Three cities/One capital

One of our annual trips is to visit the current European Capital of Culture (ECC). In a previous article we wrote: “A skeptic would call it a quintessential marketing ploy on the part of the European community: Name one or two cities the European Capital of Culture for a full year and watch the tourists flock with their fistfuls of euros, dollars, pounds, yen and whatevers. Ploy or not, it works.”

In the years that followed, we have been enticed to attend these usually remarkable presentations in Graz, Austria; Lille, France; Cork, Ireland; Genoa, Luxembourg; Liverpool, England; and, last year, Linz, Austria. The selected city has a four-year advance planning cycle and will marshal a wide variety of forces, including politicians, educational facilities, businesses and every facet of the arts.

This year, the world was blessed with three city sites: Pecs, Hungary; Istanbul, Turkey; and Essen and the Ruhr Valley, Germany. We always pre-judge a location by its website toward the end of the preceding year. We also contact the media office to get its reports and comments. A good location will have much of its schedule and staff listed early. Pecs and Essen looked good in late 2009. But Istanbul’s website was barely functioning. Other Internet information indicated internal strife in the senior management and charges of corruption. “But, after all,” we thought, “Istanbul is a great city, and Turkey is pressing to join the European economic community. Surely, they would deliver a good product.” Meanwhile, we decided not to visit Pecs. Attending required flying into Budapest, Hungary, and then driving almost three hours to get there. It was just too time consuming and two out of three is a pretty good year.

We normally buy economy seats and upgrade to business class with frequent flier miles. We mostly travel on United because its route structure from Chicago works best for us. But, this year, we decided to save some money and use some of our stockpile of miles to buy business-class seats. For once, the airlines have changed their mileage programs to benefit the customer.

Instead of just being able to use United miles only on United flights, we were able to book seats on many of the Star Alliance members using United miles. So it was that we flew from Chicago to Zurich on Swiss International and had an excellent connection to Istanbul. If your principal airline is American or Delta, they now have similar programs.

Istanbul is a great city, but we should have paid attention to the negative feelings that we had from its dysfunctional website. Our first stop was at the media office, where our contact mentioned many events but had not been to most of them. She also sent us to a location a few blocks away that was not part of the ECC program. We actually spent most of two days looking for locations or programs that could not be found.

Of all the cities we have visited for ECC, none came close to being as disappointing as Istanbul. The irony is that Istanbul spent two to three times as much money as Essen! We can only imagine where the money went. Reportedly, the most successful event was the opening gala that the sponsors, organizers and managers gave to honor themselves.

However, Istanbul and the surrounding area remains a treasure trove of stunning sights and edifices. Our charming boutique hotel, Ottoman Hotel Imperial, was right next to St. Sophia, the former church turned into a mosque. Unfortunately, for a $20 charge, you can see the inside of this historical structure in various stages of disrepair and slow recovery. Not so good. However, a short distance away is the fantastic Blue Mosque, surely one of the great architectural and religious buildings in the world. The fact that there is no charge to enter makes it even more enticing.

Let’s conclude by warning you that seeing the many marvelous sights in the city is marred by traffic gridlock. It takes far too long to go any distance during all but night hours. But this report is not a travelogue but a commentary on the ECC — for that, avoid Istanbul.

We traveled from Istanbul to Düsseldorf, Germany, on Turkish Airlines and fully expected to have wicker benches and smoke-filled cabins. Not so. Instead we found a clean aircraft with superb service that exceeded most U.S. international airlines — so much for stereotypes.

In contrast to Istanbul, the city of Essen and surrounding Ruhr Valley exceeded all expectations. This was the quintessential result of smart people creating interesting and imaginative programs. The Ruhr Valley is a complex of cities that is so dense that they say it would be the third largest city in Europe if it was a single entity. For example, we flew into the international airport at Düsseldorf, which is only 25 miles from Essen. The Ruhr Valley was one of the great industrial areas of Europe and is now being reborn as a cultural and vacation area.

The organizers keep rolling out one great event after another. We will touch on just a few here — some that took place while we were there and others that occurred before and after.

Our first visit was to “A Star is Born” at the Museum Folkwang, which included hundreds of remarkable photos of popular performers and rock ’n’ roll stars, starting with The Beatles, all taken by some of the world’s best photographers. It was nostalgia time for us. A book in German was published, and an English version is coming out now. This is a cheap way of sharing something spectacular.

Zollverein is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a giant former coal mine and steel mill complex that has been converted into a great museum. “Great” might be an understatement. It will remain an ongoing project after this year and can be viewed on the Internet. Before we arrived in Essen, a brief event featured scores of giant weather balloons that were launched over the abandoned coal mines for miles around to show what the region was like before the current changes. But one of the greatest productions occurred just after we left.

“Still-Life” was like nothing you could imagine and few places could execute. Essen decided to have the world’s largest “picnic” and closed 40 miles of a major autobahn for an entire day. The planning and logistics were superb. Preparation included 20,000 (yes, 20,000) large picnic tables stored in warehouses for distribution the night before. People could sign up for a table in advance and use it for a picnic or to display articles or achievements. No vehicles moved on the road on that Sunday and access was only by roller skates, bicycle or foot. More than 1 million people attended during the day! Just as remarkable was that everything was cleaned up in time for normal traffic the next day.

Among the next projects is MELEZ.2010 in October. To quote its website, “A gold-and-petrol colored train will drive through the European Capital of Culture in October. On board: regular folks, artists from around the world and region. It’s a former regional train whose five railcars have been converted into stages … MELEZ connects people, cultures, generations and cities … where artists will meet, exchange ideas, work and discuss and perform here … The passengers traveling along on the train can just enjoy the program or actively join it. There will be music, stories, writing and singing on the train … each rail car will have its individual program. There will be a stage car, white salon, media car, dance car and salon wagon.” Wow! We may have to go back.

Lastly, we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel, in Essen, which is so good that it is an example of what a mid-level chain hotel can be.

We have just mentioned the ongoing projects that can be expected at a good ECC site. We suggest that you look up “Ruhr 2010” for more of what a dedicated group of people can do. There is still time to savor it this year. And if your travel schedule is filled for 2010, plan now to visit the ECC in 2011. It has made it easy for you by selecting Turku, Finland; and Tallinn, Estonia. These two northern cities are quite close to each other and only a short train ride and sea ferry apart. See you there!

Stuart and Lois Scheyer are in their late 70s and are residents of Longboat Key. They each log more than 100,000 air miles a year. They will be pleased to answer any travel questions and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Travel Easy — Travel Light — Travel Now