Issue #10 …
A Burgoo of Miscellany
A New Arrival!
The most recent addition to our Atlantic-bound crew is Erich Nobis. (Yes, there is an “h” at the end of his name.) Erich, a senior at Triopia, is the son of Randy and Karen Nobis, the folks who run the Hobby Horse Daycare Center in Jacksonville where Erich also works in his after-school hours.
Erich is a former football player and a current actor in the Triopia/Lincoln Land stable of performers. Next year he’ll be heading probably toward ISU.
Oh yeah…he’s one cool kid.
Here’s a pix of our three teenaged travelers…Erich, Wendy and Hannah. (I made the mistake of putting Travis’s pix in an earlier newsletter and two travelers cancelled the next day. ..I can safely say this since Travis seldom checks his email.)
The Deadline Approacheth!
Please Remember that March 1, 2008 is the absolute deadline for full payment to be postmarked to the tour company in order to avoid being charged the 2008 rate rather than the 2007 fee that we’re now paying.
Getting Your Head Around the Term “Old”
One of the toughest things for American tourists to fully understand is the idea of time. After all, we are among the newest nations in the world.
Let’s boil it down to a single example: In one of the restaurants in Dublin there is an oven..still used every day…that is twice as old as our entire country. For 600 years cooks have been turning out meat pies, pasties, and Irish stew from this oven that was up and cooking while our nation was largely a wilderness inhabited only the early native Americans. An oven!
The Tower of London was begun in 1078. Hello! The Crown Jewels have been kept there since 1303.
It reminds me of a cartoon I saw recently in The New Yorker magazine. A man in a toga was sitting at his desk writing. He looks up at his assistant and says, “Darn, I keep writing B.C. on my checks.”
Another good example is the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. When the Romans got there in the first century, they found a culture already well-developed. The first century! What they refer to as “New Town” was begun in the 17th century. So much for your new Honda.
While Illinois was nothing but roving buffalo and wandering tribes of Native Americans, students were sitting down to take their final exams and the University of Edinburg… 1592.
It often makes American tourists grin when European tour guides refer to the “new wing” of a building, built in the 1700’s. In our new and still-evolving country, we simply don’t have a good handle on the word “old.” It’s another joy of travel to get a bigger and better perspective on the world.
Dollar Diving
As you’ve probably read, the dollar continues to crash in Europe. This is good news for Europe, but it puts a pinch on the American shopper. And of course we happen to be traveling to the now most-affluent part of Europe. For the first time, the annual average income of the Irishman is now higher than the American. The good news… we’re no longer looked upon as “The Ugly American” who travels Europe flashing his credit card and trying to buy up the continent. It might be a refreshing change. (Recent tour guides have told me that the Germans and the Japanese are the current holders of the “ugly traveler” title. Sometimes it’s nice to not win.)
A Traffic Tale
I was reminded of a London story after church this morning while chatting with Luke Crawford, brother of Judy Hall and son of Maxine Crawford, two of our fellow travelers.
Luke and I did a tour of London some years ago. I’d hired a private car to pick us up at Heathrow since we were both country boys and didn’t want the hassle of figuring out the train system.
The bloke who picked us up was a nice chap in a well-worn Mercedes. He put our luggage in the back seat then opened the rear doors for us to climb in. Luke, wanting to soak up every bit of this adventure said, “You care if I ride in front?” The driver looked at him as if no one had ever asked this before and said, “Right! Climb in!”
If you think a ride though London can be hairy on a coach, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, Bubba. This guy was obviously paid by the job and not the hour. We flew… running all colors of lights, zipping with inches of all things human, animal, and mineral, and making it to our hotel in what must have been record time, even during the morning rush hour traffic.
When we got out of the car, Luke whispered to me, “I think I’ll ride in back next time.” Six Flags, eat your heart out.
London In July
The average high temp is 75 with the average low at a sweet 57. Very often, jet lag is nothing compared to the shock we get when we return to St. Louis and take a breath of humid Midwest air. Since July and August are the warmest months, they also have the most rainfall, averaging 12 “wet days” a month. That’s the term… wet days.
We’ll have missed Wimbledon by a week. (This is good…really.)
We will be in time for the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park (this is really good), the Tower Music Festival, the City of London Festival, the Opera in Holland Park, and the Coin Street Festival.
The London Express…
Two interesting sites advising what to do in London if you only have three days:
http://www.britainexpress.com/articles/London/frenzy.htm
and from the famous folks at Frommers:
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/london/0055020791.html
Tote dat Barge, Lift dat Bag!
Some of you have inquired about the current airline baggage restrictions. Let me begin by saying that we really won’t know until we get our plane tickets and learn which airline we’re flying. There’s no “standard” in the industry. One gentle reminder: the fellow in Sears or Amazon who lists as bag as “carry on” has no idea what the restrictions are…it’s simply a selling technique. Wait until we know before you decide.
I always tell my group to pack their bags, carry them around their house three times, then come inside and re-pack. And remember…take your oldest underwear then leave them in the hotel.
And Just In Case…
…you’re one of those who psychologists call “anxious fliers,” consider this: Once every 19,000 years are your odds of going down in a plane. That means if you flew every day for 19,000 years you’d finally be due to bite the big landing gear in the sky. 22 times safer than driving to the airport. More Americans lose their lives by falling off ladders and drowning in their bathtubs. .. Of course, if you were taking a bath while standing on a ladder in a United Airlines jet……
On My First Visit to London…
…I sat beside a nattily attired little gentlemen. Asking what he did for a living, he smiled and said, “I design all the fabulous marquees on Broadway.”
“Really?” I asked. “Which ones?”
“All of them,” he said, “and they’re all fabulous.”
And Once Flying Home…
…I’d just seen Miss Saigon in London on the night before for which Jonathan Pryce had won the British equivalent of the Tony for his performance. When I took my seat coming out of Heathrow, he was right there in front of me, sitting with his wife and small daughter. I couldn’t help it. I had to lean up and congratulate him on such a wonderful performance. He asked where I was from and nearly talked my leg off for about an hour, curious about anyone who would do theatre in the middle of a cornfield. (He was Governor Weatherby Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Dangerous Blarney
Before the Blarney Stone became such a hot tourist spot, people would climb to the top of the castle on their own and have someone hold them by their heels as they reached to kiss the magical rock. Then it happened…someone slipped from their friends’ grasp and death quickly ensued somewhere down at the bottom of the castle. Nowadays a guide hangs onto you, you lean over backwards, and there are steel bars to grab onto.
A bit of verse once written about the famous stone:
There is a stone there,
That whoever kisses,
Oh, he never misses
To grow eloquent.
'Tis he may clamber
To a lady's chamber,
Or become a member
Of Parliament.
Whipping the What????
Day Three will find us in Cork, Ireland, a town of some 117,000 Irish souls who are home to perhaps the strangest tradition in the Emerald Isle. It’s called “Whipping the Herring,” and old celebration which marked the return of meat to local tables at the end of lent. Observed up to the early 19th century, it involved a local butcher and citizens parading through the streets to the Lee while flogging a herring with a whip. Once at the river he would drop the herring into the water, then pick up a leg of lamb adorned with ribbons. He would then parade back to his shop and distribute cuts of the meat to the joyous spectators. I’m glad we’re 200 years too late to see the poor fish flogged.
An Illuminating Day
Our tour of Dublin includes a walk-through of Trinity College, where we’ll view perhaps the most famous Bible in the world, The Book of Kells. One page is displayed every day. Produced by Celtic monks around the year 800, it’s the world’s finest example of an “illuminated manuscript,” containing the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
York? What’s York?
One stop on our British tour that you might overlook or take lightly is our day between Scotland and London when we tour then stay overnight in York, voted last year by the British Tourism folks as “England’s best city.” Not sure what all that means, but I guess we’ll find out.
We’ll be traveling through the ancient Cheviot Hills to this city founded in the year 71. (Remember what I was saying about the meaning of the word “old?”)
On our official tour of the city..which I think may be a walking tour.. we’ll see the largest Gothic church north of the Alps, York Minster. Our travel material says it was begun in 1154 and took 250 years to build…obviously non-union work. The Minster contains the largest collection of stained glass in Europe.
We have the afternoon and evening to ourselves. Some suggestions, according to what I’ve been able to find are The Jorvik Viking Centre, a Ghost Tour, the York Boats which give you a view of the city from the river, a really cheesy place called the York Dungeon (all the wax you can view in an afternoon), The Yorkshire Museum with an archeological emphasis ala Roman, and the York Castle Museum.
My most vivid memory of York is sitting in a coffee shop and having a scone with clotted cream.. a delight that I can still recall through the magic of my taste buds.
It’s a town known for its Walking Tours..many of these are unguided and simply need a guidebook or brochure.
And dear Lord, but does this city have places to shop! … and at least traditionally it’s a bit cheaper than London where we’ll next be headed. The town is so well known for its shopping that it has a program called “Five Routes to Shopping Heaven,” depending upon your shopping preferences.
For theatre buffs, York has two professional theatres plus the Opera. And pubs? Of course. It’s England.
The Home of the Bard
Day Nine finds us driving from York to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the home of William Shakespeare. Our official tour includes Bill’s birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s cottage, and the church where Shakespeare is buried.
We may throw our tour guide for a bit of a loop at this stop since the tour was originally scheduled to see a Shakespeare play tonight but I switched it off for a night of London theatre. (Our tour consultant in Massachusetts, Kathy Bernard, whispered to me on the phone, “Good move.”) The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is huge and often hot and Bill’s plays aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. So…evening in Stratford will be up to us.
Now of course anyone who wishes may purchase tickets for the night’s performance. It’s not a large town, and like Lincoln’s New Salem, it’s based around one central figure, Mr. S’peare. As with most places in England, there are shops and pubs, and it’s a delightful little town for strolling. The central park has statuary depicting Shakespeare’s characters. (I once had to pose beside a statue of Falstaff…my group thought we had similar shape.)
Boat rides on the Avon are possible, I think. I mean, it’s not called “upon Avon” for nothing.
True story…on my first trip to Stratford I was walking through the central park with a Texan I’d met. Suddenly a frightened man came running toward us shouting, “Help! Help! He’s trying to kill me!” I’ve never done anything like in my life, but the Texan and I got between the fellow and an (unarmed) man following him. We stopped him, had him cornered up against a stone wall and our captive shouted, “You bloody idiots! That bloke just tried to steal my boat!” Oops…wrong guy.
One more Stratford Tale.. When Doug Bradbury, his little brother and I were touring Stratford a few years ago, one member of our party, Josh Ryder (son of Peggy and Tom, two of our travelers this year) saw a cricket game in progress. Always curious and especially curious about this strange game, Josh walked up to the cricketers and asked if he could join in…and he did. ..Didn’t make ESPN but Josh showed the sort of friendly gumption that makes a good traveler. (And now he’s in the ministry..see what comes from playing cricket?)
A Reliable Travel Site…
The best place to get the “skinny” on air travel do’s and don’t’s….
www.TSATravelTips.us
‘Til Next Time…
May your feet never sweat,
your neighbor give you ne're a treat.
When flowers bloom, I hope you'll not sneeze,
and may you always have someone to squeeze! –Old Irish Blessing
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