Traditions and travel

[Irish Rambler]

Apologies for the smartass joke but this uploading problem is frustrating..

During WW1 the British forces were so short of ammunition the war with Germany was stalling and they could only defend themselves, this probably prolonged the war by a year with the resultant loss of life.
Something had to be done pdq and a minister was appointed to create the largest gunpowder factory the world has ever seen on the Scottish borders between Dumfries and Gretna Green and it was spread over 35 acres.
Production went up from 100 tons a week initially to 1,000 tonnes when the factory was at full production.
The name 'Devils Porridge' refers to the cotton waste and nitrates that, when mixed by hand resembled porridge.

Lets have a look around the museum.
Photo's.
1,2,3, Give homage to all the animals who also contributed greatly during the war.

4,6,7,8, This shunting engine was built to move the wagons between the labyrinth of tracks around the factory, the manufacturing buildings were spread over the 35 acre site so that if one accidentally blew up it would reduce the risk to the others.
Obviously a conventional coal fired engine couldn't be used because of the danger of sparks setting off an explosion so what they did was build a large pressure cylinder and mount it on a train chassis. It was charged with high pressure steam and driven like a conventional train. It could pull 5 fully loaded wagons and travel for 15 miles before needing to be recharged with steam.
The early version patchwork camouflage paint helped to fool any passing aircraft. Camouflage advanced greatly during the war like many inventions born of necessity.
The panels give a complete description of the builder etc.

9, This is a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and was used in a Hawker Hurricane.

10, Shell casing.

 

[BruceK]

Geoff, while waiting for the pics, what`s your view about whether Brexit will happen. Boris`s "crash through or crash" style is fascinating to watch but hard to guess where it`s heading. I suspect he decided to, as we Aussies say, "have a red hot go at it", and if it comes off well and good, if not he probably has a good pension and a post Parliament career in business, or advertising, or PR, or...

 

[Irish Rambler]

Hi Bruce. I'm convinced it will happen one way or another as we've been used as suckers by the EU for too long.
We pay the 2nd largest amount into it, their troops won't fight in any confrontations they simply stay as support and our lads have to do the dirty work. Immigration is a major factor, if folk apply legally and have no criminal record, a job, health insurance they're welcome and its no problem but we have so many illegals. France turns a blind eye when they break into trucks and stowaway despite Britain giving millions for security patrols, fencing and policing they just take the money and do nothing.
The EU takes 80% of the fish from our territorial waters, mostly cod (which they sell back to us & the EU charges 4% for us to import anything from the EU) and now the cod are near extinction, we're left with pollack and haddock. Our fisherman have strict quota's and they have to sit and watch the EU guys take it, they also have quota's but get around that by selling it to Russian factory ships out at sea then only reporting their quota when they return to their home port.
Health tourism by illegals is crippling our free healthcare.
The socialist left wont agree to leave and neither will they agree to hold an election as they know they'd be kicked out even though the electorate voted overwhelmingly to leave.
Johnson took over and started banging heads together to get results and he's perfectly correct as they need a boot up the ……. to concentrate their minds.
Sorry for the rant.

 

[bogranjac1]

Pretty good rant none the less.
When a country loses control of its own sovereignty over everything held dear to the people as you outlined then it is time to exit, brexit and disist.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Thank you bogranjac1. My sentiments entirely. The battle in parliament at the moment is basically between the socialists who have gone so far to the left as to be Marxist and the freedom loving sovereign capitalist Tory party representing the majority of the public. One of the complications is Ireland, as you know Northern Ireland is British and Southern Ireland is independent. The IRA tried with bomb and bullet to take over the North and create a united Ireland, when that failed they tried via the EU and Gerry Adams the terrorist leader turned politician was manipulating Brussels expansionist thinking and the so called 'backstop' in fact united Ireland by locking the North into EU laws and regulations with no exit. Southern Ireland has been hinting that if Great Britain gets a clean Brexit then they (the IRA) will go back to the bomb and bullet and have in fact detonated 3 bombs already but I think the appetite to return to violence is restricted to a tiny minority.
Apologies for more ranting, I'll stay off politics and back to the blog, there are always different opinions, I respect the TF site and don't want to create problems or bring dishonour to my reputation.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Inside the museum gives us a better idea of the Devils Porridge Museum.

Photo's.
1, Can you remember one of these ? An old fashioned mangle, after washing clothes in the tub they were passed between two rollers as the handle was turned to squeeze out the water.

2, These are the mixing bowls in 1 stage of the explosive manufacture.

3, 4, Self explanatory.

5, The layout of the complex, all joined by rail.

6, Compare this 'state of the art' phone to the one you use today.

7,8, Self explanatory.

9,Battery powered railway shunter.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Some further pics from an interesting time.
Photo's,
1, Workers shovel Nitrate.

2, Explanation.

3,4,5,6, Nitrating pan and description.

7, Hard times meant strict rules.

8,9, This is the actual furniture used in the dormitory's by the ladies and the night dresses are original.

 

[Irish Rambler]

What were living conditions like ?

Photo's.
1, This would be the kitchen area for maybe 6/8 ladies in the dormitory, they worked rotational shifts so it was never idle.

2, This is what we call in Northern Ireland a 'Jawbox' sink. if you remember there was one in Andrew Carnegie's birthplace too.

3, An early electric cooker.

4, This is a gas fired water heater.

5, This is a washing machine ! The tub of course was filled with hot water and some soap or soda crystals added.
The two flat square looking things are washboards and used by rubbing the clothes up and down the grooves in the washboard to get out any difficult dirt.
There was very little money in those days and early skiffle groups improvised these washboards by the player having sewing thimbles on his fingers, the washboard laid flat across his knees, and then moving his hand across the grooves in the washboard to create rhythmic sounds.
The vertical pole is a 'duncher' it has a cupped disc on the bottom with perforated holes in it and it was plunged up and down to agitate the water through the clothes and made a 'dunching' sound when used.
The thing with the 'T' piece is a 'dolly', this was used by the operator lifting and lowering whilst turning the dolly with a twisting motion to agitate the clothes in the water, the same as your washing machine does today.

6, This is a clothes dryer with pieces hanging to dry.

7, Your little I phone replaces all these things today.

8, Explanation.

9, Time for tea, the table mat for cup and saucer were made from odd bits of wool. The tea cosy kept the tea warm, there were no tea bags in those days, tea was bought loose. The pot was prewarmed with hot water, filled with boiling water and loose tea leaves added, it was then put on a stove to 'stew' (let the tea be infused by the hot water) and kept warm ready to be served. A tea strainer was used to catch the tea leaves and stop them going in the cup/mug. The longer it was kept the stronger it became, those who liked weak tea took theirs first. For those who aren't aware tea is ALWAYS served with cold milk and usually a biscuit or small triangular sandwich. A cup of tea alone is known as a 'just a wee cup in the hand'.

10, Explanation.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Final few photo's from the Devils Porridge Museum.

Photo's.
1, Self explanatory.

2, Royal Air Force Group Captains uniform.

3, Local hero.

4, Apologies for the window reflection. Most of these artefacts are kept in glass cases to protect them from dust and the odd light fingered visitor.

Personally I thank these unsung heroes from that era who worked in support of our armed forces for their tenacity in the face of adversity.
I speak English today because of their sacrifice.

Now on a lighter note.....Lets elope and run away !

 

[Irish Rambler]

OK folks hands up, have you ever been in love ?
Honestly now, tell the truth. Was it a teenage crush ?
I had one at 14 and absolutely idolised her, her name is Nesta Lane and her father booted me up the ass and said 'A farm boys not good enough' for his daughter. Many years later I did accidentally bump into him at business meeting and he was man enough to apologise.
I had another crush on a drop dead gorgeous army nurse called Peta Fothergill, same result when I went to meet her parents and ask for her hand. They were terribly Porsche ! ! Because 'I hadn't been to Oxbridge, had a regional accent so we rather feel it would be inappropriate'.

What did you do when both your parents said no ?

As you may know there are four main parts to the United Kingdom, Wales, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland where we are now.
In the main all parts of the UK have the same laws but in practice there are some individual quirks.
Young people below 21 (the age of consent) were not allowed to marry in England, Wales or Northern Ireland without both parents permission.

Until in 1754 when the marriage act came in in Dumfries, Scotland and one of the first to apply for a Scottish marriage licence was a canny Scottish blacksmith whose premises were the first building over the border from England.

Young people would run away from home in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and elope to here at 16 years old to get married.
The blacksmith had no altar so he conducted his ceremony and married them over his anvil.
C'mon with me and lets take a look around.

Photo's.
1,2, Gretna Green Blacksmiths forge.

3, Today the young can marry at 16 with their parents permission or 18 without in this civil Registration Office.

4,5, Self explanatory.

6, An old painting depicting a blacksmiths marriage.

7, The man signing the Marriage act in 1754 was Lord Hardwicke.

8, Some fine dresses on show, many of the young just had workaday clothes.

9, THE famous blacksmiths anvil.

Don't confuse this ceremony in Scotland with an English expression 'They were married o'er the brush' It simply means that a couple are living together as man and wife but are not officially married.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Here in Gretna of course they cater for visitors with small hotels, restaurants etc. for a small fee you can look around the inside of the forge providing there's no ceremony being held which of course is strictly private.
There were lots of visitors from all over England, Wales and even a busload from Germany who were touring Scotland and seemed quite fascinated when the piper played the happy couple into the blacksmiths shop and then out again after the ceremony.

Here's a few more photo's for you.
1, The piper.

2,3 Explanations.

4,This is the bed that elopers would be pushed into if their parents came knocking on the door searching for them, once his daughter had been bedded the father would usually wash his hands of her and the marriage. Many people throw copper coins at a wedding bed to signify the couple would never be poor, here they simply throw them on the bed for good luck.

5,7,9, The blacksmiths tools of the trade.

6, This recently married couple pose for pictures.

8, Some beautiful bridal dresses donated by ladies who were actually married in Gretna.

10, Not all couples were penniless, many came from wealthy backgrounds and arrived by horse drawn coaches.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Just a few more photo's of Gretna Green blacksmiths forge before we move on.

Photo 1, This is the present marriage room in the smithy with the lucky horseshoe arch on the wall.

2,Arch of love and friendship. The Scots know how to dress things up to milk the tourist cash cow.

3,Any of you guys remember these ? Climate change protesters themselves should go back to using these and see how strong their commitment is then.

4,An early recliner.

5, Beautiful horse drawn coach in pristine condition.

6, This bicycle was known as a penny farthing, so called because the front large wheel resembled the size of a penny coin and the rear wheel the size of a quarter of a penny coin, called a farthing.

7,How many of you old farmers remember using these ? I certainly used them as a youngster along with many other 'eco' tools.

8, Bride and groom posing for photo's, quite rightly they wished to get lots of photo's of their special day and of course the German tourists lapped it all up.

9, A bygone era of elegance.

10, Modern era of elegance.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Much as we loved Scotland and its traditions as we travelled around visiting, even the swallows travel South with the approaching autumn.

Blackpool has (long before aeroplanes and package holidays) since the 1800's been the place for many British people to go on holiday, hardworking families would take a week in a bed & breakfast hotel and spend the day on the beaches with fish and chips for lunch or maybe a snack of cockles (tiny shrimps) ice cream and a stick of rock whilst sunbathing on the long sandy beaches.
A stick of rock is a bar of candy, red on the outside and white candy in the middle with the name Blackpool written in edible candy in the middle.
There used to be donkey rides along the beach for the kiddies but these have long since been banned.

Some visitors could only afford a weekend, others just a day trip in a charabanc from their local area.

Miners and steelworkers would leave their tiny 2 rooms upstairs and 2 rooms downstairs tiny terraced houses with outside dry toilets would come for a taste of luxury and to enjoy the clean ozone air as a change from their grim dusty factories.

Britain ruled the oceans of the world and the British empire spanned the globe. Blackpool is as British as British can be.
The tower was started in 1891 and finished in 1894 and stands at 158 metres.
The Winter Gardens is a theatre entertainment centre in a beautiful garden setting opened in 1878.
It was a quirk of the Victorian engineers that they built piers on a steel framework structures out into the sea, these were quite large and lined on top with shops and games leading to a steamer jetty on the end for pleasure trips for visitors. These piers were built out quite a way due to the gently sloping beaches. There are 3 in Blackpool, the North pier was built in 1863, the central pier in 1868 so you can see the Victorians were hard workers.
The first trams ran here in 1885 and have run continually ever since.

Photos.
1, The black line of the left side of the map shows our route from Scotland down to Blackpool.

2,3, Imposing Blackpool tower built in the 1800's, houses its world famous beautiful Victorian ballroom with a hand made Wurlitzer organ to provide the music., A circus and seasonal various amusements and its own theatre.

4,5,6,7,8,10 Blackpool was the first place to use the electric trams. As you can see from the photo's they range from the ancient to the modern. The illuminated trams are a joy to see and experience as you travel the seafront.

10. Is of course the horse drawn carriages which now sport translucent covers in case of inclement weather.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Blackpool is famous for its illuminations which are switched on in the Autumn and attract many people from all over Great Britain.
They use millions of lights to illuminate the seafront with some of the effigy's animated.
Photo's.
1-9 These photo's taken whilst riding the tram along the seafront.

10, This is what's called 'The 'Sunset Lounge' where you can buy a tea or beer and sit sheltered from the sea breeze and be entertained by the organist or DJ.
Here they play a mix of classic pop, waltzes etc and its wonderful to see old couples get up and dance, many are a touch unstable or weak but the indomitable British spirit shows through and they hold each other tight like young lovers, they might be old but love has no age and many could dance better than me and put my fumbling steps to shame.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Do you like to collect information ?

I do and when we were in Blackpool we went to visit 'Ripleys Believe It Or Not'.
Robert Ripley opened the first one in the US in 1918, Robert died in 1947 and his legacy continues to this day as part of the Vancouver based Jim Pattison group.

Come and lets look around together.
Photo's.
1, 2 The entrance to Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

3, Self explanatory.

4, The Royal Naval submarine service is known as 'The Silent Service' and is probably the most technically advance in the world.

5,I've no problem with this.

6,Humorous gravestone inscription.

7, The Giants Causeway lies on the North Antrim coast of Northern Ireland (the the Bushmills whisky factory is nearby).
Of course being Ireland the folk lore tale has nothing to do with fact.

Once upon a time there were two giants fighting and Finn McCool (the Irish giant) picked up a great clod of earth (and left a hole which is now called Lough Neagh) and threw it over the Irish sea where it landed (now called the Isle of Man).
Could've been the Bushmills whisky talking that started that tale.

8, Now you know where playwrights and screen writers get their inspirations from.

9, When I was working around Belfast docks I knew a man who worked on the tugs in the harbour who played a Dulcimer and very melodic and sweet it was.

10, Here's one for Firefly.

If you'd like a few more of these tell me as I don't wish to bore you with things that are not of interest.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A few more quirky facts from Blackpool and 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not'.

Photo's,
1, These two illuminated signs are a modern tribute to the fallen men and women in the service of the country. The left one for the men, the right one right hand one for women.

2, Iconic black cab taxi.

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Self explanatory.

8, Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam, your never far from home.

 

[Irish Rambler]

That's the Scottish holidays over for now, as the swallows head South for the sun at the first sign of Autumn approaching its also time for us to 'pack the sack and hit the track' and head South too, back to our beloved cruiser 'Snow Mouse' moored in Narbonne on the canal du Robine in the South of France.

The map shows our route to the port of Newhaven where we'll pick up the ferry for Dieppe in France.
We have to stop off in London to pick up our new Photonic Universe low frequency inverter for our boat and just before we reach the ferry terminal we'll visit our favourite UK supermarket and stock up with foody favourites we can't get in France.
Dry cured thick cut back bacon, gammon steaks, beef steaks (beef in France is not generally sold fresh and matured so not as tender as the 21 day 'hung' British/Irish beef).
Large thick Pork sausages (the ones in France are an 'acquired' taste, some are even made with finely chopped intestines Yeugh !
Custard powder (the French watery version is called Crème Anglais).
Crumpets (delicious toasted and slathered in Irish salted butter) and of course TEA.
Traditionally the British and Irish drink tea, ruddy gallons and gallons of the stuff !
The habit/taste harks back to the colonial days when India was part of the British empire (we won't mention Boston). The younger generation drink more coffee but as they mature they switch to tea.
We certainly raised a few eyebrows in the supermarket when we bought 1500 teabags of it.

What next ? ? ?

We're off to China in a few weeks time to see the Terracotta army, the Forbidden city, the Great Wall and then a weeks cruise on the Yangtse river to see the tallest ship lift in the world and if your interested your very welcome to join us.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Hello everyone.
Just back from our visit to China and some new posts coming up as soon as I sort out the photo's for you.
Nearly got locked up for trying to take a sneaky photo of some Russian coms at the rear of their embassy.
I've never seen so much surveillance in my life, face recognition camera's, police and guards everywhere.

 

[Irish Rambler]

When we saw the opportunity to visit China we thought 'why not go and have a looksee'.
As a young man I saw communism first hand in the old East Germany when it was under Russian control. After the war countries were nervous with that much hardware lying around and there was an agreement between the allies and the Russians to allow cars driven by Russian monitors to drive around in West Germany to make sure we weren't building up for nefarious reasons. These cars carried red plates with SOXMIS written on them in yellow. The West had the same arrangement with the Russians.
The Russians have never been thought off as 'trustworthy' so some of us lads in the British army used to 'go under the wire' move inland for a couple of weeks and set up a lup to observe various civvy and military installations.
I didn't like what I saw then and how people were forced to live and work so it made me a confirmed capitalist.
Fast forward some decades and we took the trip to communist China.

We live in the South of France and our early morning flight was from Paris where we would join the rest of a group of 29 others taking the trip. I like to stay in control and the French trains were talking of strikes because of Macron's policies so we drove up.
We passed through the usual security easily and boarded the Air China flight to Shanghai.
Air China are 'functional' but not a patch on Singapore airlines for inflight service, sheesh here's me getting grumpy already .
Arriving in Shanghai's massive airport security was very evident everywhere and it took nearly 3 hours to clear immigration. Fortunately we were met by a very pretty girl who guided us all to the coach.
We'd had no sleep on the 12 hour flight but she took us straight to the Shanghai museum followed by a meal before we hit the Howard Johnson hotel to crash out.

Photo's.
1, 2, our route from the South of France took us up over the central massif where we saw our first snow of the year.

3, the Chinese copy everything, here its house in Western style.

4, this is the Huangpu river, a branch of the Yangtse river, it was very busy with ships up to 4,000 tons, 24/7.

5, Shanghai.

6, marathon day, apologies for the turned photo but we had to use the phone for many photo's. Note the camera's.

7,8, Shanghai.

9,10 Shanghai museum.

 

[Irish Rambler]

30 years ago a Chinese family would live on a kilo of rice and half a kilo of flour and whatever vegetables or pulses they could buy, grow or find and as 24/7 propaganda about wonderful chairman Mao as they could wish for.
The communist hierarchy knew they couldn't keep the lid on the population much longer, slogans don't fill empty bellies and the average life expectancy was just 39 years.
What did they do ? They copied the West, literally. They sent students to universities around the world to learn every aspect of the modern West from structural engineers to surgeons and every other trade in between, industrial spying was top of the list and still is in everything that can be copy produced in China.
To go forward it needed hard currency from the West, yours, everything you buy that's made in China fuels what they've termed 'The Chinese Dream'.
Shanghai is like Los Angeles, on steroids !
They simply wiped out the slums and stacked the residents in apartments and built a brand new city with a series of 10 lane ring roads, brand new massive airports and railways stations.
Residents in apartments are photographed by facial recognition camera's to track them, everywhere you go you are tracked even in a restaurant while you eat and who you eat with.
Traditionally lights and decorations featured in China and its no different now except technology has moved on and this is the result.
Shanghai by night.

1,the Howard Johnson hotel, Shanghai.

2,this is an interior shot inside the very top floor café in the highest building in Shanghai. Only the rich can get in here and our guide would never be allowed in without us.

3,Chinese smog, you cannot see further than 8 kilometres in any direction due to smog. If Grumpy Greta Thunberg came here she'd be thrown in jail and deported.

4,Howard Johnson reception.

5,6,7,8,9. Shanghai by night.

You will not see any graffiti, people with long hair, body piercing, parading LGBT or beards anywhere.
There are no drunks, druggies or homeless people here, they are collected and put in penal work groups for civil projects, they can earn their release.
after 're-education'. If the police stop a drunk driver he automatically goes to jail for a week and has to pay to get his car back.

 

[Irish Rambler]

China's trade with the West began with three main exports, pottery from the Ming dynasty, silk and later, tea.
First the tea.
During the 1800's tea was imported to Britain from China and the first cargo's commanded a premium, that in turn prompted the design of fast clipper ships and none more famous than the 'Cutty Sark'.
Cutty is old Scots for short, and Sark was a short skirt.

(In parts of Ireland 'Cutty' means a young girl and 'Cub' is a young boy).

The story goes that Tam O 'Shanter came across some beautiful witches dancing round a fire and disturbed them, so they gave chase. Tam jumped on his horse and fled and just as his horse jumped a small stream a witch reached out and caught his horses tail and pulled it off (witches can't cross water) and so he escaped.

The clipper ship 'Cutty Sark' was built in 1869 in Dumbarton, Scotland under the watchful eye of Captain Moodie who went on to later command her and her figurehead was a witch reaching out over the water, in her hand was a fistful of hair denoting the horses tail (in fact some hemp rope teased out to make a horses tail).
She was built to the latest design with a sharp prow and a square stern to give buoyancy in a following sea, she was relatively slim in beam and carried a lot of sail for a ship of her size with a draft of 26 feet for stability.
As the first cargo's of the season commanded a premium so the first ships to land the cargo got the highest price, of course this led to the famous 'Tea Races' in which the two most famous clipper ships, the 'Cutty Sark' and her great rival the 'Thermopylae' competed for first prize.
The advent of steam and the opening of the Suez canal by Ferdinand De Lesseps brought that era to a close.
Should you ever visit London, the 'Cutty Sark' is now preserved as a tourist attraction in drydock in Greenwich.
There's also a Scotch Whisky 'Cutty Sark' named after her, before being taken over by a European drinks group Diageo, the Scottish distillery used to sponsor transatlantic ship races.
The British government seeing the popularity of tea decided (as all governments do when something becomes popular) to tax it, this in turn led to the Americans refusing to pay the 'tea tax' so they boarded a tea carrying ship in Boston harbour and threw the tea overboard which became forever known as 'The Boston Tea Party'.
The American people then adopted that godawful drink coffee.

During the civil wars in China the British began (and still do) to import tea from India and Ceylon.

As for the Ming dynasty pottery, we mentioned earlier the civil wars in China, the cobalt blue decorated pottery was very popular in Holland and because of these wars the pottery became unavailable so the canny Dutch copied it.
You can see details of the visit to the Royal Delft Pottery,Holland in my book 'Windmills and Wine' available on Amazon as paperback or e-book (I have to pay for all these travels somehow) a 5* review would be appreciated and most welcome.

Next the silk.

 

[Irish Rambler]

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New year to everyone and your family. May you have fair winds and safe harbours.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Phew ! That's Christmas over, I hope you all had as wonderful and busy time as we did. Remember all diets start tomorrow !

China has for centuries exported silk and many of the trading routes were called 'Silk Roads. They're trying to resurrect those routes now by using trains from China, via Russia and Europe as far England to much initial fanfare, how sustainable the system will be remains to be seen. With China's current aggressive state I can see people already starving them of hard currency by restricting some imports. But China has a large market and money talks.

Silk.
Silk is made from the cocoon containing the larvae of the Bombyx Mori moth, these moths traditionally fed on Mulberry leaves and were hand picked, nowadays the moths are farmed and fed various compounds to keep them healthy.
The farmers kill the larvae before they emerge from the cocoon as they would make holes in the thread.
The thread comes out of the moths mouth unlike a spider which is spun from the rear end. On an average the moth spins approximately one mile of thread to make a cocoon. It takes silk from five cocoons to make one thread of silk and between 17-2000 to make a silk dress.
When you go on organised tours as we did the guide (all guides are government approved) not show you around the also try to impress on you the governments thinking and try to make you see their point of view i.e brainwashing.

Photo's. Apologies for turned photo's but we had to use the phone.
1, 2,3 Maps showing the 'Silk Road'.

4, an early weaving machine.

5,6, self explanatory.

7, here you see the cocoon opened and stretched over a frame.

8, open cocoon with dead larvae.

9, opened cocoon.

10, comparison chart.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Following on from the previous post we complete our tour of the silk factory.

Photo's,
1,2 Self explanatory.

3, Silk fans.

4, This is an old silk thread making machine, it takes 5 stands of silk from a cocoon and makes them into 1 thread.

5, a rapt audience getting the history of silk.

6, Silk bed quilts packed and ready for despatch, and yes the admiral bought one !

7, explanation of how a silk quilt is made, different grades for different seasons. The admiral bought one suitable for North European temperatures at about half the price we could buy one in France.

8, a modern factory of silk thread machines.

9,10, we then were shown various products which were available for purchase. Be careful though apart from the quilts most silk scarves etc can be bought much cheaper in different outlets.

 

[Irish Rambler]

On a group tour they always try to push in as much as possible so you get more bang for your buck.
One of the trips we did was to a mountain walk of rock pinnacles called Huang Shen which the Chinese seem to love. Fortunately it was one of the rare clear days.
It entailed a bus ride, a transfer to a 5 mile mini bus ride up a series of chicanes (the drivers love showing off to tourists) so there was a few OMG's from the ladies.
After that we took a cable car followed by a 5 kilometre walk up and down zillions of steps for lunch and return complete with wobbly legs from tired muscles.

Here's a few photos.

1,this is the ornate entrance arch.

2,look at the photo closely and the small bushes growing on the hillside are tea bushes. When they pick the tea they pinch the end of each small branch and take 2 leaves and a bud.
Green tea is the national drink and is offered everywhere.

3,The road passes through a bamboo forest
We use machines for spraying lines on road surfaces, on the way up we saw 2 guys with a brushes and paint pots and a piece of wood for a straight edge, I wonder how long it would take them to do 5 miles on both sides with suicidal mini bus drivers whizzing past inches from them ?

4,cable car, don't forget what I said earlier, full electronic body search, passports and handbag search before boarding, and yes, a fully manned cop shop at the top of the hill and one at the bottom.

5,6, rock pinnacles.

7,This is the latest rage around, a couple buy a lock to signify their undying love and lock it in a 'special' place.
Just beside this 'Love Bridge' is a large pine tree which is supposed to give a couple and long and happy life together. Yes we did, and there's a locksmith beside who will engrave both your names on the lock.

8,these porters (26 of them) transport everything from the cable car station to the restaurant, including the building material to build the restaurant itself. I call it cruel manual labour when they could've built a road if they wanted to.

9, beautiful tile work.

10,inside the restaurant the porters transported up the hill, and all the food etc for everyday operations.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Apologies for slow uploads but I was 'indisposed', no jump leads, just a re-bore.

 

[Irish Rambler]

I apologize again for the delay in uploads but I was in hospital, then stuck in bed for 2 weeks. Everything's grand now, no ongoing problems and its time to catch up.

As you will know from this post we were in Wuhan which is locked down and heavily in the news for the coronavirus, thankfully we left before the outbreak. the cause is apparently caused by what is termed 'bushmeat', in layman's terms wild animals.
During our 3 weeks in China we saw 6 dogs and 1 cat. One evening we went to KFC and the chicken portions are tiny, burgers are popular but the meat content is questionable so we gave it a miss.
Because of the heavy police presence it was easy to close down.

1, these police vans are parked in most squares, bus and railway stations complete with camera's.

2,steamed dumplings look like ducks but its difficult to determine the origins of the content.

3,4,5,6, Surveillance everywhere.

 

[Irish Rambler]

Chinese carry out/take away.
The outbreak of Coronovirus is very much in the news at the moment and I mentioned that it came from eating bushmeat, wild animals.
These photo's are a just a sample, pigs ears, noses(snouts), feet and tails are all cooked and sold over the counter as street food.

1,Inderterminate origin kebab style.

2, Corn on the cob is very popular as a 'fill belly' hunger killer.

3, Fresh water squid.

4, Scorpions barbequed.

Believe it or not these are popular street foods and we saw several people buy them to eat as a snack.
Our trip was 'all inclusive' so during our visit we only bought 1 KFC meal out.
KFC quality in UK, Ireland, Europe and the far East has gone badly downhill, they've cut back on the herbs and spices and it's now hard to find chicken 'on the bone', only in America do they seem to stick to Col Sanders recipe. Sorry for the rant but if you work for Pepsi you need to get your act together or go bust.

 

[Irish Rambler]

The 3 things I wanted to see on our visit to China were the ship lift, the great wall and the Terracotta army.
The first examples of the Terracotta army were found in an underground cave and these soldiers still had remnants of silk clothes hanging from their bodies.
The clay soldiers were built as an army to protect the emperor in his next life and are painstaking made in great detail.
In the 1970's two farmer brothers were digging a well and came across the remnants of clay soldier and reported it to the authorities, no one said what happened to the farmers but the following photo's show how their discovery has been painstakingly researched and rebuilt, its very very impressionable.
Now of course its one of China's top tourist destinations, there are 4 halls housing various artefacts and the 5th hall covers the army.
Come with me and lets have a look together. Please bear in mind the subdued lighting/spotlighting and very heavy crowds make taking photo's a challenge (the Chinese don't queue they just push in front).

Photo 1, Intricate jade sculpture near the entrance to one of the halls.

2, Self explanatory (click for larger size).

3,4, War chariot.

5,6 Emperors chariot.

7, Chariot layout.

8, Just look at the intricate work even on the roof tiling.

9, Self explanatory.

10, Newly excavated.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. IR. It seems a lot has changed since we were there in 2011. Nice pictures.