EDINBURGH CASTLE

        Or The Rock

It seems that everyone who goes to Scotland, runs up from England to spend a bit of time in Edinburgh, with of course a visit to the famous castle. Therefore, I hesitate to even write about the castle. Personally I love Glasgow and if I had to chose between the two cities I’d chose the lovely Victorian city over the more popular Edinburgh. If all you’ve seen is Edinburgh and you think you’ve seen Scotland, think again. The country has so much more to offer!

The majestic landmark, Edinburgh Castle, dominates the city’s skyline just as it has colored Scotland’s long and colorful, albeit bloody, history. The fort was built right into the rock, and good evidence of that can be seen as one walks around the castle. At one time 5000 people lived on the rock, today only about 500 live there. After New Town was built in the mid 1700s, people of means moved off the rock. Buildings were 12-14 stories high with no plumbing or running water. A warning shout of gardie loo was given before waste water was thrown out of the windows! Built on a plug of volcanic rock left by glaciers, there were seven barriers to get into the fort. After Mary, Queen of Scots’, husband stabbed her secretary, David Rizzio, 56 times in her presence, she moved to the castle not desiring to stay any longer  at Holyroodhouse. She delivered her son in the castle.

The castle has been a fortress, a palace, a military garrison, and a state prison. Much of the castle today is home to the military with men living in the barracks on the rock.

We climbed the tower to see the crown jewels as well as the 26 X 16-inch sandstone Stone of Destiny, weighing 336 pounds, housed there. In 1296 Edward I took the Stone of Destiny to England where it stayed under the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey. England returned the Stone of Destiny to Scotland in 1996 after holding it for 700 years. Several kings were crowned on the sandstone block.

Afterward, we stepped into the small 12^th century St. Margaret’s chapel which is the oldest building in Edinburgh. King David I dedicated it to his mother after she became a saint in 1250.

            The Castle cannon fires at 1PM each day as a time check. Our docent was cute when she said, “Most cities sound bells or some another signal at noontime, right?  But we’re Scots and we are frugal. If we send off the cannon at noon we have to shoot it 12 times, at one o’clock we only have to shoot it once.” 

            Believe it or not the crowd gathered, cameras were poised, and the cannon misfired! Why me?

            The castle was the last stop on a long city tour. After the cannon misfire we retreated to the café for a good lunch of summer cullen skink--- haddock and potato soup.Who could resist anything with a name like that? It was excellent. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and respite before tacking the walk down the Royal Mile.

DACHAU

 The First POW Camp

At Dachau, the WW II concentration camp, just outside Munich, there are no docents so it is a self-guided tour. 

Dachau was being built in 1933, even before the war started! It was the first concentration camp and the only one that lasted the whole twelve years. It was constructed under the direction of Heimlich Himmler. There were only 30,000 documented deaths; the operative word here is documented. At the time of liberation it is estimated that at least 67,000 deaths had occurred.

Dachau became the model for other camps. It occupied a closed munitions factory. The first prisoners had to make electrical and plumbing repairs, build a fence, lookout towers and kitchen. By the end of 1933 prisoners numbered 2700. The camp was planned for 6000.

Looking at a map on display I counted 75 camps had been built by the end of 1935! Nine more were added between 1936-1939.  After 1939 and the start of the war, conditions within the Dachau deteriorated considerably.

On arrival each prisoner surrendered his property, his rights, and his human dignity. Men from 26 countries found themselves inside the walls of Dachau. At times 400 men were in a room meant for 50. The camp was liberated on May 1, 1945 and 2226 prisoners died after that from illness and starvation.

A memorial plaque in the front courtyard at Dachau reads: May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945, because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow man. The message is written in four languages on the black marble plaque.

Solidarity and brotherly love within the camp meant survival. For some reason the gas chamber at this camp was never used. No one seems to know why. All priests imprisoned were sent to Dachau and there were over 2000 of them. They were not prisoners, they were just sent there for protective custody!

Since this was my fourth concentration camp visit, I felt Dachau was rather sterile and of the four camps I found it the least compelling; maybe because this is a reconstructed memorial rather than the original camp. Others did not agree with me, especially those who had seen only Dachau.

Only one barracks was erected. Behind it was the foundation outline of others.

I have been unable to find how the original camp was destroyed or to what extent it was destroyed.  But the present memorial is from the efforts of those imprisoned there who somehow formed an organized effort to memorialize the camp after the war.

ST ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL

                           St. Petersberg

          The present St. Isaac’s Cathedral, austerely regal by day and ominously imposing by night, is the fourth largest domed cathedral in the world. The dome of the largest church in St. Petersburg is covered with 100kg of pure gold and  dominates the city’s skyline. Taking 40 years to build, (1818-1858) a Frenchman spent his entire lifetime on the project, and died one month after its completion. Granite Finnish pillars, a 30,000-ton edifice, gray marble exterior, red granite colonnades, gold covered domes, and bronze statues make for a stunning structure that can accommodate 14,000 people. The cost to build the cathedral was ten times that of the winter palace.

            The first wooden church burned. The second church, also wooden, was built at the present site of the Peter the Great statue. Water undermined that church and it fell into ruins. Catherine the Great commissioned the third church on the present site. However, when she died it was only half finished and her son, in revenge, never finished the building, so it was 40 years before the church was completed. A total of 24,000 pilings support the church!

            The church was an active one until 1932 when it became a museum. In contradiction to Russian Orthodoxy St. Isaac’s contains 600 golden sculptures. Built with three aisles, the golden chandeliers hold many candle lights. An arch joins the large main columns. The icons on the iconostasis are actually mosaics as weather destroyed the painted icons before they were  completed. 

            The marble columns are not covered with frescos. In the center of the marble floor is a large mosaic, then the rest of the floor is done in marble stripes. Immediately on each side of the iconostasis altar door is a lapis column, then three large malachite columns stand on each side of the lapis columns.

            The acoustics in the church are perfect. All outside doors are large and heavy. The heavily carved relief door weighs 10 tons.

            The church was named St. Isaac’s because Peter the Great was born on May 30 which is the day of St. Isaac.  The interior, with its 14 varieties of marble, generous touches of jasper, malachite, gilded stucco, and many frescos, mosaics and murals, which are the major attraction. The lovely stain glass and the carved white marble iconostasis also are of special note.

           St. Isaac’s is an exception, but one almost can say if you’ve seen one Russian Orthodox church you’ve seen them all, as they follow a definite décor theme and layout. This one was mind boggling and exceptionally beautiful.

GALILEO GLASS BLOWER

   A Galileo Thermometer
Wertheim, Germany is at the confluence of the Main and Tauber Rivers. I have seen many glass blowers over the years but not one quite as unique as Hans Joachim Ittig in this small town.

Hans had a wonderful sense of humor and was most entertaining. He demonstrated how the Galileo thermometers are made. In fact they are made nowhere else in the world.  Hans is a seventh generation glass blower.

In 1960 his grandfather decided Berlin was getting too dangerous to live in, so he moved his family to Wertheim. His dad created a new industry in their new city, and now 1000 people are employed in the glass industry.

We visited his glass shop for an interesting glass blowing demonstration while Hans made a small Galileo thermometer. I enjoy the one I bought and am always amazed at how accurate it is.

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A Popular Legend

Since ancient Greek mythology, there have been legends of sirens, woman-creatures who lure sailors to their death with their sweet songs. The legend is quaint, and I’ve been in a several other places where the same legend has been capitalized upon.

Ancient Germanic legend places Lorelei, the beautiful maiden, perched on top of a 440-foot high rock jutting out into the Danube River.

A few years ago some wealthy person commissioned a bronze statue of a beautiful maiden with long flowing tresses to be placed on a point of land jutting into the river a few meters before the Lorelei cliff.

The water was rather shallow that year as the river was down because of a drought. However, a telephoto lens easily captured the statue. She looked about the size of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. Both are much smaller than PR pictures depict and what people anticipate.

MONTREAL, CANADA

                                          City Highlights

 Getting from the airport into the city entails getting the hotel shuttle, going to the Greyhound terminal and then taking a smaller shuttle to your hotel. This process took me two and a half hours and my friend from L A three hours. Once in the city it is very walkable and easy to get around. With a low crime rate it is safe to walk anywhere anytime.

     Montreal, often referred to as the Paris of North America, is the capitol of Quebec Province where French is the predominant language. However, nearly everyone also speaks English.

The city is a bustling study in contrasts where Victorian brownstones nuzzle skyscrapers, and architectural marvels soar beside stately neo-gothic churches. The city blends the old and new with ease.

In 1535 French explorer, Jacques Cartier, looking for passage to India, was the first white man to set foot on the island that became Montreal. It was the site of a Hochelega and Iroquois village. In 1611 de Champlain fortified a settlement and trading center at the confluence of the St. Lawrence, Ottawa and Richelieu Rivers. The British conquered New France in 1759, but they confirmed the right of the French people to maintain their faith, language and legal code. For many decades the minority British ran the city’s economy. In 1867 the Articles of Confederation joined the provinces of Ottawa, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into Canada which effectively ended British rule in Ottawa.

            Our first morning we headed to Notre Dame Basilica to pick up an English-speaking walking tour of the city.  The jewel of Montreal, it is one of the largest and most beautiful churches in North America. Designed with double balconies all around, it can seat 3800 people. This neo-gothic church, the start of the Catholic mission in the city, sits above the original 17^th century church. The first church was in the middle of what is now the street.

The organ has 7000 pipes. When forestry was big business, all the inside decoration was carved of red pine that now has been gilded. The marble-looking statues are carved white pine. This church has twin towers. The star-studded blue vaulted ceiling is unusual. The stain glass windows are by Limoges, and the church houses one of largest bells in North America.

            Our guide added, “The pulpit is no longer used, as microphones came into use in 1960. The architect, O’Donnell, was Protestant, but made a death bed conversion to Catholicism, so he is buried here in the church.”

            We spent a lot of time inside the church and in fact returned again another day to admire its lovely interior.

In lovely old Montreal the antique gas lights have been converted to electricity, but there is still one street where the old gas lights remain fueled by gas and are left on 24-hours a day. The cobbled old city is near the waterfront.

The monument to Montréal's founder, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, in the square marks the city’s historic center. It also marks the site where he and a few Frenchmen had a brief skirmish with some Iroquois Indians resulting in a French win. The red brick New York Life building, built in 1888 and the city’s first skyscraper, sits to the right of the square.. Many old warehouses have been converted into apartments and condominiums, and many of the old 18^th century banks have been converted into hotels.

Marche Bonsecours with its graceful silver-domed and neo-classical architecture is hard to miss, as it dominates the waterfront of Old Montreal. Built in 1847 of gray stone, the cast iron columns were brought from England. The imposing building, with its silver dome, was the city’s main agricultural marketplace for over a century and is now full of small boutiques.

Montreal’s French architecture typically has solid stone wall construction. The roofs are steep with dormers. The windows are small with many small panes in them. The glass panes were shipped in molasses from France, to prevent breakage, and then assembled on arrival. The double small windows help keep heat in the home during the winter. On the first floor the windows were what we know as French doors, and had heavy wooden shutters to cover them in winter.

 Other city highlights are noted elsewhere in greater length and detail. Montreal is a wonderful city where we had a most enjoyable and interesting time.