Wars....sadly

I am still pretty emotional over The Ferryman, especially coming fresh off a week in Ireland and learning the history and struggles of this country that is just glossed over in our history books.  It is true that we lived a great deal of the Northern Ireland /IRA conflicts in modern times but we did it from America.  When we heard the times recounted from our tour guide, Martine, who witnessed it first hand, it was especially poignant.  Dom & I actually did not remember that it was Bill Clinton who brokered a peace between what is now known as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1998, not 20 years ago.

The Ferryman takes place in 1981, all in the Carney family farmhouse in Northern Ireland.  It definitely involves a cast of characters from the family priest to the intruder who I would liken to a mobster.  Without giving anything away, the message of the play is fiercely powerful and the ending quite shocking.  I hope if it does come to Broadway that it is received in the moral sense that it is meant to be and does not foster more division in our country.

Today we went to the Churchill War Museum where visitors are completely immersed into World War II.  Churchill and his staff and advisors conducted all their business, day & night out of this underground 'bunker', that despite have a concrete coating installed around it, was still not 'bomb proof'.  We saw what would be called today the "War Room", the living quarters of Churchill, his officers, the support staff and even the kitchen; the decoding, messaging and map rooms....all underground.

After viewing the bunker, you are taken back to how it all began; the war, that is.  I again became emotional, thinking that even though Hitler was defeated, there is always a monster right around the corner, looking to continue annihilaton.
Churchill was quite the character, as you know, and he had a way of reinventing himself throughout  his political life so there was a lot of material.
We spent 3 hours there and really enjoyed it.

No trip to London is complete without a spin through Harrod's.  It is quite the spectacle but the crowds can be overwhelming.  We were glad to leave.

Dinner tonight is at a restaurant we went to last time that we really enjoyed:  the Chiltern Firehouse.

Tomorrow back to LA.  I think Dom is really ready to return.  And I miss everyone.

Thank you so much for reading my blog.  I started blogging about our big trips a few years ago so that I would have a lasting memory of them for myself.   I told a few friends and they said reading the blogs made them feel as if they were on the trip with me and urged me to blog again last year and again this year.
Dom took the liberty of posting each installment on his FB page so that others may also enjoy our adventures.  I hope you have continued to enjoy reading them and maybe even gotten a chuckle or two out of the posts.

Magical Mystery Tour

So by the title of this post you must realize that it was Beatles day.

But first, I must explain why you didn't wake up this morning to a blog.  Liverpool is a 2.5 hours train ride from central London.  I booked us first class seats with a tour company.  There were 8 people in the group; 4 to a table.  Thankfully, we made friends with the young couple we were seated with.  Little did we know that the ride home would be 4 hours.  There was an explosion at the London train station we were going to and so the station was shut down until the police could determine what happened.  It seems a package containing an e-cigarette exploded.  People, understandably ran for their lives, not knowing what was happening and seeing all the smoke and mayhem.  As frustrating as it was for us, stuck on the tracks until all was cleared up, I will be forever thankful that we were not at the station and that it was not a worse explosion.  It's a crazy and frightful world we live in today.

On to our day in Liverpool.  As you might remember from my last blog, I was almost regretting booking such an ambitious day but despite the train issue, it was really such fun.  The train ride was really nice, breakfast going and dinner and drinks returning.  And nice people to chat with.

I have always pictured Liverpool as this gritty and cloudy city.  Well, it sort of is.
"The Beatles Story" is a museum housed along the pier.

With your trusty audio guide you work your way through every stage of the boys' climb out of their oh so humble beginnings, how Paul and George met on the school bus to how they met up with John who was a bit taken aback by how good Paul was; actually afraid he may outshine him in the group but took him on anyway.  To the whole Pete Best to Ringo Story; to start of the their record deal to their infamous trip to America and the Ed Sullivan Show to the rest of the 1960's, the psychedelic stage and Sgt. Pepper....

...to the beginning of the end, when Yoko came on the scene.  The White Room is also staged with John's lyrics to "Imagine" on the wall.  How eternal those words are.

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Of course, as all tours do, this one ends in the gift shop.  How do you choose?????

We crossed the pier to the next stop:  The British Invasion.  This was a more modest exhibit but worth seeing, nonetheless.  As we walked the pier, what should we see?  The ferry crossing the Mersey, of course!

And a few of Dom's BFF's....

On to the Magical Mystery Tour....the bus took us through the streets the boys grew up on, to the real Penny Lane; we  saw the "barber shop" and the "roundabout", and the "grave of Eleanor Rigby".  Was there a real Fr. Mackenzie?  No one really knows but near there is a Mackenzie grave near Eleanor.  Strawberry Fields will be getting a makeover soon.  It is pretty rundown and needs a whole facelift of the grounds.

The tour took us past Ringo's house which is boarded up like all the other houses on the block.  Not sure what will become of this street but the city is hoping for some preservation of his particular house.  We saw the house John was born in.  Yoko purchased it about 3 years ago for 500,000 pounds; not sure what her plans are for it.  We were able to photograph John's second house which she also purchased and donated to the National Trust.

Paul's house is also owned by the National Trust.  A little tidbit about the signage on his house.  When he visited and saw that it was labeled the childhood home of Paul McCartney, he asked that it be changed to read all his family's names.  A class guy.

George Harrison's beginnings are probably the most humble.  His house didn't even have an inside toilet.  And here's something you probably didn't know....when he checked into hotels, he used the name of Arnold Grove.  Now where do you suppose he got that name from?

The end of the day found us at the Cavern Club where the boys performed 292 times.  It was so cool to be in this grungy cave about 3 stories underground; to relive their iconic history.

Some of you might have heard the story of the time Dom & I were walking down Central Park South one evening and see Paul and Mrs. Paul walking hand in hand right in front of us.  Now, I really don't get gaga over celebrities, but come on, this was Paul McCartney!  I called him MR. McCartney!  And I spoke to the wife, telling her a tidbit I heard Barbara saying on The View that day.  BW is her cousin. It's a story I can tell my grandkids.

Ironically, this was the last day of Beatle Week in Liverpool.  Who knew?

This is probably where most of the fans stay when they come to Liverpool.  Why not?

I was so happy for Dom as he is a rabid Beatles fan so he was thrilled with the whole experience.

Today, we visited yet another iconic spot in London's history:  The Tower of London.

We met up with a Beefeater who gave us a very animated history of the Tower  and ended his tour at the Chapel.  One thing that continued to strike me throughout all of Ireland and England has been the connection of church and state.  Of course, in the US there is complete separation,  but over here it is one and the same.  The constant fighting between the Catholics and Protestants up until 1998 in Ireland.  The fact that almost all wars from the Crusades on have started over religion.  The disgusting predjudice that lives on today in our own country that the Jewish people are experiencing. Please let it stop!

Now a place that houses all those Crown Jewels just couldn't have any old burglar alarm to protect them, so there are guards aplenty stationed everywhere.

The Beefeaters themselves have all had distinguished military careers.  Our guide was #402 out of 406 Beefeaters.  They live on the property and are understandably very proud of their service to the Queen.  Our guide beat out 44 other applicants for his job so it is very competitive and only the best are considered for the role.

It's a rainy day today but one cannot truly experience London without a bit of the local flavor.
Look what stepped into my background, none other than London's Tower Bridge...

And with what is going on in Houston, no one would ever complain.  The floods and rains in Houston have been the top story on BBC every day.

We've had a pit stop in the hotel this afternoon in preparation for the theatre tonight.  We are seeing The Ferryman and Dom is already groaning that it is a 3 hour play.  It received rave reviews and is directed by Sam Mendes who directed the last 3 James Bond movies.  Stay tuned for my review.

All Castle'd Out

Watching The Tudors and seeing that scenes were filmed at Christ Church in Dublin, whet my appetite for even more, so off to Hampton Court Palace we went.  The Palace is about 40 minutes drive outside London.  We took an Uber.
Talk about 'conspicuous consumption!  Of course, nothing King Henry VIII did was ever subtle, but this Palace was actually built by that scoundrel Cardinal Wolsey as he wormed his way into Henry's court.  Talk about a suck up!  Wolsey was in the 'in' crowd until he couldn't secure a divorce from the pope for Henry from Katherine of Aragon (wife #1).  That's when Henry decided that he was so close to God that he would form his own church.  No ego involved here!

So what Wolsey started, Henry expanded.  On an average day, 600 people were fed twice a day so not surprisingly, the kitchens were massive and the fires multiple.  The dining hall had multiple tables that were displayed with tablecloths explaining how the guests and staff were seated, how they were expected to eat, to sit, to dress, etc.

The whole castle was grand scale.  The gardens and surrounding lawns even bigger.

Can you believe the Palace is even home to the largest grapevine?  There is a large patch of dirt adjacent to the greenhouse; underneath it are the roots for the grapevine.

It so happens there was a food festival going on today so we meandered through that as well.  Lots of families coming in for a lovely day as today was a 'Bank Holiday'.  No clue as to the significance or really if there even was a significance to the Holiday.

I booked a shuttle from Hampton Court to Windsor Castle as my research told me it was the best way to get to the Castle.  The shuttle only ran once a day at 12:15 so we had to rush a bit through the last part of the Palace.  One needs a full 3 hours there to see everything but it worked out.

It took about 35 minutes to get to Windsor so we were even further out from London.  Richard, our driver, warned us not to attempt an Uber on the way back to London as the traffic would be brutal due to the 'Bank Holiday'.

Windsor is every bit as beautiful and imposing as you have seen on TV and in photos.

St. George's Chapel is used everyday and closes at 4:30 to prepare for evening services so we made that our first stop.  Unfortunately, no photos were allowed anywhere inside at Windsor.  So much history in the chapel and so many tombs.  That poor Queen Victoria lived 50 years after her beloved Albert died.  She made a beautiful addition to the chapel in his honor but was so distraught she did not attend his funeral.  She wore black and mourned him every day for those 50 years.
A side shot of the Chapel; quite ornate architecture.

Of course, protocol is as pervasive at Windsor as it is at Buckingham.  How many receiving rooms does one really need?  LOL!  The Queen spends most weekends at Windsor except when she's at Balmoral.

The town of Windsor is quite a bustling place.  Shopping promenades, hotels and restaurants abound but we just had to venture to adjacent Eton so we could see the College.  Very quaint college town with stately brick buildings.  I actually expected more of a grand scale.

So now we have to get back to London.  What a schlep to the train station.  It's no wonder I did 17,000 steps today.  Train ride to the Tube to Victoria Station = 1 1/2 hours.

A quick dinner, blogging and to bed so we can arrive tomorrow morning at 6am at a train station for a 14 hour day to Liverpool.  What was I thinking?????  I booked it for Dom as he is a huge Beatles fan.