Pete, Maz and all that Jazz

Getting there, Part 9 - Canterbury, England - May 31, 2011

2011-12-22T18:34:00.000-05:00

The next port that we stopped at was Dover and the plan had been to meet Michelle and Nick there, clump around town for a while and then have a life shortening Fish and Chip lunch. We had visited Dover fairly recently finding not much of interest and Nick, who had been stationed there at one time, couldn't come up with any fresh delights either. So, pleasant surprise, we were scooped up and taken to Canterbury, about fifteen miles inland.
Canterbury is an historic English cathedral city in the county of Kent and lies on the River Stour. After the Kingdom of Kent's conversion to Christianity in 597CE, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Thomas Becket's murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170CE led to the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide. It was this pilgrimage that provided the theme for Geoffery Chaucer's 14th-century literary classic The Canterbury Tales.
For more pictures around this historic city, click here.

Getting there, Part 8 - Cherbourg, France - May 30, 2011

2011-12-21T20:17:00.001-05:00

Next stop on the cruise was Cherbourg-Octeville in the Manche department of Normandy. With a population of a little over 40,000 the area is largely dependent on the port operations and a French Navy arsenal.
The Cotentin Peninsula, with current day Cherbourg at its head, was first conquered by the Vikings and later, during the Seven Years' War, briefly occupied by a British force in 1758. Napoleon had the harbour fortified to prevent further British incursions although the works that began in 1784 were not completed until long after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Cherbourg was also the first, and as it turned out, the only stop that the Titanic ever made after it left Southampton, England in April 1912.
In WWII, the Battle of Cherbourg was fought following the Normandy Invasion in June 1944 and ended with the capture of the city on 30 June. We had visited Cherbourg previously in our camper-van and limited this visit to a cursory stroll around the main features. More pictures here.

Getting there, Part 7 - Liverpool, England - May 28, 2011

2011-12-21T19:35:00.000-05:00

Still wending our way eastward towards Rotterdam in Holland, we had now reached the shores of England or at least the seven miles of docks at Liverpool, birth place of the Beatles. From the time that we lived in England our memories of Liverpool were of dock strikes, industrial action in car plants hastening the demise of the British auto industry and a general 19th century aura of dreary and depressed neighborhoods housing folk who worked in Dickensian gloom. In short we had low expectations.
How wrong we were! Despite a cool, gray day with occasional rain we thoroughly enjoyed a lengthy trek around this exciting metropolis. Modernization and reclamation of the dock area along with an eclectic profusion of striking architecture have resulted in a vibrant and bustling city with few reminders of the drab times of yesteryear.

Liverpool was granted borough status in 1207, and the original seven streets of the settlement can still be identified within the "commercial district". In 2006 Liverpool was visited by 625,000 international visitors alone, making it the fourth most visited city in the United Kingdom and the ninety-first most visited on earth.
Hope Street connects Liverpool's two cathedrals; Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral as well as being home to a large part of the University of Liverpool's main campus.
Liverpool is one of the few cities in the world where ocean going liners can berth in the city center, providing a spectacular addition to the waterfront skyline.

For more pictures of this vibrant city, click here.

Getting there, Part 6 - Dublin, Ireland - May 27, 2011

2011-12-19T08:33:00.003-05:00

In 2010, eighty-six cruise ships visited Dublin, smaller vessels coming up the river Liffey to dock close to the city, larger vessels like the Rotterdam berthing at Alexandra Quay, a mile or so down river. Alexandra Quay is now Ireland's largest port and handles approximately two-thirds of the country's imports and exports. The original medieval port, close to Christ Church Cathedral in the city center slowly lost impetus with the transition to containerization and larger ships in the late 20th century.
Roll-on/roll-off ferries run regularly across the Irish Sea to Holyhead in Wales and Liverpool in England, with the largest car ferry in the world, the MV Ulysses, carrying up to 2000 passengers each trip on the Holyhead route.
Famous as the birthplace both of Guinness Stout and Irish Whiskey, Dublin, with its population of over half a million is both the capital and the largest city of Ireland although it did little to impress us. The regional unemployment rate is almost 15% and Dublin itself is set to break 14%. Combined with the country's recent bankruptcy and bail-out by the EU, the economy is at a low ebb with many vacant retail spaces and few signs of prosperity anywhere around the city center.
Some views about town are here.

Getting there, Part 5 - Cobh, Ireland - May 26, 2011

2011-12-16T19:00:00.000-05:00

Cobh, pronounced Cove, actually sits on Great Island in Cork Harbor, one of the largest natural harbors in the world. The largest island in the harbor, Great Island has a population of about 10,000 which includes the town of Cobh with its man made harbor large enough for smaller cruise ships. Available excursions, organized with the cruise lines, include Cork, Blarney Castle, Waterford, Killarney and other local attractions. We chose to stay in town which itself has been witness to much history.
For a start, Cobh was the Titanic's last port of call on its fatal maiden voyage in 1912 and, just a few years later during WWI, the Germans sunk the Lusitania off of its shore. Downtown, just a few block from where the Rotterdam was moored, are memorials marking these events.
Cobh was also the embarkation point for 2-1/2 million Irish citizens emigrating to the United States or Australia. Irish immigration to the US in both the 17th and 18th centuries was around 100,000 and then, as first canal building and then railroad construction produced huge demands for labor in the 19th century, the numbers soared into the millions. The first immigrants processed at Ellis Island started their journey to a new life from Cobh.
Our day was cool, blustery and sometimes wet but interesting nonetheless. See here for pictures.

Family Pictures, Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T09:14:00.001-05:00

Click here to see Sunday's pictures. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T14:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the family descended on Martine and Dave's house, armed with healthy appetites and serious intent to wreak bodily harm on two unpardoned turkeys.

What a Cutie!

All three of our girls were there with their husbands - not all of their husbands, just one each - and, exceptionally, all grandchildren and great grandchildren were in town for the day. Awesome! First time this group has been complete for quite some time.
With a traditional oven roasted turkey competing with a second, deep fried, turkey one would have thought the occasion well suited to an orderly and regulated evaluation of which method produces the best flavor. No such luck. By zero hour, 2:00 PM, both Meleagris ocellata, as these cute little birdies are known, were carved and by 2:15 PM the rabble were snarling at each other over the remains. So much for science.
See some Festivities here.

WARNING: This presentation contains disturbing images and may upset some viewers.

Getting there, Part 4, The Sugar Rush - May 28, 2011

2011-11-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

On the last night of our divinely leisurely trip to Rotterdam on the Rotterdam, a special event was staged - Dessert Extravaganza! Dozens and dozens of creative cakes, pastries, canapes, sundaes, pies, fruits, custards, puddings all augmented by chocolate fountains, whipped cream, ice cream - you name it and it was probably there.
Believe it or not, we actually passed this event up although we did stop by earlier in the evening to witness the set up. Having been spoiled for more than two weeks in the restaurants of Holland America we knew we were going to have our work cut out over the next couple of weeks trying to get ourselves back up to speed for our walkabouts, and a visit to this orgy of confection would have made matters just that much worse! Here are some peeks at the pleasures we forwent.

Getting there, Part 3 - May 18, 2011

2011-11-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

In 1972, Ted Arison, an Israeli-American entrepreneur bought the retired Canadian Ocean Liner, Empress of Canada, renamed it Mardi Gras and thus was born Carnival Cruise Lines. After a money-losing start the operation found its mark, added a couple more ships, went public in 1987 and never looked back.

Carnival is now the largest cruise operator in the world comprising eleven major brands, about 100 ships and more than 160,000 berths. Subsidiaries include Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line. The combined brands of Carnival Corporation control more than half of the total worldwide cruise market.
Check out these pictures to see where the 2,000 gallons of milk, 15,000 pounds of beef and 26 tons of vegetables actually go.

Getting there, Part 2 - May 16, 2011

2011-11-06T11:06:00.000-05:00

There has been an SS Rotterdam in the Holland America Line since 1872 when the first, rigged for both steam and sail, entered service. Fourteen years later a shiny new SS Rotterdam replaced the original but this one too was sold off eleven years later to make way for number three in 1897. This third version in turn was sold in 1906 to another line and was ultimately sunk by a German U-Boat in 1918.
Its replacement, the fourth SS Rotterdam, was commissioned in 1908 and served until WWII before being scrapped in 1940.
There was then a hiatus until 1958 when Rotterdam the fifth sailed onto the scene - still as an SS (Steam Ship). Number five went on to roam the oceans of the world for almost forty years before being retired to make way for number six in 1997. This latest in the line was the MS (Motor Ship) Rotterdam which quickly became our favorite boat ever. More snaps are right here.

Europe 2011, Getting there Part I - May 15, 2011

2011-11-05T16:18:00.000-04:00

Most of our trips to Europe in recent years have been by air. Our little European RV is stored in Holland so we usually fly into Amsterdam, catch a ride to the storage facility, fire up the RV, perform a major grocery shop, drive to a campsite and collapse. The dark side of this arrangement is the timing. Leaving home around noon the first leg is a puddle-jumper to an international airport. A wait of several hours and then, usually around six or seven in the evening, the big flight is ready to go. Nine hours later, around 3:00AM at home, we are expelled into the Dutch morning. It is about 9:00AM - the start of a new day. Of course, in theory, we should sleep like babes on the airplane and arrive refreshed. In practice, that just doesn't happen whether flying steerage or business class - we've tried them all. So this year, we tried something different - boating...

End of the line... - September 26, 2010

2011-10-02T09:39:00.000-04:00

We were now at the end of our six week jaunt around southern England and our last campsite was in Horam, East sussex. Our London based daughter and her husband visited with us while we were in the area and, among other things, we all enjoyed dinner at the Star Inn in Waldron on our last evening.

Although Horam is in an official AONB it has an air of neglect and decay, possibly as a long term effect of not enjoying convenient rail service to London. With around 2,500 inhabitants, its most vigorous institution appears to be the pub and even that looks to hanging by a thread. The local railway connection was closed some time ago and is now the Cuckoo Trail footpath through the village. Stripping out a rail connection may have been a boon for the quiet life half a century ago but rural bedroom communities, clustered around remaining rail lines that have since been electrified, have emerged as major growth drivers. Commercial centers, containing big box retail outlets are drawn to such burgeoning communities, in turn spurring their growth and further impoverishing backwater towns like Horam. See here for more pictures.

Brighton and Rottingdean, East Sussex, England - September 19, 2010

2011-10-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

Brighton (and Hove)

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove on the south coast of Great Britain. Although Brighthelmstone was recorded in the Domesday Book by 1086, Brighton really came into its own as a sea-bathing health resort during the 18th century and became a destination for day-trippers from London after the railway arrived in 1841. By 1961, the population had soared in excess of 160,000.
In 1514 Brighthelmstone was torched by French raiders leaving only part of St Nicholas Church standing along with the street layout of the area now known as "The Lanes". By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces had started and the fishing village became the fashionable resort of Brighton.
Growth was further spurred by the Prince Regent - later to become King George IV - who constructed the Royal Pavilion during the early part of his Regency. The population grew from 7,000 in 1801 to around 120,000 by 1901 and the Victorian era witnessed many attractions such as the Grand Hotel in 1864, the West Pier in 1866 and the Palace Pier in 1899. The world's oldest operating electric railway, Volk's Electric Railway created in 1883, runs along the inland edge of the beach
Brighton is among the least religious places in the UK according to the 2001 census in which 27% professed no religion, almost double the national average of 15 per cent. Brighton is also well known for having a substantial LGBT community, estimated at one in three of the population, and is often referred to as "the gay capital of Britain".
"The Lanes" form a retail, leisure and residential area near the seafront, characterized by narrow alleyways following the street pattern of the original fishing village. The Lanes contain predominantly clothing stores, jewellers, antique shops, restaurants and pubs.
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a coastal village east of Brighton and technically within the city of Brighton and Hove. The name is derived from Old English for 'valley of the people associated with Rota'. Rottingdean is in a dry, steep sided valley that runs down to the English Channel and has approximately 2,500 inhabitants. A farming community for most of its history, in the late 18th century it began to attract leisured visitors wanting a more civilized alternative to Brighton. Some well known individuals made it their home, including Rudyard Kipling. Most histories of Rottingdean mention that its inhabitants were involved in smuggling, especially in the 18th century when the tax structure made it highly profitable.
More pictures of these locations are here.

Bournemouth and Poole - September 18, 2010

2011-09-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

While in Wimbourne, we discovered that we could buy a day pass on the buses and travel anywhere we pleased. So, bright and early next morning, we cycled into town and boarded a nice shiny bus and took a trip to the seaside!
Bournemouth
Today, Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the county of Dorset with a population of about 160,000 and, in a 2007 survey, it was ranked the happiest place in Britain, with 82% of respondants reporting that they were happy with their lives.
Until 1812, what is now Bournemouth was remote, barren heathland at the mouth of the Bourne River with zero inhabitants. The first residents were a retired army officer, Lewis Tregonwell and his wife, who moved into their new home built on land he had purchased. He began populating the rest of his land with small villas for holiday rentals. Tregonwell planted hundreds of Pine trees to provide a sheltered walk to the beach which later became Invalids Walk. When he died twenty years later, Bournemouth was established as a small community.
The Town Hall was built in the Victorian period as a hotel for visitors to the town after the city's growth accelerated following the arrival of the railway and Bournemouth became a recognized town in 1870. Originally part of Hampshire county, Bournemouth was "moved" to Dorset in 1974. Like the rest of Dorset, more than 90% of Bournemouth's workforce is employed in the service sector. Tourism is a crucial industry generating more almost 3/4 billion dollars each year.
Poole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England about four miles west of Bournemouth. It is home to almost 140,000 people.
People have been living around here since before the Iron Age and the earliest record of the town’s name is from the 12th century as the port grew around the wool trade. In later centuries Poole forged trade links with North America and, at its peak in the 18th century, was one of the busiest ports in Britain.
During World War II, Poole was the third largest embarkation point for D-Day landings in France and afterwards served as a base for supplies to the allied forces. Eighty-one landing craft containing American troops from the 29th Infantry Division and the U.S. Army Rangers departed Poole Harbour for Omaha Beach.

During the 1970s, Poole’s permissive regional planning policies attracted service businesses from London and the area economy moved from manufacturing to the service sector with tourism high on the list.
Poole Quay at the south of town centre is lined with a mixture of traditional public houses, redeveloped warehouses, modern apartment blocks and historic listed buildings. Once the busy centre of Poole's maritime industry it is now predominently a tourist attraction. The Grade II* listed Customs House, built in 1814, now functions as a restaurant and bar.
Poole's sandy beaches extending 3 miles along Poole Bay are another tourist draw, replete as they are with seaside cafés, restaurants, beach huts and water-sports facilities.
Poole harbor is is the largest natural harbour in Europe and, in conjunction with Poole Bay, is a magnet for sailing, windsurfing, surfing, kitesurfing and water skiing.
Poole is a cross-Channel port for passengers and freight with up to seven sailings a day in the summer season. Lots more pictures here.

Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England - September 17, 2010

2011-09-29T17:25:00.000-04:00

Wimborne Minster is both the name of the town and the name of the main church. The town is known locally as Wimbourne while the church is known as the Minster. Wimborne, the town, is a market town of some 6,500 people in the county of Dorset, although sadly, the market has been moved out of the downtown area which has somewhat destroyed its character.

However, Wimborne is endowed with one of the finest collections of 15th, 16th and 17th century buildings in the county, especially the centuries-old Wimborne Minster, the Town Hall and numerous original shops and pubs.

The Minster is a Saxon Church famed for its unique chained library and the tomb of King Ethelred, the brother of Alfred the Great. It is the parish church of Wimborne and has existed for over 1300 years. The central tower and nave were founded in Saxon times, but the surviving building is predominantly Norman with some Gothic components from various periods. One of its more famous architectural features is a working astronomical clock, which rings every hour.

The minster is constructed in a combination of Dorset limestone and New Forest stone. The western tower is 95 feet high and a second tower, above the transepts, is 84 feet high. The thirteenth-century spire that formerly crowned the shorter tower collapsed in 1600. The organ dates from 1899 by J W Walker & Sons, and has had various rebuilds, two as recently as 2000 and 2006.

Between the years 705-23 a double monastery was founded at Wimborne by Sts. Cuthburga and Quimburga, sisters of Ine, King of the West Saxons (688-726). The monastery was probably destroyed by raiding Danes in the ninth century and over the years, every trace of the Saxon buildings has vanished such that even the location of St. Cuthburga's Church is now uncertain. More pictures here.

Charmouth, Dorset, England - September 16, 2010

2011-09-28T13:49:00.000-04:00

Home to about 1,700 souls, Charmouth, at the mouth of the River Char is in the county of Dorset. It faces onto Lyme Bay, part of the English Channel and dates back to the Iron Age and a Celtic tribe named the Durotriges. The name Charmouth probably originated in Saxon times from 'Cerne' meaning stony river.

The cliffs above the beach are a noted source of Jurassic fossils making the area part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site, a 95 mile stretch of the south coast extending from Purbeck island in the east to the Exeter region in the west.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Charmouth was a noted resort numbering among its visitors the novelist Jane Austen. The buildings running along Charmouth's street vary in age, some of the smaller cottages are 17th and 18th century while further up the hill the Regency era predominates.

Although the Queens Armes Hotel, a grade II listed building, looks like a Georgian house it is actually an early 16th century house that was re-faced in the 18th century. It once belonged to Forde Abbey and Catherine of Aragon is believed to have lived there for a while. In the 17th century, after the house became an inn, it gave shelter to the fugitive King Charles II in September 1651, when, in disguise, he came looking for a boat to take him to France following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester.

Almost exclusively a residential community the only sign of commercial activity was a fossil shop on the beach which also sold some snack goods. More snapshots here.

Sidmouth, England - September 15, 2010

2011-09-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

As its name suggests, Sidmouth lies at the mouth of the River Sid. Situated in a valley between Peak Hill to the west and Salcombe Hill to the east the town faces south into the English Channel. It is in the county of Devon with a population of roughly 15,000 - more than 40% of whom are over the age of 65. In addition to being a retirement destination the economy is heavily dependent on tourism.
Sidmouth's rocks contain fossils and so this stretch of coast is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Sidmouth appears in the Domesday Book as Sedemuda and, like many towns on the south coast of England, it started life as a small fishing village. However, every attempt over the centuries to construct a harbor failed, preventing growth either from fishing or cargo operations.
At the end of the 18th century, the fashion for coastal vacations began to take hold and throughout the Georgian and Victorian eras numerous fine vacation villas were built in the area. Today, many of these have been converted into guest houses effectively squeezing out the small fishing industry altogether.
In 1819, George III's son Edward, Duke of Kent, his wife and baby daughter - the future Queen Victoria - came to stay at Woolbrook Glen which in later years morphed into the Royal Glen Hotel that is still in operation.
A wide esplanade has been a seafront fixture since Regency times although it was nearly lost in the early 1990s via a series of storms. Some additional breakwaters were built and new beach had to be trucked in by road.
For more pictures, click here,

Dartmouth, Devonshire, England - September 12, 2010

2011-09-25T10:52:00.000-04:00

Dartmouth is a little way up the estuary of, wait for it, the River Dart. It is a tourist destination and has a population of about 5,500. Historically, Dartmouth was an important deep-water port used as the sailing point for the Crusades of 1147 and 1190, and the home of the Royal Navy from the reign of Edward III.
The town was sacked twice during the 100 years war with France and, after the second attack, the estuary was closed by a chain every night and the narrow mouth was protected by two fortified castles, Dartmouth Castle and Kingswear Castle. Dartmouth also had the dubious distinction in medieval times of being a major base for "privateering", AKA state sanctioned and licensed piracy.
The town contains many medieval and Elizabethan streetscapes and is patchwork of narrow lanes and stone stairways. A number of the historic buildings are listed one of which is the Butterwalk, built 1635 to 1640. The Royal Castle Hotel was built in 1639 on the then new quay while a claimant for the oldest building is a former merchant's house in Higher Street, now a listed public house called the Cherub, built circa 1380.
Dartmouth sent numerous ships to join the English fleet that attacked the Spanish Armada in the 17th century and the Spanish Armada's "payship", commanded by Admiral Pedro de Valdés, was captured along with all its crew by Sir Francis Drake. Local folk lore tells how the ship was reportedly anchored in the river Dart for more than a year while the crew were used as laborers on the nearby Greenway Estate. Centuries later, Greenway was to become the home of Dame Agatha Christie.
In the latter part of World War II the town was a base for American forces and one of the departure points for Utah Beach in the D Day landings. Much of the surrounding countryside was closed to the public while it was used by US troops for training.

More pictures of this backwater treasure are here.

Plymouth, England - September 11, 2010

2011-09-24T18:44:00.000-04:00

Plymouth, probably best known as the departure point for the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, is a city on the coast of the county of Devon, about 190 miles south-west of London. It is located between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they flow into Plymouth Sound.
Plymouth's history goes back to the Bronze Age and it became a trading post for the Roman Empire a couple of thousand years ago. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Sudtone, Saxon for south farm, and in 1254 it was awarded the status of a town. It wasn't until October 1928 it was granted status as a city.
During the 16th century locally produced wool was the major export commodity and Plymouth became the home port for successful maritime traders, including Sir Francis Drake as well as Sir John Hawkins, who led England's first foray into the Atlantic slave trade.
Construction of the Royal Citadel began in 1665, after the Restoration; it was armed with cannon facing both out to sea and into the town. Throughout the Industrial Revolution Plymouth grew as a major shipping port, handling imports and passengers from the Americas.
During World War I, Plymouth was the port of entry for troops from around the Empire and also grew as a manufacturer of munitions. It was also an important embarkation point for US troops for D-Day in WWII. The city was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, in a series of 59 raids known as the Plymouth Blitz.
Today the city is home to around 250,000 people, making it the 16th most populous city in England. Plymouth has ferry links to France and Spain and an airport with European services. Check out more pictures here.

Polperro, Cornwall, England - September 10, 2010

2011-09-21T11:52:00.000-04:00

Our last port of call (literaly) in the county of Cornwall was Polperro, an acient village and fishing port on the south-east coast of the county. The fishing harbour surrounded by old, tightly packed fishermen's houses makes it magnet for tourists. In fact, tourism grew to become Polperro's main industry during the 20th century with estimates of as many as 25,000 visitors per day during the summers of the 1970s.
Fishing was traditionally the principal occupation of Polperro families and for centuries the village had been a pilchard fishing and processing port. Once ashore, the fish were salted, pressed and canned with the by-product oil being collected and used for heating and lighting.
Smuggling also developed as a prosperous activity after Polperro established itself as a port in the 12th century and reached a peak in the late 18th century when Britain's wars with America and France resulted in high taxation on imported goods. This made it particularly lucrative for the local fishermen to boost their income by the illicit importation of spirits, tobacco and other goods from Guernsey in the Channel Ilses. A more organised Coast Guard service was introduced in the 19th century and this, along with stiff penalties, gradually deterred the smugglers.
For more views of this picturesque village, click here.

Mevagissey, Cornwall England - September 9, 2010

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

Mevagissey is cradled in a small valley and faces Mevagissey Bay to its east. There are more than 60 registered fishing vessels in the harbor which also offers tourist fishing trips and a passenger ferry to Fowey in the tourist season. Tourism has long since overtaken fishing as the primary economy driver.
Known as Porthhilly as far back as 1313, Mevagissey was the outcome of a merge with the hamlet of Lamoreck in the 17th century. The new name was was formed from two Irish saints, St Meva and St Issey with the "g" borrowed from hag, the Cornish word for "and".
At that time, pilchard fishing and smuggling were the primary sources of income for the locals and supported at least 10 pubs, just two of which remain. The inner harbor was built in the late 18th century with the outer harbor following about 100 years later. Amazingly, in 1895, Mevagissey built a pilchard-oil powered power station to run the lighthouse and local street lighting.

Translucent Pears' Soap

Pears' Soap is well known in England as an expensive and refined product. Andrew Pears was born in Mevagissey in 1768 and trained as a barber before moving to London in 1789. There he opened a barber's shop in the fashionable area of Gerrard Street, Soho and quickly noticed that the London upper classes cultivated a delicate white complexion as opposed to a tanned face associated with the working class. Pears recognized an opportunity for a gentle soap for these delicate complexions and found a way of removing the impurities and refining the base soap before adding the delicate perfume of garden flowers. The resulting product was a high quality soap which had a bonus distinction of being transparent. In 1835 Andrew partnered with his grandson Francis and moved to new premises near Oxford Street. Pears' Soap is now made in India by Hindustan-Lever, part Unilever empire begun by the Lever brother.
More pictures of this picturesque village are here.

Pentewan, Cornwall, England - September 8, 2010

2011-09-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

The next stop on our eastward trek was a large campground near the almost forgotten village of Pentewan on the south coast of Cornwall. Thankfully, the weather had improved significantly, the rain had cleared up and the temperatures were back up in the sixties.
Pentewan is a small coastal village in south Cornwall, a one time port used by fishing boats and for shipping local products including tin, stone and china clay. The harbor is long since silted up and is now a hundred yards or so away from the edge of the English Channel. The village and its harbour date back to medieval times.
Since 1945, Pentewan has been dominated by the large 'Pentewan Sands' caravan and camping site that covers much of the beach to the west. The village itself contains the Ship Inn, a post office, and several shops. Pentewan Board School, designed and built in 1877/78 by Silvanus Trevail, is now a restaurant. Many of the older buildings, as well as the harbour, are constructed out of Pentewan stone. A second former village pub was named The Hawkins Arms, but has now been converted to a guest house called 'Piskey Cove'. Tourism is the only substantial industry remaining in the village.
Pentewan was originally known as 'Lower Pentewan', 'Higher Pentewan' being a separate and earlier settlement to the south-west of the village. In 1086, Higher Pentewan was listed in the Domesday Book as the Manor of 'Bentewoin', one of many Cornish manors held by Robert, Comte de Mortain.
During WWII a "pill box" gun emplacement was erected in the harbour and the beach was mined as part of the "Dragon's Teeth" anti-tank defences. An air raid on the port in August 1942 destroyed the Methodist chapel and damaged several houses.
More pictures of this fragment of history are here.

Falmouth, Cornwall, England - September 6, 2010

2011-09-18T12:59:00.001-04:00

Having traveled the twenty miles from Penzance to Falmouth the weather remained foul. A quick visit to a scenic headland quickly convinced us to just go to our campsite and sulk - certainly a better option than the bonechilling rain that continued to fall.
The following day the rain had largely passed and although we reprised the headland tour we still balked at a walkabout due to the continuing wind and cold.
With a population of around 21,000, Falmouth sits at the mouth of the river Fal - hence its name. Simple isn't it? Many places around the English coast are named by this same logic wherever they are located at the mouth of a river. In this instance however, no one seems to know how the river got its name.
Falmouth is famous for its harbor - the deepest in western Europe and the third deepest in the world - as well as its frequent choice as the start or finish point for various record-breaking voyages. The headland at the east end of town was known as Peny-cwm-cuic in Gaelic but later evolved to 'Pennycomequick' and became the site where Henry VIII built Pendennis Castle in 1540.

The Falmouth Packet Service operated from here for over 160 years between 1689 and 1851 carrying mail to and from Britain's growing empire. News of Britain's victory and Admiral Nelson's death at Trafalgar was landed here and taken to London by stagecoach.
The Cornwall Railway reached Falmouth in 1863 bringing prosperity to town, making it easy for tourists to reach the town and permitting the swift transport of the goods from the ships in the port. Many of the Georgian town houses have been converted into guest houses and small hotels and Falmouth has proven such a popular holiday destination that it is has morphed into a tourist resort.
During World War II, German bombing raids killed 31 local inhabitants and an anti-submarine net was laid from Pendennis to St Mawes, preventing enemy U-boats from entering the harbor. Maritime activity has declined significantly from its heyday but Falmouth remains the largest port in Cornwall, handling cargo and bunkering vessels.
For more views, click here.

Penzance (without the Pirates) - September 5, 2010

2011-09-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

Penzance, or "holy headland" in the Cornish language, is a reference to the location of the chapel of St. Anthony that stood over a thousand years ago on the headland to the west of what became Penzance Harbour. The town is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and was granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and finally incorporated in 1614. With a population of 21,000 the town's location gives it a temperate climate, warmer than most of the rest of Britain except, of course, when we were in town. We spent the night parked behind the seawall huddled against howling winds and heavy rain at unseasonably low temperatures.
Being at the far west of Cornwall, Penzance and the surrounding villages were sacked many times by foreign fleets. In July 1595, seven years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a Spanish force under Don Carlos de Amesquita landed troops in Cornwall. The force seized supplies, raided and burned Penzance, looted surrounding villages, held a mass and sailed way, all before the cavalry arrived.
Sadly, before buildings were listed and preserved for historical importance, Penzance tore down much of its old town and replaced it with second-rate commercial structures, the net effect of which has greatly diminished the quality of the area.
Penzance was the birthplace of Sir Humphry Davy, President of the Royal Society who invented the process of electrolysis, isolated sodium, discovered laughing gas and proved, in conjuction with Michael Faraday, that diamonds are made of pure carbon. Today he is possibly best known as the inventor of the Miner's Safety Lamp, known as the Davy Lamp. Davy had discovered that a flame enclosed inside a fine mesh cannot ignite firedamp (methane). The screen acts as a flame arrestor though which air, and any methane present, can pass freely enough to support combustion, but the holes are too fine to allow a flame to propagate through them and ignite any methane outside.
A few more pictures are here.

The end of England: Land's End - September 4, 2010

2011-09-14T19:01:00.000-04:00

At the extreme south-westerly point of the British mainland, which is also the extreme westerly point of the mainland of England, lies Land's End, longitude 5 degrees 43 minutes. A small settlement on a headland of the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, Land's End has a romance and resonance far beyond its humble reality. Frequently cited to invoke the idea of great distance - Land's End to John o' Groats for example expresses the outer limits of Great Britain being the longest distance between two inhabited locations. John 'o Groats by the way, is a 300 population village in northern Scotland and is 838 miles by road from Land's End. Inevitably, such a distinction leads to Land's End being the start or finish point of sundry races, walks and charitable events.
Land's End was purchased in 1987 by Peter de Savary who began the serious commercialization of the renowned landmark with several new buildings and a nascent theme park. In 1991, de Savary sold both Land's End and John o' Groats which he also owned, to Graham Ferguson Lacey who, in turn sold it to the present owner, Heritage Attractions Limited, five years later. Philistine I may be, but the commercialization does not appear to have done much harm and may even encourage visitors to discover the area.
Land's End is one of four small communities comprising the local civil parish, the others being Trevescan, Carn Towan and Sennen Cove. Sennan is the largest of the four and was on our agenda for the day. The population of Sennen is about 800 and it lies 315 miles west-southwest of London. The parish church is dedicated to St Sinninus and has been there, in one incarnation or another, since the 15th century. There is a headless alabaster figure representing the Virgin Mary in the transept and a three-stage battlemented tower housing three bells.
More views of the area on a cold and blustery day are here.

Boscastle, England - September 3, 2010

2011-09-02T14:12:00.000-04:00

At the only natural harbor in a twenty mile stretch of the north coast of Cornwall county (the Cornish coast), two little rivers, the Valency and the Jordan, run into the Atlantic ocean. In the 12th century, Bottreaux Castle, a motte-and-bailey structure, was built at the top of the steep-sided valley and eventually gave rise to the name Boscastle.
The harbor is itself is protected by two stone walls which were built in 1584. Boscastle was, for a while, a small port importing limestone and coal and exporting slate and other local produce in addition to being a fishing village. Today, the village is a popular tourist destination with a pottery shop, the usual range of "T" shirt and souvenir emporia and, of course, those crusty little critters known as Cornish Pasties were on sale everywhere.

In August of 2004 a flash flood extensively damaged the village, trapping residents in houses or on their roofs and washing the entire visitor centre out to sea. The largest peacetime rescue mission ever mounted in the UK, using seven helicopters, rescued a total of 91 people with zero fatalities. About 50 cars along with the main bridge were washed into the harbor and, to make matters worse, the sewer system burst adding to the 9 feet of water swamping the streets.
Good choice for a couple of hours walkabout, check here for more views.

Glastonbury, England - September 1, 2010

2011-09-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

There are a few places in this world that act as magnets for spacy people. Mount Shasta, the town, on the side of Mount Shasta the mountain in Northern California, is one such. Swarming with unkempt aging hippies in tawdry knee length sweaters writing unintelligible verse and all the while mesmerized by the mountain's imagined magic powers. Glastonbury, we discovered, is another such place.
A small town in the county of Somerset with a population of around 9,000 it is centered around a defunct abbey that has been there since Saxon times. The abbey came to a violent end during the Dissolution and the buildings were "quarried" for use in local building work. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist on High Street dates from the 15th century.

Just southeast of town is Glastonbury Tor, a 500' hill in the midst of drained fen land. An artesan spring,emitting iron rich water for eons appears to have hardened the sansdtone in its vicinity as the iron permeated the stone and oxidized. Over the millenia, the surrounding area weathered away leaving this singular hill jutting from the plain below.

The Glastonbury whackos - the New Age Community in politically correct England - ascribe all kinds of mysterious myths and legends to Glastonbury Tor. These involve Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and of course good old King Arthur and the Lady in the Lake. In some Arthurian literature Glastonbury is actually identified as the legendary island of Avalon. During the 19th and 20th centuries tourism developed based on the rise of antiquarianism, the association with the abbey and the promoted mysticism of the town. As with many towns of similar size, the town center has seen better days and now supports a large number of alternative shops catering to the eccentric.

Glastonbury is currently famed for its eponymous Music Festivals which originally ran from 1914 to 1926. There is little link, beyond the name, between the those early festivals and the modern Glastonbury Festival, founded in 1970, which is now the largest open-air music and performing arts festival in the world. Although named for Glastonbury it is actually held at Worthy Farm 6 miles east of town.
Get to know Glastonbury here.

Cheddar Gorge, England - September 1, 2010

2011-08-31T14:34:00.000-04:00

Perhaps the most well known cheese in the entire world is that English cheese named after the small Somerset village of Cheddar. The name also refers to a part of the production process known as cheddaring. Henry II's Royal Accounts record the purchase of 10,000 pounds of Cheddar in 1170. In reality, cheese was a way of using up excess milk and one great advantage of hard cheeses over soft, is that they keep better.
For centuries however, cheese remained something of a luxury item for most people until Joseph Harding invented the cheese mill in the 19th century and industrialized the overall process. Harding was a vigorous promoter of Cheddar and helped to introduce Cheddar-making into Scotland as well as training American cheesemakers.
The Village of Cheddar has a long and ancient history, having been an important Roman and later Saxon center. Popular tourism began with the opening of Cheddar Valley Railway in 1869/1870 which became known as the Strawberry Line, because it passed by many strawberry-growing fields on the Cheddar side of the valley. The railroad line was closed in 1965.
Cheddar Gorge is a limestone canyon to the east of the village and is the site of the Cheddar show caves where, in 1903, Britain's oldest complete human skeleton was found. The caves, produced by underground river activity, contain stalactites and stalagmites. The gorge has become a tourist destination attracting about 1/2 million visitors each year. The maximum depth of the gorge is about 450' with a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. Formed by meltwater floods within the last 1.2 million years, the gorge remains susceptible to occasional flooding and in 1968 water flow washed large boulders down the gorge damaging the Cheddar Cafe and washing away some cars.

More pictures here.

The Mendip Hills, England - August 30, 2010

2011-08-30T13:10:00.000-04:00

Priddy, a village with a population of less than 1,000, is in the county of Somerset and is situated in a small hollow close to the high point of the Mendip hills at nearly 1,000 feet above sea-level. The Mendip Hills are classified as one of 35 AONBs - area of outstanding natural beauty - in England. Each year since 1348 the annual Folk Festival and Sheep Fair has been held on the village green and from the 1920s, the Mendip Farmers' Hunt fox hounds have been based there. It does sound exciting, doesn't it?
Lead mining developed in the area between 300 to 200 BCE and the relatively easy opencast extraction became an attraction for the Romans, evidenced by lead ingots found in the neighbourhood that have been dated to 49 CE. Remnants of St Cuthbert's Leadworks, which closed in 1908, are still visible.
The village church, St Lawrence, dates from the 13th century and underwent some rebuilding in the 15th century with a major restoration in the 1880s. In 1997 the three original bells were augmented to five.
In the surrounding area are the Priddy Circles, a Neolithic stone circle from around 2180 BCE making it a contemporary of Stonehenge. A further characteristic of the area are the dry stone walls bounding the fields constructed from local limestone and containing no mortar.
Other historic features in the vicinity include evidence of more than 250 round barrows, or burial mounds. Much less ancient are vestiges of a WWII bombing decoy constructed on top of Black Down at Beacon Batch intended to confuse bombers targeting the city of Bristol, and piles of stones (known as cairns) that were built around the same time to discourage enemy aircraft using the hilltop as a landing site. Less romantic than one might otherwise have surmised.
More views of the area here.

Bradford-on-Avon, England - August 29, 2010

2011-08-29T13:06:00.117-04:00

Devizes is 2 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian line in London. Our next stop, a quarter of a degree further west and still just in the county of Wiltshire, was Bradford-on-Avon. This is a busy market town of about 9,000 on the edge of the Cotswolds facing the River Avon. Near the center of town, the bridge crossing the river retains two of its original 13th century arches and also has a 17th century overnight "lock up" for local miscreants. The Kennet and Avon Canal also passes through the town running adjacent to the railway that provides access to other Wiltshire towns. The oldest church in the town dates back to Saxon times, circa 705 CE.
The earliest evidence of habitation in Bradford consists of fragments of Roman settlements above the town and an archaeological dig has uncovered the remains of a large Roman villa with a well-preserved mosaic. The center of the town grew up around the ford crossing the river Avon and the name of the town most probably derived from Broad-Ford. The Normans built a stone bridge to augment the ford and part of that original bridge still exists and is in daily use.

The town has numerous 17th century buildings stemming from its success in the textile industry during which period the river was harnessed to provide power for the wool mills. As the textile industry mechanized during the Industrial Revolution, wool weaving migrated from weaver's cottages to purpose built mills by the river. At the peak, there were as many as 30 such mills along the river bringing great prosperity to the town. Toward the end of the 19th century the wool industry shifted to Yorkshire and in 1905 the last mill in Bradford was closed.
More views around this picturesque town are here.

Seend, England - August 28, 2010

2011-08-28T14:11:00.017-04:00

Our next stop was another Camping Club site in Seend, Wiltshire, lying alongside the Kennet and Avon canal and just a few miles west of the market town of Devizes. The Kennet and Avon Canal was built under the direction of John Rennie between 1794 and 1810 to link Devizes with Bristol to the west and London to the east.On the last Saturday of August we decided to cycle along the towpath to Devizes.
Along the canal, between village of Rowde and the town of Devizes, lie the Caen Hill Locks, a flight of 29 locks that rise 237 feet in 2 miles - a 1 in 44 gradient. The locks are in three groups with the lower seven locks, Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock, spread over 3/4 mile - roughly 600 feet separation on average. The next sixteen locks form a continuous flight in a straight line up an inconceivably steep hillside. Because of this steepness, the pounds between these 16 locks are extremely short necessitating that all 15 of them are equipped with unusually large sideways-extended pounds to store the water needed to operate them. The final six locks take the canal into Devizes and are of more normal separation .
The astonishing flight of 16 locks was engineer John Rennie's solution to climbing the very steep hill and completing the 87 mile route to Devizes. While these locks were under construction a tramroad provided a link between the canal at Foxhangers to Devizes, traces of which are still visible in the towpath arches of the road bridges over the canal.
The locks take 5–6 hours to traverse in a boat and use such a large volume of water that a back pump was installed at Foxhangers in 1996 capable of returning 8 million gallons of water per day to the top of the flight - roughly one lockful every eleven minutes.
With the advent of the railways, the canal slowly fell into disuse with the last cargo barge making the journey from Avonmouth to Newbury in 1948. For a dozen years or more the canal was neglected until a cleaning and rebuilding operation got underway in the 1960s. Gradually the canal became navigable again and joined the many others around the country providing leisure to numerous boaters and holidaymakers. Queen Elizabeth II actually opened the new locks officially in 1990 some years after they had been restored to service. Better late than never!
For pictures of the amazing flight of locks, click here.

Marian's Birthday Party

2011-08-27T17:33:00.000-04:00

This year we were actually in Fort Wayne for Marian's birthday so Martine volunteered to host a party and feed everyone with her usual gusto. Thus it was that a whole bunch of the clan congregated on Duvall Road on the 27th to witness the aging one.
Pizza, Fruit Salad, Birthday Cake and Ice Cream were all on the main course and everyone looked as if they got their fill. The usual family etiquette was clearly in evidence wherein everything presented is wolfed down in no time at all in case it should get bootlegged by a cousin or an aunt or something. Couth never was a problem in our family!
See here for more thrilling pictures.

Oxford, England - August 22, 2010

2011-08-26T09:10:00.001-04:00

Oxford, first settled in Saxon times, was initially known as Oxenaforda - Ford of the Ox - an actual oxen crossing in early 10th century which developed into a military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. The earliest colleges were University College in 1249, Balliol in 1263 and Merton in 1264, all established at a time when Europeans were starting to translate the writings of Greek philosophers. Today there are 39 colleges in town but no central campus.
The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through the town, meeting south of the city center. Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire with a current population of about 160,000. Curiously, for a few miles in the vicinity of Oxford, the river Thames is known as the Isis. Oxford buildings represent every English architectural period since the Saxons. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
Oxford was heavily damaged during the Norman Invasion of 1066 following which the new governor, Robert D'Oyly, built Oxford Castle to assure Norman authority over the area. Although never used for military purposes its remains survive to this day.
In 1642, When Charles I was expelled from London during the English Civil War, Oxford hosted his court. It also played host to the court of Charles II during the Great Plague of London in 1665–66. In the 1790s, the Oxford Canal connected the city with Coventry and two other canals connect this to the Thames.

The first quarter of the 20th century saw rapid commercial and industrial growth along with a population explosion. Printing and publishing was firmly established and, in the 1920's, William Morris organized the Morris Motor Company to mass produce cars in Cowley, in the south-east of the city, eventually employing over 20,000 people.
Cowley suffered major job losses in the 1980's and 1990's as British Leyland failed and it is now manufacturing the successful New MINI for BMW on a smaller site. Much of the old plant has been redeveloped as the Oxford Business Park.
In May 1954, Roger Bannister, a previous student at Oxford, ran the first authenticated four-minute mile at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford at age 25.
In July 2010, hybrid buses using battery power supplemented by a diesel generator, started service in Oxford.
More pictures available here.

Dover and beyond, England - August 20, 2010

2011-08-25T21:03:00.000-04:00

The Duty Free Candy Store
called loudly to Marian

The ferry takes a couple of hours to get from Calais to Dover and, once we disembarked we drove clear around the south-side of London to our first overnight stop.
Dover, a major ferry port in the county of Kent in South East England, faces France across the 21 miles of water at the narrowest part of the English Channel. Rising from the sea to the east and west of town are sheer chalk cliffs known popularly as the White cliffs of Dover. Services related to the Port provide much of the town’s employment, augmented also by tourism. Dover’s name originated with the River Dour which flows through the town while the white cliffs gave Britain its ancient name of Albion - "white".

If it's not one thing it's another -
this is a tube of English M&Ms

In the Domesday Book Dover was noted as an important borough and of course over the centuries it served as a natural defense against would-be invaders including the French during the Napoleonic Wars and the Germans during WWII.
In 1800 it was reported that the town's population was almost 10,000 while the current population is closer to 25,000. In the meantime however, since eastward and westward growth is prevented by the cliffs, the town has grown back up the river valley absorbing numerous small communities along the way and growing its total urban head count close to 40,000 people.

Finally though, all was well when
the White Cliffs appeared

The English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and ferries crossing between Dover and the Continent have to negotiate their way through the constant stream of shipping crossing their path. The Port of Dover is also used by cruise ship passengers, and the old Dover Marine railway station building among others, cater for those passengers.

Itchy Feet... - August 15, 2010

2011-08-24T17:35:00.002-04:00

Reading notices at the airport

After we got home from Europe at the beginning of July last year we spent a few weeks catching up with the family, fixing items that had failed during our absence and generally relaxing. Not for long. By the end of July we were ready to be on the move again and agreed that another jaunt to England would enable us to cover some other territory that we skipped when we lived there.

Penny re-victualed and ready to go

After a few phone calls and emails we were booked on a flight to Amsterdam, a ferry to England and the reciprocal arrangements for getting back home again. Mid-August was the launch date and end of September was picked as the return since the weather in England can get pretty ratty after that and we'd had enough of that in Europe.

In line for the Dover ferry

We decided to fly Business Class to try to reduce the the horrors of the flying tube but, in retrospect, it was poor value for money.

Off to the airport, boring journey to Holland, zombie visit to storage facility to collect Penny Pilote, weary shop at the grocery store and then a good nights sleep. Next day, bright and early, off to Calais to catch the ferry to Dover and the adventure was underway.

Bruges, Belgium - June 25, 2010

2011-08-23T15:32:00.003-04:00

Bruges is one of a number of northern European cities that chooses to promote itself as the "Venice of the North" - quite a stretch, even if one hasn't been to Venice. It is however the capital and the largest city in the province of West Flanders which is in the Flemish Region of Belgium. With a population approaching 120,000, 20,000 of whom live in the old town, it has regained some of its earlier economic importance thanks to the development of the Zeebrugge port and a burgeoning tourist trade.
Bruges' first millenium CE began with Julius Ceasar fortifying the coastal area against pirates in the 1st century, after he successfully beat off the Manapii. In the 4th century, with the Roman Empire in collapse, the Franks moved in and took charge. Pestered by Viking raids during the 9th century, Baldwin the First, Count of Flanders, reinforced the Roman fortifications and steadily built trade with England, Scandinavia and other nations. During this era, Bruges evolved into one of the largest commercial centers in the world and was granted its city charter in 1128.

Beginning around 1050, silting of the port basin gradually reduced the utility of the port and began strangling the city's prospects. A fortuitous storm in 1134 cut a new channel to the sea at which time the port was effectively relocated west to Damme, which quickly became the commercial outpost for Bruges.
Thus began 300 years of glory days for Bruges. It operated almost like an exchange, or distribution center, for the wool industry as well as for the grain and wine trades. Ships appeared from as far away as Genoa in Italy making Bruges a vital link to the Mediterranean. Money poured in from all quarters and this huge wealth encouraged a surge of chauvinism in which the local population, with the aid of their militia, succeeded in kicking the French out in 1302.
In the 15th century the population of the city grew to 200,000 and Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, set up court, attracting a number of artists, bankers, and other prominent personalities from all over Europe. The oil painting techniques of the new Flemish school gained wide exposure and both Edward IV and Richard III of England chose the city to wait out their exiles.
The 16th century was not so kind. Starting around 1500, the channel to Damme, the conduit for the city's prosperity, started silting and the city quickly fell behind Antwerp as the economic flagship of the Low Countries. Despite a variety of efforts to regain its former glory Bruges slowly atrophied with its population declining 75% to 50,000 by the end of the 19th century.
In 1907 the new port of Zeebugge was built which unintentionally became a German U-Boat base in WWI. It wasn't until the 1970s, when a massive expansion of Zeebrugge was undertaken, that Bruges rose again to become one of northern Europe's important ports. International tourism has also been nurtured resulting in the city being awarded the "European Capital of Culture" mantle in 2002.
More pictures here.

Tournai, Waloon, Belgium - June 23, 2010

2011-08-22T12:17:00.000-04:00

Tournai is a city in the Walloon (read French speaking, unkempt and not bicycle friendly) region of Belgium. It lies on the river Scheldt about 50 miles southwest of Brussels in the provice of Hainault. Known as Tornacum in Roman times, Tounai was of minor importance - a stopping place where the Roman road from Cologne to Boulogne crossed the river Scheldt.
Considered to be one of the most important cultural sites in Belgium with its mixed Romanesque- and Gothic-style cathedral, Tournai has been designated a World Heritage Site. Other sites of interest in town include the 13th-century Scheldt bridge (Pont-des-Trous) and the main square, Grand Place.
Our Lady of Flanders' Cathedral of Tournai is indeed one of the most important architectural monuments in Belgium. Begun in the 12th century on even older foundations, the building showcases work of three design periods, the heavy and severe Romanesque nave, the Transitional work of the transept and the fully developed Gothic style of the choir. The transept however, is perhaps the most distinctive feature with its cluster of five bell towers and apsidal ends.

After more than 700 years the Cathedral was damaged by a severe tornado in 1999 revealing underlying structural problems prompting ongoing repairs and investigation ever since.

As for Belgium, the country, it holds little promise for us. It is astoundingly dysfunctional, driven in part by language and ethnic barriers - the French speaking minority in the economically backward south known as Wallonia versus the Dutch speaking majority in the north who enjoy a thriving economy in the area called Flanders. So petty and infantile is this nation of mental midgets that they have been without a government for more than 16 months because they can't agree on which language to use. The previous government collapsed in April 2010, elections were held in June of 2010 and since then, inter-faction squabbling has failed to come up with a workable coalition. And this is the country from which the European Union is run. What a Joke!
However, even in inhospitable Tournai, there are some sights to see. Click here for more.

Givet, France - June 23, 2010

2011-08-21T15:06:00.001-04:00

Thinking about lunch on our way to Tournai we noted a little town with an interesting layout right on the Belgian border, thus Givet became our lunch stop. Givet is a small commune in the Ardennes department of the Champagne-Ardennes region and it languishes on the left bank of the river Meuse. Local legend has it that Saint Hubert lived there in 720 CE and performed a miracle while he was in town.
Like many other towns and cities along this border area, Givet had belonged to various countries at one time or another before it first became part of France in 1678. In WWII, it was occupied by the Germans from May 1940 until September 1944. The German Ardennes Offensive had targeted Givet and its crossing of the Meuse making it a hot-spot in the end run of the war. The British, under Montgomery, organized a last-ditch defense, and on 24 December 1944, the German drive was stopped about 6 miles from Givet. By this time, 11,000 American soldiers were billeted in the ancient Charlemont fortress barracks that had been built by Vauban 300 years earlier.
A gracefully aging town exporting pencils and tobacco pipes, there are more Givet pictures here.

Metz, France - June 22, 2010

2011-08-20T21:18:00.001-04:00

Metz lies on the east bank of the River Moselle in the extreme northeast of France and is, since the middle of the 20th century, the capital city of the much contested Lorraine region of France. In addition to lying on the river, historically Metz also stood on major overland trade routes and became sufficiently wealthy by the middle ages to declare itself an independent republic until it was absorbed into France in 1552.
Being of commercial importance and lying so close to the border with Germany, Metz has involuntarily flip flopped across that border more than once in recent history and is in reality two towns - a French flavored area around the cathedral and an overtly Germanic area known as Ville Allemande to the south.
In 1870, as the German nation was coalescing, Metz was ceded to the Germans who vigorously set about the Germanification of the city. Nearly 50 years later, at the end of WWI, the city and the surrounding countryside were returned to the French only to retaken by Hitler and the Nazis early in WWII. It remained in German hands until the liberation in 1945 and given up only after a bitter struggle. It has remained in French hands since.
Metz likes to be known as the Ville Jardin - Garden City - and not without some justification. In addition to its abundant yellow limestone architecture from the use of Jaumont stone, Metz claims to have more than 270 sq ft of open ground per inhabitant, including one of the largest commercial, pedestrian areas in France. The downtown conservation area is also one of the most ambitious in France wherein about 100 buildings have been declared Historic Monuments in an area of about 250 acres.
See additional picture by clicking here.

Saint Die, France - June 20th, 2010

2011-08-19T20:35:00.000-04:00

Saint Die Roman Catholic cathedral

Saint-Dié, full name Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, is a commune in the Vosges department of the Lorraine region in northeastern France and is nestled in the Vosges Mountains about 50 miles southeast of Nancy. There is a little town center straddling the river Meurthe connected to the south through the passes of Haut-Jacques and Bruyères and to the north by the Haut-du-Bois pass. The town was largely rebuilt after the a destructive fire in 1757 and much of the rebuild was destroyed in 1944 toward the end of WWII.

The cathedral has a Gothic nave and choir designed in the 14th century but a cloister, also begun in the 14th century, was never finished.

The cathedral is renowned throughout France

The Reform church of Saint Martin,
built in 1902

Although a new Hôtel-de-Ville was built in 1948 it appears that the focus of the town was lost after WWII - the industrial and commercial base was never rebuilt and it has become an administrative and service center for the area. Overall, quite a sorry little village.
Click on a picture to enlarge it,

Pesmes, France - June 19, 2010 (Posted August 19, 2011)

2011-08-19T17:24:00.002-04:00

On the journey from Luxeuil to our next overnight stop at Saint Die an interesting looking little village caught our eye so we veered off to investigate. Luck was with us seemingly, for we found a parking spot and took time out for a brief leg stretch while wandering around Pesmes.
Seemingly, a certain Guy Aymé Pesmes was in these parts in 1201 CE on his way from the Cistercian abbey to the Fourth Crusade. How, why or when this town of less than 1,100 souls came to be named Pesmes seems lost in the mists of time. The village has been awarded the accolade of "One of the prettiest in France" and with good reason. Check out a few more pictures here.

Luxeuil-les-Bains, France - June 19, 2010

2011-08-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

Luxovium was the name of this settlement back in Roman times and at that time the town was renowned for its baths and numerous fine buildings. In the period between then and now, the area has endured a pretty traumatic time one way and another.
It went something like this: In 451CE, Attila the Hun stopped by and destroyed the place. St Columban later founded the Abbey of Luxeuil in 590 which went on to become one of the most prestigious in the whole of Franche-Comté. However, in the 8th century, the Saracens took the time to trash the abbey on their way through and it had to be rebuilt. Thereafter it was wrecked by the Normans, rebuilt again and subsequently destroyed by the Magyars, rebuilt yet again before being devastated by the Muslims in the 9th century. After that, life settled down a little and further damage was limited to occasional looting and pillaging by transient armies. Ultimately, the abbey was suppressed at the time of the French Revolution.
Today, Luxeuil-les-Bains is a quiet commune in the Haute-Saône department of the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Check out other views here.

Dole, France - June 17, 2010

2011-08-17T20:23:00.002-04:00

Historically, Dole has been a relatively wealthy community and was in fact the capital city of its own little country, Franche-Comté, until the year1674 came around. Ultimately conquered by Louis XIV, Dole fought long and hard over the years in defense of its independence. First, the city was besieged unsuccessfully by Louis XI in 1479 and then again by Louis XIII in 1636 still without success. Finally brought to its knees by Louis XIV, Dole (and its wealth) was incorporated into the French crown by the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1674 when the region was annexed to France. Almost immediately the parliament was transferred to Besançon along with the university that had been founded by Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1422. To the Victor go the spoils, blah, blah, blah...
Today, Dole, located on the Doubs river and the Rhone-Rhine canal , half way between Dijon and Besançon (about 27 miles), is in the Jura department of the Franche-Comté region of eastern France with a population of around 24,000. Perhaps the most famous resident of Dole was Louis Pasteur the microbiologist and chemist whose name is forever associated with the pasteurization of milk and other food products.
More pictures here.

Bourge-en-Bresse, France - June 17, 2010 (Posted 8/17/2011)

2011-08-17T10:01:00.003-04:00

Although there are some Roman remains in Bourg-en-Bresse, there is not much known about its early history. What is known is that it was granted the status of a free town in 1250 and in the 15th century was appointed the chief city of the province of Bresse. It is located in eastern France about 40 miles north-east of Lyon and 60 miles west of Geneva, Switzerland. Nowadays, it is the capital of the Ain department and has a population of 40,000 or so Burgiens, as the city folk have come to be called.
The 16th century Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation de Bourg-en-Bresse shown in the slide show, sports a Renaissance façade while many of its other features are Gothic.

Among the statues in the town there is one of Edgar Quinet (1803–1875), a native of Bourg. Edgar was an historian and an intellectual who wrote pithy aphorisms such as "Time is the fairest and toughest judge." Perhaps his more visible gift to posterity is the eponymous station on the Paris Metro.
Marguerite of Bourbon, wife of Philip II of Savoy, had intended to found a monastery in Brou, a suburb of Bourg en Bresse, but died before doing so. Her daughter-in-law Marguerite of Austria, wife of Philibert le Beau of Savoy, eventually did build a church there in 1532.
Bourg-en-Bresse is not a tourist destination and the economy is largely supported by the manufacture of iron goods, mineral waters, tallow, soap and earthenware. There are also a number of flour mills and breweries.
For more scenes from around town, click here.

Die, France - June 14, 2010

2011-08-16T16:39:00.001-04:00

If, by a remote chance, you have heard of the Clairette de Die, a sparkling wine, then you are up to speed on the best known aspect of Die.
A small commune in the Drôme department of south-eastern France, Die was a former French Catholic diocese from 1678 to the French Revolution.
Through most of our visit torrential rain fell and fairly much flooded the camp site. We seized the opportunity during a break between deluges to do a walkabout and were pleased to find a cool little rural town with a variety of small shops and a sadly rundown ex-cathedral.
For more images, click here.

Entrevaux, France - June 12, 2010

2011-08-16T13:16:00.004-04:00

Cannes, on the south coast of France, is a somewhat tired and genteel glamour-has-been that looks out onto the sunny Mediterranean Sea and silently ages. Fifty to sixty miles north of Cannes, in the tiny city of Entrevaux, one could be on another planet so stark are the differences. A narrow road follows the gorge of the river Var between Annot and Puget-Théniers and along the way runs through Entrevaux with its population of less than 1000 souls.

Our campsite was a mile or two upriver from the city and a pleasant foot path led down to the Porte de France, one of the entry points into the inner city. Entrevaux, founded in the 11th century on a rocky spur at a bend in the river, fell to the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1536.
Later in the 16th century, a new cathedral was constructed, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and in 1658 the bridge, guarded by towers and a portcullis, known as Porte Royale, was constructed over the river.
The military architect Vauban was called on to further fortify the town in 1690 and, although never fully completed, the citadel perched high above the town was strengthened and a protected walkway was constructed up the side of the mountain from the town. The citadel was last used during World War I as a prison for German officers.
In spite of overcast and cool weather we had a great day exploring this unique little burg. Check out more pictures here.

Cervo, Luguria, Italy - June 7, 2010

2011-08-15T14:04:00.002-04:00

Cervo is a small, ancient town of about 1,200 inhabitants, built on top of a hill along the Italian Riviera in Liguria, Italy. In Roman times it was a mansion along the Via Julia Augusta eventually expanding in medieval times to a fief of the Clavesana marquis, a subject of the Republic of Genoa. With its 16th century towers and ramparts still protecting the village the character of Cervo has changed little since these times.
The most obvious feature of the town is the Baroque church of St. John the Baptist that overlooks the Mediterranean 200' below.
In days of yore, employment was spread over coral fishermen in the Corsican and Sardinian seas, general seafaring and olive growing.
Today the economy is almost entirely supported by tourism with many of the dwellings in town being available as vacation rentals. It likely that the romantic charm of a medieval apartment rapidly loses its luster when faced with a 200' climb for groceries, restaurants or a dip in the sea. Still, it makes for a nice postcard.
For almost 50 years, Cervo has hosted the International Chamber Music Festival established by the Hungarian violinist Sandor Vegh in 1964. Music master classes - Accademia di Cervo - are held in September, and a guitar academy is held in June. Fortunately, we missed both of these events.
For other views of the town click here.

Florence, Italy - June 6, 2010

2011-08-13T21:20:00.000-04:00

The Italian region of Tuscany is on the west side of the top of the Italian "leg". Florence is both the largest city and the capital of this region with nearly 370,000 inhabitants. The city straddles the River Arno and is recognized historically as the cradle of the Renaissance, a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time.
Florence was established by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 80 BCE as a settlement for his veteran soldiers and was named originally Fluentia, based on the fact that it was situated between two rivers. It was built in the style of an army camp and was centered around the present Piazza della Repubblica.

Located on the main route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. During WWII Florence was occupied for a year by the Germans before being liberated by the Americans and the British.
Florentines in fact, reinvented money – in the form of the gold florin – which was instrumental in pulling Europe out of the "Dark Ages" by financing the development of industry all over Europe – from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon, to Hungary. See some of the popular Florence features here.

Venice, Italy, with a fresh crew - June 6, 2010

2011-08-09T19:33:00.001-04:00

It doesn't seem that it was more than a year ago that we hovered around the Marco Polo airport in Veneto waiting to pick up one of our grandchildren and a friend. The girls had left Fort Wayne the previous day to fly to Chicago from where they traveled overnight to Munich, Germany and thence took a two hour flight south to Venice. Weary, but in good spirits, we hauled them off to the campground at Fusina - a short ferry ride from the island of Venice where they quickly - well, eventually - erected the tent that was to be their quarters for the next month. A day's R&R and then it was off to Venice.

Over the years we have made several visits to the City of Light, Venezia, capital city of the Veneto region of Italy. Perhaps it is a combination of familiarity and the slowly declining European economy that has diminished, for us, the appeal and the mystique of this unique city. Grimier, ever more expensive, increasingly regulated and seemingly exhausted, the entire island seems overdue to sink into a watery grave. Doubtless still a revelation for first time visitors the tired old city is fast revealing itself as the anachronism it is. Click here for a guided tour.

Villach, Austria - May 31, 2010

2011-08-07T13:28:00.040-04:00

Carinthia is a region in southern Austria bordering on Italy and Villach, with a population of around 60,000, is the second largest city in the region. The city is served by the Drava River making it an important transportation center for the entire Alpine-Adriatic region. It also is home to a large railroad yard.
Local human activity is documented as far back as 3500 BCE and numerous Roman artifacts have been discovered in the area. There is evidence that a bridge across the Drava had been constructed as early as 878 CE where modern day Villach stands. The settlement was given market town status in 1060 CE.

Much of Villach was destroyed in 1348 by an earthquake and a second trembler rattled the city in 1690. In 1759 Empress Maria Theresa of Austria bought much of Carinthia, including Villach, but the territory was lost to the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
Austria was annexed by the Germans in 1939 and during WWII allied forces dropped more than 40,000 bombs on the city killing 300 people and damaging 85% of the buildings. Today, Villach is a somewhat grimy working city with a few remnants of its early years although we thoroughly enjoyed the campground, an interesting bicycle ride into town alongside the river and a good walking tour of the city.
For more images, click here.

Regensburg, Germany - May 30, 2010

2011-08-06T19:54:00.003-04:00

Regensburg, in Bavaria, Germany, stands at the confluence of the rivers Danube and Regen. The Steinerne Brücke - Stone bridge - straddling the Danube was completed in 1146. The bridge was a key element in the city's golden age as it opened international trade routes between northern Europe and Venice.
In 1245 Regensburg became a Free Imperial City although in the ensuing centuries its fortunes declined until in 1486 it became part of the Duchy of Bavaria. Independence was restored by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1496.
The city has a large medieval center left fairly intact by WWII which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is a little irony concerning the survival of the medieval center for, in the years following the war, the local economy was severely depressed and the lack of funds curbed the ability to tear down the old buildings. By the time that the economy improved, a more conservative mindset prevailed and preservation had become the order of the day. This has worked out wonderfully for the tourist industry.
During WWII, Regensburg was home to a Messerschmitt BF-109 aircraft factory and an oil refinery and was actually bombed in August 1943 and again in February 1945, during the WWII Oil Campaign.
The cathedral is the finest example of German Gothic in the whole of Bavaria. It was founded in 1275 and more or less completed in 1634 with the exception of the towers which weren't finished until 1869. The Town Hall, dating in part from the 14th century, contains the rooms occupied by the Imperial Diet from 1663 to 1806.
Today, BMW operates an automobile production plant in Regensburg producing 3-Series and 1-Series vehicles. Other major employers include Siemens, Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen and Toshiba. Click here for a tour around the old town.

Brian & Marika - Official Launch

2011-05-10T15:59:00.000-04:00

Back in darkest January this year, when the temperatures were frigid and the snow was all around, Marika and Brian tied the knot in a civil ceremony at the Courthouse in downtown Fort Wayne. A nice quiet family affair with just a few relatives in attendance. Having each now decided that the other is a keeper, Brian and Marika decided to have an informal celebration of their nuptials on May 7th by inviting friends and relations along to a buffet lunch.
Folks turned out in fine style and stopped by to wish the couple well. A relaxed and pleasant afternoon was had by all despite a lack of cooperation from the weather. For pictures of the affair, please click here.

Home with the Halls

2011-04-25T21:53:00.001-04:00

10217 Donald Avenue

While we were in Florida this past winter, Amber and Brad located a nice little starter house in Leo, bought it and moved in! Hooray for the Halls!
After we had been back for a few days, we stopped by for tea. Brad was home and the boys were in fine form. Check here for the day's entertainment.

Salzburg, Austria - May 31st, 2010

2011-03-21T13:21:00.004-04:00

The camp site entrance, not particularly welcoming
but then it was early in the seas

Our well appointed mud patch

There is a lot of juice (we believe) in Salzburg and it was our intention to do a walkabout there on our way south. We overnighted in an ill-prepared campsite and set off to see the city first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, what with extensive roadworks and unbelievable traffic density, after an hour of stop-go motion with never a parking space to be seen we cried Uncle andleft.
Salzburg - Salt Castle - is the fourth-largest city in Austria and has a population of about 145,000. The Altstadt - old town - is regarded as one of the best preserved examples north of the Alps and made the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997. The capital city of the State of Salzburg, it is host to three universities resulting in a large student population adding an upbeat energy to the area.

We declined the opportunity to take on fresh water
since the potable water hose was artistically
draped around the black waste bowl

The name "Salt Castle" derives from barges carrying salt on the Salzach River which, in the 8th century, were subject to a toll customary for many communities and cities on European rivers.
Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, in the mid-20th century, was the setting for parts of the film The Sound of Music. Traces of human settlements in the area dating to the Neolithic Age have been discovered while the first settlements at Salzburg were probably Celtic in the 5th century BCE.

Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany - May 30, 2010

2011-03-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

Nuremberg was a favorite stomping ground - literally - for Adolph Hitler during his "excite the masses" period of 1927 to 1938 or so. A week long rally held here each September would rouse a rabble of as many as 500,000 to attend a magnificantly choreographed display of histrionics, goose-stepping march-bys, banner waving and even mock battles. After the war ended, of course, Nuremberg became the venue for the eponymous trials. A dark chapter indeed.
Today, this historic Bavarian city on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal has a population right at 500,000. Nuremberg is believed to have been founded around the turn of the 11th century and is sometimes acknowledged to have been the 'unofficial capital' of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the nineteenth century Nuremberg became the "industrial heart" of Bavaria with companies such as Siemens and MAN establishing strong bases there. The Nuremberg International Toy Fair is the largest of its kind in the world. Perhaps most famously, the main part of Nicolaus Copernicus's work was published in Nuremberg in 1543.
During WWII, Nuremberg was the headquarters of Military District) XIII and an important site for the production of airplanes, submarines, and tank engines.

The city was severely damaged by Allied bombing from 1943 to 45 and on January 2, 1945, the medieval city center was bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces. About ninety percent of it was destroyed in less than an hour, Happily, the city was rebuilt after the war and was partly restored to its pre-war appearance. Lots more images here.

Würzburg, Germany - May 28th 2010

2011-03-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

On March 16, 1945, Würzburg was severely damaged in a seventeen minute attack by 225 British Lancaster bombers. Most of the city's churches, cathedrals, and other monuments were casualties and the city center was totally destroyed in a firestorm that claimed 5,000 lives.
Over the next 20 years, the buildings of historical importance were painstakingly and accurately replicated. Würzburg was destroyed more completely than was Dresden in a firebombing the previous month.
From the end of the war until 2008, the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division along with other U.S. military units were stationed near the town and was hugely beneficial to the local economy. Würzburg is about 70 miles from both Frankfurt am Main and Nuremberg and has a current population in the region of 130,000.
The Celts had a fort on the hill where Fortress Marienberg stands today as early as 1000 BCE and the setlement was Christianized in 686 CE. The first church on the site of the present Würzburg Cathedral was built in 788, and was consecrated by Charlemagne.
Würzburg's Old Main Bridge - Alte Mainbrücke - built 1473–1543 to replace the destroyed Romanesque bridge from 1133, was later decorated with well-known statues of saints and famous persons.
The University of Würzburg contains Wilhelm Röntgen's original laboratory, where he discovered X-rays in 1895 and also awarded Alexander Graham Bell an honorary Ph.D for his pioneering scientific work. Our day in Wurzburg was comfortably relaxed and we were pleasantly surpised by the homogenous nature of the old town. Lots more pictures here.

Trapped in Numansdorp, NL - May 16 to May 26 2010

2011-03-08T16:10:00.001-05:00

When we are not using our little Pilote RV in Europe, it is stored in the tiny town of Numansdorp in the South Holland region of the Netherlands. The storage company looks after the annual medical for the vehicle and generally does a good job.
This year they recommended replacing the main drive belt in the engine since it was beyond its "best by" date and a failure of this item is very, very bad. So the belt was changed in time for our arrival - an expensive task, but, we thought, good insurance.

Well, as you may have heard, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thus it was that, on a 30 degree Saturday morning on an Autobahn near Erfurt, in Germany, we experienced the aforementioned very, very bad. A single lurch, one expensive graunch from under the hood and we were immobilized on a rain soaked freeway.
To cut a long story short, 30 hours and $2,200 later we had been hauled 400 miles on a wrecker and delivered back to Numansdorp! Hooray for a 10 day static hiatus in rain swept Holland.
Numansdorp has a population of 9910 residents and is a typical Fisher-Price like Dutch toy-town with stunningly neat, but infuriatingly small everything - roads, roundabouts, stores, houses - everything. So the storage yard became our base while insurance adjusters, parts suppliers, a National Holiday, the mechanic and fate all worked their tedious magic.
Our major concern was getting out in time to reach Venice, Italy, by June 4th when our visitors from America were scheduled to arrive. One way and another, we busied ourselves with bike rides, shopping, reading and general catching up while a new cylinder head and other vital organs were procured and installed. Check here for fun ways to pass time in Holland.

Mühlhausen, Germany - May 14, 2010

2011-03-07T19:42:00.003-05:00

Reven's Tower and City Gate

Mühlhausen - officially Mühlhausen/Thüringen - lies along the river Unstrut and is home to about 37,000 souls. Its first known recorded mention was in 967 and, although King Henry the Fowler bestowed some priviliges upon the area, the 13th through the 15th centuries were the town's real heyday. Later, for less than a year in from 1707-1708, Johann Sebastian Bach tinkled the ivories on the organ in the Church of Saint Blaise.

One of these built the Brooklyn Bridge -
read on to find out more

The town was pretty much wrecked between 1618 and 1648 during the Thirty Years' War and was further trashed during the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763. These disasters, along with endles political infighting reduced the place to insignificance. Like much of the area, it fell to Prussian authority in 1802, was conquered by the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807 before being snatched back by Prussia again in 1815. From 1944 to March 1945, a slave labor camp for women was operated outside of town until the inmates were deported to Bergen Belsen in April 1945.
A relatively small old town with few "big rides" (or any rides at all) we nevertheless had a pleasamt trudge around in cool, sunless weather. See here for some views.

Göttingen, Germany - May 13, 2010

2011-03-07T19:35:00.001-05:00

The Georg-August-Universität was founded in Göttingen in 1737 and currently has 24,000 students on campus - almost one in five of the total city population. Many students live in and around the old city and imbue it with a youthful energy. The city itself came into being in the second half of the 12th century.
Following the upheaval of the Reformation there was a dearth of Catholic churches in the entire region and it wasn't until 1787 that the first new one, Saint Michael's, was built. Saint Paul's was the second post-Reformation Catholic church and that didn't appear until 1929.

There has been an ongoing secular trend throughout Germany since WWII, more so in Eastern Germany, and a growing number of people choose not to be baptised or otherwise leave the church. This trend has slowed somewhat in the new millenium and the larger churches are more or less stable.
About two weeks after we visited Göttingen, an 1,100 lb WWII bomb exploded on the construction site of a new stadium. This was the second bomb found on the site - the first was disposed of safely - and three people were killed in the incident.
More pictures from our walkabout are here.

Goslar, Germany - May 12, 2010

2011-02-24T17:16:00.001-05:00

During the cold war, Goslar was part of Eastern Germany and host to a huge army camp. After reunification the camp was dismantled and the city suffered serious economic disruption as a result. Even today, unemployment is high and the city, which has invested enormously in the development of tourism to rebuild revenues, was fortunate to make the World Heritage listing in 1992.
Just south of town is Rammelsberg, a 2000 foot high mountain, housing a mine that was in continuous operation for more than 1,000 years before its closure in 1988. During its life, 30 millions tons of ore containing Copper, Gold, Lead, Silver and Zinc were removed.
Goslar has been home to Neolithic man, the Saxons, the Holy Roman German empire, Reformation, Enlightenment, German Nationalism, Emancipation, Militarism, German Imperialism, Democratization, the Nazis, Soviet dictatorship and, as of 1990, reunification with the west.
The Imperial Palace was built in the 11th century and served as a summer residence for German emperors. The cathedral was built at the same time, but only the porch survives, the rest having being torn down in 1820.
The city is a regional shopping center with department stores, supermarkets and boutiques as well as a weekly farmer's market. Goslar is also the ancestral home of the Siemens family, founders of the eponymous international conglomerate. For additional snapshots, click here.

Quedlinburg, Germany - May 11, 2010

2011-02-21T20:19:00.000-05:00

Quedlinburg was one of those "might as well since we are here" opportunities that turned out to be a true gem. In the Harz district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, Quedlinburg has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994.
Mention of the town can be found in the early 9th century and later the town became the province of King Henry the Fowler. Henry died in 936 and his widow, Saint Mathilda, founded a convent on the castle hill, where daughters of the higher nobility were educated.

The abbey was secularized in 1802 during the German Mediatization when Quedlinburg was absorbed into the Kingdom of Prussia. Five years later it was lost to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia before being won back by the new Prussian Province of Saxony in 1815.
During the Nazi regime, for unknown reasons, King Henry took on cult status and Heinrich Himmler imagined himself to be the reincarnation of the "most German of all German" rulers. Plans were made to turn the collegiate church and castle into a shrine for Nazi Germany and the Party even set out to create a new religion.

The cathedral was closed from 1938 until 1945 when Liberation saw the reinstatement of a Protestant bishop and the removal of the Nazi style eagle from the tower. From 1949 to 1990 Quedlinburg became part of Communist East Germany until, on German reunification, it became part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Today, in the innermost parts of the town, there is a wide selection of half-timbered buildings from at least five different centuries. For more images of this exquisite city, see here.

Wittenberg, Germany - May 10, 2010

2011-02-21T15:46:00.001-05:00

Wittenberg, officially known as Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a small city of 50,000 people on the river Elbe in north eastern Germany. In 1502 the University of Wittenberg was founded and became the center of activity for Martin Luther who, in 1508 at the age of 25, became a Professor of Theology there.
Had it not been for Martin Luther, Wittenberg would probably have remained just another rural backwater German city. Luther however, become increasingly aggrieved by the Catholic church practice of selling indulgences - that is allowing wealthy folk to buy forgiveness for their misdeeds by giving money to church Bishops.
Folklore has it that Luther nailed 95 theses on this topic to the doors of the All Saints' Castle Church in 1517. This part of the story, like other elements of Wittenberg folklore, actually appears to be romantic fantasy but there is no doubt that Luther's activities there sowed the seeds for the Protestant Reformation leading to a massive religious upheaval and European-wide warfare.

The Castle Church was damaged by fire in 1760, during the Seven Years War with France, and the doors (along with the mythical pamphlets) were destroyed. Even though the church was patched up, it wasn't before 1858 - almost 100 years later - that new bronze doors were installed and these, indeed, were inscribed with the text of the theses in Latin. Fanciful thinking apparently had won out over reality and morphed into "fact". The tomb of Martin Luther is inside the Church.
A couple of other Wittenberg myths are connected to WWII. Unlike many historic German cities in the region, Wittenberg was spared major destruction although there was some fighting in the streets. The statue of Martin Luther that stands in the main square has some pock marks on it proudly pointed to by locals as WWII bullet holes. Nice try, but the statue was actually in storage some miles out of town for the duration of the war.
The other piece of romanticism holds that the Allies had agreed not to bomb Wittenberg and that was the reason the city escaped serious damage. Reality was that the Arado Flugzeugwerke (Arado Aircraft Factory), a Luftwaffe production facility, was on the outskirts of town and the allies did indeed avoid action for a long time, but for a unilateral and humane reason. The factory was staffed by forced labor including Jews, Russians, Poles, political prisoners and even a few Americans. Near the close of the war, American and British planes did bomb the factory tragically killing about one thousand prisoner workers.
When the war ended in 1945, Wittenberg was occupied by Soviet forces and became part of East Germany in 1949. It has since of course, been reunited with western Germany since 1990. Picture show here.

Berlin, Germany - May 8, 2010

2011-02-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Holocaust Memorial

Berlin, once again the capital city of Germany, is also one of the sixteen states of the reunified country. With a population of 3.4 million, it is Germany's largest city and is located in northeastern Germany. Approximately one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin initially became the capital of the German Empire shortly after its formation in 1871 and the city expanded rapidly in the following years.

Neptune's Fountain

The city's character has been shaped, or perhaps confused, by the turbulent roles it has endured in Germany's history, especially during of the 20th century. Each of the national governments based in the city - the original 1871 German Empire, the post WWI Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany of 1933, East Germany in 1950, and now the 1991 reunified Germany - embarked on grandiose construction programs, each with little regard to what came before.
Exacerbating the devastation of WWII bombings, many of the remaining historic buildings were torn down in the 1950s and 1960s, by both the Western and Eastern governments, to make way for municipal architectural programs competing to build two distinct cities. The result is an unsettling hotch-potch of styles and neighborhoods. The site of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the renowned crossing points of the cold war Berlin Wall, is still preserved and also has a museum.

A Conference Bike

All four allies in fact shared responsibility for Berlin after WWII but, in 1948 when the West introduced the west German Mark as the currency for Berlin, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade on the landlocked American, British and French sectors. The blockade was eventually beaten by the Berlin Airlift, which flew in food and other supplies to the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949.
On October 3, 1990, the two parts of Germany were reunified as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Berlin became the German capital for the fifth time in accordance with the unification treaty. In June 1991 the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the German capital back from Bonn to Berlin. For a picture show of this long suffering metropolis, click here.

Checkpoint Alpha, Helmsedt, Germany - May 6, 2010

2011-02-09T21:30:00.002-05:00

Bleak day at Checkpoint Alpha

Helmstedt is at the eastern edge of Lower Saxony, the border of which marked the transition from the British chunk of Germany to the Soviet portion.
Berlin, a further 105 miles to the east, mirrored the arbitrary division of the entire country of Germany into four pieces and was itself divided into American, British, French and Soviet sectors.
Fairly quickly after WWII ended and the Cold War got underway, three Checkpoints sprang to prominence: Checkpoint Alpha, Checkpoint Bravo and the most renowned of all, Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Alpha controlled access to the 105 mile east German road connecting Helmstedt to Berlin - more specifically to Checkpoint Bravo on the southwest corner of the American sector.

Die Wölbung der Hände

Movement within the American, British and French sectors was unbridled but to enter the Soviet sector (and thereby east Germany) it was necessary to pass through Checkpoint Charlie.
It was Checkpoint Alpha that the Soviets closed to initiate the Berlin Blockade from June 1948 until May 1949. There is little left now of this once expansive checkpoint, its dark passing is marked by a homely memorial called Die Wölbung der Hände (The Curvature of the Hands) as the reunited pieces of Germany struggle to put their lives back together.

Celle, Germany - May 5th, 2010

2011-02-09T10:11:00.003-05:00

Moving next to Lower Saxony, we visited Celle, a market town of about 70,000 on the River Aller. Celle comprises 17 municipalities, some of which were independent vilages in earlier times.
The city was relatively unscathed by WWII with only one serious air raid that occurred in April1945, destroying less than 70 houses or about 2% of the structures.

Today, tourism is a large slice of Celle’s economy, with jazz, wine and other festivals in the summer months along with the year round attraction of the hundreds of old town buildings dating back to the 16th century. A romantic looking castle, Schloss Celle, built in 1530 along with the Stadtkirche from 1308 serve as anchor attractions for tourists.
Of passing historical interest is the Army airfield 3 miles southwest of the town. This operated as RAF Celle after the Second World War and was the launch point for the 1948/49 supply flights of the Berlin Airlift.
For more pictures of this attractive and lively city, click here.

Osnabrück, Germany - May 3, 2010

2011-01-12T14:22:00.006-05:00

Our annual assault on Europe in 2010 was more structured than usual since we were scheduled to meet one of our granddaughters and a friend of hers en route, at about the halfway mark. As events transpired, we were driven way off track but did recover in time to collect the youngsters in Italy. More on that in future posts.
We set off from our usual launch site in the Netherlands and aimed for Osnabrück, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, highlighted on the map top right. The population of Osnabrück is around 160,000 making it the third largest city in the region.
Developed originally in 780 CE as a marketplace when the area was controlled by Charlemagne, King of the Franks, in 889 Osnabrück was given merchant and coinage privileges by King Arnulf of Carinthia.
Lots more history over the next millennium although it wasn't until 1561 that anything really memorable happened. In that year Osnabrück killed its first witch the result of which must have been beneficial, for over the next 80 years they killed a further 275 witches and 2 wizards.
Today the city has a run down air not helped by the overcast and gloomy conditions that prevailed throughout our visit. For more views of this ancient city, click here,

San Juan, Puerto Rico - November 7th 2009

2011-01-09T20:47:00.000-05:00

Part of the 16th century defensive walls

Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista (San Juan), is the capital city of Puerto Rico ("rich port" in English), an unincorporated territory of the United States which, with 650,000 population, ranks as the 42nd largest US city. Founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, San Juan is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo.
Christopher Columbus, on his second trip in 1493, named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Curiously, the ambiguous use of San Juan Bautista and Puerto Rico for both the city and the island led to a reversal in use, such that by 1746, the name for the city (Puerto Rico) had become that of the entire island, while the name for the Island (San Juan Bautista) had become the name for the city.
Spain ceded the island to the United States in 1898, an outcome of the Spanish-American war, and its citizens were afforded US citizenship in 1917. While said citizenship excluded the privilige of voting in presidential elections, it did qualify all islanders to participate in the draft during WWI and WWII. The island, the smallest island by land area of the Greater Antilles, endures a high humidity, year round average temperature close to 80 F with occasional highs of 90. In severe winter conditions in 1957, a record low of 60 F was recorded! Click here for Slideshow.

Charlotte Amalie, AVI - November 6, 2009

2011-01-07T14:39:00.010-05:00

On his second visit to America in 1493, Christopher Columbus bestowed the Virgin moniker on an archipelago of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea in honor of Saint Ursula and her virgin followers. The present US Virgin Islands was part of this group and comprises Saint Croix, Saint John, Water Island and Saint Thomas along with some smaller islets. With an area of 133 square miles - about twice the size of Washington DC - the American Virgin Islands are home to a little over 100,000 people, mainly of African descent from the days of sugar cane slavery. Over the centuries since 1493, the islands have been held by sundry European powers, including Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark-Norway.

The Danish, who held the islands in the mid 19th century, abolished slavery in 1848 rendering the entire possession a money pit that required huge subsidization for the next 60 years. Despite several attempts to sell the islands, it wasn't until WWI and the American fear of the German submarine bases being established there, that a deal was finally struck. In 1917 the USA became the new owners at a cost of $25 million - about half a billion in today's money. All the inhabitants were granted US citizenship in 1927. Today, tourism is the primary economic activity.

With a population of 19,000, the capital city of the group is Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas, named after Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (1650–1714), queen consort to King Christian V of Denmark. The city is generally very warm and humid with average temperatures at a near constant - highs about 88°F and lows about 75°F. Click here for Slide-show.

Funchal, Madeira

2011-01-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

Madiera is the main island of a small Portuguese archipelago about 500 miles west of the African Atlantic coast. Funchal, on the south side of the island, has been the capital since the island was settled by Portuguese explores more than 600 years ago. Although we had visited here on a previous cruise we decided to go ashore and stroll around anyway. The weather was warm and muggy and, from the dock that our cheesy cruise line had secured (the cheap seats, so to speak), the walk to town seemed never ending. Sapped of energy, we managed a rotish walkabout and returned to the ship fairly shortly.

The island is roughly 28 by 10 miles and towers almost 4,000 feet above the ocean. In February 2010, a few months after our visit, the area was racked by torrential rain storms causing flash flooding, sustained run-off and about 50 deaths. Hopefully, this may provide an opportunity to clean up some of the poorer parts of the city. More pictures here.

Málaga, Spain

2010-11-10T19:47:00.005-05:00

With its population of almost 600,000 Málaga is the sixth largest city in Spain and the southernmost large city in Europe. It lies on the northern Mediterranean "Coast of the Sun" - Costa del Sol - about 60 miles east of the Strait of Gibraltar and 80 miles north of Africa. The city enjoys a subtropical climate and boasts the warmest winters in Europe, with average daytime temperatures above 63 °F from December to February.

Málaga is one of the oldest cities in the world with a 2,700 year history since it was founded by the Phoenicians as Malaka about 770 BCE. After the Phoenicians the city was controlled by the Roman Republic, then the Roman Empire followed by the Arabs until 1487 when it became, and has remained, a Spanish possession. Key commercial activities are tourism, construction and technology services but efforts are in progress to diversify.

The painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga. Get a lightning tour here.

A really nice boat, but...

2010-10-18T21:26:00.024-04:00

The MSC line has a romantic name for each of their ships, MSC Magnifica, MSC Splendida, MSC Fantasia, MSC Poesia and so on. Our incarceration was on the Poesia - Italian for Poetry - and each deck was named after a famous Italian poet. Famous Italian poet! - there's an oxymoron if ever there was one.

The Poesia was commissioned in May, 2008, and, at eighteen months old, was in first class condition. No complaints in that department. Unfortunately, that is the entire list of positive attributes I can come up with. The rest of the "package" was a recurring horror.

American based cruise lines have long since moved away from fixed seating dining - a regimen wherein there is normally two dinner times, 6:30 and 9:00pm for example, and the hapless inmates choose one or the other for the duration of their sentence. They are then assigned to a table seating from two to as many as 10 people - the same 10 people for dinner every night of the trip! Woe was us.

Assigned to a table for eight, we were cell mates with a pleasant couple from Antibes, in France, he German, she French along with four caricatures of everything bad about herd traveling. Two obnoxious sisters from Texas vulgarly flaunting their inheritance from Daddy and a veterinarian from the backwoods of Canada with ill fitting teeth complete with matching wife.

For my taste, give me meat and potatoes and 15 minutes, and I'm ready to move on. Not so for these excruciating waterbourne soirees.

Nothing was ever quite right for the Texan mamas. Hot tea was required with every course and its delivery never failed to elicit an imperious "Where is the honey?". The wine was corked, cloudy, too hot, too cold, veggies not cooked or overcooked - it was always something.

The hayseed animal molester was equally aggravating. Having left the epicenter of culture back in Calgary or wherever, these hicks were determined to get value for their money. They ordered every course - all six of them - at every meal but only after prolonged interrogation of the poor waiter over each dish, as they struggled to understand what it actually was. Whenever they had any doubt about what might turn up they simply ordered a second, different dish as a standby.

Now the restaurants open promptly at 6:30pm and purport to shutter their doors at 6:45pm to discourage latecomers. Our schedule thus was boxed in: beginning at 6:45, we endured a 45 minute pantomime while our companions haggled and argued over their selections. Then, waiting

patiently(?), while the Cheese and Fruit course was chomped to oblivion by the horse-dentured vetinerarian. Next up, with unabashed lethargy, he and his spouse would pick their way round the salad course which, once completed, was followed by soup which they slurped and dribbled through with the finesse of large Labrador dogs. Hooray - if all went smoothly, by 8:15 the main course arrived and five minutes later we had eaten and left. Can't think how we denied ourselves the experience of dessert, cheese plate, coffee and after dinner drinks, but we did.

Two nights of this were enough, and we determined to dine at the buffet instead. Error! Unlike every other cruise ship wherein the buffett is a 24 hour-a-day affair, seamlessly morphing from breakfast, to lunch, to afternoon tea to dinner to early morning pastries and back to breakfast, all the time maintaining a fresh fruit selection, desserts, beverages, ice cream, pies, custards etc., the MSC buffet closes completely at 4pm and then reopens one section from 8 to 11pm to serve - Pizza? No contest. Faced with more time at the trough with the sassy sisters and the dozy doc, the pizza won hands down. But wait! Obviously the Italians have never been to Papa John's or Pizza Hut to sample real pizza - here they were making genuine Italian pizza (as if there is such a thing ;o) ) that would be too far severe even for Weight Watchers. Oh well.

Breakfast was another daily debacle, no matter where one hid on the ship. At 9:30am sharp an abrasively plangent female read the ship's daily newsletter over the public address system at a volume ensuring that it could not be missed. Although this recitation took only 4 or 5 minutes to complete, that was just the Italian version.

The entire missive was then repeated five more times in German, French, Dutch, Spanish and English. Totaly exhausting.

As for the food, we skirmished with the chaos of the formal restaurants two or three times for breakfast and lunch - couldn't get cold milk for cereal, did get cold coffee; couldn't get crispy bacon, did get crispy egg - you get the idea. So as self-exiled dining room outcasts we were doomed to the buffet. Reminiscent of POWs in WWII movies, we quickly discovered the secret of restarting the beverage machine after it had been shut down by the guards, learned exactly when to strike at the pastry counter to snag the edible ones and even found the back door to the gelato machine. Eventually we even managed to bribe the jackbooted Maitre d' of the second main restaurant and were awarded a private table for two for the rest of the trip. Not too shabby.

When the ship finally entered US waters, the FDA swarmed on board, - well, maybe not swarmed, more sort of lumbered - inspected the facilities, promptly shut down all the kitchens and revoked landing permission in Charlotte Amilie. Pretty much everything came to a halt at this point for 12 hours or so while every crew member that wasn't dead or mortally moribund, scrubbed, polished, swept and sterilized every nook and cranny on the ship. Beyond smelling like a hospital for the next day or so, not much else seemed different but the redoubtable G-Men were satisfied.

Cleaning up the ship unfortunately, did nothing for the shameful condition of the two Unincorporated Organized Territories - possessions of the USA - that we were to visit next. These shabby communities presented a shameful introduction to America for the 2,000 Europeans on board.

More boat pictures here.

Part II - A Brush with Disaster in Tunisia

2010-10-16T20:11:00.015-04:00

Our introduction to Africa was not too propitious. Overall though, the day blended quite easily into the rest of the trip and thus passed with little notice. Having had our cab driver disappear for a nooner or whatever in the middle of downtown Tunis, when he finally reappeared his stunt driving efforts to get back on schedule ended with his cab totaled and us marooned in the middle of a freeway. When, finally we were rescued, the poor guy was

slumped against his wreck repeatedly mumbling "De firsta accidenta in thirty years".

By this time we were really late. The replacement cab and driver eventually arrived and he did his level best to complete the itinerary but, when we arrived back at the dock entrance, we discovered he was not authorized to enter so we had to leg it back to the ship. About halfway there the local MSC Cruise Line Agent screeched to a halt beside us, motioned for us to get in and fairly flew to the quay. Here, the last gangway was being hauled on board and the ship was about to leave. Abandoned in North Africa was a fate we were grateful to miss.

The Tunisian Republic is about the size of Washington state with a population of about 10.3 million - 1-1/2 times that of Washington state - and is both the smallest nation along the Atlas Mountain range and the northernmost country in Africa.

It is an Arab country bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. With its name is derived from the capital Tunis, located in the north-east, the south of the country is part of the Sahara desert while the remainder is mainly fertile soil. It boasts nearly 800 miles of coastline.

This combination of arable land close to the coastline has played a prominent role throughout recorded history. First was the famous Phoenician city of Carthage, then came the Africa Province known as the "bread basket" of the Roman Empire. Later, during the 5th century CE, the area was occupied first by Vandals, then Byzantines in the 6th century and Arabs in the 8th century before being subjugated by the

Ottomans at which point it became the "Regency of Tunis". The Ottomans were driven out as the European scrambled to confirm their Empires in the 19th century, becoming a French protectorate in 1881.

Finally, after obtaining independence in 1956, the country took the name of the "Kingdom of Tunisia" until the end of the reign of Lamine Bey and the Husainid Dynasty. With the proclamation of the Tunisian Republic on July 25, 1957, the nationalist leader Habib Bourguiba became its first president and the modernization of the country began.

Today Tunisia is an export-oriented country, in the process of liberalizing its economy under an authoritarian regime controlled by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and masquerading as a procedural democracy. Ben Ali has governed as President since 1987 and has systematically diminished freedom of press and political pluralism while maintaining the charade of democratic elections.

In the September 2009 election his share of the vote fell to its lowest ever at, 89.4%, mainly because he allowed an opposition party on the ballot. If the opposition candidate had not been jailed during the run up to the election or had been allowed to give speeches or organize gatherings, it's possible he could have done even better than his 5% share, but that's just speculation! Pictures of the tour are here.

The Cruise from Hell - Part I

2010-10-12T17:44:00.017-04:00

MSC - Mediterranean Shipping Company - is an Italian cruise line which operates about half-a-dozen vessels. Any country that has used up more than 60 governments since 1948 suggests that it might not be a paragon of organizational stability and, in hindsight, an Italian cruise ship was perhaps not our best choice. Even allowing for a bout of food poisoning following the first evening's dinner followed, of course, by 24 hours of Technicolor yawns, we have never been on a cruise before during which we actually lost weight! Yes, we both lost 3-1/2lbs - on a cruise ship. More of that anon.

The ship sailed on schedule, navigated its way through the Canale Della Giudecca past the island of Venice, across the lagoon and out into the Adriatic Sea. At sunrise next morning we were docked in the Adriatic port of Bari, on the eastern coast of southern Italy.
Bari has the unfortunate distinction of being the only city to suffer the effects of chemical warfare during WWII, unintended though it was. The Allies, fearful that Hitler might resort to chemical attacks as he was pushed to the wall, had stockpiled mustard gas on Bari dock - a highly classified strategy at the time. Bari was a key supply point for the Allies and, in a December 1943 air attack by the Germans, the stockpile was unwittingly bombed. Fatality estimates due to the gas vary from less than 70 people to more than 2,000, a confusion generated since neither the rescuers nor the medical teams had any idea what they were dealing with. Ignorance of the presence of mustard gas resulted in numerous otherwise avoidable casualties all muddled in with the conventional carnage wrought by the air attack. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the records destroyed and the incident remained a secret until 1959.

I did not visit the town, being too pre-occupied with puking and moaning and completely consumed with self-pity. Marian went ashore and took some snaps of the city.

A Mediterranean Quickie

2010-10-08T16:31:00.010-04:00

I really need to do a better job in keeping this blog current. The previous post, made in April of this year, completed our 2009 Fall trip to England for our best ever pub crawl. Shamefully, this post is almost exactly one whole year after the event. However, with a few more paving stones on the road to Hell, here goes.

Suffering some serious boredom waiting for Thanksgiving to arrive, we cast about and found a nice little cruise that embarked in Venice, Italy and disgorged us, three weeks later, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We grabbed our bags and left.

A trio of tiresome flights and one day later we staggered out of Marco Polo Airport and took the bus to our hotel on the island of Venice. We had planned to take a night tour of Venice but it piddled down with rain all evening and we made do with a deplorably bad supper in a "genuine Italian family" restaurant next door to the hotel. We wondered if their family motto was "We may not be good, but we're not cheap".

Bright and early next morning we made a quick perambulation of the island trying to fill in gaps from an earlier visit. It was certainly interesting to see the city in the early morning and, although the weather was not too cooperative, the walk was refreshing. Snapshots here.

September 21, 2009 - Lincoln, Lincolnshire

2010-04-27T18:57:00.008-04:00

Like Idaho, Lincolnshire is renowned for potatoes. Lincoln, a cathedral city, is the county town of Lincolnshire and the city proper has a population of 86,000 or so. The earliest evidence of Lincoln are the 1st century BCE remains of round wooden dwellings from an Iron Age settlement discovered as recently as 1972. The Romans overran the area in 48 CE and built a fortress on a hill overlooking the natural lake formed by the River Witham In Viking times Lincoln was a trading center important enough to issue coins from its own mint and, over the next few centuries, Lincoln rose to significant national prominence. In 1068 William I (the Conqueror) built Lincoln Castle on the site of the former Roman settlement. Construction of the first Lincoln Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, was completed in 1092 but was built twice more within 100 years having been destroyed in a fire and later by an unusual earthquake in 1185. The central spire probably exceeded the height of the Great Pyramids of Egypt to rank as the tallest man-made structure in the world. By 1150, Lincoln was among the wealthiest towns in England. The basis of the economy was cloth and wool, exported to Flanders. Outside the precincts of cathedral and castle, the old quarter clustered around the Bailgate, and down Steep Hill to the High Bridge.
During the 14th century, the city's fortunes declined with the lower city being prone to flooding and suffering numerous plagues. When the cathedral's great spire rotted and collapsed in 1549 it was not replaced - a further symbol of Lincoln's decline.
Overall, our visit to Lincoln was a great treat and much enjoyed. See more pictures here.

September 20, 2009 - Snitterby, Lincolnshire

2010-04-26T21:44:00.005-04:00

Next stop was a pub campsite in the tiny village of Snitterby in Lincolnshire, population about 200. Things did not work out quite as planned for the cook at the Royal Oak had vanished and there was no food to be had. Not to fear, we quickly un-stowed the bicycles and cycled to the next village, Waddingham, where the Marquis of Granby pub served up a spectacular lunch. Considering the two way cycle ride, we felt lunch was well earned.
After lunch, we checked out the rest of the village including Saint Nicholas Anglican parish church. Erected in 1780 on the site of an older structure, the church was rebuilt in 1866 and the tower was completed in 1894. The church seats around 180 - just about the entire population.
Sadly, even in a tiny community like Snitterby, war has taken its toll with the WWI Memorial noting eight residents who fell in the hostilities. A few pictures of this speck of England can be seen here.

September 19, 2009 - City of York, Yorkshire

2010-04-26T17:03:00.004-04:00

Marian had never been to York before and my most recent visit was a school trip in 1953, so there was much to discover in this city of 137,000. York is a walled city, having more wall length than any other English city - almost 2-1/2 miles of walkable walls - stretching between many of the six bars, or gates that control access to the old city.
In recent decades, the economy of York has shifted away from reliance on candy companies such as Rowntree and Terry along with various railway-related industries, to one that provides services. The University has become a significant source of employment and tourism is a major contributor to city fortunes. Indeed, York was voted as European Tourism City of the Year by European Cities Marketing in June 2007 beating out 130 other European cities.
The city walls are punctuated by four main gatehouses, or 'bars', (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar) and two smaller gates, Fishergate and Victoria. In medieval times the bars were used to control traffic as well as extact tolls and provide defensive positions in times of war.
York has had a Christian presence since 300 CE. The first church on the site of the present Minster was a wooden structure built hurriedly in 627 to provide a place to baptize Edwin, King of Northumbria. Moves toward a more substantial building began in the 630s. A stone structure was completed in 637 by Oswald and was dedicated to Saint Peter. The present Minster was started in the 13th century. York is also renowned for an extraordinary number of pubs scattered throughout the old city and in the urban area around the city. Beware, there are LOTS of pictures to be seen here.

September 17, 2009 - Chester, Chesire

2010-04-23T08:51:00.006-04:00

We had never been to Chester before and had no idea what to expect. It was the largest city we had been in for a while, with a population in the range of 77,000.
Chester is in the county of Cheshire and lies on the river Dee close to the border with Wales and was granted city status in 1541. Originally founded by the Romans in 79 CE as a fort called Deva Victrix, Chester was one of the last towns in England to fall to the Normans in the Norman conquest of England. Today, Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in the British Isles with only a hundred yards or so of the wall missing.
Chester played a significant part in the Industrial Revolution which began in the North West of England in the latter part of the 18th century. In 2007 the "Chester Renaissance", a 10-year plan to see Chester become a "must see European destination" was launched by Chester Council. With a price tag of $2 billion, it was put on hold in 2008 with the onslaught of the financial crisis. Even at this, there is a ton of stuff to see in this busy and pub littered town.

September 16, 2009 - Oswestry, Shropshire

2010-04-22T14:40:00.006-04:00

Like Ludlow, Oswestry is in the county of Shropshire, again close to the Welsh border and is home to 50% more people than Ludlow with its population of 15,000. The area has been inhabited since at least 550 BCE and Old Oswestry is the site of an Iron Age fort.
An Anglo-Saxon king, Oswald, was alleged to have been killed and dismembered at this location and, as legend has it, one of his arms was carried to an ash tree by an eagle. Miracles were subsequently attributed to the tree and thus it is believed that the name derived from "Oswald's Tree". A likely story.
Since 1190 the town has held a market each Wednesday and, with an influx of Welsh farmers every week, the some town folk are bilingual. The town is also famous for its high number of public houses per head of population - about twice the national average. There are around 30 drinking houses in the town today, one for every five hundred men women and children. Check out some of these hostelries here.

September 15, 2009 - Ludlow, Shropshire

2010-04-21T10:19:00.000-04:00

With a population of around 10,000, the market town of Ludlow is in the county of Shropshire, close to the border where England meets Wales. Lying on a hill between the River Teme and the River Corve, Ludlow has a castle, a market place and extensive remnants of the earlier medieval walled town. During the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of York, seized the castle and turned it into one of his main strongholds. Ludlow has close to 500 listed buildings including numerous medieval and Tudor-style half-timbered buildings. The town also sports several coaching inns, public houses and ale houses. These, in times of yore, were the root cause of court records related to alcohol-induced violence and a reputation for excess. The oldest surviving inn today is the 15th century Bull Hotel. More pictures of lovely Ludlow here.

September 14, 2009 - Ledbury, Hereforshire

2010-04-04T20:59:00.001-04:00

About 20 miles southeast of Leominster, still in Herefordshire, is Ledbury, another ancient market town noted in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Liedeberge. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poetess who, among many others, penned "How do I love Thee, Let me count the ways", spent her childhood years at Hope End just outside of town.
Although Ledbury is not much more than a one street town serving its 9000 population, it is a vividly engaging street with numerous and varied stores, lots of Georgian houses and an enviable Market House. Ledbury is also the venue for several annual poetry and music festivals and its Market Theater is a thriving enterprise near the town center, in Market Street.
If England has a Smucker's Jam it might well be Robertson's Jams, for many years one of the largest employers in town. A sign of the times, Robertson's moved away in 2007 and the site now produces cider in a couple of 200,000 gallon tanks. Not too bad of a trade if you ask me. Pictures of this enjoyable town are here.

September 14, 2009 - Leominister, Herefordshire

2010-03-26T15:20:00.011-04:00

Since we were in the mode for park visits, we went on into Wales and Snowdonia National Park after leaving the George Inn and its delicious home cooking. We had been to Snowdonia previously, back in the 50s, and felt it was time to recalibrate our perspective of the area. Additionally, our brand new son-in-law has a house in the hills with - drum-roll please - an internet connection! We found the house, broke in, gulped down a few hours of internet and promptly retired exhausted, to spend the night in the yard.
It was cold in Snowdonia and that too, was how it left us, little change from 50 years ago - just not our bag I guess. Thus, early next morning found us on our way back to England, to the comfort of an old market town, Leominster - Ahh, traffic, crowds, noise, pollution - much more to our liking! Leomister (pronounced Lemsta), likely got its start around 660 CE when a monk, St. Edfrid, established a christian community by the river Lugg. In the 12th century, Henry II ordered a Benedictine monastery to be built of which the Priory Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, now the Leominster Parish church, is the sole survivor. The town was incorporated in 1554 and became an important center for the wool trade from the 13th to the 18th century. With its 11,000 population, Leominster is an aging market town, seemingly coasting into oblivion following its glory days as regional wool capital. The agrarian based economy now includes produce and livestock and the staging of cattle and sheep markets. The market is held each Friday and is centered on Corn Square. A colorful Leominster claim is that the last recorded use of the ducking stool occurred there. A (presumably wanton) lass, named Jenny Pipes was awarded the ride of her lifetime in 1809.
For more views of this tired town, click here.

September 13, 2009 - Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean

2010-03-24T21:55:00.003-04:00

The second largest Crown forest in England is the Forest of Dean in the county of Gloucestershire (pronounced Gloster-sheer), in the southwest of the country right next to Wales. Roughly bounded by the city of Gloucester (Gloster) to the east, the river Wye to the north and the west and the river Severn to the south, a large part of this 27,000 acres of mainly woodland was restricted to royal hunting prior to 1066 CE. Like the New Forest, we had never felt the urge to visit the Forest of Dean while we lived in England so this was our first experience. Again, like the New Forest, it did not trip our trigger and after a cursory drive through, we left and hunted down our next stopover. This turned out to be in a two pub hamlet with no discernible center - just two or three lanes off of the A38 road with a few scattered houses. Both the White Horse and the George Inn pubs are on the A38 but only the George had an accompanying campsite and thus became our home for a while.
The following day we embarked on what turned out to be a grueling bicycle ride and visited the village of Slimbridge and the town of Dursley. Pictures of this tawdry tale here.

September 11, 2009 - The old New Forest

2010-03-23T17:06:00.012-04:00

Despite having lived in England for almost forty years, we had never visited the New Forest, a 141,000 acre park like area in the south of the country. "New", of course, is a relative term - this particular forest having been created as a royal forest in 1079 by William I - William the Conqueror - for private hunting use. Essentially, 20 plus small communities were deemed to be a single area exclusively for the kings pleasure with deer strictly off-limit for non-Royals. The actual territory, in reality, is too poor for viable farmland and comprises open foraging areas, heathland, bogs and some treed areas, with about 25 miles of coastline on the English Channel. It is contained within the counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Perhaps the most renowned and well loved feature of the New Forest is the presence of hundreds of ponies and donkeys living in the wild throughout the area. The New Forest Pony is one of the indigenous horse breeds of the British Isles and most of the Forest ponies are of this breed.
On a practical note, after William I commandeered the area, an accommodation was reached with the inhabitants giving them the right to graze horses and cattle, gather fuel wood, cut peat, quarry clay, and to turn out pigs in the fall to eat acorns. Cycling, hiking and camping are popular pursuits of the eight million or so visitors drawn to the area each year. Interesting as our visit may have been, we did not regret having stayed away for forty years.
Several small towns and villages exist in the forest, along with a few rural commercial enterprises making the total population to an astounding 38,000. In 2005 the forest was granted National Park status - the eighth in England - and is the country's only UNESCO natural World Heritage Site.
Our selected campsite was in the backyard of The Red Shoot Inn, located in the heart of the forest. The pub takes its name from Red Shoot Wood and had previously been a gas station and before that a private members club. The pub has been in operation since 1963. Click here for additional pictures.

September 10, 2009 - Clifton Hampden

2010-03-22T21:02:00.012-04:00

The village of Clifton Hampden, population a little over 600, is on the north bank of the River Thames west of central London by about 50 miles, in the county of Oxfordshire. It is in the parish of the Church of England church of St. Michael and All Angels, built circa 1180.
The Church of England Primary School, originally built as a Christian school in 1847 is across the lane from the church. The one room all-grades school was reorganized into a primary school in 1934. A number of cottages in the village hark back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries and, from the early part of the 14th century, there was a ferry across the Thames between Clifton Hampden and Long Wittenham, replaced by a six span brick bridge in 1867. The Barley Mow pub, where the campsite is located, is across the bridge, and is actually in Long Wittenham parish. Clifton Hampden, the Barley Mow and the Thames are featured in the 1899 Jerome K. Jerome book, Three Men in a Boat, which was later made into a movie.
There currently appear to be two pubs in Clifton Hampden - The Barley Mow, where we stayed, that claims to have originated in the 14th century from two old farm cottages and The Plough, which dates from around 1600, replete with timber beams, inglenook fireplaces and a thatched roof. As usual, more pictures of this exquisite little place await you here.

September 6, 2009 - Back to the Sixties...

2010-03-19T20:35:00.011-04:00

Roydon, a village in the Epping Forest district of Essex county and lying along the River Stort, was selected as our next stopover for a couple of reasons. First, it has a close by railroad with frequent trains to and from London, and second, it is only a few miles from where we lived for six years in the sixties - more nostalgia on the way!
Roydon is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 CE as Ruindune while Saint Peters, the village church, dates from the middle ages. For such a small village, Roydon has boasted a cricket team, Roydon C.C., since 1839 and a soccer team, Roydon F.C., since 1901. The campsite, in Roydon Mill Leisure Park, had actually been closed prematurely for the season due to some badly behaved hooligan campers the previous weekend. Fortunately, the management honored our booking and it served as a great base for cycles rides around our old haunts as well as a launch pad for London.
Stanstead Abbotts, a much larger village of nearly 2000 souls, is only four or five miles from Roydon and was the closest community to where we had lived in the sixties. Recorded in the Domesday Book as Stanstede with the Abbotts tag being added in the 13th century after the property passed to the abbot of nearby Waltham Holy Cross. The Greenwich Meridian (longitude 0°) passes through the village and is marked by Meridian obelisks that were planted in 1984. The River Lee flows alongside the village on its way south to the east side of London. There are two churches and several pubs in the village. One pub, the Red Lion, was our "local" when we lived there and was a monastery when it was built in 1538.
Across the river Lee from Stanstead Abbotts is St Margarets - more precisely Stanstead St Margarets - another village, this one about 1300 people. There is a train station at St Margarets providing fast service to London and both of these villages have morphed into commuter communities over the last generation or so. Our home here was less than a mile from the station.
The closest large town (20,000 population) that provided shopping, library, banking etc., was Hoddesdon, a couple of miles to the south. This town developed as a coaching stop between Cambridge and London and, during the 18th century, as many as 35 coaches a day passed through. Hoddesdon is also mentioned in the Domesday Book and received a market charter in 1253. After WWII, Hoddesdon had also slowly transformed into a dormitory town for London commuters.
A large portion of the old town center was razed between 1965 an 1975 to be replaced by unsightly high-rise apartments with seedy ground floor retail spaces that have suffered extreme business turnover and attracted much graffiti. A profound disaster.
In 1974 a bypass was opened around the core of the town and much of the main street was pedestrianized. Parking remains difficult. What is left of the old town center is belatedly a conservation area with a few historic buildings scattered along the main street. The Clock Tower, a brick structure built in 1835 is built on the site of the Chapel of St Katherine which had been erected in 1336.
During the six years that we lived in the area we had never thought to explore Rye House, an historic oddity just a short distance off our beaten track. This omission was corrected during this visit and we discovered a fine pub along with one of the earliest brick structures known in England. We also learned of the infamous Rye House Plot to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother, James, Duke of York in 1682. Later, we visited Great Amwell and Little Amwell, a mile or so north of St Margarets. Here there is a church, St John the Baptist, and a pleasant pub named George IV. For more glimpses of these English backwaters, click here.

September 4, 2009 - Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

2010-03-18T15:35:00.010-04:00

After a wild, wet and windy reception to England's shores we cowered in the Parkston RV Park near Harwich until the storm passed. The following day, although brighter, was cold and blustery but then, this is England! Harwich is on the east coast of England in a region known as East Anglia. The last ten years of our time in England was spent in East Anglia near the city of Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk and this was to be our first wallow in nostalgia. We actually lived in the tiny hamlet of East Barton, population 20 or so, which was a mile or so south of Great Barton, population 2000, and east of Bury St Edmunds proper by four or five miles. We stopped by and looked at the old homestead on our way along memory lane. Way back in 633 CE, Sigebert, the king of the East Angles founded a monastery where Bury St Edmunds stands today. In 869 CE, the then king of the East Angles, a fellow named Edmund, was killed by the Danes during one of their forays into England. Thirty plus years later, in 903, King Edmund's remains were brought to the monastery for internment. By 925 CE, Edmund had been promoted to a Saint and a Martyr becoming quite well known and elevating the monastery to a pilgrim destination. The town of St Edmund's Bury developed in the midst of all this hype and later came to be known as Bury St Edmunds or locally, simply as Bury.
Fanciful folklore has it that the name came from the fact that St Edmunds was buried here but, more probably, the Bury in St Edmund's Bury was a variation of borough, bergh, burg or borg. Be that as it may, the phrase "I'm going to Bury St Edmunds" would often be rejoined by "Oh, I didn't even know he was dead!" In 1020, after destroying the monastery and throwing the priests out, another Dane, Sweyn Forkbeard built a Benedictine abbey on the site, the ruins of which are a major claim to fame for Bury. The town is also known for the largest British owned brewery, Greene King, which also owns the Theatre Royal built in 1819, the sole surviving Regency theater in England. The largest building in the area is the British Sugar beet processing factory, built in 1925 northeast of the town. Bury mounts a large street market each Wednesday and Saturday. Other scintillating gems: Bury is home to England's oldest Boy Scout group, the 1st Bury St Edmunds. On May 3rd, 2007, the Bury town council election was won by the "Abolish Bury Town Council" party. Before it could abolish itself, the party lost its majority in a by-election the following month and, thus far, the Town Council still rules. See slide show here.

September 2, 2009 - Getting to England...

2010-03-12T21:25:00.000-05:00

Arrival in Amsterdam at 9:25 am was quickly followed by a hair raising ride in a 1981 VW camper van to Numansdorf, courtesy of our Dutch agent, Donna. Here we picked up Penny, installed the propane cylinders and set off to Willemstad and the Bovensluis campground.
Replete with groceries and more or less a nights sleep, we left the next day for Hoek van Holland to catch our ferry. Everything went like clockwork and by late afternoon we were at sea. About 10:00 pm we hove into Harwich, England, in a violent wind and rain storm and sploshed our way to the campsite for the night. A nice cup of tea and early to bed. See here for some views along the way.

August 31, 2009 - One Wedding and a bunch of Pubs

2010-03-11T10:31:00.007-05:00

Back from Europe on July 1st, we had a ton of "stuff" to accomplish before leaving for Europe again on August 31st. First up of course, were horrible housekeeping items such as finding flights and getting them booked, ditto for ferry rides back and forth across the North Sea, locating and booking a campsite near a railroad station within easy reach of London, booking train rides in and out of London for the wedding and finding a convenient hotel in the city to stay at during the festivities. Hooray for the internet - all the above chores were readily researched, booked and confirmed without our idle butts leaving our recliners except for the occasional cup of coffee. Fabulous! The rest of the summer fairly whizzed by. July 4th, a photography seminar weekend in Michigan, a great-grandson's first birthday, sundry marching band events, a greatly appreciated double 70th birthday bash for Marian and I and plenty of bike rides. Phew, were we ready for a break! What we got instead was another frenetic month revisiting old haunts and fresh pastures in good old England. Once again, the internet was instrumental in shaping our journey, this time through the discovery of a list of around 150 pubs scattered across England that either had, or were associated with, a close-by campsite. British pubs, more formally Public Houses, have been part of the fabric of life in England since Roman times and, although there are still around 53,000 in existence, they are closing down at the rate of 45 to 55 every week. It had been a lingering regret on our part to have largely ignored these treasures all the years we lived in England and here was a chance to make amends.
So, puddle jumper to Chicago, the pause that refreshes while waiting in O'Hare and then the big bird to Amsterdam. A nostalgic trip around the old country was underway...

June 25, 2009 - Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands

2010-03-09T18:58:00.008-05:00

There were two reasons for stopping by Bergen op Zoom. First, was to see what kind of place had such a whimsical name and, second, there was a campsite just a short bicycle ride from town. The campsite turned out to be enjoyable and so, for that matter, did the city. We also became delighted to be back in the Netherlands and hadn't previously appreciated the general organized and well-manicured appearance presented by most of the country - highlighted by our irksome brush with Belgium.
Bergen op Zoom is in the south of the Netherlands and has a current population of around 65,000. After being granted city status in the 13th century, BoZ (Bergen on the Zoom river) developed into a significant fortress and one of the main armories and arsenals of the United Provinces of Holland. Its defensive properties were complemented by the surrounding marshes, the easily-flooded polders and the ability to be provisioned by sea unless the besieging army forces also blockaded its port. Having successfully withstood aggressive sieges by the Spanish in 1587 and 1622 it wasn't until 1747, after a 70 day siege that the city finally succumbed to the French. A trivial outcome of this event was the inclusion of the name Bergen op Zoom on one of the arches of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Click here for a slide show of this likable burg.

June 22, 2009 - Tienen, Belgium

2010-03-08T17:21:00.010-05:00

Thirty boneshaking miles north of Namur is the little town of Tienen, chosen for the day's lunch stop. Tienen is in the province of Brabant, in Flanders, the second of the three regions of Belgium. Like Namur, Tienen includes the consolidation of numerous smaller communes - this time only eight though - and boasts a total population around 32,000. It is near one of the Belgium internal linguistic borders and is Flemish speaking although, just 3 miles to the south, Belgians have French as their native language. The town initially developed around Sint Martin chapel, later to become Sint Martin church. Slowly the settlement migrated a little eastward around the, easier to defend, hill on which Sint Germanus was built. Some highlights of Tienen's turbulent history may excuse the drab nature of the city today. Always under threat of invasion due to its proximity to Liège, Tienen was granted municipal rights along with the right to build fortifications and completed its first wall around 1014. In 1489, Albert of Saxony seized the town on behalf of Emperor Maximilian of Austria. In 1507 the town was wrested from the Habsburgs by the locals. In 1568 it was unsuccessfully attacked by William of Orange who returned in 1572 and seized control for about a year before being ejected by the Spaniards. Numerous similar land grabs occurred during the next two centuries until, in 1789, the locals, under the leadership of brewer Jan Windelinck secured the town for about a year. The Austrians then regained control but were in turn defeated by the French, who seized the place in 1793 The French used a former convent as an ammunition depot, which unfortunately exploded in 1793, killing about 100 people and wrecking that neighborhood. Once again, the Austrians liberated (or re-occupied?) the town but were again routed a year later when the French returned. At this point the Austrians quit for good and went home. Nothing much happened after that until the Independence War in 1830 that finally produced the modern Belgium. Subsequent to this litany of destruction of course, the whole of Belgium was ground up twice more in each of the 20th century World Wars. In common with most of mainland Europe, histories such as these must profoundly influence a nation's appetite for involvement in further hostilities no matter where those hostilities might be or however justifiable. On the east side of Tienen stands the Tiense Suikerraffinaderij - Raffinerie Tirlemontoise, a huge sugar beet refinery that gives rise to the town being known as the Sugar Capital of Belgium. As might be expected there is a Sugar Museum in town which we were fortunately able to avoid. The German group Südzucker AG, the biggest sugar producer in Europe, has owned RT since 1989. Outside of this, there are a couple of notable churches and a town hall - Stadhuis - although the latter was completely obscured by scaffolding during our visit. More pictures here.

June 21, 2009 - Namur, Belgium

2010-03-05T20:37:00.012-05:00

Continuing our trek north, we crossed into Belgium and stopped by Namur, a medium sized city of about 110,000 inhabitants, in the Walloon region. Overall, we were not favorably impressed by what we saw of Belgium on this route. The place had a grubby, unkempt aura and the roads were between bad and awful, some appearing not to have not been maintained since the Germans constructed them in WWII. Namur encompasses the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers and is a conglomeration of 20 previously independent communes. The language spoken locally is French. The Celts first developed the area as a trading center and were, as usual, followed by the Romans. In the early Middle Ages the Merovingians built the first citadel on the rocky spit at the apex of the rivers confluence. In the 1640s, Namur was seized by the Spanish Netherlands and had its citadel reinforced. Louis XIV invaded in 1692, captured the town, made it part of France and had his renowned military engineer, the vaunted Vauban, rebuild the citadel. The rebuild was none too successful apparently, for just three short years later William III of Orange captured the place. And so it went.
Next up, in 1709, the Dutch found themselves in control until, in 1713, their "owners", the Spanish Netherlands ceded control to the Austrian House of Hapsburg who decided to leave the Dutch in charge anyway. For good measure, the citadel was rebuilt yet again. Confused yet? It only gets worse.
In 1794 the French returned and remained until 1815 when Napoleon was was defeated, at which point the Congress of Vienna incorporated what is now Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Fifteen years later, Belgium broke from the Netherlands. In 1887 the citadel was rebuilt for the fourth time, this time being declared impregnable. Events proved otherwise however, for in 1914, after just three days of fighting, the citadel fell and the Germans held the town for the rest of WWI. WWII was no kinder, with the city being crushed in 1940 as it fell under Nazi occupation after which it was mangled again in 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge. Depressing, eh? Today, Namur is a workaday city producing machinery, leather goods, metals and porcelain with some barge traffic on the river. There is a (much needed) burst of excitement each September at the Combat de l'Échasse d'Or when two teams, in medieval dress, whack each other into oblivion while standing on stilts. Fortunately we missed this. For additional exciting pictures, click here.

June 20, 2009 - Verdun, France

2010-03-04T13:22:00.017-05:00

Verdun is a enduring French icon, seared into the national memory during WWI as a proxy for the wartime military fortunes of the entire country. Throughout France, streets, squares and other features are named for this town of 20,000 people in the Meuse department of the Lorraine region of northeast France. In pre-Roman times, the Gauls founded Verodunum ("strong fort" in Latin) on the rocky ridge that the present town of Verdun occupies. Later, in 843 CE, the Treaty of Verdun witnessed the empire of Charlemagne - pretty much the whole of Europe - being arbitrarily divvied up between his three sons. Around this same time, Verdun was at the center of a flourishing trade in the sale of young boys to the Islamic emirates of what is now Spain, who enslaved the boys as eunuchs. In 1552 Verdun was annexed by France and existing fortifications were progressively embellished over the years until, at the time of WWI it was believed to be invincible and so, at staggering cost in human misery, it was shown to be.
Five or six years before WWI began, the Germans had settled on the Schlieffen Plan for an attack on France should the need arise. This plan promised a rapid penetration to the capital, Paris, ensuring a quick surrender. For good or bad, however, the plan was timidly executed when war did begin in 1914 and directly led to the stalemated mud and blood baths that continued for the next several years. In February 1916, attempting to break the deadlock, the Germans mounted a major offensive beginning an horrific 300 day battle that became, not just Verdun's finest hour, but a killing field for half a million men and the beginning of the end for German ambitions in the entire conflict.
Initially the French were woefully undermanned and quite ill-prepared for the onslaught which consequently went badly for them. General Joffrey was replaced by General Petain who, by June, had slowly reversed French fortunes until, by the end of the year, Verdun - and Paris just 120 miles to the west - were saved from occupation. This was effectively Verdun's last hurrah as a military stronghold for, in WWII, it was trivialized as the German armies swept by the entire area in just a few days on their way to Paris and occupation.
Close by Verdun is the final resting place for 14,246 American military in the WWI Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial. The cemetery chapel contains a memorial to a further 954 Americans whose remains were either never recovered or identified. More images here.

June 19, 2009 - Dijon, France

2010-02-28T16:43:00.011-05:00

On a cool (cold?) and rainy Friday morning we pulled into Dijon and found a parking spot fairly quickly. Dijon is the capital of the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne region of east central France, with about 150,000 inhabitants within the city limits. In Celtic times, tin merchants from Britain who traded with Adriatic communities, followed their route along the Seine river, passing through what was to become Dijon, before crossing the Alps into what is now Italy. A settlement called Divio was developed on this site during the Roman period, consolidating the route between Paris and Lyon.
About 1000 CE, Dijon was chosen as their capital city by the dukes of Burgundy, although it wasn't until the 14th and 15th centuries that the city blossomed into its greatest prosperity. Dukes Philippe le Hardi (Philip the Bold), Jean sans Peur (Jean the Fearless), Philippe le Bon (Philip the Good), who actually sold Joan of Arc to the English, and Charles le Téméraire (Charles the Bold) were the guiding hands leading to this success. Dijon lost its capital status however, in 1477 when it was incorporated into the kingdom of France. More recently, the city was occupied by Nazi Germany from June 1940 to early 1945, when it was liberated by the Allies. Dijon of course, is synonymous with mustard. Moutarde de Dijon however, refers only to a manufacturing method for a particular strong mustard relish, a recipe for a genericized product. For Dijon mustard that is actually produced in Dijon, 90% of the mustard seed is actually imported, much of it from Canada. Click here for a flavor of this comfortable French city.

June 18, 2009 - Beaune, France

2010-02-27T18:07:00.010-05:00

Beaune was a convenient stopover on our trek north, having a campsite just outside of town and a map footprint suggesting a walled city with plenty to Ooh and Ah about. With a population of 22,000, Beaune is the principal town in the Côte-d'Or department of the Bourgogne, or Burgundy region of central France.
The city center is focused around the irregularly shaped Place de la Halle that bustles with restaurants and a variety of stores. The town's major claims to fame are the 15th century Hôtel-Dieu hospital and the wine auctions, among the largest in France and certainly the major conduit for all varieties of Burgundy. Each Saturday morning there is a large market in town with a smaller one being held each Wednesday. The wine industry is the major element of Beaune's economy although tourism is also significant. It is probable that the area around Beaune has produced wine since 300 CE and, in the middle ages, the industry was largely taken over by the Catholic church who discovered that Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes flourished in the various micro-climates of Burgundy.
About half of the defensive battlements, ramparts and moat are extant and these are well maintained. Other features include a 12th century clock tower and the 15th century Romanesque/Gothic Notre Dame church. For more on these features, click here.