DRINKS---AN ADVENTURE

                    A Few of my Interesting Drinks

     Traveling all over I have had many interesting drinks, some I liked and some not so much. When biking in Germany and Austria, I drank many a spezi, and I often drink one at home. A spezi is easy to make as it is a mix of half cola and half lemonade. A lot of people put a dash of lemon in their cola, but a spezi is special to me as it brings back lots of pleasant memories,

     A tundraccino is a take-off on the popular cappuccino. This was a welcome warming drink when riding in the tundra  buggy in the cold Canadian sub-arctic. Simply mix 3 parts instant cocoa to 1 part instant coffee and add boiling water to mix. It was a pleasant change from either hot cocoa or coffee.

     In  the English Cotswolds I learned a Lemon Shanty is a drink of equal parts  beer and lemonade. I understand it is a popular drink for women, but not being a beer drinker I cannot vouch for it.

     In Regensburg, Germany, at the oldest coffeehouse in the country, I ordered iced coffee. It was good but rather different. Cold coffee was poured into a tall  glass and  topped with two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream.

At the same time a couple  elderly German ladies  arrived and ordered blond angels. This was a combination of orange juice and vanilla ice cream---perhaps their answer to our root beer floats. They must have been good as they drank a second one before leaving.

     In Vienna kaffehouses, there is no such thing as  a plain cup of coffee. It comes in many forms, each with a different  name. In one such establishment we were served by a tux clad waiter.

     In England don’t even think about ordering a cup of coffee, it leaves a lot to be desired for a coffee lover.  The one exception to this might be large American chain hotels where their coffee makers use pre-measured coffee filters to cater to the American palate. The English drink tea and there are specific rules for doing so and drinking it with a meal is a definite no no!

     In Europe coffee and tea are served in china or porcelain cups, and of course there is no bottomless coffee cup. I concede to one advantage to an overseas fast food establishment and that is one can get a drinkable cup of coffee in a take away cup. Otherwise it’s consume on the premises. A young girl in the Copenhagen airport brought that to my attention.

     This is just the beginning as there are many more drinks but we’ll save them for another day.

SOME ENGLISH TRIVIA

                                           Fun Facts

        Since the  English drive on the left side of the road, they enter a round-about to the left, which seemed strange indeed!

               Birmingham is known as the city of 1000 trades, as there were no trade guilds in the city. The trade guilds always have been, and still are, very strictly controlled.

          
  One evening we went to the local church and climbed up into the bell tower for the weekly bell ringing. It is a very involved and precise activity. The six men and women were playing tunes on the bells, and being pretty much tone deaf, I have to admit I didn’t hear much difference in the sounds. It is quite a knack to get the bells upright, where they stay until finished, and then they are lowered over a period of time. Once upright they swing and their weight turns them around in a 360-degree range. The whole process is much more complicated than I ever thought.

          
  Mr. Fortnum of the Fortnum and Mason department store was the butler to Queen Anne in the 1700s. As such, he was given the used candles. A candle was only lit once, even if it burned only for seconds. He collected these used candles, sold them, and made enough money to leave the Queen’s service and to go into business with Mr. Mason.

            A yeoman farmer is one who owns his farm vs. a tenant farmer who rents his plot of land.

            All bus and truck drivers in England, by law, are required to stop for a 45-minute rest every 4-½ hours. They are limited to driving NO more than 9 hours a day.

            I’ve previously explained ceiling bosses. Well, a carble head is the decorative part at the end of a column or curved piece in a structure. They often are concrete and appear carved with a figure of a head or a floral motif.

            It was light a little after 4:00AM each day, and stayed light until nearly 10:00PM.

          
  I had to put up with duvets at two of the hotels. I still dislike them, and am much happier with blankets.

            China clay is quarried, but only a small amount of it is sent to the china industry. It is the paper industry that has a big demand for it, as it is the substance that makes paper shiny for all those colored ads.

            A Lemon Shanty is a drink that is half beer and half lemonade.