FUN ENGLISH FACTS

                              Some English Trivia

            Stadle stones, not  saddle, are mushroom shaped stones placed under a barn. They provide a sort of air circulation/ conditioning for the barn and  also keeps out water as well as any varmints that might want to get into the barn. Although the barn sits on them they are not the total support for the barn.

           

            In the 1700s windows were open wooden framed spaces in the walls that tended to be small and few in number. Being open left the home exposed in bad weather. When it rained a cloth covered the wooden frame over the window opening. The cloth was smeared with cooking fat, and perhaps this was the original storm window.

            The canal locks on the River Avon are only seven feet wide. All of the locks are manual, no mechanized ones. All  locks are operated by the same winch which is given to you when you rent the boat. It is rather strenuous work to open and close the locks.

   We boarded a manual winch ferry to cross the river. The ferry was different than any I’ve ever seen. A fellow stood and turned a wheel, which moved a chain, and somehow that propelled us the short distance across the river.

Not all churches had sanctuary knockers, but if they did and you reached it, you were automatically granted 37 days of sanctuary. After that you were on your own

          The Saxons were farmers, who developed fleece, laying the groundwork for the prosperity of medieval merchants, who in turn built the churches and alms houses, many of which are still occupied even though centuries old!

          A ceiling boss is an ornament, often of carved wood, but can be plaster, that overlays the joints of wood or plaster beams on decorative ceilings. They are most unique.

            Slaughter, in England refers to nothing bloody, but is a Saxon word meaning place of many pools.

      Ploughman’s lunch: traditionally the ploughman (plow) took his lunch to the field with him in the morning. It consisted of cheese and hard bread or roll. I’m not sure what the drink of the day was, probably ale. Ploughman sandwiches are still popular in many areas of England.

No place is Cornwall, England is more than 20 miles from the coast and the ocean.

Cornwall, England is the land of legendary shipwrecks, with over 3000 recorded along the rugged coastline.

MOSQUE VISIT AND ARAB HOME

                        A Most Interesting Visit

My one and only visit to a mosque took place in Bosnia, and it was most interesting. The 1557 mosque had been repaired after much war damage and reopened in 2004. Now a national monument, the mosque is used only one day a week, but is open to tourists every day. Water damage ruined most of the 8000 carpets the mosque owned.  Before entering, we were told, “It is Muslim tradition that  if one becomes wealthy that he give back to the community. One way to do that was to build a mosque. At one time Mostar had 36 Mosques. One enters a Mosque with the right foot.”

             The floor was covered with carpets of various sizes and designs and it was explained that Muslims are buried within 24 hours. Caskets are not locked because in the old days when it was sometimes difficult to determine that someone was really dead, it was felt that if one woke up he could open the unlocked coffin. One is buried with the right hand pointing to Mecca.  Women do not attend funerals. There are two theories, one is that women cry too much, and the other is that women are associated with life and it is not desirable to mix life with death. After a funeral it is tradition for the family to donate a carpet to the mosque.

            Women and children remain one meter behind the man in the mosque. It has to do with praying and women wearing shirts. Obituary notices are posted on a bulletin board. Since burials take place in 24 hours, a notice in the paper would be too late.

            Mosques often  have a library and cemetery. There are no icons or pictures on the walls of a mosque. Muslims wash their hands five times a day—to wash away their sins and to go to Allah clean. They can pray on the previous wash IF one has not used swear words, slept, gone to the bathroom, looked at women or played. Pointing out the saying above the mosque door our guide said, “Each letter in the saying over the door has a numerical value, ie A=1 Z=26. Translation to numerical value tells the date of the mosque. Sayings can vary.”  

            She continued, “Arabic is the official language of Islam. Friday is a holy day and on that day services are done in the mother tongue of the location. Numbers are very important in Islam. A rosary has 33 beads because Mary is mentioned in the Koran 33 times. Saying the rosary three times accounts for the 99 names for Allah. (kind, forgiving, loving etc.)” Green is the color of Islam and is never used as a major color in a carpet; it is used only for accent. The traditional color is red.

            In the courtyard of a 1635 home of a well-to-do-family our guide explained, “If a man comes to visit he would announce his arrival from here. If his business involved the man of the house it would be discussed here also, because a woman uncovers in the home. Although these houses might be fairly close together, there is privacy behind these high walls.”

             The fountain in the courtyard was filled with four pots, representing the four seasons. There are also three globes around the fountain representing life, death and Mecca. Circles of pebbles in five sections represent the number of times a Muslim prays. In the courtyard we all removed our shoes. Prayer takes place on the floor and shoes are always left at the door to avoid tracking dirt into the house and onto the carpet-covered floors.

            Sleeping is done downstairs, but upstairs the main room is for conversation. The chests around the room were hope chests of the girls in the family. The more ornate the chest, the wealthier the family. A small room off this main room is for the baby. Mom stays with the baby for 40 days, as she is considered to be vulnerable during that time. Food is brought to her and her husband does not visit.

            A smaller bright room in the back of the house I compared to a sunroom. It is the room where women retreat to visit. Benches flanked two sides of the room. With everyone sitting at the same level no one is more important than another. Turkish coffee would be served here. Our guide told us, “Turkish coffee is served strong and very hot. If one is served cold coffee the message is you are not welcome here. However, the woman does not get up and leave. She simply never returns. No one but the hostess and the woman  involved is aware and face has been saved without any harsh words. Likewise when the intended groom’s mother visits, if the bride’s mother does not approve of the match, the guest will be served her second cup of coffee cold. This equals this marriage is not going to happen! And that is better than saying ‘I don’t like your son, your son is ugly or has pimples or whatever.’”

            That is pretty gracious! 

            Our guide showed us some clothes worn by the older generation. The women’s pants were huge but when worn looked like a skirt. However, when bending down to pray the elastic at the ankles kept the body covered. In ceremonial dress a married woman removes the tassel on her red fez hat. A single gal leaves the tassel.

            Other cultures are interesting and it is fun to learn about them. This was a fascinating and interesting visit.

MUNICH TRIVIA

                     MUNICH  (MUCHEN)

            Munich, with a population of 1.3 million, is a popular destination, so I’ll just relate a few tid bits of information you may not know. The capitol of Bavaria is in one of Germany’s sixteen states.

            Bavaria is the largest state in the Federated Republic of Germany, and is about the size of Montana. Located in the southeast part of the country it occupies about one-fifth of Germany’s acreage. Munich became the capitol of Bavaria in 13^th century. Prior to that Regensburg was the capitol.

             In 1810 Ludwig I married and threw a big party, and Octoberfest has been held in late September / early October ever since.

            Each year 110 million gallons of beer are brewed in Munich and 70-80% of it is consumed in the city. The drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for anything harder. Interestingly beer is considered liquid bread and is taxed as bread, not as alcohol.  We were told the Lowenbrau brewery’s cellars are under the street.

            BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works. In 1916 they produced aircraft engines, in 1928 they added automobiles. A car  rolls off the  production line every 90 seconds---and only after it is ordered! Their home office is a three cylindrical building that is full of windows. The BMW tower at 950 feet high is visible from afar. It resembles the space needle, and a revolving restaurant is at 650 feet.

            The  Nymphenburg Baroque summer palace and home of previous kings  was the King’s gift to his wife in 1664 for delivering a son. The Wittelsbach dynasty ruled Bavaria for 738 years, until 1918. The Palace is a half-mile long and is symmetrical with equal buildings mirrored on each side. It took 150 years to finish the Palace. There are 500 acres of park in the back. When the family moved to Munich they hardly came alone considering they brought 500 horses and 1000 servants!

             A local docent told us, “The city has 50 museums and 70 theaters. The population has doubled since the end of the war, and 80% of the apartments are new. All the high rise buildings are in the suburbs because an ordinance prohibits any building taller than Our Lady Church. There are 210 churches in the city.”

The Opera House Pennies Built        

            Munich’s Opera House, built 200 years ago, was the largest at that time. Unfortunately it burned five years later, and  there was no money to replace it. So the people paid an extra penny for each beer and soon there was enough money to finance the present building. It seats 2000 people and employs 1000 people.  There  is a rule that no opera will be performed on any two successive days.

A Glockenspiel          

            I’ve seen many unique clocks in my travels, and someday I’ll gather them all for one post. So I was anxious to see the one in Munich. Just before lunch we hurried  to Maria Square where we joined a large crowd gathered to watch the 10-minute performance of the glockenspiel at noon. It is located in the tower of the new City Hall, which looks like a large Gothic church. It plays at 11:00 AM (we missed that one) and again at noon. The figures in the 1908 clock are about six feet tall. The bells ring first, then the figures move around in a circle. It is over when the rooster at the top flaps its wings and crows three times.

SCOTTISH MEMORIES

                        A Little Scottish Trivia

        One day learning we were stopping at a wool center for a dog demonstration I did a ho hum saying to my pal, “How many of these sheep dog shows have we seen?” 

       But this one was quite different. At the end of  a dog show and tell lecture/demonstration  a Border Collie did round up some ducks out on the lawn. It was explained that a couple of years previous thousands of sheep were destroyed because of  hoof and mouth disease, so ducks were used as a substitute and because they worked out so well it has continued. It was a real hoot to hear the ducks quacking as the dog herded them  into a relatively straight line and march them out of the arena!

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         On one stop in Scotland we were lucky enough to happen upon The Alex Walker Accordion Band. The impressive thing about this little band was the age span of the participants. There were a couple very elderly people and a little one 5 or 6 years old; the rest every age in between. What a wonderful intergenerational group
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              After lunch  in the delightful little village of Dornoch, we ventured out in the Scottish Mist    walking through town to visit the 1239 Presbyterian Church. Inside we had a delightful conversation with a couple of elderly ladies who told us, “This  is  the church where Madonna had her son christened. Prince Charles also visited the church. The church was originally Catholic.”

             One of the ladies proudly continued, “The hotel across the street was once the home of Andrew Carnegie.”

             They forgot to tell us that Dornoch is the area where the last witch burning in Scotland took place in 1722. An old woman was accused of  turning her daughter into a pony and riding it around town. She was sentenced to be burned alive in a pot of boiling tar.
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      Leaving the Robert Burns home, our driver, stopped at Brigadoon for a great  photo op. The word Brigadoon had been part of my vocabulary for years, but I never really knew what it meant. Our friendly guide said, “Remember brig means bridge, and this picturesque medieval stone bridge is over the River Doon.” Thus the light in my head went on!

THE ORKNEY ISLANDS

                         Islands Way North of Scotland

It is said that in the 15^th century a Dutchman by the name of John O’ Groot, with two brothers, would ferry people to the islands for a small fee of 4d. Eventually this 4d became known as a Groat and I guess you could say the first ferry system to the Orkneys was born. 

It seems Mr. Groot had seven sons and to stop arguments of who would sit at the head of the table he designed an octagon table. Then he built a house with eight sides with eight doors so everyone could enter the house at the same time.

The octagon-shaped gift shop was at the end of the pier. We had but a five-minute wait for the ferry and it started to rain just as we boarded. It was windy and cold so we sat in the cabin for the 45-min ferry crossing. Fortunately the seas were calm.     

Six or seven Orkney buses were waiting for us as we disembarked the ferry as there were a lot of other people on the ferry besides our small group. It stopped raining and was a beautiful day. Island tourism was so well organized that we never saw another group until the very end when we got back to Kirkwall to board the ferry back to the mainland!

We were told, “There are 20,000 people living in the Orkneys, 100,000 head of cattle and sheep and very few trees. Fishing, silver jewelry, and North Sea oil are our major industries.”

            We rode over hilly grass-covered barren landscapes. Long  rows of plastic covered baled hay were seen frequently. Farm plots were large. Winters are not as severe as one would think because of the Gulf Stream. However, the winds are harsh and strong.

Our guide said, “The Orkneys have not always been part of Britain, but were part of Norway until 1460. In that year Norway’s King Christian’s daughter married James II of Scotland and the Orkney Islands was her dowry. Orkney’s 70 islands cover 376 square miles and have a coastline of 600 miles. Only 20 islands are inhabited.”

Crossing over what looked like a long causeway it was explained, “These are called Churchill Barriers. During W W II Churchill ordered Scapa Flow, a key anchorage in both world wars for the Royal Navy, blocked off to keep out German submarines. Hundreds of Italian POWs helped build the four barriers connecting five islands. The concrete blocks look like they are placed helter skelter, but they are not. Some are five-ton concrete blocks and others are 10-ton. They are placed on an angle so that rough high seas do not wash out the road on top of the barrier. The 66,000 concrete blocks were made in Orkney

One night during the war a German U boat managed to slip though the barriers at midnight and  sink 53 of  the 74 British ships at anchor before escaping. The Royal Oak had been left behind to protect the radar station. She was torpedoed and sunk in 1939 with 830 of her 1200 crew aboard. Her hull is still visible.

At the end of W W I the German High Seas fleet was interned at Scapa Flow pending armistice negotiations. On June 21, 1919 Admiral von Reuter gave the command for seventy German battleships, cruisers, and destroyers to be scuttled rather than fall into British hands. They are still at the bottom and now are a source of interest to scuba divers from all over the world.

We stopped mid morning for tea and shortbread at a little café. It was a delightful stop. The local beer is called Dark Island and at lunch it was reported that it was a good brew. It seems the original distiller was a minister and bootlegger.