Happy Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation

First I was planning on writing about Yosemite, next it was going to be BSC in the USA, then someone suggested I write about Seattle. Then, Thanksgiving came around. And I figured I should probably write a little something about a place somewhat relevant to Thanksgiving. With that I give you this (relatively short I think) post on Plimoth Plantation.

I visited Plymouth, MA (and the plantation and the rock) eighteen years ago. Because of that, my memory is a little bit fuzzy. I do remember a few things about the visit. One, Plymouth Rock. I remember looking down on it and I think it was separated from visitors by some kind of net or fence. Many people try to drop coins on it, maybe they make wishes, I don't know. And I have a little trouble believing a rock can grant wishes. Maybe if there's a troll or something living under the rock... but I've never heard of that.

Moving on to Plimoth Plantation which is a museum/recreated village. I think. I remember wooden buildings, demonstrations about living/eating/cooking etc. during Pilgrim times. The space is "set" in the year 1627 (did you remember that the Mayflower arrived in 1620? That little bit of trivia once won me a free glass of juice at Denny's! Come on, you know you're jealous). My most vivid memory is, I think, learning about tomatoes. If I'm remembering correctly, people didn't eat them back then. I think people used to think tomatoes were poisonous (or just unfit for eating). I did actually just try to verify this which led me to this, uh, interesting website: http://www.tomatoesareevil.com/index.html Try the tomato shooting gallery, it's decent stress relief.

Quite honestly, I don't remember much else. I think I also visited the Ocean Spray factory or museum, or store, or whatever the hell that thing was. Not nearly as much fun as the Hershey Factory, that's for sure. But hey, cranberries are totally relevant to Thanksgiving. And that's all she wrote. Happy Thanksgiving!

Blogger is being extremely obnoxious (or maybe it's my computer...) Pictures to be added soon!

Gulliver's Travels

While procrastinating recently, I decided to watch one of my favorite movies from childhood, the animated version (from 1939) of Gulliver's Travels. How I came to have and love this video I really don't know but it definitely is a classic. The movie was, I believe, the first American, non-Disney, animated movie. And it's pretty awesome. I actually found it on DVD pretty recently (for very cheap) and this was probably my first time watching the movie in about a decade.

Gulliver's Travels is based on the Jonathan Swift book of the same name, though it is, being a children's movie, not much like the book (although I must confess I haven't actually read it... yet).

The movie takes place entirely in Lilliput, a land of tiny people. Lemuel Gulliver (seriously? Lemuel?), the traveler, finds himself shipwrecked there and though the locals (Lilliputians, they're called) are scared of him at first, they all end up friends. And no one gets eaten. Of course, there's more to it than that including a big fight over a couple of songs, a king I always thought was the queen, and some very sneaky guys who help start a war and stuff. In the end, Gulliver pretty much fixes everything and everyone lives happily ever after. I am curious about how these things go in the book (I'll get to it someday!) because I know what Swift was like with his satires. I will mention one scene from the movie in which Gulliver helpfully puts out a raging fire with a little bit of water. Apparently this also happens in the book (I'm guessing in a similar scene) although he, well, doesn't use water. Just thought I'd mention that. My point is that the movie does seem to care about what happens in the book but totally overlooks the messages and/or social commentary presented. Well, it is meant for kids.

While I naturally thought a movie with the word "travels" in the title was appropriate for my blog, I can actually relate this in another way as well. When I went to Ireland, I decided that instead of flying, I would take the ferry from Holyhead, Wales to Dublin. Why am I mentioning this? Because the name of the ferry was the Jonathan Swift. See, here's where the ferry company decided to be cute. The Swift is the fast ferry so the name is quite appropriate, if slightly groan-inducing. And I say that as a great lover of all kinds of word play. I think they actually had a contest to name the boat and that was the winner. Clever.

I actually do have more to say about Jonathan Swift and his post as Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin. That will have to wait for another day, like when I figure out which church pictures in Ireland are which. Or maybe around Christmas when it makes sense to write about Handel's Messiah which also has ties to St. Patrick's. We shall see. Meanwhile, here's some water in Ireland:

New Toy!

The day we've all been waiting for has arrived! I bought a slide scanner! See, back in the days before digital cameras, people had to use this stuff called "film" to take pictures. And people who wanted to be artistic took these things called "slides". Well, for a long time, my father was one of those wanting to be artistic people. And therefore, many of my family vacations are now documented with hundreds of (until now) useless slides. I should mention here that many of the pictures-from-slides I'll post were taken by my father. Credit where it's due, I guess.

So, since I'm here to write about the places I've been and include photographic evidence, it's fallen to me to get those slides into a useable format. Hence the slide scanner. Long story shorter, I'm in the process of converting old slides to digital files. They're fun to look at (for me anyway) and hopefully they'll um, illustrate my posts. Unfortunately, the quality isn't fantastic. I'm trying to edit and work with this scanner thing to make things better but no real success yet. And really, I don't know if the issue is the slides or the scanner. I do know that I've accidently scanned some slides backwards though I haven't decided yet if I'm going to rescan them in the name of accuracy or leave them as they are and call them "artistic". Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller?

Good news? BSC in the USA coming soon!

The Hills Are Alive with The Sound of Salzburg...er, Music

Set and (partly) filmed in Salzburg, Austria, The Sound of Music must be one of the most visually stunning movies ever. In my opinion. Since it also happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies, I naturally jumped at the chance to go to Salzburg and see the setting for myself. And it really is so beautiful that it has stood out as one of my favorite things places.

First, a test of my recapping abilities for the benefit of anyone who lives under a rock or really hates musicals and therefore hasn't seen The Sound of Music. TSOM is the fictionalized account of a real Austrian (turned Vermontian) family that fled Austria and the Nazis before World War II. Basically, an enthusiastic but hopeless nun becomes governess of seven at-first-obnoxious-but-eventually-lovable children and falls in love with their strict, naval captain father who falls in love back. Most of this is accomplished with singing. They escape from the Nazis. The end! Since I like accuracy, I'll just point out here that the movie is quite different from the real story. Okay, moving on.

As I mentioned, a lot of the movie actually was filmed in and around Salzburg. (Check this out for some recognizable city sights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCq92OKg9jE&feature=related I wish I knew how to just post the video.)

And even now, more than forty years later, you can still tell. Salzburg is both beautiful and well-preserved and, although the lack of Nazis was a clue, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Maria kicking her heels up and singing or the kids hopping up and down steps in Mirabell Gardens. Actually, that would have been pretty awesome. I wonder if they do reenactments.

I think I took this picture right from the bottom of the steps.

For those of us that love TSOM, there are Sound of Music tours that visit all the places featured in the movie. Sadly, I did not have time for one of those tours and I'm still upset about that! I'm determined to get back to Salzburg though, and next time I'll definitely do it. Even so, I got to see quite a few places featured in the movie. Some examples:


This is used as the back of the von Trapp house. Note the lake, look for a capsized boat and waterlogged children with their governess. Maria has confidence here.Last time I saw this, people were skipping through it...

And I do have one neat little fact about the von Trapp's great escape to Switzerland to share. Actually, several little facts:

First of all, as many people already know, it never happened. Yes, the family fled the Nazis. No, they did not walk to Switzerland. For one thing, it's much too far. For another, they didn't have the manufactured drama of a movie to deal with and were able to just leave. I believe they took the train to Italy. And on a related note, the other side of the mountain crossed in the movie is, in fact, in another country. Switzerland? No, remember? I already said it's not Switzerland. Could be Italy, right? Well, it could be but it isn't. Believe it or not, it's Germany. Yes, the von Trapps technically escaped the Nazis by running right to... the Nazis. Oops. Even more than that, one of Hitler's houses was just over on the German side of the mountain. Double oops.

Salzburg is "alive with the sound of music" in other ways as well. (I'm sorry I went there. Truly.) Mozart was born there and in fact, the Salzburg airport is named for him. I love that. Both houses Mozart lived in are now museums and nice places to visit. Many people know that Mozart's grave is unknown, though there are some myths surrounding his burial and grave. His sister Maria Anna, however (also a musician), is buried in Salzburg, in the cemetery of St. Peter's Abbey:

This cemetery is notable for other reasons, including the inspiration for the part of TSOM where the von Trapps literally hide from the Nazis in a cemetery. Yes, this really is a cemetery and it's actually really impressive--those openings are part of a cliff that borders the cemetery and (I think) houses the catacombs.

Well, if I didn't manage to convince anyone else that Salzburg is fabulous, I certainly convinced myself. Time to go back, I think.

To The Possible Disappointment of Karen Brewer

As I may have mentioned, I'm a huge fan of the great Baby-Sitters Club series (which shall hereafter be abbreviated with the usual BSC). Part of the vision here at Travel Rambling involves writing about travel books or books that are somehow related to travel. With that in mind, I've been thinking about one of the best/worst BSC books out there, a perfect one for this blog: BSC in the USA. At some point, I'll get to a full-on snark/recap/rant about my experiences at the places visited by the BSC but that's for later. For now, I'll just hate on Karen Brewer, which is something I really enjoy.

In BSC in the USA, each person chooses a place to visit somewhere in the continental US, between CT and CA, north-ish or south-ish depending on with whom they're traveling. Basically. Karen (step-sister of BSC president Kristy for anyone not in the know) chooses Four Corners, the place where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. As it happens, her choosing of this particular place isn't exactly presented well... there's this idea that they won't be able to find the spot which makes no sense. After all, if it isn't a monument, how does Karen know to call it Four Corners? That is an official name after all. All stupidity aside, they actually do go there. Well, I too have been to Four Corners. Noting that the title of the post indicates disappointment, here's what's sort of wrong-ish with visiting Four Corners.

The Four Corners monument is in the wrong place. Well, kind of. The location of Four Corners has in recent months brought the monument into the spotlight and sparked a lot of discussion. I believe the official answer/solution is that the monument is in the right place although the location may technically be slightly off, though less than originally thought. The real explanation is waaaaay too technical and I'm not even going to go into it. Now that I've gone on about pretty much nothing, I realize this post doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. To bring things back to the BSC and obnoxious Karen, the character of Karen likes accuracy and insists on things being correct. If she were real, I would expect this location discrepancy to really bother her. (Oh dear, I'm putting way too much thought into what a fictional character might think...)

Anyway, all issues with location aside, Four Corners is a fun place to visit. In addition to the four states, two Native American Nations (Ute and Navajo) have boundaries at the monument. The monument is, I believe, maintained by the Navajo Nation and there are souvenirs available since nothing completes a monument visit like a little shopping.

The best thing about visiting Four Corners is the opportunity to be in all four states at one time. It's so much fun, people wait in line to do it (leaving someone back in the picture-taking area of course). A marker stands on the spot, listing each state with crossing lines marking the exact boundaries (I think that's the case... that's how I remember it!) To once again mention BSC in the USA, Karen wanted to stand in all four states and wave toward Connecticut which seemed to be somewhat difficult as she expected to need all hands and feet on the ground. However, she thought of the same thing I did (to my great shame): put half a foot in each state. In my defense, I hadn't read the book then. In fact, it may not have even been published when I visited Four Corners. I certainly hope that's the case.

Jennifer's Body Made Me Do It

Okay, I admit it. I went to see Jennifer's Body and I paid for it. More than that, I actually kind of enjoyed it! So, slight spoilers ahead for anyone who may read this and hasn't seen the movie.



Jennifer's Body takes place in a town in Minnesota called Devil's Kettle. The town is named for a waterfall that drops into a pothole and ends somewhere unknown. Since I happen to really like waterfalls, I naturally wanted to find out if this one was for real. As it turns out, it is. There actually is a waterfall called Devil's Kettle located in very northeastern Minnesota. (The town is fake.) Although judging by the pictures I saw and my memory of the movie, the waterfall used in the movie isn't the real one. That doesn't surprise me since visiting the waterfall requires a hike with lots of stairs. In addition, the actual waterfall is really two: one flows on as a river and one disappears. Since I've never been there, I dont have any pictures. I could probably, uh, borrow some... but there are lots out there. Anyway, from what I've read, it seems like the general thought is that the water from the waterfall eventually flows into nearby Lake Superior.

*****MOVIE SPOILERS HERE******

That isn't the case in the movie. Okay, it's not that major a spoiler. And anyway, this whole thing just makes me wonder if they couldn't just throw some kind of tracking device down the waterfall or something. If they really care. And if it would work underwater.



*****END MOVIE DISCUSSION*****



Anyway, thinking about this waterfall got me thinking about the concept of a waterfall where no one knows where the water goes. As it turns out, I've had a couple experiences with waterfalls somewhat like that. One was at a state park in Florida (yes, that Florida, the one most people seem to think is completely flat) and one (sort of) in a cave in upstate New York.



First up is Falling Waters State Park, which is located on Florida's panhandle. Northern Florida, unlike the rest of the state, actually has some hills. In my recollection, a lot of the changes in elevation are due to sinkholes (created by the gradual wearing away of rock) that are very common in that part of the state. Some of these sinkholes are dry, some have water in the bottom, and some are basically lakes. And then there's Falling Waters. Falling about 73 feet into a 100 foot deep pit, Falling Waters is Florida's highest waterfall. The waterfall flows over some rocks and into what is basically a bottomless pit. In my memory, it really isn't possible to see where the water flows meaning not all 70 feet are visible. And as with Devil's Kettle, no one knows where the water eventually ends up. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Falling Waters. However, more information can be found here: http://floridastateparks.org/fallingwaters/default.cfm



The second waterfall I thought of as somewhat similar to the movie is in Secret Caverns, a cave near Cobleskill, NY. Secret Caverns is the less commercial, darker in atmosphere, and more natural neighbor of the more famous (well, in NY at least and maybe beyond) Howe Caverns. Someday I'll do a post on caves... Moving on. Secret Caverns has a few draws (such as a natural entrance rather than an elevator) but its biggest and most famous draw is the 100 foot underground waterfall. Unlike the previous falls, everyone knows where this water flows. If I'm remembering correctly, a tour of the cave basically ends at the pool of water into which the waterfall flows. Although they say the waterfall is (over) 100 feet, you certainly can't see that far up. After all, caves are dark.



While I'd love to say that the origin of the waterfall is unknown, that isn't the case. I don't remember if it's a lake or river or what and I don't really remember the process of how it gets underground, but I do know that the water's origin is known. In fact, there have been experiments to determine how long the water takes to get from basically where it starts to the pool (or river or whatever) in the cave. I seem to remember it being about 20 minutes but I'm not sure about that. Hey, give me a break, I visited this place about seven years ago.

Once again, I have no pictures. And besides, it's apparently very difficult to take good pictures of the falls. Here's the website with more information (obviously) and some pictures:

http://www.secretcaverns.com/index.htm



The conclusion? Waterfalls are very cool and sometimes really mysterious. Since I'm posting about waterfalls, I may as well post a picture of one. This waterfall is located in Ein Gedi which is an oasis in Israel. Although the falls isn't very high, it's a great place to visit. It's possible (and extremely relaxing) to lean against the rock over which the water flows. Plus, it really cools you off.

Somewhere I have a very short video of a waterfall in Scotland. If I find it, I'll post it.

Wales at Last

I'm done putting it off. It's time to talk about Wales. Wales (Cymru in Welsh which I think is pronounced something like "kim-ree": what a neat language) is, as most people know, part of Great Britain. Basic location: west of England. I was only in Wales for a few days but found it a beautiful and interesting place I'd love to explore further. However, my main interest in Wales has been in its architecture. Specifically, castles.

Wales is a country of castles with many existing in various states (some are still lived in while others are ruins). With limited time and transportation, I was only able to visit one Welsh castle: Conwy Castle, found in the town of (guess!) Conwy.

Conwy Castle was one of several castles built by (or rather, for) King Edward I. It's a massive structure and much of the castle is open to the elements though some "rooms" remain. Although it's well preserved, the castle seems to have survived years of gentle decaying; moss and plants grow in cracks in the stone, helping the castle seem like an impressive feature of the landscape. Like any good castle, Conwy has many towers that can be climbed.

They offer views of the nearby landscape out to the sea as well as the castle and town of Conwy.

(Not the greatest picture I know, but it is what I'm trying to show.)

Like many European towns, Conwy is walled. The walls are there for the walking; it's an interesting way to see a town for sure. My time on the walls was mostly limited to the area near/entrance to the castle itself. Still, an enjoyable walk.

Initially, I actually approached the castle from across a river, the River Conwy actually. Although the town has a train station, few trains stop there and I think it's necessary to tell a train worker if that's where you want to get off. For simplicity's sake, I walked from Llandudno Junction (I think) which is just across the river. The extra exercise was worth it: the castle lay directly across the Conwy Suspension Bridge, appearing as an imposing feature of the town.

I was there in late April and the blue sky, green grass, and gray (or should I say grey?) stone complemented each other to form a vibrant picture that remains a vivid memory.

Exploring a castle is always a fun activity. Personally, I really enjoy the ruined ones--you might find a stairway leading nowhere or a passage opening into a cavernous (if roofless) room. Definitely an adventure.

Coming soon: Yosemite if I ever get a slide scanner, BSC in the USA (same condition), otherwise hmm, maybe a post about NYC again. Or maybe not.