28 North Wales

We headed out on the coach to North Wales with Ian, the driver, in charge. The movie Madagascar was the in-flight entertainment. I was less than entertained by the volume of the movie coming out of the speaker directly over my head but Penny said that the sound was fine by her. She was sitting opposite me due to her shoulder injury. Her shoulder felt much better this morning, a bit worse this afternoon.

Our first stop was at Chester in Northwest England. Chester is a roman city (so what else is new in England). But here in Chester they have Roman soldiers giving school kids tours of the city.




The city has a wall on which we walked and a clock which was erected to celebrate something to do with Queen Victoria. It is said to be the second most photographed clock in the world (or maybe it was England). Whatever, I was not going to be left out, so here is a picture.





We spent most of our 2 ½ hour stop visiting the cathedral. They had an audio guide and that was very interesting. One of the interesting historic events in this cathedral was that Handel had his first ever rehearsal of the Messiah in Chester Cathedral. The debut was to be in Ireland and that was where the rehearsal was to be as well. But when the winds were not favorable for the crossing from Chester to Ireland, Handel got stuck in Chester and he asked if there were people who could sightread the music. (Evidently he was still working on the music and wanted to hear it performed). One fellow was evidently not doing well at his sightreading. Handel said: “I thought you said you could sightread.” The man replied, “I can sightread, but not on first sight!” Evidently it worked out fine for Handel.




In the choir stalls there were some very beautiful yet strange wood carvings on the seats. This is evidently what happens when you describe an elephant to a wood carver who has never seen a real elephant. Note the horse-like legs including hoofs.



We then drove on to the Ambassador Hotel in Llandudno, North Wales. Llandudno is a very beautiful town on the northwest sea coast of Wales. There is a large crescent shaped bay where the town is located. The promenade wraps around the shore and a line of resort hotels front the promenade.












We felt absolutely like children as we strolled around the shore. The average age of the people out walking/shuffling/toddling/wheel-chairing around the promenade was at least 75.
We walked out on the pier and watched some fishermen as they snagged each other’s lines and the bottom of the ocean. One man did manage to catch a fish about 14 inches long. He took it off the hook and I thought he was going to throw it back as he reached toward the iron pipe railing. Then suddenly he smacked the fish’s head on the pipe to kill it and proceeded to clean it, so much for catch and release.




Just before smacking the fish.

It was then time for dinner about 6:00. We walked past the promenade to some business streets. We soon discovered that Llandudno is the proverbial town that rolls up the sidewalks at 6:00. They were really closing down everything. This includes the restaurants. There were just a few restaurants in the area that we found and most of those were only opened for lunch. We did find one place opened and ate there but at 7:00 they closed. The last couple that tried to come in was turned away. I bet the students are going to be bored silly. It is 8:14 and we have been back in the room (small but fine) for 45 minutes or so. Maybe there is something on TV.

Day 2.

Today was a fabulously sunny day in North Wales. We headed out at 9:00 for a bus tour to see the beauty of this land. Our first stop was at Caernarfon Castle.

It turns out not be a castle at all but rather a royal palace. Evidently you can tell by the small statues that decorated the top of the walls and the towers that are polygon shaped rather than round or square. We took a guided tour and our guide was very informative. He was very Welch and took every opportunity to talk about the English with an ever so slight disdain in his tone. He said the English never could get along with their neighbors. They tried and failed to conquer France, Scotland and Ireland. They did manage, under Edward I to conquer Wales. Edward I being the king of two countries and began to fancy himself an emperor and decided to build a palace in Wales. That was Caernarfon. It was a very defensive fortress with the highest technology of the time. The arrow slits have a single narrow slit from the outside but on the inside there were three openings that all shared the same slit. Picture a ↑ with the 3 arms on the inside all leading to the same point opening on the outside. This made it look like you would only have 5 archers shooting at you if you were trying to attack the wall but in fact you could have between 15 and 30 (high and low shooters from each hole on the inside).

Other tidbits we learned from our guide: The moats also served as the septic tank for the castle which made them very uninviting for invaders to plunge in and swim across. Most castles have small spiral staircases. We had heard at other castles that this was built in a counter clockwise direction so that the defender on top could use a sword in his right hand and the invader would not have room to use his right hand for the sword. Our guide here at Caenarfon said this was not true. He said soldiers (at least those attacking castles) at the time would likely have been in armor. The swords used were not the small swords of the movies but rather large heavy rather dull swords used to bash in the head of a man in a suit of armor. This armor was why they built spiral staircases. If you have been in a spiral staircase you know that the steps are very narrow on one side and slightly wider on the outside. Now image a soldier in a suit of armor with armor shoes with pointed toes used for kicking your enemy. They would not be able to climb those stairs.

We also saw that in the kitchen that they had hot and cold running water. One trough ran through the fireplace so that you would have hot water.

The cooking spots had places for very large pots where they kept a fire burning all the time (because it was easier to keep it burning than to light a new fire – no matches). He said that thus the big brass pot was always there and always hot. So they did not wash it. They would just add new stuff to the pot when it got low. Thus there was a lot of really old food that was probably at the bottom. If you arrived to eat when the pot was low you would have to scrape the bottom of the pot and no telling what you would dredge up. Thus we have the phrase “pot luck.”

Outside the castle was a small market and a group of folks in traditional Welch clothing were dancing in a small park.

We then drove through Snowdonia National Park. This is where the second highest mountain in Britain is located. I use the term mountain rather loosely. These are not very big compared to most mountains but they are still very beautiful. Take a look.

We had to pass this truck (lori) on this very narrow stone wall lined road. The driver of the truck had taken a wrong turn. He had to back up and squeeze to one side while cars and our bus snuck by. There was not much room to spare.

We then stopped at Seaside Resort called Portmerion. It was built between 1925 and 1972 by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis who designed it after an Italian village. It is quite lovely but really is kind of like a Disney World town. All the houses are hotel rooms, restaurants or souvenir shops. It is not really my kind of place.

Portmerion is located on the shore of the Irish sea. The sea had gone on holiday for the afternoon. Evidently the tide was out and I mean way out.

Our final stop for the day was Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It is a now defunct mine that they take you down into and have a history of the slate miners life. They made us wear hard hats and it was a very good thing. The passages are very low (4 feet in spots) and you would hear the thud of a hard hat hitting the rock and people would laugh because you knew no one was hurt but would have been if not for the hat. The mountains around are full of slate. They still mine it a lot but most mines are now surface mines. We saw lots of half mountains where the face had been gouged out.

The evening was spent at the cinema. We took a taxi and had a popcorn and coke dinner while we watched a movie. It was fun listening to the teens come out of the theatre as we waited for the taxi. They were talking in the same manner and tone as do all teens but they were speaking Welch. Welch is a language that is full of consonants. The words sound like they are talking English but the words just do not make sense to us. It seems very different than listening to any other foreign language. Most other languages have a recognizable accent (French, Spanish, Swedish) plus the words are different. But welsh people have an English accent but speak Welch.

Sunday we left Llandudno at “half ten” (as the Brits are want to say). A short ride brought us to Bets y coed. It is a lovely part of Wales that is forested and watered. Lakes and streams are in abundance in a land that is nestled in the foothills. Streams and foothills frequently result in waterfalls and one of the prettiest is called Swallow Falls. It is just a mile or so outside of Bets y coed and that is where we stopped first. We spent a half hour or so ooohing and aaahhhing at the beauty of God’s creation.

Another couple of hours were spent in Bets y coed. The range of activities here in this tiny village are limited to watching tourists (there were plenty to choose from), looking at the cute buildings, playing in the park, waiting in line to eat, or shopping in the tourist stores. We ate and shopped mostly but I did get in some people watching. The British equivalent of the Hell’s Angels was in town. This consisted of 100 to 125 motorcycles. These were ridden by what appeared to be middle class businessmen and women who spent a lot of money on their transportation and perhaps even more on their clothing. Almost all of them were wearing full leather suits right down to the motorcycle boots and gloves, often very colorful. You could tell by looking at their faces, hands, and hair that they were not original members of the “Wild Ones.” This, I believe, was a large group who woke up on Sunday morning to some of the most beautiful weather Wales has ever seen and decided to take a ride. When they arrived in Bets y coed they determined that “My, my Bernard, this looks like a lovely place for a spot of tea!” and so they did. The ones that drove in their cars brought their dogs. The British do love their dogs.

Ray

27 Germany Day 3

Saturday Rhine River Crusie

Generally if Penny and I gamble with the weather we lose. This time we won the bet. (This was a thrill, but not so thrilling as to make it tempting to duck in to the “mini-casino” we saw. I am not sure if there were fewer crap tables or the ones they had were itty bitty.)

We looked at the weather for Friday and Saturday. Both days were rainy but Saturday had less of a chance and we opted to cruise the Rhine on Saturday. The weather was gray with occasional spots of sunlight.

The day was trains, boats and more boat. Our first transportation task was to figure out the Frankfurt subway. We were to travel to our first train change by subway. The subway (S-Bahn) turned out mostly to be a supraway. It was underground for only a few minutes and then it became a regional train as we emerged from the tunnel into the suburbs. Most subways we have been on around the world require a ticket to get through the turnstiles to gain access to the trains. The ones in Frankfurt are like the trains, you just walk on. We were told by the nice man at the ticket counter in the main train station that a conductor would check our tickets, but no one did. People got on and off with no one checking. The same thing happened on all our trips on Saturday, including a bus. We got on a city bus and paid the fare to the driver for the trip to the train station. But as we rode people got on and off without paying. I think Germany has a law that only people carrying a camera have to pay.

We had decided to catch the boat in Bingen because the man at the info place said that in the city we were thinking about starting our cruise (Mainz) the train station was a long way from the pier. In Bingen the peer was right across from the station.

Right across is only a description that is helpful if you remember to ask “right across what?” The lady at the Bingen train station directed us to cross the Rhine River and then turn left.

We started out and were soon joined by a young oriental couple who were clearly as confused about what left to take on the other side of the bridge as were we. The river bank was not easily seen from our street position. By this point in our travels I am growing less and less likely to just wonder around trying to figure it out without stopping to ask directions. The problem is that the route we were on had few people to ask. I spotted three men near a building and showed them my brochure and looked lost. (I did not start looking lost at that point. I merely continued looking lost.) It was pretty clear that the one I was closest to did not know.

When I said boat another in recognition said "boat!, that way and left." As I walked away he laughed and said to his companions "I speak English, Yah?" and then they all laughed.

The oriental couple and I saw a large boat and headed to it - wrong boat. Down the river some more we went. We made it to the correct peer a full 5 minutes before the boat arrived.

The boat is very large and very crowded. There are two inside restaurant sections with table clothed tables. There were almost no empty seats and those that were empty had reserved signs on them. We found a table that did not have a sign and sat for a few minutes before someone informed us that it was reserved despite the lack of a sign. We moved to the top opened deck.

There were white plastic chairs stacked in the middle and tables around the edge. The weather was chilly but not at all miserable with the breeze blowing. The boat cruised fairly quickly downstream but not fast enough to blow people and chairs over the side (never saw this actually happening). We unstacked some chairs and placed them in a strategic location so that we could see both sides of the river and where I could pop up and down like a jack-in-the-box and take photos.

The river was magnificent. The towns and villages were lovely. One particular town had a row of houses that looked as if they had been transported from Bergen, Norway (see the previous blog). That is not terrible surprising since the houses in Bergen were built by the German Hanseatic League who settle in Norway back in the 14th century.

Around every other bend in the river was a castle or a castle ruin. The castles were built at a time when Germany was not one nation but rather some 300 independent nations (all rather small). They built these castles along the Rhine and would put chains across the river. When boats would come by they would have to pay a toll or tax before the chains were dropped and they could sail on down to the next castle and pay again.

Penny went down to order us some lunch as I remained up top and did my photographic duty. She ordered me the special dinner and a diet coke. When they brought the food there was a diet coke and a beer. She said she did not order a beer and they said it is comes with the special dinner. (More on Penny the alcoholic later.)

The food was very good. Penny had spicey pork and french fries while I had sausage and potato salad. I think I like German food.

A young lady from Texas joined us at our table and we chatted with her. She is an accountant and her company sent her to Germany for 4 months. She was about at the end of the time. She said she really enjoyed her time in Germany. I only spent a few days here but have found that it is a delightful people and a lovely country.

While we were sitting there chatting we passed the Loreley. This is a big rock (450 feet high). It is in a part of the river just downstream from some reefs. Many medieval ships never made it past the reefs and they blamed it on a blond woman who lured them to their deaths. We did not see a blond woman (in the water) but it is a large rock. You have never seen so many people taking so many pictures of a rock. (I was one of them.)

At St. Goar (more on that below) the boat stopped and 85% of the people got off. The next hour and a half or more we had plenty of room. We went down and sat inside. I still ran out to take pictures. In one of my photo excursions I noticed that the other end of the boat was the nonsmoking section. We moved.

The German people are all going to die of cancer from smoking or second hand smoke. It has been so pleasant in England. England passed a national law that bans smoking in every public building. German has just passed a no smoking law for the trains but not for anywhere else. The restaurants do not have no smoking sections. Our boat was the only place I saw that had a no smoking section while in Germany.

We sat inside and ordered ice cream and I took pictures. It was very pleasant. There was a door to the deck right by our table.

We arrived at our departure point, the city of Koblenz. We exited the boat and took a city bus (the one we paid for and no one else did) to the train station. We caught a train that followed the river, back tracking the path we had taken in the boat. It was interesting to see the back yards of the houses along the river.

In St. Goar we stopped to see Burg Rhienfels. (A Burg is a defensive castle while a Schloss is a showplace castle.) We took the Tschu-Tschu (tram) up the very steep hill to the castle ruin. They charge you to get in and give you a map. We took our Rick Steve guide and followed the directions and read the information.

It was interesting to learn about the toilet that hung over the outside wall. This may have discouraged people from trying to scale the wall at that point.

At other places in the wall they had installed large trough like openings. The inside was wide and the outside opening was kind of narrow. If people were attacking they would pour boiling pitch down these troughs. Ouch.

We did not see the mine tunnels that are only a few feet high and muddy. They built the tunnels under some fields that are just outside the walls. That side of the castle is the only real approach to the walls as the other sides are very steep or on the river side. What the plan was (and used once) was to pack the tunnels with gun powder and if the enemy gathers in the field you blow them up. It evidently worked against some Spanish invaders in 1626.

The other interesting event at the castle was a wedding. As we were on top of the castle we looked down at a hotel near the foot of the castle and saw a wedding party getting into a convertible. A bit later they were going into the castle when we were leaving. There was a large interior room that had used candles and heaters and lights. We are not sure if they had their wedding somewhere else and were just taking photos or if they were married earlier in the castle.

Here is a little German Medeival Bathroom humor.

We went back and took the train back into Frankfurt where we had decided to go for Chinese food. We had planned to go to a restaurant that we had seen on our first night in Frankfurt but as we crossed the street from the station we saw a nice Chinese restaurant on the corner. It was on the first floor which in Europe is really the second floor. We found a very lovely wood paneled restaurant. We sat down and soon discovered that we had stumbled on the Chinese Cheers. Several large family groups arrived and were having a great time. Almost everyone in the place was oriental but us.

Penny suggested that we order the dinner for two which included 4 different main dishes, eggrolls, fried bananas and “espresso." The eggrolls were the size and shape of a hot pocket from the freezer section and very good. The main courses were duck, pork, chicken and beef. Then they brought the fried bananas and the “espresso.” The bananas were what we expected but the “espresso” was a confusion of some kind. They brought us plumb wine. My wife, the teetotaler, managed to order booze for us twice in the same day.

On Sunday we took the bus back to the “Frankfurt” airport (the one that is almost two hours away). We were in line checking in and saw 4 of our students who were on the same flight.

We got to visit with them for awhile and heard their adventures. They had been in Fussen in southern Germany where Mad King Ludwig’s castle is located. Neuschwanstein Schloss is the castle that Walt Disney used as a model for Cinderella’s castle. They had a good time there. But when they went to find their hostel it was not as convenient to the train as they had thought. They got off at the train stop and it was about 10:00 in the evening. The small town was closed. They did get directions from a local saying it was close and started to walk down the road. They stopped a bit down the road to confirm that they were headed in the right direction and a woman told them it was too far to walk and that her husband would drive them. He pulled around in a van and they said they had visions of never being seen again. But he was a very nice man and took them to their hostel. At the hostel they could not find a manager to let them in to the room. When they final got someone they did not have a reservation. They showed them the receipt where they had paid and they found that they had paid for the next day because that had put 1:00 AM on Saturday when they were arriving Friday. It worked out and they did have a place to sleep. The next day they went to the train station and one of the girls found she had left her purse (not passport) in the van the previous day and she was very upset. But fortunately the nice little old man noticed the purse and drove back to the hostel but the girls were already gone. They had left their contact information at the hostel and they called her to let her know it had been turned in. And then the lady at the hostel even drove back to the train station to return it to the girl when she took the train back to retrieve it. It is nice when you have it confirmed that there are nice people everywhere you go. Normally you only hear about the other kind.

Our train back to Grantham from Stansted was really two buses. They frequently work on the tracks on weekends and use buses instead. Our timing was pretty good and we got back pretty quickly.

We had a very good experience in Germany and I highly recommend you all go there.

Ray

26 Germany Day 2

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Ray and Penny Owens are Extreme Tourists! After the day at Oktoberfest we spent a couple of hours in the hotel business center where we can plug our computer in or use their computers. They have no free wireless. Then off to bed.

We were up at 6:00. But only because I miss set my alarm. Penny sat hers for 6:30. You need every minute of sleep when your mission for the day is to conquer 15th century Germany.

On the train we sat in a compartment with a very nice man who is a history PhD. He said he works at a museum. I got most of what he was saying about the museum but am not certain if it a mining museum or whether it is just located in an abandoned mine. He did talk about other mines in other places.

He was on holiday to Eastern Europe. He was traveling by bus, train, and bicycle. He had his bicycle with him, folded up to a hanging bag sized bag that tripped all the suitcase rolling tourists getting on the train. His bike was sitting in the hall outside our compartment.

Our trip to Rothenburg required two train changes. Each change was to a smaller regional train. Do not think that more local people were riding these smaller trains. They were filled with tourists. This small town of 3000 or so has 2.5 million tourists each year. Not all of them were there on Friday.

Rothenburg is a medieval walled city, well mostly walled. One side presently does not have a wall but it does have a very steep drop on that side of the city. That should discourage any marauding bands of Japanese tourists from storming the city from that side of town.

Most of the buildings in the old part of town were built by 1400. It was a lovely town. It was fairly quiet on Friday. This was possible due to the end of the summer season but also because of the rainy, cloudy day.

We had a hard time finding the tourist information center. The large blue “I” in Rothenburg is a small brown “I”. We were told that there was an English tour of the town at 2:00 but at that time it was raining so we opted to let Rick Steves be our tour guide.

The market square was square-ish but the one stand with wet vegetables and souvenirs hardly qualified it as a market.

We went to St. Jakob’s Church which was built in the 14th century and has been a Lutheran Church since 1544. The stained glass windows behind the altar are the originals from 1330’s.

The altar at the front of the church is from 1546. The paintings on the altar are unusual. Peter is depicted reading a Bible (a book) and using spectacles.

Also at the front is a second alter that is even older and has a statue representing the trinity. The Holy Spirit is represented by a dove bridging God and Jesus. Jesus is standing on a skull, showing that Jesus has overcome death.

In the back of the church is a glorious 35 foot high wood carving by Tilman Riemenschneider carved from 1499 to 1504. It takes time to do great art. It was originally built to hold a rock-crystal capsule that held a scrap of table cloth that was miraculously stained in the shape of a cross by a drop of communion wine. The attention to detail in the carving is impressive.

Outside the church was an apple tree with fruit laying on the ground most of which had been smashed. A father and his 2 year old son walked by and the kid seeing the fallen apples turns to his Dad and asks "Das ist kaputt?

We ate lunch in a Rick Steves recommended restaurant. He was dead on. Burgerkeller is a small cellar one flight down from the main street. Harry Terian is the owner and was a delight. We arrived and there was one other couple was eating lunch. While we were there two men came in and had a coke and a beer. Business was slow today. According to Harry, the weather was to blame. He was hoping for good weather next week which is a holiday weekend and perhaps there will be big crowds.

The dining area is a half barrel shaped room with dim lights and wonderfully decorated tables. The walls had medieval paintings on them.

Harry spent most of the time talking with the German couple or to us. He had “oldies” music playing. I told him I liked his music and he stopped for a second to listen and said, “Ah, The Mammas and Pappas, jah?”

I ordered a beef and noodle soup and sausage, mushrooms, boiled potatoes all in a cream sauce. It was delicious. The mushrooms were wonderful and a variety that I had not seen before. The sauce was sinfully rich. Penny had fried pork with homemade noodles in a sauce with a green salad.

The meals were the best we had in Germany. But the pièce de résistance were the WCs (restrooms) which were upstairs in the back. They were immaculate and looked like something from a current magazine layout. When traveling you learn to appreciate good restrooms.

Our next stop was the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum. Housed in two large buildings, it contains all kinds of items dealing with the legal system. Torture was evidently not thought of as a human rights issue. It was part of the court system. They had books that described the proper use of thumb screws for example. Rather than trying to describe this let me show you a few pictures.

This is a witch catcher. This is on a long pole and you shove this around the neck of a witch and you can keep her away from you while you haul her in.

This giant rosary was hung around the neck of people just inside the church if they skipped church (everyone had an assigned pew to sit in so they could tell if you were not there) or worse if you were there but fell asleep.

These are shame masks. If you violated a law, the court could assign you to wear these around town. One of them had a whistle in it so that when you breathed it made a noise so people would notice you. Slightly more intusive than a dunce hat.

This is a Medieval chair designed for torture but could be used as a recliner to discourage too much TV watching.

This is a book describing the proper use of thumb screws. All of these things were used by the courts.

This is a mouth pear. Evidently you stuck it in someones mouth and when you tightened the end the bottom spead out and stretched the mouth. To what purpose? You obviously are not going to get a confession from someone with that in their mouth.

After the Crime and Punishment Museum we went into a Christmas store. We were trying to find a Christmas museum but failed. The store was huge and crowded with merchandise. They were very proud of their Christmas items. Small China made wooden tree decorations (the kind you would see at Michaels or Walmart for 99 cents) were selling (but not to me) for 4 and 5 Euros ($5.50 to $7.00). Some of the fancier wooden candle twirlly spinny things were marked at 500 Euros. We did not buy anything.

After the Christmas Stores we climbed up and took a walk on the top of the city wall which is covered and thus a good thing to do in the rain. There were just a few people also walking in the opposite direction that required our squeezing by each other.

The inside of the covered walk is open to the city center and allowed peering down on everyone’s back yards. The outside rock wall has viewing holes periodically that allow photography by the people living in 1540 (okay, maybe it was for shooting arrows). Today they have stone plaques all along the wall with the names of people that provided money for the restoration and upkeep of the wall. They gave a €1000 per meter of wall. Some had 1 meter some had 5 or 10 meters. The names were from all over the world including the US but most were from Germany.

After the wall it was still raining and we decided to catch an earlier train to start back to Frankfurt. That would allow us to get off in Wurzburg and have about 2 hours to see some of the city immediately around the train station and find something to eat. The street across from the station looked promising but it was full of nice shops but not many places to eat. A trip down a side street brought us to a pub kind of place. The menu on the door looked like good prices and the sign saying “we speak English” sealed the deal.

We walked in to a small room with a dozen tables and room for maybe 50 people if every chair was filled. In the corner was a long table with a family of 8 or so adults and kids who were laughing and playing “Rook.” We sat down at a table, the English speaking waitress came and offered us English menus. Penny asked for hot chocolate and she grabbed a table card and began to describe the 15 different kinds of hot chocolate they served. She brought us our chocolate and we sat and sipped after ordering our food. As we sat there the place began to fill up. The family reunion added another 5 or 6 people and as they came in there were hugs all around (including the waitress). Other couples came in and everyone seemed to know everyone. We had stumbled into the German Cheers! It was fun.

Part of the fun was watching the kitchen staff of 3 preparing the meals through a slide up window where they passed orders and meals. It was like watching a cooking show on TV with pots flying, flip-stirring the content and pouring in some flammable liquid and then sloshing a bit over the side to flame the sauce and watching the flames leap high in the air nearly setting fire to the chef’s hat.

As they began to serve the meals to the family (one at a time) timing became a worry. We had reservations on a train and had a 15 minute walk or a 10 minute dash back to the station.

The food arrived and we paid at that point. We ate rather quickly. That was a bit of a shame because the meal was again very good. We dashed the 4 or six blocks to the train station and had six minutes to spare.

It was a good day and food, restaurants and people were a highlight.

Ray