London: April 2002

London: April 15 - 18, 2002

This was my first trip to London. I went with Laura, Peggy and Gianluca. We had gone for a visit during Laura's school vacation and had decided we would take a little trip up to London at the same time. We flew up on Ryanair, the Irish low cost airline. It flies out of Pisa and so Alessio drove us to Pisa, which is about a 45 minute ride from Calenzano. London is also one hour earlier than Italy, so you get an extra hour on the day you go there. My journal notes that on this flight, Peggy was aggravated by a "nose-picking guy" sitting next to her. Hehe. My journal also notes that some guys sitting next to us paid 24 euros for BLTs and four tiny cokes. And the pilot had an Irish accent (well, it's an Irish airline!)

Ryanair flies into London's Stanstead Airport, which is actually outside the city. We were met there by a friend of Peggy's named Suzan. Peggy knew her through her work with Bugetti, the yarn company. Suzan graciously allowed us to stay at her home with her family while we visited London. She lives in a little town called Berkhamstead just outside of London. Right after we got through passport control, Suzan bought us all sandwiches and coffees and pastries so we could eat and relax a little. Then we all got into her van and she drove us to her house, though she missed an exit because she and Peggy were chatting so much she got distracted.

Suzan's house was really cute, a little English row house. Inside when you enter you go down a hall where the stairs are on the left and on the right is the living room and dining room. At the end of the hall is the kitchen. Suzan has a very nice kitchen with a lot of room to work and her windows look out into her garden out back. Upstairs is a TV room, bathroom and three bedrooms. Suzan's family is her husband, step-son who was around 18 then and twin girls who were 17. On this trip, Laura was just a couple of months short of 16.


Suzan's house

On Tuesday, April 16th, we took the commuter train from Suzan's into London, arriving at Victoria Station. The station is big, full of shops and food places. There we caught the double-decker tour bus for the sightseeing tour. Doing one of these in a new city is nice because it helps you to orient where some of the sites are and sometimes helps you decide whether you will return. For example, some sites are fine to ride by – like Big Ben or 10 Downing Street or Trafalgar Square. Others you definitely want to go in and explore, like the Tower of London. Big Ben is such a landmark that it is just exciting to see it in person. It is right by Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and from there you can also see the huge British Airways ferris wheel, the London Eye. We also rode by St. Paul's Cathedral where Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married.

The traffic is quite congested in London and it was actually slow going on the bus, having to sit through the same red lights several times. The subway – the "Tube" in London – is really the fastest way to get around in the city. We hopped off the bus at Tower Bridge and walked to the Tower of London. This was my first time here. I visited it again in 2007. The Tower was originally built by William the Conqueror. It has been a fortress and a prison and now a tourist attraction as well. (website: http://hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/) We visited the Bloody Tower where the famous Two Princes were smothered. I believe that the legend is that they were killed by Richard III in 1483. In the 1600s, the skeletons of two children were found under the stairs there and were reburied in Westminster, but no one is really sure that they were murdered at all, though they did disappear while in the Tower. When I visited with Peggy in 2007, the Tower has set up an exhibit in the Bloody Tower sort of like a medieval CSI that lays out the evidence and suspects. We visited the Beauchamp Tower that day, where special prisoners were held. This is where a lot of the prisoners' graffiti is preserved. The White Tower is the original structure, with four towers on the corners. When we visited this day, it was full of armaments and suits of armor for men and horses, cannons, and even some Shogun armor given to King James. We visited Sir Walter Raleigh's prison rooms. Even though he was a prisoner, there was still a class system even when it came to keeping prisoners and so he had some rather nice rooms at the Tower of London that he was kept in, along with his family. He was there for many years, long enough to write a book, a history of England I believe.

We also visited the Crown Jewels (which I wrote about in my London 2007 blog entry). But on this visit, we also saw an exhibit on how the crowns were made. I believe now this exhibit is kept in the Martin Tower at the Tower of London, and it has a lot of crowns empty of jewels. Often, jewels were rented or recycled and cannibalized from other pieces or crowns and put into new ones. I believe that George IV's coronation crown had something like 12,000 diamonds in it but they were all rented, so it is empty now.

At the Tower, Gianluca liked the guard with the red uniform and big furry hat. He stands very still until he marches a bit back and forth, following a very precise routine. He stands in front of a little guardhouse, and Lu wanted a picture of himself in one. Then he did a little marching himself.

After the Tower, we went over to Kensington Palace. We could not get inside because it was too late in the day, but we walked around the gardens. There is a very large park, lush green lawns and a pond with families and tourists and students all walking about. The front gates of Kensington are black with gold. There is a beautiful garden inside, the sunken garden. This was April and so the garden was in full bloom. That year, it was full of tulips and the trees were green, and there were vines and ivy all around. It was just gorgeous.

We headed back to the Tube, with Laura as our navigator. We put her in charge of planning our train rides and she did very well with it. When we got back to Suzan's, she had a very nice meal waiting for us and also showed us various things that she had made, some with Bugetti's yarn that she bought from Peggy. She made some beautiful scarves.

I wrote in my journal that London was expensive and the dollar wasn't going very far there. At the time, I recorded the exchange rate as $1.44 (it cost $1.44 to buy 1 pound). I also recorded the exchange rate for the euro as $0.88 (it cost 88 cents to buy 1 euro). Well, much worse today. It now costs $2.03 to buy 1 pound and $1.41 to buy 1 euro (when I originally wrote this in October 2007).

On Wednesday, April 17th, we took the 10:18 a.m. commuter train into Euston Station. We learned there were going to be issues with the trains all day, with the Circle Line and the Piccadilly running slow. The Circle Line is the yellow, the tourist line. It just goes in a circle around central London. This one will get you to most of the tourist sites. But it was running very slow this day so Laura mapped us another route on the Hammersmith (pink) a couple of stops to Baker Street which is where Madame Tussaud's is located. This is the original Tussaud's wax museum. Tussaud's is a fun museum because you can touch the figures and take all the photos you want and pose with them. The London Tussaud's, of course, is full of royal figures and all of the royal celebrities were there – the Queen and Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, their ex-wives Diana and Sarah Ferguson (who I thought looked perfectly lifelike and real) and even the Queen Mother, who had just died a couple of weeks before. There are many historical figures in elaborate costumes as well, like Henry VIII and his six wives, Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, who I think may hold the record for longest serving monarch.


Three wives of Henry VIII, was figures at Madame Tussaud's in London

There are also American presidents, international figures like Lenin, Castro, Ghandi, Sadat, Dali Lama. We watched an idiotic Korean guy pose next to the Hitler figure and give a Nazi salute while his friend took his picture. Yeah, that's nice. We took a picture of Gianluca at a podium with George W. Bush and Tony Blair standing behind him. Also at London Tussaud's, they also have the Chamber of Horrors which is great and gory fun. It has tortures of the Middle Ages, London streets with urchins and a Whitechapel whore laying in the gutter, a victim of Jack the Ripper. There are hangings, stench filled prison, Madam Tussaud stepping through a pile of headless bodies looking for the heads of King Louis and Marie Antoinette. There is the hall of famous English murderers. Gianlu said the Chamber of Horrors was his favorite part of the museum. I have read online that they have now added a live element to the Chamber, I suppose similar to the one I visited in New York, where the workers are costumed and blend into the scenes around you but then suddenly start moving. I think this must be quite scary at the Chamber of Horrors in London, because it was frightful enough when it was just wax figures. After the Chamber, there is a little ride that takes you through the "Spirit of London", a history up to the present day with wax and animatronic figures in scenes from the Plague through world wars and up to the guy in his car with a cell phone.

We then took the Tube back towards Kensington and ate at a Pizza Hut for lunch (we had two kids with us, so no little Tea Palace like we did in 2007). I wrote in the journal that Peggy disputed with the cashier that the bottled water was not really bottled because it was given to her with the seals broken. She asked for an unopened bottle. The cashier told her that they open it for the customer so the customer doesn't hurt their hands. Peg didn't believe her, convinced they are just refilling empty bottles with tap water and selling it for bottled prices. So she got us some unopened bottled waters.

We went back to Kensington Palace. This time, we were early enough to be let inside. We opted for individual recorded audio tours and went through an exhibit all about Court Dress. These were actual outfits worn at the historical Court, and not reproductions. There were lots of rules about what could be worn by ladies and gentlemen of the aristocratic class when they were appearing at Court, with a red book that explained it all. There was also a reproduction of a tailor shop and a seamstress shop where the women's dresses were made. The audio tour said that sometimes the girls sewing were literally worked to death. There was a presentation all about being presented at Court, all the formalities and ritual, with various mannequins dressed in beautiful gowns with trains and ostrich feathers in the hair. These rituals apparently were in effect all the way to the 1950's. For example, one had to back up away from the monarch when the presentation was done (you could not turn your back on the monarch and walk away). Imagine trying to walk backwards in a big gown with a train.


Court Dress

We visited exhibits of Queen Elizabeth II's dresses and Princess Diana's. We learned that many of the dresses are designed and created for specific occasions and there is often some homage in the design to the event they were created for. On display was a dress of Elizabeth's with lotus flowers, worn in India. Another had a design of special flowers grown only in California which she wore to a dinner with Ronald Reagan, who had been Governor of California. A dress of Diana's, designed by Catherine Walker and worn by Diana in India, had a magnificently embroidered bodice and bolero jacket and pink ballroom skirt. Seeing these dresses up close, you can really get an appreciation for truly beautiful clothing, fabrics and expert craftsmanship.


Diana, in the Walker Dress


Close-up of the embroidery

We also went through the King's and Queen's Apartments which included Queen Victoria's bedroom where she was sleeping when, at the age of 18, she was awakened to be told she was now Queen. I really enjoyed Kensington with all the dresses and Court clothing and gardens. I imagined what it would have been like to live here as a royal.

After Kensington, we made our way to the giant department store, Harrod's. We rode the escalators which are surrounded by an Egyptian motif with Pharoh heads in the image of Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrod's. Harrod's sells all sorts of things. At the front there was a Jaguar car that you could buy. We went to the Food Hall and had super delicious cheesecake and cappuccino. When you spend some money at Harrod's, you get a free pass to the Luxury Washrooms – the public restrooms. Oh how nice. I don't have to pay to use the toilet. But they're pretty nice for restrooms. We also saw the Al Fayed memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. It is creepy, weird and tacky and a testament to Al Fayed's ongoing grieving for his son and his fantasies about him and Diana. Al Fayed has been clear that he believes Prince Philip had Diana and Dodi killed because they were engaged and the royal family could not accept the mother of the future king married to a Muslim. I totally do not believe this, but Diana's death has become like JFK's, rife with conspiracies. Anyway, the memorial has a photo of each of them in gold frames, a wine glass purported to be from the last meal at the Ritz, and the supposed engagement ring that Dodi bought for Diana. It seems too large for a woman. It reminded me more of a man's pinky ring than a lady's engagement ring. This is the only place in the store where you are allowed to take photos. We bought some chocolate mousse dessert to bring back with us to Suzan's for dessert after dinner.

Heading back to the Tube, we went to the Piccadilly line, which is deep enough underground that you see mice on the tracks, often with amputated tails. There continued to be problems with the trains all day and it was so crowded and it was rush hour so we were not able to fit onto the train! We ended up backtracking on an eastbound train. Peggy was carrying the mousse dessert and we managed to get on a train but we were crammed in so tight we literally could not move. I have never been so close to other human beings that I didn't know! Peggy managed somehow not to squash the mousse. Laura said that she would tell us when to get off because she could see out the window and to just jump off when she told us to. That we did, and we then caught the Northern Line back to Euston. The Northern Line was crowded enough that we had to stand but not so crowded like the Piccadilly – we could stand without touching other people, nice. Someone asked where we were getting off the train and we said Euston, and that was when little Lu said "Euston, we have a problem." Hehe, like Apollo 13. He's so cute. Then we switched to the train to Berkhamstead and that was when Peggy told Lu to go to sleep, and he did!

We got back to Suzan's at about 8:15 p.m. and had dinner and our dessert and we also had a little violin concert from Suzan's daughter, Lulu, who had been studying violin for seven years.

On the last day of our visit to London, Thursday 4/18, we went to the town of Windsor. Suzan managed to parallel park her van in an impossibly tiny space – impressive. We walked along the Thames – lots of ducks, ducklings, swans, and even a black swan. The village around Windsor Castle is very quaint, just like a tourist imagines an English village to be, with tons of shops and pubs. Windsor Castle is huge. Approaching it, we saw a line of people stretching all the way down the street and we thought we would not be able to get in. But it turned out the line was just for the chapel – all the people wanted to go by the Queen Mother's crypt. So we went to the front entrance of the castle where there was no line. There was a brief parade of castle guards, the ones Lu liked with their red coats and big black fur hats. They marched past and then we went in. We were nabbed by some people with TV cameras wanting us to play ourselves – tourists – following our tour guide, John. on a tour of Windsor Castle. Not a stretch for us. They were making either a documentary or a commercial, I didn't hear which, so we might have ended up on BBC-TV.

We first visited Queen Mary's Dollhouse. Queen Mary was the mother of George VI, who was the father of Elizabeth II. Queen Mary had originally been engaged to George V's brother, who was the heir to the throne. But then he died, and she was re-engaged to his brother. She was an adult so why was a dollhouse built for her? She was a collector of miniature things – Faberge tiny animals and other small things. The Dollhouse was completed in 1924. Everything is 1/12th scale to life size. It is really elaborate and exact down to the smallest detail – the rooms with marble floors, furniture, paintings, garden, garage with cars, wine cellar – with real wine in the tiny bottles. It has running water and electricity. Basically, everything in it is real, just very small. This page has additional info about the dollhouse: http://www.thedukeofyork.org/output/page4488.asp. Sir Edwin Lutyens was the architect of the dollhouse. He was a famous British architect of the time. The pictures below are from the dollhouse. You wouldn't even know they were not real lifesize rooms. They do represent a historical record of an English gentleman's home of the 1920's.


Dollhouse foyer

Dollhouse Library

Dollhouse Queen's Bedroom

After the dollhouse we visited a room with more toys and some dolls that had been given to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret by the children of France in 1938. They are large dolls, but what is incredible is they have entire wardrobes – dresses, lingerie, gloves, shoes, jewelry, purses, hats – all made from real materials including silk and ermine by French designers of haute couture of the time. Can you believe it?? These dolls were clothed better than most people! Again, the mini-motif here was real couture by real Paris designers but small for the dolls. Some outfits were also reproductions of what was being worn that year in Paris.

After our fun with the royal toys, we visited the various State Apartments and rooms, some still used today for diplomatic functions. My favorite was St. George's Hall, a very very long room, narrow, with a ceiling of wooden beams meeting at the peak. The ceiling has all these various Knight insignias. Down one side of the room are windows and down the other are portraits and, high up on the walls spaced evenly on ledges, are Knights (suits of armor) positioned like they are guarding the entire room. What's interesting is the perspective when you first enter the room. It seems to go on and on into the distance narrowing as the other end of the room seems so far away. At the end, also high up, is the King's Champion, a knight on a horse with what is similar to a stained glass window behind him, but it's not a window but a carving. This room, as well as some around it, were damaged in the fire at Windsor in 1992, so a lot has been restored, recreated, or redesigned.

In another room, maybe called the Queen's Ballroom, I saw paintings that were very familiar as I have seen them in books before – Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary I. Exciting – these are the real ones. The castle is beautiful, and we saw many more ornate and elaborate rooms. The grounds around the castle are also very nice. The Quadrangle is a large lawn enclosed by an iron fence. The royal apartments surround it and look out on the Quad. You cannot visit there. The Queen and her family actually live there when they are at the castle. Windsor is one of the Queen's favorite castles to stay in.

After leaving Windsor, we went to a pub for lunch and then it was back to Suzan's house to pick up our bags and head for the airport. As we approached Stanstead there was a lot of construction and it was really confusing and Suzan missed the exit. Unfortunately, it was 16 miles to the next exit. Then it started raining. Hard. And lightening. Our plane was at 6:10 p.m. and we managed to get back to the airport at 5:30. Boarding was at 5:40 p.m. We went through security and went to catch the airport train to our gate, and the train was broken down! So about 100 people all tried to cram onto the escalator at once down into a lobby that was wall to wall with people and wait for busses to take you to the gate. Waiting and waiting, finally we got on a bus and again we were crammed in so tight you couldn't fit another person. The bus took us to Gates 1-19 and we went to the gate on our ticket – 16A. But it wasn't the right gate. We asked a ticket agent in a panic "Where's Pisa?" and he said "Italy." Dink. But then we heard the final boarding call for Ryanair Flight 586 to Pisa – Gate 14. Run run run! We got there at 6:20 p.m. and they let us through, but the door at the bottom of the stairs was locked. We got some airport guy to punch in a code and it opened and we ran out to the plane. Talk about barely making it and one obstacle after another thrown in our paths. As usual in London, rainy and stormy so a lot of turbulence taking off.

Al was right there at the airport in Pisa to meet us and we were back in Calenzano by 11:00 p.m., all tired out.

Gianluca went back to school the next day. What was funny was I asked him what did he tell his friends about the trip? (What stood out for an 8 year old boy?) He said he told them how he rode a lot of trains (he really likes trains), and he liked the building that was modeled after Titanic and the Belfast ship. What? I hadn't even written about these things in my journal. The Titanic building we saw when we were on the double-decker tour bus, and the Belfast was a ship in port that we could see when we were sitting on some benches outside the Tower of London eating lunch. It's funny to find out the most interesting thing to a little kid on the trip because they experience the trip entirely differently than the adults. Lu also liked Suzan's two cats, Callie and Micky, and the frogs in her tiny pond in her garden. Laura liked the trains too, and we called her Queen of the Underground. We bought some T-shirts to commemorate it which said "Mind the Gap", because there is a gap between the platform and the train and you're liable to fall in it if you don't "mind the gap."

This was my first time to London and I absolutely loved it and always knew I would have to return. I did go back in 2003. The terrorist attacks in London happened in July 2005, but you can't keep the Brits down. I was happy to return there again in 2007.

Italy: April 2002

This was the year we flew Air France, the worst we have ever been treated by an airline, and that's saying something. The airline industry is the only one where the customer pays a boatload of money to be flown somewhere, yet expects to be treated like crap and considers it lucky and unusual if she is actually flown to the destination on schedule. The expectation is that one will be delivered there late and really there is no guarantee of getting there at all. And the airline will make it up to you by offering you a voucher to fly them again. So when we arrived in Boston for our Air France flight, we were told there was no plane. No apologies for not having called us in Maine to perhaps save us the trip down. Then the agent, after two hours, booked us for a flight the next day. But when we showed up the next day, we had no reservation at all. In the end, Delta rebooked us from Boston to LaGuardia, car to JFK, then to Paris to Florence. Air France did not actually get us there. This was the first time I flew the 777 to Europe. We were a day late getting there, but did get there thanks to Delta. This was also the year that we were flying on 4/11/02, just six months after 9/11. When Delta rebooked us the next day, we were flying on one way tickets that were handwritten by the Delta agent on the same day. It was only in Paris that we were not selected for some extra security screening. Security was lax in Paris considering those facts, and it was also shortly after the so-called "shoe bomber" had flown out from there.

4/14/02: Today we visited the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence with the church above it, Basilica of San Miniato, and a lovely garden of tulips below. What is the attraction here? The view – from the Piazzale you get the most beautiful panoramic view of Florence (above). When I stood there gazing at the Duomo, I thought it's hard to believe I am here, looking down at the city of Florence, where the great minds of the Renaissance, and legendary artists, and powerful Medicis all walked. A place like this is so intriguing because so much of it appears unchanged, and you can picture it all in the historical context.

4/19/02: On this day, Peg and I went to the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, designed by Brunelleschi. This is the church that is next to the Medici Chapel of the Princes and has the tombs underneath, which we visited in 2001. On this trip, I finally had time to visit the church. It looks like nothing impressive from the outside, the façade having not been finished. Unlike all the glorious churches in Florence, this one is just brown brick on the outside, easy to pass by. But inside, it is quite beautiful. The ceiling has white squares with gold, and the Medici crest of course. The floor is marble tiles, black and white, and there are many little altars. There is also a great altar which has the two Donatello pulpits in front on each side. I couldn't figure out why they are called pulpits because there aren't any steps or a way to get up there, and no opening into them. There is also a big dome here over the main altar. In one of the alcoves was a silver coffin, with bands of silver criss-crossing so that you can see inside it, and inside was a skeleton. It was covered by velvet or some sort of material and I could see its head, with a little crown on it, and its little feet. The room next to this contained a big vault that one would assume was for a body. In this room was another small dome overhead that had a scene of how the constellations appeared in the sky on July 4, 1482. But there was no explanation of the significance of this date. A mystery. Must have meant something important to end up on the ceiling of San Lorenzo. The church is still in use as a parish church.


Unfinished facade of the Church of San Lorenzo

We took a walk over to the Florence Duomo and into the Baptistery. The ceiling is actually a very high steep dome. I guess that all baptisteries are eight sided octagons because God created the world in seven days and the eighth is considered a day of rebirth, hence also the significance of baptism, being reborn to Christ. I could tell the artwork here is older. The ceiling is all gold with really old style portraits, the two dimensional type that Peggy had taught us about the year before at the Academia. I enjoyed one in particular, a painting of Hell with who I assume to be Satan eating an unfortunate sinner. He reminded me of Godzilla, because he had only eaten half of the sinner and the legs and bum were still sticking out from Satan's mouth. I suppose in its day, this was supposed to terrify people to keep them on the straight and narrow, but I thought it was just funny. The Baptistery has the reproduction Ghiberti doors, The Gates of Paradise.

We then went next door to the Duomo to check out the crypt underneath. There is an entire complex down there that pre-dates Santa Maria del Fiore, around the year 500 or so. It is old Roman items that have been excavated. It was also a church area that later the Duomo was built on top of it, so the area has always been a place of worship. There are several tombs down there, including Brunelleschi, architect of the Duomo. This is an example of how there are so many things in Florence to see, even in a very limited area. On my first trip, of course I saw the Duomo and the Baptistery next to it. But it was on this subsequent trip that I visited the crypt underneath, and on yet another trip when we discovered the little museum next to the Duomo that had the actual authentic Ghiberti Gates of Paradise door panels inside.

After lunch, we visited the Ferragamo Shoe Museum. Peg and I are shoe-aholics. We both have too many shoes, way more than necessary for one person to wear. My theory, for myself at least, is that it's because I went to eight years of Catholic school wearing the same uniform every day and the only thing I got to choose for myself that was different from everyone else was my shoes. The museum is one of those hidden treasures. You would need to know about it. It is not apparent from the outside. It is over a Ferragamo shop in Florence, and I only knew of it by reading about it in a tourist book. Salvatore Ferragamo was a famous Italian shoe designer who made shoes from the 1920's to about 1960. He made shoes for films, celebrities and rich people. All the shoes were custom made for each person. The museum had a lot of the wooden lasts, which were the wooden model of each particular customer's feet. The museum had shoes from the Cecile B. Demille films made in the 1920's, "The Ten Commandments" and "King of Kings" (later remade in the 1950's). There were shoes made for, and some worn by, the actress Pola Negri, who had an aversion to dirty shoes. She would not clean the shoes or wear them more than once or twice and then would get rid of them.


Pola Negri - more than a little OCD about her shoes

There were shoes for Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Carmen Miranda, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Gene Tierney, Loretta Young, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe's shoes from "Some Like It Hot" and other films, along with her personal shoes. She wore very high spike heel pumps, probably three or four inches. They looked very painful to walk in, but Ferragamo studied anatomy and insisted he could create shoes that were comfortable. Looking at them, it seems they are both a feat of engineering and art. Some of the shoes surprised me due to the size of the feet – Mary Pickford had very tiny feet. Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn all had very big feet, surprisingly big for Audrey Hepburn because she looks like she was a tiny woman on film and in pictures, very thin and small boned. But the champion for the biggest feet of all – Lauren Bacall. There were also shoes created both for Eva Peron and for Madonna when she played Evita in the film. Info in the museum described Evita as, shall we say, a very particular client. She would order shoes and specify the materials or animal skin. Some animals apparently are close to impossible to make shoes from, i.e. some skins won't dye, etc. I guess Evita never accepted that anything was impossible and would insist that they just make them. There was a pair of shoes made from antelope. I suppose that it was just the ability to have enough power to get whatever you want because, looking at the antelope shoes, who could tell they were antelope? Could be llama or cowhide for all I'd know. And I don't think when she was standing on the balcony waving to the crowds that some peasant in the front noticed her shoes and marveled at the quality of the antelope.



Ferragamo Shoe - if memory serves, I think this shoe wascreated for Judy Garland

My favorite, and it turns out it was Peggy's too, was a shoe that looked like a slip-on medium heel sandal with small bands criss-crossing, and it was worn with a sock that slipped over the foot somewhat like a slipper. The sock was gold, black and red. It looked great together. Now on the internet, you can take a 3D tour of the Ferragamo Museum. It's fun! Check it out at: http://www.salvatoreferragamo.it/web/ingdonnamuseo.html

My journal notes that the return trip on Air France was problematic as well. Not only did we have to run to meet the plane, but after sitting on the plane for 35 minutes, the pilot came on and told us there was a hydraulic leak in the landing gear and we would have to get off the plane so they could fix it. Our scheduled time to depart had been 3:55 p.m. but we did not leave until 6:00 p.m. They did give us sandwiches and drinks while waiting at the gate, and after we left it was a turbulent flight. When we landed, the plane erupted in clapping. I guess the passengers were relieved that the repair to the landing gear held and the wheels didn't collapse? Of course, I have never flown Air France since then. This was also the trip where I visited London for the first time, with Laura, Gianluca and Peggy. But that's a blog for another day . . .

Italy: April 2001

My first trip to Italy was in 1989 and I still can't fathom how we managed to visit Florence, Pisa, Venice and Rome in two weeks. Since then, I have made many trips to Italy to visit Peggy and so rather than the whirlwind tourist tour, I have seen various things on each visit. I have said before that it took me seven trips to see everything I wanted to see in Florence alone.

Thursday, April 19, 2001: This was my third trip to Venice, having previously gone with Dad in 1989 and with Peggy in 1992. This time I was visiting with Laura, on her first trip to Italy, Peggy and Gianluca. Alessio doesn't like Venice so he dropped us off at the Florence train station and, after having a couple of coffees, we caught the 8:42 a.m. bullet train to Venice. Gianluca loves trains so he was all excited to ride the Eurostar. He had watched it for years speed through the station at Sesto so now he got to ride it. On my previous train rides to Venice, we had the little compartment with bench seats on each side. The bullet train is more like riding on an airplane, with individual seats in the car, tray tables, overhead compartments. My journal says it was a nice smooth ride and arrived in Venice at 11:30 a.m.

After arriving, checking in yet again at the Kitty Hotel (Hotel Edelweiss Stella Apina), we had a small lunch and took a waterbus out to the island of Murano. This is where they famously create blown glass items – jewelry, vases, lamps and chandeliers, little animals and glass knick-knack types of things. Window shopping is fun here as there are so many beautiful things to look at. I bought earrings for myself and a wine bottle stopper for Paul, and Peggy bought some rings and some beads for her friend. We wanted to see some glass blowing but in the only place open for viewing, a man was just fixing the feet on some glass horses. He would put the fire on the feet of the horses to soften the glass and then fix the feet so the horses would stand upright.

After taking the boat back to Venice, we had more coffee and did more window shopping. We saw an amazing costume shop with Renaissance costumes, really elaborate, probably for Carnivale, and Lu really liked a shop with handmade little wooden gondolas. There was also a hand decorated lampshade shop with a kid inside practicing his piano. He was playing Scott Joplin-type ragtime music, which was a little unusual to think of as your background music in Venice. This is what is interesting about shopping in Italy. There are so many shops and they basically specialize in and sell one thing.

Then we had supper and Peggy told the story of Fatima to the kids, the story about the Virgin Mary appearing to three poor children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. She explained about the three secrets, which were the supposed three prophecies that Mary gave, which one of the children, Lucia, later wrote down. The first secret described Hell, and the second secret said WWI would end and predicted WWII because people continued to offend God. This is supposedly related to Russia turning from God (rise of Godless Communism) and could only be prevented by Russia's conversion, which we know didn't happen then. (But this secret was revealed in 1941, after WWII had started. So if you're a cynic like me. . .) Anyway, the third secret was the one that had been hidden all those years and at the time we were visiting Italy in 2001, for some reason it was in the news. I think there was debate about it in Italy and the public was convinced it was a prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. Supposedly, Lucia wrote the third secret down in 1944 and it was kept in a sealed envelope in the Vatican and the secret was revealed in 2000. I guess it was a big letdown, which is why the Italian public continued to debate about it. This is the supposed text of the third secret of Fatima:

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."

Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, said then that it wasn't a prediction of the future but a warning and explanation that prayer, penance and conversion is the way to salvation. So I guess people would prefer to think of it as some kind of prediction of the future but if they want to believe it was predicting the 1981 assassination attempt on JPII, then what is the destroyed city he is walking through? Why do the soldiers use arrows to kill him? Whatever, he's on the fast track to sainthood now, having been credited with a miracle of curing some French nun of Parkinson's disease I think. In which case I ask firstly, why couldn't he cure his own Parkinson's? Perhaps he thought God gave it to him for a reason? Then why cure the French nun of her's because maybe God gave it to her for a reason. This is what my brain does to me whenever I think about religion. . .

Anyway, after supper, we sat by the train station watching the boats, touching the water in the canal ("It burns!"), then heading back to the hotel. We had a little room, with me, Peg and Lu sleeping in one bed and Laura in a cot bed at the foot of our bed. She hated the hotel, and my journal notes that Laura says that Venice "is not beautiful; its just filthy." I will say that Venice is both, but how you experience it says something about how your eyes view the world I suppose.

The next day, my journal notes about our bullet train ride home that there was a guy in our car "coughing up lung" (why is there always a cougher on your train or plane) and three guys sitting next to us that we dubbed the "Three Wankers" (I guess after the Three Tenors). They were talking about us, but trying to hide it by talking dialect because they realized Peggy could understand Italian. Car was full of smokers and cell phones. This was also the ride where we bought a pre-packaged hot chocolate and when you push the bottom of the cup, it heats up, causing us to speculate about what kind of heat source this could be – little radioactive pellets maybe?

I wrote about our last day in Venice, starting with our breakfast and that Peg and I thought it was the same nice Senora from nine years before. We had our jelly filled croissants, capuccino, hot chocolate. Back in our room, we opened the window so we could check on the cats out in the courtyard, a lot of them. The kids gave them names. A black one who appeared to be the leader was dubbed King Kitty, and they named some others Coco Crispy and Sawdust. There was a little one that Peggy thought was the one from nine years ago all grown up now (wishful thinking?) and so the kids called him Survivor Kitty. Then we went to San Marco and this was the first time I had seen the church without the scaffolding in front of it. For the third time, I checked out the golden and jeweled plaque behind the altar, and the treasures like golden chalices, candlesticks, bowls, insense holders, and of course, the relics. Again. Can't help it. We then had lunch and my journal records that both of the kids went on about the "glaucoma waiter", one in English and one in Italian, because his eyes were kind of cloudy and they wanted to know why. Then we did a quick tour of the Doges Palace. The rooms are full of fireplaces, paintings, elaborate ceilings. There were also the weapons – spears, axes, machetes, bows and arrows, crossbows, guns, and even a little boy sized suit of armor. The kids really wanted to go through the prison and so we crossed over the Bridge of Sighs and then through the dark dungeons. Always creepy to think about people living their lives out in such places.

Tuesday, April 24, 2001: This was the night we went to the German bar and there was a Police cover band. The singer sounded a lot like Sting, not an easy voice to resemble as I think Sting's voice is unique and distinctive.

Wednesday, April 25, 2001: We visited the Stibbert Museum. Frederick Stibbert was a strange guy who lived in the 1800's but was fascinated with medieval times. He was very rich and built a castle-like house to live in, furnished it as it would have been in the days of knights, and also used it to house his extensive collections. He was just a rabid collector of things including inlay furniture, marble tables, porcelains, but his all time favorite thing was armor – suits of armor, horse armor, gauntlets and helmets, mini-suits of armor, tons of weapons including swords, guns, crossbows, etc. He also had his own special custom made suit of armor that he wore at festivals. There was also a mummy, a mummy head in a basket, Chinese kimonos and some Chinese pornography that had nice domestic scenes on the reverse so you could turn it around quick if you had some visitors with more delicate sensibilities. A fun and strange place to visit, and checking online today, still quite affordable at only 5 euro.

Thursday, April 26, 2001: On this day, Peg, Laura and I visited the Costume Gallery at the Pitti Palace in Florence, but it is actually real historical clothing and also theatrical costumes. The museum has about 6,000 items so they cannot all be out on display at once and so the exhibitions change every two years. This day, there was an exhibition about changes in women's fasion from the 1700's to the 1940's. There was a tiny brown velvet Salvatore Ferragamo shoe with a very high heel and the toe turned up like an elf shoe. Only a man would design such a thing for a woman to wear, and only a woman would want to subject herself to wearing it for its "beauty". In the Stibbert Museum, we had seen a tiny pair of Chinese shoes for the bound up foot. On the Chinese kimonos we saw a swastika, which apparently was the Chinese symbol for eternity before the Nazis corrupted it, though that might explain why they chose it if they intended the Third Reich to last forever.

After the Costume Gallery, we went to the Academia to visit the David and Peggy, given her handy dandy art degree, gave Laura a lot of information about Michelangelo and the Renaissance. I had seen the David before, but it is perfect and always exciting to look at. The Academia has some very old works there, paintings back to the 1200's, and it is interesting to see the change in styles over the centuries. The really old paintings are very flat and two-dimensional and the people do not look like real human likenesses. Peg said this is because it was thought to be heresy to recreate actual likenesses of humans because God created them.

After lunch, we visited the Medici Chapel of the Princes and tomb underneath the Church of San Lorenzo. Interestingly enough, while the tombs are underneath and the chapel next door, I did not get into the church itself until I returned another year. The Medicis were the most powerful family in Florence. The tomb, called the New Sacristy, under the church is beautiful, all marble floors and walls and a painted ceiling. Michelangelo created the sculptures on each of the tombs. These are the famous Night and Day, Twilight and Dawn sculptures. There is also a Madonna here whose face is absolutely beautiful, and once again I am always astounded at what Michelangelo was able to do with stone. To the left of the Madonna is a statue of an old man – St. Damien, who the Medicis thought was their own special saint - and his hand is old and veiny, so lifelike, yet stone. My journal notes say that Michelangelo actually didn't finish this job, and that is why the statues on top of the tombs look like they are going to slide off – there were supposed to be river gods below.


Night and Day


Madonna and Child

Friday, April 27, 2001: On this day, we visited the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, home of the Medicis. We went on a special tour in English of the secret rooms of Cosimo and Francesco, where they hid their collections. Cosimo's was up a secret hidden staircase and was very small, with little cabinets built into the walls and paintings on the ceiling. He liked to collect things from "exotic" places outside Italy but had the paintings for the room done by Florentine artists and marble from Florence, work done by locals out of local materials. The cabinet doors were all carved wood. The guide said he did this to represent Florence as the best of the best, yet he collected all things from away. Perhaps it was his own little power trip to place all these things in his special little hidden Florence room. The guide said only he would go up there and admire his things alone by candlelight. The room of Francesco was twice the size, long and narrow. It had a painted ceiling and a row of square paintings along the upper wall and a row along the lower wall that were ovals. The ones on the lower wall front the hidden cabinets and secret doors to Cosimo's room. Francesco favored collecting things related to science. Like many Medicis, he had himself inserted into many of the paintings. His theme was nature and discovery and mastery of it so the paintings grow out of air, fire and water.

PANDAmonium!

Washington, D.C., June 9-10, 2007

I am such a fan of pandas. The advent of the internet web cam has been just about the greatest technological achievement as far as I'm concerned because now I can watch pandas whenever I want. And I have probably viewed Tai Shan, the baby panda at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., at some point nearly every day of his life since he was born. So it was inevitable that I would have to visit him in person. A few months ago, I had to travel for work and, in the course of being re-routed due to airline issues, discovered that there is a direct flight between Portland and D.C. National Airport. Knowing that Tai Shan's second birthday is July 9th and that often China wants to take custody of their baby pandas around that time, I decided that I simply had to go and see Tai in person, as well as his mom and dad, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who I also view daily on the panda cam. Now lucky for me, China decided that Tai can stay in the USA for another two years. So that means more daily panda cam viewing for me!

I had been to D.C. just a few years ago after Laura's graduation so decided only to go this time for the weekend. Laura and Jeff decided they wanted to go along again too. We flew down on a 6:10 a.m. flight out of Portland, took a cab to the Omni Shoreham, and by about 10:00 a.m. we were finishing our breakfast and heading off to the Zoo.When we arrived at the Giant Panda Habitat, we were able to view the environment for ourselves. The first enclosure was Tian Tian's, the daddy panda. He was up in the back of the exhibit area and it was hard to see him right then, so we then went next door to Mei Xiang's. She was already sleeping in a little cave-grotto area, probably because it provides a little shade cover and the day was already pretty hot. All three of the enclosures for each panda have lots of trees for shade or climbing, plants, bamboo growing, big tree branches and rocks to climb on, and pools to cool off in. Both Tian's and Mei's areas have guard-rails and sort of trench areas that then go uphill. However, in Tai's area, part of it is open with trench and guardrail but the other half of it does not have a trench, and he can come all the way up to the edge of the enclosure to a glass wall. So panda fans can literally get next to Tai, if he chooses to come to the window wall.

Since Mei was napping, we went next door to Tai's area and he too was napping in his favorite spot. This is a corner that I have seen him go to all the time on the panda cam, but I didn't realize how truly close he was to his fans in this spot. Right in the corner where the glass windows and the side wall meet is a grate and water runs down the rocks into this grate, and right in the corner is out of the sun. So it is probably a cooler and comfortable place for him. I have seen him napping and sitting back eating bamboo in this little area, and when we first arrived he was nested with his butt in the corner taking a nap.

Tai Shan, taking
a nap in his corner on the grate

We then continued walking in a big circle around the enclosure and up on the left side is Tai's little cave-grotto. On the other side of the path is the enclosure area for the red pandas. They are actually in the raccoon family. They really are a bright red color and have raccoon-like tails.

Red Panda

Continuing to walk around the enclosure brings you to the doors to the inside den areas. Inside is air conditioned so when the pandas feel too hot, they can come inside to do the same activities they do outside – eat bamboo, sleep, play a little bit. When we went inside, Tian Tian had come in for a bit and was sitting up on the rocks, which have little waterfalls flowing over them. Shortly after, it was time for a bamboo snack for Tian and when the door to his den opened, out he went to enjoy. It was fun to watch him. He really seems to revel in his bamboo feast. He sat there chomping and chewing and peeling bamboo, then fell back on his back and continued eating while lying down. I think Tian has a cute face and little round ears; I just like to watch him sit and eat, enjoying probably the best moments of panda life, when he can have yummy yummy bamboo.

After the pandas, we walked by the elephants where the baby elephant was playing in his swimming pool. He had all kinds of toys floating in the water and was pushing them around. Then he decided he wanted to take the ball out of the pool and he pushed it with his trunk out of the water and up onto the dirt around the pool. We went through the Hippo House and saw them lying in their pools, and went through the Small Mammal House (meerkats, prairie dogs, shrews, among other things), viewed the gorillas and a komodo dragon outside, through the Invertebrate House (crabs, octopus, squids, other sea creatures, insects), tigers and lions before stopping for lunch. After lunch, we visited the seals and sea lions, Mexican wolves, otters and beavers, and golden lion tamarins (these monkey like animals with golden fur that are loose in the forested area where you just walk along and look up, and can hear them making noise). I also stopped in Amazonia, a building where they have recreated a rainforest. It is super-humid inside and the vegetation is growing and the animals are loose inside, monkeys and birds overhead and fish below, plants and flowers all around.

Rainforest Flower

At the end of the day, we went back by the Giant Panda exhibit again to see if Mei and Tai had woken up from their naps. Tian was outside and up in the back of his enclosure. But Tai Shan had woken up and was the star of the show. What has always attracted me from the beginning watching this little panda on the web cam is that he always seemed to have such personality. When he was very little and would end up on his back, he would struggle with his legs waving like a turtle on its back trying to turn over. He would squirm and squiggle when his mother was trying to clean him with a tongue bath, like every little kid who doesn't want a bath. When he first started trying to move around, he had more strength in his front legs than back and would keep trying and trying to get somewhere and get his legs going. When he first started to get mobile, his mother would keep dragging him back to his den, yet he'd keep trying to come out and explore. When he was big enough to go outside, he just went over every inch of his outdoor area, learning where everything was, climbing on branches and trees, swinging and playing. I loved watching him when he would climb up on Mei as if she was a jungle gym, and start biting her ears. Sometimes he'd just roll himself down the hill over and over, such a playful panda.

Upon meeting him in person, I thought he's just like Paris Hilton! It's like he knows the cameras are on him and everybody is here to see him. He's the star of the show. So when we saw him in the afternoon, he was up on his rock. The water flows over the rocks and so is probably cool for him. And there are all the crazy humans, me included, with our cameras, crushed up against the guardrail leaning in trying to take pictures of him. It was like he was posing. He stood still for a few seconds so we could get him from the front, then he turned and laid down on the rock, with his legs splayed out. He stayed like that that for a minute or two, then decided to get up and move. I went around to the side with the window glass wall and he was turning around on the rock and then looked down at the window wall. It seemed like he homed in on the little girl sitting on the rock right next to me and he just bounded down off the rocks and marched right over and up to the window. Look –


Tai Shan - Superstar!

He put his nose right up to the glass and the little girl put her hand to his nose. After maybe 15-20 seconds, he decided to go to the left and lay down in front of the window. Now it was the paparazzi hordes who all crowded up to the glass, taking his picture and hovering around to worship this little panda god. He stayed there for maybe ten minutes, reveling I suppose in these silly humans and how they never tire of watching whatever he is doing – eating, pooping, sleeping. Finally, it was as if he decided he had performed enough for his public and he jumped up and bounded on up to his little cave-grotto where he plunked down and went to sleep. So, we went inside to check on Mei. She was in her den playing with a ball that had little food treats in it. She was lying back and shaking it to make the treats come out of the holes. All her fans were taking photos and she'd periodically look over at the window at everyone standing there with their cameras looking at her, as if to say "You people are crazy."

After that, we headed back to the hotel. Laura and Jeff took a swim while I took a nap after having gotten pretty overheated outside. Then they went to the Chipotle Mexican Grill, their favorite place to eat the last time we were here.

On Sunday, I spent the last day at the Natural History Museum watching IMAX 3D films about lions and sharks, and again viewing the Hope Diamond and other gems. They now have this Tiffany Diamond, gorgeous!


Laura and Jeff chose to go attend a protest they saw advertised, which turned out to be a "Free Palestine" demonstration. There were the pro-Israel counter-demonstrators as well, a very large number of people in front of the Capitol. They hung around and listened to the speeches, saw some little clashes that police had to break up. After we met up at 4:00, we had some gelato and headed back on the subway. We saw some pro-Israel kids wearing their flags and carrying their sign, and some Free Palestine people with their signs. And all rode the train in peace. Cause that's what we do in America.

London & Paris: March 2007-Part II

Monday, March 19, a long day for me. I got up at 3:00 a.m. to be ready for pick up by the shuttle taking me to the airport at 4:00. The driver was very nice for so early in the morning, and said the driving is easy at that time of day, of course. It is interesting to drive around the city in the dark at that time because most people are all asleep, all the windows in the houses and apartments dark. It's a little eerie to be up and about when everyone is sleeping. But there are always a few people who are awake and functioning. We had to pick up several other people at different hotels and there were always hotel doormen or front desk people awake to open the doors. There were homeless people sleeping outside the train stations, and a few people walking around opening up businesses that open very early, like gas stations or convenience type stores. I was dropped off at Heathrow by 5:00 a.m. which was two hours before my flight and way too early for anything to be open yet, so it was rather boring. But my flight left on time and I even semi-dozed off despite it being a flight of less than an hour.

Upon arrival at De Gaulle airport, I got a little confused and ended up at the wrong baggage carousel, which turned out to be a much more complicated mistake than you'd think because I ended up having to go backwards through Customs to get to the right one. But eventually I did get my bag and started looking for where I was supposed to get my shuttle to the hotel. A girl at a British Airways desk directed me to Terminal 2F and I was on my way there when a guy chased me down and showed me a printout sheet that was for the shuttle company and had my name on it. I guess because he was a quick thinker, he figured out that I was the person he was there to pick up. He said it was because I was, in fact, holding a voucher in my hand, and I suspect he could also tell I was American. He was on the phone quite a bit on the ride, as these guys always are, and I could tell he was another person with an eastern European accent. I had noticed the previous three days while walking around London that on the street, I really didn't hear around me British accents but mostly eastern European languages. This was a change from when I was in London in 2002 and 2003, and seemed like maybe it would also be the case in Paris, though I did still hear a lot of French on the streets. So maybe the French still live in Paris but the Brits don't live in London?

Anyway, I was dropped off at my hotel, called Hotel de Castiglione on Rue Fauborg St. Honore. The front desk clerk was nice enough, but the hotel is a dump so avoid it, despite how beautiful it looks on their website. By the time I checked into the room, it was almost 1:00 p.m. so I decided to head right off to the Louvre. It was about maybe a 15-20 minute walk from the hotel, and what a zoo it was! Just full of people and school groups and other tourist group tours. It was so big and I don't know a lot about art so I decided to take the English guided tour at 2:00. Definitely worth the 5 euro it cost. We had a lady who obviously knew a lot about art give us the tour. It included headphones and she talks into a microphone that is picked up by the headphones, so we could hear her easily despite all the noise around us.

The guide first took us through the Medieval Louvre, where they had excavated the old moat walls. Then she took us to visit the major Louvre masterpieces. The first was the Winged Victory statue. It has no head and only the left wing is original, the right wing created as a mirror reverse of the left. It is an ancient Greek statue, and despite the missing pieces, there is a lot of movement it. She looks as if she would be standing high above a battle, the wind blowing, maybe a victory of angels.



Then we went to the Apollo Gallery, where the Louvre houses what is left of the French crown jewels. So much was lost during the French Revolution that it doesn't compare to what you can see of the English crown jewels in the Tower of London, but they do have Louis XV's Coronation crown, some tiaras with sapphires in one and emeralds in the other, with matching necklaces that are all very beautiful. Some think the Hope Diamond, now in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, was once part of the French crown jewels, then known as the French Blue, and that it was stolen and re-cut during the Revolution. The guide said that one of the diamonds for the crown, which is displayed separately, is not the biggest diamond in the world but it is the most perfect. It is a white diamond.

Then we saw the Venus de Milo. Why so special? The guide said it is because there are very few real Greek sculptures left. Most are Roman reproductions. She said it is unusual because it has a classical style head but a more modern, realistic body. She said art experts think the head was an homage to the past. And it is unusual because she said Greek statues are usually either all naked or all clothed; she is half clothed. When she said that, I thought I know what her missing arms were doing! Holding a big jug of water and pouring a bath! It is a real mystery because both of the arms are gone, so what was she doing? It was here that the guide revealed her snobbery. She had earlier scolded people taking flash photos, but I didn't see a sign here prohibiting them, so I asked her if I could take one. She said I could, but went on a little tirade about how soon the Louvre will prohibit all photos and that would be better for viewing the masterpieces because people are so intent on taking photos she didn't think they appreciated what they were viewing. Whatever, I just took my photo. But I thought this lady is lucky enough to be able to see these beautiful masterpieces every day of her life. Most of the rest of us on the tour will only be lucky enough to see them with our own eyes once in a lifetime (and most people don't even manage once). A photo never conveys what you saw, but we can't help trying to prolong our experience. She should try once to view the world through someone else's eyes.

Of course, we also saw the Mona Lisa. I have seen pictures of it many times before and didn't know why it is a masterpiece, but like lots of masterpieces I have managed to see in my life, they are always so much more beautiful in person and this one was no exception. How Da Vinci manages to capture the essence of a person on canvas always amazes me. It took him 14 years to finish it. It has real depth and substance and subtleties of shades. Her eyes follow you (and I stood to the left, middle, and right) and she looks at you with a look that says she has found calmness and contentment. She is relaxed and satisfied with her life. She has found all the answers to achieve true happiness. It is an entrancing painting and makes you feel serene, like her, when you look at it.

On the opposite wall, there is "Wedding at Cana" by Veronese. It is huge, colorful and dynamic. It took him only one year to finish it. It is interesting that the Louvre displays these opposite each other in the same room, maybe to show the contrast between how each artist thought about his creation and what it represented. A job vs. painting the soul? The guide told us that the Mona Lisa was a real woman, the wife of a local governmental official, but that Da Vinci never got paid for the painting because he didn't deliver it in a timely manner and it didn't end up looking like the real woman.

We also visited the famous large painting "Coronation of Napoleon", in which he coronated himself (if that's a word). The Pope attended and is in the painting but he refused to crown Napoleon Emperor and so he did it himself. Over on the left side of the painting he hid the imperial crown as a message to the royalty supporters of "out with the old".

We saw the Gericault painting "Raft of the Medusa" which the guide said started the movement toward depiction of violence and realism. This is next to the Delacroix painting "Liberte". It is of the Revolution with the people, worker and bourgeoisie, being led by the woman Liberte, with her dress half down and carrying the French flag, as they step over the dead. This was also a very dynamic painting to see in person, beautiful but disturbing. I think it truly does represent the Revolution in one image, victory but at what cost?



That was the end of the guided tour. I then visited the French sculptures which are presented in two enclosed courtyards with plenty of daylight coming in, a very nice setting. Then I visited the Napoleon III Apartments, extremely ornate and way over the top with chandeliers and draperies and gold and red, very high ceilings, paintings, really opulent and gaudy.

Finally, I just could do no more. I had been up since 3:00 a.m. and had eaten only two Krispy Kreme donuts before I left London and a cookie and orange juice right before the Louvre tour. My feet and legs hurt and the time just flew – it was 4:30 already. So I went outside and it looked like it was going to rain, with dark clouds. Sure enough, it did rain but only briefly. I took some photos of the Tuileries garden, which is right outside the Louvre. There were some topiaries and the grass is green, with some flowers blooming, but really this will be much more beautiful in a month. You can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance from the Tuileries. I started back to the hotel but stopped to eat in a little café where I had spaghetti Bolognese (in France, right) and some chocolate mousse and cappuccino for dessert.

On the walk back, I realized that I would be needing a scarf in Paris. Even though I was wearing a spring coat and wasn't that uncomfortable, the weather was rather windy and around 47F, so my neck was cold. Having a scarf would make all the difference between feeling chilly and not. So I stopped in a store called D'Orly and bought a 9 euro viscose scarf that would do the trick. The girl working in there was very nice. She spoke English and said it was because she was French and Israeli and had studied in Israel. She had been to Boston which she liked very much and said she wanted to return. We talked about London and Paris. She said that the reason I heard so many eastern European accents is because the EU, European Union, has been expanding and has started to let in some countries to the east. The people there come west because they can make a better living in the western European countries. The EU is sort of like the states in the US. The countries of the EU allow people to easily pass between them. She said, much like Peggy has said before, that when they went to the euro it really wasn't an even change from the old currency to the new. She said that while prices seemed to go up with the change to the euro, salaries didn't and so it is expensive to live in Paris. (I actually thought Paris wasn't that expensive, especially compared to London. I mean, it cost 8.50 euro to get into the Louvre. I paid more than that, $15, to get into the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. But maybe the salaries in Paris are lower than I would expect.) She said that there is hidden behind the haute couture stores and Paris on the surface a real problem with poor people and beggars. I let her pick the color of the scarf to match with my coat, and she told me if I found I needed any help with anything in the city, to come back. She really was very nice.

On Tuesday, I had a very busy day. It began with breakfast at the hotel, and then I walked up to this sightseeing company, Cityrama, where I had purchased a reservation for a sightseeing bus tour of the city. This was a double-decker bus and the audio tour was in various languages, you just chose the correct channel for your language. So I had a nice window seat on the top deck and we went by the Paris Opera House, Place Vendome, Place de Concorde, down the Champs-Elysees and by the Arch de Triomphe. This is really big when you're right on top of it. It is, again, a very large monument built by Napoleon to commemorate his greatness and battles he won. He seemed to never tire of building monuments to himself, the bigger the better. What I didn't know is that this is where the French have buried their Unknown Soldier, and there is an eternal flame that burns there. Then we went by the Eiffel Tower and Invalides, which was built for sick and disabled veterans. We also went by the Musee d'Orsay on the Seine, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Sorbonne school, the Luxembourg Garden, and the Pantheon.

When the bus ride was done, I had lunch in a café because it was about noon and about to rain again. I had a cheese, tomato and basil pannini which was very good, and some chocolate cake. I bought a two-day pass for the Metro. The girl who sold it to me wasn't as fun as the uber-clerk in London. She looked about 23 years old and talked on the phone the whole time. But the Metro here runs just like London and other cities I've been in. It is by colors and numbers (they don't name the lines like they do in London – like the Bakerloo line, the Jubilee line, the Northern line, etc.) The Concorde stop is the one that was closest to my hotel. So I figured it out pretty fast. Apparently, the French are quite proud of their train system. Their Metro isn't quite as nice as London's Tube – the trains are narrower and the stations/corridors older and kind of grubby. But it all seems to run well, and they also have the commuter rails, the Eurostar system that goes to other countries, and the "Chunnel" train that goes across the English Channel to London.

After lunch, I went over to the Conciergerie. This was the prison where people convicted as traitors during the French Revolution were sent. The Revolution got everyone, including the architects of the Revolution such as Robespierre, Danton, even the chief prosecutor eventually. It was a real bloodbath. Of course, also a prisoner for 76 days was Marie Antoinette. They have recreated her cell and made a chapel on the site. Imagine her praying here before going to the guillotine. There were also recreated cells for people of various means. That was what was kind of ironic here. Supposedly, the Revolution would equalize everyone. They destroyed the monarchy and were bringing power to the people. Yet even in the prison, there were classes of cells. The very poorest were crammed into cells and slept on straw. Those who could pay could have cots to sleep on. And some could have chairs and desks. Of course, Marie Antoinette, being the queen, had a chair, a desk, a window, a bed, and a rug. Outside there was a little courtyard where the women could go to walk around, wash their clothes in a fountain, and talk to the men behind bars in a corner of the courtyard. A very sad place when you think of how many poor souls passed through on the way to their deaths.

The Conciergerie

After the Conciergerie, I went next door to the Sainte Chapelle church, originally built to house relics but there are no relics there anymore. The highlight here is the truly spectacular stained glass windows. Those on the sides of the church are very, very tall, practically from floor to ceiling. The windows dominate the interior and are really beautiful when the light shines through them. There is also a gorgeous rose window.

Then I walked little more than a block away to Notre Dame. It really is elaborate on the outside, all kinds of carvings in the arches of the doors and statues above. Inside, it is very dark. It does have some nice rose windows of stained glass.



There are lots of little chapels and altars on each side. I paid 3 euro to go in and see the relics. This is actually where the Sainte Chapelle relics ended up. I have blogged before about relics, and so I couldn't resist going to visit them here. There were two really large bones, but the highlight here is relic #12 which is reportedly the True Cross of Christ. This, of course, would have put the church on the map as a destination for pilgrims. Of course, a relic of Jesus would be the pinnacle of relics.

Relic #12

After Notre Dame, I took a ride over to the Eiffel Tower. After passing it on the bus tour, I knew I wanted to go back and get a closer look and maybe even go up. It is painted brown. I think it is really pretty. It is all metal, but it has gentle curves and designs and crosses and arches. It is art nouveau style. When it was built, it replaced the Washington Monument as the tallest building in the world. Then it was replaced by the Chrysler Building in New York City, a monument to art deco style. The weather had become gray, dark and cloudy and windy, and so I ended up being too scared to go up. After all, the Tower really is all outside. It's not an enclosed building. I was lucky enough to be able to see the Eiffel Tower from several places in Paris during the whole time I was there, and I must say it was my favorite. I know, how cliche.

After the Eiffel Tower, I stopped by the Place de Concorde to take some photos of the place where the guillotine of the French Revolution killed so many people. I was exhausted, so ended up just eating at the hotel and going to sleep by about 9:30.

On Wednesday, the mission was to get to Versailles. I figured it out and did very well. Take the Metro to Invalides where you switch to the RER train which is the commuter rail. The C line goes to Versailles. A round trip ticket cost only 5.40 euro, and it was about a half hour ride. I arrived at Versailles at about 11:00 a.m. and began the tour. It costs only 13.50 euro and includes the audioguide. I went first into the Chapel, where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were married. Of course, it is very ornate and beautiful. I visited the opera, which a lot of it is actually made of wood and so they built a reservoir next to it in case of fire. Then I went through the kings' and queens' apartments and reception rooms. Versailles really was expanded upon during the reign of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", and became a real example of what a palace for a king and his court should be. Royalty needed to be ornate and extravagant and elaborate, and the palace was not just a place to live but a place to live publicly. The French kings and queens really lived their lives on display all the time, eating their meals on public display. Marie Antoinette even gave birth to her first child before a room full of people.


Then there is the Hall of Mirrors, which is really something. It used to be a terrace, but was enclosed to become a corridor between the War Drawing Room and the Peace Drawing Room. The mirrors are huge, almost floor to ceiling, and mirrors were quite costly at the time of Louis XIV and so it was a demonstration of very high status to have so many as there are here. The mirrors are opposite identically shaped windows to the gardens and are meant to make the room big and full of light. And there are the great chandeliers down the entire length of the hallway. The treaty that ended WWI was signed here as well. I get excited when I am in such historical places myself, walking in the footsteps that all the larger than life historical personalities walked. Versailles is where the people stormed the palace and ended the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. I also saw at Versailles another copy of the painting of the coronation of Napoleon. I also went through the Apartments of the Dauphin, who would have been the heir to the throne.

It was Louis XIV who had moved the court to Versailles, and I thought that a half hour by train today must have been quite far by horse and carriage back then. It really would have been out in the country. Of course, I also took a walk in the gardens. The grass and shrubbery is green and the flower beds are just waiting for the flowers to bloom. The trees do not yet have leaves. I can only imagine how beautiful the gardens will be by April. Versailles is so large and, now on day 7 of my trip, I didn't have the physical stamina to make the walk out to the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon or the little village built for Marie Antoinette. I was told they were about a half hour walk on foot from the palace.

I was back in Paris by 4:00 so decided to try and squeeze in one more thing. I decided to go to Tour Montparnasse, the second tallest structure in Paris after the Eiffel Tower. It is a skyscraper basically, and you can go up to the 56th floor and get a panoramic view of the city. I could see the Eiffel Tower, the Luxembourg Gardens, Invalides with its golden dome, Notre Dame, the Montparnasse cemetery. It was a nice view, and a nice way to end my stay in Paris. The lady who ran the elevator was very nice and chatted with me when she heard I was from Boston. Her son got his masters at Northeastern. I ate a delicious salad in the little café up there. Montparnasse at street level was very vibrant and busy. There was a ton of cafes and movie theatres and stores.

Thursday, it was time for the journey home. My final thoughts on Paris: it's very fast moving, a lot like New York City. The people there, men and women, dress very nice. They're quite stylish and like nice things, nice accessories – scarves, bags, shoes. The people were generally nice too, for such a big city. They didn't treat me badly, even knowing I was American. I always tried to be polite – say bonjour, si vous plait, merci – so I think they were nice in return. I feel very lucky to have been able to visit Paris and see the Mona Lisa, Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, with my own eyes. I never tire of traveling and seeing new places and people. I wish I could do it all the time, instead of just a few days a year. There's just not enough time for me to see all of the world I want to see.

London & Paris: March 2007-Part I

I was supposed to go on this trip with my friend Bonnie, who had gone to Dublin with me last year. But she broke her arm and was unable to go so I ended up at the last minute having to either forfeit the money I had paid for the trip or go alone. So I chose to go alone. Since this would be my 3rd time in London, I wasn't too concerned about that, but this would be my first visit to Paris and I don't speak French. At the last minute, due to Bonnie's cancellation, Peggy bought a cheap Ryanair ticket to London. So I would have some company for at least two days of my trip since she was going to spend Friday and Saturday with me.

I left on Thursday on the bus to Boston, and flew British Airways direct to London, arriving at about 5:00 in the morning on Friday. I took a pre-arranged shuttle to the Hilton Euston London hotel and, good luck for me, was able to check into my room and take a nap. I woke up to the key opening the door – Peggy arriving at about 10:00 a.m. After chatting for a bit, we had lunch in the hotel restaurant and then headed off to the London Underground Euston stop about a block away. Also known as the Tube, the London subway system makes traveling anywhere in the City super-easy. We got in line to buy tickets. I bought a 3-day pass for 16 pounds (the equivalent of about $32; things are expensive in London) and this would allow me to ride the Tube anywhere in Central London as many times as I wanted. This is convenient when you make mistakes and end up on a line or in a place you didn't intend. You have to use your pass when entering the Tube and also when exiting, I think to make sure you're not cheating the system. For example, my pass for Central London was for Zones 1-2. Had we wanted to go further outside Central London to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, for example, this is in Zone 3. We could enter the Tube and hop on the line to ride out to Kew. But upon trying to exit the station with my Zone 1-2 pass, the gate won't open until I go over to a window and pay the additional fare and validate the ticket for Zone 3.

Anyway, we went up to the window and spoke with the clerk there. We called this guy the Superman of ticket agents because we noticed that for every customer that went through Window #1, this guy was able to handle 3 customers. As I was explaining the types of places we wanted to visit and asking what would be the best type of ticket or pass for us to purchase, and he was listening very patiently, all of a sudden this balled up wad of paper flew from the left and hit him in the side of the head. He never flinched at all and kept on listening to me intently until I just stopped talking and started giggling. He said, "Oh, he'll pay later."

We then took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus because Peg wanted to shop at a Japanese food store there. We also poked around the Virgin Megastore there. Then we were back on the Tube to the park and gardens around Kensington Palace. The grass is all green but the leaves have not come out on the trees yet. It was in the 50's while we were in London, the end of their winter and beginning of spring. Some flowers are blooming but in about a month, the gardens will be beautiful. We walked by the Orangery at Kensington where the trees were all groomed into the shape of large thimbles. We also walked by the pond where there are very large swans. There were a lot of people walking around the park including tourists and lots of nannies with baby carriages. We went into the Kensington Palace gift shop where I bought some earrings and some little books on English Tea Etiquette.

After Kensington, we took a walk to the Tea Palace (http://www.teapalace.co.uk/). This was a lovely place to have afternoon tea. The color scheme is all purple, with white tablecloths and napkins. You can buy many different types of teas and tea accessories. You also choose what type of tea you want with your food – and there is an entire wall floor to ceiling to select from! Peggy had a pot of Keemun tea, a Chinese black tea, and I had the Tea Palace Earl Grey. We had the tiny finger sandwiches (egg, cucumber, salmon and chicken tarragon), some perfectly delicious scones, and the tiny desserts (chocolate, a coconut cake, and a lemon tartlet). It was just heavenly! After tea, we walked back to the Notting Hill Gate station, checking out various shops along the way.

Saturday morning Peg and I had the hotel breakfast and then headed off to the Tower of London. We bought our tickets and were just in time to pick up the free tour with the Yeoman Warder (the Beefeater). Our Yeoman was a cheeky guy, Alan, who fancied himself the romantic leading man type and was full of lots of silly jokes. But the Yeoman tour gives a lot of history of the Tower of London and also is the only way you can go into the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula where the bodies of those executed on Tower Green are buried. Here are buried Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two wives of Henry VIII, Lady Jane Grey and Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex. He was a favorite of Elizabeth I, at least until he ended up here. Lady Jane Grey was 16 years old and part of a plot that really involved her father. After Henry VIII died, she was the uncrowned Queen of England for nine days during a power struggle that eventually was lost to Henry's daughter by first wife Catherine of Aragon, Mary. Jane and her fiancé both died on Tower Hill. In the Beauchamp Tower next to Tower Green there is a lot of graffiti inside carved by the prisoners. There are two carvings particular to Jane which were said to have been made by her fiancé, or at least by someone who favored her to be Queen and ended up a prisoner as well. Elizabeth I was one of the few people to enter the Tower as a prisoner through Traitor's Gate during the reign of her sister, Mary, and then later was freed. I bet she's the only person to enter the Tower as a prisoner and attain freedom and then become Queen.

Yeoman Alan told us that to become a Yeoman Warder one must have 22 years of service in the military, achieve the rank of Sergeant Major, and receive certain conduct and heroism medals while in service. Then, if lucky enough to be chosen, he can be a Yeoman upon leaving the military service until retirement at age 65. With the job comes housing in the Tower for him and his family. Alan's wife is also employed at the Tower, and he pointed her out to us as she walked by. Alan provided us with history and also some jokes such as this: he told us the story of James Scott who, unfortunately, it took five whacks from the executioner to get his head off. Before being beheaded, the prisoner had to give the ax-man his token payment. Poor James had forgotten to pay him. What was this token payment called? Severance pay!

Of course, we again visited the Crown Jewels. I had seen them once before on my first trip to London, but I never tire of seeing priceless jewels. These are set up on exhibition quite nicely actually. After going through a couple of rooms where they show films where you can see the crown jewels as they are used during the coronation, you then enter the room where they are kept. They are in a long glass cabinet and on each side is a moving walkway that you ride along on. So by riding on each walkway, you can view them from the front and the back. Then, if you're like me and Peg, you can go back and hop on again and again. Here is a picture of the Imperial State Crown which is worn by the English monarch to open Parliament, and on other State occasions.



It has a large ruby, and below that is the Cullinan II diamond, 317 carats and the second largest cut diamond in the world. The Sovereign's Sceptre contains the Cullinan I, 530 carats. Here is a picture of Elizabeth II after her coronation, wearing the Imperial State Crown and holding the Sovereign's Sceptre and Orb.



The coronation crown is called St. Edward's crown and is used only to crown the monarch. Also in the display were other crown jewels such as Victoria's tiny little crown that you frequently see in her portraits, and the Queen Mother's crown, coronation robes, swords, spoons, more crowns, all very beautiful. We went round several times on the walkway to view and fully appreciate these gorgeous jewels.


St. Edward's Crown

We also caught part of another Yeoman's tour and he turned out to be the Ravenmaster, the one who cares for the ravens. The superstition is that there must always be ravens at the Tower and if they ever leave, the White Tower and the monarchy will fall. So they always keep eight ravens at the Tower and the ravenmaster cares for them.

After the Tower, we took a walk around the waterfront area and then took a train to Notting Hill Gate to look for a place to eat. We ended up at this place called Nando's which served spicy Portuguese chicken. I had the mildest which was hot enough for me, and Peg had medium. There were still two hotter choices and we really couldn't imagine who could eat something that hot. Then we went back to the hotel and were so exhausted I think we were both asleep by 9:30.

On Sunday morning, Peg left at 5:30 a.m. to go home. I slept until 9:30, then got up, had breakfast, and headed off to the Imperial War Museum. This turned out to be a very good museum and I barely saw much of it in four hours. The admission is free and it has exhibits on all the wars that Britain has been involved in. The ground floor has all kinds of equipment – rockets, tanks, vehicles, planes. I visited an exhibit called "The Children's War", all about how British children experienced World War II. Many were evacuated from London to the countryside and to other countries, even as far away as Australia, some for up to five years. Imagine how difficult and scary that must have been for many of them. Imagine also if you were the parent who sent away a little child of 8 or 9 and when next you saw your child they were a 13 or 14 year old teenager that you really no longer knew, only knew the memory of who they were before. There were lots of items that were donated by the children, now grown up, such as clothing or other special things that they had kept their entire lives like teddy bears and dolls or other toys or mementos they held onto as the one thing they had that their mother or father had given them before they were sent away. There was also a rebuilt 1940s house that you could walk through. It was very authentic. I looked closely at the kitchen and it looked like it would be a lot of work to cook and clean in this old house. There were the bedrooms and the parlor and dining room in which there was a metal cage on the floor that actually was something many people kept in their house in London during the blitz. It basically was low to the floor, solid metal on top and cage-like on the sides, enough room for a person to fit under and lay out and sleep, with the metal over them. Apparently, people would sleep here every night and it was to protect them in case the house collapsed on them; they might survive to be dug out.

Then I visited an exhibit called "Animals at War", all about horses, dogs, cats, pigeons and their role in wars. Horses were actually used quite extensively in World War I in the calvary. There were dogs sniffing out mines, cats on boats killing rodents, pigeons carrying messages.

I watched a film called "Crimes Against Humanity", about genocides in the 20th century which analyzed how and why and in what settings genocides occur.

I also visited "The Secret War", all about MI5 and MI6 which are the British equivalent of the FBI and CIA handling domestic and foreign covert intelligence and spying.

The bottom floor was dedicated to both WWI and WWII. I chose WWI because I really don't know as much about that war. This began with an anarchist assassinating the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and it triggered various alliances of countries who saw events as either a threat or an opportunity. Basically, Austria-Hungary and its allies Germany and Turkey (Ottoman Empire) proceeded to attempt to build an empire in a quest for world domination. This war was mostly fought in trenches and the museum has built a recreated a trench that you can walk through, very dark and claustrophobic and smelly. The war went on from 1914 to 1918, killing millions and was basically at a stalemate until the US entered the war and began supplying fresh troops in the summer of 1917. Actually, the ceasefire occurred at 11:00 a.m. on November 11th (11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month) - what we now continue to observe as Veteran's Day. The Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war when it was signed in June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace at Versailles in Paris. The war marked the end of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires and also ended the Russian empire and Romanov dynasty with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. The treaty required Germany to accept all responsibility for the war, pay all the costs of it in the form of annual reparations, and it lost territory, had their armies limited to 100,000, prohibited the manufacture or import of weapons, tanks, submarines, military aircraft, and poison gas. After the war, there was economic collapse in Germany followed by famine and inflation. Eventually, Hitler broke the treaty when he began to take the territories that had been given up in the Treaty of Versailles and re-militarize Germany, leading to WWII.

Had I had more time, I would have visited the Holocaust Exhibit, the WWII exhibit, and an exhibit on D-Day. This museum was definitely worth the trip if you like military subjects and war history. I then headed over the Harrods where I had a sandwich in a deli there and also got some Krispy Kreme donuts. It cost me the equivalent of $6.00 for three donuts. I couldn't afford to live in London, but I love to visit!

On Monday, March 19th, I was up at 3:00 a.m. to get ready for my 4:00 a.m. ride to the airport and my flight to Paris. Good-bye to London for the third time.