An old German field service unit in its new home at the Prenzlauer Berg farmers market. I’m not quite sure of its purpose.

    If you find yourself in Kreuzberg on the banks of the Urbanhafen (urban harbor) on a warm summer evening (or, as I experienced it, a sub-zero January night), be sure to stop by van Loon restaurantschiffe. Nestled on the bank below Carl-Herz-Ufer and a short walk from Prinzenstraße, van Loon is a floating restaurant offering on-deck seating, as well as a cozy main cabin for dining.

    Seating is limited at van Loon, so the summer months may see some fighting over tables. In the winter, a wood fire warms the main cabin, and inviting light glows through the numerous skylights and portholes. The kitchen is visible from the main dining room, adding to the intimacy of the dining experience. Willkommen an bord!

Winter in Berlin is not the ideal time to visit the many barges that line the canals and serve as bars and restaurants, most with on-deck seating.

 During the coldest winter months, barges lie encased in ice and snow. Belowdecks, however, restaurant proprietors often keep a warm room for hungry patrons. 

The view from the trail above Vernazza, the fourth town heading North into Cinque Terre. Although frequented by tourists during the summer months, Vernazza remains a fishing village with close ties to the Mediterranean.

    Ron Bourne of Bourne Consulting Engineering outlined plans to renovate dock structures on the Esplanade’s “Boat Haven” on Tuesday, June 27 with members of the Esplanade Association, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Community Boating and the Union Boat Club. The docks scheduled for maintenance are Governor’s Landing, Commissioner’s Landing West, Commissioner’s Landing East, and the facility at Community Boating.

    Boat Haven is the area of the Esplanade that stretches from the Hatch Shell to the Community Boating building, protected from the Charles River by a protruding strip of grassy land. The “haven” provides a space for rowers, windsurfers and sailors to avoid choppy waves as they launch or dock. The increasingly dilapidated state of the aged structures at Community Boating, however, has generated interest from community officials and residents in a restoration project.

    “A primary interest here is the safety of experienced sailors and novices alike,” said Herb Nolan of the Solomon Fund, which provided funding for preliminary plans.
Charlie Zechel of Community Boating said that the proposed renovations are part of a group effort to renew the quality of Boat Haven for community members. The time has perhaps come, he said, for the complete replacement of existing structures.

    “Given the age and condition of the docks, many of which are 20 years old or older, I think it’s past the point where we can still consider replacing individual boards or making minor changes. I’m not an engineer, but I would be surprised if new docks weren’t a part of the plan. The current situation needs to be addressed its entirety.”
Bourne, accompanied by Charles Norris of Norris & Norris Associates and Paul McGinley of McGinley Kalsow & Associates, LLP, confirmed that work done on Boat Haven would involve the replacement of existing structures.

    “Community Boating has significant needs,” he said. “The facility needs more space for docking and better overall layout, as well as improved storage space.”
Although specific plans are yet to be finalized, Union Boat Club’s president Jene Clapp said that fundraising for the project will likely come from the private sector—from Back Bay and Beacon Hill residents—but will also rely on aid from state funding.

    “Since the docks belong to the state, but the Union Boat Club is used by residents as well, we’re going to have a mix of private and state funding,” he said. “The Department of Conservation and Recreation will help with this as well.”

    Charlie Zechel also said that the Solomon Fund aided in the presentation of initial concepts and provided seed money in order to generate feedback about the project.
Waterfront specialists Bourne Engineering have been hired to develop designs for the docks, storage areas, and landscape.

    The project will work in coordination with another Esplanade venture aimed at renovating many of the existing granite overlooks, including the Storrow Memorial, balustrades and several existing paths along the river. The Boat Haven project follows on the heels of a successful $700,000 restoration of the River Dock, which now features enhanced lighting and electrical capacity.

    Family ties and the use of relatives as support systems played major roles in Eunice Connolly’s early life in the North both before and after her stay in Mobile, Alabama. Economic factors such as the Market Revolution strongly influenced the ways in which relatives organized their homes, sought out employment and moved between different locations. But The Sea Captain’s Wife provides information about the emotional strains put on family members by the Civil War as well; one may gather as much by reading Eunice’s lonely, forlorn letters back to the North from her home in Mobile. In examining these messages and analyzing Martha Hodes’ text, however, we also learn that Eunice did not simply rely on her first husband for support during her time in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Mobile, but utilized extended familial networks in order to sustain herself and her young child. Her plight suggests that the Civil War, despite tearing families apart through drafts, disease and death, also forced distant relatives together in unlikely relationships. In Eunice’s case, we see a microcosm of the ways in which the Civil War both impeded the ability of families in the North and South to function normatively, as well as the ways in which the concept of “close family” became stretched as well.

    A husband’s decision to fight for the Confederates and a failure to find comfort with life in Mobile prompted a pregnant Eunice to risk a move back to New England. In doing so, she effectively gave up on the domestic sphere and the relative safety that it offered—at least theoretically. As Martha Hodes states, “According to Christian doctrine and Anglo-American law alike, a wife enjoyed the privilege of dependence on her husband: She served, he provided and protected” (50). William’s actions ruptured the makeup of the familial sphere, as similar occurrences likely did for countless other families on either side of the war. Hodes does not offer any specific reason for William’s enlistment, stating, “Maybe William enlisted simply because he had no work and the local army offered steady pay, or maybe he joined in an attempt to smooth the way for his own advancement in Mobile when the war ended” (114). She suggests that, whatever the ultimate reason for William’s departure, the base cause likely involved long-term financial improvement. But unlike lifelong residents of the South, various letters show that Eunice’s inability to adjust to life in Mobile made the absence much worse. Although there are certainly instances of women organizing and taking on more male-oriented roles in the absence of their husbands, Eunice’s example portrays a different scenario; that the failure to become self-sufficient caused women to search for alternate—and oftentimes limited—solutions. While her husband perhaps sought to better their condition on both personal and societal levels, he ultimately forced a melancholic Eunice to risk her pregnant child in a journey to unite with other family members.

    In opting to enlist—voluntarily or otherwise—William’s departure complicated the lives of families hundreds of miles away and generated a troubling situation for Eunice. As Hodes emphasizes, “William had disappointed his wife as patriarch and provider. Now Eunice chartered her own course in the newly important realm of national politics” (113). Eunice arrived at the home of Williams’ relatives in Claremont in a period when work was sporadic and often yielded more uncertainty than tangible gain. Her own writing reflects the burden that she knew she brought on extended family when she ended her arduous travel in New England. She states, “Margaret says it was all right that I should do as I did, or I never could have kept up” (122). Although Eunice knew without doubt that she had to leave Mobile, her writing suggests that she still faced a somewhat uncertain destiny in the months leading up to her departure. She corresponded intermittently with those in New England, yet sending a letter North during the Civil War never guaranteed the ultimate arrival of the correspondence. Letters were opened, scanned for possible espionage, delivered to improper addresses and lost. And although it is unclear whether or not Eunice’s statement came before or after her departure, but the letter reveals that Eunice, although acting of her own accord, remained dependant on other sources for her wellbeing. In her separation from home, Eunice was at once a husbandless woman with a child, as well as a burden to those who took her in.

    Returning from Alabama, Eunice literally took refuge in the home of her husband’s relatives. As Hodes states, “Eunice’s mother was getting too old to take in another family, and Ann already ran a large household of her own” (122). That her immediate family either rejected or could not support her suggests that even the addition of a single woman and her child caused a massive strain on families in the 1860s. In particular, the ability to find sedentary, long-term work attributed to the hardship that made Eunice so reluctant to seek room and board at the residence of a relative. While she and William were forced to board at her parent’s home as newlyweds, her situation upon returning Claremont added another mouth to feed without the accompanying benefit of a male artisan. In addition, Hodes uses words like “shelter” and “burden” in her writing to illustrate just how precarious the situation was for Eunice—by all accounts a destitute refugee from the South (122). She does not return to New Hampshire to establish a home for herself and her children, but is instead taken in by extended family sympathetic to her plight. Additionally, she arrives in a general location where she suffered economic hardship before moving to Mobile, this time pregnant and with a young child. Her belongings, in particular, were scarce; upon receiving her trunk, she states, “There was but little in it, but what there was, was of value to me” (122). Despite moving toward extended family, Eunice’s financial situation did not immediately improve. While she had escaped unhappiness in Mobile, she found herself consciously occupying a domestic sphere that was not her own, relying on others for survival.

    Although Eunice’s story details one particular New England woman’s life throughout many events in the 1800s, it informs us about an interesting effect of the Civil War on families. Her return reveals the ways in which relatives during the wartime dealt with the coming and going of kin as a result of conflict. While the Market Revolution caused families to alter their locations and living conditions in order to gain steady labor, the Civil War further tested their ability to adapt to the addition and subtraction of family members. In a sense, the usage of the extended family took on a different meaning; Eunice likely wouldn’t rely on William’s immediate family for support if she could at all avoid it, but the absence of a male figure in her Alabama residence proved a decisive reason for seeking out help in New England.

Twice a summer, the Piazza del Campo, or central square, in the otherwise quiet Tuscan city of Siena swells to capacity with locals and tourists alike for one of the most pulsating sporting events in the world – Il Palio. The horse race, held on a narrow strip of dirt imported specifically for the event, circles the piazza – and tens of thousands of onlookers – in less than two frenetic, often terrifying minutes.
Despite the overwhelming number of visitors that make the trip to Siena for the race – held on July 2 and August 16 – Il Palio is first and foremost tradition and a reminder of Siena’s medieval past. The buildup to the race involves fierce off-track jockeying for allegiance and leverage between the contrade, or neighborhoods, of Siena. All contrade have rivalries with different sections of the city, and strive to place themselves in a superior position through secretive dealings that continue until race day.
The buildup to Il Palio steadily gathers in momentum through the late afternoon heat, with the race itself taking place in the evening. A lengthy pageant parades the flags of each contrada around the square, as well as uniformed horsemen and, eventually, the Palio banner itself – designed each year by a different artist. As Sienese nobility watch from surrounding terraces and roof decks and momentum builds in the square below, riders approach the starting rope and begin to position themselves. The drop of the rope – held taught across the dirt path, signifies the start of the main race. But it is up to one contrada, determined by lot, to race forward and cue the start. Because of this complexity, false starts are common and heighten anxiety with each passing moment. As the evening shadows lengthen over the piazza, nervous energy builds and shouts of encouragement – and frustration – reverberate off the ancient stone facades. Then, when he glimpses his opportunity, the starting rider surges forth. The rope drops, and ten bareback riders spur their horses forward to glory.
Because of the narrowness of the track and tight corners, one of which measures almost 90 degrees, accidents are common, and it’s also not unusual to see a horse galloping to the finish without its rider. Several recent races have seen horses slam into the sidewalls and jockeys hurtling into the crowd. All of this adds to the incredible atmosphere of the evening, with thousands of voices imploring their contrada on while necks stretch to catch a glimpse of the drama.
The emotion of the event becomes even clearer at the finish. The winning jockey often collapses in tears of joy, enveloped by adoring contrada members, while other supporters immediately climb to where the Palio banner is held and carry it away euphorically. For the losers, there is temporary heartbreak. Supporters stand dumbfounded, often inconsolable in defeat. For tourists, the emotion is palpable, but often difficult to comprehend. While Il Palio is an accessible spectacle, costing nothing and held regularly each year, to witness it firsthand is to realize that it will continue, year after year, with or without outside interest. For the Sienese, it is a day of passion and tradition, joy and heartbreak.