Coldstream Guards

All the television talk about the upcoming British royal marriage sent me back into the archives for a look at these guards, during a changing ceremony at Windsor Castle, 2009.

London Magazine Cover

Recently finished my retrospective look at the Europe trip, and as I have posted earlier, I am publishing my newest issue of TRAVELING Magazine, my original single-page, cover-only collector's edition. Today we see the London issue, including the side trip to Paris.

Image-wise, my memories revolve around Windsor Castle, reputedly the favorite home of Queen Elizabeth II, see here in a view that features the family residence area. Towering over the Castle is a Redcoat-clad, Bearskin-hat wearing Scots Guard on duty at Windsor as well as the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. An Eiffel Tower elevator pass refers to the Chunnel trip and whirlwind tour of Paris.

Another TRAVELING Magazine in the next post, featuring the Baltic Sea Cruise.

Statues in the Park

Across the street from Westminster and across from Parliament, a small square park is surrounded by whizzing cars, taxis and buses. And in the otherwise empty park are several statues. We saw the striking image of Winston Churchill, a man of iron commemorated in iron as it seems, in an earlier post. We went by for another look before leaving London.

Nearby is a more traditional statue of King George V, the father of the reigning Queen Elizabeth II. A close look will tell you that a bird had not treated for late King kindly. That stripe coming down the side of his head is the proof of that.

After that final turn through the park, we went back to the hotel, finished packing, and were prepared for a pleasant ride to the cruise ship dock at Dover. "Will we see the White Cliffs?" I asked our driver. "Oh, yes, they are right there," he answered.

Oh, yes, they were. They are. And you will see in the next post.

Westminster Abbey

Five days had passed by in the proverbial flash, four in and around London and one in Paris. On Friday morning we needed to pack and be ready for our car to pick us up at 10:00 AM. Time to do anything interesting? Of course.

We walked by Westminster Abbey twice and we drove by it about six times earlier in the week. By Tuesday we knew we did not have time to stand in line for the tours of the famed edifice. Tours begin at 9:30, far too late to help us on Friday. But as I talked to our Stratford tour guide, I discovered that a regular Church service is held at 8:00 AM daily. So there we were, at the door, waiting to attend the service.

A very positive experience, one that I would repeat on another trip, the actual service took about 35 minutes and it was held in a side chapel. That meant that we would have to walk through the great sanctuary, passing by the grave of Rudyard Kipling and the monument to Shakespeare. On the way out we saw additional memorials and even took the time to light a candle, which let us look some more.

The awe-inspiring Abbey will be on our tour list next time. But so will the Church service!

Rusty Tub Ring

No one bathes in these historic baths, but the water still flows. And in an adjoining restaurant, anyone can stop by and take a free glass of the water. It is filled, of course, with minerals and is supposedly healthy. It tasted a bit iron-like, nearly rusty, to me. But I had seen the walls you see here and that taste was likely in my mind.

After the Romans left and the baths fell into disrepair, the old Roman aqueducts and pipes still carried the water into, through, and out of the old abandoned building. But over several centuries, the water would become plugged up and eventually backed up as high as you see it on the wall. It was discussed whether the walls should be cleaned, but the decision was that this is part of history as well. I certainly agree with the decision.

Next post will visit Westminster Abbey, just five minutes' walk from the Jolly Hotel St. Eames, a wonderful home in London, for our last stop in Britain. Meanwhile, a song to share. Roger Miller, the King of the Road, who also wrote classics like Dang Me and Chug-A-Lug, had a minor hit in 1965 that ran through my mind much of the week in the UK. Catchy, isn't it, even without the tune and the beat?

ENGLAND SWINGS

England swings like a pendulum do,

Bobbies on bicycles two by two,

Westminster Abbey, the Tower of Big Ben,

The rosy red cheeks of the little children.

Now if you huff and puff

And you finally save enough

Money if you take your family

On a trip across the sea

Take a tip

Before you take a trip

Let me tell you where to go,

Go to England, Oh,

England swings like a pendulum do,

Bobbies on bicycles two by two,

Westminster Abbey, the Tower of Big Ben,

The rosy red cheeks of the little children.

Windsor Castle

Our trip to Windsor Castle was a pleasant bus ride ending at what is reputedly Queen Elizabeth's favorite official castle. We found out that the monarch has three major official residences including Windsor and Buckingham, and that she has three more homes that are the property of her and her family and thus personal residences. But I had no idea how interesting and historic that the visit to Windsor would be. At Buckingham Palace, for instance, tourists are out on the periphery, on the sidewalk actually, much as they are at the White House. But at Windsor, while the extensive buildings that include the residences are not accessible, much of the grounds is open for touring, for walking, for enjoying the depth of the history. Whatever a person might believe about the history and future of monarchy, the spread of history is undeniable.

After all, this bulwark was built originally under the reign of William the Conqueror more than nine hundred years ago. More views of this classic fortress in the next post.

Oxford University

On the way to Stratford we had a nice stop at Oxford. While the tour members who are Harry Potter fans were excited, I neither read the novels nor watch the films. Still, it was a nice morning's stop, fully steeped in British history and tradition. And anyone who spent a career as a teacher must feel awed to be present at one of the great universities of the world.

Tower Bridge, not London Bridge

Among the interesting things to learn in London is that the London Bridge, the one that replaced the old London Bridge now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is NOT the bridge most people think. It is a bridge or two down from the Tower Bridge, seen here, which is also NOT named for the Towers you see rising from the Thames.

Rather, it is the bridge that leads directly to the Tower of London, on the north bank and just to the left of the bridge as depicted here. And none of the bridges in London appears to be in danger of falling down.

Another location of wonder on our trip, visited just before tea at Harrod's (loved the scones!) was St. Paul's Cathedral. The central dome as seen above is just one of many jaw-dropping vistas in this, known more as the People's Cathedral. It is not to be missed.

Next post is on toward Stratford.

Certainly Not the Queen

We had a lunch break that allowed for a quick walk to Trafalgar Square. Along the way we saw a horse-mounted guard who guards a castle that is no longer a castle (but the guard is a popular photo opportunity!) and we saw the Queen. Well, certainly NOT the Queen, but an actress playing a reasonable facsimile.

Filming was taking place for some television or movie scenes and I was quickly shooed off. But my disarming 'Sorry, silly tourist' look worked as it always does.

Buckingham & Downing Street

We were rushed from the Tower by our Tour Guide, as we were scheduled to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, a short rainfall cancelled the event, though it could have been staged, with our guide suggesting there had been no rain and no cancellations and a Monday morning was vulnerable to a quick cut. We did see the Palace, though, which was quite close to our hotel, and did see a changing later in the week at Windsor Castle.

Buckingham Palace looked quite splendid in the sun. Despite the necessary security fences, all present were able to see the building and get pictures of the Queen's balcony, the guards on duty, and the gardens around the building.

The same need for security means that Downing Street, where the Prime Minister leaves at the famed #10, is no longer open to tourist traffic. The dead-end street is gated and closed to the public, so this is the best I will get as a view to #10.

Our guide did add an interesting note, hard to comprehend by an American so used to the deadly opposition of the political parties. When Gordon Brown became PM, succeeding Tony Blair, he did NOT move into #10. These men, members of opposing parties, had swapped living addresses long before. It appears that Brown, with a larger family, swapped places with Blair for the convenience of the families. A nice touch of cooperation among opponents that might be lost on an American audience loving the nasty interaction of political enemies.

The Traitor's Gate

The dreaded Traitor's Gate, as seen from both sides here, was the gate that brought the most famed prisoners to the place where they would generally be executed. Seen from the bridge side (outside), a boat would bring the prisoner under the bridge and into the shelter of the Tower directly from the Thames. Seen from the gate side (inside the Tower), the boats would be drawn up to these ominous gates and rowed to the inner edge, where they would climb a concrete staircase on the way to their imprisonment. It is the most ominous portion of a visit to the Tower on a bright sunny Monday morning.

Ominous due to the difference in the meaning of 'traitor' to an American as compared to a subject of the historical Kings (and Queens) of England. A traitor, to an American, is one who has conspired to overthrow the lawful government and is a felon deserving punishment. While the words would be the same in British history, when the government is the reigning monarch, the actual working definition of 'traitor' might be anyone who irritated the monarch. Considering the names our Yeoman Warder mentioned, anyone who crossed Henry VIII or Bloody Mary or Richard III would have been legally considered a traitor and would have been executed. A chilling bit of history.

Magic of the Globe

Our arrival in London early Sunday morning, followed by a full day of sightseeing and flying on the London Eye, was capped by something special for a retired English teacher. I had procured tickets online at face value for perfect upper level center stage tickets at the Globe Theatre. We left O'Hare at 6:00 PM Saturday and were at the Globe by 6:00 PM Sunday -- only 18 hours later due to the time zones we had passed through.

ROMEO & JULIET was performed in traditional format, though not traditional casting (which would have required all males on stage). The play was performed in a solid, straightforward manner including several interactions with the groundlings standing on the verge of the thrust stage. Ticket price for the groundlings is always just 5 pounds, about $9. Following the conclusion of the play, the cast members all participated in a dance.

While all the actors were finely cast and did a great job, for this American audience member, the star of the show was the theatre, from the traditional thatch roof above to the cobblestones below. My mind knows that this recreation was built to modern building codes in the 1990s, but my heart felt that some of those stones were ones walked on by William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage and the rest more than 400 years ago. The atmosphere was magic, the play was wonderful, and our first day in London was a major success.

Maybe it was not the stones. Maybe the feeling was more personal. A poem about the feeling of where I walked:

FOOTPRINTS AROUND THE GLOBE

This particular Globe Theatre was built some four hundred years later;
The skyline and the vista from the site is completely different.
Modern food preparation and sanitation are totally reinvented;
Fashions worn by the playgoers are radically different in every detail.
Perhaps a few of the stones we walked on were here, but most were not,
But there was still a sense of walking in footprints around the Globe.
Those belonging to Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare.

Like Meeting a Friend

It was indeed like meeting a friend on the road and far from home. And the fact that we had never seen any of these people had no effect on the feeling.

We were walking toward Parliament and passing Westminster Cathedral on Sunday, July 5, at about 11:00 AM. Long lines were waiting to enter Westminster, and several groups were either headed into or out of the Cathedral. And then I noticed the EF tour guides shepherding their groups toward the tour or taking pictures of happy young people coming out of the building.

I have never been on a trip with EF Educational Tours (yet), but my son, Eric Beato, is EF's Director of Communications in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also writes and edits Following the Equator, EF's educational travel blog that represents the company quite well. You could check out that blog at http://equator.eftours.com/

And he will be pleased to know how positive an impression the EF groups in London made on me -- and how much they reminded me of home!

Churchill, Of Course . . . & Lincoln

On our first walk we came across a small statue park with several British statesman on display, literally across the street from Westminster and from Parliament. A great view of Churchill, recognizable from a distance in a stern walking pose.

But in an adjacent shady area on the next block, I found a statue I had come to look for. A replica of one I have known from my youth, when I lived in walking distance from Lincoln Park, I often visited the St. Gaudens' work of Honest Abe standing before a chair. It was a pleasant touch of America found downtown in London.

Look, Kids: Big Ben, Parliament

It was Sunday morning, July 5, and my friends and family at home thought it was still 5:00 AM. I knew the time was 11:00 AM and we headed out on our first walk.

Since our outstanding travel agent Marc Tonti, of Tonti's Classic Travel & Tours, booked us into the Jolly Hotel St. Ermin's on Caxton Street, we were literally a five minute walk from Westminster Abbey, perhaps six minutes to Parliament. And we were armed with tickets for the London Eye, the major attraction built for the Millennium, so European Vacation's Clark Griswold has not seen it as yet.

What a feeling to be in London. What a feeling to be in Europe. What a feeling to have tickets for ROMEO & JULIET that very night. More London adventure on the next post.

EUROPE!

Back for about 27 hours from the Europe vacation with no discernible jet lag -- just this feeling of being a bit sluggish in going about the business of a few yard chores, a few errands, a trip out for pizza, catching up on the newspapers. Unless that sluggish feeling IS the jet lag?

So here we are, back in the Chicago suburbs and getting started in reliving the adventure. In the series of upcoming posts, the images and memories will reflect on my first view of Europe, a trip that visited 8 countries in 18 days, generated more than 7,600 images to sort and prepare, and also resulted in 31 poems so far. All 8 & 18 will be included along with some of the poetry and many of the images (not all, I promise!) and several of the memories. I hope you enjoy what turns up daily in this space.

SPECIAL NOTE to my new friends: many of the great memories of the travel revolve around the wonderful, friendly people we met. To my friends from North and South Carolina, from New York and from Oklahoma, from Seattle and San Francisco and San Diego and Arizona and many other states, and to my friends from Manchester and from Wales, thank you for being a part of my memories. You made it special and if you expressed an interest in my pictures, please attach a comment or send me an email and let me know if you like the images. If there is a particular thing you saw and you mention it to me, if I have a photo I will include it and if you want me to email you some pictures, all you have to do is ask.

Since most of the new friends listed above were met aboard the beautiful Eurodam, please be patient as I rewind my visits to London and Paris which began Sunday, July 5. The cruise images will follow!

SEVEN MILES IN THE SKY

Seven miles in the sky jetting toward the sunrise on the shortest night
Of my life, literally, arriving four or five time zones ahead of schedule,
Most everyone settled in for thirty or forty winks, whatever we could.
Using my iPod for white noise blocked out the talking and the crying baby,
Refusing to open my eyes blocked out the light from six or seven televisions.
Nothing could block out the aroma, though, of the man across the aisle,
Settling down for his nap, and squirting Purell sanitizer onto his hands. Twice.
I assume he generally dreams of eating and must be prepared.