Bison or Buffalo

I saw that there are bison burgers offered in different establishments, and I was appalled because I thought they were hunted almost to extinction.

Then, when I looked into it a little more, I discovered that there are buffalo farms in Canada & the US that raise bison for their meat. They are plentiful in captivity & in some projects releasing them into the wild! This made me so happy. (I still haven't tried a bison burger yet, though.)

This fall, my husband visited a cute little zoo that had several bison. (Did you know that they require special fencing because they are so strong they can walk through normal fencing?)

At our website, http://www.photographygiftshop.com, we offer these photos on t-shirts, and a whole assortment of giftware such as mugs, magnets, aprons, stationery, as well as bibs, infant creepers & teddy bears with bison t-shirts, too.

You can purchase them with just the photo, or we also offer Flashcard Tees for children with the photos labelled as Bison & Buffalo for picture-word recognition.

For adults & kids, we also have our Wildlife Definition Series where the photo is accompanied by the following important information about the bison:

"Bison: Largest land mammal in North America, weighing 2000 lbs. There are 3 subspecies: the Plains Bison, the Wood Bison & the European Wisent. Male=Bull Female=Cow Baby=Calf Group=Herd"

If you are like me, and you're glad the Bison is no longer endangered, why not celebrate with a Bison t-shirt or mug!

Hadrian's Wall, England

When we were planning to go on our trip to England, Scotland and Wales last summer, one of the things I wanted to see was Hadrian's Wall.



I was always fascinated by the concept. The Ancient Egyptians built huge pyramids, but who did the actual work? Servants. Slaves. Farmers on the "off" season. (The little guy on the bottom of the social ladder.) But who built the wall across northern England for Hadrian? Soldiers!! Men who were trained for battle, to be an officer, who were thought highly of in the Roman social structure!

The soldiers were trained to obey without question, and this may be why Hadrian's wall is one of the only major building projects that was finished when it was supposed to! (That, and they changed the thickness of the walls in places to make it go faster.)

When Hadrian took power in 117 AD, he was determined that they would NOT lose any land while he was in command. So, he commissioned the building of a wall. It took them 6 years to build a wall 80 Roman miles long (117 km or 73 modern miles). On every Roman mile along the wall there is a 'milecastle', which is a fortified gateway for passage. Between the milecastles they built turrets. They built 16 forts along the wall as a base for their soldiers. They were determined to control the movement of people across Britain in order to protect their territory.

When we were in England, we visited the remains Housestead Roman Fort. It is the most complete Roman Fort in Britain, and is incorporated into Hadrian's Wall. It shows an example of a hospital, and has evidence of latrines & even a flush system.

Our son, Michael, checking out the ruins.

There is a gate there, so be prepared to pay a fee and be aware of the opening times. For a listing, see the Official National Trust Website.

This is NOT a place for disabled or out of shape visitors. There is a very long walk from the gate to the ruins, mostly up a steep hill, to get there. At the bottom of the hill and at the top of the hill there is a place to buy souvenirs, and more importantly refreshments.

You will NEED good walking shoes, but not new ones because you will walk in sheep manure. The walkway is through a pasture and the sheep are permitted to roam where they will. In fact, quite a few prefer to be where you are with your refreshements and make it almost impossible to find a spot on the grass to sit and eat. (When I say walkway, I mean a little gravel path to direct you where you should go since it is so far away.)

If I haven't discouraged you from going (!), then here's a tip on how to save money:

We are a family of five, so we are constantly looking for a way to save money when travelling. Before we left Canada, we went online and purchased a membership to the Friends of Historic Scotland. With this card, we were able to enter almost all historic places in Scotland and England for free! (And if it wasn't free, it was a reduced price. We even saved a percentage on purchases in shops.) The card paid for itself over and over and over. The only catch is that you must have ample time before you leave home for the card & information to arrive.

If I have whet your appetite for more information, we have a 'Reader's Digest' condensed version on on our website. We also have a collage of pictures of the wall. Sometimes the wall incorporates natural barriers, and we have a photo of a pond with a cliff that has become part of the wall.

For a more in depth study of Hadrian's wall, the BBC has an excellent site with many photos and tons of information.

The How & Why of Castle Building

I've been researching information on castles for our website, and found this article that others may find as interesting as I did.

When we travelled across England & Scotland this summer, I noticed that older castles were built for protection, but then there were other castles, such as Warwick Castle, that were built for 'image'. This article explains it very well.


The Evolution of the British Castle - A Short History

By: Stuart Bazga

Since Greek and Roman times, man has strived to establish some
type of a fortification for protection and shelter. Over the
pursuing centuries these evolved into a form of military and
residential places known as castles.

When William the Conqueror, conquered England in 1066, his
armies quickly erected wooden palisades (a fence of stakes or
iron railings forming an enclosure or defence) establishing a
presence in the former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these fortresses
were constructed on sites that had previously been fortified in
pre-Roman times, then by the Romans themselves and lastly by the
Saxons who established the first kingdoms there. As times became
less turbulent and settled, the Normans became integrated into
every day life and were eventually accepted by the local
populace. These wooden palisades slowly began to disappear, to
be replaced with stone. Any new fortifications built from that
time onward were constructed entirely from stone.

In Europe, this manifested into a design consisting of a single
tower and outer buildings. In the mountains there was no
shortage of rocky hilltops on which to build these new bastions.
In the lower lying areas, however, islands and peninsulas were
much sought after for their ease of defence.

In the British Isles the Normans began to dig ditches to create
a small hill or mound when one couldn't be found to build on.
These mounds became the first "motte and bailey" castles, some
of which were built on top of old Iron Age hill forts.

A "motte" was the conical hill of dirt that was built as the
main defence for the "keep", which was were the Lord and his
family resided and sought refuge whilst trying to govern their
surrounding territory. The keep was basically a tower with one
room per floor and usually contained 3 to 4 floors.

Later, a walled area known as a "bailey" began to appear around
the keep with another at the base of the motte. Its function was
to help protect the keep's support functions which grew up
around the original tower: grain storage, wood and metal
workshops, military barracks, wells, chapels and sometimes a
garden or a great hall where formal functions and meetings were
held.

Over the intervening years, the design and style of British
castles would appear in various forms throughout the castle
building era.

Eventually, the motte itself began to be replaced with stone and
a new style of British castle began to appear. These castles
were built without the motte altogether. The tower keep,
however, remained.

The ditch that had separated the "motte" from the bailey became
a moat (a deep, wide defensive ditch surrounding a castle or
town), either dry or stone-lined, or filled with water from a
nearby river or lake. These Moats became a significant part of
the castles design.

In the 12th century, the Crusaders began their travels to the
Middle East in the name of god, encountered a differing style of
castle to that which they had become accustomed to. One of the
most popular style of castles encountered had curtain walls with
mural towers: palisades but with towers along its length from
which to fire on attackers. This developed into concentric
walls, giving the besieging army multiple obstacles to overcome
just to get into the castle. The tower keep sometimes became
part of the wall in this type of fortification.

The advent of gunpowder and the development in weaponry, i.e.
muskets and cannon from the 13th to 15th century, saw the rapid
decline in the importance of building castles for defence, and
yet again, another change in design. Castles had to be built
with thicker and thicker walls. Eventually, evolution caught up.
Not being able to keep abreast of technological advancements in
fire power of the era, the defensive capability of these great
castles was severely diminished, causing them to become
obsolete.

In the 18th and 19th century British castles were built for very
different reasons. The Aristocracy, who were nostalgic for the
past, had the most wonderful and splendid castles built for
their pleasure. The most passionate of these builders was (Mad
King) Ludwig of Bavaria in the 19th century and his fairytale
castle - Neuschwanstein.

I hope you enjoyed The Evolution of the British Castle - A
Short History

Do you want to find out about more of the histories that lie
behind some of Europe's most picturesque, mysterious and
notorious castles? Unravelling the legends and myths behind some
of their most celebrated and not so renowned castles in a voyage
of discovery and adventure...!

Then pay a visit to my website at Guide to
Castles of Europe.

There you will discover the history and myths of some of
Europe's most famous castles: Windsor Castle, TheTower of
London, Dracula's Castle and Blarney Castle (the home of the
Blarney stone) to name a few.

I look forward to sharing in your experiences and discoveries
that you have made from your journeys around Europe, visiting
her many picturesque and unique Castles. Send me a message with
your tales and I will post them on my website, so that the world
can discover these hidden treasures too.

Best wishes and have a great day!

Stuart Bazga

www.guide-to-cas
tles-of-europe.com

© 2005 by
guide-to-castles-of-europe.com. All rights reserved.

About the author:
A Guide to Castles of Europe was born from childhood dreams and
aspirations. It is my hope to educate and stimulate you into
exploring these castles for youselves.

Our Experience with the London July 7, 2005 Bombings

After spending a few days touring London, England, it was time for my family to get our rented van and start our journey to see the rest of Britain.

We were staying at a very nice bed & breakfast on Argyle Street, across from Kings Cross Station. It was very convenient for getting around London. We are a family of 5, with 3 teenagers, so taking a cab anywhere was impossible. Thank goodness for good connections on the Tube.

On July 7th, we just couldn't get out youngest, 13, to get out of bed. This is unusual for him because he's the kind that's bouncing around, talking non-stop, from the second his eyes open. We finally decided to let him sleep in while we went for breakfast.

We weren't on the Underground at our usual time because we decided it wasn't fair to whisk our son off without having breakfast first. My husband took him to McDonald's while I checked out.

While they were at McDonalds, which is directly across from Kings Cross Station, they heard the bomb blast, saw the people blackened with smoke leaving the building and all the emergency crew show up.

When I went to check out, there was a young woman standing on the front step of the bed & breakfast, crying, all black with an oily residue. She had been on the last carriage of the bombed train. I alerted the innkeeper, who was kind enough to offer her a room to clean up in.

At this point my family & many others who had checked out were standing in the street with our luggage, scared, confused, with nowhere to go. All transportation was at a standstill. No buses. No underground. No taxis to our area. We were terrified to take any public transportation, anyway! We decided to walk to our rental car agency, which was at Victoria Station on the other side of London.

The walk was surreal. The streets were packed with people who were on their way to work but had no transportation. Pubs were literally overflowing into the street as people crowded around televisions to hear the news. Everyone stopped to talk to each other to see if there were new developments. We saw a few people who hung out the window shouting news updates to passerbys in the street below. People's reactions varied from fear of further bombing because they just won the olympic bid to a blase attitude that "we're London - we've had bombings here for years, nothing's new".

We ran into a guy who witnessed the bus bombing, which was just a few blocks away from our hotel. He was wild-eyed with flying hair. He reminded me of Doc Brown on Back to the Future. He recounted his story to whoever was willing to stop and listen.

We must have been quite the sight. Five of us, all with our luggage in tow, walking like ducks in a row because the streets were so crowded. (Thank goodness our luggage was on wheels!) We were OBVIOUSLY tourists! Everyone was so kind to us. When we started to walk down a street that was blocked, Londoners would stop us and tell us where to go to get to our destination.

I must say that everything was handled differently there than in North America. Here, everyone would be lined up and questioned, whether they knew something or not! There, the witnesses were just milling around with everyone else. Some even made their way home on their own, like the girl at our bed & breakfast.

The one thing that really impressed me was a group of victims from the bus bombing. Instead of waiting for the authorities to come and handle everything, they walked a couple of blocks to a local hospital and asked for assistance for the others who were in worse shape. We walked past these victims, all scraped and bloodied, the leader in a procession of hospital workers, all walking to the bomb site, carrying their supplies in their arms. It was truly surreal.

It took us 5 hours to walk across London. Some streets had caution tape across it, so we had to find alternative routes. For 2 hours we walked in the rain. Londoners were amazing. People actually stopped us and offered us 'plastic' for our children (raincoats).

The ironic thing is that when we got home to Canada, there was a message on our answering machine that our rental car was cancelled because people weren't turning their vehicles in due to the transportation issues! Thank goodness, when we arrived at the rental car agency they didn't tell us. They just upgraded our vehicle to a nicer one! We must have looked as dazed as we felt. If they had told us that we didn't have a car, they would have had a mutiny on their hands. We were scared, tired, and behind schedule, so we just wanted to get out of the city.

This was supposed to be 'a trip of a lifetime' for us, and we found the bombing caused a shadow to fall over the whole trip after this experience. It took months after our return before we could look back on the trip without feeling fear and dread. (Every morning for months the discussion at the breakfast table was, "Did you have a nightmare last night?") We did enjoy ourselves on the rest of the trip, but had this feeling like we were always looking over our shoulder.

Maybe if we weren't so close, or maybe if we didn't feel like it could have been us on that underground train if our son didn't sleep in, we would have just felt 'inconvenienced' by the transportation halt. But in a way, we felt like victims, too. I can't even imagine how the REAL victims feel, or how long it will take for them to recover. Our prayers are with them.

Our July 2005 trip to England, Wales & Scotland: Two Days in London

Hello!

We are the McEachern Family, and we love to travel!

In July 2005, we took our 3 teenagers (Michael 13, Andrew 16, Cara 18) for a whirlwind tour of England, Wales & Scotland.

We researched everything available & made a million plans, only to find that all our planning went down the tubes because of our flight issues. Three hours into our flight our plane had 'navigational' problems, so due to Canadian law we had to turn around and return to Goose Bay, Labrador. They wouldn't let us off the plane while they were doing their repairs! Everyone was getting cabin fever before we even got out of Canada. We were on the plane for THIRTEEN HOURS!!!! By the time we got to London everyone was tired & cranky all we could do is get to our bed & breakfast hotel and sleep! We ended up a day behind schedule.

Just a note: we may not be the norm, but we enjoyed our train ride from Gatwick Airport to London! We purchased our tickets before we left, and were glad that we spent the extra money for first class. We were able to have something to eat and drink on the train, which saved us valuable time at this point of our journey. The seats were more comfortable than on the plane, and having a table felt like a luxury! We were even able to get four adults for the price of two by buying online, so saving money made us happy, happy, happy when we are a family of 5. We didn't have to stand in line with all the other passengers that just disembarked from their planes. We hopped on the first train & off we went. I'm sure if we had to wait in line, we would have all been crankier because we felt the time pressure of already having to cross items off our schedule. (If you want to buy your tickets online, too, check out Gatwick Express.)

The only thing on our schedule we were able to accomplish that first day was a London By Night Bus Tour from Victoria Station. This is a great way to get a 'feel' for how the city is laid out, and seeing all the buildings lit up at night is just beautiful. My husband, Carlton, is a photographer so this was one of the tours he was looking forward to the most. Unfortunately, NONE of our photos turned out due to the movement of the bus. Our advice would be to just back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

That double decker bus ride showed us just how unprepared we were for this holiday. Since we live in Northern Ontario, Canada, we assumed that our temperature & weather would be similar to England's. We didn't take jackets, just long sleeved shirts. We FROZE on that bus ride. It was so cold that we couldn't sit in the opened top layer of the bus for very long.

So, on top of already being behind schedule, we had to add another thing to the list: shopping for jackets. Our 18 year old daughter knew exactly which one she wanted: FCUK (French Connection in the UK - Yeah, I wondered what the heck she wanted, too!). This meant a special trip. More time lost.

The one thing that we regret the most in our schedule change is missing the walking tours. Our teenagers were really looking forward to the Ghosts one, and the Jack the Ripper tour. I guess we'll just have to go back someday! If you'd like to look into a walking tour of London on your trip, check them out at London Walks. They sound so interesting, and seem reasonably priced.

Our daughter, Cara, is an art student, so we had to see all the museums. This anti-war sculpture made of guns was her favorite, entitled the "Tree of Life".

When we were in Traflagar Square, we had planned on eating at the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields, but with our schedule change we were unable to. If you are interested in looking into it, visit their Website.

At Buckingham Palace, the guys went to see the Royal Mews & the girls went to see the Queen's Gallery. To see our pictures of Buckingham Palace, see this page of our website PhotographyGiftShop.com. We include a little historical background with the photos.

Our most favorite place was Westminster Abbey. The hush, the architecture, the resting place of the famous, it was very powerful. It felt much like our Vietnam Wall experience. To see our pictures of Westminster Abbey, see this page of our website.

While we were at Westminster Abbey, we also saw Westminster Palace, otherwise known as the Parliament Buildings. Here is Carlton with a bobby (police officer) at the Big Ben clock tower. (He turns his ballcap backwards when taking photos. I should have asked him to fix it for the picture, but oh well!)

If you would like to see our photos of the Parliament Buildings & Big Ben, please view this page of our website.

We went to see Madame Tussaud's, thinking it would be educational for the kids. They advertised a ride through time that we looked forward to seeing. It was a bust. It was the most expensive thing we did, and it was definitely not worth the cost in our opinion. We are not really 'into' all that hollywood stuff, and most of the wax figures seemed to be of celebrities. There were so many people in the room at the same time that it was impossible to get a photo with a wax figure without someone in the way. The kids wanted to see the Horror section, but it cost extra! After our disappointment in the main part, we weren't about to cough up more money. The ride through time was only about the history of London, and wasn't even close to what we imagined it could be. It was a seated ride past wax dummies. (Why bother putting in the ride?)Five thumbs down on this one.

We enjoyed visiting the Tower of London & Tower Bridge.

If you are interested in see our pictures of Tower Bridge, and reading a little bit of its interesting history, please visit this page of our website PhotographyGiftShop.com.

I was amazed at what we could pack into the two days we had to see London. Our feet were tired, but we saw all the highlights. (We couldn't take a taxi because we have 5 adults in our group, and it isn't feasible to take 2 cabs! We took the tube - the subway system in London, called the Underground - everywhere, or walked.)

This blog seems long enough for now, so I'll end it here. My next one will be about our last day in London, and our experience with the London Bombings of July 7, 2005. We were in a bed & breakfast on Argyle Street, right across from Kings Cross Station!