On Towns with a Theme

On Saturday we drove inland to a town called Solvang, which has made the decision to appear to be a Danish town!!! So all the shops and houses are sort of painted with beams, with lots of Bavarian woodwork, spires and towers as well as windmills, the overall effect is slightly right of Disney’s version of Pinocchio. It was absolutely awfgul, still, I suppose someone has to do a quaint version of Denmark, complete with Brother Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.

I sometimes wonder if there was at one time a giant convention of town officials in U.S.A. and they drew up a huge list of food items, animals, countries, artefacts, materials and stuff and then bid for what their town could exploit So Plant City (FL) got Strawberries, London (KY) got chicken, it is the Chicken Capital of the World, Petaluma (CA) got chicken too! (ah, but it’s West coast Chicken), Helen (GA) got Switzerland. Now Santa Rosa managed to Charlie Brown Capital Status, which is pretty good. Some are not so obvious, I am racking my brains for the town in West Virginia which is so memorable as the Grits Capital of the World, hardly surprising I can’t remember it.

But there are a lot of unfortunates who had to end up with the wrong end of the manure rake, here though we have two towns next to each other, both of whom are in competition for the most unimaginative Capital of the World – Solvang has Denmark (which I suppose at least in not Belgium) and right next to is Buellton which has as it’s claim to fame: Buellton - The Home Of Split Pea Soup!! I don’t think you could actually invent that one.

I am now determined to create a list of towns which are famous for ……., are the World Capital for ……, or are The Home Of …….. Watch this space.

The most inspiring place in Solvang is the Mission, Santa Inez, which is number 18 of the 21 missions that were founded in California. We have visited several already, this one is not particularly remarkable, but is a very lovely place which is very peaceful. Sally and I enjoyed our wander around it.