Lovely little Lofou Village, where we had home made pomegranate wine and bazouki music in Cyprus

 

Painting A Mural of The Woman Revealed By The Tide + Lakeside Life in Canada, A Reversing River and England's Severn Bore

Have a fun day at Fundy in Canada. Photo from Wikipedia. 

A mural which disappears under the tide and reappears. The artist Sean Yoro, known as 'Hula' from Hawaii, has painted murals on icebergs (which lasted a week before melting) and was invited by the marketing department to create a mural in Canada. He paddled out on a paddle board, which was anchored by what looks like ropes, and spent a week on the mural.

Problem 1
Where is the mural?

Answer 1
The one featured in newspapers in Aug 2017? In Canada. Bay of Fundy.

Problem 2 Where's that?

Answer 2
In the city harbour in St John, province of New Brunswick in the state of Nova Scotia, meaning New Scotland. Bay of Fundy is a tourist attraction in its own right, and was so before the appearance of this mural.

Say again!
Bay of Fundy, East Coast of Canada. Near Maine in the USA. Not terribly handy for most residents nor tourists unless you happen to be in that area of Canada or do a cross-country, cross the continent travel trip, walking, hiking or in a giant motorhome, or by sea.

My first thought on reading the newspaper articles was: I wonder how the artist knew it. He must be local, unless he researched tides. Then I watched the video. He is not a local person. He was invited to do the mural by the local tourist board. He specialises in painting on items in the water, combining water sports, from his upbringing in Hawaii, and his training in art.

What looks like a cliff side in a newspaper photo is actually the side of a harbour wall, a very deep wall. The woman's head and shoulders rise above the water and sink as the sea water rises and falls.

The video and the artist confirmed my first thought about the effect of the mural. As the tide rises it looks as though the woman he painted is drowning, But as the tide sinks, she is rising, like the Maya Angelou's affirmative poem, I Rise!

Picture of Mural courtesy of Discover Saint John.

Wiki:

The Bay of Fundy (French: Baie de Fundy) is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. 

Problem 3 Why Fundy?
That's an odd name. Why is it called Fundy and how will I remember it?

Wiki reveals:

 Some sources believe the name "Fundy" is a corruption of the French word Fendu, meaning "split",^[1] while others believe it comes from the Portuguese funda, meaning "deep".^[2]

Ah. Fundy as in fundamental, like foundation and profound.

Temporary Murals
Amusing idea to paint a disappearing mural.

Temporary - I Prefer Permanent
I prefer permanent year round attractions myself.  As a tourist I hate spending my hard earned cash to fly to a foreign country and finding that an attraction has closed for the season or closed on Monday, or my flight is delayed and the place is not there on weekends.

On the other hand, once there, if that was the main attraction, one could hang around all day. Or set up a tripod for time lapse photos whilst having lunch. Maybe spend on photography equipment before going. Now is the time to make my Xmas and birthday list.

Do you need to hire a boat or helicopter to see it? I think not. The artist talks about people's reaction to it. Maybe binoculars would be handy. And a wide angle lens, unless you photograph it from a distance and then increase the size. The video shows people standing on dry land watching.

I expect the mural will be replaced, and inspire more similar, here and around the world. Tourist boards will run competitions. From their point of view, like exhibitions, a changing picture brings new people, new artists, and return visits.

The girl depicted appears above the tide then disappears below it. Very clever. The artist had to paint fast when the tide was low.

Some things last for years underwater, bits of the Titanic. But paint underwater? Ships' hulls must go underwater, lapped by waves, changing tides and changing weight of what's aboard? I suspect ships need regular repainting, at some cost.

Greatest High Tide
Reading about the Bay of Fundy, I can see why it was chosen. Because of having one of the highest tides in the world, more of the picture is revealed and concealed.

The Bay of Fundy is known for having the highest tidal range in the world. Rivaled by Ungava Bay in northern Quebec, King Sound in Western Australia, Gulf of Khambhat in India, and the Severn Estuary in the UK, it has one of the highest vertical tidal ranges in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records (1975) declared that Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia has the highest tides in the world:

“The Natural World, Greatest Tides: The greatest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy.... Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia, has the greatest mean spring range with 14.5 metres (47.5 feet) and an extreme range of 16.3 metres (53.5 feet).”

East Coast:
If you are a tourist, you might start or end your trip with city culture and museums and restaurants: Toronto (English), Ottawa (bilingual), Montreal (French with Canadian accent), clifftop Quebec city.
Out in the wild, Newfoundland and Anne of Green Gables.

The nearest thing we have to Canada's Reversing Falls, in England is the Severn Bore. I once went to see it at a vantage point. I found a plaque but the car driver was not willing to wait several hours.

VIDEO of painting the mural in Canada on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjHFd8NJkg
Even more dramatic is the video of him painting from his paddle board by the edge of the waterfall. (Picture looks like taken from a helicopter but close and quiet except for the noise of the waves so I imagine it must be taken from a drone.
http://byhula.com/portfolio/makau/
The website also sells prints, if you fancy buying one.
http://byhula.com/portfolio
https://shop.byhula.com/products/makau This print costs $95. I imagine postage is extra.
A postcard size is only $35. Hurry because it is a limited edition numbered and signed.
***
Websites for further reading:
http://bayoffundytourism.com
www.discoversaintjohn.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversing_Falls
http://www.novascotia.com/about-nova-scotia/regions
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/can…
http://www.severn-bore.co.uk
www.visitbritain.org
www.visitbritain.com
http://wikitravel.org/en/Canada
https://web.archive.org/web/20100113230143/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
Although the Canadian encyclopaedia article used by Wikipedia is old and technical and has no modern photos, it is a handy reminder that when visiting a country, you can look for an up to date compact one volume encyclopaedia or book of facts for entertaining and informative reading.

Also see my other posts on permanent murals worldwide; and the temporary mural of the late London singer, Amy Winehouse. More on Canada in the next post.

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

What to see and taste in Umbria in Italy

 Umbria in Italy has Orvieto wine and TerreUmbre fruit honey, bicycle holidays, castles and a medieval synagogue, waterfalls, an Etruscan gate and tombs, Perugia, the old historic capital and a temple which Byron visited and described in a poem.

Italy, Umbria and Mountains
Umbria - where is it? The heart of Italy, they say. It is land-locked, an area of mountains and medieval villages in the middle of Italy.

Umbria, I think of a shadow? Like Cumbria, Umbria has mountains. However, you pronounce the name not like English Cumbria and umbrella, more like oo.

Wine and Prosecco
I went to a presentation by the Umbrian tourist board, in London at the Kensington Hotel (see my previous post about the lovely hotel). We started our evening with a glass or more of Prosecco, which put me in a good mood, because I like Prosecco more than Champagne, from France, or Cava from Spain. Prosecco is really popular in England at the moment. I am very happy about that. Prosecco is cheaper and sweeter than other white bubbly drinks.

Wine and Asti
My other favourite Italian sweet white wine is Asti - we used to always see Asti Spumante on food and wine menus, especially Italia restaurant menus. Spumante means sparkling. Nowadays menus more often show just the word Asti, which is the town or city.

But the regional wine, Orvieto, is also well known and liked.

My favourite honey was the Honey with chestnut on the left.  Although the honey with Acacia on the right was also distinctive, and nicer than the honey we usually have at home, it was completely outclassed by the chestnut honey.

Cheese and Chocolate
In the reception room was a table displaying cheeses and salamis and chocolate. (Not a piece of fruit nor vegetable in sight. But I am sure that when you go to Umbria you will get vegetables and fruit.)

I liked the cheese. I passed on the salami. After a member of my family had treatment for cancer, everybody stopped eating preserved meats and went onto fresh meat and lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. Actually, I did try one piece of the salami. It was very tasty.

The chocolate came in wrapped bars of three or four varieties. Dark chocolate, white chocolate, mottled swirling colours of dark and white chocolate, and nutty chocolate for more nutrition and crunch. I couldn't decide which I preferred. So I kept eating more - break off a small oblong of the dark, another piece of the white, let's try the nutty one again - until a member of my family pulled me away.

However, top of my list of foods to try - and try again, was the honey. They had honey flavours I had not seen before. Fruit - at last, fruit flavours.

The honey bottle labels say:
Dolcezze con MIELE al LIMONE
 MIELE alla pera
MIELE alla fragola
MIELE alla MELA VERDE

The honey flavours were delicious. More-ish.

I was about to turn to Google Translate when I noticed the pictures of the fruit on the label.
Limone - lemon
Pera - pear
Fragola - strawberry
Mela verde - green apple.

I got out a magnifying glass and read the label.

Prodotto Italiano - Italian product or produce of Italy.

TerreUmbre is the brand name.
It is made or distributed from Perugia. The label says:
Terre Umbre
Via G Galilei, 59
Corciano
Perugia

www.terreumbre.net
According to the website, they also make or distribute all over the world other products such as chestnuts flavour honey, acacia flour; plus chocolate spread and grappa. The website is in Italian with translation in English (handy if you want to learn Italian) if you click on the English flag you get the English, but it seems to be wholesale, not retail for the public, as there are no prices and they ask you to fax. So you'll have to look for flavoured honey when you visit Umbria.

But what is there to see when you go there?

Perugia
Looking at the literature, the only place name I have heard of, apart from Umbria, is Perugia. Perugia is a lovely old city, not as well known nor flooded with tourists as Florence or Milan or Rome or Venice.

Unfortunately, to the British and American newspaper and internet news reader, the name Perugia will be associated with the murder of a British student. I wondered at the time why students went to Perugia rather than one of the bigger cities. The answer is that Perugia has a well known language school. It specialises in teaching languages and is, as you might expect, good value in terms of the teaching costing you less.

 Another feature of the region is cycling. Throughout our evening, a screen showed a video of individuals and groups cycling through the scenic area, up and down hills, along flat paths, past green fields and mountains, over bridges.

Orvieto
Apart from the wines, and wine cellars carved out by Etruscans, a local food speciality is truffle pasta.

My top visits in the region would be:
Etruscan gate and cemetery
Perugia - many museums, central square and sites
The medieval synagogue.
A castle.
A winery.

You can take foodie tours, organised by a lovely lady who is bilingual.

You are also near enough to visit Assisi.

For more information see
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbria

Tourist board website
https://www.umbriatourism.it

TripAdvisor
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187907-Activities-Perugia_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html

For details of the pagan temple with four pillars, converted into a church, which inspired a few verses which Lord Byron wrote in his long poem Child Harold:
http://www.italianways.com/the-temple-of-clitumnus-a-stream-of-poesy/

Let's Meet In The Heart Of Italy
Incontrarsi Al Centro
www.umbriaconventionbureau.eu
email info@umbriaconventionbureau.eu

Touching History
Nel Vivo Della Storia
www.umbriaculture.eu
email: info@umbriaculture.eu

Walking in the steps of St Francis (of Assisi)
Sulle Orme Di Francesco
www.umbriafrancescosways.eu
email: info@umbriafrancescosways.eu

Cycling With Passion
Con La Bici Nel Cuore
www.umbriabike.eu
email: info@umbriabike.eu

Tasting Pleasure
Fra I Piaceri del Gusto
www.umbriatastes.eu
email: info @umbriatastes.eu

www.umbrialifestye.it

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