Trivia---8

Playboy Turnaround

In the 1800s Count Szechenyi was living the life of a playboy in London. He returned to Budapest for his father’s funeral, but the frozen Danube River prevented him from crossing to the other side. He actually missed the funeral. After this life-changing event he remained in Hungary and became a leading figure of the 19^th century.

The first pontoon bridge across the river was at the mercy of storms, plus it had to be removed for ships to pass. Eventually the chain bridge replaced it.

Nazis blew up all the bridges spanning the Danube when they retreated from Budapest. The Szechenyi Chain Bridge was the first replaced and reopened in November 1949, exactly 100 years after the opening of the first bridge.

A Brothel Experience

When in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, we elected to spend a few days at a lodge across Hudson Bay where mother and cub polar bears are most likely to be seen.

We had a wonderful time and it was even more fun when we found out that the lodge was originally built in the 1930s as a brothel to accommodate the workers building the grain facility.

The rustic bunkhouse-lodge is only open a few weeks a year.

On my return, my daughter met me at the airport, and asked if I’d had a good time. I responded, “I stayed in a brothel.”

She stopped short, almost spilled her Dr. Pepper and exclaimed, “You did what?”

I got a lot of mileage out of this story and had a lot of fun with it.

A Big Tree

On my visit to Oaxaca, Mexico, we went to Teotitlan and stopped at Santa Maria del Tule to view the famous 2000-year-old Tule Tree. The Mexican cypress is said to be the largest tree in Latin America. The gnarled house-sized trunk divides into a forest of elephantine limbs that rise to 15 stories high.

It takes little imagination to see all sorts of figures in the gnarls of the trunk. Three small children, dressed in green sweaters and pants, escorted us around the tree shining a mirror on the trunk to point out various images. Then they would ask, “Do you see?” They were cute as can be and well deserving of our tips.

English Canal Boats

The canal system was first built in the 1700s. Mr. Wedgwood helped finance the system because too much of his merchandise was being broken via horse and wagon.

The canal locks are only seven feet wide. All of the locks are manual, and are operated by each boat crew. All the locks are operated by the same winch, which is given to you when you rent a boat. It is rather strenuous work to open and close the locks. The railroad effectively put the canals out of business until the 1960s when the canals and locks were refurbished. One can travel a long way on the 2000 miles of canals.

By necessity canal boats are narrow, but comfortable.

 

Paper Cutting

In Lowicz, Poland we visited some local women who do extremely intricate paper cutting. We were amazed to learn that they use the large shears that are used to shear sheep to cut the spectacular designs. A few young girls were leaning the craft. We spent considerable time with them, watching in awe as they cut away creating exquisite designs.