Cotonou, Benin

 

Amazon Warrior

The kingdom of Dahomey existed for 300 years until the French colonized this area in 1878. The Amazon statue represents the bravery of women warriors of that age. Benin gained its independence on August 1^st, 1960. Cotonou is the largest city in Benin. As we entered the city, there was construction everywhere: new buildings and new highways. The president of the last 10 years has focused on investing in the country. Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy: pineapple, cotton, and cashews. But they are trying to broaden the economy to manufacturing, services, and tourism.

Voodoo God of Fertility

We drove to Ouidah, the center of the Vodún (Voodoo) philosophy/religion. Vodún teaches of a single divine creator being with many spirits who govern different aspect of nature and society. We started at the Sacred Forest to see representations of these spirits. gods, the temple of the earth. 

John at the Python Temple

We went on to the Python Temple (opposite from the Catholic Church). The python is a sacred animal here. Inside is where parents learn the name of their newborn from their ancestors. At 3 months the baby is scarred on the face with the fang symbols of the python. This tells everyone that they are from Ouidah. Then the villagers danced the Sakpata traditional dance for us.

Five forts were built here by Denmark, Portugal, France, England, and Holland to gather slaves from the interior and hold them until the Slave ships came. They were fed two meals a month to see if they could survive the three-month trip to the Americas. Thirty percent would die on the passage chained together lying in the ship. The Gate of No Return commemorates their final departure.

Gate of No Return Memorial

Sao Tome and Principe

We had 3 sea days including Easter to get to the next port. During this time, there was extra security personnel on board and most of the external lighting was turned off at night. While we had no problems there have been pirating instances to other ships in the past. Our trivia team which started with the four of us expanded to eight people with the addition of Tim, Eileen, Bart, and Pam. 

Pam, Bart, Eileen, Andy, Mary, John, Jim, Tim

Sao Tome is known as the Land of Chocolate. It is the smallest African country with only 200,000 inhabitants. Chocolate is created from cocoa beans, which originated in South America. Each pod contains 20 to 30 beans in a white pulp. The beans need to be fermented for three to nine days, the shells are removed and the beans are ground. Then a drink was made from the powder. But the magic ingredient that gives chocolate its sweet flavor is sugar. Gowing sugar was a labor-intensive process and led to the huge slave trade. In the 16^th Century, Sao Tome was the leading sugar producer in the world. In the 19^th century. In the 19^th century, slavery was banned in Brazil, so Portugal began planting cacao plants in Sao Tome and Angola, Portugal’s African possessions. In 1900 Sao Tome became the largest cocoa producer, representing 15% of the world’s production.

We visited the Cathedral, which took over 400 years to be built. The problem was pirates, who destroyed the Cathedral numerous times. We walked to Independence Square where we watched a Tchiloli dance, which tells a story of death and betrayal from a 16^th story about Charlamagne that reached the islands and is celebrated in dance. We then visited a nearby fishing village where we saw the Dance of the Congo. We continued to the History Museum for the island and finally to Fort San Sebatian. Here was a statue of King Amador, who led a slave rebellion in 1595. He is considered a national hero.

Fisherman on the beach

Sao Tome and Principe was out 107^th country.

Walvis Bay

Walvis Bay is known for its profuse wildlife in the sea and as the entrance to the Namib Desert. The wildlife is abundant because the Benguela current from Antarctica and the nutrients surface along the coast, creating a huge ecosystem. Jim and Tim went kayaking on the Bay and was surrounded by seal pups cavorting in the ocean.

 

We did a tour of the desert, which has huge dunes near the ocean. The sand comes down the Orange River, is swept north by the current and then the winds pick the sand up creating enormous sand dunes. Dune Seven, the tallest, rises 7 kilometers outside town. 

Sand Dunes

We headed to Namib-Naukluft National Park to see the Welwitschia Plant.

Welwitschia Plant

This plant can live for 1500 years; this one is about 600 years old. It has a 35 foot taproot and morning fog from the ocean provides water. The bark structure grows about 1 mm per year. The female has large cones, while the male has smaller ones. The cones start to grow in December and drop off in April. The plant supports several endemic insects. The white spotted beetle fertilize the plant, meanwhile a red bug feeds on the beetle. Pencil bush and the dollar plant were the other vegetation nearby. We went on to see a moon landscape formed by the erosion of the mountains after the melting of former glaciers. We took a break in an oasis in the nearby valley, watered by the river flowing underground. We would later see this dry river near the ocean when we crossed a bridge over it, needed only in the years it flows briefly above ground. 

Namibia's Moonscape

Lueritz, Namibia

 

Leaving Capetown

We’re sailing on Oceania's Sirena, a 660 passenger ship out of Cape Town, South Africa. That meant a 3-hour flight to Newark. A 3-hour layover, and a 14 hour flight to Cape Town. We both managed to sleep about four hours on the plane, arriving at 4:30 PM. After some beers at the hotel, we slept most of the night. Next morning, we took a cab to the ship, arriving about noon. Unfortunately, we spent about 2 hours waiting in line to get onto the ship. Never did find out what caused the delay boarding the ship.

We spent the following day at sea, listening to lectures and playing trivia with Andy and Jim, our traveling companions for this trip.

Today we docked at Luderitz, Namibia. The desert comes right down to the ocean. Bartolome Diaz dropped anchor in this bay in 1487. Adolf Luderitz bought the land from the local Nama chief in 1883. Germany became the colonial power in South West Africa. There was a dispute about exactly how much land was purchased pushing the native tribes into the desert. In 1905, a concentration camp was established here. Several thousand natives from the Herero and Nama tribes died from forced labor on the town and railroad. Eventually 80% of the Herero tribe and 20% of the Nama tribe were killed by the Germans.  They also conducted medical experiments on the natives. The Nazis would appropriate these practices in the 1930s. Diamonds were discovered just outside of here in 1908. The ghost town of Kolmanskop is the remnants of this industry.

During the Great War, the South Africans in an effort to reduce the British Army occupying their country agreed to strike at the Germans in South West Africa. They brought an army of 30,000 soldiers and 6000 horses. Some of those horses were the first of the Wild Horses of Namib. We saw the descendants of those horses today. We saw several small groups to drink at a watering hole. Along the road we saw a large group of horses with the desert mountain background. There are 87 horses today. This area has been in drought for 14 years, so the horses have been fed grass, since there is not enough natural vegetation.

Bruges,Belgium

 

Jane and Carol learning from Stephanie

Today, we made Belgian chocolates with Stephanie at Chocolate by Me. We started with an understanding of chocolate. There are 80 varieties of cocoa. The price of a ton of cocoa has varied from 3200 to 4200 Euros for the last 20 years. Last year the price rose by 10X “because of a failed harvest”. But there are multiple harvests per year in multiple countries.. Stephanie gets her Cocoa from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. We tasted chocolate without and without sugar. Sugar intensifies the taste to us. Dark chocolate has from 55 to 90 percent cocoa, which has about 30% fat from Cacao butter, and 45 to 10% sugar. Milk chocolate is 50% sugar, 30% to 50% Cacao (still 30% fat) and 20% milk powder. White chocolate uses Cacao butter, but not Cacao powder. Belgium chocolate requires that all the fat comes from Cacao butter. Most commercial chocolates have other fats added. The Cacao powder and butter are separated in processing. It took Stephanie two years of study to learn how to make Belgium Chocolate.

Cindy and Bob with chocolates

We then proceeded to make two chocolate recipes per couple. It was clearly a case for us of clearly reading the recipe. We missed the cocoa butter in our first attempt, but Stephanie helped us to recover for our praline chocolate. Our second chocolate was more successful; we made a Baileys and caramel filled chocolate. It was a great time as we learned the secret of chocolates. In the end, we got two large boxes of chocolates, samples from all 14 of us, plus some extras from Stephanie.

Madonna and Child 

In the afternoon, I explored more of Brugge, Stopping at the Church of our Lady, famous for its Madonna and Child carved by Michelangelo. Then exploring the Beguinage Houses and the Lake of Love. That evening the group gathered together to share the experience of the entire cruise. We really enjoyed traveling with our expanded family. We shared a lot of time, dinners, and beer together. We had not spent much time with Carolyn or Jane before this trip, it was great to get to know them. And, of course, there was a lot of beautiful architecture, interesting history, and fun throughout the trip.

The video of this trip is available on youtube. 

Lake of Love, Bruges

Bruges and Flanders Fields

 

Bruges along the canals

Bruges was first settled by the Celts, then the Romans. It was a seaport and traded with the Hanseatic cities selling them wool, fabrics, and lace goods. Our hotel, the Casselbergh, was a royal residence and is near the Town Hall, the Count’s Chapel, and the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The Market Square, the commercial center, is just steps the way. In the mid-18^th century, Brugge lost its channel to the sea. The town was encouraged to preserve their buildings and become a tourist destination. We did a canal cruise to get a good view of all the historic buildings. 

In the afternoon we did the tour of Flanders Fields starting at the museum in the town of Ypres. France had fortified the boundaries between Germany and France, so the Germans planned to attack in World War I through Belgium. They expected to reach Paris in six weeks. North of here, the land was flooded, so Ypres became the direct path to Paris. The Germans at first captured the town, but the Belgian and French forces retook the town, while the Germans retreated to higher ground. The British and Canadians arrived to help hold the town. In total there were 4 major battles here. The second battle introduced the use of chlorine gas.

World War I Museum

The British set the policy that any soldier killed in Belgium would be buried here. The Essex Farm cemetery was where Doctor John McCrae worked as a surgeon in a medical bunker. Upon seeing his friend die here in 1915, he wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields. The cemetery has 1100 headstones.

We continued to the Yorkshire Trench and dugout. This trench formed part of the Frontline. There were several dugouts for the officers and various operations. But the average soldier was exposed to the elements and shrapnel for 4 days periodically. The trenches would fill with mud, so eventually they built planks over an inverted A frame to keep your boots out of the mud.

Tyne Cot Cemetery

Next, we went to the Tyne Cot Cemetery where the third battle occurred. Here the Germans had built blockhouses with machine guns to plow down any attackers. Several soldiers risked their lives throwing grenades to take out the blockhouses. There are 12000 gravestones at this cemetery and over 3000 names of the missing. It is the largest Commonwealth cemetery for any war. Overall, this region saw 500,000 soldiers killed during World War I.

After dinner, we joined a crowd to experience the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial. It is over a hundred years since the end of the Great War, but every night the local fire brigade and representatives from Great Britain come together to remember their sacrifice here.

Ghent,Belgium

 

Pulpit in St. Bavo's Cathedral

We drove most of the morning to reach Ghent, Belgium. Mary got off the bus and immediately needed oxygen. While we walked the historic city, she found a convenient bench near St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Later many of us would visit the Cathedral to see the Ghent altar piece, famously recovered from the Nazis in the movie “the Monument Men”. The exterior of the church is gothic, while the interior is Renaissance and Baroque because the original interior was destroyed during the Protestant Revolution. Opposite the Cathedral was the Wool Hall with its bell tower. A dragon protects the city, and soldiers at each corner watch for fire. We went on to the house of the Von Stickle family. They were traders and had a tower to see approaching ships. The houses were built in 1000, 1100, and 1300.

Ghent Altarpiece

The Gravensteen Castle in the center of the city is similar to one built in Syria. The family lived here for 300 years. It later became a courthouse and the nearby square was both a fish market and the execution Square. Then we came to the inner harbor with its guild houses: shippers, grain weighing, the little blue tax house and then grain storage. They charged 20% of the grain for the right to pass. This grain was then sold to the brewers, bakeries, and individuals.

We continued on to Bruges to the Casselbergh Hotel, about 2 blocks from the market square.  We had an orientation walk around the center of the city on our way to dinner.

Bruges City Hall