Travels & Traditions: Celebrating Christmas at Biltmore Estate - #307

BURT WOLF: Ancient astronomers believed that the sun traveled around the earth on a giant track. Every day it would move along covering a distance equal to its own width. It took six months to travel from its farthest point in the North to its farthest point in the South. When it got to the end of the track, it would turn around and head back.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The most northerly point on the track was known as the Tropic of Cancer; the most southerly, the Tropic of Capricorn. Tropic is an ancient Greek word meaning the turning point. Whenever the sun would reach one of these turning points, it would stop and rest for a couple of days. That rest was known as the solstice. Solstice is a Latin word and it means the sun stands still. We have two of them a year. One takes place at the end of June and marks the brightest and longest day of the year, one takes place at the end of December and marks the shortest and darkest day of the year. Societies all over the world celebrate a solstice and one of the most important celebrations is known as Christmas.

This is Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. It was constructed at the end of the 1800s by George Vanderbilt, a member of one of the oldest families in America. And it stands as the largest private home in the United States. George first opened the estate to his friends and family on Christmas Eve, 1895. And ever since, Christmas has been an important celebration at Biltmore.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Vanderbilts were asked to open the estate to the public in the hope that it would create a tourist attraction and become a source of income for the local residents. Good idea. These days Biltmore has almost 1 million visitors annually, and it's easy to understand why. It's an extraordinary place, and particularly interesting during Christmas. 

The first floor is made up of the public rooms where the Vanderbilts lived as a family and entertained their guests. The area known as the Winter Garden is a glass-roofed space designed to look like an indoor jungle of exotic plants. On the walls surrounding the Winter Garden are copies of the Elgin Marbles that stood in the ancient Parthenon of Athens until Lord Elgin decided they would make a nice souvenir from his trip to Greece and brought them back home to the British Museum. It was a lot like taking home the Eiffel Tower to remind you of your visit to Paris. 

Off the Winter Garden is the banquet hall, the largest room in the house; 72 feet long, 42 feet wide and 70 feet high. This was where the Vanderbilts held their formal dinner parties and celebrated Christmas with the great tree. For centuries, the fireplace has been an important part of Christmas. Originally fireplaces were round and placed in the center of the home. It represented a link to the history of the family and a connection to heaven through the chimney. The fire inside symbolized emotional warmth, love and light. The Flemish tapestries on the walls were created during the 1500s and tell the story of Venus, the goddess of love, Mars, the god of war who was Venus' not so secret lover and her jealous husband, Vulcan, the god of fire. Talk about watching a soap opera while you're eating. 

Next to the banquet hall is the breakfast room. This is where the family took its meals. Much more intimate. And all the pictures are of nice relatives who behaved properly. 

Biltmore also has a billiard room where the guys hung out and shot pool or billiards. Pool is played on the table with pockets; billiards is played on the table without pockets. 

Of all the rooms at Biltmore, George Vanderbilt's favorite was probably the library. George was a serious scholar and loved to read. He amassed a collection of 23,000 books. The art on the ceiling was painted in the 1600s and brought here from a palace in Venice. The tapestry gallery runs for 90 feet between the entrance hall and the library. It was used as a sitting area and probably a ballroom. The tapestries are part of a set woven in Brussels in the mid 1500s and called "The Triumph of the Seven Virtues." There are also two portraits by John Singer Sergeant, a famous painter of the time; one of George Vanderbilt and one of his mother, Maria Louisa. On the opposite wall is a portrait of George's wife, Edith Vanderbilt, by James McNeil Whistler, who was on break from painting his mother. 

Mr. Vanderbilt's bedroom was on the second floor - heavily carved pieces in walnut, baroque chairs and a bathroom with hot running water. Very unusual at the time for western North Carolina. Down the hall is Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom. The oval shaped space is decorated in the style of Louis XV - very popular in France during the 1700s and copied by wealthy Americans in the 1800s. Silk wall coverings, cut velvet drapes, and between the bedrooms of Mr. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Vanderbilt was the oak sitting room, a private space connecting their separate apartments. It was modeled after the Great Hall at Hatfield House, a seventeenth century English estate that the Vanderbilts had once visited. It's the perfect location to inquire "My place or yours?" 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: That's the house as it was presented to the guests of the Vanderbilts, but there's another side. The back of the house that kept the front of the house running. And in the interests of full disclosure, Biltmore House runs a butler's tour of the property. 

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Yes, may I help you?

BURT WOLF: Yes, I'm here to film the Butler's Tour.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: And you would be?

BURT WOLF: I'm ... I'm Burt Wolf. I am a television journalist. 

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: I'm sure your family still loves you. Please come in. 

We're now entering the butler's pantry, which really was the hub of the systems of providing services for guests. We're essentially on top of the main kitchens. We're at the basement level below, so all the food was prepped below and then brought to this level. Foods that needed to be remained chilled were placed ...

BURT WOLF: Real refrigeration?

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Real refrigeration here. And electric warming cabinet over on the other side of the kitchen to keep the foods warm.

BURT WOLF: Early for that.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Very early. For both, actually. And final presentation of foods were made here and then served in one of two directions, wherever the meal was being served. This is right off the banquet hall and/or the breakfast room, as well.

BURT WOLF: That was the dumbwaiter that brought it up.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: The dumbwaiters that brought the food up, also that brought the china and crystal down from this second level of this ...

BURT WOLF: That's a big two-story closet.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: That's right.

BURT WOLF: Very cool.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: What we see here is a linen volt pattern of hand carved panel inset, a sign of hospitality and a sign that you would be entering now a guest family area.

BURT WOLF: So, as I leave the area that the servants were in and enter an area where I might meet the Vanderbilts or their guests, I will see this welcoming pattern ...

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: That's correct.

BURT WOLF: ... on the inside of the door.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: That's correct. BURT WOLF: Aha. 

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Lighter color changes, we moved into this area. Generally, the family guest areas had a bolder color scheme; terra cotta, coffee brown. And generally the staff areas were of a pastel color. 

BURT WOLF: So everybody knew where they were ...

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: That's correct.

BURT WOLF: by the colors of the walls.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: We're going now to where the servants took their meals, the servants' dining room downstairs. Staff here were organized in a very rigid hierarchy. A steward would have been at the top, a scullery maid at the lower level, and staff took their meals according to the ranking they were in and in shifts in this particular room.

BURT WOLF: I see clocks all over.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Here's one in this room. Clocks appear in all the servant areas and, because of the design of the clocking system, the clocks were all kept in sync with each other. The time was accurately reported wherever staff worked so that their was no excuse of ...

BURT WOLF: Not being where you were supposed to be ...

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: Not being where you're supposed ...

BURT WOLF: when you were supposed to be there.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: That's it.

BURT WOLF: That is the back of the house.

THOMAS KNOX, BUTLER: And without the back of this house, there would have been no front.

BURT WOLF: So true.

Ancient societies from the Druids and the Celtics to the Franks and the Egyptians marked the dark days of the winter solstice by decorating their homes with evergreen plants. In Catholic communities, St. Nicholas, the Three Kings and the Christ child were represented in human likeness. German Protestants felt the representation of humans and animals was inappropriate, and during the 1500s introduced the Christmas tree as a counterbalance. 

The idea of a Christmas tree came to America in December of 1850 when Godey's magazine published a picture of Queen Victoria and her family standing around a small Christmas tree that was sitting on a table. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The Queen's husband, Prince Albert, was German, and Christmas trees had been part of the German holiday tradition for centuries. Prince Albert was merely introducing his kids to what had happened in his own childhood, but anything that happened in the British royal household was immediately covered by the British press, and anything that was in the British press was immediately covered in the United States. 

One year later, in 1851, a farmer in the Catskill Mountains paid a license fee of $1 to the City of New York and set up the first official sidewalk concession for the sale of Christmas trees. The greenery of the forests slipped into town and everybody loved it. The first set of electric Christmas lights went onto the tree of Edward Johnson, who just happened to be the Vice President of Thomas Edison's electric company in New York. The establishment of Edison's electric company, his light bulb factory and the acceptance of Christmas as a legal holiday all took place within a few years. Electric lights were more economical than candles because they could be reused for years and perhaps, even more important, they were much safer that the candle's open flame. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: For the same two reasons, money and safety, artificial trees became popular. During the 1890s, we began importing artificial trees from Germany that were made of goose feathers, and when the First World War cut off the supply from Germany, we began making them here in the United States. Today, Americans use more artificial trees than real ones, and some of the manufacturers offer them with the lights already attached to the branches. Just open the box and Christmas pops out. 

We think of F. W. Woolworth as the father of the five and dime store. But a big hunk of his fortune came as a Christmas gift. In 1880, he was wandering around the warehouse of a Philadelphia importer, looking for some really cheap toys to put in his store. The importer showed him a series of glass Christmas tree ornaments that he had imported from Germany. 

For hundreds of years, the German town of Lauscha had been a glass blowing center and, during the middle of the 1800s, began manufacturing glass Christmas tree ornaments in the shape of balls and reindeer. Woolworth thought the importer was whacko. The breakage during shipment would be enormous and if any of them got through in one piece, no one would know what to do with them anyway. The importer felt so strongly about the ornaments, he guaranteed the sale. If Woolworth didn't swell $25 worth, he'd get his money back. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The ornaments came into Woolworth's store just before Christmas and he put them out thinking, boy, am I wasting good retail space. Two days later, they were sold out. The next year, he stocked up even more and sold them out and more and more and more until he made $25 million on those little glass ornaments. And when the Second World War came along and put an end to trading with Germany, he taught the Corning Glass Works of Corning New York how to make the little Christmas tree ornaments and they didn't do badly, either. 

For a hundred years or so, a dominant image of Christmas in the United States has been Santa Claus. But who was Santa Claus before he hit the big time? During the fourth century, he was a bishop in what is now Turkey and he was famous for giving gifts to kids and dowries to young ladies who wanted to get married. He became a minor folk character in northern Europe, and arrived in New York City with the early Dutch settlers. 

The first important media exposure for Santa Claus came in the 1860s, when he showed up in a series of illustrations for Harper's Weekly. The artist was Thomas Nast. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: At the time, people were interested in the explorers who were heading to the North Pole and it was Nast who decided that Santa Claus lived at the North Pole. Nast's drawings showed him in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, big sacks of gifts behind him and stockings hung by the chimney with care. Nast got those ideas by the poem by Clement Moore called "A Visit From Santa Claus." And Moore got those ideas from Washington Irving, all of which is to say that our picture of Christmas started with the work of Washington Irving.

In 1931, Santa signed with Coca-Cola and has appeared in their holiday promotions ever since. And you thought Tiger Woods had a great agent! Santa in his present form is an American invention. The size of his stomach, his ruddy complexion, his fur-trimmed suit all speak to a national abundance. Santa stands there with a brand name product in his hand declaring that we are economically the richest nation in the world and proud of it. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: And clearly, Santa is running a major international business. He's got his own factory, has a very sophisticated labor force. One hundred and fifty years before Federal Express, he had an airborne delivery system in place. He's got to be one of the world's leading authorities on the not-for- profit business

and I heard he was planning an e-commerce site when his funding dried up.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Originally, Christmas presents were for little kids. They were stuffed into stockings - the presents, not the kids. If you were good, you found little toys inside. If you were bad, you found coal and sticks. My stockings when I was a kid contained lots of coal and lots of sticks and an occasional potato, but my mother never told me why she was putting them in there. I thought she was putting them in there because she knew I loved barbecue. It worked out really nicely.

The tree was the holder for the simple gifts that were light enough to hang from the tree; usually nuts, candies and dried fruits that were placed into homemade containers that hung from the branches. There were some situations, however, where size can have a significant impact and in ways you would never expect. Biltmore, being the largest private home in North America, has some of the largest rooms and, accordingly, one of the largest Christmas trees. A big tree with strong branches can hold bigger presents. Nice! When the presents got too big to hang from the tree, they started showing up under the tree, but they were still clearly visible. No packaging. What you saw is what you got.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: One of the most powerful forces to shape American industry was the War Between the States. Suddenly, the Union army was placing huge orders with manufacturers. We learned to mass produce. We even mass produced our Christmas presents.

During the 1860s, the first wrapped gifts showed up, always wrapped in plain paper held in place with ceiling wax or pins and later with string and tinsel cord. By the middle of the 1870s, everybody wrapped. Fancy wrapping paper arrived during the First World War, when Joyce Halls' little shop in Kansas City, Missouri, ran out of the solid color tissue and filled in with some French envelope lining paper that he used in his greeting card business. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: He sold out. Next year he bought some more and sold out again. So, he decided to start printing his own wrapping papers. Wanted a brand name. So he called it Hallmark. Some historians believe that the idea of wrapping a present is part of the Victorian passion for enclosing things, for disguising all intimacy, for holding off the anticipated. And, to tell you the truth, that's kind of a stretch for me. I tend to think a cigar is just a cigar. Nevertheless, 96 percent of all Christmas presents given in the United States are wrapped.

Perhaps the greatest single influence on Christmas dinner in the United States came from the meal described by Charles Dickens in "A Christmas Carol." He took the grand old family feast of the old English Christmas and downsized it for a single household. It became the perfect instructional manual for the American homemaker. In keeping with tradition, executive chef Steven Adams of Biltmore Estate, prepared a Christmas dinner. 

During the 1800s, Christmas began with oysters followed by a soup like pumpkin bisque. A fish course. Today, it's a side of gravlax cured in salt, sugar, dill, lots of black pepper and a little Cognac and Grand Marnier. Next, sweetbreads or pâté. And the roasted meat course. In the hierarchy of cooking, roasting has the most prestige. It is the technique of choice for festivals and special occasions. Steven is serving a leg of lamb stuffed with pine nuts and basil. After the roasted lamb, the roasted game arrives. Goose stuffed with onions in fresh sage and garnished with cranberries and cipollini onions. And the salad course, made up of fresh spinach, candied pecans, apple-smoked bacon and fresh citrus. All of this was washed down with Roman punch or mold wine. Guests were then offered cheese and fruit; Brie, Stilton and roasted pears that have been flavored with vanilla beans. And finally, dessert; a black walnut pie with a little sweet cream, plum pudding and English trifle. Nuts are often part of the Christmas meal. They represent the puzzle of life. You must work hard to get inside and discover the real value. 

In keeping with George Vanderbilt's original vision of an estate that was commercially productive, Biltmore has developed a winery. Settlers in North Carolina had been growing grapes and making wine as far back as colonial times, and this is very much in keeping with local tradition. Today, almost 60,00 vines thrive on the sloping acres of the western portion of the estate. Biltmore even dug its own lake next to the vineyards. The water creates a pocket of warmth near the vines and helps protect the young buds from late spring frosts. The estate cultivates Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot for their red wines and Chardonnay and Riesling for their whites and sparkling wines. And each year they produce a special wine for Christmas. The tasting rooms have more visitors than any other winery in North America. 

And visiting was very much part of George Vanderbilt’s plan for Biltmore. When the estate opened on Christmas Eve of 1895 it was filled with guests. His relatives and friends would often come for extended visits. And during those visits everything was done to make them feel completely at home. By June of 1900 Vanderbilt was thinking about building a hotel on the property. It took a hundred years for the idea to become a reality, but during the spring of 2001 the Inn at Biltmore Estate opened to the public. Documents in Biltmore’s archives indicate that the hotel was to be built on a hill and that is precisely what was done. It sits just above the winery with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Decedents of George Vanderbilt oversaw the design and construction of the Inn and their objective was to reproduce the type of gracious American resort that was available during the 1890’s.

Since 1986, Braidstream has been performing at Biltmore Estate. The music is heard throughout the house and especially at Christmas time. Paul Ghost Horse is on cello, Rita Hayes plays the flute, Donna Germano on Hammered Dulcimer, Jeff Johnson on guitar and David Cohen on percussion. They're playing “The Dance of the Burgermeister." 

Some people feel that the stack of gifts under the tree has turned Christmas into a national festival of consumption.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: But I disagree. Christmas is the story of Christ - God giving his only child as a gift to humanity. And all we're doing is following the example by giving gifts to the people we love and the neediest of our fellow men. The United States is the most successful industrial society in the world, and there's no reason for us to be ashamed of our commercial ability. There's just a need for us to share. From the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, I'm Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Getting Ready for Christmas at Biltmore Estate - #306

BURT WOLF: Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, is the largest private home in North America. It was put together by George W. Vanderbilt in the late 1800s. George was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. At one time Cornelius was the wealthiest man in the world and the family’s sense of grandeur is clearly visible throughout the estate. The original property covered 125,000 acres. George planted those acres with a working forest and a wooded park. He also directed the planting of five gardens and the construction of 30 miles of roadway.

When Vanderbilt purchased the land the forest had been cut down and the hills were covered with overworked farms. In the very beginning Vanderbilt wanted an estate that was commercially productive and that is precisely what he ended up with. The land produced fruits, vegetables, grain crops, meat, dairy products and honey. The forest supplied 3,000 cords of firewood. Biltmore had its own lumber mill. And the nursery grew five million plants and became one of the most important nurseries in the country. George introduced innovative farming techniques to the region. And helped found the first institute for scientific forestry in America. 

These days the land is under the care of Bill Alexander, who is the landscape curator for Biltmore estate.

BILL ALEXANDER ON CAMERA: Well, Mr. Vanderbilt was wise enough to hire America's premiere landscape architect at the time, Frederick Law Olmstead to advise him on how to manage his lands and bring them back to their former self.

BILL ALEXANDER: You know, Olmstead's plan for the estate was greater than just creating gardens and the immediate grounds around the house. He really began with the entrance to the estate. And Olmstead wanted the approach to the house to be really an emotional experience. During its entire three mile winding drives through lush forests and beside streams and pools he wanted to control the view to close at hand. And he wanted to introduce the element of mystery and anticipation as one traveled up the road ... not wondering what to see at the end. And then when the traveler rounded that last bend ... wham ... you know, there was this really ... surprise ... this delightful shock of the chateau with its orderly esplanade and lawns and avenue of trees. And it wasn't until one passed actually through the house ... or out of these terraces that you got a grasp of this grand panorama of the beautiful open park ... the river valley and the mountains beyond. Below the house and below the terrace is ... were a series of different gardens ... which were in a sense enclosed ... so that one could appreciate in its own self. 

BILL ALEXANDER ON CAMERA: And Olmstead wanted from this view of the house and the terrace to look out and have a really unim ... uninterrupted view of the beauty of the forest and the hills and the mountains beyond.

BURT WOLF: The main house has 250 rooms that cover four acres of floor space. There are 34 family and guest bedrooms each in a different style. Some are based on the works of famous English furniture designers. This room shows the designs of Thomas Chippendale who worked during the 1700s. You can always spot Chippendale's furniture because he loved carved legs that ended in claws. My grandmother had a Chippendale chair and it always scared the heck out of me. There are 43 bathrooms with hot and cold running water. In Asheville the idea of turning on a tap and suddenly having hot water was revolutionary. The house was equipped with three kitchens. The main kitchen was the center of activity. There was also a rotisserie kitchen with a wood-burning oven and a mechanized rotary spit with an adjustable speed gauge. The pastry kitchen produced the breads, cakes and pies. An indoor swimming pool held 70,000 gallons of water. Much of which had been heated in Biltmore's boilers. There were underwater lights and a diving platform. Fitness was coming into fashion so Vanderbilt included a gym. It was used primarily by the men. They had Indian clubs that were used to improve hand eye coordination ... and early change of a rowing machine ... and barbells. Bowling was brought to America in the 1600s by the Dutch ... and since Georgia's ancestors were Dutch ... and arrived in the 1600s ... it was only fitting that he installed a two lane bowling alley. Biltmore also has 65 fireplaces ... including one that is slightly larger than my first apartment. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: During the 1880s Asheville became a popular health resort. People came here to enjoy the mineral springs ... the fresh air ... and the mild climate. Not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter. In 1888 George Vanderbilt came here for a vacation and decided that this was the place to build his home. He'd been visiting the estates in Europe and admired those giant estates with country farms that made the property self-sustaining. He named his place Biltmore. Bildt was the name of the town where his family came from in Holland and More is an old English word that means rolling hills.

BURT WOLF: George hired Richard Morris Hunt, a famous architect at the time, to design the building. And Frederick Law Olmstead to take care of the surrounding land. Olmstead had become famous as the landscape architect for New York’s Central Park. Hunt modeled the main structure after the French chateau of the Loire Valley that had been built during the 1500s. The house looked old but behind the walls was the most advanced technology. Central heating ... central plumbing ... electricity ... mechanical refrigerators ... fire alarms ... and elevators. Very new stuff for the time.

For decades Rick King as been studying the story of Biltmore.

RICK KING: This is the library which was one of Mr. Vanderbilt's favorite rooms. He was very much a bibliophile. When his father built his house in New York City it was very important that the press and the public know about this house. So they had a media tour, if you will. 

RICK KING ON CAMERA: The press went through Mr. Vanderbilt's house and when they got to George's room the one thing they commented on was the walls were all covered in bookshelves and books were everywhere. And it's obvious that he very much loved books. In fact, Mr. Vanderbilt could read and write in eight different languages. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: How did Mr. Vanderbilt come to Asheville?

RICK KING ON CAMERA: Well, interesting thing about Asheville ... prior to the war between the states not many people came here ... other than some Southern planters from Charleston, would come up in the summer time. But after the war they finally got around to building a railroad to Asheville, North Carolina ...and a lot of people felt that the mountain air was good for people who had tuberculosis. So people came here for their health. And what would happen is people would come to visit them. So there needed to be inns ... hotels ... boarding houses had to be built. And then the word spread. And then soon people who weren't sick started coming here just to visit for its own sake. And it got to be a very, very popular tourist resort town. Mr. Vanderbilt and his mother used to come here quite a bit.

RICK KING ON CAMERA: And also while he would like to horseback riding and riding around one day, he decided that he would like to have a house in this area. And it started out ... his initial plans were really kind of a small southern house ... you know, really quite small 'til it started expanding to a small place ...

to a larger place. He wasn't married when he started building the house. Mrs. Vanderbilt who came with him was his mother.

RICK KING ON CAMERA: And she was his in fact his hostess when he first opened the house for a Christmas party in 1895. It wasn't 'til 1897 that Mr. Vanderbilt married. And he married in Paris.

BURT WOLF: The construction crews moved out and George Vanderbilt moved in just in time to celebrate the Christmas of 1895. Christmas became the most important event on the Biltmore calendar. And today Biltmore House is the ideal place to take a look at the traditional American Christmas. Almost everything we think of is part of Christmas. The tree ... the trimmings ... the presents ... Santa Claus ... the foods and drinks ... all of it came into our culture in the years just before and just after George Vanderbilt came here to live. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Christmas is about remembering your past. The sound of sleigh bells ... the smell of pine needles. The taste of gingerbread. Toys trains and little villages and you thought you could control. It reminds us of the time when we believed all of our dreams could come true. We celebrate Christmas at the coldest and darkest time of the year ... and the fields are completely baron. 

As a result, on of the messages that Christmas sends is no matter how dark and how cold it looks now ... warmth, light and growth will return.  And one of the ways that message is sent is with the greenery used to decorate the home.  Cathy Barnhardt is Biltmore Estate's floral supervisor.

CATHY BARNHARDT: This is the winter garden of Biltmore House and this is very typical houses at the turn of the century. It was a way to bring the outdoors indoors, especially in the cold dark days of winter.

BURT WOLF: Beautiful room.

CATHY BARNHARDT: It is a great room. It was used socially for the Vanderbilts. They had, parties in here ... they would greet guests in here.  Mrs. Vanderbilt would welcome guests to her home here in the winter garden and then offer tea.  I'm sure it was very much used on a routine basis when the Vanderbilts were here and Biltmore House.  Of course we have the winter garden decorated for Christmas right now.   We have very typical Christmas plants in here, and some maybe that aren't so typical.  Poinsettia - I think most people can identify as Christmas. The poinsettia has bright red bracts and the small yellow pieces here in the center represent the Crown of Thorns for Christ and the bracts are the blood of Christ.  So that is where the Christian symbolism comes into using poinsettias in your home and church.

BURT WOLF: They're not native to America, are they?

CATHY BARNHARDT: No, they were collected in 1829 by Joel Poinsette who was the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.  And of course in Mexico poinsettias are just roadside weeds, they grow everywhere.  But quite exotic at that time.  This is an Olmstead basket which is a miniature garden in a basket.

BURT WOLF: And it's named after the garden architect Frederick Olmstead?

CATHY BARNHARDT: Yes - Frederick Law Olmstead was the landscape designer for Biltmore Estate. And it has all those little garden elements in it.  As well as traditional plants but I especially like to use the twigs. And again there's a little symbolic reason to use the twig. Do you see the buds about to burst open?  So you know that spring is coming - there’s renewal there.  Another plant typical of the turn of the century decorating is ivy.  I like to use that one at Christmas time because of its symbolism as well. It was used in ancient times to protect from evil spirits.  Ivy planted around the house and growing up over the cottage protects the inhabitants from evil spirits. And then the Christian belief takes it a step further and talks about the strength of ivy because once it does cling to something it doesn't let go.  So that strength ... that fidelity ... that belief is reflected in the ivy.

BURT WOLF: I am going to plant ivy this spring and ... 

CATHY BARNHARDT: Protect yourself and be strong.  Another plant typically found in winter gardens, otherwise known as palm courts are palms. We have several varieties here in the winter garden.  This is a fan palm ... we have eureka ... fish tails ... lots of different textures of greenery.

BURT WOLF: And they're also associated with Christ?

CATHY BARNHARDT: They certainly were. That's another nice tradition that we can tie in with Christmas, we all think about palm fronds being laid at Christ's feet on Palm Sunday and that represented humility and also honor for Christ.

BURT WOLF: So all of the plants in this room, besides being beautiful plants have additional meaning that relate to Christmas?

CATHY BARNHARDT: Yes.  Many, many of the plants that we use do relate right back to Christmas.  And I think it's important that we here at Biltmore try to hold onto those traditions.  We may not convey to every guest what those traditions are. But I think that it's important that we keep putting it out there so people think about it.

During the coldest and darkest days of winter ancient German tribes would gather evergreen branches and make them into wreaths as an expression of hope that spring would soon return.  Christian society kept the activity.  And associated it with overcoming the forces of winter and darkness. In ancient Rome a decorative wreath was a sign of victory which for Christian Europe became a symbol of victory over the darkness and the sorrows of life.associated it with overcoming the forces of winter and darkness. In ancient Rome a decorative wreath was a sign of victory which for Christian Europe became a symbol of victory over the darkness and the sorrows of life.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: We're not really sure how the images we associate with Christmas in America took hold ... but it seems to me there are four guides in this deal. The first is the American author, Washington Irving ... thanks to Walt Disney Irving is most famous for his Tale of the Headless Horseman ... and the Story of Rip Van Winkle.

But in 1820, Irving wrote a story with a detailed description of an old fashioned Christmas. People loved the images of Christmas that were presented in Irving's story. And over 20 years later in 1843 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol ...which included a lot of the stuff that came from Irving's story. During the Christmas season of 1867 Dickens toured the United States reading A Christmas Carol to huge audiences. Over 10,000 people showed up in Boston. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Clearly Dickens had the better PR agent. But the imagery in both those stories was exactly what the American public needed at the time. Christmas as a national holiday was quite new ... and the descriptions in Dickens and Irving ... connected what was happening here with the older traditions in England. And that was cool. 

During the 1880s newspapers, magazines and books were filled with stories saying nice things about the materialism of the American Christmas. It looked back to the opulence of Christmas in old England and claimed that if it was good enough for them it was okay for us. Undoubtedly, George Vanderbilt was aware of these attitudes and reflected them in his own home. The two other guys that gave American Christmas its present look were illustrators. J.C. Leyendecker took his inspiration from Irving's description of the ceremonies of ye olde English Christmas. And finally there was Norman Rockwell. Who referenced the Christmas of Charles Dickens. 

Christmas ... like all festivals ... is different from every day life ... and when you eat food that are only eaten at a particular festival ... it makes the occasion even more special. And that is especially true at Christmas. A perfect example is the Christmas pudding. It shows up once a year and is packed with information. A traditional Christmas pudding contains 13 ingredients representing Christ and His disciples. When you light the brandy that is poured over the pudding the flame represents Christ's passion. While a garnish of holly is a reminder of his Crown of Thorns. Stollen is a Christmas specialty that comes from Germany. It is a rich yeast bread filled with dried fruits, nuts, raisins and lemon. And topped with powdered sugar. It originated in Dresden, Germany during the 1300s. Mincemeat is a Christmas staple ... a rich blend of fruit, nuts, spices and brandy or rum. It's used in pies, tarts and puddings. At Biltmore it becomes a filling for turnovers. Christmas is also cookie time. And baking them is a perfect way of getting kids into the business of preparing for Christmas. The cookies can also be given a special role as decorations on the tree. Every country has its own selection of cookies for Christmas. Another gastronomic tradition associated with Christmas is the gingerbread house. Ginger's an ancient spice that originated in Asia. During the middle ages it was the second most popular spice right after black pepper. And during the 1500s bakers began adding it to breads and cookies. German bakers loved it ... and the city of Nuremberg became the gingerbread capital of the world. The town's sculptors, wood carvers and goldsmiths began forming the gingerbread into hearts, angels, men, animals and houses. The beverage of choice is often eggnog. Eggnog is related to a series of drinks made from milk and wine that go back for hundreds of years. When wine and milk drinks arrived in colonial America we dropped the wine and replaced it with rum. Rum drinks were called grog and some historians believe that this particular recipe was known as egg and grog. Which eventually became eggnog. 

Almost everything associated with Christmas is about remembering. One of the most powerful triggers for memory is music. Accordingly, the Christmas season at Biltmore Estate is filled with music. The winter garden was often used for musical presentations by the Vanderbilts ... and during my visit the room was being used by Rita Hayes who was playing a flute and Donna Germano who's specialty is the Celtic harp. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In 1897, eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon, the daughter of a New York City doctor, wrote to a local newspaper and asked, “was there really a Santa Claus”? Francis Church, a correspondent for the paper, answered with is famous column, “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”. The column recommended that Americans be generous of spirit, love their fellow man, and even in the darkest days of winter trust that the sun, which was also the name the newspaper, would return. It recommends that we all have a positive vision of the future. From Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, I'm Burt Wolf.

He sprang to his sleigh ... to his team gave a whistle ... and away they all flew like the down of the thistle. But I heard him explain as he drove out of site ... Merry Christmas to all ... and to all a goodnight.

Travels & Traditions: Zurich, Switzerland - #305

AIRLINE PILOTS VOICES: First of all, there were trees established. 

MAN: (Inaudible) 0-3 speed. Contact tower (Inaudible) 2-2. (Inaudible) touching down 7-5-7 is a heavy aircraft (Inaudible)

MAN: First of all, I'm on (Inaudible)

BURT WOLF: Most travelers coming to Switzerland arrive at the Zurich Airport, which has actually been designed to meet the needs of the passengers. Amazing. A flier-friendly terminal. This is Swissair's hometown. So if you're flying with them, you'll see a number of unusual services that I have never seen before.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Let's say I had just taken a flight from New York to Zurich, which, in fact, I just did. And while I was on the plane, I realized there would be no food in the apartment I'd be using in Zurich. So I told the air concierge what I wanted. And she ordered it. And when I hit the ground in Zurich, the ground concierge was there waiting with what I wanted.

GROUND CONCIERGE ON CAMERA: Hello, Mr. Wolf. Here's your chocolate and Swiss Mountain cheese.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Thank you!

GROUND CONCIERGE ON CAMERA: You're welcome.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: And the charge goes on my credit card. My favorite in-flight story is about a guy on a Swissair flight from New York to Zurich who spills red wine on his white shirt, and then gets stressed out because he's supposed to go directly from the airport to a very important meeting. The air concierge sees what's going on, and asks him the shirt size, the maker, and notes the color. And when he arrives in Zurich, they have the exact same shirt ... brand new ... waiting for him.

BURT WOLF: The ground concierge service is available from 5 A.M. to 11 P.M. 

They're multilingual and will try to help you with any problem you have.

They will also direct you to the Allegra Arrival Lounge, where you can take a shower.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Do you mind?!

BURT WOLF: Nap in a relaxation room. Pick up a newspaper. Have a bite to eat. And send a fax back to your office telling them that you've decided to live in the Zurich Airport and to please forward your mail. And if you're flying first or business class, or if you have a Swissair electronic ticket, they'll give you a smart car free for 24 hours. A smart car is like a Swatch on steroids. So what if it can only fit your carry-on luggage. Nothing's perfect.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: But the Swiss travel system is getting close. I purchased a Swiss pass in the United States, which allows me to use trains, buses and boats without additional charge all over Switzerland. The air-rail link between Zurich Airport and downtown Zurich takes ten minutes and runs six times an hour. You arrive in town at Zurich’s main station. This is the nation's central rail hub and trains leave at least once every hour for every part of Switzerland. All direct trains arrive during the ten minutes before the hour and depart during the ten minutes after the hour. Very structured, very dependable, very easy. 

BURT WOLF: The place to start your tour of Zurich is the place where Zurich got started. This is the Lindenhof Hill. It has an excellent view of the point where Lake Zurich narrows into the Limmat River, which is why the ancient Romans set up a fort here in 15 B.C. By 200 A.D. it was an important Roman trading post. Wine, olive oil, spices and pottery were the main commercial goods. But there also appears to have been a business based on cosmetics, jewelry and low-mileage used chariots. A few blocks up the river from Lindenhof is Fraumunster Church. It's Zurich's oldest building. Originally a Romanesque basilica, during the 800's it became a convent used by noble families from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Often it was under the control of an imperial princess who ruled over the convent, the town of Zurich, and the state of Uri. In 1524, the last princess in charge, Katarina von Zimmern, gave the convent to the City Council who was busy supporting Zwingli, who was busy supporting the Protestant Reformation. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Central to the ideas being promoted by Zwingli and the other Swiss reformers, was a simpler lifestyle. Conservative clothing was required, especially in church. At one point, however, very wide dresses became fashionable but not with the church fathers. 

BURT WOLF: Accordingly, a narrow gate was erected just in front of the entrance to the building. A woman's dress had to pass through the arch without hitting the sides before she could enter the church. Excuse me, please step aside. Take off your excess vanity and go through the gate again. These days, many of the visitors to Fraumunster, vanity intact, come here to see the famous stain-glass windows. In 1968, 83-year-old Marc Chagall designed these works. 

I love art but I need a break. Let's go for coffee.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to drink a cup of coffee in the center of a bouquet of flowers, you might consider some form of therapy, or just stop into the Cafe Schober. Schober opened during the 1860's as a bakery. Today it is one of Zurich's most beloved coffee houses and is always decorated with thousands of flowers. People come here throughout the day for a hot chocolate, a cup of coffee, and a slice of cake. The traditional kugelhopf is their best-seller. But the silky cheesecake runs a close second. And on the way out, you can take home a thin slab of their homemade, picture-perfect chocolate. And if the occasion demands, one of their magnificent birthday cakes. Schober is in the center of Zurich's Old Town, which is on the river's right bank. It's one of the most picturesque parts of Zurich and the perfect place for a morning walk. 

The Limmat River runs right through the center of town. If you're looking down river, the Lindenhof Hill and the Fraumunster Church are on the Left Bank. The Old Town, and the Grossmunster Church are on the Right Bank. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Felix and Regula, the patron saints of Zurich, they were members of a Roman legion but they were also Christian! Not a good thing. So in 300 A.D., they escaped to Zurich, where they were caught and beheaded on a small island in the river, at which point they got up, picked up their heads, walked up to the embankment, and sat down on a hill where they wanted to be buried. 

The Grossmunster Church was erected on top of their graves. The doors on the south side of the church illustrate the life of Zwingli. In 1519, Zwingli officially started the Protestant Reformation in Zurich and preached in this church. Eventually, he was able to abolish celibacy for priests, religious processions, and non-biblical heroes whose images he removed from the building. He was also able to put an end to the business of selling indulgences. And what a business that was, too. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: You could be a horrible person throughout your entire life, but if at the very end of it, you made a whopping donation to the Church, they would forgive you and promise to make arrangements for you to have preferential treatment in the afterlife.

Zwingli's reforms changed Zurich. The Church became more responsive to the needs of the population. The flavor of the Reformation can still be found in Zurich's culture. For centuries Zurich did not have a central market. Vendors preferred streets with shops that dealt in specific goods. Neumarkt was one of those streets. 

The most dramatic building on Neumarkt is Grimmenturm, which means sourpuss, a reference to the old owner. The original construction of its central tower began in the 1100's. For many years, the front room was a beer hall. 

In 1997, it was taken over by Thomas Sos who turned it into a fashionable restaurant. Thomas was with the Four Seasons Hotels in the United States. Zurich, however, is his hometown and he needed to come back. He also needed to feed us two dishes that are considered local specialties ... breaded veal, with hand-cut French fries, and minced veal in a cream sauce with rosti, the ultimate home-fried potatoes. You can walk off some of those calories by heading over the river and paying a visit to Bahnhofstrasse. 

Bahnhofstrasse is Zurich's big-time shopping street and considered to be one of the most fashionable in Europe. Half a mile of stores. Just off the street is Peterhofstatt, one of the oldest squares in the city and one of the most beautiful. At the center of the square is St. Peter's Church, which was built during the 800's. Until 1950, the town watchman would sit in the cornered windows beneath the pointed roof, and report on any problems. Mostly they reported on fires.

BURT WOLF: But as the centuries passed, they also considered announcements on local traffic. St. Peter's is famous for having one of the largest clock faces in Europe. It's over 28 feet in diameter. It's the only Baroque church in Zurich, but Baroque here is not very flashy. Just a few swirls here and there. St. Peter's may have the largest clock but Turler has the most complex. 

FRANZ TURLER: Here you see the clock indicating the hours, the day, the months and the years. 

BURT WOLF: In 1986, Franz Turler, the fourth generation of a Swiss watch making family, conceived the idea for the most complex clock ever made and became the financial and spiritual force behind its construction. It took nine years to build. And went into operation in the Turler shop on June 21st, 1995. The clock has five master movements. The first is the solar system showing the movements of the planets around the sun. The second displays the relationship of the Earth, sun and moon, which dictate our days, months and years. The third is the global movement. A view of the universe as we see it. The Earth at the center, then the moon revolving around us ... the sun moving around the Earth, the stars. Each point in the universe can be read in this system and it will take 25,794 years, which is called a platonic year, to complete its movement. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The manufacturer of the clock has guaranteed the parts during that time period. But let me tell you ... I know these guys. And if you have a problem after the 25,794-year guarantee runs out, you just come back with your proof of purchase and I'm sure they'll do a great job for you. 

The fourth panel shows the movement around us from a fixed point on Earth. The skyline of Zurich is etched on to the front of the clock. It's based on the actual view from the top of a building in the center of town. We can see the angle of the sun and the moon in relation to the true horizon. When the sun is at its highest point over the city, the golden orb on the clock will also be at its zenith. Because the time on our clocks and watches is a compromise with celestial time, the clock on St. Peter's only reads 11:35, even though the sun is directly overhead. The fifth face shows seconds, minutes, hours, days and months. Good to see a familiar face. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: And because I have checked the angle of Pluto, and its relationship to the Earth, incorporated that information in my new understanding of the platonic year, and checked the angle of the sun over the center of Zurich, plus I looked at my watch. I know it's time to scoot across town.

And meet up with the inventor of the modern scooter. Wim Ouboter was a banker interested in micro-mobility, which is just a techie way of saying he wanted to get around on small things. And the small thing he wanted to get around on was the first modern mini-scooter. 

WIM: The first time I had the idea of the mini-scooter was in 1991, and I showed it to my friends and they were laughing at me because they think how can you do this…you're a banker. Why you want to make scooters. So I put it into the cellar. And a few years later, some kids in the neighborhood, they have seen this first prototype, and they were riding around and my wife said there's something about it, because sometimes we have 15 kids riding around. It must be something special about this scooter. Maybe you ... you should give it a try. So at one point, we were making 80,000 pieces a day. The production was running full speed. It's really popular because it's ... it's a practical vehicle because of its portable mobility, you can take it with you.

It only takes a few step and you're on the move. 

BURT WOLF: Besides being creative, Wim is also a serious eater and it was his desire to avoid walking the 20 minutes to his favorite sausage stand that caused him to develop the original scooter. 

The place is called Vorderer Sternen and it's everyone's favorite sausage stand. And Wim was right. When you're hungry 20 minutes is too long to get to this place. It's so small that you could easily miss it were it not for the crowd of people that are always standing in front. The hot sausage here is St. Galler bratwurst, which is served on a piece of parchment paper. 

It's great. Wow.

MAN: Yes. Very good. Oops!

BURT WOLF: The burli roll is picked up separately. This is Zurich's official bread roll and shows up here as well as in the city's most formal restaurants. Mustard comes in a little cup and you can pick up a beer at the back bar. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Protocol requires you to hold the sausage in one hand. If you use mustard, you dip it in and take a bite. The other hand is used for holding the bread and you follow the bite of the sausage with the bite of the bread, and then a drink of the beer, if you're drinking beer. And you can alternate the beer and the bread with the right hand, but you must never ever let go of the sausage. That's important to know. 

For dessert, you might like to have an ice cream cone from a Movenpick stand. Movenpick is a large corporation in the hotel, restaurant and resort business. But for most Swiss, their reputation rests on their ice cream. They make over 300 different flavors, and your first taste will quickly remind you that the operative word here is cream. The butterfat content of this stuff is intense. And so's the flavor. 

A few blocks away is the restaurant Kropf. The building dates to 1444. The restaurant, which is an official landmark, came along exactly 444 years later in 1888. The paintings along the walls are there to remind you of the various gastronomic pleasures available. Drink wine ... drink beer ... eat fish ... eat meat ... try truffles ... taste tart. Party!! 

A truly unusual environment and the place to have some of the down-home traditional dishes of Zurich. Danke. My main course is farmer's ham, chunky potato salad and sauerkraut. And for dessert, sugared apple fritters with a vanilla sauce. 

For a more formal setting, stop into the Kronenhalle which started out as a beer hall. In 1920, Hulda Zumsteg and her husband bought the place and turned it into a distinguished restaurant. Hulda’s son, Gustav, collected art. And when he ran out of space at home, he started bringing it into the restaurant. There are works by Braque, Matisse, Chagall, Soutine, and Míro. Regular patrons book their table according to the art they want to be near. 

Verena Gerhartz, Hulda’s granddaughter, is the restaurant's official hostess. We had dinner together, splitting an appetizer of white asparagus with a mustard hollandaise sauce, followed by beef stroganoff. And for dessert, chocolate mousse. 

There's at least one other gastronomic landmark that should be included as you eat your way across Zurich and that's Sprungli In 1836, David Sprungli and his son Rudolf, opened their shop. They made candies, cookies, chocolates, and cakes. About 20 years later, they moved to this spot in the center of town because they heard that the new train station would be built nearby. It never happened. But the neighborhood turned out to be the center of the banking district. So they opened a cafe. It was one of the first places in Zurich where women could dine in public without being accompanied by a man. And it's still very popular.

These days they produce over 2,000 different items. The single best-seller is called Luxemburgerli. Two small rounds of meringue with a flavored buttercream in between. They go through a thousand pounds of these every day. They also have a box with their top ten chocolates, another with mini-versions of the top ten. And their packaging is fabulous. 

Some of it reflects what's going on in town each month, like their reproductions of the bench art that's being displayed in the streets. They also produce a truffle of the day, which is only made and sold on that day. They believe that certain things must be enjoyed the same day you encounter them. Let me tell you, I completely agree. 

While I was in Zurich, I stayed at a Steigenberger Hotel, which is part of a group of 80 hotels throughout Europe. The one in Zurich is called the Bellerive Au Lac. The building was put up in 1928 as a department house for the wealthier residents of the city. It's on the edge of the downtown area and right on the lake. 

BURT WOLF: During the 1990's, it was turned into a top flight hotel. The decor is based on the furniture of the 1920's, but the technology is up to the minute. As a matter of fact, that is the main theme of the hotel. Old world luxury on the outside, modern efficiency underneath. The furniture has the look of the twenties, but in each room there's a high-speed DSL computer connection.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: When I first heard about the Bellerive Au Lac, I heard that it was a great place for people traveling on business. But while I was here, I noticed a couple of families with small children. And the children had settled in and were having a great time. I realized that when a hotel is organized for ease of use and comfort, it works as well for kids as it does for corporations. It only has 51 rooms and suites, which makes it a manageable size and allows the management to give individual attention to the guests.

My suite had a beautiful view of the water and the mountains. And along with the bed, bath, dining room and living room, there was a Jacuzzi, a private sauna, and a private roof-top terrace with a 360-degree view of the city and the surrounding countryside. 

They have a bar with a piano player that will help you forget the stress of the day. And an elegant restaurant that overlooks the lake. The Bellerive Au Lac, like many European hotels, includes breakfast as part of your daily rate. It's an excellent buffet with everything from fresh fruit, cereal and yogurt, to smoked salmon, and sweet rolls. Remember from a nutritional point of view, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So live it up! In the same way that

Americans name hurricanes, the Swiss name the great storms that cross over Europe. In 1999, a monster storm named Lothar ripped its way across Switzerland. One result was the destruction of thousands of trees. 

The government of Zurich saw the trees as a source of lumber and decided to use them in the cause of public art. The undertaking became known as the Bench Art Program. One thousand and seventy benches were created and set up throughout the city. Each was funded by a local company, or individual, and created by a local artist. Some of them are quite fantastic. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: This kind of light-hearted public art goes back to the early nineties when the shopkeepers on the main shopping street commissioned local artists to produce large lions. The lion is the symbol of the city of Zurich. In 1998, they traded the lions in for cows and the cow project was so successful that it was exported to New York and Chicago.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Well, that's all the time we have for our visit to Zurich. I hope you've enjoyed it. And I hope if you have a second, you'll watch us next time. For TRAVELS & TRADITIONS, I'm Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: California's Gold Country - #304

BURT WOLF: Millions of years, ago the tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean banged into the tectonic plate under what is now California.  The Pacific plate began to slide under the California plate.  They also started grinding against each other which produced a great deal of heat, pressure, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and a series of volcanoes that sent mineral-filled rock to the surface.  And one of the minerals in those rocks was gold.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The discovery of gold in California changed the history of California.  But it also changed the destiny of the United States.  By today's standards about $50 billion worth of gold was taken out of California and it supplied much of the funds necessary for the federal government to conduct the War Between the States.

BURT WOLF: The gold also became a major reason to build a Transcontinental Railroad which united the eastern and western parts of the nation and opened the West to settlement in commerce.  The federal government was so eager to get California into the union that it was the only state in the nation that never went through a period as a territory.  It grew so fast and was so important that Washington told it to just come on in.  Such is the power of gold.  And the story of that gold centers in and around the City of Sacramento. About 90 miles north of San Francisco and 90 miles inland from the Pacific Coast the Sacramento area was always a key transportation point because it's the spot where the American River joins up with the Sacramento River and flows out to the Pacific Ocean.  San Francisco Bay gets a lot of press but it's really just the mouth of the Sacramento River.

In 1848, California was mostly wilderness with a non-Indian population of about 14,000.  The land had just been acquired by the United States is part of the settlement of the Mexican-American War.  A few hundred settlers from the East drag their wagons in each year and that was pretty much it.  But the discovery of gold changed everything.  Within three years the population exploded from 14,000 to 225,000.  People came from all over the world in search of gold, gold that was first discovered at Sutter's Mill.  Sutter was a Swiss store clerk and military reservist by trade.  He left Switzerland to avoid debtor's prison and traveled through the United States, Alaska and Hawaii.

In 1839, he made a deal with the Mexican governor of California and established the first permanent colony in California's Central Valley.  It was called New Switzerland and it was to be his utopian agricultural community.  As Sutter's dream expanded so did his need for construction materials.  In 1847 he partnered with James Marshall to build a lumber mill on the American River.  In January of 1848 Marshall was checking the mill's tail race, the troth where the water passes out of the mill when he spotted a nugget of gold about the size of a pea.  He brought it to Sutter who confirmed that it was indeed a hunk of gold.  They were excited by the discovery of gold but tried to keep it a secret until they could secure legal title to the land, but unfortunately they never did.

Miners soon began arriving and panning for gold.  The site where it was originally found is known as the Gold Discovery State Park and it was part of the town of Coloma, about an hour's drive from downtown Sacramento, and about 150 years back in time.  Randy Everhart is a ranger at the park and an authority on panning.  If you go to pan for gold, the first thing you've got to do is get your gear together, what the miners called the grub stake.  And the place to do that is Frank Bekeart’s trade store. Frank's opened in 1849 just after the discovery of gold and it hasn't changed much.

BURT WOLF: Hi.

MAN: Hi, how you doin'?

BURT WOLF: Pretty good.

MAN: Hi.

MAN: How ya doin'? 

WOMAN: Very nice to meet you.

MAN: I brought you a sucker- ... I mean, a ... a green horn.

MAN: Good, we need one tomorrow.

BURT WOLF: Make me feel very secure.

All right, what do I need to go panning for gold?

MAN: Well, we better start you off with a hat.

MAN: Hat (Overlap)

MAN: ... canyons get hot.

BURT WOLF: Yeah, what's that made out of?

MAN: That's coyote.

BURT WOLF: Coyote, my favorite.  Okay.  And, uh, it's my size too, I lucked out.

MAN: Good pocket knife.

BURT WOLF: Pocket knife.

What do I use that for?

MAN: Well, you can use it for cutting some kindling.

BURT WOLF: Kindling, good.  Okay.

MAN: Cut that.

BURT WOLF: Good.

MAN: This here you might want to keep for grizzly bears.

BURT WOLF: More grizzlies, okay.

MAN: More grizzlies.

BURT WOLF: Ha, interesting.  Grizzlies seem to be a thing around here.

MAN: Now, here's what you come for.  You gotta have a gold pan.

BURT WOLF: A gold pan, also good for stir frying.

MAN: Here's your gold poke.  Has about one day's take there, you should be able to fill that.

BURT WOLF: Okay, right.

MAN: There's a nugget to show you what it's gonna look like.

BURT WOLF: Oh, so that's what I'll be looking for?  Ah, mighty interesting.

MAN: Better give him a grub sack for his food.

BURT WOLF: A sack where my food goes in?

MAN: You bet. 

BURT WOLF: Mm-hm.

MAN: All right. 

MAN: Unless you end up carrying

BURT WOLF: So, what do I owe you?

MAN: Oh, about $3,000.

BURT WOLF: Okay.  Put it on my credit card?

MAN: Sure can.

MAN: Ah, only take gold.

BURT WOLF: Gold.  Should have known that.  There you go.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Nice thing about shopping at Bekearts is if you don't do so well in the creek they'll sell you this little bottle with gold already in it, so when you get home you have something to show while you tell the story of the incredible hardships you went through while searching for wealth beyond your wildest dreams, you know what I mean?

RANDY EVERHART ON CAMERA: You know, back in the original days miners had to do 50 pans of this size every day in order to make our quota, that was in order to recover enough gold to pay for their expenses.  And it was a lot of hard work.  The miners would have to stand in this icy cold water, hot sun beating down on their back.  Normally they would take and excavate somewhere else and fill their pans with a shovel ...  BURT WOLF: Right.

RANDY EVERHART: ... but today we're just gonna scoop up some stuff here.

BURT WOLF: Okay.

RANDY EVERHART: And load our pan.  Normally I do this about half full but, you know, when those miners were doing their 50 pans a day they would heat this thing up.  Okay, after you get your pan full you want to go ahead and set your pan in the water.  Here, we're gonna show you how this goes.  Gonna step out here in the water a little bit.  So the first thing you want to do after you get your pan full is you want to set it in the water.  Now, you want to thoroughly saturate all the material in your pan, because if you have any ... any dry spots from lumps of clay or other materials, any gold that may be in those dry spots is going to wash out of the pan right away, and we don't want to lose any gold.  So in order to settle our gold to the bottom of the pan, now we need to agitate.

And it's a combination of a shaking and a swirling motion, and this helps settle everything to the bottom.  Then we're slowly gonna tip our pan over, to what I like to call the working angle, which is right about here, and then we're gonna let the water do the work for us.  So you simply dip your pan into the water and lift it out.  You can see everything just kind of rolls off the top.  The stuff on the bottom, where our gold is supposed to be, is not gonna be bothered by this process.  So we just dip and let the water pull everything off the top.  When you get down to this point here you want to put just about a half inch of water in the bottom of the pan, and then start rolling it around to see if we have anything.  Now we have some good black sand, but we found no gold this time.

BURT WOLF: So I should pretty much stick with television, huh?

MAN: I think so.

BURT WOLF: That's it.  Now you're ready to pan for gold in the California state parks that allow it. Dig a little more gold, live a little better, that's what I always say.

On your way back to Sacramento, a place to stop for lunch or dinner is Fat's Asia Bistro and Dim Sum Bar.  The Fat in Fat's Asia Bistro comes from Frank Fat whose family has been running some of the best restaurants in town since he opened his first place next to the capital building in 1939.  And the bistro is a hip new spot offering dishes from China, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Korea and Japan.  We had dim sum served in a bamboo basket with a red wine vinegar dipping sauce, sesame chicken with a spicy sweet and sour sauce served on a bed of fried rice noodles and honey walnut prawns in a sweet sauce with caramelized walnuts.

After lunch, I headed over to Sutter's Fort to take a look at what was going on before the gold was discovered.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Sutter was one of the first people to find out about the gold and he tried to keep it a secret but he totally blew it.  The word got out, the rush began and Sutter was left in the dust.  And it wasn't even gold dust.  Before that unfortunate episode in his life he was trying to build the Sutter empire and he was trying to build it around this fort.

BURT WOLF: Today, the best way to get an idea of what the fort was like is to stop by on a Tuesday or a Thursday.  For the past 25 years the Sacramento Historic Sites Association has run an environmental living program.  For 24 hours, fourth graders from schools all over California dress up in period costumes and relive history.

MAN: Captain Sutter, the fort's been prepared for your arrival, Sir.

BURT WOLF: They cook in the old kitchen.

WOMAN: Okay we did it. 

BURT WOLF: Make corn husk dolls.

WOMAN: Do you know why we're making corn husk dolls?

BURT WOLF: Twist Rope. Build furniture, pour candles.  Fire a musket and obsess about the Nasdaq.

Ten years after the fort was established the men rushing to the gold overwhelmed it and stripped it of everything of value.  Sutter went back to Washington, D.C. and tried to convince the federal government to pay him something for his loss as well as his contribution to the formation of the State of California.  Fat chance.  His son tried to recoup a few dollars by laying out a plan for the land around the fort and selling it.  His neat grid, set out numbered and lettered streets that ran alongside the river.  In 1850 the area was incorporated as the City of Sacramento and Sutter's grid is still the city plan.

And you can still see the first place where that plan was laid out.  It's called Old Sacramento and it has been restored to its original look.  And if you're interested in changing your own look you can stop into Evangeline's Costume Shop and reinvent yourself.

Evangeline's is housed the oldest building in old Sacramento and contains three floors of outrageous costumes.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Most of the settlers who came to California in the early 1800s came to reinvent themselves.  Sutter was a perfect example.  When he lived in Switzerland he was a lieutenant in the reserves.  When he got to California he became Captain Sutter of the Royal Swiss Guards who had fought in the French Revolution.  Of course, Sutter missed the point that the Royal Swiss Guards were on the losing side and had all died in a screwed-up battle in the king's palace.  It appears that Sutter couldn't get his act together even when he was making it up, and he might have been doing that most of the time.

BURT WOLF: There's also a great shop with Hollywood memorabilia called Stage Nine, photos of famous actors and actresses, a great selection of Pez dispensers, some very funny bumper stickers, and Wonder WomanT-shirts for my producers.  When you're in Old Sacramento a good place to eat is the Firehouse Restaurant.  The building was put up in 1853 to house the first paid fire department in town.

In 1959, Newton Cope purchased the property and turned it into the Firehouse Restaurant.  Victorian antiques, an award winning wine list, and good food.  We started with baby spinach salad tossed with sherry vinaigrette and garnished with candied pecans and Stilton blue cheese.  Next, lavender salmon served on a bed of asparagus and red mashed potatoes with a caramel orange wine and butter sauce.  For dessert, a rich chocolate mousse cake drizzled with raspberry cream, creme anglaise, and garnished with fresh raspberries.

Old Sacramento will give you a good idea of what this town looked like during the second half of the 1800s.  For the most part, you are looking at a society made up of descendants of European stock.  And yet much of the story of Sacramento and the rest of California rests in the Chinese community. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In 1848 China was in total chaos.  The Manchu Dynasty was falling apart and unable to govern.  There was widespread starvation and the peasants were in rebellion.  Tens of thousands of Chinese left home in search of their golden opportunity, which they believed was buried in the hills just outside of Sacramento.

BURT WOLF: To see what a Chinese community looked like pay a visit to the town of Locke, about 45 minutes southwest of Sacramento.  It is the only remaining rural Chinese village in the United States.  When the Chinese district in the nearby town of Walnut Grove burned down in 1915 the displaced residents rented some land in an orchard and built Locke.  Built by Chinese for Chinese, it has been designated as a national historic site.  Three blocks of cracked sidewalks, faded and peeled paint on aged buildings, shafts of light piercing into the dust of deserted storefronts.

Ping Lee's father was the founder of Locke..  What was going on in these stores?

PING LEE: Well, you see up, up ... all those sort of has a balconies, well, those are usually residents.  The businesses are downstairs.  And most of 'em, you can come through it from the top of the road and they all have, stairways coming down to the stores.  The Gambling House, they served more than just the gambling house.  God, I mean, I would call it a recreation places.  There was no TVs, there's no movie.  They don't understand English.  So they come in here and they get together ... these towns here was a necessity for the Chinese laborers at the time.  Where else the single man gonna go?

BURT WOLF: If you pass through Locke during the weekday morning, you might think that you were in a ghost town.  But stop by on a weekend afternoon and you'll see that Locke's clock is still ticking.  Al's Bar has been here since 1934.  It was established, if that's the right word, by Al Adami who at the time was the only non-Chinese businessman in town.  Al's maintained some unique traditions.  If you place a thumbtack into a dollar bill and throw it up to the ceiling and the dollar bill sticks you get a free drink.

BURT WOLF: All right, Steve, what do I do?

STEVE: Well, sign your name to it, or whatever you'd like.

BURT WOLF: Okay.

STEVE: Then what we do, Burt is we stick a dollar ... or a thumbtack in the middle of a dollar bill.  Great, the silver dollar and put it over the thumbtack.  You go back ...

... and back, try to get it in the middle, sides down.  The whole secret of this is to hold it waist high and throw it directly above your head.  Don't try to catch it if it doesn't stick. You non-believers give me a dollar, I'll show you.

CROWD: You can do it. 

BURT WOLF: Do I get a drum roll

MAN: You go!

BURT WOLF: Yeah!  I made it… there.  Yeah!  Thank you.  Thank you very much.

That was very exciting.          Well, I'll give you back this dollar, right?

STEVE: Oh yeah.

BURT WOLF: But you got that dollar?

STEVE: I got that dollar too.

BURT WOLF: You do report that to the IRS.

STEVE: Oh, you bet.    What would you like?

BURT WOLF: I think I should have a drink to celebrate my achievement.

STEVE: Ah, let me buy you one.

BURT WOLF: I'll have a Bloody Mary.         Huh.  This is about teamwork, you know?

You keep wrapping 'em, I'll keep throwin' 'em.

STEVE: There ... there you go ...

BURT WOLF: As Sacramento grew it became the western terminus for much of the cross continental commerce and communication, including the Pony Express.  The Pony Express delivered mail between Sacramento and Saint Joseph, Missouri, a distance of 2,000 miles.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: They got paid about $25 a week, which would be about $500 in today's money.  Youngest rider was 11 years old, the oldest was 40.  Buffalo Bill had been a Pony Express rider.  The average trip took about ten days and the fastest one on record was seven and a half.  They were in a hurry to deliver Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address, which I think was, uh, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

BURT WOLF: In spite of its fame, the Pony Express was only in business for 18 months during 1860 and 1861.  Part of the reason it came to an end was the introduction of the telegraph, which ironically was housed in the same building.  The Pony Express was a financial disaster for its founders and investors and ended in bankruptcy.  Yet it lives on in legend like the dotcoms.

A much more successful business model was that of Wells Fargo.  The miners in the gold fields needed a regular and reliable link to the eastern part of the United States.  The closest government post office to the gold fields was in San Francisco, a trip that no miner wanted to make.  When you left your claim someone usually stole it.  So pretty much miners were homebodies.  Henry Wells and William Fargo, who had set up an express service from the east coast to Chicago, understood the problem and opened up offices in the middle of the Gold Country.  They provided postal service, but perhaps more important, a prospector could take his gold into Wells Fargo and convert it to money.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: By the 1860s, Wells Fargo had a successful stagecoach business.  Instead of spending six months seasick hanging over the rail of a boat as it went around the southern tip of South America, you could hop into a Wells Fargo stagecoach going from Mississippi to Sacramento and only spend three weeks puking out of the window.

BURT WOLF: In 1877, the Omaha Herald published a guide to stagecoach travel.  Number one, don't spit into the wind.  Two, don't swear or lop over on your neighbor when sleeping.  Three, if delicate women are among the passengers don't point out places on the road where horrible murders have been committed.  And finally, please do not operate any electronic devices that might interfere with the driver's sense of direction.

The great fortunes that were made during the Gold Rush were not made by the miners who separated the gold from the rocks, but by the guys who separated the gold from the miners.  The cost of living in the Gold Country took almost everything the miners made, and made the suppliers rich.  Eggs were selling for $50 a dozen, and they weren't even organic.  Four of the richest guys in town were Charles Crocker, a dry goods merchant, Leland Stanford, a grocer, and two hardware dealers, C.P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins.  They were known as the Big Four and the fortunes they made from selling things to the miners gave them a one-track mind.

A track that became known as the Central Pacific Railroad, which was financed by the Big Four.  The first spike was set at the edge of Sacramento's waterfront in 1863, and track was laid east as fast as possible.  California's gold was running out, but silver had been discovered in Nevada.  And the Big Four loved the idea of controlling the commerce between the mines and the coast.  Federal money poured into the railroad because that would keep California and its wealth in the union during the War Between the States.

Today Sacramento is home to the California State Railroad Museum, which is the most visited railroad museum in the world.  With over 225,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum explains the role that the railroads played in the development of California and the nation.  It starts with the first transcontinental railroad and continues through the golden age of railroading.

The oldest locomotive in the museum is the Central Pacific's Governor Stanford.  It was shipped by boat around the southern tip of South America and arrived in Sacramento to start work in 1863.  There is a spectacular collection of beautifully restored locomotives and cars from the golden age that spans the period between 1869 and 1910.

Starting in 1873, the Virginia and Truckee ran between Carson City, Reno, and the Comstock silver mines of Nevada.  There are 19th century Victorian passenger cars with every inch of surface covered with decoration.  They also have the finest restored example of the American standard locomotive, the Northern Pacific Coast Railroad number 12.  It went into operation in Marin County, California in 1876.  There's a legendary dining car from the Santa Fe Super chief with table settings from the 1940s when it was the last word for Meals on Wheels.

An old mail-sorting car where the postman was tested on his ability to remember the location of over 100 boxes.  An old 4294, the last of the unique cab-forward steam engines designed to run through the tunnels of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  When I first saw it, I thought the cab-forward plan was designed so the engineers could get a better view of the track.  But the real reason was based on the fact that when the engine and the smoke stack were in front of the cab, where the men drove the train, and they went into a tunnel, the smoke would come back and the engineer would die of asphyxiation.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The railroads couldn't have cared less about the loss of the men, but shortly after the engineers died, they noticed that the trains and their valuable cargos would crash, and that was serious.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: That’s a look at the Gold Rush and the one-track minds it created.  And that's "TRAVELS & TRADITIONS" from Sacramento, California.  I'm Burt Wolf.  Let’s high ball it.

Travels & Traditions: Sonoma County - #303

BURT WOLF: Sonoma County starts just above San Francisco and runs north along the coast of California for about 70 miles.  During the first half of the 1800s, a Russian fur trading company came down from Alaska and took possession of the northern part of Sonoma.  Spanish explorers who came up from Mexico were in control of the southern part. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In 1832, Father José Altimira, a Spanish priest in San Francisco, decided that his mission was to build a mission in Sonoma.  It turned out to be the most northerly mission in the Spanish mission system that ran all the way down to the bottom of South America.

Within a few years, the newly independent government of Mexico decided to secularize the missions and return their lands to the people.

Twenty-eight year old Lieutenant Mariano Vallejo was sent here to do the job.

He started out by taking 100,000 acres for himself.  Hm, good start.  It made him one of the wealthiest men in California.  Then he sold or gave huge tracks of land to his friends and relatives.  But in defense of Vallejo I should point out that he never pardoned any fugitive financiers.

The word back east was that there was free land to be had in the West, and all through the 1830s and '40s settlers had been coming into northern California.  The Mexican government did not allow ownership of land by anyone who was not a Mexican citizen, which created a considerable amount of tension.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA:  In 1846, rumors spread that the Mexican government was going to force all of the Americans out of the territory. So on June fourteenth, an armed band of 30 Americans rode into Vallejo Sonoma Fort and took control without firing a single shot.  Since Vallejo was asleep and the fort was virtually empty, firing a shot would have been, A: a waste of good ammunition, B: a rude awakening for Vallejo, C: totally revolting.  It turned out to be all three. In addition, some historians believe that Vallejo phoned a friend to confirm his belief that he was better off being in business with the Americans than being in the Mexican military.  I can understand that.  In the end, his final answer appears to have been to discreetly welcome the revolt.

BURT WOLF: A flag with a bear on it was raised in the town square, and for 25 days Sonoma was the capital of the independent Republic of California. Today, Sonoma is one of the best towns in the county to get a bite to eat, buy some wine, go to a spa, or shop.  And it's all within walking distance of the town plaza, which is the largest in California. The town of Sonoma is also the place where Father Altimira had been making wine for sacramental purposes.  But when General Vallejo took over the mission, he secularized that aspect of the church by going into business as California's first commercial winemaker.

Sonoma is also the home of the Sears Point Raceway where you can take a course at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School. Today, the Jim Russell Driving School is one of the most respected institutions in the automotive world and they offer an extraordinary range of classes.  On the simplest level you can come in and learn how to get the most from your own car.

You'll find out about maximum braking without loosing control from wheel lockup, how to stop in the shortest possible distance, skid control techniques, and avoiding accidents on wet or icy roads.  You could end up being the Mario Andretti of your kid's carpool.  Or you can take a series of classes that will either let you live out a limited fantasy as a racing car driver, or put you on the road to actually becoming one.  I could have taken any one of those courses and ended up as a great race driver.  But there's only one course guaranteed to deliver real power and big money.  And it's the little-known but highly respected Jim Russell School for Mechanics.

BURT WOLF: Okay, how we doin'?

MECHANIC: Tires ...

BURT WOLF: Tires 280! Oil 40 bucks…What about suspension?

$390.  All right, will that be cash or charge?

Charge!  Great.  Good luck!

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I was gonna do his windshield free but he doesn’t have one.

BURT WOLF: See that car in the lead, I put on those tires. 

Sonoma County is also the home of a man known as the garden wizard, a man who forever changed the world's fruits, vegetables and flowers.  His name was Luther Burbank and he was born in 1849 in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  At the age of 27 he moved to Sonoma County California.  He was a horticulturist who spent his life trying to improve the quality of plants and increase the world's food supply.  He moved to Sonoma because he felt it was the chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature was concerned.  And it certainly worked for him.

He introduced more than 800 new varieties, including some of our most important fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and the Burbank potato, plus hundreds of ornamental flowers, including the Shasta daisy.  Cathy Stevenson took me on a tour.

CATHY STEVENSON: Here we have an example of the Shasta daisy.  It took Luther Burbank 17 years to develop this plant.  When he was a little boy running around the hills in Lancaster Massachusetts, he loved the little bitty oxide daisies that grew wild there.  And when he came to California in 1875, he had found the same little daisies in California.  So he decided that he wanted to make it bigger and better and brighter and whiter.

BURT WOLF: Some people are never satisfied.

CATHY STEVENSON: That's right. And that was true of Luther, he was never satisfied.  Some say that the rose was Luther Burbank's favorite flower, and so this rose garden is in honor of that.

BURT WOLF: The rose is the symbol of the Virgin Mary and originally the rosary was 165 dried rose petals wound tight and made into a chain. In addition to roses he loved the cactus.

CATHY STEVENSON: This is Burbank's spineless cactus and, he got the idea to develop a spineless cactus because one of the goals he had was to help feed the world.  And in areas of drought there ... they couldn't grow alfalfa, they didn't have the water to grow your traditional crops to feed cattle and other animals.  And so he came up with the idea of the spineless cactus.  It took him many, many years to develop this, and finally he did come out with a cactus that has very few spines on it.  You know, not every single thing that Burbank did was a huge success.  The cattle ... they liked it, they ate it right down to the ground and it didn't come back.

BURT WOLF: To the north of Burbank's home sits the town of Healdsburg.  In 1857, Harmon Heald gave up his gold digger’s dream of striking it rich and bought some nearby land.  Humbled by his failure to find wealth beyond his wildest dreams, he laid out a town plan and modestly called it Healdsburg. Then he created a central park in the middle of his plan, which is now the town plaza. Then a school, a cemetery, and finally a church. Today, Healdsburg is filled with boutiques, art galleries, spas, wine-tasting rooms, and restaurants.  In the early '90s I filmed a story about Healdsburg's Downtown Bakery and Creamery and it's still here, making great sticky buns, breads and Fig Newtons, which are named after Isaac's brother who hated apples.

Eight miles from the center of Healdsburg is the Jimtown Store.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, this historic landmark served as a general store, post office, and neighborhood hangout. Today, it still serves as the area’s general store but the current owner, Carrie Brown, has given it a special edge. In addition to selling basics, like elephant watering cans, birds that serve toothpicks and ant farms, the Jimtown Store is filled with antiques, vintage toys, American memorabilia, old-time candies and an eclectic assortment of bazaar stuff that Carrie and her husband found during their travels.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The secret word for tonight is Sonoma County.  Anybody says Sonoma County the duck will come down, give you $200.  You look like a nice couple.  Where are you from?

To the southwest of the Jimtown Store is the Armstrong Redwood State Reserve, which contains some of the tallest and oldest trees in California.  The park is filled with trails and you can wander through all 805 acres of ancient redwoods.  Laura Ayers is a naturalist who takes people through the forest on foot or on horseback, and she showed me around.

LAURA AYERS; These are coastal redwoods.  They grow primarily along the coastal fog belt in California, up into southern Oregon.  They need that fog to get through our dry summers.  And they also like these canyons where they can get water for their very shallow roots. The roots go out, they interlock, they’ve traced them to grow out as far as a mile, and they will grow together in such a way that trees closer to the water source can send roots up the hillside to water trees that are further away from it.  So the redwood forest, through this root system, is all interconnected.

BURT WOLF: The redwoods have developed this system of helping each other stand up and share in limited resources. 

And speaking of trees, while we were in Sonoma, we stayed at a placed called the Doubletree Hotel, Sonoma Wine Country. Just an hour's drive from the San Francisco Bay area and within 30 minutes of some of the world's finest wineries, it's perfectly situated for anyone coming to Sonoma for either business or a vacation.  When it was originally built, it was a roadside inn offering clean, inexpensive, and comfortable accommodations, and serving a community that was largely based in agriculture.

Over the years, Doubletree has managed to keep those positive attributes while becoming a 245-room resort.  Spread out over 22 landscaped acres it has tennis courts, an outdoor heated swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, and a fitness center, surrounded by the 36-hole Mountain Shadows Championship Golf Course and is adjacent to a shopping plaza with a spa and a number of shops.  And a Japanese restaurant that is considered one of the best in northern California.  Doubletree has its own internal restaurant called Bacchus, which specializes in dishes based on ingredients grown or raised in Sonoma County.  Executive chef Eric McCutcheon prepared a starter of tomato bruschetta, diced tomatoes sautéed with garlic and shallots and served on grilled bread.  The main course was locally produced rack of lamb rubbed with an herb crust that's served with buttery mashed potatoes and roasted walnuts.  Another option was seared Petaluma duck breast on a bed of braised leeks and creamy polenta, topped with fried eggplant skins.  There's also a wine bar with an extensive list of Sonoma wines by the glass.

In 1920 Sonoma’s wine production was interrupted by a series of federal laws that prohibited the ale of alcoholic beverages including wine.  They were enforced for ten years, wasted millions of dollars of public money, gave organized crime its first big chance to get organized and totally failed to achieve any of its objectives. The only positive benefit that came out of prohibition was to force a number of winemakers in California into using their knowledge of fermentation to make great cheese.  Today, California is the center for the production of some of the world's finest cheeses.  Cheese is very much in fashion, not only as an ingredient, but once again as its own course.  One of the most respected restaurants in Sonoma County is John Ash and Company, and it's always a pleasure to spend time in the company of John.  John believes that the cheese course is coming back in restaurants because of the talent of the cheese makers.

JOHN ASH: I think it's because we're making such extraordinary cheeses in America.  And I know me being here in California, we have so many artisanal cheese makers and they're cropping up everyday, it's sort of to me it's like the wine business was 30 years ago.  Once you taste great cheese, it's unforgettable.

BURT WOLF: He also has some suggestions on how to get the most taste and pleasure from a restaurant cheese course.

JOHN ASH: Don't try to get too many things on the plate.  Three of three different kinds, and that way you can sort of bounce around and sort of see what's going on.  One of my favorite things in the world, quite honestly, is a great blue cheese with a little drizzle of an aromatic honey and a good red wine, and I'm in heaven.

BURT WOLF: Archaeologists have found evidence that cheese making goes back to 6000 B.C.

They also tell us that man has been using kayaks to travel over water since 2000 B.C.  And you might think that these two facts were unrelated, and that could actually be the case, but not today, because I've decided to spend the afternoon learning to kayak on Sonoma's Russian River.

The place to rent your kayaking gear is King's Sport & Tackle Shop in Guerneville.  In addition to the stuff you would expect to find in a tackle shop, he has a few unusual things.

SINGING FISH: “Take me to the river; drop me in the water.  Take me to the river, put me in the water.”

BURT WOLF: If he could fly he’d have a great act.

The place to meet your guide is Guerneville Graphics, which is just next door.

Okay.

And the man who's gonna put me in the water ...

That's fabulous.

... is river guide, George Zastrow.

BURT WOLF: Sonoma has a number of ideal places for kayaking.  It’s a relaxing sport and not difficult to learn.  Of course a lot depends on the strength of the river you choose.

So this is the way Louis and Clark got started, huh?

It appears that kayaks were developed by native tribes living at the top of the world and used for hunting seals.  Unlike a canoe, a traditional kayak places the paddler in an almost water-tight shell and gives them a much safer and more maneuverable vehicle.  These days, kayaks are primarily used by sportsmen exploring rivers and competitive athletes in the white water trials.  Kayaking events have been part of the Olympics since 1936.  And as you can clearly see, once again, I will not be a contender.

Today, Sonoma County is one of the world's most important wine-growing regions and an ideal place for tourists to get a taste of what's going on in the California wine business.  A good place to start is DeLoach.

CHRISTINE DeLOACH: Daisy heel…

BURT WOLF: The first time we filmed Cecil and Christine DeLoach walking together, their dog Daisy kept running in and out of the picture.  So we shot it again and we told the dog to heel.  Bad choice of words.  Cecil DeLoach's ancestors were French Huguenots who were forced out of France in the 1600s and ended up in Georgia.  After 300 years in the American south, the DeLoachs headed west where Cecil became a fireman in San Francisco.  In the late '60s, he decided to buy a weekend place in Sonoma. It was an easy drive from San Francisco and he thought it would be a good place to relax. A 24-acre ranch near the Russian River looked like his dream come true.

Cecil's wife Christine introduced me to the property.

CHRISTINE DELOACH: Spent some time talking to Louis Barbieri who owned it then.  It had been planted by his father Italo in 1905.  And he wanted to see it continue as a family farm . And even then things were beginning to sub-divide in this area.  So he spent a year teaching us how to grow grapes.

BURT WOLF: Today, Cecil's son Michael runs the winery.

MICHAEL DELOACH: We have quite a bit of vineyards now.  We have a little over 800 acres that we own and farm up here.  And, we make about 200,000 cases of wine with that, so we've grown quite a bit.  Aside from the Zin and the Chard that we're known for, we also make a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon, from right here on the Los Amigos Ranch.  Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Noir, Fumé Blanc and 14 other varieties.

BURT WOLF: Wow.

Another winemaking family are Don and Rhonda Carano.  He started with a resort in Reno called the El Dorado, but because they could never afford the big-name entertainers that drew crowds to Las Vegas, they decided that their attraction would be great food and wine, including some excellent wines from their own winery.

Their wine property is called Villa Fiore, which means the house of flowers.  And that is a very descriptive name.  Both Don and Rhonda were born into families that preserved their Italian heritage, and both the villa and the gardens were designed to feel like a home outside of Florence.

RHONDA CARANO: The gardens of Ferrari-Carano are as equally as important as the a wine, I might say.  We have five acres of gardens here.  Right now, you can see that we're in full bloom for spring.  It's always in full color.  We try to change the gardens at least twice a year, an annual color change.  As you're crossing the bridge here, you can hear the water.  Water element is very important for us here.

BURT WOLF: The Caranos own 17 separate vineyards spread out over a 50-mile radius and strategically located so they can select their grapes from different soils and micro-climates.  Their wines are presented under the Ferrari-Carano label.  Carano is the name of Don's father's family and Ferrari comes from his paternal grandmother.

DON CARANO: Our first was a Chardonnay ... Alexander Valley we produced in 1985 and released in 1987.  And of course that got us off and running.  But now, you know, we've gone to the reds and now we're making Merlot, San Giovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and also two blended wines, one's a French blend, that's Tresor, which is a Bordeaux style wine, and one of Italian blend, which is a San Giovese Cabernet blend.  Late harvest El Dorado Gold.

BURT WOLF: Sonoma is clearly vineyard country and one of the most interesting ways to get an overview of the place is to take a ride with Chris Prevost at Sonoma's Vintage Aircraft Company.

He has a meticulously-restored fleet of vintage aircraft, including authentic Boeing Stearman biplanes. These were originally built to train pilot candidates for our army, Air Corps and Navy during World War II.  These vintage aircraft are popular with pilots because they are strong, durable, they have a rugged beauty that's easy to admire. For over 60 years, they've been used for flight training, fire fighting, crop dusting, movies and stunt flying.

You can choose from the scenic flight, the aerobatic flight, and the kamikaze.  Scenic sounds like it's just my speed.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: As the Red Baron used to say, Whose idea was that?  From Sonoma County, California, for TRAVELS & TRADITIONS, I'm Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Sacramento, California - #302

BURT WOLF: The Gold Rush of 1849 was the catalyst that opened up California. But California’s natural advantages, including its climate, resources, and its ideal location for international trade, had already been here for centuries. Gold just advanced everybody's awareness of California's blessings by about 75 years.

There's an opening in the mountains between the Pacific Ocean and Sacramento Valley that allows a gentle wind to come into the region. It's known as the Delta Breeze and it gives this area a Mediterranean climate that makes it an ideal place for farming.

By the time the gold was gone the Sacramento Valley had become an agricultural center producing the type of wheat that was hard enough to withstand a five-month voyage to Europe. Sacramento soon realized that in addition to mining gold out of the rivers and hills you could grow it in the soil and even pick it off trees.

In 1882, Sacramento opened its first successful fruit cannery. And after the Panama Canal opened in 1914 Sacramento canned fruits and vegetables were shipped not only to the East Coast of the US, but to Europe. 

One of the most important crops grown in the Mediterranean climate of the Sacramento Valley is the walnut, which makes sense since the walnut has an ancient history in the Mediterranean.

It's been cultivated for over 9,000 years which makes it our oldest tree food.

The Greeks noted the similarity between the look of the walnut and the human brain and decided that eating walnuts made you smarter and healthier. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: During the 15 and 1600s, there was something known as the doctrine of signatures. It said that if a food looked like a particular part of the body then that was the part of the body that it affected. Because walnut meat looked like a human brain it was used to cure headaches, smooth emotions, and improve intelligence. And now scientists are telling us that it is an intelligent idea to get more walnuts into our diet. 

BURT WOLF: They're a good source of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and Omega 3 oil, which appears to help protect against heart disease.

CRAIG McNAMARA ON CAMERA: You know, the ... the Chinese really believe in what you said about eating walnuts for intelligence. And the students will take handfuls of walnuts before exams in order to do well, have good thoughts and to make it through and have that extra power. So we love to see that

BURT WOLF: Craig McNamara is a walnut grower in the Sacramento Valley, and one of California's leading authorities on sustainable agriculture.

CRAIG McNAMARA ON CAMERA: Well, the cover crop really is the heart and soul of sustainable agriculture. And by that I mean agriculture that's, ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. And that way we can ensure the future of agriculture will be there forever. So let's look here a second at what we're talking about. We've got this wonderful cover crop. These are the plants that take this incredible amount of nitrogen, about 73 percent in the air, take it down into the ground, fix it and make it available for the walnut trees. The trees don't differentiate how they get nitrogen but they've got to have it. So we grow it naturally. And that fixes in the ground.

CRAIG McNAMARA ON CAMERA: The whole purpose of this cover crop is nitrogen, its benefit to the soil, and to create a good host environment for insects. This has lady beetles, green lace wings, all sorts of insects inhabiting the area. Insects are great for beneficial control of pests that we have in the orchard.

CRAIG McNAMARA ON CAMERA: We're here out in a young orchard and what we're going to be doing is grafting the walnut tree. And the reason it's so important is because we have a young seedling here that's a year old, that has established its root system. We selected this seedling because of its resistance to soil-borne diseases and its vigor. So it's growing really well. Now what we want to do is add the variety that I think you want to eat, which is that crispy, fresh flavor in the market place. So Javier has a piece of Howard wood which he has collected from a Howard tree, and he's gonna be demonstrating this age-old, technique. This has been around for thousands of years.

JAVIER JASSO ON CAMERA: We're gonna make a 45-degree angle cut on the tree.

Now, I'm gonna make the same cut on the sign.

Oh ... put them together.

And then we cut it so it'll bleed, so the sap won't go up straight to the sign. Now, we'll proceed with the tape.

CRAIG McNAMARA: So Leonardo has put on a white tape to hold the two pieces together to get a good bond there. He is putting on a bit of material now just to seal that up. Our hands are really in his hands and the future of the orchard is right here.

BURT WOLF: After an orchard is planted it takes between six and eight years until it starts to yield nuts. But once it starts to bear quality fruit it will continue doing so for almost 100 years.

But all the nuts don't grow on trees. United States has a long history of electing them to public office and honoring them as captains of industry. 

In the years after California first became a state, its legislatures wandered from one town to another. At one point they were meeting in the town of Benicia and getting a great price on their rooms. Sacramento also wanted to be the state capital but wasn't giving any discounts. Just before the session of 1854, three hundred people from Sacramento went to Benicia and booked every decent room in town. The legislators had no place to stay. Suddenly, Sacramento with its new hotels, excellent, restaurants, and flashy saloons looked great, with or without a discount. The law makers decided that Sacramento was just the right spot for their permanent capital. The newly renovated Capitol Building is open to the public and you can stop in and see democracy in action, or inaction, as the case may be.

The California legislature is divided into two houses, the Senate and the Assembly, and both chambers have been restored to the original look and feel that they had in 1869, and so have some of the legislators. When they were renovating the building they photographed the original marble mosaic floor of 1906 and then removed each of the 600,000 teeny blocks, cleaned and polished each one, and then reinstalled them according to a photograph they had taken. The people who worked on the job were chosen in part based on their prior success with jigsaw puzzles. The rotunda is 120 feet high and when you stand in the center it feels like being inside a decorated Easter egg. It’s a beautiful building.

Surrounding the Capitol Building is the Capital Park. Sacramento thinks of itself as the city of trees and maintains that it has more trees per capita than any other city in the world except Paris. And since I can't imagine anyone in their right mind going out to count every tree in every major city I think their claim is safe.

The park next to the capital is filled with hundreds of trees and plants that were brought here from almost every climate in the world. The capital and the park were put together during the 1850s, a time when people had just become interested in collecting trees and plants. The idea was to fill every available inch of space with plants and trees from different parts of the world. It was very much a part of the Victorian style of decoration. More is always better. You can stop by the visitor’s desk on the first floor of the capital and pick up a booklet that will give you a self-guided tour of the park, or you can take a guided tour with Dody Wheaton.

DODY WHEATON ON CAMERA: This is sort of a throwback to the Victorian period when everywhere you looked there should be something beautiful and lovely to see.

BURT WOLF: The park originally had dozens of beds with flowers that were changed with the seasons. But as the years went on the costs became too much. In the 1800’s seeds would come with a book that told gardeners how to put up huge floral fountains, some were 20 to 30 feet high.

DODY WHEATON: The beautiful Deodar Cedars are native to the Himalayas. They're called the, uh, Tree of God in many places. Like many of the other specimens here these go back to January of 1872, including delivery, planting, buying, each tree cost $2.

BURT WOLF: Two dollars, amazing, today it costs $2 to develop a photo of the tree.

A few blocks from the Capital building is the Crocker Art Museum, which is the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi. Edward Crocker was the lawyer for the Big Four, four guys who had made huge fortunes from the Gold Rush and then started the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1868, Edward and his wife, Margaret, added a gallery wing to their home, and then went off to Europe to buy the art to fill it. They purchased over nine hundred paintings and thirteen hundred master drawings. When they got home they started adding works that related to Northern California.

In 1885, Margaret donated the art gallery building and the collection to the City of Sacramento. Today the Crocker Art Museum holds over 9,000 works, including one of the largest collection of California art.

Besides the Crocker there are a number of other buildings in Sacramento that are worth a visit. Top on my list is the B.F. Hastings Building. This single structure was the western terminus of the Pony Express, the first permanent home of the California Supreme Court, the original Sacramento office of Wells Fargo, the office of Theodore Judah, who planned the route for the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the site of the office that sent the first transcontinental telegram.

BURT WOLF ON CMAERA: Today it is the home of a very convenient ATM machine, proving that all human progress is the result of the innate and universal desire of every organism to live beyond its income. Samuel Butler said that in 1873.

BURT WOLF: Having refreshed my wallet, I can pay a visit to the Huntington Hopkins Hardware Store, also known as the Big Four Building. The Big Four were Huntington, Hopkins, Stanford and Crocker, all merchants from Upper New York State, who made big bucks selling stuff to the miners. And this was one of their stores. There's an interesting display of things that were big sellers in 1849, stuff considered absolutely essential for prospecting.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Uh, this one was very popular. Uh, gold miners loved it. I don't know anybody actually who went up into the fields in '49 or '50 that didn't have one of these. Was not big with the silver guys, but gold guys did ... they just loved it.

You see them all over Sutter's Fort.

Yeah, there wasn't much to do up there in the gold fields at night, so a lot of those were sold. Very very popular. Uh, kept people occupied for weeks at a time. And this was probably their biggest seller. Why do I always get a defective one?

BURT WOLF: And as long as you're in town you might as well take a look at the historic governor's mansion. It was originally built in 1877 by Albert Gallatin for $75,000, which doesn't sound very impressive until you find out that the average Sacramento home at the time was being built for $700. Gallatin filled the house with ornamental bronze from the Huntington-Hopkins Hardware Store, which was easy for him because he was the president of the company. The real question is did he declare these materials as part of his income. Now the first 13 governors who lived here were not concerned with issues like that. But when Ronald and Nancy Reagan arrived every aspect of the building came under scrutiny. Nancy described the place as a funeral parlor and a fire trap and she moved out. Today, it has been restored to its original look and both tourists and funeral directors are welcome.

Since the mid-1800s when John Sutter built his fort to attract farmers to the area, Sacramento has been a place where visitors and settlers have always been welcomed.

The idea of accepting newcomers is very much a part of the gold field culture. You never knew who your neighbors were going to be, and when you would need help from them. And besides, everybody had a gun so it was important to play nice.

The idea of being hospitable is still very much a part of present day Sacramento, and one of the most interesting places to experience that old-style hospitality is The Delta King Hotel. The Delta King and her sister, the Delta Queen, started out in the 1920s as river boats that ran up and back between Sacramento and San Francisco. Today the boat is permanently moored on the Old Sacramento waterfront. Stephanie Gularte is the boat's theater director.

STEPHANIE GULARTE ON CAMERA: The Delta King was in initial operation in the 1920s. It was during the prohibition era. And people would come onto the boat and have some drinks and some gambling, spend the night out on the decks for 50 cents a night.

BURT WOLF: That was a deal.

STEPHANIE GULARTE: Yeah, quite a deal. Quite a deal for a great 12-hour party. That's how long it took to get to the Bay area. This is the greatest place to be in Sacramento. It's got the best view. And aside from the beautiful hotel, which is now 44 rooms, they kind of doubled the sizes. Modern-day customers don't want the little-bitty rooms so we've got 44 elegant rooms, the captain's quarters, beautiful Pilot House Restaurant that serves excellent seafood and pastas and overlooks the river. It has a live theater, and we do dinner and theater packages, which is a newer part of what we're doing here and it's been going great.

WOMAN/ACTRESS: She will not work again if I have anything to say about it.

STEPHANIE GULARTE: The theater is a 115-seat, proscenium theater, and we present comedies and dramas, classics and contemporary plays. We use mostly local talents, some local playwright's works as well as the greats in the American theater. You come here to Old Sacramento and you come onto the boat, you don't need to leave 'cause there's so much to do.

WOMAN/ACTRESS: I almost fell down!

BURT WOLF: The thing about Sacramento is that if you know where to look you can always see the lingering influence of the Gold Rush. Now real Gold Rush men didn't cook. If you hadn't struck it rich you were too busy digging to do much fancy cooking. And if you had already found wealth beyond your wildest dreams you could afford to pay someone else to do the fancy cooking. As a result, Sacramento has a solid restaurant history. And one of the best places to experience that tradition is Biba. The biba in Biba is Biba Caggiano. She's the chef and owner of a restaurant that has become one of Sacramento's most popular spots. Biba is also the host of an internationally syndicated cooking show and the author of six cookbooks, including "The Taste of Italy."

The restaurant opened in 1986 and has been voted Sacramento's best restaurant for eight years in a row. Dinner began with an appetizer of prosciutto, shaved Parmesan, and caramelized black mission figs. The pasta course, we had a light ricotta gnocchi tossed with fresh diced tomato, sun-dried tomato and extra virgin olive oil. The main course was osso buco primavera, veal shanks braised with panchetta, and fresh spring peas, and served with roasted polenta. And for dessert, traditional Venetian tiramisu, layers of mascarpone, lady fingers, brandy, espresso and cocoa powder. I thought with the taramisu we were finished. But Biba said I had to taste her flourless walnut and raisin cake with Bailey's whipped cream. I love that woman.

Many of the original immigrants to Northern California were from Italy, but an even larger contingent came from China. During the Gold Rush, tens of thousands of Chinese showed up to seek their fortune, and like their fellow prospectors cooking was out, but eating was in. And the restaurants they wanted to eat in served the dishes of their native land.

Today you can get an excellent meal composed of Asian dishes at Bamboo. Bamboo opened in 1998 and is filled with antiques from all over Asia. batiks from Vietnam, masks from Thailand, and carvings from the rural villages of China.

Chef David Soohoo was born to immigrant parents in San Francisco and grew up in Sacramento where everyone at home spoke Chinese. He then followed his father into the restaurant business. He's owned and worked in Western-style restaurants but he's particularly happy at Bamboo because it represents a return to his roots. For lunch, David prepared a Vietnamese spicy noodle soup with red-roasted chicken, shrimp and vegetables. Followed by Thai red-curry chicken, stir fried with mushrooms, Chinese broccoli over pea shoots, and finally steamed salmon with black bean sauce.

Sacramento is not only a good place for eating, but as you might expect of California, an excellent spot for outdoor recreation. The American River bike trail is a paved road that runs for 32 miles, starting downtown next to Old Sacramento, and ending at Beal's Point in the Folsom Lake State recreation area. It's in constant use by residents of the city, who use it to commute to work as well as for exercise. The flat floor of the Sacramento Valley and the generally fine weather has made the area an ideal environment for bikers.

And if you're into spectator sports and you plan your trip to Sacramento 10 or 15 years ahead of time you might consider trying to get a few tickets to a King's game.

The King's are Sacramento's gift to professional basketball and always interesting to watch.

But no such elaborate game plan is necessary for the Sacramento Jazz Fest.

Every year on Memorial Day the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society presents the world's largest traditional jazz festivals.

More than 100 bands from all over the world give more than 1,000 performances on over 40 stages.

Its primary objective is to cover the sounds of jazz from 1895 to 1945.

WOMAN SINGER: “We’re all alone, no chaperone….let’s misbehave…”

BURT WOLF: But in recent years it has begun to include blues, gospel, ragtime and zydeco. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: From Sacramento, California, that's TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I'm Burt Wolf.

WOMEN PRODUCERS: And stay out!!!

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Tough crowd in there and those are my producers too.

Travels & Traditions: Oaxaca, Mexico - #301

BURT WOLF: About 10,000 years ago, people living in the Near East figured out to grow their food rather than just hunt and gather.  It was our biggest technical breakthrough and it began our shift from hunting and gathering to farming.  About 2,500 hundred years later it happened again when someone in southeastern China solved the puzzle.  And then the third time when the Zapotec Indians worked it out around 3,500 BC in southern Mexico.   Almost every other farming community in the world can trace their history back to one of those original sites.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Another technical achievement of almost equal significance was the development of a written language that could represent objects, sounds, and ideas, that appears to have happened only twice.  The first time was just before 3,000 B.C. when the Sumerians developed their cuneiform language, and the second time was about 600 B.C. when the Zapotecs figured it out.

Two of the most important developments in human history, and the Zapotecs were the only culture to independently develop both. Who are these people, and where did they come from?

The answer to where they came from is easy.  About 15,000 years ago the sea between Siberia and Alaska was frozen. The tribes of hunter-gatherers came across from Asia to North America looking for something good to eat.  The ancestors of the Zapotecs settled in southern Mexico in a region known as Oaxaca. 

Oaxaca’s an old Aztec word meaning “impossible to spell from the way it’s pronounced.”  Actually Oaxaca’s a type of a pea with a very high protein content that the Zapotecs found here thousands of year ago.  You should check out this spelling.  O-A-X-A-C-A

Oaxaca.  Today there are almost 800,000 Zapotecs living in Oaxaca.  Oaxaca is also the home of 15 other cultural and linguistic groups, which makes this region the most culturally diverse state in Mexico.

The city of Oaxaca was founded by the Spanish in 1529, less than 40 years after Columbus bumped into the new world.  At an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level, it has a mountain climate that produces warm days and cool nights.  The zocalo is the center of the city and the place where the community likes to hang out.  If you stand at the center of the zocalo and look towards the cathedral, you will be looking north.

The streets of Oaxaca run along a north-south grid that was laid out by the Spanish.  Today the zocalo is the social center of Oaxaca.  A good place to stop for a drink in one of the cafes that line the square, get your shoes shined, or just go for a walk.  A few blocks from the zocalo is the basilica.  Legend has it that in 1620, a donkey carrying a large box suddenly appeared on this spot and dropped dead.  Inside the box was a statue of The Virgin of Solitude, which was taken as a sign that a basilica should be built right here. And so it was.

People come to the basilica, purchase a little ribbon with a small replica of their afflicted area and pray for relief. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Now, years ago I might have questioned the cause and effect relationship here, but there’s a lot of research that indicates that belief can be as strong as medicine. So I’m going to go for it.  This one is for arthritis.  A real problem in my family.  This one is for bad eyesight. Don’t have to explain that.  And then this is the one I’m really curious about in case you feel you are losing your mind, you pin that one. And I hope there’s no limit, because I need all three of these.

Inside the basilica, on top of the altar, is The Virgin of Solitude, the patron saint of Oaxaca.  She’s considered to possess the power to heal.  Having been healed, you can celebrate with a sorbet from some of the city’s most celebrated vendors, whose stands are right out in front.  They use an old fashioned system that produces a great result.  A wooden barrel is packed with ice and salt.  The salt lowers the temperature of the ice which surrounds a metal canister.

A bucket of ice, salt and water is also a quick way to chill a bottle of wine.  In this case, the canister is filled with pureed fruit, everything from tamarind to tuna.  Fortunately tuna is the Spanish word for prickly pear, which is good, because tuna ice cream sounds a little fishy to me.

The most outstanding church in Oaxaca is Santo Domingo.  Its construction began in 1552.  The architectural style is known as baroque.  Baroque was the result of two forces that shaped Europe and its colonies starting in the 1500s.  It was a time when the kings of Europe were consolidating their power and wanted to show their strength by building huge palaces.  It’s when Louis XIV built Versailles.  It was also the time of the Reformation, when Protestants were preaching against the outward glitter of the Roman Catholic Church.  Catholicism responded with even more glitter. When something is described as baroque, it is clearly over the top. 

Next to the church was the Dominican monastery, which is now the state museum.  The monks’ cells have been turned into display areas for works of art that represent Oaxaca’s historical periods ... ancient jewelry, alabaster utensils, statues and costumes.  At the edge of the present city of Oaxaca is Monte Alban, a group of mountains in the heart of a great valley. It was the urban center of the Zapotec nation and was occupied for more than 1,200 years, starting in 500 B.C. 

Their craftsman leveled the top of the mountains and carried up enormous amounts of material so they could build their cities as close to the sun god as possible. And they did it all without pack animals or wheels.  During its golden age, 25,000 people lived up here, 16 square miles of terraced land descended to the valley floor. The priests and the rulers lived at the top, the peasant farmers on the bottom, and the middle class in the middle.

Don Victor Gonzalez, a Zapotec guide, took me through the site.

DON VICTOR GONZALEZ: In this space here there must have been great walks, processions and even theater representing the mysteries of the religion. But from our level you see steps on this side, all the way over there.  So the steps were for people to sit and see the events.  You can see the size and you can see the number of steps all over.  So that shows that there must have been a tremendous crowd that came to see here the religious events and walks and so on.

BURT WOLF: The great plaza at the top covers eight acres and has the remains of over a dozen huge buildings.  The sides of some of the buildings were covered with high steps that are rather narrow.  The shape gave them more height for fewer stones.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I might be today’s sacrifice.

BURT WOLF: When steps are low and flat, you need more of them. When they’re high, there’s much less construction and they help you reach your target heart rate faster.

DON VICTOR GONZALEZ: I’m sorry I did not suggest eating more tortillas before we started.

BURT WOLF: The buildings are oriented toward the points of the compass and based on observations by Zapotec astronomers.  Even had their own observatory in the shape of an arrowhead pointing towards the spot where the sun sets.  The Zapotecs had developed a 365-day calendar that was so accurate that improvements on it were only made during the past 50 years.  And of course once you have a calendar, you have Sunday afternoons, which led to the development of spectator sports. One of the areas at the top is a ball field where they played a form of soccer.

BURT WOLF: So this was the ball court.

DON VICTOR GONZALEZ: Right here you see this stone circle.  Probably this is a place where the game would start. They placed a ball there and maybe threw the ball back and forth against the two sides, which were perfectly smooth. And the ball was thrown back and forth.  Each player would try hard for the ball to go into the niche of the opponent.  We really do not know with certainty every detail. 

BURT WOLF: But I’m sure that they sold beer and hot dogs and popcorn and ...  (Laughs) and stuff like that.

DON VICTOR GONZALEZ: I hope so.

BURT WOLF: And souvenirs and souvenir books and ...

DON VICTOR GONZALEZ: I hope they did.

BURT WOLF: Little cards with the players’ names on and ... nothing changes.

The area that has been excavated represents less than one percent of the total site.  The potential for archeological discoveries in Oaxaca is enormous. 

About ten miles east of Monte Alban is the town of Santa Maria del Tule.  And in the center of the town is a huge cypress tree   126 feet high, with a circumference of 174 feet.  It is probably the largest tree in the world.  And the burrows have taken on distinctive shapes.

Here’s a lion.  An elephant. A deer.  And a crocodile.  Like anything that’s 2,000 years old, it’s having a few health problems.  But it is so loved by the people of Mexico that they moved the Pan American Highway off to the side of the valley so the fumes would not hurt the tree. 

A few miles east of the great cypress tree is the town of Mitla, which is an important Zapotec center, often described as the Vatican of the Zapotecs.  The high priests lived here in magnificent palaces.  Toni  Sobel , a professional tour guide who has lived here for other 30 years, took me around.

TONI SOBEL: Mitla is the town of souls.  The Zapotecs, who built Mitla, believed that the soul of all dead Zapotecs came back to rest here.  And what’s so wonderful about it are the beautiful mosaics. And the mosaics are made out of little tiny pieces of stone that were hand carved to fit together perfectly. And they had no stone tools.  They did it with harder stone. They were covered with a thin veneer of white stucco and painted red. Can you imagine this glowing red in the sun? The people who live here today are the direct descendants of the people who built these buildings thousands of years ago. 

BURT WOLF: In tomb number two there is a large round stone called the Column of Life. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: You put your arms around the column and the space between your hands represents the life you have left.  You measure it, and for every finger of width between your hands, you get a year of life. So the trick is get somebody with very skinny fingers to measure it.  Like that kid over there.  Get that little kid over here to measure it.   They also say just hugging it will give you the power to have many children, which is why I’m letting go, because I already have all my children.

Having determined that I still have some good years left, I returned to Mitla to celebrate.  The main street of the town is lined with shops that sell mescal, which is considered to be the cognac of Mexico. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Okay, I’m going to test my extensive Spanish here.

Two bottles of mescal okay. And this has the worm. And you’re sure it’s not going to affect my eyesight at all.

WOMAN IN SHOP: Uh-huh.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I can just be able to drink this and it’ll be great.  Okay.  And this is ... this is ... this is the aged one?

WOMAN IN SHOP: Yes.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: It’s like ... it’s old like me.  Great.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Great.  Okay.  So I’ll ... I’ll ... here’s looking at you, honey.  Hmmmm.  That’s very good. I certainly know where all my cavities are now.   And this is the aged variety.  Much milder.  Much milder.  I’m just going to wait here for my change and the ambulance.

 You can purchase a standard bottle or one with a maguey worm in it.  The worm’s natural habitat is the plant, but it appears to have an afterlife in mescal bottles.  Usually there’s one worm to a bottle.  But the Chinese have decided that the maguey worm is a aphrodisiac and they order their mescal with 20 worms in the bottle.  Considering that there are 1.2 billion Chinese on the planet, hey, they might be right. 

The Spanish colonists needed the local production of thousands of things ... furniture, pottery, clothing. These things were too expensive to import, so European craftsman taught techniques to native artists who quickly mastered the skills.  But the final result always shows a balance of both European and native Indian aesthetics.  As a result, the towns around Oaxaca are like craft shops. 

The village of San Bartolo Coyotepec is known for its black pottery.  They’re still using a technique that was developed 2,000 years ago.  The pottery with a matt finish is traditional and waterproof. But the most famous is the glossy black, which unfortunately is not waterproof.  But it looks great. Sometimes we go for beauty over function.  Goodness knows I have.

Don Valente, whose mother, Dona Rosa who’s created with having introduced the shiny look, is carrying on the tradition.  Tourists come from all over the world to see him work.  Today’s group is from France.  Clay is taken from a quarry that is owned by the village and only available to residents.  Don Valente starts by softening the clay and pressing out any air bubbles.  He forms it into a bowl.  Makes a primitive potters wheel and starts to spin the full shape.

The clay for the neck is added and shaped.  If you want a flowerpot, you’re all set.  If you want a pitcher, hang on a second.  The surface with finished with a piece of gourd, a technique that goes back for thousands of years.  The strip of reed is used to produce a design.  Then it’s ready to be fired in the kiln.

Teotitlan del Valle is a town that’s famous for its weaving. My favorite spot is called Bug In The Rug. First the wool, which has just arrived from the sheep, is placed on a card and combed so the fibers all go in one direction.  Then the carded wool is spun into strands.  Natural dyes are used to give the strands color.  Their most famous dye is made from crushed bugs.  This is the same dye that the English used on their red coats during the American Revolutionary War. The colored wool is then woven into carpets using traditional Oaxacan designs.  They’ll make any pattern you suggest.

About a 40-minute drive from Oaxaca City is the town of Ocotlan, where the painter Rodolfo Morales was born. Morales earned a considerable fortunate from his paintings and used a considerable portion of it to fund a local museum.  II’s the perfect spot to get a look at an unusual collection.  The museum also contains a room devoted to the locally produced clay dolls of the Aguilar family.

Isaura Aguilar developed the art form, which is now carried on by her children, including Josephina, who is celebrating her saint’s day and who has invited us to join the party.  Josephina lives here with her eight children, their spouses, and ten grandchildren, all of whom are or soon will be involved in the family business.  Most of the images are drawn from traditional rural life, but more urban figures are slowly creeping in.

The state of Oaxaca is considered to be the gastronomic center of Mexico.  It’s divided into seven regions, each with its own cooking style.  Fortunately you can taste all of them in the capital city.  The cooking techniques of Oaxaca have been preserved for thousands of years, and that’s what gives the food its unique flavor.  Like most Mexican cuisine, Oaxaca’s food is a blend of native Indian and Spanish influences.

One of the great authorities on Oaxacan cooking is Susana Trilling.  Since 1987 she’s been in Oaxaca writing books about the local food, running her own cooking school, and making television shows.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: These are empanadas.  She’s making her own empanada with quesillo, which is the string cheese of Oaxaca. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Is that a goat cheese?

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: No, it’s a ... it’s a cow’s milk cheese.   All the three cheeses of Oaxaca are cow’s milk cheeses.  So this is the quesillo, and she’s going to put squash blossoms on it and some epazote inside.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Very nice.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: It’s a wonderful street food. And she also has a specialty here which is called empanada with mole and amarillo.  Mole is really a mixture or concoction.  It’s a sauce.  It doesn’t have to have chocolate in it.  They call Oaxaca the land of the seven moles.  And only two have chocolate.  This woman is making a flower out of mango, and this mango is called pericon. It’s considered one of the most meaty mangos. There are lots of different varieties of mangos that we have here, and this is just the start of mango season, so you’re really hitting it right. 

She’s going to make this into a beautiful flower. And they’re really wonderful at making all these fruits and vegetables.  People like to eat with lime.  And the worm salt.  See, the lime really brings the flavor out of a mango. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: How much is that?

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Would you like one?  Cheers.  What’s next? Thank you. Muchas gracias.

SUSANA TRILLING: Okay. She’s making a chocolate con leche.

BURT WOLF: Hot chocolate milk.

SUSANA TRILLING: Well, it is.  It’s ... it’s actually considered the most ritualistic, the ... the most incredible drink you can give somebody here.  It’s Mexico’s gift to the world.

BURT WOLF: And it’s milk.

SUSANA TRILLING: Milk with chocolate.

BURT WOLF: With chocolate melted in it and then whipped up.

SUSANA TRILLING: And the foam is considered the most important part of the drink.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Ahhh. All right.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: You can also have it with atole with chocolate mixed in, too.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Oh, it’s really good.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: Isn’t it good?

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: What’s the foam about?

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: The foam is ... well, I think it’s like the transference of energy of the woman who’s making the drink to the person who’s going to receive the offering of the gift. Because it really is considered the most sacred you can give someone.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Cheers.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: Salud. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: That’s nice.

SUSANA TRILLING ON CAMERA: There you go.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I ... I feel my energy coming up. There’s that energy.  Whap.   

Of the tens of thousands of insects that exist in Mexico, 400 have been identified as edible.  And most of them are residents of Oaxaca.  The most famous is the grasshopper, which became part of the Zapotec diet as an alternative source of protein.  Today they’re either toasted or deep fried and served as a crunchy snack. 

In 1976 the federal government of Mexico declared the historical center of Oaxaca a zone of national monuments.  And one of those national monuments was the convent of Santa Catalina, which was built by the Dominican order four centuries earlier in 1576. For almost 300 years it followed its founders instructions to receive poor virtuous girls who wished to become nuns and devote their lives to God.

During the 1600s the carved stone pits and washing fountains in the Northeast courtyard were open to the public.  The water system that feeds the basins was designed to steady water level and considered to be one of the most ingenious hydraulic systems built during the colonial period. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In 1861 there were drastic changes throughout Mexico.  Government reforms nationalized the property belonging to the church and the nuns were forced to leave the convent.  At that point the property went through a series of reincarnations.  It became a government office building, then an art school, and eventually a movie theater. 

In 1975 the property was turned into one of the most beautiful hotels in Mexico.  Named the Camino Real, it is a perfect example of how ancient, colonial and modern Mexico could be blended together.  The convent architecture has been preserved and restored, and the walls are lined with valuable works of art.  The second floor chapel remains in place, a perfect spot for a quick prayer before you buy a lottery ticket.

The main chapel is used for meetings for up to 500 people, and the original kitchen holds the breakfast buffet.  Meals can be taken in either of two cloisters, and the food is excellent.  There is a beautiful swimming pool, and the adjacent bar is an ideal spot for someone working on a television script.   The property consistently receives the Four Diamond Award from the American Automobile Association.   In theory, the nuns would have none of this luxury.  But who knows, times change. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Well, that’s a look at Oaxaca, Mexico, perhaps the only place in the world to independently develop both agriculture and a written language. We’re not quite sure why or how they did it. My guess ... they wanted to send you an invitation for a great lunch.  For TRAVELS & TRADITIONS, I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Ellis Island - #213

The final decades of the 1800s found much of Europe in a losing battle with over-population. Many people felt that their only hope for survival was to immigrate to The United States of America. So they packed up and headed for the New World, with most of them arriving at the Ellis Island Immigration Station in the center of New York Harbor. For over 50 years, starting in 1892, Ellis was the primary immigration center for the United States. During the peak years, 1900 to 1924, some 12 million people came through the facility. They were common people who made an uncommon decision. They wanted to be free, free of the poverty, free of the persecution and free of the despair that dominated their lives in the countries in which they had been living. They packed up what they could carry and headed for the land of opportunity.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: They changed their lives. But they also changed The United States. The author Patrick Gallo quotes an immigrant as saying that when he got to New York, he learned three things. First, the streets were not paved with gold. Second, most of the streets were not paved. And third, he was expected to pave them.

In addition to becoming America's labor force, the immigrants also became a force for creativity, culture and gastronomic diversity. There is no country in the world that offers a greater selection of culture, commerce or cuisine. To a great extent, it was the immigrants who traveled to this island that brought us what the world thinks of us as traditionally American. So, please join me, Burt Wolf for "Travels & Traditions" from Ellis Island.

WOLF ON CAMERA: The steamship companies saw the immigrants as profitable cargo.

They put up posters about the United States all over Europe. Agents went from house to house telling people about the promised land. "Catch the next boat and sail off to wealth beyond your wildest dreams." They were perfect cargo for the shipping companies, cargo that actually loaded itself. They traveled in a class of service called steerage because the part of the boat where this human cargo was stored was the place that held the steering equipment. Packed together in appalling conditions that were breeding grounds for disease, thousands of people died during the voyages, but for those who survived there was a chance to make a new life. The ship stopped alongside the piers that lined Manhattan’s shore. If you were a first or a second-class passenger, officials from the U.S. Immigration Service would clear you while you were on board, and you were free to go. But if you had come over in steerage, you were loaded onto ferries and taken across New York Harbor to Ellis Island. The staff at Ellis was charged with the responsibility of making sure that no one was granted entrance to the U.S. who had a contagious disease or who could not earn a living and might thereby become a burden to the government. These days, the people arriving on the island are tourists who want to understand the past. Barry Moreno is an Ellis Island librarian who took me on a tour.

BARRY MORENO ON CAMERA: This is where the Immigration and Naturalization Service brought the aliens, the immigrants, to Ellis Island aboard barges. What they would do is they would bring them from the steamships, and the barges were coming all day long, and they would dock here. Then the immigrants would come out, and directed by men called groupers, they would form two lines. One line, for men and boys and the other line for women and girls and other children. So, then they would continue into this main building at Ellis Island. This is the registry room. This is the place in which the fate of the immigrant was decided by an inspector. And the inspector was assisted by an interpreter in case the load of ... the shipload of immigrants were non-English speakers, and there was always a clerk at the inspector's side.

At those desks?

BARRY MORENO: That's correct. The inspector was really looking for ways of keeping the immigrant out of the country, weeding out the alien. That was the idea. You had to find out whether someone violated the laws in advance of entry. They would find out: Does the immigrant have enough money? Is the immigrant a criminal? Does the immigrant suffer from some contagious disease or immoral disease? Or is he handicapped in some way that would prevent him making a living?

BURT WOLF: I understand that some people came here with money.

BARRY MORENO: Yes. Actually, a good many did.

BURT WOLF: Why? Why would they come if they had money?

BARRY MORENO: Well, they wanted to invest in this country, to buy land and settle down here, buy shops and go into business, and that was the way to do it. You were frugal. You'd save your money, and then you came to America.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: And if they got through, what happened next?

BARRY MORENO ON CAMERA: Well, if they actually passed through, then the next question was, how soon they could they get off of Ellis Island, because people didn't really like Ellis Island.

BURT WOLF: How soon could they get out?

BARRY MORENO: Usually, within an hour or so. Usually. Usually, there was a boat waiting. They were free. They would go down the stairs of separation. The separator that led them to the boat dock or the railroad dock, whether to proceed to New York or to proceed, like most of them did, across the country.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The registry room was the primary inspection area. In 1909, my grandmother came through here, holding her one-year-old daughter in her arms, my mother. This was also the place where most immigrants got their first taste of American food.

There were soups and stews, breads, fresh fruits and, for some reason, an enormous amount of stewed fruit, particularly prunes. Breakfast offered coffee and bread-and-butter and crackers and milk. But for some reason, the crackers and milk were only for women and children. Dinner was beef stew, potatoes, and rye bread. In comparison to what most of the immigrants had been eating on the voyage over, Ellis was a gastronomic paradise.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: My grandmother's meal on Ellis turned out to be a disaster. Her very first bite sent her into tears, and she was afraid that she and her infant daughter would starve to death. That bite was of a fruit she had never seen before, a banana. Problem was: Nobody told her she had to peel it before she ate it.

In spite of the fact that Ellis Island was processing twice as many people as it was designed to handle, the staff did a remarkable job. Medical exams were completed, stability interviews conducted. There was a place to change your old-country money into U.S. dollars and a spot to buy railroad tickets if you were going on to some other part of the country. If you were staying in the neighborhood, you went through a door market "Push To New York." On the other side was a ferry that would take you the last mile of your journey to Manhattan. Over 100 million Americans trace their heritage to someone who came through Ellis Island, and much of what we think of as traditionally American in business, culture and food, came through here.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In the beginning, most of the cultural and gastronomic influences were from the English. After all, we speak English. Our laws are based on English common law, and much of the cooking was based on English recipes. As immigrant groups arrived, they wanted to assimilate and be like everybody who was here and, so, they accepted the English tradition. There was, however, one group of people who thought we needed a little cultural help and that the cooking was absolutely terrible. They flatly refused to give up their old-country ways, and, I think, changed America in many ways more than we changed them, and those were the Italians.

The key decade for the Italians was the 1880s. A conflict was developing between the Italian immigrants arriving in New York and the scientific community. Researchers were developing theories about the relationship of what people ate and drank to their overall well-being. They were also teaching these theories, as if they were scientific facts. The scientists had some interesting ideas. They thought that the tomato was poisonous and could kill you. They thought that fruits and vegetables had so much water in them, that from a nutritional point of view they were useless, they thought that green vegetables were the worst of all. They thought garlic was so dangerous it was like a self-inflicted wound. They were very nervous about eating different foods at the same time. If you put meatloaf and mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables on the same plate and ate them at the same time, it might put too much stress on your digestive system, and you'd get sick.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Ludicrous stuff. Imagine a family coming to New York from Italy, and the government tells them that everything they love and have been eating for generations is no good for them. Outrageous! Fortunately, they stood their ground and we’re lucky they did.

It's easy to credit Italian immigrants for America's love of pizza and pasta. But they're also responsible for the widespread acceptance of fruits and vegetables. This is the Fairway Market on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and it's easy to see what the Italians brought in. Bins of fresh pasta. Shelves of dried pasta. A wall of olive oils. Tubs of fresh olives. Tomatoes. Artichokes. Broccoli. Baby eggplants. A dozen different espresso coffees and biscotti. And that's just the easy stuff. Steve Jenkins is in charge of Fairway's Cheese Department, and he has his own story.

STEVE JENKINS ON CAMERA: At this counter, there's probably some 400 cheeses. But I'd say, France aside, the majority of them are Italian. We started in the Northwest corner of Italy where there's one of the five greatest cheeses in the whole world. It's called Fontina d’Aosta, from Aosta, the great semi-soft, raw cow's cheese from near Mont Fontin, the greatest melting cheese in the world. And from there, we just fell across the Piemonte border and discovered that the great Paglia cheeses and the Toma cheeses and Bra, the great, great cow's milk cheeses of Piemonte, in addition, the goat's milk Roccaverano and the sheep's milk Murrazzano, and now, they're sort of ... they're staples. They're things our customers absolutely have to have. Uh, from Piemonte we travel West into ... into ... Lombardia, where we discover great mascarpone. From there we went into Tuscany and pioneered what I think is my favorite cheese in the world which is Pecorino Toscano, name-controlled, sheep's milk cheese from Tuscany. Comes in a variety of sizes and shapes and ages. It's always raw milk. It's one of the most satisfying cheeses I know. And into Campagna. And we bring in mozzarella di bufala which, since the 2nd Century A.D., has been been the definitive mozzarella, not cow's milk. They don't even call cow's milk mozzarella. They call it il fiore di latte. That's Campagna. That's the area that's all around Napoli. We make sure we've got 'em every day, and they sell in ever-increasing amounts, and it's an enormous source of pride.

For centuries, the idea of good eating meant meat and fat. And in the early 1900s, researchers discovered vitamins and dietary minerals and all the rules changed. Suddenly, fruits and vegetables became good foods. The Italians also brought in America's favorite dessert. The Chinese had been making something like ice cream for about 5,000 years. But it was the Italians who introduced ice cream to Europe and eventually to the general public in North America. The ancient Romans loved ice cream. They would send a runner into the mountains to get ice, bring it back to town, mix it with crushed fruit and cream and end up with something like what we have today.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Ice cream follows a rather rocky road in ancient Rome. If you came back from the mountains and your ice was melted, the Emperor might just feed you to the lions. Things were better in Colonial America. George Washington had his own ice-cream making machine, and Thomas Jefferson had his own recipe for French vanilla. But it took the immigrants from Italy to make ice cream what it is today. Yummy!

And it was the Italian immigrant community that developed much of the American wine business. Many of the great vineyards in California were started by Italian farm families that came to the United States at the end of the 1800s. Edward T. O'Donnell is an urban and ethnic historian. He stopped into New York's Park Avenue Cafe to talk about the immigrant contribution to American culture.

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL ON CAMERA: Well, the Italians brought with them first and foremost themselves, by the millions, and one of their most obvious contributions to America were the millions of people that filled the factories, the work sites, that built the roads and produced the great abundance of the American economy in the early 20th Century. These are mostly nameless, faceless people that we don't know anything about, except that they were Italian and that they came to America. But among the millions, there certainly are many very notable ones that do stand out. Probably, one of the best examples being Marconi, who invented the wireless set and eventually founded the company that becomes RCA, one of the biggest and most important corporations in the 20th century. Enrico Fermi won the Nobel Prize for his research in nuclear science. You could shift to the arts and look at people like Enrico Caruso, probably the most popular entertainer in the early 20th century. Into areas like baseball. New Yorkers would certainly argue and, I think, a lot of other baseball fans would agree that Joe DiMaggio is one of the great baseball players of all time, Yogi Berra, certainly, another great one. You could shift to Hollywood and see that Frank Capra, the man who brought such great movies, like "It's a Wonderful Life" to the silver screen, certainly were key figures in the heyday of Hollywood. So, you have both lots of nameless, faceless people who made their contribution and then certainly notable ones that stand out.

In terms of numbers, the largest group to come through Ellis Island were the Italians. The second largest group were the Irish. But the Irish opened the place for business. On New Year's day of 1892, a 15-year-old girl named Annie Moore became the first immigrant to pass through the government station on Ellis. She'd come from County Cork in Ireland. Annie Moore was welcomed to her new country by millions of Irish men and women who had come here during the 1800s to avoid the famine that was caused by the repeated failure of the potato crop. Potatoes had become a basic part of virtually every meal in the Irish peasant home. When the Irish arrived in North America, they immediately planted potatoes and single-handedly made them as popular as they are today.

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL ON CAMERA: Now, the Irish, of course, have been coming for since the Colonial period. But their biggest wave was certainly in the 19th century, and their contribution ... one of their biggest contributions was that they arrived in such huge numbers and really shocked America. It forced America to really think about what it meant to be an American. And by being mostly poor from Ireland and, uh, Catholic for the most part, it forced America, really, to rethink what it meant to be American and kind of expanded the definition. America was not particularly with the arrival of the Irish and gradually, over time, it took a couple of generations, accepted them as Americans. I mean, you could look at something like the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's held all across the country now. Ever year on March 17th. It's a celebration of Irish identity. But it's been copied and replicated by every immigrant group since. Other contributions by the Irish. Probably, the most evident one is in the role that they played in building the American economy as laborers. They came with very few skills, with almost no money for the most part, but they did arrive with the need to work and the willingness to work, and if you look across America, the great infrastructure that was built that made America the greatest economy in the world by the early 20th century, the railroads, the canals, the great, projects like the Brooklyn Bridge, all were built overwhelmingly with Irish labor. Many other groups too but Irish really were the key contributors to that development.

BURT WOLF: Another major group came from Eastern Europe, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Romania. As the 1880s came to a close, Eastern Europe found itself in constant turmoil. Crops were failing. There was agonizing poverty throughout the population and religious persecution was rampant. During a 50-year period starting in 1875, over 2 million Russians took passage to New York. By 1914, 2 1/2 million Poles had passed through Ellis.

EDWARD T. O'DONNELL: The heyday of Eastern European arrival to America, mostly Jewish, was at the turn of the century, and they were the ones most closely associated with Ellis Island. They come by the millions, largely due to factors in Eastern Europe, persecution, war,

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL ON CAMERA: famine and general overpopulation. And they arrive in America at this time, usually going through Ellis Island and fill American cities. They're very urban people. And they like all the immigrants before them make a tremendous mark. Think about the Jewish contribution to the arts. People, like, everything ... from Irving Berlin to the Gershwins. Go back a little bit earlier. Late 19th century, early 20th century. Vaudeville was probably the most popular form of entertainment in America, and it's overwhelmingly, marked full of Jewish entertainers. The Marx Brothers were originally a vaudeville routine.

BURT WOLF: When you talk about the foods of Russia, you're actually talking about the food of more than 170 different ethnic groups, each clinging to their own individual habits. They all loved rich, whole grain breads, which were much healthier than the overly-processed white breads eaten by most Americans. They chose water as their favorite drink and liked to have it infused with bubbles. They were responsible for the development of the New York seltzer business. They called it the worker's champagne. They were masters at smoking fish and meat and introduced pastrami to East Coast delicatessens. They also did a lot to repopularize the drinking of tea, which is now almost as popular as it was before the Boston Tea Party. The third largest immigrant group to pass through Ellis were the Germans.

EDWARD T. O'DONNELL: The Germans have been coming to America since the earliest Colonial days and, in fact,

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL ON CAMERA: Ben Franklin was writing about them in the 1750s as a big problem, something that, we ought to reconsider how many we should allow in, because they weren't learning the language. They were printing government documents in their own language. Their kids were learning German in public schools, and that, really, we were going to be Germanized if we didn't stop this influx. That's in the 1750s. The Germans had been here for a very, long, long time. I think Franklin eventually got over that sentiment. But the great wave of German immigration is the 19th century and by many measures, they are the largest group to come to America, and they are ... arrived principally to American cities both in the East and in the Midwest.

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL: Tremendous number of Germans come as carpenters and cabinet builders. Probably, the most famous German family in the 19th century are the Steinways, and they arrive as cabinet makers, and they realize that there's probably a good living to be made building cabinets and making fine wood products but the founder of the Steinway family realizes that there's real money to be made, if he takes those skills and transforms them into piano making.

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL ON CAMERA: He's essentially the Henry Ford of piano making. Make ... the luxury item of the piano affordable to the masses. Well, Germans, some of their food is still very important to America. Other traditions, if we think about kindergarten. It's a German word, and it's a German cultural contribution to America. The Germans believed in education, especially at a young age, and they established kindergartens and eventually, when American public education began to evolve, they simply borrowed the word to describe early childhood education. Much of the American Christmas is a German ... of German influence, or, certainly influenced by the German migration.

EDWARD T. O’DONNELL: The Christmas tree is certainly a Northern European tradition that Germans brought to America, the idea of cutting down a tree, putting it in the house and decorating it. Even our image of Santa Claus. Thomas Nash, who is a famous political cartoonist in the 1860s and '70s and, uh, developed everything from the image of the Republican Party, the elephant and the Democratic Party, the donkey, which were cartoon images but also every year, for Harper's Weekly, he drew a picture of Santa Claus for their Christmas cover, and it was that image, that gives us all the things we think about when we think about Santa Claus, a life-sized figure. Santa Claus had often been depicted as a small elf. A person who checks a list, makes his list of naughty and nice. That's a Thomas Nash contribution, and Nash was born in Germany.

BURT WOLF: Gastronomically, the Germans introduced recipes that became as American as apple pie. Hamburgers, frankfurters, potato salad and jelly donuts were once specialties in the German immigrant kitchen. They were also master bakers and beer brewers. Budweiser. Coors. Miller. All started by German immigrants. And next time you put ketchup on your hamburger, please bear in mind that H.J. Heinz came from a German immigrant family.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: There's one more immigrant I want to tell you about. Peter Zenger, who came here from Germany in 1709 and worked on New York's first newspaper, "The Gazette." "The Gazette" was always being censored by the government. So, Zenger quit and started his own paper in which he constantly attacked the dishonest Governor. The Governor sued him for libel. And Andrew Hamilton defended Zenger. Hamilton said that the paper had the right to say whatever it wanted about the government as long as it was true. The jury agreed and set the tone for freedom of the press in The United States and without it I couldn’t say many of the things I say on this program and speaking of programs I hope you’ve enjoyed this one and that you will join us next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Manhattan - #212

BURT WOLF: The great cities along the Atlantic coast of North America were originally colonized by groups of people who wanted to build communities based on their religious beliefs; Puritans in Boston, Quakers in Philadelphia, Anabaptists in Rhode Island. There was, however, one extraordinary exception: New York. New York was founded in the 1620s as a trading post by the Dutch West India Company, a profit center for a corporation. The directors of the Dutch West India Company had one objective, to make as much money as they could as fast as they could. All other issues were secondary.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Four hundred years have gone by, but the priorities on this island are still pretty much the same; making money comes first. But at the heart of making money is creativity. You need an idea or an invention that will make money for the investors and the creators. So, Manhattan also became the center for creativity. And once you have creativity and money in the same place, people become interested in culture.

BURT WOLF: Today, Manhattan is a world epicenter for all three: money, creativity and culture. It is an extraordinary place to live and an amazing place to visit. So please join me, Burt Wolf, on the island of Manhattan.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Let's start with the money, the big bucks, the money that changed everything in New York City. It came floating into town when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. The canal was 135 miles long and it connected New York City with the Great Lakes. Suddenly, products that took a month to get to New York were arriving in a week. Shipping charges that were a dollar dropped to a dime. New York City was connected to the heartland of America and the products that were being made there were now being shipped through the port of New York. 

BURT WOLF: The Erie Canal made New York the mercantile center of the new world. The stocks issued to fund the canal and the money needed to deal with the city's sudden growth made it the financial center of the country. By 1830, New York had passed Philadelphia to become the nation's most important money market. And it still is.

This is the floor of The New York Stock Exchange, the largest equities market in the world. On an average day, over 35 billion dollars worth of stock is bought and sold. It started in 1792, when two dozen brokers got together under a tree near 68 Wall Street. It became an official place for trading stocks in 1863 and the ticker was introduced just four years later. It took over 100 years, but in 1975, The New York Stock Exchange got its first woman member.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: When you buy a membership in The New York Stock Exchange, what you get is the right to buy and sell listed shares with other members. The general public when it wants a share has to go to a member. Another word for a membership is seat; but, as you can see, no one gets to sit down on the floor of The New York Stock Exchange. In the 1870s, a seat sold for 4,000 bucks. In 1999, that same seat, slightly reupholstered, sold for 2 1/2 million.

BURT WOLF: When the Exchange is open, so is the visitor's gallery. You can stand above the trading floor and watch vast wealth coming and going.

Just down the street from The Stock Exchange is The Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It's one of the 12 regional reserve banks that was set up to serve as the central bank of The United States. The Fed sets the monetary policy for the country. It's also the warehouse for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of gold and securities, and tourists can come in and pay the gold a visit.

From its earliest days, circulating money was an essential part of New York, and to a great extent that circulation depended on immigration. During the 1640s, Peter Stuyvesant was the Governor of the colony. He ruled with an iron fist and a wooden leg. And was New York's first official bigot.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: He begged the Dutch West India Company to let him keep the Jews out. But the company was into riches, not religion, and they told him to stick it. His instructions were to let the Jews and any other race or religion into the colony so long as they would enhance its economic standing. And you know what? That's pretty much the predominant view in New York today.

BURT WOLF: But by the beginning of the twentieth century, immigrants were arriving from all over Europe and Asia. Thousands were coming in each day and they were allowed in for the simple reason that the city needed cheap labor for its new factories. And massive immigration to New York is still going on. An analysis of U.S. census figures indicates that during the 1990s, over 1 million immigrants settled in New York. Today, over 40 percent of the city's residents are foreign born.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: There's major immigration to other American cities. But, for the most part, those cities are receiving large homogeneous groups; lots of people who come from the same place, like the Cubans in Miami. But the immigration to New York City is coming from all over the world, and it's revitalizing the town. In the 1620s, there were 500 people living on this island. They spoke 18 different languages. Today, the people who live in Manhattan speak over 100 different languages and some of them even speak English.

BURT WOLF: The immigrants and their children are also the source of much of the city's creativity. Pete Hamill's father and mother immigrated to New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Pete became a journalist, Editor-In-Chief of both The New York Post and The New York Daily News, a screenwriter and a novelist. We stopped in at the Tribeca Grill to talk about New York and creativity.

PETE HAMILL ON CAMERA: I think, first of all, that the immigrant generation, the people that come from the other places, don't imagine in any conceivable way careers for themselves. They go to work in those grocery stores, whether they were Irish or Jewish,70 years ago or they're Korean today, so that their kids don't have to do those jobs. They are here to make the careers of their children possible. And so they gave those kids something that was extraordinary, and that wasn't money. It was optimism. It was the belief to create in them that they could be anything. You want to play the left field for The Dodgers? You could be a left fielder. If you have real bad luck, you can be President of the United States, but if you're really lucky, you can be a free man or a free woman. You can be an artist or a writer or a playwright or whatever. I think the art, particularly the arts, were amazingly nourished by that European immigration generation; by the Irish, the Jews and the Italians.

The roads took different paths, but the arts in America, the twentieth century arts were essentially the results of the children of immigrants plus African Americans. And when you put those combinations together, you got American art in the twentieth century. We are seeing now I think the beginning of the amazing gifts that we will get back from the new generation of immigrants. It's for that reason that the city feels replenished, the city feels excited again, the city feels full of possibility. I think it's very hard to create art in total isolation, that all those little collisions, the irritations of living in a city like New York are the same kinds of irritations that can create pearls. A grain of sand gets into a little irritates the ... the oyster and a pearl results.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Well, this is one of the most irritating places in the world.

PETE HAMILL ON CAMERA: Exactly.

BURT WOLF: Naturally the arts should do wonderful.

PETE HAMILL: Exactly.

PETE HAMILL ON CAMERA: For me, New York makes my blood pulse. Um, I need the kind of isolation like a lot of ... writers need to be able to focus deeply and surrender to the trance of the work. You need that kind of isolation. But when I get to the end and I take a breath and say that's it, I open the door, I'm out in the street and there's a Chinese woman yelling at somebody else in Chinese while a Latin guy is arguing with a Haitian over a parking spot. And when I hear that, when I hear the bouncing of languages, all those vowels colliding with all those consonants, my blood races. I'm so happy to be there. I'm so happy to be in cement.

BURT WOLF: Cement that holds up some of the most interesting buildings constructed during the twentieth century. Norval White is the author of The American Institute of Architects Guide to New York. It's a definitive record of the city's architectural heritage. I asked him to show us a few of his favorite structures.

NORVAL WHITE: This is the Chrysler building, which is one of the great art deco buildings of New York City.

BURT WOLF: What makes it special?

NORVAL WHITE: Well, it's one of the great examples in New York of the art deco style. It's a marvelous skyscraper. It has many details of fascinating interest. On the third setback, you can see the radiator caps of an early Chrysler automobile. And then way up at the top, you can see the falcons projecting into space, kind of modern gargoyles. And then above that, this rather glorious finial, this steel sphere lancing into the sky.

BURT WOLF: And for a brief time, it was the biggest building in the world.

NORVAL WHITE: It was the tallest building in the world until the Empire State came along, which is distinguished really only for its height. This one is distinguished for its architecture, as well as its height.

BURT WOLF & NORVAL WHITE ON CAMERA: This grand space is the main reading room of the New York Public Library. It's called the Rose main reading room after the philanthropist who endowed it. And it's been brought back to its original spark, which was when it was opened in 1913.

NORVAL WHITE: It's really an inflated copy of an Italian Renaissance palace and the ceiling, which could come from a majestic fifteenth century Florentine palazzo, is twice as big in every direction as anybody could construct in that time. So the engineering of the late nineteenth century allowed this colossal expansion.

BURT WOLF: Wonderful woodwork there, too.

NORVAL WHITE: Fascinating oak, Roman Tuscan columns. This is where the books are returned and a very grand place.

BURT WOLF: And speaking of grand, our next stop was Grand Central Station.

BURT WOLF & NORVAL WHITE ON CAMERA: Since Pennsylvania Station was torn down by the vandals, this is the great place to celebrate one's arrival to New York City.

BURT WOLF: When was it built?

NORVAL WHITE: 1913 it was finished. I think it was built between 1903 and 13. A fantastic combination of engineering, which made these great spaces, and the rich end of the nineteenth century what we call beaux art architecture, grand architecture of those times.

BURT WOLF: Those are amazing windows.

NORVAL WHITE: Yes, those are, actually you can walk across those. Those are glass bridges. You can walk from one side to the other. But the architects who have completely redid the station and did this magnificent restoration of the zodiac up here in the sky.

BURT WOLF: One of the most interesting things about the ceiling is that the star scape is in reverse. If you look up at the night sky, this is not the view you will see. This is the view from outer space looking down at the stars.

Another interesting example of the architecture of New York is The Four Seasons Hotel. It was designed by I. M. Pei and Frank Williams. When it opened in 1993, The New York Times described it as a shimmering presence that was great for New York. The shimmering comes from the French limestone exterior. It's the same material that Pei used for the work he did on the Louvre Museum in Paris. This is New York's tallest hotel, topping out at 52 floors. The main lobby on 57th Street feels like an ancient Egyptian temple just before the Pharaoh and his friends check in. Pei said he wanted the hotel to continue in the grand tradition of a former time when going to a hotel was an occasion, time to celebrate luxury.

The restaurant called 57 57 after the building's address is one of the great restaurant rooms in the city. And Susan Weaver, the chef, has become one of the most respected talents in the business. New York Magazine pointed out that the restaurant had one of the best breakfasts in the city, and I'm always ready to come back for the lemon ricotta hotcakes. It's a great place to start the day, and an equally grand place to end it is the bar. Gourmet Magazine called it the best bar in New York. It's famous for it's martinis, including one that is made with four parts gin or vodka to one part Japanese sake. The entire building has become a gracious and permanent haven in New York. As the city's financiers and industrialists grew wealthy, they attracted other wealthy financiers and industrialists. They built their homes along Fifth Avenue and subscribed to the principle of flaunt it while you got it.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: They also began to support cultural projects. It seems that if you were a robber baron and made a great fortune stealing land from poor people, then the cool thing to do was to take some of your money and use it to support the development of a museum which, of course, was filled with paintings by famous artists showing land and poor people. Not the same land they stole and not the same poor people. In that result, however, was some fabulous museums.

BURT WOLF: Fifth Avenue, between 82nd Street and 104th Street, the same strip which was once the land of the loaded, is now known as Museum Mile. The Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the International Center of Photography; cash in, culture out. 

For the first 200 years, New York's rich and poor lived near each other and were in regular contact. But, by the early years of the 1800s, that was no longer the case. The idea for New York's Central Park came from Andrew Jackson Downing, a well-connected landscape architect who felt that the upper-class citizens of the city were no longer coming into contact with the lower classes in ways that might be beneficial for both. He believed that a large park in the center of the city would accomplish this objective. Citizens of every class would come to the park and be reminded that underneath we are all brothers and sisters. Sara Cedar Miller is a historian with the Central Park Conservancy, and she took me on a tour.

SARA CEDAR MILLER & BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: We are on the mall in Central Park, the straightest line in the park. If you can imagine that you are walking down the nave of Chartres Cathedral, the landscape architects used plant material in the exact same way that architects used stone. So you have the trees as the columns of the buildings, the sculptures as the apses with the chapels inside and the beautiful branches of these American elms acting like the ribs of the Gothic vaulting. 

BURT WOLF: Unusual to see so many American elms in one place.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: This is the largest span of American elms in North America, even perhaps the world. They are 70 years old.

BURT WOLFON CAMERA: They don't look a day over 50.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: Right now, we're in the heart of Central Park, at Bethesda Terrace. I like to think of it as Central Park's living room, and the fountain as the TV.

BURT WOLF: Nice. That's the television.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: Yes, that’s TV.

BURT WOLF: So you're getting one channel.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: (Laughs) Right behind the fountain is the lake. Central Park has three different kinds of landscapes. The formal landscape, we just came down the mall, we are here at Bethesda Terrace, more or less the Versailles for every man. And behind us is the pastoral park, the Great Meadows and the great big, broad sheets of water like the lake. Behind that is the Ramble, the third kind of landscape, which is the picturesque landscape of the woodlands.

BURT WOLF: Nature.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: Nature all over the place. We're on Beaux Bridge, the largest span in the park and the second oldest cast iron bridge in America. They knew that cast iron could break.

BURT WOLF: It's a brittle material.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: Brittle, very brittle material. So what they did was bury cannonballs at the base of the bridge to act as ball bearings so the bridge could have a little movement when the lake froze for ice skating.

BURT WOLF: Very clever technology. So, after all of these years, it has become what Olmstead dreamed about, a park for the people.

SARA CEDAR MILLER: It is a park for the people. Indeed.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: At about the same time that Central Park was being built, the publishing industry which had been centered in Boston moved to Manhattan. New York had more readers and they saw it as a bigger market. When the publishers arrived, they brought with them artists, writers and editors and established Manhattan as the intellectual center for the media. And it still is.

BURT WOLF: One of the most knowledgeable and influential people in the publishing business is super literary agent, Mort Janklow. At key points in their career, he represented Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins and the Pope.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Why is New York City the media center of the world?

MORT JANKLOW ON CAMERA: Well, I think there's a number of reasons. Some of them that you don't think about so quickly. One is that it was only ... it has been since the late nineteenth century the richest city in the world. And culture tends to gravitate toward wealth. And the second reason I think is because of the great immigration policies we had during that period where the governments sponsored immigration because there was a shortage of labor and accepted people without much question from anywhere in Europe.

And we tended to get, poor people, but I think the top of the gene pool. These were the people who were uneducated but courageous. They came fleeing oppression in many cases, but more often I think for economic opportunity. They came thinking this is the city where the streets were paved with gold, which it was metaphorically. So you got the best group of people and they worked very hard and they contributed to the development of the city and they brought with them their culture.

BURT WOLF: In addition to their cultural contributions the immigrants brought their gastronomy. There are over 10,000 restaurants on the island of Manhattan, so you can find just about anything you want. But there are a couple of foods you really should try.

DELI MAN: May I help someone?

BURT WOLF: First of all, you should taste true New York delicatessen. Perhaps the best place to do that is the Second Avenue Deli. The Second Avenue Deli is a New York institution that was opened by Abe Lebewohl in 1954. Abe chose downtown Second Avenue as the site of his restaurant because he loved the neighborhood's Jewish heritage, especially its connection with the Yiddish theater. He even created a Walk of Stars outside the deli dedicated to the bright lights of the Jewish stage. Jack Lebewohl runs the place and has specific ideas on what should be eaten.

JACK LEBEWOHL ON CAMERA: Well, you start out with corned beef, pastrami and have some chicken soup with a matzo ball or noodles. Some coleslaw or health salad, sour pickles.

JACK LEBEWOHL: We do something special with both the pastrami and the corned beef. We use special spices to give it that distinct taste.

BURT WOLF: New York is also the center of Italian gastronomy in the new world. So you should definitely stop into one of the city's great Italian restaurants. These days, the superstar is Babbo, which is the Italian word for daddy. The two daddies that own the restaurant are Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali. Mario's in the kitchen and he started me off with marinated fresh anchovies, pasta with toasted garlic, hot peppers and pecorino, and for dessert, sweet corn crema and zeppoli, which are little doughnuts.

One of my favorite hot spots in New York is Balthazar. It has the feeling of a traditional French brasserie, and like the famous brasseries of Paris, it's a place for celebrities to see and be seen. I usually come in in a group and we share the dishes. For starters, a chicken liver and foie gras mousse, roasted beet salad and Brandade de Morue, which is a mixture of cod and potatoes. The main courses were pan roasted chicken, steak in a pepper sauce and whatever the daily special is. Today it’s saddle of lamb. For dessert, a fresh fig and raspberry tart and a pineapple upside down cake with coconut ice cream. The wine list is excellent and the bakery next door offers top-notch breads, sandwiches and pastries.

There are tens of thousands of Japanese living in the New York metropolitan area and they have encouraged the growth of Japanese restaurants to a point where some of the best Japanese food off the islands of Japan is on the island of Manhattan. The most innovative is Nobu, which has brought a new style of Japanese cooking to the city. Nobu is owned by actor Robert De Niro, celebrated chef Nobu Matsuhisa and restaurateur Drew Nieporent. The restaurant has lots of natural wood, tall birch tree columns rising into the ceiling and Japanese fabrics.

The food is fantastic. We started with yellow-tail tartar with caviar, sashimi salad with Matsuhisa dressing. Then Moroheiya pasta salad with lobster. For dessert, a parfait; dark chocolate on the bottom, caramel in the middle, white chocolate on top and hazelnut Florentines on top of the top. A work of art.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The author Lewis Mumford said that Manhattan itself was a work of art, the creation of human imagination. And I think Frank Sinatra had the best take on the place when he said "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere," and you can make this place a great vacation. Burt Wolf, TRAVELS & TRADITIONS, New York, New York.

Travels & Traditions: Ottawa, Canada - #211

BURT WOLF: Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. Set at the point where the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau Rivers come together, it's been a trading center for hundreds of years. In the beginning it was the Native American tribes trading with each other and the French fur trappers. These days it's government trading with lobbyists and other governments.

But Ottawa is also Canada's cultural center, with some of the finest museums in North America. It has a cosmopolitan outlook, with good food, interesting architecture, and over 60 annual festivals to attract tourists.

So please join me, Burt Wolf, for Travels & Traditions in Ottawa, Canada.

A good way to start a visit to Ottawa is to a take a boat ride. Each day Paul's Boat lines runs tours along the Rideau Canal in the Ottawa River. The canal represents the heart of Ottawa, and in fact Ottawa was in part founded because of the canal. During the British-American War of 1812 the British realized that the St. Lawrence River, which was the vital link between Montreal and the Great Lakes, could easily be taken by the Americans, and that would cut off the supply lines to their western settlements.

So in 1826, Lieutenant Colonel John By and his troops carved a 125-mile canal as an alternative waterway that could be used to bring British warships to the area. It was never used by the military, but it was a great help to the lumber industry, and that brought money into the neighborhood and gave the city a shot at becoming the capital of the nation.

It is a system of natural lakes and rivers made navigable by locks and dams. And it is a popular attraction for residents and visitors. The rivers, lakes, and the canal have different water levels. Boats are brought into the lock and locked off from the rest of the canal by a series of giant doors. And the water level is either raised or lowered so the vessel can continue its journey.

The portion of the canal that runs through Ottawa takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of the city. The land along side the canal is a long narrow park used by walkers, joggers, and bikers.

There's also a second boat tour that runs along the river, more beautiful views of the city, and a brief stop at the foot at the falls.

Ottawa is one of the world's coolest capital cities. Cool because the people have a great attitude and because for much of the winter the temperature is below freezing. During the winter the canal freezes over and becomes the world's longest skating rink ... four and a half miles from one end to the other. Every day hundreds of residents and tourists turn out for a little sport, and for some people it's even the chosen mode for commuting. If you live near the canal you can just slip on your skates and slide off to town. Winter sports are very much part of Canada's history, and so are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

When I was a kid, there was a radio program called Sergeant Preston Of The Mounties, who with his lead dog King (BARKING) kept me out of my mother's hair for a full half hour each week. Today Sergeant Preston's men are called The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Corporal Jerry McCarty is an equestrian instructor with the Mounties.

JERRY McCARTY ON CAMERA: Well, in 1873 on a decree by the then prime minister, Sir John A. McDonald, the Northwest Mountain Police were created to quell the whisky trade in Western Canada that was coming up from the Western United States at that time into what was then known as the Northwest Territories.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Did they quell the liquor trade?

JERRY McCARTY ON CAMERA: Yeah, they did. Yeah, they shut it right down to where we even have dry counties out there now.

INSTRUCTOR ON CAMERA: Push, take and give.

JERRY McCARTY: We're at the home of the musical ride, which might be considered the last bastion of horses within the ... the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. Since the last patrol on horseback by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police was done in 1939, the musical ride is a ceremonial troop which does cavalry maneuvers on horses and travels throughout the world doing such a job.

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the Royal Canadian Mountain Police Musical Ride (APPLAUSE)

JERRY McCARTY: The musical ride kind of came about as a way to entertain the people that were out there on detachment. And once they got the whiskey trade slowed down, well, there was a bunch of people standing around there and a bunch of guys that said "Well, we might as well entertain outside a little bit." And they started doing some calvary movements, and pretty soon they had some of the local settlers were watching them. And they said "Heck, we can entertain people with this. So why don't we do the odd little performance, maybe at a church picnic or a local picnic of some sort." Today we do the prime policing in eight of the ten provinces. We do all the federal policing, which takes care of customs, drugs, organized crime, intelligence, etcetera, for all of Canada. And we work very closely with a whole lot of agencies throughout the world.

BURT WOLF: A prominent element in the capital skyline is the glass turreted National Gallery of Canada, designed by Moshe Safdie and built in 1988. This is home to the world's largest collection of Canadian art, as well as important European and American collections. But it is also an extremely unusual building. Wayne Smith took me on a tour.

WAYNE SMITH: We started building this institution in 1984, and we competed it in 1988. Well, this is called the colonnade. It's 278 feet long, it's 62 feet high, and it rises at a five and a half percent incline. Safdie designed it in such a way to lift you above the city, or to the middle of the city, and to basically prepare you to be elevated by great works of art as well. Now, this is the great hall of The National Gallery. It's over 140 feet high. And, again, the great hall echoes the architecture of the city.

BURT WOLF: Just off the great hall is the great collection of Canadian art.

WAYNE SMITH: And the first thing you notice when you come into the room besides the great art is the incredible light that we have. The rooms are 25 feet high, we have these beveled ceilings, and the light is carried down into this area, filtered through the screens, down the bevels, and onto the works of art. So you can have natural light on these works without destroying them.

Now, we house the largest collection of Canadian art in Canada. We have more than 3,700 works on display throughout the museum, and we have about 32,000 works in storage as well. Now, this work that we're working at now is by Tom Thompson, and he was one of the fathers of a group of artists in Canada known as the group of seven. And these artists were not interested in painting realism, but giving you a feeling for the land. So when you look at the surface of the painting, it's very thick, rough, and garish, but so is the landscape that they are depicting.

This is the garden court of The National Gallery of Canada. And Ottawa can be quite cold in the wintertime, so we like to come into this space and be reminded of spring. Now, the space is incredible because Safdie has taken his inspiration from the cloisters that one would find in Europe. And one of the beautiful things with the arcade is that you'll notice it doesn't go up the second level of the museum. So when you're standing upstairs in the galleries of the European collection and you look down, this becomes a frame for the garden itself and the garden becomes a work of art.

This is the water court of The National Gallery, and it's another area to sit down and relax and they have beautiful works of Canadian sculpture around us. And underneath this very thick glass down below we have the group tour lobby of the museum, and there's a mirrored tile on the floor. So when sun comes through the dome, it reflects through the moving water, down to the mirrors, and back up again. So it creates the illusion that anyone walking underneath this glass is like a fish moving underneath the water.

BURT WOLF: Another extraordinary museum that you should not miss is The Canadian Museum Of Civilization. Douglas Cardinal, of Alberta, a native American from the Metis Tribe, was responsible for the architectural plan. There are two buildings. One was designed to represent the Canadian shield, which is the rock formation beneath Canada, and the other represents the nation's glacial period.

The museum is dedicated to the history of Canada's cultural groups. The main hall contains the most extensive collection of totem poles in the world. Each area was developed in conjunction with a particular native tribe, and each tribe decided which objects to include in their exhibition. The museum also houses The Canadian Hall which represents 1,000 years of Canadian history.

And then there's the place where I'm going to bring my grandson, the Canadian Children's Museum. The kids get a passport and travel through exhibitions that represent various nations around the world. They see the kinds of toys children play with in other countries and the foods they eat. They learn how to count different monies and visit mini versions of the national treasures of other nations. The Children's Museum is about teaching, and it does an excellent job.

BURT WOLF: Ottawa's interest in outstanding architecture is clearly evidenced in its 20th century museums. But the city's desire to have buildings of architectural interest goes back to the 1800s. This is The Cathedral of Notre Dame, the oldest church in the city and the seat of the city's Roman Catholic archbishop. Father Kevin Beach is the rector.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: The construction of the cathedral began in the 1830s. But as we see it's finished ... its finished appearance today. It was basically a project of 40 years. The interior construction, the interior decoration was done in the 1800s.

BURT WOLF: Now, those are not really marble.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: No, they're not. It's very much a church that has been built with the materials of the region. What it is is the basic construction of the whole cathedral is wood, so these are the huge pines that are the basic columns of the cathedral. And then to give this false marble, the faux marble effect, what they did is put a thin coat of plaster on and then painted it to give the impression of marble. So the basic story here in the sanctuary is the ... is the history of salvation. So we go right through ... begin with Adam, and opposite is Abel. And then you get into Abraham, the father in faith, and then into the patriarchs and the prophets. So we have the Old Testament to start with. And then as we go towards what would be the representational sanctuary is that is the representation of the heavenly assembly in the context in the Christian context, obviously. That at the center of the center of the heavenly assembly would be would be Jesus Christ. And then as we get further into the sanctuary the statues on the side become the apostles and the evangelists.

BURT WOLF: All carved in wood.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: All these ... the large statues are wood.

BURT WOLF: And they look marble. How do you decide the size of the saints?

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: (Laughs) Well, it depends if they're patrons, right? I mean, why did some get chosen and the others not? Well ...

BURT WOLF: At the same time this is quite big. And St. Francis is not doing particularly well here. And St. Dominick also.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: You'd have to go back to the original designer of the interior decoration. But the basic thing, in terms of the large statues ... where these are the principal figures of the New Testament, the apostles and the evangelists ... on the left you have St. Patrick ...

BURT WOLF: Right.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: And on the right you have St. the Baptist.

BURT WOLF: The Irish and the French.

FATHER KEVIN BEACH: And the French Canadians, right. So the ... the ... the two largest statues in the sanctuary are the patrons of the Irish and the French Canadians. So it's very much a cathedral that's rooted not only in heaven but on earth, and in the Ottawa reality of the time. Those are basically the two founding communities of the Catholic church in the Ottawa area.

BURT WOLF: While I was in Ottawa I stayed at the Chateau Laurier, which is a Canadian Pacific Hotel, and part of the Fairmont Hotel and Resort Group. Located between Parliament Hill and the Rideau Canal, it was built in 1912 in the chateau style by Charles Hays, the president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Hays’ passion for detail sent him to London to purchase furniture for the hotel. Unfortunately, his travel agent booked his return trip on the Titanic. Nevertheless, the hotel opened and quickly became a social center for the capital. Elegant public rooms with high ceilings and spacious accommodations ... this is the way they built grand hotels at the beginning of the 20th century. Just to the right of the lobby as you come in is a beautiful lounge called Zoe's, where they make a perfect dry martini. But if dry isn't your thing, you can get wet in the hotel's Art Deco swimming pool.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Hotels are always giving me lists of famous people who stayed there. And I never understand that. What difference could it make to me if the king of Lower Volta stayed in the Captain Spalding Suite. Usually the only thing they left behind was an unpaid bill. Not so at the Chateau Laurier. They had a famous guest that stayed here for 18 years and left stuff behind that we can all enjoy.

BURT WOLF: His name is Yousef Karsh, and he is one of the world's most famous portrait photographers. A number of his photographs hang here in the chateau. He was born of Armenian parents in 1908 in Turkey. At the age of 16 he emigrated to Canada and apprenticed to his uncle who was a photographer in Quebec. In 1935 he was appointed the official portrait photographer of the Canadian Government.

His most famous portrait is probably the one he took of Sir Winston Churchill in 1941. It became the symbol of Britain's wartime determination. Karsh went on to photograph many of the world's most famous people ... Georgia O'Keefe, Albert Einstein, Pablo Casals, and hundreds of others. Karsh's style as a portraitist was very structured. He used subtle lighting to shape his subjects in ways that idealized their image.

And now it's time to get a picture of what's cooking in Ottawa. Not all of the art at the National Arts Center is on stage. The cafe that's set on the banks of the Rideau Canal and has a great view to dine by. The cafe specializes in the use of Canadian raw materials, and the food is considered to be some of the best in Canada. We started with the chilled soup made from a blend of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and fresh basil. The main course was sea farmed Atlantic salmon, lightly smoked and baked on a plank. And for dessert, maple sugar pecan pie with ice cream.

We also had an excellent meal at the Cafe Henry Berger. It's one of the region's oldest and most respected restaurants. The owner, Robert Bourassa, presents a traditional French approach, with excellent ambience, food, and service. I started with smoked black Pacific cod on a bed of crisp ratatouille. The main course was a duck confit with roasted potatoes. And for dessert, a cornucopia with seasonal berries and chantilly cream.

A 15-minute drive into the countryside from downtown Ottawa will bring you to the beautiful Gatineau Park and the restaurant L’Orée du Bois, which means at the edge of the woods. And that is a perfect description of this restaurant, which has been built into a 100-year-old farmhouse. The restaurant features the regional dishes of the area, with ingredients that are grown or produced locally. To start with we had a mixed salad with goat cheese and purpose basil vinaigrette. The main course was medallions of caribou with berries. And for dessert, strawberries in puff pastry with Grand Marnier.

BURT WOLF: Our favorite pub was D’Arcy McGee's. Jeff O'Reilly has been the manager of this place since it opened, and he explained the story behind the name.

JEFF O’REILLY ON CAMERA: Thomas D’Arcy McGee was a founding father of Canadian Confederation. He was an Irish politician who was exiled, eventually ending up in Canada, became the minister of agriculture in Montreal. He was a famous author, poet, drinker, and renowned for speaking his mind.

JEFF O’REILLY: This pub was designed and hand-crafted in Wexford in the south of Ireland, where it was brought over in a ship and ... and suited to the pub. We've maintained the ... the integrity of the building. And we've got some really unique features. We've got handcrafted wood, we've got etched and stained glass, a mosaic tile floor. Beautiful, beautiful pub. We sell an awful lot of Guinness, which is a stout from Ireland. And what we'll do is we'll put shamrock on the top before we release it. It's a beautiful presentation.

BURT WOLF: On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights they have live music. Truly a wee bit of Ireland come over to Ottawa.

Tonight's band is the Searsons.

But the most popular band in town plays a very different tune.

Every morning between late June and the end of August, at ten a.m., soldiers in full dress march through the town to Parliament Hill and change places with the previous guard. Military music, royal ritual, echo of the empire.

BURT WOLF: Well, that's a brief look at Ottawa, one of Canada's best kept secrets. It has a small-town heart, but a sophisticated spirit. Beautiful scenery, excellent museums, interesting architecture, good food, and lots of tradition. I hope you've enjoyed this visit and that you will visit with us next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I'm Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Springfield Illinois - #210

BURT WOLF: Springfield, Illinois. It's Abraham Lincoln's hometown and the place to see what his personal life was really like. To find out why he suddenly grew a beard just before he became president. To see the house he lived in and the monument where he eventually came to rest. But Springfield is more than just Lincoln. It's the place where you can tour one of the great works of Frank Lloyd Wright, who was often described as the most important architect of the 20th Century. Where you can visit one of the finest collections of Amish quilts in the world, or drive along the mother road of the United States. It's a town where the signature dish is a horseshoe sandwich and where the corn-battered, deep fried frankfurter was invented. In short, Springfield is the spot for a quintessential American holiday. So please join me, Burt Wolf, for Travels and Traditions in Springfield, Illinois.

(MONTAGE OF LINCOLN SHOTS OVER MUSIC)

BURT WOLF: Ah yes, there can be no doubt that Springfield, Illinois, is still Lincoln's hometown. On a more official note, you can visit the Lincoln Herndon law offices where Lincoln rose to prominence as an attorney.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: It was a perfect office for a young attorney, because the federal courtroom was directly underneath. When Lincoln was alone in this room, he would lie down on the floor and open the corner of a trap door that was in the ceiling of the courtroom. He would listen to more experienced attorneys arguing their cases. He worked in this room for four years, starting in 1843 and he learned a lot.

BURT WOLF: Just down the street is the home that he lived in with Mary Todd before he was elected president and moved to Washington. For seventeen years, the family lived in this two-story frame house. It was the only house that Lincoln ever owned and the place where Mary gave birth to three of their four sons. It's always interesting to see and compare the homes of where our presidents lived before they moved into the White House. Kim Bauer is the historical research specialist for the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection at the Illinois State Historical Library.

KIM BAUER: In most of Abraham Lincoln's life he is beardless.

KIM BAUER ON CAMERA: He had no beard up to the time that he was president of the United States. Most people don't realize that because they see all the photographs of Abraham Lincoln during the presidency and he has a beard. There was an eleven year old girl who helped make his decision on growing a beard. Grace Bidell, from Westfield, New York, wrote Abraham Lincoln in October of 1860. She tells him that she thinks he's the greatest man that ... that's probably alive and that her father is gonna vote for him, but she has four brothers. And out of those four, two are probably are gonna vote for him and two don't know what they're going to do. So what she suggests to Abraham Lincoln, is that he grow a beard, and if he grows a beard, she thinks his other two brothers will vote for him for the presidency. He starts to grow a beard and by the time he heads to Washington in 1861, he has a full-grown beard.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: And the hat?

KIM BAUER ON CAMERA: Well now the hat is an interesting story too, because Abraham Lincoln quite often when he was going around the circuit as a lawyer, would put letters, legal documents, handkerchiefs, anything that he couldn't stuff into his pockets or if he didn't have a pocket, he would stuff into a stove pipe hat, which is the common image of Abraham Lincoln. So much so that William Herndon, his last law partner, called his hat ... Lincoln's hat ... his office. And Herndon even goes so far as to say that Lincoln's ears kind of stuck out and the reason why is because he wore these hats that were so full of letters and manuscripts.

FRITZ KLEIN AS LINCOLN ON CAMERA: Ladies and gentlemen, we are now into our fifth year since the policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident purpose of putting an end to the slavery agitation. However ...

BURT WOLF: Fritz Klein has played Lincoln on stage, on television and in films.

FRITZ KLEIN AS LINCOLN ON CAMERA: That agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my estimation, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

FRITZ KLEIN ON CAMERA: I try to approach this from a sort of timeless perspective, where they're not just viewing me as Lincoln up there on a setting, but I'm in their world, addressing them and their concerns as much as I can.

FRITZ KLEIN: Lincoln walked with a hunch. I didn't use to, but I do now. Many of the mannerisms I do when I'm Lincoln, and they've crept into my personal life, even though I didn't want that. I've been thrown off horses in front of an audience. I’ve had dogs run across the set in the middle of a performance. One time when I was at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., I was not in character, just as a tourist, walking down into the museum, and a woman saw me, looked up and just screamed right out loud.

BURT WOLF: About twenty miles northwest of Springfield is the reconstructed pioneer village of New Salem. Lincoln came here when he was twenty two years old and stayed for six years. He clerked in that store, chopped wood in that yard, served as a postmaster and started his political career. Twenty three timber houses and stores have been reconstructed and furnished as they were in the 1830s. Interpreters in period dress go about the daily work of the time and talk with visitors. Dave Hedrick took me on a tour.

DAVE HEDRICK: Lincoln actually boarded here in the 1830s. This is what is now referred to as a bed and breakfast, but then it was called a tavern.

BURT WOLF: And they're making breakfast.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: Oh no, we're cooking dinner.

BURT WOLF: Oh, I missed breakfast, huh?

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: Well, you know, we're gonna have some nice Brunswick stew.

BURT WOLF: Yeah?

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: And spider corn bread and blueberry fool.

BURT WOLF: That is an ancient whisk.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: Yes, it is.

BURT WOLF: Look at that. And it works.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: It works.

BURT WOLF: Just as well as any of our more modern whisks.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: WE have this sort of fancy egg beater.

BURT WOLF: Oh, look at that. I've seen those before. So you just run it like this.

WOMAN: Yeah.

BURT WOLF: ... and it spins down the center. And if you put some strings here, we could also have music, you know.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: (Laughs) And you could sing.

BURT WOLF: Actually people pay me a great deal of money not to sing.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: Oh, okay.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: And this is the blueberry fool. I need to later on add a little bit of whipped cream to it.

BURT WOLF: Okay.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: You know, pure fat.

BURT WOLF: And this is an old ...

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: This is what we call a tin oven sometimes it's called a reflector oven. You can put meat on a spit.

BURT WOLF: Inside, right.

WOMAN COOK #! BARBARA ARCHER:... and then you have ...

BURT WOLF:... to the fire.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: You face it to the fire.

BURT WOLF: Right.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: And then you have a door here where you can baste it.

BURT WOLF: And check on what's cooking.

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: And check on what's cooking.

BURT WOLF: When will dinner be ready?

WOMAN COOK #1 BARBARA ARCHER: Uh 12 o’clock.

BURT WOLF: I'll be back.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: Okay.

BURT WOLF: Keep up the good work.

WOMAN COOK #2 JONE VAN WINKLE: Thank you.

DAVE HEDRICK: This is the second Berry Lincoln store. Abraham Lincoln and his partner, Bill Berry, bought a store on credit, went deeply in debt, so their solution was to buy a larger store on credit.

BURT WOLF: It's so American!

DAVE HEDRICK: And then went deeper in debt. And here we have Jeremy, and he's our broom maker.

BURT WOLF: Hey Jeremy, how you doing?

JEREMY BLEUER: Pretty good.

BURT WOLF: How do you make a broom?

JEREMY BLEUER: Well, first you take a hickory stick and you've got to shave it all off, let it dry.

BURT WOLF: That becomes the handle.

JEREMY BLEUER: That becomes the handle. Then you take this broom corn, it's called broom corn.

BURT WOLF: It's a special kind of corn grown just for making brooms?

JEREMY BLEUER: Yeah. It's not actually corn, but that's what we call it. Then you put it on the handle and you wrap it up tight and this is what this machine does. It takes this ... it should be sinew, which is ... right now it's nylon wrapped in wax. And it goes something like this. I made this last week.

BURT WOLF: This is beautiful. May I try it?

JEREMY BLEUER: Yeah, sure.

DAVE HEDRICK: This is Peter Lukin's house and Peter was a shoemaker and we demonstrate the process of making shoes and this is Ken, Ken's learning how to make shoes today. And this is Don.

BURT WOLF: Hi Ken, hi Don. What are you making?

DON FERRICKS: Well, I'm making a shoe. What I'm doing now is putting the wooden pegs in. This is what's gonna hold the shoe together, is these wooden pegs.

BURT WOLF: And this is the sole?

DON FERRICKS: This is the sole.

BURT WOLF: Then you put the heel on last.

DON FERRICKS: Right. The heel is the same thing as the sole leather. It's just put on in layers.

BURT WOLF: It's very much the way we make shoes now.

DON FERRICKS: Very close.

BURT WOLF: Did you ever see any of the work of a guy named Manolo Blahnik.

DON FERRICKS: No, I haven't.

BURT WOLF: Oh, I'll have to send you some of some of his designs. You'll like them. How long will it take you to make a pair?

DON FERRICKS: Oh, I could do a pair easily in one day.

BURT WOLF: About six, seven hours of work?

DON FERRICKS: About seven hours.

BURT WOLF: Great, so I'll be back around what do you figure, about nine ... about eight o'clock tonight, you'll be ready?

DON FERRICKS: I'll be home by then.

BURT WOLF: Thanks a lot.

DON FERRICKS: Okay, thank you.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: During the same decade that Abraham Lincoln was packing up to leave the neighborhood for Washington, DC, a group of Amish in Pennsylvania were packing up to come into the neighborhood. They established their community in Arthur, Illinois, in 1865.

BURT WOLF: They were master quilt makers and their work represents some of the finest folk art produced in Illinois. Over 150 of their quilts have been brought together in a collection housed in Springfield's Illinois State Museum. Jan Wass is the curator of decorative arts.

JAN WASS ON CAMERA: A quilt is three layers of fabric. We have a top layer, a batting, which is usually cotton or wool, and a back layer, its lining. And in order to make the layers stay together, we use a small running stitch called quilting.

JAN WASS: The Amish used little pieces of cloth from their clothing. After they had finished making a garment, they would use the remnants to make their quilts, and this was in a sense, a form of recycling, because they were very frugal, practical people. And they didn't want to throw anything away. And sewing the little pieces together into a quilt was something that was both beautiful and practical. The Amish used the same colors in their quilts that they used in their clothing. And I think people are very much surprised at how bright they are, because they think of the Amish as wearing black. But actually when you look at their clothing, the women's dresses, the children's dresses, the men's shirts, they're bright colors, at least blues, greens, purples, reds.

BURT WOLF: While I was in Springfield, I stayed at a bed and breakfast. First time for me and very interesting. It's called the Inn at 835 and by some extraordinary stroke of luck, it just happens to be at 835 South Second Street, which is a pleasant, tree-lined road about three blocks from the capitol building and the major downtown attractions. It was originally constructed in 1909 by Miss Belle Miller, a local businesswoman who believed that there was a future for rental apartments, even though at the time everyone in Springfield lived in a home or a rooming house.

BURT WOLF: She divided the place into six similar apartments. You come off the staircase hall into an entrance area. There are good-sized living rooms with wood-burning fireplaces, and elaborate bathrooms.

BURT WOLF: She must have had a good sense of the market because as soon as the apartments were ready, they were rented and stayed rented for over ninety years. In 1994, Court and Karen Conn purchased the building and slowly transformed it into an Inn. The rooms have pretty much the same feeling that they have had for the past century. Each room is furnished differently and has its own separate feeling. The apartments that were on the ground floor have become the public rooms. Nothing corporate about the Inn.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Each morning, everybody who was staying at the Inn comes down to breakfast, which is cooked and served by Court and Karen. Very informal, very relaxed, very homey. The Inn has been listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and honored as a landmark by the City of Springfield.

BURT WOLF: Springfield is also the home of the Dana Thomas House, which is the best preserved and most complete early prairie house designed by the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

BURT WOLF: Typical of Wright's prairie style, the exterior is characterized by low horizontal roofs, wide overhanging eaves and ribbon art glass windows. It looks almost the same as it did when it was commissioned in 1902 for Springfield socialite and women's activist Susan Lawrence Dana. More than 100 pieces of original Wright design white oak furniture are still in place, along with 250 art glass doors, windows and light panels and 200 original light fixtures. There's a raised main living level, open floor plan and centralized fireplaces.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Wright was thirty five years old when he got the Dana House commission and it was a major piece of work. He was in the process of revolutionizing Midwestern domestic architecture and this house gave him an opportunity to experiment with some new forms.

BURT WOLF: This is one of only three Wright-designed double pedestal lamps. It has a hipped roof shade and free hanging moveable glass panels that use the same iridescent glass and pattern found throughout the interior of the house. It is considered to be one of Wright's most important lamp designs. The dining room's butterfly light fixtures are the most elaborate and geometric of Wright's career. The dining room table can be expanded to accommodate forty people, all seated on Wright-designed oak chairs.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: When I saw that dining room table designed by Wright for forty people, I thought this house is gonna have some kitchen. Wrong. Almost all of Susan Dana's food came in from a catering service. The kitchen is minimal. Maybe you could toast a bagel here, you know? In 1902 there weren't any bagels in Springfield, so you couldn't even do that. Nevertheless, the Dana Thomas House is well worth a visit.

BURT WOLF: Springfield is packed with nationally famous historic landmarks, but perhaps its most famous international landmark is its strip of the mother road, Route 66. From Chicago to LA, over 2,000 miles all the way.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Each year thousands of tourists show up in Chicago and buy a used car or a used motorcycle and head out to LA. For about 85 percent of the trip, they're on the original Route 66. It was built in 1926 as the first road designed specifically for automobiles and it captured the imagination of the auto buff and it's held onto it, too.

BURT WOLF: Springfield even has an informal monument to this great American highway. For over fifty years, Bill Shea pumped gas on Route 66. Today, he is the proud owner of one of the great private heaps of gas station and Route 66 memorabilia. Obsolete tools, old gas cans, pumps, signs, he even purchased an entire filling station, which he is reconditioning. A national repository of junkabilia, or ebay heaven, who knows?

BURT WOLF: So what's cooking in Springfield? Let's see. The earliest restaurants in Springfield were build downtown and catered to people associated with the government. They were family-owned places and that's pretty much what they still are. Maldaner’s has been here since 1884 and is a landmark all by itself. Big portions and friendly service. Cafe Brio is a good spot for food with a Tex-Mex flavor, open and colorful. Augie's for good straightforward cooking. Interesting black bean cakes. The town's signature dish is called the horseshoe, toast on the bottom, hamburger in the middle, cheese sauce on top and French fries around everything. The place to taste a traditional horseshoe is Norb Andy’s. Springfield is also the ancestral home of the corn battered encrusted deep fried frankfurter, properly known as a cozy dog. You can expose yourself to this gustatory delight in its original habitat, the Cozy Dog Drive In.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Amazing. This is very good.

BURT WOLF: Another spot we enjoyed was Saputo’s, opened in 1948 by identical twin brothers, the Southern Italian menu is based entirely on their mother's recipes. And even today, the basic elements in every dish are prepared by a family member.

Perhaps the most unusual guy I found in Springfield was Kenny Gand. His regular job is teaching school, but he is developing a worldwide reputation for his extracurricular activities. Let me put it to you this way, you love your old glove, but you're having a snit. The laces are loose and the stuffing's unfit. The buckles are busted and the lining is torn, the fingers are fragile and the ribbing's forlorn. It's tired and it's tender and it looks like an ender. But all is not lost. Just call the Mitt Mender.

KENNY GAND: A lot of people that send me their gloves to have repaired - they have a lot of sentimental value in them. They used them when they were a small child and grew up playing with that glove and never got rid of it and they've seen advertisements of my services and they've contacted me and were made very, very happy again.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: You got a lot of great gloves.

KENNY GAND ON CAMERA: There's a lot of good antique gloves in this cabinet and on the wall behind us. A lot of these gloves have accumulated over the years at either a flea market or a garage sale. A couple of years ago, my boys found this glove at a flea market. This glove is special because it has Mickey Mantle's signature in the glove. It's a left-handed glove and it's value would be close to three hundred dollars.

BURT WOLF: You know in the old gloves, you couldn't catch with one hand. You really needed two hands to make a catch.

KENNY GAND: You had to use two hands in the early ages of the game of baseball.

BURT WOLF: And now it's time to head over to Washington Park. Beautiful grounds, lots of space, and one of the world's great carillons. A carillon is a stationary set of chromatically tuned bells set in a tower. The earliest carillons that we know about were in China and date back over 2000 years.

During the Middle Ages, musicians in Belgium and The Netherlands began developing them into a popular musical form and built bell towers throughout northern Europe. Each tower also had one bell used for striking the hour and warning citizens of fire, flood, invasion or when their local cable company was going to turn off a network. 

 The Rees Memorial Carillon here in Springfield is one of the largest and finest in the world. Its open tower has sixty-seven bronze bells that were cast in The Netherlands. The total weight is 90,000 pounds. They’re played manually by means of a keyboard and today Jim Rogers is on the keyboard. And finally, you should pay a visit to Lincoln's tomb.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The death of Abraham Lincoln on April 15th, 1865, came only six days after the surrender of the Confederate Army. The celebrations that were taking place to mark the conclusion of the war between the states came to an abrupt end.

BURT WOLF: As the nation mourned its president, the National Lincoln Monument Association started planning a memorial in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln had lived from 1837 to 1861. The monument holds the remains of the sixteenth president, his wife and three of their sons. The 117 foot tall tomb is constructed of granite quarried in Quincy, Massachusetts. Near the entrance is a bronze bust of Lincoln. The shiny nose is the result of visitors rubbing it for good luck. On Tuesday evenings during the summer months, the 144th Illinois Volunteer Reactivated Infantry demonstrates Civil War military drills and conducts flag retreat ceremonies.

BURT WOLF: At each ceremony, a selected visitor receives the United States flag that flew over the tomb during the previous week.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Springfield, Illinois, lots of Lincoln, interesting museums, an important strip of America's mother road and down home cooking. It's the perfect spot for a family vacation. I hope you've enjoyed this visit and I hope you will join us next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I'm Burt Wolf.

(OVER CREDITS)

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: It’s Stephen Douglas for you Abe.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: So Lincoln kept all this stuff in his hat? Amazing. BURT WOLFON CAMERA: Abe - this thing about honesty. Don't you think that's gonna be difficult for future presidents to follow?

FRITZ KLEIN AS LINCOLN: Actually, I know of a few that are having a real hard time with it.

BURT WOLF: Yeah, listen Abe it’s really been wonderful.

FRITZ KLEIN AS LINCOLN: I've enjoyed it.

BURT WOLF: Thank you.

Travels & Traditions: Philadelphia - #209

Philadelphia is the city where the Founding Fathers of the United States met to declare their independence from England, to draft the Constitution, to put forth the idea that all men are created equal. It is a city of firsts. It's the home of our nation's first fire department, first hospital, first zoo, and first art museum. Its citizens were the first to wear bifocal eyeglasses, to take books out of a lending library. It is the historic heart of our nation and designed to capture the heart of any tourist. So please join me, Burt Wolf, for Travels & Traditions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The number one tourist spot in Philadelphia, the one most visited, is The Liberty Bell. Number two are the outlet stores at the Franklin Mills Mall, which seems to confirm my belief that our nation was founded on the freedom to shop. And it all got started because of a bill that was overdue. England's King Charles II owed 16,000 Pounds to William Penn, but the king was a little short of cash, so he paid off the debt by giving Penn a huge tract of land in North America. It was actually bigger than England. William Penn was an aristocrat, which the king liked, but he was also a Quaker, which the king didn't like.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The Quakers were much too liberal for the king. They believed in freedom of religion. They thought that a government should represent the needs of all of its people, outrageous ideas! He threw 10,000 of them into prison, including Penn. So the idea of paying off a debt, getting Penn and the Quakers out of his hair, shifting them off to the colonies 3,000 miles away seemed like a great idea. Penn could conduct his great holy experiment so far away that the king would not be bothered. Only one problem, the ideas that came to Pennsylvania with the Quakers were the very ideas that formed the basis of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolutionary War. Some days, you just can't win.

Philadelphia was the capital of Penn's colony, the City of Brotherly Love, but what the brothers loved the most was freedom, particularly freedom from England. In 1750, as part of the 50th anniversary of Pennsylvania's Charter of Privileges, a bell was ordered from England. The inscription around the crown reads, "Proclaim liberty through all the land to all the inhabitants thereof." 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: They hung it in the State House, which is now known as Independence Hall. The first time they rang it, it cracked, so they recast it. They tried to ring it again, and it cracked again. The point seemed to be that anybody who trusted England to give the colonies a fair shake had to be cracked, and besides, the relationship between England and the colonies really was never what it was cracked up to be anyway.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Eventually a group of people who felt the same way ended up here in Independence Hall. They were delegates to the Continental Congress and had come from each of the 13 original colonies. On July 4th, 1776, they adopted the Declaration of Independence, which led to our fight for freedom and made Philadelphia the capitol of the United States.

But there was life in Philadelphia before the Revolution. Chris Klemek, who's a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania working on his doctorate in history. Under the name "Poor Richard's Walking Tours", he will walk you through the history of the city. Slightly irreverent and thought provoking, his tour is an interesting way to see Philadelphia. Chris is passionate about history. And when he's teaching, you just hang on and learn. Here we go.

CHRIS KLEMEK: William Penn is a radical guy. This is an aristocrat who converts to Quakerism, and he's going to bring some revolutionary ideas into the world with him when he comes, especially, to set up his colony in Philadelphia. Probably the most immediately obvious evidence of the radicalism of William Penn is the way he lays out his city. He creates basically the first pre-planned city in the modern world. It's a grid. He lays it out as a perfect grid, and this is in stark contrast to the London that he's born in and which he watches burn to the ground in 1666 because it's so dense and unplanned. The other radical idea that William Penn brings with him into Philadelphia is this idea of religious tolerance. And you see again, he's reacting against the persecution that he's been subjected to as a Quaker in England, so he wants to create a colony in which all faiths are tolerated, and the result of that is what we get here in Philadelphia, is America's first truly diverse society.

CHRIS KLEMEK: All this tolerance and radical ideas proves very popular to the point that Philadelphia is going to end up being the largest city in the English-speaking world after London by the eve of the Revolution. And I don't think that there's any better illustration of the wealth that comes to Philadelphia in this time than this Anglican Church, Christ Church, that's built in the 1730s and '40s and really represents the grandest style, high Georgian architecture, the greatest building that you could find on the American continent at this point. What a great contrast we have here between the ornate Anglican Church that we just saw and this plain, austere, frugal Quaker meetinghouse, which in so many ways embodies the ideals that William Penn was trying to bring to his wholesome colony, his religious experiment. But the very success of that colony, that we've already seen, is going to ultimately undermine many of his ideals for what was to happen here. Probably the best example of this, is slavery, the slave trade is at the heart of much of the wealth that's coming into Pennsylvania. And yet the Quakers are at the forefront as early as 1688, of calling for the abolition of slavery. So now the question is - let's turn to the American Revolution – “Why here? Why Philadelphia?” And the answer is obvious. We've already shown, this is the largest, most cosmopolitan, wealthiest city in the Americas, so it's a really a no-brainer that when it's time to come together and forge a new government, that they're going to plot the revolution here, and even after the revolution, this will be the seat of the new national government that's put in place.

BURT WOLF: In that building.

CHRIS KLEMEK: Yes. This is Carpenter's Hall. It's the hall of a Carpenter's Guild, where they keep all their secret documents about how to plan buildings, and that's why the revolutionaries are going to meet here first in 1774 because they want secrecy. They want to be hidden from the street because they're discussing radical ideas, the radical ideas like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" that say you can overthrow a government, that you can challenge a millennial tradition of monarchy. And they're saying, "We're going to plot treason. We're going to take on the most powerful army and navy in the world." And the amazing thing, we call them Patriots now, because they won. So they win, you've got a newly independent nation with its own institutions, but that still leaves us with the question of just how radical was this revolution, and it could be said that this is actually an oxymoron, a conservative revolution because it doesn't fundamentally restructure the American society. I mean, we think that the connection between money and politics is something new, but few people realize that George Washington is the wealthiest man in America, even before the Revolution. Then there's the issue of all these illustrious documents that are produced here in Philadelphia, proclaiming enlightenment, ideals of liberty and equality for all men, but they're not resolving all the tensions from William Penn's time of how slavery is going to exist in this ostensibly enlightened nation or whether women are going to be allowed to vote or even if Native Americans should be citizens. So all those tensions are going to create an irony around a symbol like The Liberty Bell, which in the 19th century is adopted by abolitionists as a flawed, cracked, emblem of an unfinished revolution. But there's life in Philadelphia after the Revolution. And this is where we need to talk about good old Ben Franklin, because all through the 1700s, Ben Franklin has been founding some path-breaking institutions for cultivating practical knowledge, useful skills. This includes the first lending library, America's first modern university, the University of Pennsylvania, or the American Philosophical Society, which is the premier scientific institution of its day. And the presence of all these institutions, unique in America, are going to lead Philadelphia to the vanguard of a new revolution: the Industrial Revolution. And Philadelphia in the age of the Industrial Revolution, when the railroad is the great symbol of this technological marvel, Philadelphia is the center of the railroad industry. It's in Philadelphia that we get the world's first billion-dollar corporation. Guess what? The Pennsylvania Railroad. It's also here that John

Wanamaker is inventing the modern department store, and the best part about Philadelphia, is no matter what we're looking at, the religious toleration of the 17th century, the political revolutions of the 18th century, or the industrial revolutions of the 19th century, all the monuments are still standing. So Philadelphia really is the best place to come if you want to understand America.

BURT WOLF: Being the first city in North America to have a hospital and a medical school has given Philadelphia a serious interest in medical history. And one place to see that interest on display is The Mutter Museum. This is the office of Gretchen Worden, who is the curator of The Mutter. She is a unique personality with a unique office. Gretchen, where are you? Am I getting warm? Come out wherever you are! Gretchen? I know you're in there.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Ready. This is a collection of skulls, representing the peoples of eastern and central Europe, that we acquired from the anatomist who prepared them. We bought them in 1874. There was one skull he offered us at that time which we did not buy. It was a skull of Mozart, but we have 139 other fascinating people here.

BURT WOLF: What's the point that they make?

GRETCHEN WORDEN: The point was, he was an anatomist, and there was a lot of speculation about biology being destiny, the idea that your background determines what you look like, who you are. And we was trying to show there is a great deal of variation, even among peoples who share the same birth place, and the variation is due to the usual factors, such as your age, your sex, as well as your ethnic background. Why don't you step around here and let me show you something else. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: What is this?

GRETCHEN WORDEN: This is the Shivalia Jackson collection of foreign bodies, or objects swallowed and inhaled. Dr. Jackson was a pioneer in the field of broncho- esophagology who perfected these instruments that could reach into people's food and air passages and remove things that they were choking on

BURT WOLF: Some guy swallowed his teeth?

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Absolutely.

BURT WOLF: Boy, somebody swallowed their perfect attendance button.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Well, I guess he missed a few days after that went in.

BURT WOLF: (Laughs) That's sick! (Laughs)

GRETCHEN WORDEN: The reason he saved them was that he recorded the case history of each of these objects so that a doctor faced with a similar situation could see what had worked successfully, what size of tube, what technique, how long something could be in there and still be successfully removed. It's a teaching collection for fellow broncho-esophagologists.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I want to see if I can say that. 

BURT WOLF & GRETCHEN WORDEN: Broncho-esophagologists.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Yes.

BURT WOLF: Okay. No easy task. (Laughs)

GRETCHEN WORDEN: No, it's not.

BURT WOLF: What else is going on here? The famous and Chang and Eng twins.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Yes, these were the original Siamese twins. They were born in Bangkok in 1811 and came to this country in 1829 and spent the rest of their lives, either touring or living with their families in North Carolina.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: They eventually married sisters and raised 21 children.

BURT WOLF: Intimate relationship there.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: Extremely intimate.

BURT WOLF: Or talk about a close family.

GRETCHEN WORDEN: It was a very close family.

BURT WOLF: Yes, this was a very close family. The Mutter Museum has a rather unusual collection, but this is only one of the many unusual collections in this city. Philadelphia also has the largest collection of outdoor murals. They were put up as part of the Mural Arts Program. Russell Meddin, a member of the Mural Advocacy Board, took me on a tour.

RUSSELL MEDDIN: This mural is particularly interesting because, not only is a wonderful piece of art, but it really shows what murals can do for a community. In this area of Grays Ferry, there was a really nasty racial incident in this ethically diverse neighborhood, and they needed a way to bring people back together. And this one has really done it, and it really has worked. The Mural Arts Program began in nineteen eighty-four. It was set up, as a way to combat graffiti because, at that time, Philadelphia was just being blasted with graffiti all over the town. And it was thought that if we could take the people who had been caught for putting tags on walls and sort of channel their energy into something a little more positive, it would be a great way to change things around.

BURT WOLF: That makes sense.

RUSSELL MEDDIN: This one was done last year, and it's called Crystal Snow Skate, and it shows just a wonderful winter scene in the city. Right across the street from the recreation center, this wall had had graffiti on it and has totally taken care of the problem. Burt this is one of my favorite murals because it's large and really colorful. It's called the Philadelphia Muses, and it was done for the Avenue of the Arts, which is a block from here and so, also up here, we have members of the art community. They're members of Philadanco, which is dance company, Philadelphia Opera Company are all depicted on this mural.

BURT WOLF: These are real people, too.

RUSSELL MEDDIN: These are real people, real artists in Philadelphia, what is really fascinating is this is a complete stucco wall. It started as a complete stucco wall. And if you look to the right and left, you see brick columns. She painted those. Over the 2000 murals that we put up, we've had very, very, very little re-hits of graffiti on those walls. So it really has done what it was supposed to do. A lot of our newer murals are being funded by corporations and foundations, so if you have a corporation or foundation and would like to fund a mural in Philadelphia, please give us a call.

BURT WOLF: I don't have one, but you might mention it to them.

RUSSELL MEDDIN: Well, if you have a corporation or, foundation and would like to fund a mural in the city of Philadelphia, please call the Mural Arts Program. We have a wall for you.

BURT WOLF: This is the Reading Terminal Market. It has supplied the cooks of Philadelphia with excellent products for over 100 years. But it is also a good market for tourists. In addition to all of the foods that are meant to be used by local residents, the Reading Terminal Market has foods that are to be eaten here, taken back to your hotel, or brought to your home. You should try the soft pretzels, which are served with a topping of mustard; hoagies, which were developed to celebrate the first presentation in Philadelphia of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta; and cheese steaks, which have become a signature food in the history of Philadelphia gastronomy. Many of the foods at the Reading Terminal Market come in from areas just outside the city, areas that are well worth a visit. Philadelphia is surrounded by some of the most beautiful country in the eastern part of the United States. Bucks County is a particularly interesting area. In Doylestown, you can visit the Mercer Museum. And while you're in the neighborhood, stop in to Font Hill. Font Hill was built in 1910 in the Tudor style. But Henry Mercer, the owner and architect, built it in reinforced concrete, which was a new method of construction at the time. Nearby in Brandywine Valley, you can visit the Brandywine River Museum, a restored gristmill, or Longwood Gardens. Over 11,000 different plant species on 1,000 acres of formal gardens, meadows and woodlands. 

And while I was in Philadelphia, I stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, which has become a landmark in itself. The general manager, Robert Cima, took me on a tour.

ROBERT CIMA: One of the things I really love about this hotel is the greenery that we have in our lobby space. There's so much beautiful flora and fauna that we continue to introduce into it throughout the year. We must change everything about every three weeks. And we actually also have three gardeners that work with us 24 hours a day, so every shift - which is quite amazing. And also we have those beautiful gardens outside that most people don't get to see when they're in a Four Seasons Hotel because you're in a city dwelling. And here we actually have a little bit of the countryside just outside the doors. We're situated on Logan Square, which was one of the original squares that William Penn had designed back in his time in the 1600s as one of the five original squares for the city. This square actually was turned into an oval, in the early part of the 1900s as part of a redesign, where Alexander Sterling Calder had actually produced the Swan Memorial Fountain and that’s how we derive the names for our two restaurants in the hotel, the Fountain Restaurant and also the Swan Lounge. 

ROBERT CIMA: We're an oasis in the city. I mean, look at this beautiful pool, you got the Jacuzzi, you can work out in the gym, all kinds of body treatments. You can actually even have lunch served over there.

BURT WOLF: It's quite fabulous.

Not on most lists of sites to see in Philadelphia but right downtown and worth a visit is the Masonic Temple, home of the Freemasons. The Freemasons are the world's oldest and largest fraternity, and many of the men who founded the government of The United States here in Philadelphia belonged to the Freemasons, including George Washington.

JOHN MINOTT: Well good morning and welcome to the Masonic Temple.

BURT WOLF: There are free daily tours of their building, and I took one along with a third-grade class from the Friends Select School. Our guide was John Minott.

JOHN MINOTT: This is Oriental Hall, and everything in this room was modeled after different sections of the Alhambra Palace in Grenada in the south of Spain.

BURT WOLF: Masonic Lodges began in Scotland in the 1700s and came to Philadelphia with some of the earliest settlers. This building houses their meeting rooms.

JOHN MINOTT: This building was one of the first in the city of Philadelphia to receive electric power. This is indeed Egyptian Hall, and it is very authentic, down to the Egyptian writing, or hieroglyphics, that can be translated.

JOHN MINOTT: And last, but not least, is the turkey. Now, I have to admit, we really don't know why that turkey is there, but we like to think it's there to honor Benjamin Franklin. Do you know the eagle was the symbol of our country? Well, he wanted the turkey to be the symbol of our country. I would like to thank you very much for visiting us. It's been great fun doing this tour with you guys.

(APPLAUSE)

BURT WOLF: Philadelphia has become the leading city for African American tourism in the United States. Part of the reason is historic. But just as important is the role that African American artists play in the city's present cultural life. A perfect example is Philadanco. Joan Myers Brown is the founder.

(MUSIC)

JOAN MYERS BROWN: Philadanco is a modern, contemporary dance company, and I say modern and contemporary even though it might sound redundant, but we're modern and we do contemporary work.

(MUSIC)

JOAN MYERS BROWN: Well, I had two dance schools back in the 60s, and by the time we got to the 70s, I had youngsters I had trained who had no where to go and nothing to do with that training, so I thought I would provide a vehicle for them to show their talent.

(VERY RHYTHMIC AFRICAN MUSIC & VOICES CHANTING/ SINGING…)

BURT WOLF: Philadelphia also has an unusual blend of music and dance, which is put on display during the first day of each year.

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF: That's when the Philadelphia New Year Shooters and Mummers Association holds its annual parade. 

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF: Shooters because the early Scandinavian settlers who came to this area in the 1600s would fire their guns as part of their New Years' celebration, Mummers because Momus was the ancient Greek god of mockery. Those two elements came together in the French word mumeur, meaning a disguised participant at a festival who makes fun of society. James Bland, an African American composer of the 1800s wrote

"Oh, 'Dem Golden Slippers", which is the official song of the parade. And the official dance step is called a cake walk, a high strut with a backward tilt.

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF: That's Philadelphia, with Traditions worth traveling to see. I hope you enjoyed this visit. And I hope you will join me next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I'm Burt Wolf.

OVER CREDITS: MAN: …could be a memorable experience. Now Burt, I don’t think you should get in there, you might get hurt…. (LAUGHTER)

Travels & Traditions: Miami - #208

Greater Miami and the beaches. They've become one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world. Each year, over 9 million people come to Miami. They come for the sun and the surf, the nightlife… and the food. They come to see and be seen. But there is another side to Miami, a side that has been here for over 50 years, and makes Miami even more interesting. I went in search of the other Miami, and when I found it, I loved it. And I think you will too.

So please join me, Burt Wolf, for Travels & Traditions, in Miami, Florida.

Miami Beach, magic name of a miracle city, evolved almost overnight from the tropical jungles of a mangrove swamp…

The men and women who started developing Miami, and Miami Beach, at the beginning of the 20th century, decided that the best way to attract attention to their community, and profit from its growth, was to project a single, coordinated image. Come to the playground in the sun and live it up. And they spent the entire century telling that story to the entire world.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And for over 80 years, that's the image that Miami has been promoting. And for most of those years, it has been accurate and complete. But that is no longer the case. Greater Miami and the beaches have become a center for cultural arts and design. To come here just for the warmth and the water is to miss much of what this area has to offer. Let me show you what I mean….

Two-three, one! Ta-da! One! Cha-cha! Uh! (Fades)

The Miami City Ballet is quickly becoming one of the most respected ballet companies in the world. It was founded in 1986 by Edward Villella, the first American-born male star of the New York City Ballet.

EDWARD VILLELLA: One-two one, two-three-point set. One...

EDWARD VILLELLA: My mother was a frustrated dancer. She was an orphan. Never had opportunity. My sister being a year older, my mother thought, oh, wow here’s a way to live vicariously. She took my sister off to this local school in Bayside Queens, where we grew up. And I used to hang out in the streets and do what I did best, and that was get into physical trouble. One day I got whacked in the back of the head with a baseball, knocked unconscious. My mother got upset and said, ‘there is no way we are going to trust you on the streets of Queens, any more.’ So, I’m nine years old, I get dragged to my sister’s school. And I had to sit there and watch 40 giggling girls, their mothers, and me, and being this physical guy, to sit was nearly impossible. And I was so bored; they were doing all these soft, poetic gestures. I was out of my head with boredom. Ah! Towards the end of the class they started to jump. I went in the back, and I started to fly around, I said hey! You know, oh, yeah! I’m okay at this. I could do this. I was even better than they. So naturally, I made fun of it. I got a dirty look from the teacher. I said, maybe I’m in trouble. I was. Teacher said, ‘you either get him out of here, or stick him in tights at the bar.’ I got stuck in tights at the bar, and that’s how I began.

(SALSA MUSIC playing, dancers performing…)

Today, the Miami City Ballet has over 15,000 subscribers, and over 10,000 single ticket buyers each season. It appears all over the world, and is busy creating works that incorporate the social dances of this century into the traditional ballet of the past. To see The Miami City Ballet in action is to see the future of music and ballet in America. As the Miami classical arts community grew, it not only became a place where great artists came to perform, but also a place where young artists came to train. The Old Lincoln Movie Theater at the heart of the art deco district on Miami Beach has been converted into the headquarters of The New World Symphony. It's North America's only full time national training center for young orchestral musicians who want to prepare for professional careers.

(SYMPHONY playing…)

Chris Dunworth is the orchestra's president and chief executive officer.

CHRIS DUNWORTH: Really what we've become known for is a unique training program that focuses on the individual. On the individual musician and bringing out the artist in the individual musician. Our vision of an orchestra now becomes a whole group of interlocking ensembles. Each part of the orchestra is a chamber group unto itself. And the musicians are performers within that chamber group, and it's up to the conductor, to bring all those different interlocking ensembles together. And with that type of vitality, and that type of communication, you get a totally different kind of performance.

The idea for The New World Symphony came from the conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas. If you are in Miami Beach between mid-October and the beginning of May, stop into The New World Symphony.

(LIVELY GOSPEL MUSIC, singers and ensemble performing – “Well, didn’t it rain children, rain. Oh my Lord, didn’t it rain children. Oh my Lord, didn’t it rain…” )

Another organization that will give you a look at the musical future of America is Jubilate.

(LIVELY GOSPEL MUSIC, singers and ensemble performing…)

It started out in 1995, when a group of friends put together a vocal group to help celebrate Black History Month. Since then, it has expanded into the Jubilate Vocal Ensemble, and the Jubilate Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra is one of three in the United States that are primarily managed and staffed by minority musicians.

(LIVELY GOSPEL MUSIC, man singing –“All night, all night and all day, Oh…” )

NELSON HALL: The mission of the organization is to promote, and to preserve, the music of black American composers. All the way from the Negro spirituals, to the gospel music of today. But also the music that's got that classical flavor to it. There is gospel music, but there's also the gospel influence in the classical music.

Today they're performing at Vizcaya, an Italian Renaissance villa, built in Coconut Grove by James Deering, in 1916, and open to the public as a museum of Italian decorative arts.

(MUSIC playing…)

JOSEF SPENCER: Jubilate musicians represent the mosaic tapestry of Miami. We are of all racial make-up, religious make-up, we are professionals, within the cultural make-up of Miami.

(MUSIC playing…)

JOSEF SPENCER: What is unique about Jubilate and the Symphony Orchestra is that we have taken, one component that we think is very important, and that's by adding 13 to 18 year of age gifted students, to our orchestra, to give them a professional seat in the orchestra, which will allow them to hone their crafts and be better professionals as they take the ranks into their professional opportunities.

(LIVELY GOSPEL MUSIC, woman singing – “Well, I met my preacher the other day… just as soon as ever my back was turned, scandalize my name! You call that a preacher?…)

JOSEF SPENCER: That's the essence of Jubilate, catching those rhythms and bringing the community together, for one purpose, and that’s to enjoy our heritage, and our freedom.

(LIVELY GOSPEL MUSIC, woman singing -Do you call that a preacher? Do you call that a preacher? Scandalize my name! – AUDIENCE CLAPPING…)

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): But Miami's interest in creativity is not just limited to music and dance. The city has some outstanding art museums. As a matter of fact, the part of the creative community that is most available to tourists is made up of painters and sculptors.

This is Lincoln Road on Miami Beach. During the mid-1980s, it looked like a set on Miami Vice. Today it is a busy and beautiful center for shopping, eating and entertainment. One of the organizations that played a major role in this revitalization is the Arts Center, South Florida. In partnership with the City of Miami Beach, they purchased a series of storefronts, and converted them to artists’ studios, which they made available to a group of artists who were long on talent, but short on cash. The studios are open to the public, who come in, chat with the artists, and if they like, make a purchase.

TONY CHIMENTO: Here, on the Road, I get to meet my collectors. I, you know, there's that personal contact, which I realize they quite appreciate, too. They like having a bit of a personal view into the process, into where this work that they have on their walls came from, how it came to be, and they don't get that in a gallery situation.

BABETTE HERSCHBERGER: Some of the great things about being here at the Art Center are that, not only can you create your work, you can display your work here. I have set my studio up with some zones, sort of: gallery zone, display zone, a more casual zone, and specifically, this painting loft. And it allows me to have some privacy, but yet, keep my space very open and accessible to people. So, in a way, we gain a lot from the public coming in, but we also give a lot, because we act as instructors. We're able to teach them about art, perhaps in ways they've never been as intimate, in their teaching. To see it actually being created, to ask how it's done...

FENOL: Well, this painting, it's about, an avenue of trees. Basically, there's no particular place. It just ...just my imagination. And I just called it Avenue of Trees. So it's a work in progress, as you can see. And I feel like I'm home, so, that's why I like to work at the Art Center.

The Art Center on Lincoln Road is one place to meet the artists who live and work in Miami. But you could also visit many of them in their private studios. For example, you could drive into Coconut Grove and pop into to see Lisa Remeny. Coconut Grove is an artists colony that is home to the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, which is the largest in the U.S.

LISA REMENY: The things that inspire me to paint are tropical light. And all the subject matter involved therein, you know, the type of cloud formations in the tropics, the plants. The flowers. The water. And the colors that the water changes to, from sunrise, to sunset, to moonrise, to moonset. It's like, it's infinite, you know, you can just carry on forever. I've no shortage of subject matter to build on here. My favorite spot to go for inspiration in Miami is Fairchild Tropical Garden. They have the largest collection of palms in the United States. They have an amazing array of flowers, and cactus, and all sorts of things. They have a moonlight walk twice a year that I go and draw, in the moonlight.

And of course, there are art galleries. The Bernice Steinbaum Gallery has an outstanding collection of art, with new pieces being added every few months. One of my favorite works of art is Bernice. She had a successful gallery in New York, but sold it to start a new life in Miami.

BERNICE STEINBAUM: I chose Miami because I think it's the gateway to Latin America. And, I'm very curious about those people coming to Miami. For second homes, or for all of the time, Latin America does have a history of buying art. I'm very interested in seeing new work, all of the time. And of course because I reside in Florida, I'm very interested in looking at Floridian artists. One of the artists that I have been looking at is a young man named Carlos Betancourt. I'm very taken with how he uses the landscape. And how he brings his own personal history into the history of Florida. He did a very large piece on the beach that I thought was extraordinary.

One of the most interesting manifestations of Miami's interest in art and design is the recent development of the Miami Design District. It consists of over 50 stores packed with some of the finest home furnishings, and unlike most other design centers in the United States, it is open to the public. Traveling to Miami to shop for furniture may sound strange, but when you consider the range of stuff available in this district, sun, surf and a sofa, makes an interesting combination.

CRAIG ROBINS: I love that lamp.

BURT WOLF: That one?

More than anyone else, Craig Robins has been responsible for the redevelopment of the area.

CRAIG ROBINS: We see our mission as always attempting to find the next frontier, and having done most of what we can accomplish in South Beach, we've now chosen the Miami Design district as our next location of focus. This is the, Gondola Shoe by Antoni Miralda, the Spanish artist. It was made, actually, to fit the Statue of Liberty. And serves both as a public art sculpture, and the vessel, you can kick the heel off and sail on the canals of Italy.

(Laughs…)

CRAIG ROBINS: Of Venice.

I love it!

CRAIG ROBINS: This is the Moore Building. It's our most spectacular historical structure. It houses Leah’s Gallery. Which is this extraordinary collection of antiques, and paintings...

Next to it is WaterWorks, which is a very up market, important home bathroom fixtures. And, just around the corner is ICF, which has contemporary furniture. The great thing is to see the different showrooms, and how they combine into a fun destination to come, hang around, and see design.

Knoll makes some of the world's most beautiful contemporary furniture. My personal favorite is the Gehry chair.

Dilmos from Milan opened its first showroom in the Miami design district in the United States. They more than anyone challenged the line between art and furniture. Holly Hunt is without a doubt the most important showroom in the United States. And she has done this spectacular 25,000 square foot space without Alison Spear in the district. One of her principle designers, and what's really made Holly famous, is her association with Christian Liagre, the French designer who has brilliantly mixed contemporary design with primitive influences. In this neighborhood, we've assembled the best of everything, from the floor up. Santini’s, hand crafted mosaic floors, are undisputedly the best in the world. They've imported all of the materials from Europe, and come here and do these beautiful both residential and commercial projects in the United States, and of course, around the world. Santini's probably best known in Miami for having done Versace's beautiful home.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Miami's interest in good art, architecture, and design is very much part of the philosophy of the hotel I stayed at. But in spite of the fact that there is a sign on top of the building that says Tiffany, I did not stay at the Tiffany Hotel. I stayed at a hotel called The Hotel. And the reason The Hotel is called The Hotel, is a story all by itself. During the late '80s, Tony Goldman, a real estate developer, teamed up with Todd Oldham, the fashion designer, and turned it into a great place. Just before they were about to open, Tiffany, the jewelry company in New York, sued them to prevent them from using the name Tiffany. Well, Tiffany the jeweler had more money than Tiffany the hotel, and Goldman settled out of court. Can you believe that? Who would think that this was a jewelry store? But, Goldman has a good sense of humor about the whole thing.

The landmarks commission insisted that the sign stay. Which makes the whole thing a little bizarre. The roof of the hotel has a fantastic view of the Atlantic Ocean and the beach. So Oldham designed an emerald shaped swimming pool. The lights in the public spaces are shaped like diamonds. There are constant reminders of precious stones, and in fact, the entire place is a jewel. Which includes Jessica Goldman, Tony’s daughter who took me on a tour.

JESSICA GOLDMAN: Now, this piece is a perfect example of the craftsmanship and artisan work that you'll find throughout the hotel. This piece is colored glass, textured glass and antique glass, and we sourced it from all over the country, and one woman came and hand cut, and hand placed every piece. And it really is very much like a piece of art. Some of the other things that you'll find, the inspiration that we took was really from the original art deco era. So, the floors are original terrazzo floors. And if you look at the fabrics of the furniture, they really have a terrazzo feel to them as well. The inspiration for the rooms really came from the beautiful environment that we're in. When you think of Florida, you think of the sun, and the sky, and the blue waters, and the beautiful sand. So that's where you get your, your blues, and the beautiful blues and greens, and if you look at the carpeting, kind of gives you a sense of the sand.

It certainly does.

JESSICA GOLDMAN: We really wanted to take all of those wonderful elements, and all that warmth, and bring it inside. And, and that's why you have all this, the colors and the textures. The wonderful thing about the bathrooms is that there are so many beautiful elements. They're all hand airbrushed tiles, seven different types of tiles. Oversize, rainheads. Custom designed cotton bath robes from Todd Oldham. We also have mirrors in the showers, so men can shave.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): I don't actually shave, but I trim a little over here, and the mirrors were very convenient.

Todd Oldham has a deep dislike for bad art. Whenever he stayed at a hotel room where the pictures were just too ugly, he took them off the wall and put them in a closet. He also believes that everybody has their own sense of what's good art.

Accordingly, the walls of The Hotel have frames that contain only mirrors. The Hotel is listed as one of the historic hotels of America, which is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And it's right smack in the middle of the most fashionable neighborhood in Miami Beach.

As you might expect, at the same time I was working my way through the cultural aspects of Miami, I kept an eye out for the culinary. So what's cookin' here? The News Cafe on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive started out in 1987, as an ice cream parlor. And slowly grew into the hottest hangout on the beach. Based on the idea of the European cafe, it's a spot where people who live in the neighborhood, tourists, models, even television journalists come in to have a coffee, or a meal, and read the newspaper without being rushed. It's open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and it's always an interesting place to see what's going on.

So many people told me about this place that I felt I had to stop in. It's called Pizza Rustica, and Pino Piroso owns the place.

PINO PIROSO: We use all fresh ingredients in these pizzas. We get fresh tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, fresh herbs, every day from the market, and that's how we put all these wonderful pizzas together. One of my favorites ones, the potato pizza made with roasted potato, rosemary, roasted peppers, black Kalamata olives. Then we have our signature pizza, with pizza rusticas, prosciuto, basil, fresh plum tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. The four-cheese pizza’s wonderful, with four kinds of cheese. Also the arugula salad pizza with fresh arugula, fresh tomatoes, it's also a wonderful pizza. We have the chocolate pizza. It sounds weird, but it's not sauce and cheese. It's a wonderful pizza crust, baked, richly and crisply, and cut in a half, and a sprayed with chocolate Nutella, like a chocolate croissant on a form of a pizza.

Red Fish Grove in Coral Gables sits at the edge of a sandy beach that faces out on Biscayne Bay. And you can sit out under the palm trees and stars, and enjoy their baked and grilled fish specialties, prepared by Denton Hudson. Yuca, on Miami Beach's Lincoln Road is an upscale, sophisticated Cuban restaurant, with a sense of humor. Yuca stands for young, upscale, Cuban American. But it is also a play on yucca, which is the starchy root vegetable that's a common ingredient in Latin American cooking. We started with stuffed Spanish peppers with porcini mushrooms and a bleu cheese sauce. The main course was a dish of lobster and shrimp, in a rich saffron fish broth. And dessert was a coconut crème brulee, served in a fresh coconut.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Well that's a brief look at how greater Miami and the beaches have been presenting themselves, as a vacation spot for sun and surf. And how alongside that Miami, there is another Miami of classical music, ballet, art, design, painting, sculpture. I hope you have enjoyed this visit. And I hope you will join us next time, on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I'm Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Napa Valley - #207

Napa Valley is fifty miles north of San Francisco… and easy to get to. It is a protected agricultural preserve, and the primary activity here is growing grapes that will make great wine. There are parts of Napa Valley that look like the district of Provence in France, or Bordeaux, or Burgundy. And anyone who knows Northern Italy will quickly spot parts of the valley that are similar toTuscany. Napa is one of the most beautiful places in North America.The busiest months of the year are September and October when the wineries are harvesting their grapes and starting to make wine. It’s also the height of the tourist season. If you’d like less crush and more care, then January through March is the right time to make your visit. The fields are quiet. Traffic is light. And it’s easier to get a reservation at the best restaurants.BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The residents of Napa Valley appreciate visitors and during the early months of the year they have more time to welcome them. You can stop in to everything from a mustard festival to a neighborhood barbecue. But Napa Valley is not the kind of place you want to come to for a single day. You really need three or four days to appreciate what’s happening here. And no matter what time of the year you come, you’re always better off on weekdays than weekends.

The most extraordinary way to see the valley is by balloon. Joyce Bowen is the owner and chief pilot for the Bonaventura Balloon Company.

JOYCE BOWEN: I love the sense of freedom, the sense of peace, the serenity, the magnificence... Distances are deceptive in ballooning. When you are looking at something like a half mile away, it seems like you can reach right out and touch it. I think that’s one reason why people aren’t afraid of ballooning when they think they’re gonna be afraid of heights. It’s just so close; it’s like a painting all the way around you, only you’re part of the painting. . . . I liken it to music; as a musician, I think that flying is like a line of music. You’ve got vertical considerations and horizontal considerations and you follow a line, and you maneuver. It’s very much like music

That was the first time I went ballooning and I loved it. The feeling of gently floating along above the world… the amazing peace and quiet… it’s a wonderful way to travel.

The valley runs north to south for thirty miles and the main road along its length is Route 29. The first town that you come to as you head into the valley from San Francisco is Napa. The plan for Napa was laid out in 1847, which makes it the oldest town in the valley. It’s located on the Napa River, which runs down to the top of San Francisco Bay and then out to the Pacific Ocean. During the 1800s, all commercial shipments from Napa Valley, including wine, were transported from the docks at Napa. When the California gold rush got started in 1849, Napa became a favorite winter hangout for the miners. Today Napa still has much of its river town atmosphere and one of the largest collections of Victorian houses still on their original sites.

You can drive out of the town of Napa and head up the valley on Route 29, or you can get a good look at the land and a good meal at the same time on the Wine Train. The Napa Valley Railroad Company was founded in 1864 and continued in operation until 1987 when it was purchased by the Napa Valley Wine Train Company… under the direction of Vincent DeDomenico, who at the time knew more about steaming rice and conching cocoa than spiking rails and rolling stock. His family business invented Rice-a-Roni and owned Ghirardelli Chocolate. And he thought it would be great to have a classic old train take people up the valley while they ate and drank. So every day the Napa Valley Wine Train takes passengers on a three-hour ride up the valley. Meals are served in a restored 1917 Pullman car… mahogany paneling, brass fixtures, etched glass… rail travel and dining as it was in the golden age of the iron horse. And you can drink the wine of the vineyards as you pass them.

Three hours later and you are back in Napa. If you’re moving up the valley town by town, the next place on the trail is Yountville.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): During the early 1800s a North Carolina mountain man by the name of George Calvert Yount wandered into the neighborhood and hung around as a handyman. He became friendly with General Mariano Vallejo who was the Governor General of the territory, which at the time belonged to Mexico. In 1836 George changed his name to Jorge Concepcion Yount, converted to Catholicism and was rewarded by the general with a huge tract of land... which is now downtown Yountville.

Yountville is home to some of Napa Valley’s most famous restaurants. It makes sense to have great food in Yountville -- Napa Valley’s first vines were planted here and today the town is surrounded by some of the valley’s most famous winemakers. And what’s the point of having good wine if you don’t have good food to go with it?

Just north of Yountville is Mumm Napa Valley. G.H. Mumm is one of the great champagne producers in France. But champagne is not only a sparkling wine -- it is also a small geographic area, and French law says that champagne, the drink, can only be made in Champagne, the district.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Which means that if you are a French champagne maker and you want to make more, you’re gonna make it in some other country and you’re gonna call it “sparkling wine.” In 1979 Mumm began a secret search for the best region in North America.

It ended up in partnership with Joseph E Seagram and Sons, and finally decided on Napa Valley as the place. Today Mumm Napa Valley makes a sparkling wine using the same techniques used in the Champagne district of France.

EVAN GOLDSTEIN: I think people are simply missing the boat when it comes to champagne and sparkling wine with food. I mean, historically they’ll start the meal with it, they’ll finish with it, you know, a toast at the beginning to celebrate somebody going to college, a toast at the end of the meal to celebrate getting married -- but during the meal itself, you know, it’s like, “Okay, now let’s have a red wine,” or “Now let’s have a white wine.” They never actually think that the same wine that they might be toasting with might indeed actually be better with the food that they’re having. And it’s really a shame. Sparkling wine is a very food-friendly wine, and in that respect it’s not gonna blow away any particular dish and will generally highlight the flavors of about everything you serve it with.

Mumm Napa Valley’s love of art is not limited to the art of winemaking. It is also involved in the art of photography. In 1959, Seagrams commissioned the great photographer Ansel Adams to produce a pictorial essay on a winery. The works were exhibited and toured by the Smithsonian Institution and now rest in a permanent gallery at the winery. In addition to the Adams photographs, the works of other well-established and promising photographers are exhibited as part of an ongoing program.

The grapes that are used to make the sparkling wines at Mumm Napa Valley come from the southern part of the Valley. The grapes that grow on the land surrounding it go north a few miles to Sterling Vineyards, which is a sister winery also owned by Seagram. Sterling sits on top of a 300-foot hill that looks out over the valley. The architectural style is that of an Aegean monastery. Visitors ride a tram up to the winery for a look at the land below and a tasting of the Sterling wines.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The only unfortunate interruption in the history of California winemaking was a totally misguided and highly destructive experiment by our Federal Government, known as The National Prohibition Act. From 1919 to 1933 they tried to keep law-abiding citizens from drinking anything with alcohol in it. Many of the great California wineries were forced to close. But there was, however, one positive benefit to Prohibition. A number those wineries realized that they could use their facilities for making great cheeses.

Today California is the nation’s leading dairy state. In 1993 it passed Wisconsin in milk production. About half of California’s milk goes into the making of cheese, which is produced in 130 different varieties. One of the country’s most popular cheeses is also a California original. It is called Monterey Jack and it’s named after the place where it was first made and the guy who first made it. Today it is produced in various forms by more than a dozen different California cheese makers. David Viviani is a third generation artisan cheese maker who specializes in Jack cheese. His grandfather learned to make cheese when Prohibition closed the winery where he worked. In 1987 it was the first cheese factory west of the Mississippi River to win a gold medal in Wisconsin.

Today they are making Sonoma Jack. After the solid curds have been separated from the liquid whey the curds are flavored, measured into cheese cloth and rolled into balls. Dave said I should give it a try.

BURT WOLF: Fortunately I was in the Boy Scouts. I can make knots.

DAVID VIVIANI: This was a hundred pounds of milk this morning. Now we have ten pounds of cheese. We’ve got ‘em.

BURT WOLF: I’d better put this one aside... I wouldn’t want any of your customers to buy that --

DAVID VIVIANI: You know, it took two cows to make this much cheese. 

BURT WOLF: It did?

DAVID VIVIANI: They worked all day to make that much milk.

BURT WOLF: I hope I don’t run into ‘em after what I’ve done to it.

Down the block is the Vella Cheese Company, which produces Dry Jack, a cheese developed during The Second World War when the Italians in San Francisco couldn’t get cheese from Italy.

ROGER RANNIKAR: Okay, what we have here is the Dry Jack. A mixture, what you see here, of pepper, cocoa, and oil is mixed together, and each wheel is individually rubbed and put on the carts, and these will age seven to nine months minimum. The cocoa powder / pepper keep the oil in a state of suspension, allowing the cheese to breathe, and the oil keeps the cheese from cracking. When you eat it, you will eat the coating itself and everything, because it is naturally made. And then they’ll just sit seven to nine months, while they age.

Napa’s history as an area for winemaking goes back to the work of the Spanish missionaries in the early 1800s. Its cheese making goes back to the 1700s. But its history as a place to come and rest goes back for thousands of years. These days there are a number of great spas located in the western part of the United States. Many are elegant resorts designed for a three or four day visit in the classic tradition. An example is Meadowood in Napa Valley. Meadowood is a private estate set among 250 acres of thickly wooded land. The main building houses the reception area, and there are rustic small buildings tucked into the forest that house eighty-five rooms and suites. The aspect that struck me the most was its stillness.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): I spend most of my time in cities and they are so noisy I can barely hear myself think. For the last couple of hours it’s been raining here... I can hear the drops on the wooden roof. A pleasant change from car alarms, jet planes, and fire engines. I get to hear sounds of nature… rather than the sounds of man. Nice change.

The Spa at Meadowood has all the traditional treatments, but whatever they do they take a very Napa approach to it. During the two weeks I stayed here they wrapped me in grape seed mud to reduce my stress, polished me with grape seed conditioner to reduce my stress, and rubbed me with grape seed oil to reduce my stress. But there’s historic precedent for all this grape seed business.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): During the 16 and 1700s, the French royalty living in Paris believed that taking a bath in a cask of Chardonnay wine reduced the negative effects of aging. And the more they bathed in it… the more they sat in the wine, the more they drank… and the more they drank, the more they believed that it worked. But then the French Revolution came along, and that had a very negative effect on aging amongst the French royalty. As a matter of fact, most of them just... stopped aging and the Chardonnay bath was forgotten. But not everywhere.

It has returned in the form of Meadowood’s Chardonnay Massage. Of course, the Chardonnay is in a body lotion instead of a barrel, but it’s the thought that counts and that, um, anti-aging thing.

In keeping with the traditional role of a spa, Meadowood entertains its guests with physical activities like swimming in the heated pools... biking along the trails... playing tennis at one of the seven courts...golfing on the nine-hole course, and my new sport: croquet.

JERRY STARK: Well, the objective of the game is to win.

BURT WOLF: Yes, I like that! I like that! I’m in! I got it!

JERRY STARK: There’s a certain pattern you have to follow.

BURT WOLF: Okay.

JERRY STARK: So you go through each wicket twice, once in each direction. And the object is for me to get the two balls on my side through all six wickets twice and hit the stake before you get your two balls through all six wickets and hit the stake. When you swing, you want to swing the whole mallet from your shoulders. Your shoulders are the top of the pendulum. So you draw your hands back to the body, and you extend out through the ball. So the whole mallet swings -- the arms should move more. You want everything relaxed; the only thing that should move when you swing a mallet and hit a ball is your arms. Your head stays down, your body doesn’t move, just a nice, smooth swing from the shoulders. Just like that. There you go. ... That’s not makeable. ... One of the hard parts about the game is learning to make the balls do what you want ‘em to do.

BURT WOLF: A lot of physics.

JERRY STARK: A lot of geometry and physics, yes. There’s one trick shot that comes into play once in a while. Let’s say red ball needs to make this wicket, but the blue’s in my way and I’ve already hit it, so I’m not allowed to hit it again. So the only way to do that is to put my feet in front of the ball, which allows me to hit down on top -- that way I got through and I didn’t touch the blue ball and it’s all legal.

BURT WOLF: I’m real glad we’re not playing for money.

Central to the history of the spa resort, and more important these days than ever, is the relationship of the spa to health, especially when it comes to anti-aging. It’s reflected in their activities and in their recipes.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Many scientists are studying the relationship between what we eat and drink and how we age. Recently a group at Tufts University announced that eating foods high in antioxidants helped reduce some of the negative effects of aging. They also pointed out that prunes were at the top of the list of commonly eaten fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants.

Ninety-nine out of every hundred prunes grown in the United States is grown in California, so the California prune farmers would like you to remember the study. Prunes actually show up often on the menus of the great chefs here because of their naturally sweet taste and chewy texture. And because the chefs hope that the prunes will help people remember how much they enjoyed the restaurant.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): When I was in the fifth grade I went to a school that was directly across the street from a little market that would take prunes, put them on a wooden stick and dipped them into warm chocolate. Almost every day after school we would stop in and buy a few to eat on the walk home. But today’s prunes are very different than the ones I ate when I was a kid. They are moister, they have a chewier texture, and most of them are pitted. As a matter of fact, people are calling them “dried plums.” But whatever you call them, I’ve been a fan for many years, and always glad to pass on a good word.

The information about dried plums protecting long-term memory and the ability to keep learning is new. But for years experts have known that they were high in fiber, iron and potassium. Good stuff.

And just up the valley from Meadowood: more good stuff… in the town of Calistoga. Lincoln Avenue, the main street, looks like it was part of the set for High Noon or maybe Blazing Saddles. A hundred years ago it was a tough frontier town and much of the architecture has remained. Local shops line the street… no chain stores are allowed in Napa Valley. There are a number of excellent restaurants here and I got to eat in a few of them.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Brannan’s is named after Sam Brannan. In 1859 Sam was living in San Francisco when he heard that the top of Napa Valley was filled with hot springs. He came up and bought 2,000 acres and put together a plan for a spa and resort that he hoped would rival the famous Saratoga in New York State. Then he brought up a bunch of potential investors and showed them the neighborhood. Threw a big party for ‘em. Lots of eating and drinking. When it came to the point where he was going to explain his plan, Sam had had a little bit too much to drink, and “Saratoga of California” came out as “Calistoga of Sarafornia.” But he got his investors anyway, and Calistoga got built.

Brannan’s Grill has a multi-ethnic staff that is reflected in the menu. We started with skillet clams and mussels -- the Italian influence -- but the sauce is lemongrass curry… the work of the chef Rob Lam, who is Vietnamese. The main course was braised lamb shank with roasted onions, pappardelle pasta, and mint yogurt. It’s like the United Nations in a bowl. For dessert we had a mini-flourless chocolate cake that was served while it was still soft in the center, a scoop of banana ice cream on the side.

Across the street is the Catahoula Restaurant and Saloon. It serves American food that has a southern accent and a Napa personality. There’s also a focus on foods from a wood burning brick oven. The chef and owner is Jan Birnbaum, who grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I am a devoted fan of this man’s cookin’.

BURT WOLF: What’s for dinner?

JAN BIRNBAUM: Burt, we got some goodies! We got Rooster Gumbo with shrimp, okra and tomatoes... a Perfect Pear Salad... and a pork porterhouse steak with red-eye gravy and Soft Sexy Grits.

BURT WOLF: “Soft Sexy Grits!”

JAN BIRNBAUM: You know, grits got a really bad rap. Everybody knows grits as what you get at a truck stop when you order breakfast, you know, and that’s usually cooked with water. If you’re lucky you get a sprinkle of salt. And this one is cooked with some chicken stock, some garlic, a little bit of Tabasco, ‘course there’s some butter and cream in it. Then we have red-eye gravy here, a sauce that’s made first with a hambone, then tomatoes, lots of onions and the usual suspects, but the interesting part is the coffee.

BURT WOLF: Coffee!

JAN BIRNBAUM: I assume that Grandma had a pot of coffee on the back of the stove

BURT WOLF: Oh, yeah

JAN BIRNBAUM: when she was cooking and it was sitting there and she needed something to thin her gravy with, and that made sense.

BURT WOLF: Perfectly logical.

JAN BIRNBAUM: Absolutely. I figure that’s how it must’ve come about. Then we have a little topper of pickled cabbage. One of the combinations that I always taste in Asian in the way a cabbage is something that has that, you know, that really earthy cabbage flavor and sort of a slightly fermented flavor -- that’s pretty hot...

BURT WOLF: Ooooh... oooh...

JAN BIRNBAUM: That’s a pretty plate... nice colors...

BURT WOLF: I’ll be back right after this meal. You have a great sense of color. It’s like a painting. You know what they always say, that love and food begins with looking.

JAN BIRNBAUM: You know, we talk about the love of the food, and I remember a long time ago when I was -- probably one of the first times I cooked something for a group of people, I was under ten -- and I just never forget the feeling of making people so -- you know, you work, and you do something that’s fun and then you deliver it to them and everybody loves you. How can you not want to give that all the time?

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The food in Calistoga is good, but Sam Brannan was right -- what makes this place special and has for thousands of years is that it sits on top of an intense geothermal area that sends hot water shooting up from the center of the earth. It even has its own “Old Faithful” geyser.

Deep beneath Calistoga is a river. As it runs over the molten rock at the center of our planet its water is turned into super-heated steam, which shoots to the surface. Thousands of gallons of water at a temperature of 350 degrees are driven skyward for about 60 feet. The geyser repeats this performance at regular intervals.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): But from time to time the pattern changes, and some scientists believe that change can predict earthquakes. That has certainly been the case in my personal relationships, so I understand why they are monitoring Old Faithful. And speaking of old faithful, I hope you will join us next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Beaver Creek - #206

Beaver Creek, Colorado, is one of the most celebrated ski resorts in the world. It has a magnificent setting and was designed to be luxurious but it was also planned for families, which is an unusual combination. The village has a quiet elegance, and like any village or city, understanding how it got to be what it is, makes it more fun to be there. So join me, Burt Wolf for Travels & Traditions in Beaver Creek, Colorado

The Native American Ute’s called these “The Shining Mountains” and they had been living in them for over ten thousand years when the first white men showed up in the 1840s. They were mountain men and hunters and they were just wandering through. BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): During the 1860s and 70s gold prospectors began poking around here in Colorado. They had come over from California when the great gold rush of ’49 began to peter out. Now one of the first things you learn as a gold prospector is that the gold is up in the mountains and it filters down… the great mother lode is always up there some place.  So you follow the creeks up into the mountains. The guys who came to Beaver Creek never found the great mother lode but they did find enough gold to make a living and they settled in and built small towns. Normally a miner would live on his claim, but that wasn’t the case here.  They worked the claims in the mountains and came down to live in the towns at night. Very uncommon.

Once the prospectors settled in the ranchers came along. They homesteaded in the valley. They raised cattle and farmed potatoes, peas and spinach. A mutually beneficial relationship developed between the ranchers and the prospectors. Each night the prospectors would come back into town with the few nuggets they had found in the mountains. They would head for a restaurant owned by the ranchers and buy themselves a steak dinner with side orders of potatoes, peas and spinach. The miners had the money and the ranchers had the rations. It was love and who would have thought it.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And eventually, the prospectors learned to love ranching. A few years of prospecting would go by and they would have very little to show for it, so they’d pick out a piece of land, homestead it and settle down. During the 1950s, the Nottingham family consolidated most of these small ranches around here into one big one, but even with the advantages of size it was a shaky operation. So when a group of businessmen offered to buy them out, they eventually sold. And a marginal ranch became one of the great ski resorts.

For thousands of years skiing was an essential form of transportation for people who lived in snow country. Some of the early miners who came to Colorado came from Scandinavia and they understood how to get around in the snow and they showed everyone else how to make and use skis.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): They’d check out the side of a barn, and find a couple of boards that had a smooth grain running lengthwise. And they would put the tip of one end into a pot of boiling water to soften up the wood. When it came out of the water they’d stick that end between two boards in a log cabin, bottom side up, and waited until it dried. The result would be an eight to ten foot long ski with one end turning up.  They’d keep their boots attached to it with old belts and put a little grease on the bottom so they’d move faster.  When they wanted to head uphill, they would tie rough rags on the bottom to give them traction.  Primitive, but at the time a life-saving form of transportation.

But it was also a form of recreation. As early as the 1880s skiers in Colorado got together and formed clubs to test their skills at racing down hill and ski jumping. Often at speeds of 80 miles an hour. Wherever there was snow there were ski clubs. In the western part of the United States, skiers looked at abandoned mining equipment and saw that the same trams and towers that were used to move ore and equipment in and out of the mines could be used to by skiers and they built the early ski lifts.

By the 1930s there were a number of winter resorts but not many. What turned skiing into a popular sport was a World War II unit known as the 10th Mountain Division. Pete Seibert was a member.

PETE SEIBERT:  People here, they think of it being just the ski troops, that’s not really the case.  It was mountain infantry so we would train like the infantry, but we were trained to operate in the mountains with no vehicles and on a year-round basis.  If in the winter we had snow, summertime mountain climbing, rock climbing and so on.  They sent us to break through the gothic line, the gothic line had been established by the Germans and we were directed to attack a ridge called Riva Ridge and the Germans had been in position for almost two years there.  And it was difficult to dislodge them and gain the final toe hold

BURT WOLF:  How did you take Riva Ridge?

PETE SEIBERT:  Riva was attacked at night.  The troops on the top, the Germans, were not expecting any troops to come up from the south side, which was the route we took. We climbed up some rope, some fixed rope, under the cover of darkness.  It was a tough climb but we weren’t exposed to enemy fire at the time.  Not until we reached the top and surprised the Germans on top.  And then there was a fire fight there and they finally pulled out and we took over the Riva Ridge.

And when the men of the 10th Mountain came home their interest in skiing was stronger than ever. Sixty-two of the ski resorts in America were built by veterans of the 10th. Two thousand of them became ski instructors. In those days when you wanted to make a ski slope you just picked out a mountain and cut down some trees. And skied as best you could.

These days, things are very different. Building a ski run is a highly complex task. Obviously, the shape of the mountain controls the overall design but it’s important to understand the wind patterns and how the slopes are exposed to the elements. Where are the ideal spots for runs that will be used by experts, beginners and intermediate skiers?

The runs must be designed to take advantage of the natural rolls and obstacles in the terrain as well as the natural fall line of slope.

The 1950s also saw great improvements in equipment and clothing. Every year since then manufacturers have introduced new designs that make skiing easier to learn and safer. Metal and fiberglass skis, that take on the outline of an hourglass and are shorter, buckle boots, dependable release bindings, aluminum and fiberglass poles. And clothing that has as much to do with fashion as function.

Dee Byrne is the Director of the Beaver Creek Ski and Snowboard School.

DEE BYRNE:  We offer something for virtually anybody who comes to the resort.  We have downhill skiing of all levels from brand-new novice beginners to advanced experts skiers.  We also offer snow-boarding which is the two feet clicked into a single board that’s wider, but you also control your speed by descending the slope with turns.

We start children in our children’s programs at age three.  We have downhill Nordic skiing called telemark skiing.  We offer track skiing in the Nordic world. We have an adaptive ski program for folks with physical disabilities of all sorts.  You name it we offer in this Alpine environment virtually something for everyone.

They even had an instructor talented enough to teach me how to ski.  Cahn Pulos is from Australia and showed me the basics.

Keep your shins bending forward and pressed against your boots.

When you want to slow down, point your skis together so you form a wedge that looks like a slice of pizza. A good metaphor for me.

Go down the hill a little at a time, weaving up and back across the slope.

Keep you shoulders parallel to the mountain.

And always smile. It tells your body that you’re having a good time.

CAHN PULOS: That’s it, work your left ankle in a little bit. A little bit more pressure on that part of your foot, Burt.  Remember that movement in with your ankle from the inside of the boot.  Stand on it.  Good work.  If you look back up there that’s not too flat is it?

BURT WOLF:  Was I up there?

CAHN PULOS:  You certainly were.  Look back at where you were skiing and you think, yeah, I can do that, I did that.

BURT WOLF:  very steep

CAHN PULOS: That’s a nice green run, well done. Now isn’t that just the prettiest sight?

BURT WOLF: Let’s do it.

CAHN PULOS: OK, let’s go for a bit of a ski down here.

BURT WOLF: We’re going straight down there?

CAHN PULOS: Yeah, stand up and relax.  You know, I try and ski as lazy as possible.

BURT WOLF: Hot chocolate, I see hot chocolate in the distance.

As alpine skiing became more and more popular some skiers started yearning for the quiet beauty and solitude of the backcountry and took up cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. This is the environment in which skiing was born and its becoming more and more popular. Accordingly, Beaver Creek has a designated cross-country and snowshoe park located at the top of a mountain. It’s under the direction of Nate Goldberg and Nancy Smith was our guide and caterer.

BURT WOLF: I like this, where are we going?

NATE GOLDBERG: We have a magical lunch spot picked out for us today.

BURT WOLF: How many calories do you burn?

NANCY SMITH: well you know, you burn considerably more when you snowshoe.  Let’s walk right up here in this deep snow and I’ll give you an example.  Now anyone who can walk, can walk in this snow.

BURT WOLF: Oh yeah, but you’re really lifting.

NANCY SMITH: As you’re lifting your foot up and as it sinks a little in the snow, you know it takes more energy to pull your foot up through the snow so you definitely burn more calories and work your quads more than just walking.  See the marks on this Aspen tree?  Well, the elk make these marks, their top two teeth come down to gnaw through the outer bark layer to the candian layer which is where they find certain nutrients to feed on. The Indians, of course, also utilized the Aspen trees.  One of the things that they discovered was if you rub the bark there’s like a powder substance on it.  And they used the powder as a face paint. In recent years scientists have discovered that this powder contains about an SPF 8. So if you’re desperate someday for sun block, head to the Aspen grove.

BURT WOLF: Mother Nature’s sunscreen, just where you need it.

NATE GOLDBERG: Well and after a long snowshoe, we have our wonderful gourmet lunch to look forward to.

BURT WOLF: I’m hungry, so I hope I don’t have to look forward to it very far. How far do I have to look?

NATE GOLDBERG: Oh, it’s just around the corner.

BURT WOLF: I can trust you on that?

NATE GOLDBERG: Trust me on that one.  And once again, I think that the beauty of McCoy Park speaks for itself.  We consider this one of Colorado’s best kept secrets.  And for a lot of people its the domesticated back country because within 6 and ½ minutes you’re up in probably one of the most beautiful things you could ever experience.

We finished the experience by eating lunch at a pre-set table on top of the mountain.  My kind of hike.

And whatever type of winter sport you choose there is someone teaching it to the children. John Alderson is in charge of the programs.

JOHN ALDERSON:  Learning to ski is a whole adventure in itself and for a kid who has never skied before it is just one of the most exciting adventures cause it’s like being able to drive your own car, you get to go do things and its all about not just a sport, its about an adventure. You’re really bringing the adventure alive for the kids and making very memorable vacations for them.  You can learn to ski as early as two or three years old, it really has to do with your expectations. A three, four year old, it takes a little more time, the whole idea is not really the skiing skill, but gee, isn’t the idea, isn’t the activity of skiing fun.  No matter what that is.  For some of the kids that get up on them, they just ride up and down the magic carpet and that’s skiing to them.  You see and that’s really important cause we’re looking not just to teach a child how to ski, but we’re looking at teaching them the sport, the recreation of skiing.

BURT WOLF : Medic! You think this is funny, huh?

KIDS:  We won!

BURT WOLF: Yes you did. I have to get s’mores and hot cocoa for you.

The central village of Beaver Creek has been given as much attention as the slopes.

The interlocking buildings are constructed around a central plaza and everything is within walking distance.

The shopping area has a small town atmosphere.

Many of the shops carry clothing.

There’s a spot that specializes in outdoor gear.

One shop even carries a collection of Bavarian styles so you can look like you have been skiing in the Austrian Alps.

There are jewelry shops Including one with a group of pieces that feature a beaver…only fitting since you can look out the window of the shop and see Beaver Creek.

There are art galleries.

And Gift shops.

In the center of the village is an ice rink. You can rent skates here and instructors will teach you how to glide across the frozen surface. This is the first time I’ve seen these triangular supports. Training wheels for skaters. The technological circle of life…now you can start on a walker.

BURT WOLF (TO CAMERA): And right below the skating rink is the Vilar Center for the Arts. Performances here range from STOMP to Tito Puente.  And to the best of my knowledge there’s no art center like this in any ski resort in the world.

Heated walkways throughout the village melt the snowfall and escalators make it easy to get from your rooms to the base of the mountain. At the end of each day there are hosts and hostesses at the bottom of the escalators handing out chocolate chip cookies.

Beaver Creek is serious about good food and has everything from simple cafes to elegant white tablecloth restaurants.

The Blue Moose makes fresh pizza and calzone.

But there are also restaurants with sophisticated menus and elegant surroundings.

You can even take a moonlit sleigh ride to the top of a mountain.

The horses have been replaced with snow cats but that’s life in the 21st century.

And when you get up there you can eat at Beano’s or Allie’s Cabin. Allie and Beno were early residents in the area. At either Allie’s or Beano’s you can enjoy your dinner and look out at a magnificent view of the valley below.

The developers of Beaver Creek have done a good job of building a resort that’s fun. Part of the fun comes from the interesting characters that have been attracted to the place. Helmut Fricker is a bookbinder by training. He is preserving a craft that is rarely seen.

But in the afternoons he puts down his needle and picks up his horn and in the center of Beaver Creek demonstrates this ancient Alpine instrument. It takes a great deal of air to play the Alpine horn

Another Beaver Creek character involved with air is Merlin of the floating castle, but instead of blowing it he just floats in it. Merlin runs Camelot Balloons and his magical castle can take you on an extraordinary trip through the mountains around Beaver Creek.

MERLIN: Fabulous, What a pretty morning! Every time I feel the wind in the balloon, it’s important to me.  It tells me what direction the balloon’s gonna travel.  As we go up, I look into the wind and that’s the direction the balloon will travel.  And as we descend, I look away from it, it’s a function of how big we are.  This balloon is 87 feet tall and 71 feet in diameter.  It holds 175,000 cubic feet. When our shadow gets on people we call that a ballooner eclipse.  When we get up a little bit higher, you’ll be able to see, you can ski from Arrowhead all the way into Beaver Creek and back.  And we’re coming up on 1,000 feet. Then if you look around you now, folks. This is why I fly a balloon in the mountains.

That’s my take on Beaver Creek, Colorado and some of the history and tradition that makes it what it is today. The mutually dependent relationship between the mountains and the valley. The respect for nature. A blend of adventure and luxury. And the desire to have a good time in an environment designed for families.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): I hope you have enjoyed this brief visit to Beaver Creek, and if you haven’t already been here yourself, I hope that someday you will get a chance to visit The Shining Mountain. And I hope you will join us next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: San Francisco - #205

Most of the cities in the United States were originally settled by small groups of people who shared the same values, the same religion and the same hope for a new life in the New World.

There is, however, one extraordinary exception…San Francisco.

This town was settled by 25,000 people who showed up one afternoon to find gold. They came from all over the world and just about every ethnic or religious group you can think of and as they mixed together they established the traditions that make San Francisco what it is today.

To take a look at those customs and conventions and where they came from, please join me, Burt Wolf, for Travels & Traditions in San Francisco.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Native tribes had been living in the neighborhood for thousands of years when the Spanish wandered in in the 1700s and began building missions along the California coast. Nothing much really happened here until 1848 when gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Word of the find spread throughout the world and each day hundreds of people arrived to seek their fortune in the gold fields. And each day the fields yielded over $50,000 worth of gold. Within three years of the original discovery the population went from 850 people to over 50,000. They worked in the fields or in the support structure that was set up in San Francisco. The cultural diversity was amazing---it was the most unique population in the world. Almost everyone was a new comer and a risk taker.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And right there, in the gold rush years is where you find the origins of the traditions that make San Francisco what it is today. When you were working in those fields you never knew where your neighbor was gonna come from.  What his religion might be or his beliefs or his lifestyle.  You also never knew who was going to strike it rich and live a life of wealth beyond your wildest dreams and perhaps share it with you. So tolerance was very important and some of those guys really struck it rich so there was a love of opulence and that is what San Francisco is about today.  It may be the most tolerant city in the world and it has a great love of opulence, makes it a great place to live in but it makes it a great place to be a visitor.

The second most significant event in the history of San Francisco was the great earthquake. On April 18th 1906, at 5:16 in the morning, every church bell in San Francisco began ringing. There was a deep rumbling sound throughout the city. Within 48 seconds over 5000 buildings collapsed. In less than a minute the great San Francisco earthquake was over, but the real damage was caused by the fires that followed the quake and lasted for five days. In 1906 the buildings and the streets were filled with gas lines and gas lamps and when they ruptured the city went up in flames. As soon as the fires were out, reconstruction began. And once again cooperation between all groups became essential for survival.

San Francisco is a city of neighborhoods. They overlap and though you can’t always spot the street where one ends and another begins, once you’ve arrived, its easy to see that each neighborhood has its own distinct ethnic history, religion, culture, and food.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): North Beach is the ancestral home of the Italian community in San Francisco. In the 1830s it was a cattle ranch that supplied fresh meat to passing trading vessels that popped in for supplies. Many of those ships came from the northern Italian city of Genoa. When the sailors heard there was gold they decided to give up their rigging for digging they also sent word back home about the gold which meant that thousands of additional Italian men came here and made a five month exhausting journey only to discover that the good stuff was already gone. Yet it was better here than back in the old country. The land was good for farming, the sea was filled with fish, it was easy to make a new life in a new land. So they settled in and sent home for their families.

During the 1880s there was a second wave of Italian settlers. This time they came from Southern Italy and Sicily. They joined with the original Italian immigrants and turned North Beach into a classic Italian-American community.

Churches…Coffeehouses…. Bakeries …. Restaurants…

The entire community honors its Italian heritage.

North Beach is also the home of the City Lights Bookstore. It was founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and was the first bookstore in the country to be devoted entirely to paperbacks. It also became the epicenter for the beatnik literature of the 50s and 60s. After North Beach was destroyed in the fire that followed the earthquake the residents lived in Washington Square while they rebuilt their homes.  It was one of the first communities to recover.  Within ten months North Beach was up and running.  One of the men responsible for the rapid recovery of the city was A.P. Giannini, owner of the tiny Bank of Italy, which served the Italian immigrants.  He became famous because the day after the great earthquake he rescued the money and the ledgers from the rubble of his bank.  The next day when the other banks refused to open A.P. set up a table on the San Francisco waterfront and began making loans on the basis of a handshake.  Today it’s known as the Bank of America, and it is the largest bank in the world.  Mr. Giannini would love it.

At the same time that the Italian community was putting together North Beach, those who had made their fortunes during the gold rush were building their great mansions, and the greatest of them were about to be built on Nob Hill. The word ‘nob” is a contraction of nabob, an Indian word that means prince and that’s who moved in here….the princes of industry.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Nob hill is the highest hill in San Francisco, it was so hard to get to the top that no one wanted to build their home here until 1873 when the cable car was invented and the railroad barons of California agreed to build their mansions here and a cable car company of their own running down California Street to Market where their offices were. You don’t find many big homes made by the gold miners because they didn’t actually make that much money --- the real fortunes were made by people who sold things to the gold miners like Leland Stanford, who was a grocer, or Charles Crocker, who was a dry goods salesman. Their homes are up here.  There was almost one exception,

Bonanza Jim Fair, he made a fortune with the largest silver mind discovery in the history of the world and he was just about to build his dream home when he died. His daughters inherited the property and began construction of a hotel. But just before it was scheduled to open it was gutted by the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake. Reconstruction on the hotel began as soon as the fires were out and it opened with a fantastic party just one year to the day after the quake. The Fairmont Hotel quickly became the social center for San Francisco society.

Under the direction of General Manager Mark Huntley it has undergone an 80 million-dollar program to restore it to its original state of opulence.

MARK HUNTLEY: What we have done is we’ve actually taken that red and black carpet away that the hotel lobby was very famous for and took each piece of marble up piece by piece, repaired the mortar bed underneath and put each piece of marble back down and then tried to create this sheen that you see.

BURT WOLF: That must have been exhausting for you.

MARK HUNTLEY: It wasn’t all by myself.

BURT WOLF: This is the way it looked when it opened.

MARK HUNTLEY: Very similar. The direction.  The design company and the architects we took some of the old pictures that were available and basically gave them the old pictures and said this is what we would like to recreate.

BURT WOLF: Great staircase.

MARK HUNTLEY: It is fantastic.

BURT WOLF: And those are the original chandeliers?

MARK HUNTLEY: Original chandeliers.  The Dutch gilt on the ceilings bringing that back out. This area is called the Laurel Court and again when the hotel first opened this was the area where they served afternoon tea.  One dome was existing and we had to recreate the other two domes to take it back to how it originally was.

BURT WOLF: Quite beautiful.  Did you take all of those up and clean them too and put them back?

MARK HUNTLEY: Yes we did, we had to restore that as well which at times you saw a guy down there like with a toothbrush going through each piece and putting it back down.

BURT WOLF: It’s so important to save the things that are beautiful from the past and not break them down  and destroy them so we can see how people lived.

As soon as the owners of The Fairmont announced that they were going to renovate the hotel people started calling up to tell them “Don’t touch the Tonga Room”. For three generations this room has been a special place for the residents of San Francisco. It’s where thousands of couples got engaged and thousands more celebrated anniversaries and other important occasions. Perhaps its most unique aspect is a machine that produces thunder and rain on demand. The Fairmont has been rebuilt but the Tonga Room remains.

And so does one of San Francisco’s earliest structures. The first Europeans to build anything in San Francisco were the Spanish. Starting in1769 they began building a chain of missions between San Diego and San Francisco. The Mission Dolores was built in 1776 and is still standing. It’s San Francisco’s oldest building. The ceiling is covered with ancient Native American designs that were painted on with vegetable dyes. The decorative altar came up from Mexico in 1796. The original bells were cast in the 1790’s and hang above the entrance area.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): When Mexico won its independence from Spain, California from San Diego to San Francisco became part of Mexico until the 1840’s when it was taken over by the United States. During the early years of the 20th century over 10 percent of the population of Mexico immigrated to the United States with hundreds of thousands of those people settling in California. One result is a distinct Hispanic influence in San Francisco.

The most dramatic visual manifestations of the Mexican community are the street murals. There are over are hundred of them in the Mission District alone. Many are the work of the Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center that was set up by Susan Cervantes in 1977 to encourage, train and support the artists who wanted to paint murals. You can stop into the center and pick up a map that will guide you to the murals or you can sign up for a walking tour.

BURT WOLF: Why did the mural movement get started in San Francisco - why are there so many murals here?

SUSAN CERVANTES: Well I think that there are so many because there was a mural movement that started in the late ‘60’s right after the Civil Rights which is still continuing today.  And it inspired the African American artists and Chicano artists to really understand their own cultural heritage and their roots.

BURT WOLF: Tell me about this specific mural.

SUSAN CERVANTES: What it is is family life and spirit of mankind and that was the theme that everyone agreed to have on it - this is a family oriented neighborhood --they wanted it to show community, they wanted to show people getting along with each other and sharing that community and love.

BURT WOLF: So the murals reflects the dozens of different ethnic groups that are in the community and how important it is for them to get together and love each other.

SUSAN CERVANTES: Well, yeah, the one thing about this community is that it is very diverse and it does reflect that diversity in the basis of the people that are painted in the murals and this is what’s really important to everyone to know that is part of everyone’s heritage.  It’s just a wonderful way that they worked and shared and respected each other’s efforts.

BURT WOLF: So it’s a way for someone in the community to discover their own history and then put it in the mural and then to present that history back to their own community in a huge painting.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The Spanish were the first Europeans to settle into the neighborhood and the Chinese were the first Asians. In 1848, at the time of the Gold Rush, China was in total chaos. The Manchu dynasty was falling apart and unable to govern. There was widespread starvation and the peasants were in rebellion. Thousands of Chinese left their homeland in search of their golden opportunity which they believed was buried in the mountains just outside of San Francisco.

The earliest Chinese workers to arrive in the mines were known as “coolies” which comes from the Chinese ku li meaning “bitter strength”. They did the toughest jobs for the least money and set up their own community in San Francisco. When the gold rush came to an end the Silver Rush started and they were back in the mines again. And when the silver petered out they went to work building the railroads… and as always at half the price of whites. At one point nine out of ten workers on the Central Pacific Railroad were Chinese. Today San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest and one of the largest Chinese communities outside Asia…the population is estimated at about 100,000. 

The entrance to the district is Chinatown Gate. The words at the top translate as: “Everything in the World is in Just Proportion.” I’m not sure that’s true but it is certainly a goal to work towards.

The Chinese community is a powerful political and economic force in the city and Chinatown is a fascinating place to visit. The main shopping street for both residents and tourists is Grant Avenue. It was named in honor of Ulysses S. Grant who wasn’t much of a shopper, but a devoted tourist. Before he became President he spent many years touring the southeastern part of the United States.

You might also like to take a walk through Waverly Street, known as The Street of Painted Balconies. It feels much like the traditional streets of China. And if your stash of powdered antler horn is running low you’ll love this block.

In addition to the Chinese community, San Francisco has a number of other Asian groups of considerable importance. Over 12,000 Japanese live in San Francisco many in an area known as Japantown.

There are also large contingents from Korea and Vietnam.

Along with dozens of other ethnic groups showing up in 1849, there was a substantial number of Irish, looking for their rainbow and its pot of gold.BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): St. Patrick’s Day is one of the few national holidays that is celebrated outside of its homeland. It was first celebrated in the United States in 1737 in Boston Massachusetts, and though it is not an official government holiday, if you are in a town with a substantial Irish population it will look mighty official.

One of the primary objectives of any parade is to let the marchers show that they belong to a special group and at the same time to display that affiliation to people who are not part of that group. The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is a perfect example of this ancient aspect of the march.

The same need to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs and lifestyles that was so much part of the Gold Rush period has helped make San Francisco a center of the world’s gay community.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The key event however took place during The Second World War the United States government decided to muster out all homosexuals. Their primary objective at the moment was to keep gay troops from going into the Pacific. The town they choose for that mission was San Francisco.

The discharge papers issued to gays marked them as homosexual and made it almost impossible for them to reenter their hometowns across America.

They stayed in San Francisco and created their own neighborhood. Today about 120,000 of the city’s 750,000 residents are proud to be members of the gay community.

Trevor Hailey was a military nurse who became an important member of that community. And as part of her desire to create a better understanding of her society she runs an historical tour of the Castro District.

TREVOR HAILEY: You don’t see too many gay monuments in the world today now do you?

BURT WOLF: That’s true.

TREVOR HAILEY: This is one.  The city of San Francisco gave us that flagpole that’s 75 feet high and the rainbow flag has been adopted as a symbol for the gay community.

And the concept of using the rainbow flag as our symbol started here in San Francisco twenty-two years ago when Harvey Milk was elected to public office and doesn’t the rainbow stand for hope, peace, the calm after the storm.  The pot of gold.  And it’s very diverse but the end result is unity. Now we’re got many other things to show you.  And look Burt where we’re headed right down here to The Castro Theatre, isn’t that a wonderful marquee.

BURT WOLF: What a marvelous building.

TREVOR HAILEY: Isn’t it.  Actually this building is just as it was when it was built in 1922 isn’t that wonderful.  And I often call this The Castro Cathedral because haven’t most minorities tended to hang on to religion.  And sort of what they’re saying is get me through the struggle on earth and maybe there’s a reward in heaven.  Burt we are a group that couldn’t hang on to religion.  And all groups need icons.  So the arts tend to be our icons and film is our art form.  So Burt where we’re going up here is a place I think you’ll enjoy seeing and it’s Harvey Milk’s old camera shop and the building actually has recently been made one of San Francisco’s historic landmarks which I find very appropriate because you see this little blue Victorian right here is for us like Abe Lincoln’s log cabin.  It’s such a historic place for this group of people.  You see the mural up there --- that’s a very good likeness of Harvey by the way.  And the logo on the t-shirt you gotta give ‘em hope to me that’s quite analogous to Martin Luther King’s I have a dream.  And it was definitely Harvey’s major logo.  That if he got elected to public office and we had a neighborhood like The Castro then if somebody from Altoona Pennsylvania got in touch with the fact that they were gay or lesbian it wasn’t the end of the world.

The Second World War was also the catalyst that brought many African Americans to San Francisco. Word had spread throughout the southeast that there were good jobs in war related industries around town and thousands of African Americans resettled here.    An example of the level of tolerance and understanding that is part of San Francisco’s tradition and the African American community is the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. It has been called a model religious institution that can help save America from the social stresses of our time…a church for the twenty-first century.

REVEREND CECIL WILLIAMS (ON CAMERA): Most people during that period of time when I was a child, 12 or 13 years old, would play Indians and Cowboys, I didn’t, I played church.

Under the direction of the Reverend Cecil Williams it has become the city’s largest private provider of social services…offering recovery programs for substance abusers, domestic-violence workshops, teaching job-skills, and feeding 3,500 people three times a day.

REVEREND CECIL WILLIAMS: And I used my imagination to integrate people into the church on the basis of them not being segregated.  We are the church first and foremost and it’s concerned about justice.  And with justice is always unconditional love.

I’ve got a 144 boys gospel choir, a band that will get down, and I’ve got over 3,000 people who come here every Sunday all colors, all kinds, people from all over the world.

And what we do is we create spontaneous action with each other there’s not telling what  might occur.  This is a place where we celebrate.

San Franciscans build bridges that surmount the barriers between ethnic and religious communities, but they also build bridges that surmount the bay. The Golden Gate has become the best known visual symbol of the city. The views are spectacular.

And that’s a brief view of San Francisco. A unique history. A love of opulence. An appreciation of tolerance and a beautiful city. And if you’ve enjoyed this visit, how about joining me next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Central Switzerland - #204

These are the Swiss Alps, and people have been living in, on, and around them for over ten thousand years. The ancient Romans wrote about the tribes who lived in these mountains. The most important were the Helvetians.  During the 400s, as Rome fell, German tribes took control of the northern part of Switzerland. The Burgundians from France conquered western Switzerland. But the Helvetians, high up in their central mountain villages, remained free and unaffected by much of Europe’s history. This is an extraordinarily beautiful part of the world, and relatively unspoiled.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The scenery is magnificent... the culture is interesting... the people are friendly... and the food is good.  It’s a marvelous place for a vacation.

So please join me, Burt Wolf, for TRAVELS & TRADITIONS  in Central Switzerland.

One of the best ways to see this area is by car. You’re free of plane, train and bus schedules so you can control your time. You can also decide exactly where you want to go and how you want to get there. And you can change your mind at any time.

Of course, you can rent an automobile, but you might also consider purchasing a new car and taking European delivery. A number of companies offer this option and we’re testing it with a couple of BMWs. Since we are only borrowing these cars to see how the program works, I went for the convertible. You know, I’m not getting any younger and if I’m gonna live it up, now’s the time.  My sound engineer, Paul Waide, is driving the second car. It’s a 323 coupe. He’s an elegant and classic guy and he says this car is elegant and classical. He’s also into cars and feels that these cars are designed by drivers for drivers. You buy the car in the States and set up the delivery with your local dealer.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Then you fly to Munich, Germany, and pick up your car at the BMW delivery center. You’ll save about seven percent off the cost with this kind of delivery, and you will avoid all of the expenses of transportation during your holiday.  And let me tell you, those can add up.  When you’ve finished your vacation, you can drop off the car in any one of nineteen cities and BMW will ship it home for you.

We started in Munich and drove south through Zurich to Luzern.  We used the official road map of the Automobile Club of Switzerland, which was clear and up-to-date. It took just over five hours to reach Luzern, the largest city in central Switzerland, and the base for our touring.

During the Middle Ages Luzern was a simple fishing village, but when the St. Gotthard pass, connecting northern Europe and Italy, opened in the 1200s, Luzern became a major staging area. During the early 1800s English poets showed up in Luzern and began describing the beauty of the nearby lakes and mountains. The British upper class, always ready for a holiday abroad, made Luzern a major tourist attraction.

The city’s great hotel is the Palace Luzern, built in 1906 and continually renovated and updated. It’s a five-star deluxe property and a member of the “Leading Hotels of the World.”  It sits right on the promenade that runs along the shore of the lake. The building has all the charm and elegance that you would expect from a classic structure.  And the rooms have magnificent views of the surrounding mountains.

The main restaurant has a French accent, but they also prepare the traditional dishes of the region. I asked the chef for a few of the local specialties. He opened with Grisons barley soup, made from barley, carrots, celery, leeks, stock and a little cream. The meat course was a Luzern Vol-Au Vent -- puff pastry filled with diced veal, diced pork, sausage meat dumplings, mushrooms and raisins in a light cream sauce.  Dessert included a slice of gingerbread cake with a dollop of whipped cream.   Local tradition calls for a man to offer a gingerbread cake to his sweetheart as an expression of his love, so be careful how you pass this stuff around

A meal like that calls for a good walk through the city, which is easy. The Palace Luzern is at the edge of the main part of town, and everything is in walking distance.

Luzern’s 650-foot roofed bridge is the oldest in Europe. Called the Chapel Bridge, it was originally built in the 1300s as part of the city’s fortification. The triangular roof supports were used by 17th century painters to present the history of Luzern and the patron saints of the city. There are over a hundred images. The water tower alongside the bridge was also built in the 1300s. Originally it was a lighthouse on the top, a dungeon at the bottom and a torture chamber in the middle -- even then multi-use dwellings were fashionable.

Luzern’s old town is filled with ancient decorated buildings. The paintings present the history of a guild, or a family, or a special event.  This building is the site of the first pharmacy in Luzern.  It opened in 1530.  The sign over the door reads, “There Is No Herb That Will Cure Lovesickness.”  Even then they knew.

And as long as you’re in the neighborhood you should stop in to the Heini bakery and taste a few of their specialties.  Cheese, milk chocolate, ice cream... anything related to the cow is important to Switzerland.

Another “udderly” delightful aspect of Luzern gastronomy is the Pretzel King shop. The classic pretzel shape is said to have originated in the church schools of Austria with the intention of reminding children of praying hands. In the shop of the Pretzel King they remind everyone of how great a really good pretzel tastes.  They have a ham-and-cheese on a pretzel... they have a salami-and-pickle on a pretzel... they have a pizza pretzel... an almond pretzel... plus a series of sweet pretzels for dessert.

A few streets away is the Lion Monument, which commemorates the eight hundred Swiss soldiers who died defending King Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The royal family had been attacked by the mob, but as soon as the King was able to make a deal with their leaders and felt that his person was safe, he told the Swiss guards to put down their weapons -- at which point they were all murdered by the revolutionaries. A classic sellout.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mark Twain visited this monument and called it “the saddest piece of stone in the whole world.”

Just down the river from the monument is the baroque Jesuit Church, built in the mid-1600s.  Baroque architecture was a Roman Catholic response to the simple architecture of the Protestant Reformation. The Pope wanted to send a message that Catholic heaven was a big, magnificent and ornate place and much more fun than whatever it was that Martin Luther was offering.  The robes of  Niklaus von Flue, Switzerland’s only saint, rest here. Von Flue’s major act was to propose an agreement that regulated the division of spoils among Switzerland’s mercenary troops -- which is a story in itself.

The economy of  the Alpine village was based on small herds of cows and sheep and light farming.  But with no natural resources, the economy was marginal.  Since the farm work could be done by women and children, the men were able to go off and find other work.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And the work that they found was soldiering for pay. For hundreds of years the Swiss fought other people’s battles for a fixed salary and a share of the loot. It was an important source of foreign income.  But in order to be able to offer their soldiers to one country without being attacked by another country, they instituted a policy of neutrality and offered their troops on an impartial basis -- if you had the money, they had the men. It was an early form of migrant labor and very important to the history of the nation. But it’s important to remember that Swiss neutrality was based on money, not morals.

Switzerland no longer earns income from sending out troops; what it does do is bring in tourists. Modern package tourism got started right here in 1893 when Thomas Cook organized a group trip from England. That first tour, and much of the tourism since then, has been based on the beauty of the Swiss mountains and our desire to see what’s happening on the top  A twenty-minute drive southwest from Luzern will put you at the foot of Mount Pilatus.

And the steepest cogwheel railway in the world will take you to the top, which is seven thousand feet above sea level.  People have always been fascinated with mountain peaks. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods lived on a mountain. Many societies that live near mountains put their temples on top of them. They are also the best spot for meteorological and geological observations, or to check out your neighbors.

But Mount Pilatus was not always available to visitors. For centuries local residents believed that the mountain was inhabited by dragons, and if you disturbed them they would send down storms and great floods. In 1585 a parish priest from Luzern and a courageous group of parishioners ascended Pilatus and challenged every lake and cave where the dragons were thought to dwell. The priests returned to Luzern and announced that the spell had been broken, the spirits were at peace, and for about thirty-eight bucks you could take a tour of the top. The dragons were Swiss and they knew a good business when they saw one.

The next stop on our tour of Central Switzerland is the town of Ibach... which may not mean much, until you find out that it is the home of the company that makes the original Swiss Army Knife, and the only shop in the world that carries all of their models. Charles Elsner was a master knife maker, who originally sold his knives in his mother’s hat shop. When he was thirty he organized the Association of Swiss Master Cutlers.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The objective of the association was to produce a pocket knife for the Swiss military. Now, the army was already buying knives, but they were buying them in Germany. In 1891 the first Swiss-made Swiss army knife were delivered to the army, and this is one of them.  It had a long blade, a screwdriver, a can opener, and a reamer for punching holes. And that was it.  The Elsner family is still delivering pocket knives to the Swiss army, but this is what a Swiss Army Knife really looks like. It’s made of a lightweight aluminum alloy; it has a blade, it has a small screw driver with a can opener, it has a big screw driver with a cap lifter and a wire stripper, and a reamer for punching holes.  What everyone who is not in the Swiss Army calls a Swiss Army Knife is this shiny red version with a Swiss Cross embedded in the handle. This is actually the Swiss Army “Officers” Knife.  Elsner developed the early version of this knife in 1897 but the Swiss Army never accepted it. Maybe the corkscrew and the nail cleaner were just too much.  But the troops loved it, both the officers and the enlisted men, and they purchased them with their own money. And they still do.

From the beginning the company, which is now called Victorinox, developed pocket knives for different groups. During the 1890s they introduced the “schoolboy” model, a “farmer’s” knife and a “cadet” knife, and specialty knives are still being added. Today they produce approximately four hundred different versions of the Swiss Army “Officers” Knife.  They also produce the knife that goes into outer space with the astronauts... and the absolutely essential “inline skater’s” knife.

But the only place in the world where you can see and purchase every model made in the factory is just a few blocks away from great-great-grandmother Elsner’s hat shop... where the first knives were sold over a hundred years ago.

With my knife preparing me for any eventuality, I headed off to the town of Altdorf. For centuries the valleys of Switzerland were dominated by powerful families who created city-states and spent much of their time fighting for control of the land and the peasants. But the ancient forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden escaped feudalism and lived on the mountains in relative freedom.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): They governed themselves through small assemblies -- actually an early form of democracy.  In the 1200s, however, Count Rudolf of Habsburg tried to take control of the forest cantons through his tax agents. Bad move.

An arrogant jerk called Gessler was one of those agents. One day he came into Altdorf, hung his hat on a pole in the square and insisted that everyone who passed must bow to it. A local farmer named William Tell passed by and told Gessler what he could do with his hat. Gessler ordered Tell to shoot an apple off his son’s head. Tell did so, mentioning to Gessler afterward that if he had missed with the first arrow the second would have gone into Gessler’s heart. They argued and eventually that’s exactly where the arrow ended up, killing Gessler.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Altdorf has a William Tell monument and a William Tell Museum, but historians are not really sure that William Tell ever existed or that the events of the legend ever took place. Nevertheless, it is the story of the death of tyranny and the triumph of freedom -- two essential elements in the culture of Switzerland. In 1804 Schiller wrote a play about the legend, and in the early 1820s Rossini wrote the “William Tell” opera.  So, true or not, it has become a central part of the legend of the founding of the Swiss Confederacy.

Which set us off to the city of Berne, the capital of the Confederacy... and through some of the country’s most beautiful scenery.

Berne is a peninsula formed by a bend in the Aare River. It was founded in 1191 by Duke Berchtold the Fifth of Zahringen, but you probably knew that already.  For six hundred years it was ruled by a group of powerful families -- a long period of stability, and for many of those years it was the largest city-state north of the Alps.

Berne is the federal capital of Switzerland but it has resisted the international atmosphere that you find in most European capitals.  Instead, it presents the traditions of Switzerland and Berne.  The medieval and baroque buildings were constructed of local gray-green sandstone, which gives the streets a sense of history and a feeling of mass.  And speaking of mass --

For a number of years, the great physicist Albert Einstein lived in Berne, and it was during those years that he did some of his most important work on the theories that led to atomic fusion. Tourists often come to look at the house in which he lived.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And this -- is not that house.  This is a more important house.  Because it was in the kitchen of this house in 1908 when Erik Baumann and his cousin Theodor Tobler, after hours of feverish experimentation, created a perfect fusion between nougat and milk chocolate -- thereby giving us the first Toblerone.

Not only did they cross the previously unbreachable boundary between chocolate and nougat, but they had the skill and insight to produce individual servings of their bar in the shape of the Matterhorn, Switzerland’s most famous mountain.  And to use a manufacturing process so unique that it was given a patent.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): But wait, there’s more. The man at the Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property – the organization that actually issued the patent for Toblerone – was none other than Albert Einstein. A random event?  Coincidence?  I think not.  I think what we have here is La Forza Del Destino, “The Forces of Destiny.”   We also have the ten-pound Toblerone bar, the largest chocolate bar in regular manufacture.  Even Albert would have gotten a Big Bang out of this.

You’ll also get a bang from touring Berne’s old town, and you can do it without regard for the weather, since most streets are covered with arcades. Over the centuries the population of the city has grown, but not the available space.  Accordingly, every square foot is put to good use.  Even the ancient cellars have been turned into shops, theatres, and restaurants.

Much of the best restaurant food in Switzerland is found in small establishments that offer local specialties, and Berne has a number of them. My favorite is Della Casa, where they make the definitive rosti.  Rosti means “crisp and golden,” and that is exactly what these potatoes are. Traditionally it was made with leftover boiled potatoes that were shredded, flattened and sautéed on both sides. It’s served with a side order of sausages, but I understand that most people think the rosti is the side dish.

It’s also mandatory to try cheese fondue in the country where it was invented. The Swiss have been producing cheese since pre-Roman times, but the production took place during the late summer. By mid-winter the cheese was very hard and the best way to eat it was to melt it. The melted cheese was also a great foil for hard bread. Traditionally the Swiss make their cheese fondue in a heavy pot. Emmental and Gruyere, the two most famous cheeses of Switzerland, are melted with a little wine. And the dry bread is dipped in. The one-pot communal meal is just the way people once ate on the mountain farms.

Along with the good food, Berne has a number of good museums... including the Museum of Fine Arts, with the world’s largest collection of the works of Paul Klee.

But the streets of Berne constitute the city’s most interesting museum. There are eleven fountains from the mid-1500s, each with its own legend. There’s also the clock tower, built in 1530, and as you would expect of any Swiss clock -- it’s still running. Elizabeth Thurlemann showed me how the clock works.

ELIZABETH THURLEMANN:  First of all, this was made in 1527 until 1531.  Kasper Bruner made the whole clock and it has to be winded [wound]  every day.  It has five weights; you take them up by winding the clock, and then it will take them twenty-nine hours to come down.  But actually, of course, they wind it up every twenty-four hours, more or less at six o’clock in the evening, every day.  This main engine makes the clock, the two clocks outside working -- the one that was made in 1531, and the top one, which we actually look at today, about 250 years ago they made the other one.  Three minutes before the hour, actually, the figure-play starts.  This is the rooster.  Then one minute later this engine turns, and this makes the bears over there turning, and with these two ropes here, it makes the jester banging the hour (he’s a jester, that’s why he’s allowed to bang the hour before the hour).  Then one minute later the rooster crows a second time.  And then when the hour is really gone, Cronus (he’s the old man sitting in the middle) turns around his hourglass.  Then it means the hour is gone.  And on the end, the rooster cries a third time.  Here it means, “Ladies and gentlemen, one hour is gone in your life.”  That’s actually how it works.

BURT WOLF:   (after the clockworks runs; checking watch):  It’s right on.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The clock of Berne reminds us that everything has a season and that time waits for no one. And we’re out of time. I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief visit to central Switzerland and that you will have time, next time, to join us on TRAVEL S& TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Twin Cities - #203

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): It was Mark Twain who first called Minneapolis and St. Paul “The Twin Cities,” but they are clearly not identical twins. St. Paul was born first. In 1840 a bootlegging saloonkeeper started a settlement that he called “Pig’s Eye.”  About a year later, a priest by the name of Lucian Galtier arrived, built a church and dedicated it to St. Paul. The citizens recognized an opportunity for a brilliant public relations move, and they changed the name of the area from Pig’s Eye to St. Paul.

There were twenty-nine miles of Mississippi shoreline with two spots that dropped down from the cliffs and formed perfect landings for riverboats. The area soon became a center for fur trading and logging. Easterners arrived, followed by European immigrants from Germany, Scandinavia and Ireland.

In 1858 the territory of Minnesota became a state, and St. Paul became the capital.  St. Paul likes to hold on to its heritage.  It preserves and refurbishes its old buildings.  Many of the structures date back for over a hundred years.

The population of St. Paul is about 275,000 but it has managed to hold on to the charm of a small town.  Grand Avenue is a shopping street, but the shops are tucked into old houses that give the neighborhood a friendly hometown feeling.

The historical heart of the area, however, has always been the river. The Native American Dakota called the area “the place where the waters meet,” a reference to the spot where the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers come together. You can enjoy a ride on those waters by taking a trip with the Padelford Packet Boat Company.  It’s Minnesota’s oldest and largest riverboat company and was founded by Captain William Bowell, whose ancestors came to America in 1630.  For hundreds of years the river has been the primary means of transportation, and the route for all commerce and communication. It’s interesting to explore the mighty Mississippi in the state where it begins.

One of the structures that you can see from the river is the Cathedral of St. Paul.   It’s built on one of the city’s highest hills, and dominates the skyline.

REVEREND JOHN ESTREM:  Well, the dome is one of the great features of this cathedral, and of all classical Renaissance buildings.  The large dome allows for a large inside space.  But the dome itself is to be a portal into heaven, the idea of it, and that’s why it is so richly painted with the gold leaf and the beautiful windows and the bright colors -- to draw our eyes up into the dome, as a way to see into heaven.

When a particular church is also the home of a local bishop it will house the bishop’s chair, which is known in Latin as a cathedra, and that marks the church as a cathedral. Simple:  a church with a bishop’s chair is a cathedral, no matter how big or small the building.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): As it is in most cities, the saintly citizens of St. Paul were balanced by a fair number of sinners. During the early years of the 20th Century, Andrew Volsted, a U.S. Congressman from Minnesota, was the head of the anti-alcohol movement in the United States.  He actually helped draft the the legislation that became the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which forbade the importation, manufacture, or distribution of alcoholic beverages.  Strangely, though, it didn’t say anything about the consumption of alcoholic beverages.  So I guess if you had it, you could drink it.

The amendment was passed in 1919 and repealed in 1933 -- and during those years it did more to encourage criminal behavior than anything ever produced by drinking in moderation.  During the 1930’s St. Paul became a safe haven for gangsters, and as part of St. Paul’s appreciation of its past, both good and bad, it displays that part of its history.

“EDNA MURRAY”  (CYNTHIA SCHREINER):  Well, it was the newspapers that named me “The Kissing Bandit...”

Allow me to introduce you to the notorious Edna Murray.

EDNA MURRAY:  ...We had a very clever way of robbing people.  A truck would stop at a stoplight, I would jump in and start kissing the driver all over, make him very happy, while my boyfriend would go in the back and empty everything out, you see.  And then the driver would drive away, very happy, never knowing he had been robbed until he got to where he was going, and by then my boyfriend and I were long gone, nobody got hurt.

BURT WOLF:   And how did St. Paul end up as a safe haven for gangsters?

EDNA MURRAY:  Well, for that you have to go back to the year 1900; the St. Paul Police Department had a Chief by the name of John “The Big Guy” O’Connor, and he had a brother, Richard “The Cardinal” O’Connor, who was an alderman and the head of the Democratic Party here in St. Paul.  And they decided that it was not very fiscally responsible to be spending all this money on catching gangsters.  So they came up with what they called “The O’Connor Layover System.”  That would be a little deal they entered with the gangsters, you see, whereas if they came to St. Paul and abided by three simple little rules, they would not get arrested, extradition papers from other police departments would mysteriously get lost, the FBI would not be very cooperated with, you know, things like that.  So the three rules -- okay:  Number One:  Do not commit any crime within the city limits of St. Paul.  Go over to Minneapolis all you want.  We do not care.  Number Two:  Give us a little kickback to the Policeman’s Fund.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  Number Three:  Check in with us, tell us where you’re staying so we can call you and warn you.  Very efficient; in fact, you were so safe that if a pursesnatcher would, like, steal your purse, the gangsters would come up and they would go and kind of roust the pursesnatcher and say, “Look -- do not mess with our town.  The police might think it was us that robbed that cute little old lady’s purse. So St. Paul was a very safe place for the average citizen to be.

A safe haven of a very different sort is The St. Paul Hotel. In the early 1900s the leading industrialists of the city decided that St. Paul needed a first class hotel.  They built it facing Rice Park, which is at the center of the city. Across the way is the Ordway Music Theater, the Landmark Center and the St. Paul Public Library, with the James J. Hill Collection, the largest business reference library in the U.S.

The hotel’s St. Paul Grill is one of the best restaurants in town. The executive chef is Andre Halston. I worked with Andre years ago when he was in Toronto and it’s a pleasure to have him cooking for me again. Did I mention that I love my job?

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): I ordered directly off the menu, but only those items which were reflective of the gastronomic traditions of the area.

First up is pan-fried walleye pike in a pecan sauce with Minnesota wild rice.  Walleye is the official state fish of Minnesota; it’s the largest member of the perch family. Hash brown potatoes with bacon and onions... I also liked the salmon with a knockout seven-flavor barbecue sauce.  For dessert, apple crisp -- Granny Smith apples, brown sugar, a touch of molasses, streusel mixture on top.  And finally, the irresistible chocolate turtle tart -- a pecan and butter crust, chocolate ganache, caramel and chocolate sauces.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): St. Paul is a government center devoted to the no-frills, straightforward preservation of its past.  Walleye pike, wild rice, hash brown potatoes -- the down-home gastronomy of its past. That’s St. Paul on a plate. Minneapolis, on the other hand, is about Big Business and the immediate introduction of everything that is new.

In 1680, a Franciscan missionary by the name of Father Louis Hennepin was traveling up the Mississippi, trying to find its source, when his forward motion was halted by the only waterfall on the Mississippi. He named it St. Anthony Falls. Waterfalls are a powerful source of energy, the kind of energy that can power industry. Minneapolis grew up around these falls, and used the waterpower to run mills, mills that ground wheat and made Minneapolis the flour milling capitol of America.

One of the first millers to tap into the power of St. Anthony Falls was Charles Pillsbury, whose “A” Mill set the standard for innovation and efficiency.  Today the company is headquartered in Minneapolis, and has over 16,000 employees and sales of over six billion dollars.

PAT BOONE:  “A cake could make a family’s dreams come true.”

But for most Americans, Pillsbury’s most famous undertaking is the Pillsbury Bake-Off. It was first held in 1949 and the changes that have taken place in the contest clearly reflect the changes that have taken place in American society. The Bake-Off is a slice of life in which you can see what is happening to the nation.

The first contest was held to mark the return of family life after the Second World War. Eleanor Roosevelt was the guest of honor. The economic boom of the 50s was a return to “the good life” and the recipes were rich and sweet. One of the most famous recipes in 1951 was French Silk Chocolate Pie.

The 60s and 70s were marked by a rising divorce rate, single parent families, women returning to the workforce, attending college, and building careers.  The theme of the Bake-Off in 1966 was “Busy Lady.”

PAT BOONE:  Well, why don’t they call this the “Busy-Ladies-And-Three-Men-And-Five-Boys Bake-Off?”

MARILYN VANDERBURG:  Oh Pat, everyone knows it’s a woman’s world.

One of the prize-winning recipes was the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, with only six ingredients.

The 80s and 90s saw the return of fancy desserts and cakes, but they were being made as entertainment. Cooking had become a hobby, a sport, something people did to relax. And for the first time, men and teenagers were winners. The changing ethnicity of the nation was reflected in the Bake-Off -- Mexican, Italian, Middle Eastern and Indian recipes were part of the mix. Two of the winners were Spicy Cuban Stir-Fry and Salsa Couscous Chicken.

In 1949 the first prize was --

ART LINKLETTER:  “$25,000 in cash...”

The prize today?

AUDIENCE:  “One Million Dollars!!!”

Minneapolis is filled with tall buildings. As a matter of fact, one of the city’s early architects thought he had invented the tall building and actually held a patent for what he called a Cloud scraper.  Today, Minneapolis strives for a fashionable, urban and dynamic style.

Almost one hundred buildings in Minneapolis can be reached through the five-mile-long Skyway system, a series of glass-covered passages that run from building to building on the second floor level.  It gives the city an entire second street level, with shops, department stores and restaurants. And the weather is always perfect.

Minneapolis even organizes a series of winter holiday parades called “Holidazzle.”  They start on the evening after Thanksgiving and take place every night at 6:30 until December 23rd.  Floats covered with thousands of tiny lights... marching bands... storybook characters... and the grandstand seats are heated.

Minneapolis has a long-standing reputation for encouraging artistic achievement.  In 1963 British theater director Tyrone Guthrie created an American regional theater company in Minneapolis. He came here specifically because of the city’s support for its arts community. The Guthrie Theater has become internationally famous for its creativity.

Next to the Guthrie is the Walker Art Center.  It’s one of the nation’s most important museums.  It was founded by lumber baron T.B.Walker.  Its permanent collection is devoted to contemporary art from around the world, and it is a mandatory stop for important traveling exhibitions.

Both buildings face out on the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which is the largest urban sculpture garden in the country:  eleven acres with more than forty modern sculptures, including the town’s official favorite -- Spoonbridge and Cherry.

Minneapolis is also the home of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices. It is a collection of bogus machines that claim to cure everything from baldness and obesity to bashfulness and tired blood.

ROBERT McCOY:   Burt, come over here and try a treatment in Dr. Kellogg’s Vibrating Chair...

Many of the devices were sent to the museum by the American Medical Association and the federal  Food and Drug Administration.

ROBERT McCOY:  Now, hold onto these handles...

Others have been acquired by Robert W. McCoy, who is the founder and curator of this unusual establishment.

ROBERT McCOY:  Are you ready for this?

BURT WOLF:   I don’t know...!

ROBERT McCOY:  What’s your name?

BURT WOLF (vibrating):   Myyyyyy naaaaaaaaammeeee issssssss...

ROBERT McCOY:  You don’t know.

BURT WOLF (vibrating):  “Iiiitt haaaad toooo beeeeee yoooooooooouuuu... laaa daa daa da daaaaaaaaaaaaaah....”

BURT WOLF (normally, after the machine is turned off):   This was invented by Dr. Kellogg, the same Kellogg from the cereals?

ROBERT McCOY:   Yes, it was.  Dr. Kellogg was married forty-two years, but never consummated his marriage because he was opposed to the loss of sperm.   

BURT WOLF:   Uh-huh.  And he thought this machine was okay?

ROBERT McCOY:   I guess so!  (Laughing)

BURT WOLF:   What else have we got?

 ROBERT McCOY:   Burt, you’re sitting in an antique phrenology machine that’s gonna measure the shape of your head and print out a paper tape and tell all about your personality.  Your sexual enthusiasm is still way too high on this reading...

BURT WOLF:   Uh-oh...

ROBERT McCOY:  I’ll set this radio for the same frequency as your saliva and turn on this long-distance transmitter to send healing rays by radio.

BURT WOLF:   Now what does this do?

ROBERT McCOY:  Burt, this is a MacGregor Rejuvenator; it’s gonna use infrared, ultraviolet, magnetism, and silent radio waves to reverse the aging process.  How long should I set it to?

BURT WOLF:   How about three months?  How long will it take to bring me to about thirty-eight?

ROBERT McCOY:  We don’t have that much time.

BURT WOLF:   Do you ever think that you’re gonna run out of new stuff?

ROBERT McCOY:  Well, I don’t think I’ll run out of things, because there are a lot of inventive people, and they’re trying to cook up things because the America public is awful gullible.  And there’s no limit as to the things that they can fall for.   There’s no way to cure people of gullibility.

BURT WOLF:   If I was a tourist coming to the Twin Cities area for the first time... what should I see?

GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA:  Well, I would say first thing would be Mall of America.  It’s so close to the airport, about ten minutes at the most, and it’s a remarkable place to visit.  Bring your credit card, bring your cash, because you’re gonna enjoy yourself there.

Since the Mall of America opened in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1992, it has attracted over forty million visitors per year, which is more than Disney World, the Grand Canyon and Graceland put together.  It is a huge four-level rectangle covering over four million square feet.  Each corner is anchored by a major department store:   Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sears, and Bloomingdale’s.

The first three floors are dedicated to over five hundred retail outlets.

And there are more than fifty different places to eat.

We had lunch in the Twin City Grill, that serves local specialties and is decorated with Twin City memorabilia.

The top level is for nightclubs and movies.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): And in the center of the mall is the Camp Snoopy theme park. . . .  St. Paul, by the way, is Snoopy’s hometown. Charles Schulz, the creator of Snoopy, and Linus, and Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang was born in St. Paul, and the “Peanuts” strip ran for the very first time in 1947, right here in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

There are also things to amuse grownups, including an 18-hole miniature golf course... and the Y2K version of “bumper cars.”

DAVID SAUTER:  Well, you’re at NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway, the most realistic NASCAR simulators in the world right now.

For just a few dollars you and fourteen other daredevils can race each other on an amazingly realistic motor speedway -- and what you do really does affect the other drivers in the race.

BURT WOLF:   Sorry...  All right, I hit the wall, okay?  I’m new at this!

After the checkered flag, you get a detailed printout of your race.

BURT WOLF:   Well, Dave, how’d I do? 

DAVID SAUTER:  Here you are, Burt.

BURT WOLF:   Wow.  So I was nineteenth out of fifteen.

DAVID SAUTER:  That’s correct, yeah.

BURT WOLF:   Boy, that’s amazing.  Who are the other four guys that are cheating on me?  And, um... when is the parallel parking class?

DAVID SAUTER:  That’s every Wednesday at 3 PM.

BURT WOLF:   I’m gonna be here.  That I can do.  I can park.  I grew up in the city, I know how to park...

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): People come to shop here from all over the world, over a hundred thousand every day. There are even airline packages that will fly you in, put you up for a couple of days of shopping, and send you home with slightly more overweight than you planned on.

Things are very well-organized.  A woman comes into the mall... drops her kids off at the Child Care area, where they play... drops her husband off at the Sports Bar, where he watches the Vikings... and heads into the mall, where she drops a few bucks.  There’s a store devoted to walking gear, which makes sense -- the average mall-shopper here covers over two miles per visit.

And beneath it all there is Underwater World, filled with 1.2 million gallons of water, three thousand sea creatures, and educational experts to tell you what you’re looking at. It will take you through the Boundary Waters National Park, an ice-covered Minnesota lake, the bottom of the Mississippi River, and a coral reef.   

For me, the most surprising establishment in the mall is the Chapel of Love.

MARYANNE LONDON:  Putting a wedding chapel in a mall was interesting and exciting to me.  We started with a chapel and we started with accessories, and we were the largest suppliers of wedding accessories of any store in the country.  And that was five years ago.

BURT WOLF:   The Wedding Sneaker.  You don’t see a lot of these anymore.

MARYANNE LONDON:  We asked our brides over the course of time what it was that we didn’t have, and they all said, “you don’t have gowns and you don’t have shoes,” and so we moved to a new location and added gowns and shoes.  What’s fun about the chapel here is that we don’t do things the way everybody else does ‘em.   Like the gowns that we carry, our most expensive gown is eight hundred dollars.  Most of our gowns are in the four hundred dollar range.  We don’t have all the “way things used to be” to compare to, so I’m just learning as I go along and really, we spend a lot of time listening to our customers. ... We do about nine weddings a week, about 450 a year, and our average wedding is about three hundred and fifty dollars, so it’s very affordable, very romantic, very beautiful.

MINISTER:  The wedding rings are an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of an almighty, all-loving God.  It signifies to everyone God’s love that surrounds you, and the love you share not only on this day, but forever...

MARYANNE LONDON:  Actually, our weddings are pretty traditional.  It surprised me, when we started I thought that we would do all civil ceremonies here, but actually what we do is about ninety-five percent Christian ceremonies, and I think what it is that when people actually come to exchanging vows, they want that spiritual environment, but if they don’t have a church, or they can’t get the church, this is a great option for them.

MINISTER:  Those whom God has joined together, let no one separate.  In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, God’s blessings strengthen and keep you each and every day.  Amen.

Of course, it makes perfectly good sense:   perform the ceremony, receive your gifts, and start shopping -- all in an hour.  An American tradition, executed in its most efficient form.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Well, that’s a brief look at St. Paul preserving its past... Minneapolis building its business... and Bloomington aiding you with your acquisitions.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I hope you will join us next time on TRAVELS AND TRADITIONS.  I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Curaçao - #202

The island of Curaçao. It was formed ninety million years ago in the Pacific Ocean near Peru, got pushed into the Caribbean Sea to a point just off the coast of Venezuela and ended up as part of the Dutch Kingdom of the Netherlands. And I thought my life was confusing. The capital city of Willemstad is like a mini-Amsterdam transported to a tropical climate. The coral reefs that surround the island have made it an important destination for divers. The beaches have made it an important destination for vacationers. Only 150,000 people live on the island, but they came here from over fifty different nations -- an extraordinary ethnic mix with everyone making a contribution to the local traditions. It’s a fascinating place. So join me, Burt Wolf, for TRAVELS & TRADITIONS in Curaçao.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The first Europeans to set foot on Curaçao were Spanish explorers who showed up in 1499.  When they realized that there was no gold on the island, they set up a few cattle farms as a future source of food, and shoved off.  Then in 1634 the Dutch arrived and took control of the island. The Spanish surrendered without much resistance, but the cattle put up an extraordinary fight, though they were eventually forced to surrender.

The Dutch influence is still very strong in Curaçao.  Besides the political relationship between Curaçao and Holland there is an ongoing cultural relationship and a shared history of more than 350 years. The historic center of Willemstad is called Punda, which means “the point,” and its architecture is classic Dutch Colonial from the 16 and 1700s. The Dutch colonists, like colonists all around the world, tried to recreate their homeland.

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  So we’re in the middle of Otrabanda.  Otrabanda was built since 1708, 18th Century...

Anko Van Der Woude is one of Curaçao’s leading architects and an authority on the island’s architectural history.

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Okay, this is the Penha Building, built in 1708, and it represents the Rococo or Renaissance, the Renaissance style.

BURT WOLF:   All the 1700s was that Renaissance.

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  All the 1700s, yes, yes, the whole of the 18th Century.  You can tell by the curls.  And if you would go to Amsterdam in the same period, you would find the same kind of architecture.  The building used to stop here, and this was the addition of about two yards which was added --

BURT WOLF:  Yes, you can see where it ended --

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Exactly --

BURT WOLF:   -- and then suddenly they built it out.

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Yes.  And also, you can see the color.  The first houses were made with bricks.  They glued them together with mud, and the outside you had to plaster, thus making it a closed wall.  If you plaster, you paint it.  And they were mostly painted white.

BURT WOLF:   Whitewashed.

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Whitewashed.  It was the cheapest color they could get. 

BURT WOLF:   And how did they get to be so colorful?

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Well, there was a governor in 1816, and you can imagine most of the houses being white, when the sun reflects off the houses... he said, “Whenever I walk through town, I get a terrible headache because of the sun.  I want them to be painted another color within two weeks.”  And all the houses were painted other colors, except white.

BURT WOLF:   Did his headaches go away?

ANKO VAN DER WOUDE:  Uhhhh... that doesn’t say.  The history doesn’t tell.

BURT WOLF:   Well, they certainly are beautiful.

The districts of Punda and Otrobanda are connected by the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge. This is quite a piece of work.  The entire bridge is set on a series of floats. The Otrobanda end sits on wheels that are locked onto a circular track. The Punda end has a set of diesel engines attached to propellers. When they want to open the bridge, the engines are started and the bridge swings out from Punda allowing the harbor traffic to pass.

The Jewish community in Curaçao built the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, which opened for Passover services in 1732 and has been in use since then, which makes it the oldest synagogue in continuous operation in the New World. The floor of the synagogue is covered with sand as a reminder of the forty days and nights that the Jews wandered in the desert after escaping from bondage in Egypt. But the sand is also a reminder of the time of the Spanish Inquisition when Jews were forced to practice their religion in secret rooms. The sand muffled the sound of their movements and their voices. The synagogue also has a museum with objects drawn from its 350-year history.

Willemstad is a “walking city”…street front shops with friendly staff, and shaded places to relax and get something to eat and drink. It’s also the only place I know of that took their ancient forts and prisons and instead of turning them into monuments turned them into restaurants. The historic area of Willemstad, the inner city and the harbor, have been placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

The old buildings in Willemstad are grand structures... but like so many glorious things they contain the seeds of their own destruction. Coral and quarry stone were used for the walls and held together with a mortar that contained sand from the beaches and seawater. Eventually the salt in the coral, beach sand and seawater began leaching out and eating away at the buildings, which began to crumble.  Fortunately there is an aggressive rehabilitation program, and many of the most important buildings will be saved.

But sand and seawater are not always negative elements. As a matter of fact, great beaches and water sports are two of the main reasons people visit Curaçao.  The island has many public and private beaches. Some have snack bars, showers, and an assortment of seaside services. Others are secluded and offer visitors a private moment away from it all.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The constant 13-knot trade winds that powered the Spanish treasure galleons, the Dutch, French and English pirate ships during the 1500s, are still around, and available to windsurfers. The water temperature is a constant 75 to 81 degrees all year round, and there is approximately one hundred feet of visibility underneath the surface, which allowed me to see this.

Curaçao has been rated as one of the best Caribbean islands for shore diving and snorkeling, with most dive sites easily accessible because the reefs are near the water’s edge. The lack of rain on Curaçao may be bad for farmers but it’s great for divers. It sets up the high salt content in the nearby waters, which is just the environment for the development of coral reefs.

If you’re not quite in the Cousteau class but interested in having an animal encounter of the nautical kind, you can stop into the Curaçao Sea Aquarium. A natural tidal pool near the edge of the Seaquarium is home to hundreds of tropical fish, including a group of sharks that live behind a wire fence fitted with a Plexiglas window. Visitors can take a short diving lesson, go below and feed the sharks and the other fish through small holes in the Plexiglas.

ERWIN CURIAL:  We have air in the tank for one and a half hour.  We’re gonna be underwater for forty minutes.  Before we go in, I’m gonna have you put the equipment on, inflate it for you, what you have to do, put your mask on your face, regulator in your mouth, and you walk slowly forward down the stairs.  Because your face is in the water, the added exhale comes out as bubbles.  And the bubbles always go up, yeah?  And they go alongside your ears.  Those bubbles, they make a lot of noise.  Yeah?  That noise is good.  That means you’re breathing.  Okay?

BURT WOLF:   I’ll remember that.

ERWIN CURIAL:  Just imagine if you have your mask on like this.  That looks very stupid to me.  Yeah?  And it’s gonna fall off.  So it doesn’t work like that.  Always on top of your head --

BURT WOLF:   -- above the ears --

ERWIN CURIAL:  -- like this, so it’s not going anywhere.  Okay?

BURT WOLF:   Yeah.

ERWIN CURIAL:  Maybe looking around you see a big stingray sit on my head.  That looks funny to you, and you start smiling.  No problem.  You’re mask’s gonna fill up with water.

BURT WOLF:   No smiling.

ERWIN CURIAL:  Yeah, you can smile.  But you’re gonna have water in your mask.  Okay?  When the water reaches your eye level, you will stop smiling.  And we got stingrays in here.  Don’t you worry, the stingrays, they don’t bite, they don’t sting.  But what they do --

BURT WOLF:   Why do they call them “stingrays...?”

ERWIN CURIAL:  Because they can sting.

BURT WOLF:   Oh.  But they know that I’m friendly.  They wouldn’t sting me on television.  Be the end of their career in television.  They’ll never be on television again.

ERWIN CURIAL:  Never.  Questions so far?

BURT WOLF:   Never Let The Regulator Out Of My Mouth.

ERWIN CURIAL:  No.

BURT WOLF:   That’s it.

ERWIN CURIAL:  Let’s do it?

BURT WOLF:   Let’s do it.

I would like to point out, without animosity or envy, that my beloved producer Emily Aronson stayed dry and comfortable, observing the situation from a stationary submarine that sits next to the tidal pool. And to add insult to injury, she was eating M&Ms through the entire experience, including my portion.

By the middle of the 1600s, Curaçao had become the center of the Dutch trading empire in the New World. Unfortunately a major part of that trade was conducted in slaves. The Kura Hulanda Museum in Willemstad tells the story of this appalling business, a business that went on for over four hundred years -- from 1441 to 1863. There’s a reconstruction of the hold of a slave ship…visitors can get inside and see what the space felt like. A trader’s home with furniture made by the slaves.  A portrait of a Dutch trader by Frans Hals.  Reproductions of slave ships.  After they delivered the slaves to Curaçao they turned into pirate ships… stealing pre-Columbian gold from the Spanish who had just stolen it from the Aztecs. There’s a building filled with African art from the areas from which the slaves were taken. A collection of over two hundred historic prints and other artifacts relating to the history of slavery in the Caribbean. Africans were brought to Curaçao and then resold to plantations throughout the New World. The island became the largest transport center for slaves with over 500,000 Africans passing through the port.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): It’s hard to believe, but slavery still exists, and it exists all over the world. Sometimes the slaves are illegal aliens forced to work for the people who snuck them into the United States or Canada, or indentured workers in a clothing factory, or a child bride sold off by her family. It’s all slavery and it’s all about money.  And a visit to a museum like this will quickly remind you that the fight against slavery is far from over.

The entire museum was funded by Jacob Gelt Dekker, who is devoting his life and his wealth to the education of the children of this island. In addition to the material on the slave trade, Dekker has put together a collection of traditional arts and crafts in order to create a greater knowledge and pride in African ancestry. It’s a sign of Curaçao’s integrity that they present and honor this part of their past.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Today, the descendents of the African slaves represent a majority of the population. They hold important positions in government and business, but beneath their sophisticated and modern lifestyle is a deep appreciation for the traditions that held their community together during the difficult times. One of the interesting aspects of their cultural history is in the area of healing. Now, doctors were very rarely available to African slaves. And so the responsibility for medicine fell to women who understood the healing properties of plants.

They were of great importance to the community, and practiced an art that was brought from Africa and adapted to the plant life of the island. Herbal medicine is still a significant form in Curaçao, and its leading practitioner is Dinah Veeris.

BURT WOLF:   Researchers in the United States tell me that there are three subjects that Americans are really interested in in terms of medicine.  They’re always looking for something that will help them lose weight, something that will prevent baldness, or something that will increase their sexual energies.  You, um, have anything in those areas?

DINAH VEERIS:  Yes, we have a lot of that in Curaçao!  Yes.  You know, to lose weight, people use garlic.  You take three pieces of this garlic and you put it in water overnight.  And then you will drink it for forty days, you will drink the water, you know, every day one glass of water.  It will help you reduce the weight.

BURT WOLF:   It’s not gonna do a lot for my sex life, but okay.

DINAH VEERIS:  (laughing)  No, you won’t.

BURT WOLF:   Now we’re gonna deal with my bald spot.

DINAH VEERIS:  One of the best things for hair loss is the calabash.  This is the calabash.  You take this out, you squeeze it, and then you get a black mash.  You cook it, you take off the seeds, otherwise your hair will stay with all the seeds.  And then you wash the hair with it.  Or you can make a shampoo out of it.

BURT WOLF:   Calabash shampoo.

DINAH VEERIS:  Yes.

BURT WOLF:   Is this a big enough portion for me?  Will that work there?

DINAH VEERIS:  Yes, it’s very good!  It will work very good.

BURT WOLF:   Okay.  We’re up to sexual energy?

DINAH VEERIS:  Yes, we are -- with the chuchuguasa.

BURT WOLF:   Chuchuguasa?

DINAH VEERIS:  Chuchuguasa, yes.

BURT WOLF:   And the bark of the chuchuguasa tree, and you make tea from it.

DINAH VEERIS:  No, you don’t make tea.

BURT WOLF:   Don’t make tea.

DINAH VEERIS:  No, you then take the cocuy -- cucuy they take from the agave -- and then you put the chuchuguasa in it.

BURT WOLF:   Okay.

DINAH VEERIS:  And then it becomes red.  So that’s what the people -- they drink it once a week, twice a week --

BURT WOLF:   How much?

DINAH VEERIS:  Just one shot.  Like this.  You can use it from the calabash.

BURT WOLF:   Little calabash shot?  Okay.  “Nature’s Viagra.” 

DINAH VEERIS:  Yes.

BURT WOLF:   This is a great day for me.  I’m gonna lose weight, my bald spot’s gonna fill in, and my sex life is gonna improve.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Let’s go walk in the garden.

Modern scientists are discovering the value of herbal medicine, but it’s important to remember that the operative word here is medicine. I suggest you check with your doctor before you use any herbal remedy.

Almost everyone on Curaçao speaks at least four languages... standard Dutch, English, Spanish and the local language, which is Papiamentu. It’s a Creole dialect spoken at all levels of society.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): If you listen carefully it’s pretty easy to pick up some of the key phrases.  Bon dia means “good day.”  Bon nochi  means “good night.” Danki means “thank you.”  Masha danki means “thanks a lot.” And the first phrase I learned to use when I arrived on the island… Ban Kome… which means, “let’s go eat!”

So what’s cooking on Curaçao? Almost everything eaten on the island has been caught in the surrounding ocean, or imported. The nearest sources are the Venezuelan farms on the coast of South America. Every morning boats from Venezuela tie up along the docks of Willemstad and offer fruit, vegetables and fish. This floating market has been a traditional shopping area for well over a hundred years.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): At the same time that the Dutch West Indies Company was doing business in the Caribbean, the Dutch East Indies Company was doing business in the Pacific. A major center of their activities was Indonesia, and the internal business between the West Indies Company and the East Indies Company led to a major Indonesian influence in Curaçao -- and to some great Indonesian cooking.

The Rysttafel Restaurant in Willemstad takes its name from the fact that at both lunch and dinner it serves a traditional Indonesian Rijst-Tafel -- which means “rice table.” It was the phrase used by Dutch colonists to describe a meal at which a bowl of rice was surrounded by twenty or more dishes.

AGNES ROEKINI:  It’s grilled chicken with garlic sauce... fried coconut...

BURT WOLF:   ...chicken with sweet-and-sour sauce... salad with peanut sauce and a little tofu...

AGNES ROEKINI:  ...fried eggplant...

BURT WOLF:   ...pork with soy sauce...

AGNES ROEKINI:  ...tomato in spicy sauce...

BURT WOLF:   I recognize that...

AGNES ROEKINI:  ... beef tender with coconut... and fried bean sprouts...

BURT WOLF:   ...bananas with honey sauce...

AGNES ROEKINI:  ...and meatballs.

BURT WOLF:   Meatballs!  All right -- I think we’re close enough to eat.

During the three hundred years of contact between the Dutch and the Indonesians, the Rijst-Tafel became an extravagant institution with servants carrying in one dish after another. In essence it’s an extension of the basic Indonesian family dinner, which always consisted of rice and five or six additional dishes.

When we were in the western part of the island, checking out the dive sites, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Jaanchie’s in the town of West Point. Locals love this place but it also has a big following among the tourists. Jaanchie is the third generation of his family to own the restaurant and he personally informs you of the day’s menu. 

JAANCHIE:  Well, for today -- a nice fresh fish!  And it’s the wahoo.  For sure.  After having this wahoo fish, after eating this wahoo fish, sir, you will say “Wa-hoooooooooo!”

We had the fish but we didn’t say “Wahoooooo” because it was snapper. Tender pieces of goat in a well-seasoned stew with salad, carrots and peas. Rice and beans and lots of picka, the local onion and vinegar sauce. This is just the kind of place I love. Down-home, easy, relaxed, friendly people and good food.

Curaçao also has a gastronomic form known as truk’i pan . Originally the phrase was truck di pan, which means “the truck of bread.” Eventually it shortened to truk’i pan.

BURT WOLF:   Well, there’s an enormous selection of really good food on Curaçao, but the one thing you are not going to find is a sushi bar, because in the local language of Papiamentu the word sushi means “garbage.”

In the interest of seeing the authentic and the traditional, we stayed at the Avila Beach Hotel. The original structure dates back to 1776, when it was the residence of the colonial governor. It was also the place where the great liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar, lived during his years of exile. For a while it was a private school. Then a private hospital. And finally, it was totally renovated into a beachfront hotel with two private cove beaches. The property has a quite, elegant and unpretentious style and many of the guests are families and businessmen from Holland. There’s a pier with a restaurant and live jazz -- the Dutch have been lovers of American jazz since the Twenties.

Over the years, the Avila has become a venue for local musicians, painters and sculptors for the presentation of their work. The hotel has such a respected position in the community that the government issued three Avila Beach Hotel stamps to help celebrate its 50th birthday.  I asked Tone Moller, the general manager and daughter of the owner, to introduce me to some of her favorite dishes.

TONE MOLLER:  Keshi yená dates back to the arrival of the Dutch and the Jews in Curaçao, and it’s an Edam cheese, hollowed out, filled with a stuffing.  The stuffing is made out of prunes, it’s made out of olives, it’s made out of either tuna or chicken, and capers and peppers.  People love to eat lobster in Curaçao; we’ve snazzied it up, made it a little Caribbean with a coconut sauce, and it’s very flavorful.  Bolo di kashu pette -- it’s a local cake, it’s made out of cashew nuts, it’s a layer cake covered with a coating of mashed cashew nuts -- and it’s calories, calories, calories.

BURT WOLF:   But taste, taste, taste.

TONE MOLLER:  It’s taste, taste, taste.

Another aspect of Curaçao’s culture that has been strongly influenced by the African community is its music and dance. Curaçao’s music is a blend of European, Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. influences, but for me the most interesting part of its heritage is African… particularly in a form called tambu. It was born in the slave communities as a release from the debilitating oppression.

The basic instrument is the drum known as the tambu. The other instrument is the chapi, a type of field hoe. Each is played against the other in a complicated rhythmic pattern.  The singing is a series of set calls and responses. Both the music and the dance are clearly part of an ancient African tradition.

The social comment inherent in the lyrics -- and the erotic tension of the dance -- were more than the government and the Catholic church could stand, and for years they mounted an aggressive campaign to surpress tambu. Even today, a government ordinance limits public tambu parties to a few weeks at the end and the beginning of each year.

Which also brings us to the end of this show. I hope you have enjoyed this visit to Curaçao and I hope you will join me next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS.  I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: The Basque Country of Northern Spain - #201

The Basque country straddles the border between southwest France and northeast Spain, but except for their passports the Basques are neither French nor Spanish -- they are Basque. They speak the oldest European language still spoken, so old that no one can tell where it came from. We don’t even know where the Basques came from. Scientific tests indicate that the Basques have a different bloodline than their neighbors in Spain and France. They also have a distinct and interesting culture and they do all they can to keep their traditions alive.

So please join me, Burt Wolf, for TRAVELS & TRADITIONS in the Basque Country of Northern Spain.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The Basques have lived on the Iberian Peninsula for thousands of years, but the two most important historic influences on Spain -- a three-hundred year colonization by the ancient Romans, and a seven-hundred year occupation by the Moors -- were hardly noticed by the Basques.

The Basques lived in small isolated villages and governed with a democracy in which the residents of a house voted as a unit rather than as individuals. That sense of family group has been central to their history. There are four Basque provinces in Spain and three just across the border in France. These days the two most interesting cities for a tourist are San Sebastian and Bilbao.  Since medieval times Bilbao has been an important trading port.

At first the city shipped wool from the sheep farms of northern Spain. During the 1800s iron mining became important, and the city evolved into an industrial center for steel mills, shipbuilding and chemical production.  It was a commercial city and clearly not a destination for tourists.

But that has completely changed. Today Bilbao is Spain’s fourth largest city and a major tourist attraction. For many travelers, the standard European tour, usually limited to London, Paris and Rome now includes Bilbao.  The change was the result of imaginative urban planning and the belief, that a single building could be the catalyst for the rebirth of an entire community.

Because of its size, the Guggenheim Museum in New York can only present five percent of its collection at any one time. Yet the traditional model for a museum calls for it to constantly make new acquisitions, which just leads to more art in the storerooms.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): During the late 1980s, the board of directors of the Guggenheim Museum decided to continue its acquisition activities, but at the same time look for new sites to present their collection. They already had one in Venice, and they opened two new ones in New York City, and one in Berlin. In 1991 they were negotiating with Salzburg, Austria when the Basque government began making their pitch. And the Basques had a couple of good points. Salzburg already had a major international music festival, and hundreds of thousands of tourists came there every year. A Guggenheim Museum in Salzburg would just add more whipped cream to their cake. A Guggenheim Museum here could rejuvenate an entire city.

The logic and the opportunity were too powerful for the Guggenheim to resist. The old shipyards became the site for the new museum, with its titanium shell undulating in the wind and changing color from blue, to red, to gold throughout the day and night. Jeff Koons’ flower-covered “Puppy” welcomes visitors to the building, inviting them to loosen up for what’s coming.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): About two hours before we got here they decided to change the flowers on the puppy so I had to show it to you in a post card, but you get the idea.

Fortunately everything on the inside is ready for viewing.  Our guide is Susana Garcia.

SUSANA GARCIA:  In my tours I usually like starting here -- Andy Warhol, because I think this is quite different.  This is not the Andy Warhol we are used to.  I mean, this is what he was doing in the Fifties.  He was a graphic designer, and he was designing those shoes you see.  But here, I personally -- I can see the evolution he is going to have.  Because I can see the glamour already, and he is going to be obsessed with glamour... I can see the bright colors.  I can imagine his assistants helping him to paint, to color, because he had what he called his “coloring parties.”  And, as he said, he wanted to be a sort of machine; he wanted to work in every medium -- cinema, photographs, painting, fashion, music, everything.  He thought that everything could be art, and art could become common.

BURT WOLF:   Tell me about this piece.

SUSANA GARCIA:  Okay, this piece is by Jenny Holzer, an American artist, and she’s working with language.  So what we’re going to see is text written in Spanish and in English, depending on the moment you arrive.  And -- well, she’s playing with language because the message we get is a personal message; it’s something intimate, but the media she’s using is public.  It’s LEDs.

BURT WOLF:   It’s what we use for signage in advertising.

SUSANA GARCIA:  That’s it. 

BURT WOLF:   The contrast of a personal message in a public media.

SUSANA GARCIA:  That’s it.  And something I like of this piece is that we can go through it and discover something else.  Well, here we get a different color and a different language.

BURT WOLF:   It’s in Basque.

SUSANA GARCIA:  That’s it -- that’s Basque language.  Jenny Holzer had to come to Bilbao to prepare this piece, and when she came she discovered Basque language.  She didn’t know anything about this.  So she thought, “Well, that’s perfect -- as I had to come to Bilbao to discover this language, I want people to enter into my piece to discover my message in Basque.”

BURT WOLF:   It’s also a nice symbol because here Basque is behind everything we see up front.

The Guggenheim jump-started the new Bilbao.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): In 1985 Bilbao was a rusting industrial hulk with a huge abandoned shipyard. The government knew that if they were ever going to turn the city around, they would have to build a new transportation system, improve communications, find an educated workforce, and bring in big business.  The Guggenheim Museum got things started by attracting tourists who were also international industrialists.

Once they saw what Bilbao had to offer, they became involved in the commercial aspects of the area. Frank Gehry’s design is a unique blend of art and technology that has inspired an industrial renaissance. The rusting city has disappeared. Today Basque metallurgy is some of the most sophisticated in the world. The titanium skin on Bilbao’s Guggenheim was fabricated in a local high-tech facility.

JOSU JON IMAZ [under]:  We have a particular style of life...

Josu Jon Imaz, the Minister of Industry, Trade And Tourism, pointed out that in the first two years after the Guggenheim opened, Spain’s Basque Country saw a thirty percent increase in tourism, an infusion of 160 million dollars into the economy, and more than four thousand new jobs.

One of the companies that represents the new industry here is ACB, which has one of the world’s most modern facilities for the manufacture of steel. And CAF has become one of the world’s most sophisticated manufacturer of rail cars.  The city itself has become a case study on how an area can revive both its cultural traditions and its economic base.

Josu feels that the Basques, the oldest culture alive in Europe, are developing a model for the future -- a model that takes advantage of a global economy and, at the same time, preserves its ancient skills.  An example of just that -- the preservation of ancient skills while addressing the needs of a global market -- is the BOJ fabricating plant where knives are made. The first ironworks in the Basque country date back to the ancient Romans, who burned charcoal with local iron ore and cast tools and weapons.

Basque appreciation for the new alongside respect for the old is also part of their appreciation for fine art. Down the street from the Guggenheim is the Bilbao Museum of Fine Art. The building may not be as dramatic as the Guggenheim, but the old masters and modern works that are part of the collection are well worth a visit. The museum presents a broad overview of the leading schools of European Art, from the Middle Ages to the present, with special emphasis on works created in Spain... from Gothic to Goya.

Basic to the success of Bilbao’s renaissance is the decision by the city’s leaders to continually commission leading international architects. You might expect a world-class architect for the Guggenheim, but their desire to have innovative and functional designs for all their projects led to the selection of England’s Lord Foster for the subway system. The entrances are called Fosteritos, after Norman Foster, the architect.

Escalators take you up and down. The tickets are priced according to the distance you intend to travel.  From the ticket area you can walk to the platform or use the glass enclosed elevators. The stations are bright, clean and safe. The trains are comfortable and run on time. 

A couple of days in Bilbao and it’s time to hit the road.

The other great coastal city in Spain’s Basque country is San Sebastian, which is about fifty miles to the east of Bilbao. The coast road between the two cities is beautiful.  And the area has its own unique history.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): During the 1100s the Catholic Church had three Holy Cities: Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiago de Compostela on the northwest coast of Spain. If you visited any of these cities the church would reduce the impact of your sins during your afterlife. It was called an indulgence. Getting to Jerusalem was dangerous and difficult.  Getting to Rome was a lot easier but when you got there you weren’t sure the church would give you an indulgence.  Santiago de Compostela was your best bet, and thousands of people made the trip every year, aided by the first travel guide for the mass market. It was written by a monk, and published in 1130. It told you where the food was good or bad, where the neighborhoods were dangerous, and if there had been bathrooms it would have told you which ones were clean. It was the Mobil Guide of the moment.

The route passed through here -- the town of Getaria. And pilgrim or not, if you are traveling in the Basque country, Getaria is worth a stop. It’s the hometown of Juan Sebastian Elcano, who was the navigator on Magellan’s voyage around the world. Most popular literature describes Magellan as the first person to sail around the world, but he died in the Philippines and never finished the trip. It was Elcano who completed the voyage home and should be given credit for the trip. He got a nice statue but he needed a better agent.

Getaria is also the center for the production of a local wine called txakoli, which is made from grapes grown on the nearby hills. Young, sparkling and fruity, it is poured from a bottle held a few feet above the glass... under the theory that the trip aerates the wine and increases its sparkle. 

Getaria has a number of good restaurants that specialize in the outdoor grilling of fish that come up from the town’s port. The grills are set up outside, near the entrance to the restaurants. My favorite is Iribar. The chef’s name is Pile and she is the third generation of her family to own the restaurant.  It’s a perfect place to take a break during your pilgrimage.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): Following the Protestant Reformation the market for indulgences pretty much disappeared, along with the traffic of pilgrims through Getaria.  But recently there has been a resurgence.  During the Holy Year 1993 over a hundred thousand pilgrims walked the old route along northern Spain, and new hotels and inns are being built to accommodate the new traffic.

To qualify as an authentic pilgrim you must walk a minimum of 62 miles, but you can also meet the requirements by biking for 124. Inline skaters have made petitions, but as yet there is no official ruling. And if you’re considering a skateboard, forget about it.  You must start with a letter from your parish priest and a record book that gets stamped along the way.

When you arrive in San Sebastian, you are entering a city that has been around since the 11th Century, and was one of the major resting points on the pilgrim route. But not much went on here until the middle of 1800s, when Queen Maria Cristina chose the beachfront waters of San Sebastian as the spot for her daughter’s saltwater cure. Bathing in the ocean was recommended for the princess’s skin ailment.

GABRIELLA RANELLI:  But she didn’t just walk into the water like you and I would today; because in 1845 decent people didn’t swim in the ocean.  You only went in the water if you fell in.  You were usually a fisherman.

Gabriella Ranelli is an American friend of mine who has lived here since 1989 and has a good sense of the town.

GABRIELLA RANELLI:  ... so what they had to do was build a special round building set on rails -- it was called “The Pearl of the Cantabria” -- and the queen was in it, and a pair of oxen would pull it down into the water.  She could very decorously lower herself into the water, swim around, nobody could see the Royal Body --

BURT WOLF:   She was swimming inside this little building?

GABRIELLA RANELLI:  No, she would come out.  There was a hole in it, she could swim out, she would swim around.  You could see her head -- the Royal Head would be there, nobody would see the Royal Body -- so she was okay, and then she would go back up into her little bathing house, the oxen would pull it up on the beach, she could bathe with fresh water, come out dressed with all her dignity intact.  And that’s what people did in those days, even though they wore bathing costumes made of wool from their necks down to their ankles, as you can see in photographs of the time.  But because the queen was here, everybody else -- all the court, and all the aristocracy from Spain -- wanted to come up here and spend their summers in the same place where the queen came.

BURT WOLF:   That’s an interesting point over there...

GABRIELLA RANELLI:  That’s the fortified wall.  This was a walled city, of course, and that’s where the French defended -- generally the French -- defended themselves against the English.  Wellington and Napoleon were always fighting it out here because this was a very, very strategic city.  If you captured San Sebastian, you would generally have a gateway into the entire Iberian peninsula, and eventually Africa.  So everybody wanted this place.  So they were always fighting people off, and eventually in 1813 the English came in, the allied troops came in -- the French had the city under siege -- and burned the entire thing to the ground.  So they had to start over and rebuild.  So a lot of what you’re seeing is the new 19th Century city that they rebuilt after the fire, and after the walls came down in 1865.  The building right behind us, which is the town hall now, used to be the casino.  It was built at the end of the 1800s, but then gambling was outlawed in 1923, so they turned it into the town hall eventually.

One of the most beautiful buildings in San Sebastian is the Hotel Maria Cristina.  It was built on the Urumea River and looks out on the sea.  When it opened in 1912 the first person to enter the building was her Majesty The Queen Maria Cristina herself... accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting... who could have been waiting in The Gritti Bar, which maintains an elegant atmosphere... and a portrait of Andrea Gritti, who was the Duke of Venice and never came to San Sebastian but certainly would have had he been invited.  The ladies-in-waiting could also have waited in the elegant entrance area, in front of the impressive grand staircase where brides and grooms wait for their pictures to be taken before their wedding. Or they could have waited in the hotel’s restaurant, which specializes in classic Basque cuisine, but they wouldn’tve had to wait long because the service is excellent. And of course if they played their cards right they could have waited in my suite, which is named after Maria Cristina, and has an excellent view of the promenade.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): But they needn’t have waited long to see the rest of the city.  It’s one block to the elegant shopping areas, two to the Convention Center, three to the beach, and four to my favorite pincho bar -- which brings us to the subject of what to eat in San Sebastian.

The gastronomy of San Sebastian is based on the sea and the mountains. The local chefs are considered to be some of the best in Europe and seafood is one of their great strengths. Excellent fish soups. Sea Bream with Garlic Vinaigrette. Or whatever today’s catch is, fresh from the ocean and simply grilled. The mountains behind San Sebastian are home to the sheepherders, whose traditional dishes include Roast Lamb with Garlic and Lemon served with roasted potatoes and hearts of lettuce.  But there are also some small ranches that supply great steaks.  And the Basque hams are world famous.

When it comes to dessert, you owe yourself a visit to the Otaegui Pastry Shop. Try the Saints’ Bones, almond pastry on the outside, an egg yolk cream on the inside. Panchaneta, puff pastry with cream in the middle, usually served warm. Gateau Basque, lemon cream in a cooked cream crust.  Many pastry shops have scales to weigh what they sell.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): But this is the only pastry shop I’ve ever seen that has a scale for the customers.  And the staff tells me that people come in and use it everyday, but only after they have purchased their pastries.

But whatever you eat you must stop into the Pincho Bars. Every morning and evening hundreds of these establishments cover their bars with the ultimate selection of open sandwiches and snacks. You walk in off the street, eat whatever you want, have a drink, pay up and move on. You go from one pincho bar to the next, eating what looks good until you’re full. As much as you want, as fast as you want it and inexpensive. A very enjoyable way to eat.

And if you enjoy spectator sports, you’ve come to the right place. The Basques are great sportsmen and the sports they love the most are ancient tests of strength and skill that relate to the ways men once earned their living or defended their land. Stone lifting always draws a crowd... as does wood chopping.

The Basques also play what is thought to be the fastest ball game in the world. It’s called Remonte. The Basque love of sports is partially based on their love of competition but also on their passion for betting. The guys in the short-sleeved shirts standing between the spectators and the players are the bookies. They call out the odds as the game progresses and match up two bettors from the stands. They don’t cover the bets themselves; they act only as middlemen taking a percentage for their services. And they only take bets from people they know. Bets are in multiples of thirty dollars. After the latest odds are announced, you signal the amount of your bet, the bookie finds someone to take it, writes a receipt for each bettor and throws the receipt to each of them inside a tennis ball.  If you think the ball on the court moves around, you should see what happens with the bettor’s ball at a big match.

I was fascinated with the sport and convinced Txikuri, one of the great stars of the game, to give me a lesson.

AITOR AGUIRRE (“TXIKURI”):  The first thing you must learn is just to feel the ball in the basket.  So it’s doing this movement... you see?   It’s like doing this, but... well, it’s easy to say but difficult to do it.

BURT WOLF:   Sorry...

TXIKURI:   Are you ready?

BURT WOLF:   I’m ready. ...

TXIKURI:   Well -- try it again...?

BURT WOLF:   It’s a pop fly to center field and DiMaggio’s got it!

TXIKURI:   Oops...

BURT WOLF:   Wait, wait, I’m not giving up... this may be a longer show than any of us planned on...

TXIKURI:   It’s easier for you if you just leave the ball here and then --

BURT WOLF:   Closer to the basket.

TXIKURI:   Yeah, like this.  You see?

BURT WOLF:   Oh... it’s so easy when you do it...

TXIKURI:   That’s better!  You see?  Wow!  ... Oh, good...

BURT WOLF:   We’re getting very close to a volley, sports fans...

TXIKURI:   That’s good, and -- it’s a difficult shot... wow!  (Laughing)  You made a point!

BURT WOLF:   Okay, this is where I quit!

TXIKURI: I can’t believe that!

BURT WOLF:   That was a volley!  You saw it here first!  A complete volley!  The ball went up and back a number of times, touching the ball and my extraordinary... what is this?

Clearly I should concentrate on sports where the skill is not in the wrist... maybe checkers.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA): The oldest culture in Europe, still reinventing itself and in ways that might affect the entire world.  Which reminds me:  during the 1800s large numbers of Basque sheepherders settled in the American west. And there are still people in Nevada and Idaho who speak the Basque language. And next time you see John Wayne riding into Durango, bear in mind that Durango is the name of an ancient Basque village.  So there you go, Pilgrim. I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief visit to the Basque country, and I hope you will join me next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS. I’m Burt Wolf.