Fort Worth Stockyards: Sept 29th

Fort Worth began as staging point for cattle drovers heading north on the Chisholm Trail with their great herds of longhorn, heading for railheads from where the cattle could be transported east to the main markets.

The Spanish conquerors brought the longhorn breed from Spain because it thrived on sparse pasture. Wild populations of the cattle multiplied successfully so there were millions for the taking, and after the Civil War the demand for beef soared. Worth a dollar per head in Texas, the longhorns fetched 40 dollars at destination. It was profitable business.

The railroad reached Fort Worth in 1876, from which time the town was the drover’s destination. Stockyards were built to hold the huge herds that were soon being processed into meat products locally for dispatch by train. In peak years the town received more than a million animals.

The stockyard buildings were extended and improved, and what we see today dates mainly from the turn of the 19^th century. In the 20^th century different trading and cattle raising practices saw the yard’s throughput decline and, finally, grind to a halt in the 1980s. This is the time-capsule.

The stockyard buildings are now mainly retail premises catering to the visitors, but the rail tracks where the cattle arrived are visible in the next photo.

Our lunchtime café was genuine 1900 but thankfully not run by cowboys.

No cowtown is complete without a Wild West show. So here are the performers, in the Cowboy Coliseum.

The stunt riding was too fast for indoor photos, but the lasso performer shows up well on in the spotlight. He lassooed some stampeding cattle, but who wants to see fuzzy cattle.

The chuck wagon, Indian wardance and cattle herding were all part of the show. The longhorns were impressive but we saw more magnificent beasts in greater number later. Of course it was touristy, but great fun.

Back out on the main street they’re having a cattle drive. It’s scheduled twice a day. The herd charges down the street and then turns down a side road towards the pens just before it reaches the spectators. You hope this isn’t the one time when the cows carry straight on….

Back in the pens, my favourite shot is of this mean-looking bull peering through the rails.

Oddly enough, Fort Worth has now returned to cattle dealing, but by remote link video and computers. Cattle for sale are videoed and then displayed on screens in an auction room where the deals are struck. This all happens in the original Stock Exchange building.

Fort Worth stockyards are a genuine slice of Texan history, Disneyed up for the tourist admittedly, but interesting and quite different to anything we have back in the UK- except perhaps the ancient Norfolk turkey drives to London for the Christmas market!

Dallas, Texas, 27th September

We arrive early afternoon, so plenty of time to get to our hotel. The plan is to see something of Dallas before picking up the camper on Monday: we have 3 days. First day out is a sobering one, to a museum on the site of the momentous events of JFK’s visit to Dallas in 1963.

November 22^nd 1963, 12:29pm. Lee Harvey Oswald is sighting his rifle through this window on the 6^th floor of the Book Depository, using the book cartons to steady his aim. The positions of the boxes have been exactly recreated.

This is the view Oswald sees as the President’s motorcade turns into Elm Street, the road running diagonally through Dealy Plaza. There was a lot less tree foliage than now.

12:30 pm. Oswald fires 3 shots. The first one misses, the other two hit and mortally wound President Kennedy. The assassination is caught on film as there are thousands of people lining the route, many with cameras, but the definitive record is Abraham Zapruder’s home movie taken from the grassy knoll overlooking the cavalcade’s path. This is Zapruder’s spot, and the white cross, just visible on the road surface, is where the fatal shot struck.

Although the original investigation attributed the assassination to Oswald working alone, there is significant evidence that a fourth shot was fired from behind the white wall on the extreme left of the picture below behind where Zapruder was filming. The red arrow indicates the window in the Book Depository from which Oswald’s shots were fired.

There is no consensus on who else was involved, if anyone, in addition to Oswald. He was a communist sympathiser, particularly of Fidel Castro whom Kennedy had tried unsuccessfully to overthrow, and belonged to a left-wing organisation. Perhaps the extra shot came from a left-wing accomplice with Oswald as the main gunman as he was an ex-military crack-shot.

Oswald was apprehended almost immediately at a nearby cinema although not without killing a police officer first. Oswald himself was assassinated while in police custody by night club owner Jack Ruby only two days later and never stated his motives. Ruby also cannot be fathomed as his professed reasons for killing Oswald were blatantly transparent. He had connections with the mob, but investigations here were inconclusive and he died of cancer before his final conviction was secured.

JFK was in office for less than 3 years but seems to have left a legacy far outweighing that short term. Many of his social and racial reforms started a momentum that carries forward today. He initiated the moon landing programme. He appears to have been an inspiration for achievement and public good particularly amongst young people at that time, and indeed his influence appears relevant now to many. 

USA Autumn 2018

Start: Monday 17^th September

We arrived at Heathrow in good time for the flight, which left and landed on schedule at Washington DC. Virginia largely missed the storm that hit the Carolinas nearby, and certainly the parts we were going to were unaffected.

After a few days visiting Claire we headed for Portsmouth to spend time with Ralph and family that now includes 3 month old Owen. We are seeing him for the first time, so let’s do the honours straight away and post up a picture.

Not to be out-cuted, this is Ginny, their 3 year old daughter who has energy to spare and is interested in everything. We have two lovely grandchildren!

Football- known as soccer over here- is increasing in popularity, especially for females and children. Ginny's already been signed up for the toddler team, and  we were lucky enough to watch her first practice from the touchline. Ginny's wearing the blue top. Goooooaaaal!

We get to visit some play parks with Ginny, and are impressed by the standard and variety of the equipment. Portsmouth isn’t a particularly affluent area but the play items are sturdy and well designed. The park below even had all-weather xylophones and musical pipes as well as slides and swings, but perhaps the most unusual feature was this panel showing deaf signage.

An event in the children’s calendar here that cannot be ignored is Halloween. It is huge, and spooky items are already on sale in quantity.  In general, the USA is fascinated by the supernatural, and it is said that if your house is reputedly haunted you can expect to get up to 30% less for it. Below are examples of the larger items on sale, all at affordable prices. The inflatable wraith at the back is literally 20 feet tall.

Portsmouth itself is an historic town dating back to the 1700s. The old town is all colonial style wooden dwellings. It’s on the opposite bank of the Elizabeth River to Norfolk, the principal US Navy Eastern base. The repair yards are clearly visible from the Portsmouth side.

Norfolk, with its naval presence, is a thriving town with a range of cultural activities. We ended up there late one afternoon, at an art gallery in a period house with stunning water’s edge grounds. The exhibits were mainly Far Eastern, and maybe not everyone’s cup of tea (!), but the setting was delightful- possibly even more delightful before the coming of the modern shipyards. The gallery building is silhouetted on the right.

But back to Portsmouth. It’s a favourite venue for a parade. We came upon this one, unexpectedly, passing through the High Street.

It looked military but turned out to be a local derby football match. This explains the cheer leaders in the next photo.

The parade consisted mostly of African Americans. There isn’t any evidence of racial tension here although it is obvious that the African Americans generally occupy the poorer housing areas. What is a bone of contention is the extent to which the Southern States still glorify their membership of the Confederate side in the Civil War. It is commemorated by place names, street names and monuments everywhere in the south. As the Confederacy was fighting to retain slavery, making a point of venerating those who led their armies and the battles themselves can be taken as supporting the values of the slavery regime. The counter argument is that they are celebrated for fighting and dying bravely, be it for a mistaken cause.

Virginia was an important part of the Confederacy, and in fact supplied its greatest general, Robert E. Lee. The monument in the photo is just such a memorial, in the centre of Portsmouth.

 Now it’s back to Fredericksburg for a few days and then on to Dallas, Texas and an important meeting with JR.

Loire Chateaux: Villandry

The chateau dates back to 1536 and has since been amended both inside and out many times by the successive owners. The formal gardens were destroyed to create parkland in the 19^th century. When the castle was bought by Spanish scientist Joachim Carvallo in 1906 he made it his life’s work to recreate the original formal gardens from ancient plans and documents.

It is these gardens that win universal acclaim, the scale of which can be best appreciated from the upper floors of the chateau. A view of the vegetable garden is below: everything in the photo is the vegetable garden.

The detail is staggering: each of the squares is planted with a different vegetable. A close-up shows how precise the layout is. The beds are edged with box hedging and each area contains a different vegetable. For example, the lollo rosso lettuce give the red colour, and cabbage for the bright green.

Even at ground level the intricate geometric shapes are amazing. The plants look so healthy it’s also amazing that the visitors aren’t helping themselves. And where are the caterpillars?

Looking down from the castle again, this is the Love Garden. It’s made of perfectly trimmed heart shaped box hedging with infill planting.

The water garden is much plainer but just as precise. The water, i.e. the lake, is on the right in the photo, although it looks like grass because of the green reflection. 

Plenty of exact topiary too. These clipped trees could be chess pawns.

It’s easy to overlook individual plants with everything on such a grand scale. This group of irises looked so attractive in the Sun Garden, which was something more of a mixed variety of plants, shrubs and trees.

The gardens as a whole are completely replanted twice a year, using 115,000 plants. Half are grown in their own greenhouses. It’s a staggering enterprise.

The chateau itself, while beautifully proportioned, isn’t as large or impressive as some in the Loire Valley. Still, more cleaning and maintenance than we’d be comfortable with. The moat looks a little soupy in colour- but didn’t smell.

The swans and cygnets didn’t seem to mind the soup anyway.

Inside, the castle feels like an Edwardian gentry house, which was Señor Carvallo’s era. There were some themed designs like the Louis XV dining room. Do I spy butler Jeeves entering by the far door? Disappointingly, it’s only one of the house guides.

One of the bedrooms is preserved as Prince Jerome’s, who owned the castle some years before Señor Carvallo. Prince Jerome was Napoleon’s brother who clearly favoured pink or maybe Mrs J. did. 

The Carvallos collected many Spanish antiques that are displayed around the castle; even a Moroccan ceiling originally from a 15^th century palace in Toledo, Spain. So if you ever visit Toledo, look out for a palace with a ceilingless room.

They amassed enough paintings for an art gallery, that is housed in the castle, and oddities like this model of the castle, made out of 100.000 matches. The builder must have smoked a lot of cigarettes.

But it’s the unique gardens that we’ll remember most. Villandry was only two miles from our campsite so and easy but very much worthwhile visit

Cadaques

We have arrived near the French border,still in Spain, at the bay of Roses. The town of Roses is a modern family holiday resort; for a town with character we need to visit Cadaques, 10 miles away. This is Cadaques- photo below- originally a fishing village that became a favourite artists’ haunt in the 19^th century with tourism following on in our generation.

The narrow streets contain mainly white buildings finished in blue paintwork and draw you around the next corner. It’s probably only a trinket shop but could be a picturesque alley or courtyard.

There are some quite ornate large houses as well as the cottages, like the “Casa Blaua” dating from 1904.

There are small landing stages all around the waterfront that accommodate leisure craft and tripper boats as well as the few fishing boats still operating. Again, it’s all very scenic.

Out of all the excessive number of photos one takes with a digital cameras, the mural on the back wall of the cheap café where we had lunch beats the lot for capturing the atmosphere of the town. 

Threading around the walkways along the sea edge, we spotted an odd object in the water: something like a Royal Doulton plate. It turns out to be a jelly fish; afterwards we notice hundreds in the bay. Clearly they aren’t dangerous as families are bathing quite unconcerned.

Across the hill from Cadaques is a small bay of the tiny fishing hamlet of Port Lligat. We walk there, passing a fisherman’s church, impressive in its simplicity.

The stroll down the hill from the church to Port Lligat reveals a small, peaceful bay fringed by trees. But maybe less peaceful today than in the past.

There are just a few cottages, I suspect now occupied by weekenders rather than fishermen. However, the main reason for our visit is the house below that was the home of the painter Salvador Dali and his wife Gala. He bought a simple cottage here in 1930 and enlarged it over the years into the fine building we see today. He lived there with Gala until the late 70’s.

They had a distinctly odd relationship: for example, he bought her a castle in 1968 so that she would have a place of her own. Salvador was allowed to visit her only with her written permission. Other tales are somewhat too risqué to repeat!

The beautiful coast and clear light no doubt makes it an artist’s paradise. Even the flowers seemed brighter than usual.

So tomorrow it’s goodbye to Spain as we move on to the Loire Valley.

Peñiscola Castle

Peñiscola is a modern holiday resort in the Valencia region with an historic castle. To pronounce the place name without embarrasment, it’s pen-YIS-cola.

This is the resort with its wide, sandy beach as seen from the castle battlements.

Now the castle as seen from the wide, sandy beach! The beach is deserted as the weather is changeable and rain is forecast.

The castle was built by the Templars at the end of the 13^th century on the site of a Moorish fort, and was turned into a papal palace for pope Benedict XIII from 1417 to 1423. It’s a nicely traditional castle in appearance as the next few photos show.

The church of Santa Maria above was built at the same time as the castle on the site of an Arab mosque.

Because of its well preserved and atmospheric structure, the castle has been used many times as a film location, including a current TV favourite Game of Thrones.

The castle hill also contains a small town with narrow alleys and tall whitewashed houses.

With all these visitable treasures come the tourists, and the tourist shops. Plenty of tat here in this pretty street, some of it quite good quality to be fair, but all well overpriced.

Worth examining is the intricate pavement made from tiny, coloured pebbles arranged into patterns. The tradesman who did the work must have been good at jigsaw puzzles. A pair of legs conveniently left in the photo gives an idea of scale. 

Castle done, and a stroll along the prom before going back to the campsite. As previously described, it’s a lovely beach of fine sand – hence the possibility of what we come across next. It’s Leonardo’s “The Last Supper”, carved out of sand. The guy with the yellow back-pack is keeping it moist

by spraying it with water while his assistant on the other side is doing more carving. What a way to earn your supper!

The detail is quite remarkable, by far the best sand sculpture we have seen, illustrated by the next close-up

It is truly surprising what you stumble across sometimes; we had spent a thoroughly interesting couple of hours in Peniscola before heading back to our site.