Italy and France 2007

Above is a photo of the Millennium Bridge across the Thames River, connecting the area next to the Tate Modern Museum (where this was taken) and Globe Theatre with the other side, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Tate Modern is housed in an old power plant facility. It is seven stories tall, and has some very tall rooms.

We went to the Tower of London yesterday. We started early enough to be able to cover it all without being rushed, and it takes a full day to see it all at a comfortable pace. The Bloody Tower was of particular interest since we visited York’s Richard III Museum last week, and have seen Shakespeare’s Richard III in Ashland and Santa Cruz. The Bloody Tower is the place where various killings have occurred over the years. The two young brothers Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, were said to have been smothered to death in this tower on orders of Richard III, although the authenticity of this allegation will never be known. The Tower included other wonderful sights such as a room with implements of torture that included a rack.

The history of the Tower includes a trail of blood, but it also encompasses the history of England. I last visited the Tower in the early 90s, but this visit was much richer and more informative due to the audio tour devices that we rented, as well as films that were shown in the Medieval Castle area.

Here is a photo of the Tower Bridge as viewed from one of the inner walls:

The weather has been a mixture of sun, clouds and rain. The rain has always been brief, and it has kept the temperatures very mild - perfect vacation weather.

We’ve been busy!  The flat we rented for the stay in London is on Berners St., right off Oxford St.  We are within easy walking distance of Soho, Piccadilly, the West End, Marylebone, etc.  It’s a wonderful location, and having the convenience of a kitchen and washer/dryer has been great.

The usual sites have all found a place on the itinerary, but I won’t list them here.  Our travel around town has been either on foot or the Underground.  One thing we have noticed is there are cameras all over London.  It seems like everytime I turned around in a tube station I was staring at myself on a monitor.  Oddly, yesterday at the British Museum, the security was amazingly lax.  No one asked to look in my bag, there were no metal detectors, nothing at all. 

Yesterday, we took a Beatles “Magical Mystery” walking tour and visited all the notable Beatles related sites, including the London Palladium, the recording studio where “Hey Jude” was recorded, Paul’s office (no we didn’t see him) and, of course, the famous Abbey Road Studios and crosswalk.  Check out the photo below:  unrehearsed and unchoreographed!

Today we’re off to visit the infamous Tower of London which has figured prominently in English history.  Perhaps we’ll see the ghosts of the young princes, supposedly murdered by Richard III in his ruthless quest for the throne, or at the very least, we can take a look at the crown jewels!

London is absolutely fabulous!!! This morning we went to a street fair, and there were a million little stalls selling stuff, most places sold like… skirts and dresses. Today I bought… skirts and dresses. Well, a skirt and a dress. Elizabeth, Mom, and I were wandering around random street fairs for a while, while Dad went off and did… I have no idea what Dad was doing… something involving chocolate waffles. We split up for a while, and while Dad went to the Tate Modern Museum (Hello? We’re in London! There are Modern Art Museums at home) we went to Harrod’s! For those of you who don’t know what Harrod’s is, it’s this huge department store. It takes up a whole block, and it was easy to get lost inside. Of course, we couldn’t afford the 12 pound ($24!!!) socks, and especially not the 60,000 pound designer purses (yep, that’s $120 thousand, folks!!!) On our visit to Harrod’s, we did not purchase anything.

Of course I must mention that yesterday, we went to see Comedy of Errors at the New Globe Theatre. They rebuilt the Globe Theatre in the place where the original was. For those of you who have not seen the show: Comedy of Errors involves twin brothers, both named Antipholus. Neither one knows the other exists. The story is very complicated, the two Antipholuses have servants named Dromio, and of course somehow both Dromios look exactly the same, and then Antipholus1 will tell Dromio1 to do something, and then Antipholus2 will tell Dromio2 to do something, and so then Dromio2 will go to Antipholus1, thinking Antipholus1 is Antipholus2, and tell Antipholus1 that he has completed the task that Antipholus2 told him to do, and then Antipholus1 will yell at Dromio2 because he thinks Dromio2 is Dromio1, and is upset that Dromio2 had not done what he had asked Dromio1 to do. Did you get all that? Didn’t think so. Anyways, that goes on for a while, and then at the end they’re like, ‘Oh wow, there’s another one of me! That explains a lot… Yay I am no longer confused.’ Happy ending, huh?

There are five Shakespeare Houses in Stratford and its environs.  We visited Mary Arden’s House and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage on Wednesday afternoon before checking into our B&B and going to see The Tempest.  On Thursday we went into Stratford and visited Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried, as well as the other three houses: Hall’s Croft, Nash’s House & New Place, and Shakespeare’s Birthplace.  All of these were wonderfully low-key with only a few other visitors — until we got to Shakespeare’s Birthplace. The latter included an introductory building, and was mobbed with tourists. We recovered from the shock of this scene with a great lunch at the Mistress Quickly Eatery.

You can get a feeling for the beauty of the Shakespeare Houses in the above picture of the “Knotted Garden” outside of Nash’s House. Beyond the garden is the open site of New Place (Shakespeare’s old home, now destroyed), and the tower at Guild Chapel.

Some folks had told us that Stratford was not all that interesting, and was a tourist trap. However, it all depends on your personal interests, and if you have the time to wander the back streets. Having a rental car allowed us to set our own schedule, and so we were able to wander around and appreciate the very rich history of this town on the edge of Arden Forest. Our family loves Ashland, Oregon, and its Shakespeare Festival, and Stratford is a quaint town like Ashland with much charm, friendly folks, and knowledgeable docents at the various historical spots.

We left York on Tuesday and made our way south to Wellington in Shropshire. Driving on the left was less difficult than I had imagined. The roundabouts posed the most challenge, at least for me. The rental car (“hired car”) was a five speed and the gear shift was on the left. This had been a source of some anxiety before I started driving yet turned out to be no problem at all.

Wellington is the home of my second cousin, Brian Banks. We spent a couple of days with Brian and his wife, Denise, exploring County Shropshire, which has some fascinating history. It is also the home of my maternal ancestors.

Shropshire is where the industrial revolution started when Abraham Darby began smelting iron with inexpensive and abundant coke. It became Britain’s first iron-making center and was, at one time, filled with blast furnaces and smoke. The first rails, wheels, and steam locomotive were produced in Shropshire, as well as a magnificent iron bridge, pictured below, completed in 1779.

Shropshire was also the site of the Coalport China Works which produced some of the most exquisite hand painted bone china in the world. Much of it was never used and saved instead for display as the pieces are truly works of art.

My mother’s family hails from this part of England. I remember letters arriving when I was a young girl from many of the towns we drove through. I had always tried to imagine what the towns and people were like back then, as my mother shared the letters and what she knew of the family history.

Mom never traveled to the UK and so never had the opportunities I have been blessed with. Her life is coming to a close back home and she is now in hospice care, bedridden and only occasionally lucid. I have tried to see Shropshire with her eyes, for her, and in a very real sense she has been with me as I explored the places she held dear.

On to Stratford:

We arrived in Stratford-Upon-Avon late Wednesday afternoon, unloaded the luggage at the Penrose Guest House and headed to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a backstage tour. As tours go it was nothing special with two notable exceptions. The first is that we were allowed on the set for The Tempest which was to be performed that evening. It was great fun to view the theatre from the actors’ perspective.

Even better, as our group was leaving the stage, Patrick Stewart walked on for a sound check. Our guide moved us along as she said Patrick wouldn’t want to be gawked at (which we certainly would have done). I was at the tail end of the group and was looking back toward the stage when Patrick, having completed the sound check, strode purposefully toward us, head down, hands in pockets. He looked up, saw the group, turned on his heel and went back the way he’d come. That was absolutely the best part of the tour!

We were in the audience later for The Tempest. It has been said that the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is the best Shakespeare company in the world and after the performance we saw I am inclined to agree. The opening scene with the ship in the storm was amazing. The audience viewed the action through a porthole into the radio room of the ship while the tempest raged outside; created by a multimedia display of waves crashing, wind, etc.

This was a dark Tempest, staged on a barren, arctic landscape. Arial was a ghostly figure, hunched and pale, rather than a charming sprite. Best of all, was Patrick’s Prospero. He mined the dark side of the character, exhibiting the rage and spitefulness often missing from some of the portrayals I have seen. For me, it made the closing scenes of redemption and forgiveness all the more powerful.