I have been to Rome four times and each time I went to the Vatican Museum, surely one of the great museums of the world. In the VM you can wander around aimlessly or you can follow one of the four colour coded tours. Each time, besides being fully aware of this fact, I choose the same damned tour, I forget which I have seen and yet always seem to choose the same one to see again.
Several hours west of Sydney (Australia) there are an extraordinarily beautiful group of limestone caves - The Jenolan Caves ( http://www.jenolancaves.org.au) where they also have different tours and I also choose the same caves despite trying to choose a different one each time.
These caves were popular for 'turn of the century' trips from Sydney by horse and cart taking a week or so for the trip. In the caves in those days each guest carried a candle for light and as the paths and steps were not then cut or lit, there was a lot of clambering and sliding. In one spot there is a huge rock, about the size of a one story house, that sloped around 30 degrees downward. Our intrepid visitors were required to slide down this on their arses, slowing themselves down with their hands. This left only one place to hold the lit candle - in their teeth. Men of those times sported very big beards, and it was not unusual for a man to be hurtling down the slab screaming because his face was on fire and he could either put out the flames or smash into the rocks at the bottom.
They made them tough in those days.
No comments:
Post a Comment