A Weekend in London

   
    Greg and I just got home yesterday, and I miss London already.  This was my second visit, and most certainly not the last, to one of my most favorite cities.

       Before I proceed, I have a message for certain tall travelers. On both flights, to and fro London, I was sat in the middle seat with two long-legged folk on either side of me. Both times, both people on both sides of me, took it upon themselves to stretch their daddy long legs into my precious square foot of living space. Not to mention they took my arm rests. I understand that it can be cramped and you're uncomfortable, but we're close enough in those planes as it is.. without you invading my bubble...also, it's only an hour and twenty minute flight. Short people deserve their paid for airplane box too.  So, if you're a "neighbor's airplane space hog", then please, keep your legs to yourself.
I expect to have my rightful space from here on out.

    After spending some time sweating in the hot and humid North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, D.C., and Maryland this summer...and coming back to a hot Stuttgart without an air conditioned apartment...London was quite chilly. It was refreshing!
Our tour guide at The Globe Theatre at one time said "Sunny and hot days like today are rare, but great days to see a show at The Globe"... I suppose he and I had a different perspective on things.

   

   
     Though this is not the original Globe, I still found the tour very interesting. The original Globe was actually located a few blocks away from this one...where today sits a parking lot.
 Our guide was a great story teller, and that mixed with the replicated theatre, I really felt as if I was taken back in time. Back to the Elizabethan era, in the 15/1600s. A time when going to the theatre was quite riské. Back then, the location of the Globe in Bankside was not part of London. London was on the other side of the Thames River, and Bankside was a place of scandal.
 

    Theatre étiquette was quite different. People went to the theatre to be social, have a rowdy time, and party. The play was just going on in the background. The "normal" seats (1st and 2nd story) were jam packed...shoulder to shoulder, on wooden benches without backs. There is a balcony center stage, that was reserved for old fashioned "well-dressed celebrities" to sit and show off their look to the crowd. See the ground  part all around the stage? That was reserved for about 1000 "Penny Stinker" patrons.  Penny Stinkers were the people who paid only 1 pence (penny) to get in. The "stinker" part comes in to play because: 15/1600s. Who showered regularly? Not to mention that if you did shower, you risked disease because the water in the Thames River was at the time, a place to dump sewage. This was also the time of the Bubonic Plague. A supposed way to avoid said plague, was to chew garlic. On "hot" summer days, what better than a healthy beer (beer is greater than water...remember what I said about the river)? Some Penny Stinkers had one too many beers, and we all know what happens next...but imagine that in a packed standing section..and no bathrooms.
So, Penny Stinkers were dirty, garlic chewing, beer drinking, barfing dudes and gals, who hadn't showered, ever..and paid one penny to get into the theatre.
I'm not even going to talk about the alleged scandalous activities which were said to happen on the top row of seating...

   On June 29, 1613, during a live performance of Henry VIII, the thatched roof caught fire, and within an hour or so, the whole theatre, made predominately from wood, burned to the ground. How did it catch fire you might ask? Well, above the stage in the pointy roof part, there was a bell, and a canon used for sound effects. Thats right, a real canon. So which object do you think was responsible for burning the whole joint down? I'm not even going to answer this. 

The canon was not filled with canon balls, but just with gun powder...which caught to the roof. Boom, like that...all was gone. Luckily, no one was majorly harmed..other than a fellow whose trousers caught fire. All the plays and Shakespeare works that were housed in the theatre, made it out alive as well.  Good thing too, because now we have all these idioms and sayings that I KNOW we all have used before!

Such as:

"vanished into thin air" "tongue-tied" "in a pickle" "laughed yourself into stitches" "too much of a good thing" "lie low" "as luck would have it" "without rhyme or reason" "good riddance" "dead as a doornail" "a laughing stock" "for goodness-sakes"

If you've ever said something like the above, then you have quoted Shakespeare. 

   The theatre was rebuilt in 1614. Later in the that century, the Puritans came about, closed all theaters, and even had the "up to no good" Globe demolished. Anyway, some of those Puritans sailed over to America...and turns out...one of their great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons, Sam Wanamaker did some research and helped to have a replica of the Globe build on Bankside, in the 90s. 

 British Museum

 M&M Store

   That wasn't it for our theatre filled weekend in London! After touring a tiny percentage of the enormous British Museum, and playing around in the M&M store, we saw "Jersey Boys"at the Picadilly Theatre.

     During the show, when a belligerent woman jumped up to dance and sing in a rowdy fashion to "Sherry", I was convinced that a Penny Stinker was blasted here from the past. Unfortunately, she was unaware that theatre etiquette has changed quite a bit in the past 400 years, and she was escorted out of the theatre.

    I have no explanation as to why this was the first time I've seen this show. It was amazing. I want to see it again. It was interesting to hear British actors put on a Jersey accent, by the way. I could hear their normal accent slip in every now and then.  I imagine a Brit would feel the same way to watch Americans perform a play like "The Importance of Being Earnest".  They would catch all the American accent slips too :p 

  The next day, we walked about and toured some sites from the outside: 

 Buckingham Palace. 

 We stuck around for a 10 minutes, waiting to see the changing of the guards. But actually, became bored and set out for a walk through the nearby park.

Look who we found on our walk! Just us three Americans, hanging out in London...

We stumbled into Westminster Abbey, where many-a coronations and weddings have taken place.

 Eventually we made our way via the Underground to The Tower of London, a place where many people were executed, or held captive...including Anne Boyeln (executed), and her daughter, Queen Elizabeth (held captive).

Queen Elizabeth, by the way, was indeed a fan of the theatre in her day. 

Here we came across a piece of the original wall surrounding London...

       After our self-guided walking tour, and a late lunch in Chinatown, we realized how badly we wanted to see another musical! By this time, 5 o'clock, the TKTS booth was closed, so we had to scalp for a ticket in some other way! We went to the Prince of Whales Theatre, where "The Book of Mormon" was playing that evening. We placed our names in a lottery for the last of the tickets left. (Here, as well as in NY, about 2 hours before a show, many theaters will hold a lottery to sell the last of their tickets for a much cheaper price.) About 100 other people had the same idea as us..odds were not in our favor. But I was hopeful! I knew in my heart and soul that Greg and I were going to see this show! I held my breathe as each name was drawn...hoping and praying that mine or Greg's name was on the paper! 

    After an intense lottery pull, we were left with a short lived reality that "we would not see this show". It was short lived because as we were walking away from the theatre...an angel of an old man appeared, and said, I quote "Two tickets here. Two tickets to see the Book of Mormon tonight at 7:30. Two tickets". We pounced on him like a cat to a mouse! We quickly asked our own scrambled together security questions "where did you get these tickets?" "Where are the seats?" "Can I see the date on them?" "Why are you selling these tickets?" Supposedly he worked at a ticket booth across the street, and two people had cancelled their reservation, and wanted to get rid of the tickets.

So we aren't dummies, we bought the very last tickets available for the show that evening! 

Some people in our party (Greg) were skeptical that these tickets were real. So we had to get all Sherlocks Holmes, and we stalked this ticket selling old man. We wanted to see if he was in that ticket booth where he said he worked. We didn't see him. So we went to another ticket booth, and asked the gentlemen at the counter if these tickets were real. They laughed hysterically...because OF COURSE they were real! 

Elated and relieved, we went to a nearby pub for a celebratory drink.  I ordered a Pimm's...which is my favorite drink of all time. A drink I'm convinced does not exist outside of the UK. Attention: if you are ever in the UK, do me a solid and just pick me up a duty free bottle of Pimm's from the airport. Thanks in advance.

   "The Book of Mormon" did not disappoint. It was offensively hilarious (what would one expect, being that it was written by the writers of "South Park"). I recommend it to those who would enjoy a good laugh, who are not sensitive to "harsh" language, and who can go without being politically correct for a couple of hours. :) Greg has confessed that "The Book of Mormon" is his favorite musical. 

Look, Greggington has a new "pose:

Here's a conversation between myself, and the guy at passport control upon my arrival to Gatwick airport:

Guy: Where are you staying?

Me: Uhhh (looking at my booking papers). Brent...

Guy: ...why have you chosen to stay there?

Me: It was the cheapest hotel I could find.

Guy: There's a reason it was the cheapest, darling...

Me: ....ok

Guy: It's I believe like what you have in America..."The Bronx".

Me: Yeah but your country has stricter gun control laws. I'll be fine. 

Actually I didn't say that last line. That's like one of those times when you think of what you could've said later...and you tell everyone, "Man, I shoulda said ____________. If I could go back, "I'd say ____________."

Anyway, London's "ghetto" smelled like a bakery had exploded. There may have been beer cans all over some front years here and there (much like a not unfamiliar college town), but at least it infinitely smelled of strawberry shortcakes. Moral of the story: Stay in the ghetto. It's cheap, and smells good.  

I love London. 

-Gina

Our One Year Anniversary

Look at what a year of marriage has done to us:

                                                  We've gone absolutely BONKERS!

We feel insane because our brains have merged together, and we've found ourselves thinking/saying the same thing at the same time...on far too many occasions. It's freaky. 

Suppose that is what they call "best friendship".

    For our anniversary weekend, we wanted to spend it somewhere peaceful. Throughout our first year of marriage-hood, we've traveled to 17 different cities...all of which were lovely, yet all of which were busy, crowded, and loud.  So we chose the quaint small town of Triberg, (population 5,000) in the heart of the Black Forest, about 2 hours away from Stuttgart. 

      We stayed in a guesthouse, which is owned by a restaurant in town (one of about 3 major restaurants that I saw..). The restaurant is family run, and made Greg and I feel very welcomed and special. Each morning they had a place set for us, before the restaurant even opened. The patriarch of this family run business, made sure to check in with us each time we were in for a meal.  He was very sweet, and amused that my last name is "Wagner". (Legally, I am still Wagner. I seriously have no immediate plans to go through the paper work hassle to change my name on all official documents. And when in Germany...it only makes sense to be Wagner. Maybe Greg should change his name...just for the next two years. We can take turns..for two years we are Wagner, then two years we are Hargraves, then two years Wagner, two Hargraves, two Wagner, etc. until we die.)

     

   Triberg/The Black Forest is known for several things. The four that we experienced on our anniversary were:

1. Black Forest Cake:

     We found a cafe which uses the original recipe, which was created by a man named Josef Keller in the 1800s. And apparently, Josef was a cake-loving alcoholic. Wish you could have seen my face when I took my first bite. This is one, big, rum and cherry liquor filled cake. It literally felt like I was taking a straight shot. I'm not being overdramatic. Now, this is because my first bite came from the cream in the middle. That's where the alcohol must've been infused into. So after the initial shock, and once I aquatinted myself with the layout of the cake, I was able to eat and enjoy the parts I knew had little alcohol, and give the "shots in the form of cake" parts to Greg. He loved the whole cake. Every part. Greg did not discriminate.

2. The actual Black Forest:

We took a beautiful hike through the forest..and got to see the highest waterfall in Germany!

 Here is the bottom of the waterfall. As we hiked up further, we saw more and more of it!

3. Wood-Carving:

    So with all this timber around, the Black Forest folk aren't just going to sit and watch it! They use it! We toured The Black Forest Museum, and had the pleasure of viewing many beautiful rooms, and carvings:

                                                               It's Greg and me. ^

That's us doing the Samba that we learned on the cruise. 

  Now, this thing totally intrigued me. It is a self-playing orchestra, worth over 5 million dollars. Now it is run by electricity pumping air, but originally it was run by a crank. It plays to the equivalent of a 50 person orchestra! If you paid 5 euro, you could listen to it play. Some other chump did that, and man does this thing make it's presence known! I heard it start while I was in the other side of the museum...and like a bug to a light bulb...I was there in a flash! The photo is probably blurry because the orchestrion vibrated so much....totally not a reflection of my Android phone photo taking skills. In the "olden" days (before radio), orchestrions were used in fancy restaurants and such, to serve as musical entertainment to guests. Then the radio came along....so guess what happened to all of the classy, beautiful, orchestrions of the world?

4. Cuckoo Clocks:

THIS ^ is the place where we will one day buy our very own cuckoo clock. Once we entered, we were whisked away by a very overzealous little woman, and given the scoop on cuckoo clocks. She educated us on how to tell if a cuckoo clock is an original hand-carved, or if it is an over-priced, factory made FAKE.  This woman is part of the family line who makes/has made these cuckoo clocks. All I'm going to say...is every single cuckoo clock I've seen at the PX on the military base here..is a complete fake, and TOTALLY overpriced. I gather that many cuckoo's I've seen around this country, have been factory-made fakes. Which is why, I will come back to this little family owned shop when I feel like dropping a  handful of money for my real-deal, hand-carved cuckoo clock. :)

       So then we toured the LARGEST cuckoo clock in the WORLD. (This is up there with the worlds largest ball of yarn, or the worlds smelliest wheel of cheese..)

We were able to take a tour of the inside, to check out the inner workings. After all, it's what's in the inside that counts. Without all these mechanics, the thing wouldn't be able to run!

                                          There's Greggington, checking out how it all works.

   After we toured around and saw what Triberg had to offer, we cleaned up nicely to have a celebratory dinner date. We cracked open a bottle of champagne, gifted to us last year as a wedding present from my dear friend, Abe.

 See those stuffed marmots in the background? Well the restaurant owner, (remember I talked about him before...well his name is actually Josef) Josef hunted those. In fact, most of the animals on the walls he hunted in Germany, Virginia, Africa, and he said he wants to go to Canada next.

     We chose the cozy, little, back-woodsy restaurant to enjoy our very German, very filing, very delicious, 1st anniversary meal. I had bacon soup followed by a venison dish, and Greg had a lentil/sausage soup, followed by all kinds of other meat, that he couldn't even finish. We both described the food as: tasting the way this place looks.

After dinner we went back to our hotel/guesthouse, ate some more Black Forest cake for dessert, and played cards. 

We've got this old married couple thing down pat. 

I can say that now. 

-Gina

                                                     This is how we felt after dinner.