Handy Latin words for travellers

When I was a teenager in school I used to muddle up the words agriculture and horticulture and aquaduct and viaduct. As soon as I learned the Latin roots of the word, I knew immediately what they meant. I could then work out that a marking on a map or a signpost on a route through France and the Alps and Italy was a Roman aquaduct was not likely to be a road.

Roman Numbers



The Roman numbers are the third row down. You can imagine how for years people just wrote a slash down for one, another for three. Then somebody carelessly wrote the two slashes converging like a a V and decided to use that for five. Next was the idea to put one on the left of five for subtracting one for four. Then an x for ten. Then a one on the left to subtract one for nine.

Interestingly, the Chinese numbers one, two and three are like the Roman numerals turned sideways. The Roman ten is an X and the Chinese ten is like a plus sign.

LATIN WORDS - English (derivatives)
ager - field (as in agriculture)
aqua - water -as in aqueduct, aquarium
arbor - tree
argentum - silver (Argentina)
casa - small house, casino
centum - hundred - cent, centenary, centurion (Roman army leader in charge of 100 soldiers)
circus - circle (as in Oxford Circus in London, England)
color- colour (as in Colorado)
equus - horse (name of a play; equestrian statue - statue of man on horseback)
domus - house (domestic, domicile)
fortis - strong (fortification)
France - from the Latin francia
glacies - ice (glacier)
gradus - step (gradient, centigrade meaning a hundred steps)
homo - man (homicide - killing a man,
hortus - garden (as in horticulture)
januar - door (January, janitor)
mare -sea (submarine goes under water)
mater - mother (see signs to the maternity ward in the hospital)
miles - soldier (military or militia)
mille -a thousand (Millennium - a thousand years; millionaire has a thousand pounds, mille feuille flaky pastry with a thousand leaves)
monte - mountain
Montenegro - black mountain
mortuus - dead (immortal, mortuary)
negro - black
pater - father
porta - gate (porthole)
prunus - plum
via - way or street (as in viaduct)
villa - house (as in village)

English words - LATIN
field - ager
garden - hortus
plum - prunus
street - via
water - aqua

Notes On Grammar
us is the singular; i is the plural.
I am an alumnus. We are alumni (graduates or former pupils)

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals
http://www.enhancemyvocabulary.com/word-roots_latin.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_words_with_English_derivatives

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages and home tutor.

Mozart Chocolates, The Most More-ish Chocolates - From Vienna shops, Salzburg, Germany coffee shops and worldwide

Mozart chocolates from Germany. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Translation

German - English

Alpen - Alps, alpine / from the alps mountain range, milk from mountain pastured cows?

chocolade - chocolate

kugeln - roll

milch - milk

zarter - soft or fine

Very more-ish. Marzipan? If so, the almonds are very finely ground and the taste is very subtle. But just right.

We had a box of Mozart chocolates after dinner instead of dessert. Chocolates for dessert with a dessert wine. 

A box of 12 chocolates between four of us. Try one and want another. See somebody else take a second and you think, why not. Don't mind if I do.

Two chocolates for each person, left four. Two is enough for one person, and leaves enough for another day. 

Another hour of conversation. How about another chocolate. Oops, only three chocolates left. Did I eat three? I can't eat another. That's more than my share. Also more than my daily allowance of calories and sugar in my teeth. 

Maybe I could buy some for myself or as a gift. 

German Chocolates

I had dinner with a friend from Germany who speaks fluent English and German. When I tried her Mozart chocolates, they were slightly different from the ones I remembered. I later realised that you can visit a complex of cafes in Germany.

Austrian Chocolates

However, I had first bought Mozart chocolates on a plane home, not from Germany but from Austria. I had travelled to and from Vienna in Austria.  In Vienna the chocolate makers are connected to several Mozart sites and events. So you have two travel opportunities, one in Austria and one in Germany.

You are likely to find these chocolates all over Austria, at museums associated with Mozart, and at supermarkets and airports. You might even be able to buy them on the plane, for that last minute gift.

To visit the German complex of indoor and outdoor coffee shops and their shop:

Café Reber
Ludwigstraße 10-12
83435 Bad Reichenhall
Germany

Telephone:  +49 8651 6003128
Email:    info@reber.com

A route map can be found here.

I then checked again and found the Austrian chocolate maker story, originally from Salzburg, and heavily involved in supporting and sponsoring exhibitions and events. I aw a mention of pistachios, so if you are fussy about your nuts or want to compare different products, check the ingredients.

Chocolates with the word Mozart come in assorted shapes and sizes. The Salzburg Mozart balls (Austria) also come as minis, maybe fewer calories and more to share, and lower price per piece - or higher, depending on which quantity you are buying and seasonal specials - check the latest offers.

If you have a nut allergy and get given a box and want to give them away, you know who would be delighted to receive them.

Useful websites:

GERMANY
https://www.mozartkugel.at/marke/geschichte?sc_lang=en
https://wikitravel.org/en/Bad_Reichenhall
Tourism in Germany - official tourist board:
http://www.germany.travel/en/index.html

AUSTRIA
https://www.mozartkugel.at/online-shop

Official Tourist Board
https://www.austria.info/uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. I have many more posts on Chocolate and Cadbury's visit in the UK, Hershey in the USA. Alprose factory visit in Switzerland, French and Belgian chocolates, the kisses from Perugia in Umbria. If you have any more news on chocolates, and visits to chocolate factories, shops or events, let me know.

Passenger Averts Disaster: What You Should Do In Emergencies

In September 2017 the BBC news reported that a passenger in the Austrian Alps averted imminent danger, a bus headed for a cliff edge when the driver lost consciousness. The quick thinking and quick acting passenger, luckily seated nearby, was able to grab and apply the brake.
What could, or should, you do in an emergency?

I recall reading about a rail crash in America. One of the people who escaped with all their family said he had read the instructions on boarding and knew to locate the emergency escape window.

Welsh train sign I took to read and learn Welsh. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

When getting into any vehicle note where the emergency windows are. Point them out to your family or fellow passengers. You will see multiple language notices in trains. Sometimes the directions are on the other side of the vehicle, too far away to read, and you would not be able to read them if the lights went out. I take a photo of the emergency directions on my phone and note the exits.

I try to sit near an exit. I remind myself how the exit operates so I can react quickly.

If you are able-bodied and a passenger, chat to the driver and find out how to stop the vehicle in an emergency and operate the warning lights and, if necessary, escape from a window.

The canny traveler knows how to avoid dangerous situations as well as how to get out of danger.
With children you could make a spoken or written game of I-spy including, where's the emergency exit?

Here's a checklist for you?
1 Do I know how to contact emergency in this building or vehicle?
2 Do I know the escape route?

3 If it's free seating, am I sitting near the exit?
4 Do I know the best place of shelter from attackers or falling objects?

5 Are my valuables on me so I have a credit card and spectacles and keys in my pocket if I have to run or wake up in an ambulance or hospital?
6 Do I and all my family and colleagues know how to swim?

7 Does everybody where I live or work have first aid training?
8 If not, how do I organise training in first aid.

9 Do I know how to drive or operate the car or vehicle in which I am travelling?
10 Remember the American saying, Hope for the best but plan for the worst.

PS In your pocket carry a prayer of gratitude or the words of your favourite song.
Have something to say in the worst case scenario or a long wait such as:

Help is on its way.
I am glad we are together.
I am looking after you.
I love you and I care about you.

I was looking for emergency exit pictures and came across this in my photo collection.

When I was in Singapore near a swimming pool, with coconuts on the ground, and workmen up a ladder pulling down the coconuts for safety reasons, I chatted to the men, got a free coconut, and learned about coconuts. 

Back in London, far away from coconut trees, this advertisement provides some light hearted relief. to end on a bright note, every day there are dangers, but every day there are thousands of near misses and lucky escapes. Look after yourself!

Author
Angela Lansbury,
Travel writer and photographer.
Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In and 20 other books.

See my other posts on health and safety for travelers, great destinations, and learning languages.

Story on BBC New about the cliff side disaster averted in the Alps.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe- 

Quick quiz on Romania

Problem
You have been to Romania, or not been to Romania. How well do you know it. (If you don't know Romania at all, never mind, the answers to the quiz are at the end. Most of the answers were in my previous posts on Romania.)

Quick Quiz on Romania

1 How do you spell the name of the country, Romania, Rumania, Roumania, all of the above, currently Romania, the country prefers Romania?
2 What is the capital? Bucharest, Brasov or Cluj?
3 How is Bucharest spelled and pronounced in Romania?
4 What is the horse shoe shaped mountain range called? Alps or Carpathians?
5 Who is Romania associated with, Dracula or Frankenstein?
6 Who wrote the story of Dracula? Bram Stoker or Mary Shelley?
7 Name a nobel prize winner from Romania connected with WWII and the Holocaust, whose childhood home is a museum in the north of the country.
8 Name a prize winning gymnast from Romania.
9 Name a musician whose house is a museum in Romania near Brasov.
10 Is the most popular tourist site in Bucharest a palace a Parliament building or both?

Answers
1 ROMANIA. R o u m a n i a or R o u m a n i e if you are looking for the nostalgic and humorous song in Yiddish by American immigrants (and Eartha Kitt) about Roumania they had left and the national dish which was renamed Pastrami. Americans have used the spelling Rumania. Romania post WWII wants everybody to use Romania which reflects the origins of the name, meaning people from Rome.
2 BUCHAREST.
3 It sounds like Book -a -r e s h ti. The S has a comma underneath which tells you to renounce it like SH.
4 Carpathians.
5 Dracula.
6 Bram Stoker. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.
7 Elie Wiesel.
8 Nadia Comaneci.
9 George Eonescu.
10 Both a parliament building, second largest in the world after the Pentagon, and the former dictator's palace.

Your results
10 out of 10. Well done.
1-9 - do the quiz again. You'll eventually get it right.

Flights to Romania and Europe

To fly to these countries check the national and budget airlines:
http://www.aeroflot.com/ru-en (Russian)
www.bulgaria-air.co.uk/
ryanair.com
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-Ukraine

If Cyrillic is too hard, try Romania which used the Latin alphabet.
www.tarom.ro (Budget airline to Romania.)


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts with pictures on Romania, Bucharest and other countries worldwide, and a quiz on the USA, more stories and quizzes to come. If you are linked to a tourist board, please send me information and updates. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Mummy Preserved In Alp Ice Makes Italy's Bolzano A New Tourist Hotspot

The mummy was found more than two decades ago but new scientific discoveries are making it more interesting. The mummy, named Otzi after the Alpine area, the Oztal Alps, where he was found, can tell us:

1 He was killed by an arrow in his shoulder. A bit gruesome, but everybody in history died of something.
2 The pollen in his stomach tells us where he lived
3 His hardened arteries show this health issue was not only one from our modern times
4 Egyptian mummies had blood and stomach and brain removed so a natural mummy can tell us more
5 How do you preserve him now that he has been dug up and moved to a museum? With air con.

I never used to be keen on skulls and skeletons, although more realistic preserved bodies seemed less uncomfortable, without the ghoulish grin of the tooth revealing skull with its missing eyes and nose. However, in addition to the horrified fascination, one has the feeling that the man has achieved immortality.

Plus, above all, the history solving the mystery, and the wonders and scrupulous care of careful science painting a picture of life long ago. Offset against the inevitable revelation of the cause of death, are the revelations of the daily life. His last supper as ibex.

We know as well the comforts or clothes:
Leggings.
Goatskin.
Bear fur hat.

So often you have the joyful discovery of what would have been the wearer's pleasure and pride, their ornaments and possessions. I love the way the copper tools are described, with the axe compared to the iPhone of the day. Other people enjoy the peep into the past, almost like time travel.

Finally, the joy of the local tourist board, in Northern Italy, put on the map by the latest revelations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3795815/25-years-Europe-s-oldest-human-mummy-Alps-scientists-say-amazed-learning-5-300-year-old-corpse.html

Adult fee 9 euros. Various discounts including fee reduced to 7 euros for seniors. Also: family tickets, tickets using local tourist cards.

South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Bolzano / Bozen
Italy

Nearest airports are Verona and Innsbruck. The town is on a train line, then you catch a bus from the station. If you drive, park in the town centre car parks for which there is a fee.
I am surprised they are not more tourist friendly with a shuttle bus, or a car park fee reduction for people visiting the museum or vice versa. But the website helpfully gives you full directions.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.