Non-French TidbitsTowers of Europe

By Jim and Emmy Humberd

No discussion of the towers of Europe can ignore the most beautiful of them all, the Torre Pendente, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Even if it was not leaning, it would be a superb tourist sight. Built, starting in the 1100s, it is round, eight stories and 163 feet high, with 294 well worn steps. As the tower is climbed, the worn place on the steps changes from the outside, to the middle, then to the inside of the step as they progress up and around inside the Tower. Don't know why, but walking these stairs reminded us of walking up and down an escalator that is stopped.

The most visible and best known tower in London, is the clock-tower on the Houses of Parliament. Known as Big Ben, the clock is an excellent timekeeper, and is minutely regulated with a stack of coins placed on the huge pendulum. In 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed a portion of the Houses of Parliament, but the clock tower remained intact and Big Ben continued to keep accurate time, and strike away the hours.

Blackpool, England is filled with hotels, restaurants, and gambling joints, perhaps England's Las Vegas. There is a 518 feet high steel tower, built in 1891 (a poor man's Eiffel Tower) rising right out of a several story Blackpool building. Before we visited we wondered why some Brits used the word "Blackpool" as a derogatory adjective. Now, we still wonder.

The Eiffel, Big Ben, The Leaning Tower, and others, are easily recognized, and their location is well known. But no Capital city has so many towers of a specific design as does Prague, Czech Republic. The Powder Tower, the Tyn Cathedral, the Charles Bridge Towers, and others, all follow a style that is unique to Prague. The steep slant of the roof, little towers and spires at the top of the main tower - once you have seen them, you will always recognize them as Prague, no where else.

Many towns and cities have towers, but perhaps no city name is so thoroughly associated with its towers, as is San Gimignano, Italy. Only fourteen of the original seventy-two towers survive - rather than defense and shelter, the towers represented wealth and domination, the higher the tower, the richer and more powerful the family,

At the other extreme is Denmark's Legoland tower, where an elevator climbs above their version of the Acropolis, Nile River monuments, Mt. Rushmore, and a model airport.

Books by Jim and Emmy Humberd:
Invitation to France
Invitation to Germany
Invitation to Italy

French Video Immersion