SIX DAYS IN LONDON, Part 2: Guest Post by Paige Arnold

Shakespeare's Globe Theater, London

My granddaughter Paige, age 12, spent six days in London with her parents during her spring break. She kept a diary of her daily activities (a family tradition) and has written them up in this blogpost. I am impressed with the number of things they did and the detail of her report. I thank her for her excellent report! Part 1 posted last week.

Day five, we went to Shakespeare’s Globe. The tour guide showed us the outside of the Globe.  It’s not the original, because the first one burned down, and the second one broke down.  It’s the third version.  The inside was very intricately decorated, especially the ceiling above the stage.  There are trapdoors on the ceiling above the stage and in the floor in the middle of the stage. 

Ceiling above the stage of the Globe Theater

The ceiling one was used for god-like characters to enter through.  The bottom one was for, well, the opposite.  Characters coming from hell would enter from the ground trapdoor.  In the middle of the tour, we sat down and watched actors practice for their play that they would be performing later for the public.  One of the actors was deaf, so she was acting with sign language and there was a translator on stage for her.   

Tate Modern, Mao by Andy Warhol

After that, we went to the Tate Modern Museum for a little while.  The art there was really, really cool.  We only stayed for a short while, because we had to go to lunch.  We ate somewhere called Padella.  It’s a pasta restaurant right outside of Borough market.  The pasta was exceptional and I would have gotten more, but I was stuffed.  

Footbridge across the Thames to the Tate Modern

After that, we walked back to the Tate Modern Museum and looked at the rest of the exhibits.  It filled my mind to the point of overflowing with new ideas and thoughts.  Then we walked home.  For dinner, we went to a tapas place.  We got many little plates, which were all fantastic.  My favorite dish was the jamon croquettes.  They are deep fried mashed potatoes and ham.  I also liked the shrimp.  It was just shrimp in olive oil with herbs, but it was so good! 

Underground in Churchill's Bunker used in WW II

On the last day, we went to lots of places.  First, we walked to Churchill’s bunkers.  We got very lucky, because the people in the front of the line had to wait 1 hour 30 minutes, but we only had to wait about 5-7 minutes.  The inside was really cool, and a lot of the stuff inside had actually been there during the war.  You had to have an audio tour, so it was really quiet when you took off the headset.  In the middle, there was more of a museum part, but the rest of the tour was just the bunkers. 

St. James Park on a warm April afternoon

After that, we went to Saint James Park so I could draw.  There were lots of people because it was a beautiful day.  There is a small lake in the middle, and there were lots of pretty waterfowl.   

Swan

There was an abundance of storks, swans, ducks, coots, and pigeons.  We just had hotdogs for lunch.  They were pretty good.  

Mounted soldier at Buckingham Palace

Then, we went to Buckingham Palace.  We didn’t know this, but the day before was the queen’s 92nd  birthday. Also, the streets were blocked because the day after was the London marathon.  It was cool because they had the traditional guards with the tall black fluffy hats and red jackets, but they also had police officers on the side.

Nike statue at Trafalgar Square

Next, we went to Trafalgar Square.  There were two floating people in Yoda costumes, and two other floating people in costumes.  

Yoda mime at Trafalgar Square

There was someone in a giant Pikachu costume, and a mime or two.  Oh, and there was also a concert going on.  There was a lot of stuff.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers at the National Gallery

We then took a quick look inside the National Gallery.  They had the famous Van Gogh sunflower painting.  They also had lots of Monet and Murillo paintings.  We took the subway back home and rested for a bit.  After that, we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant called Mango.  The food was spicier than I was used to, but it was very good.  That was our last day in London.  I had a great time there, and I hope some of you will also go there.

Photographs by Paige and Matt Arnold 

Paige and her dad, Matt

 

VISITING POLAR BEARS--NOT AT A ZOO! Guest post by Sara Louise Kras

Polar Bear, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

My friend and fellow writer Sara Louise Kras went to Hudson Bay to research her recent book, The Hunted: Polar Prey, and has graciously written this article about her trip.  You can find out more about Sara and her many other books and travels at her website, www.saralouisekras.com . All of the excellent photos of polar bears in this post are by Sara's husband, Joe Kras.

For many years I fantasized about seeing polar bears in their natural habitat.  But our travels took us to other places – mostly warm – to do research on the various book projects I had been hired to write.  Finally, in 2008, I decided to take the icy plunge and fly to the Arctic to see polar bears.  I was working on a fiction book about a polar bear, so I thought it would be great to see them firsthand.  After very little research, I realized that the most optimum place for viewing these elusive creatures was in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.  This tiny town bordering the Hudson Bay is inundated with polar bears from October and November.  Polar bears wait there for the Hudson Bay to freeze so they can go out on the frozen ice to hunt seals. 

Polar bears don’t eat much during the summer – just what they can scrounge up – so they are literally starving.  This hungry state actually makes it very dangerous for the people who live in Churchill, including children.  Polar bears don’t have a problem with eating humans.  To them, food is food.  Also, given that they are the largest bears in the world, at eight and a half feet long and more than two thousand pounds, these bears can cause some serious damage.  I heard stories of polar bears breaking down front doors and rearranging the furniture--including knocking over a refrigerator!  

Again, doing more research on the internet, I found two companies who seemed to have the same exact itinerary in Churchill – except one was about $1,000 cheaper per person.  The difference is one was based in the United States and the other was based in Canada.  After thoroughly interviewing the Canadian company, I decided to go with them.  The name of the company is Churchill Nature Tours.  

My husband and I normally do not travel with groups.  We are very independent travelers.  But traveling to Churchill is completely different.  You can’t rent a car and drive out to see the polar bears.  You must travel with other people in tundra buggies, bus-like vehicles with wheels six feet tall. 

 

Our package tour was five nights long.  The first and last nights were in Winnipeg, but the middle three nights were in Churchill.  When we arrived in Churchill in the early morning, I was shocked at the size of the airport.  It was only as big as a small house, but it was literally stuffed with tourists, all searching for their tour company or group.  Once we found ours, we were whisked away to the helicopter company and taken up to see polar bears from the air.  It was an amazing beginning.  We saw a polar bear with an elk kill.  We saw a moose slowly making its way through the deep snow.  We saw a mother and baby polar bear.  On Hudson Bay, icebergs floated, looking like giant chunks of Styrofoam.   Later we visited the Eskimo museum where I got an invaluable contact for my fiction book.  Several weeks after the trip, the owner answered many questions via email about the Inuit, which brought an interesting twist to my story. 

The next two days were spent out in the tundra buggy.  Because our tour company only allowed eighteen people on their tours, there were plenty of window seats for everyone.  We were on the buggy all day – both days.  For comfort, there was a toilet on the buggy and we also had piping hot lunches and snacks.  We saw many polar bears even though throughout the second day there was a blizzard!  I credit the wonderful guide who was in charge of our group.  He seemed to know where to look, even when there were few polar bears at times.  If you’d like to see polar bears, I highly recommend traveling with this company. 

By the end of my trip, I had a firsthand knowledge of the depth of cold in the Arctic.  I had firsthand knowledge of how to attach a carrybag to a helicopter to transport a polar bear.  I had firsthand knowledge of how polar bears move and swim.  All of this was used in my book.  Now my book, a fiction story, The Hunted: Polar Prey has been published through Speeding Star.  It is about a boy who has to save his mother.  She is floating on an iceberg and is being hunted by a polar bear.  It’s a quick read and plot driven.  If you’d like to check it out, you can get it at http://www.speedingstar.com/books/The_Hunted/4261#.VG-Ybcm6j2s

Oxfordshire: A Weekend in the English Countryside, Fall 1998

Oxfordshire, Sheep Grazing

(Excerpt from the London Diaries, September 1998)

 A Taste of Fall
    The weather has changed to more fall-like temperatures and there is a nip in the air.  Every day is a mixture of overcast, sun, clouds, rain, and wind as weather systems sweep down from the north.  One difference between England and California is the skies—here they constantly change.  It is no wonder that artists like Turner and Constable were so fascinated by them.  In our outings we were lucky to be outside during the nice times and inside when it turned nasty.  One thing about changeable weather, it never lasts long.

A Weekend in Oxfordshire

Thames River, near Reading

On Friday evening we took the train to Reading, which is about a half hour west of London, to spend the weekend with friends. Their home, an 18th century stone warehouse converted into a large house, has a beautiful garden with a fountain in back and overlooks the Thames in the front.  At that point the river is perhaps thirty yards across and meanders under willows on one side and along a sheep pasture on the other.  We watched swans and ducks, fishermen, and passing canal boats, which you can rent by the week for a leisurely trip along the river.

Giant White Horses

Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire

Our morning excursion on Saturday was to see the Uffington White Horse.  This is a giant drawing of a horse (about 40 feet long) carved into the top of a hillside.  According to the sign, it is 3000 years old and was probably carved at the same time Neolithic people built a fort on the top of a nearby hill.  (All you can see of the fort now are the ditches around it, but the view of the countryside from there is terrific.) The chalk downlands are a geologic feature of southern England and are characterized by rolling hills covered with short grass and tiny, almost alpine-like, flowers.  The downlands are used mostly for grazing and apparently people raise racehorses in this region. Just under the soil, is the soft, chalk stone.  The grass and dirt were removed to make the drawing of the horse.  
    The outline of the horse is white, but it is surrounded by green grass, which makes it easy to see from a long way away.  The one thing that puzzled us, though, is that you can’t see the whole horse at once except from the air.  We decided that the neolithic creators of the horse must have known that airplanes would be invented sometime in the future.  I had never heard of these giant chalk figures before, but apparently there are quite a few of them in this part of England. I picked up a piece of the chalk rock and tried writing with it on another stone and it worked almost as well as the blackboard variety.

Churchill’s Home

Blenheim Palace, Birthplace of Winston Churchill

In the afternoon, we visited Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the home of the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill.  Blenheim is a grand country house and surrounded by 2000 acres of beautiful gardens and lakes, most of which were designed by a renowned 18th landscape architect named Capability Brown.  This was back in the days when, if there wasn’t a lake where you needed one, you simply dug out the landscape and filled it with water to create one.  Or, if you wanted your hedge to look like a bird, you simply sculpted it that way.

Topiary Bird, Blenheim Palace

While we were at Blenheim, the ever changeable weather changed, and it started to rain, so we headed home for a nice cup of tea.
Note: We returned to Oxfordshire a month later to visit the town and university of Oxford, which will be covered in another post.

Hay drying in a field, Oxfordshire