SURPRISES

                                            New Things Here and There

• In Germany I saw the tallest lupines I’ve ever seen. They came in all colors and seemed to be a garden favorite. Quite different from our Texas bluebonnets.

• In the Bahamas Cable Beach was a beach with no name until 1907 when it became the starting point for laying the trans-Atlantic cable to Florida that connected the island to the US mainland.

• In Croatia a linden tree is always near a church so people can sit under it to contemplate and solve problems. The tree has a heart shaped leaf and is a symbol of hospitality. The linden tree is the Croatia’s national tree. Tea is sometimes brewed from the leaves. In Belgium the linden tree is severely cut back each year. 
   
• In Belgium bell towers have a clock on all four sides---this is also true in other places.
• Scotland has 2 million sheep—two for every person in the country.
• It is possible to exchange money in at the post office and may be the cheapest place to do so.
  
  
• In Switzerland many stairs lead to a ravine tunnel elevator that took us to another stairway leading to Trummelbach Falls where the noise was deafening—the noise of 20,000 liters of water per second cascading down the mountain!. It was a damp and slippery walk up to the falls that are glacier fed from the Mts. Eiger, Monch and Junfrau. The sight was spectacular and difficult to capture on film and because of the noise it was impossible to carry on a conversation.
   
• Dutch auctions start high and go down, opposite of most auctions.

Small villages in Holland have hand operated draw bridges.

Dutch people are friendly and have a great sense of humor.

• In York, England streets are called gates from the Viking word. So gates are bars and streets are gates---confusing! I’ve seen many ancient city gates in my travels but York had the most extensive and different gates still intact. Bootham Bar is the defensible bastion for the north road. Micklegate Bar on the south was traditionally the entrance for monarchy, and the place where traitor’s heads were displayed. Monk Bar, the last bar built, is the tallest and has kept the portcullis (iron grating) in working order. It has a couple of levels and each one is defendable. On the street level is a tax door, as everything entering the city was taxed. Walmgate Bar is the only town gate in England to have preserved its barbican, a funnel-like approach forcing attackers to bunch together.

• We walked a good part of the  ancient three-mile  wall surrounding the inner city of York. The population inside the walled city is 2000, the city’s population reaches 60,000 and greater York approaches 150,000.