Chuck & Kathi's London Sojourn

Guidepost

2008-03-18T19:20:00.002Z

Remember, this is in blog format. The most recent posting is at the top -- those that are farther down are progressively older. You can use the index on the right hand column to help you navigate through the 3 years or so of posts.

(We stopped making regular updates after our return to Monterey in August 2007)

Nearing Monterey -- Phoenix in August

2007-10-09T01:56:00.000Z

We do not recommend August for visits to Phoenix -- unless, of course, you enjoy 106 degree days -- and "but it's a dry heat" begins to sound more and more irrelevant after a while. Of course, we wanted to stop there to visit our daughter, Julie, husband Justin and our grandson Tyler -- as well as Chuck's Mom in the Bethesda Gardens residential home there. We stayed with Julie and her family in their very nice house in Surprise, Arizona -- and visited Chuck's Mom a couple of times. Kathi took her shopping for some clothes she needed and she came over to Julie's one evening for dinner.

As with all such family visits, it was very nice -- and a bit too short. We enjoyed visiting Tyler's school (which is within sight of their house, very new and modern) and several of the teachers. He seems to be doing well -- Julie actually got an informal note from his teacher saying how much she enjoyed having Tyler in her class.

One of the things we wanted to do while in Phoenix was to shop for a car -- Justin works at a Mazda dealership. Well, after a short period of convincing on the part of Justin and after Kathi chimed in for a while to try to convince Chuck -- he "allowed" himself to be talked into buying the Mazda MX-5 sports car -- rather than the Mazda sedan they had been considering up to that point. (The sports car will complement the Nissan Altima hybrid sedan they will also be driving.)

Seen here are pictures of Tyler in the pool in their yard and, of course, the car.

A few more pictures of our time in Phoenix can be seen at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3592518#204205559

Chicago -- Family and Sightseeing

2007-10-09T01:18:00.001Z

As we wended our way across country toward Monterey, our next stop was Chicago, to visit our daughter Karissa and her husband Dante, who is a recruit trainer at the Navy's boot camp in Great Lakes, Il. Karissa is still working in DC, is actively looking for work in the Chicago area and visits there, to be with Dante, as often as she can.

A number of Chuck's family also live in the area or in downstate Illinois. We weren't sure, though, if we could fit visits to everyone into our limited schedule. That problem was solved when Chuck's cousin, Margherita, whose son David was graduating from high school, decided to change the date of his graduation party to coincide with the Saturday we'd be in Chicago. The party, in addition to including many of David's (and sister, Francesca's) friends, Margherita's and husband Harry's friends and neighbors, turned into a family reunion.

We stayed with Karissa and Dante in Great Lakes, but had a great day on Saturday at Harry and Margherita's home in Arlington Heights, visiting with Chuck's cousin, Rea, and her family, Chuck's Aunt Violet and much of her family as well as cousin Mike Salerno.

We were able to spend one great day sightseeing in downtown Chicago with Karissa. The city has changed so drastically since Chuck knew it as his boyhood hometown -- and has become quite beautiful. It is really a great place to visit these days.

That's Margherita preparing the great food spread; Kathi and Karissa at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the fantastic Chicago skyline.

More pictures are at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3592381#204176513

and at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3592459#204181330

New York City and Broadway

2007-09-27T04:36:00.001Z

We arrived in NYC on the QM2 on a foggy morning of a rainy day. After breakfast and luggage offloading we were off on a tour of Manhattan by bus (with the world's worst guide) then to our hotel. Our whirlwind three days and nights included a Broadway show each night (one of them a departure gift from Chuck's office-mates in London). We, of course hit some of the usual tourist points -- the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island, a first for us both and another first -- Ellis Island, the scene of entry for Chuck's grandparents.

Shown here are a view from the top of Rockefeller Center (on a hazy day) with the Empire State Building prominent, a view of St. Patrick's Cathedral just as rain began to fall and the interior of the main hall at Ellis Island. To see all of our New York City photos click on:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3582086#203449907

The Voyage Home

2007-09-27T03:58:00.001Z

Our three great years in London came to an end in July -- Chuck's last day at work was 10 July and we departed the country on the fantastic ocean liner Queen Mary 2 (from Southampton) on 12 July. After a great 6 nights and five days at sea we watched the Statue of Liberty take form out of the early morning fog, while passing under the Verrezano Narrows Bridge at dawn. What a sight the New York City skyline is from the harbor!

The Atlantic crossing on that great ship was quite an experience. The ship is big! And it's beautiful and luxurious, with many great activities available every day - and, of course, with wonderful meals. The ambience is different from most cruise ships, with a much more formal air (though only in the evenings). In fact, on the six nights we were on board, three were formal nights, with gentlemen attending dinner in tuxedos and ladies in gowns. Two of the evenings were "elegant casual", which was defined as jackets and ties for men and ladies dressed accordingly. One night was designated as "casual" -- but casual Queen Mary 2 style, meaning ties are optional for gentlemen, but jackets are expected. While this is unusual today, we did find that the evenings tended to be very elegant and actually quite enjoyable. There were two formal balls over the six nights, as well.

The ship has a very modern, highly sophisticated planetarium, which featured several different cosmic displays and shows; the two theaters were busy several times each day and evening, with a wide variety of lectures and musical entertainments. The ship has a library that is actually quite beautiful and is located near the forward end of the superstructure, providing, through the large windows, great views of the sea ahead of the ship. Of course there are several bars and pubs, grills and cafes -- as well as the more formal restaurants used for dinner. We were fortunate to have two very pleasant couples, one British, one American, as our table-mates.

Our cabin was surprisingly roomy, notably larger than on the one cruise ship we've sailed with and for ship-designer Chuck, just exploring the ship provided sufficient entertainment for hours. Our cabin door opened on to the very long fore-and-aft corridor that ran the entire length of the ship's superstructure (not as long as the ship's hull, of course) and since our cabin was near the forward end of the ship, looking aft in the corridor gave a good idea of how long the ship was -- the far end was so far away that people there looked tiny and there almost seemed to be a haze in the air from the effect of the distance.

Pictures of the trip are posted in three photo galleries. The departure from Southampton:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3576531#203035128

The crossing:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3576585#203040391

And the foggy, dawn arrival in New York:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/3582036#203446354

Family Visits

2007-06-21T19:54:00.000Z

With just a few weeks before our departure from London we got some very welcome family visits. First, our youngest daughter, Jill came to visit from May 22nd to 29th. For part of that time we also enjoyed the visit of Debbie Peoples, Jill's aunt. They arrived together after some time in Germany and a few days in Paris -- Debbie left to return to Germany after a couple of days, but Jill remained with us for a week until she left for the US and home.

It was great to have them both here -- they did what we usually recommend for all our visitors -- toured London on the open-top, get off-and-on bus. It's a great way to get oriented to the city and to see what sights to return to.

Jill and Kathi went to see "Mary Poppins" on stage -- the second time for Kathi, but she said it was as great as it was the first time. Jill really enjoyed it, too -- of course it's one of the best shows we've seen since our arrival in London, so we really did expect her to like it a lot. To continue with our now traditional affiliation with West End theater, we also took Jill with us to see a newly opened musical comedy called "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the Novello Theater. (Chuck has a soft spot for that theater, as he had (and has) several cousins named Novello.)

After some difficulties with Continental Airlines at Gatwick Airport (they cancelled her ticket to return to the US -- for some reason they decided she hadn't made her flight to Europe a couple of weeks earlier) she did finally return home safely to San Diego.

Lisa Caldwell, Kathi's cousin, and Lisa's uncle David Wood (who is not related to Kathi) were our next guests, arriving on 10 June and departing on the 20th. David is a committed Anglophile and has, for years, imagined visiting England and the UK. For most of the 10 days he was here he was on cloud nine. He's active in several aviation-oriented on-line groups where there are a number of other participants from the UK. David had arranged to visit several of these "internet friends" while here, so in the midst of the visit he took a couple of days to visit some of these friends in Southampton and other places. Lisa went with David for some of the outside-London visits, but returned to us a day sooner than David did.

Lisa, too, found London and the UK equally enjoyable. Once again we recommended that she and David take the open-top bus tour of the city to get the "lay of the land" and to see what sites they would want to return to. Among their activities were visits to the British Museum, the British Library, the aviation museum at Duxford (outside London) and others. Lisa and Kathi visited Windsor Castle and had high tea while David was visiting some of his friends outside the city.

While here they attended "Phantom of the Opera" at the Queen's Theater. They were also kind enough to take Kathi and Chuck to dinner and a play. Since we had enjoyed "The Drowsy Chaperone" so much (and because there were not many plays available at the half-price booth on that day) we went with them to a second viewing (for us) of "The Drowsy Chaperone". David and Lisa both found this madcap, but highly original show very enjoyable.

Barcelona 2007

2007-06-10T18:46:00.001Z

We made our second trip to Barcelona in early June -- while Chuck attended a conference at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya and discussed some cooperative research agreements with two faculty members there.

As we reported after our visit there a year ago, architecture is a big subject in Barcelona, coming up in all sorts of circumstances. This, of course, is to be expected in a city with so many striking buildings which was the center of the Modernisme movement in the early 20th century and the home of Antoni Gaudi, the best-known practitioner of the genre. This time we got to vist Gaudi's famous Casa Mila which seems to be considered by many as the premier example of the style.

Quoting from www.architecture.about.com: "The final secular design of the Spanish surrealist Antoni Gaudí, Casa Milà Barcelona is an apartment building with a fanciful aura. Wavy walls made of rough-chipped stone suggest fossilized ocean waves, while doors and windows look like they are dug out of sand. A comical array of chimney stacks dances across the roof.

This unique building is widely but unofficially known as La Pedrera (the Quarry). In 1984, UNESCO classified Casa Milà as a World Heritage site, and it is today used for cultural expositions."

The tour included a typical apartment within the building, furnished in the style of the 1910s -- and it was truly spacious and light-filled. Of course, the apartments in this building, which must have been a marvel of their time were intended for the upper-middle class or even wealthy.

Some of our Barcelona pictures are at:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2976771#161073431

Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

2007-06-10T16:33:00.000Z

Quoting from www.knowitall.com: "Lucca is the most wonderful small town; its famous walls enclose a place that can be wandered or pedalled with ease yet remains full of secrets.
One of Italy's finest mediaeval treasures, the centre is relatively unspoilt and is sprinkled with palazzi, towers and almost countless splendid churches. The surrounding hills produce some excellent wines and arguably the finest olive oil anywhere, whilst the beaches and nightlife are but a small hop away."

We arrived on a day with a rain-threatening sky, but happily, the clouds receded and the sun emerged holding the rain off until we were returning to the parking lot outside the city walls. As mentioned above, Lucca is famous for it's 15th century wall -- huge, very thick and virtually 100% intact. In fact the wall is so wide that the top has become a favorite foot and bike path around the city and a great vantage point for looking down into the gardens and at many of the old buildings in its nearly-intact medieval center. The pictures here show one of the city gates and a small section of the wall.

By the way, we may never have mentioned it, but there is an obscure Italian law that says anyone traveling with Susan DeCorpo (she and Jim were with us in Lucca) is required, at least once each day, to stop to buy gelato. That's why, when you look at our Lucca pictures, below, you will see a picture of a gelato shop on the Piazza St. Michele.

An interesting feature of Lucca is the Piazza Anfiteatro, on the site of an original Roman amphitheater. Over the centuries, various buildings were built along and among the amphitheater's walls and its original purpose was lost. It is now a beautiful oval-shaped plaza, surrounded by buildings built along the original lines of the outer wall of the amphitheater. The buildings now house shops and restaurants on their ground floors and an outdoor table at a cafe in the Piazza is a lovely place for a cup of coffee or a meal. We enjoyed lunch at one of them.

Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini, by the way.

Like so many Italian towns, Lucca has a wealth of beautiful churches. St Frediano has a magnificent 13th century mosaic on the facade and St. Michele is adorned with a bewildering variety of marble carvings (Lucca is not far from Carrara, the home of the classic white marble) including numerous pillars carved to many different designs. Amidst all this ancient beauty, there is a vibrant, living town, with many modern shops and services -- but with all of them made to reside peacefully with the town's ancient fabric.

For our pictures of Lucca, go to:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2976123#161031623

Lerici, Carrara, Aulla, Italy

2007-06-09T15:02:00.000Z

Lerici is a beautiful waterfront Italian town on the Bay of Poets -- named for Shelley and Byron, both of whom spent holidays there. We stayed there for 4 nights while Chuck was involved in business at the NATO Undersea Research Center (NURC) in nearby La Spezia. Our hotel, the Doria Park, overlooked the heart of the town and its harbor on the bay. We were joined there by Jim and Susan DeCorpo (Jim was Chuck's predecessor in his current job as Chief Scientist of the Office of Naval Research Gobal, and Jim is now head of the international office of the Department of Homeland Security). We also visited friends Jeff and Maxine Haun -- Jeff was a colleague of Chuck's and Jim's at ONR Global, leaving about a year ago to become a researcher at NURC.

In addition to the usual local explorations of the beautiful Italian coast and the town of Lerici, we enjoyed dinner on two evenings with the Hauns as well as the DeCorpos. We also had the chance to visit the Hauns at home on a steep hillside that overlooked the local mountains.

One of our dinners together was at a restaurant the Hauns recommended, located at the top of one of the local mountains overlooking the Bay -- a restaurant serving traditional Ligurian food, but without a menu. Diners declare their preference for fish or meat for each course and are served a variety of delicious dishes for each of the courses. Naturally, we all upheld the ancient tradition of eating more of this delicious food than we should have.

Our photos of Lerici are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2975155#160973528

Along with the DeCorpos, we spent two days driving in the local area. On one day we drove, with the DeCorpos into nearby Carrara, site of the quarries for the world-famous marble. (When driving past Carrara, it is not uncommon for travelers to think the mountains above the town are snow-covered when, in fact, what they are seeing is the large expanses of white marble.) With Chuck at the wheel (and with a bit of trepidation on his part) we found ouselves driving up very steep mountain roads, pulling aside to let enormous trucks, loaded with heavy loads of marble, pass by. There were quarries on all sides. One can't help but be impressed by the fact that Michaelangelo took the very marble for some of his masterpieces from the same quarries -- and that after centuries there is still marble to be quarried.

On the way back from Carrara we made a short stop to visit the Castle Potentiana, only to find that the castle was closed on that day -- and that it isn't even visible from the car park. So we contented ourselves with some pictures from the castle heights.

We also made a short stop in the town of Aulla as we passed through it -- having noticed that a street fair and market were in progress. We joined the locals for an interesting and entertaining hour, picking up some gadgets and snacks in the process. Then on to Lerici at dusk, another fine dinner (followed by a gelato, of course.)

For photos of the marble quarries of Carrara, as well as Potentiana Castle and Aulla, go to:

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2975387#160990982

Yes, it's Art!

2007-05-12T20:20:00.000Z

As part of our love of stage productions, we have become frequent audience members at the National Theatre -- a modern building with three stages, presenting different shows simultaneously. It is the UK's national theatre, as the name states, partially subsidized to keep ticket prices a bit lower than the standard in the West End -- and it's mission is to encourage exposure to the best of theatre. We have rarely seen a show there that we didn't find to be of a high order in at least some respects.

Two years ago, a play produced there (Strindberg's A Dream Play) opened with the line "Look how the tower has grown". For some reason this inspired someone to try to "grow" the flat tower. (Flats are scenery pieces, often backdrops and most theatres have a raised "tower" above the stage where the flats can be raised and lowered to facilitate changing the scenery -- and storing the flats themselves). The artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey decided to accomplish this by covering the tower exterior (two sides of the four) with a layer of clay and planting grass seeds in the clay. As the grass sprouted the tower could be said to be "growing" and its appearance would change, from gray concrete to green grass, and knowing that the grass would be short-lived, to brown. There are a couple of pictures of this apparition (including a man "watering the lawn") at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2837009#151923162

At the same time, London is being treated to another outdoor art display, entitled "Event Horizon" commissioned by a local civic group to celebrate the reopening after renovation of the Royal Festival Hall. The intent here is to have human figures appear across the city skyline in the area surrounding the river near the Festival Hall. The figures are made from casts of the body of the sculptor (Antony Gormley). Some of these can be seen at the same web site.

A contest might be fun at this point -- provide a caption for the picture of Kathi at left. Perhaps "Is that the dress code?", or "Hi, Big Boy".

We have to admit, our preference reamains with Impressionist paintings and sculptures by Rodin or Michaelangelo.

Cortona in Tuscany

2007-04-29T14:18:00.002Z

On 26 April we left London for Cortona, Italy -- flying to Florence and taking the train to Cortona, about 1 hour south of Florence. Chuck was participating in a conference there on the uses of computers and information technology in maritime applications. His office was partially sponsoring the conference and the subject is, of course, of professional interest to him.

The flight to Florence was routine and the train station and railway service were no problem. Cortona is one of the Italian hill towns of considerable fame. As described on a tourist web site: "The town hangs by its fingernails from the top of a mountain, with views of the surrounding landscape below." That's pretty accurate. These towns were heavily fortified during the period of the Middle Ages and it's easy to see they would have been almost impregnable at the time. But many of them, like Cortona, have histories that go back to even before the Romans -- to the Etruscans and, again in Cortona's case, to well before them. The city is believed to be at least 4000 years old.

The actual conference venue was just outside the town walls in a 15th century palace (called "Il Palazzone") built by "Cardinal Silvio Passerini (1469-1529), Bishop of Cortona, who had the stately building constructed as evidence of the power obtained by his own noble family, which had remained loyal to the Medici dynasty". [1] The building was donated in the 1960s to the University of Pisa by the Cardinal's descendants and is quite spectacular, with much of the original furniture still present and with numerous works of art, including excellent frescos on the walls and ceilings of many of the large rooms (including the one where the conference met). It was almost disorienting to sit in a room surrounded in all directions by works of art of the Renaissance while discussing computer technology and its applications.

Of course, being a hill town, Cortona's streets and byways are very steep. In fact, the 30 minute walk from the Pallazone to the heart of the town at Piazza de Republica would probably have taken only 15 minutes if on level ground. The town looks very much as it must have looked in the medieval era -- or maybe even earlier. All around the ancient buildings (still in complete daily use, many nicely modernized inside) are the remnants and walls of earlier buildings and boundary walls -- many from the Etruscan era.

The Pallazone was our hotel for the three nights of the conference, but its doors are closed at 8 pm (there is no permanent hotel staff there) and our arrival on Monday was expected to be at 9:30 pm or so. So we arranged to spend that first night in a hotel in the town proper -- the Hotel di San Michele. It, too, is in an ancient building that was obviously the home of one of the town's richer families, but it has been lovingly renovated. Our room was right under the roof tiles -- see the picture. We moved into the Pallazone for the next two nights where, frankly, the room was not nearly as nice.

On Tuesday evening we walked into Cortona together and had a very nice dinner at a small restaurant run by a young couple just off the Piazza. On Wednesday, during the work day for Chuck, Kathi explored the town at greater length and took many of the pictures you will find at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2773087#147628506. One of the unexpected highlights was when she ran across the annual town parade to commemorate the liberation of the area by the US Army in World War II. The conference closed with a dinner at a hotel near the Pallazone which used to be a monastery. On Thursday morning it was back to Florence by train and London by plane, via Frankfurt, Germany.

[1]. Thanks to: http://www.sns.it/en/scuola/luoghi/palazzodicortona

Adelaide and Lorne

2007-04-28T19:48:00.000Z

We flew from Singapore to Adelaide (with a plane change in Perth) on a Thursday, so that Chuck could meet with faculty members from the University of South Australia as well as with a couple of his colleagues from the Office of Naval Research who flew in from Washington. On Friday, while they were all making plans for future collaborations, Kathi took a self-guided walking tour of Adelaide. Until recently, Adelaide was Australia's fourth city -- after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane -- but with the recent rapid growth of Perth on the west coast it has slid to fifth. While it is growing a bit slower than these other cities, it has retained a lot more of its "old Australia" flavor, making it actually quite pleasant to visit. (When Chuck accidentally deleted all our Singapore pictures from the new camera, the Adelaide pictures were also lost -- so all the pictures here are from Lorne and along the Great Ocean Road.)

It is a planned city, laid out (by a military engineer) on a grid system with large squares and a wide green belt surrounding the city center. There is still a very large, bustling central market reminiscent of a number of major European cities we've visited, such as Budapest. The expected large, modern high-rise buildings are present, but nestled among them are many of the kinds of buildings that were the height of municipal pride a hundred years ago.

We had dinner Friday night with our University hosts in a beautiful waterfront restaurant that specializes in food based on aborigine food traditions. The menu, of course, included kangaroo and emu; all was delicious. On Saturday we took a bus tour of the Barossa valley, a major Australian wine-growing region just outside Adelaide. There were two winery tasting stops as well as many sightings of Australian wildlife in their natural habitat. The tour brought home very strongly the fact that Australia is in the midst of a several-year-long drought and wine yields as well as many other agricultural enterprises are being adversely affected.

We made a mid-afternoon stop at the rural town of Hahndorf, which was founded by German Lutheran immigrants fleeing religious persecution in Europe -- a bit of rural German tradition in the Australian hinterland.

From Adelaide we flew on to Melbourne and, in a rented car, drove the 80 or so miles to the small coastal town of Lorne, where the workshop Chuck was attending (Waves in Shallow Environments -- lots of good math!) was being held in the Grand Pacific Hotel. The hotel's name is grander than the Victorian era building that houses it -- it claims to have been renovated, but Chuck's guess was that the renovation was probably done in the 1930s. One phone in the whole hotel. But the workshop organizers intentionally planned to meet in the isolated site to minimize distractions and to keep all involved in the work being done. (There were two Koalas feeding in a tree adjacent to the hotel.)

Lorne is a small town of about 1200 permanent residents located on the southern coast of the country along the Great Ocean Road, billed as one of the great coastal vistas in the world, on a par with California's Big Sur coast. Having lived at the north end of the Big Sur coast for 15 years, we'd agree that the Australian version is equally beautiful.

The last night of the workshop was marked with a dinner at a nearby golf course that is famous for the enormous number of kangaroos that inhabit its greens and fairways in the evening -- in fact it would seem that so many of them are involved in munching the grass that the golf course may be able to get by with far fewer lawnmowers than other courses. Unfortunately, the "'Roos" are most plentiful at night and it was very difficult to capture them outdoors at night.

The next day we drove back to the Melbourne airport and embarked for the very long flight to London, with a two hour layover in Singapore.

Additional Australia pictures are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2772173#147566314

Singapore

2007-04-28T18:51:00.000Z

In early April we made one of our longer trips -- Singapore followed immediately by Australia. We were in Singapore for only a bit over two days, with Chuck meeting with the Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency, faculty members of the National University of Singapore and being given a tour of the port of Singapore's huge container terminal -- as possible background for some work he may be asked to do back at the Naval Postgraduate School.

We were escorted by a former NPS student of Chuck's from Singapore, Ivan Ng. He couldn't have been kinder -- met us at the airport, took us all over the city, took Chuck to each of his business appointments, escorted us to dinner and took us back to the airport; hospitality of the highest order.

Ivan introduced us to several of the culinary treats for which Singapore is famous. At a riverfront seafood restaurant we had both black-pepper crab and chilli crab. These are really large crabs from the local waters -- not like Alaska king crabs but more like the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, but many times the size. Both versions are spicy, very tasty and very messy to eat! We ate dinner the next night at one of Singapore's famous "hawker" malls, made up of a bewildering array of stalls vending a tremendous variety of Chinese, Malay and Indian food.

At a dim-sum restaurant for lunch, we got to sample a wide variety of Chinese and Singaporean specialties under Ivan's expert guidance. Have you had frog porridge? Well, now we have, along with several other things that took a little less fortitude to try. You may think this is too much about food, but even our guide book pointed out that in Singapore shopping is the national obsession and food the national treasure.

Other great memories include a visit to the Singapore zoo at night for the famous Night Safari and a stroll through the beautiful, large botanical garden located in the heart of the city -- again with Ivan guiding and explaining. Kathi also spent a good part of one of the days strolling along the famous-for-shopping Orchard Road, which is lined for a mile or more with every kind of shop, store or restaurant you can imagine -- most of them pretty up-scale.

We did get some nice pictures, but unfortunately, when we went to Australia right after Singapore and Chuck was experimenting with our new digital camera he unintentionally deleted all the photos in the camera's memory. So we can't show you Ivan's smiling face or any of the beautiful sights of Singapore. Chuck is now required to have adult supervision when he uses the camera.

Tolbys in London, 2007

2007-04-22T13:57:00.000Z

Our daughter, Julie, with husband Justin and our grandson Tyler, visited us in London in March. They had a busy sightseeing schedule for the first two days of their visit. They took the great London open-top bus tour (the kind where you can get off anywhere along the route and then re-board and continue later) and also took a river tour on the Thames. Both of these tours are great ways to see much of London and to get a feel for the layout of the entire city, as well as to see some of the really great scenic vistas along the river. (Julie and Tyler pictured.)

Julie, Justin and Tyler went to the theater to see "Lion King", which Tyler thoroughly enjoyed -- to the point that on the bus ride home, rather than falling asleep as he normally would at that time of the evening, he commented enthusiastically on what he had seen in the show. It was a great success from the standpoint of his enjoying it.

Kathi and Julie visited Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana and did the obligatory walk along famed London shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street. They were joined later in the day for afternoon tea at the (near our flat) Sherlock Holmes Hotel by our friend Sara Allen.

While the ladies were having this "girls' day out", the guys visited Portsmouth, the major Royal Navy base. Portsmouth is the site of the HMS Victory (the flagship of Admiral Lord Nelson when he defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar) as well as many other nautical-history-related sites. Chuck, Tyler and Justin thoroughly enjoyed this "boys' day out" -- though, sadly, Chuck forgot to take the camera!

All five of us, the Calvanos and the Tolbys, went to an afternoon performance at the London Unicorn (children's) Theater of "Jemima Puddleduck". The Unicorn is a very interesting enterprise, devoted to introducing children to theater, but with thoroughly professional staff and actors. We also worked in a visit to the Tate Modern museum which was featuring a temporary exhibit of very large slides offering free slides to the public. Consistent with the Tate's approach, the large slides were considered "art" and, to quote from the museum's own web site "the experience of sliding is best summed up in a phrase by the French writer Roger Caillois as a 'voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind'. The slides are impressive sculptures in their own right, and you don't have to hurtle down them to appreciate this artwork. What interests Höller, (the artist) however, is both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the 'inner spectacle' experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend." We just enjoyed the ride -- especially Tyler. But Chuck, Justin and Kathi also shared the experience.

Robyn, one of Julie's law office co-workers (from San Diego before the Tolbys moved to Phoenix) and her husband, Mitch, paid us a visit while the Tolbys were here and we all met for dinner the next night at our local Chinese restaurant, the Phoenix Palace (the favorite restaurant of Tony and Cheri Blair, by the way).

Some photos of the visit are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2743926#145777777

Roots in Calabria

2007-04-22T12:32:00.000Z

Chuck, of course, is of Italian descent, with his maternal grandparents from Naples and his father's parents from Calabria, a southern province of Italy. His paternal grandfather, Natale Calvano, was born in Cosenza, a small Calabrian city and his grandmother (Concetta) was from the nearby coastal town of San Lucido. Grandfather Calvano died before Chuck was born, but grandmother Calvano lived next door during Chuck's entire childhood and he grew up on stories about and references to San Lucido. He has had a lifelong desire to see the town, but despite many visits to Italy had never had the chance to go there.

Recently, he had business in Naples where Kathi joined him and they planned to drive the 180 miles to San Lucido. While Chuck does not know of any close relatives in San Lucido, his cousin, Rea (who lives in Illinois), has visited a cousin of hers who lives in the town. So Chuck and Kathi took a ride through the beautiful mountain and farm countryside south of Naples, arriving in San Lucido on a Friday evening. Using Rea's contact information, they met Rea's cousin (Franco Filippo) on Saturday morning in the town square, from which Franco drove them on an auto tour of the town and its immediate surroundings.

[The first 2 pictures show the square in San Lucido and Chuck with Franco (left) in the square, joined by a friend of Franco's who had lived in Chicago in Chuck's old neighborhood and was able to provide a small amount of translation help.]

In the tradition of Italian hospitality, he and his wife (Palmira) invited us to their home where Palmira served a fantastic lunch that seemed to consist of seven or eight courses. A delightful visit for the rest of the afternoon then followed. This was made rather more amazing in that neither Franco nor Palmira speak English and Chuck's Italian is extremely limited while Kathi's is just about non-existent. Despite this obvious limitation, the conversation (of about four hours) was entirely delightful and made much use of Chuck and Franco's in-born Italian talent of using their hands to communicate.

[A picture shows Kathi with Palmira in the Filippo home and the last one shows Chuck before the San Lucido war memorial.]

Some additional pictures of San Lucido (and some taken on our drive there) are at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2578013#135787919

Singing Men

2007-03-10T20:09:00.000Z

You are probably aware that Wales is famous for its very strong tradition of choral singing, largely by men. The Welsh take it very seriously. A friend of ours, Phil John, who was Chuck's host at the Royal Military College of Science when he was a visiting Prof there in 2000-01, is of Welsh background and is in the process of working through a lengthy period of qualifying to be a member of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir. While the men are all Welsh, they tend to live near London, where they rehearse weekly. They put on an annual series of concerts, visiting venues all over the UK and even some as far away as New York's Carnegie Hall.

Recently we visited Phil and his wife, Sue, in their home in Harpenden, just north of London, and after a great lunch with them and two of their three kids, we spent the afternoon visiting Windsor and Eton, near London and the sites, respectively, of Windsor Castle and Eton "College" (which is actually the prestigious high school attended for several centuries by the sons of the elite, on their way to Oxford and Cambridge). In addition to an afternoon of walking through these two historic towns, seeing the Castle again and enjoying dinner in Windsor, we attended a concert of the London Welsh Choir in the hall at Eton College. The nearby picture shows the choir and was taken at Eton on the night of the concert we attended.

The men were in fine voice (as they always are) and put on a great show, with a number of beautiful songs as well as several rousing anthems. A good many of the selections were hymns of various kinds -- and all was done extremely well. Even the songs that were in Welsh were a pleasure to listen to. Their accompanist, Annabel Thwait is a first-rate artist in her own right and added much to the show. One of the choir members acts as MC/raconteur and is a natural at this role, adding even more enjoyment to the show.

The second picture shows Phil, Sue and Kathi browsing through Windsor's Victorian-era train station, which has been turned into a shopping center while keeping the architectural integrity of the old station to a very satisfying degree.

A great evening all-around, after a fun day with Phil and Sue.

Some pictures of our day in Windsor and Eton are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2510079#131798796

Recent Theater in London

2007-03-10T19:50:00.000Z

We continue to enjoy the great opportunities to experience live stage shows in London's West End -- with special enjoyment added by the use of the Half Price ticket booth in Leicester Square. Among our most recent theater experiences were these three:

Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie in a wonderful staging, with Jessica Lange as the mother. The actors were, as we've come to expect, really fine. We'd seen other productions of this classic (maybe on a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV production, or something similar) and as a result the story was familiar. But never before had it struck us just how well-written the play was. It takes a great deal of creative subtlety to write a play which shows a mother, by her actions, destroying the lives of her two children -- but depicting this in such a way that it is clear the mother is not evil -- is doing what she thinks right -- but damaging her children nonetheless.

The Sound of Music (a present for Kathi's December birthday, but only attended in March because tickets are so difficult to get) did not disappoint in any way. Great staging, wonderful voices and the familiar classic story. The night we attended, 4 of the large parts (including Maria and the Mother Abbess) were played by understudies because of illness and other causes. There was no way to avoid saying to yourself "wow, if the understudies are this good, the regulars must be fantastic."

A less well known show was The Man of Mode, at the National Theater. This was a serious play (with comic overtones) originally produced in the 17th century, written by George Etherege. He was trying to demonstrate the degree to which (then) modern society had become obsessed with sex and was straying from traditional morality. The current production is set in modern London, but the theme fits perfectly. A stage play with a large cast, beautiful staging and fantastic comedic timing.

As our 3 year assignment in London draws to a close (4 months until we leave) we continue to realize to an increasing degree just how much we're going to miss the London theater scene.

Trrrransylvaaaaania!

2007-02-03T15:17:00.000Z

As a political entity, Transylvania is mentioned from the 11th century and has been conquered by the early Hungarians/Huns, been part of the Kingdom of Hungary, an autonomous principality under the Ottoman Empire, then a province of the Habsburg monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian empire and, after World War I, a region within the Kingdom of Romania. (The map shows Romania, with the Transylvania region in yellow.) [Thanks to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, for elements of the above discussion.]

Romania contains a crescent-shaped swath of the Carpathian mountains which make up much of Transylvania (but also extend down into the central "blue" part of the map; Bucharest is in the "blue" lowlands, about where the dot is). So most of Transylvania is either mountainous or is made up of a high altitude plateau. It contains many beautiful vistas, quaint villages and historic castles and other sites. And, of course, being mountainous, is a favorite summer-home-site for those who can afford summer homes. To most of us in the Western world, Transylvania is famously the home of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. (As I type this I can hear Vincent Price talk about Trrransylvaaaania -- rolling the "r", of course.)

We had a chance to take a day trip into the region, with a guide and one other tourist -- a very congenial American man from Denver. A drive of a bit more than two hours took us from Bucharest to the town of Brasov, near the southern end of Transylvania. It contains many fine examples of medieval buildings, surrounding a very attractive town square (pictured nearby). From Brasov it was off to another medieval town, Sinaia, the site of the extremely beautiful former royal castle of Peles, considered by many one of the most beautiful castles in all Europe. The castle was begun in 1873 and completed in 1883. It was the home of Romania's first modern king, King Carol I, and it is the final resting place for several Romanian monarchs, including Carol I, who died there in 1914. It is unusual in being a "modern" castle (with central heating -- something sadly mssing in other castles). The exterior, when compared to the many magnificent castles and palaces of Europe, doesn't seem very prepossessing -- but the interior is magnificent, with room after room showing the artistry of the finest craftsmen available in Europe, used in large numbers. The rooms were designed to a variety of themes and several of them contain the largest crystal mirrors ever made. There is even a small theatre which, in the 20th century, was converted from a stage to cinema. You can see some pictures of Peles starting at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2403377#P-3-9

Then it was off to Dracula country -- to the town of Bran, the location of "Dracula's Castle". Of course, it's worth a moment to remind ourselves that Dracula, as we know him, is a fictional character. A real character, Vlad Draculea, was born in 1431. His grandson, Vlad III, had a habit of impaling his enemies on spears and earned the label of "Vlad the Impaler". Legend has it that he even dined surrounded by enemies impaled on posts. It is widely believed that Bram Stoker took the inspiration for his Dracula the Vampire character from the life of the Vlad Draculea line, and probably Vlad the Impaler in particular. This Vlad is often referred to as the "real Dracula", though there is quite a difference between him (killing for the pleasure of watching his enemies suffer) and the fictional vampire Dracula who killed to feed, as many creatures in nature certainly do.

Whatever the truth about all this, the castle at Bran is associated in history with the Vlad Draculea line of warriors. It is located outside the town of Bran, and was obviously sited to command a pass through the mountains. For several centuries it served to block the passage through the mountains of a succession of invaders, including the Turks, and was never conquered. Bran was the third stop on our Transylvania excursion. Bran Castle is significantly different form the magnificence of Peles, being several centuries older and, in comparison, quite primitive. (It certainly never had central heating.) Some pictures of Bran Castle are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2403377#126268046

Romania Roam

2007-02-03T14:58:00.000Z

Chuck recently took a trip, with two US Army civilian colleagues, to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, which recently became one of the newest member countries of the European Union. It was a week long visit intended to assess the potential for research collaboration with researchers in various organizations in that country. They visited the National Defense University, the Military Technical Academy, the Military Engineering and Technical Research Agency (which has Army, Air Force and Navy components) and met with members of the materials department of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and the government's Metallurgrical Institute. One afternoon was spent with a Romanian software company that specializes in electronic learning and which presented them with a variety of very impressive products -- the company has grown from nearly nothing to 500 employees in just a few years, with a 20% annual growth rate. From a business and professional standpoint it was both very busy and very valuable.

Kathi, along with Pat Johnson, the wife of one of the Army scientists, made the trip as well. The ladies were able to do a lot of sightseeing during the days the others were visiting various Romanian institutions.

So, what can we tell you about Bucharest? Well, like almost every European city, it contains a great variety of beautiful monuments and buildings, museums and cultural attractions. And, of course, having been part of Soviet-occupied Europe for so long (until the revolution of 1989), the city still has evidence of those oppressive and bleak days -- the most visible being the decaying, ugly buildings the Soviets seem to have erected in very large numbers everywhere they held sway. Today, however, Romania is a new member of the European Union, with both unemployment and inflation low and with real wages increasing nicely. The process of privatization of previously-state-owned industries is being tackled in a

measured way (about 30% are now privatized) and numerous small businesses are opening in an environment of increasing entrepreneurship.

Bucharest, like Prague and Budapest (we haven't gotten to Warsaw yet), has its legacy of many beautiful buildings from the 19th and early 20th century. The ladies got to visit a number of these during the days. Since 1989 there has been a significant construction boom of modern office buildings. Shown here is the Atheneum, a busy venue for concerts and lectures. Also shown, on the left, is the George Enescu (a revered Romanian composer) Museum of Music. There's not enough room here, of course, to try to show you as many of them as we'd like, but you can see more of them at http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2403377#125946731

Budapest IV -- Buildings

2007-01-07T17:14:00.000Z

We've already mentioned the Palace, which is probably Budapest's most prominent building, sitting, as it does, atop a hill right on the bank of the Danube. It's immense and very imposing and, as already reported, contains two important museums, including the Hungarian National Gallery.

However, the city is properly proud of a number of other buildings that are imposing, beautiful and, in some cases, quite large. The Parliament building was fully opened in 1902, after decades of construction. It's in the neo-Gothic style, the same style as Britain's Parliament on the banks of the Thames in London and, in fact, it is widely acknowledged to have been inspired by the British version. At the time of its construcion it was the largest Parliament building in Europe. It was actually dedicated in 1896 -- the thousand-year anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian nation, when only the central portion was actually ready for occupancy. The two wings were completed six years later. At the time of its completion, Hungary had a two-house Parliament, with an upper and lower chamber, so the building is completely symmetrical about the center portion, with an identical wing for each chamber. However, in 1944 Hungary changed its government to include a single house of Parliament, so the upper chamber's wing is no longer used. This works well, as it is the wing that tourists are shown, since it is identical to the wing actually used.

The main entrance and stairwell are spectacular, showcasing all-Hungarian construction materials and skills -- with the exception of 8 granite pillars donated by the King of Sweden. Gold leaf abounds. The staircase leads to a grand Domed Hall, with 16 pillars supporting the dome, each adorned with the coat of arms and a statue of a significant Hungarian ruler. The Hall is also the home of the country's most precious treasure, the crown of St. Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary.

Another building we'd like to highlight is St. Stephen's Basilica. This, too, is a building of great beauty with more fantastic marble of a variety of colors, with soaring vaults, again with "acres" of gold leaf and with beautiful altars. Unfortunately, we visited this great church at twilight and, even with the flash (which, amazingly, was permitted) we were unable to get any decent photos. The basilica, too, has an impressive dome. An interesting fact is that the dome of the basilica and the dome of the Parliament building are the two highest structures in Budapest and no building may be built that would be higher. Also interesting is that in each case the height is 96 meters -- again recalling the founding of Hungary in 896. These two buildings represent an interesting juxtaposition of Church and State in this predominantly Catholic country.

The third building we want to highlight here is the Great Synagogue of Budapest -- the largest and most spectacular in Europe. It's in the Byzantine style, was built between 1854 and '59 and can hold 3000 people. Since the 1930's it has also housed a museum of Judaica which now includes memorabilia of the Hitlerian Holocaust. Here we were able to get some good pictures. Kathi had never been in a synagogue before and the only one Chuck had been in is the small one in Newport, R.I., that is, if memory serves correctly, the first in the United States. One of the things that struck us was the great beauty of the building -- beauty in a different tradition than we are used to from our visits to so many churches. The other thing was the numerous memorial tablets and other memorials of victims of the Holocaust. Though they were written in Hungarian, which neither of us could make much of, there were those horrible words that we all know that kept repeating themselves -- words like Dachau and Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka and Auschwitz. In 1935 there were about 201,000 Jews in Budapest -- in 1946 the number was about 96,000. It is a most unsettling feeling to be awed by the beauty of this synagogue while, at the same time, being reminded of this most ugly period of history.

Budapest III -- Culture

2007-01-06T08:05:00.000Z

We haven't done any actual counting or comparing, but it did seem to us that Budapest has more museums per square mile than most cities -- and, for that matter, that there are more square feet of museums. Several of them are really enormous and would truly take more than a day to appreciate.

The Hungarian National Gallery is housed in the former Royal Palace which overlooks downtown Pest from the Palace Hill on the Buda side of the Danube. (http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2297714/1/120085106) The Palace site first contained a castle as far back as 1255, with several replacements built through the years. The current one, dating from the Hapzburg dynasty in the 19th century, is the largest Palace in Europe. Royal residents have been replaced by art treasures in the Gallery, which occupies most of the Palace building. As our guide book says, in one place, "it houses every significant work of Hungarian art from Medieval times to the present". (Makes one wonder if the buyers for the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art had maps that didn't show where Hungary was.)

On another page the guide book said, perhaps more accurately, that the museum houses the cream of Hungarian art. Whichever statement is true, the museum is huge and uses its large area to display a dizzying number of beautiful works in spacious displays -- paintings, sculpture, altar pieces from churches and other art objects make it a special place. Hungary (the first syllable memorializes the Huns -- Atilla's pals) has had a history filled with wars and conflict and this is graphically brought home in the Gallery where there are numerous very large paintings of battle and war scenes, of kings and noblemen dying in the arms of their retainers while the battle rages in the background. One would have to know a great deal of Hungarian history to truly appreciate the meaning of these works to Hungarians.

Also contained within the Palace is the Budapest History Museum, with a large collection of historical documents as well as artifacts. We spent too much time in the Gallery to permit visiting this museum -- it will have to be saved for our next visit. The Ethnographic museum, located next to the beautiful Parliament building was something of a disappointment, though it did have a fascinating temporary exhibit on plastics -- their history, manufacture and use. Our disappointment was probably due more to the fact that it was the only place where we encountered unhelpful staff and that we were very hungry and the museum cafe was closed for unexplained reasons.

The Museum of Fine Art and the Palace of Art are located near each other, on opposite sides of Heroes' Square. The former is in another gigantic museum building; the latter in a more modestly sized building, with the building itself being a work of art. Unfortunately, we have no pictures to share with you of these two museums as the former doesn't permit cameras and the latter was having a special exhibit of modern Scandinavian art, consisting of films of people cooking dinner, blind people feeling naked models and weird displays of articles of underwear. We didn't "get it" and didn't bother to waste the film -- or the digits, given that our camera is digital.

Budapest II -- Serendipity and Sightseeing

2007-01-05T20:36:00.000Z

Christmas Day was our first full day in Budapest and, after the beautiful breakfast the hotel provided we began a modest walk around the quiet city -- on Christmas morning most people were at home and, of course, stores were closed. The most active site we saw was the skating rink in front of the Hungarian Academy of Science building on Roosevelt Square (named by a grateful city for the wartime president of the U.S.). As the day wore on, the number of skaters increased.

We continued our exploration (we hadn't even looked at the map at this point or done any planning) and had our breath taken away as we glimpsed, down a street leading off of Roosevelt Square, St. Stephen's Basilica. The dome of the basilica is tied with the dome of the Parliament building for the honor of being the highest structure in the city; but the church's interior is the real jewel. It's only about 150 years old -- young by European church standards -- so that the beauty of the various colors of marble that make up most of the interior is unmarred by the passage of a long period of time.

From the basilica, we continued our rather random exploration of the area near the hotel and more or less stumbled on the Opera House. We were checking the signs about tours of the building, debating whether or not the advertised tours would operate on Christmas, when we noticed that a lot of nicely-dressed people were walking toward the building. When we approached the front entrance we realized that there was a performance of something about to happen and when we checked we discovered that it was the perennial holiday favorite, The Nutcracker, and that there were only two seats left together in the whole theater. We took them.

So there we were, on Christmas Day, in the city of Budapest on the Danube, in the heart of central Europe and the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, enjoying a performance of The Nutcracker ballet in the company of a very appreciative Hungarian audience. It was almost dreamlike. And the pleasure of the experience was magnified by the fact that Kathi had never had a chance to see this classic, most-seen of all ballets, performed. What a great Chistmas treat that was. What serendipity!

Budapest, Part 1 -- General

2007-01-01T19:46:00.000Z

We spent Christmas day and the following week in Budapest, the capital of Hungary -- flying there on Christmas Eve and flying back to London on New Year's Eve. While we had heard good things about the city from others, we really didn't know what to expect -- and what we found was a very beautiful city in a great setting on the Danube River. In fact, we liked Budapest so much, we've decided to stop trying to identify our favorite European city. If you remember, some months ago we raved about Barcelona, calling it our favorite. (We loved Prague, too, but were there less than 48 hours and felt we couldn't really say it was a favorite on such a short acquaintance.) But now that we've seen a good bit of Budapest, we've decided it's too hard to pick a favorite. And remembering Vienna just adds to the complication. Just let us say that we liked Budapest very much.

The trip there was without problem, thanks to KLM (London to Amsterdam) and Malev (the Hungarian airline -- Amsterdam to Budapest). We arrived on Christmas Eve at about 6 pm and were a bit surprised at how cold it was -- but the weather stayed pretty cold the entire week, with the lowest being about -3 (C) or about 27 (F). We were prepared, though, for the temperature -- and so, apparently, were all the other tourists -- and it didn't degrade our sightseeing experience or reduce the size of the crowds.

You may remember that Budapest was formed by the joining of the cities of Buda on the east bank of the Danube and Pest (Pesht) on the west bank. The Pest side is flat -- the Buda side hilly, with two hills dominating the area near the Danube. Gellert hill, named for a martyred Christian bishop, is the site of an old citadel; Palace or Castle hill is the site of the massive royal palace, which now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum. (Budapest has a population of about 2 million; all of Hungary of about 10 million.)

Again, if you remember your European history, you know that Hungary was part of the empire of Austria-Hungary, ruled most recently by the Habsburg royal family. The Austro-Hungarian empire was actually bigger than the combined size of the two modern countries -- and also included much of what is now the Czech Repbulic. In fact, the current capitals of the three countries, Vienna, Budapest and Prague are the three "jewels" of the Habsburg dynasty. For much of the history of the empire, Vienna and Budapest were joint capitals -- though the Hungarian people always considered the Habsburg rulers to be "Austrians" and felt somewhat oppressed. Today Hungarian identity and patriotism are very noticeable. The most visible manifestation of this is the large, beautiful Parliament building (photo), built for the 1896 thousand-year anniversary of the founding of Hungary, and which is often spoken of and pointed out.

Of course, in Central Europe, with its wide range of ethnic histories and cultures, and with the various countries being relatively small, and, therefore, close together, the large cities such as Budapest tend to be very cosmopolitan. This makes itself apparent in the variety of languages heard (and the variety of languages the locals speak) and in the great restuarants with a wide variety of cuisines. There are plenty of modern, pleasant hotels to choose from and the English language will get you by almost everywhere. Don't expect big bargains if you go there; prices seemed a bit low after London, but would seem high to visitors from most other places.

Our Budapest photo gallery is at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2297714

Are you Sure it's Peter Pan?

2006-12-10T15:45:00.000Z

One of the many traditions that thrive in Britain (and one that seems to be unique to Britain and, perhaps, closely associated countries) is pantomime. These are theatrical productions that are put on at venues all over the country, primarily during the Chrismas season. They aren't plays or musicals in the correct sense of those descriptions; they aren't dance or opera productions; they aren't comedy shows or theatre for children. But they seem to be a combination of all of these genres.

The below is quoted from http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Panto.htm:
"Pantomime is a curious entertainment - a form of ritual theatre staged around the winter solstice. Originally silent (a form of mime), it is now anything but, with extensive vocalisation from both the performers and the audience.

The stories are generally well-known (drawn from popular folk-tales and similar sources), populated with stock characters, including a principal boy, generally played by a young lady with shapely legs, the heroine, also played by a young lady (which gives an added edge to the inevitable romance) and a dame, played by a man as an exaggeration of a lewd middle-aged lady. Scripts change from year to year, but generally contain four strands of humour: visual, topical, corny and downright rude. In the UK this is considered to be family entertainment. "

Some of the popular, and oft re-done and re-written versions of "Panto" include the stories of Aladdin, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Dick Whittington and his cat (a real-life mayor of London in the 16th century -- though the Panto differs a great deal from the real story), Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and others.

Kathi had seen Dick Whittington when we lived in England in 2000/2001 -- she went with the kids from the school where she was a volunteer at the time. More recently she went with two other ladies (one visiting from the US) to see Cinderella just last week. For some time she's been reminding Chuck that he should not miss the experience and the two of us went yesterday, December 9th, to see Peter Pan in the London suburb of Wimbledon (where the All England Lawn Tennis Club is located). We chose this particular show, from among the dozen or more being staged in the London area, because it starred Henry Winkler -- the "Fonz" from the "Happy Days" TV show.

The audience, of course, is made up of large numbers of kids, (who, of course, show their appreciation for the antics by screaming at very high decibel levels) with parents or aunts and uncles or grandparents. Did I say there are a lot of kids there? They tend to be a little noisy. Did I mention that?

Invariably, during the performance, some of the characters begin to engage the audience in dialog. The audience roundly boos the villain whenever he appears -- and cheers the hero. If the villain is hiding a weapon, or setting a trap, the audience loudly advises the hero ("he's behind the tree"). To give you a bit of an idea of how "flexible" the format is, this one even included the characters singing the "Happy Days" theme song, as though it were part of the story of Peter Pan.

It was actually a lot of fun to watch the kids have such a good time. (Did I mention that they tend to be a little bit on the noisy side?) Pantomime won't, however, replace our frequent visits to the West End theatres of London. (By the way, Henry Winkler wasn't nearly as good as the much lesser-known Brits playing the other parts.)

Mid-Med Thanksgiving

2006-12-10T14:04:00.000Z

The Republic of Malta, located in the mid-Mediterannean, is south of Sicily and north of the north coast of Africa and consists of three inhabited islands: Malta, the largest (and site of the capital city of Valetta), Gozo and Comino. Nearly all the population lives on Malta, which is rocky, with few trees and no rivers (though there are natural springs). Malta has been the site of some of the oldest civilizations known to man. The photo shows a portion of the Grand Harbor of Valetta with some of the ancient fortifications visible.

Malta was conquered a number of times in its history. Perhaps the era for which it is historically most well-known is the time beginning in 1565 when the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (also known as the Knights Hospitallers) defeated the previous Arab conquerors and made Malta a Christian country. The original purpose of the Knights was to care for pilgrims to the Holy Land who became ill on the journey. Over time their purpose began to change and the Knights became a brotherhood of warriors, though they still protected and treated pilgrims. (One of the major sites on Malta is the old (and now unused) hospital of the Knights, which boasts the longest hospital ward in the world.) For several centuries the Knights, who ruled the country, were unbeatable and their fortresses (which largely remain in place today) were impregnable.

In the early 19th century, Malta became a British crown colony and adopted English as a language, in addition to Malti, which has an Arabic base but is written in the Latin alphabet. Malta adopted a self-governing constitution in 1921, making the local government responsible for domestic affairs and leaving Britan in control of immigration and foreign policy. Malta probably made its most prominent entry on the world stage during World War II. With Sicily only a short distance to the north, the Italians being Allies of the Germans, and the German army under Rommel being in North Africa, Malta became a thorn in the side of German/Italian efforts to keep Rommel supplied by ship. The Axis forces tried to bomb the island into submission, making it, for a period of time, the most heavily bombed place on earth. But the island held out until the Royal Navy could get a convoy through (with heavy losses) and, when the British/American armies defeated Rommel in North Africa, the pressure on Malta abated.

Malta is an overtly Catholic country, with 98% of the population belonging to that faith and with over 400 churches for its population of about 400,000 people. The country has been deeply influenced by all the cultures that dominated the islands at various times and this is especially noteworthy in food and architecture. Many consider modern Malta to be an interesting combination of the "manana" culture and a vibrant work ethic.

We stayed at the modern and very comfortable Intercontinental hotel on St. George's bay, toured the very important Grand Harbor by boat, visited St. John's cathedral as well as the local Anglican "proto" cathedral (so-called because the real seat of the Anglican bishop is in Gibraltar) and St. Dominic's church. The latter, built only in 1952, replaced the church destroyed by German bombing during World War II; it is dominated by a huge oval shaped dome and is one of the most strikingly beautiful of the many, many churches we've visited in our many visits to European cities. We did most of our local getting around on regular city buses -- which are very cheap and convenient -- as well as being very interesting, since Malta appears to buy only used buses from other places and many have been restored and are kept in nearly pristine condition.

The island boasts a number of ruins from pre-historic cultures whose origins are unknown, but who built large stone temples, now in ruins. Interestingly, some of the ruins, which are impressive in scale, pre-date the pyramids of Egypt by as much as 1200 years! It is supposed that these ancient peoples came from Sicily (which is just visible on a clear day) rather than North Africa, which is never visible. Presumably these people wouldn't have set off on a voyage without any idea whether there was land "out there".

On our tours of the island we visited a couple of village open air markets and took a small boat ride into Malta's "Blue Grotto", with it's positively startling colors of blue water inside the caves -- no doubt a manifestation of some relatively uncommon aspect of the physics of light. Our travels also included a ferry ride to Gozo, the second island of Malta with only one real town of any size, but significantly greener than Malta itself.

Visit http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2200370 to see some of our Malta photos.

Monty Python Fans?

2006-11-28T21:21:00.000Z

One of our recent theater outings was to the London presentation of the Tony-winning Broadway hit, "Spamalot". The title, of course, is a word-play on Camelot and the musical comedy is set in the time of King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail. Of course, it's a stage version of the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

Neither of us has been a Monty Python fan, though many in the audience obviously were -- at one point it seemed the entire audience was reciting some of the dialog and singing along with a couple of the songs. These were obviously the devoted fans of Monty Python -- it reminded us of the days when Jill, our youngest, would recite the entire dialogue from the movie "Princess Bride", which she watched dozens of times.

Tim Curry, who starred in the show on Broadway, now plays the lead in the London version -- we were surprised at what a good singing voice he has. The play was filled with innovative pieces -- Chuck's favorite was when the Lady of the Lake, who had not been on stage for some time, came on to sing a song entitled "What Ever Happened to My Part?"

Though we're not Monty Python fans, we did enjoy the show, which we felt was very inventive and creatively unusual. If you get the chance, see it.

Our visit to Bampton

2006-11-12T16:10:00.000Z

In our former stay in England in 2000/2001, we lived in a village in Oxfordshire where Kathi volunteered her services in the local village school in Buckland. One of the teachers there (later the head teacher) was Pauline Hawkins. We got to know Pauline and her husband David (a retired RAF officer) and they visited us in Monterey after our return home from that time in England. We've also gotten together with David and Pauline for dinner in London a few months ago.

In October we had a chance to spend a weekend with them at their beautiful cottage home (Mill Green) in the village of Bampton, a few miles from our former temporary home in Buckland. On Saturday we walked around the village and visited the typically beautiful village church, as well as the village's library. Pauline is active as a volunteer in various pursuits in the village and David has served for several years as the mayor; we enjoyed having them show us an interesting display about the bells in the church tower. We went from London to Oxford by bus where David picked us up in his car. On the way to Bampton he gave us a nostalgic drive through Buckland, our former home for a year.

On Saturday afternoon David took Chuck to Gloucester to see a rugby match -- Chuck's first -- of the local team against the team from Bristol. The locals won handily. That evening saw us sharing a delicious dinner and absolutely fascinating conversation with the Hawkins and two other couples.

On Sunday we took a walk along the Thames as it makes its way through the countryside between Bampton and Buckland. It was great fun for us to get back to the English countryside and to see some of the sites of our old "stomping grounds" in Oxfordshire. Then Pauline drove us back to Oxford for the bus ride back to London.

Some pictures of our return to the countryside are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/2122393/

Visitors

2006-11-12T13:12:00.000Z

We've recently enjoyed several visitors to London in September. John and Marguerite Boley (John is a Naval Academy classmate of Chuck's) were taking a several week tour of the UK and spent a weekend in London. And Jeff and Lynn Dittrich, friends of ours from Marina (near Monterey) in California were on a European tour about the same time. Their schedules worked out so that they were all in London on the same weekend and the six of us had a chance to get together for some touring.

Being late September, we figured it was one of the last weekends when a boat ride on the Thames might be pleasant, so we arranged for us to go by boat to Kew Gardens, the huge Botanical Gardens a few miles upstream from central London. (The day turned out to have a few intermittent showers, but not enough to keep us indoors.) An additional attraction at Kew at this time was the recently-refurbished Kew Palace which, for some time, was the home of King George III (the king the Americans revolted against) and his family. In an incredible feat of logistics and timing, the six of us managed to rendezvous at Westminster pier to catch the boat at the right time (the Boleys' hotel was near Heathrow; the Dittrichs' at Earls Court and we came from Marylebone, all using different modes of transport).

We were all a bit surprised at how modest the Palace itself was -- much less luxurious (and much smaller) than Buckingham Palace (which came much later) but also less luxurious (and much smaller) than Hampton Court Palace or Whitehall Palace (destroyed by fire) which both came much later.

The first photo shows Lynn Dittrich, Marguerite and John. The second is of Jeff Dittrich taking a picture of Chuck taking a picture of him. The last picture is of the palace.

A couple of weeks later Catriana Hepburn spent a few days with us. She and her family live in Scotland where they operate a combination farm and country hotel near Ayr. We have visited them there twice for delightful country weekends. With Catriana we attended the theatre to see Guys and Dolls (a very enjoyable show!), and also visited the Spitalfield Market, one of the famous historical market sites of London.
The first picture, of course, is of Kathi with Catriana outside the market; the other is of Catriana with Chuck at the statue of George Washington outside the National Gallery in London.

Ciao, Roma

2006-09-24T15:24:00.000Z

We spent the week of 18 September, including Chuck's birthday, in Rome, where Chuck was attending the 26th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics (don't you wish you could attend these conferences?). The organizers had planned conferences for the "accompanying persons" on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of the week.

We know many of our readers will be familiar with many Roman landmarks, either through personal visits or just as a result of their wide familiarity. But we will include a short listing of some of the places we visited. You can see some pictures at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1923852.

On a previous visit to Rome both of us had visited the Villa Borghese, which now houses many great art treasures, including some Bernini sculptures which we think are among the best in the world. We both had our breath taken away by the life-size work of Apollo and Daphne, shown here. Kathi, along with many of the ladies accompanying their husbands to the conference, visited the Villa again and came away as impressed as she was the first time. Take a close look at the photo; the drapery, Daphne's hair, the leaves of the tree -- it's hard to believe these are made of marble. One can't help but think "what if the chisel had slipped?"

On our second evening in Rome we had dinner with three of Chuck's colleages at Alfredo's restaurant, recommended by the hotel's concierge. Before taking our order, the waiter gave us a short oral history of the restaurant, founded in 1914. It seems Alfredo had a recipe for fettucine that was very much appreciated by some of his patrons, including Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) and Mary Pickford. After tasting it, they presented him with a golden fork and spoon and undertook to tell all their Hollywood pals about Fettucine Alfredo. The waiter insisted that if we had had the dish anywhere else it wasn't authentic, as at Alfredo's they use only the fettucine, butter and sliced parmesan cheese. Two of the five of us ordered it and both agreed it was the best Fettucine Alfredo they'd ever had.

Other day tours included "The Piazzas of Rome", which included the Palazzo Montecitorio, by Bernini (now the home of the Italian Parliament), the Pantheon, Campo dei Fiori (the ancient flower market) and many other glorious sites. The tour of Papal Rome included, of course, the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and other points. One of the most interesting sites was the ruins of Pompei, buried for centuries under the ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Excavation of the site started in 1749 and continues today, now including some 160 acres.

Nice, Monaco and the French Riviera

2006-09-24T13:18:00.000Z

Chuck recently attended a conference on Maritime Systems Technologies, held in Nice on the French Riviera, and Kathi joined him on the trip. We won't go into the conference details here, but only report that it was professionally valuable for him, assisting in his job of enhancing opportunities for international research in science and technology.

The conference organizers had planned tours for the "accompanying persons" on several of the days, but, unfortunately, there were too few who signed up and the tours were canceled.

On the Saturday and Sunday before the conference we were able to take a couple of tours along the Riviera and into Monaco. One of our first stops was the very nearly complete Medieval village of Eze, which occupies a hilltop overlooking the sea. Today the village consists almost wholly of shops and cafes and is almost uninhabited in the off-season. While few people now live there year round, the village's structure and geography remain intact and walking its streets feels very much like stepping back through the centuries. We couldn't help but be heavily impressed at how difficult daily life must have been for the residents. Until 1939 the village had no water supply and water was carried up by the residents from a fountain at the foot of the steep hill; even after a water pipe reached the village, all the residents had to go to a single pipe to get water for cooking. Bathing was probably not a very frequent activity in such circumstances.

From Eze we continued along the beautiful Riviera coast to Monaco, passing and visiting so many places that evoke impressions of beauty, sopistication and glamor -- Villefranche, St. Jean cap Ferrat, Antibe, Cannes, Monaco and Monte Carlo. The beautiful blue (sometimes emerald) Mediterannean peeked at us around every turn, making it obvious why the area is called the Cote D' Azur, or Azure Coast.

Arriving in Monaco, we visited the area around the Palace, the beautiful cathedral where Prince Ranier and Princess Grace were married (and are buried) , passed the home of Princess Stephanie (second of Grace's children) and the Oceanographic Institute housed here, which is one of the world's best and was the professional home of Jacques Costeau. Everywhere in Monaco, one is reminded that this is, per capita, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and one of the safest and most heavily policed. But also one of the most pleasant and beautiful.

Monaco, of course, is also the site of the Casino at Monte Carlo. We visited the casino in the company of a very pleasant Australian couple who joined us in our tour van. We did each put 20 Euros at risk in the Casino -- and each left 20 Euros less wealthy. The usual experience in such places, isn't it?

One thing you can't help noticing as you travel in the area is the enormous number of absolutely stunning (and hugely expensive) yachts. We saw our share -- at least one of which was larger than the U.S. Navy destroyers Chuck served in. We did not seem to attract any offers to take a short sea voyage with any of the owners.

We happened to be in Nice for the town's traditional "Porte Feste", when about 30,000 locals descend on the old port area for entertainment, food booths, boat rides and parades. We enjoyed it immensely, getting the feeling of being in an old European city of 100 years ago. It was very traditional and great fun.

To see more of our Riviera interlude go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1887800/1

Wicked Good

2006-09-24T12:34:00.000Z

The huge Broadway hit, "Wicked", opened recently in London and we went to see it last week. And what an entertaining show it was. We both gave it 5 stars in our 0 - to - 5 star system.

The premise of the story is that it's about the life of the Wicked Witch of the West (from the "Wizard of Oz") before the events of that story. It is based on the book "Wicked; The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West". The story line is very well-done and is filled with subtle and clever references to the "Wizard of Oz" story.

In addition, the events depicted in the early life of the Wicked Witch are very well done and, of course, the quality of the music, singing and dancing are absolutely first rate. Idena Menzel, who plays the Wicked Witch in London (and won a Tony for the role on Broadway) was fantastic. The Good Witch, Glinda, also figures in the story (the two witches are school friends as young girls) and is played very well by Helen Dallimore. The sets and staging were up to the highest standards of the British stage -- a great all-around production.

No pictures are allowed in theaters, so the graphic above is from the program.

By the way, our London theater total is now at 76; we love the half-price ticket booth!

London Museum Day

2006-09-10T15:15:00.000Z

On a recent Saturday we spent the morning at the Royal Academy of Arts, in Burlington House on Picadilly, and the afternoon visiting (again) the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Burlington House is a former aristocratic residence, now housing the Royal Academy and its art collection. The entry is through an elaborate gate on Picadilly, the famous London street, and through a large courtyard, with Burlington House on the north side. The other three sides are made of building that house various learned societies, including the Royal Astronomical Society, the Society of Antiquarians and the Linnaean Society -- the oldest organization in the world devoted to natural history. It's a rather awe-inspiring array of historical and intellectual organizations.

We visited the art collection in the Royal Academy of Arts -- and while perusing the art in the ballroom of the former residence noticed a plaque on the wall informing the visitor that this is the room where Charles Darwin made the first presentation of his paper on "The Origin of Species". London is just overflowing with this kind of historically interesting discovery.

Some pictures from that day can be seen at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1874275/1/94285595

America's Jeweler

2006-09-10T14:18:00.000Z

We recently took advantage of the never-ending variety of great exhibits in London museums to view the "Bejewelled by Tiffany" display at Somerset House -- one of London's great art museums (pictured at left).

The exhibition guide informs us that "Tiffany & Co. since its foundation has been a quintessentially American brand, famous for its glamour, design and craftsmanship." ("Glamour", of course is the British spelling.)

The guide goes on "At the forefront of America's emerging luxury trades, its designers .... created an aesthetic clearly distinct from contemporary European jewellery (Brit spelling) houses. They set vividly coloured stones, often from North America, in combinations rarely found in the largely monochrome European pieces of the period."

The company was also noted for the policy of including stock aimed at "all purses" -- from 50-cent items to fabulous diamonds. And, of course, Charles Lewis Tiffany (3rd generation in the family) was world famous for his lamp shades. The exhibit, though, concentrated on the company's jewelry.

There were approximately 200 items, varying from incredible diamond and emerald necklaces to enamel brooches modeled on flowers to exquisite jewels modelled on members of the insect world. The exhibit interspersed, among the beautiful jewelry, photographic exhibits illustrating the history of the company and its various New York stores.

Unfortunately, as in so many exhibits of highly valuable items, photos were not permitted. (Kathi was disappointed to find that souvenirs were also strongly discouraged.) We've scanned in images from some of the brochures and the exhibit guide and have included them with this article.

What an Evening!

2006-08-06T19:59:00.000Z

We extended the lease on our apartment to our new completion date here of 10 July 2007. The landlord let us know that as a token of his gratitude for our staying on he was giving us tickets to see the Bolshoi Ballet here in London. We went last Tuesday night. His gift included dinner with all the trimmings in the Opera House restaurant.

What a spectacular evening! First, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is magnificent; a real gem of Victorian architecture. The foyer is a trademark glass and iron arched space which now houses a bar and two of the three restaurants. The auditorium is the traditional European horseshoe style, and is spectacularly decorated. Gold and deep red velvet abound. The ceiling is a work of art. The stage is huge.

The itinerary was: show up at about 6:30 for our reserved table in the restaurant – enjoy a cocktail, appetizer and main course. Then go into the auditorium for the 7:30 start of the ballet. At about 8:00 return to our table and have dessert and coffee during the 25 minute “interval”. Then back for Act II of the ballet and afterward back to the reserved table for port and mingling with the crowd in the open portion of the restaurant. Then back to the auditorium for Act III.

Of course, the Bolshoi is renowned for its mastery. With little knowledge of ballet, I’m sure we didn’t appreciate (or realize) the degree of excellence being performed. The audience was, on the whole, much more knowledgeable of ballet than either of us. And it was very interesting to hear the collective intakes of breath, the spontaneous smattering of applause and even fairly widespread “bravos” in the middle of routines – indicating, no doubt, an especially well-done jump or turn or other dance move. Kathi and I were finding it all spectacular, but with little basis for any comparison.

The ballet was “The Pharoah’s Daughter”. The number of dancers was enormous (there are 213 in the Bolshoi). The costumes were almost beyond belief – I doubt if the ancient Egyptian court ever looked as spectacular in reality as it did on the Opera House stage. The costume changes were numerous. The scenery was extremely grand, with many changes. And, beside the lead ballerina and male dancer (is there a male equivalent of “ballerina”?) there were another dozen or so soloists who put on bravura performances at various points in the story.

After that evening of spectacle and treats for the eyes and ears (the Bolshoi orchestra would probably outshine many of the world’s philharmonics or symphony orchestras) it was difficult to go home and go to sleep.

And what a great thing for our landlord to think of -- sincere thanks have gone to him.

Unfortunately, cameras were not permitted in the Opera House, so we have no photos of our own. The ones here are from publicity material.

Hamburg, Germany

2006-08-06T18:13:00.000Z

Hamburg, Germany, from 27 to 30 July -- Chuck was visiting the Hamburg Ship Research Institute and Kathi went along to see some of the sites. We were there during a few days of particularly beautiful weather.

The research institute, like so many of the places Chuck goes to in his work, was fascinating and staffed by very interesting people -- doing interesting research.

The city is one of those heavily bombed during the war, though there is little to make one aware of that now -- it is a bustling city of business, part of the vibrant economy of post-war Germany. The traditional, and still important, heart of the city is its very large and very active port.

Despite the effects of the war, there are still many large and architecturally interesting (and beautiful) buildings in Hamburg. The first picture is of a statue of St. Michael the archangel slaying the devil on the front of the large church bearing his name -- said to be "the most beautiful Lutheran church". We took the opportunity to take a boat tour on the canals and in the harbor and also took a sightseeing bus tour about the town.

Hamburg's waterfront area contains a very large number of 18th and 19th century warehouses -- very large, multifloor buildings which were, in their day, at the heart of Hamburg's wealth. Today, they are no longer used for that function and are slowly becoming offices, restaurants, stores and other attractions. One of these is the Miniature Wonderland, which was very highly recommended to us as a "not to be missed" stop. Of course, we visited it (along with a very large number of other people; it's very popular). It contains an absolutly enormous display of HO scale model railroad track running through dozens of scenes, including locations all over Europe as well as the US. The guidebook informed us that there are 15 kilometers of track (that's 10 miles of model railroad track!); more than 1000 trains; about 1/2 million miniature lights; 250,000 human figures and 250,000 trees. It is operated by 60 computers and is the largest model railroad in the world. A picture of the control center is nearby.

The plaza around our hotel was the site of the Duckstein festival -- an annual street festival sponsored by a German beer. As soon as we went out the hotel door we were in the midst of food stalls serving ethnic foods from all over the world, the typical variety of stalls hawking merchandise, street performers and a stage with musical performances each night. It was all very European and very festive.

A high point of the city's buildings is the Rathaus, the castle-like city hall, more modern than it looks, having been built in 1887 to replace its predecessor destroyed in an 1842 fire. It contains 647 rooms -- more than Buckingham Palace, the guides are quick to point out.

A very moving site (and sight) is the tower of St. Nikolai Church. The church was destroyed in the World War II bombing and it was decided to leave the tower, which had survived, standing as a memorial against war. The very ornate tower, rising from the barren site of the church, is very moving and is visible from much of the city. This, among other things, can be seen in our photos at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1741715

Independence Day

2006-07-16T21:28:00.000Z

Yes, it did seem a bit odd to be celebrating American independence from Britain in a crowd consisting of mostly Brits. But that's what we did on the 4th at the residence of the US Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.

The ambassodor's residence, Winfield House, is located on the edge of Regent's Park, a short walk from our flat. It has the 2nd largest private garden (yard) in London, exceeded only by Buckingham Palace, and, of course, the house itself is very large and beautiful. (It was donated to the US to be used as the ambassador's residence by Betty Hutton, the movie star of the 30s and 40s.)

The guest list was huge with many prominent Brits in attendance -- many we recognized from the BBC and other British television. Entertainment was provided by the quartet G4, which recently finished as runners up in the British TV show X-Factor (similar to the US's American Idol). Their first record went right to number 1 in the UK and they are excellent, with a great mix of classic music, old standards and newer music, too. With their really beautiful harmony, they are especially good when singing a capella.

In the middle of the party, James Brown showed up at the door -- and let it be known he'd like to sing a song or two, which he promptly did. He was in the UK and the embassy had sent him an invitation, but no arrangements had been made for him to be part of the entertainment.

Having Kathi working at the embassy -- and especially in the ambassador's office as she has for the last several months -- does get us some good invitations!

It was a very classy celebration of our independence -- and the Brits present took it all in good form -- in fact, given the present state of British politics and public opinion, many of them may have been happy we left the empire.

Gaudi's Big Project

2006-07-16T21:01:00.000Z

In the post on Barcelona, we mentioned the Art Nouveau/ Modernisme school of architecture that originated in Barcelona and mentioned that Antonio Gaudi was perhaps the best-known practitioner of the form. While he completed a number of high-profile buildings in Barcelona, his major project was not completed before his death in 1926 -- in fact, it remains incomplete to this day, though construction has been continuous since its beginning in 1882 (with the exception of a period of about 4 years during the Spanish Civil War, when some damage was also done.)
This project is the large church of Sagrada Familia -- cathedral-like in size, but not the home of a bishop. It is generally referred to as the Temple of Sagrada Familia and it owes its existence to Gaudi's great personal drive and his lifelong committment to his Catholic faith.

The design is incredibly different and (while some don't like it) we found it very inspiring. The vistas are amazing and to really understand them one would have to spend 10 or 15 minutes taking in each of the many viewpoints the building presents. It takes a while to trace the route of the various structural members which trace unexpected curves through space and meet at unusual angles. The structure is largely devoid of right angles -- but sweeping curves and soaring angles are everywhere.

More pictures of this amazing builiding are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1673524

Superlative Barcelona

2006-07-12T18:03:00.001Z

We need more superlatives. We've just been to Barcelona for four days. What a beautiful, great city. We both loved it -- it might actually be our favorite European city to date. And as you know, if you've followed this blog, we've been lucky enough to get to quite a few of them. Do you get the impression we liked Barcelona a lot? To be fair, our visit to Prague, which so many have told us is their favorite European city, was cut short to less than two days. So we'll just have to return to Prague to give it a fair comparison with Barcelona.

Barcelona, of course, is a famous old port city which played a big role in the age of exploration -- (this is where Columbus appeared before Ferdinand and Isabella on his return from the New World). The fine maritime museum highlights much of this history. And, like so many Old World cities, it has a magnificent cathedral, begun, in this case, in 1289. One of the amazing things about so many of the cathedrals is that they were built so large and so high at a time when little was understood about the forces involved -- the people who built them were motivated by faith in God, but they also had a lot of faith that their creations would stand. The Barcelona cathedral is not as opulent as some others we've seen, but it gives an overpowering sensation of its sheer verticality. It's amazing so many of these buildings stood and are still standing!

Barcelona is the capital of the Spanish province of Catalonia, and there is an active movement to keep the regional Catalan language alive -- in fact signs in many places, including the airport, are trilingual -- in Catalan, English and Spanish (note Spanish is in 3rd place).

In keeping with its long history as a major port for exploration, commerce and naval activity, the city has a large Maritime Museum, housed in what was once a royal shipyard, with a shipbuilding hall that was totally enclosed. Here many galleys, the warships of their day, were built for the Catalonian Navy.

Like so many European cities, Barcelona was once the site of a Roman city, complete with city wall. In the 19th century it became clear the city had to expand outside the wall, most of which was destroyed. The new area of the city, planned by Ildefons Sunyer, the city's civil engineer, is called "Eixample", or "the expansion". A particularly effective inspiration Sunyer had was to lay out the blocks of the area so that all the corners are beveled, as in the drawing. This results in every intersection feeling like a small square, making the city feel very open and light, even where the buildings are large and high -- a very effective city plan.

Our hotel was just off Las Ramblas, said to be the most famous street in Spain, filled at all hours of the day and night with strollers walking its length from Plaza Catalana to the seafront. It is the site of numerous restaurants, cafes, shops, markets and street performers.

Architecture is a subject of unusually high interest in Barcelona. It was the site of an artistic explosion called Modernisme (modernism) in the decades around 1900 and a great deal of the impact of this art form was embodied in architecture. Perhaps the most famous of the Modernisme architects was Anotonio Gaudi -- but he was by no means the first to practice the form nor, necessarily, the best -- just the most successful in getting high-profile commissions. His large church, the temple of Sagrada Familia (of cathedral dimensions) is still under construction many decades after his death and is the subject of a separate article in this blog.

One of the most unusual, but spectacularly beautiful buildings we saw was the Palau de La Musica Catalana. Designed by Liuis Domenech i Montaner, an early practitioner of the architecture of Modernisme. It was built in the incredibly short period of 3 years, from 1905 to 1908. Commissioned (and still owned) by a choral society, it has been designed to showcase choral performances, (rather than orchestral), and is a very pleasing riot of color, tiles, flowers and innovative layouts.

Until recent years the Barcelona waterfront was dominated by brick and stone warehouses dating from past centuries and associated with its role as a powerful seaport city, but the result was a port that was both inaccessible to, and largely unseen by the residents. In the 1980s and 90s the watefront was "opened up", so that it has become one of the jewels of the city, visible, beautiful and heavily used for shopping, boating, dining out and other leisure activities.

We recommend a visit to this vibrant and very beautiful city. To tempt yourself further, visit some photos at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1652351

Scotland Redux

2006-07-12T18:03:00.000Z

Over the recent July 4th weekend we returned to Ayrshire, in the Scottish lowlands, which we had first visited in November of 2005. We met Jane Hepburn (and daughter Caitrina) over a year ago when they stayed with us while visiting London for the Chelsea flower show of 2005. The Hepburns (Jane, husband David and Caitrina) live in the Ayrshire countryside where they operate a country hotel from their beautiful home, Ladyburn. The home was once the "dower house" for the local large landowner's estate. Dower houses were used as the homes of widowed mothers (dowager) of a son after he had inherited the estate -- keeping the mother in the style to which she had become accustomed, while avoiding having two women in the main house when the son brought his wife home. The Hepburns bought the house and about 5 acres of beautiful land, with a fast-running country stream (or "burn" in old Scottish/English) running through it.

Jane is an avid gardener and is especially expert in roses. For several years her garden has been included in an annual "open garden" event organized by a Scottish "garden scheme" to raise funds for charities. The gardens are open to visitors for a fee and usually serve tea (again for a reasonable fee) and sell plants, preserves and crafts. All the proceeds go to worthy causes, and the work is done by a crew of volunteers.

Jane invited us (and American friends, the O'Neils (John and Carol live in Monterey, only 3 miles from us and John worked in the same office as Chuck until last December)) to stay at Ladyburn over the weekend and to help out with the open garden. It was great fun (though a bit of work, too, at times) and it was good to see John and Carol after several months. The garden was beautiful; Chuck helped with car parking and Kathi helped in the kitchen and in a number of other activities.

On the Monday, 3 July, we "had the day off" and used it to explore the southern part of Ayrshire, including the towns of Castle Douglas, Kirkudbright (pronounced Kakoobree) and Gateway of Fleet (yes, that's the town's name). We drove over the nearby moor, with its large numbers of sheep and sweeping vistas -- like the great plains of the US the moors make you feel like the whole world is sky.

We visited Threave Castle on the River Dee. [In the UK it seems all rivers are referred to this way -- River Dee, River Dart, River Clyde, etc. -- rather than Ohio River, Chicago River, Missouri River.] The castle is really a fortified tower built in the late 1300s and located on an island in the river. It's a forbidding-looking place, which seems appropriate when one learns that it was built by a Scottish lord known to history as "Archibald the Grim".

For pictures of the garden opening and Castle Threave, see: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1651614/1

Tate or Tatty?

2006-06-27T18:04:00.000Z

OK, let's admit this right at the outset. Some of us don't care for much of what is called modern art. Go ahead, put us in the Philistine category! We've tried. We've read the art critics. We've looked at the coffee table books. And now we've attended the famous Tate Modern Museum on the banks of the Thames. With few exceptions we don't get it. (If you're a fan, well it's just one of those taste things.)

The Tate Museum itself is quite spectacular -- the building was built as a large electric power plant that was taken out of service some time ago and fully refurbished. The exhibits actually only consume a small fraction of the available space; there are three shops and two restaurants. It's nicely done. Then of course there's the art!

Cameras are not allowed in the building, with the exception of the large (former) turbine hall, so we don't have much photography of the art. But you can see here one of the artistic displays -- the contents of someone's attic spread artfully on the floor. (We loved the technique..... chill, Chuck!)

The most memorable exhibit is a can (Number 4 of a series of 130) of the artist's feces -- labelled, very accurately as the artist's s - - t. Thank goodness he bothered to seal the cans.

Well, enough of this criticism. Let's look at some art we really did appreciate. Look at this one. Just received from our grandson Tyler. We think it's far better than much of what we saw in the Tate Modern. Of course, we might be considered a bit biased. (Did YOU get your "e" right all the time when you were 5?)

Here's another from the same artist. Eat your heart out Jackson Pollock!

And for some even more spectacular art, try this one for size. We call it "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".

Genoa Times Three

2006-06-26T21:05:00.000Z

Genoa, Italy, was the site of a conference I attended from 21 to 24 June. It was my third visit to this ancient Italian city-state, now a prosperous modern city. The subject of the conference was Ship and Shipping Research -- and Genoa, the home city of Christopher Columbus, with its centuries-long seafaring traditions and its great harbor is a natural setting for such activities.

The conference was held in the Palazzo Ducale -- the Duke's Palace, a magnificent building dating from the days of the Genoese Republic, whose construction was undertaken in the 1290s. The plasterwork, gilding and magnificent ceiling and wall frescos of the main salons make a fantastic (if somewhat distracting) venue for the exchange of scholarly ideas and information. (Unfortunately, since I forgot to take the camera with me, this article will not be accompanied by any photographs.)

Day one of the meeting was capped by a beautiful dinner in the old Dominican monastery (no longer active as a monastery) in the nearby waterfront town of Sestri Levante. The dinner paid homage to Genoa's fishing heritage, featuring seafood in several courses. The views from the two large terraces, one facing landward and overlooking the lovely little cove of Sestri and the other looking to the open Mediterannean, were spectacular in the late evening light. What a perfect place to have a glass of crisp Italian white wine -- and what perfect pictures they would have made, if only I had brought the camera!

On the evening of day two, I joined my Italian ship-engineer friend, Natalino Dazzi and a Dutch shipyard engineer who I've also become friends with -- Bob Van de Graaf (and his wife Gea). We took an incredibly beautiful drive over and through the Appenine Mountains (which come nearly to the sea at Genoa, making the city a long, narrow one, hugging the seashore) to a fine local restaurant in the nearby suburb of Recco. With Natalino's expert guidance, we all chose delicious traditional dishes of local Italian favorites and the food was excelled only by the company and conversation.

Day three included a trip, by boat, to the shipyard of the Fincantieri company in Sestri Ponente, an area in the northern part of Genoa, where a massive new cruise ship is nearing completion. The ship, when finished in a few weeks, will take 3500 passengers (served by 1500 crew members) to sea. The ship (the Costa Concordia, of Costa Lines) is truly massive, approaching a US Navy aircraft carrier in size. Experienced ship designer, Chuck, found his jaw dropping repeatedly with each new revelation of how truly large the ship is.

The harbor, where we boarded the boat to the shipyard, is a short walk from the Palazzo site of the conference. The last presentation of the day ended at about 1, and the boat was scheduled to leave at about 2:45. So I found myself walking to the harbor through some of Genoa's medieval, very narrow streets, during the siesta hours -- yet the neighborhood was simultaneously alive and resting. Strains of opera being played on a stereo in a distant flat mingled with the piano musings of someone a bit nearer -- the laundry hanging on the lines strung between windows in adjacent buildings viewed against the bright blue sky -- the smells of Italian cooking coming from the alleyway just passed -- the scene could not have been more Italian or more reminscent of the ancient culture represented by this vibrant city. After the tour, it was another 15 minute walk through this area of twisting, climbing passageways and tiny squares, to my hotel.

Then, on Saturday morning, it was back to London. The only negative aspect of this trip -- and it was a huge negative -- was the fact that Kathi wasn't able to accompany me.

Birds and Bows

2006-06-25T17:49:00.000Z

One of the UK sights we've wanted to see for some time is the rather famous Warwick Castle (which our house guests, the Cains, visited recently). On a beautiful June weekend we took the just-under-two-hours train ride and stayed in the beautiful Ardencote Hotel just outside the town of Warwick.

The castle is one of the best-preserved in the UK and they have done a great job of augmenting the experience with historical re-enactments and displays. One of the most interesting was a display of the use of trained predatory birds, such as hawks, eagles and others. The "show" included an American Bald Eagle, a Scandinavian Fish Eagle (even larger), a vulture and other birds. It was very impressive -- amazing what expert trainers can do. The birds were totally free during the show and, based on hand signals from the trainer, circled, swooped and otherwise wowed the crowd.

Other displays included demonstrations with the English longbow (that proved so devastating to the French at Poitiers and Agincourt) and a re-constructed medieval catapult.

The castle was originally built by William the Conqueror, the Norman king who defeated England in 1066, though some claim the site was originally fortified as long ago as 914 A.D. King William made one of the members of his court the Earl of Warwick and Warwick Castle has been associated with that Earldom ever since. In later centuries, additions turned it into a combination of a great English country home and a Castle and in the late nineteenth century the castle was famous for the weekend country parties hosted by the Earl with guests including members of the royal family, as well as other prominent Britons, including the young Winston Churchill, then a promising junior member of parliament.

The Castle has recently been purchased by Madame Tussaud's -- the wax museum people -- and the things to see include the state and family rooms as they were in the 1890s -- with wax figures of people enjoying the weekend's activities. (For some reason, one of the rooms includes figures of the six wives of Henry VIII and Henry himself -- though these have no particular connection to the castle.)

The hotel we had booked over the internet proved to be extremely nice -- a country resort hotel that is obviously very popular. Some of our pictures will show you the beautiful hotel grounds as well as the castle; visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1579943

Prague

2006-06-18T17:35:00.000Z

Chuck has had a visit to Prague in the works for some time -- since before Christmas -- and, since we had heard wonderful things about that city from everyone we know who has visited it, Kathi decided some time ago that this was one of those trips where she would accompany Chuck. Unfortunately, at the last minute, the plans had to be truncated so that Chuck could return to the office for a "can't-miss" event. Therefore the visit was quite short -- we went on Sunday morning, 11 June, and had to return on Tuesday morning, the 13th.

But our short time in Prague was enough to show us that all those great things we'd been told were true. It is a city filled with interesting things and places and is very, very beautiful. Our hotel was only a 5 or 6 minute walk from the main square, which we visited on Sunday -- going on later to the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River and to the "Lesser Town" on the other side. The incredible Prague Castle, the largest castle/palace in Europe, is on that side of the river, atop a hill that's a great aerobic workout! St. Vitus' cathedral, a great example of the European gothic cathedral, is actually located within the Castle.

Being a bit of a nut about architecture, Chuck was in his element for all of our time walking about this city of thousands of beautiful buildings from many different centuries. (Prague was fortunate enough to make it through World War II with relatively little damage.) Art Noveau buildings are in evidence everywhere, with their classical decorative motifs of heroic statues and the elaborate stonework on the second floor exterior, which is their trademark. And, of course, being the ancient city that it is, Prague also abounds in buildings from the medieval era and even a few from earlier periods. And, classic and neo-classic, baroque and rococo are all well-represented. Very narrow medieval streets, barely wide enough for a single car to pass, run right through the same neighborhoods with tree-lined, leafy boulevards.

For several centuries the Czech people (and Prague) were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its capital, of course, in Vienna. During this period many Czechs harbored a desire to have their own nations. The victorious Allies, at the end of World War I, decided to combine the Czechs with the Slovenians in Czechoslovakia, with Prague now a capital city. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Czechs and Slovenians each decided to establish their own independent nation -- and today's Czech Republic was one of them.

The Czechs have a long history of mechanical and technological competence and it is one of the most highly developed nations in Europe, industrially. The famous Skoda works, which now builds cars (and is owned by VW), was famous in the past for its armaments; and today the Czech Republic has a flourishing chemical industry. Of course, it has always been famous for the fine glasswork that is one of its biggest exports and Czech glass is a very popular tourist purchase.

Our visit included dinner on Sunday night in a rooftop cafe looking out over the main square. Our companions were Jim and Susan DeCorpo (Jim is the Chief Scientist in Chuck's office) and Martin Navratil (our host and the Chairman of a small Czech chemical company) and his wife Milada. They are part-time residents of North Carolina, when not in Prague -- and both their daughters have attended UNC at Chapel Hill. The food was great and the company fascinating.

On Monday, while Jim and Chuck were visiting Martin's company to learn about some new technology, Kathi and Susan did some exploring together, including the beautiful gardens of the Wallenstein Palace. Susan had to depart on Monday to return to London where she was expecting the arrival of houseguests. Monday evening, Kathi, Chuck and Jim dined together at an outdoor cafe just off the square.

It was an interesting time to be at the square -- it was the night the USA played the Czech Republic in the World Cup football (soccer) matches and the game was being televised on two enormous screens to a huge, densely packed crowd of (mostly) Czech fans on the square. Other than the fact that the USA lost 3-0, it was a pleasant experience -- the Czech fans were unfailingly pleasant and they, and the hundreds of Americans present (many on both sides wearing very prominent markings of their soccer loyalties) behaved in a friendly, very civilized way. If the US had won the match, it would have been a perfect evening.

Reluctantly, on Tuesday morning, the three of us returned to London on the same flight so that Jim and Chuck could be at the office by noon for the important event they had to be present for.

We join the hundreds and thousands of others who have sung the praises of Prague and recommend it very highly as a destination to visit. We intend to return for a longer stay at the first opportunity.

Visit http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1563021 for our gallery of Prague photographs.

Museums we DID NOT visit

2006-06-15T19:14:00.000Z

While in Prague, we visited as many sites as we could in 2 days. But there were two we saw advertised and chose to miss:

Happy Birthday, Ma'am

2006-06-15T18:53:00.000Z

Queen Elizabeth was born in April -- but the official monarch's birthday is always in June. (The weather's better for the celebrations.) One of the biggest and most colorful celebrations is the "Trooping of the Color", held at the Horseguard Parade -- a large parade field just behind the Admiralty building and the Horseguard barracks.

It's an elaborate military ceremony, involving all the army units which (on a rotating basis) form the household guard. These are all regular, serving soldiers, who are fully trained for combat, but who also have mastered the art of military ceremony. To give more tourists the chance to see the ceremony, it is repeated on three successive Saturdays.

The first Saturday is called the Major General's Review; the second is the Colonels' Review and the third is the Birthday Parade -- but all three ceremonies are the same. Although, in the case of the Colonel's Review this year (which we attended), the Queen did not take the review -- Prince Charles acted in her place.

The ceremony goes back several centuries and represents an old tradition (what doesn't in the UK)? Each regiment had its own regimental "color" -- or flag -- and it was considered a great disgrace for a unit to lose its flag in battle. The regimental color served as a rallying point for the troops in that regiment during a battle and if the color bearer were killed or wounded someone else always took the color. It was, then, very important that all the soldiers in a regiment know what their regiment's "color" looked like and that they could recognize it in the stress and smoke of battle. So, periodically, the regiment was assembled in ranks and a junior officer (an Ensign* in rank) "trooped the color" -- carrying it slowly down each rank of the regiment so each soldier could get a close look at it.

*Interstingly, an Ensign in centuries past, was a junior infantry officer; today it is the lowest commisioned officer rank in the US Navy (and some others). The national flag flown from a Naval ship is also called an "ensign" or, usually, the "national ensign" in the USN. (In the Royal Navy, the ships fly a distinctive form of the national flag called the "White Ensign" and British merchant ships fly the "Red Ensign". [By the way, from the dictionary: 1 : a flag that is flown (as by a ship) as the symbol of nationality 3 a : an infantry officer of what was formerly the lowest commissioned rank b : a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard ranking above a chief warrant officer and below a lieutenant junior grade.]

We took a number of pictures of the "Trooping the Color" ceremony and they can be seen at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1559020

Istanbul

2006-05-31T19:36:00.000Z

Istanbul is one of the world's fabled cities. It straddles the Bosphorous -- part of the waterway separating Asia from Europe; one of the only (the only?) cities on two continents. As Byzantium and Constantinople and now Istanbul it has been fought over, conquered, been the capital of empires, seen the passing of the Crusades and become a world-class site for business and tourism. It has been the home of great churches, (many of which were made into mosques under the Ottomans), fantastic palaces, a thriving port and the world's largest bazaar.

And we were there!

(Not for the Crusades or conquests -- but in May of 2006.)

On completion of Chuck's business in Ankara we flew to Istanbul (the Asian side) where Chuck spent a day visiting the Turkish Navy Research Center Command to become acquainted with the work being done there and, as usual, to look for opportunities to encourage collaboration in research. Our hotel was a short distance from the waterfront on the Mediterannean and near a very nice upscale neighborhood of modern brand-name stores. Kathi explored the area on foot and did some window shopping until Chuck finished his visit with the Turkish Navy.

Late in the afternoon we crossed by ferry to the European side, which is the well-known world city and tourist attraction. Our hotel was right in the midst of the great attractions -- the
Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sofia were all within a three minute walk. The grand bazaar was about 15 minutes away on foot. The hotel put us in the "cistern room" -- on the bottom floor, slightly below ground, with a unique decorating scheme dominated by a large bathroom designed to look like a classic Roman or Greek bath -- all granite and marble. It had a small patio that joined the hotel's very peaceful and pleasant courtyard -- the site of relaxed breakfasts.

We found that in Istanbul, as in Ankara, the Turks were very friendly -- in fact unusually so. They were cheerful and polite, outgoing and curious about America.

The areas around the big tourist sites are, of course, a magnet for "touts" trying to sell various trinkets or to offer their services as a guide in places where guides were generally not needed. They all had the same method of trying to engage tourists -- their approach was invariably "hello, where you from". At first we answered "California" or "London", which prompted them to tell us how much they loved those places. We soon realized that this only opened the way to a long series of entreaties that it was then hard to bring to an end -- "5 lira each; OK, 2 for 7 lira; OK I give you one for 3 lira, because I like you; OK, just 2 lira; don't break my heart" -- and so on. We finally devised a scheme to beat this -- we decided we would answer that we were from Pascagoula, Mississippi. We figured Turks were unlikely to have ever heard of that (fine) town.

This led to this exchange: "Where you from?" "Pascagoula, Mississippi". "Oh". "You been to Blue Mosque?". "Yes". "You been to Haggia Sofia?" "Yes". "You been to Topkapi Palace?" "Yes". "Why you not been to my store?" Back to the drawing board.

For some pictures of beautiful Istanbul visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1503827/1

Ankara, Turkey

2006-05-29T15:13:00.000Z

In mid-May, Chuck's business took us to Ankara, the capital of Turkey, where he participated in talks between US Defense Department officials and representatives of the Turkish Ministry of National Defense on the subject of Defense cooperation. We arrived on Saturday and had Sunday (and part of Monday) available for sightseeing.

Our first destination was Ankara Castle -- an ancient fortification on the central hill of Ankara. This fort dates from the dawn of recorded history of the area. Over the years, various successive civilizations took possession of the Castle and added to its defenses. Some of the additions to the walls made use of the debris of classic Greek and Roman buildings -- one can see carved stones, many with inscriptions (some upside down), that were used as mere raw material for the walls. You can see some of this in the photos at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1501872

From the Castle it was a short walk down the hill to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. (Anatolia is the Asian part of Turkey -- also referred to as "Asia Minor" in the past.) From reading the Old Testament you may remember the Hittites, the Phrygians and the Assyrians -- and more. These civilizations all existed in Anatolia, which is the site of hundreds of archaeological excavations. This is a museum for a full day, at least -- for anyone interested in ancient history. The exhibits include paleolithic, neolithic, bronze age, iron age and more modern objects. Cuneiform, one of the earliest writing methods, using wedge shaped styli on clay tablets is on display in the form of dozens of those tablets -- which represent warehouse inventories, laundry lists and letters to and from kings. This is a stunning museum -- and all labels and signs are in English as well as Turkish.

This is a shopping mall near our hotel.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a highly successful Army commander in World War I, when Turkey was allied with the Germans -- he defeated the British and French in the Gallipoli campaign. After the war he masterminded two major victories over the Greek army which tried to occupy Turkey in the vacuum left by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In the 1920s his prestige was such that he became the first President of the Republic of Turkey, which he brought into being almost exclusively through the strength of his personality. He transformed Turkey into a modern nation, establishing parliamentary democracy and putting the country (which is 99% Muslim) on a sound secular footing. He also brought about full equality for women and abolished the old style of dress (for both men and women) that was traditional in the Ottoman Empire. (The first female fighter pilot in any air force was a Turkish woman -- in the 1930s!) He also implemented educational and other reforms. As a result, he is revered in Turkey -- occupying a position akin to a combination of Washington, Jefferson and Madison combined. Buildings everywhere are festooned with large photos of him -- and an office without a photo or painting of the man is truly rare. One of his reforms was the "surname act" which required all Turks, who had not previously done so, to have surnames -- parliament gave him the surname of "Ataturk" -- father of the Turks.

He is buried in a very large mausoleum/museum complex in Ankara which we thought was impressive, beautiful and, in the museum portion, very interesting and well-done. There are also pictures of the Ataturk memorial in our photos. There were a number of groups of Turkish teenage students touring the memorial -- and we had a lot of fun with some of them. They were very friendly and unfailingly polite -- and extremely fascinated by anyone who spoke English. We took some pictures with a few of them.

While Chuck was working, Kathi also visited the Museum of Ethnography which, while interesting, did not measure up to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. On Tuesday night we enjoyed a great dinner in the yard of a restaurant with the other eight members of the official delegation Chuck was part of. On completion of the delegation's work on Wednesday, there was a reception with Turkish industry representatives, then we were off to the Ankara airport for a 40 minute flight to Istanbul.

Again, there are Ankara pictures at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1501872

Old Bells, Big Bells, Handbells

2006-05-29T14:03:00.000Z

On May 13th, with about 20 other friends and acquaintances, we visited the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in the heart of London. This is the oldest manufacturing establishment in the UK -- which dates its founding to 1570, though there are references to it as early as 1490.

Some of the famous bells made here include those in St. Paul's Cathedral, the Liberty Bell of Philadelphia and Big Ben -- the largest bell in the tower of the Houses of Parliament. These are all examples of "tower bells", made to be hung and rung in towers of churches or other buildings, and there are thousands of them throughout the world that came from this small foundry, with 25 employees. The bells are still made using traditional methods (this is, after all, England -- and traditions, once started, tend to last forever).

Our guide was the "bell founder"; the "founder" being the person who runs the foundry. He was a member of the fourth generation of his family to run the foundry (which has been in existence for about 30 generations). The traditional process for manufacturing the large bells includes a molding "loam" made of horse manure, goat hair and clay. This mixture is placed in a large iron mold which defines the outside shape of the bell; the loam is scraped out with templates so that its outer surface conforms to the inner surface of the bell. The molten metal (bronze of about 77% copper and 23% tin) is then poured between the iron mold and the loam.

The foundry not only makes the bells, but they also make the entire mechanism to ring them in a tower -- including the wooden wheel attached to the bell frame, which the bell rope goes over, as well as the entire metal supporting structure. In fact, today, they tend to be hired to fully outfit a bell tower, making the entire assembly and sending a team to install, test and tune the whole installation.

They are also a major (there are only three) maker of English handbells for bell choirs. (This was of especial interest to Chuck, who has played in the handbell choirs in three churches for a total of about 9 years.)

Some photos from our tour are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1503802

Did YOU Bring the Camera?

2006-05-07T11:37:00.000Z

We frequently head into the city center on weekends to attend theater or a museum or some other event. Sometimes we just wander the city in an unplanned way -- there's always something interesting going on. There have been many times when we've come across a really stunning site or interesting vista and figuratively kicked ourselves for not having brought the camera. In fact, this has happened so often that about 8 or 9 months ago we made a solemn pact between ourselves to NEVER go out into the town without the camera. And we were good at remembering that for a while. But, as with so many good intentions and resolutions, we have, of late, gotten a bit careless.

Yesterday we went to Leicester Square to get our usual half-price tickets to see the musical "Mack and Mabel". Since we had gotten a late start we took the Underground to Picadilly Circus. As we walked up the steps from the station to street level we were confronted by an enormous mechanical, walking elephant, no more than a few feet from us. You had to be there to be able to appreciate our level of surprise -- the beast was huge, being operated internally by 5 or 6 men and, up on his back carrying a platform with 4 or 5 Indian dancing girls on it. (Kathi pointed out to Chuck that the dancers were topless and he pretended not to have noticed until she told him.) And, you guessed it, WE HADN'T BROUGHT THE CAMERA!!

It was all part of a 4-day "performance art" extravaganza that had not been previously publicized. An 18-foot tall puppet of a little girl was part of the "cast" and you can see her with the elephant in one of the pictures. (Since we hadn't brought our camera, we've had to resort to getting photos from on line.) Note the size of the men operating the girl and the elephant.

We've included a picture of some of the dancing girls, too -- but apparently taken before they came to the "topless" part of the script. (And remember these girls are on a platform ON TOP of the elephant.)

Needless to say, we have re-promised ourselves we will not leave home without the camera again. Here's hoping we're better at it this time.

London Visitors

2006-04-30T16:55:00.000Z

Shortly after our return from Florida and Arizona we were visited in London by friends from Pacific Grove, California -- Jim and Pam Cain and their 6 year old daughter, Olivia.

We met Jim and Pam through our Monterey church, where Pam has long been a faithful member (and fine soprano) in the choir. Pam and her mother, Claire Verduin, (both avid readers; Claire is a former publisher) are also members of our church-based Faith and Fiction book group and we always enjoy their company and their insights. Pam is also very active in supporting a number of Monterey and Pacific Grove public service and charitable organizations and has long been a stalwart supporter of the Pacific Grove library. When Pam is not involved in church activities, she is busy as a financial advisor with a small Monterey firm.

Jim is an air traffic controller for the FAA and based at the Monterey airport. In his spare time he is an avid fan of Triumph (made in England) sports cars. In fact, their visit to the UK, in addition to their 3-day visit with us, included stops at a British auto museum and a day (for Jim) at a local former race course which was hosting a gathering of Triumph afficianados.

The Cains came to us in London directly from a day at Warwick Castle, where Olivia enjoyed the medieval re-enactments, including catapult firings. While in London, they took an extensive tour by bus of the city -- followed by several miles of walking to numerous central-London sites. Kathi and Chuck went with Pam and Olivia (while Jim was "Triumphing" at the race course) to the British Library, (second visit for the Calvanos), and its fantastic collection of ancient and rare volumes and other artifacts.

While the Cains were here, Olivia became our chief assistant in the kitchen. The pictures show Olivia in action and the Cain family.

Visit with Family

2006-04-30T16:18:00.000Z

We had a chance to visit with family back in the States recently, and it was very welcome. Kathi flew to Jacksonville, FL, to visit with Karissa and Dante on 5 April and Chuck joined them on the 7th. On Sunday the 9th we both flew to Phoenix and were joined by Jill who had flown in from San Diego. For the next few days we visited with Chuck's Mom and with Julie and Justin and our grandson (now 5), Tyler.

Karissa and Dante recently moved into a very nice townhouse in a new development in Jacksonville. The 3-bedroom unit is located on a small man-made lake that's part of the development. We had (a Karissa-prepared) dinner at their house on Friday night (very nice, Karissa) and on Saturday morning went to see coach Dante's soccer team in action. The kids are about 6 to 8 years in age and Dante's goal is for them to have a good time and to learn to love soccer. He and the other coaches (and parents) seem to be in accord that winning is distinctly less important -- good for them. (And for Dante's coaching career as the score was quite one-sided against his kids!) After the game we drove over to St. Augustine and spent the day there, visiting all the historic sites and buildings. Then on Sunday morning Kathi and Chuck left for Phoenix.

While in Arizona we were able to see, several times, Julie and Justin's 5-bedroom home in a new development in rapidly-growing Surprise -- a suburb of Phoenix. Their house, complete with pool, is quite nice (bigger than anything Kathi and Chuck have ever owned) and should serve their needs for a good long time. Julie seems to be genuinely enjoying the decorating process.

We visited Tyler's school, where he is learning rapidly and doing well -- he took us through an exercise he has learned about decimal places, distinguishing between units, tens, hundreds and thousands. His teacher, "Miss Jill", was very nice. We had a chance to visit Julie at her law-firm's office in a high rise in downtown -- lovely setting and very nice offices -- and had a chance to see the Mazda dealership where, in one year, Justin has become the senior (and most prolific) salesperson.

Kathi and Chuck, as well as Jill, stayed with Chuck's Mom, who continues to enjoy her independence in her Phoenix home where she's lived since 1978. We accompanied her on one of her weekly bingo outings (Chuck won the first game for $25 and Kathi won the last for $79 -- not quite enough to pay off our mortgage, but fun nonetheless.) On several of the evenings, the four of us played Pinochle, a new pursuit for Jill, who left us all highly impressed with how quickly she learned the game. The series of about 10 games over several days (Mom and Kathi vs. Chuck and Jill) ended up in a draw. Way to go Jill!

Jill, Kathi and Chuck drove to Sedona, Arizona on Jill's last day in Phoenix and enjoyed the beautiful desert and mountain scenery. On Friday, Jill left for San Diego, on Saturday Kathi left for London and on Sunday Chuck flew to a short stop in Washington before going on to London.

Chuck and Kathi were very happy that things worked out so they could see Chuck's Mom, all three girls, their husbands and Tyler.

The pictures show Chuck's Mom in the family room of Julie and Justin's new home, Chuck helping Tyler assemble a dinosaur model in Chuck's Mom's dining room and a typical Sedona view.

Local Views

2006-04-25T17:11:00.000Z

The address of our flat is 199 Clarence Gate Gardens (on Glentworth Street) in London. We've not taken a picture of the building, but recently received a post card from an "estate agent" (realtor) seeking listings in the building and we decided to use that to give you an idea of what the building we live in looks like. (The photo is actually of a different one of the 9 identical building fronts.)

We're just a short block from the Baker Street tube station, with 5 different lines of the London Underground serving it -- and Baker Street and Marylebone Road (only 2 blocks away) between them have about 15 bus routes on them. So we are very well located for getting around London by tube or bus.

In keeping with the theme of convenient location, the church we attend, St. Cyprian's, is just across the street from our front door. As is the normal situation in the UK, the church is part of the Church of England, though it is a traditional member church of the Oxford Movement, which means it is very traditional in its liturgy. In fact, in many ways it feels like a Catholic Church of the 1950s.

The picture shows the interior, which is very well known in the UK and among fans of church architecture. In fact, it is generally said to be the most beautiful church built in London in the 20th century -- having been built in 1905. The altar screen especially, is very striking, as the photo shows.

London Theater Update

2006-04-22T17:43:00.000Z

Some of our most recent theater outings have included these shows:

“Embers” starred Jeremy Irons in a tour-de-force performance. There were only three characters in the play and the other two, no doubt, had no problem learning their parts as Irons spoke at least 95% of the time he was on stage – and he was on stage for the entire show. While he was excellent and is certainly a very able actor, the near-monologue became a bit dense and somewhat hard to stay involved with. Yet one had to admire the star’s performance.

“Night of the Iquana” starred Woody Harrelson, not a family favorite with either of us – but he gave a very fine performance. Overall, the show was definitely in our “very good” category. The newest musical put on at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Palace Theater is a revival of “Whistle Down the Wind”. It was a riveting and intellectually stimulating show that we liked much more than we expected to. (The popular song “No Matter What” was a major hit a few years ago for “Boyzone”.)

Two shows we found disappointing were “Fame”, a musical based on the movie and which has been playing for years in London; and “Movin’ Out”, the new review-style musical with songs by Billy Joel and choreography by Twyla Tharp. “Fame” was extremely loud and, we thought, unnecessarily raunchy; “Movin’ Out”, as a review, just became repetitious. Though the dancing was fantastic and we both like Billy Joel’s music, a steady stream of production numbers, with absolutely no dialogue or story, can actually begin to get boring.

By far the best of our recent theater events was “Sinatra Live at the Palladium”. Of course Frank has been dead for a number of years now, but this highly inventive, very hi-tech show, made him seem to be right there. It made major use of computer technology, digital editing of films and photos and very inventive staging to make the whole experience feel like “Ol’ Blue Eyes” was really with us. A live orchestra (on stage) and a great chorus of dancers were very effectively combined with multiple, ever-changing screens depicting Frank in live performances on film. The video was edited to remove the bands that were originally in the background, allowing the live band to substitute for them. There were some spectacular visual effects where a film of Frank singing was combined with a still photo of, for instance, Ava Gardner, reclining on a chaise lounge. As Frank moved in the film, his apparent shadow moved, receded and came closer, just as it really would, on the backdrop of Ava’s photo. You could have sworn they were actually in the same room. The pinnacle of the computer video effects came when he appeared to walk off the stage, walking behind Ava, while still remaining in front of the room’s back wall – even though the room was part of a 2-D still photo. Computer magic, show business pizzaz and great songs -- all-in-all a fantastic, “fantasy-intense” show.

Our enchantment with London theater continues. Stay tuned for future updates.

A Departure from the Norm

2006-03-27T20:35:00.000Z

When someone in Kathi’s women’s group, the Officers’ Wives of London (OWLs), proposed an evening out at a local London gentlemen’s club, Chuck’s eyebrows definitely went up. And some people even noted that there was an unusual twinkle in his eye. That is, until he got the details, and learned that the gentlemen’s club was actually the National Liberal Club. Now, anyone who knows Chuck must be able to envision that the unusual twinkle in his eye quickly vanished. However, being an avid history buff, he was keenly aware of the opportunity that was about to present itself. So he steeled himself, and armed with the company and moral support of four other couples, most of whom were friends, he agreed to attend for drinks and dinner.

The National Liberal Club was established by William Gladstone (Prime Minister 1868-1894) in 1882 for the purpose of providing club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners. The club's impressive neo-gothic building on the Thames Embankment is one of the largest clubhouses ever built, and was not completed until 1887. Its facilities include a dining room, a bar, function rooms, a billiards room, a smoking room and reading room, as well as an outdoor riverside terrace overlooking the London Eye. It is located close to both the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square.

In its late nineteenth century heyday, its membership was primarily political, but had a strong journalistic and even bohemian character. Members were known to finish an evening's dining by diving into the Thames. Thankfully, after our delicious meals, the only sort of liquid refreshment that seemed to interest us was coffee.

In the early 1980s, the club sold off its second-floor bedrooms and the function rooms on the third floor and basement (including two vast ballrooms and the Gladstone Library) to create the adjoining Royal Horseguards Hotel, which is approached from a different entrance. The sale ensured that the club's financial future was secure, and the remaining part of the club, mainly on the ground and first floors of the vast building, remains one of the largest clubhouses in the world. Originally built for 6,000 members, it still provides facilities for around 2,000.

The club's recent restoration, an influx of newer members, a crowded social calendar, and the recent revival of the Liberal Democrats, have all contributed to once again making it one of London's more active clubs. Notable members have included Sir Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw.

The NLC is a members' club, with membership requiring nomination by an existing member, and a waiting period of several months. Members are either Political Members, who sign a declaration that they are a Liberal in their politics, or Non-Political Members, who sign a declaration that they shall not use the club's facilities for anything 'contrary to the cause of liberalism.' (Our host was a Non-Political Member.) A stringent dress code is still strictly enforced and gentlemen must wear a jacket and tie at all times, with female members maintaining a similar level of formality. While all of the gentlemen in our group conformed to the dress code by wearing a jacket and tie, one of them did sport his Republican Elephant tie. Chuck was sure it was a divine sign of forgiveness.

Americans in Paris in London

2006-03-04T18:22:00.000Z

One of the delights of living in London, as we've mentioned before, is the rich variety of great museums and galleries in the city. And one of the greatest of those is the National Gallery -- the nation's premier art museum. We visit it regularly, taking in a bit at a time.
The Gallery is now showing an exhibition, "Americans in Paris 1860-1900". How could we resist? It's fantastic, including works by artists we knew, such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and James Whistler.

[This is the portrait of Carolus-Duran by Sargent]

But, of course, there were some we knew nothing of (though some of you may be familiar with their work). Overall, the exhibition was fascinating -- the
accompanying descriptive materials were very educational and it was delightful to see the way these American painters, attracted to the Paris of the day, learned from the Impressionists, then became part of the movement, then brought their talents home and created a distinctly American Impressionism.

[The Cup of Tea, Mary Cassatt]

[Symphony in White No. 1, the White Girl, Whistler]

[Eleanor, Frank Weston Benson]

[Portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau, John Singer Sargent]

[Self Portrait, Ellen Day Hale]

Three Weeks Down Under

2006-02-20T15:02:00.000Z

We returned recently from 3 weeks in Australia – two weeks of business for Chuck and a week of “holiday” at the end. By the way, it’s a LONG way to go! We left London at about noon on Friday, 27 January, and landed in Sydney at about 7:00 p.m. on Saturday the 28th – with a 2 hour stop in Singapore along the way, to refuel the plane. Sydney is 11 hours ahead of London – so the total travel time was about 20 hours. But it was worth it.

We were in Sydney for a total of 7 days – a free day on Sunday, followed by a 5 day series of conferences, exhibits and meetings (for Chuck) during the week. On the following Sunday, 5 February, we flew on to Melbourne where we stayed for 2 days and nights. Chuck had meetings there with researchers from the Australian Defence (British spelling) Science and Technology Organization and the Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Composite Structures (go ahead, say it fast five times). While in Sydney we were with several of Chuck’s colleagues and several spouses. We traveled to Melbourne with Jim and Susan DeCorpo – who we were with last summer in Greece.

From Melbourne it was off to two days in Canberra. Chuck’s business here was with the University of New South Wales as well as the Australian Defence Forces Academy. Then it was on to Brisbane for further meetings – and a reunion with the DeCorpos.

Our vacation time started with a flight to Cairns, in northern Queensland. (It takes a while to get used to the idea that traveling north in “Oz” means getting warmer; and, of course, February in Australia is akin to August in the northern hemisphere.) Cairns is a very popular tourist destination, though we were there after the end of the high season; it is on the coast, with the Great Barrier Reef just offshore and a “wet tropic” rainforest a few miles north of the city. Both of these are UN World Heritage Sites and it is the only place in the world where two World Heritage Sites actually meet, as the reef and rainforest do at the coast just north of the city. Naturally, while there we visited the Reef for a day and took a day-long trip into the rainforest. We also spent a day exploring the “tablelands” just the other side of a small mountain range behind the city and one evening at an aborigine culture center where we saw demonstrations of their rituals.

All in all, we both liked Australia very much -- all five cities we visited were interesting (well, Canberra, being a planned city, was a little less fun than the others). We commented frequently on how clean and modern everything was -- the people were very friendly everywhere. It is a country on the move -- with a land area almost exactly the same as the U.S., but with only 20 million people. The largely-desert "outback", comprising most of the country, imparts a frontier-like feeling, probably much like that of 19th century America. We most definitely would like to return.

Other articles give more details about each of these stops along the way. For a picture or two from each city, see: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1218206/1/57005033

Australia's First City

2006-02-19T17:46:00.000Z

Sydney is Australia’s largest city and was our point of entry and exit. The feeling in the center of the city is vibrant, modern, busy – it’s a city where business gets done. The harbor is glorious. I’ve always thought San Francisco had the most beautiful setting imaginable for a city – but I have to admit I think Sydney has it beat – at least from the water. Of course, the iconic Sydney bridge dominates the view, with the famous white Sydney Opera House only slightly less prominent. Both are beautiful achievements of engineering and architecture. Susan DeCorpo and Kathi, in one of their long treks, walked both ways across the bridge – though they did it at roadway level, not at the top of the arch (which one can do for about $180.00 Australian).

The waterfront, which is made up of the shorelines of several small bays, is lined with upscale apartment buildings, numerous (did I say a lot of them?) restaurants and attractions such as the aquarium and National Maritime Museum. The presence of a massive white cruise ship or two completes the effect – and the whole is punctuated with various structures from the colonial era (stone fortresses, the governor’s massive house on a prominent point and others). The harbor cruise is very much worth doing and is a good way to get acquainted with the city at the beginning of a visit. To continue the acquainting process we rode the city sightseeing bus – also something very worth doing.

The busy waterfront/harbor complex includes numerous ferries to the various Sydney suburbs and nearby cities. We rode one to Manly, just north of the city and situated on the coast near the entrance to Sydney harbor. (Manly received its name because it was where Europeans first saw some of the native aborigine peoples – and the then-governor wrote that they had a “manly” appearance. The name stuck, though now it’s a small city in its own right, with a beautiful beach.) The other “must-visit” beach in Sydney is Bondi Beach, whose name rhymes with “bonzai” – I can’t think of any other word to rhyme it with – which Kathi and Susan enjoyed for an afternoon.

We had some fabulous seafood at one of the city’s well-known seafood restaurants (on the waterfront, of course) and had a great dinner for about 12 of us at Don Quixote’s Spanish restaurant. And, of course, we didn’t ignore the educational/cultural side of things (would we ever?). The Australian National Museum was two blocks from our hotel with a wide variety of exhibits and a very notable collection of minerals, emblematic of Australia’s rich mining history. The National Maritime Museum is very well done, with a large section devoted to the US Navy in World War II. (The Australians are very aware that for most of World War II they depended on the USN to blunt the Japanese offensives that were moving in their direction.)

The city has its full share of beautiful parks – one right across the street from our hotel, (named Hyde Park after the London park near our London flat) containing the ANZAC memorial. The name, as you may know, goes back to the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps raised during World War I. As we learned later, at the War Memorial in Canberra, most Australian historians consider ANZAC to be the beginning of an awareness of an Australian national identity. In any case, throughout Australia there are ANZAC Drives, ANZAC Streets, ANZAC Parks and ANZAC Squares. The ladies paid a pleasant visit to the Chinese Gardens near Sydney’s China Town and adjacent to the large, modern convention center where those of us who were on business spent the workdays. We were struck by the numerous place names borrowed from London – in addition to Hyde Park, there are Oxford Street, Leicester Square and others.

For some pictures of Sydney go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1218888/1/57041063

Where's the Fat Lady?

2006-02-18T18:59:00.000Z

It may be true that the opera's not over until the fat lady sings. But we're sure the opera we saw ended -- and we never saw her.

While in Sydney we attended a performance of
Madame Butterfly -- the first opera for either of
us. While the opera itself is definitely a heartbreaker, it was exciting to be seeing our first opera -- and much of the enjoyment was the fact that we were seeing it in the wonderful Sydney Opera House.

Kathi and some of the ladies with us toured the building the day before the opera and got to see much more of its inner workings. We've all seen pictures of the sail-like roofs of this landmark building which so beautifully adds to the splendor of the Sydney harbor. But actually getting up close -- and going inside the great building -- was a high point for us. The building is truly inspiring.

Enjoy more pictures at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1221479

Melbourne

2006-02-17T20:15:00.000Z

From Sydney it was off to two days in Melbourne, where Jim DeCorpo and Chuck had two sets of meetings.

There's a store here that claims to have the best ice cream in the world -- so we just had to check to see if their claim could be verified. In fact, we had to check it twice -- just to be sure. We decided we haven't tried enough different ice creams to be able to confirm it is the WORLD's best -- so we'll have to keep on tasting.

Melbourne has, over the years, become the new home to large numbers of immigrants. In fact it claims to have a larger Greek community than most Greek cities. So we had a great Greek dinner here. (Hmmm..... is there a "food theme" developing here?)

On the second day, while the guys were working, Kathi and Susan DeCorpo visited the immigration museum -- first time we'd seen one of those. They found it very interesting and worthwhile. The ladies also visited "Captain Cook's cottage", which purports to be the cottage the great explorer lived in in England, moved piece by piece to Australia.

The city has a great National Arts Center (or, Centre), including a very large, modern theater. We were able to get last-minute tickets to the musical "Dusty", based on the life of singer Dusty Springfield. Good show -- followed by a fine Italian dinner overlooking the river. (There's that food thing again!) While eating on the terrace of the restaurant we were entertained with a great fireworks display over the river -- we never did learn what the occasion was that called for fireworks. We decided to interpret it as a welcome display for us.

Then it was off to Canberra for the Calvanos and to Brisbane for the DeCorpos.

Some pictures of Melbourne are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1223952/1/57315702

Canberra

2006-02-16T20:38:00.000Z

Canberra, Australia's capital, is a planned city -- and like Washington is not in one of Australia's states but is contained in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), analogous to the District of Columbia. It is a city of sweeping views and wide, straight streets, planned to showcase the large government buildings. Of course, there are residential areas, too, though we didn't get the chance to see much of them.

One of the most popular attractions is the Australian War Memorial -- a very well-done museum that, surprisingly, probably exceeds in the quality of its displays even Britain's Imperial War Museum. We spent a foot-wearying afternoon there.

While Chuck was at meetings the next day, Kathi visited the National Art Gallery.

While Canberra is modern, clean and attractive, it must be said that it's a bit sterile -- as planned cities tend to be, at least until they attain a certain age as Washington had by now. If you visit Canberra it should be for monuments, the Australian National University or government-related things -- don't go for the social scene.

To see a few pictures of Canberra, go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1230316

Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast

2006-02-15T17:37:00.000Z

We are in agreement that, of the five cities we visited in Australia, Brisbane would be our first choice of a place to live. It's a modern, rapidly-growing city that benefits mightily from the Brisbane River running through it. The city operates a fleet of fast catamaran ferries on the river that are very cheap and run often -- so that it's entirely possible to commute by ferry (if one lives anywhere near the river and works downtown) and to use the ferries to go to a favorite restaurant or to a theater. What a nice feature for a city.

As we've done in many other cities, we took a city sightseeing bus as a way to get the "lay of the land" -- to understand where prime attractions or major parts of the city are located and how things are related. We also walked a good bit of the downtown area (some of it with the DeCorpos), including the Queen Street Mall, a multi-block, all-pedestrian shopping area on Queen Street. We found ourselves returning repeatedly to the riverfront, with its beautiful walks and fantastic restaurants by the dozens as well as vibrant night life.

Brisbane is in the state of Queensland and is the home of the Queensland Art Gallery, also one of our stops. While the gallery's collection is not as large as many we've seen, the art is interesting and the building beautiful.

Overall, there were some elements that reminded us of Monterey -- while Brisbane is larger, it still has a small city feel similar to Monterey's and yet possesses an elegant sophistication; and, like Monterey, has an incredible number of great restaurants for its size -- and, of course, a beautiful waterfront.

The coastal area just north of Brisbane is called the Sunshine Coast and we took a bit of a drive along this stretch -- going as far north as the very popular resort town of Noosa Heads (named for the two headlands that bound the beautiful beach). We stopped on the way for a visit to Underwater World, a surprisingly good aquarium, with a seal/sea lion show and a glass tunnel through the large tanks, where the fish swim all around the visitors.

See some of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1228523/1/57546395

Signs of Australia

2006-02-14T19:49:00.000Z

During our time in Australia we saw a few unusual signs.

Remember, this is a country almost exactly the same size as the 48 contiguous United States, but with only 20 million people (as opposed to the 290 million or so in the US). As a result, nature seems a bit more ever-present -- and nature also often means dangerous cirumstances.

Some of these signs reflect that reality: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1230316

Queens, a Male Dancer and a "Queen"?

2005-12-29T21:10:00.000Z

If you're one of our regular visitors, you know we are frequent audience members in London's great theaters. Our three most recent theatrical outings have all been really fine.

The first was "Mary Stuart", by Schiller, based on the conflict between Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I -- both members of the Stuart family. The play is a drama (historical, of course) and is wonderfully acted and written. We rated it one of the 2 or 3 best we've seen in the 43 shows we've seen in our 18 months here.

As one of Kathi's birthday presents from Chuck, we saw the stage version of "Billy Elliot". (It was a movie a few years ago, which we saw during our last UK adventure in 2000, and which we enjoyed a good bit.) It's the story of the young son of a dirt-poor miner in northern England who is attracted to dance (not the boxing lessons his Dad thinks he's paying for) and, ultimately, wins a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School. The stage version's music is by (Sir) Elton John and is a very well-done musical. Another we rated near the very top of our theatergoing experience.

And, most recently, as one of Chuck's Christmas gifts, we saw "The History Boys" at the National Theater. This drama takes place at a boy's high school in England in the 1980s -- primarily dealing with their interaction with their history professor, of course. It's by Alan Bennet -- fantastically inventive and extremely well-written (starting to sound like a broken record?) with a fair amount of comedy thrown in. It's supposedly to open soon on Broadway and is worth a look -- though be prepared for adult situations, including some very candid homosexuality, and some strong language. (Chuck said he'd never have let one of our daughters see it -- though he might relent when they're over 40.)

One of our favorite parts of living in London is the "theater scene". We plan to continue to be active patrons.

Christmas in Palma de Mallorca

2005-12-29T20:24:00.000Z

Having spent last Christmas in London, and remembering how incredibly quiet and seemingly deserted the city was, we decided to go someplace a bit warmer and spend a few days enjoying new sights. Chuck had been to Palma a number of times while serving aboard destroyers which made port calls there, and he remembered thinking it was very nice. So that became our Christmas destination.

We left London on Christmas Eve morning, making the 2 hour flight from London's Heathrow airport. One of our first surprises at Palma (actually Palma de Mallorca -- the city of Palma on the Island of Mallorca -- one of the Baleric Islands in the Mediterannean off the coast of Spain) was the enormous size (and modernity) of the airport. We later understood that, while Palma is a city of only about 300,000 permanent residents, the islands are a major tourist attraction during the summer season, hosting several million visitors. The airport has been built to handle that seasonal horde.

We rented a car at the airport and drove to the very beautiful Nixe Palace hotel on the Western end of the Palma waterfront. The pictures referred to below show some of the views from the balcony of our room. We enjoyed several very good meals in the hotel's restaurant during our stay.

Palma has an unusual cathedral -- very large (very high and much wider than many we've been to, though not as long). But most of the cathedrals we've seen combine large scale with a beautiful sense of lightness in their amazing stonework. Palma's, though, just seems massive; and, frankly, less beautiful than most others. We visited the cathedral on Christmas Day while non-stop Masses were in progress and, of course, did not take any pictures inside. We spent most of the rest of Christmas wandering the downtown historic area of the city.

On the 26th we ventured out into the countryside to be surprised by how large the island of Mallorca seems and what wild scenery it has. There are many beautiful valleys between surprisingly rugged mountains; and an array of towns on beautiful coves all along the seacoast. Again, you can see some of our photos at the web site referred to below. We spent the morning and early afternoon of a rainy 27th on the Palma waterfront and again in the historic area, where we spent some time out of the rain in a very attractive coffee shop. Then, that afternoon, back to the airport and back home, where we arrived early that evening.

Palma and Mallorca are very attractive and we would certainly recommend them if you were looking for such a site to visit. To see some of our pictures of this visit, go to:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1075148

London Christmas Lights

2005-12-29T19:56:00.000Z

As we did last year, we took a walking tour of much of Central London to look at the Christmas windows of the various stores as well as the street holiday lighting. Thankfully, when we did it this year (on the 22nd) it was much warmer than the freezing weather we had on our Christmas Eve foray last year.

As we did last year, we started with the windows at Harrod's, the famous, VERY up-scale store whose Christmas windows are lengendary. Last year's, while having nothing to do with the purpose or spirit of Christmas, were at least very beautiful. This year's, in our view, were very disappointing -- as usual, they did not reflect the Christmas story, but they were also not very pretty or impressive. Oh, well -- no one hits a home run every time.

The famous food-specialty store, Fortnum and Mason, had some very interesting windows this year -- in the form of scenes from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", with Scrooge acting out various parts of the story.

As was also the case last year, our companions were David and Leora Comis (David is the Commanding Officer of ONR Global). This annual tour was actually Leora's idea last year, based on her New York family's tradition of visiting the lights of Manhattan at Christmas. We also introduced a new wrinkle this year by stopping part way through the walk to have dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant -- Kathi thought that was a big improvement.

If you'd like to see a few more pictures of the London scene, go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1077747

Is it Something in the Face(s)?

2005-12-11T21:41:00.000Z

We don't understand it. It must be something in one of our faces. No, that can't be it, because it happens to us both. Must be something in BOTH our faces! It started our very first week in London and it continues to this day. It's an almost expected experience every time we go walking anywhere in London. Don't people know we're still somewhat new here ourselves?

Then why do they, with such amazing regularity, stop us to ask directions? They ask us where specific streets are; where tourist attractions are; where Underground stations are. This started the very first weekend we were free to walk in the West End, explorers ourselves. But even then, when we'd only been in this city for a few days, someone asked us for directions. And, as we said, it hasn't ever stopped. It happens when we're together; and it happens to us individually when we are alone. (Alas, little do any of them know that Kathi is "navigationally impaired" and not a good source for directions.)

We wondered, at first, if we looked like typical Londoners. But after 17 months here we are convinced there is NO ONE here who looks like a typical Londoner. In fact, in this most cosmopolitan of cities, there is NO typical Londoner.

So, it must be something else in our faces. But what???

Sparkling Show

2005-12-11T21:03:00.000Z

On December 10th we attended a Christmas Celebration at Albert Hall with American friends Nick and Lee Baker, who are living near Bath while Nick is working in England. The show featured the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, joined by two choirs -- the Farnham Youth Choir and The Gentlemen of St. John's (from St. John's College, Cambridge University). The performance was conducted by John Rutter, well-known choral composer and conductor -- and it was spectacular -- in fact SPARKLING.

A major pleasure of attending any performance at Albert Hall is the venue itself. The Hall, built while Victoria was Queen and named for her beloved Prince Albert, saw its first performance in 1871. It was recently renovated and is once again spectacularly beautiful inside as well as out -- with the acoustics made even better by modern science.

The Hall is the home of many fine entertainments including, of course, the Royal Philharmonic, ballets, popular entertainments and even the occasional notable sporting event. One of the most heavily attended events there
(and one of the hardest-to-get tickets in the UK) is the annual Remembrance Ceremony honoring British war dead. (A scene from this ceremony is shown at the left.)

The show we attended included a joyful mix of orchestral and choral numbers. The youth choir, made up of kids from 12 to 17 and winner of many prizes, was unbelievably sophisticated. The men from Cambridge were a delight -- very rich singing, but combined with an easygoing and engaging style. The Philharmonic, it goes without saying, was absolutely first rate, and ended the show with two modern carols written by conductor Rutter.

It is a spine-tingling experience to stand in this large, beautiful oval-shaped hall and sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" (and a few other traditional carols) with a full orchestra, organ, two choirs and 5000 other audience members. A fantastic and memorable afternoon for sure!

On the Rock

2005-12-03T13:01:00.000Z

We took a weekend break over the Thanksgiving weekend by flying to Gibraltar, site of the famous "Rock" and gateway to (and from) the Mediterannean. It's been a British territory for over 300 years and the source of recent tensions between the UK and Spain (who would like the British to leave).

We all know the rock from the famous Prudential Insurance ads and it has long been an important fortress and naval base. Chuck paid a number of port calls there during his sea-going days and was looking forward to seeing it again. But, as is the case in so many places, the changes since the late 1960s have been enormous.

The Rock, itself, is honeycombed with tunnels for fortifications and gun emplacements dating back to the "great seige" when the British garrison was beseiged by a combined French and Spanish force for 3 years, starting in 1779. It's not hard to understand, when looking up at the numerous gun ports why the attacks never worked. More recently, during World War II, the rock was the site of additional tunneling, producing the much larger tunnels that served as the place where Eisenhower and his staff planned the invasion of North Africa and which also served as a bomb-proof logistics base.

There is only a small amount of relatively level land at the foot of the rock on which to build -- and recent growth has taken the form of additional land-fill. Because of the scarcity of land, Gibraltar is now the site of numerous high-rise apartment buildings (which were the chief surprise to Chuck, who remembered "the Rock" before all this growth). The population is, by blood, largely Spanish, but there is a major community of British-descended Gibraltarians as well. Because of all the battles, seiges and military and naval campaigns in which the Rock figured prominently the entire area is heavily populated with walls, revetments and casemates as well as countless monuments.

Being located on the Straits of Gibraltar, the Rock is only 9 miles from Africa -- the shores of Morocco to be specific. While there we took a day-trip to the Moroccan city of Tangier, which included a short bus trip to a second Moroccan city, Tetuan, where we lunched. While in Tangier we visited the legendary souk, or market, with an incredible array of items for sale and got an interesting introduction to the making of fine rugs. Our Moroccan guide tried very hard to convince us that religious tolerance prevails in this constitutional monarchy, though it is difficult to tell since over 98% of the population is Islamic and Jews and Christians are extremely small minorities.

To see some photos from our visits to Gibraltar and to Morocco, click here:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1006754

Scottish Weekend

2005-11-15T19:53:00.000Z

We spent the Veterans' Day weekend visiting new friends near Ayr in Scotland. The Hepburns (whom we met through a colleague of Chuck's) own a beautiful country hotel (Ladyburn) about 10 miles from Ayr. On Friday night we attended, with the Hepburns, the Remembrance celebration held in the Ayr town hall -- a smaller version of the UK national Remembrance celebration held in Albert Hall in London. (Remembrance Day is the UK's version of Veteran's Day.) The ceremony was moving and the bands, choruses and other music were enjoyable and stirring.

Before the ceremony we were invited to join a group of the Hepburns' friends -- all the men (including David Hepburn) being retired British Army officers or currently officers in the Territorial Army (the Reserves). It was a very congenial and friendly group -- and Chuck enjoyed being the only "blue suiter" in the group.

On Saturday we enjoyed a tour of the local area around Maybole -- the nearest town to Ladyburn. Just driving through the beautiful Scottish countryside was a treat. This area is "Robert Burns Country" and we visited his birthplace and the associated museum in the town of Alloway. (One of the local rivers is the River Doon -- and we were surprised to learn that Burns, in his story "Tam-O-Shanter" referred to a bridge over that river - the "brig' a Doon", the source of the name of the famous musical and movie.)

A few photos from the weekend are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/969815/1/44668557

Denmark and the Netherlands

2005-11-13T15:53:00.000Z

Chuck recently made two trips on business to the continent. The first was from 24 to 26 October to a research institute in Denmark, in a suburb of Copenhagen. This came about as a result of an invitation by a member of the institute who had attended an earlier workshop in which Chuck participated in Genoa. Also along on the visit were one of the program managers from the Office of Naval Research and a professor-researcher from the Univesity of Iowa.

The second trip was a few days later, from 31 October to 3 November to the Netherlands. This one consisted of 3 one-day visits. The first was to a research organization that specializes in the "human factors" of defense systems; how the machine-person interface can be made better and how the system can be designed to minimize demands, and the resulting stress, on people. The second day was devoted to a seminar on high speed patrol vessels. A visit to a Dutch shipyard that specializes in ships for the Dutch Navy rounded out this visit.

Diplomacy in Action

2005-10-20T19:34:00.000Z

As we have mentioned before, occasionally we reap a nice treat or two from the fact that Kathi works at the Embassy. Recently, the new American Ambassador (Robert Tuttle) presented his credentials to Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The presentation of credentials is a significant event in most countries and is usually accompanied by some solemnity, but in London, it is something special and, of course, surrouned by tradition.

As part of the ceremony, the Marshall of the Diplomatic Corps, presently Sir Anthony Figgis,
was driven to the embassy in a state carriage to take Ambassador and Mrs. Tuttle to Buckingham Palace. All Embassy personnel and family members were invited to gather on the front steps of the chancery to greet the Marshall upon his arrival, and then bid goodbye to the Marshall and the Ambassador and Mrs. Tuttle as they departed the Embassy for Buckingham Palace.

About an hour later, the staff was invited to return to the front of the Embassy to greet the party upon its return from Buckingham Palace.

One of the traditons associated with this ceremony is for the Ambassador, as a show of gratitude for the ride, to feed the carriage horses when they return him to the embassy. And, of course, Ambassador Tuttle did just that, using a combination of carrots and apples. The horses, presumably having enjoyed the snack, then returned to their stables with their red-coated drivers and footmen.

The top photo shows the closed carriage arrivng at the embassy. In the middle one, the now open carriage, with the Ambassor and his wife is returning to the embassy. And in the third photo the carriage is arriving in front of the embassy with Sir Anthony, and the Tuttles.

It’s frequently very interesting around here!

Lexicography Sam

2005-10-17T21:09:00.000Z

You remember Samuel Johnson -- creator of the first great dictionary of the English language. His London home is on the route of our recent London exploration walk. Just around the corner from his home a major office building is being built and the builders have decided to do something unusual but fitting. They've surrounded the construction site with the usual fence but the bank who's financing the construction had the fence painted with large letters of the alphabet, each one accompanied by a word, plus definition, from Johnson's dictionary.

Check out some representative entries at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/891603/1/40413015

Royal Justice

2005-10-17T20:59:00.000Z

While on our recent Saturday walking exploration we found ourselves passing the Royal Courts of Justice. We’ve written earlier about the Old Bailey (where Kathi was the judge in the re-enactment of a famous London murder trial) which is the city’s (and the country’s) premier criminal court. Well, the Royal Courts of Justice are the civil justice equivalent – where major civil trials, including such things as libel, bankruptcy litigation, various kinds of suits and major divorces are tried.

Some pictures are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/891390/1/40407722

We didn't get a chance to try to show you the immense size of this court and legal chambers complex, but it goes on for a long way on the front side and also goes back several blocks into the area away from the street.

A Great London Saturday

2005-10-16T17:52:00.000Z

On 15 October the weather in London was beautiful with an unusually blue sky. We took advantage of these conditions to do some walking and exploring. After busing to Trafalgar Square, we walked along the Strand in the direction of Fleet Street and St. Paul's Cathedral. Leaving Aldwych we passed the Church of St. Clement Danes. The church building is probably the second on the site, with the original dating to about the 10th century. The name is a bit of a puzzle today, but there were a lot of Danish invaders of England at the time and it is believed that they may have been the builders of the church. (Clement was a pope in the 10th century and associated with seafaring and it is believed the Danes named the church for him. Thus, the builders of the church became known as the St. Clement Danes.) In what may seem a bit of a paradox, given the church's great age is the fact that, today, it is dedicated to the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the youngest of the British military arms.

We took the accompanying picture which shows bomb damage on one of the walls of the church, resulting from the German Blitz of 1940. Given that the RAF earned its place in history as "the few" who saved Britain from invasion ("Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," as Churchill said) it seems appropriate that the church now associated with the RAF wear some scars from the battle that brought the RAF to the world's attention.

Continuing our walk eastward, we found ourselves on Fleet Street -- the historical home of Britain's newspaper industry. "Fleet Street" came to be the collective name for the British publishing industry and was used just as we use the phrase "Wall Street" to mean the American financial industry. Fifty years ago a headline that said "Fleet Street paralyzed by Work Stoppages" would have told any Briton that the newspaper publising industry was in the throes of a strike.

Today this association of the industry with the street has gone. Some years ago, to break the hold of the unions on working conditions, which included many outdated make-work practices, the papers began moving their operations elsewhere. Today, Fleet Street is lined with office buildings that once housed the press, but now house a variety of companies and businesses and the newpapers are no longer all published in the same small neighborhood. But many relics of the former identity of the street remain.

This picture was taken on our walk and shows the building that once housed the Dundee Evening Telegraph and three other publications.

One of the other sights we passed is shown in the third photograph. As you may know, the actual City of London is quite small -- it's one square mile that is made up largely of the city's financial center. Only this small area is actually the City. What is more commonly thought of as London is, in reality, a collection of villages and cities, such as Westminster, Camden Town, Knightsbridge, Marylebone and others. While these are often thought of as neighborhoods or regional areas (and they are) each of them also has a history as a separate village or town which, eventually, was subsumed within the growing city. They tend to all have their own regional government institutions -- and yet many other governmental activities are performed at the London level. So there is a mayor of Westminster as well as a Lord Mayor of London (who is the mayor of the whole 7 million person city as well as the City of London proper.)

The various cities, villages or areas have their own unique coats of arms and symbology which is often displayed on things like lamp-posts. In addition, the borders between the various enclaves are sometimes marked with symbols. The City of London, that central square mile that "is" the city has as its distinctive symbol, the dragon. When entering the City on any of the major roads leading into and out of it one will pass a monument or statue or some other marker to let you know you are passing into the City. This picture shows a monument which commemorates the location of a former law court but also marks the passage from the St. Martin in the Fields area into the City proper and, therefore, is topped by a dragon.

On the rails

2005-10-12T19:06:00.000Z

One of the things we (especially Chuck) really like about the UK is the train services. The Brits, of course, complain incessantly about the trains; but compared to the US the service is fantastic. Chuck has used trains for business well over 30 times so far and only once has a train been more than 5 minutes late. And we've begun using them for some of our recreational travel within the UK. (Chuck, for his part, is a bit of a "train nut" anyway.)

There are numerous stations in London -- served by a number of different railroad companies. Each station tends to handle trains for destinations in a given direction from London. For instance, Paddington Station (in addition to handling the Heathrow Express that goes to the airport every 15 minutes) also handles trains of the Great Western Railroad serving destinations to the northwest of the capital.

Our most recent trip, to Liverpool and Chester, took us a bit farther north and we left from Euston Station on a Virgin Trains Company train (as pictured above.)

For most destinations there are frequent departures -- for instance to Cambridge, the site of the great University that Chuck visits from time to time, departures tend to be about every 15 or 20 minutes during the day. In most towns outside London "the station" is located very centrally and often within easy walking distance of wherever we are going. UK trains make us wish we had not done such a drastic job of dismantling passenger train service in our country.

Most of the newer trains make very good speeds for much of their routes -- speeds of 70 to 80 mph are routine with some doing 100 mph. The second picture, above, is of a modern, high speed Italian electric train called the Pendolino (because it swivels like a pendulum to lean into curves to minimize the feeling of centrifugal force during high speed turns). Virgin Trains has introduced some of the Pendolinos on their routes and we rode one to Liverpool on Columbus Day weekend.

Trains in the UK are very well-used with a high degree of ridership. The "suburban" trains that serve communities within about 50 miles of London carry many thousands into and out of the city every day. The longer-route inter-city trains which, of course, run less frequently, are also well utilized. One of the neat things about rapid transit in the UK, including the Underground and buses as well as trains, is that they are used by all sorts and classes of people. Your seat mate on a London bus is as likely to be a bank executive on his way to work as a student.

Of course, without the well-used public transport systems London would long ago have died as a result of gridlock.

Medieval and Roman Chester

2005-10-12T18:19:00.000Z

As mentioned in the previous story, we used the Columbus Day 3-day weekend to visit Liverpool and then Chester.

Chester is a beautiful town -- containing one of the greatest concentrations in the UK of Elizabethan buildings, dating from as early as about 1500. It also has a virtually intact city wall.

The city was a Roman camp, established by those wide-ranging Italians in the first century. As they were wont to do, over time they built a wall and a significant fortress in this location, on the frontier of Roman Britain, at the border of Wales. The Romans, of course, ultimately left when Roman Britain collapsed in the 4th century, but the town continued. In the medieval era the Roman walls, much the worse for wear, were added to and upgraded and these combination Roman-medieval walls still exist. The city played a part in the English Civil War as well, when it was a stronghold for the Royalist forces though the surrounding county of Cheshire was predominantly Parliamentarian in sympathy. It is one of the few cities where, except for a very few yards, one can walk the entire circuit of the walls.

Of course the town long ago grew to include a lot of area outside the walls. But the combination of the virtually intact city walls, the large number of 16th century Elizabethan buildings and the location on the River Dee make Chester both unique and beautiful. And, like any self-respecting English city of any size does, Chester has a cathedral -- and, as always, it's worth spending some time in any of these fantastic buildings that exist in such numbers throughout the UK. To see some of the sights we liked so much check out: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/876492

One of the most difficult tasks, which Chester seems to have handled well, is the combination of narrow, historic streets with the automobile. The town has also done a great job of combining its fascinating history with modern life; there are modern buildings, shopping centers, hotels, and so on, but they are well-integrated into the town without causing enormous clashes.

If you ever find yourself touring the English countryside outside of the London area, you would, we think, find a couple of days in Chester most rewarding.

Ships and the Beatles

2005-10-11T20:53:00.000Z

We took a weekend trip by train over the Columbus Day long weekend. We went from London's Euston Station (about 10 blocks from our flat) to Liverpool on Saturday morning; did some sightseeing there that day and stayed overnight. On Sunday morning we continued exploring Liverpool, then in mid afternoon, took the short train ride to Chester. We did some sightseeing there that evening, stayed overnight, did some more exploring on Monday and left late Monday afternoon to return by train to London. It was both fun and interesting.

Liverpool, of course, is well-known as the hometown of the Beatles. But, before that, it was, for a long time, the second city and the second seaport of the British Empire. The vast majority of Irish immigrants on their way to the US made their way from Ireland to Liverpool to catch their ships. And Liverpool was a major port for trading throughout all the British Empire and, especially, the Far East, with regular cargo and passenger service to India and China. Many large shipping companies had their headquarters in Liverpool. And it seems natural that this bustling port city would also be the site of a tremendous shipbuilding industry. In addition, during World War II, Liverpool was a major base for the Royal Navy's operations in the Battle of the Atlantic -- the fight against German submarines.

Today this enormous sea-related history is honored by preservation of many of the warehouses and other facilities on Liverpool's River Mersey. Some of the buildings are now shops, restaurants and even apartments; but there is also a major maritime museum and, naturally, that was high on Chuck's list of things to see.

On the way to the maritime museum, though, we visited the waterfront "Beatles Story" museum. This, too, is very interesting and well-done -- and even Chuck found himself enjoying much of it. It probably goes without saying that the Beatles are BIG, BIG, BIG in Liverpool, with, seemingly, every place they ever walked past being memorialized in some way. This is easy to understand when one remembers that for most of the latter part of the 20th century the city was watching its maritime empire crumble to changing trade patterns and experiencing high unemployment and growing poverty. The Beatles put the city on the map for something positive when most of its recent experience had been negative.

(In his wonderful book about the UK ("Notes from a Small Island"), Bill Bryson opens his chapter on Liverpool by saying "on the day I arrived in Liverpool the locals were having a litter festival".)

Well, it's not like that any longer and the city is definitely on the way up. It was recently designated a major cultural city by the European Union (we don't know to what degree the culture referred to is that of the Beatles). There are a number of fine theatres and museums, including the Walker Art Museum, which we also visited. All-in-all we both concluded that we found much more to like in Liverpool than we had expected to.

There are a few Liverpool pictures at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/876272

Tower Bridge

2005-10-03T21:03:00.000Z

On Sunday, October 2nd, we toured the Tower Bridge. (No, it's not "London Bridge" -- Brits have great fun laughing at Americans who think it's London Bridge -- which is one bridge farther upstream.) The bridge was opened in 1894 after many years of discussion and consideration of competing designs; it was built to alleviate a serious shortage of crossings over the Thames river as London's traffic increased. It is named for the nearby Tower of London (the northern end of the bridge is right next to the Tower's wall). The bridge has become one of the most recognizable symbols of London and is really quite an engineering and aesthetic achievement.

The tour includes the two towers and the pedestrian walkways across the river at the top. They were made part of the bridge so that even when the roadway is open to let ships pass, pedestrians can continue to cross by climbing up and over.

It is another prized example of Victorian engineering which, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know is one of Chuck's favorite aspects of London. The tour includes all the original machinery for the then-hydraulically-powered machinery that lifted the roadway. (Today that equipment, while still in place and on display, is not used, but has been replaced by modern electric motors.) The historical picture at left shows the bridge with the roadway raised for a ship to pass.

For more pictures of the bridge, the views from the upper walkways and the area around it, go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/853065

Back to the Bailey

2005-10-01T15:21:00.000Z

As you may remember, last January we took an evening tour of the Old Bailey, the UK courthouse. On Monday, 26 September, Kathi had the opportunity to return to the Old Bailey with a group of ladies who decided to view ongoing trials. There are 18 different courtrooms at the Old Bailey and the public is permitted to make up the viewing gallery in most of the courtrooms.

We were given a short history of the Old Bailey along with a summary of the cases being heard in each courtroom (we hired a tour guide to provide this service). We were free to move from one courtroom to another to observe the proceedings. Kathi opted to sit in on two murder cases. The first was that of a young woman who was alleged to have stabbed to death her boyfriend. The testimony that was heard was that of the medical examiner.

The second case was quite strange – Gary Ozzy Osbourne was accused of murder. He changed his name to that of his rock star hero, Ozzy Osbourne. He is alleged to have stabbed his friend five times during an argument. They were both said to be small-time drug dealers. The witness testifying was a former friend of the defendant’s who was testifying as to the defendant’s confession to him.

As we learned in our January tour when we played parts in a real trial scenario, each individual in the courtroom has a designated place to sit or stand. This includes the friends and family of the victim who sit in an area protected from public view in the courtroom. However, the friends and family of the defendant are relegated to the viewing gallery which is made up of only three rows of seats. Kathi concluded that this was good motivation to keep quiet during the trial.

Even though she didn’t get to act as judge, as she did during the tour in January, Kathi decided that both judges did admirable jobs in difficult cases.

More Theater

2005-10-01T15:20:00.000Z

Recently, we decided to vary our theatre experience somewhat from our usual and enjoy an outdoor theatre performance of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at The Globe Theatre. The Globe is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse designed in 1599, where Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote many of his greatest plays. Many theatre-goers attend “on-the-cheap” and opt to stand throughout the entire performance, which we both agreed was not an option for us. In fact, we actually splurged on portable seatbacks for our wooden bench seats. The play was not one which either of us had read, but was quite enjoyable and was extremely well performed.

A couple of our more usual theatre experiences included A Few Good Men, which premiered on Broadway first and then was made into a successful film. The cast for the London West End premiere was very impressive and starred Rob Lowe as the rookie Navy lawyer assigned to defend two Marines on trial for the murder of one of their platoon members. Another fine play was Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy. We agreed that although this was not a “light” play, it was superbly done and definitely one of the best that we’ve seen.

Our most recent treat was a delightful musical, High Society, the story of the wealthy, elegant and priggish, Tracy Lord who is about to embark on her second marriage to a successful but stuffy businessman. We loved the memorable Cole Porter tunes including True Love, Just One of those Things and I Love Paris. The cast included Jerry Hall as Mother Lord. In case you don’t recognize the name, she is the Texan supermodel and ex-wife of Rolling-Stone, Mick Jagger. She made her West-end debut last year as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which we missed. This was the opening performance of High Society (our first premiere!). We predict a respectable run!

We've Moved

2005-09-18T19:38:00.000Z

In mid-August we made a small move of about 8 blocks. The flat we rented on our arrival a bit more than a year ago was, as we've previously reported here, very nice -- in a brand new building and very modern. It had only one significant drawback -- it was located on the ground floor and, therefore, very noisy. Of course we knew it was on the ground floor when we rented it.

But our windows were right on a sidewalk -- with no space at all between the window and passersby. In addition, it turned out that the sidewalk was a fairly heavily-trafficked one. There was a casino across the street and we were only a short way off of Edgware Road, a major thoroughfare, which resulted in an awful lot of people passing right by our windows; and often quite late at night and after having had more than one or two drinks. It was most disconcerting to be awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a couple of drunks arguing just a few feet from our bed.

Our new flat is an older, much more typical, London building and is on the 2nd floor. In addition, the street is a much quieter one, even though the flat is actually more conveniently located, right near the major Baker Street underground station and many other businesses.

Our mailing address, the US Fleet Post Office (FPO) address, remains unchanged.

The Horsey Set

2005-09-18T17:09:00.000Z

We attend the Church of St. John's Hyde Park, the church of the "Hyde Park Estate" -- the portion of London that includes the park, the largest in London. The park includes many bridle paths, and there are numerous stables in the area -- yes, many stables right in the center of London.

It seems natural, then, that the church should pay special attention to those who love horses, as well as horses themselves. As part of this relationship, Sunday, September 18th, was the 38th annual "Horseman's Sunday" at St. Johns. Riders from all over the area bring their horses to the church for a bit of a festival accompanying the blessing of the horses by the church's vicar.

This year we were joined by the (lady) Deputy Lord Mayor of Westminster, as well as our local Member of Parliament. Some pictures of the event are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/818093/1/36478432

A Year Already!

2005-09-18T17:04:00.000Z

Just before we left for Lisbon, Karissa and Dante
spent a couple of days with us. They were on their way to Spain for a first anniversary vacation and were passing through London on the way. They spent a bit more than 2 days with us, then they left for Spain and we left for Lisbon.

Shortly after our return from Lisbon, we got to see them for two more days as they passed through London returning home from Spain. They visited Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, and while they were in Spain we were in Portugal.

We were both amazed to realize that a year had gone by already since their wedding.

They have returned to Jacksonville and hope to be moving into their new townhouse, now under construction.

Lisbon

2005-09-18T15:28:00.000Z

We recently spent 5 days in Lisbon, Portugal. Chuck attended a conference there on the reduction of pollution in industrial processes -- Kathi chose to spend the days in other ways!

Lisbon is, of course, like so many European capitals, overflowing with history as well as beauty. It is also well-known for great shopping and delicious food. One of the almost-obligatory things to experience there is "fada" (Portuguese for "fate") singing, supposedly the ultimate expression of Lisbon's soul. We were invited to attend a dinner with fada singing at Lisbon's museum of the fada and it was a most enjoyable evening, featuring 3 different singers -- two women and a man.

We made the expected rounds of beautiful churches, monasteries, monuments and restaurants. One of the highlights was the Maritime Museum -- one of the largest we've seen -- and one which portrays Portugal's historic maritime exploits most creditably. The collection of ship models is extraordinary and, of course, Chuck was in his element. It's a terrible shame that Lisbon's tragic earthquake of 1755 not only destroyed most of the city, but many of the artefacts from the world-shaping voyages of Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Diaz and others. The monastery of San Jeronimo boasts a beautiful (and uniquely two-story) cloister with magnificant stonework.

Lisbon is filled with examples of beautiful tile work in (and on) hundreds of buildings, making the National Tile Museum, which has preserved large works in tile from many older buildings, an especially interesting stop. The decorative tile work from entire rooms of now-gone palaces, churches and public buildings is on display. The museum also contains many beautiful works in tile of more recent origins. Entry to the museum includes entry into the adjacent Church of Madre de Deus, which houses extremely elaborate, even overwhelming, decorations in gold.

Some Lisbon pictures are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/818040

Cruisin' on the River IV -- Cathedrals

2005-08-27T20:41:00.000Z

There is an amazing number of beautiful cathedrals to be seen along our route. The most impressive, we thought, was in Cologne. It's enormous. And the level of decorative stonework is amazing. Enjoy the pictures.

http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/730115

Cruisin' on the River, III -- beautiful towns

2005-08-27T20:37:00.000Z

We visited a beautiful town or two just about every day. Many of them have large medieval sections with fantastic buildings, churches and fountains (largely rebuilt after World War II in some of the cities; but in a few, which escaped bombing, still original).

A few pictures from some of the cities and towns can be reached from the links below.

Koblenz: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/762650

Nuremberg: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/762752

Frankfurt: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/762700

Cruisin' on the River II -- Rhine Scenery

2005-08-27T16:25:00.000Z

The route for our cruise was from Amsterdam (on the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal), to the Rhine river, which we followed until Mainz, where we joined the Main River. We continued up the Main to the Main-Danube Canal, then on to Rhine, where we proceeded downriver to Vienna.

In the process, we negotiated the 166 locks on this route -- going ever upward on the Rhine and the Main and the two canals. On the Rhine the locks took us down, as we were proceeding downriver.

The scenery along all the rivers and canals was beautiful (except, of course, for the industrial areas). To see some of the spectacular sights along the Rhine, visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/762526/1/33675490

Cruisin' Down (and Up) the River

2005-08-13T20:12:00.000Z

Along with friends from Monterey, Bill and Judy Webb, (with whom we also cruised to Alaska two years ago), we recently took a leisurely cruise on the “Great Rivers of Europe”, beginning in Amsterdam and leaving the ship in Vienna.

We left Heathrow on July 26th for the 40-minute flight to Amsterdam’s Schipohl Airport. From there it was a short train ride to the central station adjacent to the harbor where we boarded the River Harmony, our ship for the cruise. We were met by Bill and Judy and spent a couple of hours in the lounge visiting and starting to catch up on each others’ lives, then ate our first dinner on the ship.

After dinner we took the first of our off-ship tours – a walking tour of Amsterdam’s famous/infamous (and large) red-light district. More than anything else, it seemed pretty tawdry.

The next day, a canal boat trip around Amsterdam followed breakfast and included a stop at the Gassan diamond factory. A bit better-done than the typical tourist visit to such places. Lunch back on the ship, then to the Van Gogh museum; this Amsterdam museum has the largest collection of his work to be seen anywhere. Back to the ship and underway at 4 pm, we sailed through the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and the first of the 166 locks and more than 500 bridges we would go through or under while on the trip. We continued sailing on the morning of the 28th, arriving in Cologne that afternoon. Highlights here were the incredible Cologne Cathedral (see:http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/730115) and the very large pedestrian-only downtown shopping area.

Subsequent days were a combination of sailing through beautiful Rhine, Main or Danube River scenery (and lots of hillside vineyards), visits to Koblenz and Mainz, off-ship tours to castles and breweries and most of a day in the beautiful small town (pop. 25,000) of Wertheim. A highlight of Wertheim was a very educational visit to a local art-glassblower’s shop (we had visited glassblowers before but never learned as much as we did here) and a “home-hosted visit”. The glassblower works with the cruise line and every time a ship from our tour company visits Wertheim, he arranges for groups of from 6 to 10 tourists to be hosted in a local home for a kaffee-klatsch and a chance to interact with each other. Our visit was to a young couple with 3 ½ and 2 year old daughters. They spoke excellent English and Chuck even tried a few sentences of his 44 year-unused German. The visit, along with the glassblower’s demonstration (and the medieval beauty of Wertheim) made that city the highlight of the trip to that point.

It’s amazing how many towns and cities there are in Germany and Austria along the Rhine, the Main and the Danube, that still have large medieval sections (some of which were actually rebuilt after World War II – to look like the original medieval buildings, but containing apartments and shops of modern design). Some of our other stops included Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Rothenburg and others in Germany and Melk in Austria. After the ship’s arrival in Vienna, we stayed on for three great days in that beautiful city.

Watch this space for further articles on Nuremberg (where we visited the courtroom where Nazi war-criminals were tried); descriptions and pictures of some of the most beautiful towns and, certainly, an article on Vienna.

In Memoriam; Kathi's Father

2005-07-24T13:35:00.000Z

Charles Edward "Ned" White, widower of Lucy Marie Mullin White, passed away on 18 June 2005, four months after Marie, his wife of 55 years. He was born October 25th, 1926, in what was formerly Norfolk County and is now the South Norfolk area of Chesapeake, Virginia. Ned was retired from the U.S. civil service for which he was a supply analyst at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. For many years before his death, Ned devoted himself wholly to the care and support of his wife, Marie -- a devotion that was impressive far beyond that which is usually encountered.

Ned and Marie were predeceased by their daughters, Marlene (in 1971) and Sue (in 1987). Ned is survived by their middle daughter, Kathi, and husband Chuck, as well as by four grandchildren, Shawn Green and wife April; Karissa Calvo and husband Dante; Jill Kumm; and Julie Tolby and husband Justin. Also surviving are three great-grandchildren, Tyler Tolby and Kayla and Gage Green.

Ned served in the U.S. Army during the occupation of Japan after World War II. He was an outspoken patriot, keenly interested in the world around him and enjoyed nothing as much as a spirited discussion of history or current affairs. His family always knew that he loved them and he will be missed by all.

To Russia from Greece

2005-07-20T19:15:00.000Z

From Santorini we travelled, via Athens and Frankfurt, to St. Petersburg, Russia, where Chuck (and several others from the office) were attending a conference on the technology of fast ships, followed by a major Defense trade show. Altogether, a week in that city. And once again, neither of us had been in St. Petersburg (or any other part of Russia) before.

While the men were "working" at the conference and show, Kathi got a chance to do quite a bit of touring with Carol O'Neil (wife of John O'Neil, a colleague of Chuck's; they happen to live in Monterey, too, where they will return in a couple of months); and with several other of the wives who had accompanied their husbands.

St. Petersburg calls itself the "Venice of the north" (I think Amsterdam uses the same nickname; I wonder how many cities call themselves the Venice of something). Touring this city is both interesting and sad. It's a city that, like the rest of Russia, is badly run down -- but it has "good bones". There is a huge legacy of great architecture and beautiful buildings, though many are in great need of maintenance, refurbishment and cleaning. A few selected ones have received some recent attention and show how beautiful the city could be.

In the center of the city it seems as if every other building is (was?) a palace of some sort. Several of these are available for sightseeing and some house great museums. The most well-known, of course, is the Hermitage (<-picture) -- a former royal palace that now houses the world's largest art collection. When the ladies visited it, they found it too crowded to enjoy and were dismayed to see how poorly much of the art is displayed and how poorly it is being protected. Interestingly, one category of buildings that, collectively, has been most restored is the churches -- most of which were used for decidedly non-religious purposes during the Soviet era, as warehouses and other things. But since the breakup of the USSR many of them have been restored to their former glory -- and I do mean glory. (<- St. Isaac's Cathedral) They are, of course, in the Russian baroque or rococo style, with what seems to be acres of gold leaf. The architecture and decoration are both breathtaking.

On Saturday we took a trip by high speed hydrofoil boat outside the city proper to Peterhof -- the "country home" of Tsar Peter the Great, the founder of St. Petersburg. It, too, is one of those amazing displays of wealth and power, as the pictures show.

St. Petersburg has become a fairly popular European tourist destination, though there are still a number of downsides, such as undrinkable water and, apparently, a pretty high level of street crime, some aimed at tourists -- though I hasten to add that none of our party encountered any problems. The Russians still have a long way to go to shed their long-practiced government paranoia and the civil population hasn't yet learned about service in business. To see pictures of St. Petersburg sites, visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/666028

Athens and Santorini

2005-07-16T17:35:00.000Z

On 17 June we left for a weekend in Athens on the way to one of the Greek islands -- Santorini -- which many consider one of the most beautiful. Santorini was the sight of a scientific conference Chuck attended (and which he partially funded for the Office of Naval Research).

We spent Friday night and the weekend in Athens -- the first time there for either of us; we were with Jim and Susan DeCorpo. Jim works with Chuck. Naturally, we visited the Acropolis and the ancient Agora market. We also enjoyed wandering in the Plaka, the old part of Athens, with narrow, winding streets and lots of shops and restaurants.

A very nice local cab driver gave us a great driving tour of the city, including sites such as this ancient monastery overlooking Athens.

One of the sites was the original Olympic stadium (which has some modern additions)

At the Greek Presidential Palace

The Hephaisteion in the ancient Agora market

Aboard the ferry to Santorini

Beauty -- foreground and background

View from a Santorini restaurant

How's this for a seaside lunch?

All the things we heard about the beauty of Santorini were, if anything, understatements. The island was once a volcano whose eruption essentially blew out the center of the moutain leaving a rim of island(s) around a caldera filled with water of the most incredible blue color. The weather, during our stay, was very hot -- as one would expect in the Aegean in late June. Santorini has clearly adjusted to being the holiday destination of people with good disposable incomes -- I think it may have more jewelry stores per capita than any other place we've been.

For more pictures of Athens and Santorini, visit: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/665873

We're Back

2005-07-16T17:07:00.000Z

There's been a bit of a gap in our reporting, occasioned by a lengthy trip (17 days) to Greece and Russia, followed, after just a few days at home, by a 6 day trip to Virginia in the wake of the death of Kathi's father. Faithful readers will remember that her Mom died in February; it seems as though her Dad stayed alive as long as he was needed to help care for her, and when she was gone, he gave up fighting his own maladies.

The few days between the two trips found us in London during the bombings of 7/7. And we've now been back for just over a day from Virginia. In a little over a week we'll be leaving for a long-planned-for cruise on the Great Rivers of Europe.

And we're both trying to get some work in between these events. Busy times!

Choirfest London

2005-06-12T20:08:00.000Z

Through her embassy affiliation, Kathi got us a couple of free tickets to Choirfest London. It was a performance by an 80-person choir, made up mostly of members of choirs of churches in the Southeastern US, augmented by about 25 Londoners. The organizer was Frank Boggs, founding director of the 90-voice Georgia Festival Chorus and a longtime recording artist for the Christian Word Records Company. A fantastic soprano soloist, Angelique Clay, added immensely to the evening and Boggs shared the conducting duties with guest conductor Noel Tredinnick, well known in the UK as the man behind a long-running BBC show called "Songs of Praise".

Much of the music was classical, with a religious theme, such as Mendelssohn's "He Watching Over Israel" and Schubert's "The Omnipotence". A number of traditional black spirituals livened up the evening, along with traditional folk-songs like "Danny Boy" and some of the most widely loved hymns, such as "Blessed Assurance" and "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". The arrangement of "Blessed Assurance" involving the chorus, Miss Clay and the audience was a real high point, leaving a lot of moist eyes in the audience.

The concert was held at London's Westminster Methodist Central Hall, an enormous building with fantastic facilities for musical performances, meetings and conventions. The main hall where the concert was held is a glorious room with an enormous, world-class organ.

What a great experience!

Luck be a Lady

2005-06-12T20:01:00.000Z

On Saturday, June 4th, we were lucky enough to get tickets to the current London production of "Guys and Dolls" -- currently one of the two "hottest" tickets in town (the other being "Billy Elliot"). Though the show still, of course, takes place in a New York City that has long since ceased to exist, the story and the music still "work". It was, as we fully expected it to be, another wonderful music-and-dance evening. Great show. (By the way, the star was Ewan McGregor who made a small stir in Hollywood when he played the lead in the movie Moulin Rouge and did his own singing. He did a credible, but not really great, job in "Guys".)

Get out the Atlas -- the NEW One!

2005-05-29T17:03:00.000Z

Chuck's most recent business trip was to Moldova.

Well, he didn't know anything about it either, until a few weeks ago. Moldova is one of the "republics" of the Former Soviet Union -- now an indpendent country. It's quite small -- only 3.3 million people -- and is squeezed in between Romania and Ukraine. For much of its history it was part of Romania and, after World War II, found itself part of the USSR -- whether it wanted to be or not. Today the population speaks both Romanian and Russian and the country is trying to get on its feet. At the moment it's the poorest country in Europe -- the director of the Institute for Applied Physics, a very distinguished physicist and professor whom we visited --- earns about $1200 per year, and doesn't get paid every month.

The main difficulty is caused by the fact that almost all Moldovan industry consists of plants that were part of larger industrial entitities that were Russian dominated. After the collapse of the USSR, these very specialized plants, which made components for things assembled in Russia, found themselves without customers or orders.

The population is highly literate and very well-educated -- and after what the country has been through for the last 60 years is highly motivated and willing to work. Unfortunately, it's taking a while for the necessary economic reforms to take place and take effect. While many of the industries are now "joint stock companies", the fact is that the government is the largest shareholder in most of them. Since the country is not yet a part of the European Union, and since the government does not yet permit foreign investment, except in limited circumstances, there is no access to most means of funding. So plant managers must find ways to make products people want, but to do so in the plants and with the equipment they have on hand -- much of which was very specialized for predominantly military products. Despite this, some of them are showing remarkable creativity -- one plant we visited, specialized in the production of military sonars -- has figured out a way to make over 70 "consumer products" with machines and facilities designed for a different purpose.

Also, it was apparent from our visit with leading members of the science, industry and academic sectors of the country, as well as the Minister for Industry, that there are many very capable researchers working -- in most cases in terrible facilities. There is no shortage of smart people with good ideas.

We, at the Office of Naval Research, don't have the funds (or the charter) to invest in industrial development. But we do hope to be able to foster some joint research efforts between some very qualified Moldovans and American partners. Such projects would only introduce small amounts of money into their economy but might build foundations for greater economic activity as research matures into products. In addition, we can help some small numbers of their best people with travel expenses to attend international conferences which will allow them to "network" and make needed contacts.

One bright spot in the Moldovan economy is the wine industry, which is producing high quality wines that are developing a following. Several of us living in London have noted in recent months that Moldovan wines are increasingly available in London shops -- and those who are far better wine tasters than either of us are assure us that they are good wines. The Minister of Industry mentioned the wine industry as the number one money earner in Moldova -- and also mentioned that it is fully privatized. We assume there is a connection there.

Most of us who have visited the country have found it to be one of our favorites, with people we really like -- but with many problems to be solved. Despite the problems, one gets a good feeling walking around Chisnau, the capital -- the people are busy, interested and interesting, living well under difficult circumstances. In fact, from just interacting with the people, one could believe he was in any modern Eurpean country. Chuck found them truly admirable.

For more pictures of Moldova, beyond those shown below, go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/560980

The lobby of the hotel we stayed at -- nice rooms, beautiful
public rooms -- and a place few Moldovans could afford to
patronize.

We were surpised to see that even in poor Moldova, the
latest edition of Star Wars opened at the same time it
opened in London

It's probably not really evident in this photo -- but most
of the industrial or academic or scientific-related buldings
are holdovers from the Soviet era and exhibit the same
spalling concrete and all-round dilapidation that Soviet
buildings seem to display everywhere.

Flaming Spirit

2005-05-29T16:45:00.000Z

We had a minor surprise at church on Pentecost Sunday.

We had already learned that the Anglican Church is pretty laid back about alcohol -- on several occasions our after-church coffee fellowship had included sherry. But we were in for a new wrinkle on Pentecost.

You all remember the scriptural account of how the apostles had tongues of flame appear over their heads as they were visited and enlightened by the Holy Spirit on that occasion. Well, in order to symbolically portray the event, we had flaming Drambuie at the after-church visit. Yep -- Drambuie, the liqueur. As each person took a glass, the church warden, Maxine Wiltshire, ignited it -- so each glass had a tongue of flame above it. (Of course, those who were partaking had to blow out the flame and let the glass cool a bit before drinking.)

A bit of a surprising (for us) church event -- drinking flaming spirits right there in the nave. See what you could be missing!

The London Theater Experience

2005-05-29T16:33:00.000Z

If you've been reading this blog for any time you know we are frequent patrons of London's "West End" theater scene. (At the time when many of the theatres were established they were at the west end of London, where the city was relatively less developed and land was available -- now, of course, the city extends westward well beyond the theater area, but it's still called the West End). This is a great city to be living in if you like live theater.

The first great thing is that ticket prices are still well below Broadway -- though the difference isn't nearly as large as it used to be. Secondly, there is an official (sponsored by the London Theater Guild) "half-price ticket" booth in Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square, in the heart of the West End. (In recent years a number of commercial booths selling tickets (some at reduced prices) have sprung up in the area as well.) The policy at the half-price booth is that you can only buy tickets for that day -- either matinee or evening; and you must take tickets for a given show as they are offered. So, if you say you want 2 tickets to a show, the clerk will tell you "I have two tickets in the 3rd row of the upper circle" -- and he'll show you where the seats are. But you must then take them or ask about another show. You cannot say "I don't want those seats, what else have you got?" This, no doubt, is to permit the line to keep moving, which it does -- and there is almost always a line. But, when you have your half price tickets you have a pretty good entertainment bargain.

We frequently arrive at the booth shortly after it opens on a Saturday morning (at 10) and get tickets for a matinee (we always have 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices of shows ready). Then it's off to the British Museum, or the National Gallery or Covent Garden or any one of dozens of other great London attractions. A couple of hours of that sort of thing is followed by lunch -- then off to the theater for the matinee, which typically starts at 2:30 or 3:00. After the show, it's home for dinner (or occasionally a second meal out), having enjoyed another great London theater experience.

The theater buildings themselves are an integral part of the pleasure of it -- most of them are well over a hundred years old, though some are newer. Many of them have fantastic interiors of the kind typical in the 19th century -- statuary, scrolls, stained glass domes, intricate plaster ceilings and more. (The picture is of the ceiling and dome in the Coliseum theatre, just off Trafalgar Square.) All London theaters are equipped with bars. The typical drill is to visit the bar before the show to place an order for one's "interval (intermission) drinks". These are ordered and paid for and are awaiting the customer at the interval. Many patrons, of course, enjoy some liquid refreshment at the bar before the show and while ordering those interval drinks.

When we first arrived in London, we thought that after a few months we'd have seen every show that interested us and we'd then only rarely go to the theater. But, there are so many available, and many of the shows open for only limited runs, meaning that there is almost always a choice of several shows we'd like to see. And when, temporarily, there isn't -- well there are about 94,754 other interesting things to see in this fascinating city.

In our minds, the whole experience greatly beats a movie -- and, with the half price tickets (and the incredibly high prices of London movie tickets) the live theater only costs about one-and-a-half times as much as the movie. We think it's worth it.

By the way, our most recent play was on Friday night, 27 May -- we saw "On the Town" at the Coliseum Theatre, the home of the English National Opera. You may be familiar with the movie version, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The movie was made several years after war had ended -- the stage show was a wartime production, opening at Christmas of 1943. There are only 3 songs that are in both versions; and the stage version contains many more dance ensemble numbers. In fact, the dancing was one of the best things in the show, which we thought very highly of overall. (The singing by a cast which is actually an opera company was, of course, magnificent.) An incredible thing about the show is that when the stage version was first produced the five key creative people involved were all in their 20s -- Leonard Bernstein (music), Jerome Robbins (choreographer), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (book and lyrics) and Oliver Smith (design). For several of them it was their first broadway experience.

They created a pretty great show that remains interesting and poignant while being a great example of musical and dancing excellence.

More Beauty than you can Imagine!

2005-05-29T15:06:00.000Z

The Chelsea Flower Show has been a major, world-wide attraction for many years. It is held on the grounds of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea -- a hospital and home for British military veterans and a subject, in its own right, of a future story here. The show is an incredible undertaking, with many hundreds of exhibits, some of which are entire gardens erected just for the show and totally gone a few days after it closes. The Great Pavilion (housed in a huge temporary building, also in place only for the 6-day length of the show) contains an overwhelming display of beauty in an area covering a number of acres. It is truly difficult to portray, in words, the magnificence of color and form that are on display.

The first picture, below, is typical of the displays in the pavilion -- but it doesn't convey the incredible variety of those displays. Many of the exhibitors specialize in just one kind of flower -- or a family of them -- as is the case in this first picture. So every new exhibit seems to open a whole new vista to the visitor. And the displays are not limited to flowers -- many include fruits and vegetables -- some arranged in amazingly artistic ways. (We've only included a few pictures here -- to see many more, click on: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/558786)

(By the way, the ability to include a picture within a blog posting here is something new -- we've just downloaded the software that lets us do that. So this blog will become a bit more graphical in the future, though we'll continue to send you to another website for more pictures.)

The second picture is a close up of a variety of daffodils that Chuck liked particularly well.

At the show, gardens can be entered in several categories, including "city", "courtyard", "chic" and "show". The picture below is of one of the show gardens entered -- this one was the winner of the "best of show" prize. Understand that the entire garden must be created on a bare spot of ground -- so the cottage, fence, pond and other parts of this garden were prepared as part of the entry. This particular entry was sponsored by the pensioners (the retired veterans) who live at the Royal Hospital (whose grounds host the show) -- and it was created according to their ideas by a professional garden designer. The theme was "A Soldier's dream of 'Blighty'" -- essentially a British serviceman's idealized memories of home ("Blighty" being slang for England).

You may not have the good fortune to be in London when the Chelsea Flower Show is on -- after all, it's only 6 days out of the year. But if ever you are going to be here at the right time try to get the tickets and make it a centerpiece of your visit. (And you need to order tickets months in advance -- we ordered ours in February).

An interesting sidelight of the show that we had not thought of beforehand is the "allergy connection". At various times we found ourselves sneezing, then realized that if you listened to the crowd you could hear quite a bit of sneezing going on. I guess those thousands (millions?) of flowers and plants give off a lot of pollen -- lots of plants plus lots of people = lots of sneezing.

By the way, it's also a fertile ground for celebrity sighting, although the closest we game was a close brush with Diarmuid Gavin, the Irishman who is seen frequently on TV gardening shows on both sides of the Atlantic.

What would you do?

2005-05-29T13:44:00.000Z

So your name is Richard Gelding. And you want to open a men's store. I don't know about you, but it seems to me that some men may not care to associate with a store called "Gelding". We noticed this store recently and made this point while out to dinner with a couple living here in London with us. When Chuck commented that Richard Gelding probably should have named his store something else. Carol retorted, "at least he used 'Richard', not 'Dick'".

Gelding's Mens' Store

Shipping Out

2005-05-26T20:11:00.000Z

Phil and Sue John visited us in London for the day on May 21st. Phil was Chuck's host during the year Chuck taught at the Royal Military College of Science/Cranfield University in 2000/2001. Phil is the head of the Systems Engineering faculty there; he and Sue and their three kids live in Harpenden, a village a few miles north of London. We had visited them a couple of months ago and this most recent visit was a chance for the four of us to have a fun day out in London.

We started the day with a great brunch at our flat, courtesy of Kathi. From there it was off to visit HMS Belfast, a Royal Navy cruiser of World War II vintage that is now a floating museum in the Thames. We took the Underground to London Bridge Station on the south bank of the river and walked from there, stopping at the Hays Galleria enroute. This was a covered dock on the river bank; built in the 19th century, it was a water-filled berth which ships could be brought into, with warehouses on either side, covered by a glass roof. (Another example of the kind of Victorian engineering Chuck is enamored of.) One of the major cargoes handled here was tea from the tea clipper ships. In recent years the water has been filled in, the warehouses renovated and it is now the home of offices and shops -- a "galleria".

From there it was a short walk to the ship. Chuck was in his element -- a former ship's gunnery officer, he provided a personal guided tour of the gunnery installations on Belfast. Sue and Phil were good sports and paid attention the whole time! The ship has been very well preserved and is presented very well -- a great deal more of the ship is open to the public than is usually the case in preserved ships such as this. It was fascinating to see the living conditions aboard a Royal Navy warship of the 1940s and to visit the bridge, the operations room (combat information center (CIC) in USN terms), the galley, laundry, gun installations and so on. The ladies even developed a reasonable facility with traversing the inclined ladders found everywhere on a Navy ship.

From the Belfast (and after a restful cup of coffee at a cafe) we took the Underground again to Covent Garden to mingle with the crowds that are always there, browsing in the shops and enjoying the sidewalk entertainers. On to dinner at a very nice restaurant just off the Garden then on to a play at the Comedy Theater near Haymarket. The play was "The Home Place" starring Tom Courtenay -- a drama set in Ireland in the time that country was undergoing the transition to home rule. The show had gotten very good reviews -- but all four of us agreed we "didn't get it" -- the first act was very slow and the somewhat more active second act led to an abrupt ending that left us all somewhat baffled. Some of the reviews had compared the play to Chekhov -- maybe we should have taken that more seriously and expected to be left baffled.

To see some of the pictures from the day click on: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/556253/1/23126034

At the end of our very enjoyable day, Phil and Sue caught the Underground to the railroad station and returned to Harpenden while the Calvanos took the bus back to our "little London flat". Great day. We hope to have another adventure with Phil and Sue before too much more time passes.