Practising Polish Pronunciation - on holiday or here at home

 

Poland has a lot to offer those on business and holiday. I have already seen Chopin's monument in Warsaw. The grave of the inventor of Esperanto language in Warsaw - on my wishlist is his museum in another city. The pretty southern former capital and trips to salt mines - and Auschwitz. The amusing ankle height dwarfs in Wroclaw are on my wishlist. Amber and Polish milk caramel sweets, I loved. I have written about these in my other posts. 

Over here in London we have Polish supermarkets catering to a lot of Polish people.

We have a Polish plumber. We have trouble saying his surname. 

I looked at the written explanations of the Polish language. It seemed that the z sound is like an h so that sz is sh and cz is ch. Easy-peasy.

So, a name ending czyk is more or less chick.

Then I looked at some videos. Type in speak or pronounce Polish and Youtube will show you a choice of half a dozen.

You have to add two more sounds which are not like English. The w is pronounced v like in German. 

The j is pronounced y like in many other languages. 

And three letters?There are a few more. Add a diacritic or a little tail and you change a c to a ch. Or is there a ts? And - Enough for one day. I shall come back to this tomorrow. At least I get a rough idea. 

Try it yourself.

Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland - why you should visit, or at least investigate, and what to see

What do we all know and like about Poland, and Polish Jews? Poland is the land of the bagel! Brought to London and New York and eventually worldwide, originally by Polish Jews. The Russians expelled the Jews who moved west to Poland; and those Jewish travellers who could afford it travelled on, some via the UK, to the USA.

And warm filling red beetrot soup, called Borsht.


From Ukraine, Russia, Poland, restaurants in London, England, jars in the supermarket. And on menus in the restaurants in Krakow.

Bagels and borcht. Filling food to console you, after the horrors of Auschwitz. For years I did not visit Poland, for fear of the compulsion to visit Auschwitz. It was everything I feared. Unforgettable. Is there any light relief?

Yes. We have mostly heard of the music of Chopin, and films such Polanski's The Pianist, and Schindler's List, based in Krakow (pronounced Krakov).

 Let's start with the flag of Poland which you might see on brochures and websites and planes even before you reach the country. It has a plain white band above red. The white of the flag is hard to see on a white background, so I have shown you a picture of the flag flying against a blue sky.

The Polish flag is similar to several others. (More for you on flags in next post.)

Now, where is Poland?


Map of Europe showing Poland, from article on Poland in Wikipedia.
In more detail from the Poland Portal in Wikipedia.


Auschwitz is in south Poland, just across the border, outside the pretty, historic small, ancient capital of Krakow.



Krakow was near the border and small, so the Germans were able to quickly surprise, invade and capture it, thus saving the beautiful buildings from destruction. (Unlike larger and more central Warsaw, which resisted invasion and was destroyed by the invaders.)

Krakow
So the quaint, pretty capital of Krakow (pronounced Krakov), perfectly preserved with its cathedral square, and wrought iron signs, is your happy home base, before visiting the horrors of Auschwitz.

Hotel Base
On a side trip from the captal, Warsaw, we visit the former capital, Krakow. We stayed in a small boutique hotel overlooking the main square of Krakow. Larger modern hotels with more amenities are around the outskirts, but it is easy to walk around the whole area including the former Jewish quarter and Jewish museum.


Auschwitz
Huge with masses of coaches including Polish schoolchildren for whom it is a required visit where they learn what was done on their territory, not by Poles but by Nazi Germans to Poles and a greater numbers of Jews, Romanies, homosexuals, political prisoners and others.



Double area. The barracks where people were confined, photographed on arrival and numbered on their arms on arrival because three months later they were so thin and haggard they were no recognizable from the first photos. Stacks of suitcases with names on the sides, children's shoes.

Stories of personal horror. Underground prison cells where a priest offered to replace another prisoner. Quad where roll call was taken to witness hangings.

Birkenau
Must see the second area, Birkenau, half a mile down the road. The killing area where areas the size of football fields, with electrified tennis netting and guard towers. Yes, miles of fields, each area the size of a football field for a different nationality and language group, going on for as far as the eye can see, so you realise the sheer scale of the deaths, and the significance of those railway from all the countries of Europe, crossing Europe, all leading here. America has Jews in every city. But Europe? hardly any. Now you know why so many European cities have a Jewish Synagogue with a list of names, a tiny congregation. Nothing left. Where did the people go? Here.

I had been to Dachau, outside Europe, and seen the map of the railway lines, and shrugged. A map of railway lines. So what, I had thought.

To visit Auschwitz and realise that trains from all over Europe end here, puts the sheer scale of the holocaust in perspective.



Who survived? A person who survived was a translator. Because even with a machine gun, its useless to shout to people to stand, or march out, or lie down, or take your clothes off, if they don't know what you are shouting.

Anne Frank, hidden for most of WW2, was one of the last to arrive at Auschwitz. She survived, put to work, surviving on the rations of food donated by her mother, who died. As the Russians arrived to liverate Auschwitch, and the Americans and Allies were on the brink of invading Poland, the Germans retreated, taking Anne Frank to Bergen-Belsen in Germany where she died.

Schindler's List
Returning to Krakow, on a brighter note, you can visit the museum on the site of the factory featured in the film Schindler's List. Schindler kept them all alive, just a short drive away from Auschwitz. As you may recall from the film, he entertained the German Nazi officials, and saved so many. I spent ages watching the videos, every testimony and praise and thanks to him and stories of incidents involving his kindness and ingenuity you can see on video film.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Search?q=auschwitz
.uk/Attraction_Review-g946539-d284154-Reviews-Treblinka_Memorial-Treblinka_Mazovia_Province_Central_Poland.html#REVIEWS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagel
https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/main-characters/edith-frank/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I have many more posts, on Treblinka, the film Song of Names, German Language, and destinations around the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.

What I learned from visiting Auschwitz in Poland, And About Anne Frank

Flag of Poland. White above red.

Not to be confused with  the flags of Singapore and Indonesia.

Flag of Singapore. Red above white. Has the crescent, a reminder that Singapore was once part of Malaysia.

Plain red above white.
Flag of Indonesia.

The first thing a Polish guide will want to tell you is that Auschwitz may be on Polish soil but it was not run by the Poles.


It was run by the NAZI party of German when Poland was occupied by Germany in WWII.



Auschwitz is the German name for the small Polish village on the outskirts of Krakow. Quaint, historic Krakow, the former Krakow, is a pretty little town, the former capital in the south of Poland. The Germans invaded and could easily capture the small city near their border, quicker and easier than capturing the larger city of Warsaw further away. That's the reason why over-run Krakow was preserved by the Nazis, whilst Warsaw was destroyed in the war.

Auschwitz, the camp, was outside the new German HQ in Poland, and less time and effort to transport the prisoners there.

I put off visiting Poland and Auschwitz for years because I thought it would be too upsetting. I was right.

One of the things I learned, was they showed a couple of photos of people taken on the day they arrived and three months later. The reason for the numbers tattooed onto inmate's arms was that people's faces were so thin, and lined and haggard, so different, that after 3 months you could no longer recognize them from their original identity photo.


Anne Frank

Anne Frank, her sister, Margot and mother and father were in Auschwitz.

Children under the age of 15 were killed on arrival. Anne was 15 so she survived the first selection, and was set to work, like the rest of the family. The mother died there, giving her meagre rations to her two daughters.

Anne and her sister survived Auschwitz and were sent to Bergen Belsen in German when the Germans retreated. Anne and Margot died in Bergen Belsen.

Their father survived. He later married a woman who had lost her spouse and offspring in the war. They had met regularly in the weeks after the end of WWII searching, for news of their families at the centre giving news of people found dead and alive.

Anne Frank's father moved from The Netherlands to Switzerland and his stepdaughter to London, England. She and her husband lived in Edgware where I grew up. I did not know that until after he died. The family kept a low profile.

Why no mention of Anne Frank in Auschwitz? Because the authorities do not want to single out one person but tell the stories of all. Because Anne Frank's possessions are elsewhere, in the Netherlands. She is already well documented in her WWII hiding place, now a museum in Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands; in Frankfurt, Germany, in the Jewish museum; and in the USA Anne Frank Centre.

Birkenau Birkenau I was advised that to understand what happened at Auschwitz you must visit Birkenau, just down the road. Yes, you must. In the first museum its is like a house of horrors boarding school.

Birkenau is totally different. fields. Huge hangars. Going on for miles.

This huge hangar in a field surrounded by barbed wire was for the French. The next huge hangar in the next field was for the Dutch. The next huge hangar for the italians. Stretching as far as you can see. All destined for death.

Stretching as far as you can see for all the nationalities and languages. Into the distance. Suddenly you understand this was not just cruelty to this person and that, but to hundreds, thousands. The trains brought them from all over Europe. Suddenly the map of the railway routes, which I had seen on the outskirts of Munich, at Dachau, were not just a plan of railway lines, but a horror of wiping out people in every country of Europe, an entire continent.

Belsen Anne's family had left Germany to live in Holland. Finally, those who survived Auschwitz, returned to Germany, to die in Belsen.

Saviour Schindler Let's end on a lighter note. The museum in Krakow in the factory connected with Schindler tells about those he saved. Every story is of gratitude, to the saviour, Schindler. A person who survived. In a sea or sorrow, one beacon of light, a lifeboat.

Poland's Trails Also in Poland, see the Jewish museum in Warsaw and do a Jewish tour. Visit Bialystock and learn about Zamenhof and his new language of Esperanto.

More trails tell you about Chopin and Copernicus.

Places to visit
Anne Frank house, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Auschwitz, Poland
Bergen Belsen, Germany
Anne Frank Foundation, USA


Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands



Statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam, The Netherlands



Anne Frank Center USA

Useful Websites

Poland
https://www.pot.gov.pl/en/information-about-the-polish-tourism-organisation/polish-tourism-organisation-international-offices
https://poland.pl/tourism/
Krakow
https://www.visitacity.com/en/krakow
https://www.muzeumkrakowa.pl/branches/oskar-schindlers-factory
Auschwitz
https://www.viator.com/Krakow-tourism/d Anne Frank
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/CAICnOLtC0lDLg?

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See later post about Auschwitz
Please share this link and links to your favourite posts.

Raffles Hotels Worldwide And Where To See Raffles' Statues In Singapore and London

You might come across Raffles hotels around the world, thirteen of them (in 2019) at destinations such as: Dubai; Istanbul, turkey; Jakarta, Indonesia; Mecca, Saudi Arabia; Paris, France; Warsaw, Poland; the Seychelles and Singapore. Raffles started in Singapore.

Raffles Hotel, Singapore. Photo by Elisa.rolle from Wikipedia.

Raffles Hotel, Singapore
Raffles Hotel is still a landmark in Singapore, on Beach Road, which was originally a beachfront Road, before Singapore started expanding.

Raffles Hotel is still a favourite destination for those wanting to try Singapore Sling where it was invented, in Raffles Bar. (You can also try Singapore Sling on Singapore Airlines.)

Singapore Sling.

Raffles. White Statue. Singapore. Photo from Wikipedia.

Sir Stamford Raffles
Raffles, the man, is a story of a rollercoaster life. He did a great deal to put Singapore on the map. The outlines of the port were established, and the segregated quarters you can still see today, Chinatown and Little India.

Covered Ways
Under Raffles' direction came the covered famous five foot way, sheltering pedestrians walking in both directions to pass each other, protected from the sun and rain, with room to pass a trolley carrying goods in both directions.

Covered ways have recently been extended to cover public walkways in Singapore, starting with high traffic areas, between the MRT stations and public housing blocks (HDBs) and schools.

Raffles Hotel
The old Raffles hotel has been refurbished and extended so it now contains numerous shops and eating areas where you can eat at various speeds and prices. The bedroom blocks have been separated. Such is the popularity of the hotel, that you have to book a guided tour.

Raffles Statues
Statues of Raffles can be seen in the hotel and other points of the city. Near Raffles Hotel in Singapore is the Raffles Place MRT (underground railway - in the suburbs becoming overground).

1 Bronze statue in front of Victoria Theatre by the Padang (green).
2 White marble statue on the waterfront.

Sir Stamford Raffles' Life
Raffles led and up and down life. After moderate success he reached what many would consider his high point, establishing and governing the new port.
His first wife died. You can see her grave in the Botanical gardens he founded.

He remarried. However, for him things did not end well. His children, three of them, died in the East.

On the way back to England, he lost his goods in a fire on board ship. The ship was in dock, so the people survived, but the precious document were destroyed.

His only daughter died on the eve of her wedding.

 He was involved in a court case about loss of money and had to pay a huge sum, and his reputation was damaged.

It looked like he had lost everything, his treasured worldly possessions, his money, his daughter, descendants, reputation.

However, after he died, his widow (the second wife) fought tirelessly to have his reputation re-established. He was cleared of wrongdoing.

Posthumous Success
What did he leave behind?

1 The foundation of Singapore.
2 London zoo.
3 The Botanical Gardens in Asia.

Now the hotel named after him is world famous.  His name is the epitome of luxury and success and history. His statues are in Singapore and his name is known worldwide.

I have visited the hotel in Singapore many times, before and after the latest refurbishment. I visited the hotel's museum and saw the stage play performed in the hotel.

More recently, I have taken photos of his statues in Singapore, in the hotel and outside Victoria theatre and on the waterfront.

Raffles in London, England
I also made a pilgrimage to his forgotten and unassuming burial place in a church in Hendon. The church vicar would not allow the body to be buried in the church, because Sir Stamford Raffles had been anti slavery and the vicar's family made their money in slavery. Years later, the church was extended, the body was found and identified as being that of Raffles, and a plaque was inserted in the floor of the church.

I had been hoping for something more. But at least I had found it.

Books and Background Research
I first read the book about him when I was a member of the Friends of The Museum in Singapore which had study groups about the history of Asia.

What an extraordinary life he led! What a horrific yet inspiring story of ups and downs. If you want to know more, visit Raffles Hotel in Singapore, check out the other Raffles hotels. Look in Wikipedia for a quick summary and when you have time read the paperback books about his life.

He died in 1826 aged only 44.

LATEST NEWS
Raffles Hotel was featured in the film Crazy Rich Asians in 2018.
The hotel is being renovated, due to re-open in mid 2019, taking bookings for August 2019. The gift shop on 3 Seah Street is open.

What To See
LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
1 Statue of seated Raffles, life size, on a cylinder plinth. In Westminster Abbey, London, England.
2 Plaque on floor of St Mary's Church, Hendon, London, England.

SINGAPORE
1 Bust of Raffles in Raffles Hotel, Singapore.
2 Statue outside Victoria Theatre.
3 Statue on waterfront.

Raffles City, MRT station, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

SINGAPORE
Names To Note
Raffles Place (MRT station)
Stamford Way (street in Singapore).

BOGOR, WEST JAVA, INDONESIA
Monument to Raffles' first wife, Olivia, in Bogor Botanical Gardens, Bogor, Indonesia (previously called National Botanical Gardens) West Java.

Useful Websites
Raffles Hotel, Singapore
raffleshotel.com

Raffles Hotels
https://www.raffles.com/

Singapore Airlines (Raffles class is business class)
singaporeair.com

Books
The Duke of Puddle Dock
In The Footsteps of Stamford Raffles by Nigel Barley. (See Amazon and Ebay.)
https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Puddle-Dock-Footsteps-Stamford/dp/0805019685

UK Travel
visitbritain.com
visitbritainshop.com.

SINGAPORE TRAVEL
visitsingapore.com

INDONESIA TRAVEL
indonesiatouristboard.com

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

The Esperanto, Zamenhof and Bialystok Exhibitions in Poland, and Warsaw

Duolingo says that 1,180,000, that is over a million - a million and another 180,000, people had signed up for their Esperanto for English speakers course by 2017. That's a lot of people to study a language which doesn't have a country you can visit. 

Where is Esperanto spoken? You can join Esperanto organizations in America and London, England. It is used in the Science Centre in San Marino.

Esperanto was constructed by Zamenhof, using European languages. Why is it so popular in China and Japan? One reason is that Esperanto it is so much easier to learn than English. Only 16 rules. What you see is what you say.

The second reason is that it fulfils Zamenof's objective of preventing one up manship or hostility but instead forging friendship. Neither side need feel that the people they are talking to feel that the East is best, or the West is best, because they are not speaking their language.  They also have the camaraderie of sharing Esperanto.

Go to Bialystok in Poland to the Zamenhof centre and see the permanent exhibition about his Zamenhof's life. The hero of Bialystok is Zamenhof. 

From here you can walk around Bialystok following the Jewish Heritage Trail and learn about his school and other buildings.

Before WWI and WWII Bialystok was a thriving place with a huge Jewish community, like Lodz. The trail takes you past two grand art nouveau buildings, a Yiddish theatre, a Jewish hospital. 

Only a small monument remains of the grand synagogue, burned down in WWII after the Jews had been locked inside.

On a happier note, some of the Jews who came from Bialystok were successful in other parts of the world and world famous. Max Weber, the renowned painter. Boris Kaufman, known for his work in movies The Pawnbroker and Splendor in the grass. Sabin, the inventor of the oral polio vaccine. Plenty to read about them on the English language Wikipedia (which is also in several other languages) including reproductions of Weber's paintings.

The Bialystok
But another less known hero is the Rev Marceli Godlewski, of All Saints Church, Warsaw, who risked his life in WWII saving Bialystok's grandson, Ludwig Krysztof Zaleski-Zamenhof, and others in the Warsaw Ghetto. The grandson spoke about this at the museum in October 2017.

Warsaw, Zamenhof's Grave and Others
Zamenhof is buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw. I went there on a snowy day. It seems to go on for miles. I remember a long hunt along the walls to find the entrance, with the help of my bilingual guide on a day tour featuring Jewish Sights, just for me, after I'd taken a group tour around Warsaw the day before. 

My guide was a Seventh Day Adventist, who thought some Adventists' ancestors might have converted from Judaism to the branch of Christianity which observes the Sabbath on Saturday. After a long cold hunt for several exits and entrances, we eventually but found the right one. 

My guide talked in Polish to the Cemetery official, and we then walked around hunting for various famous people and monuments, brushing off snow, so I could take pictures and read inscriptions. 

I was very keen to see the monument to Janusz Korczac, the head of the Warsaw Jewish orphanage, who refused offers to leave the children and save himself, but instead went with them to comfort them on the train. I saw the exhibition about him which is in the orphanage still operating today. It is a remarkable story. He was a pioneer in making the children feel wanted by healing activities. 

Zamenhof's grave was on the main avenue, 10th quarter, second row.

You can see on movie screens a re-enactment of an incident about members of the church in the Warsaw ghetto helping Jews such as Ludwig's grandson work in the church, then when necessary and possible escape. This was either via the church door, disguised as members of the clergy, or people working for them., in the film The Zoo-keeper's Wife, based on the book of the same name, about the zoo in Warsaw. The film is about how Jews were hidden in the zoo keeper's home in the grounds of the zoo. I saw the film on Singapore Airlines and loved it. 

Esperanto literature day is the 15th December every year, also known as Zamenhof day. It is his birthday.

I first learned Esperanto years ago on a correspondence course. I still have the Esperanto paperback Dictionary. I am currently doing the Esperanto course.

Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury/Centrum im. Ludwika Zamenhofa
Warszawska 19
15-062 Bialystok
phone +48 85 67 67 367
fax +48 85 67 67 369
Open:
Tuesday-Sunday
10 am-5 pm

Useful Websites
centrumzamenhofa.com Bialystok, Poland.

Duolingo tinycards Learn one word at a time on cards on screen; click to reverse the card.

duolingo.com 
Starts with a page on grammar rules. Teaches you words and short sentences in a fun way. Click to hear the words said.
Learn Esperanto, read the introduction page on Esperanto, look at forums discussing other language sites teaching Esperanto. 

Wikipedia has articles on Wikipedia on the Zamenhofs, Bailystok, the museum, Esperanto, Duolingo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Korczak

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amikumu-find-language-learning-partners-nearby/id1214046710?mt=8

Author 
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have writtern several other posts on this blog about Esperanto and learning languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. If you are on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn you can link up with me and send your contacts to this page.

The Chopin Trail - museums and monuments in France and Poland

Problem
Where to go and what to see, connected with Chopin?

Answers:

1 POLAND
Grand monument to Chopin, in park, in Warsaw.

Map of Poland. Wikipedia.

Some city tours merely pass this - as happened to me on my first city tour.  Other tours, on request, will stop so you can run into the park and take a photo (which happened to me on a second city tour). Of course, everybody thinks you can just run in and take a photo of the sculpture in two minutes. But no. It's further than you think. Other people taking selfies get in your way. When You get close, you are too near to take in the whole sculpture without a wide angle lens. So you run this way and that, forward and back. Others from your coach are doing the same.

2 POLAND
Zelazowa Wola park, home of Chopin, museum (Dom Chopina).
Lovely park with ponds, trees, flowers, birdsong, tumbling water, half obliterated by the noise of groups or tourists and tour guides.
Inside the house you can see a piano, family portraits.

3 FRANCE
Grave of Chopin, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.
Lots of other famous musicians and singers here, too.
More in other cemeteries around Paris. Singers such as Edith Piaf. Rock and pop stars. Famous lovers such as Heloise and Abelard.

Grave of Chopin in Père Lachaise cemetery, Paris, France. Notice the statue of the muse above, the portrait below, the protective railing around the monument. 

4 POLAND
His heart was carried back to Poland by his sister, who was with him in Paris when he died. He was his parents' only son, but he had three sisters, one older, two younger, one of whom had died much earlier.

What else can you see connected with Chopin? He had a ten-year relationship with writer George Sand, which ended badly and sadly, when he fell ill some time before he died at an early age, of 39.

TB and complications.

You can get a pretty good idea of everything from:
Wikipedia - good history and photos.
You tube video of the house and gardens of his home in Poland.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Cosy Cave Restaurants and Cool Cellars from London, to Liverpool, and Nottingham to Romania

Cellar Restaurant in Brasov, Romania. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
Where can I go that's different, amusing?

Answer
Cave restaurants, cellar bars and underground tours.

Cellar Restaurants and Tours in UK
This week in July 2017 Liverpool city in England discovered a new large underground hall to be added to the existing complex below Mason Street.  The Williamson Tunnels were built by Joseph Williamson, from waterproof solid bricks (unlike the spongey ones used for houses in the city). Liverpool also has a Memorial Garden to him. You can take a quick free peep through the porthole style glass window underfoot Liverpool One Precinct. Or join a tour of the tunnels and see the museum and cafe.

(Whilst in Liverpool see the Beatles museum and Carn tour; the Anglican Cathedral; plus some of the city's free museums. Whilst in this area, visit Chester and North Wales.

Also north of London, Nottingham has many caves carved in the sandstone beneath the city. I have put on my list of places to see on my next visit the
Cave restaurant: Hand and Heart pub, Derby Road, Nottingham.

In Edinburgh, I had dinner in one of the alcoves underground in a pub near the city centre by the book fair during the Edinburgh Festival, an annual event. For recent reviews of The Cellar Door see tripadvisor.


I have also dined underground in Warsaw, Poland.

Underground at The Don, in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Would you like something grander? In London I loved the underground rooms at the Don Restaurant, which you can hire for events such as weddings. I dined in the expensive gourmet restaurant upstairs (when they had a half price offer). See my earlier post.

Cellar Restaurants in Europe
I once went through the catalogues of the major hotel groups such as the Relais hotels and Chateaux Hotels and Prestige hotels worldwide, noting all the cellar restaurants. In the Rathaus or town hall of the city centres in Germany you often find an underground beer hall and restaurant serving the local food.

Earlier this year I had lunch in an alcove area in Brasov in Romania. See my post on this.

Websites
LONDON, ENGLAND
The Don restaurant
The Courtyard
20 St Swithins Lane
EC4N 8AD
Tel: 020 7626 606
www.thedonrestaurant.com
www.thesignofthedon.com

LIVERPOOL
http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk

TOURIST INFORMATION
USEFUL WEBSITES
https://tfl.gov.uk
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/
www.visitlondon.com
www.londonpass.com

SCOTLAND
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186525-d718615-Reviews-The_Cellar_Door-Edinburgh_Scotland.html
www.visitbritain.org

ROMANIA

Gratar Urban, (Urban Grill), 

Strada Michael Weiss, 

Brasov 500031

Tel: +40 731832033

https://www.facebook.com/GratarUrban/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer an photographer, author and speaker.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Italy promoting wines, breads, oil, cheese and coffee

This event was a trade only show on Sunday and Monday. It is open to the public on Tuesday. At about 10.30 a bottle of wine will be arriving outside. I suggest you arrive and collect your badge earlier. I have several posts on what I enjoyed.

First the food and drink: Events: I went to a coffee tasting organised by Lavazza, a wine tasting on Prosecco. Stalls: I saw many more coffees and wines, salamis, and tried sausages, cheeses including blue cheese, pizza, tomatoes, several varieties of panettone (bread with sultanas in a dome shape, popular at Christmas time and all year, the most delicious Sicilian pastries with fruits and almonds, and pistachio ice cream. 

As for novelties: my favourites were silver covered almonds and presentation packs of a six bottles and a scarf or tie. I'll do separate posts and pictures of my favourites.

After the show, whether you are an importer, restaurant, caterer, or just an individual, you can order several of the foods and drinks which were displayed, and you can use a discount code. 

If you can't make the show in London, you have more chances in Amsterdam in November 2016; or in Warsaw, Poland; and Chicago, USA in 2017.

Open in London at Business Design Centre, Islington,Tuesday 19 July 9.30 am-4.30 pm.

More details from: 

www.bellavita.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. 

Music Museums & Statues by Country A-Z

An A-Z of Musicians' statues, monuments and museums, by country, so you can see what's in the country you are staying in or visiting.

AUSTRALIA
Giant guitar statue outside museum of Australia's country music singer.

Kylie Minogue statue

AUSTRIA
Vienna
You can buy Mozart chocolates with his picture.
Statue/monument of Mozart on grave in cemetery. (I went there a while back and wrote an article on Vienna based on the theme of music.)

CUBA
John Lennon statue in Havana


EUROPE
Stradivarius statue

GERMANY
Musicians of Bremen
Mendelssohn's Grave

Bach

Beethoven

POLAND
Chopin Museum, Warsaw
Chopin statue, Warsaw
Statue of musician and piano Lodz





SWITZERLAND

UK

UK
London
Handel's Organ in St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch Lane, Edgware

V and A

http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music/inspiring-composer-quotes/joseph-haydn/

Amy Winehouse statue, Camden

Freddie Mercury, Dominion theatre, London

www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/

Greater London 020 8560 8108

Musical Museum | Home

www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/

Coventry Museum

Liverpool
Monument to John Lennon




USA

Elvis Presley

Home of singer of He'll have to go

Opryland, Nashville, TN

Willie Nelson, Country Music singer, statue, Austin, Texas

John Lennon statue






MORE INFORMATION

http://www.pinterest.com/genoxa/famous-musicians-in-bronze-and-stone/

http://listosaur.com/entertainment/10-great-statues-honoring-legendary-rock-musicians/

 Post under c o n s t r u c t i o n .  When I typed the word correctly, the spell checker turned it into contraption. Post under contraction.Oops. I uploaded it when I meant merely to save it. Come back for more tomorrow.