Time actually stands still when one has nothing to do and all day to do it, so it was that after a long sleep, a leisurely breakfast, a few lengthy conversations and several cups of coffee we still had more than enough left in our day to have lunch and return to port where we might even get to visit that mysterious Tea House.
We had to earn our tea though. A visit to the Industrial Museum left us with imaginations racing, asking more questions than the display could answer, which is quite possibly the mark of a truly successful museum. It sits in an unrestored, heavily cleaned yet unsanitised state, displaying photographs of the jubilant “gang of three” Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt dividing the spoils amid what was less than a pile of still smouldering post-war rubble, the archaic machinery still in use until so very recently that we felt discomfort with the working conditions of the time, the joyous concerts and theatre shows produced by workers formed into smiling acrobatic troupes with names like “The glorious people’s steelworks shift number three” all displayed in an almost ad hoc manner that left us more than a bit thankful that by accident of birth we had not been employed there.
We needed our tea after that; a wonderful iced tea in deference to the warmth of the afternoon, served on that terrace by the water, with apple cake and good humour. The teashop, full of curious was a feast for our eyes as well, although the asking prices for them made those same eyes water. This was no relic of former times but a sign of just how far the economy has progressed since the political changes that brought about closure of the steelworks.
1 comment
I rather think Koos might have enjoyed this. Although for him, the fact they have ceased operations is a matter for sad nostalgia.
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