CRUISE TO THE WHITE SEA ON THE NAUTICA

---

The people who live on the Isle of Man are English but not British, they are Manx. They have their own government and are a crown dependency. The Queen of England is not their Queen, she is the Lord of Man. Settled by the Vikings, it has its own government, Tynwald, which has run continuously since 979. A.D. It has an associate status in the EU, its own currency and its own language (manx Gaelic). The population of sheep outnumbers that of people by 2 to 1.

The islands highest point is Snaefell which means snow mountain in Viking language.We rode to the top on a series of two electric trains. The train rides were interesting but very loud. Scenery was beautiful going up the mountain. We passed a huge waterwheel called the Isabela that pumps water from one of the old mines.The island gets its name from a mythical creature “manima” who was a sea god of mist. The island is often covered by a heavy mist.

About 5 % of the population speaks gaelic. All street signs are in both English and Gaelic. The most popular tourist attraction if the TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle races held the first 2 weeks of June since 1907, The riders practice for one week, Then the race is he second week,The bikes race on the city streets which is closed to all traffic. The course is 37.5 miles long. 206 mi/hr on the straightaway is the record so far. Over 40,000 people come to man for that event.

Another interesting bit of trivia, told to me by Kellee, my Pilates instructor, is that Joseph Pilates developed his training method on the Isle of Man. Pilates was a German immigrant living in London at the outbreak of WWI. There was a world wide epidemic of fear of the Germans. So all immigrants living in England of German descent were rounded up and sent to internment camps. Pilates ended up in an internment camp on the Isle of Man called Knockaloe, in 2014. There he saw his fellow prisoners become depressed and apathetic and develop illnesses. He noticed that the cats in the camp, although very thin and starving, were still active and lithe and appeared energetic. So he started watching them and noticed that they stretched their front legs and back legs whenever they moved and bent their back and then stretched it out. He started trying this out on a small group of men. Stretching exercises morning and night were performed. he then developed resistance exercises using bedsprings. Soon his fellow internees were more vigorous and alert and well. During the flu pandemic of 1918, not one of his internees became ill with the flu even though there were many flu-related deaths in the internment camps.



(SORRY, BUT PICTURES WILL NOT UPLOAD. THIS IS ALWAYS TRICKY ON SHIPS)

---

Comments

[Michael Kass]

No photos yet?