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.

The Dreaded Tower of London

The educational portion of the London trip began the first thing Monday morning. We were booked on THE MAGIC OF LONDON tour, which featured the opportunity to see the Crown Jewels with the first group of the day, escorted to the site by a Yeoman Warder. The magnificent jewels cannot be shown here as all photography is prohibited within the chamber. But I had to include our Yeoman Warder, who told us proudly that he had recently joined an exclusive club that I have belonged to for over six years now. He is a brand new grandfather.

But he taught me plenty. For example, the notorious Tower, dreadful to those of us familiar with works such as RICHARD III, was not simply a torture prison. In fact, this building was the major castle of the monarchy for nearly 500 years. Built by William the Conqueror around 1080, it is nearly one thousand years old. That was among the things I never knew. And the power of time, the power of age and continuity, truly struck me as I visited there.

Of course, it was also a location of terror and death. No interior torture chambers are available to view, but the Traitor's Gate is. We will see it in the next post.

A poem:

ONE MILLENNIUM

One thousand years is a long time for anyone, especially an American;
Next year we have plans to return to Washington and travel once again to
Mount Vernon, for instance, where George Washington live more than two
Centuries ago, a truth that inspires awe and respect to innocent specatators.
Today we visited the Tower of London, built by William the Conqueror,
Five centuries was the seat of royal power in London, built around 1080,
Nearly ten centuries ago, nearly five times the age of Mount Vernon.
Respect is still natural and still lives in our hearts for Washington, but
Perspective makes the age of this London monument truly awesome.

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.