Eric 2016 travels — June
Here are the links to previous months:
December 2015: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-around-the-world-2015-794d5abc8ed4#.1n8zin7kk
January 2016: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-january-4451c7651c04#.cbbe45sr7
February: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-february-39335d8bbce2#.lebgk6b4q
March: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-march-90b08802e278#.inuatdxdi
April: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-april-77033395b3bb#.1uj6gviee
May: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-may-fa512c155a7a#.v0ydsdh8z
June 1 (day 178): Paris to London
I caught the “eurostar” high speed train (315 km/hr) from Paris Gare du Nord station to London, and arrived in the late afternoon. After checking into the hostel, I went down to Piccadilly Circus to have a quick walk around and get a feel for London. I was struck by how much the vibe of this area reminded me of New York’s Time Square. I also couldn’t believe that Les Miserables was still running. Apparently it’s been going non-stop now for over 30 years here in London.
As I was walking around, I noticed a comedy club, and the show was just starting so I went to check it out. Some of the British expressions are so hilarious. There was one overweight comedian who said the space between the buttons on his shirt were exposing the skin on his stomach. He called them “windows of despair”.
June 2 (day 179): London
There’s a company called London Walks, and they have about 25 different walking tours, each with a different theme. One of the walks they were doing today was called the Beatles Walk, so I thought I’d see what that was about.
We went to see Paul McCartney’s current publishing offices, a recording studio where a ton of famous songs have been recorded (including Hey Jude, and other songs like David Bowie’s Space Oddity, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Supertramp’s Crime of the Century, James Taylor’s Carolina on My Mind, Elton John’s Your Song and Rocket Man, and a ton of others).
We also saw where the Beatles office was (it’s now an Abercrombie store) and the rooftop where they played their last show on January 30, 1969. We ended the tour at Abbey Road Studio, and that famous crosswalk where the Beatles did their cover for their Abbey Road album.
In the afternoon I went to see a musical called Matilda, and then in the evening I went to see a tribute to Michael Jackson called Thriller.
June 3 (day 180): London — National Gallery
Today I did the London Walks tour of the National Gallery. The gallery was set up in 1824, and its purpose was to educate the British people about art. British people apparently had an inferiority complex when it came to art and design, especially when comparing themselves to Paris at that time. And so the government wanted to help the public understand what great art was. Tje gallery has a lot of European art from 1200–1900. (I heard that they are debating about the 1900 date cut off, because that would exclude artists like Picasso, so they’re reevaluating what art to include in the gallery.)
The tour guide was quite engaging, and must have been either a painter herself or had a real passion for paintings. She talked about concepts like the vanishing point, linear perspective, the use of reflective light… She also said that back in the day when there was no television, paintings used to be a source of entertainment, in that you might have one (or several) hanging in your living room, and when people came over you would discuss what you saw in the paintings (and what you didn’t see, but that might be suggested by the artist). There also used to be 3 tiers of paintings, in terms of importance: (i) the most important tier of paintings were called “grand manor paintings”, which were paintings of Gods and Kings, (ii) portraits were 2nd level, and (iii) landscape paintings were considered to be the lowest level, and not valued as highly.
Just outside the National Gallery there are a handful of street performers. Something that is quite common are these “levitating” characters:
June 4 (day 181): Bath
I took a London Walks day trip to Bath, which is about an 80–90 minute train ride from London. It’s a nice, small town (89,000 people), with a few canals that used to be used for transporting goods back in the day. It was also a place where natural hot springs would come up from the ground, and people thought that this water had healing properties, and so a couple of areas were set up to enable people to soak in these hot springs (hence the name of the town).
In the evening, after arriving back in London, I met up with Sonal, whom I had met in Paris at one of the wine tasting events I attended. We started at a pub called the Slug & Lettuce, and then went to a club.
June 5 (day 182): London
Today I did some research on the next leg of my trip (Scotland). In the evening, I did a walking tour that focused on the story of Jack the Ripper. I didn’t know anything about him before the tour, but he murdered 5 prostitutes in London back in 1888, and was never caught. The tour guide was good at painting the picture back then:
East End prostitutes back in 1888 were typically in the 40s, destitute with no place to sleep, they wore everything they owned (which was typically 2 or 3 dresses), they wore men’s boots (good for walking and kicking), and they were typically missing several teeth. Their going rate was 2 or 3 pence (pennies) or a loaf of stale bread (which for perspective was half the cost of a brick of cheese).
Also back in 1888, you practically had to be caught in the act of killing someone before you could get arrested. At that time, there was no fingerprinting, and you couldn’t even tell the difference between human blood and animal blood.
Finally, there were 2 police forces — the metropolitan police and the London police — operating at that time, and they weren’t very good at communicating with each other. This was the environment that allowed Jack the Ripper to get away with murder.
Jack the Ripper worked quickly: in 3 to 5 minutes, he would engage the prostitute in conversation, suffocate them, disembowel them, and be gone. His victims were always found with a deep cut across the neck all the way down to the spine, and a long deep cut (again, down to the spine) from the vagina to the breastbone, with their innards taken out and draped over their right shoulder. Can you imagine being the person to make the discovery of these bodies?! The tour guide seemed to really enjoy describing the gory details; but then again, he had written 2 books on the subject, so I guess he was really into this kind of thing.
On my way back to the hostel, I took a detour to see the Tower Bridge and Tower of London at night:
June 6 (day 183): Cambridge
Today I did the London Walks tour of Cambridge, which is a 45 minute train ride outside of London.
When we arrived in Cambridge, our first stop was the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial site, where many US soldiers who died in World War 2 are buried. (As a side note, apparently, Steven Spielberg wanted to use this site for the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, but the city of Cambridge didn’t agree to his terms, so he switched to using the memorial site in Normandy instead.)
Cambridge University is what makes the town of Cambridge famous today, and it has a ton of famous alumni. One of its most famous is Isaac Newton, who studied and taught mathematics here. He developed the laws of gravity; tested the speed of sound… all on these grounds.
Another famous alumnus is John Maynard Keynes, who studied and taught economics here. Charles Darwin went here, as did John Harvard (whom Harvard University in Boston is named after), and the 2 guys that discovered DNA (Crick and Watson). Cambridge University has quite the legacy, and there are plaques on the walls of various buildings to remind people of the great things that have happened here:
There’s also a Gothic chapel, King’s College chapel, which is really beautiful:
There’s a definite feeling of reverence I got walking through the colleges and campus here at Cambridge, not to mention it’s all beautifully and meticulously maintained.
At the end of the day, we took a flat bottomed boat on the river. They call it “punting”.
When I got back from Cambridge, I went to see the musical Aladdin.
June 7 (day 184): Salisbury and Stonehenge
I took yet another day trip with London Walks, this time to a small town called Salisbury, and to Stonehenge.
Our guide was telling us that back when he was a kid in the 70’s he went to Stonehenge and you could climb all over the rocks. Now they’ve roped it off and the closest you can get is about 100 meters away.
I wasn’t really too inspired by Stonehenge. And they haven’t reached a conclusion about its purpose: a way to mark the seasons, a monument to God, a way to honour their dead… In the end, it’s just a bunch of stones erected 4,500 years ago.
Later back in London, I went out to check out the pub scene that London is famous for with a girl Matina that had just arrived from Melbourne, Australia.
June 8 (day 185): London — Tower of London
Today I went to the Tower of London. It’s quite expensive to get in (24 pounds or about $36 CDN). The big draw here is the crown jewels. Some of them have upwards of 6,000 diamonds on them, and are apparently quite heavy (and because of that, have only been worn once).
The Tower of London has been many things in its 1000 year history: a castle, the residence of kings, a prison, a place where executions by beheading were held (only if you were important; if you were a commoner you would die in a public square by hanging, which is worse because as opposed to having your head chopped off and dying instantly, it takes about an hour for you to choke to death after you’ve been hung. If someone cared about you they would come over and pull your leg down so you broke your neck and died quickly; this is where the expression “pulling your leg” came from).
Also, inside the White Tower, there is a bit of a museum that displayed some of the forms of torture imposed on people who fell out of line. For some reason, this one seemed particularly unnecessary to me: it’s called a “scold’s bridle”, and it was used to publicly humiliate women who were accused of gossiping. It was locked around the head, and the bell on top would chime when she moved, which would alert people that a gossiper was approaching. Can you imagine such a thing today?
There are 6 ravens that “live” inside the Tower of London. There’s a legend that these ravens had to guard the tower at all times or the monarchy would fall. Their wings have been clipped so they can’t fly away. I’m not sure how good they would be as guards if they can’t locomote in their natural way, but oh well…
After the Tower of London, I met up with Matina, and after grabbing a bite to eat, we went to the London Eye, which is a huge Ferris wheel that was put up along the Thames River back in 2000.
After that, we went for a closer look at Big Ben. There was a couple taking wedding photos on the bridge:
June 9 (day 186): London
I switched hostels today. One of the policies of most hostels in London is that you can stay for a maximum of 7 nights, because they don’t want to have long-term guests. This new hostel is close to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge…
In the evening, Matina and I went to see the musical Wicked. I had seen it in New York in June 2014, and loved it so much that I wanted to see it again. The same day tickets were 20 pounds for back row seats. It’s far from the stage but it’s such a great show that even from far away I was drawn in and completely engaged.
June 10 (day 187): London
I did the London Walks tour of the the Victoria and Albert museum today. As with the other London museums, this one was also free. The idea behind it was to create the opportunity for London design students to learn and become inspired by great design. In one area there were a lot of casts (copies) of great works, like Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. Also in the museum were ceramics, jewelry, huge tapestries that were from the 1400’s…
In the evening I went to a comedy show at London’s oldest comedy venue Comedy Shop.
June 11 (day 188): London
I did another London Walks tour, which focused on the impact that Marc Brunel (1769–1849) had on London. He was an engineer that designed an underground tunnel (under the Thames river), a few bridges (over the Thames), 3 ships (that sailed along the Thames)… all groundbreaking things back in his time.
Then I went out for a late lunch at a pub with a few people from the tour. The person sitting next to me is from Calgary, and she moved to London 3 years ago and is loving it.
June 12 (day 189): London — British Museum
I went to the British Museum today. One of the big draws is the Rosetta Stone, which because it had been written in 3 languages, enabled scholars to compare the Egyptian writing (which they didn’t know anything about) with ancient Greek writing (which they did), and unlock the mystery and code behind Egyptian hieroglyphs (and their alphabet).
There were a ton of interesting things in the museum, but I particularly liked the Egyptian mummies. The mummification process was interesting to learn: after washing the body they would extract the brain through the nose, the other organs through an incision in the side of the body, then pack the body with wood shavings, and wrap it up while reciting magical spells and prayers. Ah, the beliefs of our ancestors!
In the evening, I went to the Comedy Store to check out the caliber of the London improv scene.
June 13 (day 190): London — National Gallery
Today I went to the National Gallery for a second time (that’s what’s great about London: they encourage artistic curiosity by making all the museums are free), because I had missed the impressionist and post-impressionist paintings the first time I was there (I ran out of time last time).
I also did the free 1-hour tour offered by the National Gallery. It was interesting. We only discussed 4 paintings, but as the guide said, when you get into the details, spending 15 minutes on one painting is too little time! (And apparently most people spend an average of 10 seconds looking at a painting.) He said that understanding the context for the painting (where it was intended to be viewed, like in a church for example or in someone’s private residence), and how the artist was financed (was it a private patron or the church or the king?), helped in your ability to understand and interpret the painting.
Artists back in the 1500's (and today too I suppose) were trying to “collapse the distance between the story they were trying to convey in the painting and the reality of the viewer, to make it more relatable”. So, for example, in the story of Doubting Thomas (The Incredulity of Saint Thomas), the artist (Giovanni Battista Cina da Conegliano) made the people and the landscape look European (instead of Middle Eastern), because it was meant to be displayed in a European church. So it was less about conveying reality, and more about making it accessible.
We also looked at Rembrandt’s “Belshazzar’s Feast”, Diego Velazquez’s “Toilet of Venus”, and Turner’s “The Fighting Temeraire”. All paintings were really engaging, but only because of the insight provided by the guide. I never would have thought about (or looked) twice at these paintings otherwise… the value of a guide!
Then I went to the National Portrait Gallery for just a quick look.
In the evening, I went to see Romeo and Juliet.
June 14 (day 191): London
I woke up at 6:30am today to buy “same day” tickets for Lion King: there are a small batch of tickets — usually between 8 and 15 — that are held and sold for that day’s show, but you have to line up at the theater’s box office early to get them. They are usually good seats, and are sold at a discounted price, like 25 pounds instead of 70 or 110, so I thought it might be worth while.
En route to the Lion King theater box office, I detoured to see if I could get a good picture of that famous Abbey Road zebra crossing, but it’s a real traffic crossing, so it’s not that easy!
I managed to get fairly decent seats for tonight’s Lion King show (in the “stalls”, which is the ground floor).
Before the show, I met up with Matina, and we went to see the James Bond exhibition “Bond in Motion” at the London Film Museum, which displayed many of the original vehicles from 23 James Bond movies dating back to 1962.
And then we went to the Lion King show:
June 15 (day 192): London
I did the London Walks tour called “This is London”, and we visited the Parliament Buildings, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and St. James Park.
June 16 (day 193): London to Liverpool
I took a train from London to Liverpool today. It was raining pretty hard the whole day, so when I arrived in Liverpool, I just stayed in.
June 17 (day 194): Liverpool
I checked out the “Beatles Story” museum today. One thing I didn’t know was that Brian Epstein died at the age of 32 from an overdose of anti-depressants. I guess you can have all the success in the world, and still not be happy…
June 18 (day 195): Liverpool
Today I did a walking tour of Liverpool (not focused on the Beatles, but more on just the city itself). Liverpool used to be England’s most important seaport, and was one of the world’s greatest in its day. In the early 1900’s it was a major center for world shipping and trade…
After the walking tour, I did another tour called the “Magical Mystery Tour”, which was, of course, all about the Beatles. We visited Penny Lane, saw the birthplace of George Harrison, went to the outside of the houses of John and Paul when they were growing up here, and the Cavern Club, which is where the Beatles played 292 times when they were first honing their craft.
June 19 (day 196): Liverpool
Today I did the National Trust’s tour of John and Paul’s childhood homes.
We started with John’s home, which he lived in between 1945 and 1963 with his aunt. (His mother was kind of a wild girl, and the family thought it would be best if John had a more stable upbringing with his mother’s sister.)
Yoko Ono bought the house after John’s death and donated it to the National Trust.
Everything in the house has been preserved (or restored) back to the way it was when John was there. Apparently for those that were around during that time, it brings them right back to the 1950’s, with the old kitchen, living room furniture, etc.
No photos were allowed to be taken inside the house, unfortunately, but here’s a picture of the outside.
Our second and last stop was Paul McCartney’s house. Paul lived here from the ages of 13 to 21. Paul and John wrote many of their famous songs right in the living room here (including Fool on the Hill, Michelle, I Saw Her Standing There).
There have been many other famous musicians that have taken the tour of John and Paul’s houses, including Bob Dylan (just a few months ago), Debbie Harry, and Jon Bon Jovi. Maybe they were trying to see if they could get any inspiration for their own work…
Later in the day I went to the International Slavery Museum. The museum was built in 2007 to remind everyone of the role that Liverpool played in the slave trade process. By 1780, Liverpool was the European capital of the transatlantic slave trade, and was responsible for transporting 1.5 million Africans into slavery (10% of all Africans that ended up being sold into slavery). Liverpool was also one of the last cities in Britain to resist the abolition of slavery.
June 20 (day 197): Liverpool to York
I caught my 12:20pm train from Liverpool to York, and arrived in around 2:30pm.
After grabbing a bite, I went to walk on the City Walls. The original city walls were built by the Romans around 70AD, and were added to by the Danes between the 12th and 14th centuries.
June 21 (day 198): York
Today I went to the York Castle Museum. It depicted rooms (dining, living, bed) in the houses of typical (well off) families from the 1800s, recreated what a street looked like back in that time, and showed prison life then as well (the York Castle was once used as a prison).
There was also a temporary exhibit at the York Castle Museum about fashion through the ages. Did you know that hatters used to work with mercury when making felt and preparing fur for their hats? Importantly, side effects from mercury exposure included dementia, confusion, hearing loss, and suicidal tendencies? And that’s where the expression “mad as a hatter” came from!
In the evening, I went to see the York Mystery Plays put on a performance of the stories of the bible. It was well done, with great costumes, but I didn’t find it that engaging. It was in the York Minster (cathedral), so the acoustics were terrible. With the poor acoustics AND the York English accent, I found it hard to make out what the actors were saying.
June 22 (day 199): York to Edinburgh
I caught a 12:50pm train from York to Edinburgh, and arrived in around 3:30pm. After checking in and doing my laundry, I went out on a pub crawl. We visited 5 places, tried to play the bagpipes (which didn’t work out very well), and there were whisky shots at every bar (included in the 7 pound cost of the pub crawl). On the way back to the hostel, I passed by a few different groups of drunk people, with one person in each group lying on the ground in a drunken mess. I guess it’s true that (some) Scottish people do like to drink heavily. I’ve never seen that before… and it was on a Wednesday night. (I’m reminded of a joke that I heard one of the comedians in London say. “When I lived in London I thought I was a drunk and an alcoholic. Then I moved to Scotland and I realized I was just a normal person.”)
June 23 (day 200): Edinburgh
I did a walking tour offered by the hostel today. It wasn’t that great (it was the guide’s first time doing a tour; she talked softly and didn’t provide much context to the things we saw), but we did walk around the city and I got a feel for the place. There were a few things we came across that honoured JK Rowling:
And that’s about all I got out of the tour.
June 24 (day 201): Edinburgh
Today I went to see the Edinburgh Castle. It dates back to 900BC, but has been added onto continuously over the last 3000 years.
Inside the castle in one of the buildings there are the Scottish Crown Jewels. These are not nearly as extravagant as the ones I saw in London. It was just one crown and the “Stone of Destiny” (which was a chunk of stone used in the coronation of monarchs).
Also inside the castle are a few museums. One of them is the Prisons of War museum, which documents the life of prisoners and attitudes at that time towards punishment. Prisons weren’t considered punishment in and of themselves, but they existed to hold criminals until an appropriate punishment was carried out. Typically, flogging was the punishment of choice, and a prisoner would receive between 50 and 2000 lashes with a cat-o’nine-tails whip (anything more than 1000 lashes usually resulted in death, so I’m not sure why the extra thousand were considered necessary). However, society became revulsed by the idea of flogging over time, and in 1836 a maximum number of lashes was set at 200 (and eventually flogging was abolished altogether).
There was also a museum dedicated to the Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment of Scotland). They fought so many wars over the years: the seven years war (1756–1763), the revolutionary war (1794–1802), the Napoleonic war (1803–1815), the Crimean war (1854–1856), the Great War (1914–1919), the Second World War (1939–1945)… It seems like Scotland was almost always at war (which I think is no different than all the other countries during that time).
June 25 (day 202): Edinburgh
I did another walking tour today. I got a little more out of this one, compared to the one I did a couple of days ago. Here is one of the key takeaways:
Before 1826, Edinburgh did not have plumbing. People would basically poo into a bucket (which they called a chamber pot), and then empty the bucket out of their window onto the streets. But before you tossed your shit out the window, as a courtesy to people that might be walking on the street below, you would yell out “garde loo” (taken from the French “garde a l’eau”, meaning “watch out for the water”). Eventually, to avoid having shit tossed out at any moment, a law was passed so that you could only throw out your crap 2 times a day: at 7:00am and at 10:00pm. However, 10:00pm was also the closing time for pubs, and so many people would be stumbling home around that time. And for those in a severely intoxicated state, the yelling of “garde loo” would make them look up to see where the yelling was coming from. Well, as they looked up, guess what came down… and that’s how the term “shit faced” came to mean intoxicated.
Also from the tour: public executions were the biggest form of entertainment back in the day. Sometimes thousands of people would come out to watch someone get beheaded. The problem (or bonus, for those watching) was that the blades they used weren’t that sharp, and it often took 5 or 6 tries before your head was fully severed from your body. Apparently, the crowds really loved that...
After the walking tour, I went to the “Scotch Whisky Experience”, which is a museum dedicated to showing how whisky is made, and also included a whisky tasting. Basically, there 4 regions in Scotland where whisky is produced, and each area lends a distinct taste to the whisky: the lowlands (where the whisky is citrus-y and/or grassy), the highlands (vanilla-y), Speyside (floral and fresh fruit), and Islay (smoky).
I can see how whisky can become an acquired taste. It does come off very strong at first, but after a few sips, it seems to get smoother…
June 26 (day 203): Edinburgh
Today I went to see the Royal Yacht Britannia. This was the yacht that Queen Elizabeth II used to sail around the world, and was in service between 1954 and 1997.
I found it fascinating to learn how many people and how much money was used to have the Royal family enjoy this floating vacation home. When the Queen traveled, she brought along 45 members of her royal household, 5 tons of luggage, and a Rolls-Royce, not to mention 20 officers and 220 yachtsmen. The yachtsmen ate, slept, and lived in extremely close quarters and in relative discomfort, while the Queen and her family each had their own bedrooms, offices, and lounge areas.
The decks were scrubbed daily, but it had to be done in complete silence and before 8:00am. If by chance, one of the Royal family members was to come out on deck while it was being cleaned, the cleaner would have to stand perfectly still and look straight ahead (not at the Royal family member).
Hierarchy is fascinating, isn’t it? I was reminded of the lowest status “untouchables” in India, where customs, rituals, and building architecture were designed so that those Indians of higher status didn’t even have to see those disgusting barely-even-human untouchables.
June 27 (day 204): Edinburgh
Today I did the hike up to Arthur’s Seat. It’s about a 40-minute hike to the top, and from there you can see all of Edinburgh.
In the evening, I did a walking tour called the “Dark Side” which focused on the stories of witch hunts (one famously by King James the 2nd, who upon return from Denmark staged a witch hunt to find those that were responsible for the stormy seas during his return to Scotland!), “resurrectionists” (people who dug up freshly buried bodies to sell them to the School of Anatomy for a nice price), and murderers (Burke and Hare, who murdered people to sell their bodies to the same School of Anatomy).
June 28 (day 205): Edinburgh
I went to the National Museum of Scotland today. It covered everything from 250 million years ago, when Scotland was at the equator (it has been drifting slowly north since then), to the present day. Something I didn’t know was that when the Romans invaded Scotland around 100AD, they brought literacy/writing to Scotland.
June 29 (day 206): Haggis Adventures tour begins
Today I started a 10-day bus tour of Scotland with a company called Haggis Adventures. There are 26 of us on the tour; most are from Australia.
We drove from Edinburgh to a town called Stornoway, which is on the Isle of Lewis. En route, we stopped to look at a cathedral (Dunkeld Cathedral) and the Culloden Battlefield, where the Jacobites fought the British government on April 16, 1746 and lost 2000 soldiers (compared to 50 soldiers on the government side):
June 30 (day 207): Isle of Lewis (Haggis tour day 2)
We started the day with a tour of a very small whisky distillery.
After, we went to Callanish to see the “Calanais Standing Stones”. It’s very similar to Stonehenge, but not quite as aesthetically pleasing.
Then we went to visit a small village as it existed about 2000 years ago, called Dun Carloway:
Along the way we passed by some highland cattle, which they call “hairy coos” (hairy cows):
And then a couple more stops before heading to our hostel on Lewis Island.
My travels continue here: https://medium.com/@ericmurakami/eric-2016-travels-july-48e8abd2ea5e#.b16r0lxu8
