On Saturday we drove inland to a town
called Solvang, which has made the decision to appear to be a Danish
town!!! So all the shops and houses are sort of painted with beams,
with lots of Bavarian woodwork, spires and towers as well as
windmills, the overall effect is slightly right of Disney’s version
of Pinocchio. It was absolutely awfgul, still, I suppose someone has
to do a quaint version of Denmark, complete with Brother Grimm and
Hans Christian Anderson.
I sometimes wonder if there was at one
time a giant convention of town officials in U.S.A. and they drew up
a huge list of food items, animals, countries, artefacts, materials
and stuff and then bid for what their town could exploit So Plant
City (FL) got Strawberries, London (KY) got chicken, it is the
Chicken Capital of the World, Petaluma (CA) got chicken too! (ah, but
it’s West coast Chicken), Helen (GA) got Switzerland. Now Santa
Rosa managed to Charlie Brown Capital Status, which is pretty good.
Some are not so obvious, I am racking my brains for the town in West
Virginia which is so memorable as the Grits Capital of the World,
hardly surprising I can’t remember it.
But there are a lot of unfortunates who
had to end up with the wrong end of the manure rake, here though we
have two towns next to each other, both of whom are in competition
for the most unimaginative Capital of the World – Solvang has
Denmark (which I suppose at least in not Belgium) and right next to
is Buellton which has as it’s claim to fame: Buellton - The Home Of
Split Pea Soup!! I don’t think you could actually invent that one.
I am now determined to create a list of
towns which are famous for ……., are the World Capital for ……,
or are The Home Of …….. Watch this space.
The most inspiring place in Solvang is
the Mission, Santa Inez, which is number 18 of the 21 missions that
were founded in California. We have visited several already, this one
is not particularly remarkable, but is a very lovely place which is
very peaceful. Sally and I enjoyed our wander around it.
