PENNSYLVANIA AND LANCASTER COUNTY - AMISH COUNTRY, USA
Weather: Sunny and warm with a cool breeze.
Most of today was spent travelling to Pennsylvania and Amish country. We were in luck today. Sunday is when the Amish go to church ... and of course they have to go home again. We saw so many Amish people out on the streets making their way home after church - at 3pm.
Now the Amish do not have church buildings like other religions but they have their "church services" at the family home. They start in the morning and the service lasts until after lunch so, as we arrived at just after lunch, we caught several people making their way home - both buggies and people walking. It was quite a sight. I felt kind of weird though taking their photos so I eventually stopped. They are quite amazing and some people - mostly the kids - waved as they passed us by.
We eventually made our stop at our restaurant for lunch. Again, they had the "family style" tables there and we had four tables reserved for our group. We had about an hour and a half to eat and look around before we had to board the bus again for our tour with our local guide.
The tour consisted of driving around the area where the Amish had their farms and we were fortunately able to see more buggies and people walking. Some buggies had a boy and girl seating and then there was another boy or girl sitting on the very edge of the door way - almost hanging out of the buggy. This person was the chaperone and this demonstrated that the boy and girl on board did not know each other well enough to be alone or they have just started dating and therefore needed a chaperone.
Our guide was really knowledgeable about the whole Amish and we even got to see some young teenage boys playing volley ball in their yard. Also, there were a whole lot of teenagers in buggies making their way towards these houses. Our guide advised us that this was the teenagers meeting up to have a "party". Now, as you can imagine, their parties aren't the same as our teenage parties. There was even a mother flying a kite with her young daughter and her toddler, blond haired son. He was so very cute.
After our tour we ended up where we had begun - at the restaurant - where we got a tour of an Amish home. Of course, it was a sample. We first met in a small school room where our guide educated us on the Amish education system and answered some more of our Amish questions.
The house seemed very small. It was a little strange that, in the laundry, there was a pair of rollerblades. We were told that they couldn't ride bicycles so the boys rode scooters (we saw a group of three teenagers doing this on our tour on their way to the party) yet they had rollerblades. We were also informed that the Amish are not against all technology so long as it doesn't interfer with family and family life like television, computers and computer games seem to do. It's all about what's good for the family - they do have refridgerators, for example, although it's a gas system, because it benefits the family and their health.
Then it was back on the bus and off to the hotel in Leola. Our hotel is really intersting as it consists of five different buildings. I'm in building 4 in room 405 and, wow!, my room is huge!! I can have a party in this room! I love it!
After a bit of a break, it was time for dinner. it was held in a big room in a restaurant across the complex of our hotel. There, we experienced a "traditional" Amish meal. Not sure how authentic the meal was at consisted of: salad as a starter, then platters of corn and lima beans in butter, mash potatoes and gravy, diced celery in a cheese sauce, slices of roast beef and ham with chicken bits and stuffing. Then for dessert two slices of different pies - apple and shoo-fly pie. It's called shoo-fly because when the Amish women put the pie on their window sills to cool, it attracts the flies and the women wave them away with a "shoo fly". It tasted like a date and cinnamon pie.
After our meal, the chef demonstrated the making of whoopee pies - an Amish creation which is like a giant Oreo biscuit but, instead of biscuits, they taste more like two slices of chocolate cake with white icing in the middle. And it sure looks like it has a whole lot of sugar and it contains lard. Yep, lard. I wasn't too sure about tasting one.
When the demonstration was over, out came the whoopee pie lids and an icing tube for us to make our own pies. The ladies on our table didn't want to eat one but I thought I'd just taste one. I ended up eating the whole thing! It tasted just like a slice of chocolate cake. You couldn't even tast the icing in the middle.
Then it was bed time after a long day. Tomorrow, it's going to be an even longer day - on the bus. Apparently, it's an 8 hour drive up to Niagara Falls so we'll be leaving early at 7:15am and we won't be arriving until late in the day.
So it's goodbye to towns called Intercourse, Blue Ball and Virginville and hello Niagara. And yes, I stocked up on some Intercourse magnets - wasn't game enough to buy the "I Love Intercourse" t-shirts.
