King, Queen, Country, Commonwealth, UK Carriage and Concert

We could not be in Pall Mall, parked in tents overnight, waiting to see the golden carriage. Nor could we attend the concert in Windsor great park. Wow, it is a great park, as you could see from the stage and crowds.

However, we watched it all on YouTube.

I had seen Kate Perry looking for her seat at the coronation in Westminster Abbey and looked her up. I love the Disney version of her song Roar, which she co-wrote and produced. Clever lady, not just a clear voice and pretty face. A very positive message. American Kate Perry saw her song Roar was the top in several countries, including Israel.

You can watch the BBC showings of the concert in different length extracts. My favourite parts were the illuminations from around the country. Especially the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge, illuminated trees and people riding illuminated bicycles.

I took some pictures to remind which parts to recommend to friends and family who might not want to watch the whole thing. You can spin through, using the slider underneath the video.

Prince William's speech was short and sweet and struck just the right note, praising the King and Queen, also thanking everybody, the performers, and audience worldwide, including the medics and teachers and volunteers who help run the country every day of the year. Choirs included a deaf signing choir. videos on an overhead projection showed people performing in countries around the Commonwealth.

Preventing and Dealing With Crowd Control and Disasters

New Year's Eve in Singapore

I have been at two potential crush events. The year 2000 in Singapore I want to see the Harley Davidson bike parade along Orchard Road. Pedestrians were flowing freely with plenty of space. Then, just before the parade, ribbons barriers were put up to keep pedestrians out of the road. 

I tried to get back to the MRT station to leave, I was swept along, packed in like a sardine. Being small, I was almost crushed. It was claustrophobic and scary. 

New Year's Eve In London

My second experience was in London on New Year's Eve at a bar-restaurant near Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Although we waited until gone midnight, about 12.15 to leave after the crush, we hoped, the nearby station was cordoned off and an airport style queue (Americans say line-up) was being controlled by police. They and signs told us for faster entry, to use different entrances, or different stations. We went back to the bar, ordered more drinks, and tried again at 12.30 and after a wait, were able to get the train and journey home. 

Lessons Learned

What are the lessons learned? On major national holidays you can either have ticketed and seated events, and crowd control with policed barriers in narrow streets and building entrances, one way systems, and entrances and exits of stations. Yes, it costs money, so does calling police in at the last moment and dealing with disasters later.

Korea

Police were deployed for Halloween in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. But they were unable to control the crowd. How can you prevent this? You need a gap along one side for police and emergency access only. You need sign-ups, even for free events.

Do you have any other suggestions? Please tell me and the forums and the authorities.

Xmas and New Year

We have Xmas and New Year ahead. I am now more conscious of crowd control being necessary, booking in advance, planning timing. The safest place is at home watching on TV.

What kinds of control are possible?

1 Number estimates from previous events.

The Koreans had figures from pre-Covid. They underestimated the surge in post-Covid crowds.

2 Ticketed counting and limiting

This is often done at indoor events. Fire regulations and insurance require limits to the numbers of people allowed in. We are familiar with this - in London at art galleries, exhibitions. Banks do it. Singapore does it in government offices. Singapore Airlines does it in their office issuing tickets and dealing with queries. Eventbrite issues tickets for free events. At Toastmasters International club meetings, speech contests, we in the audience are sometimes asked to sign up so that the organizers can manage catering.

Sign-ups and tickets.

3 Zig Zag Barriers

I recall going to Disney in America and seeing the S snaking lines. That was new. Not known in the UK. Now we have these at Heathrow airport at security.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_control#:~:text=Crowd%20control%20is%20a%20public,cause%20many%20hundreds%20of%20fatalities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_stampedes_and_crushes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Halloween_crowd_crush

https://eumeainfo.motorolasolutions.com/safe_stadiums_solution_brief

Please share links to your favourite posts.  

Rumania, Rumania - The classic, lively song in a Disney version, animated with feasts, fun and an irate Queen

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Do you need to explain the moral of a story to a modern audience of several nationalisties?

Whether you are speaking in person or online, you often have people of different ages and nationalities in the audience. I am a member of a Toastmasters clubs in the West and in the East.

I am a member of a club in London, England, called Harrovians. Harrow is an area with a large immigrant population, Europeans and Indians.At my London club, I have also met three Chinese people.



I am also a member of three clubs in Singapore and a Singaporean online club with speakers from the USA, Europe, India and China.

European folk tales are familiar to us in Europe. But not to others. Unless they have seen the Disney version of Cinderella.

The majority of the population in Singapore is ethnic Chinese. I belong to the English language Toastmasters clubs.

1 Cinderella And Glass Slippers
In Singapore at a Braddell Heights Advanced speakers club workshop, I referred to Cinderella, sugesting the audience should take turns telling the story. Which everyone in Europe and the USA would know.

But a Chinese listener said, 'I have never heard of Cinderella.'

The Frenhc version was written by Perrault. Most English people would greet that information with blank looks.
Disney produced a film of Cinderella in 1950. Before most of my audience were born.

I asked, 'Name a story about a girl which Chinese children would know."

Chinese Folk Tales
She said, 'I grew up knowing the story of Mulan.'

The Chinese folk tales are all totally different. A Western audience, especially the older ones, won't know them. Unless they have seen the Disney version of Mulan.

You can amuse a foreign audience with a story which will strike them as totally new. But you have to explain everything.

What is a glass slipper? A glass flip-flop? A Chinese listener is trying to work out whether it is a day shoe or a pair of evening shoes, dance shoes, ballet shoes, and what is the significance of glass?

You need to explain the moral of the story.

Indian Folk Tales
I have listened to several Indian folk tales and completely missed the moral which was obvious to the Indian listeners. Jokes and cultural assumptions can be completely different.

2, Gravestones
I ended a talk with Spike Milligan's joke on his gravestone, "I told you I was ill."

Aftereards I asked for questions. An Indian asked, 'What's a gravestone?'

He didn't understand. I xplained, 'When you bury a dead body, you mark the place with a gravestone.'

He looked puzzled. He said, 'In my part of the world we don't bury people. Mostly we have cremation. Near the Ganges they put bodies in the river."

They don't have gravestones marking non-existent graves.

Indians grown up hearing Indian folk tales.

3.The Brothers Inheriting The Seeds
I heard an Eastern story about two brothers. Both were given a seed by the dying father.

One brother planted the seed given by the father expecting it to grow. The other brother didn't plant, but kept the seed in a box.

Who was the son who cared most for the father? Which son did the father praise?

However, the punchline praise went to the brother who did not plant the seed.

Everyone applauded. Everyone nodded. Everyone agreed it was the best story of the evening. The story teller won the prize ribbon for best speaker.

I was puzzled. I thought, the audience is over-polite. The story teller has mixed up the names of the brothers.

I afterwards asked the storyteller the point of the story. In my mind, the story was similar to the biblical story. I was sure that the moral was either: you should plant seeds, work hard, or, plan for the future.

A suitable story for gardeners, investors, entrepreneurs. For parents with lazy children.

But the storyteller said the moral was: don't be materialistic. The love of the father's gift was more important than its value.

I thought, no wonder they are starving in India. That was not the thought I was supposed to take away. The moral is, try out your speech. Make the message clear at both the start at the end. Check that the foreigners have understood the characters plot, and moral and call to action.

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg

Or quicker to type and easier to remember:  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

translate.google.com

duolingo.com

Plastics? Leave Only Footprints

I  won through the first level of the contest of a speech about the environment. Then the second level.

Later I was called to speak on stage at a training for would be entrepreneurs to demonstrate the ability to speak in public to raise awareness for a cause or charity.

I said:

When I walk around a room like this or the street in a city, I notice all the debris that human beings leave behind, on tables and under chairs and in wastebins. We are like snails which leave behind slime, a trail of evidence of where they have been.

It doesn't have to be like that. You must have seen pictures of the debris left behind after a major event such as a rock concert in a field. Piles of trash left behind. It doesn't have to look like that next day. Every monring you can walk into Disney World and the place is pristine clean, because a group of poeple have cleaned up.

Seeing the place look clean has encouraged everybody to keep it clean. In Canada they found that even two pieces of litter on the ground was enough to make others think everybody was dropping litter and it was OK to do so. So do your bit.

If a million people in a city all drop litter we have a mess, and clutter in the ocean. If a million pople use recycling bins or better still take litter home, which everybody does in Japan, we would have clean cities and clean oceans. You can pick up a piece of litter dropped by somebody else.

When I walk past a shopping mall I see beautiful bags discarded in bins next to the smart shops. Big tote bags with lovely handles. If the bags are pretty and clean I rescue them. They can all be reused.

Most of the things we throw away could be reused. A discarded t-shirt which is old or stained or no longer wanted because it has last year's date could be made into a tee-towel. Clothes which don't fit can be changed. A top which is too tight can be slit up the sides and made into a tabard or tunic.

When I walk around the ground floor of both public housing and provate condos, I see large items of furniture abandoned by the bins. Chairs and tables have a missing leg or are chipped or need repainting.

Singapore flag

A Singapore resident told me that Singaporeans like to throw out the old and buy new. But those items, if taken to Malaysia would be used by poor people or owners of second hand shops. Old TVs and screens would be fixed.

All the small items could be reused in our homes. In the Sixties it was fashionable to conver a glass bottle into a table lamp and you could buy a top to fix to the bottle. A plastic or glass bottle can be cut in half and made into a flower vase or a  pen and pencil holder.

A cardboard cereal box can be cut diagonally and turned into a magazine holder. At Chrsitmas I have seen ceral boxes advertising that the box can be flattned and reused as a board game which is printed on the reverse of the box. I hope that one day we will all be able to reduce the mount of waste from a house or building to only the contents of one small box a year, as has been done by at least one family who experimented to see if it was possible. Yes, it is. That is my vision for my future, and yours and ours.

Author
Angela Lansbury.

New Underwater restaurant in Norway and Underwater Views Everywhere

Under is the name of the new underwater restaurant in NORWAY.  In Norwegian under means under and wonder.  It's Norway so in Europe it is relatively nearby. Depending where you are in Europe.
the largest in the world.

Underwater sightseeing is not new.

VIEWING UNDERWATER
AQUARIUMS


Underwater Aquarium - Australia
I took a bus from Sydney to Manly to enjoy the beach, but round myself by the aquarium. I walked through the underwater tunnel seeing fish and other sea creatures nad wafting plants overhead, beside me and all around in Manly Bay, Sydney, Australia. I was impressed by the size of the great white shark swimming towards me. I just hoped it would not bang on the glass and break it, showing me with water. I have a vivid imagination.



UK
A popular day out from London is to the seaside south at Brighton. The main attraction is the exotic The Royal Pavilion. However, for families the Aquarium is another attraction.
Another underwater tunnel is in the UK in Bristol Aquarium.

BY BOAT
Boats
You can see underwater in glass bottomed boats. In the USA they are in California , Texas and Miami.



Underwater Views - Israel
Go down to a viewing platform underwater in Israel - yes it's real.

EAT AND SLEEP WATCHING FISH OR SWIMMERS
Lunch beside a glass panel - USA
Sit having lunch in an underwater restaurant in Disney, Florida.

Description	English: Inside Ithaa restaurant
Date	1 July 2007 (original upload date)
Source	Taken by Alexey Potov - Noblige
Author	Alexey Potov - Noblige

Underwater Hotel On An Island - the Maldives
Sleep in an underwater restaurant on an island beginning with M, the Maldives. Watch others creatures dive whilst you dive into your food on the Maldives

Underwater Hotel Planned - Dubai
Another, first underwater hotel, Hydropolis, has been planned for Dubai, (See Wikipedia.)

Just in case you get muddled up, as I do, between the Maldives, Mozambique which just (sun 28 April 2019) got in the news because of bad weather, and Madagasgar, here is a quick guide to what is where.
MALDIVES - underwater restaurants
The place with the underwater restaurants is the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, south of India.
MOZAMBIQUE - E Africa
Mozambique, hit by bad weather, is on the East coast of Africa, down south, far south of the Maldives.
MADAGASCAR
A big island of the coast, offshore from Mozambique, again, far south of the Maldives.

The Maldives, food features fish, see Wikivoyage. Great if you like eating fish and coconuts. Yummy. Ideal destination if you are Muslim or against alcohol and eating pork. To be sure of complying with local laws and being up to date on safety, check out the descriptions of what you can and cannot do in Wikitravel and Wikivoyage and your country's foreign office travel advice.

WATCHING HUMANS SWIMMING

JAPAN'S FAKE POOL
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3393808/Don-t-worry-not-drowning-fake-swimming-pool-creates-illusion-visitors-submersed-nine-feet-water.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Pool,_Houston

See also infinity pools.

Useful Websites
NORWAY Under Underwater Restaurant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_(restaurant)
www.under.no
In websites the ending no stands for Norway.
https://www.visitnorway.com/

AUSTRALIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_Sea_Life_Sanctuary
australia.com

UK
https://www.bristolaquarium.co.uk/displays/amazing-underwater-tunnel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Aquaria_in_England
http://www.brightontourist.com/Brighton_Sea_Life.html
visitbritain.com

USA
https://www.aquariumrestaurants.com/aquariumNashville/dining
visittheusea.co.uk

MALDIVES
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Maldives
https://wikitravel.org/en/Maldives

DUBAI
Al Mahera underwater restaurant, Burj Al Arab hotel complex, Dubai, UAE.

Dubai's Projected Hydropolis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropolis

Reviews and Roundups
mentalfloss.com/article92880/9/-amazing-underwater

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer author and speaker. Please save, bookmark, and send links to favourite posts to your favourite friends, family and colleagues.

Berlin's ITB promotes Germany's tourist attractions: learn about Mendelssohn wedding march, Disney's castle, the Pied Piper and more

That's the German flag, horizontal stripes of black, red and yellow. Not to be confused with the Belgian flag which has vertical stripes and the yellow in the middle whilst the German flag has red in the middle.

Belgian flag.

Berlin's ITB
I just received a notice about ITB Berlin, an invitation to go and have a chance to win air tickets to somewhere. This would involve me in spending time and money on getting to Berlin.

ITB is in March. I have never been to Berlin and it is somewhere on my wishlist. If I were both in the travel trade and nearby I would go. If I were not in the travel trade, just a traveller, and nearby, I would be watching the English language and German language press to find out what is new and exciting.

My first query, the first thought in my head was, what does ITB stand for?

Wiki and the website of the organization answer that question.

ITB is German for international tourist borse = with a double dot above the o - sorry but the way to type double dots inside blogger is eluding me. I have not found it - yet. (I just heard a speech about not saying no but saying not 'yet'.) The letters and sounds of b and p are close together and borse and purse are the link. It is a purse or pocket or exchange. So, international tourism exchange, not just an exchange of information, although that comes first, but taking action, trading, booking of hotels and events and setting up holidays and travel and services and events for you and me.

Berlin's Attractions
If  I go to any event or conference I try to arrive a day early to be sure of being on time at the start and like to stay later to visit the city. What if you are reminded about Berlin as a destination, can't get to the event, but wonder about going anyway? You might well start a tour of Germany in the capital, the most populated city in Europe after London, England.

Berlin is familiar as the backdrop to the city of Cabaret, the film starring Liza Minelli. Berlin was a divided city, now reunited. Famous for the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

My checklist of places to visit or re-visit starts with the Berlin Wall:

Berlin wall section.
Photo by VWPolonia75 from Wikivoyage.

1 Berlin Wall Museum
See the colourful murals. Read about those who made it across, those who didn't, sadly 130 casualties, and how the wall came down with great celebration, reuniting the city, West and East.

Allied Museum, Berlin. Section of the Wall displayed.

2 The Jewish Museum
Next on my list is the Jewish Museum, Europe's largest Jewish museum.

Moses  Mendelssohn, portrait, Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany.

In the largest Jewish museum in Europe, the main old museum contains portraits of Einstein and Mendelssohn, and the eyeglasses of Moses Mendelssohn (son of Mendel). He had a hunchback and when told his young lady heard of the hunchback and refused to see him, he asked for just one minute to speak to her and apologize.

He told her, "Marriages are made in heaven and my guardian angel was told my wife-to-be would have a hunchback.
"My guardian angel replied, 'She will be unhappy. Let my young man have the hunchback - and bear all the world's troubles for her.'
"Sorry to have taken up your time. But if you liked what you heard, may I speak to you again one day, for just one minute?"
She saw him again, heard him again, and married him.

He spoke in German, so I reckon my translation into English is as good as others at capturing the essence of what he said so warmly.

Did he use those spectacles to read and teach himself Latin to become one of the leading philosophers of his day, immortalised in a play about himself and his friend Lessing? Or did he lose his sight studying by candle-light? Go to the museum and be inspired to learn more about famous, extraordinary people, and the daily lives of ordinary people, from the past.

His grandson wrote the Mendelssohn wedding march. (The one which sounds like descending a staircase. The rival tune is the one parodied as Here comes the bride.)

Jewish Museum Photo from Libeskind in Wikipedia.

The Jewish museum's modern extension is the famous or notorious, controversial Holocaust memorial, designed by architect Libeskind, all jagged and disorientating. Love it or hate it, a must see.

Garden of Exile, Jewish Museum.

The Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.Photo by Alexander Blum in Wikipedia.

Other cities and attractions include:

2 Bonn - Beethoven Museum - the country is full of museums connected to music

3 Wine regions with wine tasting
German is renowned for white wines. Riesling is the grape which supposedly smells of petrol. (Americans say gasoline.)

4 Romantic Road (castles on rivers and lakes, black and white medieval villages on riversides and hillsides)
Rudesheim and many more - follow the trail

5 Theme parks

6 For romantic adults and young adults the inspiration for Sleepy Beauty Disney castle Neuschwanstein (German for new swan stone) in Bavaria, Germany.
See the three fairytale castles built by the 'Mad King' of Bavaria.

r	Ximonic, Simo Räsänen (post-processing) & Tauno Räsänen (photograph). Wikipedia.

7 WWII and Nazi past -
Nuremberg museum
Durer's house.

Durer's House, Wikipedia.

Belsen
(where Anne Frank and her sister died)

Munich -
 and Dachau where a map of the railway lines shows how trains took people from every major Nazi-controlled city in Europe via Germany to be exterminated across the border at Auschwitz-Birkeau in Poland.

8 Munich and the Oktoberfest
For beer, wine, food and fun.

9 The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Pied Piper's House, Hamelin. Photo by Bush6984 from the Wikipedia article on the Pied Piper.
The story supposedly records an event in the 13th century, when a rat-catcher in pied (multi-coloured) clothing, offered to lure away the rats (which may have spread plague) but was not paid more than half the promised sum, or not paid at all. In revenge lured away all the children (except three who were lame, deaf and blind). They were never seen again.

Possible explanations are that it is a legend with the pied piper symbolizing death from the plague era. If it was a real event, maybe children went dancing with a piper and disappeared into a sinkhole or the sounds and rhythm of the dancing sparked an avalanche.

Records suggest that orphans and unemployed youngsters emigrated, following brightly dressed recruiters. This resulted in the surnames from Hamelin appearing in other cities to this day.

The story was immortalised in German by Goethe, and the brothers Grimm, translated into English. The popular poem in English by Robert Browning is wonderfully rhythmic.

When I visited Hamelin I looked for a hotel where tourists could stay. When a hotel owner showed me his bedrooms and I tried to take a photo, he angrily told me to leave! I was surprised. Any English or American hotel owner would have been delighted, moved lights, asked me to write them up on Tripadvisor. I thought my PR might have been lacking.

Then I picked up a news sheet on the bus which gave an accusing account of a dispute about the funding of a re-enactment of the Pied Piper story.  I thought, so, centuries on, nothing has changed. Chilling.

However, that was a long time ago. Besides, every hotel and hotel owner is different.

The Romantic Road

Photo by Pedelecs.
Dinkelsbuhl. Romantic Road. Germany.

 Follow the trail maps and the signposts along the romantic road through riverside and hillside villages with steep gables.

Places to find local food: Rathaus Ratskeller
Berlin has a red Rathaus.

Berlin. Red Rathaus. Picture from Wikipedia.

On the main square of most cities is a converted medieval Rathaus, not a rat house (for that tale go to Hamelin) but the town hall.  The cellar or Ratskeller with big pillars is usually made into a vast cafeteria serving set meals. A bit like the British medieval banquets at stately homes. Girls and ladies and lads and men in olde worlde costume serve flagons of beer and local food at assorted prices. Busy at lunchtimes.

One notable Ratskeller I visited was in Bremen near the statue of the three animals which are a city folk legend and symbol.
Old picture of Bremen Ratskeller from Wikipedia.

Expect music, historical pictures and framed documents and local history and information on local sites and guided tours. Austrian cities have the same system of the Rathaus and Ratskeller restaurant.

German White Wine
I sampled many wines and stood on the Heidelburg Tun, a giant barrel in Heidelberg castle.
German wines include:
Auslese (late picked and sweeter as it has longer to ripen)
Black Tower (brand of white wine in black bottle)
Liebfraumilch (Our dear lady's milk, referring to the Madonna)
For something sweet, Boppard ice wine tasting in a shop on the main square of Boppard. Must book.

Useful Websites
To learn or brush up your German for free on the internet
duolingo.com

Overview of Travel
GERMANY AND BERLIN
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Germany
https://www.visitberlin.de/en
See Germany and Berlin in wikipedia, wikivoyage, wikitravel, tripadvisor.
https://www.itb-berlin.com/

BERLIN WALL
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berlin_Wall_segments

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187323-d196239-r542038704-Memorial_of_the_Berlin_Wall-Berlin.html
https://freetoursbyfoot.com/checkpoint-charlie/

JEWISH MUSEUM
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Jewish_Museum%2C_Berlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Mendelssohn

PIED PIPER
Pied Piper House Restaurant, Hamelin, Germany.
https://www.tripadvisor.de/Restaurant_Review-g198595-d1356484-Reviews-Rattenfaengerhaus-Hameln_Lower_Saxony.html

ROMANTIC ROad
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com/

WINE TOURS
https://www.worldwidewinetours.com/germany/german-wine-tours/
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187345-d6698203-r391171629-Vinothek_Georg_Breuer-Ruedesheim_am_Rhein_Hesse.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on cities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia and worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Airport Terminal Number disasters

Note departure terminal and arrival terminal.

Disaster Story Of Two Terminals
Members of our family recently left an airport from terminal 3 (Singapore).


Several hours later, somebody - I won't say who, told the car meeting us at the other end (Heathrow): "We are at Terminal 3."


On arrival, the terminal's number is on very small sign which we walked past without noticing.

Our arrival terminal was terminal 2. We were left in the cold waiting.

After a long conversation, 'you are at level so and so?'
"Yes, so am I - but I can't see you,"
"Your car number?"
"Number of passengers and bags?"
"Let's go through it again, such and such an airport, yes, level so and so, yes, terminal so and so ...?"
 At 'terminal so and so', we realised what was wrong.

The taxi wanted extra money for the extra time - and paying two lots of entrance to two car parks.

Moral for travellers: Rememberthe different terminal numbers at both ends.
Moral for taxi drivers: Check not just level but terminal, and tally it with the airline's flight arrivals. If a particular airline does not arrive at terminal 2 or 3, no wonder they are not there.

Moral for airport designers:
Name the Terminals and levels in large letters - and give pick up points numbers. Terminal 2 with two cups of tea.  If I am waiting at G for ground - picture of Giraffe, level one one Giraffe, level two two Giraffes,  but my taxi has three teas, maybe red-brown for basement, green for ground, sky blue for level three.

Colour Coding Car Parks
Disney - in Florida I think,  uses animals for car parks. You need the colours as well as animals. If you remember on day one it was crocodile, a reptile, and on day two it was a large four-legged animal - then you come back and don't remember whether it was a black silhouette of an elephant or camel or zebra or horse.

Colours in Paris
A car park in Paris used colours for different levels. I remember we looked at the blue sky with white clouds and thought, this is not where we parked our car.)

Feedback For Planning and Upgrading
Singapore asks the public for suggestions.
Heathrow terminals have feedback forms. Please add your thoughts to their forms.

If you do so, thank you for your help making life easier for all of us travellers.

Handy Websites
https://www.heathrow.com/arrivals

https://www.visitsingapore.com/travel-guide-tips/travelling-to-singapore/changi-airport-singapore

Author Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer. Author and Speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Solutions to several plane problems - including fast toilet queue

The complaints on planes follow the same themes:
You simply arrange everything in order, age order, time of wait order.
1 BABIES
PROBLEM
Crying babies disturb passengers.
ANSWER
This could be solved by having a child cabin and a childfree cabin.
 No? Then even a child side and a child-free side.

2 STORAGE
PROBLEM
Not enough room in lockers near your seat. Then you get chaos because on leaving the plane some people have to go backwards to retrieve their luggage.
ANSWER
On check in your are assigned a locker of a certain size limit and number to match your seat. 
3 BOARDING CHAOS
Board everybody by rows. This is often done.

3 LEG ROOM
When meals are served announce that seats should be upright so the person behind you can sit upright to eat.
At the end of mealtime announce that you may now recline seats to sleep.

Seats have too little leg room, so that when somebody reclines their seat,  the person behind might object. You already have some airlines asking for payment for longer leg room. The same could apply for a wider seat.
If seats had an optional, movable up and down vertical partition, you could prevent the person beside you spilling over.

4 TIME LIMIT TOILETS
Problem - Long waits for a toilet.

When you stand up,you can see the man woman signs for the toilet. But the ones at the front might be curtained off for business class. So you go to the back.

Answer Funnel Q or Short Q
I was told that Disney introduced the system of putting all the waiting people in one queue. (The British word is Q. Americans say line or line up. The person at the head of the queue is called forward to one of two or more doors or desks, whichever is free first.

This stops people getting peeved when their queue is slow, then swapping queues.The queue moves faster than having four or more different queues.
How to get somebody out? Either have a recording when the door is locked for two long. Or permit people outside to knock. Or communicate. Hello, are you OK? Or put a humorous sign saying doors will open automatically after five minutes! At that point a well-being check will be made. Those who want to apply make-up can use mirrors in waiting area. A small area can be used for changing clothes, with a wet-wipe disposal bucket.

I have seen the funnel queue used successfully at Primark and Marks & Spencer.

At supermarkets they discovered that people in a hurry with only two to ten items do not want to wait fifteen minutes behind three people who have a huge number of items. So they introduced a short quick queue for people who could be quick with only less than ten items.

The same could be done on planes.

Author
Angela Lansbury

Christmas Lights You Must See On Orchard Road In Singapore

Pink princess lights. Disney, the car driver tells me. I am afraid the jolting of the car will mean out of focus photos. However, I keep snapping anyway. The photos will remind me to ask a motorcycling relative to divert that way on his next Singapore trip.

The lights turn from pink to blue at the corner of Orchard Road, the main, the major shopping street.

Christmas Lights On Orchard Road, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites

singaporeair.com

Safety Warning On California Road

Problem
California's coastal route is spectacular but also dangerous. March 28 2018 newspapers online report
five deaths in a car which plunged over a cliff. What can you do to reduce risks?

Answers
DIRECTION
If you are booking a holiday to California, planning to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, or the reverse, consider which direction is safer.

DAYTIME
You might choose to avoid driving at night.
Check distances, speeds, allow for meal stops, breaks, photo stops, and book overnight hotels.

FOG
Check for fog warnings.

SEATBELTS & SEPARATION
Keep seatbelts on. It might not save you if you plunger over a cliff, but it could stop children jumping around and distracting you.
One parent stopped his children fighting in the back by putting barriers between them, all the way up from the seat, past their arms, maybe up to their faces.

CAMPAIGN FOR BARRIERS
If you live in the area, you might consider starting a campaign for barriers.  If the state has an insufficient budget, consider crowdfunding and permission to fund and erect barriers sponsored by the public or big business.

Plan Your Trip
For me the highlights of California were and are:
Wine country visits to wineries driving north of San Francisco.
San Francisco
Ripley's Believe It Or Not (also London, England, and all over the world)
Hearst Castle
Winchester Mystery House
Los Angeles - 1 Disneyland - 2 Queen Mary Ship tour

Useful Websites
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5551367/5-killed-car-plunges-Californias-coastal-highway.html

https://www.visitusa.org.uk

http://www.visitcalifornia.com/uk

http://www.visitcalifornia.com/region/discover-san-francisco-bay-area

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g240329-i513-k8808848-Dangerous_road_Highway_1-Big_Sur_California.html

https://www.discoverlosangeles.com

http://hearstcastle.org/plan-your-trip/

https://disneyland.disney.go.com

http://www.queenmary.com

http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com

safety braking on the highway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_n-HIBnfts Demo in New Zealand of various speeds with cutouts of adults and children. What surprised me is that they show the difference is between 50 and 60, - is that Km? In the UK we are told that at 30 mph if you hit somebody they can survive. At 40 mph it is touch and go (I know - I was a pedestrian hit, with multiple injuries). At 50 mph no chance. That's the reason for the 30 mph speed limit in UK built up areas, when you see houses or buildings and local lamp posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGkKDaYd3Mo 
Jeremy Clarkson on speed and braking and the highway code and old and new cars.

Music To Play In The Car
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/12-songs-you-need-to-listen-to-when-in-san-francisco/
If you're going to San Francisco be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
San Jose

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

Workshop on Icebreaker Speeches and Cultural references: A girl from China and Cinderella

Problem
I gave a workshop to a Toastmasters Club in Singapore about how to give an Icebreaker Speech. The first task I set them was to turn the Cinderella story into a rags to riches tale following the pathways play for a speech.

When I formed a pair with a girl from China, I discovered that she was not familiar with the Cinderella story. Cinderella is known in France from the Perrault version, in German from the brothers Grimm version, in the UK from the pantomime, in the USA from Disney, and in Singapore from the polyglots who have either been to England or read about English literature and films.

But apparently the story is not necessarily known in China, where many families' parents and grandparents are illiterate in Chinese (which is very complicated with many signs and symbols), never mind English and fairytales from England.

What is the moral?

1 You cannot assume every member of the audience knows the story.

2 You cannot assume that every member of your audience can recall the details of the story.

3 You cannot assume that speakers of foreign languages can remember the names of authors, the story title or the characters sufficiently well to say them.

4 Your audience might know the story but muddle up two stories.

Don't assume anything. Any name, whether of a book, author, film, or fairy story, needs to have the spelling on a board so people can surreptitiously check it out on their handphones online. If the venue has no connection, it's good to have a handout on any book or story you mention.

We had one table topics session in London where we were asked to tell fairy stories in two minutes. One person was asked to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty but instead told the story of Snow White.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Member of:
Harrovians Speakers' Club, London, England.
HOD Speakers' Club, London, England.
Braddell Heights Advanced Speakers' Club, Singapore.

To watch the video of my opening session of a workshop on Icebreaker Speeches, go to YouTube and in the search box type in the link.
Video of Angela on YouTube. Type 
qwY7mKKc1hU into the search box

Visit Castles Worldwide: Wales, Italy, Portugal and Spain: Hotels Restored Welsh Castle: Gwych Castles, Kindertransport, and Spanish Paradors

A night with shining armour. (Pun intended.) Castello di Monterone Hotel in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
How do you restore a ruined castle? When you see a well-run hotel, with state of the art bathrooms, like Castello di Monetrone Hotel in Italy, it looks easy. But what do you do with a place which looks like you need a few million pounds to restore it (when you can't get even a plumber to fix your own leaking tap for a week or more).

Imagine a ruined castle in Wales. The sort which is overgrown with waist high brambles, overcome by ivy, with a fallen in roof, too dangerous to enter legally, full of hazards to trip the elderly, and nowhere to wash your hands? On top of that, costs millions to repair and insure. You need to find the owner, persuade them to sell or repair, present them with a plan which will bring them an income, and status, or pride or pleasure.

Answer
The answer comes from a recently restored castle in Wales: Inform the local newspaper. Gather volunteers. Set up a trust. Get a grant. Research how governments and individuals have done it. If you want to visit the latest restored castle, the one in Wales is Gwych Castle, in North Wales. The BBC featured an article on this, Aug 6 2017. I have stayed in castle hotels in Wales, England, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, plus grand chateau hotels in Canada. But by the time a castle opens its doors to paying guests, months or years of restoration work have been completed.

How about forgetting the dream of restoring a castle. Just stay in one which is already in full working order as a tourist attraction or hotel? You can not just visit castles in Wales but stay overnight in castle hotels, and enjoy more castle hotel restaurant meals, or overnight stays in England, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal.

Wedding Venues
Castle hotels are most likely to fill every bedroom, an entire restaurant, get advanced booking, by arranging weddings. But to open a castle as a restaurant, hotel, and wedding venue, you have to start adapting it to meet fire regulations, making fireproof doors, exit doors to the outside and fireproof staircases, whilst still not altering the fabric or appearance of a listed building.

That, explained the owner of an Italian castle hotel, is why it takes so long to prepare. You need get permission from local government. You spend time hunting for years for antiques from the same period or place. Imagine the time it takes to find builders who can comply with regulations but make the place old, yet soundproof and fireproof and draught proof. You can't nip down to Woolworths and IKEA to buy genuine antiques such as a suit of armour, a working grandfather clock or a piano which actually plays. You need to renovate the paintwork. Get fabrics and wallpaper copied from a photo or a scrap found behind plaster.

Castles To Visit Worldwide
You can find a recently restored castle in Wales run by a Trust, and government-run Spanish Paradors, similar Portuguese pousadas, and French chateaux buildings restored as family projects as hoped for hotels or family homes. I stayed in a chateaux hotel owned by a descendant of a Prince, in the Loire valley.

Stories (Alphabetically by country)
ITALY

Castello di Monterone hotel near Perugia in Umbria, Italy. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Castello di Monterone is a brilliant castle hotel on one of several hilltops surrounding Perugia - one of those 'seven' hills cities. See my earlier posts on Perugia and the castle hotel in Umbria (which is next to Tuscany in Italy). See website below and my previous posts on Umbria.

PORTUGAL
Same concept as the Spanish paradors. Not only in Portugal. Portuguese islands around the world.

ROMANIA

Visit Bran Castle, occupied in the past by Romanian royalty and associated with Vlad the impaler who inspired the story of Dracula (near Brasov city). Drive there from Romania's capital, Bucharest. Stay in a hotel in Bucharest full of antiques and atmosphere. (See my earlier post.)

SPAIN
In Spain you can visit the paradors, hotels and restaurants from ruined or converted castles. The government has made these into tourist stopovers, designed to make you travel around the regions. The restaurants feature local dishes. You'll find paradors in major cities such as Seville, as well as secluded places. Not only in Spain, also Spanish islands around the world.

WALES
A little boy passed a ruined castle on his way to and from school every day. He wanted to restore a ruined castle so that he and everybody could enjoy it. Now he is an adult and Gwrych castle has been opened to the public. The castle is in North Wales. The castle was used as a haven for Kindertransport children, as is mentioned briefly in an article on the Kindertransport in Wikipedia, which gives references to other sources for facts about the Kindertransport.

I tried to check into a Castle Hotel, but found I had accidentally booked the cheaper similarly named Castle View Hotel down the road. That's why the 'Castle' hotel had been such a bargain. It wasn't an historic castle hotel with a grand view, as I had imagined, but a smaller hotel with a view of the castle.

ENGLAND
I like genuine castle hotels. If your family are too young to be trusted not to break priceless antique vases, go for a fake castle hotel such as the castle theme hotel in Legoland.
Nearby is the genuine royal castle at Windsor. You might see a flag indicating that the royal family are in residence. Once you have seen it you will recognize it later, even from a distance. You can catch a glimpse of the castle from a nearby road or train.

Windsor Castle. photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Tips
Canada
I recommend the chateau hotels in major Canadian cities, cliff tops and spectacular lakes. We got some last minute bargains, turning up late in the evening and asking for their cheapest room or best bed and breakfast deal, or reductions for two or three night stays. Failing all else, stay elsewhere and visit the chateau hotels for a meal or a drink.
http://www.travelblissnow.com/fairy-tale-castles-canada/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%27s_grand_railway_hotels
http://www.fairmont.com/lake-louise/ Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g155033-d155587-Reviews-Fairmont_Le_Chateau_Frontenac-Quebec_City_Quebec
http://www.fairmont.com/laurier-ottawa/

France
Loire valley chateau hotel, prices in Euros, breakfast extra.
https://www.labourdaisiere.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Brochure-hotel.pdf

Hong Kong
A Sleeping Beauty Castle is in Hong Kong. (See USA below for link.)

Italy
See the castle hotel website:
www.castellomonterone.com
https://www.umbriatourism.it/en/web/umbria/discovering-the-villages-of-umbria

Portugal
Pousadas (hotels). Monuments and historic hotels. Tel:
https://www.pousadas.pt/en (Pt stands for Portugal.)
Lisbon castle.

Scotland
View:
Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh.

Spain
http://www.parador.es/en (Es stands for Espana.)
The parador at Granada cost a whopping £275 on Aug 6 2017 on Tripadvisor's website. But shop around and remember that off season in regional cities you will get better bargains.

Wales
Gwrych Castle, Llanddulas Road, Abergele, Conwy, North Wales, LL22 8ET.
About £5 for a tour.
More information on the restored Welsh castle, Gwrych Castle, North Wales:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-40831258#_=_
Great pictures on this website:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/gwrych-castle-opening-doors-reveal-11283167
The castle's home website:
http://gwrychtrust.co.uk
Welsh castle hotels:
http://www.ruthincastle.co.uk
www.visitwales.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Wales
Major Castles:
Castle Coch, Cardiff, Wales. Caerphilly Castle. Harlech Castle.
I stayed at Llantony Priory Hotel when I was just married, in a room at the top of a stone spiral staircase; no wardrobe. Not for the claustrophobic. One night was enough. Memorable.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-s1-g552035-d590002-Reviews-Ruthin_Castle_Hotel-Ruthin_Denbighshire_North_Wales_Wales.html
You can also see a listing for The Castle Hotel.

Llantony Priory Hotel, Llanthony, Brecon Beacons National Park NP7 7NN, Wales.

UK
Castle hotels
https://www.secretescapes.com/
General travel:
https://www.visitbritain.org
Major castles to view: Windsor Castle. Bodiam castle. Dover Castle (not the biggest and best but conveniently near a busy port).

USA
Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, California, was based on Neuschwanstein in Germany. Another Disney castle is in Hong Kong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_Castle

HONG KONG
A Sleeping Beauty Castle is in Hong Kong.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts and share links to your favourites.