A detailed account of adventures in Europe. My husband and I are currently living in Germany and are taking full advantage of the location. We travel roughly once a month and I write the stories here. I also try to include the websites I used when planning and booking our travels so other people can easily follow in our footsteps. And, because pictures are worth 1000 words, there are links to online photo albums from our trips.
Showing posts with label Recommended Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommended Books. Show all posts
Photo Bombing Random Idiots
Abbey Road, London, England
Before trekking to the next Waterstones, we headed out to St. John’s Wood. This is where Abbey Road Studios is located, and here you can recreate the eponymous Beatles album cover. What most people were ignoring is the most obvious; Abbey Road is a busy, working intersection. Morons were walking in front of buses and cars, and holding up traffic while they posed like bizarre Barbie dolls. I looked at the album cover, and all 4 Beatles were in the act of walking; not stopping, posing, and smiling for the camera. We crossed when it was safe, and without holding up traffic. We also casually ignored the camera in true Beatles fashion. I even (mostly) accidentally wrecked some other idiots’ photo. We were all going to cross and then they just stopped moving like Andy’s toys seeing a kid; I almost crashed into them. No apologies from me.
Our Island of Safety
Abbey Road, London, England
We left Abbey Road and headed for the British Museum, thinking we had left the madness behind. Our goal was to see the Egypt rooms and the Rosetta Stone, as described in the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. The British Museum is free, actually all state owned museums in the UK are free, and the place was packed, mostly with Asian tour groups.
There were people everywhere, and lots of them were really pushy. Tired of being bumped and jostled, we eventually abandoned the museum after a 30 minute wait for the bathroom. It was just too crowded, and the experience really wasn’t enjoyable.
The Rosetta Stone behind Glass
The British Museum, London, England
Leaving behind the throngs of people, we walked to the Waterstones on Euston Road. This bookstore is spread over 5 floors and is in an historic building. They also sell second hand books, and I was amazed to see them organized like new books; they weren’t stacked in milk crates. There were scores of books about British history, books by British authors, and books about British localities. It was tough to limit my purchases, but I only bought 3 books (from that particular store anyway).
Our last day in the UK was pretty relaxed; just wandering. The first stop of the day was the reconstructed Globe Theater. The Globe is on the banks of the Thames, and is pretty true to the original 17th century specifications. The only major changes are in regard to fire regulations; fewer people can enjoy a show at once, and they now have electricity.
We were the first tour group of the day and when we entered the theater it was empty. We managed to take a few good pictures before 100 French high school students joined us. It must have been tour group day because we ran into them everywhere. I would love to see a play here, but in early April, they aren’t showing any yet.
Ice Mice on the Millennium Bridge
London, England
We left the Globe and walked toward St. Paul’s Cathedral over the Millennium Bridge. This is the bridge attacked by Death Eaters in the cinematic version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We were going to pretend to witness the attacks when something else drove all other thoughts from our minds: ice mice. Someone had placed about a dozen mice on the bridge; they were made of ice. I only wish a sign had warned us ahead of time; watch for ice on bridge.
Twinings Tea Shop on the Strand
London, England
We next looped around St. Paul’s, a lovely church designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren. We admired it from the outside and continued along The Strand, stopping eventually at Twinings. Twinings is a tea company and we visited their original shop in London; it opened in 1706. Inside the Strand Shop are few displays of antique teas and memorabilia—oh, and tea!
The shop smelled amazing, and there were many ways to customize your tea purchase. I bought a few tins; they’re beautiful and I may even repurpose them into a craft once they’re empty. The shop was well lit and a pleasure to explore; the front door is still original.
Lincoln's Inn Fields aka #12 Grimmauld Place
London, England
When we left, we wandered over to Lincoln’s Inns Fields. This area was a little less genteel; there was a van distributing food for the homeless. How fitting then that this area provided the exteriors for #12 Grimmauld Place, Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. We snapped our pictures and returned to the more populated streets.
Leadenhall Market
London, England
Grimmauld Place was quite different from the other HP exteriors set we visited: Leadenhall Market. This is a covered market with a lot of specialty shops. The area is very quaint; each address is made of mosaicked tile. One particular sore in the market held our interest: The Glass House. Though it has since changed hands, The Glass House was used to film the muggle side of The Leaky Cauldron. It’s blue now, but the exterior is otherwise the same.
The Glass House in Leadenhall Market
London, England
We also visited a Waterstone’s Bookshop while in Leadenhall market. The internet can help you find any number of books on a particular subject, but I still maintain the best place to find information about the city you’re in is the local bookshop. Here you will find books you didn’t even know existed, sometimes as translations from other languages. It’s also more fun to buy a book in a store than it is online. You can hold it, feel the weight of it in your hand, and peer through its pages before purchasing.
I was on a hunt for a particular Jack the Ripper book, authored by the London Walks guide, Donald Rumbelow. Here on the blog I’ve directed you to Amazon, but that is because you are (probably) not in London. The first store didn’t have the book, but they directed me to another stores in the city; the hunt continued.
The train ride between Edinburgh and London is beautiful and very picturesque. I googled the route and determined we needed to sit on the eastern side of the train. We saw cliffs on the coast, sheep and cows in the fields, and large towns, like Newcastle. It was a great way to travel and it only took about 4 hours. There was even a little kitchen on board for buying snacks and drinks. If you have an opportunity to train across the countryside in the UK; take it.
When we left for Scotland, we didn’t really have time to visit Platform 9¾, so when we returned to King’s Cross Station, we headed there first. Platform 9¾ is not actually between platforms 9 and 10 like in the book, but they are within sight.
This is not an attraction you can just wander up to and expect it to fit in your schedule. The muggles have noticed something, and the line is long. There is a conductor who outfits you with a scarf in your house colors, and a professional photographer who takes a picture of you while you are jumping. When holding the cart and jumping, you look like you’re running into the wall—especially when the conductor holds your scarf out in an act of movie magic.
After posing for your mildly embarrassing “magic” photo, and after your friends have taken personal photos of you being ridiculous, you can visit the Platform 9¾ Harry Potter Shop. In the shop you view the professional photos and decide if you want to purchase any souvenirs similar to those available at Leavesden. Most importantly, you can purchase a replica ticket for the Hogwarts Express.
Yes, this was a really cheesy place to visit. Yes, the line is long. But it was really fun, and as of this moment, still free.
We’re big fans of walking tours; they let you explore less frequented parts of cities while following a fun, central theme. In the past we’ve done been tours, but on this trip we started with a history tour exploring the infamous serial killer: Jack the Ripper.
A little online research pointed me to the best tour company in London, London Walks. They have dozens of different tours, all over the city. It was difficult to settle on a particular tour, but ultimately we narrowed it down to their most publicized tour, the Jack the Ripper walk.
The reason this tour is so popular and so publicized is because of the guides, or one in particular, Donald Rumbelow. Mr. Rumbelow is the designer of the Ripper walk, and the guides base their tours off his research. He is the leading authority on Jack the Ripper and has written several books on the subject, with a new one due out this fall.
The Complete Jack the Ripper
Photo from Amazon.com
It’s a scandalous tale involving members of the royal family and those close to them. It seems the murders weren’t random, but carefully calculated killings. To this day, the records are still classified by Scotland Yard, and their date of de-classification keeps being pushed back, citing concerns for national security. Mr. Rumbelow believes that is the truth came out, there are persons still living who would be affected, and that is why the records are still being withheld from the public.
The information in the walk is not published on the London Walks website, and I won’t be ruining the surprise here. If you are in London, I highly recommend the tour, and it runs every night. If London is not in your travel plans, or if you are impatient, you can order Donald Rumbelow’s current book, The Complete Jack the Ripper, from Amazon and obtain the information that way.
This tour was wonderful because it was conducted by a subject matter expert, and because it was designed to educate. The London walks don’t try to reel you into their tours with gimmicks and costumes. There were other tour companies operating in the area, and these guides were costumed and/or carried weird props; London Walks doesn’t do that. Our guide saw one of these other groups and sarcastically asked my sister “Do you wish I had a lantern?” Our tour was more like mobile lecture on a seedier chapter of London history, and it was very enjoyable.
Do doo dodo doo do dooo do. Doo dodo doo doo doooo.
That’s my interpretation of Prologue by John Williams, in case you were confused, the song currently playing for your enjoyment. Do doo dodo doo do dooo do. Doo dodo doo doo doooo. We went to Warner Brother’s Leavesden Studios where the 8 Harry Potter (HP) movies were filmed! Get ready for some serious geeking out! It’s a Potter Post!!
My interpretaion of fantasy fiction.
Image from Zazzle Posters
My first encounter with Harry was in the 7th grade, in Canada. This was the first year of its publication and a friend was trying to get me to read it. I blew her off saying I didn’t want to read about witches and wizards. When I said no to her, I was thinking about super nerds, and imagined an artful unicorn poster come to life. Not really something I was interested in; instead I stuck to my mysteries, learning to love Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
The Head Table in the Great Hall at Leavesden Studios
Hertfordshire, England
Later, Harry became harder to avoid. I really hate reading trendy books, so I was still refusing to read Potter, but now for 2 reasons: the aforementioned aversion to fantasy, and the unwillingness to participate in something popular. When the first movie came out on DVD, Harry became impossible to ignore, and I had to suffer through the first movie at a youth group lock in. But it wasn’t bad, and I wasn’t suffering. It was funny, thrilling, and engaging. I was hooked. I hadn’t slept all night, but when I got home, I tore apart my sister’s closet; I remembered my mom had bought the books for my sister a couple years earlier, and that’s where any of us had last seen them.
I raced through the books, each more amazing than the last. Yes, they were for children, but the writing was beautiful, and I was able to lose myself in it. Then came the agony; only 4 books out of 7 had been published. I’d read greedily, knowing I had easy access to more, and then silence. Waiting. Re-reading. I had to wait years to finish the story. In the meantime, I busied myself with guidebooks, dissecting the language of the world I so loved, and trying to divine the future of the story. It was from these unofficial guidebooks that I really began to appreciate the depth of Rowling’s writing—the amount of thought behind each sentence, each name. This wasn’t haphazard writing; she had a carefully devised plan, and was leaving clues behind for us to follow.
Professor Umbridge was one of my favorite characters because
she was so well written, I loved her because I hated her.
Educational Decrees from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Leavesden Studios. Hertforshire, England.
While waiting in line, we were treated to the
cupboard under the stairs from Harry Potter and the Socerer'sStone.
Leavesden Studios. Hertforshire, England.
When the movies were released, they brought my imagination to life. On screen, before my eyes, Hogwarts was revealed. I could almost believe it was real, at least for a few hours. Many of the props and sets have survived the decade long franchise, and these are kept at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, another town of my imagination, about 40 minutes outside of London.
Leavesden Studios is an immensely popular attraction. I booked our tickets several months in advance, and reserved the first available time slot. When we arrived, we exchanged our vouchers for tickets and queued up inside. We still had to wait about a half an hour before we were able to enter. Later tours had to wait even longer; the queue had tripled in length when we exited.
The Black Family Tapestry was enormous, this is only one fourth of it.
The tapestry was on screen for less than five minutes.
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England.
The tour is self-guided, and you can linger as long as you like. Around the studios is a well-educated staff, only too willing to talk about Potter and the movie magic required to bring the stores to life. I enjoyed listening to the staff, but I wish I knew where they were standing. I often wandered up in the middle of an explanation, wishing I could have heard it from the onset.
Ron Weasley's Bed
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England.
The details in the props were amazing. They displayed a level of craftsmanship not easily observed in the films. The devotion to the characters and plots comes through in the sets. Sure, there were some creative liberties taken *cough, cough Burning Burrow cough, cough* but overall the people designing the sets tried to stay true to the books.
One of my favorite rooms was the boys’ dormitory. This room featured in many of the films, but it didn’t get a whole lot of screen time. Nevertheless, the beds and night stands were outfitted for each particular student. On Ron’s bed was a homemade, patchwork blanket. Was this blanket mentioned in the books? No, but knowing the Weasleys, it is easy to believe such a blanket could have been there the entire time. In the stories, J.K. Rowling didn’t concern herself with minutiae, like how many cauldrons were stacked outside Potage’s Cauldron Shop, but the movies makers did, and as a result, the world experienced a place that could exist in real life; outside of our collective imagination.
My one complaint comes from the gift shop, and the actual studios. (Platform Nine and) Three quarters of the gift shop was full of cheap, plastic souvenirs for children; slapping an HP logo or school crest on anything. The last quarter of the store was real souvenirs; things kept in cases and behind glass, things the average collector couldn’t afford. There was no middle ground for someone like me. I loved the concept art, but a non-signed print would have been fine. I don’t need the limited edition, framed version, and I certainly can’t afford it. On the flip side, I don’t want to tack a poster of Daniel Radcliffe to my wall either.
Concept Art of the Goblet of Fire
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England
If you loved the movies, and you definitely know Hogwarts isn’t real, Leavesden is worth a visit. If, however, you can’t handle learning the truth about the movie magic behind the Potter magic, you may want to skip it.
Scroll down for more pictures, and important links.
This owl is real, and she was one the birds that played Hedwig.
This is one of the cats that played Crookshanks, and he is
mesmerized by a treat his trainer is holding.
On the day we visited, the studios were in the midst of celebrating their one year anniversary, and as part of the celebrations, the animal actors were on site.
The Potions Classroom with Self-Stirring Cauldrons.
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England
Some of the Paper Props created for the films.
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England.
As Umbridge gained more power in the ministry, the crew made her outfits pinker.
Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England.
Potage's Cauldron Shop (R) and Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary (L)
Diagon Alley, Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, England.
Our tour guide in Lucca, Wanda, said that making olive oil was a religion. And it's gaining converts. Not long ago, I posted about olive oil from our previous Italy trip. During research for that post, I discovered Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller and I added it to my reading list. After exploring the history of olive oil Mueller delves into the occasionally sleazy world of olive oil to expose the realities of the business to naive consumers. The story is beautiful, the corruption is frightening and infuriating.
In my last post, I briefly mentioned the international olive oil groups charged with monitoring the quality of oils aspiring to be extra virgin. Mueller discusses these organizations as well, and notes that even when they find inferior oil, there is little they can do to remove the product from the market.
Fraud in olive oil is an age-old, global phenomenon and it comes in many forms. The oil may be labeled as extra virgin, but is in fact virgin, pomace, refined, or olive oil laced with inferior seed oils. Besides the risks that the mislabeled oils may be contaminated with other harmful substances, there is the fact that these oils do not have the same health benefits as real extra virgin olive oil. Real EVOO is loaded with antioxidants and has acted as a panacea for millennia. Time recently wrote an article about the Mediterranean diet lowering heart risks. Extra virgin olive oil is the crux of the Mediterranean diet, but consuming the fraudulent substances comes with none of the health benefits.
Mueller tells a compelling story with heroes and villans fighting in a war that is far from over. If you care at all about the quality of the food you and your family eat, do yourself a favor and read this book. You'll learn what you've been missing and you'll gain an insight into the culture of oil making. And keep some good oil nearby - you'll want it while you read.
I just finished a lovely biography of Bavaria’s favorite,
deceased royal: Ludwig II. The book was The Swan King by Christopher McIntosh. In previous posts I mentioned how Ludwig
is typically characterized as being mad, but now I’m prepared to revise my
previous statements.
My earlier research portrayed him in a comical light, a
jester with humorous antics, but this book had me pitying Ludwig. The story
starts, like most biographies, with his childhood. Here we find a child
neglected by his parents and passed off to various tutors. He was a pampered
prince but this is no reason to write off this treatment. As anyone is contact
with children knows, a stable household goes a long way in overall well-being,
and Ludwig’s household was far from stable. At 18 his father died, and he found
himself in charge of kingdom on the cusp of war.
Ludwig appears to have been painfully shy, not an ideal
quality for a statesman. He was also sexually repressed. Most historians agree
he had homosexual tendencies, and due to attitudes of the time, Ludwig spent
his entire life trying to suppress these urges. His personal diary reads of
repeated attempts to be “good”, the subsequent failures, and his promises and
oaths to never stray from the path again. It’s heart-wrenching to read these
endeavors and know that he considers his soul imperiled.
When his shyness advanced to a degree where he no longer wanted
to be around fellow aristocrats, he withdrew to his buildings. Ludwig’s lack of
interest in state affairs led to his government declaring him insane and unfit
to rule—even though the diagnosing physician had not examined Ludwig in person.
Recent research into Ludwig’s madness has suggested that he
may have had a form of syphilis since childhood—like his brother Otto, also
confined due to his insanity. Others have suggested that Ludwig suffered from
the lasting effects of meningitis, or that madness ran into his family. While
this all could be true, the Bavarian government manipulated the system to
remove him from the throne. Following this deposal is Ludwig’s mysterious death.
Both Ludwig and his physician, Dr. Gudden, were found dead
in Lake Starnberg, but recent reviews of the autopsies indicate only the doctor
had drowned. There is speculation that Ludwig was trying to escape from his confinement
and the doctor dosed him during the argument. Did the fight led to Dr. Gudden
drowning and Ludwig dying from an overdose of a sedative? We will never know
for sure, but this is one of the many theories advanced about their mysterious
deaths. This book changed my perspective of the fabled King, and taught me his
life was not always enviable.
