Pyramid Power

Galveston, Texas has a lot of things going for it: beaches, swimming, boating, fishing, lying in the sun, great places to eat and varied cultural attractions. However, we didn’t expect to meet Real Pirates on their ship, the Whydah, inside a bronze pyramid. The Whydah had been a

Aboard the Whydah

slave ship but because of its speed and responsive handling, Captain Sam Bellamy seized it making it his personal flagship. Interestingly, slaves on ships captured by pirates were given the choice of becoming part of the crew or being released in sight of land; many preferred the freedom of the open seas to the possible return to slavery on land. Later, loaded with treasure, the Whydah sank during a terrible storm off of Cape Cod. Legend has it that Captain Bellamy was returning to the woman he loved, planning to take her away with him. When we boarded no one was conscripting sailors or firing cannons, but we did get to tie knots in lines and play with authentic pirate treasure.

Monkeys? La La!

Tropical Flower

There’s more to do in Roatan than just diving. On one of the days we didn’t spend underwater, we explored the area including Gumbalimba Park. The park has spectacular flowers, a nice area to sit with a cold drink, a cave with historical relics, and tropical animals. You can get to the park by walking in, hiring a taxi, or you can zip in. We chose the latter.

Once we got to South Shore Zip-Line Adventures, we found we were all too old for the ride. However, with a bit of discussion we convinced the owner that we were all in good shape and wouldn’t do anything

Clockwise from upper left: David, Andi, Steve, Cynthia

stupid (or at least act Near-Normal). He did admit that they had strapped a 90 year old woman in with one of the guys and taken her down the zip line; she’d had the ride of her life! We had a great time, too. The trick is not to slow down too soon or you have to use one of the overhead ropes to drag yourself along. Besides, slowing down isn’t nearly as much fun a barreling along screaming ‘Whee’ at the top of your lungs. Some of the staff were adept at hanging upside down from their zip-lines, but since none of us were quite that good we stayed upright. A couple more practice runs and I’d be willing to give upside down zipping a try! There are 16 levels, so it’s quite a trip from the top of the canopy to the final stop at Gumbalimba Park.

Down deep in Roatan

There’s only one sport that I’m any good at and that’s scuba diving. In early 1989 I discovered

Andi in full gear

snorkeling finding that it was bloody hard work and didn’t get me down to what I wanted to see. As luck would have it, later that year graduate student who was also scuba instructor enrolled in one of my classes. Scuba diving, he said, was a lot easier than snorkeling because you had your air with you and you weren’t fighting the surface waves. That sounded reasonable to me so I embarked on scuba lessons. While my graduate student was an excellent teacher, I was a horrible student. The only good things about learning were that he was exceptionally patient and he didn’t let me drown; I think the latter was because he needed the class I was teaching to finish his master’s degree. In any case, all of my angst, fear, and ineptitude vanished the minute I hit the ocean in Cozumel, Mexico. In 1990, it was a glorious place and I developed an abiding love of scuba diving. This love has fueled my travel bug, taking me around the world to play in the oceans; the latest Near-Normal diving adventure was at Bananarama in Roatan, Honduras.

Weirdness in Bohemia

No trip is complete without the requisite amount of weirdness and some places had more than

Spider-Man

their fair share. Stuttgart, Germany is a quiet town, especially during the week. Pretty much everything closes up by 8:00 PM; it’s even difficult to find an open restaurant. But it is lovely and the strolling down the tranquil mall area we were quite surprised to learn the reason for all of the serenity. As we looked up to a row of apartments we saw the apparent guardian of the town: Spider-Man! Perhaps he was on vacation.

As expected, things in foreign countries are not as they are in the US. On this trip it was access to restrooms. There were few places that had free facilities; I’m supposing that this is to keep the riff-raff from wandering, in mucking up the place and

Restrooms

costing the business owner more money for cleaning. However, two places should be mentioned in this weirdness tribute. In Strasbourg, France, the restroom near the cathedral was plainly marked. The founding fathers wanted to make sure that all beings were aware that the facilities were available. The traditional male/female icons are readily apparent at the lower right of the picture, but I’m not at all sure what those icons at the upper right are supposed to be ~ two kinds of flowers, maybe? There was a nice lady on duty to make sure the stalls were clean and toilet paper was available. While she didn’t ask for Euros, she appreciated tips. The “Easy Entrance” sign that marked the restroom in the MacDonald’s in Prague was completely misleading. The restrooms were down a spiral staircase, but once you got there, even though you were a patron you had to have 10 Kč (koruna) to get in. So back upstairs you go to get exact change. Once back downstairs, you put your money in the coin slot then receive a receipt that, thankfully, serves no other purpose. By this time the image of a person running through a turnstile is entirely accurate.

Just Bead It!

Glass Sculpture

One of my passions is glass beads and what better place to visit than the home of those little jewels in Czech Republic. Of course, some of the Near-Normal Travelers will say without equivocation that the best place for glass is the Moser glassworks in Karlovy Vary. And if your interest lies in that sort of art, you’ll agree. Glass making, particularly at this quality level, is no easy job.

Art, time after time

Karlovy Vary park sculpture

There is no excuse in either Germany or Czech Republic to be late because no matter where you look there’s a clock tower. These lovely towers are part of the art that abounds in Bohemia. Most of what I saw was architecture and sculpture. I only visited one museum, which was surprising since I am such a museum addict.

While clocks are on many buildings, towers, and street corners, they represent different periods in history. Some, such as the one advertising Mercedes Benz, is modern while

Clocks in Stuttgart, Strasbourg, and Prague

the sundial on the side of the church and the two astrological clocks are substantially older. The Strasbourg astronomical clock, in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame of Strasbourg, Alsace, France is the third clock located here, dating from 1843. The first clock was built in the 14th century and the second in the 16th century. The clock has a computus (perpetual calendar), an orrery (planetary dial), the current position of the sun and moon, including solar and lunar eclipses, and a rooster that crows three times at noon. At 12:30PM Christ and the Apostles march out of one door and into the other at the top of the clock. In Prague, the Orloj, installed in 1410, is the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. This is particularly impressive since it is on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. Again, there is a computes, an orrery, and the current position of the sun and moon. Each hour the figure of Death, a skeleton, strikes the time the Apostles parade past two open doors, but don’t venture outside.

Food, Glorious Food!

Ritter Sport Candy Sculpture

Sculpture in a train station isn’t particularly surprising, but a sculpture to chocolate? Oh my, yes. And the actual chocolate was inexpensive, mouth-watering and plentiful. Not only did this sculpture provide a great meeting place, but it set the stage for the sub-text of this trip ~ food!

Coffee and tea are available everywhere, as was the ubiquitous Starbucks; the locals drink bottled water, although the water from the tap is quite good. But Bohemia is famous for its beers and wines. Evidently (I know next to nothing about beer) there are two kinds of beer: Ales and Lagers. The difference is where the fermentation takes place; ales are made from top fermentation yeasts, while lagers are from bottom fermentation yeasts. In either case, the beer was unlike what I’ve tasted previously. The best pale beer I sampled was mild, bubbly and tart without being bitter; the best dark beer reminded me of a cola beverage. Both were yummy with the foods we were sampling. The wines were a bit of a surprise. I prefer sweet to moderately sweet white wines and had expected to be in Riesling heaven with a bit of Gewürztraminer, Spätlese, Auslese and, if I were very lucky, Eiswein available. At the first

Beer, wine & hot chocolate

restaurant we visited the waiter told me that he did have a nice fruity red I might like, but ‘real Germans’ don’t drink sweet wines, particularly in the Stuttgart region. Well fine. So throughout the trip I tried to prove him wrong, and failed. The Rieslings, while a bit better than OK didn’t have the floral nose, fruity flavor, crisp finish nor pizzazz that I had expected based on the German imports I’d tasted. Remarkably, not a single bottle provided in any restaurant was marked ‘Qualitätswein mit Prädikat’ (quality wine with specific attributes), nor could I find any in the grocery stores or wine shops. I also never saw on a menu or in a shop a Spätlese, Auslese or Eiswein; one of our group did get a Gewürztraminer and pronounced it unremarkable. The best find was at the Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary (Casino Royale was filmed there). They served cups of hot chocolate; but not just chocolate. You could get milk or dark chocolate, chocolate with caramel, white chocolate, and a number of other combinations (I stopped reading at ‘dark chocolate’). The waiter brought a large cup of steaming hot milk, and a huge chunk of chocolate on a stick. You dunk the chocolate in the milk and swirl it around until it is completely melted. Amazingly good. It wasn’t uncommon to find several of our group relaxing with this concoction and a piece of cake at the end of the day.