Tour Diary 43 – Money, money and more money… Provincetown, Newport and how to paint your walls with Platinum!!
After resting up for a few days we decided to make the most of what time is left for us now, to take a trip down to Providence Rhode Island and Newport.
Steve gave another talk on Saturday, which went really well. A Forum member has been arranging talks for him on this North East coast of America which is so kind of her as we know how much hard work it is to organize these things. The talk was being combined (as lots of them have been) with other groups or organisations. Most are Spiritual or Metaphysical, but these were Ghost hunters. The leader of the group looks after the old cemetery in the town and obviously cared passionately about his job spec.. We were invited to go up there with them all after the talk, to conjure up some spirits to talk to. I was up for it, as I am with anything metaphysical, although I don’t like the idea of disturbing anyone who is in the ‘long sleep’… but Steve was exhausted after his Presentation so we took the option for a pint of beer for him and a drink for me with our new friends. We had a delightful hour or so sorting out the problems of the world and once again I come away thinking ….solutions to all the worlds problems are so obvious and commonsensical… and we had so many of them! So why can’t our politicians see that..
We drove on down to Providence and instead of being a quaint little place like Hyannis or Gloucester it was actually a pretty large cosmopolitan city. As it takes a while to get bearings.. find the visitors centre and then acclimatize to where you are and where to go… we spent a pretty wasteful day discovering that all the restaurants were closed on a Monday and it was so hard to park anywhere…. Not a good day then to choose to visit Providence. I was also expecting a Riverwalk like the one in San Antonio and again it was nothing like that, so we decided to move straight on to Newport the next day and not hang around.
Although we shall be finishing our tour basically at the yearly gathering in Newport, whenever we have been here in the past, we have not had a car and so have not been able to explore. Also the gathering is put on so that we can all just sit around all day and catch up on some pretty amazing research and histories. To go out for the day makes that impossible to do. So people tend to stay put in the lovely house and the exquisite salt water pool and talk all day until your body goes all wrinkly!! We once sat down for breakfast with Barbara Lamb and the next thing we knew we were being told to get ready for dinner. We had talked the day away.. brilliant…
So to come here to Newport for a few days of exploration is very exciting for us.
This is the truly beautiful house we shall end out tour in, for the small gathering of the UFO researchers and Experiencers, with our wonderful friend and host Anne.
What a great website this is too…..
A visit and stay in this wonderful house should be on everybody’s bucket list.
We spent one day reconnoitering the area and just generally walking and browsing and then today we set about with our plan of action.
The first thing was to visit one of the absolutely spectacularly splendid houses which line the street known as Bellevue Ave or Millionaires row. This street practically runs the length of Newport and is lined with magnificent homes. I truly do not believe I have ever seen such opulent dwellings in my life. The uber-rich families like Vanderbilt’s and the like, class these as ‘cottages by the sea’.
Their house was the one we chose to do the tour of today. It is called the Breakers – has over 70 rooms and overlooks the tip of Newport out to sea. I thought Hearst Castle was opulent, but this place actually defied belief. So much gold leaf everywhere.. 9 carat through to 22 carat gold leaf on every single surface. If that wasn’t opulent enough in one room some of the panels, were thought to be painted with silver leaf but they never have aged. So trying to find out why this is and using the most up to date carbon-micro-technology, they finally ascertained that the leaf is made of PLATINUM!! Next to diamonds the most expensive minerals known to man.. painted on the walls… I kid you not.
In 1892 Breakers cost over $12,000,000 to build – what that equates to now, I have no idea. $500,000 of that alone was in marble.
The house had a lovely feel to it as if the Vanderbilt’s had been very happy there but in fact of their 7 children 4 died tragically which was very sad.
Take a look…
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Breakers+Newport+Rhode+Island&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK343&prmd=
The difficulty I have and had with such incredible wealth, as is so visible here in Newport, is the discrepancy between the haves and the have nots. Why should one group of people have soooooooooooo much money… an obscene fortune of £200,000,000 in early 19th century.. Even Vanderbilt thought it too much and consequently divided up his wealth and gave over the parts to corporations. Also up until 1913 there was no tax and so everything they earned they kept. Wouldn’t we all love that to be the status quo now? Or at least to be able to keep enough of what you earn so that you can live without the constant struggle. How did we reach this situation where taxes are just taking away everyone’s quality of life?
The houses in Newport especially are just exquisite and so many of the owners proudly try to keep them maintained and in the style they were built in, but the taxes on the houses are just destroying the owners. With the recession so much of the value of the houses has plummeted, but the taxes have not. How completely unfair is that!. The taxes went up every time a house along the waterfront was sold and as the prices improved so they put up the taxes.
It is time for revolution and for the house owners to refuse to pay elevated prices and to demand the taxes go back in time to the value of the house in that time.
The more we put up with things the more things are put on us.
Newport is such a lovely little place if you enjoy anything Nautical, which I do.
So tonight we had a decision to make as to whether to go to an outside play of the Tempest, to do a sunset cruise on a sailing boat or to watch the baseball match in town. I really wanted to do the baseball match. However, it was soooooo hot… still… that I got overheated and Steve sensibly said any one of those things was silly to do, as I would not be able to cope. I had to agree. (I wish I had a normal Thyroid like other people!!)
So we went to the beach and sat down to watch the waves and the sun to set.. and instead we watched some incredible ominous black clouds come over. We got back to the car just in time as the heavens opened and loud thunder and lightning cracked the skies. If we had been in any one of the outside ventures we would have got very wet indeed. Hopefully the storm will clear the air somewhat and it might be a bit more normal temperature wise tomorrow. We have heard that South Carolina is just sweltering with people getting sunstroke and not being able to venture out much. I am so glad we were able to move up north to a few degrees cooler.
It all makes me so glad to be English and to love our gentle climate and our rainy weather. I shall look forward to getting back to a more normal temperature. Even our sunniest days are so bearable…
Loads of love
Annie
Steve says I should put in about the piece of antique furniture to sit on which was in the restrooms of the Breakers… but really it’s all that you would expect surely? Nothing odd about that….
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