some tools for enriching my experience by virtue of the fact that Ri...

Day 3 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. José Rizal's Legacy: Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

On Day 3 of Three Perfect Days in Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld,  I should formulate some tools for enriching my experience by virtue of the fact that Rizal had a fascinating spot for Germany in his heart. The third day for me is a synthesis.  What have I learned?  How can I re-live and re-vive the Rizal spark in me?  I had been so numbed to utter hollow words every June 19th and December 30th.  I had been so used to just look at a light.  I have had little or no part in igniting a spark. But that spark cannot come from without.  It is by necessity a within-process.  I need this. We all need this.

I walked down the Theodor Heuss Bridge and followed the Neckar promenade northwards to the Old Bridge.  I said to myself, "This was the way Rizal took from the Eye Clinic where he practiced to the Old Bridge and on through the Odenwald forest". I passed several notable sites--the Stadthalle Congress center, The dark brown-bricked Old Armory and horse stables.  I reached the Bridge Monkey and stopped before the bridge gateway to admire the scene. The Neckar was visibly calm. Heidelberg people had always stood by the river banks, just as  Filipinos have stood by their river banks and sea shores. I also recall that as a child, Rizal stood on Calamba's Laguna lake shoreline.  He wondered if the people on the other side of the lake had the same opportunities and disadvantages he had.

Then the spark, in other words, the realization,  suddenly dawned on me.

The Tagalog people are Taga-ilog (of the river).  Antonio Luna writing for La Solidaridad used Taga-ilog as his pseudonym.

The Kapampangan are shore people (pampang, shore).

The Pangasinan people are from the salt sea beds (pang asin nan).

The Cebu people are divers (sugbu-dive).

The Mindanao and Lanao people are of the flood plains (danao-lanao, flood).

The Makati people are from the pool tide (kati, low tide).

Ilocos is a variant of Ilog ( Iloc, river).

Palawan people are of the island (pulao).

Pasig is short of pasigan banks (pasigut-sigut, river bend).

Abra is a river crossing.

The River (KOR) is the Spark!

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. It has some connection to my recent trip to the Holy Land. A week ago, I was on the River Jordan and the Sea of Galilee.  On one hand, the river Jordan flows and gives water to all the tributaries along the way.  Jordan is a bubbly, living organism, full of sparkle and joie de vivre.  It distributes and shares it's blessings. Give, give, give, it gushes. And it becomes full of life.

On the other hand, there is the other body of water.  It is dank, dark, sulphorous, choked, and heavy with calcified silt.  It hoards it's waters. Mine, mine,  mine, it mutters. And it becomes the Dead Sea.

I was determined not to be just a ship that passed in the night in terms of the KOR Wilhelmsfeld-Heidelberg chapter and so I invited Idi and Rainer for a  dinner cruise along the Neckar river. The boat fittingly named Patria gave us the occasion to really sit down to a richly appointed dinner and to get to know more of each other. 

As the shadows lengthened, the western sun played hide-and-seek with the latticed ruins of the Heidelberg castle walls and its punctured windows up the hill. The boat moved out of its moorings and smoothed quietly over the bed of Neckar's still waters.  We dined like the Palatine Prince/s Ruprecht I, and Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Baden,  founders of Heidelberg University in 1386,  500 years before Rizal came to the university.

The adventurous Sir Rainer ordered the Ostrich steak. Idi and I shook our heads and declined; "No, the halibut serves us fine".

The Neckar river scene unfolded. Rizal could have been inspired to write another nostalgic poem--"To the River of Heidelberg." Slowly, we inched by the neighborhood areas along the river banks. Families with kids were picnicking on the grounds. Pairs were absorbed in each other's eyes. The football teams were preparing for a match. Light shone through the multicolored glass windows of the Church of the Holy Spirit. We had a lovely setting full of promised surprises, while a sailing dinghy nearly clipped our ropes as it swooped dangerously by.

I asked Sir Rainer to look critically at my attempt to analyze the nexus between Rizal's European-ness and Rizal's Filipino-ness.  He shared his speech on Germany's influence on Rizal, delivered in Hamburg.  Idi presented a hand-crafted  gift of a Tiffany angel.  I gave a small token to the KOR Chapter.  He gave me a Wilhelmsfeld medal.  I promised to send him my latest book project. I perused the famous names on the Weber Visitor book registry. We poured over the neat Rizal penmanship of a Noli facsimile.  It was a treat to re-read and re-create the description of Wilhelmsfeld as reflected from the words of Crisostomo Ibarra to Maria Clara.

Idi and Rainer autographed my German books:  Wilhelm Tell (which Rizal translated in Tagalog) and Brȕder Grimm. Sir Rainer wrote:  "This is not the end, it is but the beginning of a wonderful friendship."  Idi inscribed:  "Tales with a rich background for a lady with a deep background."

I had gained new friends in Wilhelmsfeld-Heidelberg.  It was share and give--a river Jordan,  a river Neckar, a river Pasig.  Dr. José Rizal's spirit was happily beaming over us on that eventful relaxing boat ride on the river he so adored.

On Hauptstrasse among admirers, August 18, 2011, Heidelberg.

That evening, along the Neckar, at the end of a perfect three days stay, I lost my heart in Heidelberg with a better understanding of the legacy of Dr. José Rizal .

Thank you KOR for making this happen!!!

PenelopeVFlores: Day 2 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. Jos...

PenelopeVFlores: Day 2 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. Jos...: On Day 2 of my visit to Heidelberg, I returned to the Old town and situated myself in the aura of Dr. José Rizal's spirit. I revisited the...

Day 2 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. José Rizal's Legacy: Pictures of Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

On Day 2 of my visit to Heidelberg, I returned to the Old town and situated myself in the aura of Dr. José Rizal's spirit.  I revisited the regular haunts of students in Heidelberg.  It was a re-creation of the life of a progressive student from the Philippines out to experience every nuance of life.  Rizal was always learning  He was artistically subtle, and he hoped that later on, he would get all of the things he absorbed into something progressive.  Rizal was influenced greatly by the German love for structure and discipline.

Beer Garden where Heidelberg university students patronize. Thisone is just a few yards away from Rizal's flat.

Rizal apartment, white center building,Ludwigsplatz 12, now Grabengasse, Heidelberg, 1886. 

Fountain in front of Heidelberg University, opposite Rizal flat.   He could have  quenched his thirst here.

Lion figure atop the drinking  fountain in front of Heidelberg Univ.

Church of the Holy Ghost, Heidelberg.

Rizal admired this art work:  Alte Aula, old ceremonial hall, Heidelberg U.

Jesuit Church, Heidelberg U. Rizal was a product of Philippine Jesuit education .

 

Student Prison. Rizal noted this concept of self-monitoring. In this grafitti-filled walls, the red caps seem to predominate.

Student fraternities wore colored caps as identification, Heidelberg. Painted walls revealed a lot of student life.

Wooden table carved with student names, Red Ox. I tried to look for a Rizal name here.  No success.

Grafitti on student prison walls. I wish I could read German.

 

Schurmann building, Schurmann, a native son,  made millions in the Philippines under the American Colonial government. He wrote the Schurmann Philippine Report of 1901.

Heidelberg University Library, Rizal's books and books about him are here.

The historic student prison (Studenkarzen)is on Augustinergasse.

Bust, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, the generous patron of the University,
 University Ceremonial Aula

Entrance door, Heidelberg U.

Rizal noted with interest religious figures in building corner niches.

The university plaza. Rizal's apartment was right on this plaza square.

Rizal's apartment on 11 Karlstrassse.  He could admire the Castle ruins from his rear window.

The bus line costs Euro 2.50 l to Wilhelmsfeld. 

Penélope lost her heart in Heidelberg, August 15th
 to 19th, 2011

Eye Clinic where Rizal practiced. Note historical Rizal marker, 20 Bergheimerstrasse

The Red Ox, a favorite student restaurant. All the wooden tables are covered with carved student names: a treat for Onomastic scholars!!!

Day 2 of Three Perfect Days: Understanding Dr. José Rizal's Legacy: Heidelberg-Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

Sir Rainer and I had been feeding each other's sentences with Rizal quotes, Rizal ideas, Rizal letters, Rizal thoughts, Rizal jokes.   It is so amazing that a German citizen could know so much about our national hero.  I was painfully aware of so many things I still have to learn from him.

What was so astonishing is that he allowed me to ask silly questions.  Rainer is a retired English, History, and Social and Political Studies teacher.  He had been closely connected to Rizal studies for almost 50 years and he was playing the German tutor with me.  I wanted to know  what kind of flowers  Rizal  saw when he wrote the poem "To the Flowers of Heidelberg."  He drove me to Philosopher's Way.  "There," he pointed, "Those were the flowers he saw."  I looked at a wide expanse of blooms.  The roadside presented a painter's palette of varied hues and texture.

Heidelberg flowers in Spring

Then I noted a particular bush  heavy with white trailing blooms.  My eyes widened; my jaw dropped.  "It's almost like a white "Cadena de Amor,"  I exclaimed. What was in Rizal's mind when he saw those Cadena-de-Amor flower type?  Did he recall Calamba's blooms?  I cut off a twig and kept the cutting in my backpack. (This will later be my downfall with the US Customs at San Francisco Airport).


Rainer continued.... "While Rizal was walking this way, he met a local protestant pastor, Karl Ullmer.  They became friendly, and at one point, Rizal asked if he could improve his German by staying in his village in a sort of immersion language program.  The pastor then invited him to stay with his family in the vicarage."

We were nearing Wilhelmsfeld, and my heart began to beat wildly.  Somewhere, I'll get to see the house where Rizal lived, savour the place and feel the essence of that village scene that Rizal described so vividly on Chapter 7 of the Noli where Ibarra told Maria Clara of his Germany experience.

The car turned on to a neat looking street.  We pulled over to a sign on the road. It read "José Rizal Strasse".  Down the street, Sir Rainer cried;  "Are you ready?  There it is".

The vicarage where Rizal spent a quiet and productive time in Germany, 1886

It was a plain white three-story stone house of green shutters with a dormer attic roof, incredibly maintained and well-preserved!!!  On the low fence, a special historical marker declared that the Philippine National hero spent the best time of his life in this house.

Rainer smiled, "See that third window with closed shutters on the 1st floor, right side? (In Europe, what we call 1st floor is their Ground Floor. Our 2nd floor is their 1st floor.) That was where Rizal finished writing the final chapters of the Noli. Pastor Ullmer's son Fritz, a 13 year old boy, remembered Rizal had a large map of the Philippines tacked up in front of his desk."

Then he continued softly, "See that room next to Rizal's room?  That's where I was born."  I developed some goose-bumps. This guy's Rizal connection is unreal!!!

Room with closed shutters was Rizal's room.

I noted the church across the street where Pastor Karl Ullmer tended to his religious flock, and where Rainer's father, Pastor Gottlob Weber took over.  Later that day, in the company of Sir Rainer's lovely spouse, Idi, we visited the Rizal statue on Rizal Park.

It was an extraordinary experience.  First, the bronze statue is greater than life.

Second,  it is standing on a tidal pool where people can feel a close affinity to Rizal when viewing it.  It was designed to be part of the audience. Visitors could stand beside it and a picture shoot could show Rizal as part within the picture frame.

Rizal bronze statue, holding a quill on his right hand, in thoughtful mood.

Third, the standing figure, holding a quill in one hand is shown as a  thoughtful and sensitive character.  I have never  seen any Rizal monument with these uniquely soft attributes.

The statue was crafted by Professor Caedo of UP. However, Caedo had deviated 180 degrees from his usual stern-looking Rizal template.

Soft lines, thoughtful mood, sensitive stance, unique monument.

Our party-of-three watched the Wilhelmsfeld sunset gradually drain off the orange-yellow-ochre tint over the valley. We quaffed cooling drinks at Tal Blick restaurant.  Rainer's beer came in a curvy-twisty looking tall glass.  He joked:  "It seems like I got drunk and wrung the glass into a twist."  Later that evening  I marked that day's memory by drawing that twisted glass on a blank postcard using oil pastel and ball pen marker.

I boarded the Wilhelmsfeld bus that took me back to Heidelberg over a winding road on the Odenwald  forest, 13 kilometers to Heidelberg. Rizal walked through this forest glen three hours going, three hours returning.

Day Two of three perfect days ended in Heidelberg, where on my own I walked over to the familiar Rizal sites to imbibe the special Rizal aura. I needed that second look to have the images crystallize in my mind.