Take the Travel Show on the Road

This morning when I opened my e-mail, I found this note from Margaret McMullan, who was a Fulbrighter here last semester in the outer regions of Hungary. She was gracious enough to come to Budapest to speak at the Budapest Creativity Group. While she was here, she left two of her novels for us: When I Crossed No-Bob and Sources of Light, but highly recommended young adult historical fiction.



Hi Ryan:


Hope you all are very well and enjoying a lovely summer!


I've been here in England running a summer writing program at our campus in Grantham. Today is our last day, and already we're planning for the summer of 2013, which will be the next time we come to England to run the program. I'm writing to ask if you think you would be interested in coming to talk about travel writing, and also, how much you think it would cost to get you here. Do you think you could come up with a sum? I really think you would be a terrific addition, but I have to say, we don't have a ton of money. You could come for two days, stay in the manor house, give a craft lecture or talk, maybe a reading if you would like. Whatever you think would be a good idea. Just let me know.


My very best wishes,
Margaret McMullan
Professor of English
Harlaxton College
The British Campus of the
University of Evansville


You won't need to guess at my response.

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Paul From London Wrote in...

Thanks to Paul, we have London info too for anyone traveling there. We do this here in London too, this weekend there are many buildings open and some that usually charge are free, sadly no Gherkin this year though. http://www.openhouse.org.uk/public/london/event.html

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Comments from the Peanut Gallery

Someone sent me a caring note to what I guess was the last blog entry. I repost the pleasant and the not so, without bias.

1. You REALLY need some serious help.
2. Get some strong meds.
3. Lay off the coffee
4. Get a life.
5. GROW UP FOR G0&%$@M SAKE!!!

For the flip side, this came is at the same time.

You make the most frustrating events sound almost funny but at least entertaining. I keep reading as if it is a mystery...can't wait to find the finish...which is also entertaining in a commisserating way....would all probably happen in the states as well as in Hungary, only you'd understand all the under the breath epitaths. Margie

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Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Our first full day in Scotland is before us. We are sharing a bathroom with five other men for a few days more. Breakfast is a nice deterrent to wanting to get in the shower. The breakfast spread consists of bananas, oranges, orange juice, cereal, three types of bread for toast, cheese English muffins, regular croissants, whole wheat and grain rolls, four types of donuts, a variety of cookies, cheese, ham, coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. This is a big difference. We linger over our coffee and breakfast. The castle has been there for years and it will wait another hour until we shower.

We meet Merlin, who it turns out is an American who had lived in Cologne, Germany for 15 years and has moved here in January. He is friendly, very friendly. He is the complete opposite of what we left and is willing to do anything in his power to make our stay as pleasant as possible. He recommends the Red Tour bus to get an idea of the city and what it has to offer. We take him up on his suggestion.

We climb aboard the top level of a double decker bus and sit in the open air that has an autumn crispness to it without being chilly. The leaves are starting to turn. The bus leaves the curb and the tour guide starts to pour out information. His accent is thick and we are looking at each other, with that “Did you understand that?” look between us. Then …This monument was built to commemorate the works of Sir Walter Scott, the author of Ivanhoe and a number of other books that we had never heard of. Oh, good, we understood that. Oopps, missed that one, maybe we can catch the next one. When the guide spoke slowly, we were better able to understand. By the end of the hour, we had maybe 25% of what he had said between the two of us. It was an all day ticket and so rather than getting off at the castle and do the tour there, we decided to take the tour once again. We had a different guide. We understood more.

What is now Edinburgh was originally land that was split in two by a glacier. The land was formation from active volcanoes. Edinburgh is quite hilly, but gradual, sneaky, misleading hills that you don’t realize are going to wear you out until you are half way up to where you want to go. There is an old section and a new. The old section was the only part until the late 1700’s. The city was overcrowded with upwards of thirty people living in a single room. All human waste, garbage and miscellaneous dead cats were tossed out of the windows after 10:00 pm. Disease naturally, was rampant. After bridges and lochs (dams) were constructed, the new part of the city emerged.

Today, the city has a population of 500,000, the same as the state of Wyoming. It has an entirely different feel to it then London did. There are no tubes here and the buses are run by a variety of competing companies. A day ticket bought for one line will not get you a free ride on another. The streets are nowhere near as crowded as the streets of London. Even in the busy times of the day, it is relatively quiet. The old section is quaint and lovely, but there is not the sense that you need to rush off anywhere. The pace is much slower.

This is the land of Mary Queen of Scots. For quite some time, from the 600s through James VI of Scotland, who was Mary’s son, Scotland had their own royalty. When James VI assumed the throne of Scotland, he was also the next in line to ascend the throne of England. When Elizabeth I died, she had no successor and James VI of Scotland became James I of England. This was the uniting factor. Poor Mary had a tough life. She became queen at 9 months of age, when her father died. She was sent to France for her education and became proficient in reading and writing five languages. Then she only lived in her own country, Scotland for seven years, before fleeing to her cousin’s home for protection. Her cousin was Elizabeth I of England and families being what they are, Elizabeth put Mary in prison for nineteen years, before Elizabeth had her executed. The irony being that since Elizabeth did not have any heirs, Mary’s son succeeded her.

This is also the land of many other famous people in history, more than I will be writing about. One famous religious name is John Knox. He was a Catholic priest, who later embraced Calvinism and became the founder of the Presbyterian religion, which is the official Church of Scotland. Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, three famous authors as well were from Scotland. In the field of science, the inventor of logarithms and the inventor of chloroform were Scots too. Chloroform was initially invented for women to have some relief in childbirth. The church would not condone it stating that God wanted women to experience the pain of childbirth. It was not until Queen Victoria used it for her birth of Prince Leopold that the church sanctioned it. The morality rate of mothers was staggering at the time, due to homebirths and the lack of sanitation. The rate of infection was staggering.

Since medical schools were getting more involved in teaching anatomy, they needed corpses to teach with and for students to dissect. The men that were paid to do the public hangings were given 1.01 pound for each hanging they performed, but the medical schools would pay 7.10 pounds for the body. Since there was a greater need for bodies than the hangings were producing, the new occupation of body snatcher was created. Men would dig up graves and steal the newly dead to sell the bodies to the medical schools. Two guys made a living out of killing people specifically to sell their bodies. When they were caught in the act, they admitted to fifteen killings, but it is believed to be closer to thirty-four. One of them confessed and was released only to drown. His body was donated to the medical school. The other was hanged and off his body went to medical research.

The other interesting piece we were able to decipher from the tour was the reason for a statue of a small Skye terrier. The story goes that a police officer or a Bobby as the British call them, adopted this dog. The dog was a faithful companion and when with him on his route each day. After two years, the officer died suddenly and was buried. The dog kept a vigil by his grave everyday only leaving for a meal that was provided by a local tavern. After the meal, he returned the gravesite. The people from the tavern finally adopted him, but he still kept the vigil until he died at sixteen years of age. An American woman author wrote a book and it was made into a Disney movie. There is no love here for this American and her version since it is supposedly filled with mistakes in the story and she had never even been to Scotland. In every book, toy, or souvenir store, there are at least three versions of the book for sale.

After two tours on the bus, we were so overcome with history, that we were dry to the bone and needed a pint. We had passed by the ‘World Famous Frankenstein Pub’ and decided it would be a great place to quench our thirst. The barperson, a young woman from NYC, came to work here since she just graduated college. She wants to explore. She has Irish parents, so she has dual citizenship. The pub looks like a mad scientists lab with large tubes of liquid bubbling and changing colors. There are videos playing of all of the Frankenstein movies and there are bolts of lightning elsewhere. The chairs look like the seat you would sit in before being electrocuted. When you go to the bathroom, there are sound effects. So you know how disconcerting it is to be in the Men’s room and hear a woman let out a lung-wrenching scream?

Ron left his little pocket map on a seat somewhere and was lost without it. Actually, he was lost. We knew we needed to get back to the train station in order to find our way home, but we got lost and had to backtrack blocks. We were both hungry and decided to stop at Burger King for a quick meal. We were both impressed with how tasteless the food was. There was absolutely no flavor whatsoever, not even the ketchup. Since the nightlife here is definitely not London, we went home for reading and typing.

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Yes, Leinani, There is a Kew Gardens

Yes, Leinani, There is a Kew Gardens

Our friend Leinani, told us more than once to make sure we visited there. Once we figured out it was Kew and not Q gardens, we found it with relative ease and finally fit it into our busy schedules. Kew Gardens is an area of London in which the Royal Botanical Gardens is located. It too, like Windsor is a small quaint little town area with little shops and lovely homes. The garden is a couple of blocks from the tube station.

The Royal Botanical Gardens was included in our pass, so we decided to appease dear Leinani and visit. The gardens are a working laboratory, research, and conservation facility for plants. There are over 40,000 plants in an area of 300 acres. There are three or four huge greenhouses with different temperate zones in each greenhouse. One greenhouse is dedicated to Princess Diana. One has a huge aquarium that was established by Princess Margaret. Our timing was poor, though since few of the indoor plants were in bloom. The outdoor gardens were in between seasons and the ground was plowed up and ready for the next planting. The manicured lawns were delightfully green. The walks cover the entire 300 acres and can take hours to complete. We chose not to do this since once you see tilled soil once the thrill is gone the next time around. Instead, we went to the restaurant for our tea break. The rain had stopped, so we were able to sit outside and watch the birds beg for food like the drug addicts plead for our unused transit passes when we return on the tube. Both the birds and the addicts are left wanting.

Note to self: Don’t forget to take allergy medicine the morning we plan to visit a botanical area!!!

I am not a real plant person. I had artificial plants that have wilted. I have never been able to get a relationship going with something that survived on chlorophyll. Now flowers are a different story. If there had been flowers abounding, I could have spent hours there, but alas, it was not to be. The gift shop had hundreds of seeds and bulbs for sale, but what good would they have done us? I can just see us walking around with two huge suitcases, two carry-ons, a backpack and a flowerpot. “Yes, Customs Officer, this is our little friend to warm our homes on the road. It is only a bit of thing now, but one day it will be ravishing.” Ron is always my barometer for when I am being too, um, share we say unappreciative of a situation. When he was ready to leave, I knew it was time to go. Of course, he wanted to see the compost heap they had on display first. My reaction was “Why did we come to London to see a pile of …”, but I kept quiet and dutifully followed until he took the wrong turn and he was dissuaded from backtracking. Having seen enough earth, grass, and green things, we made up our minds to move on to the Zoo.

We took two tubes to Baker Street station to get to the zoo. I was apprehensive when the sign in the tube station showed a sign that said “Buses to Zoo”, but Mr. Map decided we could walk instead. I have nicknamed Ron Mr. Map, at least mentally until he reads this chapter. He is never content unless he had a map in his hands. As soon as we hit London, he bought a copy of “A to Z London Guide” on the advice of our friend Anne. It was a good investment, however, Ron has to have a map for the tubes, every sight, museum, or place we go to. He even looks for the store directory maps when we enter a store. Now, I am not saying that this is a bad thing. He likes map and I cannot tell East from West in rainy weather or after sunset, so we are a good match. But, Mr. Map is spatially impaired. He has no sense of distance or scale. I should have learned my lesson when we were in Las Vegas and he said “Well the restaurant is only this far away from where we are now according to this map.” He was holding his fingers barely apart. It turned out to be fifteen blocks in 110 degree heat. Now, every time he says it is not far according to the map, I respond with “Las Vegas”. We started off walking to the zoo, Ron with a map in hand.

To get to the zoo from Bakers Street tube, one needs to walk through Queen Mary’s Park. This is a confusing park to stroll through as it has many ins and outs and circles. A small scale map does not do it justice. We hit more than one cul-de-sac dead end and had to back track more than once. When your feet are looking like giant hamburgers, you begin to lose your sense of humor along with your patience. I started asking people directions, but they were as clueless as we were, stating the obvious “This park can be very confusing.” Finally, we found a gardener tilling more flowerless brown earth and he set us on the right path. Three sit stops later, we hit the entrance to the gate. Admission covered by the pass, we enter to be greeted by the signs about Hoof and Mouth disease. God, we forgot about Hoof and Mouth disease. We weren’t at risk, we couldn’t put the animals at risk, but I knew this meant something ominous.

Where are the animals? Is this a zoo or did we make a wrong turn and wind up in the botanical gardens again? Three elephants does not a zoo make. What happened to the pandas that were here in 1983? Is their life expectancy that short? Where are the zebras, the polar bears, and the cotton candy stand? What cruel joke is this anyway? Did we come all this way to see fourteen varieties of Tamarinds no that is a fruit but they were tama somethings? Anyway, all of the animals, the few that were there were additionally blocked off due to the Hoof and Mouth precautions. I have never needed a binocular to see animals in a zoo before. If only they had cardboard cut-outs of the animals, I would have felt better about it. Where have all of the flowers and animals gone…long time passing it, to paraphrase a 70’s song. Not even the snack stands were open. We could not even drown our sorrows having a cotton candy frenzy. Plus once you rule out hoofs and mouths, it doesn’t leave much for the Petting Zoo. We couldn’t even get a tactile fur experience. Time to move on. The positive part of this whole experience was that Ron was convinced to take a bus back to the tube station without me saying a word and we were able to encounter three tube stations and three bus routes that we had not yet ridden on. And on the sixth day, this brought our London Pass days to a brittle end.

The Lion King is playing in the theater here in London. It is booked through February of 2002 for the evening performances and through November for the matinees, thus the half off ticket kiosk doesn’t even tease the public with ticket sales. They refer you to the theater as a sadistic joke. It was a day of broken dreams already, so why not try to bat a thousand. We went to the theater and stood in a queue. I handed Ron my American Express card and said I would meet him around the corner at Starbucks. There was no reason for both of us to be humiliated and I need caffeine more than he.

He, who has an angel sitting on his shoulder, appeared about twenty minutes later, smiling.

Ryan: Did you get tickets?

Ron: Yes!

Ryan: Are they for tonight?

Ron: Yes!

Ryan: Are we sitting in the nosebleed section?

Ron: I don’t remember.

Ryan: Are we sitting together?

Ron: I didn’t look.

Ryan: How much were they?

Ron: Full price.

Ryan’s look: Ready to lunge at his neck for more information. Ready to do this, but the caffeine pacified me and I let it go. Hell, we are going to see one of the hottest shows in five continents, who cares?

We went to The Globe pub before the theater. I could not imagine why the play could be so hot. We saw the movie. It was the first Disney movie I have seen since Bambi. That one traumatized me when his mother got shot and decided I couldn’t take the violence. I am not sure why we saw the movie, but it is another Disney, one parent has to die for happiness to reign, movie.

At the next table was a young woman who had just returned to London. She was an American who lives in New York City. Her apartment was close enough to the WTC that she had to be evacuated. She was just able to go back this last week to inspect for damages. She had made the decision to go alone, though her parents wanted her to bring someone with her. She said that she is not able to move back in yet, they need to check for toxic leaks and toxic pollutants. We were tempted to ask questions, but she was speaking to her British male friend and not to us. The tables in pubs are close together and you cannot help but overhear conversations.

We entered the theater. Ron would not let me see the tickets, but I had my cotton balls ready to catch blood flow in the upper most balconies. In London, they don’t have Orchestra and Balcony sections; they have Stalls and Dress Circle. One would think that a fancy name like Dress Circle would be a grand seat, but it is the balcony. Ron handed the doorman the tickets and we were directed to a door. We had row L. I will save you from counting on your fingers; it is the 12^th row back from the stage in the Orchestra section. We had seats three and four from the aisle. FABULOUS seats. Since we had arrived early, I had plenty of time for an interrogation. I asked how he was able to do this? When I walked out for Starbucks, they were announcing that they only had single seats and barely enough of them for everyone in line. Ron said that when it was his turn at the counter, the ticket person was called away to answer a question. When he returned to his computer, the two seats had just popped up on his computer as being available. He told Ron he was VERY lucky, since this never happens.

The play is the same story as the movie. I am not thrilled with the story. What I was thrilled with were the costumes, the acting, the scenery, the voices, the talent, and the fact that a large number of Black actors and actresses are getting wide exposure. I have never in my life seen such creative costumes and set design and I have seen quite a few plays over the years. There were more animals here in the show than there were at the zoo. Can you imagine walking on stilts with your hands and legs and a giraffe neck on your head? They imagined it and created it. The Bird, Warthog, and the Mongoose were my favorites. All three were puppets with humans obviously manipulating them, but the humans were well made-up and were as demonstrative as the puppets they tooled. They were one with the puppet and the audience benefited from both. The African songs, costumes and singing were enchanting and we should be exposed more often to the talents of African tribal music. We are missing a great deal of beauty and innovation. We were enthralled. We were mystified. We were in ecstasy. We finished the evening discussing the merits of the play again over burgers at Burger King. It seemed a likely choice, lion king and burger king. This day was ending as a royal one after all.

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Castles and Other English Delights

Castles and Other English Delights

It is 10:53 am. We are on the Thameslink train to Windsor Castle. The Thameslink is similar to a subway, but upgraded by one level. The seats face each other like a train and some seats have a table between them. The seats are more comfortable and the ride is swift. We left ‘home’ over an hour ago. The buses and tubes seem to be getting more and more spread apart, making connections difficult. Fortunately or unfortunately, the only time clock we have ticking away is our London Pass, limited to six consecutive days total. The clock is ticking and the sights are waiting. I am growing impatient with the commute for the day. The Thameslink will only take us to Slough and we will have to take yet another train to Windsor/Eaton station.

Finally at 11:45 am we arrive at Windsor. After walking through the modern shopping plaza that now houses the station, Windsor wakes up the senses and has been worth the wait. The town of Windsor is like stepping back into time. The buildings that house shops and restaurants look like yesteryear. The architecture is typical Tudor England with the warmth and charm that one longs to see when visiting this country, but is absent in London. It would not be surprising to see a woman wringing out the wash in a bucket on the street or a many in 17^th century garb shouting the days news in the street. It is charming and quaint.

Down the road from the castle is Eaton University, one of the most famous in the world. The tops of the university buildings peak over the trees and can be viewed from the castle grounds. Windsor castle looks like every school child fantasizes a medieval castle to look like. There are turrets and towers all around the grounds. With a little imagination, one can still see the sentries pacing back and forth on the tower walls keeping a sharp eye for enemy invaders or friends of the royal residents and determining the difference with skills that could cost them their life.

This is the longest inhabited castle in the world, dating back 900 years. This is the castle that had the destructive fire in 1992. It destroyed many rooms and treasures that are irreplaceable. It has been reconstructed to as close to authentic as possible, but some paintings, furniture, and other works of art are gone forever. What has been replaced has been done with excellent workmanship. What is still original and authentic is marvelous and awe inspiring. Some of the fabrics, like some silks would have cost too much to weave at today’s prices, so other tapestries were used in its place.

Queen Elizabeth lives here during the month of April and the first week of June for the initiation and celebration of the Order of the Garter. An early king started the Order and I am sorry I cannot remember which one, to show an honor for one who has done something exceptional for England. There are only 19 of them at any one time.

The castle, in one room, houses Queen Mary’s dollhouse. This was a gift to Queen Mary and was created on the scale of 1:12. It is an exact replica of the castle at the time that she lived there. It was an exceptional piece in that it had electricity and all of the lights work, plus all of the bathrooms and kitchen sinks have running water. It took 1,500 workers three years to build it. Queen Mary, put it on display for a small fee to earn money for the many charities that she sponsored.

Protocol called for the king and the queen to have separate bedrooms and private quarters. We were able to tour both areas. Each of them had not only their bedrooms, but each had rooms for their staff, for audiences, waiting rooms for those waiting for an audience, and a room for the guards who protected their welfare. The king’s apartment had two staircases. He as well as the other royals or people of high distinction used one and the other was for everyone else. The royal staircase has magnificent murals painted on the walls, while the other staircase was plainly adorned. The walls of the king’s guard’s room are covered with weapons that were available for use if the need arose. The question that arose in my mind, but never had an opportunity to ask anyone is, when Victoria was on the throne as Elizabeth now, does the Queen use the smaller queen’s apartment or does she use the kings? If she uses the kings, does the Prince Consort use the queen’s apartment or does he have another apartment?

St. George’s Chapel was a wonderful gothic chapel with more famous people from history buried there. It is light and airy. When we went in, the choir was practicing and they did sound like a chorus of angels. The queen attends church here when she is in residence.

The more I learn about royalty, the more questions I have. Where does a Lady in Waiting come from? Are they waiting for something or just waiting on the queen? Are they demi-royalty or can any woman get the job? How old are they before they retire? How much time does the queen have to just relax or does she have someone around her all of the time. We know the Prince Consort had private times. I wonder if the queen had other aspirations about what she wanted to do with her life when she was growing up? Was she close to her sister or did she hold over her head that she was going to be queen and Margaret was only going to be a princess her whole life. Do you think Margaret ever gets tired of seeing her sister’s face and name on everything? The list goes on. Inquiring minds, especially mine want to know.

As we were standing in the court grounds, jets were flying overhead at the rate of about one plane every three minutes. From where we stood, it looked like the jets were being slingshot from out of one of the towers. It was a mind-bending mix of the old and the new. With the entire number of cut backs in airline schedules, it was curious how many jets were in the air at this time. It would be a stretch to imagine how the skies looked prior to September 11^th.

After a three hour tour of the castle, my ankles were the size of a couple of pork roasts. It was a perfect excuse for an afternoon tea break. Down one street a block from the castle, a café had outdoor table, which gave a perfect view of the castle. We had creamed tea. Neither of us has ever heard of this before and we were not sure what to expect. We were served a pot of regular tea, two soda biscuits, a small pot of whipped butter, a pot of red jelly, and a pot of very thick whipped cream. The whipped cream was about three whips away from being butter. We surmised that we were to spread butter or the cream on the biscuits and then shower that with the jam. If that is not the custom, we may have started a new fad that originated from “those Americans”.

Right next door to the tea shop was a pub named the Nell Gwynn’s Pub. The teashop attendant explained to us that she was King Charles II’s favorite paramour. He had a tunnel built from under the castle to where the pub is now. At the time, that was her home. He reportedly had 19 female friends, but she was his favorite.

By this time, it is 3:30 pm and too late to get to another tour spot. We still need to take the train from Windsor to Slough and then another into the heart of London. It did not help that we took the wrong tube as we were heading to the half price ticket kiosk and so we wound up taking four tubes instead of two. We were in time to get two tickets for half price to the play Chicago. With time to spare we ran off to the internet café to check mail and send off the last parts of this hopefully, long running series.

When we arrived at the theater where Chicago is playing, we thought we were early. We were in for a surprise as they were already seating. This play is not about the singing group of the 70’s, but rather about the city. Well, at least it takes place in Chicago, but the real story is about women who murdered their men. No, this was not another version of the London Dungeon. The play is a musical with excellent music, creative choreography, and excellent talent. The play was funny, fresh and not at all maudlin. The sound system was excellent and it made us think that perhaps the Starlight Express needs to check their equipment. We had no problem with any of the dialogue or lyrics. The rare times we $7.00 for a movie, which we end of hating, I am filled with regret and swear I will never do it again. The same goes for plays. However, we had paid full price for this play, I would have not had any remorse. It was worth the money for twice the price, but thankfully, we did not have to pay that.

To top the day off, we stopped at the Duchess of Windsor pub for a pint of ale before taking the tube to Victoria station, and then changing tube lines and taking the tube to Brixton, where we picked up a bus to get home. This commuting is tough work. I don’t know how some do it everyday for work. Since our B & B is out of the way, our days are long. We leave here by 10:00 am and don’t get back until 11:30 or later at night. Next time we will find somewhere closer to the town center so that afternoon naps are possible. Boy, do I miss them.

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And the Beat Goes On

And the Beat Goes On

Breakfast is getting boring. We both agree on this. Chocolate croissants are wonderful for a couple of days, but day in and day out, the novelty wears off. There is always the same number available regardless of how many of us are available for breakfast. We are wondering what will happen when more people come for breakfast. We still have not had a conversation with our “host”. He doesn’t even try to continue a conversation when we attempt one, but it has not dampened our stay in London. Most people we have stopped for directions or had reason to speak with have been extremely friendly and helpful.

There are problems with the transport system. We have caught some headlines in the papers about slowdowns and work stoppages. Many of the tube lines have signs that display all of the stations that are having problems for that day. It has not been too disturbing on our routes, but the tubes are getting farther and farther apart, so our commute to work each day gets longer. It took us an hour and a half to get to Kensington Palace, our mornings work sight as tourists.

Kensington Palace is where Princess Diana lived and so do many other Royals including the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret. The Queen uses this palace from time to time also, depending on her needs. From what we understand, she is moved about for security reasons. Each of the Royals has their own apartment on the grounds of the Palace. Our pass gave us free entry and it included an audiophone. We usually shun these, but we were delighted that we had it to tour us from room to room. Kensington, like Buckingham is not an architecturally wonderful looking building, but it has charm. This was one of Queen Anne’s favorite palaces, but more on her later.

The tour is a bit different from what one would expect. Each room shows something of the life of the Royals from more of a sociological perspective. One room was the sewing room that had authentic materials used in gowns sown for Royals from the 18^th century. The conditions were deplorable by today’s standards and it was said that many lost their sight from working on miniscule lacing or sowing on beads in very poor lighting conditions. Also displayed were some of the wardrobes that both men and women were expected to wear in the royal court. Men had to wear as many layers of clothes as women did. They also had to wear two pairs of leggings. One pair is to cover the hair on their legs and the other white pair that fit their uniform.

Each of the rooms had specific purposes for the monarch’s use. There have not been many decorating changes for years, according to the tour program. One of the long halls included painted portraits of many of the royalty that have lived there. Poor Queen Anne had 19 children and not one of them survived past eleven years old. Her husband predeceased her and she was said to have had some disease that crippled her and she lost her sight. She did not produce an heir to the throne. One room holds the gowns the Queen has worn for different official occasions and the tour spoke about why the design was chosen. For an official visit to the United States when Reagan was president, her gown included beaded California poppies. After someone explained it to Ronnie, he is said to have appreciated the gesture.

Kensington is a beautiful palace inside and the tour was well worth the time. It was very educational without being redundant from what we had heard already. The grounds are wonderful, but the sunken garden was not planted. It looks like it is between seasons of plants, since the earth is turned up. There is grass and other shrubs that are permanent greens surrounding the fountain, so one can imagine what a wonderful sight it must be with flowers in bloom.

On the bus on our way to the Royal Mews, our next work assignment, we overhead the woman ahead of us ask her husband what one of the landmarks was. He said he did not know, so Ron offered the information. She told us that this was their first day in London. She was originally from Austria, but had been living in Virginia for the past forty years since her marriage. This was there first trip to Europe and they were on a tour. They had two days in London, five days in Paris, and four in Rome. When I started thinking about the amount of time that it took them to finally make this trip, I was not sure if I should be sad for them or ecstatic that they finally made it. We all prioritize differently, so my hope for them is that they have had other things in their life until now that is as life renewing as travel is for me. Shortly, after we made it to our bus stop, we had two American women stop us and ask for directions. They were from Utah and decided to try Priceline.com and flew to London. They too were only going to be here for a couple of days and then on to France where one of them lived for a year. They had hopes of touring Buckingham, but we regretted to tell them that the tours ended on September 30^th. We did encourage them to see the Tower of London and Kensington. How is it possible to cram so much in such a short amount of time? There is too much to see and do and the question that is always in the back of my mind is wondering if I will ever get to return? What will never survive in the event of terrorism or war? We have to experience it all or as much as our pocketbooks will allow while we can.

Our job at the Royal Mews was to tour the museum and see all of the Royal carriages used to carry the Queen and other Royals in parades, processions, jubilees, and other official occasions. It is a tough job, but someone needs to justify the salary of the guards. Our afternoon was spent keenly observing the differences in each carriage, their purpose, how many horses it takes to draw that carriage and whether or not the horses are ridden or if there is a driver. It is amazing how beautiful these carriages can be. We went with a sense of curiosity, but were soon filled with wonder. The most beautiful was the 24-karat coach that the Queen rode in for her coronation. Queen Victoria also rode in it for her coronation, then her Silver Jubilee, but refused to ride in it after that since her beloved husband Albert had passed away. She shunned much of the pageantry after that. Queen Elizabeth had a second spin in this coach on her 25^th year Silver Jubilee and next year will once again ride for her Golden Jubilee. Doesn’t time fly. The Queen has been on the throne for close to fifty years already.

Due to modernization, the Mews is also the home to the Royal Rolls Royce. The Queen owns five. Each car weighs 30 tons and is claret and black in color. One of the cars was on display since the Queen was in Scotland when we were at the Mews. The cars are sometimes lent out to other Royals, but generally they are all kept for the Queen’s use.

We were also able to see the Queen’s horses. These are the horses that are used for all of the pageantry associated with the royal duties. Each horse is bred for temperament and they are judged for their worthiness at an early age. Their training starts at four years old and takes about seven years for complete training. They have to become accustomed to the cheers of the crowd, the trumpets and other instruments, flashing photos, plus all other distractions. There is a training school on the property of the Mews. There are two kinds of horses used: Cleveland Chestnuts and Windsor Grays. The Grays were not available to see while we were there. They were on their vacation since the Queen was out of the country. They go to pasture when she is gone to rest and relax.

There is much information here about Queen Victoria as there is all over London. Since she was the longest reigning monarch in the history of Great Britain, she deserves the attention. She is said to have watched her nine children learn to ride in the Mews riding school. It is said also that Queen Elizabeth, who is a horse admirer visits the Mews often to see the horses.

With all of that walking it was time to sit, relax and have some afternoon tea. There are many places with outdoor spots to sip your drinks and watch the people go by. The weather was warm and breezy, but a coat was not really needed. When I sit down at times like this, with my feet aching and swollen, I think back to the time I was a hairdresser. We used to put a rubber hat that was filled with very tiny holes over a person’s head. Using a very tiny crochet needle, we would poke it through the hole in the cap hoping not to gouge the scalp in the process and pull out a wisp of hair. When this was done all over the head, the hair was bleached for a frosted look. At this time of day, by 3:00 pm, my feet feel like someone is taking a fine crochet hook, poking it into the bottoms of my feet and pulling out nerve endings one by one, then smacking the hell out of them.

After our tea break, we headed to Leichester Square to the ½ price theater ticket office. We had high hopes of getting tickets to The Lion King or Mama Mia, but we knew they were both sold out until February of next year. We were lucky to get two tickets to Starlight Express for less than the price of one ticket at home. The show is scheduled to close by the first of the year. It has had quite a long run thus far. The curtain was at 7:30 pm. There are strange curtain times here. I am used to theater having a standard curtain at 8:00 pm. Here, some shows are 7:15 and every 15 minute interval until 8:00 pm.

With time to waste until the theater, but not enough to visit another sight, we went to the Official Brass Rubbing Center at St. Martin of the Fields church. They have a number of designs in brass that look like large rubber stamps. You tape paper over the brass and use different colors of wax to rub the brass. Whatever is raised above the surface that the brass is on, will take the wax. All of the indentations of the design will remain the color of your paper. I could not find a design that appealed to me, so I watched why Ron rubbed. A couple of times he looked like an overgrown kid, trying to stay within the lines. He would pick up his wax stick, check out his picture, then the head would go down once more in deep concentration and he would rub some more. Finally, I had to rush him to the finale, as we needed to get to the cyber café for a bit before heading for the play.

Our new friend Nick e-mailed to say that he arranged a free Internet connection for us to use anywhere in Great Britain. I needed to check out phone plug and see if it will fit the ones here. I don’t have a phone adapter. It continues to amaze me that people are so generous with their time and energy. Then there was another e-mail from a friend of ours in California who shall remain nameless saying that she had been deleting my e-mails up to this point thinking they were offers from a pornography sight. It wasn’t until she had a conversation with another recipient that she realized what she was deleting. With little time to spare, we went to Pizza Hut for a quick, cheap, and surprisingly very good quality pizza before the play.

I am amazed at how seldom we hear English on the streets. We are almost craving hearing a British accent. This is such a cosmopolitan with immigrants from everywhere.

News headlines: 15 million pounds are expected to be lost until the end of the year from American tourists alone, due to the New York City incident. Later tonight, the news said that hotels are hurting and they are trying to encourage the English to travel more in their own country to make up the losses.

So now to review Starlight Express. There were no stars that are known in the States or here either that we could tell. For those of you who do not know the story, it is basically The Little Engine That Could retold. There is a little boy who is never seen, but heard from. He has different train engines and cars that he races against each other. The whole show is about these trains racing. The characters are the trains in very clever costumes and the whole show is done on roller skates. The costumes were very well done, the skating was phenomenal and the races were interesting. Whenever the characters were out of view, skating around the theater including the balcony, there were monitors that showed the action for those in sections that could not see where the trains happened to be at any given time. There were cutesy names for some of the characters like Dinah the Dining car, Ashley the Smoking car, and Dusty the Coal car. The sound system was off or it was the singing. We could not understand the lyrics to most of the songs and it was not due to the accents. When they spoke lines, it was with an American accent. The story was simple, but it was an enjoyable evening and night out, but neither of us were ready to encourage anyone to run out and see it before it closed.

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Gruesome London

Gruesome London

It does not seem unreasonable to believe that if you are in a people oriented business such as a Guesthouse owner, they you should have some personality, charm, cheerfulness, or at least honesty in advertising. It seem we have run aground on all of the above with the owner of this pension. When perusing the web site for this accommodation, it was shown as a warm, friendly place with everyone knows your name, even the white Scottie dog Dougall, was a greeter and companion during your visit. The vast garden was available for eating breakfast and some one was available to answer questions as they arose. The Internet does not lie. Web designers lie.

Now don’t misunderstand me, we are very satisfied with our room, though it is the most we have ever paid for sleeping accommodations ever, with the one exception of the one night at the top of Machu Pichu, but that was Christmas Eve. When I first investigated places to stay, I checked out a number of sites. London is expensive and we knew that coming in, but decided we would do the heavy spending the first month or so and then live like paupers the rest of the trip. This place seemed to have a good deal offering a well-acquainted room with breakfast for 79 pounds a night. Since our top of the line in the past has been $55.00, this was quite a stretch for our budget travel minds to assimilate. The selling points were that it had the English garden, the little dog that would help us miss our own less, and they offered a 7-11 special. Book seven nights and receive the 7^th free or book 11 and receive the 7^th and 11^th free. That seemed like it would be less of a financial shock and we booked for the 11 nights. When I received the confirmation e-mail, we were confirmed for 11 nights at 99 pounds a night. Of course I pointed out that the request was for the 79 pound room, not the 99 pound deluxe and the response was that the correction had been made without a problem.

Upon arrival, I paid with my credit card, received our receipt, grabbed our keys and off to lullaby land to shake off the stress of flying. The owner had given us some maps pointing our favorite nightspots in the local area as well as other areas and wished us a pleasant stay. The English Garden it turns out is indeed lovely, if we could get to it. The owner keeps the door locked. The first morning, we asked to go out there and drink our coffee, but his attitude suggested we were putting him out by having to unlock the door. Of course since it rained the night before, he would have to spread a towel for our soiled shoes, but not to worry, he had one handy.

Each progressive day, there has not been one word about our visit, what we have seen, what we liked or didn’t. Our morning conversation consists of “Would you like coffee or tea this morning?” One morning, I arrived a minute before Ron. After greeting John by name, I said that I would like tea and Ron would like coffee, please. He nodded his head and I thought I had spoken clearly enough. A minute later, he said to me “Would you like coffee or tea this morning?” I repeated the request both for myself and for Ron. John’s reply was “You are confusing me. Do you want coffee or tea, this morning?” A minute later, Ron appeared and he asked Ron the same question. It seems to me that if you are confused that easily, you certainly do not have the capacity to run a business.

We had the audacity to arrive to breakfast at eight minutes before nine one day and five before another. Now the breakfast room is locked until precisely 9:00 am so that we do not disrupt his morning routine. John shared with us on check-in that many reservations were cancelled due to NYC, so business is slow. It befuddles me how he could cope if the place were at capacity. Even the dog Dougall snubbed us the one day that we saw him. We called him to us and he walked right past us as he looked the other way.

It was not until a couple of days later, that I had noticed the bill and in the back of my mind, the total seemed off. We did not receive either the 7^th or 11^th night free, but were in deed charged for every single night. When Ron went to refute the bill, he was told that I had changed the room from the 99 to the 79 pound rate and therefore the special was invalid. I could not find anything on the website that makes that distinction, but rather than fight with John, I will just post my comments on eight different web sites for others to be forewarned. Hence, for those of you who may have been wondering why we do not get out earlier and get breakfast elsewhere, we are trying to get the most this place has to offer, so we can skimp a little on food elsewhere.

Now on with our tour, we went first to the Tower of London. As we entered a Yeoman Warder or Beefeater, as they are otherwise known greeted us. If you have ever seen a bottle of Beefeaters gin, you will know what a Beefeater looks like. If you have never seen one, then run down to the store and look now at the gin. I want you to have a mental picture of the costume these men wear. I will wait for you to return from the store. The Beefeaters, all men, are former members of the Army or Royal Air Force, but not the Navy since the sailors are seafarers and the Beefeaters have to be landlubbers for the most part. Beefeaters are chosen from the decorated men of the Royal services and have to make a twenty year commitment to the service of the Royal House in order to be chosen. He was our guide for part of the tour of the Tower.

The Tower started out as a castle with an access way from the Thames River, where supplies were brought in by boat. It was later turned into a prison and execution spot for the more famous names of history. Ann Bolyen (spelled a couple of different ways on the grounds itself) was beheaded here. She was one of the many wives of Henry VIII. She refused to put her head on the chopping block, so they beheaded her in a kneeling position. Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned here three times. On one imprisonment, he wrote “The History of the World”, but only completed the first volume before dying. Two young princes, who were in line for the throne were murdered by their uncle so he could be crowned king. Years later, their bodies were found in the walls of the building. The chapel is filled with the remains of famous historical bodies and it is still in use as a chapel with regular church services.

As they say, this is a living building. The people that work there live there. The queen still resides there at times still today. The Royal jewels are kept there and are on display. The crowns from the earliest kings are in cases for the viewing, as well as the crowns for various functions of the current Queen. The world’s largest cut diamond is in a crown as well as rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious gems. Other rooms have displays of armor throughout the history of England and that of royalty as well as their horses’ armor. Some of these kings were short, very short. One room had models of each king’s favorite horse. All told, we spent over three hours touring around and it was time well spent. It is a magnificent area to explore.

The Dungeon of London sounded fascinating in our little book and we walked the Tower Bridge to get there. It was so windy, we could easily have been blown down, no small feat since as you will remember, I have all of that extra baggage I am still carrying around. It was truly windy, but we made it across and to the Dungeon. It is listed as a place where you can learn the history of the old days of London when torture, mayhem, and murder were common events. What’s not to like about that? Really, it was supposed to be another piece of London history, but what it turned out to be was a historically based fun house. Ron looked at me and said, “This is your Halloween experience, so enjoy it.” It was interesting truly, but what can I say, hokey? When you enter they have one of you put your head in a stocks (Ron) and one of you hold an axe as if you are going to chop the head off. They take your picture to sell to you later. Ron refused to buy it because he thought I looked too gleeful with the axe. Once you are in, there is no way to get out until you have completed their maze of things. Some of it was interesting and educational, but mostly not. We took off from here to Kensington Palace.

By the time we got to Kensington Palace, it was closed for the day, being 5:00 pm, but the Orangery was open. The Orangery is a large greenhouse that was built as a gift for Queen Anne, but is now used as a teahouse. We decided to have a tea since it was part of our Pass. Ron ordered Shortbread cakes and I had Sable and Whites. These were round flat, but thick cookies that were ginger in the center and chocolate on the outside ring. They were delicious and the mix of ginger and chocolate is one that I would never have thought of mixing. Everything goes better with chocolate.

When we finally emerged from our afternoon tea, feeling like proper British folk, it was raining lightly. A walk in a light rain is mentally refreshing as well as physically, so we strolled past the sunken gardens and walked to the lake near the palace. The lake has dozens of swans and other waterfowl around the lake. Most of the swans were on land and not in the water. They are so accustomed to people, they have no fears about coming right up to you. Swans are really magnificent creatures and watching their antics on land gives insight to their swan culture. As we were observing them, the rain changed from light showers to torrential rainfall. It continued like this for about 20 minutes and even with our shelter, we were drenched. As soon as it lessened, we were off again.

The next stop was intended to be Soho, but we missed a turn somewhere and found ourselves in the Piccadilly area, which was fine by us. Just about anywhere in London is wonderful. With a sausage sandwich for dinner and in hand, we headed down to the Thames for a fifty-minute moonlight cruise on a catamaran. I had not slept well last night and this is the last thing that I wanted to do. I was exhausted and really wanted to crawl in bed. I knew Ron wanted to do this once while we were here and it was included in our pass. Since the weather was cooperating, it seemed like a good time to push my limits. The weather is so unpredictable. The catamaran goes as far as the London Bridge where it turns around and goes under the Tower Bridge. London at night is quite beautiful. The London Eye is still operating. This is the giant Ferris wheel type ride, but people stand in it. It goes so slowly, the first three days we were here, we thought it was stopped. The idea is to give you the most fantastic view of London that you will ever see. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will have time to do it. As it turns out, it was a positive enough experience that I did not feel badly about having to extend my energy level and my feet gained a fifty-minute break.

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Not a Day of Rest

Not a Day of Rest

I used to think that working was stressful. Already we need a vacation from our time away. The London Pass does not seem to be as beneficial as we thought it would be, although the transportation component has been a blessing. One of the problems has been that many of the attractions here in London have very limited hours. Most open at 10:00 am and close at 5:30 pm. That may seem like a sufficient amount of time, but when there are so many things to see and do, it is difficult to fit it all in. Then you have to figure out what is open on what day and sometimes it takes an hour or more to get to the area of the attraction. This all adds to the mix of frustrations. Sounds rough doesn’t it? We hope we have all of your sympathies.

Our day today started out with a tube ride to Westminster Abbey for the tour promised in our London Pass book, but it was not available due to religious services. We were able to view the three museums within the old monastery, which was quite interesting and full of royal history. English history is so complicated, but more fascinating than we had ever realized. We have been totally taken in by it. Ron decided to attend a portion of the Episcopal service at the Abbey and I took off in search of a Loo. See I am learning the language here. Big Ben is right next to Westminster and is looking very spiffy. When I was here the last time, he was covered with scaffolding for refurbishing. Of course, that was 1983, so he has had plenty of time to get himself together for a visit. Many people believe that Big Ben is the clock that is on the sides of the tower, but that is not correct. If that is what you thought, YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK and are out of the game. Well, okay, you can stay. Big Ben is the bell within the tower. Learn something new today?

The Jewel Tower is close to the Abbey and on our Pass, so that was the next stop. One would think this was a place filled with jewels as I did. All right, I am the weakest link this time. The tower was actually built for Edward III in 1363 to house his personal treasures. He had a moat dug around it to offer more protection. It was once one of the original buildings of the medieval castle of Westminster. Inside now are large displays that give an account of the British monarchy in regard to their level of power. Edgar the Great in the 800s had total control to the Queen now who is more of a figure head with Parliament having most of the political control. We spent a couple of hours reading the history. When we were on the second floor, we kept hearing this chanting. At first we thought it was the video on the third floor, but after viewing the movie, it was not. When we left there and was standing at the bus stop, we heard the chanting again. It was really more like yelling, shouting, and discontent. We saw a large number of people with masks and signs. Not wanting to miss a good demonstration, we went to investigate. It turns out it is the filming of the new movie “ Bridgette Jones’ Diary: Part 2”, so we were asked to leave.

Well we can take a hint when we are not wanted, so we took a bus in search of Wagamama. Really sounds British, eh? It is a chain of Japanese noodle restaurants that all of our friends here recommended. With the rain falling and feet aching, a hot bowl of soup with ramen noodles sounded comforting and nourishing. We found it after a long bus ride and entered our first Wagamama. It is starkly decorated with many blonde picnic tables each with six paper placemats and chopsticks. A person comes for your order. They have about 30 different soup/noodle/rice combinations. The noodles come in four varieties. I ordered a spicy chicken soup with wide noodles and Ron had a miso based soup with wide noodles. It saddened me to say that my soup was totally tasteless. Most of the filling was bean sprouts with other veggies, but the bean sprouts really dominated the bowl. It was slim chance on finding many noodles and the broth was neither tasty nor comforting. Ron’s was barely better, but not to any great extent. We may give this place another try, but not for a while.

With passes in hand, we rushed off to the Tower of London. When we reached there, we only had one hour left before it closed. The guard suggested we come back tomorrow as the full tour takes a minimum of three hours. With that information, we put it on our plan for tomorrow and walked the area lovely along the waterway getting post card views of the Tower Bridge. At the end of the walkway were a cluster of shops and restaurants. Shopping has no appeal when you are homeless. Why buy something only to cart it around with you? It is a money saver to have my shopping addiction wasting away. We did find a coffee house next to a historic ship called the Grand Turk, a clipper ship that was used in some historic battle, but the touring was done for the day and it was not of enough interest to us to investigate further. We planned our day for tomorrow.

The Tower Bridge looming over our heads was too enticing and we climbed the steps to walk the length of the bridge. It is a lovely view of London from the middle of the bridge and one is able, for a fee, to climb to the top of the bridge for an even better view. We have learned to pick and choose our energy battles. The bridge itself is painted a light blue with large emblems representing England and Scotland on the side. As Ron described it, he said it looks like frosting on a birthday cake and wondered how many arguments ensued in choosing the colors.

Since we have wanted to see some theater while we are here, we took a bus to the Leicester area where the theater discounters happen to be. They were closed, of course, but we thought we could to find what plays were available. Naturally, Lion King and Mama Mia are sold out, but we can possible get tickets if we go directly to the theaters. We both had to use the bathroom by that time and there was no public facility in sight. I asked a street cleaner where we could find a bathroom. He said there we none in the area, but did I just want to wash up? I told him our need and he suggested that we just enter any pub or fast food restaurant. As fate has it, all of the McDonalds, Burger Kings, even Starbucks evaporated from the area at that very moment. When we found a Pizza Hut, we thought we were in luck and rushed in. A hostess who wanted to seat us immediately greeted us. We looked over the menu and left totally unsatisfied. We did a quick walk down the street looking for a pub that would not ask questions and just leave us to do our thing. I grabbed Ron when spotting one and we sprinted through the door. About twenty feet in the door, I sensed something different about this bar. My mind found the memory of the Gary Larson cartoon of the chickens that walk into a bar full of cows. The caption states something like, “Suddenly, Ethel and Lucy looked around and realized that they were in a hay bar.” It was a gay bar we had found as our oasis in the bathroomless desert. We used the facility and left.

After taking the tube home, we stopped in our neighborhood pub to chug one with the locals and off to bed for another day of work, I mean touring tomorrow.

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