Queen Victoria's Christmas Decorations

As pictures are worth more than words, here are some of the decorations on Cunard's Queen Victoria. 

 

I particularly like the Gingerbread Village.....

Do you like Liquorice Allsorts?

Staten Island, New York

To get a good look at the Statue of Liberty without actually visiting it, some tourists take a round trip on the Staten Island Ferry, which is a mistake.  Staten Island has some wonderful places to see and people to meet.

For example, Historic Richmond Town is fascinating and you meet people in ‘olde worlde’ costumes, visit their homes, the general store and America’s oldest Elementary School.

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center is a collection of Greek Revival Buildings.  At one time it was a refuge for retired merchant seamen and now houses art galleries and museums surrounded by woods and gardens.

A favourite corner of Staten Island is the Botanical Garden, which is beautiful and peaceful.  It is a must for fans of the children’s book, “The Secret Garden” (by Frances Hodgson Bennett) because in here is a Secret Garden based on that story.  It is a maze made up of intricate pathways lined with evergreens, which leads to a walled secret garden.  Overlooking the one-acre site is a 38ft castle – complete with drawbridge and a moat.  Although designed for children, everyone enjoys strolling through the maze to find the secret garden.

The Alice Austen House Museum is a must for photographers.  Alice was a photographer who lived in a Victorian Cottage at the turn of the 20^th century and the rooms are filled with samples of her work.

The Sandy Ground Historical Society celebrates the first community established by freed slaves in North America.  The museum and library document the life and history of the people who settled here before the Civil War.

Film fans may recognise parts of Staten Island.  Films in which it has been featured include “Working Girl” and “The Godfather”.  “Casa Corleone” was, in fact, a pair of Tudoresque homes in the Hamilton Park neighbourhood – look for Longfellow Street, but don’t expect to meet members of the Corleone Family!

Flagstaff Houses Tea Ware Museum in Hong Kong

It is amazing the number of people who automatically connect tea with the English.  Presumably because they introduced Afternoon Tea to the West.  Of course, a little thought tells us that tea comes mostly either from India or China.

The Museum of Tea Ware in the Victorian Flagstaff House - a World Heritage Site - has a fine collection of Chinese tea ware.  It is a FREE museum in Hong Kong Park and has exhibits ranging from the Yongle (early 15^th century), the Qing Dynasty (17^th century) and, the museum’s speciality, Yixing (post Qing). 

Built in the mid-nineteenth century, Flagstaff House was the home of the Commander of the British Forces.  One of the oldest surviving Colonial-style buildings in Hong Kong, it is a large white two-storey four-square edifice surrounded by pillars supporting a balcony around the upper storey.  A grand piece of Victoriana.

The museum’s historic collection of tea utensils are in porcelain, earthenware and even gold, including a “monk’s cap” ewer of the Yongle period.  The name is derived from its shape – that of the caps worn by Tibetan monks. 

Yongle began as white ceramic – nicknamed “sweet white ware” (thought to be because of a resemblance to sugar) – with a tracing, usually of floral scrolls.  Sometimes they were also gilded. 

Later Yongle was produced in red and blue.  For example, a white dragon on a red background or red sea monsters on an underglaze of blue waves.

Other items on display include a pewter tea set with a decoration of dragons, flowers and shou characters; a set of 12 plates in the famille-vert style representing Flowers of the Month; and a beautiful large red clay teapot with a pierced bamboo motif.

During the Qing Dynasty the earlier blue and white pottery evolved into several shades of blue, through the famille-vert and eventually broke into multi-colours.  The designs became far more elaborate, using landscapes and illustrating stories such as the “Romance of Three Kingdoms” and “The West Chamber”.

Amid all the beautifully elaborate pottery in the display cases is a Persimmon teapot.  This was made in the 8^th  to 10^th centuries and is shaped like a persimmon – brownish, round, with a lid, small handle and a spout.  The original of the Brown Betty teapot.

I only went into Flagstaff House to get out of the heat and ended up spending a fascinating time tracing the history of the teapot!

The Parque Maria Luisa in Seville

Having done the tourist walking around this wonderful Spanish city, my senses were screaming for something more restful such as a stroll through the gardens behind the Palacio de San Telmo. The Parque Maria Luisa.  The palace once belonged to this princess who, in 1893, donated the land for the park.

Most of the buildings were a part of The Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 which was held here and some of the extraordinary buildings represented various Latin American countries.

Nowadays they are put to other uses.  For example, the tourist office is in a tan and cream striped fort called the Queen's Sewing Box. It was once the Princess's garden lodge where she spent a lot of time. Sewing, one presumes.

The Peruvian Pavilion is modelled on the Archbishop's Palace in Lima. The Seville pavilion is now a theatre and casino with wonderful apple green, gold and cream interior decor and a gorgeous mosaic roof. Then there are the buildings of Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, which together form the Seville School of Dance.

There is a wonderful museum in Plaza de America. The Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares.  For anyone who is interested in Andalucia this is a must housing as it does an exhibition of the arts and traditions of the area.  There is the history of azulejos (ceramic tiles), and displays of costumes and musical instruments. The building is a glorious creamy structure called the Mudejar (Mohammedan) Pavilion. Green tiled roofs, tiled arches, towers and balconies.  Very picture postcard.

Opposite is the Archaeological Museum in all its neo-Renaissance splendour.

The gardens themselves are a variety of formal and natural with statues, fountains, pools and even a waterfall.  I fell in love with some of the wonderful ceramics which include everything from benches on which to relax to the playful – and colourful - ducks and frogs in the pool around the base of a fountain.

The piece de resistance in the park has to be Plaza de Espana.  As you would expect from the host country, the grandest building of the lot.

The square is, in places, like a huge chess board with a fabulous fountain in the centre. The building is crescent-shaped, curving round as if to protect the square. And all around is a stream edged with the most fantastic balustrade you have ever seen - blue, yellow and white azulejos. You can either stroll across the square to the main entrance or take a rowing boat round to it.

 

The entrance is fabulous. Across an arched bridge over the stream and into a colonnade of white pillars. And, of course, more azulejos to admire.  All around the building are arches and at either end towers that reach into the sky with tiled domes, looking like elaborate minarets. 

Totally breathtaking.

I've been up Mount Etna!

At long last another wish crossed off the list. I've been up a volcano. No, not climbing it but in a coach. The cruise ship anchored offshore at Messina and I was out on deck to take photos of Mount Etna.

The view is magnificent. The town hugs the shoreline, the hills and lower slopes are clothed in bottle green trees and above towers Etna with patches of snow and black lava fields.

Taken from the coach. 

As the coach ascended we drove through small colourful towns and farmland, past home and gardens. Not sure I would like to live there but the guide assured us that Mount Etna is 'kind' inasmuch as it gives fair warning of an eruption. Must be worrying to leave your home and wonder whether - when the eruption has finished - you still have a home.

We also drove through woods of oak, beech, birch, eucalyptus and chestnut trees. And the vineyards. I am told they produce great wine.

Eventually we reached as far as the motor road goes and parked. Time to do our own 'thing'. I don't know if anyone in our group climbed up to one of the two cones that they could look down into the crater. Not for me. I was content to wander, take photos and sit until it was time to return to the coach.

The sticks at the top are the brave checking out a crater!

I did make one purchase - a jar of eucalyptus honey. And very nice it is too - a bit more 'bite' than the over-sweet honey we buy in the supermarket.

Some of the cars from a French Porsche Club. 

Beautiful Croatia

View from bus - ship in distance!

'Why does the boat keep turning round? Oh, oh, got a picture of the trees.'

We were on a coach excursion from our ship which was anchored off Sibenik and returning following a gorgeous tour through countryside and up and down hills. Near to where I was sitting there was a lady trying to take a photograph of the 'Aurora'. Why did the ship keep turning around? We were negotiating hairpin bends so, of course, kept seeing the ship from different angles.

Fortunately the lady had a good sense of humour because we all ended up in stitches at her antics. 'I got a lovely picture of a petrol pump.' Time for more laughter.

'And she took about 300 photos,' rejoined her friend.

Our first stop on the tour had been at Primosten, a small walled town. Whilst the more able followed our guide (Tea - pronounced TIA) up a hill to look at a church, the rest of us strolled or sat and had coffee. It was beautiful day with a beautiful view from the pavement cafes.

Following this stop we were driven up into the hills to an old family farm. There we ate fresh nuts and drank a rather strange liqueur. Good job I had my faithful bottle of water! There was time for a quick look in the rooms decked out to show how life was once led, then it was time for lunch in the great stone-built barn. We were seated around long tables with bottles of red wine, bread, cheese and prosciutto .

After lunch there was time for a look around the gardens, watch a costumed lady crocheting and petting a friendly donkey. I was pleased that there is a small shop where the lady sells her work. Yes, I was tempted - a pair of mauve crocheted earrings.

This was a lovely restful trip which finished with lots of laughs. Following her attempts to get a photograph of the ship from the coach, the lady took an excellent photo from the dockside as we waited for the tender to return us to the Aurora.

Primosten beach

A Thousand Years of Architecture along the Thames.

Although Tower Bridge is Victorian Gothic, William the Conqueror began the Tower of London in 1066. Opposite on the South Bank is the very modern glass building housing the Assembly of London, ironically opposite the Tower's Traitors' Gate. And, anchored nearby is the ultimate boy's toy - HMS Belfast a retired Royal Naval ship now a museum.

The Shard

One of the newest buildings in London is The Shard, a tall tapering glass construction at London Bridge Station from where you can see across the whole of the Capital.

Back down to earth to continue discovering more history, this being Southwark Cathedral which has brick Gothic ceiling, arches and windows.  There is a magnificent stained glass window behind the altar and statues on the reredos.  Or maybe you prefer the charmingly carved choir stalls.  As you stroll down the side aisles it is difficult to know what to look at first.  There is a memorial to William Shakespeare with, above, a stained glass window in which his plays are represented.  Nearby there is also a memorial to Sam Wanamaker. 

Southward Cathedral

John Harvard, the founder of the American university, was baptized in the Cathedral in 1607. He was born in London and is celebrated in the Harvard Chapel. 

Amid the modern - and sometimes weird - office blocks on the north side of the river can be seen the spires and towers of some of the old churches which survived the London Blitz or were faithfully reconstructed. The most distinctive of these is, of course, Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral.

To continue strolling along this stretch of river between Southwark and Blackfriars bridges is the Bankside Gallery and the Tate Gallery of Modern Art. This building was originally a power station designed in the 1840s by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

The most distinctive building is the Globe Theatre in its black and white glory. It was the American film maker Sam Wanamaker who dreamed of this re-creation.

Past Blackfriars Bridge there is a distinctive Art Deco building with the word OXO down its tower. It was originally called Stamford Wharf (the OXO being a bit of advertising) but now it is filled with restaurants, bars, shops and has a rooftop viewing gallery.

Near Waterloo Bridge is the large complex containing the Royal Festival Hall which you can look around, the Hayward Gallery and the National Film Theatre. This is the area where the Festival of Britain took place in 1951. Something very difficult to miss is the London Eye, a vast ferris wheel and a great way to get views across London. It is located in front of County Hall (1922) one time home to the London County Council, then the Greater London Council but now housing a hotel, restaurants and the 

London Aquarium.

Big Ben & Westminster Abbey
Taken from The London Eye.

Beyond Westminster Bridge on the north bank is the Palace of Westminster, another Victorian Gothic building which is where our politicians work as it is, of course, the Houses of Parliament.

Across the road from that is Westminster Abbey which takes us back into the mists of time as it is about 700 years old. The original church was built in 1065, then demolished by Henry III who had this Gothic structure erected in honour of St. Edward the Confessor who was responsible for the original church. Both he and his wife, Edith, are entombed here.

I have lost count how many generations of architecture you can see along this stroll but as has been said of London - many times - all of history is here.

My First Time in San Francisco

(And some old photos!)

In the autumn/fall of 1980 when working for a UK tour company I was sent to San Francisco to help the local travel agency get organised for the first influx of British tourists.

What was really great was that I only worked five days a week (in Europe it was six or even seven days a week - in the high season). So I had lots of time to explore the city on the hills. I will admit that I mostly rode the cable car to get back up to my hotel after my Sunday morning stroll around Fisherman's Wharf. In those days it was a lot quieter and not many of the shops sold cheap souvenirs. My favourite lunch was lobster on sourdough bread. And it was lobster, not 'maybe' lobster mixed with mayonnaise to make it go further.

The really fun day and evening was Halloween. It began on the way to work when I was following a pair of ladies down a hill. But they were having trouble with their heels. I quickly realised that for the gay population dressing up began in the morning.

That evening there was a Gay Party at the hotel where I was staying. My friendly barmen insisted that I dress appropriately. Now with all the Miss Piggies and bearded brides to compete with what should I go as? Shirley Temple. I shortened a skirt, found a blouse, bought ankle socks, ribbon for a big bow to put on my curls and a huge lollipop. It went down a wow except that one man mistook me for a waitress! It was a fun evening especially as I met two dancers from the ballet - I did a lot of dancing.

Before leaving San Francisco the local agent made sure I went on the various tours and, for me, the best one was the nightclub trip. Following two excellent clubs, we went to the Venetian Room where top of the bill was Mr. San Francisco - Tony Bennett. Now that really was a once in a lifetime experience.

I have been back to San Francisco several times but none of those visits have come up to the thrill of my first time there.

The 'Two' Ship Cruise

Had to laugh the other evening at a programme on television about an Alaska cruise. I can't remember the name of the woman who was cruising but she found herself quite amusing. Why anyone would be interested in her underwear beats me.

Having shown us her cabin and unpacking (the underwear display) she said she was going to the sail-away party and recommended viewers should do so - a chance to meet new people. She was going to the Crow's Nest (lounge bar).

As she was in the Crow's Nest - a popular bar which I know well - I guessed she was on a P&O cruise.

Cut from Crow's Nest to the ship moving away from the dock. Holland America. Hmmm. I thought this style of cut and paste for travel documentaries went out of fashion years ago. A very dangerous practise with the number of people cruising these days.

I don't think I'll be watching these programmes - once I'd seen the ship I changed channels.