GONDOLAS in VENICE

                                          A Must-do Activity

      Before I left for Europe the first time I was determined to have a gondola ride in Venice—one of those must to do things—and I didn’t care what it cost. My travel partner felt the same way about getting to the Moulin Rouge in Paris. So we made a deal: we  would  accompany each other on each other’s to do list—tit for tat, if you will!

    The  gondoliers are all native sons and often the job is passed on from father to son. However, they all have to pass several tests, among them swimming, driving and language tests. They are easy to spot in their navy and white stripped tee shirts.

    Many times of the day the  canals are crowded with gondolas—of many kinds—so one of the best times for a ride is during the dinner hour when most people are eating. To be serenaded costs extra.

     We hopped on a gondola one evening and ventured down much of the seven miles of the canals. Actually the  Great Road of Water consists of 170 canals and connect the 180 islands making up Venice. Our gondolier had a marvelous voice and serenaded us all evening. Of course the songs were in Italian, but one could understand they were love songs. They have their own repertoire and do not take requests, or at least ours didn’t.

    Our hotel was off the mainland ,on an island so our room faced  the canal. Every night after retiring I lay in my bed with the window open and listened to the boat traffic and the  wonderful serenading going on below.

     For most just the name Venice conjures up visions romance, canals, art and palaces. There are no roads, so no cars. All traffic is by boat or on foot. Although flat the many alleyways and bridges in the city make it easy to get lost.

    Besides the popular gondolas, there are canal taxis, which is how we got to our hotel, and  canal barges to transport goods, produce and luggage, Venice is a  fabulous city to visit and we had a wonderful time.

AMSTERDAM NOTES

                                      Some Fun  Trivia

 Nether means low land and since so much of the country is reclaimed land, the topography is very flat.

Amsterdam is full of bicycles. It is estimated there are 12 million bikes in the country. Bikes are just a means of transportation to go shopping, to work or to school. There about 11,000 miles of biking paths or special lanes.

Years ago taxes were paid on the width of a house so the houses are very narrow. Most houses are two or

House hoist

three stories high. By necessity, stairways are also narrow making getting furniture to the upper levels difficult, if not impossible. Hoists, used to lift furniture to the upper floors, are seen at the top of many buildings.

Old canals were filled in and made into roads and new canals dug. The shallow canals contain only about seven feet of water. The water level is fixed and stable. There are 2500 house boats on the canals.

The first church service was held in 1631 in Westerkert. At that time it was the largest Protestant Church. The 85-meter tall tower is topped with the Imperial Crown and the city’s coat of arms of Maximilian. Rembrandt is buried at Westerkert, and it was this church’s bells that Anne Frank could hear while in hiding

The Royal Palace is on  Dam Square

The Rijkmuseum, built in 1885 houses  important Dutch and Flemish paintings, and the building itself is extraordinary. Rembrandt’s Night Watch is a huge painting and has many details, some obvious, and many hidden.

Since the 16^th century Amsterdam has been an important center for the world’s diamond trade. Both the world’s largest and smallest diamonds were cut here and are part of the English crown jewels in the Tower of London.

By 1274 there were many watermills driven by rivers and streams. In 1414 the earliest drainage mills were invented and by 1450 many could be found in South Holland. The invention of the camshaft and crankshaft in the 17^th century made it possible to use the wind to power the mills. Although the mills did not originate in Holland, the Dutch developed the mills and made maximum use of them.

 Wooden shoes are traditional and have been found to be warmer and dryer than rubber boots. Clogs are mostly worn in the countryside and in fishing villages.  Three million pairs of clogs are manufactured every year. At one time leather shoes were a luxury only the wealthy could afford.

St. PETERSBURG,RUSSIA

                          A Lovely City Full of History

            The city, and Russia’s largest seaport, sprawls over 600 square kilometers and 101 separate islands. St. Petersburg, with its 70 canals and 300 bridges, is Russia’s loveliest city. Even though the city is the same latitude as Alaska, the Gulf Stream moderates its winter climate, which tends to be milder than that of Moscow.

            The population of 2 million enjoys 50 museums, 20 theaters and concert halls, 60 stadiums, and 4500 libraries. With 200 monuments and stunning palaces, typically of baroque and neoclassical styles, the city is a museum of architectural beauty. Nicholas I once remarked that St. Petersburg is Russian but is not Russia. Soft northern light twenty-four hours a day in summer contrasts with long foreboding winter nights. Our guide told us, “Once known as Leningrad  its citizens possess a peculiar kind of arrogance and Muscovites consider them snobbish.”

            Described as a city of water bridges and wrought iron railings, the city’s bridges range from a single foot bridge to the high elaborate decorative Palace Draw-Bridge. The bridges have a high degree of ornamentation with statues, towers, obelisks chains and grille rails everywhere. It is said that there are 90 miles of wrought iron railings in the city, often works of art in their own right. In 1932 the first permanent bridge replacing a pontoon bridge was built over the Neva River.

           In 1703 Peter the Great hiked the marshy-mosquito infected island in the Neva River delta. He decided the area was perfect for his future navy and cut two strips of soil, laid them in the shape of a cross declaring here would be his city. He forced Swedish prisoners and Russian destitutes to dredge the area, dig out a system of canals, and lay foundations for the initial structures. Then the czar compelled his subjects to inhabit the place.

            In his European metropolis his first concern was building a fortress. He also wanted to consolidate a major trade route from the Baltic Sea to Russia’s inland waterways. Despite the laborers carrying dirt in their shirts and dropping dead of malaria, scurvy, and starvation the first wooden structures of the new city were erected just five months after the ground breaking. The first structures of fortifications and a church formed the basis for the Peter and Paul Fortress.

In 1710 the imperial family moved to St. Petersburg. Two years later Peter declared St. Petersburg the capital of Russia. The aristocracy and merchant class were more horrified of moving to the uncivilized northern swamp than they were of the loss of power. However, given the choice of losing their heads or relocating, they reluctantly moved to the young city only to learn they were obliged to build large structures at their own expense. In addition 40,000 masons flocked to the city because stone buildings were forbidden to be built anywhere else.

Floods routinely plagued the island and wolves roamed free at night. In 1725 when Peter died, 100,000 people inhabited the city, and 90 percent of Russia’s trade moved through it. Except for Peter’s grandson, Peter II, who moved the imperial court to Moscow for a couple of years before his death from smallpox in 1730; future monarchs remained faithful to Peter’s dream.