JTCC England/Scotland Trip

So I am writing this on the plane on our way home (yea!) It’s already been a crazy day. We got to the Edinburgh airport just fine, but got stuck on the runway for nearly two hours due to storms at Heathrow. I was convinced that our Heathrow flight out would have gotten delayed as well but I ran off the plane anyway and saw on the board our flight marked in red “flight closing”. I was first off, so I stood and caught everyone as they came off the plane. “Gate 40. As fast as you can. We might miss it, but let’s give it a try. Go, go go!” Once the last of our group came through, I joined them in a brisk jaunt through the terminal. Of course the gate was at the opposite end. At least it was in the same terminal. The sight of our group, running down the halls was pretty amusing in retrospect. At the time I was terrified that we would all get stuck at Heathrow for days if we missed the flight. Long story short, we all made it. We arrived sweaty and tired at the gate just in time. Whew. Now, I am just counting down the hours until we make it home. I don’t have any pictures – party because I was pretty much all pictured-out and partly because I think that somebody would have slugged me if I had tried to take another group photo!

Back home at last – a day or so later. I’m still a little fuzzy headed from jet lag, and from remaining awake for about 26 hours straight with all the travel. My body can’t figure out what day or time it is. It’s an odd experience. But we all made it home, fuzzy headed or not. Unfortunately, our luggage did not! Oh well, better to happen on this end than the other. We’ll get it back eventually – hopefully soon since my kids ask me approximately every eight seconds about their presents (which are of course in my missing luggage).

It’s good to be home. I think that one of the greatest things about traveling is that it gives you perspective and a new appreciation for what you might have taken for granted. Learning about other cultures helps us to better understand our own.

I thank you all for your comments and support. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our trip. I enjoyed telling you about it! I think that it is often said that when you return from travel, only part of your learning is complete. It takes awhile for all the knowledge and ideas to sink in. So, one that note, I’ll leave you with one final quote (from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets),

“Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expir’d.”

Happy journeying – whether it be physical, mental or both!

Kerrigan

Today was our last full day in Scotland since we leave to come home tomorrow morning. The theatre class had a required trip to Pitlochry to see a performance at the Festival Theatre there. The other courses had free time to explore Edinburgh and the vicinity. I know that a group climbed to the top of King Arthur’s Seat (if you look at the picture below, the seat is the cliff like rock formation at the top – made by an extinct volcano). They actually got pictures from the top (unlike myself, since I was on a run when I did it and didn’t want to carry a camera) so I’ll try to steal some of those and post them when we return. It is a fabulous view. Some others went to explore various sights in Midlothian, Scotland! I don’t think there are many similarities between our Midlothian and theirs other than the name, but I know that the people that went saw some interesting stuff (notably the Roslyn chapel).

For the theatre students (and a few others who decided to join us) we traveled by rail to Pitlochry. Pitlochry is a lovely town in the mountains known for woolens, Heather Gems jewelry (made from the compressed and dyed stems of heather – it’s really cool, I got a necklace/earrings set) and spectacular views. Again, there is no way to really do justice to the scenery. It was much more rural than Edinburgh and surrounded by mountains. The mountains are beautiful, and it’s also interesting to see the views change as the weather changes. One local told us that “sometimes we get all four seasons in a day” and it is very true. Sometime you really get all four seasons in an hour! As the rail rolls in then out again, the fog rolls in, rolls out, sun comes out and disappears again, the view of the mountains change. I swear that for a couple of hours when Kristy and I were hiking, the weather literally changed every ten minutes. It went something like this: rain starts (jacket on), gets heavier (hood up), dries up suddenly, warms up and gets sunny (jacket off), temperature drops suddenly by 20 degrees (sweatshirt on), fog rolls in, fog rolls out, sun comes out (sweatshirt off), warm rain starts (jacket and hood on), temperature drops (sweatshirt on, jacket and hood on), rain ends, etc . . . You get the picture. Fortunately, I had brought both sweatshirt and rain jacket with hood (and worn a t-shirt underneath) so I was relatively comfortable, although I did get a bit soggy for a while. Note the different clouds in the pictures below - all taken within a couple of hours.

So once we reached Pitlochry, we had some free time before the show to explore the town. Some people shopped and went by the power station (with a fish ladder that salmon swim up). I was only able to talk one other person into hiking with me, but I was glad for the company! Kristy and I planned a 6 mile hike about halfway up the mountain (I wanted to do the full 11 mile one to the top, but time did not permit!) Of course, as usually happens when I go hiking, we missed a turn of the trail and ended up on the longer trail. We walked and walked and kept going up and up and eventually we reached a part of the trail that I was certain was not where we were supposed to be according to the map I had. I was able to figure out that we had somehow slipped onto the longer, up to the top of the mountain trail. At that point I also realized that we had been hiking for nearly two hours already and that I was supposed to meet up with the whole group near the theatre in an hour. Yikes. So, Kristy and I pretty much ran down the mountain, in the rain (stopping only for a moment when we saw the place where we missed the trail originally – so obvious now!) We really hustled and managed to actually meet up with the group pretty much on time. Thank goodness. It was a beautiful hike and well worth it.

The group had dinner at a nice restaurant near the theatre and then went to see the show – “Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard. It’s a wonderful play, one of my favorites. If you’ve never seen it and have a chance to, I highly recommend it. It was nice to finish up our series of play viewings with a solid, contemporary playwright. I was very pleased with the shows I was able to book for the trip and I believe that I provided the students with a nice timeline through the second half of theatre history. We traveled back from Pitlochry via car service (the rails were no longer running at that point) and arrived back safe and sound at the hotel. I enjoyed Pitlochry very much and thought that it was a nice final trip for our journey. Tomorrow, we pack up and leave and spend a very long day traveling. The trip has been amazing but I am ready to go. I miss my family and all the comforts of home.

See you on the other side of the pond!

So today, I had a taste of Scotland both literally and figuratively. I decided that while on this trip I should endeavor to try as many local favorites as possible. In London that meant fish and chips and Cornwall Pasty (it’s not what you think – it’s just a pie!). I also tried “bangers and mash” which are sausages on top of mashed potatoes with gravy – when I ordered it, it came served in a pastry shell (that they called a Yorkshire pudding.) Pudding is used to describe savory pastry shells as well as any kind of dessert. It can be a bit confusing. So, today, I decided to try Scottish foods. Yes, you guessed it – that means haggis. But before I could find haggis, I decided at breakfast to try this black circular patty like thing. I had no idea what it was, but I was trying to be adventurous. I took a small bite and . . . well, let’s just say it was unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. A strange consistency – not quite chewy, not quite crunchy – and a sort of liver like taste with a spicy aftertaste. Pretty disgusting, really. So after I finally managed to chew and swallow, the six other people sitting with me at breakfast (and who all had been watching me intently while I tried the mysterious patty) told me what I had just eaten. Blood pudding. Well, let me just say that even a loose association of that with pudding is a gross indecency in my opinion. I don’t really want to talk about what is actually in blood pudding because I might vomit, but you can look it up. I still can’t really believe that I ate some. Yuck!

So you think I would have stopped there. But no, there was still haggis to try and I wasn’t about to be cowed (ha-ha) by a little blood pudding. If you don’t know what haggis is just think about all the parts of an animal that you wouldn’t want to eat and wrap them up in (ewww, gross) a stomach and you’ve got haggis. Yeah, I know, it sounds really bad. But so many people talked about it that I decided I had to try it. So I did. I had to make sure not to think about what I was eating while I was eating it. It wasn’t totally awful, but I definitely won’t be ordering “Haggis with Neeps and Tatties” anytime soon. Don’t ask me what neeps or tatties are – after I found out what haggis was; I decided I didn’t want to know more. oF the two Scottish dishes, I would go for the haggis over the blood pudding. But really, I think I’ll stay away from them as much as possible for the rest of my life.

So, besides my culinary adventures, we had a full day of exploring Edinburgh. We started off with a walk through Holyrood Park to Holyrood House. I should mention that I got up early and ran in the park (I also got out for a couple of runs in London’s Hyde Park when we were there. I have to say that it is no wonder that when you think of Scotsmen, you picture someone with legs the size of tree trunks. You have to have massive legs to get up all the bloody hills around here! I thought running in Midlothian was hilly, but comparatively, those aren’t hills, they’re bumps. Anyway, I still enjoyed my run and then I climbed up to the top of King Arthur’s Seat. Apparently, I missed the sign that pointed towards the nice, sedate, windy switchback trail up to the top and went instead on the straight up the face of the cliff path. I made it up (barely) without injury and boy it was worth it. Unfortunately, since I was out for a run, I did not bring my camera. I might try to dash up once more before we leave just to capture it on film. I decided on my run that the group just had to walk through the park and see the amazing vistas. So we started off with that.

Next we toured Holyrood House and Abbey, known mostly for it’s association with Mary Queen of Scots. Speaking of Queens, we just missed the Queen in Edinburgh and in London. She was in Edinburgh until the day before we arrived when she went to London. Hmmm. She must have gotten our itinerary. I think the neatest part of the Palace were the gardens with the mountains in the background.

Next, we ventured up the Royal Mile, stopping to shop and eat on the way. It’s kind of funny – every member (I really think that it’s nearly everyone – maybe there are a few holdouts) has purchased either a “Scotland” or “University of Edinburgh” sweatshirt since we arrived. Mostly, this is due to the fact that it was so cold the day we arrived that we all went to find warmer clothes, but it’s pretty humorous to see everyone walking around in nearly identical hooded sweatshirts. Even David has one.

After buying out the Royal Mile (If there is a spike in tourism revenues today, we were probably responsible. Although, there was a group of about 150 tourists from Japan so they might have helped out as well) we headed to Edinburgh Castle. It was really interesting. Again, my favorite part was the views from all around the castle walls and towers. It’s funny about travel – you read in the guidebooks that a town has “magnificent views” or something. Then you actually arrive in the place and it’s so much more than magnificent. You can’t really describe it with words. And there is also this energy that these views bring with them, a sort of wildness, which is also indescribable. So, I don’t know what else to tell you other than you must see it for yourself!

After the castle, we all split up and wandered around for a while. I went into the museum of Edinburgh and the People’s Museum – both very interesting. I particularly liked the people’s museum because it painted a picture of what life was like through the history of the town. I also wandered around several very nice monuments and gardens.

We met up for an excellent group picture at the heart of midlothian (see above  - I’ll give you the back story on the heart of midlothian later, Im too tired now) then dinner and then I headed back for a walk through the park and home. Some folks, as usual, are checking out the nightlife here in Edinburgh. I (also as usual) am going to post this and (hopefully) Skype my family.

This may be the final entry until I get back home. Tomorrow we go to the Festival Theatre in Pitlochry to see Arcadia and won’t get back until very late so I probably won’t’ post. Then, we get up and travel pretty much all day Wednesday to return home late Wednesday night if all goes smoothly. I will post on Thursday if not before then. Thank you all for your great comments and support – I hope you enjoyed traveling with us (albeit virtually!)

Kerrigan

Well, we are safely arrived in Edinburgh and it is absolutely stunning. I think that maybe I want to live here. Except it’s rather cold. And rainy. And far away. Okay, so maybe I won’t actually live here, but I want to visit more often! We have been very lucky with the weather so far so I guess we were due some rain. It is about 20 degrees cooler here (in the 50’s at best) and has rained for much of the day, some of it quite heavy. We hardly got any of the typical London rainy weather when we were there, but I guess our luck ran out since we certainly now have your traditional Scottish ick. I don’t mind at all though. I put on layers and a rain coat and hat and I was fine. Some others on the trip didn’t dress very well for the weather today but hopefully by tomorrow, everyone will be on the same page (rather than shivering in the streets in shorts and flip flops!)

We are staying in rooms at the University of Edinburgh and they are very nice. (Much nicer than London and for half the price, but that’s London for you!) The university is just along the edge of Holyrood Park and one of the most famous monuments in the city, Arthur’s Seat (supposedly the home base of King Arthur for a while) is directly behind our accommodations. It’s really amazing to come out of your room and see this craggy, foggy, beautiful rock formation jutting out above you.

The travel was pretty easy overall, except for the getting up early part. Because of that, I’m once again beat so this will be short. Basically, as a group we didn’t do much today – we had a group lunch at a terrific pub and got oriented. We pretty much let people wander the city for the remainder of the day. I went to the National Gallery, hit the Princes Mall, walked down the Royal Mile and Princes Street, hiked up to the top of Calton Hill (steep climb but amazing views and cool monuments), walked by the Palace of Holyrood, saw Mary’s bathhouse, walked through Holyrood Park and had a lovely Indian meal with David. Whew. I think I walked about 5 or 6 miles at least, and a good part of that was uphill. It was worth it for the amazing vistas though. In fact, now that I’ve given you the run down, I’ll just post some shots and let them speak for themselves.

Getting on the bus at 5:30AM!

In the airport

More pub grub!

Views of the city

Outside our hotel (just above) and inside

I’m about ready to fall over, so that’s all for now. I’ll try to do more tomorrow night, but no promises!

Kerrigan

Yes, it’s true – As I write this entry, we are leaving London in a matter of hours. I think mostly we feel ready to go. Everyone has had a wonderful time, but we are excited to see a little bit of Scotland. We depart our hotel at the totally uncivilized hour of 5:30AM tomorrow and fly to Edinburgh. We should get in around noon or so, but we won’t be able to check in until later, so don’t expect to hear from any of us for a little while. I will try to post on Sunday night if I can, but no guarantees.

A familiar site - the tube stop near our hotel. Farewell to Paddington!

David talks to the animals on the way to Stratford!

So our last day in London was spent mostly in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is a very important place to me since it was where Shakespeare grew up. It was very interesting to see the town now and try to picture it without the all pervasive McDonalds and Starbucks. The river Avon is beautiful, and walking along its banks it is easier to imagine the town as it was in Shakespeare’s day. We visited the church where Shakespeare is buried (along with his family) and I made a quick dash past his birthplace as well. Unfortunately, with the matinee performance and the two hour rail trip we didn’t have much time to spare for leisurely exploration, but it was wonderful just to be in the town and see his work performed.

We saw “Taming of the Shrew” at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Courtyard theatre (they are in the process of major renovations and the current Courtyard theatre is actually a temporary one.) It was a very well done production – excellent actors and a beautiful design. I have to say that I did not totally agree with their interpretation of the play. I’m a bit more of a traditionalist and while I have seen some modernized productions that I have enjoyed, this was a little heavy handed for me personally to connect to. I’ve always felt that if you need to put in lengthy sort of pantomime scenes in and around the existing text that you are imposing an idea on top of the play rather than serving the text. That’s not to say that you can’t find a new or different idea in the play, but that should come from the play itself and not a concept that is separate from the play (if that makes any sense). Anyway, I won’t bore you with that age old debate any more, I really did enjoy the production overall and it was beautifully performed. We saw some of the actors on the train with us back to London and they were very nice.

So, not as much to report today – we are all currently in our rooms at the hotel trying to fit all the stuff we have purchased in the last eleven days into our suitcases! I managed to fit all the loot I got for my family into my suitcase fairly easily but I am convinced that I will now be over the 50 lb limit. I started out around 42 and I think I must have at least 8 pounds of tea alone, not to mention the wooden swords, knight figurines, medieval coins, etc. Ah well, we shall see.

I will try to write when we arrive in Edinburgh, but I am not sure what the Wi-Fi situation will be at our hotel. I’ll do my best to keep you updated! In the meantime, you can amuse yourself with caption comments. Cheers!

So today was our only real free day for everyone (although there have been pockets of free time throughout the trip.) Most of the group went to Windsor Castle. Some others did museums or Portsmouth. I loved Windsor, it was one of my favorite excursions so far. It’s a lovely castle, and I just enjoy hearing the history and imagining life in different times. The town itself is lovely as well, very similar to Canterbury with the cobbled streets and shops. There is also the Theatre Royal which is a modern theatre (now showing the very modern, “Dancing Queen”) but built on the site of the earlier royal theatre first built in 1706. I enjoyed watching the changing of the guard ceremony here at Windsor – it was much less crowded (the ceremony itself was also simpler, but still very nice.) My camera of course decided to die just as I stepped off the train so I don’t have any pictures, sorry! I’ll have to try to get some off of someone else’s camera. Queen Mary’s dollhouse was fun to see and the rooms are, of course, exquisite. I loved seeing Henry VIII’s suit of armor – you could tell how big he was if you looked at it from the side especially. It was a great tour.

Costumes for a modern production of “Measure for Measure” as shown at the VNA

Next, I headed to the Victoria and Albert museum for a quick stop off to see the theatre collections. The V&A is a huge museum housing a tremendous amount of decorative arts. They are just getting started in terms of the theatre collections. The London Theatre Museum recently closed down and they are in the process of consolidating the theatre collections of several smaller museums. Right now, the gallery is unfinished and pretty small, but in a few years it will have much more to look at. The current theatre gallery is focused on modern production design and it very interesting from the standpoint of a director or designer. They even have a work station in the middle of the gallery where people were building costumes as I walked through. It was worth seeing, and I passed through a few other exhibits (sculpture and jewelry) on the way to and from the theatre gallery. It’s another museum that deserves more time and focus, but I’ll just have to save the rest for another trip!

Exploring Space - the final frontier - at the Science Museum

After that, I made a dash through the Natural History Museum (just a small part is picture above - the place is huge!) to see the dinosaurs (something that always helps me to put things in perspective) and an even quicker dash through the Science Museum (I enjoyed the space exhibit). Those were both fun museums, but they made me miss my boys too much, so I didn’t linger.

We rounded off the evening with a theatre class trip to the Old Vic theatre to see Shaw’s “Pygmalion” (some of you might know the musical adaptation of it, “My Fair Lady”). We were a little rushed getting to the theatre so I missed getting my usual marquee picture (oh well.) It was a wonderful production. Shaw is one of my favorite writers because he writes funny plays that make a point. He wants theatre to be entertaining and instructive and he succeeds mightily in that regard (in my humble opinion.) The actors were fabulous and it was directed by Peter Hall (who was one of the founders the Royal Shakespeare Company and a director whose work I admire greatly). Seeing it this time, for some reason, Henry Higgins reminded me a little bit of David Head. I hope that doesn’t make me Eliza. I think I’d rather be the housekeeper. Bas, I think, is definitely Freddie. Anyway, it was a fun evening.

Only one more day in London - not really in London either, because we’ll be journeying to Shakespeare land (Stratford-upon-Avon)

Let me leave you with one final picture:

This must be the sleeper car.

And with that, I’m off to bed myself, cheerio!

Happy Fourth of July!!!! Okay, not such a big deal here but maybe you guys are doing something special there.

So today we visited another one of my favorite areas of London, Covent Garden. We started off walking from Charing Cross down past the Inns of Court and the Royal Court of Justice. They are impressive buildings. I looked around for some of the lawyers in their robes and wigs but I couldn’t catch one! The Inns of Court are also important from a theatrical perspective because the Inns of Court (which are law schools) in the late 1500’s were a home for secular and intellectual theatre that emerged after medieval times. The schoolboys put on the classics regularly and then branched out into creating their own plays. This type of theatre was carried on by a group of men known as the University Wits (of which Marlowe was a member) and basically laid the groundwork for the truly amazing theatre that came during Elizabethan times (with Shakespeare, most notably). So, I enjoyed seeing those buildings.

The Royal Court Building - but not a barrister in sight!

We eventually reached Covent Garden, of “Pygmalion” (and later “My Fair Lady”) fame. Covent Garden was designed by Indigo Jones to be a sort of upper class suburban development. It did well for a while but when St. James was built, all the fashionable people moved there and Covent Garden fell into disrepair. It became a very dangerous area, full of thieves and prostitutes (and a few actors!) It is best known as a Victorian produce and flower market (where Eliza Doolittle sells her flowers) and exists today as a thriving market with all kinds of things to buy. The whole square has a terrific energy to it. It’s just a fun place to be. I loved the classical musicians (three violinists and a cellist) who played wonderful music with actual choreography. I didn’t realize you could dance to Pachelbel’s Cannon. It was pretty cool. There’s also a church that was designed by Indigo Jones back in 1633. Neat!

Hanging out in front of the market

Bargain shoppers!

After browsing a while, we had a group lunch at a burger joint just off the square in honor of the 4th of July. It was an excellent meal but really huge. They say American restaurants have big portions but these burgers were insanely large. I don’t think anyone actually finished theirs. The funny thing is that these were the “regular” size burgers. The restaurant actually offers a “large” size as well, which I guess is pretty much an entire cow in a bun. I very much enjoyed my chocolate milkshake too. A very American meal!

Enjoying a taste of home!

We split up after lunch to explore various parts of the city. Some people went to the London Transport Museum, some to Harrods, a group to an ice bar (I’ll try to get some pictures of that up tomorrow) and I understand that Bas and Jason Knaus inquired about the possibility of becoming Masons. (Bas can update you on that, but if we come back without him, you will know where to look for him.) I took a group of people to (can you guess) the theatre! (Of course). We got tickets for a musical version of “Lord of the Rings” mostly because we were all pretty curious as to how the heck they planned to put that up on stage. I am a huge Tolkien fan and loved the recent movies as well, so I was curious. It was pretty much what I expected which was amazing spectacle but short on substance and story. I think Jason Meyers (another Tolkien fan) was a little dismayed at the butchering of the story. The actors were very good, but in many ways they were life sized props more than actors. There were some incredible acrobats (former Olympic gymnasts) and some amazing effects with stilts and huge puppets. I loved Golem – I think the actor must have had several (maybe all) of his bones removed, because otherwise, I don’t know how he managed the movement sequences. The battle scenes were pretty cool. I would have to give the show a 10 for effects (I’ve seen a lot of big flashy musicals, but this really topped the rest on that score) but a 3 for music (some nice Celtic music but really not a memorable song in the whole show) and story (it was more like a 3 hour long music video.) After the show we had a treat – a talk back with some cast members. It was interesting. I think the most intriguing things I learned were that the show had a cast of 53, but over 250 total when you throw in all the crew. They spent five months learning skills and working with the technical elements. So although this might not be the most substantive work overall, I’m glad I saw the show. It was an experience.

Whew, so that’s it for now. Tomorrow is a free day – I am venturing off with a group to Windsor Castle. Some others are doing the Science and Natural History Museum, the Aquarium, Portsmouth and various other fun excursions. More tomorrow!

“Buy a flow’r from a poor gurl, gov?”

You write the caption!

Cheers!

Kerrigan

“I perhaps owe becoming a painter to flowers.” Claude Monet

Wow. I can’t believe that we are more than halfway through our trip! In some ways it seems as if we have been here forever and in some ways I still feel as if I’ve just arrived. I think all of us have moments of longing for home combined with moments of wishing we could stay longer just so that we could fit in the many, many things we all want to do before we have to leave! We have all gotten very comfortable navigating around the tube and everyone seems very at home in the hotel. It’s nice. It’s also nice to see many of the group spreading their wings as they gain confidence as travelers. I was very excited to see Jackie very naturally leading a group of us through the Tube station yesterday (like she owned the place!). When I came in this evening, the scene that greeted me was a familiar one. More than half of the group was assembled in the lobby. Some were writing in journals, some waiting for their turn at the single computer in the hotel. People discussed dinner options, plans for tomorrow (a free day for all!), and shared tidbits about their adventures. Our hotel has become a bit like Cheers or something (you know – “Where everybody knows your name . . .”) We’re just one big happy family!

Shannon, Jason Meyers and Sarah hanging out in the lobby of our hotel

The poster for the museum (an apt description of London). Above, Stephanie models the latest in Medieval fashion

Okay, so let’s see – today we started out with a walk to the London Museum (the one we were too exhausted to take in the day before!) On the way to the museum we stopped to see the place where William Wallace and many others were executed and also a lovely little church. If you’ve seen “Four Weddings and a Funeral” they filmed the scene where Duckface slaps Hugh Grant at this church.

I’m glad we waited until we were fresh because it really is a lovely little museum. It’s nice to have a museum that you can absorb in an hour or so too – some of the huge ones can be daunting. I particularly enjoyed the part of the exhibit about the great fire of London (in 1666 – it wiped out a large portion of the city) and of course the model of the Rose theatre (Elizabethan era theatre, the foundations of which were excavated fairly recently around 1980 or so.) The museum very excellently chronicles the history of the city, all the way back to Roman Britain. And I enjoyed the gift shop as well! (Yes boys, I bought you presents. Yes, you too, honey.)

From there, we walked to Trafalgar square (pictured above) and split up to lunch on our own and then visit the National Gallery (pictured to the side) and National Portrait Gallery. David and I lunched in the crypt of St. Martin’s church with a group and then visited the church itself. Some of the group purchased tickets for an evening Mozart concert for the following evening by candlelight. A word about food here. I have found the food to be mostly very good, although yes, it’s rather bland. I have enjoyed having fish and chips and trying various interesting sandwich combinations (ham and pickle, chicken tikka, etc.) Most of the pub grub and Italian food is pretty good. Although, in comparison, I think that NYC beats London for food hands down, but I haven’t been disappointed. They have some pretty great desserts and I love tea, so I’m content here. Anyway, I now return you to your regularly scheduled program, where were we? Oh yes, the galleries.

I took a short detour to get theatre tickets (must see more theatre!) and then went to the National Portrait Gallery. It was an amazing place. I love portraits because they have so much character and each picture tells a story. The contemporary exhibit was really stunning. Each picture had so much life.

Next, onto the National Gallery. Now, this is the kind of place with art that it clearly could take a lifetime to contemplate. Everyone has their different strategies for museums – some like to dash through and get an overall impression, others prefer to take in a smaller part of the museum but take longer doing it. I can remember one trip to the Guggenheim museum in NYC with my mother where we practically ran down the spiral, barreling past unfortunate slow moving tourists at every turn. When we arrived at the bottom mom asked me, “What was your favorite part?” I replied, “I don’t know – I couldn’t see anything!” Just so mom doesn’t kill me, I might be slightly exaggerating her speed, but not by much. Hmmm, maybe I should get her and David to travel together . . .

Anyway, I decided to take my time but see only a few galleries. I focused on Monet, Van Gogh and the impressionists and also Reubens (who is one of my personal favorites - It was really neat to see “Sampson and Delilah”) and a few other specific paintings. What strikes me when I see famous paintings (like Van Gough’s “Daisies”) are the colors and the scope. The colors and details just cannot be reproduced. It always reminds me of when I got glasses for the first time and realized that trees actually have leaves. “Oh, so that’s what they look like.” Scope can also be surprising. For example, van Dyck’s “Equistrian Portrait of Charles I” is huge – taking up most of a wall of an entire gallery, while Durer’s “Saint Jerome” is tiny, not much bigger than a postcard. Again, what fascinated me when looking at paintings are the stories they tell and how the painter tells those stories. Both museums are truly amazing. It’s an incredible experience to see these spectacular paintings up close.

So, to top off a very cultural day, I decided to get tickets for probably one of the most irreverent (and hilarious) shows in the West End, “Avenue Q”. There were just a few folks along with me for this optional outing. Now, this show is close to my heart since it is set in Brooklyn New York, just a few avenues down from where we lived just after Kerrick was born. (We were on Avenue O.) Also, this show started in New York and then moved to London so it has a very American feel to it. It won a Tony for best new musical in 2004 when it opened. And really, anything with singing puppets in it works in my book. I absolutely loved the show. It was funny, fresh and a very original concept. It’s basically a more adult version of Sesame Street. Be warned, some of the humor is a bit crude (although still really funny). It opens with the main puppet singing a song titled, “What do you do with a BA in English?” There’s also the show stopping, “Shagenfreuden” (I may not be spelling that right, but it’s a German word that supposedly means finding humor in the suffering of others.) Anyway, it’s a great show and I and the rest of the group enjoyed it thoroughly.

So, we’ve reached the end of another very full day! I’m greatly enjoying the captions for the first photo, so I decided to try another one. (Although I think the knight is really hard to top.) See what you can all come up with for this one.

Caption me, please!

I look forward to reading your comments. (I’m sorry that I don’t have time to respond to them all, but I’m barely able to fit this in.) If you haven’t scrolled through all the comments for the knight photo, you should do so immediately!

I’ll sign off for now – tomorrow is Covent Garden and the theatre district so I’ll have lots to say! (Unlike usually, when I am positively shy and quiet. Stop laughing.)

I’m going to pop off now (or something like that.) Cheers!

Kerrigan

I had a little trouble with the wi-fi network last night, so this is posted a little later than usual. I guess it’s about 3AM Virginia time, but we are already getting ready to hit the road with another busy and fun filled day in London!

If you all haven’t scrolled through all the comments, you should take a moment to do it. I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite caption thus far - they are all so funny! Thank you for contributing. I’ll see if I can find another photo for captioning today. Anyway, here’s the day seven update.

Today we headed out to Westminster Abbey. The abbey really makes you realize the true meaning of the word “awe-some”. It is truly awe inspiring, both inside and out. And of course, it’s also steeped in every kind of history (British, theatrical, literary, philosophical). Of course, my favorite area of the abbey is the “poets corner” where I was surrounded by monuments and tombs for Shakespeare, David Garrick, Lawrence Oliver, Oliver Goldsmith, Ben Johnson, and so many more of my favorite “poets” of all types (Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, I could go on and on.) Again, no pictures are allowed inside but here’s a partial view from the outside.

From the Abbey, we trekked up to St, Paul’s. Most of us got sandwiches and ate on the steps of St. Paul’s, which was in itself a cool experience. I personally was boxed in by a group of rowdy British schoolchildren, but I didn’t mind so much because they were so cute in their uniforms. And talking back sounds so much nicer when it’s done in a British accent (try it at home sometime.) After lunch, we were surprised with an unexpected concert by a brass band from Zurich! They did some fun songs and we spent a few minutes grooving in the square. Well, I was grooving, and even joined in song by a few of my theatre students. And although many others seemed outwardly reserved, they too were grooving on the inside, I’m sure.

So, like Westminster, St. Paul’s is amazing. You can just feel the history and the power of the space when you walk inside. Although the whole place is beautiful, I thought the greatest part of St. Paul’s is the view from the top of the dome. The only tricky part is getting up there! I was a little worried about getting my childbearing hips through some of the narrower spots, and boy there are a lot of stairs (I can’t remember the exact count but I think it’s over 1,000)! Not a trip for the weak or claustrophobic (or anyone afraid of heights.) There are several spots along the way where you can still get an awesome view but it’s worth the trip all the way up if you can manage it. Once you get up there, you get the most amazing views of the city. I don’t think I’ve used my favorite word yet this entry so, wow!

After that, we had planned to take in a museum, but looking around I realized that we were all pretty bushed. We are all loving London and so excited to be here but we are also all a little bit weary. After a while it’s just too much to take in. In the evening we all did different things, but of course I took a group to go see the musical “Wicked”. If you don’t know the book upon the musical is based (“Wicked” by Gregory MacGuire), it is basically another take on the Oz characters (and the Frank Baum series). It gives you a new perspective on the Wicked Witch of the West. It is a fun and fabulous musical – great story (although the book is better in that it goes into much more detail), amazing effects and great performances. I highly recommend that you read the book and see the musical if you get a chance. It was so much fun. Here’s one of my favorite quotes (said by the “wicked witch” Elphaba to Galinda the Good) “Well we can’t all travel by bubble.”

This is Sarah and I enjoying ice cream during the intermission (or interval, as they call it) of Wicked. Again, a most excellent day. Let’s see . . . I’ll leave you with one quick thought as we need to head out in a minute. I LOVE the fact that museums are nearly all free here. It’s a brilliant idea. They do charge admission for churches though. It’s so nice just to be able to wander in and take a look at a Monet without paying. And while in Britian, always remember to obey all posted signs!

Kerrigan

Today was our visit to Canterbury and it was amazing, wonderful and very dramatic! (See, I didn’t use wow this time.) This was a required visit for the history class and optional for others so some folks went off on other adventures (including, I believe the London Zoo and seeing an open air production of “Twelfth Night”.)

The cathedral is, of course, breathtaking and the town is lovely. It’s so neat to get off the tube and see the castle walls right there in the middle of a busy street. The dramatic tale of murder in the cathedral is right up my alley (and Beth, as per your suggestion, I wanted to get Bas and David to act it out but somehow they managed to elude me.) Here are some pictures of my favorite parts.

A view from the tube of the outer walls of the town

Some of the gang outside the gates

The whole enchilada

The famous murderous spot

We had a bit of trouble with St. Augustine’s Abbey – even though they sold us tickets for it, it ended up being closed. But no worries, there was still lots to do.

More examples of old and new existing together

Here we are traipsing through the town – as a side note, here is how our group works on a logistical level. As some of you who have traveled with David before may know, David (like the cheetah and some other wild animals) can reach speeds up to 100 mph. This is true for pretty much any terrain, whether urban or wilderness – nothing much seems to slow him down. So David leads up the pack of students, Bas does some philosophizing somewhere in the middle of the group and I theoretically bring up the end (but generally I end up racing back and forth like a madwoman trying to make sure everyone stays together and that we don’t lose anyone). Until this trip, I thought that I was a naturally brisk walker; I even have been told that I am a fast walker. But David makes me look like I’m standing still! All in all through, it works out great in the end. And I don’t want to make it seems as if I am not thankful for David heading up the pack (with my sense of direction or lack thereof it would take us twice as long to get anywhere.)

I decided to do the cheesy touristy thing for a little while and I took a group of people through the Canterbury Tales Museum. It was like a wax museum with audio. I love the stories and this was a fun way to experience them. The Miler’s tale and the Wife of Bath’s tale are classics. Of course, this being a tour geared towards families, they did not include some of my favorite parts of the tales, but it was still fairly bawdy and lots of fun!

Zack finds a soul mate and Derek hangs out with Chaucer

After that, we swung by Canterbury Castle which is another amazing spot. The ruins are so neat and I love picturing what life would have been like when the castle was built. Although it was used primarily as a prison, so it might not have been pretty.

The castle gang

Jason goes to jail

Boy, what a day! Once again, I’m ready for bed. I will add in that some people (don’t ask me how they manage this) are experiencing the nightlife in London. I will have to get some of them to fill you in on the pub scene and other cool stuff. And along those lines, (and addressing the comments below) I would love for Bas and David to chime in as well (though since I have spent many a waking hour in close proximity with them, I get to hear from them all the time!) But I would love to have voices other than mine chronicling the trip. I’ll see what I can do to encourage those efforts. And, be assured that I have not done anything nefarious with either gent, they are both alive and well.

One last observation before I sign off, on the topic of “things you never noticed or appreciated until you don’t have them.” There is a decided lack of trash receptacles in this country. Because I am a good citizen and don’t want to litter, I have carried more trash this week and for longer distances than ever before. And what’s really maddening is that you’ll see a little sign every once in a while that says, “Keep London tidy”. Well, gee, I’d love to if you could just give me somewhere to put the trash! Sarah remarked on the teeny tiny size of the trash can in our hotel room as well. I guess that Londoners don’t have trash or else they just hide it really well. Perhaps all true dwellers of London skulk around the city wearing their trash hidden in pockets or the lining of their suits? I don’t know. I will close with a quote from “The King and I” (I’m channeling Yule Brenner right now. Don’t ask me why.)

“Tis a puzzlement.”

Pip, pip cheerio luv!