Sunday, September 2, 2018


Lost Snorkel

By

Harold Anderson



                I had searched the same areas of the house three times, and was now holding my cell phone to my ear as I  plundered in the laundry hamper to find the sweat-soaked jeans I had changed from after spending the morning in the garden. My wife, Paula, answered on the third ring.



                “We have a problem,” I told her, in my best don’t-panic-and-remain-calm telephone voice. “Now, it is not an emergency,” I told her. “Yes, it really is,” I corrected. “I can’t find Marvel and I have lost my wallet. Wait, I just found my wallet in the bottom of the laundry hamper.  It must have fallen from the pocket of the jeans I was wearing this morning.”



                “I don’t care about your wallet – you lose it every day, but what did you do with the dog?”

               

                Now, reader, let me interrupt myself here to give you the lay of the land: I live in Philadelphia, Mississippi on a small, shady lot in a suburb. I have always liked to garden, but my lot is not suitable.  When I retired, we bought a 2.7 acre lot just two miles from my house. My lot is on the edge of an old pasture that a local developer hoped to develop into a new subdivision. He hasn’t had much success.  There are only two houses in the area, and they were there long before his plans. The pasture – probably about 60 acres – is surrounded on three sides by woods, and on the fourth side by the city park. To access the pasture, one must travel about a quarter mile down a dirt road through a pine forest. The road bisects the pasture.  The front of my lot boarders the road, and the park fence is my back line.  I have a tool shed and large garden abutting the park.  The fence line is so overgrown walkers on the hiking trail just across my fence have no idea my garden is there. It is easily accessible, but isolated and I like it that way.



                My family dynamic is pertinent to this story, so I will explain briefly: My older daughter, Laura and her husband, Luke, and 13-year-old son, Max, live in Collinsville, about 20 miles away.  Luke is a tow-boat captain, so he works on the river for a month, and has two weeks off.  Laura teaches pre-school at a day-care center and Max rides a bus to and from school.



                My younger daughter, Heather, her husband, Shane, and 11-year-old son, Barrett, live across town from us.  Heather and Shane both work for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians at the reservation a few miles outside of town. Their schedules are erratic, so Paula goes to their house early each morning helps get Barrett up and dressed and drives him to school, just a couple of blocks from our house, then brings their Schnauzer, “Marvel” (AKA “Snorkel” or “Mervy”) to our house to spend the day.



 Ol’  Snorks is a good dog, but is high energy and prone to restlessness, so we are constantly taking him outside, where he is tied to a long lead, and letting in him about five minutes later when he becomes bored.  His one goal in life is to catch the neighbor’s cat.  When he sees him, he will light out like the Roadrunner on speed, reach the end of his lead and turn a back-flip.  Poor dog.



I go to the garden nearly every morning after a late breakfast (It sure is nice, being retired), work  a couple of hours and come home in time to watch “Jeopardy!” at 11:00 o’clock.  I often take Marvel with me. He plays about the pasture as I do my garden work.  He always comes when I call him and jumps in my truck to go home: never a problem – until this week.



One morning, Laura called and said that Max appeared to have pink eye, and asked Paula to come and take him to the doctor.  She agreed. After getting Barrett to school, she delivered Marvel to the house and headed to Collinsville. I went to the garden to pick butterbeans, among other things.  Marvel jumped from the truck, peed on all the fence posts, then headed up the driveway toward the dirt road. Like a good dog, he looked back, asking permission.  I told him to go ahead, knowing he would not wonder from the pasture – at least, he never had.  At about a quarter-till-Jeopardy! I loaded up my produce and Marvel was waiting at the truck (Yes, I am sure he was.). He jumped in when I opened the door.



When I arrived home, he jumped from the truck and followed me into the house.  I undressed, put my sweaty clothes into the laundry hamper, showered, put on clean clothes, and we watched Jeopardy! together. (Yes, I am sure we did). He barked to go out (Yes, I KNOW he did). I fixed lunch while I listened to Rush Limbaugh rave about what a sorry bunch the Democrats are. After lunch, I dozed while Ol’ Rush ranted on, only getting up a few times for the let-the-dog-in-and-let-the-dog-out thing.  I am POSITIVE.



Toward the end of Rush’s program, when he does about 15 minutes of “obscene profit messages,” I awoke from my stupor to the sound of rain.  “Gee,” I thought, “That’s odd, I haven’t heard old Mervy bark to come in: he hates rain and doesn’t even want to be on the carport when it starts.  I’d better check on him.”  He wasn’t on the carport. His lead stretched onto the deck, which is built onto my shop, about 50 feet away.  I called, but got no answer, so I walked to the deck, up the steps and peered around the railing.  There lay the end of the lead – without a dog.



I sometimes lose track of whether Marvel is in or out, since he comes and goes so often (I am thinking about a “The Dog is in/The Dog is out” note board by the backdoor). It is not unusual for him to take a nap in a vacant room, so I went into the house and called.  No answer.  I searched the house.  No dog. “Oh, my gosh, I left him in the truck,” I thought.  I checked.  No dog.



I drove around the neighborhood, calling and whistling.  No joy.



 “I know I brought him home, and he went in and out, so he has to be here,” I reasoned. Then I began to second guess myself: “No, wait, that was yesterday.  Today, he walked up the driveway to the dirt road, and I am not sure he got back into the truck. Oh, no!  I left him at the garden.  I grabbed for my wallet on the end table where I always put it when I watch TV.  I wasn’t there.  I retrieved the jeans I had worn that morning from the laundry hamper, but it wasn’t in the pocket.  I ransacked the house, looking under sofa cushions, behind furniture, in the oven, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher, behind furniture – literally, EVERYWHERE! “I’ve got to find the dog, I’ll worry about the wallet later,” I thought.  I drove back to the garden and called.  No answer.  I drove around the park.  I did not see him.  I drove to all the houses in the vicinity. He wasn’t there and no one had seen him.  “Oh, God,” I thought, as I pounded the steering wheel, “this is terrible.  I have lost my wallet and the dog.  Everyone in the family worships that dog. If I don’t find him, my name will be ‘Mudd.’ It just can’t get any worse than this.  Then I heard an ominous “ding, ding, ding” coming from my dash.  I looked at the instrument panel, and the little gas pump was illuminated.  You know the one: the one that means, “Hey, dummy, if you don’t fill up soon, I am going to leave you stranded!”  Since my truck gets about five miles per gallon, my reserve goes quickly!



I drove to the “Spaceway,” about a half-mile away, to fill up, reached for my wallet, which wasn’t there, and proceeded home, on fumes, and made the phone call mentioned above.



After explaining the situation to Paula, she asked, “Are you sure you left him at the garden?”



“At this point, I am not sure of anything.”



“Well, Max didn’t have pink-eye, the Doctor said it was just seasonal allergies, so I took him on to school.  I will come home and help you look for him.”



With wallet in hand, I drove to the Spaceway for gas.  There was only one pump open.  It would not take my credit card.  I went into the store to get the attendant to turn on the pump. Everyone in the long line was her friend, and she chatted with them all. When I got to the front of the line, she wanted to discuss the weather. “Hot enough for you?” She said.  “NO!” I brusquely replied.  “Pump number two won’t take my card.  Please turn it on!” “OK, she replied, I’ll get to it in a minute.”



I rushed to the pump, waited patiently for her to turn it on and for the dial to clear, pushed the “Regular” button, put the nozzle into my tank, pulled the lever and waited impatiently as the world’s slowest pump drizzled gas into my tank. Five minutes and three gallons later, I gave up, stood in line again and finally paid my bill.



I drove to the garden, hoping Marvel had made his way back there and begin to call.  No luck. Just as I was getting in the truck to make my rounds of the park and adjoining areas, my cell phone rang.  It was Paula. As soon as I answered, she said, “I am home, and I have Marvel.”



“Where did you find him?”



“In the neighbor’s front yard.  His lead was wrapped around her mailbox post and strung out across the street.  I guess he ran after the cat, broke his lead and decided to visit some of his dog friends around the block.”



We now have two “Dog in/Dog Out” note boards – one at the backdoor and one in my truck, and I now keep a five-gallon can of gas in the back of my truck at all time.



               




Friday, January 19, 2018

Holding My Water -- and My Breath Part 5


The Misfits – Part 2 of Even More Plumbing Woes

Recap –

I had just repaired a broken pipe at my cabin and pulled into the carport at home just as a frozen and burst pipe thawed and started spewing water. I could not find the water cut-off valve and had to wait on the city utility man to come shut it off, as I stood helplessly by and watch my carport flood. The water is shut off, and I am now ready to tackle yet another plumbing job.


The Present Situation –

There is a drop roof across the back of my house. Part is a carport, and part is enclosed to make a utility/laundry room, which is on a raised (conventional) foundation. A supply line sticks up from the slab, just a few inches from the wall. This is topped with a “tee” fitting. A faucet is attached to the top leg of the tee, and the horizontal leg is attached to a water line that runs through the brick wall, under the utility room floor and feeds the washing machine. The tee had frozen and burst.

As I examined the pipe connections, my heart skipped a beat. Oh, no! , the tee was connected to the under-floor line right at the brick. I was going to have to get UNDER the utility room to cut the line and splice on a new one. I am an old fat guy, and the crawl space is only inches high. I figured I had two choices: Call a plumber nicknamed “Snake” or take up the utility room floor, and the last I heard, Snake had quit the plumbing business. I looked closer at the connection and – What’s that? Oh Joy! There is a God in Heaven and he is smiling down on me! The pipe from the tee is not glued to the one under the floor. Some past beneficent plumber had glued a threaded fitting to the under-floor pipe, and the tee is SCREWED into it! I can simply saw the tee loose from the stub pipe and unscrew it from the under-floor pipe, screw in a new pipe, glue it to the horizontal arm of the tee, glue a piece of pipe from the bottom of the tee to the stub pipe glue a faucet fitting to the top of the tee and screw in a faucet. Piece of cake.

I took a photo of the pipe junction and went to my friendly, neighborhood building supply store, (the one with helpful employees who actually know what they are doing.) I showed the photo to the man, explained my problem and said, “Sell me what I need.” He said, “Is this your first trip here with this problem.” I replied that it was, and he said, “You have two more. It takes three trips to repair a plumbing problem.” “Not on this,” I said, “This is straight forward – just screwing and gluing some pipes back together.”

No. It wasn’t that easy. All the pipes were short. There was no “give” in them, necessary to maneuver the male into the female fittings. I went back to the hardware store to ask for advice and to buy whatever additional fittings were necessary. As I entered the store, the man behind the counter held up two fingers. “That is twice,” he said. I explained the situation, and he said, “I have just the thing.” He handed me a collapsible connection. It was like a telescope. The male end was a glue joint, but the female end was a gasket with a plastic nut that, when screwed down, presses on the gasket so it fits snugly against the pipe, making a water-tight seal. He explained the use: “collapse the fitting, glue the male end to one pipe with a connector, slip the other (female) end over the pipe and tighten the nut. That is all there is to it.” I was elated – such an elegant solution!” I rushed home to apply it. My pipes are ½ inch. He had given me a ¾ inch fitting. I returned to the store. He held up three fingers. “This trip does not count,” I said. You gave me the wrong size, so it is your fault. I exchanged the fitting for the proper size and returned home.

I installed the collapsible fitting without a hitch, then I glued the faucet fitting to the top, screwed in the faucet, got it cross threaded and ruined the threads on the PVC fitting. I was ashamed to go back to the hardware store, so I went to the “Big Box” store and got another fitting. It was a ¾ inch. I needed a ½ inch. I went back to Big Box. The bin that should have held ½ inch fittings was full of tee fittings. I finally found an attendant. He searched every bin in the store and finally gave up. The best I can do is a ½” by ¾” fitting: the ½ inch end will fit your pipe, and you can buy a ¾ inch faucet for it.

“Good, let me have a ¾” faucet.”

“We don’t have any.”

Dear reader, have you ever seen a two-year old throw a temper tantrum in the candy aisle of Wal-Mart?

Either I frightened him or he felt sorry for me, because he continued to search – and found them – in the appropriate bin, with a stack of tee’s piled in front. It was now dark, and very cold. I returned home and turned on the carport lights – and only got a VERY dim glow. I had replaced my good old incandescent bulbs with the pig-tail energy-saving variety, and it takes forever for them to glow brightly in cold weather. I looked for a functioning flashlight, but there were not any. My grandson had left everyone on and run the batteries down, and we were out of batteries. Working mostly by feel, I connected everything and turned on the water. GLORY BE! It worked. No leaks.

Excuse me dear reader, my cell phone just rang, or warbled, or whatever cell phones. Do.

“Hello,”

“WHAT! NO, NO, IT CAN’T BE. PLEASE TELL ME IT’S A JOKE. YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!”

“OK, sob, sob, I will be right out.”

That was a friend I let use my cabin. He lives in the area and is taking an on-line college course but does not have wi-fi at home, but my cabin does. He went to the cabin and found the front door standing wide open he said it is VERY cold inside and the water does not work in the bathroom.

I keep reminding myself that we Baptist don’t cuss. Pardon me while I revert to my Methodist roots. %$#*_!@!!!

Afterward –

I went back to the hardware store to buy something else, and the attendant congratulated me on fixing the leak with only two trips. I smiled and said, “Well, somethings, things just work out.”

I put an old bathroom rug over the newly repaired pipes in the carport to keep them from freezing during the most recent cold snap. It was dry. My wife just called my attention to the fact that it is now wet.

The next day – The pipes in my cabin bathroom thawed and did not burst. So far, so good. Hold your breath.


Witching Water Part 4


Even More Plumbing Woes, Part 1

I was celebrating my victory (kind of) over my plumbing woes at the cabin when reality hit. Just as I drove into my carport at home, I heard "pop, shissssh" and saw water squirting to the ceiling.

At this point, dear reader, I must interrupt this narrative to give you a description of my house and the attendant plumbing set-up: My house has a drop-roof across the back, under which is a carport and a utility room that contains a washer and dryer. The carport is, naturally, on a slab, but the utility room is on a conventional foundation with a step leading into it. A water supply line comes through the carport slab and stands a few inches from the utility room wall. The water line for the utility room runs under that floor and exits through a brick wall, where it attaches to a "tee" fitting on the supply line. On top of this is a faucet. This is in a sheltered spot near the corner on the south side of the wall. It has never frozen before, so I failed to warp it. We did not know it was frozen because we had not used the washer during the freeze. It froze -- and burst when it thawed.

Upon seeing the unauthorized fountain, I exclaimed Oh, fiddlesticks!" (We Baptist don't curse.) Of course, the first thing I had to do was to cut off the water, for my carport was rapidly flooding. I got the water cut-off tool and ran to the water meter -- and could not find it. It was not where it should be -- just a vast expanse of grass. At one time, the cover was removed monthly by the meter-reader, but several years ago, the city attached transmitters to each meter, and the reading is now transmitted to the central office, so a solid growth of St. Augustine grass covered everything. I prodded around until I finally hit something solid, dug through the grass and uncovered the lid. I attempted to remove it, but it was stuck. I needed a screwdriver to pry it loose.

My wife drove up. "What are you doing?" She asked. "We have a burst pipe," I explained, "and I am trying to turn the water off. I need a screw driver. Get me one, quick!"
She ran to the shop and got one -- a Phillips. "No!" I exclaimed, "a flat-head!"

She returned with the appropriate screwdriver. I inserted it into a crack between the lid and the flange of the meter housing and pried it loose. But there was only dirt -- no cut-off valve.

Thinking that dirt had washed into the meter and covered the valve, I probed with the blade of the six-inch screw driver and could not find it.

"You know," my wife mused, "several years ago they changed everything up. They stopped reading meters -- it is now done electronically. I will bet they removed the meter dial and cut-off valve."

"Well, there has to be a cut-off valve somewhere," I said," to which she replied, "Well, I don't know where it is."

So I did the sensible thing: I called the water department. The lady there explained that all their workers were busy shutting off other people's water, and I would have to wait my turn: so I did -- as my carport continued to flood.

The Utility Department man arrived soon, got a "sharp-shooter" shovel from his truck, dug down about a foot deep, uncovered the cut-off valve and turned off the water. "Since we stopped reading meters, some of these haven't been opened in years. Dirt washes in and covers these cut-off valves pretty deeply, he explained.

After my experience at the cabin, I swore I would never attempt plumbing again, but would call a plumber. But, it was mid-afternoon, with no chance of getting a plumber that day, and I was without water, so I decided to tackle it. Besides, simply cutting out a piece of burst PVC pipe and gluing in another would be simple.

Wrong.

End of Part I. Stay tuned, dear reader, for part 2 of this sorry tale.

Water in the Walls Part 3


Plumbing update --

A review:

After the last freeze, a pipe at my cabin froze and burst at the point where a pipe exits the outside wall and connects to the supply line coming from the ground. I thought it would be an easy fix: since it was a PIX line, with mechanical connections, not PVC with glue joints, I would just disconnect the pipe under the sink, pull the short PIX pipe through the wall, install a new one to the supply line and reconnect to the fitting under the sink.

But, no! We are dealing with plumbing, and it is never as easy as it seems. Using a "disconnect tool" (a 'U"-shaped piece of plastic that one fits over the pipe and depresses a small ring protruding from the connector as he pulls back on the pipe), I disconnected the line under the sink, but I could not remove it from the wall -- by pulling from outside or inside. It was hung on something. I finally sat on the ground, put my feet against the wall and pulled with all my might: and, viola, the pipe came free and I tumbled back over both levels of the terraced flower bed and landed in an icy mud puddle. I got up, brushed myself off, put on a dry shirt and looked under the sink. The pipe was still attached. Oh, no! There must have been a connection INSIDE the wall, and I had pulled only part of the pipe out! I enlarged the hole in the outside wall around the pipe so I could get my finger in to feel. Sure enough, there was a "tee" fitting inside the wall, with pipes branching off in all directions. The only way I could get at it was to remove the siding from the outside wall. First, I went to the hardware store for advice and to buy necessary supplies. The man there explained that PIX is connected with a "shark" connector. One only has to push a little white insert into the end of the pipe then push the pipe into the connector until it clicks, then the pipe will be firmly attached. He emphasized the importance of using the plastic inserts.

"And Now," as Paul Harvy used to say, "the rest of the story."

I already had some PIX pipe and a disconnect tool, but I feared I had damaged the shark fitting by pulling the pipe from it without first disconnecting it, so I bought a new shark tee and some plastic inserts. With the help of my son-in-law, I tackled the job. I was about to pull off the siding, when it hit me: I could see the open end of the tee connector through the hole in the wall, so why not try it? I cut the pipe to the appropriate size, pushed it through the hole in the wall and into the opening of the tee. I felt some resistance and, with my son-in-law pushing against the inside pipe under the sink, I pushed REAL hard, and the pipe suddenly went into the tee about a half inch. I tested the connection by pulling back on it, HARD! It would not budge: I had done it -- a solid connection! I reattached everything under the sink, turned on the water, and nothing leaked! Hallelujah, I had done the impossible. I had FIXED a broken pipe!

A couple of days later, my wife and I were cleaning up the mess I had made in the kitchen. As she cleaned off the counter, she held up two small pieces of white plastic and asked, "What are these, They look like some kind of pipe inserts?"

Afterward:

Since I expected the connections to pop loose at any time, for several days, when we used the cabin, I turned the water off when we left. Finally, I asked a friend who knows all about these things if he thought the connection would hold. He assured me it would since I had tested it by pulling back on it firmly. The plastic inserts were just to round out the end of a pipe that had been deformed into an oval so it would be easer to insert into the connector.

I checked to be sure my homeowners insurance will cover flooding due to a broken pipe. It will. I put the agent on alert.

Water Woes, or an Idiot Tries Plumbing Part 2


Water Woes, or, an Idiot Tries Plumbing

In a previous post about frozen pipes, I said that I had dodged a bullet at the house and was nicked by a bullet at the cabin. Wrong. Now, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story:

Cabin --

Due to a previous plumbing problem a couple of years ago, I has forced to cut loose from the water lines in the concrete slab and run a PIX line (that is NEVER supposed to freeze and burst) through the attic and into the bathrooms. The PIX line attaches to a PVC pipe coming from the ground with a brass "el" fitting and goes through the outer wall and into the cabinet under the sink. A "T" connection from there carries lines other places. The outside PVC was insulated, but the insulation did not seal well against the weatherboarding of the outside wall, and that is where the line burst and froze.

PIX is not glued like PVC: the connections are mechanical, not glue. "This will be easy," I thought: "just disconnect the line from the 'T' connection under the sink and from the 'el' outside, pull it out of the wall and install a new piece of pipe".

Wrong.

I went to the local building supply store (not a "big box") where employees can actually give advice. And got the necessary tools and parts for the repair job. Using the "disconnect tool" I disconnected the damaged line from both the inside and outside connections, and proceeded to pull it from the wall. It moved about an inch and caught on something. I told my wife, who was inside the cabin, to push from her end. She did, and nothing happened. "Push harder," I yelled. She yelled back, "I am sitting on the floor and pushing as hard as I can with my foot!"

Hum.

I am a member of the "If-it-won't-budge-hit-it-with-a-bigger-hemmed-or-spray-on-more-WD-40-club, so I clamped a pair of "Vice-Grip" pliers onto my end, sat on the ground, braced both feet against the wall, yelled a weight-lifters grunt and pulled with all my might -- and the pipe emerged from the wall. "I got it," I yelled! No, you didn't, Paula replied, It is still on the inside and I am pushing against it."

"Darn" (or something like that.)

I looked into the hole and saw a brass ring that was slightly larger than the hole. It looked like a mechanical connector. Someone, it appeared to me, had spliced the line INSIDE the wall. Why would they do that? I had pulled so hard that I had pulled my end of the pipe from the connector.

I chucked a drill bit slightly larger than the hole into my drill and enlarged the hole. The brass fitting was still hung up. I enlarged the hole: same problem. I enlarged it again, and again, until I could get my entire hand into the wall -- and found the problem: Not only was there a junction of pipes under the sink, there was one INSIDE the wall, and I was pulling against a "T" connector. I was going to have to remove weatherboarding from the wall in order to get at the connection.

Dark was approaching, so I did the only sensible thing -- what I should have done to begin with: I called the man who installed it. I explained that it was a cabin, I knew he had to serve people whose houses were without water; I had a place to live with running water, so I could wait -- I thought, wrongly.

The rest of the story in the next post.


My Water Broke Part 1


A couple of years ago, at Christmas, I had the same folks visit as this time. Some were staying at the cabin, and some at the house. Cabin bunch called and said "Water is spewing up through the concrete (floor)!" We turned off the water and carried buckets of water there from home, and they used showers at the house. After they left, I called my favorite carpenter/electrician/plumber. He said pipe had burst or (more likely) not been soldiered when the builder poured the slab, and after two years of our use it had worked loose. He tied into the waterline under the kitchen cabinet where it enters house and re-routed through the attic to the bathrooms. I asked him about the freezing danger. He said not to worry, he had double insulated pipe and used a special plastic pipe that would "give" and not burst. I was afraid this had frozen this year.
Fortunately this was not the case. There was only a short section of plastic pipe exposed to the air from where it came from the ground to where it went through the exterior wall. I had insulated all my outside faucets, but missed this little piece of pipe. It had frozen last night and burst today when the sun shined on it. It SHOULD be a quick Fix ( for most people, but will probably take me most of a day).



When I got home last night, I found my hot water had frozen, but cold water was OK. Isn't it odd how a HOT water line will freeze before a cold one? I have heard the scientific explanation, but don't remember.) Anyway, the line thawed
today without bursting. We would have had a mess: my house is built on a conventional foundation, and is only a few inches from the ground in places.

I just got nicked by one bullet and dodged the other! There is a God in Heaven, and he smiled on me today!
Some of these same kinfolks have been coming to visit at Christmas for years, and we ALWAYS have plumbing problems when they come. After hey left, I told Paula that we must be living right: we made it through Christmas/New Year's without a plumbing problem. I spoke too soon

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

An Idiot "Does" Europe


               

Red Neck Ramblings – The Andersons “do” Europe



By



Harold Anderson



My wife, Paula, and I have always liked to travel.  We have traveled extensively throughout the United States, but had not cruised until 2011, when my mother passed away and we were freed from the responsibility of caring for her.  I am an old sailor – literally and figuratively.  I owned sailboats for years and am retired from the US Navy Reserve. Most of my Navy experience was on riverine warfare craft, but I have been to sea on a destroyer – and it was no luxury cruise!



                Our first cruise was from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico – and we were hooked.  This was followed by two cruises to Alaska, and another one to Central America.  Last summer, my cousin, Steve Anderson, who is a Mormon and greatly interested in genealogy, suggested a “cousins’ cruise” of the British Isles to “trod the ancestral sod” of Scotland, from which our ancestors immigrated in the 1600’s.  Fourteen -- cousins and their spouses and children -- made the trip.  We toured all of the British Isles except for Wales, and even had a side trip to Paris.  We all enjoyed it immensely.



                Paula and I found advertisements for Viking river cruises of Europe enticing, and asked the cousins if they were interested.  Two couples were – Steve and Daleen Anderson, of Madison, and Julie (Anderson) and Craig Sutton, of Franklin, TN.  Steve and Deleen have traveled extensively in connection with his work as a financial advisor, and Steve once owned a travel agency, so he was instrumental in planning the trip.



                We selected a cruise from Amsterdam to Basal, Switzerland on the Rhine River.  We timed it for the peak of tulip season (we began on May 5) and spent three pre-cruise days in Amsterdam to enjoy the show – and what a show it was!! Kirkenhauf Gardens, Oh my!  Greenhouses of delicate orchids and other tropical flowers and acres upon acres of fields of bulb-flowers, especially tulips – tulips of every color, size and shape intermixed with wild abandon, seas of single color, and beds of various colors and sizes woven into intricate geometric patterns.  A canal encircles the garden, and we opted to walk – and I am glad we did.  Kirkenhauf Garden is to the garden lover as cotton candy is to a three-year-old.



                The old city of Amsterdam is an amazing place.  If is known as “The Venice of the North,” and for good reason.  Like the Italian city, it is built over water on wooden pilings – approximately 13 million pine trees gave their all to build this capital of commerce in the 13th century.  Like Venice, Amsterdam is a city of canals.  Concentric rings of large canals arc through and around the city; and are intersected by smaller ones that radiate from a hub – like spokes of a wheel.  The canals are busy with water traffic – sight-seeing boats, water taxis and row boats.  One seldom sees powered pleasure boats in Europe, but sailboats and row boats abound. Another American fixture that is missing is pick-up trucks.  I did not see a single one on this or my previous trip to Europe. Cars and trucks are not allowed in the old city.  Transportation is via boat, on foot, or – most often – by bicycle.  They even have freight bicycles.  The front frame is greatly extended and in this space between the handle bar and front wheel, is a box – maybe just a utilitarian cube or a fanciful shape, like a wooden shoe. In these they transport nearly everything – groceries, furniture, appliances and, especially, children. Pedestrians, beware: Bicyclists rule the roost!



                The water-level of Amsterdam is falling, which exposes ancient wooden pilings, and they decay, causing buildings to list drunkenly.  When they get bad enough to be dangerous, the city reworks the foundations, installing concrete pilings – an expensive process. The water level in Venice is rising, often flooding the first level of buildings.  It does not make sense that the same sea can be both rising and falling, but I think I have it figured out:  Amsterdam and Venice are of opposite ends of the same tectonic plate.  The weight of millions of tourists in Venice are forcing that end down and the Amsterdam end is, naturally, forced up – like a seesaw. Sounds about as logical as a lot of the “climate change” theories.



                Venice is a fairy land rising from the sea – flung from the hands of a capricious sprite, but Amsterdam is a neat and orderly place, obviously designed by, and for, no-nonsense businessmen.



                We visited the Rijks Art Museum while in Amsterdam. I am no connoisseur of fine art, but we had an excellent guide who explained the significance of various painting.  Several Rembrandts were displayed – showing the development of his techniques, especially his treatment of light, from his teen years to the painting of his masterpiece “Nightwatch.”  This huge mural depicts the changing of the night guard in 16th century Amsterdam.  The guide explains that the entire museum was built to showcase this one painting – everything else is just window-dressing.  Maybe.  I am a fan of Vincent  Van Gogh, and I was astounded to see some his work displayed, including his self-portrait. It was a sublime experience to gaze on that odd triangular face with its shrunken checks and combed-back hair; to know that the very hand that painted it gave the world sunny fields of sunflowers and a starry night where galaxies twirled and swirled at the edge of infinity above an undulating landscape punctuated by columnar cypress trees: To gaze into those intense eyes, longing for a bit of understanding of that tortured soul.



                The Netherlands is a land reclaimed from the sea. The industrious Dutch did it about 800 years ago by surrounding a shallow bay with miles of dykes made of sticks and mud, then using huge windmills, pumped out the water. Ever since, they have maintained a delicate balance between land and water, most of that time using windmills.  In the twentieth century they switched to electric pumps, then recently added computer controls.  It’s a shame.  I like windmills.



                We went to a windmill museum with 17 of the behemoths on display.  15 are leased out as homes (although the blades still “turn for the king” – are not connected to the pumping machinery, but spin free just for show.) Two actually pump water and the blades turn much slower as they struggle to turn a massive “dip wheel” –a  water wheel that splashes water over the dyke and back into the sea. The windmill we visited once housed a family of 13 children.  The family lived among the massive wooden gears and slept in alcove beds built into the walls.  The blades are huge lattice-work structures that come almost to the ground.  The miller climbs the lattice to stretch canvas sails.  The mother of this family was struck and killed by a blade as she rescued a tot who was toddling into its path.



                The museums are only allowed to operate a few windmills: they pump so much water they can easily confuse the modern computer controls.



Part 2:  Cruising the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basal, Switzerland



                First, for the uninitiated, a word about cruising:  There are cruise lines that cater to nearly every taste (and budget) – From young families to seniors, to popular tourists’ destinations -- from the Caribbean Sea to exotic places like Antarctica.  The prices can be very reasonable – about like paying for a moderately priced hotel room, with meals, entertainment, transportation and some shore excursions thrown in for free, but some up-scale cruise lines can be pricy.  Large “mega-liners” are floating cities, with restaurants, food courts open round-the-clock (the food is too plentiful, but not particularly tasty), libraries, lounging areas, huge theaters with elaborate stage shows, etc.  These ships hold about 4,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members.  You are not going into the navigation or machinery spaces, unless you purchase a pre-cruise behind-the-scenes tour.



                The boats like ours – the “Viking Kara” -- that ply the rivers of Europe are vastly different.  They are sized to fit the locks of rather small rivers – about 440 feet long and 30 feet wide.  They carry 190 passengers and 50 crewmembers. Diners have the option of eating in a restaurant, with table service, or serving themselves from a buffet in the lounge.  A mid-afternoon snack is offered, but there are no round-the-clock food courts.  Breakfast is, by far, the best meal of the day, with a wide choice of fresh fruits, meats, cheeses, pastries, cereals, juices and smoked salmon and pickled herring (my favorite, but my wife won’t touch it.  She eats Brussels sprouts.  Go figure.)  I found the food in Europe (including the boat) bland and disappointing.  Only two percent of the people from north of the Mason-Dixon Line can cook.  Our Chef was from Croatia.  Now, you readers who are transplanted Yankees, undoubtedly fall into the two-percent category.  How’s that for diplomacy?



                Everything on a riverboat is down-sized – including the staterooms.  They are, uh, “convenient” i.e. one can reach anything in the room from the bed. Since we did not realize these cruises filled up so quickly, we reserved our room only a few months in advance, and all that were left were on the lowest passenger deck – mostly below the waterline.  Only the top three feet of our room was above water and there was a small slot window about five and a half feet above the floor, just above the waterline.  Being relatively tall, I could see through it, standing flat-footed.  Paula could not, and her only view was of the sky.  Although tiny, the room was comfortable, with a king-size bed, large screen TV, refrigerator, small counter, a few drawers, a very small closet and doll-house-size bath and shower. Much of our luggage stayed packed in suitcases stored under the bed.  Upper-deck rooms were the same size, but had picture windows. But, the room was comfortable and about the only time we spent in it was for sleeping.



                There was no room on such a small ship for a theater, but the lounge was roomy and comfortable.  Each night our cruise director – a Scottish lady named “Ria,” who was a very good stand-up comedian – described the next day’s activities and regaled us with funny stories.  The pianist was excellent (nearly as good as Richard Boykin, the music director at East Philadelphia Baptist Church), so we enjoyed wonderful background music.  We had access to books, cards and board games from the small library.  It was all very civilized.



                We usually sailed all night, enjoyed a shore excursion in the morning, returned to the boat for lunch and went ashore for another excursion in the afternoon.  At times, these included supper ashore; but, at times, we returned to the ship for the meal. 



                Being a relatively small river (as rivers go – I would say about the size of the Tennessee River), there were no large tows of barges as one sees on the Mississippi River, but the amount of river traffic was amazing.  It was mostly motorized barges.  They haul everything imaginable – tankers full of fuel, hoppers of asphalt, gravel, cement, etc. and cargo barges filled with shipping containers, including on the deck. High-speed rail lines run along both sides of the river and they are constantly busy.  Since there are no draw bridges on the Rhine, the boats are equipped with pilot houses on hydraulic lifts, which can be lowered to go under low bridges.  Crewmen have to lower sun-deck awning by hand.



                Our captain was a very affable Dutchman with enormous skill and 36 years’ experience on river freighters and passenger boats.  He invited those of us who were interested to visit him in the pilot house (which I did).  Try that on an ocean-liner! I was astounded to see him put a 440-foot boat into a lock with only 18 inches to spare on each side – and not touch the wall.  Now, THAT is boat handling at its best!



                Let me say a few words about castles, cathedrals, palaces and art museums:  There are as many of these in Europe as there are honky-tonks in Mississippi.  Once you have seen one, you have seen them all (Well, art museums might be the exception).  I recommend selecting one of each, examining it thoroughly, getting it out of your system then spending the rest of your time exploring little villages, folk-life museums and admiring the magnificent landscape. There was one stand-out cathedral: Cologne, Germany, for it contained a gilded ossuary said to contain the bones of The Three Wise Men! Some duke stole it from Jerusalem during the Crusades and brought it to Germany. Now, how could one resist such a sight?



                My favorite part of the cruise was the French province of Alsace.  It was once a state within the Holy Roman Empire, but since the collapse of that confederation, has changed hands between Germany and France several times. I can see why they would fight over it.  It is a valley about thirty miles wide between two mountain ranges about the height of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. 



                The fertile valley is covered with farm fields.  Farmers in Europe do not live on the land, but in small villages of a few hundred to a couple of thousand people, so they were strung out like pearls on a necklace.  These orderly and neat-as-a-pin little towns date from the 1200’s with cobble stone streets, flowers and gardens everywhere and houses of “half-timber” construction.



                Alsace was occupied by the Nazis in WWII, and was the scene of heavy fighting. We visited one little town that was totally obliterated.  A post-war photo showed only a bombed-out bell tower standing.  But, thanks to very hard-working and resourceful villagers, the Phoenix arose from the ashes, for they scrounged through the rubble, salvaged as much building material as they could and rebuilt the town in the medieval style.



                A touching moment was a visit to the Audie Murphy Memorial.  Here is the “Readers’ Digest” version of his monumental “One-Man-Stand:” In the winter of 1944, the Allies planned to liberate Alsace from German occupation by sweeping down the mountain passes with tanks, infantry and, with the assistance of aircraft, drive the Nazi’s from the valley, but the winter of 1944 was the worst in years and the roads through the passes were impassable.  Plan “B” involved a sixty mile end-sweep march and crossing a small river on a rickety bridge.  The commanders made a mistake:  They sent the infantry over the river first.  The first tank that tried to cross collapsed the bridge.  Thick fog and rain prevented aircraft from flying, so the foot soldiers were trapped without support.  Audie Murphy was a 19-year-old Lieutenant who led his men to the edge of the woods, were he encountered Nazi infantry and tanks arrayed in a field before them.  Knowing his large group would make an easy target for the tanks; he ordered them to the rear and held the Germans at bay with his rifle.  When he ran out of ammunition, he jumped onto a nearby burning tank with a functioning .50 Cal. Machine gun and plenty of ammunition and continued to hold the Germans off until a break in the weather allowed allied aircraft to fly and drive them back.  Just as he retreated from the burning tank, it exploded.  His actions bought time for the Allies to repair the bridge, sweep into Alsace and liberate it.  Murphy won the Medal of Honor and was the most decorated soldier in WWII.  After the war, he became an actor, staring in 40 movies, including “To Hell and Back,” the award-winning movie about this event.



                We stood at the memorial where Murphy made his stand.  Our female guide attempted to close her recitation of events with a poem, but broke down in tears.  The people of Alsace are still thankful to the Americans for their sacrifice, and are quick to say so.  They hold a Memorial Day ceremony in their honor each year.



                We spent one day aboard ship cruising the middle Rhine.  What spectacular landscape! The river valley is narrow here, with just enough flat land for the railroads on each side, and then there are bluffs and hillsides that rise up, at very steep angles, for hundreds of feet. The tops are speckled with castles and forts, and the nearly vertical slopes are clothed with vineyards. A guide explained that they cannot plant on the contour because workers could not stand up on the side of the mountain, so they plant straight up and down.  The fields are too steep to operate machinery, so the grapes are cultivated and harvested by hand.  Maybe that is why they do not have an erosion problem.  The elevation, soil, climate and aspect combine to produce some of the finest white wine grapes in the world.



                We passed through the Lorelei Narrows, where, according to legend, the mermaid Lorelei sat on the jutting rocks and lured boatmen to their doom with her siren song.  Lorelei is still there – cast in bronze.  I listened intently for her song, but she is as quiet as the Pascagoula Indians.



                Our final excursion was to the Black Forest.  As a forester, this was of great interest to me, for this is the oldest continually managed forest in the world.  I had a head full of technical questions about silviculture, management regimes, etc., but alas, the guide could not answer my questions.  I just had to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  The forest was interspersed by little open valleys that supported dairy farms.  The cows, with their tinkling bells, seemed to enjoy our attention.  Their homes were the ground floors of very large barns, while the farmers lived above. 



                Undoubtedly, the forest produces an abundance of fine sawlogs, but firewood seems to be the major product.  All the homes, and even businesses, are heated with wood; there are stacks of wood for sale everywhere and every home and business has an enormous pile.



                After 800 miles, we reached our final destination on the Rhine: Basil, Switzerland.  According to the map, this is the source of the Rhine, and I expected it to just be a channel large enough for a single boat at this point, but not so!  The Rhine is still a substantial river (probably due to the numerous locks) and Basil is a busy port.



                The Suttons left at this point to fly back home to Tennessee, Steve and Daleen and Paula and I continued on across Switzerland via rental car.



Part 3: The Journey Across Switzerland and Our First Experience with European Trains



                Steve had made arrangements with Parelli Tours for the second part of our journey.  The Viking folks (who were very accommodating) transported us and our luggage to the rental car office, where we secured a small SUV, into which we crammed four adults and nine suite cases, (one of which a doorman said had to contain a SmartCar!), and we headed off across the Alps!  Thank God for GPS!  With the aid of this marvelous device, we did not get (seriously) lost a single time! We drove for miles with Lake Aare on our left, and the Alps rising in snow-capped grandeur on our right to the city of Interlochen (It is built on a peninsular that juts into the lake, hence the name, which means “between the lakes.”  Like the rest of Northern Europe, Switzerland is neat, clean and orderly. The waters of the lake are clean and clear, and the steep hillside across the lake is dotted with villages.  One can see, here and there, water roiling.  I guess it is underwater springs welling up.  Waterfalls cascade from the hills.



                I wonder is this was the sight that inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson to write:



                “The splendor falls on castle walls

                And snowy summits old in glory

                The long light shakes across the lake

                And wild cataracts leap in glory.”



                Daleen received an ominous e-mail at 11:00 a.m. from our Perillo Tour driver who was supposed to meet us at Lake Como at 10:00 that evening.  His message was:  Where are you?  Daleen replied that he was supposed to meet us at 10:00 p.m., not a.m. She received no response and tried to call, without success.  Oh well, we figured, we will deal with it when the time comes, and we did (amid much confusion).



                The highlight of our Swiss tour was the little town and valley of Lauderbrunen.  It lies about 3,000 feet up in the Alps and looks just like it should.  It is a long narrow valley with a beautiful rapid-filled stream bisecting it, waterfalls and fools in parachutes and waterfalls in mass profusion leaping from the cliffs above and a paved walking path that runs for miles past little dairy farms, with fields of wildflowers instead of grass, and tidy little farm houses and hostels.  We noticed that all the people who walked by gave us menacing glares and muttered things in a language we did not understand.  Then one shouted, “Hey, you freekin’ red-neck.  Get that blankedy-blank car off the walking trail.  What’s wrong with you?  You from Mississippi or something?  So we did.



                We saw a cable car that carried passengers to a peak about a thousand feet above.  It looked like fun, so we bought a ticket.  That was just the first stop.  It went from peak to peak (we had to change cars) until it reached its terminus at 13,000 feet at a revolving restaurant, where we found that part of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was filmed.  A serious snow storm was in progress, so we ate our spaghetti as we slowly revolved in white silence. On the return journey, at about 10,000 feet, I saw paths, goats and shacks.  I asked the operator is there was a road that we could not see that the goat herders took to tend their animals. “No,” he said. “They walk, but if the weather is bad they might stay overnight in the shack.”  They walk up a 10,000 foot mountain to work every day?!  No wonder these people look fit!



                We drove on to Lake Como, on the Italian border, later that afternoon.  The lake was not nearly as pristine as Lake Aare, and we found that Italy was vastly different from northern Europe.  Gone were the neat, well organized medieval towns.  The towns were, indeed, medieval, but they just looked old -- not in a fairy tale sense -- and disorganized.  I think most people in Italy smoke, and the ground was littered with cigarette butts. We took a short tour around a large bay of Lake Como, and found it to be quite charming, with beautiful homes dotting the lakeshore and entire villages climbing the hillsides.  George Clooney has a home here, but it was on a different part of the Lake, so we could not see it.



                Due to our guide’s confusion with a.m. and p.m., we had to find our way to the hotel, could not find an entrance, double parked, ran up a brick walkway to get instructions, only to discover that this was, indeed, the driveway. Once we checked in, we faced the task of returning the rental car.  We got directions to the rental car office, which was at the train depot, got lost a few times (we did not know the physical address, so the GPS was useless), but after much frustration, finally found it.  The rental car office was closed, and we had no idea how to proceed. We told an idle taxi driver our problem.  He instructed us, led us to the lot to deposit the car, and then drove us to the hotel.  He got a NICE tip!



                All the hotels we stayed in were rated four-star.  If you ever want to move to Europe and open a four-star hotel, here is how to do it:  Buy an old run-down hotel with small rooms.  Spend a lot of money on nice landscaping.  Have the staff dress in nice suits and adopt a snobbish mien. Give everything a nice coat of paint, scatter some marble about here and there, install a bidet in a too-small bathroom so it bangs your shin everything try to use the john, install six-inch crown molding, triple your room rate and add three additional start to the one already on your marque. Viola!  You now have a four-star hotel!

Benwalt, greatness awaits! (The “Benwalt” is an abandoned 1920’s hotel in Philadelphia, MS.)



                The Parelli guide who was to get us to our train the next morning actually showed up.  He took us to the depot, unloaded our luggage and said, “Your train leaves at 9:00 a.m. from track no. 2.  He climbed into his cab and left.  We had to drag nine suitcases, all of which were getting heaver by the day as new souvenirs were added and had developed “Walmart buggy wheel syndrome,” across the platform and over two tracks to the platform on the other side. 



                There we stood:  A bunch of rubes from Mississippi trying to figure out which car to board.  We finally discovered that it was on the far end of the train, so off we ran, dragging a quarter ton of uncooperative luggage behind with one wheel turning crazy circles, and another refusing to turn at all, just sliding along.  There was a young couple from Dubai ahead of us trying to get a stroller, with a baby, on board.  A railroad employee stood beside the door, offered no help, and then spoke into a radio.  The door closed in the face of the Dubai couple, and the train left.  The employee laughed – He LAUGHED! The young man complained and he smirked, “you late – missed train.  Not my problem.”



“Well, what do we do now, I asked?  How do we get to the next station?  We will miss our train; can we get a transfer to a later train?”



“Let me see ticket.”



I handed it to him



“Ticket no good,” he said, “This for reserved seat.  You miss train.  Gotta buy new ticket.”



“Well, just tell us how to get to the next station.”



He told us to take the subway, and gave a convoluted explanation about how many times we would have to change trains etc.  A bystander, who saw what was happening, said, “A ‘local’ will be along in a few minutes.  It goes directly to the station.  Take it and tell the customer service agent what happened.  He will give you a transfer and you will probably have time to make your connection.  The ‘local’ came in a few minutes.  We got aboard the dirty, graffiti-covered car (a far cry from the sleek “bullet train” we should have been on), and, after several stops, reached our destination.



We found the customer service agent and Steve explained our problem and he replied, “Oh, so your train arrived late!”



“No, Steve explained again, the train was on time, we just could not figure out which car to get on, and it left.”



“So, your – train- was –late?” he again asked, this time with emphasis and arched eyebrows.



“Steve,” I said, “just agree with the man!”



“Yes,” said Steve, “our train was late!”



“Aha,” said the agent, as he checked the appropriate box, “Your train was late! I give you transfer!



The man looked for several minutes for the appropriate stamp, but was unable to find it.  Steve spotted a stamp on the counter of the adjacent vacant booth and said, “Is that it?”



“Yes!” the agent said, as he grabbed it, inked it and slapped in on our tickets. “Your train leave track 10 – three minutes.”



The race was on!  Four out-of-shape elderly Mississippians, dragging nine suite cases, two of which had bad wheels, and one a doorman accused of containing a SmartCar made a mad dash from track three to track 10! We made it – barely!  And we were off to Venice!



                A word about European trains:  Once we learned the system, we had no further problems as we traveled by train from the Swiss border to Rome.  They are fast (about 150 MPH), silky smooth, roomy and comfortable, with four chairs arranged around a table in a booth.  The trouble is luggage. There are no baggage cars or porters to assist with it.  One has to lug it onboard and hope he can find space on the crowded luggage rack on each car.  One or more suit cases are likely to end up stashed beneath the table – at the expense of leg room.  A word to the wise:  When traveling by train in Europe, pack light!



                Venice is everything it is cracked up to be – an ancient city floating on the sea (actually, on wooden pilings and several nearby islands), designed by the greatest architects of all times, decorated by the greatest artist and artisans who will ever live and paid for by families richer than a rock star. The great castles and palaces of northern Europe are dowdy compared to the Palace of the Doge of Venice.



                There is no bridge or causeway connecting Venice to the mainland.  Access is only by boat, and the only wheeled vehicles in the city are hand carts used for everything from garbage collecting to food deliveries.  The city is a boat-lovers dream.  Nearly all boats are of wood, and most appear to be lovingly restored antiques, gleaming with multiple layers of polished varnished.  The Gondolas are works of art:  Long, canoe-like crafts liquored gleaming black on the outside, with the interiors of highly polished natural wood.  The seats are of plush red velvet. I would like to have ridden in one, but time would not allow. Large, old, beat-up wood-planked boats function as delivery vans.



                A man was passing out tickets for a free boat ride and tour of the glass works on the nearby Island of Murano.  We went.  A restored antique Chris-Craft whisked us to the nearby island, where we observed glass artisans at work, and then we were given a tour of the show room.  WOW!  I now know how Edmond Dantes felt when he walked into the treasure chamber of Monte Christo!  Shelves and shelves of gleaming transparent and translucent deep emerald and ruby blown glass richly decorated with 24 karat gold and hand-painted enamel and delicate etchings.  Steve said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he bought some.  Yes, it was expensive.



                Put a trip to Venice on your bucket list.



                On to Florence!



                We had a Perillo walking tour of Florence, the birthplace of several renaissance artists, the most remarkable of whom was Michelangelo. We walked about the city and visited yet another cathedral, but this one was different:  It was built of colored marble and granite – white, rose and green.  It was one of the largest in Europe, and could hold 30,000 people.  It was not nearly as ornate on the inside as some we saw, but the outside was striking, especially that part that had recently been cleaned.



                When one thinks of Florence, he thinks of Michelangelo’s statue of David.  Yes, we saw it, and yes, it is spectacular.  It is housed in the art academy, which at first glance is a disappointment, for from the outside it looks like a very old and unimpressive warehouse, but it is richly decorated inside and filled with much more than a king’s ransom of magnificent art. The guide explained several of Michelangelo’s works (painting and sculpture), but the highlight is “David,” probably equal to the Sistine ceiling as a masterwork. It is big:  probably 16 or more feet high and carved from a single slab of marble.  It is of a young man at his peak of development and it exudes strength and confidence.  Every muscle and vein in perfectly defined.  The master used skillful techniques to portray the power of David:  The right hand that holds the pocket of the sling with its stone is oversized to portray might and power.  The neck and head are also oversize to overcome perspective as one looks up, to again, portray power.



                My first thought on seeing “David” was: Someone get that boy a pair of undies!



                The best thing about Florence is that it is the gateway to Tuscany. 



                Tuscany!  Perhaps the language of angles can sing your praises, but not any language of man. God worked overtime when he created such a beautiful place. 



                Tuscany is rugged beauty.  Verdant vineyards burst forth from among the scrubby wooded hills and cascade to the gentle slopes and valleys below. These lowlands are a patchwork of small, carefully cultivated farm fields not big enough to be boring.  The jumbles of small, irregular fields seem to put the land in motion.  It is ocher-colored houses that seem to rise from the earth.  It is a landscape of columnar cypress trees and pines with urn-shaped crowns bathed in an ethereal light.



                Tuscany is God’s most beautiful creation and the little city of Sienna and the small town of San Gimignano are its crown jewels.



                Sienna is a walled city dating from the middle ages.  It was once the richest and largest city in Europe, with a population of 150,000, but it never recovered from the devastation wrought by the Black Plague, which killed three-fourths of its population, which now stands at 50,000.  The city is divided into 17 neighborhoods, each represented by an animal, and twice each summer the city square, which is far from level, being about 20 feet higher at one end, is transformed into a race track.  Each neighborhood hires a horse and jockey to represent them, as American cities hire professional athletes to staff their local sports team. The horse wins, not the Jockey. This is no genteel sport: it is a hell-for-leather bareback race over rough terrain, and it is not unusual for a riderless horse to win.  There is no betting and no prize:  It’s all for the honor of the neighborhood.  Well, that and an excuse to party. The town holds pre-race festivals for two weeks, two weeks of victory parties, and then it is time to start preparing for the next race!



San Gimignano, oh my!  It is an assault on the senses: a blow to the solar plexus that keeps one gasping.  It is the aroma of strawberries and oranges – perfectly ripe – wafting from a stand; the stunning red of a rose against a blanket of white jasmine and roses of pastel hues nestled in a bed of lavender; it is the soft music of Italian, spoken by one who claims it as her mother tongue, punctuated by the tinkle of wine glasses; it is the astringent, earthy taste of red wine, pungent cheese and the saltiness of Prosciutto ham. It is the one place to which I would like to return and just spend an entire day just sitting and bathing in the ambiance.



Back to Earth.  I had been fighting a cold the entire trip, and I lost the battle that night. I did not sleep a bit, and I was exhausted the next morning, with a tour of Rome on the itinerary.  Rome is the eternal city, but it is also an eternal mess.  The drivers are insane.  Markings on roadways mean nothing to them. Traffic is a moving mass of tiny cars interwoven with bicycles and motor scooters and motorcycles.  Drivers appear to obey no regulations.  They just work things out on the fly.  Two drivers will head for the same spot, but one will back down at the last minute.  I did not see a single accident. We had a tour of the coliseum. The guide was an archeologist who was intensely interested in every brick and pebble and assumed we were, too.  I heard ten times more than I wanted to hear in an accent I could not understand and I was too tired and sick to try to figure it out.  I was more impressed with the Tivoli Fountain.  This massive sculpture of lions on a ledge overlooks a large pool.  Huge amounts of water flows around the lions and falls into the pool.  It is fed by a restored Roman aqueduct that brings water from springs in the surrounding mountains. We did not have time to visit the Vatican museums, but did walk onto St. Peter’s square.



I was glad when the Rome tour was over so I could get back to the hotel for some rest.  We were up at 3:00 a.m. to catch the flight home.  Going through security and dealing with overweight luggage at the Rome airport was a hassle, but not too bad.  The real nightmare was changing planes in Paris.  That airport was the biggest mess I have ever seen.  No one was there to answer questions.  In fact no one seemed to be in charge.  We just got caught up in a seething mass of humanity and moved along with them.  There were three officials checking passports of thousands of travelers.  It was nearly as bad as the worst lines at Walt Disney World. We barely made our plane, but we were soon winging over the Atlantic on the way to Atlanta in the good old USA.  Eight hours later, we were there.  Everything in the Atlanta airport was the opposite of Paris:  It was a model of efficiency, with plenty of employees to handle the crowds, check passports, direct us to our luggage, etc.  Being south of The Mason-Dixon Line, we were finally able to get a decent meal: a hamburger, fries and a coke – with all the ice we wanted (a rare treat in Europe) at an Atlanta Braves restaurant.  We soon boarded the Jackson-bound plane for the short flight home, with a head full of memories, suite cases full of dirty laundry and souvenirs, empty wallets – and a burning desire for a plate of mustard greens, corn bread and tea, with PLENTY of ice!



 







 























               



















               

               

Red Neck Ramblings – The Andersons “do” Europe



By



Harold Anderson



My wife, Paula, and I have always liked to travel.  We have traveled extensively throughout the

United States, but had not cruised until 2011, when my mother passed away and we were freed from the responsibility of caring for her.  I am an old sailor – literally and figuratively.  I owned sailboats for years and am retired from the US Navy Reserve. Most of my Navy experience was on riverine warfare craft, but I have been to sea on a destroyer – and it was no luxury cruise!



                Our first cruise was from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico – and we were hooked.  This was followed by two cruises to Alaska, and another one to Central America.  Last summer, my cousin, Steve Anderson, who is a Mormon and greatly interested in genealogy, suggested a “cousins’ cruise” of the British Isles to “trod the ancestral sod” of Scotland, from which our ancestors immigrated in the 1600’s.  Fourteen -- cousins and their spouses and children -- made the trip.  We toured all of the British Isles except for Wales, and even had a side trip to Paris.  We all enjoyed it immensely.



                Paula and I found advertisements for Viking river cruises of Europe enticing, and asked the cousins if they were interested.  Two couples were – Steve and Daleen Anderson, of Madison, and Julie (Anderson) and Craig Sutton, of Franklin, TN.  Steve and Deleen have traveled extensively in connection with his work as a financial advisor, and Steve once owned a travel agency, so he was instrumental in planning the trip.



                We selected a cruise from Amsterdam to Basal, Switzerland on the Rhine River.  We timed it for the peak of tulip season (we began on May 5) and spent three pre-cruise days in Amsterdam to enjoy the show – and what a show it was!! Kirkenhauf Gardens, Oh my!  Greenhouses of delicate orchids and other tropical flowers and acres upon acres of fields of bulb-flowers, especially tulips – tulips of every color, size and shape intermixed with wild abandon, seas of single color, and beds of various colors and sizes woven into intricate geometric patterns.  A canal encircles the garden, and we opted to walk – and I am glad we did.  Kirkenhauf Garden is to the garden lover as cotton candy is to a three-year-old.



                The old city of Amsterdam is an amazing place.  If is known as “The Venice of the North,” and for good reason.  Like the Italian city, it is built over water on wooden pilings – approximately 13 million pine trees gave their all to build this capital of commerce in the 13th century.  Like Venice, Amsterdam is a city of canals.  Concentric rings of large canals arc through and around the city; and are intersected by smaller ones that radiate from a hub – like spokes of a wheel.  The canals are busy with water traffic – sight-seeing boats, water taxis and row boats.  One seldom sees powered pleasure boats in Europe, but sailboats and row boats abound. Another American fixture that is missing is pick-up trucks.  I did not see a single one on this or my previous trip to Europe. Cars and trucks are not allowed in the old city.  Transportation is via boat, on foot, or – most often – by bicycle.  They even have freight bicycles.  The front frame is greatly extended and in this space between the handle bar and front wheel, is a box – maybe just a utilitarian cube or a fanciful shape, like a wooden shoe. In these they transport nearly everything – groceries, furniture, appliances and, especially, children. Pedestrians, beware: Bicyclists rule the roost!



                The water-level of Amsterdam is falling, which exposes ancient wooden pilings, and they decay, causing buildings to list drunkenly.  When they get bad enough to be dangerous, the city reworks the foundations, installing concrete pilings – an expensive process. The water level in Venice is rising, often flooding the first level of buildings.  It does not make sense that the same sea can be both rising and falling, but I think I have it figured out:  Amsterdam and Venice are of opposite ends of the same tectonic plate.  The weight of millions of tourists in Venice are forcing that end down and the Amsterdam end is, naturally, forced up – like a seesaw. Sounds about as logical as a lot of the “climate change” theories.



                Venice is a fairy land rising from the sea – flung from the hands of a capricious sprite, but Amsterdam is a neat and orderly place, obviously designed by, and for, no-nonsense businessmen.



                We visited the Rijks Art Museum while in Amsterdam. I am no connoisseur of fine art, but we had an excellent guide who explained the significance of various painting.  Several Rembrandts were displayed – showing the development of his techniques, especially his treatment of light, from his teen years to the painting of his masterpiece “Nightwatch.”  This huge mural depicts the changing of the night guard in 16th century Amsterdam.  The guide explains that the entire museum was built to showcase this one painting – everything else is just window-dressing.  Maybe.  I am a fan of Vincent  Van Gogh, and I was astounded to see some his work displayed, including his self-portrait. It was a sublime experience to gaze on that odd triangular face with its shrunken checks and combed-back hair; to know that the very hand that painted it gave the world sunny fields of sunflowers and a starry night where galaxies twirled and swirled at the edge of infinity above an undulating landscape punctuated by columnar cypress trees: To gaze into those intense eyes, longing for a bit of understanding of that tortured soul.



                The Netherlands is a land reclaimed from the sea. The industrious Dutch did it about 800 years ago by surrounding a shallow bay with miles of dykes made of sticks and mud, then using huge windmills, pumped out the water. Ever since, they have maintained a delicate balance between land and water, most of that time using windmills.  In the twentieth century they switched to electric pumps, then recently added computer controls.  It’s a shame.  I like windmills.



                We went to a windmill museum with 17 of the behemoths on display.  15 are leased out as homes (although the blades still “turn for the king” – are not connected to the pumping machinery, but spin free just for show.) Two actually pump water and the blades turn much slower as they struggle to turn a massive “dip wheel” –a  water wheel that splashes water over the dyke and back into the sea. The windmill we visited once housed a family of 13 children.  The family lived among the massive wooden gears and slept in alcove beds built into the walls.  The blades are huge lattice-work structures that come almost to the ground.  The miller climbs the lattice to stretch canvas sails.  The mother of this family was struck and killed by a blade as she rescued a tot who was toddling into its path.



                The museums are only allowed to operate a few windmills: they pump so much water they can easily confuse the modern computer controls.



Part 2:  Cruising the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basal, Switzerland



                First, for the uninitiated, a word about cruising:  There are cruise lines that cater to nearly every taste (and budget) – From young families to seniors, to popular tourists’ destinations -- from the Caribbean Sea to exotic places like Antarctica.  The prices can be very reasonable – about like paying for a moderately priced hotel room, with meals, entertainment, transportation and some shore excursions thrown in for free, but some up-scale cruise lines can be pricy.  Large “mega-liners” are floating cities, with restaurants, food courts open round-the-clock (the food is too plentiful, but not particularly tasty), libraries, lounging areas, huge theaters with elaborate stage shows, etc.  These ships hold about 4,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members.  You are not going into the navigation or machinery spaces, unless you purchase a pre-cruise behind-the-scenes tour.



                The boats like ours – the “Viking Kara” -- that ply the rivers of Europe are vastly different.  They are sized to fit the locks of rather small rivers – about 440 feet long and 30 feet wide.  They carry 190 passengers and 50 crewmembers. Diners have the option of eating in a restaurant, with table service, or serving themselves from a buffet in the lounge.  A mid-afternoon snack is offered, but there are no round-the-clock food courts.  Breakfast is, by far, the best meal of the day, with a wide choice of fresh fruits, meats, cheeses, pastries, cereals, juices and smoked salmon and pickled herring (my favorite, but my wife won’t touch it.  She eats Brussels sprouts.  Go figure.)  I found the food in Europe (including the boat) bland and disappointing.  Only two percent of the people from north of the Mason-Dixon Line can cook.  Our Chef was from Croatia.  Now, you readers who are transplanted Yankees, undoubtedly fall into the two-percent category.  How’s that for diplomacy?



                Everything on a riverboat is down-sized – including the staterooms.  They are, uh, “convenient” i.e. one can reach anything in the room from the bed. Since we did not realize these cruises filled up so quickly, we reserved our room only a few months in advance, and all that were left were on the lowest passenger deck – mostly below the waterline.  Only the top three feet of our room was above water and there was a small slot window about five and a half feet above the floor, just above the waterline.  Being relatively tall, I could see through it, standing flat-footed.  Paula could not, and her only view was of the sky.  Although tiny, the room was comfortable, with a king-size bed, large screen TV, refrigerator, small counter, a few drawers, a very small closet and doll-house-size bath and shower. Much of our luggage stayed packed in suitcases stored under the bed.  Upper-deck rooms were the same size, but had picture windows. But, the room was comfortable and about the only time we spent in it was for sleeping.



                There was no room on such a small ship for a theater, but the lounge was roomy and comfortable.  Each night our cruise director – a Scottish lady named “Ria,” who was a very good stand-up comedian – described the next day’s activities and regaled us with funny stories.  The pianist was excellent (nearly as good as Richard Boykin, the music director at East Philadelphia Baptist Church), so we enjoyed wonderful background music.  We had access to books, cards and board games from the small library.  It was all very civilized.



                We usually sailed all night, enjoyed a shore excursion in the morning, returned to the boat for lunch and went ashore for another excursion in the afternoon.  At times, these included supper ashore; but, at times, we returned to the ship for the meal. 



                Being a relatively small river (as rivers go – I would say about the size of the Tennessee River), there were no large tows of barges as one sees on the Mississippi River, but the amount of river traffic was amazing.  It was mostly motorized barges.  They haul everything imaginable – tankers full of fuel, hoppers of asphalt, gravel, cement, etc. and cargo barges filled with shipping containers, including on the deck. High-speed rail lines run along both sides of the river and they are constantly busy.  Since there are no draw bridges on the Rhine, the boats are equipped with pilot houses on hydraulic lifts, which can be lowered to go under low bridges.  Crewmen have to lower sun-deck awning by hand.



                Our captain was a very affable Dutchman with enormous skill and 36 years’ experience on river freighters and passenger boats.  He invited those of us who were interested to visit him in the pilot house (which I did).  Try that on an ocean-liner! I was astounded to see him put a 440-foot boat into a lock with only 18 inches to spare on each side – and not touch the wall.  Now, THAT is boat handling at its best!



                Let me say a few words about castles, cathedrals, palaces and art museums:  There are as many of these in Europe as there are honky-tonks in Mississippi.  Once you have seen one, you have seen them all (Well, art museums might be the exception).  I recommend selecting one of each, examining it thoroughly, getting it out of your system then spending the rest of your time exploring little villages, folk-life museums and admiring the magnificent landscape. There was one stand-out cathedral: Cologne, Germany, for it contained a gilded ossuary said to contain the bones of The Three Wise Men! Some duke stole it from Jerusalem during the Crusades and brought it to Germany. Now, how could one resist such a sight?



                My favorite part of the cruise was the French province of Alsace.  It was once a state within the Holy Roman Empire, but since the collapse of that confederation, has changed hands between Germany and France several times. I can see why they would fight over it.  It is a valley about thirty miles wide between two mountain ranges about the height of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. 



                The fertile valley is covered with farm fields.  Farmers in Europe do not live on the land, but in small villages of a few hundred to a couple of thousand people, so they were strung out like pearls on a necklace.  These orderly and neat-as-a-pin little towns date from the 1200’s with cobble stone streets, flowers and gardens everywhere and houses of “half-timber” construction.



                Alsace was occupied by the Nazis in WWII, and was the scene of heavy fighting. We visited one little town that was totally obliterated.  A post-war photo showed only a bombed-out bell tower standing.  But, thanks to very hard-working and resourceful villagers, the Phoenix arose from the ashes, for they scrounged through the rubble, salvaged as much building material as they could and rebuilt the town in the medieval style.



                A touching moment was a visit to the Audie Murphy Memorial.  Here is the “Readers’ Digest” version of his monumental “One-Man-Stand:” In the winter of 1944, the Allies planned to liberate Alsace from German occupation by sweeping down the mountain passes with tanks, infantry and, with the assistance of aircraft, drive the Nazi’s from the valley, but the winter of 1944 was the worst in years and the roads through the passes were impassable.  Plan “B” involved a sixty mile end-sweep march and crossing a small river on a rickety bridge.  The commanders made a mistake:  They sent the infantry over the river first.  The first tank that tried to cross collapsed the bridge.  Thick fog and rain prevented aircraft from flying, so the foot soldiers were trapped without support.  Audie Murphy was a 19-year-old Lieutenant who led his men to the edge of the woods, were he encountered Nazi infantry and tanks arrayed in a field before them.  Knowing his large group would make an easy target for the tanks; he ordered them to the rear and held the Germans at bay with his rifle.  When he ran out of ammunition, he jumped onto a nearby burning tank with a functioning .50 Cal. Machine gun and plenty of ammunition and continued to hold the Germans off until a break in the weather allowed allied aircraft to fly and drive them back.  Just as he retreated from the burning tank, it exploded.  His actions bought time for the Allies to repair the bridge, sweep into Alsace and liberate it.  Murphy won the Medal of Honor and was the most decorated soldier in WWII.  After the war, he became an actor, staring in 40 movies, including “To Hell and Back,” the award-winning movie about this event.



                We stood at the memorial where Murphy made his stand.  Our female guide attempted to close her recitation of events with a poem, but broke down in tears.  The people of Alsace are still thankful to the Americans for their sacrifice, and are quick to say so.  They hold a Memorial Day ceremony in their honor each year.



                We spent one day aboard ship cruising the middle Rhine.  What spectacular landscape! The river valley is narrow here, with just enough flat land for the railroads on each side, and then there are bluffs and hillsides that rise up, at very steep angles, for hundreds of feet. The tops are speckled with castles and forts, and the nearly vertical slopes are clothed with vineyards. A guide explained that they cannot plant on the contour because workers could not stand up on the side of the mountain, so they plant straight up and down.  The fields are too steep to operate machinery, so the grapes are cultivated and harvested by hand.  Maybe that is why they do not have an erosion problem.  The elevation, soil, climate and aspect combine to produce some of the finest white wine grapes in the world.



                We passed through the Lorelei Narrows, where, according to legend, the mermaid Lorelei sat on the jutting rocks and lured boatmen to their doom with her siren song.  Lorelei is still there – cast in bronze.  I listened intently for her song, but she is as quiet as the Pascagoula Indians.



                Our final excursion was to the Black Forest.  As a forester, this was of great interest to me, for this is the oldest continually managed forest in the world.  I had a head full of technical questions about silviculture, management regimes, etc., but alas, the guide could not answer my questions.  I just had to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  The forest was interspersed by little open valleys that supported dairy farms.  The cows, with their tinkling bells, seemed to enjoy our attention.  Their homes were the ground floors of very large barns, while the farmers lived above. 



                Undoubtedly, the forest produces an abundance of fine sawlogs, but firewood seems to be the major product.  All the homes, and even businesses, are heated with wood; there are stacks of wood for sale everywhere and every home and business has an enormous pile.



                After 800 miles, we reached our final destination on the Rhine: Basil, Switzerland.  According to the map, this is the source of the Rhine, and I expected it to just be a channel large enough for a single boat at this point, but not so!  The Rhine is still a substantial river (probably due to the numerous locks) and Basil is a busy port.



                The Suttons left at this point to fly back home to Tennessee, Steve and Daleen and Paula and I continued on across Switzerland via rental car.



Part 3: The Journey Across Switzerland and Our First Experience with European Trains



                Steve had made arrangements with Parelli Tours for the second part of our journey.  The Viking folks (who were very accommodating) transported us and our luggage to the rental car office, where we secured a small SUV, into which we crammed four adults and nine suite cases, (one of which a doorman said had to contain a SmartCar!), and we headed off across the Alps!  Thank God for GPS!  With the aid of this marvelous device, we did not get (seriously) lost a single time! We drove for miles with Lake Aare on our left, and the Alps rising in snow-capped grandeur on our right to the city of Interlochen (It is built on a peninsular that juts into the lake, hence the name, which means “between the lakes.”  Like the rest of Northern Europe, Switzerland is neat, clean and orderly. The waters of the lake are clean and clear, and the steep hillside across the lake is dotted with villages.  One can see, here and there, water roiling.  I guess it is underwater springs welling up.  Waterfalls cascade from the hills.



                I wonder is this was the sight that inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson to write:



                “The splendor falls on castle walls

                And snowy summits old in glory

                The long light shakes across the lake

                And wild cataracts leap in glory.”



                Daleen received an ominous e-mail at 11:00 a.m. from our Perillo Tour driver who was supposed to meet us at Lake Como at 10:00 that evening.  His message was:  Where are you?  Daleen replied that he was supposed to meet us at 10:00 p.m., not a.m. She received no response and tried to call, without success.  Oh well, we figured, we will deal with it when the time comes, and we did (amid much confusion).



                The highlight of our Swiss tour was the little town and valley of Lauderbrunen.  It lies about 3,000 feet up in the Alps and looks just like it should.  It is a long narrow valley with a beautiful rapid-filled stream bisecting it, waterfalls and fools in parachutes and waterfalls in mass profusion leaping from the cliffs above and a paved walking path that runs for miles past little dairy farms, with fields of wildflowers instead of grass, and tidy little farm houses and hostels.  We noticed that all the people who walked by gave us menacing glares and muttered things in a language we did not understand.  Then one shouted, “Hey, you freekin’ red-neck.  Get that blankedy-blank car off the walking trail.  What’s wrong with you?  You from Mississippi or something?  So we did.



                We saw a cable car that carried passengers to a peak about a thousand feet above.  It looked like fun, so we bought a ticket.  That was just the first stop.  It went from peak to peak (we had to change cars) until it reached its terminus at 13,000 feet at a revolving restaurant, where we found that part of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” was filmed.  A serious snow storm was in progress, so we ate our spaghetti as we slowly revolved in white silence. On the return journey, at about 10,000 feet, I saw paths, goats and shacks.  I asked the operator is there was a road that we could not see that the goat herders took to tend their animals. “No,” he said. “They walk, but if the weather is bad they might stay overnight in the shack.”  They walk up a 10,000 foot mountain to work every day?!  No wonder these people look fit!



                We drove on to Lake Como, on the Italian border, later that afternoon.  The lake was not nearly as pristine as Lake Aare, and we found that Italy was vastly different from northern Europe.  Gone were the neat, well organized medieval towns.  The towns were, indeed, medieval, but they just looked old -- not in a fairy tale sense -- and disorganized.  I think most people in Italy smoke, and the ground was littered with cigarette butts. We took a short tour around a large bay of Lake Como, and found it to be quite charming, with beautiful homes dotting the lakeshore and entire villages climbing the hillsides.  George Clooney has a home here, but it was on a different part of the Lake, so we could not see it.



                Due to our guide’s confusion with a.m. and p.m., we had to find our way to the hotel, could not find an entrance, double parked, ran up a brick walkway to get instructions, only to discover that this was, indeed, the driveway. Once we checked in, we faced the task of returning the rental car.  We got directions to the rental car office, which was at the train depot, got lost a few times (we did not know the physical address, so the GPS was useless), but after much frustration, finally found it.  The rental car office was closed, and we had no idea how to proceed. We told an idle taxi driver our problem.  He instructed us, led us to the lot to deposit the car, and then drove us to the hotel.  He got a NICE tip!



                All the hotels we stayed in were rated four-star.  If you ever want to move to Europe and open a four-star hotel, here is how to do it:  Buy an old run-down hotel with small rooms.  Spend a lot of money on nice landscaping.  Have the staff dress in nice suits and adopt a snobbish mien. Give everything a nice coat of paint, scatter some marble about here and there, install a bidet in a too-small bathroom so it bangs your shin everything try to use the john, install six-inch crown molding, triple your room rate and add three additional start to the one already on your marque. Viola!  You now have a four-star hotel!

Benwalt, greatness awaits! (The “Benwalt” is an abandoned 1920’s hotel in Philadelphia, MS.)



                The Parelli guide who was to get us to our train the next morning actually showed up.  He took us to the depot, unloaded our luggage and said, “Your train leaves at 9:00 a.m. from track no. 2.  He climbed into his cab and left.  We had to drag nine suitcases, all of which were getting heaver by the day as new souvenirs were added and had developed “Walmart buggy wheel syndrome,” across the platform and over two tracks to the platform on the other side. 



                There we stood:  A bunch of rubes from Mississippi trying to figure out which car to board.  We finally discovered that it was on the far end of the train, so off we ran, dragging a quarter ton of uncooperative luggage behind with one wheel turning crazy circles, and another refusing to turn at all, just sliding along.  There was a young couple from Dubai ahead of us trying to get a stroller, with a baby, on board.  A railroad employee stood beside the door, offered no help, and then spoke into a radio.  The door closed in the face of the Dubai couple, and the train left.  The employee laughed – He LAUGHED! The young man complained and he smirked, “you late – missed train.  Not my problem.”



“Well, what do we do now, I asked?  How do we get to the next station?  We will miss our train; can we get a transfer to a later train?”



“Let me see ticket.”



I handed it to him



“Ticket no good,” he said, “This for reserved seat.  You miss train.  Gotta buy new ticket.”



“Well, just tell us how to get to the next station.”



He told us to take the subway, and gave a convoluted explanation about how many times we would have to change trains etc.  A bystander, who saw what was happening, said, “A ‘local’ will be along in a few minutes.  It goes directly to the station.  Take it and tell the customer service agent what happened.  He will give you a transfer and you will probably have time to make your connection.  The ‘local’ came in a few minutes.  We got aboard the dirty, graffiti-covered car (a far cry from the sleek “bullet train” we should have been on), and, after several stops, reached our destination.



We found the customer service agent and Steve explained our problem and he replied, “Oh, so your train arrived late!”



“No, Steve explained again, the train was on time, we just could not figure out which car to get on, and it left.”



“So, your – train- was –late?” he again asked, this time with emphasis and arched eyebrows.



“Steve,” I said, “just agree with the man!”



“Yes,” said Steve, “our train was late!”



“Aha,” said the agent, as he checked the appropriate box, “Your train was late! I give you transfer!



The man looked for several minutes for the appropriate stamp, but was unable to find it.  Steve spotted a stamp on the counter of the adjacent vacant booth and said, “Is that it?”



“Yes!” the agent said, as he grabbed it, inked it and slapped in on our tickets. “Your train leave track 10 – three minutes.”



The race was on!  Four out-of-shape elderly Mississippians, dragging nine suite cases, two of which had bad wheels, and one a doorman accused of containing a SmartCar made a mad dash from track three to track 10! We made it – barely!  And we were off to Venice!



                A word about European trains:  Once we learned the system, we had no further problems as we traveled by train from the Swiss border to Rome.  They are fast (about 150 MPH), silky smooth, roomy and comfortable, with four chairs arranged around a table in a booth.  The trouble is luggage. There are no baggage cars or porters to assist with it.  One has to lug it onboard and hope he can find space on the crowded luggage rack on each car.  One or more suit cases are likely to end up stashed beneath the table – at the expense of leg room.  A word to the wise:  When traveling by train in Europe, pack light!



                Venice is everything it is cracked up to be – an ancient city floating on the sea (actually, on wooden pilings and several nearby islands), designed by the greatest architects of all times, decorated by the greatest artist and artisans who will ever live and paid for by families richer than a rock star. The great castles and palaces of northern Europe are dowdy compared to the Palace of the Doge of Venice.



                There is no bridge or causeway connecting Venice to the mainland.  Access is only by boat, and the only wheeled vehicles in the city are hand carts used for everything from garbage collecting to food deliveries.  The city is a boat-lovers dream.  Nearly all boats are of wood, and most appear to be lovingly restored antiques, gleaming with multiple layers of polished varnished.  The Gondolas are works of art:  Long, canoe-like crafts liquored gleaming black on the outside, with the interiors of highly polished natural wood.  The seats are of plush red velvet. I would like to have ridden in one, but time would not allow. Large, old, beat-up wood-planked boats function as delivery vans.



                A man was passing out tickets for a free boat ride and tour of the glass works on the nearby Island of Murano.  We went.  A restored antique Chris-Craft whisked us to the nearby island, where we observed glass artisans at work, and then we were given a tour of the show room.  WOW!  I now know how Edmond Dantes felt when he walked into the treasure chamber of Monte Christo!  Shelves and shelves of gleaming transparent and translucent deep emerald and ruby blown glass richly decorated with 24 karat gold and hand-painted enamel and delicate etchings.  Steve said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he bought some.  Yes, it was expensive.



                Put a trip to Venice on your bucket list.



                On to Florence!



                We had a Perillo walking tour of Florence, the birthplace of several renaissance artists, the most remarkable of whom was Michelangelo. We walked about the city and visited yet another cathedral, but this one was different:  It was built of colored marble and granite – white, rose and green.  It was one of the largest in Europe, and could hold 30,000 people.  It was not nearly as ornate on the inside as some we saw, but the outside was striking, especially that part that had recently been cleaned.



                When one thinks of Florence, he thinks of Michelangelo’s statue of David.  Yes, we saw it, and yes, it is spectacular.  It is housed in the art academy, which at first glance is a disappointment, for from the outside it looks like a very old and unimpressive warehouse, but it is richly decorated inside and filled with much more than a king’s ransom of magnificent art. The guide explained several of Michelangelo’s works (painting and sculpture), but the highlight is “David,” probably equal to the Sistine ceiling as a masterwork. It is big:  probably 16 or more feet high and carved from a single slab of marble.  It is of a young man at his peak of development and it exudes strength and confidence.  Every muscle and vein in perfectly defined.  The master used skillful techniques to portray the power of David:  The right hand that holds the pocket of the sling with its stone is oversized to portray might and power.  The neck and head are also oversize to overcome perspective as one looks up, to again, portray power.



                My first thought on seeing “David” was: Someone get that boy a pair of undies!



                The best thing about Florence is that it is the gateway to Tuscany. 



                Tuscany!  Perhaps the language of angles can sing your praises, but not any language of man. God worked overtime when he created such a beautiful place. 



                Tuscany is rugged beauty.  Verdant vineyards burst forth from among the scrubby wooded hills and cascade to the gentle slopes and valleys below. These lowlands are a patchwork of small, carefully cultivated farm fields not big enough to be boring.  The jumbles of small, irregular fields seem to put the land in motion.  It is ocher-colored houses that seem to rise from the earth.  It is a landscape of columnar cypress trees and pines with urn-shaped crowns bathed in an ethereal light.



                Tuscany is God’s most beautiful creation and the little city of Sienna and the small town of San Gimignano are its crown jewels.



                Sienna is a walled city dating from the middle ages.  It was once the richest and largest city in Europe, with a population of 150,000, but it never recovered from the devastation wrought by the Black Plague, which killed three-fourths of its population, which now stands at 50,000.  The city is divided into 17 neighborhoods, each represented by an animal, and twice each summer the city square, which is far from level, being about 20 feet higher at one end, is transformed into a race track.  Each neighborhood hires a horse and jockey to represent them, as American cities hire professional athletes to staff their local sports team. The horse wins, not the Jockey. This is no genteel sport: it is a hell-for-leather bareback race over rough terrain, and it is not unusual for a riderless horse to win.  There is no betting and no prize:  It’s all for the honor of the neighborhood.  Well, that and an excuse to party. The town holds pre-race festivals for two weeks, two weeks of victory parties, and then it is time to start preparing for the next race!



San Gimignano, oh my!  It is an assault on the senses: a blow to the solar plexus that keeps one gasping.  It is the aroma of strawberries and oranges – perfectly ripe – wafting from a stand; the stunning red of a rose against a blanket of white jasmine and roses of pastel hues nestled in a bed of lavender; it is the soft music of Italian, spoken by one who claims it as her mother tongue, punctuated by the tinkle of wine glasses; it is the astringent, earthy taste of red wine, pungent cheese and the saltiness of Prosciutto ham. It is the one place to which I would like to return and just spend an entire day just sitting and bathing in the ambiance.



Back to Earth.  I had been fighting a cold the entire trip, and I lost the battle that night. I did not sleep a bit, and I was exhausted the next morning, with a tour of Rome on the itinerary.  Rome is the eternal city, but it is also an eternal mess.  The drivers are insane.  Markings on roadways mean nothing to them. Traffic is a moving mass of tiny cars interwoven with bicycles and motor scooters and motorcycles.  Drivers appear to obey no regulations.  They just work things out on the fly.  Two drivers will head for the same spot, but one will back down at the last minute.  I did not see a single accident. We had a tour of the coliseum. The guide was an archeologist who was intensely interested in every brick and pebble and assumed we were, too.  I heard ten times more than I wanted to hear in an accent I could not understand and I was too tired and sick to try to figure it out.  I was more impressed with the Tivoli Fountain.  This massive sculpture of lions on a ledge overlooks a large pool.  Huge amounts of water flows around the lions and falls into the pool.  It is fed by a restored Roman aqueduct that brings water from springs in the surrounding mountains. We did not have time to visit the Vatican museums, but did walk onto St. Peter’s square.



I was glad when the Rome tour was over so I could get back to the hotel for some rest.  We were up at 3:00 a.m. to catch the flight home.  Going through security and dealing with overweight luggage at the Rome airport was a hassle, but not too bad.  The real nightmare was changing planes in Paris.  That airport was the biggest mess I have ever seen.  No one was there to answer questions.  In fact no one seemed to be in charge.  We just got caught up in a seething mass of humanity and moved along with them.  There were three officials checking passports of thousands of travelers.  It was nearly as bad as the worst lines at Walt Disney World. We barely made our plane, but we were soon winging over the Atlantic on the way to Atlanta in the good old USA.  Eight hours later, we were there.  Everything in the Atlanta airport was the opposite of Paris:  It was a model of efficiency, with plenty of employees to handle the crowds, check passports, direct us to our luggage, etc.  Being south of The Mason-Dixon Line, we were finally able to get a decent meal: a hamburger, fries and a coke – with all the ice we wanted (a rare treat in Europe) at an Atlanta Braves restaurant.  We soon boarded the Jackson-bound plane for the short flight home, with a head full of memories, suite cases full of dirty laundry and souvenirs, empty wallets – and a burning desire for a plate of mustard greens, corn bread and tea, with PLENTY of ice!