Pouring My Art Out

The Queen… part 3…

Posted on July 9, 2015 by pouringmyartout

So yeah, we saw the Queen of England…

She rode by in her carriage about 30 yards away as she inspected her troops.

And then she rode over to that arch under the red flags on the other side of the parade ground…

And she took a seat on that raised platform as the troops paraded back and forth and the bands played.

And it was all very exciting and a little mystifying.

Either way, there was quite a lot of marching around by various troops of soldiers.

And there were even Bobbies with machine guns keeping the Queen… and the marching bands… safe.

And there was that one Bobby with the square jaw who looked like he had been set there by central casting to play the typical English Bobby. But then, just when you thought it couldn’t get any more exciting, the Trooping of the Color ended, and the Queen got back in her carriage to ride back down the Mall to Buckingham Palace… and my wife and Mollie and I ran and got ahead of her, and then things got really crazy…

First we had to watch a big parade of soldiers and bands and so on and so forth…

But you will not want to miss the next few posts… trust me… even though you may have to wait until tomorrow…

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged animals, buckingham palace, england, great britain, humor, london, photography, the queen, travel | 6 Comments

The Queen… part 2…

Posted on July 9, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Here I am looking all giddy as I wait for the arrival of the Queen of England…

You could feel the excitement build as more and more troops of soldiers marched in to be inspected be her majesty… because who doesn’t love to inspect troops on their birthday?

Plus, there were lots of horses… and you know I love horses…

One thing that helped me pass the time whilst waiting for Her Royal Highness, was talking to a young English couple that had come in from the country to see the Queen. I wish I had a picture of them. We talked about British comedy and all the English TV shows we can watch in America. And I fine-tuned my knowledge of English slang as we made fun of the rich and well-connected posh people who had tickets to sit on the bleachers closer to the Queen and the Trooping of the Color… You should have seen the hats the women were wearing.

So I now know which is a worse thing to call someone, a ‘tosser’ or a ‘whanker’… oh, just Google it, for cryin’ out loud.

Man, I loved all the pomp and circumstance!

It was a truly moving bit of living history.

Whoops… somebody forgot their horses…

And at last, the big moment… and the Queen… arrived…

The Queen used to ride her favorite horse to inspect the troops, but now she does it in this fancy carriage… but more on that in the next post.

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged animals, england, horses, humor, london, photography, queen, queen of england, travel | 16 Comments

The Queen… part 1…

Posted on July 9, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Yeah… we saw the Queen of England. I can’t even tell you how exciting that was…

I know that isn’t a very good picture. I used better pictures in that first post I did telling you I was back home. And I have more pictures coming up that are better. But I didn’t want to waste any of them.

There I am, looking all excited that the Queen was going to be arriving soon. I had to blur out Mollie’s face… because that is the way my wife likes it. Security is always a concern… and speaking about security, you know who has a lot of it?

The Queen of England.

Okay, that lovely set of British Bobbies were there mostly to answer stupid questions from American tourists. But they did form the front line of defense.

I will be honest. When my wife said we were going to go watch the Queen’s official birthday celebration and the Trooping of the Color, I thought she was a little nuts. I thought we would be so far away that the Queen would be a little dot in the distance. I am here to admit that I was wrong. So wrong. But I will get to all that soon enough.

Look at that… the security was so tight that when one of the crack squirrels that live in my head popped out for a closer look, the Bobbies politely turned it away.

The excitement kept mounting as more and more regiments of the Household troops arrived. I wish I could explain the tradition of the Trooping of the Color. It goes way back. These are some of the oldest units in the British army and are technically under direct command of the Royal Family. There is a lot of history being played out here.

These men are dressed in the fancy dress uniforms, but all the units are serving military units, and these men were all in combat in Afghanistan before being rotated home.

I was so excited by my personal experience that day that I spent the rest of our time in England telling everybody I met that I had seen the Queen and the Royal Family. It seems that seeing the Queen to the British is a little like visiting the Statue of Liberty is to the people of New York City. Most of them haven’t yet. I guess they figure they will one of these days. They just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Members of these famous units were also selling pamphlets that explain the traditions and ceremonies. They also explained all the symbolism of the fancy red dress uniform coats. That little symbol on that soldier’s collar and the way the buttons on the front are arranged tells you what Household Cavalry or Foot Guards unit he is part of… you really ought to Google all this stuff.

The main thing is that I was wrong, and my wife was right, and we saw the Queen from not to terribly far away, and we had an awesome time and it was a great life experience.

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged Britain, england, humor, london, photography, queen, queen of england, royal family, travel, trooping of the color | 20 Comments

How did you get around in London with all that crazy traffic, I am sure you are all dying to ask…

Posted on July 8, 2015 by pouringmyartout

I have five words for you… hop-on/hop-off busses…

There I am, listening to the historic narration on the pink headphones provided on the busses. And there, by pure coincidence, is St. Paul’s in the background.

The busses take these big, circular routes all around the city, and it is a great way not only to get to know the area, but you can use it for free transportation also.

Riding on the top deck of the double-decker busses, which are open to the sky, gives you a great all-around view.

I was walking on the Tower Bridge and just happened to catch one of the busses in my picture. My wife did a lot of research because there is more than one bus tour company. The Big Bus is the one to get!

If we hadn’t been riding the bus when we passed this little church… which was a special church for airmen during World War Two…

And if I hadn’t been listening to the narration…

I would never have found out that those pock marks on the side of the church are some of the last bits of bomb fragment damage left over from the Nazi bombing in the Second World War.

I don’t even remember what that building is, but Mollie took the picture and my head is in it… so of course I am posting it.

So when you go to London, don’t rent a car… that would be crazy. We used the famous London cabs quite a bit too, but the bus tours are worth doing. Don’t try to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road inside London.

And just so you know, I rode the bus past this old pub three times before I finally remembered to take a picture of the serious wardrobe malfunction going on above the door on the fourth trip. HA!

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, england, great britain, hop on hop off bus tours, humor, london, london traffic, photography, pubs, travel | 28 Comments

For Trent Lewin, my head minion…

Posted on July 8, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Here is a picture of a brochure we brought back from London…

Is there something you would like to tell us???

Posted in My travels, stuff about blogging | Tagged bloggers, blogging, blogs, current-events, humor, london, minions, sale, shirts | 34 Comments

High tea in a low crypt…

Posted on July 8, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Okay, that title warrants some explanation… we had high tea in a low crypt… is that better?

I am not going to go into the history of the term ‘high tea’, because it has diverged from its original meaning. Suffice it to say that ‘high tea’ is now just a fancy way of saying tea time with snacks. So we had high tea in London after our tour of the Tower… because we come from good English stock and that is what we do. Only this time we had high tea in the crypts under St. Paul’s Cathedral. How cool is that?

No, I don’t mean that we ate little finger sandwiches and tasty little pastries in a musty tomb surrounded by interred corpses… okay, well, there are still interred corpses down there, but they are neatly tucked under the floor stones and behind walls, and the space is now open and airy and contains a few little restaurants and a souvenir shop.

St. Paul’s… and once again, I encourage you to Google it if you are interested… is where you have seen all the famous weddings of the Royal Family. Unfortunately, they do not allow photography inside the church, which is a shame, because we went to the Evensong Service and sat in the choir seats and the inside of that building is freekin’ gorgeous.

Go back and watch some of the Royal weddings and you can see right where we sat. I was raised Episcopalian… which is really the same… almost… as the Church of England. I might have fallen away from the notion of organized religion, but I still felt right at home during the service.

My mom is a trained opera singer… purely amateur… and she has been singing in the choir at my family’s church in Berkeley since before I was born. She goes on these trips to Europe with the choir where they sing in cathedrals all around England and on the continent.

So my mom has actually sung in services inside St. Paul’s.

I suppose some of you might remember the picture of me wearing a nice button down shirt I posted earlier. I hope this explains the anomaly.

I couldn’t very well go to high tea looking like a scruffy vagrant… which reminds me… you should really see my beard now… HA!

Anyway, between the Tower of London and our trip to St. Paul’s, that accounts pretty much for the first full day of our trip to Europe…

More or less…

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged art, england, great britain, high tea, humor, london, photography, st pauls, travel | 4 Comments

The Tower… the final chapter…

Posted on July 7, 2015 by pouringmyartout

I think nothing sums up the history of the Tower of London like the new buildings that are popping up in the city around it…

It is the juxtaposition of the ancient stone battlements and the ultramodern skyscrapers that is both poignant and mesmerizing.

And the London skyline is full of magical and whimsical new towers.

The past and the future coexist with mutual admiration.

Maybe that is what is fascinating about all of Europe.

It is the timelessness of the overall experience. I can’t remember what the locals call that weird, bent building that seems to be breaking like a wave, but I love the sense of fun that the new generation of towers brings to the scene.

You look out over the ancient walls of the Tower, past a World War Two war ship and on to the Shard, a breathtaking new edifice that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Catch a glimpse of ‘The Pickle’ as they call the building that looks a little like a rocket ship from a 50’s sci-fi movie, and you almost have to laugh.

It is almost too much to take in at one time.

It is like time traveling with your eyes.

And it can take your breath away.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged architecture, art, history, humor, london, photography, the pickle, the shard, tower of london, travel | 26 Comments

The Tower… part 5…

Posted on July 7, 2015 by pouringmyartout

Well, we are almost done with the Tower of London… the very first part of our very first full day in Europe… which gives you an idea of the number of pictures you have to look forward to.

In the middle of the courtyard of the Tower is this strange memorial. In the center there is a pillow made of crystal. It symbolizes the pillow upon which rested the head of one of King Henry the Eighth’s wives… after it was removed from her shoulders….

A lot of people were executed in and around the Tower grounds.

In the old days you did not want to make the king or queen angry.

If you think our laws today are tilted in favor of the rich, famous and powerful, I can only suggest once again that you delve into some history books.

That gate is called ‘the Traitor’s Gate’. You did not want to pass through that.

Visit the Tower. Let the history flow around you.

More than a thousand years of history, washing around the Tower like a relentless tide…

And all the while, the Tower stood.

Watching as the world changed around it.

Posted in My travels, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, england, history, humor, london, photography, tower of london, travel | 4 Comments

The Tower… part 4…

Posted on July 7, 2015 by pouringmyartout

The Tower of London is not only full of history, it is literally full of history…

There are sets of armor and muskets and swords and guns and knives and other fun things like that…

Many of the suits of armor were worn by famous kings and people we all know from history.

It is a little strange to think about how many human beings have died throughout history in order for the world to end up as it is today.

It is a sobering thought… which might be why the world is now so full of bars and pubs…

I am not a fan of the huge set of scaffolding stairs that now allow… wait… is that the back of my head over there on the left? I guess Mollie took this picture. Wow… the back of my head really is flat. I thought that was just a joke.

That right there is the actual Tower of London… the White Tower…

It was built when the London was just recovering from the dark ages following the fall of the Roman Empire, and it wasn’t built to protect the locals… it was built to protect their new overlords from the locals… seriously, you should Google all this stuff.

The Tower has been the center of London for so long in so many ways.

The city grew around it, and the British conquered a large portion of the world.

And during all that history, the Tower loomed there, holding prisoners and keeping secrets.

Posted in My travels, Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged current-events, england, great britain, history, humor, london, photography, tower of london | 4 Comments

The Tower… part 3…

Posted on July 6, 2015 by pouringmyartout

The Tower of London has some strange animal connections. To begin with, there are the famous tower ravens…

Even in World War Two, when the Germans were bombing London, there were always at least a few ravens kept on the Tower grounds. This is because there is a legend that when the last raven leaves the Tower, the soul of Great Britain will go with it.

It also turns out that for many years, the Kings and Queens of England used the Tower grounds not only to keep human prisoners, but animal ones too.

Back in the day, the royal families of Europe would try to outdo one another with their royal menageries.

To commemorate these weird times, the Tower now has life-sized wire statues of some of the animals that were once kept there.

It is just a tad unnerving.

But the ravens are awesome. They are not at all scared of people. They are also huge and their beaks are sort of intimidating.

When you wander around the Tower grounds, keep an eye out for these magnificent birds.

The add to the mystique of the place.

They fit in with the décor so to speak.

I spotted that one using his beak to dig little holes in the grass to shove bits of lunch meat from a sandwich that he had scrounged into. Then he would tear up some more grass and use it to plug the hole. These birds are actually very smart, in case you didn’t know.