CHINA MEMORIES

                                        Many New Things

            We were now in the land of noodles. One day at lunch we watched a noodle maker stretch a glob of dough into yards and yards of spaghetti-size pasta. It was amazing to watch how fast his hands worked that glob of dough! Then, one evening we partook in an 18-course dumpling dinner at the Tang Theater Restaurant; before we viewed a folkloric show.

           

            Our train to Xi’an was delayed until 8 PM. Our guide told us, “Beijing has quite an underground tunnel system, so if you like, I can show you that since we have some extra time.”

            We all agreed that sure beat waiting around in the train station. We walked through an old neighborhood to reach the tunnel entrance where a local docent joined us explaining, “This is known as the Underground Great Wall. The tunnels were built during the Russia-China cold war 1969-1979. It involved 300,000 workers and the tunnels can accommodate one million people. There are many rooms and entrances-exits.”

            We were 30-40 feet underground. The tunnels had concrete walls and floor and were lighted. The hospital room could hold 600 people. In addition there was a food room, munitions room, and silk room.

We walked a good way before ending up in the silk room which turned out to be part of a silk factory.

            The huge area was amazing!

            In the silk factory I was amazed to see what a silk cocoon looks like. A gal was soaking them in water, and then she removed the dead silk worm from inside. I was mesmerized watching her stretch the silk out and out from the tiny thumb-size cocoon.

            We visited the Xi’an city wall complex on a Saturday. We were just about to leave when we realized there was a wedding about to take place. The government had been encouraging couples to save money by engaging in group weddings. This was the first to take place at the picturesque spot. Our guide managed to get us to a good viewing area. Thirty couples wed that warm sunny day. We stayed for the bridal procession and the beginning of the ceremony, which took place over a loud speaker. It was interesting and the next day all over the newspaper.

            After a long, but interesting, museum visit in Xi’an our guide directed the van driver to an authentic foot massage. We all indulged in the 70-minute, $20 massage. Ah, what a bonus! One gal’s feet experienced a miracle when her falling arches no longer pained her. We all relaxed in a room containing five chairs and five therapists who worked in harmony. Someone else kept us supplied with hot jasmine tea.  At the end I was asked, “Did that feel good or what?”

            Yes indeed it did!

            Just a word about toilets. My visit was a year or two before Beijing hosted the Olympics, so I cannot speak to any improvements made for them. We coped with eastern toilets which generally meant a hole in the ground. Our hotels did have modern toilets, but airports, restaurants and public facilities did not. It was good to know this ahead of time as for women a skirt is the best attire to cope with these toilets. Squatting is not the biggest problem; getting up is! With no handholds and to avoid touching a probably less than clean floor one had better have good thigh muscles! I must also add that this really was not a problem for any of us, as I think we had all done our homework and were prepared for what we’d find. China was not the first place I have had to cope with the hole in the ground!

PORT ROYAL, CANADA

                          A National Historic Site

At the National Historic Site, Port Royal, a costumed docent joined our group and led us to one of the buildings saying, “The area now known as Nova Scotia, Canada, changed sovereignty frequently, as it was fought over in the 1600 and 1700s by the French and English. In 1603 a Frenchman, Pierre de Mons’ received a fur monopoly for a large area of North America on the condition that he establish a colony.”

            His first expedition arrived on St. Croix Island in 1604. That first winter almost half of the 70 colonists succumbed to scurvy. The following summer, in 1605, French explorer and mapmaker Samuel de Champlain recommended a new site across the Bay of Fundy. This first European settlement in Canada was named Port Royal.

            Just as the settlement was becoming self sustaining there was word that the trade monopoly had been revoked, so the colonists started returning to France and the site was left in the care of Membertou, chief of the native Mi’kmaq.        
          In 1610 de Mons’ returned to Port Royal with a small expedition and was warmly greeted by the Mic Mac. The settlement lasted eight years, then in 1613 while the French inhabitants were away, an English expedition from Virginia looted and burned the settlement. When a French ship arrived the following spring the 22 inhabitants of the burned settlement were found living among the Mi’kmaq who had fed and housed them for the previous five months. The French returned to France on the supply ship and it was a generation later that the French again returned to the Annapolis basin to establish a settlement six miles from the original one.       (Mi’kmaq and Mic Mac are the same people, just different spelling of French, English and Native lamgiuages.)

           The Port Royal settlement was reconstructed in 1939 by the Canadian government from Champlain’s descriptions and engravings.

Seated on wooden benches at tables in the “meeting room”, the docent caught us eyeing the pewter tableware and said, “The pewter plates and mugs once used by the settlers contained 60% lead!” Aha, a good source for lead poisoning and a shortened lifespan!

         Grabbing a beaver tail and top hat, the young docent continued, “The prized fur in the 1600s was beaver tail. The pelts were shaved, then pounded and pressed to produce a felt that was used to make hats all around the world.”

          Because of the long harsh winters Champlain established the Order of Good Cheer---the oldest social club in North America. Two or three times a week a member of the settlement was responsible for providing food and entertainment for the entire settlement of 35-40 men. This not only lifted the spirits of the men, but also provided a better diet, lessening illness. The addition of seafood---dolphin and seal, both high in vitamin C---prevented scurvy.           

       Adjoining the all purpose room was a small chapel, and in 1610 the first baptism in North America took place when the Mic Mac chief was baptized.

        The docent continued, “In those days Europeans were short, averaging just a bit over five feet, and the average lifespan was 35-40 years. Chief Membertou was over six-foot tall and was 100 years old! What was the difference? Well one was that the Indians bathed several times a week compared to the Europeans bathing only once a quarter---if it was necessary. That might have had something to do with it.”

        I was interested in the period dress of the college students working as docents for the summer. What a neat way for these young people to learn their history! Wooden shoes, called sabot in French, were worn over knee high woolen stockings. Black felt, linen lined, knee-length pants were reminiscent of the knickers worn in the 1920-30s. A long sleeve white homespun shirt was topped with a vest.

       When the Frenchmen would get angry at something they sometimes would take off their sabot (wooden shoe) and throw it into the cogwheel fouling things up, thus comes the word sabotage.

BUDAPEST'S PARLIAMENT

                                A Spectacular Building

            On two previous visits to Budapest I had only seen the Parliament building from the outside, and from the water it is spectacular. As the largest, most beautiful, and best-known building in Budapest, it is one of the symbols of the city and on this visit my number one priority was to tour the inside of the building.

            We left early in the morning to ride the subway to the proper station, which was easy. We had been told that various tours were held in various languages. It was a bit of a challenge to find the right entrance to buy tickets, and when we finally did we had missed the English tour by a few minutes. We bought tickets for the next one, an hour and a half later.  There is not a lot to do in the immediate area of the Parliament building. The river was high and the steps leading from street down to the river were under water more than half way up and blocked off.  We walked along the Danube River and walked across the famous Chain Bridge. My traveling buddy on this trip was not much of a walker and I exhausted her walking across the bridge where on the other side she didn’t want to walk any farther. So we backtracked and found a café to sit and enjoy a cup of café while we waited for our tour.

          The Parliament House is a neo-gothic structure with a renaissance dome. It is one of the largest state buildings in Europe.1945 was the only time before 1990 that an elective legislature convened in its great hall.

Resembling Westminster, it was built 1885-1902. Its 691 rooms occupy 17,700 square meters.  Measuring 871 feet long and 383 feet wide, it is one of the largest parliaments in the world. The dome is 312 feet high. The building can be seen from most anywhere on the riverfront

Fifty 5-story apartment blocks could fit inside this huge building. There are 27 entrance gates. We walked up the 96 step grand entrance hall over the red carpet. This hall is magnificent.  There are 90 statues and coat of arms of Hungarian cities, and 152 statues and pictures of national fauna throughout the building. There also are 40 kilos of 22-23 karat gold used in the building.

The central dome hall has stain glass windows. The inner dome is 27 meters high while the outside dome is 96 meters high. I wished I could lay down on the floor to better view the ceiling frescos. From the central dome there are two identical wings. The red star on top of the dome was removed in 1990. Walking down one hall the guide stopped to point out the brass cigar holders that line the window sills outside the debate room. One would place his cigar in a numbered slot and it would continue to burn for as long as the gentleman was in session. I tried to photograph this unique piece of memorabilia but had little success.

The inside of Budapest’s parliament is spectacular! The Hungarian Holy Crown and coronation insignia are kept here under the central dome. We arrived just as the guards were changing.

You know nearly every venue exits through the inevitable gift shop. There was so much to see on this tour, I simply couldn’t write fast enough as the docent explained one thing after another, so I was desperately looking forward to buying a book in the gift shop. But it was not to be, because believe it or not, Parliament did not have a gift shop!  For the rest of my stay in Budapest I checked every bookstore I could find but could not find any kind of a book that explained the history and the building’s contents or features.

The tour was well worth our time. If I ever get back to Budapest I’ll repeat it again to obtain more information. It is truly a gorgeous building.

KILLARNEY, IRELAND

                                        Muckross House

           

            In Killarney, Ireland we started this visit in the restaurant where we enjoyed a late morning pastry and tea before a well-informed, young, male docent met us to tell us all about this marvelous house. He started by saying, “The red wallpaper was made in Paris in preparation of Queen Victoria’s 1861 visit. Preparations for this visit took five years and bankrupted the owner who was looking for a title from the queen. However, shortly after she returned to England, Prince Albert died and all thoughts of a title faded.”

            The lovely mahogany table in the center of the room measured 6 X 18 feet. Several smaller tables in the house had the most gorgeous intricate inlay work I’ve ever seen. They were gorgeous.  Ornate plaster ceilings dated back to the 1800s.

            A Spanish leather screen in the drawing room had great detail and color. The Waterford chandelier sparkled like diamonds. Oak floors throughout the house were original.  The game room walls were covered with silk, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper. The rope design banister on the front staircase was a contrast to the plain rail on a staircase in the back of the house.

            Muckross has 70 rooms and at one time housed 23 servants. The house had no running water for 31 years, thus the small bathtub  looked more like a foot bath. A look out the window in the master bedroom revealed a fantastic view of the lake and mountains---a picture postcard view!

            In Victorian days all children, that includes boys, were dressed in lace and looked like girls, in fear of a son being kidnapped. What an interesting tidbit!

            The Queen’s bedroom was rather plain with a brass chandelier. Electricity was not installed in the house until 1970! Queen Victoria was fearful of fire so carried along her own firemen as part of her compliment of 100 attendants! She also carried her own bed with her. She stayed at Muckross two days. She thought the Ring of Kerry (a circular road thru the countryside) was beautiful and in effect put the area on the map.

             The old servants’ dining room in the basement now houses the weaving room where beautiful scarves and other items are made.  The bell corridor displays most of the 32 original bells—each a different size and shape making its own distinctive sound. When servants delivered food they had to whistle all the way to prove they were not nibbling enroute!

            The house was delightful and the informative docent made for a memorable visit. 

            On this Ireland trip there were several times that we were able to get in some short walks or strolls. They were a pleasant respite and always in lovely scenic places.

            Our first stroll was after seeing the Cliffs of Moher. The van driver stopped to let us out so we could  stroll down a country lane---just one car wide---to Donnagal Castle. The lane was lined with wild blackberry bushes. I think by the time we were picked us up I had picked and eaten at least a pint of berries—vine ripened they were so good!

            A day or two later on our way to Cork we stopped to walk through the beautiful wooded grounds of Donnarail. In the 1700s St.Ledger bought the estate and its 400 acres of woodlands. Then he hired Lancelot Capability Brown to landscape it. Clusters of trees were left, but grasslands were extended and the river diverted. The result was magnificent! It was a wonderful walk up to the castle which was under restoration. What a view they had from their front windows! I even found a fairy tree here.

            In Kinsale we walked the paved Scilly (pronounced silly) trail that weaves alongside homes overlooking the harbor. The landscaping on the hill’s homes hid them from the path below. There were fewer blackberries here, but I still managed to pick and eat a cup full. It was a lovely warm day and the scenery was exceptional. I hated to see the path end at the city. Generally we had the trails to ourselves.