Author: jeffinukraine2016

Most of the time, I try not to dive too deep into the history of the places I go, just because historians are so much more adept at doing so, and I also don’t want to bore people with a lot of facts they already know.  I was very surprised how many people didn’t know what Bletchley Park was, so in this case, I will make an exception (albeit briefly).

Bletchley Park was a private mansion and estate purchased by the British government when war was declared on Germany as a secret facility for the code breakers to live and work away from London or other big cities.  Located directly across from a small railway station, and about an hour from London and other major cities, it was perfect geographically, while still being out in the middle of no place…essentially ignored by German air raids.

Even if you are not a WWII buff, or a history buff, one important thing happened at Bletchley Park that affects each and every one of us:  It was the site where the first computer was invented.  The activities carried out at Bletchley Park were so top secret, that nobody even knew about the compound for 50 years after the war ended.  This is where the film “The Imitation Game” was made and based on, as well as the inspiration behind the television series “The Bletchley Circle.”    Ian Fleming (the inventor of James Bond), also coordinated spy activities with agents at Bletchley Park.  And that’s my “albeit briefly” explanation.

I have planned this day for 7 months:  Aug 29^th!  Even things I know I can do on the spur of the moment (like train tickets from London and my tickets into the museum) I have bought in advance.  And then, of course, I come down with one of the worst flus of my life.  Sick as a dog (and my apologies to dogs everywhere), I drag myself out of bed and am determined to make the most of it.  I did not regret a second.

As I travel across the English countryside on the train, I can’t help but feeling like I’m back in Wisconsin…with the rolling grass hills and the cows.  I exit the train at this quiet little train station.  There is one woman working the ticket booth and two people moseying around out front…and that is it.  I walk out past the 6 car parking lot (which is empty, by the way) and see a sign that says “Bletchley Park” with an arrow.  Kind of worried about the fact that I’m out in the middle of nowhere, I Google map the park.  It’s less than a 2 minute walk…so I feel relieved.  I walk down this small bike path, and suddenly, there it is.  A small security gate with a sign:  “Welcome to Bletchley Park.”

The front of the park is a large museum/exhibition room that is a typical museum.  Good stuff, but nothing overly special.  I’m starting to question my decision to come all the way out here, when I exit the museum and walk out into the park itself.  Everything is preserved and/or restored to 1945…and the grounds are quite large!  It takes me two and a half hours to cover it all (although part of that might have been my death flu).  There is a beautiful lake with ducks and swans, and beautiful mansion (both inside and outside) built in 1877, with a garage, stables, and several small cottages.  One would never know that something so innocent and beautiful on the outside could have such an important military purpose.

In addition to the original grounds, a dozen or so huts were built to house the constantly increasing staff as the war wore on.  Most of these huts have been completely restored and you can walk through them and look at what a day in the life would be like as a code breaker.  They even have preserved Alan Touring’s office.  It was pretty neat to see it all just as it was in the 1940’s.

It’s generally accepted that without the code breakers of Bletchley Park, WWII would have lasted between two or four more years.  And out their efforts, computers would not have been invented.  Yet so many people have never heard of this park across from a little train station in the middle of no place.  As I leave via a different route, I see a giant display sponsored by Google, acknowledging the technical achievements of the brave men and woman who advanced humanity…and I think to myself “You got that right, Google!  Damn straight!”

Out of all my journeys….this one will probably be the most memorable.

Jeff

Aug 29^th, 2018

I first arrived in Paris at around 10pm, and so didn’t get a real start until the next morning.  That “real start” was where any sane person would start:  The Eiffel Tower.  First of all, if you’re going to the tower, and you know when you plan to go, get your tickets in advance!  I waited about 20 minutes to get inside.  But those without tickets were waiting hours.

At the bottom of the tower there is a massive square with overpriced, crappy snack food, and some surprisingly tacky gift jobs.  If you really want a model of the Eiffel Tower, just buy one from one of the dozens of guys on the street outside.  Then you have two choices:  Wait in line for the single lift that takes you to the top, or climb up.  I am not an idiot, so I opted to wait for the lift.  Once at the 2^nd level, the views were pretty amazing.  I noticed that they have put wire fencing up preventing people from jumping off.  This prevented my boyhood fantasy of reenacting the escape sequence from the Bond film “A View to a Kill” and parachute off to safety.   It also prevented me from reenacting the scene from “European Vacation” and throw a beret off it for a dog to jump out after (the dog was fine—he landed in the lake).  I guess Paris knew of my love for film history and that I was coming.

And speaking of film history, they had some really neat exhibits on all the films that have been made at the tower.  They also have some nice exhibits on the history of the tower.  A few friends told me it was not worth it to wait in the hours long line to take the tiny elevator to the very top of the tower, so sorry to disappoint, but I declined that.  Then, getting board, I decided that I was an idiot after all and walked down the stairs the entire length of the tower.  I would say that was a really stupid thing to do, but I wasn’t done.  Then I realized I had completely skipped an entire level, and instead of taking the lift up, I walked UP through the tower and spent time on the middle level and had a much deserved smoothie.  I guess climbing up and down (or down and up) the Eiffel Tower is now something I can add to my achievements.  It sounds crazy when I say it out loud…but don’t worry…it sounded pretty crazy while I was doing it.

A couple of other things about Paris that were interesting also come to mind before I wrap up on this city.  First, there is a natural food store called “Picard,” which will please all you Star Trek fans out there.  The Seine River was bright green…about the same shade they color the river in Chicago for Saint Patrick’s Day.  It’s very pretty and relaxing all around the river, with beautiful bridges, side paths and such.  The water itself was just odd to me.

I also visited the columned courtyard where they filmed the famous show down scene of Charade between Walter Matthau, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.  So that was cool for me.   There was also a strange, awkward experience between myself and the French Police when I went looking for the Paris Police Museum, not realizing it was INSIDE the police station…and trying to explain to the heavily armed police what it was I was doing there.

Oh, and I can’t forget Notre Dame.  It was a neat building, but for being a religious place, it seemed to me not to be the most spiritual place ever.  It seemed almost evil, with the climax being the souvenir coin machines throughout the place (you know, those machines where you put a penny in and a dollar and it will bend your penny for you?).  I never quite understood those.  Why should I be supplying my own penny?  I just gave you a dollar!  Well, instead of a gargoyle or whatever normal tourist places have imprinted, these imprinted a picture of the pope.   I was tempted to get a few and randomly give them to people as presents. “Hey, happy birthday.  Here’s a pope penny.”   On the way out I couldn’t help but remember the tale in The Bible of Jesus getting angry and flipping over the table of souvenirs at the temple saying that inside a church is not where you should sell such things.  Catholic Irony.

And that is Paris!  Much more of my adventures to come…looking forward to it!

Jeff

Aug 15^th, 2018

I am going to make this argument very simple for everyone:  Musee d’Orsay is better.  There.  End of blog entry.

Honestly though, a lot of friends had told me to be sure to see the d’Orsay because it was, in fact, much better than the Louvre.  And I was very surprised that they were right.  But for argument’s sake, let me talk about the Louvre for a little bit.

It was my second trip to this museum.  When I was in Paris for a day and a half last year, I spent 4 hours of that time at the Louvre.  Not realizing how incredibly big it was, I just decided to start at one end and make my way to the other end.  After 3 hours of looking at rock artifacts from Asia, it dawned on me just how much time it was going to take to see it all, so I spent the next hour speeding through all the things that I would have liked to have spent time seeing.  So…this time out I was much more prepared.  Oddly enough, I was there 4 more hours, and never saw any of the things I saw last year.  I looked and looked for the antique furniture halls, and the courtyard with all of the Roman statues, and failed to find either.  But that’s ok…I saw them last year and 4 hours was about all I could take of the massive crowds.

What I did see was lots of great artwork (including, yes, the Mona Lisa).  This place is so big, that I constantly found myself looking out the window to see where I actually was in relation to outside.  In addition to the paintings (some of which I have included here), I was really interested to learn about the history of the building itself.  It was originally a castle meant to fortify the city against an attack, which explains its square shape.  I toured the original foundations and underground caverns that are deep below where the general public find themselves.  They even had jail cells intact from the original days…I would not want to find myself in one of those!  A personal highlight for me was helping two guys, in Russian, find the Venus de Milo statue.  Heck, I get lost at the Louvre, but I somehow managed to give directions in Russian.  Good times.

About a 15 minute walk across the river from the Louvre is the Musee d’Orsay.  The museum is actually an old train station, and the building itself is worth the price of admission.  It’s much, much smaller than the Louvre, but you certainly get the cream of the crop artistically.  And, it’s a lot (A LOT) less crowded.  On the ground floor they have a couple of dozen sculptures, and then the place sort of goes in a logical circle (a logical path at a museum?  What is this nonsense?!?!!).  There are many works of art spanning hundreds of years and genres.  The highlight for most people would probably be the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit.  Standing in a small touring group, admiring the paintings, I find I am not as impressed with him as I feel I ought to be, but his works were good.  A snotty teenage girl says to the group “why would his paintings even be here?  Isn’t there, like, a Van Gogh museum for this?”  I’m so glad her accent was British and not American.

Speaking of, they also had on display the original model used to make the Statue of Liberty.  Sometimes I think we Americans forget that it was a gift from the French, who based their revolution and democracy on the example of the US.  At the time the Statue was given, the US and France’s democracies were the exception to the rule, not what we know in the world today.

At the end of the day I find myself in the d’Orsay gift shop where I break down and buy a neat book about the museum.  I’m going to have so many books to look through and read when I get home, it will take me an entire year just to catch up!  But it was a great museum, and although I would recommend both to anyone who comes to Paris, if you had to choose for some reason, please choose the d’Orsay.  Just don’t disrespect Vincent freakin’ Van Gogh during a tour group.

Jeff

Aug 19^th, 2018

What two famous ships were built and sailed out of Liverpool?  The Queen Mary and the Titanic.  This was just one of many cool facts that I learned while touring the Museum of Liverpool and the National Maritime Museum.

These two museums could almost be one and the same when it comes to content.  The Museum of Liverpool concentrated on the history of the city, but that is so rooted in sailing and shipping that they could almost have been combined.   An interesting non-ocean related exhibit involved the old Liverpool railway, and the history of its inception all the way to its demolition in the 1970’s.  If there is one thing that is clear:  People from Liverpool are proud to be from Liverpool.  They had a restored train car that you could climb in and take pictures, and the smiles were much bigger on the adults than the children.  A man in his 70’s walked through it slowly, eyeing the car and running his hand across the back of a seat.  It was clear this car, and the time in his life it represented, meant a great deal to him.

At the Maritime Museum, they have a really neat exhibit on the Titanic.  One of the fascinating features were the original newspapers (now encased in glass pages) that you can page through as if living in the moment.  They also had a very nice scale model of the Titanic.  I’m sure you can get more history online than anything I can supply on the subject, but one thing I will say is that the original plans included more life boats, but was rejected as unnecessary.  Oops.  The exhibit had small theaters playing the news reels of the time, as people probably saw them in the movie houses.  Even today, so many people were piled into these theaters…the tragedy and fascination still lingers.

Both museums are located on the historic Albert Docks, which deserves its own mention.  A combination of a boardwalk (with small rides and games) and a fisherman’s wharf, the docs have been rebuilt and are a prime day trip destination.    In fact, the river flows into and under the docs in various ways that you often find yourself blocked by the river and have to back track (you can’t get there from here).  Besides the museums, the carnivals, shops and restaurants, the Albert Dock houses one other attraction:  Ferries across the Mersey river.

So yes, because most of my friends demanded that I paid tribute to the Jerry and the Pacemaker’s song, I did in fact take the ferry across the Mersey.   It’s about an hour’s journey round trip, and it was the highlight of my day.  Even though the weather was grey and cold it was still a fun trip.  The view of Liverpool from the water was a great perspective.  Once on the other side, I got off the boat and spent an hour or so walking along the riverbank, looking at the city from a distance.

I really like Liverpool.  If there is an American City I can compare it to, it would be Portland, Oregon.  The weather (constantly misty), the way the streets are laid out, and just the general vibe of the place.  It’s smaller, and doesn’t have hippies, but otherwise I could imagine Portland pretty easily as I listen to music in a pub, or go for a walk down by the river.   As a tourist, I think that I have seen and experienced everything the city has to offer.  But if someone asked me for a list of cities I would like to live in, Liverpool would be close to the top.

Jeff,

Aug 15^th, 2018

My adventures continue in Liverpool with a visit to the British Music Experience, which is basically a history museum of British music.  I have to admit that this museum was not worth the price of admission (around $20 US), but was a fun time none-the-less.  They have a path that you go through in chronological order from the 1940’s to present day.  The older decades were more interesting to me…probably because I live in the present day and also remember the 1990’s  The biggest crowd gathered around the 1960’s because…let’s be honest…nobody remembers the 1960’s  Nobody.

It was neat to see the genesis of music throughout the decades.  Starting in the 50’s, the youth were getting sick of the jazz movement and moved from the skiffel genre to what led to rock ‘n roll.  It was also interesting how the music reflected the time which it was popular.  For instance, the 70’s flamboyancy of Elton John and David Bowie was born out of an economic depression.  Life was plain and desperate, so the entertainment was bright and captivating.  Then the hard rock and punk genre moved in in response to the Margaret Thatcher political situation in the country.  Perhaps I’m getting too analytical about just really great music.  But it was interesting.

And I could not complete my entry about the British Music Experience without mentioning The Spice Girls.  Yes, they have their own display at the museum.  I was always a Baby Spice guy, myself.  On a side note, there is an entire Spice Girls exhibit in London right now…and for the record I did not attend.  It must not have been what I really, really wanted.   I did, however, take some snapshots of Adele’s set list from one of her concerts.  Adele is awesome.

From there, I visited Mathew Street, which is the address of The Cavern Club and is generally a pop culture lightning rod.  Here I took a picture of the Cilla Black statue (lover her!), and the various clubs and pubs with catchy Beatles names (because who wouldn’t want to eat at “Sgt Pepper’s Pub?”).  But the star attraction on this neat little street is the Cavern Club itself.

Built on the same site as the original Cavern Club of the 1950’s and 1960’s, this new version does it’s best to recreate the magic of its predecessor.   As I walk down the three flights of stairs from the street, it almost feels as though I am going back in time to the 1950’s and 1960’s.  The music playing and the posters hanging on the walls sure don’t hurt with this feeling either.  A lot of the bricks from the original club were used in making the new one.  I sit inside and listen to an acoustic band play Beatles songs and talk about their favorites, etc.  It’s a fun but crowded atmosphere (pretty much what I’ve heard from the original days).  There are lots of pictures on every wall…not just of the Beatles, but of lots of other performers who performed here over the years.  Michael Jackson, Oasis, Adele…Adele?!!?!  Yeah…I knew I liked her for a reason.  The club’s marketing proclaims they are the most famous club in the world…and they just might be right.

As I ascend the stairs of the club into the sunlight (or as much sun as Liverpool will give up), I look around this little street and just imagine all of the musical genius that flew out of this one block and captivated the world.  And then I realized I had to pee.

Jeff

Aug 13^th, 2018.

When I decided to come to Liverpool to see The Beatles museum, I had no idea what I was getting myself into (in a good way).  The city is religiously fanatical about the group, and fans from a band that split up 48 years ago still journey here from literally all over the world.  It’s a pretty amazing sight unto itself.

I started the day by attending The Beatles museum itself.  This museum was amazing.  They give you audio guides which tell the story of the band from their very inception all the way through to stories of individual members’ solo careers through today.  As a fairly non-fanatical Beatles fan, I still was amazed at how much I learned on this museum tour.

Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, owned a small record shop in town.  He signed The Beatles, a local band who were playing in various bars and clubs around town…and almost overnight was in charge of the most popular entertainment show in all the world.  That is pretty crazy to me.  I couldn’t help but think, in today’s word of giant corporations controlling the entertainment that we receive, could anything like The Beatles ever happen again?  I doubt it.

One funny item of interest:  The Beatles were teenage pervs!  They used to sit at the same booth at the Cavern Club in between their sets, because they could see into the ladies’ lavatory while they changed their clothes!  HA!  Additionally, John Lennon used to sneak into Strawberry Fields (which was an orphanage for troubled teenage girls) and climb up a tree so he could sneak a peek at the girls.  His aunt used to scold him by saying “if they catch you, they will string you up by that tree!”  Hence the line in the song “…and there’s nothing to be hung about…Strawberry Fields Forever.”  The song, for John, was about keeping his youth alive.

The museum had all kinds of neat displays and tales…with a recreation of the Cavern Club, Abbey Road, etc.  George Martin (their producer) told the story of Brian Epstein taking him a recording of the group and asking him to sign them to a record deal.  He said he wasn’t convinced, but would like to meet them.  Their personality, rather than their music, won him over.  At the time, The Beatles had been turned down by every other record company in the country.  George Martin said “…which I didn’t know at the time.  If I had known that, I probably wouldn’t have signed them.”

The next thing I know, I’m boarding the “Magical Mystery Tour” bus…thinking to myself “Oh no…I’ve become ‘that guy.’”  I normally avoid tourist bus tours like the plague (in fact, this was my first ever), but like so many other things related to The Beatles, I make an exception.  The tour stopped at each of the four Beatles’ childhood homes.  It was just remarkable walking down the various streets (including the site where John Lennon’s mother was tragically killed by a drunk driver when he was 17).  And speaking of streets, the highlight of the entire day was walking down Penny Lane.  A song Paul McCartney wrote about his childhood, all the landmarks mentioned in the song are still there.  You could almost play the song as a travel guide.

The famous barber shop is there, and surprisingly on this day it’s fairly empty (Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he’s had the pleasure to know).  Wouldn’t you want to get your hair cut there, if even you didn’t really need to?  There is a strange round building, which looks like a bus station but is in reality now a coffee shop…admiring the odd building on its own right, I then realize it’s the only building sitting on a roundabout with cars circling it (…behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout, the pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray).  It’s as if I have stepped into some kind of musical version of The Da Vinci Code.

Back at The Beatles museum, I am transfixed at the last exhibit room, which is playing the song Imagine as you look at the white bedroom and white piano from Lennon’s music video.  It is here that I realize a lot about myself and my journey.  All of the travelling that I do, and even my strange habit of visiting museums about war (even though I viciously hate the concept of war on any level)…it is all my internal struggle to understand other people.  With all of the things that are wrong in the world, if we could just make the effort to understand other cultures, other beliefs, other people…so much conflict can be avoided and replaced by love and understanding.  It’s an effort that takes considerable time and will power, but I believe is so vital.

As I make my final stop of the day at The Beatles statue on the pier in Liverpool, I smile at these four young lads and realize that not only did they get it, but all of their fans…these fanatical, crazy people like me, who travel from all over the world to get here…they get it to.  And I feel there is still hope.

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do….imagine all the people, living life in peace…

Jeff

Aug 11^th, 2018

In the 7 days I was in London, I had the good fortune to see 8 plays.  I am one of those crazy people who feels like any play, at any level, is a great experience.  There is just a magic that happens in a theater that you can’t find anywhere else.  Here are the plays I saw and my brief observations about each.

Chicago

Going into this play, I knew every word of every song.  Of course, there was an excellent film version of the play made about 10 years ago, but seeing anything live is a treat.  I consider this show a “sister” show to another Kander/Ebb musical, Cabaret.  Although Cabaret is by far it’s superior, this show has a lot to offer.  The darkness in tone matches the darkness in actions of the characters.  Like Cabaret, there is an overall theme to the play and a message to be had.  In this performance, Roxy and Velma were very good.  The actor playing Billy Flynn was the headliner (a television star in Britain) who was not a good singer, so that was a drawback.  The standout by far was the actor who played Amos…and he brought the house down with his solo number “Mr. Cellophane.”   I still have the song in my head now.

Pressure

I had no idea what to expect in this original play written by and starring David Haig.  What I got was one of the best plays I have ever seen.  Taking place in WWII, Haig’s character is the weather man tasked with the job of determining whether the allied troops will have clear weather to land at Normandy and end the war.  The title has a double meaning, as it not only describes the stress he is on to make the correct calculations, but also the weather pressure fronts (see what he did there?).  It was a great show…with a great trio of characters and the actors playing them.  I immediately went on Amazon and bought a copy of the script.

The Comedy About a Bank Robbery

I had been waiting a year to see this play.  Their marketing was brilliant.  They had a poster, with no pictures, and just plain letters that say “The Comedy About a Bank Robbery:  It’s a comedy about a bank robbery.”  The humor on the poster creation sold me, and I wasn’t disappointed.  The play takes place in Minnesota during the 1950s, and tells the tale of an incompetent gang attempting a bank robbery.  As you might assume, nothing goes quite as planned.  There is nothing deep about this play…just funny characters, great jokes, and wonderful comedic situations.  It was written by the same team that wrote the acclaimed “The Play That Goes Wrong,” but I felt that this play was by far superior.  It was just 2 hours of fun.

The Mousetrap

This is the 4^th time I’ve seen this play, and therefore I have been sworn to secrecy 4 different times on who the murderer is…and I am a man of my word.  It’s always fun to hear the audience whispering to each other wondering who did it…and then I can’t help but think to myself “How have you not seen this before?”  It’s the longest running play in history, currently in its 66^th year without missing a performance.  It’s the quintessential murder mystery, by the queen of mystery:  Agatha Christie.  Fun puzzle solving at its finest…and this cast certainly did it justice.  Christopher Wren was the standout for me…but everyone was very good.  I got a Mousetrap book that shows all the casts for all 66 years, with lots of trivia and such…a really remarkable book.  One of the actresses started by playing Mrs. Marsten (the young newlywed) and 40 years later came back to play Mrs. Boyle (the crabby elderly woman).  This play transcends just theater:  It’s an institution.

42^nd Street

First off, this musical was performed at the Drury Lane Theater, so it already had a plus in my book.  This theater is the greatest theater in the world.  I have two other blogs about this theater, so let’s just leave it at that.  I was very surprised at how much I loved this play.  I had never seen it before, as it just seemed like “generic happy musical” to me whenever the opportunity came up.  I was surprised at the visually stunning sets and costumes, and the amazing tap dancing numbers.  This musical is just fun.  It puts a smile on your face and a skip in your step.  I am seriously considering going back and seeing it again.  A bonus for me was that I was in the front row, just in front of the orchestra pit, and got to see the full orchestra at work.  I attended a matinee, and at the end of the performance the conductor said to the orchestra “lovely, everyone.  We’ll see you back here in a couple of hours.”  Then he turned to me and said “Will we see you back in a couple of hours, also?”  Again, I might see it again.  It was that good.

Witness for the Prosecution

What made this play special was the fact that it was performed at London City Hall, and not in a theater.  The acting was quite well done, with one of the leads being an actor I have seen in one of my favorite shows, “Foyle’s War.”  The audience served as the jury, and it was a thrilling show.  Again, I was fascinated by the audience’s shock during the plot twists (haven’t you seen this?!?!).  Everything about this play was captivating, and the setting was very unique.  My only qualm was the ending, and that is purely the script itself.  Not to give much away, but the defense attorney is at odds with one of the witnesses throughout the play.  In the movie, at the very end, that witness commits a crime and the lawyer says “well, I guess you’ll be needing an attorney.”  That line was not in the play, which I thought was unfortunate (those in the know…well…know what I’m talking about).  However, it was another twist and turn by Agatha Christie.  I read in the program that she wrote dozens of plays in addition to her novels.  I will have to look these up!

The Play That Goes Wrong

I really wanted to like this play. Everyone likes this play. This was the play I was looking forward to the most out of them all. I’m so angry at myself for being the only human being in history to be let down by this play.  The audience roared with laughter throughout.  So do not take my word for it. This is one of those times that I know I am wrong.  But I did not like it.  Most of the play were prop gags and slapstick bits where paintings fell off the walls, the door didn’t open, the door wouldn’t stay shut, etc.  Most of the time I found myself thinking “Your set is broken.  We get it!  Move on!”  There were some good parts, with the constant references to Duran Duran, and a really funny bit where one actor keeps saying the wrong  cue and they keep repeating the same dialogue in a circle…but it was mostly a letdown for me.  And again, I know that I am 100% wrong about my opinion here.  Everyone who sees this show will think it is the funniest thing ever…and it wasn’t that it was bad…it just wasn’t good.  And even I hate myself for writing this…but I have to be honest.  But if you see it, you will love it, because everyone does.

Young Frankenstein:  The Musical

What can I say?  It’s Mel freakin’ Brooks!  The stage show is very different from the film, but it is still hilarious and fun.  The general story and characters are the same, but the feel is more of a vaudeville/horror vibe.  One of my favorite parts of the show was when Igor stuck his tongue out and to the side, and the actor playing Frankenstein totally lost it and broke character on stage, and then said “Does that thing dry out?  You should see someone about that.”  All of the characters were over the top and wonderful.  They had stage horses that were so well done that I thought they were real at first, and one of my favorite parts was that one of the villagers was aware he was in a play.  When the villagers start to riot, he says “Wait!  Don’t make this like every single stereotyped cheesy horror play!  Why do we have to have torches?”  It was exactly what you’d expect from Mel Brooks:  Absurd and hilarious.

And those were the plays I attended.  I would probably see Pressure, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery and 42^nd Street again if given the chance.  Those were probably my favorites.  I stand by the fact that any play is worth seeing, no matter the talent level.  Unlike a film, you can get something out of pretty much any stage performance.  Or maybe that’s just me.  And if it is, I’m grateful.

Jeff

Aug 10^th, 2018

In my ongoing attempt to avoid the tourist areas of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the thousands of tourists cramming the streets of those landmarks, I decided it was time to head out to sea!  My first stop was the London Maritime Museum, which chronicles sea voyages from basically the beginning of boats to the 1940’s.  London is actually the city it is because the river Thames connects the area to the ocean, and therefore it was a massive source for trading.  However, as soon as shipping containers were invented, the facilities in London were inadequate and the city had already grown around the river…thus making it impossible to make the ports larger.  So now most trading is actually handled in other places.

The museum was fun, and had a nice 50/50 mix of things for adults and children.  A highlight for kids is the “map room,” which is a giant room about the size of four classrooms with a map of the world as the floor and that’s about it.  Kids can run from South America to Asia, etc.  It was fun to see the kids running around.  They also had a sailing simulator, which let kids steer their virtual boat and watch the monitors for how they are doing.  Best.  Video.  Game.  Ever.   As for the adult side, there were lots of paintings and stories of the various eras of sea travel, and some actual early boats.  They also had a small exhibit covering naval battles of WWI, which was interesting.  Not as glamorous or spectacular as other museums I have visited, but well worth an hour or two…especially if you have kids with you!

I then hit the high waters and took a ferry ride down the Thames.  This was by far the highlight of my day.  You get to see the city from such a different point of view while sailing down the river!  We passed under the Tower Bridge and I got a couple of cool shots.  I smiled as we sailed past the scores of people walking around the bridge and Tower of London like cattle (not a single tourist walking on water was seen).

My final stop of the day was touring the HMS Belfast, which is a retired WWII battle ship.  Some advice:  If you’re trying to get in shape, don’t bother getting a gym membership.  Just tour this ship every day.  This thing was huge, with many levels.  Each level was accessed by just one narrow staircase that was steep and lots of times very long.  Of course, I would not be doing the experience justice if I didn’t mention Jaime, the 6 year old boy in front of me on the tour with his parents.  “Jamie!  Come back here!  We’ll go up the ladder later!”  I must admit I got pretty claustrophobic in the engine room…and then there was ANOTHING LADDER GOING LOWER!  Yes, below the engine room is the boiler room…and if I thought the engine room was bad…”Jaime!  Stop that!  Don’t touch that!  Come over here!”  It amazes me that people could live in cramped quarters like that.  My dad was in the Navy on a submarine, and as soon as I got off the boat I had to text him that I had brand new respect for him.  Once on the main deck the tour was more enjoyable, as we toured the laundry, the mess hall, the kitchen “Damnit, Jamie!  Put that down!  I’m warning you!”  The dentistry made me thankful for the era I live in, and the living quarters made me reconsider going on a cruise one day.  “Jaime!  NO!  We are not going back down!  Come over here NOW!”

I would recommend this tour to anyone who is ok with 2-3 hours of climbing up and down steep, narrow ladders.  If you can physically do it, then it’s a fascinating tour.  The highlight of the tour was the compass room, which looked out over the front of the ship, where you could see the river Thames and all the sites.  Wait…where is Jaime?  I guess we lost him.  Thank the maker.

-Jeff

Aug 7^th, 2018

Before anyone asks, it has not gone unnoticed by myself that the majority of the words in the title of this entry fails spell checker.  But that’s how they are all spelled…so Microsoft can just deal with it.

Today I headed off to the Drury Lane Theater for another tour of this amazing building.  I say another, because I went on a tour last year.  I would go again next week if they didn’t think I was a crazy person.  I mean, I am a crazy person, but I don’t need the British to know that.  This theater is amazing, and I will try not to rehash things I mentioned last year…I have a whole new set of amazing details.

The Drury Lane Theater is the oldest theater that has been in continual use in the world.  It was first constructed in 1631, and although there have been four different theater buildings since then, the foundations and underground tunnels are the same.  What happened to the 3 other theater buildings?  Well, one burnt down.  One sank into the swamp.  And then the third one burnt down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp.  Just kidding!  The first one burnt down, the second one was torn down to make a bigger one, which then burnt down 18 years later.  I’m not sure where I got that thing about the swamp from…

There are over 500 different ghosts that have been said to haunt the theater.  The most notable one for me is a man dressed in a shabby grey suit.  According to the tour, over 1,000 people have seen him.  He is always sitting up in the upper stalls, and only on matinees.  The legend is that if you see him, then it’s good luck for the production.  Again, just according to the tour, but the entire cast of Miss Saigon saw him during their curtain call all at once…and many of them screamed.  After curtain call he always floats off into the same spot in the wall.  Nobody knows who he is…but when they were doing renovations to the building, they found a skeleton in the walls wearing a tattered grey suit with a knife in his chest…in the EXACT same spot the ghost flies into.  Again…I know it sounds like an episode of Scooby-Doo…but over 1,000 people have seen him (many at the same time)…and the skeleton is real.  So you make the call on that.

That’s just one of the many, many great things about the Drury Lane Theater.  You could tour the place 100 times and hear different stories everytime.

From there I went to the Victoria and Albert museum.  Once again, this was not what I was expecting at all.  I thought it was a museum of graphic design.  I have no idea what gave me that idea (maybe it’s that their website says they are London’s foremost museum of graphic design).  In reality, it was similar to the British Museum, with lots of artifacts from the Renaissance period, as well as furniture and clothing from the 1700’s and 1800’s.  They also had a cool exhibit on fashion over the decades (and I do mean decades).  I took some pictures of clothes from the 1940s and 1960s…but they had displays for every decade dating back to the 1890’s.  Its crazy how much not only fashion, but the world, has changed in just 150 years.  100 years from now people might be saying “you mean…he wrote a blog?  Like on a computer!?!?!  I’m SO glad we have these internet chips in our heads!”

The Victoria and Albert museum is huge…and will take anyone about 4 hours to go through.  A must see when going is the “Ox head on a tree trunk with a human brain.”  Yes, you heard that right.  Check it out in the pictures…it’s pretty unforgettable…just not sure if that’s in a good way or not.  And, they also win the award for tackiest gift shop ever.  Their gift shop is huge, but the majority of the items are key chains and tote bags that say “V&A” on them.  Wow.  That’s great.  There is almost nothing of material about the contents of the museum…so I guess you’ll have to come and see it for yourself!  And while you’re at it….take the Drury Lane theater tour!

-Jeff.

Aug 6^th, 2018

I had a lot planned for today, but alas…I had to settle for a stop at the Museum of London, The Churchill War Rooms and the Churchill museum.  Not a bad day, I must admit.  It just wasn’t as I had planned it.

It started off with a ride on the tube to the Churchill War Rooms.  These were the underground tunnels that Churchill used to run the war efforts during WWII.  But before I go much further, let’s stop for a moment.  Let’s stop in the narrative and also literally, as the tube broke down.  Not only that, they took the whole route (which would normally be a quick ride from my hotel) down for the entire day.  So I changed gears and backtracked to the Museum of London instead.

I think I confused the Museum of London with the British Museum when I was planning my trip, because this was exactly what I was expecting!  It recounts the history of London from 50BC all the way through to present day.  Some of the highlights for me were the recreation of Victoria London (with a pub, shops, banks, etc).  Being a Sherlockian, this was certainly a treat!  I also really liked the displays of London fashions of the 1960’s as well.  The museum had a GREAT exhibit dedicated to the women’s suffrage movement of the 1910’s and 1920’s.  It was inspiring and also sad to see what those women went through in the name of equal rights.  The strangest part of the museum was this room called “The Pleasure Gardens,” which depicted what amounts to an 1890’s orgy…all in live action video projection!  It was super odd…so of course I shot a few minutes of it on video and also stayed to see where things were headed….and it got pretty weird.  1890’s weird, of course.  But pretty weird.

Then it was onto the Churchill War Rooms and Churchill museum.  Because of the tube breakdown, it took about an hour to get there through an absurd round about route.  Once there, there was an hour long line to get in!  The attendant said “There’s an hour’s wait from here, sir.  Just so you know in case you want to come back later.”  After the tube ride fiasco, I wasn’t going to come back later.  And in an odd moment of clarity, I thought to myself “I’ve waited an hour for the Peter Pan ride.  If I don’t stay, what kind of human being am I?”  So I waited in the line.

On the plane ride here, I watched the film “Darkest Hour,” which told the story of Churchill’s rise to the Prime Minister and his role in WWII.  Therefore, I thought I was pretty up to speed on what this place would have in store.  I, of course, was not even close and completely blown away.  The War Rooms themselves are an underground stronghold that the war department used in WWII.  In the tour we got to see pretty much everything…the living quarters, phone rooms, map room, dining hall, offices, etc.  It was amazing to be standing in such a historic place, where so many crucial decisions formed the world we live in today.   The museum was also excellent, with lots of high tech displays and wonderful quotes accompanied by pictures.  I’m not sure I need to shed much light on who Churchill was and what he did…but if I do that makes me very sad.

I want to again point out that WWII happened because the distribution of wealth in Germany was so lopsided that average citizens, in desperation for change, elected a leader who was completely incompetent, narcissistic, and most likely insane.  But boy, he could fire up a crowd at a rally, right?

So, that was today.  I must say that these two museums and the war rooms were even better than I could have imagined!  What a great and educational experience!  I recommend both to anyone…you might just want to keep your children out of the “Pleasure Garden.”

Jeff.

Aug 5^th, 2018