LA to Sydney is a long way, but, once again, I thought the exit row seat was worth the money.
My younger daughter met me at Canberra airport. It was good to see her . A little after we arrived home, my elder daughter and her family arrived to say 'welcome home' which was nice.
I did spend some time daydreaming on the plane about what I would do if I went to New York for a holiday ( as opposed to rushing around fitting as much in as possible). Walking in Cornwall and Norfolk and going to Florence are still very high on the list too.
Till next trip.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Thursday Waiting, waiting
I am determined not to get edgy today and I will wait patiently . I am currently in Washington Dulles airport with far too much time to spend.
Yesterday it was hard to work out when to leave my apartment. From my observation the timetables for the buses on their official website are more suggestive than definitive. At least the frequency was probably accurate. How do you allow for the possibility that He might want to go somewhere again? Somewhere recently I read that they suggest 3 hours ahead and I have read of people, in the last 6 months , arriving 2 hours before and missing their flight. So I erred on the cautious side. I left my apartment at 6, got to the bus stop at 6.10, got onto a bus at 6.11, got off the bus at 6.35, got onto the next bus at 6.35 ( the first bus tooted at the 2nd bus so that he waited for me) , got to the airport at 7.40, put my bag in ( about 2 minute wait in line) , talked nicely to the lady and got an exit row seat which I had not paid for , went through security ( about 3 minutes wait in line) , caught the train to the correct group of departure gates, found my departure gate and it was 8:10. How good was that? If I just missed buses I might have got here 40 minutes later and then it might have taken me significantly longer. Unfortunately we are not due to board till 11.20.
Later :
I am now sitting in a very pleasant place in LA airport. Because my previous flight was changed about 2 months became I left to a 3 hour earlier time, I arrived in the LA international terminal at 2.30 LA time and my next flight boards at 10.10pm. I wandered through the seating areas, all the charging poles were taken, It was noisy, but I’ve heard worse. If I can pay for a night’s accommodation in Sydney before my flight over, I can pay to sit in a very peaceful place, with a very comfy chair, my laptop and Tabatha both plugged in and recharging next to me, included snacks. There are not many people here.
I am determined not to get edgy today and I will wait patiently . I am currently in Washington Dulles airport with far too much time to spend.
Yesterday it was hard to work out when to leave my apartment. From my observation the timetables for the buses on their official website are more suggestive than definitive. At least the frequency was probably accurate. How do you allow for the possibility that He might want to go somewhere again? Somewhere recently I read that they suggest 3 hours ahead and I have read of people, in the last 6 months , arriving 2 hours before and missing their flight. So I erred on the cautious side. I left my apartment at 6, got to the bus stop at 6.10, got onto a bus at 6.11, got off the bus at 6.35, got onto the next bus at 6.35 ( the first bus tooted at the 2nd bus so that he waited for me) , got to the airport at 7.40, put my bag in ( about 2 minute wait in line) , talked nicely to the lady and got an exit row seat which I had not paid for , went through security ( about 3 minutes wait in line) , caught the train to the correct group of departure gates, found my departure gate and it was 8:10. How good was that? If I just missed buses I might have got here 40 minutes later and then it might have taken me significantly longer. Unfortunately we are not due to board till 11.20.
Later :
I am now sitting in a very pleasant place in LA airport. Because my previous flight was changed about 2 months became I left to a 3 hour earlier time, I arrived in the LA international terminal at 2.30 LA time and my next flight boards at 10.10pm. I wandered through the seating areas, all the charging poles were taken, It was noisy, but I’ve heard worse. If I can pay for a night’s accommodation in Sydney before my flight over, I can pay to sit in a very peaceful place, with a very comfy chair, my laptop and Tabatha both plugged in and recharging next to me, included snacks. There are not many people here.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Last day in Washington
I spent quite a while this morning making a plan for the day that would involve as little walking as possible ( I have a sore L knee, a sore R big toe etc etc) and visit a different area for coffee and visit the few galleries I wanted to return to for a quick look or quick buy. Waste of time.
A separate bit of ( relevant) background : Washington is divided into 4 quadrants NW, NE, SE and SW by a North South line and an East West line running through the Capitol.
Basically the streets are laid out in a grid; the NS streets are numbered from 1 outwards from the central line and the EW streets are labelled alphabetically from A going outwards from the central EW line. All addresses have to indicate which quadrant , eg I am in 14th st, just south of M st NW. There are also diagonal streets which have state names. Washington has a major crime problem in all qaudrants other than the NW.. My advisor, who has lived in Washington also told me within the NW quadrant to stay west of a particular street which I forget – but several less than 14th. At least 1 other person has comfirmed this.
I left the apartment and wondered what the extra police were doing as I walked a few blocks to the bus stop . I intended to catch a bus to Adams Morgan, an area NW of here that has trendy shops and surely a nice café and then a train into the downtown area.. I arrived there at 9.45. The bus did not come and did not come and more police came. They were clearing the roads of traffic and making sure there were no people in parked cars. At about 10 I asked one of the cops how long this was going to take – about 5 minutes he said. I waited . I could see several blocks in both directions up and down 14th st and nothing was happening. At about 10: 10 I went across the road to a coffee shop that was part of a chain I had been to several times and liked. I got a coffee and a scone – more like what I call a rockcake – and sat outside and waited and watched. There were some locals getting a bit frazzled, but in a resigned sort of manner. What is going on, I asked a businessy looking lady as lots of motor bikes roared past, then lots of big black cars, then some more policecars went past. ‘This always happens if HE wants to go anywhere’ she said. ‘What – all that?’ , ‘Yep’ she sighed.
I finished my coffee, went back to the bus stop, having decided to still go to Adams Morgan. Some cars were coming through and a few busses but not mine. Then all the police rushed into action again, directing the cars into the side streets etc and the whole cavalcade came back again. This time I counted – today’s trivial information – there were 10 motorcycle cops, followed by 13 big black cars with dark windows. 2 of these had a man standing up through the roof, 1 had a movie like camera – or maybe it was a gun in disguise ( some of us know what nasty things hair dryers can do in Canberra) and the other a normal camera. Neither men looked thin and weedy. After the cars came a fire engine and then, just for good measure were 2 more police cars – the 2 on every intersection may not have been enough. All at high speed. So, to answer Wooster’s comment, I did say ‘Hullo’ to Obama – twice even – but I doubt he heard me.
By this stage it was after 11. I waited about 10 minutes and then decided to walk to another street for a bus to Downtown ( I had a map of bus routes) . I thought I had been to the West a few times so I would go east. I walked along P street, where the bus stop was, passed nice houses , clean lawn, nice cars and all of a sudden I realised I had crossed into the area that I was advised not to go to. The houses were run down and the fronts messy and the cars old bombs. I walked south and stopped at a bus stop. I waited a bit and realised there were no people around so I would be better off keeping walking south. After several more blocks I got to some shops and people and a better area. I was not scared, just surprised at how quickly – just 1 block – an area could change.
All my carefully thought out plans to avoid walking had gone out the window. Ah well, I can not walk for the several days it will take to get home . I had seen in a flyer a photo of a painting of New York that I wanted to see in the American Art Museum by an American artist , Georgia O’Keefe. It was great – full of energy, but still fun and sort of whimsical, like I found New York. I had a quick wiz around and decided I would go back there, but I wanted to have a nice lunch on my last day ( I can always find an excuse – in a few days it will be back to my booring stuff) . There is a nice new restaurant that has had good reviews in the Newseum building that has a deal if you go there the same or almost same day as the Newseum. I had a delicious lunch. In Washington, the servers introduce themselves by name, and I try and use their name - e.g. added to the ‘thank you’ . I donot know if it was that, or the fact that I had told him it was my last day in USA or he was a nice guy or probably the fact that he had opened a bottle for me and did not expect to use the rest , but he came and gave me a significant top up of wine, saying it was on the house. I protested – I had to think and walk afterwards but still thanked him. He said ‘You don’t have to drink it.’ But I was taught not to waste anything.
I toddled ( not tottered) off on my tired legs to the main art museum to see a Klimpt painting I had missed – the baby – but I did not like it as much as the pregnant woman ( I’ve forgotten the name) in New York. I bought a few things for my granddaughters and then went back to the American Art Museum. There was an interesting exhibition of Annie Liebovitz’s photos and a gallery of photos dealing with life in Harlem. There was a painting by Joseph Delaney of people rushing to get to a train in Penn station, New York. He had made a comment that everyone is equal in a train station. Not quite, I thought, remembering the red hatted men in Boston. I went back to the newseum to buy a book of the Pulitzer Prize photos , soft covered but still heavy.
I had been thinking at lunch that the only things I have bought for me have been sensible and bought here because they are significantly cheaper – my New Balance Minimus shoes, my Icebreaker black pants – than in Australia so I decided at lunch that I would return to the shop of the craft museum and buy myself a frivolous red glass flower which I saw on Monday. Trouble is, while I was walking home after buying it, I remembered about the frivolous shoes I bought in Boston. I shall blame my tired brain – it is going slowly, like my camera ( takes ages to close) - certainly not Keenan and the extra wine , about 2 hours had passed.
In case I forget later , I apologise to my grammatically critical friends because I am sure I use ‘past’ and ‘passed’ incorrectly sometimes.
A separate bit of ( relevant) background : Washington is divided into 4 quadrants NW, NE, SE and SW by a North South line and an East West line running through the Capitol.
Basically the streets are laid out in a grid; the NS streets are numbered from 1 outwards from the central line and the EW streets are labelled alphabetically from A going outwards from the central EW line. All addresses have to indicate which quadrant , eg I am in 14th st, just south of M st NW. There are also diagonal streets which have state names. Washington has a major crime problem in all qaudrants other than the NW.. My advisor, who has lived in Washington also told me within the NW quadrant to stay west of a particular street which I forget – but several less than 14th. At least 1 other person has comfirmed this.
I left the apartment and wondered what the extra police were doing as I walked a few blocks to the bus stop . I intended to catch a bus to Adams Morgan, an area NW of here that has trendy shops and surely a nice café and then a train into the downtown area.. I arrived there at 9.45. The bus did not come and did not come and more police came. They were clearing the roads of traffic and making sure there were no people in parked cars. At about 10 I asked one of the cops how long this was going to take – about 5 minutes he said. I waited . I could see several blocks in both directions up and down 14th st and nothing was happening. At about 10: 10 I went across the road to a coffee shop that was part of a chain I had been to several times and liked. I got a coffee and a scone – more like what I call a rockcake – and sat outside and waited and watched. There were some locals getting a bit frazzled, but in a resigned sort of manner. What is going on, I asked a businessy looking lady as lots of motor bikes roared past, then lots of big black cars, then some more policecars went past. ‘This always happens if HE wants to go anywhere’ she said. ‘What – all that?’ , ‘Yep’ she sighed.
I finished my coffee, went back to the bus stop, having decided to still go to Adams Morgan. Some cars were coming through and a few busses but not mine. Then all the police rushed into action again, directing the cars into the side streets etc and the whole cavalcade came back again. This time I counted – today’s trivial information – there were 10 motorcycle cops, followed by 13 big black cars with dark windows. 2 of these had a man standing up through the roof, 1 had a movie like camera – or maybe it was a gun in disguise ( some of us know what nasty things hair dryers can do in Canberra) and the other a normal camera. Neither men looked thin and weedy. After the cars came a fire engine and then, just for good measure were 2 more police cars – the 2 on every intersection may not have been enough. All at high speed. So, to answer Wooster’s comment, I did say ‘Hullo’ to Obama – twice even – but I doubt he heard me.
By this stage it was after 11. I waited about 10 minutes and then decided to walk to another street for a bus to Downtown ( I had a map of bus routes) . I thought I had been to the West a few times so I would go east. I walked along P street, where the bus stop was, passed nice houses , clean lawn, nice cars and all of a sudden I realised I had crossed into the area that I was advised not to go to. The houses were run down and the fronts messy and the cars old bombs. I walked south and stopped at a bus stop. I waited a bit and realised there were no people around so I would be better off keeping walking south. After several more blocks I got to some shops and people and a better area. I was not scared, just surprised at how quickly – just 1 block – an area could change.
All my carefully thought out plans to avoid walking had gone out the window. Ah well, I can not walk for the several days it will take to get home . I had seen in a flyer a photo of a painting of New York that I wanted to see in the American Art Museum by an American artist , Georgia O’Keefe. It was great – full of energy, but still fun and sort of whimsical, like I found New York. I had a quick wiz around and decided I would go back there, but I wanted to have a nice lunch on my last day ( I can always find an excuse – in a few days it will be back to my booring stuff) . There is a nice new restaurant that has had good reviews in the Newseum building that has a deal if you go there the same or almost same day as the Newseum. I had a delicious lunch. In Washington, the servers introduce themselves by name, and I try and use their name - e.g. added to the ‘thank you’ . I donot know if it was that, or the fact that I had told him it was my last day in USA or he was a nice guy or probably the fact that he had opened a bottle for me and did not expect to use the rest , but he came and gave me a significant top up of wine, saying it was on the house. I protested – I had to think and walk afterwards but still thanked him. He said ‘You don’t have to drink it.’ But I was taught not to waste anything.
I toddled ( not tottered) off on my tired legs to the main art museum to see a Klimpt painting I had missed – the baby – but I did not like it as much as the pregnant woman ( I’ve forgotten the name) in New York. I bought a few things for my granddaughters and then went back to the American Art Museum. There was an interesting exhibition of Annie Liebovitz’s photos and a gallery of photos dealing with life in Harlem. There was a painting by Joseph Delaney of people rushing to get to a train in Penn station, New York. He had made a comment that everyone is equal in a train station. Not quite, I thought, remembering the red hatted men in Boston. I went back to the newseum to buy a book of the Pulitzer Prize photos , soft covered but still heavy.
I had been thinking at lunch that the only things I have bought for me have been sensible and bought here because they are significantly cheaper – my New Balance Minimus shoes, my Icebreaker black pants – than in Australia so I decided at lunch that I would return to the shop of the craft museum and buy myself a frivolous red glass flower which I saw on Monday. Trouble is, while I was walking home after buying it, I remembered about the frivolous shoes I bought in Boston. I shall blame my tired brain – it is going slowly, like my camera ( takes ages to close) - certainly not Keenan and the extra wine , about 2 hours had passed.
In case I forget later , I apologise to my grammatically critical friends because I am sure I use ‘past’ and ‘passed’ incorrectly sometimes.
Tuesday Phillips Collection
This morning I walked NW from here to the Dupont Circle area. This is an upmarket area. I went to the Phillips Gallery which several people had recommended. Duncan Phillips, heir to a Pittsburg steel fortune, spent his money buying modern art. This is his collection in an ordinary ( if you are rich) home now with extensions. There are paintings by Degas, Renoir , Cezanne, Matisse etc plus more modern artists. There is a smallish room with a Rothko on each wall, purpose made for the room. They are linked by the colours. There is a bench in the room. It was strangely warm and comforting. Several of the rooms had different artists and styles but the paintings were linked by a common theme – eg trees. I enjoyed the whole exhibition. The watchers in each room were a motley crew without a uniform and greeted you when you came in which made my visit friendly.
After that I walked NE to U street and walked along to the street, 14th that I am in. The part of this street north of me is becoming quite trendy with small designer shops, a few run-down old places, building site for fancy apartments, restaurants. Like Lonsdale street. I had lunch in a done up old building, now a pub with a pressed metal ceiling.
Later in the afternoon I went to the main downtown area to a museum called the Newseum, which looks at 5 centuries of news history. Apart from many small theatres and lots of interactive displays they have several sections of the Berlin Wall, a piece of the antenna mast that was on top of the north Tower of the World Trade Centre, a section on news reporters who have died – a huge number – and a display of all the Pulitzer prize photos from 1945. There was a warning sign ‘ This exhibit may be too intense for young children’ - Not just young children!
On my way home I had a nice dinner at a place a bit like On Red or Ginger Room that has the one size plates . One of the dishes I had was of Quahog clams – quite large so you donot get many – about 6 from memory. One of them had not opened. I know that if mussels donot open, you should not risk eating it, but I did not know about clams. I asked the server ( her word when she introduced herself to me ) and she said she would ask the cook. She came back saying that ‘ no, I should not have been served an unopen clam and more were on their way’. Sure enough, a little while later 3 more open clams arrived.
After that I walked NE to U street and walked along to the street, 14th that I am in. The part of this street north of me is becoming quite trendy with small designer shops, a few run-down old places, building site for fancy apartments, restaurants. Like Lonsdale street. I had lunch in a done up old building, now a pub with a pressed metal ceiling.
Later in the afternoon I went to the main downtown area to a museum called the Newseum, which looks at 5 centuries of news history. Apart from many small theatres and lots of interactive displays they have several sections of the Berlin Wall, a piece of the antenna mast that was on top of the north Tower of the World Trade Centre, a section on news reporters who have died – a huge number – and a display of all the Pulitzer prize photos from 1945. There was a warning sign ‘ This exhibit may be too intense for young children’ - Not just young children!
On my way home I had a nice dinner at a place a bit like On Red or Ginger Room that has the one size plates . One of the dishes I had was of Quahog clams – quite large so you donot get many – about 6 from memory. One of them had not opened. I know that if mussels donot open, you should not risk eating it, but I did not know about clams. I asked the server ( her word when she introduced herself to me ) and she said she would ask the cook. She came back saying that ‘ no, I should not have been served an unopen clam and more were on their way’. Sure enough, a little while later 3 more open clams arrived.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday – Library of Congress and Memorials
This morning I caught the bus that is almost right outside my door to its terminus – L’Enfant Plaza where a lot of buses terminate. I knew the bus to the airport went from there but I wanted to make sure I knew where in this biggish place with lots of bus stops I needed to go on Thursday morning. The bus to the airport leaves from exactly the stop that I got off at. A good omen for the day.
I walked to the Library of Congress. It is a lovely building, built in the late 1800’s in the Italian Renaisance style. It was built to echo the capitol with 2 wings either side of a central dome. The domed ceiling of the central bit has stained glass windows in the top. It was attractive without being too fiddly.
One of the exhibition rooms was about ‘exploring the Early America’., in 3 parts - Pre contact, exploration and encounters , and Aftermath of encounters. Apparently writing developed independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, the Indus Valley and Mesoamerica. There were some very intricate Mayan pictorial pages from Mexico from before the Spanish got there. There was a copy of the 1492 first printed grammar of Spanish which gave the missionaries a structure to apply to learning the local languages. There was a dictionary of 1586 spanish – Quechuan. Before that the Inca’s had no written language. The missionaries did lots of linguistic good, but they also destroyed many of the local texts believing they were the work of the devil. Then , in the exhibition, there were books of flora and fauna written and drawn by the early explorers. There was an interesting map of the world drawn by Waldseemuller. He was the first to call America America. It was made up of 12 sheets ,4 by 3 landscape, and done in the style , I’ve forgotten the name, that looks like a globe - sort of distorted on the sides.
I went into another exhibition all about the Armenian literary tradition. Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, is the Unesco World Book Capital for 2012. In 4th century AD, the king was converted to Christianity ,100 years later, the only Christian literary works were in Syriac or Greek, so a smart monk was ordered to create an alphabet , which he did. 36 letters., so other languages could get translated and their own Armenian language and identity could survive. As an aside, I think in Australia now it is culturally correct to use the terms BCE ( before common/Christian era) and CE rather than BC and AD., used in this library recently. There were some examples of some of the early Armenian literature , all done by monks by hand. In 1375 the Egyptians captured Armenia and the Armenians fled to many countries. The first Armenian printing press was founded by an Armenian in Venice in 1512. In 1717 a young Armenian monk founded a monastery on the island on San Lazzaro in Venice and that became for a long time a centre of Armenian scholarship. There was a book in the exhibition with writing and illustrations on what to do in case of a fire. There was a painting of Lord Byron visiting the island to stay for a while and learn Armenian.
Also in the library was one of the 3 copies of the Gutenburg Bible, printed in 1455. I saw one other in the British Library in London in 2009. There was a Giant Bible of Mainz. A monk started it in April 1452 and finished 15 months later.
For lunch I went back to the American Native Museum and had some fried bread with cheese in the middle , snapping turtle soup and a wild rice and watercress salad.
I continued walking down the mall, past the Washington monument,,a plain tall obelisk like thing surrounded by 50 ( states) US flags, to the Korean war memorial. This is quite moving. Life size statues of soldiers on a patrol all looking around in different directions. One of them always appears to be looking at you. They had rain capes on and it was drizzling when I was there. Then the Lincoln memorial – a big Greek temple like building with a statue of a seated Lincoln inside. It was the thing to have your photo taken in front of it and I got annoyed that I could not take a photo of it without anybody in it. The Vietnam Memorial was a black polished wall with the names of all the Americans who died. It was plain and simple and moving.
I then walked back through different streets. I stopped at part of the American Art Museum which had craft items as part of it. There was a large cylindrical cupboard of wood with lots of inlays , drawers inside drawers, little cupboards inside it, lots more complicated than anything I’ve seen at Bungendore Woodworks, some beautiful glass work, woodwork, baskets, 2 quilts.
I walked to the Library of Congress. It is a lovely building, built in the late 1800’s in the Italian Renaisance style. It was built to echo the capitol with 2 wings either side of a central dome. The domed ceiling of the central bit has stained glass windows in the top. It was attractive without being too fiddly.
One of the exhibition rooms was about ‘exploring the Early America’., in 3 parts - Pre contact, exploration and encounters , and Aftermath of encounters. Apparently writing developed independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, the Indus Valley and Mesoamerica. There were some very intricate Mayan pictorial pages from Mexico from before the Spanish got there. There was a copy of the 1492 first printed grammar of Spanish which gave the missionaries a structure to apply to learning the local languages. There was a dictionary of 1586 spanish – Quechuan. Before that the Inca’s had no written language. The missionaries did lots of linguistic good, but they also destroyed many of the local texts believing they were the work of the devil. Then , in the exhibition, there were books of flora and fauna written and drawn by the early explorers. There was an interesting map of the world drawn by Waldseemuller. He was the first to call America America. It was made up of 12 sheets ,4 by 3 landscape, and done in the style , I’ve forgotten the name, that looks like a globe - sort of distorted on the sides.
I went into another exhibition all about the Armenian literary tradition. Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, is the Unesco World Book Capital for 2012. In 4th century AD, the king was converted to Christianity ,100 years later, the only Christian literary works were in Syriac or Greek, so a smart monk was ordered to create an alphabet , which he did. 36 letters., so other languages could get translated and their own Armenian language and identity could survive. As an aside, I think in Australia now it is culturally correct to use the terms BCE ( before common/Christian era) and CE rather than BC and AD., used in this library recently. There were some examples of some of the early Armenian literature , all done by monks by hand. In 1375 the Egyptians captured Armenia and the Armenians fled to many countries. The first Armenian printing press was founded by an Armenian in Venice in 1512. In 1717 a young Armenian monk founded a monastery on the island on San Lazzaro in Venice and that became for a long time a centre of Armenian scholarship. There was a book in the exhibition with writing and illustrations on what to do in case of a fire. There was a painting of Lord Byron visiting the island to stay for a while and learn Armenian.
Also in the library was one of the 3 copies of the Gutenburg Bible, printed in 1455. I saw one other in the British Library in London in 2009. There was a Giant Bible of Mainz. A monk started it in April 1452 and finished 15 months later.
For lunch I went back to the American Native Museum and had some fried bread with cheese in the middle , snapping turtle soup and a wild rice and watercress salad.
I continued walking down the mall, past the Washington monument,,a plain tall obelisk like thing surrounded by 50 ( states) US flags, to the Korean war memorial. This is quite moving. Life size statues of soldiers on a patrol all looking around in different directions. One of them always appears to be looking at you. They had rain capes on and it was drizzling when I was there. Then the Lincoln memorial – a big Greek temple like building with a statue of a seated Lincoln inside. It was the thing to have your photo taken in front of it and I got annoyed that I could not take a photo of it without anybody in it. The Vietnam Memorial was a black polished wall with the names of all the Americans who died. It was plain and simple and moving.
I then walked back through different streets. I stopped at part of the American Art Museum which had craft items as part of it. There was a large cylindrical cupboard of wood with lots of inlays , drawers inside drawers, little cupboards inside it, lots more complicated than anything I’ve seen at Bungendore Woodworks, some beautiful glass work, woodwork, baskets, 2 quilts.
Sunday Museum of the American Indian
I am going to try and avoid the subway. Every station I have been to ( about 5) is dark and gloomy. On one a few days ago I had to stand near a lighted advertisement to read by. I went this morning by bus and foot to The Museum of the American Indian. On the way I passed ,by accident, the Japanese American World War 2 memorial. It was a nice pond with rocks and nearby on a pedestal a crane with wings out, but caught in barbed wire.
On the way to the museum I took some photos of statues of more famous people – I am getting a bit tired of this, there are lots around Washington. I could hear some music coming from the building I was going to. It was drums and a pan flute or 4 . I recognised the sounds but could not place them. When I got there I was reminded that the museum covers north and south America. It was a special day for Bolivia and all though the day there were various different Bolivian groups performing. At least I think they were all Bolivian, but maybe not. John and I were in Bolivia in 1976 , a very long time ago. This museum is the newest of the Smithsonian museums. They have 3 main galleries and 1 with a changing exhibition. Each gallery has a theme and within the gallery, about 10 different tribes have been featured. There are lots of curved walls to delineate the spaces. It is a bit odd at first, but you get used to it and I think it works. The theme of the first gallery is ‘Our universes’ . This mainly dealt with creation stories and how respect was shown to the relevant beings or spirits. In another gallery the theme was ‘our peoples’ . One of the tribes I focussed on was the Hupa people, based around the Trinity river of N California. A very important aspect of their culture is 3 different dances that certain important people in the tribe perform in a particular sacred house which has been in continual use for 10,000 years. The river is central to one ceremony which involves the use of canoes, however its water flow is now controlled upstream and has been reduced in their lands so that now they have to request in writing to the Bureau of Reclamation to have the water flow increased so that the canoes do not bottom out during the ceremony. The basket-makers also have problems with the widespread use of pesticides affecting the reeds that they make into baskets. Only certain of the wise, spiritual elder women make the baskets because they pray for the people that are going to use the baskets as they make them. Like prayer shawls and the communities or individuals that make them.
In the written descriptions, the word hemisphere was used to mean North and south America. I have just looked it up because I did not know, or had forgotten, that there is a Western Hemisphere that is west of the Grenwich meridian and East of the date line but has come to mean just the Americas. Apparently 9/10 of native people in the Americas died in the first century of contact between the hemispheres. In some of the displays there was mention of their lands being taken, children taken from them , people being relocated. The third gallery was called ‘our live’. Again it featured about 8 different cultures. There were stories , e.g. about urban natives and the difficulty they had being in 2 cultures. Some communities now have complete immersion schools to grade 4 so that the kids learn the language. People are teaching the kids old techniques – like the Wampanoag woman I met teaching kids how to cook traditional food.
This museum has a great cafeteria. There are about 5 separate ‘stations’ where you get a choice of different sorts of food. There was a south American food – empanadas etc, there was a Mexican – tacos etc,, Northern woodlands, NW coast, and great plains. I had a piece of salmon with a blueberry sauce, a salad of beets and apple and walnut and a salad of what they called sunchoke - Jerusalem artichoke to me – and sweet potato. It was all delicious.
Most of the Smithsonian museums and some others are either side of a grassy strip of land called The Mall stretching west from the Capitol to the Potomac River. When I was in New York, and then again in Boston, I saw in the main Art Gallery shop a token for 2 of the 6 adults in my family who I try and buy a token for when I travel overseas. Each time I thought to myself ‘buy it in Washington’. Bad move. After going to the Indian museum I criss crossed back and forward going to various of the museums but could not find this thing. One more place to try in the next few days. I popped into the Air and Space Museum. There were lots of aeroplanes hanging up but not what I wanted in the shop.
I thought I would go to Eastern Market, a place a bit SE of the main area which has on the weekend markets. I had left the bus route map behind and the circulator ( the second bus company) did not come near me so I had to take the subway. Bad move, I should have walked. I had to wait about 25 minutes in a very gloomy place. In all of the subway stations in New York I felt better than any of the ones I have been to in Washington. At the Eastern Markets stop , for some reason, I did not get out my map and orient myself before I set off following a lot of the people who got off. I was walking down a street full of restaurants, full of people eating main meals at 3.30 in the afternoon, before I stopped and realised I was walking the wrong way. Never mind I found a bakery that was not packed and had a drink and walked back. Skip the markets. Then I waited 25 minutes for the circulator ( they are supposed to come every 10 minutes) and gave up and got on another bus that would get me nearer home than standing at that stop. I walked home through a different part of the city – mainly clothes shops – that I had not seen.
I have seen groups of tourists , with a guide on bicycles, on segways, and today I saw a group of 5 joggers with a guide. Washington lends itself to that – you could stop at all the statues. I also saw a policeman, not a security guard, on a segway today, but he could have been attached to a museum.
None of the clothes shops anywhere I have been have prices in the windows. Last year in Italy we played a game called ’ spot the most expensive item’ in many of the very very expensive shops. Not here. Anyway, today was hot and Sunday and many people were out and about so many ice cream trucks were out and about. They all had signs of what was available but none had the price. How do kids learn what to spend their pocket money on?
On the way to the museum I took some photos of statues of more famous people – I am getting a bit tired of this, there are lots around Washington. I could hear some music coming from the building I was going to. It was drums and a pan flute or 4 . I recognised the sounds but could not place them. When I got there I was reminded that the museum covers north and south America. It was a special day for Bolivia and all though the day there were various different Bolivian groups performing. At least I think they were all Bolivian, but maybe not. John and I were in Bolivia in 1976 , a very long time ago. This museum is the newest of the Smithsonian museums. They have 3 main galleries and 1 with a changing exhibition. Each gallery has a theme and within the gallery, about 10 different tribes have been featured. There are lots of curved walls to delineate the spaces. It is a bit odd at first, but you get used to it and I think it works. The theme of the first gallery is ‘Our universes’ . This mainly dealt with creation stories and how respect was shown to the relevant beings or spirits. In another gallery the theme was ‘our peoples’ . One of the tribes I focussed on was the Hupa people, based around the Trinity river of N California. A very important aspect of their culture is 3 different dances that certain important people in the tribe perform in a particular sacred house which has been in continual use for 10,000 years. The river is central to one ceremony which involves the use of canoes, however its water flow is now controlled upstream and has been reduced in their lands so that now they have to request in writing to the Bureau of Reclamation to have the water flow increased so that the canoes do not bottom out during the ceremony. The basket-makers also have problems with the widespread use of pesticides affecting the reeds that they make into baskets. Only certain of the wise, spiritual elder women make the baskets because they pray for the people that are going to use the baskets as they make them. Like prayer shawls and the communities or individuals that make them.
In the written descriptions, the word hemisphere was used to mean North and south America. I have just looked it up because I did not know, or had forgotten, that there is a Western Hemisphere that is west of the Grenwich meridian and East of the date line but has come to mean just the Americas. Apparently 9/10 of native people in the Americas died in the first century of contact between the hemispheres. In some of the displays there was mention of their lands being taken, children taken from them , people being relocated. The third gallery was called ‘our live’. Again it featured about 8 different cultures. There were stories , e.g. about urban natives and the difficulty they had being in 2 cultures. Some communities now have complete immersion schools to grade 4 so that the kids learn the language. People are teaching the kids old techniques – like the Wampanoag woman I met teaching kids how to cook traditional food.
This museum has a great cafeteria. There are about 5 separate ‘stations’ where you get a choice of different sorts of food. There was a south American food – empanadas etc, there was a Mexican – tacos etc,, Northern woodlands, NW coast, and great plains. I had a piece of salmon with a blueberry sauce, a salad of beets and apple and walnut and a salad of what they called sunchoke - Jerusalem artichoke to me – and sweet potato. It was all delicious.
Most of the Smithsonian museums and some others are either side of a grassy strip of land called The Mall stretching west from the Capitol to the Potomac River. When I was in New York, and then again in Boston, I saw in the main Art Gallery shop a token for 2 of the 6 adults in my family who I try and buy a token for when I travel overseas. Each time I thought to myself ‘buy it in Washington’. Bad move. After going to the Indian museum I criss crossed back and forward going to various of the museums but could not find this thing. One more place to try in the next few days. I popped into the Air and Space Museum. There were lots of aeroplanes hanging up but not what I wanted in the shop.
I thought I would go to Eastern Market, a place a bit SE of the main area which has on the weekend markets. I had left the bus route map behind and the circulator ( the second bus company) did not come near me so I had to take the subway. Bad move, I should have walked. I had to wait about 25 minutes in a very gloomy place. In all of the subway stations in New York I felt better than any of the ones I have been to in Washington. At the Eastern Markets stop , for some reason, I did not get out my map and orient myself before I set off following a lot of the people who got off. I was walking down a street full of restaurants, full of people eating main meals at 3.30 in the afternoon, before I stopped and realised I was walking the wrong way. Never mind I found a bakery that was not packed and had a drink and walked back. Skip the markets. Then I waited 25 minutes for the circulator ( they are supposed to come every 10 minutes) and gave up and got on another bus that would get me nearer home than standing at that stop. I walked home through a different part of the city – mainly clothes shops – that I had not seen.
I have seen groups of tourists , with a guide on bicycles, on segways, and today I saw a group of 5 joggers with a guide. Washington lends itself to that – you could stop at all the statues. I also saw a policeman, not a security guard, on a segway today, but he could have been attached to a museum.
None of the clothes shops anywhere I have been have prices in the windows. Last year in Italy we played a game called ’ spot the most expensive item’ in many of the very very expensive shops. Not here. Anyway, today was hot and Sunday and many people were out and about so many ice cream trucks were out and about. They all had signs of what was available but none had the price. How do kids learn what to spend their pocket money on?
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Saturday – A ‘ never mind’ day , a better day
This morning, I resolved to laugh when things did not go to plan.
I left here at 7.45 to find that the nice coffee place did not open till 8am. Never mind, laugh number 1. I found somewhere else. I caught the train to near the Capitol, queued up ( the guy I was talking to in the coffee shop yesterday did not know the word ‘queue’, so I should say ‘I lined up’) , waited, moved to an auditorium with the 50 or so others in my group (4 groups every 10 minutes, an awful lot of people ) . The ‘short’ movie started, we could hear Woopi Goldberg ( I think) ( she narrated the film I saw in the Planetarium in the Natural History Museum in New York) but there was no picture. That was an easy one to laugh at. The tour lasted about 30 minute and they took us into the Rotunda – the round room underneath the dome. Right up under the dome there is a picture of George Washington ascending into heaven. Paintings and sattuues round the edges. It is only used now for important ceremonial occasions like funerals of important people. They took us also into the Old Senate Chamber, with 2 statues per state around the edges. I did not think too well yesterday. It would have been better to come on a weekday. There is a chance you can be taken into the current chambers, but no chance on a Saturday.
Today was good weather and bad weather is forecast for the rest of the week, so I thought that after I had been to the Capitol I would walk thru the statues of the Art Gallery to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials and look at the other Memorials. However at the last minute I decided that I would catch the bus to Georgetown and go on a boat trip.
Georgetown, just west of the centre of Washington is quite old with narrow streets and small houses now done up. It has a reputation as being a trendy area with lots of small clothes shops and restaurants. Nearby , on the river, is an area that has been significantly developed over the last few years - think Kingston foreshores. There has been a nice restaurant there for a while, but others have sprung up. Today, when I arrived at 11ish, there more people milling around than I expected. Quite a few middle aged people had set up seats along the waters edge. I saw a girl walk past in a zoot and knew that there was a rowing regatta on. There were a few little booths of the river cruise people, but not open until 12. I sat for a while on a stone wall wondering what to do. I decided that a nice meal was appropriate. I managed to stretch it over a couple of hours. I had an excellent view through the tables of 4 next to the window and over the heads of the people outside right down the river . I had nice fish soup, followed by delicious scallops. I decided that I would only have desert if fruit was available. I have never seen fruit on a desert menu in USA. Guess what , they had fruit. Trouble is, it was sorbet and fruit – never mind and laugh. I enjoyed it, and I could sit for more time. Then I went back to the boat place but there were too many people, the boats were a bit muddled by the rowing course, noone seemed to know what was going on.
Never mind. Laugh. I left there and walked through Georgeton. The restaurants and footpaths were all overflowing with people, but it looked like quite a few of the small boutiquey shops had fairly recently closed. I walked NE through the residential part of Georgetown. The quiet streets did have a nice feel to them – the houses were are well cared for and I was enjoying myself. I got to an area between Dupont Circle and Kalorama Heights where there are lots of big houses and embassies. There were suddenly people lined up and milling around everywhere. Many of the embassies were open to the public – hence the queues and /or had displays of dancing in their (smallish) front gardens – hence the milling around. Never mind, laugh. I had to negotiate my way through several blocks of this till I got to my destination – the Textile Museum.
This was most enjoyable. There have a huge collection but only display a bit at a time in special exhibitions. There are 3 on now. The first was called ‘Sourcing the Museum’. The organiser asked 11 contemporary artists to find an old piece or a few old pieces in the Museum’s collection and make something new, inspired by the old. There were some interesting woven pieces. There was an old Burmese shirt covered in little writing, apparently to invoke the good spirits and to try to appease the bad spirits. A 79 year old weaver, who had competed in many marathons wearing a variety of different shirts, made an interesting garment with modern slogans and diagrams. Another artist used 2 pieces of very delicate Phillipine lace as inspiration for a 3 dimensional work . On one wall was a circle about 1m in diameter and on the wall adjacent at right angles was an elipse. These 2 were joined by many fine steel threads. The lights were directed onto it in a way that made a very interesting pattern, depending on where you stood, like lace work can do.
There were another few rooms full of beautiful cloths and kimonos made in Japan’s Tawaraya workshop, renowned for supplying the Imperial Household with very fine silks. There were several modern copies of garments made 500 years ago. Apparently silk worms have evolved in a manner that makes their silk have less protein and is more difficult to spin or something like that, I meant to go back and write down the details but forgot.
There was yet another room full of textiles from South East Asia featuring dragons or nagas . It is the year of the Dragon, and according to the Burmese system of ascribing an animal depending on the birth day of the week, I am a dragon. According to this system I share attributes with other people born on a Saturday. The materialswere interesting , but I had seen enough.
After spending more than a little time in the gift shop, I set off intending on catching a bus or 2 to get home. I could not easily find the bus stop. Never mind, walk.I went through the Dupont Circle area – one of the fancier places in Washington to live. Big houses, flash cars on the street, well-tended fronts.
I left here at 7.45 to find that the nice coffee place did not open till 8am. Never mind, laugh number 1. I found somewhere else. I caught the train to near the Capitol, queued up ( the guy I was talking to in the coffee shop yesterday did not know the word ‘queue’, so I should say ‘I lined up’) , waited, moved to an auditorium with the 50 or so others in my group (4 groups every 10 minutes, an awful lot of people ) . The ‘short’ movie started, we could hear Woopi Goldberg ( I think) ( she narrated the film I saw in the Planetarium in the Natural History Museum in New York) but there was no picture. That was an easy one to laugh at. The tour lasted about 30 minute and they took us into the Rotunda – the round room underneath the dome. Right up under the dome there is a picture of George Washington ascending into heaven. Paintings and sattuues round the edges. It is only used now for important ceremonial occasions like funerals of important people. They took us also into the Old Senate Chamber, with 2 statues per state around the edges. I did not think too well yesterday. It would have been better to come on a weekday. There is a chance you can be taken into the current chambers, but no chance on a Saturday.
Today was good weather and bad weather is forecast for the rest of the week, so I thought that after I had been to the Capitol I would walk thru the statues of the Art Gallery to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials and look at the other Memorials. However at the last minute I decided that I would catch the bus to Georgetown and go on a boat trip.
Georgetown, just west of the centre of Washington is quite old with narrow streets and small houses now done up. It has a reputation as being a trendy area with lots of small clothes shops and restaurants. Nearby , on the river, is an area that has been significantly developed over the last few years - think Kingston foreshores. There has been a nice restaurant there for a while, but others have sprung up. Today, when I arrived at 11ish, there more people milling around than I expected. Quite a few middle aged people had set up seats along the waters edge. I saw a girl walk past in a zoot and knew that there was a rowing regatta on. There were a few little booths of the river cruise people, but not open until 12. I sat for a while on a stone wall wondering what to do. I decided that a nice meal was appropriate. I managed to stretch it over a couple of hours. I had an excellent view through the tables of 4 next to the window and over the heads of the people outside right down the river . I had nice fish soup, followed by delicious scallops. I decided that I would only have desert if fruit was available. I have never seen fruit on a desert menu in USA. Guess what , they had fruit. Trouble is, it was sorbet and fruit – never mind and laugh. I enjoyed it, and I could sit for more time. Then I went back to the boat place but there were too many people, the boats were a bit muddled by the rowing course, noone seemed to know what was going on.
Never mind. Laugh. I left there and walked through Georgeton. The restaurants and footpaths were all overflowing with people, but it looked like quite a few of the small boutiquey shops had fairly recently closed. I walked NE through the residential part of Georgetown. The quiet streets did have a nice feel to them – the houses were are well cared for and I was enjoying myself. I got to an area between Dupont Circle and Kalorama Heights where there are lots of big houses and embassies. There were suddenly people lined up and milling around everywhere. Many of the embassies were open to the public – hence the queues and /or had displays of dancing in their (smallish) front gardens – hence the milling around. Never mind, laugh. I had to negotiate my way through several blocks of this till I got to my destination – the Textile Museum.
This was most enjoyable. There have a huge collection but only display a bit at a time in special exhibitions. There are 3 on now. The first was called ‘Sourcing the Museum’. The organiser asked 11 contemporary artists to find an old piece or a few old pieces in the Museum’s collection and make something new, inspired by the old. There were some interesting woven pieces. There was an old Burmese shirt covered in little writing, apparently to invoke the good spirits and to try to appease the bad spirits. A 79 year old weaver, who had competed in many marathons wearing a variety of different shirts, made an interesting garment with modern slogans and diagrams. Another artist used 2 pieces of very delicate Phillipine lace as inspiration for a 3 dimensional work . On one wall was a circle about 1m in diameter and on the wall adjacent at right angles was an elipse. These 2 were joined by many fine steel threads. The lights were directed onto it in a way that made a very interesting pattern, depending on where you stood, like lace work can do.
There were another few rooms full of beautiful cloths and kimonos made in Japan’s Tawaraya workshop, renowned for supplying the Imperial Household with very fine silks. There were several modern copies of garments made 500 years ago. Apparently silk worms have evolved in a manner that makes their silk have less protein and is more difficult to spin or something like that, I meant to go back and write down the details but forgot.
There was yet another room full of textiles from South East Asia featuring dragons or nagas . It is the year of the Dragon, and according to the Burmese system of ascribing an animal depending on the birth day of the week, I am a dragon. According to this system I share attributes with other people born on a Saturday. The materialswere interesting , but I had seen enough.
After spending more than a little time in the gift shop, I set off intending on catching a bus or 2 to get home. I could not easily find the bus stop. Never mind, walk.I went through the Dupont Circle area – one of the fancier places in Washington to live. Big houses, flash cars on the street, well-tended fronts.
Postscript to previous post
Last night I could not get to sleep. I was going over the last few days in my head trying to work out what I could have done differently. I remembered something I saw yesterday while I was roaming around. Separately, as background, I often play word games in my head as a way of getting to sleep.
A group of trainee bicycle police rode past me. There appeared to be 2 in the front and 2 in the rear who were in charge and the rest, about 25, rode/ wobbled along. After they were a little past me, someone stopped and caused a mini pile-up. Now my question is this : We all know that a posse of professional cyclists is a pelaton, but what I saw was definitely not a pelaton. What do you call a group of probationary pedalling police ? Platoon? Not quite. Plodary? Maybe a bit unkind
A group of trainee bicycle police rode past me. There appeared to be 2 in the front and 2 in the rear who were in charge and the rest, about 25, rode/ wobbled along. After they were a little past me, someone stopped and caused a mini pile-up. Now my question is this : We all know that a posse of professional cyclists is a pelaton, but what I saw was definitely not a pelaton. What do you call a group of probationary pedalling police ? Platoon? Not quite. Plodary? Maybe a bit unkind
Friday, May 11, 2012
Friday Washington
Be warned - lots of whinges today.
I got off to a good start. The grapefruit I bought yesterday was delicious.
My aim for the day was to find out about the transport system. In washington they are currently trying to implement a new smart card that can be used on the 3 almost separate entities - bus , train, and another bus called the circulator (which goes to georgetown) . the website says that the circulator does not take the smart card, the smart card costs $5 - hard to recoup in 1 week , it was hard to understand the price structure of the 1 week passes (the train has about 4 different prices depending on distance and time of day) etc etc i wanted to find out about it today. Secondly , i wanted to go to the Capitol's visitors centre to get a pass to go on a tour (the only way) to see the capitol. I tried last night but their website was peculiar and i was on an unsecured network so was not prepared to put in the details they wanted . Thirdly, i wanted to go to one of the places on my main list. Not too much to expect.
Yesterday i found a promising coffee shop 1 block away and tried it this morning. Here a small (the smallest you can get) cappuccino or latte is 2 shots. it was 1 in boston and new york. That is not a whinge, it was good. I spent a while talking to the guy at the table next to me who was here with his wife who was at a conference. He and his wife were semi retired and travelled to europe every year. they have recently moved to florida from new york and he was not sure how it was going to go. we talked about american’s ideas , or lack of , about the rest of the world. Everything and nothing. he said he knew noone who travelled on their own. It can't be just australians can it? Started me wondering - am i mad ? Maybe 4 locations in 5 weeks is too much for me to do in the manner I do and I should change something – the number of locations or the manner.
I have 3 different guide books each has a different name and address for tourist information places. My map has some others. I set off after coffee and walked past the white house - not on my main list- and took some photos of statues of famous people . I passed a place that quite clearly said 'white house tourist information' . I knew that there was a specific info place for the Capitol. On my map 2 blocks on from the white house place there was another 'tourist info' place marked. When i got there i was told it was closed and i had to go back to the ‘white house’ one. the volunteer guide at the white house info place had no idea about buses or the circulator but did have a map of the train ( but i had 1 of those). He was able to tell me where the main metro place was ,about 4 blocks away. i asked a few other questions and he had no idea so i gave up and went to the metro place he told me about. the guy there had a map of bus routes , told me how the train passes worked - at least i was clearer on that - but he had no idea about the circulator or payment for the buses. he told me to ask one of the dc men upstairs. what? i went back upstairs ( on the way heard a busker playing ‘yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.. on his recorder) and found a man standing there who had a jacket with lots of labels on, the biggest being ‘cleaning department’ . i was about ready to give up but asked him. sure enough, out of his pocket he produced a map of the circulator routes and told me that it does accept the smart card. i suddenly realised how stupid i was being and how much time and effort i had wasted trying to save myself $5 and potentially a few more dollars trying to work out the weekly passes. i went back to buy a smart card - the alternative is to have 2 different cards and cash for the circulator - i bought one and then had to put money on it. the guy who i had been talking to before and obviously thought I was a lost cause (he was right but for a different reason) came and helped me. i listened politely and thanked him without telling him i had used a similar ‘tap-on, tap-off’ card in venice and london 3 years ago and even canberra has these. I was annoyed that the whole transport system was complicated and that I did not take the easy option straight away.
I was getting tired but thought i would go to the capitol to book onto a tour. so i took the train. i knew where i wanted to get off, but just as well i was following where we were because i had no idea what the announcer was saying. it was very hard to see the signs coming into the stations. They were few, and light grey on dark grey background. Maybe it was just those few stations and that particular train. Maybe my eyes are as tired as the rest of me. If there were electronic signs on the train about the next station i could not see any. As I was leaving the station I saw a group of tourists struggling at an exit with paper tickets that would not go through the exit gates and I walked quickly past, tapping my smart card on the checkpoint and thought, maybe the several hours of agro were worth it because I am set for the rest of the week.
At the Capitol visitor centre, I went through the security - for about the 3rd time ( in new York, only at a couple of major museums did anyone at the door have a quick look in my bag) - got in a queue , and was offered a pass for the next tour. I said i didnot want to go now. Why not? she asked - almost affronted that i didnot want to go there and then. i said i was tired and i was hungry. then she said i should get the pass on the internet. i explained why i didnot want to do that - but what if i didnot have access to a computer? Then the lady - a different one - asked how many in the group. She had trouble with the idea that it was just me. Is it me or everyone else today? Why was it so difficult?
By this stage it was after 1 and I went to the nearest place I knew I could get food – the National Gallery of Art. They have a huge canteen where I had a big plate of salady stuff. The Art Gallery has 2 buildings, 1 purpose built for modern art. Good – that would be enough for today . I quite enjoyed it. They put out a brochure of 23 works with blurb about each of the 23. The building is a series of galleries about 3 stories high built around a huge empty central bit There is a huge mobile hanging from the ceiling . I liked it.
I stopped for some coffee on my way to the Metro . The song that was playing was ‘What doesnot kill you makes you stronger’ which made me smile. Yes, I know that, I will go home write all my whinges down and tomorrow will be an interesting , stressfree day.
Thank you for ‘listening’ – ‘reading’ does not seem the right word.
I got off to a good start. The grapefruit I bought yesterday was delicious.
My aim for the day was to find out about the transport system. In washington they are currently trying to implement a new smart card that can be used on the 3 almost separate entities - bus , train, and another bus called the circulator (which goes to georgetown) . the website says that the circulator does not take the smart card, the smart card costs $5 - hard to recoup in 1 week , it was hard to understand the price structure of the 1 week passes (the train has about 4 different prices depending on distance and time of day) etc etc i wanted to find out about it today. Secondly , i wanted to go to the Capitol's visitors centre to get a pass to go on a tour (the only way) to see the capitol. I tried last night but their website was peculiar and i was on an unsecured network so was not prepared to put in the details they wanted . Thirdly, i wanted to go to one of the places on my main list. Not too much to expect.
Yesterday i found a promising coffee shop 1 block away and tried it this morning. Here a small (the smallest you can get) cappuccino or latte is 2 shots. it was 1 in boston and new york. That is not a whinge, it was good. I spent a while talking to the guy at the table next to me who was here with his wife who was at a conference. He and his wife were semi retired and travelled to europe every year. they have recently moved to florida from new york and he was not sure how it was going to go. we talked about american’s ideas , or lack of , about the rest of the world. Everything and nothing. he said he knew noone who travelled on their own. It can't be just australians can it? Started me wondering - am i mad ? Maybe 4 locations in 5 weeks is too much for me to do in the manner I do and I should change something – the number of locations or the manner.
I have 3 different guide books each has a different name and address for tourist information places. My map has some others. I set off after coffee and walked past the white house - not on my main list- and took some photos of statues of famous people . I passed a place that quite clearly said 'white house tourist information' . I knew that there was a specific info place for the Capitol. On my map 2 blocks on from the white house place there was another 'tourist info' place marked. When i got there i was told it was closed and i had to go back to the ‘white house’ one. the volunteer guide at the white house info place had no idea about buses or the circulator but did have a map of the train ( but i had 1 of those). He was able to tell me where the main metro place was ,about 4 blocks away. i asked a few other questions and he had no idea so i gave up and went to the metro place he told me about. the guy there had a map of bus routes , told me how the train passes worked - at least i was clearer on that - but he had no idea about the circulator or payment for the buses. he told me to ask one of the dc men upstairs. what? i went back upstairs ( on the way heard a busker playing ‘yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.. on his recorder) and found a man standing there who had a jacket with lots of labels on, the biggest being ‘cleaning department’ . i was about ready to give up but asked him. sure enough, out of his pocket he produced a map of the circulator routes and told me that it does accept the smart card. i suddenly realised how stupid i was being and how much time and effort i had wasted trying to save myself $5 and potentially a few more dollars trying to work out the weekly passes. i went back to buy a smart card - the alternative is to have 2 different cards and cash for the circulator - i bought one and then had to put money on it. the guy who i had been talking to before and obviously thought I was a lost cause (he was right but for a different reason) came and helped me. i listened politely and thanked him without telling him i had used a similar ‘tap-on, tap-off’ card in venice and london 3 years ago and even canberra has these. I was annoyed that the whole transport system was complicated and that I did not take the easy option straight away.
I was getting tired but thought i would go to the capitol to book onto a tour. so i took the train. i knew where i wanted to get off, but just as well i was following where we were because i had no idea what the announcer was saying. it was very hard to see the signs coming into the stations. They were few, and light grey on dark grey background. Maybe it was just those few stations and that particular train. Maybe my eyes are as tired as the rest of me. If there were electronic signs on the train about the next station i could not see any. As I was leaving the station I saw a group of tourists struggling at an exit with paper tickets that would not go through the exit gates and I walked quickly past, tapping my smart card on the checkpoint and thought, maybe the several hours of agro were worth it because I am set for the rest of the week.
At the Capitol visitor centre, I went through the security - for about the 3rd time ( in new York, only at a couple of major museums did anyone at the door have a quick look in my bag) - got in a queue , and was offered a pass for the next tour. I said i didnot want to go now. Why not? she asked - almost affronted that i didnot want to go there and then. i said i was tired and i was hungry. then she said i should get the pass on the internet. i explained why i didnot want to do that - but what if i didnot have access to a computer? Then the lady - a different one - asked how many in the group. She had trouble with the idea that it was just me. Is it me or everyone else today? Why was it so difficult?
By this stage it was after 1 and I went to the nearest place I knew I could get food – the National Gallery of Art. They have a huge canteen where I had a big plate of salady stuff. The Art Gallery has 2 buildings, 1 purpose built for modern art. Good – that would be enough for today . I quite enjoyed it. They put out a brochure of 23 works with blurb about each of the 23. The building is a series of galleries about 3 stories high built around a huge empty central bit There is a huge mobile hanging from the ceiling . I liked it.
I stopped for some coffee on my way to the Metro . The song that was playing was ‘What doesnot kill you makes you stronger’ which made me smile. Yes, I know that, I will go home write all my whinges down and tomorrow will be an interesting , stressfree day.
Thank you for ‘listening’ – ‘reading’ does not seem the right word.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Thursday – travel to Washington
This morning went smoothly. I walked from my apartment at the top of Beacon Hill to the station for the train to Washington rather than take the T. It was only about 1 ½ km and easier to walk than negotiate peak hour business people with a pack on.
While I was waiting I was half watching a TV screen with the ‘ we are looking after you and your safety on the trains and these are the things we are doing’ video. The sound was indistinct, but there were subtitles. As you know, I am not good with texting on my mobile and dislike abbreviations. When I read, I see combination of letters not sounds. The words on the screen were saying how they use K9s . I thought – is that a new sort of gun or an abbreviation for a anti-terrorist squad or something ? Then I looked at the pictures and saw a dog and his handler. I smiled at myself at the several seconds it took my brain to work out that a K9 was a dog as in canine, not Kay-nine. Later I saw a dog-handler with his official vest on the said ‘Amtrak Police’ in big writing and under that ‘K9 unit’ .
I worked out how to bypass the normal ‘getting onto the train’ system. On the departure board, the train to Washington was the only long distance one . I saw several red-hatted porters taking people and their largish bags to a particular train. So , a good guess would be that was the right train. There were a few guard like people loitering. I just went out and said something along the lines of not knowing what the system was ( not a real lie) , that was the train to Washington wasn’t it and could I please get on?’ ‘Wait a moment “ he said , then beckoned me on. Easy. It would not have worked in New York though because you could not see the platforms from the station waiting area.
I had an uneventful journey – quite long 9.15 to 3.45pm. I decided walking would take less total energy ( i.e mental + physical) than working out where the bus stop was, how to pay, etc etc. The Washington public transport web site is quite confusing and there appear to be many options for fares and passes. It took about ¾ hour which was fine. Probably a bit less. That includes the few minutes it took me to work out that I had to wave the door tag in front of the sensor in the lift before it would go. It was in the instructions but I had forgotten.
The apartment is nice. Quite modern. Has it’s own washing machine. I dumped my stuff and went out again. There is a Wholefoods Market about 4 blocks away that I went to and bought some breakfast stuff and dinner for tonight. They have 3 huge ‘help yourself, fill a container and get it weighed at the checkout counter’ bars. One is a hole lot of different chopped up raw food , that I tried in Boston, another has many different made-up salads, that I tried tonight and a third is all hot food . I have never seen so much prepared food to choose from.
While I was waiting I was half watching a TV screen with the ‘ we are looking after you and your safety on the trains and these are the things we are doing’ video. The sound was indistinct, but there were subtitles. As you know, I am not good with texting on my mobile and dislike abbreviations. When I read, I see combination of letters not sounds. The words on the screen were saying how they use K9s . I thought – is that a new sort of gun or an abbreviation for a anti-terrorist squad or something ? Then I looked at the pictures and saw a dog and his handler. I smiled at myself at the several seconds it took my brain to work out that a K9 was a dog as in canine, not Kay-nine. Later I saw a dog-handler with his official vest on the said ‘Amtrak Police’ in big writing and under that ‘K9 unit’ .
I worked out how to bypass the normal ‘getting onto the train’ system. On the departure board, the train to Washington was the only long distance one . I saw several red-hatted porters taking people and their largish bags to a particular train. So , a good guess would be that was the right train. There were a few guard like people loitering. I just went out and said something along the lines of not knowing what the system was ( not a real lie) , that was the train to Washington wasn’t it and could I please get on?’ ‘Wait a moment “ he said , then beckoned me on. Easy. It would not have worked in New York though because you could not see the platforms from the station waiting area.
I had an uneventful journey – quite long 9.15 to 3.45pm. I decided walking would take less total energy ( i.e mental + physical) than working out where the bus stop was, how to pay, etc etc. The Washington public transport web site is quite confusing and there appear to be many options for fares and passes. It took about ¾ hour which was fine. Probably a bit less. That includes the few minutes it took me to work out that I had to wave the door tag in front of the sensor in the lift before it would go. It was in the instructions but I had forgotten.
The apartment is nice. Quite modern. Has it’s own washing machine. I dumped my stuff and went out again. There is a Wholefoods Market about 4 blocks away that I went to and bought some breakfast stuff and dinner for tonight. They have 3 huge ‘help yourself, fill a container and get it weighed at the checkout counter’ bars. One is a hole lot of different chopped up raw food , that I tried in Boston, another has many different made-up salads, that I tried tonight and a third is all hot food . I have never seen so much prepared food to choose from.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wednesday
Today got off to a good start. I took a parcel of stuff to the local Post Office, politely asked if I could send all or some, depending on the weight and the price, to Australia, and, instead of having my head bitten off rudely as by the lady in W83 , the lady could not have been more helpful. Today’s trivia – 4lb is the magical cutoff. A fraction under 4 lb cost $30, a fraction over would have cost $48. Needless to say, I sent a fraction under.
Then I caught a train and then ferry to the Charleston Naval Yards to go on a tour of USS Constitution. I was dressed in my good wet weather gear, but tours do not run in the rain. Bother. I asked why and was told that visitors rarely come dressed to stand in the rain. We could wander round the boat and there were sailors who would answer questions. Supposedly they were serving sailors in the US navy. They all looked about 15 years old to me and were none to keen to offer help. One I talked to said they were posted there for 2 years after boot camp and that one day in 4 they were on tourist duty.
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat but nowadays she has only one outing a year on July 4 – and that with the aid of a tugboat to reverse her position on the pier so she weathers evenly. She was built in the late 1700’s and was apparently in 42 battles and never lost. At the waterline her hull is 63cm thick and was able to withstand huge cannonballs – which is why she was nicknamed Ironsides. I was listening to a guy from Georgia asking about the timber. The hull is made of a layer of live oak which is 5 times denser than most sandwiched between 2 pieces of another type of oak. I was struggling with the Georgian accent and the speed of the sailor’s speech and thought I have misheard and made some goofy comment about how come it was live, surely it had to be dead. What was the word they were saying? Live oak is a type of oak and is the official state tree of Georgia - trivia number 2 for today. There is another boat – a WW2 destroyer that I could have looked at , but I thought not. I remembered last night about reading all the Hornblower books as a kid. He would have sailed on very similar boats.
I had a nice lunch – big bowl of seafood and came back to my apartment. I have had a big problem this afternoon as I did about 4 days ago. It is nice to have a washing machine and not have to wash by hand every item of clothing as soon as it is dirty ( I travel very lightly – 2 trousers – 1 on and 1 off, 2 shirts , plus one to move places in, minimal everything else – thermal underwear for the cold doubles as sleepwear etc) However, it requires a lot of coordination to have something suitable to wear to go along the corridor, round the bend, along another corridor to the laundry room holding the dirty washing. I donot think a towel is enough.
Then I caught a train and then ferry to the Charleston Naval Yards to go on a tour of USS Constitution. I was dressed in my good wet weather gear, but tours do not run in the rain. Bother. I asked why and was told that visitors rarely come dressed to stand in the rain. We could wander round the boat and there were sailors who would answer questions. Supposedly they were serving sailors in the US navy. They all looked about 15 years old to me and were none to keen to offer help. One I talked to said they were posted there for 2 years after boot camp and that one day in 4 they were on tourist duty.
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat but nowadays she has only one outing a year on July 4 – and that with the aid of a tugboat to reverse her position on the pier so she weathers evenly. She was built in the late 1700’s and was apparently in 42 battles and never lost. At the waterline her hull is 63cm thick and was able to withstand huge cannonballs – which is why she was nicknamed Ironsides. I was listening to a guy from Georgia asking about the timber. The hull is made of a layer of live oak which is 5 times denser than most sandwiched between 2 pieces of another type of oak. I was struggling with the Georgian accent and the speed of the sailor’s speech and thought I have misheard and made some goofy comment about how come it was live, surely it had to be dead. What was the word they were saying? Live oak is a type of oak and is the official state tree of Georgia - trivia number 2 for today. There is another boat – a WW2 destroyer that I could have looked at , but I thought not. I remembered last night about reading all the Hornblower books as a kid. He would have sailed on very similar boats.
I had a nice lunch – big bowl of seafood and came back to my apartment. I have had a big problem this afternoon as I did about 4 days ago. It is nice to have a washing machine and not have to wash by hand every item of clothing as soon as it is dirty ( I travel very lightly – 2 trousers – 1 on and 1 off, 2 shirts , plus one to move places in, minimal everything else – thermal underwear for the cold doubles as sleepwear etc) However, it requires a lot of coordination to have something suitable to wear to go along the corridor, round the bend, along another corridor to the laundry room holding the dirty washing. I donot think a towel is enough.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tuesday – A good day of muddles.
Today I had great intentions of visiting some touristy places. I tried. I went ,after my coffee and croissant, to the train station that I leave on Thursday from to see if the system is the same as at NY – yes, they only put up the platform number about 10min before the train leaves and there is a mad scramble to get a good seat. The info man told me if I came about ¾ hour early and spoke to a red-hatted man they would preboard me. I asked how much does that cost – only about $5 per bag he said. My bag is not the issue – I want a good seat. I pay good money to have lightweight clothes ( and I support the USPS) so I can manage my bag. Not sure what I will do.
I walked from there around the waterfront for quite a while to the North. It is very similar to some of the old docks in Sydney that have been gentrified with fancy apartments, upmarket restaurants, upmarket hotels, beauty salons, real estate agents with some old buildings inbetween. It was cold, windy and showery.
I passed a place advertising harbour cruises - $19 for 45 min. I asked for a brochure showing where it went. She had none. I asked if you got one if you went on the tour. Oh no, she said, there is a commentary. Cannot you have a map to look at at the same time? No thanks. I knew there was a regular commuter ferry and found it soon after that. First, I had a nice lunch sitting at a bar in a newly opened branch of Legal Seafoods. This is a Boston institution that has been growing since 1950’s with now many branches. I had a nice crab cake and salad and then the lady was very smart. She asked ‘Have you tried Boston cream pie yet? The answer was ‘no’ but I wanted to . It was quite light – sponge cake, then thick custard then choc icing, but too much. She walked past when I was half way through ‘Do you want a box to take that home?’ I knew there would be no issues with refrigeration – it was so cold outside. There were more mature waitstaff than I have seen in any place in USA.
Then I went to the ferry. I thought that the website said they did not take the T passes , but they did – so instead of costing me $1.70 it cost nothing for a 15 min ride to the other side at the Charlestown Navy Yard. There are 2 old naval ships that you can look over, one from the mid 20th century, the other built in 1791, wooden –hulled, but extremely resilient , the USS Constitution, otherwise known as Old Ironsides. I went first to Old Ironsides but could not get in – I had no photo ID with me. Ah well, I think they would have objected to my little ‘Legal Take-Out’ carry bag and its contents too. I went back to the Museum to use their restroom ( see, I am learning the lingo) and saw a young Museum attendant ( mid 20’s) explaining an interactive display to a few 10 ish year olds about shifting the angle of the gun so that the mast got hit. The younger people left and I said ‘ Tell him it’s like Angry Birds’ , not having the foggiest if US people play Angry Birds. He looked quite puzzled – and then his face lit up ‘Of Course , I have not thought of that’ – then he sort of looked at me sideways, up and down or something – clearly puzzled that this very dishevelled wind-blown lady with a funny accent should know about angry birds – maybe they are well out of fashion. I did not tell him that it was my 60yr old neighbour who showed me.
Then I walked through the streets of Charlestown. The houses are quite like Beacon Hill but a bit smaller and quite a few are wooden with ‘built in early 1800’s ‘ plaques. I went to what is called the Bunker Hill Monument. This is a tall obelisk –like structure built to commemorate a battle in 1775 , considered to be the first major battle in the Revolution. The English won, but at great cost, and the colonists became more determined to win.
I set off back through Charlestown, over the harbour, around the foreshore looking for the Institute of Contemporary Art. It was not where I thought it was. I looked up my various pieces of paper. It is in Northern street. I had written down N with a superscript n, but had missed the little n when I was planning today . There is a North street and that was where I was looking . Northern street was where I had started this morning. Never mind – I kept walking. I had to smile as I passed 2 doorman for a fancy hotel who had shower cap like things over their bowler-ish hats to protect them from the rain . It reminded me of the horrid plastic thing I had to put over my hat on the way to school in the rain.
I got to Northern street and walked a far way along it. Just as I was about to give up I saw the msuseum in the distance, but there was a large construction site between me and it and I decided to give it amiss. Next time I do a trip like this I might wear a pedometer out of curiosity.
Spurred on by Jenny’s comment on yesterday’s post, I went early – 5pm – to the local Irish pub that had been recommended to me. I opened the door – restaurants usually have their door open- and noone bit my head off! I had a nice salad. They had a chocolate cake laced with something alcoholic as part of the Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer. I had to have it. It was a large place. Nicely decorated with red and green . The back of the bar stools had a Irish knot pattern that I recognised from an Irish book of knitting patterns. I felt fine watching all the other people, but I could see no other single people. Come to think of it, I have not seen any other single diner in the evening in Boston. Lunch – yes. Boston has a more restrained, conventional, conformist feel than New York. I saw a slightly crazy person on the T this morning. He was harmless – just sitting there talking loudly to noone in particular about his daisies that he was carrying. People would look, then try and turn a little away from him and not make eye contact. On the subways in New York I saw several crazies. I donot remember people reacting at all – just shrugging.
I did not finish my chocolate cake – so now I have 3 half eaten sweet things and I am about to have an apple. A friend once said that you pay for what you want to eat, not how much is put on your plate. Maybe another way of looking at it is as a sunk cost. My friend Helen knows about these. No point in eating for the sake of it.
Tomorrow will be busy – certainly I will try again to see the boats, but not the modern art – I am sure there will be modern art in Washington.
I walked from there around the waterfront for quite a while to the North. It is very similar to some of the old docks in Sydney that have been gentrified with fancy apartments, upmarket restaurants, upmarket hotels, beauty salons, real estate agents with some old buildings inbetween. It was cold, windy and showery.
I passed a place advertising harbour cruises - $19 for 45 min. I asked for a brochure showing where it went. She had none. I asked if you got one if you went on the tour. Oh no, she said, there is a commentary. Cannot you have a map to look at at the same time? No thanks. I knew there was a regular commuter ferry and found it soon after that. First, I had a nice lunch sitting at a bar in a newly opened branch of Legal Seafoods. This is a Boston institution that has been growing since 1950’s with now many branches. I had a nice crab cake and salad and then the lady was very smart. She asked ‘Have you tried Boston cream pie yet? The answer was ‘no’ but I wanted to . It was quite light – sponge cake, then thick custard then choc icing, but too much. She walked past when I was half way through ‘Do you want a box to take that home?’ I knew there would be no issues with refrigeration – it was so cold outside. There were more mature waitstaff than I have seen in any place in USA.
Then I went to the ferry. I thought that the website said they did not take the T passes , but they did – so instead of costing me $1.70 it cost nothing for a 15 min ride to the other side at the Charlestown Navy Yard. There are 2 old naval ships that you can look over, one from the mid 20th century, the other built in 1791, wooden –hulled, but extremely resilient , the USS Constitution, otherwise known as Old Ironsides. I went first to Old Ironsides but could not get in – I had no photo ID with me. Ah well, I think they would have objected to my little ‘Legal Take-Out’ carry bag and its contents too. I went back to the Museum to use their restroom ( see, I am learning the lingo) and saw a young Museum attendant ( mid 20’s) explaining an interactive display to a few 10 ish year olds about shifting the angle of the gun so that the mast got hit. The younger people left and I said ‘ Tell him it’s like Angry Birds’ , not having the foggiest if US people play Angry Birds. He looked quite puzzled – and then his face lit up ‘Of Course , I have not thought of that’ – then he sort of looked at me sideways, up and down or something – clearly puzzled that this very dishevelled wind-blown lady with a funny accent should know about angry birds – maybe they are well out of fashion. I did not tell him that it was my 60yr old neighbour who showed me.
Then I walked through the streets of Charlestown. The houses are quite like Beacon Hill but a bit smaller and quite a few are wooden with ‘built in early 1800’s ‘ plaques. I went to what is called the Bunker Hill Monument. This is a tall obelisk –like structure built to commemorate a battle in 1775 , considered to be the first major battle in the Revolution. The English won, but at great cost, and the colonists became more determined to win.
I set off back through Charlestown, over the harbour, around the foreshore looking for the Institute of Contemporary Art. It was not where I thought it was. I looked up my various pieces of paper. It is in Northern street. I had written down N with a superscript n, but had missed the little n when I was planning today . There is a North street and that was where I was looking . Northern street was where I had started this morning. Never mind – I kept walking. I had to smile as I passed 2 doorman for a fancy hotel who had shower cap like things over their bowler-ish hats to protect them from the rain . It reminded me of the horrid plastic thing I had to put over my hat on the way to school in the rain.
I got to Northern street and walked a far way along it. Just as I was about to give up I saw the msuseum in the distance, but there was a large construction site between me and it and I decided to give it amiss. Next time I do a trip like this I might wear a pedometer out of curiosity.
Spurred on by Jenny’s comment on yesterday’s post, I went early – 5pm – to the local Irish pub that had been recommended to me. I opened the door – restaurants usually have their door open- and noone bit my head off! I had a nice salad. They had a chocolate cake laced with something alcoholic as part of the Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer. I had to have it. It was a large place. Nicely decorated with red and green . The back of the bar stools had a Irish knot pattern that I recognised from an Irish book of knitting patterns. I felt fine watching all the other people, but I could see no other single people. Come to think of it, I have not seen any other single diner in the evening in Boston. Lunch – yes. Boston has a more restrained, conventional, conformist feel than New York. I saw a slightly crazy person on the T this morning. He was harmless – just sitting there talking loudly to noone in particular about his daisies that he was carrying. People would look, then try and turn a little away from him and not make eye contact. On the subways in New York I saw several crazies. I donot remember people reacting at all – just shrugging.
I did not finish my chocolate cake – so now I have 3 half eaten sweet things and I am about to have an apple. A friend once said that you pay for what you want to eat, not how much is put on your plate. Maybe another way of looking at it is as a sunk cost. My friend Helen knows about these. No point in eating for the sake of it.
Tomorrow will be busy – certainly I will try again to see the boats, but not the modern art – I am sure there will be modern art in Washington.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday and Monday Glass flowers and Trinity church
It is Monday afternoon. Normally I write this jumble of words every evening but sometimes it becomes too much of a chore. Last night I reminded myself that it is supposed to be a holiday and thought ‘too bad, write later’.
Yesterday, Sunday, after my coffee and croissant I caught the T on my way to Harvard . Harvard Square was a bit of a mess with people setting up stalls on the sidewalks and roadways. I walked through some of the campus to Harvard Yard, took a few photos and found the Museum of Natural History. Several people had recommended that I look at the glass flowers. Just as well because I might not have gone. Between 1887 and 1936 father and son artisans Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka created these 4000 exact models of 850 plant species. Each species is illustrated with a scientifically accurate lifesize model and magnified parts. They were amazing. I then spent some time looking at a display about the archeological dig in Harvard Yard in 2007 that unearthed the Indian college attended by Caleb, the Wampanoag in Caleb’s Crossing that I referred to when I was in Martha’s Vineyard. I walked through some other interesting displays on Native Americans.
After the Museum I walked with a guy I’d met from California back to Harvard Square which was quite busy . We had a sandwich and then walked further to another square, but it also was crowded and noisy. After talking about everything and nothing, including learning to be less disciplined and learning to be frivolous, for several hours we caught the T back to Park St station and parted ways. I caught another T in the direction of the gallery I was going to. After a few stops there was an announcement that after the next stop it was an express to a stop past where I wanted to go. There was a mad scramble to get off but I pushed my way through the crowd to get to the map on the side of the carriage and realised that the stop it was going to expressly was only 1 past where I wanted to go. It would be quicker to stay on and walk back. I had bumped into a local guy who was standing near the map and we got talking – he was going to another museum near the one I was going to and he said he was staying on too. We walked back from the T stop chatting together. He insisted on diverging from his route to make sure I got where I was going. 2 interesting gentlemen to talk to in the one day!
The Museum I went to was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Isabella Stewart ,1840 to 1924,from New York married a Bostonian Jack Gardner . She was very rich, liked travel, bought lots of things and built a large ‘palace’ to put them in. There were some interesting individual paintings and other objects, but I did not like the whole effect. It was too cluttered for my taste. There was , eg, a painting lowish on the wall with a table below it covered in an intricate piece of material with a vase or 3 and a few other nick nacks – all too close for my visual comfort. I much preferred the Frick gallery in New York. You got the feeling that Mr Frick had bought the paintings to enhance the spaces that he and his family lived in, rather than buying nice things for the sake of it. Maybe I am being harsh – many people now go and visit all Isabella’s lovely things. You get in free if your name is Isabella or if your birthday is the same as hers (14 April) - but you have to go on that date. Rats.
There is a new addition to the gallery which includes a glassed walled café where I had coffee and a desert. I sat at a communal table opposite another guy. We exchanged pleasantries. He was there to meet someone for a meeting and appeared to have no interest in art. I asked a few general questions about Boston but he did not know. I think he was pleased to escape me when his friend came.
I caught another T to Copley Square , SE of where I am staying. There I took some photos of Trinity Church reflected in the John Hancock Tower. This reminds me – sorry, no photos yet. Maybe later. Anyway, the Hancock Tower is very tall, with very reflective blue glass panels all over it. It was designed in the 1960’s and was very contraversial. It was supposed to be finished in 1971 but in the winter of 1972 some of the panelling loosened and 500lb sheets of glass would come crashing to the ground unexpectedly. Not good. Then it was found that in high winds the top moved so much the office workers were getting motion sickness. Supposedly all is now well.
The library faces the square . It is similar to the library in New York but instead of 2 lions guarding it, there are 2 women in vaguely ancient Greek dress – one representing Science and the other Art. I preferred Patience and Fortitude. The brochure I got for the inside had the description of various rooms but no map. All the rooms ran off each other in a muddled way – or maybe it was just me that was muddled . I never found the room I was looking for which had some frescoes, according to the guidebook very good, by John Singer Sargent, but I did not try too hard.
I then went into Trinity Church. It was wonderful. Well, to me it was. I just sat for a while, listened to the organist practising. According to the guidebook, it is routinely voted one of USA’s 10 finest buildings, dates from 1877, is granite and sandstone Romanesque, interior designed by John LaFarge – a painter, but mainly stained-glass designer. The outside was like lots of European churches I have seen, but the inside was much plainer, still with lots of lovely stained glass and paintings but no twiddly bits. It is definitely a ‘working’ ( as opposed to ‘museum’) church .They have 3 adult choirs and a choir of 8 to 18 yearolds who sing at Wed night evensong. Amongst other things they have a Ghanaian drumming class. ( A suitably frivolous thing to do) I wandered round taking photos, some of which are OK, of the stained glass. Some of it, apparently a new technique developed by LaFarge , was almost garish it was so bright.
I was quite tired by the time I got back and went around the corner to a small Italian restaurant. Ryvita and cheese did not appeal. I had a nice dinner.
It is now Monday night.
This morning I woke late, unusual for me, at 7.50 and had a very slow start. I had not arranged my timing properly - the next 2 places on my list are not open on a Monday. So, the foci were : find somewhere to support the Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer scheme, have a look in a wool shop I read about, go to a shop that sells some brightly coloured, completely frivolous, shoes I have seen, look at a gallery that specialises in nice US made crafts and go to an Irish pub. I managed 3 out of 5. The gallery was closed on Monday too. The wool shop was good. I bought a book of childrens patterns knitted top down and mostly in one piece, so no sewing up. I fear another visit to a PO will be needed to send the stuff I have bought home. I walked the length of the main shopping street in Back Bay looking for a café that supported the breast cancer fundraising but noone were obvious. At the far end of the street I found the shop that sold the shoes. I liked them , but they did not have the right size. A shop further away, but on the same T line did. I ummed and ahhed.- another part of Boston to see. I had lunch first at a café in a bookshop nearby that had wifi and I looked up the long list of the Boston Bakes supporters. The shoe shop was in a fairly average part of town – not upmarket like the area I had been in. There was a small pocket of new shops where the shop I wanted was. Maybe someone is trying to regenerate the area. I came home via the Wholefood Market that I went to on the first day. – one of a chain that has lots of nice stuff and lots of prepared stuff. They were giving the profits from the sale of their jumbo choc chip cookies to the Boston Bakes fundraiser, so I bought 1 and some coffee and sat outside and watched the world go past and thought of my friends who have had breast cancer and especially of my friend who is currently undergoing treatment. I only ate a small part. Jumbo in the US is big.
.Until I read some of the history of Boston, I had not realised how important the Irish were. They started arriving in the 1820’s . They were considered socially inferior, they undercut the locals in the job market, they were Catholic – the opposite of the Puritans . The potato famine in Ireland led to many many more immigrants. There were riots and nastinesses. Then other nationalities came. Then JFK – the pride of Boston’s Irish Catholics. There are Irish pubs everywhere . I thought I should go to 1. This evening I walked past the 2 Irish pubs in this area. I have found this before – it is much harder to walk into places on my own when I am tired than if I am not. Pubs have shut doors you have to open. A little thing but it is still hard sometimes. I thought – I feel no need to go into a Starbucks or a Macdonalds, so why should I go into an Irish pub? I went to a restaurant in the same building as me. It is not as fancy inside as it looks from the outside and I had a nice piece of salmon and glass of wine.
Yesterday, Sunday, after my coffee and croissant I caught the T on my way to Harvard . Harvard Square was a bit of a mess with people setting up stalls on the sidewalks and roadways. I walked through some of the campus to Harvard Yard, took a few photos and found the Museum of Natural History. Several people had recommended that I look at the glass flowers. Just as well because I might not have gone. Between 1887 and 1936 father and son artisans Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka created these 4000 exact models of 850 plant species. Each species is illustrated with a scientifically accurate lifesize model and magnified parts. They were amazing. I then spent some time looking at a display about the archeological dig in Harvard Yard in 2007 that unearthed the Indian college attended by Caleb, the Wampanoag in Caleb’s Crossing that I referred to when I was in Martha’s Vineyard. I walked through some other interesting displays on Native Americans.
After the Museum I walked with a guy I’d met from California back to Harvard Square which was quite busy . We had a sandwich and then walked further to another square, but it also was crowded and noisy. After talking about everything and nothing, including learning to be less disciplined and learning to be frivolous, for several hours we caught the T back to Park St station and parted ways. I caught another T in the direction of the gallery I was going to. After a few stops there was an announcement that after the next stop it was an express to a stop past where I wanted to go. There was a mad scramble to get off but I pushed my way through the crowd to get to the map on the side of the carriage and realised that the stop it was going to expressly was only 1 past where I wanted to go. It would be quicker to stay on and walk back. I had bumped into a local guy who was standing near the map and we got talking – he was going to another museum near the one I was going to and he said he was staying on too. We walked back from the T stop chatting together. He insisted on diverging from his route to make sure I got where I was going. 2 interesting gentlemen to talk to in the one day!
The Museum I went to was the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Isabella Stewart ,1840 to 1924,from New York married a Bostonian Jack Gardner . She was very rich, liked travel, bought lots of things and built a large ‘palace’ to put them in. There were some interesting individual paintings and other objects, but I did not like the whole effect. It was too cluttered for my taste. There was , eg, a painting lowish on the wall with a table below it covered in an intricate piece of material with a vase or 3 and a few other nick nacks – all too close for my visual comfort. I much preferred the Frick gallery in New York. You got the feeling that Mr Frick had bought the paintings to enhance the spaces that he and his family lived in, rather than buying nice things for the sake of it. Maybe I am being harsh – many people now go and visit all Isabella’s lovely things. You get in free if your name is Isabella or if your birthday is the same as hers (14 April) - but you have to go on that date. Rats.
There is a new addition to the gallery which includes a glassed walled café where I had coffee and a desert. I sat at a communal table opposite another guy. We exchanged pleasantries. He was there to meet someone for a meeting and appeared to have no interest in art. I asked a few general questions about Boston but he did not know. I think he was pleased to escape me when his friend came.
I caught another T to Copley Square , SE of where I am staying. There I took some photos of Trinity Church reflected in the John Hancock Tower. This reminds me – sorry, no photos yet. Maybe later. Anyway, the Hancock Tower is very tall, with very reflective blue glass panels all over it. It was designed in the 1960’s and was very contraversial. It was supposed to be finished in 1971 but in the winter of 1972 some of the panelling loosened and 500lb sheets of glass would come crashing to the ground unexpectedly. Not good. Then it was found that in high winds the top moved so much the office workers were getting motion sickness. Supposedly all is now well.
The library faces the square . It is similar to the library in New York but instead of 2 lions guarding it, there are 2 women in vaguely ancient Greek dress – one representing Science and the other Art. I preferred Patience and Fortitude. The brochure I got for the inside had the description of various rooms but no map. All the rooms ran off each other in a muddled way – or maybe it was just me that was muddled . I never found the room I was looking for which had some frescoes, according to the guidebook very good, by John Singer Sargent, but I did not try too hard.
I then went into Trinity Church. It was wonderful. Well, to me it was. I just sat for a while, listened to the organist practising. According to the guidebook, it is routinely voted one of USA’s 10 finest buildings, dates from 1877, is granite and sandstone Romanesque, interior designed by John LaFarge – a painter, but mainly stained-glass designer. The outside was like lots of European churches I have seen, but the inside was much plainer, still with lots of lovely stained glass and paintings but no twiddly bits. It is definitely a ‘working’ ( as opposed to ‘museum’) church .They have 3 adult choirs and a choir of 8 to 18 yearolds who sing at Wed night evensong. Amongst other things they have a Ghanaian drumming class. ( A suitably frivolous thing to do) I wandered round taking photos, some of which are OK, of the stained glass. Some of it, apparently a new technique developed by LaFarge , was almost garish it was so bright.
I was quite tired by the time I got back and went around the corner to a small Italian restaurant. Ryvita and cheese did not appeal. I had a nice dinner.
It is now Monday night.
This morning I woke late, unusual for me, at 7.50 and had a very slow start. I had not arranged my timing properly - the next 2 places on my list are not open on a Monday. So, the foci were : find somewhere to support the Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer scheme, have a look in a wool shop I read about, go to a shop that sells some brightly coloured, completely frivolous, shoes I have seen, look at a gallery that specialises in nice US made crafts and go to an Irish pub. I managed 3 out of 5. The gallery was closed on Monday too. The wool shop was good. I bought a book of childrens patterns knitted top down and mostly in one piece, so no sewing up. I fear another visit to a PO will be needed to send the stuff I have bought home. I walked the length of the main shopping street in Back Bay looking for a café that supported the breast cancer fundraising but noone were obvious. At the far end of the street I found the shop that sold the shoes. I liked them , but they did not have the right size. A shop further away, but on the same T line did. I ummed and ahhed.- another part of Boston to see. I had lunch first at a café in a bookshop nearby that had wifi and I looked up the long list of the Boston Bakes supporters. The shoe shop was in a fairly average part of town – not upmarket like the area I had been in. There was a small pocket of new shops where the shop I wanted was. Maybe someone is trying to regenerate the area. I came home via the Wholefood Market that I went to on the first day. – one of a chain that has lots of nice stuff and lots of prepared stuff. They were giving the profits from the sale of their jumbo choc chip cookies to the Boston Bakes fundraiser, so I bought 1 and some coffee and sat outside and watched the world go past and thought of my friends who have had breast cancer and especially of my friend who is currently undergoing treatment. I only ate a small part. Jumbo in the US is big.
.Until I read some of the history of Boston, I had not realised how important the Irish were. They started arriving in the 1820’s . They were considered socially inferior, they undercut the locals in the job market, they were Catholic – the opposite of the Puritans . The potato famine in Ireland led to many many more immigrants. There were riots and nastinesses. Then other nationalities came. Then JFK – the pride of Boston’s Irish Catholics. There are Irish pubs everywhere . I thought I should go to 1. This evening I walked past the 2 Irish pubs in this area. I have found this before – it is much harder to walk into places on my own when I am tired than if I am not. Pubs have shut doors you have to open. A little thing but it is still hard sometimes. I thought – I feel no need to go into a Starbucks or a Macdonalds, so why should I go into an Irish pub? I went to a restaurant in the same building as me. It is not as fancy inside as it looks from the outside and I had a nice piece of salmon and glass of wine.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Saturday – Freedom Trail
Success – I have found a nice French- ish café 10 minute walk away for my morning coffee and croissant. This morning, while there, I read the Boston Globe. One of the articles was an orbituary of a lady who had done all sorts of good work in the community. She was known to like a quote attributed to St Francis of Assisi “ Preach the gospel at all times and , when necessary, use words” . I like it. I also read an article about college students and it was using the word ‘hazing’ From Wiki : hazing is a term used to describe various rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group.. I have never heard the term before.
Today’s focus was the Freedom Trail. This is a walking trail linking different buildings and sites that were important in Boston and America’s history. The sites are not in time order – just geographic, which I found a bit annoying at first. I think for me the highlight was the King’s Chapel. The first chapel on this site was built in 1688, but replaced with bigger, existing one in 1749. After the Revolution the congregation switched from Anglican to Unitarian. The pulpit is the oldest in the USA still in use on its original site. It reminded me of St Martin in the Fields in London with its boxes for the congregation families and a central aisle and 2 side aisles. These boxes had benches facing both ways. The parents could watch the kids, but the minster could only see into the box when he was in the pulpit. They have music recitals every Tuesday.
I also saw several burial grounds; the Old City Hall, used from 1865 to 1969 ; Old South Meeting House, built in 1729 for Puritan religious services and used for town meetings ; a church from where the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison gave his first anti slavery speech ; Old State House , built in 1713, served as the seat of the colonial and state government , and is now the oldest public building in Boston; the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal the beginning of Paul Revere’s ride – widely regarded as the spark that ignited the American Revolution; Paul Revere’s house. Apart from all his meetings he had time to father 16 children – 8 each from 2 wives, and work as a silversmith.
In the middle of those things , in a long thin bit of parkland, has been built, fairly recently, a Holocaust Memorial. It starts with a plaque that links the Freedon Trail to the freedom of the Jews from the Nazi oppression. Then there are a series of 6 tall thin glass towers symbolising the Nazi’s principal death camps. Each column is covered with numbers – the prison numbers of the Jews killed.- and quotes from famous Jewish people. You walk along a path that links the towers and walk through the towers. Near the end I thought ‘ what is all that steam coming out intermittently from the inside of the glass towers?’ Oops, a harmless gas. At much the same time I remembered the chopped off branch of my family tree. It was quite moving and I found a bench to sit on and contemplate everything and nothing for a while.
The Freedom Trail goes through the North End of Boston – known as the Italian area. I heard many local Italians walking around the streets ( I added quite a few extra loops to the Freedom trail) . I presume they were local because they were talking slowly, like many American people seem to do,. Certainly slower than Italians in Italy. I could follow conversations. I had some really delicious seafood stuffed canneloni .
The Freedom Trail continues over the river , through a historic dockyard – another day. I walked back to my apartment, pottered for half an hour and then went to the breakfast café to try them out for late afternoon tea – purely research. The pear tart was delicious. Much nicer than the peculiar crème brule tart of the previous day. I finished the newspaper.
Today’s focus was the Freedom Trail. This is a walking trail linking different buildings and sites that were important in Boston and America’s history. The sites are not in time order – just geographic, which I found a bit annoying at first. I think for me the highlight was the King’s Chapel. The first chapel on this site was built in 1688, but replaced with bigger, existing one in 1749. After the Revolution the congregation switched from Anglican to Unitarian. The pulpit is the oldest in the USA still in use on its original site. It reminded me of St Martin in the Fields in London with its boxes for the congregation families and a central aisle and 2 side aisles. These boxes had benches facing both ways. The parents could watch the kids, but the minster could only see into the box when he was in the pulpit. They have music recitals every Tuesday.
I also saw several burial grounds; the Old City Hall, used from 1865 to 1969 ; Old South Meeting House, built in 1729 for Puritan religious services and used for town meetings ; a church from where the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison gave his first anti slavery speech ; Old State House , built in 1713, served as the seat of the colonial and state government , and is now the oldest public building in Boston; the Old North Church where the lanterns were hung to signal the beginning of Paul Revere’s ride – widely regarded as the spark that ignited the American Revolution; Paul Revere’s house. Apart from all his meetings he had time to father 16 children – 8 each from 2 wives, and work as a silversmith.
In the middle of those things , in a long thin bit of parkland, has been built, fairly recently, a Holocaust Memorial. It starts with a plaque that links the Freedon Trail to the freedom of the Jews from the Nazi oppression. Then there are a series of 6 tall thin glass towers symbolising the Nazi’s principal death camps. Each column is covered with numbers – the prison numbers of the Jews killed.- and quotes from famous Jewish people. You walk along a path that links the towers and walk through the towers. Near the end I thought ‘ what is all that steam coming out intermittently from the inside of the glass towers?’ Oops, a harmless gas. At much the same time I remembered the chopped off branch of my family tree. It was quite moving and I found a bench to sit on and contemplate everything and nothing for a while.
The Freedom Trail goes through the North End of Boston – known as the Italian area. I heard many local Italians walking around the streets ( I added quite a few extra loops to the Freedom trail) . I presume they were local because they were talking slowly, like many American people seem to do,. Certainly slower than Italians in Italy. I could follow conversations. I had some really delicious seafood stuffed canneloni .
The Freedom Trail continues over the river , through a historic dockyard – another day. I walked back to my apartment, pottered for half an hour and then went to the breakfast café to try them out for late afternoon tea – purely research. The pear tart was delicious. Much nicer than the peculiar crème brule tart of the previous day. I finished the newspaper.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Friday Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
This morning was a bit of a disappointment. I found a place to try for my morning coffee and croissant that I had read about – about 10min walk away. The coffee was nice but the croissant had not been baked this morning. I came back to my apartment for more clothes and then went by the T – subway ( mostly below ground) to East Cambridge on the other side of the river. I had read about a river cruise company that was starting this weekend and then daily from the following weekend. I went to book. Trouble is, it is not starting till the following weekend. I should have picked up on the website that the dates for this weekend were incorrect by 1 day – probably last year. My next place to visit was the Museum of Fine Arts. It is on the T line that I had taken but there was a broken train on that line near the Museum so I had to walk further than I wanted to another line and then walk further than I wanted to the museum.
The museum has far too many interesting things to see in 1 day. It has an enlightened policy of allowing a second visit for free within 10days of the first. Once again, I concentrated on the 4 floors of American stuff . Some of the furniture and textiles took my fancy. Paul Revere , who rode off into the night to warn his mates of the impending British attack, was a silversmith and some of his work was on display, along with an interesting portrait of him by the American painter John Singleton Copley. Another painting I liked was ‘The (4) Daughters of Edward Darley Boit’ by John Singer Sargent.
I had a nice lunch in a large open room with 3 floors of space above us with a good view of this green palm tree 3 floors tall – except it was an amazing Chuhuly creation of green glass.
I looked at some interesting jewelry and , by accident, wandered into a room full of musical instruments. I had to take notes for today’s trivia. There is a thing called a ‘marine trumpet’. It is a long thin wooden box tapering to the top – about as tall as me, with a single string. It produces high harmonic notes by lightly touching the string and bowing the string close to the upper end of the neck. It produces a sound like a muted trumpet. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
I caught the T back and walked through what is called the Public Garden – bit boring name - next to the Boston Common. Boston Common , 19ha, was bought by the city from one of the first settlers in 1634 and used as a pasture, military drill ground, and gallows site. The Public Garden , 10 ha, was designed in 1869 and is more formal. The Ne end of the Boston Common is about 50m from where I am staying.. There is a pond, some statues of important people and a sculpture of Mother Duck and her ducklings in the Public Garden.
Then I thought it was afternoon tea time . I went to a different place to the morning’s stale croissant, and this time got some slightly stale ‘crème brule’ cake. A bit like a light vanilla flavoured cheesecake. I expressed surprise at the format – and was told that they do things differently in America. After that I gave up and decided my emergency rations of ryvita, cheese and tomato would be good for dinner.
The museum has far too many interesting things to see in 1 day. It has an enlightened policy of allowing a second visit for free within 10days of the first. Once again, I concentrated on the 4 floors of American stuff . Some of the furniture and textiles took my fancy. Paul Revere , who rode off into the night to warn his mates of the impending British attack, was a silversmith and some of his work was on display, along with an interesting portrait of him by the American painter John Singleton Copley. Another painting I liked was ‘The (4) Daughters of Edward Darley Boit’ by John Singer Sargent.
I had a nice lunch in a large open room with 3 floors of space above us with a good view of this green palm tree 3 floors tall – except it was an amazing Chuhuly creation of green glass.
I looked at some interesting jewelry and , by accident, wandered into a room full of musical instruments. I had to take notes for today’s trivia. There is a thing called a ‘marine trumpet’. It is a long thin wooden box tapering to the top – about as tall as me, with a single string. It produces high harmonic notes by lightly touching the string and bowing the string close to the upper end of the neck. It produces a sound like a muted trumpet. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
I caught the T back and walked through what is called the Public Garden – bit boring name - next to the Boston Common. Boston Common , 19ha, was bought by the city from one of the first settlers in 1634 and used as a pasture, military drill ground, and gallows site. The Public Garden , 10 ha, was designed in 1869 and is more formal. The Ne end of the Boston Common is about 50m from where I am staying.. There is a pond, some statues of important people and a sculpture of Mother Duck and her ducklings in the Public Garden.
Then I thought it was afternoon tea time . I went to a different place to the morning’s stale croissant, and this time got some slightly stale ‘crème brule’ cake. A bit like a light vanilla flavoured cheesecake. I expressed surprise at the format – and was told that they do things differently in America. After that I gave up and decided my emergency rations of ryvita, cheese and tomato would be good for dinner.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Thur MV to Boston
Bus, ferry, bus to Boston went smoothly. Both the ferry and bus line from Wood’s Hole to Boston ( almost 2 hours) have WiFi. I walked to my apartment , about 2 kilometres, rather than bother with the subway. I met Michael, the doorman. My apartment is very pleasant. Big bay window in the bedroom and 2 windows in the main room. High ceilings, comfortable chairs , plenty of cupboards ( to put all of my 11 kg of luggage into) There are 2 washing machines per floor . This is good because I am tired of hand washing. You have to use a reloadable with $ card ( like for public transport) to make the machine go. $1.75 per load sounds good value.
I went and got some fruit, yoghurt, crakers, cheese and could not see a decent coffee place for my morning coffee other than places where you sit at benches – hard to read a newspaper. I had to ring the owner to tell him I had arrived safely and I asked him about morning cafes. He said when he is here ( He and his wife live in Plymouth , a little way away and use the flat occasionally) they go to a nearby Starbucks and catch up with other people they know in Beacon Hill there at Starbucks.
There are several information places marked on my map and listed in the book. I chose one to walk to, but it had moved – quite a few blocks further away. Never mind, on the way back I went into a traditional American diner like place but with modern food – Joe’s – and had a nice dinner – at 5pm , but at least at that time I got a nice little booth to myself.
Someone is smoking in a nearby apartment. Hope they stop. Which reminds me , Isabelle’s on MV, is an old wooden place done up. I could quite easily hear the people above me moving around !
I went and got some fruit, yoghurt, crakers, cheese and could not see a decent coffee place for my morning coffee other than places where you sit at benches – hard to read a newspaper. I had to ring the owner to tell him I had arrived safely and I asked him about morning cafes. He said when he is here ( He and his wife live in Plymouth , a little way away and use the flat occasionally) they go to a nearby Starbucks and catch up with other people they know in Beacon Hill there at Starbucks.
There are several information places marked on my map and listed in the book. I chose one to walk to, but it had moved – quite a few blocks further away. Never mind, on the way back I went into a traditional American diner like place but with modern food – Joe’s – and had a nice dinner – at 5pm , but at least at that time I got a nice little booth to myself.
Someone is smoking in a nearby apartment. Hope they stop. Which reminds me , Isabelle’s on MV, is an old wooden place done up. I could quite easily hear the people above me moving around !
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Wednesday – Vineyard Haven and Edgartown
This morning I went on the bus to Vineyard Haven, the main port of entry to Marthas Vineyard. I looked at some old buildings, walked along the main street – took a few minutes-, found the wool shop down a lane – it was closed. I had ¾ hour before the bus I wanted to take and went into a bookshop. I bought 2 books – a small book about the Wampanoag tribe – their history and what they are doing. Several of their ‘elders’ – not their word but I cannot remember the right one – were featured. There was a page on the lady I met in the bus. The other book is a kid’s story about 2 skunks who run amuck in the gingerbread cottages of Oak’s Bluff. Apparently it is a real problem. The shop keeper and a regular were talking, and I got involved, about a book - the first in a trilogy- that everyone is talking about - Fifty Shades of Grey. One commentator has called it ‘well-written porn for mums’ but apparently last week, in Vineyard Haven, 50% of the purchasers were men – today’s trivia. The customer had just opened a b and b . 35 minutes had passed since I went in.
I went on a bus to an area just north of Vineyard Haven to look at another of MV’s 4 lighthouses. More huge houses on large blocks with lots of trees.
I caught a bus back to Edgartown, the town I went to the previous day. I had a really nice lunch overlooking the harbour and then took some photos of more old houses. One was owned by the master of a whaler on which Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, sailed in 1841.
Back in Oaks Bluff I bought some tomato soup for dinner and smiled at the question ‘Would you like some silverware?’ as he reached for a plastic spoon.
I went on a bus to an area just north of Vineyard Haven to look at another of MV’s 4 lighthouses. More huge houses on large blocks with lots of trees.
I caught a bus back to Edgartown, the town I went to the previous day. I had a really nice lunch overlooking the harbour and then took some photos of more old houses. One was owned by the master of a whaler on which Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick, sailed in 1841.
Back in Oaks Bluff I bought some tomato soup for dinner and smiled at the question ‘Would you like some silverware?’ as he reached for a plastic spoon.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Tues Rain
After a slow start, I put many layers of clothes on and ventured out into the elements – rain, wind, cold – and walked to the PO. The lady was lovely. It costs the same to send a card as a postscard to Australia. Today’s useless info.
I caught the bus to Edgartown – another of the 3 main villages on this island. The architecture is far more coherent than here. All, well, 90%, are white with shades of grey trim. Only 1 shade per house. The book says Greek Revival and Federal styles. What ever that means. I did see 1 Greek Revival style – a large church with 6 Greek columns in the front and a tall clock tower built in 1843 at the height of the whaling industry. I saw no similar houses with columns. The church was right near the bus stop. I walked along the main street past some interesting looking shops but I was too wet to go in. It was pouring. I could not take photos – too wet, so I found somewhere to have soup and dawdled so that I did not have to stand in the rain for too long waiting for the return bus.
I have enjoyed being warm inside this afternoon, listening to the wind howl around outside and watching the whitecaps and spray through the window.
This evening the wind was blowing strongly but the rain was only a drizzle when I walked to the town for dinner. The seagulls were making a funny noise – like I associate with films with deserted beaches in English seaside towns in winter. I past one of the buses I took yesterday with the same driver – Diane. She was waiting at the end of the route, beckoned me into the bus and asked what I had done today. Very friendly.
Some unrelated things I have forgotten to mention:
A local used the word ‘lilypadding’ to describe what many do in the summer – rent out their main place of residence and rent for themselves a cheaper place.
Yesterday, for the first time, I found a drink menu that had zinfandel by the glass.
Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer is an annual event which has been held for about 15 years in which different participating businesses sell a special desert / cake/ biscuit for the period 7 th to 13th May and donate the profits. Instead of doing the Mother Day Classic jog, like I did last year with Carol, this year I will have to eat something sweet.
I am usually careful when I cross roads in foreign countries. There are many bike paths around here. Sometimes the footpaths and bike paths are the same. I was walking along, mentally miles away, heard someone call out ‘passing’ and stepped to my left. Wrong. A possibly nasty incident was averted by the skill of the cyclist.
I caught the bus to Edgartown – another of the 3 main villages on this island. The architecture is far more coherent than here. All, well, 90%, are white with shades of grey trim. Only 1 shade per house. The book says Greek Revival and Federal styles. What ever that means. I did see 1 Greek Revival style – a large church with 6 Greek columns in the front and a tall clock tower built in 1843 at the height of the whaling industry. I saw no similar houses with columns. The church was right near the bus stop. I walked along the main street past some interesting looking shops but I was too wet to go in. It was pouring. I could not take photos – too wet, so I found somewhere to have soup and dawdled so that I did not have to stand in the rain for too long waiting for the return bus.
I have enjoyed being warm inside this afternoon, listening to the wind howl around outside and watching the whitecaps and spray through the window.
This evening the wind was blowing strongly but the rain was only a drizzle when I walked to the town for dinner. The seagulls were making a funny noise – like I associate with films with deserted beaches in English seaside towns in winter. I past one of the buses I took yesterday with the same driver – Diane. She was waiting at the end of the route, beckoned me into the bus and asked what I had done today. Very friendly.
Some unrelated things I have forgotten to mention:
A local used the word ‘lilypadding’ to describe what many do in the summer – rent out their main place of residence and rent for themselves a cheaper place.
Yesterday, for the first time, I found a drink menu that had zinfandel by the glass.
Boston Bakes for Breast Cancer is an annual event which has been held for about 15 years in which different participating businesses sell a special desert / cake/ biscuit for the period 7 th to 13th May and donate the profits. Instead of doing the Mother Day Classic jog, like I did last year with Carol, this year I will have to eat something sweet.
I am usually careful when I cross roads in foreign countries. There are many bike paths around here. Sometimes the footpaths and bike paths are the same. I was walking along, mentally miles away, heard someone call out ‘passing’ and stepped to my left. Wrong. A possibly nasty incident was averted by the skill of the cyclist.
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