Rick and Rita Foulkes, 2019
It all started with Abbey Road
Studios. After a LONG stretch working Eight Days a Week, Rita was in desperate
need for a vacation. She learned from the book of faces that Abbey
Road Studios would be opening its doors for two weekends in August for a
lecture about the history of the studios and the Beatles as they recorded there
in legendary Studio 2! London was secured as the initial destination
for the trip. Sophia, Rita’s first cousin Christi’s daughter, an
Anglophile, a Harry Potter blogger on Instagram with over 20,000 followers
(theleakycauldron), and a Beatlemaniac was an obvious choice to accompany Rick
and Rita to the UK. Sophia’s best friend Gabrielle, also a
Beatlemaniac, was the perfect addition to our group of Beatles and Harry Potter
nerds. For those of you that know Christi’s “love“ of travel and her “comfort”
with being across the pond from Sophia, of course I asked her and Mike first
for their blessings before inviting Sophia.
Planning the vacation was therapy
for Rita between endless work duties. In the process, we learned that August
also brought International Beatles Week to Liverpool! Edinburgh was out and
Liverpool was in. Rita also wanted to include hiking and nature so Wales and
the Lake District of Northern England were included. The Cotswolds and Bath
were added for the English countryside and small village charm as well as the
Roman Baths at the latter. A day trip to Oxford was a must as Sophia plans to
study there someday and Harry Potter was partially filmed there. The final stop
of York was added as it was on the way back to London and would bring a
Medieval English walled city into our experiences and was another location that
inspired J.K. Rowling as she wrote about places like Diagon Alley in her books.
As Rita always chooses Airbnb’s or Inn’s that are free to cancel, when we
decided to substitute 3 days in Paris for Wales and one of the Lake District
days, it was no problem to add the City of Lights and a trip through the
Chunnel to our itinerary.
August 13: The
girls arrived in Chicago while Rick and Rita were at work. Their cousins picked
them up from the airport and Gabi and Sophia visited with Gina, Marybeth, Uncle
Richie and Auntie Gloria. Rita and Rick picked them up and headed back to pack.
Like Sophia, Gabi is an animal lover so Stormy was in her glory with the
attention. We also learned that Gabi’s favorite Beatle is George, just like
Sophia and Rita’s. This was going to be a great
trip! Rita packed quickly and worked well into the night completing
patient charts, emails, letters of recommendations, etc. and was thrilled that
in a few hours, they would be off.
August 14: After
an uneventful flight, and Rita reading and enjoying The Glass Castle,
we arrived to London via American Airlines/ British Airways’ morning direct
flight from Chicago. This was a great way to fly, as we were able to get on
British time straight away without jet lag! We took an Uber as we
arrived late in London’s evening. We stayed in the Borough of Islington in the basement
apartment of a beautiful home on a tree-lined street. Giovanna and
her family were our hosts. Giovanna is originally from Siena, Italy.
She works from home and her husband is a musician that teaches in a nearby
institute. Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) used to live down the
street and her father socialized with our hosts. Our apartment had two
bedrooms and a small “kitchen” area. It was spotless, comfortable and had a
washer and dryer for our use in our basement area. The only disadvantage for
four people traveling together was that the bathroom was in our bedroom suite
so that Sophia and Gabi had to walk through our bedroom to use the
bathroom. For us, this was not a problem as the four of us traveled
very well together. The Highbury and Islington Tube station was 800
meters from the home, so very convenient to get around all of London. Highbury
Fields, a beautiful park is nearby. There are many shops and
businesses walking distance from the house as Giovanna outlines below. Since
we arrived so late, we ordered Chinese take-out from Uber Eats, started our
routine of nighttime showers for the girls/ daytime showers for us, and
eventually fell off to sleep.
AirBnB Address: 36 Canonbury Park South,
London, N1 2FN, United Kingdom
Giovanna’s recommendations for things to do
nearby: https://www.airbnb.com/s/guidebooks?refinement_paths%5B%5D=%2Fguidebooks%2F455496
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August
15: We had a leisurely
morning with breakfast at a local French café.
We walked around beautiful Islington, including the Highbury Fields Park
where we saw our first “Zitch dog.” Gabi
had us finding and calling, “Zitch dog” whenever we saw those of the four
legged, canine variety. We took an Uber to the first holy grail of the trip, to
the 2pm Warner Brothers Studio Harry Potter Tour. I defer to Sophia to explain this wonderful experience,
as I could not do it justice. We were
able to view actual movie sets, recreated scenes from movies, costumes, face
masks and makeup demonstrations, Dobby, Hagrid, Nearly Headless Nick, original
artwork made for the movie, Dumbledore’s office, Dobby, ride on broomsticks if
we chose to, sit on the Hogwarts Express, and did I say Dobby? This was a must
for those that love the Harry Potter movies and for true “Potter Heads.” We spent about 2.5 hours there before
catching the bus to the Tube back into London (the studio is in the suburbs).
We ate at Mildred’s Vegan in Camden and then set off to
explore the Camden Markets (https://www.camdenmarket.com/). We
finally found, and posed with the statue of Amy Winehouse and celebrated her
all too brief existence in the world. We
took the Tube to Westminster and posed by the Abbey and found that Big Ben was
covered in scaffolding.
For those detail-oriented people, Big Ben is actually the
largest of the 5 bells inside the clock tower. The clock still functions with
Victorian mechanisms and is hand-wound three times daily. Although partially
damaged during WW2, the clock continued to run accurately during the Blitz and through
to the present time. The Clock Tower was
renamed the Queen Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Elizabeth II. When completed in 1859 the
clock was the largest and most accurate four faced striking and chiming clock
in the world.
We took the tube back to Islington and fell off to sleep.
Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wMVUyr3sVrnWNUgZ7
August
16:
Happy birthday Claudia! We woke up and had a delicious breakfast at
New London Café in Islington. This was
incredibly yummy food with great service! After breakfast, we took the Tube to
Westminster and met our guide in Parliament Square for the Harry Potter walking tour of London: https://ukparliament.seetickets.com/tour/houses-of-parliament-english-guided-tour/calendar/2
Some of the highlights of the tour:
·
Westminster
Tube (closest tube to the Ministry of Magic as seen in The Order of the
Phoenix)
·
Cecil’s Court (aka
Diagon Alley)
·
St. Paul’s Cathedral (Geometrical
Staircase as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban)
·
Godwin’s Court (aka
Knockturn Alley)
·
The Palace Theatre
(home to the ‘The Cursed Child’ – the 8th story in the Harry Potter franchise)
·
Horseguards Avenue
(Ministry of Magic Staff Entrance as seen in Deathly Hallows Part 1)
·
Millennium Bridge
(rebuilt after the attack by the Death Eaters! (then a walk past Shakespeare’s
globe)
·
Scotland Yard
Place/Horse Guards Avenue (Ministry of Magic Visitors entrance as seen in
the Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows Part 1)
·
Trafalgar
Square (Location of the final Harry Potter film premiere)
·
Downing
Street (Muggle Prime Minister’s Office and location of communication
between the Muggle PM and the wizarding world)
Our tour ended at Borough Market (used as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron (as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Our tour ended at Borough Market (used as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron (as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Our tour guide, Alan Anthony, was from Liverpool. His family owned a pub, The Grapes that was
frequented by the Beatles.
He was a complete nerd (in the best possible sense) that
loved Harry Potter, the Beatles, and the Marvel movies. Sophia was selected, based on her
encyclopedic knowledge of all things Harry Potter and her prominence as an
Instagram HP blogger (theleakycauldron, 20.2K followers), to conjure the
Expecto Patronum spell to protect us from Dementors. Sophia loves being the center of attention
and is NOT SHY AT ALL, so this was immensely fun for her (do you detect some
sarcasm here?).
Sophia was able to pose for a picture at the Leaky Cauldron
(Muggle name, Tacos El Pastor) in the Borough Market (http://boroughmarket.org.uk/) where
we also had our first fish and chips for lunch.
After lunch we walked to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater (https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/) for the
2pm performance of Twelfth Night. We had
box seats and a great view of the stage.
It rained on the Groundlings so we were grateful to be under the roof. Twelfth
Night is a Shakespeare farce that deals with mistaken identity and plays with
gender roles. We had seen a production
in Central Park, NYC in the 1980’s with Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum and
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. This production was wonderful and took gender
roles even further with a man playing Michelle Pfeiffer’s role. The cast also
played live musical instruments from the day during the intro, interludes and
outro.
After the play we walked 5 minutes along the Thames to a
repurposed power plant, the Tate Modern Museum.
We viewed an amazing exhibit, Olafur Elliasson in Real Life (https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/olafur-eliasson/bsl-tour-olafur-eliasson-real-life ).
From the Tate Website
above:
Many works are a result of
the artist’s research into complex geometry, motion patterns, and his interest
in colour theory. All but one of the works have never been seen in the UK
before. Inside the exhibition is an area which explores Eliasson’s deep
engagement with society and the environment. Discover what an artist’s
perspective can bring to issues of climate change, energy, migration as well as
architecture.
Sophia and Gabi especially
loved an immersive piece requiring one to walk through a pure white fog
corridor with only a vague ability to see in front. Rita really loved the
experiential room where each body created a colourful moving shape. The artist is a perfect example of art truly
helping society as he has created inventions (like his solar flash light) that have
served disadvantaged populations across the world.
We enjoyed the top of the
Tate’s café with a gorgeous 360-degree view of London.
We stopped at Le Pain Quotidien
for snacks and drinks and then walked along the Thames to the London Eye, the
world’s tallest cantilevered observation Ferris wheel (https://www.londoneye.com/). Rita wavered at first but then
bravely entered the capsule and enjoyed the views.
After the London Eye, we
took the Tube to London Bridge and walked to the The George Inn (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/george-inn), the last remaining galleried inn in
London. Among others, Charles Dickens consumed food and drink there and referred
to the George in Little Dorrit.
After the George, we took
the Tube headed for Islington and Karaoke.
On the tube, we met Ash, originally from Ireland, and now living in
Clapham, London. She came to our acquaintance as she was falling asleep and passing
out on the Tube. Her Tube neighbor woke
her up and Ash departed the Tube at our stop.
We had to hold her up, as she was about to fall onto the tracks due to
her unsteady gait. In talking with her, Gabi asked her if she had been drinking
water. Ash replied, “Does it look like
I’ve been drinking water?” She
maintained her sense of humor in her inebriation. Her attempts to reach her
friends and boyfriend went unanswered.
She was well enough to take an Uber home so we summonsed a driver and
made sure she made it home to Clapham. We
then went on to a local Islington Pub and got a Karaoke room. Gabi wowed us with her beautiful voice and
renditions of “On my Own” and other musical theater numbers. Different parties of drunken lads and lasses
joined us at various times in the evening.
We had to pick up yet another young man and hand him over to his friends
to deliver safely home. He lost his
glasses in the process. Whew. What a day!
Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JiWSSi6CycNEf6Pd6
August
17: Happy Birthday Christi! We had a relaxing
morning and then set off on the Tube to Fortnum and Mason for High Tea. We enjoyed it as before but the service was
surprisingly lax. We shopped a little afterward for tea to bring home and then
set off on the Tube to St. John’s Wood, the station nearest Abbey Road
Studios! There is a cute Beatle shop and
café at the Tube exit where we picked up some Beatles related paraphernalia.
After our obligatory crossing of the famous intersection and posing for
pictures, we joined Judy and Julie who had just flown in from Chicago,
Beatlefest friends from Chicago, to wait in line to enter the 2nd
Holy Grail of our trip, Abbey Road Studios. Abbey Road Studios (https://www.abbeyroad.com/)
remains a busy working music studio for both recording artists and movie scores
thus it is not generally open to the public.
This year Abbey Road was opened for two weekends in August to host a
lecture by the authors of “Recording the Beatles” (http://www.curvebender.com/rtb.html) about
the history of Abbey Road Studios, formally, EMI. The lecture took place in Studio 2, forever
immortalized by footage of the Beatles and George Martin as they recorded their
album masterpieces. Our entire trip was planned around this lecture so
anticipation was high and we were not disappointed in the least. I could not have imagined sitting at the
soundboard or playing one of the actual pianos utilized by all four Beatles on
various tracks, including the final chord of “A Day in the Life.” The lecture
was fascinating and covered the origins of the studio, strategically placed in
a quiet area of London so it could avoid the sounds of trains and other city
noises as they captured the artists of the day on early sound recordings. In
1931, the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbian Gramophone Company to
form Electronic and Musical Industries Ltd., or E.M.I. For the lecture,
original equipment was brought out for our view, including old pianos, four
track machines, and microphones. This equipment is always available for folks
that rent the studio to record. We
learned that it costs only about $2000 per day to rent the studio (Go Fund Me
page for the Elementary Penguins?). We learned so many anecdotes about
performers past and present and specifically great details about how various
Beatles tracks were recorded. For example,
Paul tapped on a book for the percussion on Mother Nature’s Son and Yer Blues
was recorded crammed into a side room off the soundboard to get that amazing
raw sound. We walked in the famous Echo
chamber used on many tracks and listened to recordings made where we sat. We all cried during various parts of the
presentations and while we explored the rooms. This truly was a highlight of
our entire trip and one that we will always remember and cherish.
After composing ourselves, we walked to Paul’s St. John’s
Wood home and visualized his many walks to and from Abbey Road Studios. We then
hopped the Tube to Carnaby Street for dinner at Dishoom. On the way we viewed the club, Bag O’ Nails,
where Linda met Paul, and Jimi Hendrix and other legends of the 60’s hung out.
Dishoom was delicious as usual and Carnaby Street invokes all the fashion and
excitement of swinging London in the 60’s.
After dinner we headed off for a drink at the Punch Room.
Gabi and Sophia had drinks in Tikki cups.
We then went back to Islington and fell into bed. I dreamt of Abbey Road all night!
Link to Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6NWo7YBfVNrdxZjVA
August 18:
We took the train
to spend the day in Oxford. Upon
arrival, we met our guide from Footprints to take a walking tour. Oxford
University is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, with
evidence of teaching dating back to 1096.
It is the second oldest University in continuous operation (University
of Bologna is first). The University is made up of 39 constituent colleges. Our
guide was a graduate student originally from South Africa that also had family
in Chicago. She toured us around various
colleges, the Bodleian Library, the Lion door and nearby lamppost that inspired
C.S. Lewis to write the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. We learned of the friendship
between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
Many of the buildings looked like Hogwarts and scenes from the Harry
Potter movies were filmed in Oxford. After our tour we ate at Turf Tavern, the
pub where Bill Clinton apparently smoked but “did not inhale” weed, Oscar Wilde
drank and Ernest Hemingway drank more. We also spent time with swans, ducks and
geese along the river and watched Crewe teams compete. We ate dinner and caught
the train back to London. We did laundry
and packed for Paris.
August
19:
We caught an early train from London to Paris going through the tunnel under
the English Channel. We saw beautiful English and French countryside along the
way with many cow and sheep sightings. After we arrived at Gare du Lyon, we
caught an Uber to the Jardin du Luxembourg, grabbed some sandwiches, and
picnicked in the beautiful garden.
Afterward, we checked into our very cool Airbnb in the 11th
arrondisement, near the Place de La Bastille. That evening we walked our
neighborhood and ate dinner locally.
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1hpw4B5WGZTsCUQ48
August
20: We
set off early and walked to the Père Lachaise cemetery for a
guided tour. Our guide was fabulous and provided us with a history of the
cemetery, Paris, and of many of the people buried there. Here is a quick
description from the website:
The Père Lachaise cemetery takes its name from King Louis
XIV's confessor, Father François d'Aix de La Chaise. It is the most prestigious
and most visited necropolis in Paris. Situated in the 20th arrondissement of
Paris, it extends 44 hectares and contains 70,000 burial plots. The cemetery is
a mix between an English park and a shrine. All funerary art styles are
represented: Gothic graves, Haussmanian burial chambers, ancient mausoleums,
etc. On the green paths, visitors cross the burial places of famous men and
women; Honoré de Balzac, Guillaume Apollinaire, Frédéric Chopin, Colette,
Jean-François Champollion, Jean de La Fontaine, Molière, Yves Montand, Simone
Signoret, Jim Morrison, Alfred de Musset, Edith Piaf, Camille Pissarro,
Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Oscar Wilde are just a few. (https://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum-monument/71470/Cimetiere-du-Pere-Lachaise)
The French officials approved
the transformation of 17 hectares of Mont-Louis into the Cemetery of the East
in 1803 and the work was given to neoclassical architect Alexandre-Theodore
Brongniart. He would use English-style gardens as inspiration, designing the cemetery with uneven
paths adorned with diverse trees and plants and lined with carved graves. He
anticipated various funerary monuments but only one was finally built: the
grave of the Greffulhe family, in a refined neo-Gothic style.
At the time of its opening,
the cemetery was considered to be situated too far from the city and attracted
few funerals. Moreover, many Roman Catholics refused
to have their graves in a place that had not been blessed by the Church. In 1804, the Père
Lachaise contained only 13 graves. Consequently, the administrators devised a
marketing strategy to improve the cemetery's stature: in 1804, with great
fanfare, they organized the transfer of the remains of Jean de La Fontaine and Molière to the new
resting place. The next year there were 44 burials, with 49 during 1806, 62
during 1807 and 833 during 1812. Then, in another great spectacle of 1817, the
purported remains of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil were also transferred to the cemetery along with
their monument's canopy made from fragments of the abbey of Nogent-sur-Seine. By
tradition, lovers or lovelorn singles leave letters at the crypt in tribute to
the couple or in hope of finding true love.
This strategy achieved its
desired effect: people began clamoring to be buried among the famous citizens.
Records show that the Père Lachaise contained more than 33,000 graves in 1830.
Père Lachaise was expanded five times: in 1824, 1829, 1832, 1842 and 1850.
Presently there are more than 1 million bodies buried there, and many more in
the columbarium,
which holds the remains of those who had requested cremation.[5]
The Communards' Wall (Mur des Fédérés), located within the cemetery, was
the site where 147 Communards, the last defenders of the workers' district
of Belleville, were shot on May 28, 1871
when Paris refused to capitulate to the Prussians in the brief Franco-Prussian War.[6] That day was the last of the "Bloody Week" (Semaine
Sanglante), during which the Paris Commune was crushed.[7] Today, the site is a traditional rallying point for
members of the French political Left. Ironically, Adolphe Thiers, the French president who directed "Bloody Week," is
also interred in the cemetery, where his tomb has occasionally been subject to
vandalism. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery)
The defenders of the workers,
the Communards, inspired Karl Marx. The Communards believed in cooperative care
for all citizens and gave women the right to vote years before they would
attain it in France and much of the rest of the world.
During relatively recent
times, the Père Lachaise has adopted a standard practice of issuing 30-year
leases on gravesites, so that if a lease is not renewed by a family, the
remains can be removed,
space made for a new grave, and the overall deterioration of the cemetery
minimized. Abandoned remains are boxed, tagged and moved to Aux Morts ossuary, still in the
Père Lachaise cemetery.[19]
Plots can be bought in
perpetuity or for 50, 30 or 10 years, the last being the least expensive
option. Even for the case of mausoleums and chapels, coffins are usually below
ground.
Although some sources incorrectly estimate the
number of interred as 300,000 in Père Lachaise, according to the official
website of the city of Paris, one million people have been buried there to
date.[5] Along with the stored remains in the Aux Morts ossuary,
the number of human remains exceeds 2–3 million. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery)
The grave of Jim
Morrison will soon see its lease expired.
Jim’s grave has been the biggest “trouble maker” in the cemetery with
fans having sex on his grave, defacing other headstones with arrows indicating
the direction of his grave, leaving beer bottles on the grave, using drugs on
his grave and other challenging behaviors.
The grave is now behind barriers and has a close circuit camera on
it. Will anyone renew the lease? Will the lizard king remain in Paris?
Other facts from
our guide:
Moliere was an
actor and writer for the King. He wrote the Tortoise and the Hare and the Raven
and the Fox. To this day, all French children can sing the Raven and the
Fox. This fact was used later to detect
British spies as they could not recite or sing the Raven and the Fox. Acting
was considered evil and actors had to repent. Moliere almost died on stage. He
never received his final right of confession and thus died as a heretic. His
wife begged Louis XIV to bury him at Père Lachaise. He
was buried at night. He likely was
removed from this present grave marker to the heretic pit.
Parmentier was originally a pharmacist that
was captured during the Franco-Prussian war. While in captivity, he was forced
to eat potatoes, a food that was known to the French only as hog feed. He discovered the potato’s merits and
eventually was able to save the French from famine by finally convincing them
that the food was safe and desirable to eat. Many French dishes with potatoes
contain his name and potato plants ring his grave in the cemetery.
After our wonderful tour we set off for lunch
and then to the Musée d'Orsay, a museum in Paris, France,
on the Left Bank of
the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway
station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to
1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses
the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionistmasterpieces
in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie
nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986. It
is one of the largest art
museums in Europe. Musée d'Orsay had 3.177 million visitors in 2017. (From Wikipedia). We loved the exhibit on Berthe Morisot. Below is from Wikipedia:
Berthe Marie Pauline
Morisot (French: [mɔʁizo]; January 14,
1841 – March 2, 1895) was a painter and a member
of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was
described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes
dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.[1]
In 1864, Morisot exhibited
for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Sponsored
by the government and judged by Academicians, the Salon
was the official, annual exhibition of
the Académie des beaux-arts in Paris. Her work was selected for exhibition in
six subsequent Salons[2] until, in
1874, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in
the first of their own exhibitions, which included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. It was
held at the studio of
the photographer Nadar.
After visiting the Museum, we
hopped on the Batobus, a boat that circles around the many attractions located
on the River Seine. We saw beautiful views of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower
both during the day and at night. We walked around the Pompidou Center a bit
and then back to our home away from home to sleep.
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3xJpdKH4HxVRFvRC6
August
21: Happy Birthday Guy!
We set off early for a guided tour of the Louvre. The major
benefit was that we could skip the line and see a slice of the Louvre in a much
more manageable way. The museum is so
large that one can only digest a small chunk at a time. We learned that the
Louvre was originally a fortress and later a palace. It is strategically on the
Seine and originally had moats and a dense outer wall. In French history it
became the home of Phillip and the Louis who then built Versaille to get out of
the city. Louis and Marie Antoinette agreed to come back here under duress from
a Parisian mob of women and when they attempted to escape they were then tried
and lost their heads to the Revolutionary zeal. Later the same mobs turned on
the Revolution and it was young Napoleon who turned cannons on them and won his
reputation that led to his power. Deep in the parquet floors of many rooms is
the blood of Frenchmen who were murdered by the mobs for being the cooks or
chambermaids to the King. When the
iconic pyramid was added, the foundation of the fortress was discovered and now
is an interesting part of the museum and a must see especially to escape the
heat and the crowds of the main museum. Long lines form early to see especially
one painting and to grab that 15 seconds of selfie time in front of this odd
perhaps semi self portrait by Leonardo Di Vinci, The Mona Lisa. The phenomenon
of the selfie with cell phones from people around the world sometimes with
stuffed animal they will pose in a corner of the shot is currently part of the
entertainment of all the galleries. This is particularly dramatized near the
most iconic works in the Museum in August.
Some of the works we viewed included: Diana of Versailles,
commissioned by the King (his mistress was named Diane), Sleeping
Hermaphroditus, an ancient statue of a hermaphrodite that Bernini added a
mattress under to support, Portrait of Louis XIV, Portrait of Baldassare
Castiglione by Rafael, the Venus De Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace
(created in 2nd century B.C. and inspiration for Nike’s swoosh), An
Old Man and his Grandson by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Liberty Leading the People by
Eugene Delacroix, The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault (we saw his grave at Pere
LaChaise), St. John the Baptist and the Virgin and the Child with St. Anne by
DaVinci, Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss, a statue resembling my dad, and a
statue that looks like it is taking a “selfie.”
The amount of art
here overwhelms even just to list, and many of the most interesting pieces are
not really the ones that a king made famous by acquiring and presenting it
here. We had a nice lunch out on a veranda overlooking the central court where
the pyramid now controls traffic underground. Le pigeons (like many words in
our shared language it is the same in French!) entertained Sophia and Gabi as
we sat out with weathering statues to forgotten friends of the court.
The design of
Paris surrounded this palace as a showcase and a walk west will lead you to the
Toullerie gardens, Place de la Concorde (now a obelisk and the site of the guillotine
during the infamous days of the revolution), the Champs Elysee, and the Arc Di
Triomphe. Our family was here to see the end of the Tour de France the last
time Lance Armstrong won it in 03. In the heat this was a long walk and so we
went back to the Batobus to cruise up stream to our stop near the Pompidou
Center. Sophia and Gabi shopped a little around the Pompidou Center, and Rick
and Rita had a snack at the top overlooking Paris. The Pompidou is the French
modern art and cultural center and is perhaps the world’s most iconic version
of the “form follows function” architecture. All of the functional aspects of
moving up and down and moving air and electricity in and out of the building
are pushed to the outside. This leaves the spaces inside uncluttered and open,
which works well for gallery space. The afternoon was pristine and from the
roof we enjoyed the view of Notre Dame which months earlier had been consumed
with flames and is now rising like a Phoenix caged in scaffolding. We had a
couple hours to wander through the galleries, which contain the works of iconic
modern artists with a obvious French leaning! A urinal was a Dadaist statement
about what really is art. Cubists,
minimalists, free form expression grounded in religious passion by Miro, and the
prolific and irascible Picasso (we learned he used to steal art such as African
masks from the Louvre). We walked back to our though this vibrant neighborhood
of small boutique shops to our Paris home near the monument to the Bastille.
The appeal of Paris is the passion they have for their culture that is as much
about a perfect baguette as it is about the major sites we associate with this
city. Each day we logged nearly 20 thousand steps using our phones to navigate
down gritty and picturesque streets with bars with names that harken back to
eras that still burn in the hearts of average working French. The new president
of France, Macron points out how culture and of course French culture is not a
trifling and meaningless tourist attraction. It is a viewpoint of how to savor life and
seek to practice the art of savoring the time we spend in this world. We did
just that in our brief stay though our feet didn’t necessary agree. The girls
rode the Batobus around and around and Uber’d home to pack and get ready to
Eurostar early the next morning back to England!
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LWUQtUbXZN4kiK627
August
22: We boarded a 7:43 AM Eurostar train and
headed under the Channel back to London and then to Paddington Station for our
train to Bath. We stayed in the same Airbnb where Janet, Rick and Rita stayed
in 2017 and were just as happy the 2nd time. Paula has a charming
home with a view of the Crescent. She rehabbed a very old home, which
became a money pit due to unpredictable construction nightmares.
Thankfully her becoming an Airbnb host allowed her to keep the home and
actually make a full living off of it while she and her daughter lived with a
friend nearby. She saved up enough since our last visit and now lives
back in the house when she is not renting it out. Bath. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4596480
Shortly
after our arrival, we walked into town and got Sophia and Gabi tickets to see
the Roman Baths. We had done this last
trip and really enjoyed it. Walking
through the huge complex really gives a feel for life in Roman times. The
baths are still intact and unchanged apart from the addition of some statues in
the 1800’s. We learned of the many travelers that passed through Bath
from literally all over the world and how that certainly influenced local
culture and art. https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/
While the girls
explored the Roman Baths, Rick and I stopped for tea at an old café famous for
“Bath Buns.” We then walked among various shops and charming streets, and
happened upon one of the places that Mary Shelley, Frankenstein’s author lived.
Bath is also known as Jane Austen’s town as the author lived and penned stories
set in the town. Not surprisingly there
is an annual Jane Austen festival in Bath.
https://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/jane-austens-bath
We
walked to the famous homes designed into a circle, “the circus,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_(Bath) and then into a
crescent, aptly referred to as the Crescent. https://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/the-royal-crescent-p56191
Afterward we met
up with Gabi and Sophia and ate at the same restaurant from two years prior,
The Scallop Shell.
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Lqa2sFNx5JXx9ChQ8
August
23: Rick picked up our
rent-a car, steering wheel on the wrong side, and preceded to figure out how to
use a left-handed stick shift and drive on the wrong side of the road! While he
was picking up the car and doing laundry, Rita, Sophia, and Gabi went to an
actual thermal mineral water spa with a rooftop pool with a killer view of
Bath, a ground level pool, multiple saunas, and hot and cold pools. This was a wonderful, relaxing 2.5 hours and
a great start to the day. http://www.thermaebathspa.com/
Once we reunited, we
had a late lunch at Velo Café, a place we dined in 2017 and very yummy. We tried and liked oatmeal milk! We then
drove to Avebury. From the website: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/avebury/
Avebury henge and stone circles are one of the greatest
marvels of prehistoric Britain. Built and much altered during the Neolithic
period, roughly between 2850 BC and 2200 BC, the henge survives as a huge
circular bank and ditch, encircling an area that includes part of Avebury
village. Within the henge is the largest stone circle in Britain - originally
of about 100 stones - which in turn encloses two smaller stone circles.
We thoroughly
enjoyed exploring the ancient stones and loved commuting with the sheep grazing
just as much!
Rita had a bright
idea to explore more of the Cotwolds. It
was now evening time and the next day we would be going to Liverpool. She
Googled a few towns and settled on Bourton on the water. https://www.cotswolds.com/plan-your-trip/towns-and-villages/bourton-on-the-water-p670103.
The drive there was over an hour and when we arrived, we found that the
town pretty much closes down by 9 PM. We
found one place where we could get food (Chinese take out) and so after waiting
for the food and listening to a strange music box type playlist, we ate in our
car and then drove the almost 2 hours back to Bath. We joked that we drove a 3 hour round trip
for Chinese take out!
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PPpjMZjQSAeQgpHJ8
August
24: After
a delicious breakfast at Velo Café, we set off for Liverpool! As this weekend
included a bank holiday, traffic was quite heavy so the journey took longer
than it normally would have. We made it to Liverpool just in time to check into
our AirBnB (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/25022538/) in the Dingle, the section of
town that Ringo hails from, greet our housemates, Julie and Judy, freshly back
from Edinburgh, and drive to the Casbah Club for their 60th
anniversary open house and concert. After eating at a local restaurant, we
arrived to the Casbah.
We had been to the Casbah Club during our trip to Liverpool
in 2017. This is what I wrote in my 2017
blog:
The
Casbah Club is actually in the basement of a large Victorian home so it can
only be seen by appointment. http://www.petebest.com/casbah-coffee-club.aspx
The
club is akin to a Sistine Chapel for Beatles fans. The Casbah is where the Beatles got their start,
their initial management and promotion, and were commissioned by the owner to
paint all the ceilings of the club (i.e. the Sistine Chapel reference). Mona Best, the owner, was the mother of Pete
Best, the original drummer for the Beatles.
She was a fascinating woman that grew up in India because her father was
a British officer. When she met and
married Johnny Best, another British officer, they moved to his hometown of
Liverpool. He was a fight promoter and
owned a stadium there and enjoyed local fame.
Mona was unhappy initially in Liverpool due to the cold weather and the
urban living. She was used to a large house and a lot of land. Eventually, her oldest son Rory spotted a
Victorian home for sale in the suburbs.
Mona wagered all her jewelry on a horse and won! Eventually Mona got her
large home in the suburbs. She took
notice of her two sons’ and their friends love of rock and roll music. At that time one could hear live jazz music,
but not rock and roll. Mona opened the
Casbah Coffee Club in her basement. She
had to quickly expand it due to the immediate popularity of this members only
club. The Quarrymen, Paul and John’s
first band were Mona’s first house band.
George’s first band also played at the Casbah, as did Ringo’s Rory Storm
and the Hurricanes. In fact the Casbah
shows attracted over 1000 people at its heyday requiring teens to listen from
the yard and the street as the basement could not hold anywhere near this
number. All the Liverpool bands
eventually played at the Casbah. John
Lennon painted the ceiling in the “Aztec room”, Paul McCartney, the “Rainbow
room” and they all contributed to the Star ceiling. Cynthia Lennon painted John’s likeness on a
wall and John carved his name on another wall.
Mona and Johnny did not remain together and in fact Mona took a liking
to one of her son’s friends, later the Beatles road manager and Apple records
administrator, Neil Aspinall. Neil was
17 years Mona’s junior. Their union
would produce Roag Best, our tour guide in 2017 and the host of the 60th
anniversary Casbah celebration. What an
amazing experience it was to see this place and meet Mona’s and Neil’s
son! Mona promoted the Beatles, got them
top dollar for shows, facilitated their stints in Hamburg and got them their
first booking at the Cavern Club. She
blessed their union with Brian Epstein their eventual manager as she wanted
them to get a recording contract and trusted that Brian would deliver (and he
did!). Suffice it to say that without
Mona Best, I am not sure we would know the Beatles. The Casbah remains as it did in its
heyday. We were thrilled that Sophia and
Gabi were able to join us on this trip and experience the Casbah. This time, we felt what it was like with
countless bodies in the basement and the walls literally sweating! The girls especially loved letters penned by
John, Paul, George, and Ringo describing themselves that they viewed framed on
the walls. We also saw Gold Ole
Freda! She was their fan club president
for the duration and helped them answer thousands of letters and fulfill
requests for locks of hair, pieces of pillowcases etc. If you haven’t seen the movie, whether you
are a huge Beatles fan or not, you will enjoy it and fall in love with Freda ( http://www.goodolfreda.com/home.html).
I believe it is also available on
Netflix.
After
the Casbah, we headed out to Mathew Street and the Cavern Club. All Liverpool
venues were jam packed with tribute bands and shows for International Beatles Week
(IBW). Before we arrived to the Cavern,
we went to the Philharmonic Pub, the one that Paul McCartney recently played a
small show to shocked customers as shown on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. Outside the Phil, Rita ran into Jack Douglas,
the producer of Double Fantasy and Alan White, the drummer for Yes and who has
played with all four Beatles. We also stopped by for a drink at the Hard Days
Night Hotel and enjoyed the acoustic performer there. Sophia and Gabi liked their fancy drinks
completed with a blowtorch! The last
time we were at the Cavern Club, it was of course not quite as crowded and had
live band karaoke. Rita was able to sing
that time but not this time due to the crush of IBW and the throng of tribute
bands.
August 25 : We headed out after breakfast to the convention for IBW. Like Beatlefest or The Fest for Beatles Fans as it is now known, the convention consists of authors and other Beatles related guests, a flea market of memorabilia and all things Beatles but it also consists of MULTIPLE tribute bands from all over the world. The hotel bars and ballrooms have simultaneous bands so one can go from room to room to sample the various sounds. We heard amazing bands from Japan, Indonesia, Finland, and Sweden, and in various styles like Bluegrass Beatles and single performers using a loop system to play each instrument. We heard Led-Zepplin done in the style of James Brown mashed with Beatles. One of our favorite bands, the B.B. Cats were an all girl tribute band from Japan. They ROCKED!
On a side note, we were told since Elementary Penguins won Battle of the Bands in the States, we would be able to play International Beatles Week in the future if we apply.
Additionally, the flea market is huge! At our Fest, the owners heavily control the market so there is not as much variety among vendors (so as to not compete with the owners own tables). Finally, we met countless Liverpudlians that were there! Many were of the same age of the Beatles and so experienced everything first hand. We met a former “Teddy Boy” that was saved by Beatles road manager, Mal Evans from getting clobbered during a bar fight. We met a man that is about 10-15 years John’s junior but attended the same schools and had the same headmaster, Mr. Pobjoy, who apparently is alive and a centenarian now. The man had many stories including areas of the school where John hand carved drawings and phrases into the wood. Liverpudlians are generally a very friendly lot with a great sense of humor. We truly had a blast! Jack Douglas again brought us to tears describing working with John and Yoko on Double Fantasy, playing tracks as they evolved from John’s demos made on his tape recorder to the final versions, and describing the day and aftermath of John’s death. If you can, read this brief article about Jack’s encounter with Liverpool as an 18-year-old stowaway from New York City seeking to join a band in Liverpool:
Sophia
and Gabi left the convention for a tour of John and Paul’s homes now run by the
National Trust. We had done this two
years ago and were brought to tears. It
was an amazing experience. From my 2017
blog:
These homes are known to all Beatles fans by the many
stories that John and Paul would share about their past. Lennon/McCartney penned many Beatles classic
songs in these two homes. The National
Trust has restored both homes to look just as they did when their famous
occupants resided there. Our tour guides
for the homes were wonderful. They both
shared great narratives and embraced their roles. We sang in the foyer of Mendips, John’s
childhood home witnessing firsthand the acoustics that John and Paul favored as
they harmonized together. I played the
upright piano in Paul’s home, seeing the ghost of his father and relatives
gathered around for family gatherings. We saw John’s bed, school cap, books and
doodles. All of the stories we have read
through the years jumped to life!
August
26:
After breakfast, we went to the Museum
of Liverpool to see the Double Fantasy
exhibit (https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/double-fantasy/). From the website:
In a world
first, the Museum of Liverpool is hosting this groundbreaking exhibition
telling John Lennon and Yoko Ono's story in their own words. The
exhibition explores the personal and creative chemistry of this iconic
couple and their ongoing Imagine Peace campaign.
Double
Fantasy - John & Yoko is a free exhibition, celebrating the meeting of
two of the world’s most creative artists who expressed their deep and powerful
love for one another through their art, music and film. They used their fame
and influence to campaign for peace and human rights across the world,
transforming not only their own lives, but art, music and activism forever.
Featuring
personal objects alongside art, music and film produced by both John and Yoko,
the exhibition is drawn from Yoko’s own private collection, some of which has
never been displayed.
"I am
so happy and grateful that we are having our Double Fantasy - John & Yoko
show in Liverpool.
This is where
John was born and I know John would be very happy too.
We were a
very simple couple just loving each other every day and I just wanted to show
the simple truth of us.
In our
personal life we were pretty simple people, and we made all sorts of things with
love for each other. Everything was made out of love. We found that we
were both very strongly interested in world peace. I feel John and I are still
working together. I always feel his warmth next to me." Yoko Ono Lennon
Taking a
chronological journey, the exhibition starts with two unique individuals - a
leading figure in the avant-garde art world and a global rock 'n' roll star.
From a tender first meeting at Indica Gallery in London, it was 18 months later
that the album 'Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins' was issued. What followed
was breathtaking in its rapidity and productivity until John's tragic and
untimely death on 8 December 1980.
Through
interviews, quotes and lyrics, the story of their personal and creative
relationship along with their political activism and peace campaigning, is told
in their own words for the very first time.
From the
intimate to the iconic, the exhibition brings together unmissable objects and
artworks. A rolling programme of the films that John and Yoko created, and
music videos made under Yoko's supervision are being shown. A music room,
overlooking the Mersey with the couple's albums played for visitors, features
album cover art.
We were
again brought to tears during this exhibit and wished we had more time to spend
to watch the films in the John and Yoko film festival.
After viewing this amazing exhibit, we drove to Strawberry
Fields, soon to be a state of the art facility to train folks with disabilities
to enter the work force. It will also be
open to the public for tourism, but tourism that is helping others, a perfect
use of this iconic former orphanage where John used to play for summer fetes.
We walked to John’s home just to see the outside again, and drove to St.
Peter’s Church in Woolton, the church that hosted the famous garden fete where
John first met Paul. We stayed at the church quite a long while, first viewing
the graves of Eleanor Rigby, Father McKenzie, and George Smith, John’s beloved
uncle and surrogate father. In the beautiful church we spoke with volunteers
and got a tour of the historic stained glass windows, learned the history of
the building and Sophia and Gabi sat in the seat where John sometimes sang in
the choir. Afterward we went to the
actual building across the street where the fete took place and where John met
Paul. We met a woman, Pam that was there
that day as a girl of 6. She showed us
pictures of her on the day and we viewed other pictures taken at the fete. The scene from the movie, “Yesterday”
involving Eleanor Rigby was recently filmed there and St. Peter’s Vicar
actually played Father McKenzie in the movie. We bought some souvenirs and
finally set off on our next journey.
Here is a rare recording of the fateful day when John met
Paul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw-voHb7bW4
Link to Liverpool
Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z4R6S1ehFNardGVn7
We said goodbye for now to
Liverpool and drove about 120 miles to Grange, in England’s Lake District. After
checking into our AirBnB (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21631618/), we explored the town of Keswick (pronounced Kesick) and had
a yummy dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We saw countless dogs and a cute
dog shop that sold doggy life jackets and all kinds of dog sport paraphernalia.
August 27: After breakfast, we drove to
Derwentwater, a 10-minute drive from our AirBnB. Sophia and Gabi rented
paddleboards and Rick and I rented kayaks.
We had a lovely 2-hour adventure on the water with gorgeous views and
many dogs on kayaks and boards. After our time on the water, we set off from our
AirBnB on foot to hike up a nearby mountain providing even more beautiful views
of the nearby area. Beatrix Potter had a home in the Lake District and William
Wordsworth spent much time writing in this area. We went into Keswick again for dinner, this
time eating at a Mexican Tapas restaurant. Two days was not enough! We hope to return here some day for a longer
stay. Perhaps we can play International Beatles Week and then head up to the
Lake District!
August
28: We
woke up and drove to York, returned our rent-a-car and checked into our cute
bed and breakfast, just outside the ancient city walks, the Bootham City Centre Guest House. We had
lunch at a very cool pub and then walked into the ancient walled city to the
York Minster (https://yorkminster.org/). The building is a 600+ years old
Gothic Cathedral with world famous stained glass. It takes 7 seconds for the sound to
reverberate, as it is huge! It was a
religious site for several thousand years, starting with the druids. The Romans
loved it as well. Two emperors died and
one was coroneted there.
We then walked to
a street called The Shambles, one of the streets that inspired J.K. Rowling’s Diagon
Alley (http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/medieval/the-shambles/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shambles).
After wandering
through various shops and the Shambles market, we stopped for a drink at a
picturesque pub and then walked the city walls from the Monkgate Bar to the
Bootham Bar, providing gorgeous vistas of the Minster and York.
We had planned to
go on a Ghost Tour but needed a rest. We
had dinner in a Nepalese restaurant, walked back through the city walls and saw
Guy Fawlkes childhood home, now an Inn and Pub and reportedly haunted and went
back to our B and B to sleep.
Link to Lake
District and York Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PGMoQfR35aWTxSiq8
August
29: We had breakfast and took a noon train to London’s Kings Cross
Station. We viewed Platform 9 and ¾ (The
Hogwarts Express stop) and took the Tube to our new London digs in the Notting
Hill/ Kensignton area.
Sophia and Gabi hung out at our new place and Rick and Rita
rushed off to see the Mary Quant Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert
Museum. From the V and A Museum (https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/introducing-mary-quant):
Inventive, opinionated and
commercially minded, Mary Quant was the most iconic fashion designer of the
1960s. A design and retail pioneer, she popularised super-high hemlines and other
irreverent looks that were critical to the development of the 'Swinging
Sixties' scene. Our fashion collections include examples of her famous designs
from across the 1960s and 1970s.
We photo documented the
exhibit especially for my talented designer cousin, Christi and loved seeing
these innovative designs. Since the museum was closing soon, we did not get to
see any other parts of the V and A museum and plan to return!
Rick and Rita grabbed a late
lunch/ early dinner at Harry’s, an Italian restaurant across for Harrods’s, the
iconic London department store owned by the father of Dodi Fayed, Princess Di’s
lover. We then walked through Hyde Park
and watched the geese and the people. We met up with the girls back in Notting
Hill/ Kensington where they grabbed dinner at Café Diana. The owner’s plastered Di’s pictures
everywhere and Di actually came in and signed some (she was a neighbor as
Kensington Palace is only a short walk away).
We walked the area some more and ended with Gelato.
August
30: We had breakfast at a local yummy café and
walked through Notting Hill, Kensington Gardens and then back to our AirBnB. We
caught Heathrow Express to the airport.
We met a Liverpudlian now living in Maryland that was a frequenter of
Beatles shows at the Cavern back in the day before Ringo joined the band. What
a trip we had! We will cherish this trip always. It was a privilege getting to spend all of
this quality time with Sophia and Gabi. We hope Gabi accompanies Sophia to
Chicago sometime again and we will show them the Chicago sites. These two women
give us so much hope for the future as they are wise beyond their years and
truly make the world a better place.
Link to Photos: York
Train to London and London Last Days: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WtoWGctEn3WHqBEE7
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