Cake and sunshine are all you need

The simplest pleasures are best, such as sitting at a pavement café on a sunny spring morning.

We had traveled to Murcia City, the capital of Murcia Province, Spain, in order to deal with some bureaucratic paperwork and, once free of the crowded government offices it was time for a coffee. We headed with friends Liz and Graham for the Café Roses, which is on the south bank of the Segura River, just over the old bridge at the end of the wide Gran Via that cuts through the centre of Murcia. The bridge was started in 1718 and there is a neoclassical shrine to the Virgin on the south bank which opened in 1839. A short way past that, on the right hand side of the road, there are several cafes with pavement tables.

We sat at the Café Roses and ordered milky and black coffees and then went inside to study the treats on offer. Choosing is always a problem with so much to tempt and so many calories to worry about. Sharon chose a chocolate layer affair with shavings of dark chocolate on top and added a strawberry flavoured mousse and sponge cake for good measure. We decided to share everything and a big fluffy puff pastry thing with a round of meringue was added to the order, together with a pastry covered with sweet sugar gel onto which pine nuts dusted with icing sugar were densely packed. On the savoury side, a giant croissant filled with cheese and ham and a small, long, pizza topped with a rasher of bacon completed the spread.

We sat outside under the shade of a large umbrella and watched the world go by. Of course, we all complained about the calories to come but when the dishes were brought out the spoons and forks were soon hard at work. When the wreckage was being picked at more coffees were ordered and we sat back, gossiped and watched the world go by.

Across the street a large water sculpture featured two huge pots. The top one was filled with water which streamed from a pipe and when full it turned over and disgorged into the lower pot. Murcia City was founded by the Islamic invaders in when they swept through Spain. They brought with them sophisticated irrigation techniques, including water wheels, hydraulic mills and channel systems to bring precious water to the fields, often planted with the oranges and lemons which they also introduced from the Middle East. Next to the old bridge, on the river itself, is the city´s hydraulic museum – Museo Hidráulico Los Molinos del Rio, set in an ancient water mill.

But we had no time for museums today and, instead, just enjoyed the sunshine.
Diagonally across the road the edge of the Floridablanca garden could be seen, with its imposing stone arched entrance displaying the armorial bearings of the Count of Floridablanca who gave it to the city – the first public garden in all of Spain. There are large and stately trees and in the summer the park is filled with roses. We decided to visit another day.

There were just a few smidgeons of cake left and it would be a shame to waste them.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

The infamous Bainbridges

Sharon has been watching with family interest the rescue by the US Navy of the captain of an American ship that was seized by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

This may seem a long way from the peaceful countryside near Cartagena, but Sharon feels a family involvement as the warship involved was the U.S.S. Bainbridge. And that is her maiden name.

The Bainbridges are a fairly small clan but they carved their name in the criminal history of northern Britain centuries ago. Never distinguished in the conventional sense, so many family members appeared at the Assizes, being jailed and hung, primarily for sheep stealing and clipping the edges of silver coins, that they are one of the easiest families for genealogy junkies to research. A book, The Justice and the Mare´s Ale, chronicles their doubtful achievements. They lived in the wild border lands between England and Scotland where the weather is harsh and where it was easy to roam in search of plunder. Farmers built strong stone houses to live in, with the doors high up so that the cattle could be kept on the ground floor. The ladder up to the door could be pulled up when the roving bands arrived. The Bainbridges solved this problem by each of them carrying a bundle of sticks on their back. The bundles would all be piled up until a ramp was formed giving easy access to the lofty door. Some farmers put their women downstairs with the cattle.

With regard to African pirates, the American Navy has a long record in this field. About 200 years ago American ships trading to Europe were regularly pillaged by pirates operating along the Barbary Coast of northwest Africa, now largely in Morocco. Crews were taken hostage and held for ransom. So bad did the problem become that tributes were paid to the pirates to protect shipping. The U.S. paid up but the cowardly option provided little improvement. Finally, the young nation decided to get tough and the Barbary Wars began in 1801. The Barbary Coast was bombarded by U.S. ships in 1815 and the fights against the pirates are commemorated in the battle hymn of today´s U.S. Marine Corps which sings proudly of its achievements from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. Historians say that the modern U.S. navy was forged in the fights against pirates.

So, it was interesting to see the U.S.S. Bainbridge destroyer in action in the Indian Ocean with Navy Seal snipers shooting dead three of the pirates that had been holding the captain of the seized American ship hostage. Night vision scopes allowed the snipers to pick off the bad guys and the captain was rescued.

The ship is named after William Bainbridge “one of my ancestors,” says Sharon. He was a U.S. Navy officer who actually went to Algiers in 1800 to pay cash to the pirates and he was later captured by them. In a war with Britain that took place in 1812, which features large in American history but which few British have heard of, he became a hero. During that war the British took the home of the American president, held some damn fine dinners there, and set it on fire when they left. The damage had to be covered up with white paint and that is why it is known as The White House today.

The shortest river in England is the Bainbridge River and the village of Bainbridge can be found in Yorkshire. There are plenty of Bainbridges around Sedbergh in North Yorkshire. A few years ago, one of the clan was expressing amazement that we had traveled to so many places around the world. He had made but one foreign trip in his life, when he went to the Isle of Man for a week. He left on the Friday but came home on the Monday as he couldn´t handle the strange food. Taking a large sup of his pint he said that was all the foreign travel he ever intended to do. If there are any Bainbridges reading this, please get in touch.

The picture shows Sharon visiting Bainbridge on her honeymoon. We are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary soon and that is all thanks to the U.S. Navy. But that, as they say, is another story.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.