The Royal Albert Hall

One location I had always wanted to see in London was the Royal Albert Hall.  Throughout that particular day the weather would switch between rainy and sunny but thankfully the weather cooperated when I was trying to take this photo.  

The Royal Albert Hall [named after Queen Victoria's husband Albert] has hosted many a legendary concert.

But one of the most famous performances attributed to the Hall actually happened elsewhere. For years the famous concert in which an audience shouted to Bob Dylan that he was "Judas" because he had begun to play with electric guitars rather than acoustic had been attributed to have happened at the Hall.  Dylan responded to the heckler by calling him a "liar" and then turned to his band and told them to play "f**king loud."  For a long time this was attributed to have happened at the final show of his 1966 World Tour at the Albert Hall but over time it has been determined to have actually happened a few days earlier in Manchester.  Dylan's performance at the Hall is important nonetheless because it was the last concert he would perform for seven years.

Marvel With A Mango: Fish and Chips

While we were in London we never were able to track down a proper fish and chips shop that served it all up wrapped in newsprint but we did have fish and chips a couple of times in the more traditional setting.  Just take look at that piece of cod and you'll understand why this one was my favorite.   

Plus, each table had its own ketchup bottle which was an unseen sight in Ukraine...and you can get a glimpse of in the upper left of this photo.  It was great to be in the UK that day!

Holmes Adventures Part 3: Walking Tour

After visiting 221B Baker Street and taking a detour to visit Abbey Road we took a Sherlock Holmes walking tour around London through London Walks.  One of the keys to the popularity of the Holmes stories were that they were set in contemporary London at the time they were published and so although they were fiction the reader who was from London could easily walk the same locations that Holmes did.  

The meeting place was at an Underground station and I couldn't help but smile when we came upon this sign outside. Were the Baker Street Irregulars waiting for us to all pull out our wallets to pay for the tour?

Our tour was led by Richard who was very knowledgeable about the Holmes stories and was able to keep us all interested as we walked around London for a few hours.  

We saw many, many Holmes-related spots along the way and I will highlight just a few of them that I found personally interesting.  We started at the former location of Charing Cross Hospital which can be found referenced in the story The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.  Sherlock is attacked in that story and is taken to Charing Cross Hospital to be treated.

The Holmes stories were originally published in The Strand magazine and one of the stops on the tour was the former offices for the magazine.  All that is still remaining is the famous clock which was placed above the offices.  

Just down the street from The Strand offices, we took a look at the only restaurant featured in the stories that is still open.  Simpson's-in-the-Strand has been open since 1828 and Sherlock and Dr. Watson ate there in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.  It was currently under construction and so we couldn't get a closer look.

Next stop was the Lyceum Theatre was served as a meeting place in The Sign of Four.

In possibly the most famous Holmes story, The Final Problem, Watson must follow Sherlock's instructions to try to lose the Professor Moriarty's goons that are following him.  Part of his instructions are to quickly jump out of his carriage and run through the arcade of shops near Charing Cross Station.  Although it doesn't look like it currently, the entrance at the time would have been through the door behind the pillars.

The tour ended at the famous Sherlock Holmes Restaurant.  

Like the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, the restaurant also had a recreation of Sherlock's study and this time there were a few additions which were missing from the Museum's recreation.

There was the fake Sherlock head used to trap an assassin who was going to shoot Holmes from a window across the street.

They also had a pair of boxing gloves which was one of Holmes past times.

While the Museum did have a bust of Napoleon, the restaurant gets some serious points for their recreation of the broken Napoleon busts from The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.  Now where is that black pearl?

Holmes Adventures Part 2: 221B Baker St.

During the time of the publication of the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels there was no 221B Baker Street address.  While there was a Baker Street, the street only had addresses up to number 85 Baker Street.  In the 1930's the streets were realigned and Sherlock fans got their dream fulfilled of actually having a building located at the world famous address.

After entering the house and heading up the stairs...

...you enter a recreation of Holmes study and the place where he received many of the clients and solved many of the mysteries from the stories.  

Holmes' favorite violin and chemistry set are also on the table ready to use.  

Also in the room were many little details from the stories including a bust of Napoleon from The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.  

They also had the famous slipper that Sherlock kept his tobacco in.

I was disappointed to find that the museum's gift shop didn't have a miniature Napoleon statue for sale but they did have a mini tobacco slipper.  During our visit to Paris I was able to find a mini Napoleon bust that will serve as a nice placeholder.   

On the top floor of the museum you will find wax figures of some of the more memorable characters from the stories including Professor Moriarty.  Here he is seen as his traditional personification as an older gentleman, which is my personal favorite of all the variations...[*Spoilers ahead*]..the Robert Downey Jr. movies have him literally as a university professor, the new BBC Sherlock series has him as an impossibly young man, and the CBS drama Elementary portrays him as...wait for it...an impossibly young woman. [*Spoilers done*]

They also had The Man With The Twisted Lip.

And they also had Jabez Wilson, the man who brings the mystery of the Red Headed League to Sherlock and Dr. Watson.  This is my personal favorite of the short stories and in the Jeremy Brett TV series from the 1980's they added that the mastermind behind the plan was Professor Moriarty which isn't in the original story.  

There he sits being paid to copy out the Encyclopedia Britannica while a master plan was being hatched at his small shop. 

Later that same day we also took a walking tour amongst some of the remaining locations found in the Holmes stories that have survived in modern London and I'll highlight those in Part 3 of my Holmes Adventures.    

My Attempt To Clone Some Dinosaurs!

One of Latvia's claims to fame is that it [along with the other Baltic states and Kaliningrad] produces much of the world's amber.  When the Baltic sea is churning and a big sea storm comes through it is common to find bits of amber washing ashore on the coast.  One of my "must buy" items before leaving Latvia was a big chunk of amber, preferably one with a bug inside...so that I could clone dinosaurs!    

    

It turns out that those pieces, even with just little ants or gnats are worth several hundred dollars.  So instead I focused on size instead.  I ended up with an unpolished piece that would probably be shaped into a super large broach or maybe a belt buckle.  

Here's a picture of it in my hand to give you a better idea of its size.  If you've ever seen amber up close you'll also notice that changing its position slightly will give you an entirely different perspective on the fossilized tree resin.  It also looks like a totally different piece under different lighting.  

Holmes Adventures Part 1: Sherlock Underground Art

In some ways I felt like I had been training all my life for my trip to England.  I've watched hour and after hour of British comedies, heard my British Grandmother tell her stories of her days in England before moving to America, tried to solve the mystery before Sherlock Holmes or Hercules Poirot did in their novels.  I know the place names from all around London even if I have no idea where they are actually located or what the place actually looks like.  Shepherd's Bush, Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Covent Garden...these places live in my mind the same way a fantasy location like Middle Earth or Endor would.  I  actually did visit a few of those locations and a few I decided to save for my next trip.  

But one location, probably more than any other, I was going to see and on our first full day no less.  I really didn't know that Baker Street, fictitious home of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, was one of the busiest stops on the London Underground.  This first post in this three-part post will show off some of the Sherlock Holmes are that is in the Baker Street station.  In Part 2, we will visit the famous Sherlock Holmes museum located at what is today's 221B Baker Street and in Part 3 take a Sherlock Holmes tour to show some real locations highlighted in the novels.

But first the Underground art.

We have Sherlock with his trademark pipe.  This sort of pipe, called a Calabash pipe, was never specifically used by Holmes in the short stories and novels, and instead was made popular through its use as a prop by the actor H.A. Saintsbury in the many plays featuring the detective.

Much like a piece of modern pop-art the image is made up of many smaller Sherlocks.

There is another corresponding Sherlock in red...

...and a portion where the red and black mix and if you stare at it long enough you eyes start playing tricks on you.

The View From My Window #18: France

While we were in France, we stayed with my Godparents in the city of Asnieres in the northwest side of the Paris suburbs.  Here was the lovely view from our window:  

While the cars down below in the courtyard would change throughout the day, the one constant was a least one or two cats were always sitting around in the sun.  Someone feeds the cats from the apartment buildings and so at feeding time all the local cats stop by.  I looked out at one point and saw that there were about 10 cats sitting there.

With the camera angle I had I was only able to get seven of them in one photo.  There were several more cats to the left of the this photo that wouldn't quite fit.