Portrait Gallery to Greenwich

On Saturday I intended to make a trip out to Greenwich to see the Old Royal Observatory. However, at London Bridge Subway Station I learned that a good chunk of the DLR (Docklands Light Railway, a separate adjunct to the tube system, was mostly down for maintenance, as well as some of the subway lines. It has long been said that the tube system is disintegrating, as I experienced firsthand on my previous trip, and it looks like the Brits are finally doing something about it by making repairs on the weekends.

Plan B was to go to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. I had a pretty good time at the former, finding the portrait of Sir Richard Francis Burton. Also noted that the latter Victorian explorers were unique in that their portraits had been taken in their field kit, in spite of some of them having reached the rank of admiral. Neither their predecessors nor successors indulged in such a vanity, at least in the portraits presented in this museum, at least until the very modern age. It was interesting that the crude work of Branwell Bronte made it into the museum since it is probably the only portrait of his sisters together.

The Portrait Gallery is on the backside of the National Gallery, so you just have to walk around the block to see Trafalgar Square and the multiple entrances to the National Gallery. I didn’t try to kill myself there, since I’d made a previous visit in 1983 and knew how overwhelming it is. Did wander through most of the galleries to see what caught my eye, such as Rubens and some of the Medieval works.

Instead of making use of a museum cafe as had been my practice I decided to try out a Pret a Manger. Someone should bring this idea to the US. It’s like a Starbucks except with reasonably priced coffee, although without all the options, and a much wider selection of food, mainly reasonable priced but quality sandwiches, and more seating. Unlike Starbucks, the house coffee is very good. All the food ingredients are supposed to be natural and the waste is separated. These chains are usually packed, but they are not open late in the evenings. I heard that they were started by two London office ladies.
Photos of Trafalgar Square at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/TrafalgarSquare/index.html

I then headed back up to Baker Street via the tubes to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum, where 239 Baker Street is now poses as the mythica 221B. My ticket was taken by a girl dressed as one of Mrs. Hudson’s helpers, in a building which had been a period boarding house. The museum upstars contains effigies posed in scenes from some of the better know tales, plus rooms are fitted out as the rooms in which Watson and Holmes were supposed ot have lived, such as the study with the requisited VR shot into the wall.

The ground floor is a giftshop where I tried on a deerstalker, but remembered that I’m trying to clear junk out of my house, not add more, so I returned the hat to the shelf. After asking for directions, I set out for the Sherlock Holmes statue, which is not on Baker Street for some reason. It is in front of the Baker Street subway station.
Photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/SherlockHolmes/index.html

I decided to take a chance to see if the way was clear now to Greenwich and went back down to London Bridge Station. I got there just in time to learn that the stretches of the Jubilee Line and the DLR I needed were back up so i could go to Greenwich afterall. The Jubilee is the newest line and even has barriers to keep one from falling on the tracks. The DLR is physically separate but is part of the same system as the subways. My Travel Pass was valid on it although there are no machines to check the ticket. The unmanned DLR trains are very modern and a contrast to most of the older subway cars.

I didn’t get to Greenwich in time to get into any of the Museums, but I did get to stand over the Meridian Line at the old observatory, since an extension of it is accessible to the pubic even after the main gate is closed. The observatory complex is in the middle of a large park so there is a long pleasant walk you can take from the DLR station, even if you are freezing at this time of the year. There is a good view fro the observatory. The Maritime Museum is below the observatory. The Cutty Sark is also near the DLR station, but is covered up at the moment since it is in the middle of being restored.

Greenwich photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/Greenwich/index.html

Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and Bath

I finally made it successfully on a Golden Tour, this time on a private bus, which improved the chances of actually getting to the destinations compared to using the trains. This was a whirlwind tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath with lunch at the Cloisters Pub in Salibury, but I was fairly happy with the coverage.

Golden Tours sends out buses to the various pick-up points throughout London and brings to a central point near Victoria Station. Everyone is then unloads, sorted, and sent off on the appropriate bus with the appropriate guide. We were a little late getting to the collection points since there was a major traffic jamb on the way. Apparently London is in the midst of digging up and replacing all of the sewers, which often requires an interruption of service since the streets are not all that wide. The Germans did not create enough damage to warrant, nor did the Londoners desire a more rational street plan, such as the wide, rectilinear boulevards in Paris.

Stonehenge was cold and windy, and one had to stay on the path, which one follows in a fixed direction. You cannot normally get up close to the stones themselves. I didn’t have time to finish the audio guide, which was probably just as well. I caught the important parts I think, learning the story of the Blood Stone (which I managed to overlook) and the importance of the ditch surrounding the site. The Blood Stone sometimes appears red because of its chemical properties, not because it was drenched with blood-they may have done that somewhere else. Big surprise is that if probably had nothing to do with the Druids, who like forests and trees, not wide open places and big stones. Stonehenge is also older than the Druids. Until recent times it was a normal tourist ritual to chip off parts of the stones as souvenirs.
Photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/Stonehenge/index.html

Salisbury Cathedral was more interesting than I expected, and the inspection of their copy of the Magna Carta was a nice complement to viewing the copies I’d seen at the British Museum; this one is in better condition. It was interesting to see that Edward Heat is interred in the cathedral. Local regimental battle flags that were displayed inside many referring to the campaigns in Burma.
Photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/Salisbury/index.html

Bath was the highpoint with a tour of the Roman Baths and quick trip to the Pump Room. The baths were much more extensive than I had imagined, and one may spend quite a bit of time trying to explore them and again I didn’t finish the audio guide. In Roman times the site was fairly extensive, and the English were nice enough not to destroy more the site than they had to when they decided to employ the baths for their own purposes. They did carry away a large cornerstone for use in the construction of a local church, but it was returned once its origin was determined. In some areas you can see the remains of the heat exchangers, evident in the remains of many other Roman Baths. As a heat transfer engineer I always find them interesting, although HVAC is not my specialty.

The pump room up above is a nice restaurant these days, but you can still get a glass of water from the natural hot springs that were used to feed the baths. Having seen the state of origins of the water below, i wasn’t much interested.

Since I spent so much time in the Baths, I didn’t have time to get to the Jane Austen Center. I tried and made it most of the way there since Bath actually isn’t that big. It’s also on the side of hill, so directions are given in terms of going up or down. The Jane Austen Cener was up., I was getting close bu decided that I didn’t want to get left behind by the bus, and I understood that it was probably already closed making the value of the effort doubtful. However I had made it to the setting of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, and we’d passed by Miss Austen’s first residence on the way into Bath. The excursion through the town had given me a better feeling for its environment, so it was worth it even though I didn’t reach the goal. Modern Bath appears to still be a popular and lively holiday town, filled with crowds near the baths and street performers.

Photos of Bath at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/Bath/index.html

I made it back to the bus with a little time to spare. I notice we were near a book store so I dashed in a picked up the two Beatrix Potter books on the shelf in preparation for the final trip of my visit.

The British Museum & Dickens Museum

Thursday I was supposed to go on a tour to the Lake District. I got up at 4AM since my ticket said the meeting time at Euston Station was 6:15. No one showed up then, and I called Golden Tours to find that the meeting time had changed to 8AM and the train departure time was now 8:30. Good thing I’d gotten a Mobal SIM card so I could use my unlocked Motorola in the UK. I got my tickets eventually, went back to the hotel and had some breakfast, and then returned to the station. Euston is a little beyond the British Library from my hotel, so I was getting my exercise. FInally I got on the train and was heading North to Oxenholme when the train stopped and it was announced that we were returning to the station. My last time in the UK I had heard how the trains were going downhill after privitization, and I definitely had my proof now. Apparently all the signals up north were out.

It was back to the hotel for another round of breakfast and a nap since most of the museums don’t open till 10AM.

Backup plan was the British Museum, which I’d last visited in 1983. I decided to get there via the Dickens Museum, which could be reached by walking south from my hotel. It’s in a subway dead zone, which are actually pretty common, so walking was the reasonable way of getting there. There are a number of Dickens Museums, but this one is in the home of the early married life and where the Pickwick papers were finished and Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby were written. The museum tour starts with a short video below in the kitchen and various rooms are filled with various printed editions and exhibits from Dickens’ life and works. There is even a grating from the Marshalsea. From the Dickens Museum it was another brisk walk to the British Museum. Dickens photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/Dickens/index.html

Visiting the Acropolis and Egypt gave me an incentive to go back to the British Museum to see the good stuff that the Brits had looted back when they had an empire. This is the same situation as with the Pergamon altar where you have to got to the Musee Insel in Berlin to see the altar. Just as with Pergamon I’d seen the location , the Parthenon, after viewing the Elgin Marbles, but my memory was fuzzy and I wanted to get the context refreshed, or vice versa.

The museum was a little different since my last visit over two and a half decades ago. The enclosed central court is amazing and a little unreal. On the other hand, I can remember a fairly theatrical presentation of the Elgin Marbles. Now they are in a more prosaic setting that allows you to get up close and personal. In the captions the museum is sitll very defensive about still have the marbles, among other things, and never having returned them. Their excuse is that they took better care of them than the Greeks would have. The Greek government would like to have them back. The marbles were given away by the occupying Turkish government. The situation could be the same for the Byzantine artifacts in the Venetian treasury, that were stolen outright, but there aren’t any Byzantines left to complain.

The rest of the museum is still overwhelming, even on a night when it stays open late. Maybe it’s worse even than the Metropolitan. Besides being a complement to a visit to the Acropolis, it is also a complement to a visit to the Cairo museum, since the Egyptian artifacts are cataloged and captioned better than at Cairo. There are of course exhibits on Mesopotamia and other cultures of the Ancient World. There was even a video on how the Americans in Iraq have built a military base right on top of one of the most important archeological sites.

Although most of the museum stayed open late, some galleries closed at their usual ties. Tthe Japanese and Korean galleries closed early, so I missed them. There were also a couple of special that required an admission charge. The British Musuem, as with many of the state run museums, has not admission fee, although there are planety of places to make a recommended voluntary donation. One of the special exhibits, and the most popular one, was on Bablylon, and how its myth compares to reality. Another special exibit was on the Iranian Shah Abbas. who ruled around the same tiime as Queen Elizabeth I.

British Museum photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/BritishMuseum/index.html

Royal Academy and the Imperial War Museum

On my first full day in London, February 25, 2009, I left the Comfort Inn early to make my 10AM reserved entry time at the Royal Academy. That turned out not to be a problem by subway, and I even had to wait with a number of other visitors on the steps. Electronic check-in was supposed to require my credit card, but my cards weren’t recognized and it was a good thing that I had remembered to bring my reservation number, since I had to do things the old fashioned way to get my ticket.

The Royal Academy is in Burlington House, which once housed the Royal Society. It doesn’t stand alone, but once you go through the gate there is a large courtyard.

The Byzantium exhibition was worth the trip, bringing together objects from many different museums around the world, and religious artifacts that formerly only the Pope could view. I learned about Byzantine micromosaics, of which only a few examples, numbering in the forties, still survive. The surviving textiles were often amazing. My high opinion of Byzantine craftsmanship was only reinforced. Some of the artistic traditions didn’t survive the sack by the Venetian sponsored Crusaders in 1204. The looting by he Venetians did preserve some of the artworks for viewing by posterity in the West, although Napoleon’s subsequent looting of the Venetian treasury dispersed many items to the winds, which may help explain why so many various museums and collections are participating. There was a very nice exhibit catalog, but I decided not to buy it here since it is pretty massive and I wouldn’t fancy lugging it in my bags through the Underground staircases. I can get the book online.

I headed in the afternoon to the Imperial War Museum, by subway, of course. I’d been to the Duxford aviation branch, before, but this was my first trip to the Main Museum. This museum is self-standing and is easy to spot, especially with the two large 15“ naval rifles posed before it. There is a lot of stuff on display here, mainly dating from the World War I, and includes some former enemy articles such as the miniature German submarine, an Fw-190, and a whole Jagdpanther. The special exhibition was Bond and Ian Fleming. The section on Ian Fleming himself and how reality merged with fantasy to create Bond was the most interesting. The latter half on the movie Bond was less interesting for me.

Lunch was at the museum cafe where I had some kind of leek tart with mashed peas.

Below the ground floor are extensive immersive exhibits on the wars from World War I to Afghanistan. Above the ground floor is a multi-level exhibit on how British children fared during World War II, and a recreation of the interior of a home from that period.

The exhibit with the most impact, and definitely a contrast to Bond was the Holocaust exhibit which I think has more impact than the ones in the US. This exhibit is extensive in size and content and spiritually exhausting.

To lift my spirits after that I went to the Sherlock Holmes Pub for a meal of Gloria Scott with an appetizer of Sign of Four, washed down by Sherlock Holmes Ale, surrounded by Sherlock Homes memorabilia. The Gloria Scott is a vegetarian version of the Hound of the Baskervilles whiich in turn was fittingly bangers and vegetables in a square pastry tray that was pretty tasty. The vegetables were fresh and tasty, not canned. The ale was actually a bitter and was not bad. Like all pubs that I saw in London in the evening , it was worse than SRO. Fortunately I figured out that the pubs often have an upstairs restaurant are that usually isn’t crowded.

Photos of the Imperial War Museum and the Sherlock Holmes Pub are at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/ImperialWarMuseum/index.html

Photography is not allowed within the Royal Academy.

Laptops

The best Mac laptop I had was the 12“ G4. I don’t know why Apple abandoned that format. For its time it had plenty of power and capability, and you could use it in an airplane. I’d had some Mac B&W laptops before, but they really hadn’t cut it.

My next was a 15” Mac Pro. It’s a good machine, but I found that it’s too big to take either motorcycling or on a plane, at least for me. I do like the Firewire 800 port and the slot that I use for an eSATA card. This machine functions as the backup for my Mac Pro tower, in effect.

My next attempt was a white 13“ Mac that I got for my motorcycle trip to Alaska and for business trips. I got the basic model since I never burn DVDs on the road, but I increased the disc to 320Gb and maxed the RAM to 4Gb. It did the job and survived the trip, acting as my lifeline to the world, but it was kind of heavy and clumsy with poor balance because of the heavy screen. The case also tended to warp making CDs hard to load until you pulled and stretched the case back into shape. I have to admit it did survive my stepping on the keyboard. The biggest problem was the heavy action of the trackpad, which started to give me wrist problems, plus the feel of the keyboard. The lack of a backlit keyboard such as on the 15” was a problem since I also seem to need to use the laptop in a darkened room.

I was thinking of biting the bullet and getting an Air, but at the Apple Store they talked me into getting the new 2.4 MacBook with the backlit keyboard. It’s only a half lb. lighter than the old white MacPro, but it feels lighter since it’s better balanced with a lighter LED lit screen and the rounded corners make it easier to handle.

On the Way to London

Started on my trip to London February 23 by taking Primetime Shuttle to LAX. There I learned that there was a problem with my Aadvantage ticket. The American website had given me no indication that there was a problem, but it turned out that my Paypal payment for the fee for redeeming my frequent flyer miles hadn’t gone through. Remember to skip Paypal in the future. Also had problems with a payment to Target recently, so I’m getting the idea. At least the person at the counter was nice enough to waive the $30 desk transaction fee.

In the air things were better. Got two seats to myself and I got a little sleep. I actually liked the one movie I chose from the onboard entertainment system, City of Embers. Who would have thought of a giant star nosed mole? Didn’t even get a chance to listen to my iPod, although I did study my guidebook and maps of London.

Getting through customs was no problem. and I found my way easily to the Heathrow Express. Turns out it was a mistake to buy my ticket in the US since they charged me at the old exchange rate of 2:1. At least I didn’t have to buy a ticket, but there weren’t any crowds and the train was pretty empty. Got off at Paddington and found my way to the Hammersmith and The City line. There I was glad to have my London Travel Pass since I was able to get through the gate with no problems and without having to stop to buy a ticket.

Turned out my hotel wasn’t far from King’s Cross and it’s surrounded by fast food places, restaurants, and convenience stores. Strolling down Euston I was surprised that the new British Library was right there and I’d arrived on the one day of the week that they stay open till 8PM. Almost as much fun as visiting the new library in Alexandria, Egypt. They have free wifi for the public, and there are hordes of people there with their laptops crammed into every nook and cranny. The exhibits on Freedom and Rights was fascinating, as well as seeing their copy of the Magna Carta. The most moving exhibit was Scott’s journal opened to his last entry made before his party died. There was also the log of the HMS Victory with the entry recording Nelson’s death.

McDonald’s here is better than the US since their wifi is completely free, if a little slow. Latter on I found that late at night when all the other users go home the bandwidth improves and I was able to upload all by photos. Good thing since wifi at the Comfort Inn costs an arm and a leg. People don’t seem to like bussing their own trays in England from what I can tell. Don’t worry, I only had coffee and a pie at McDonalds so I could test their internet; I had dinner at an Indian restaurant around the corner from my hotel. Also identified some pubs for future dinners. The McDonalds still offer veggie burgers and their coffee is very good. Actually all the coffee I had in the UK was very good.

The Comfort Inn room was small, but I knew that from the online hotel feedback and from the room photos. The shower was very good, but you had to get up early to get enough hot water. The hotel room was larger than one I had once in Venice near the Doge’s palace, or even one I had in an upscale hotel in Baltimore, so I can’t complain. From what I saw in the breakfast room, the hotel must have been packed. The breakfast wasn’t bad with hard boiled eggs (which I shouldn’t have been eating, but I had to miss it half the time to go on my tours and to get to the airport.

Photos from this day are at: http://ikemi.info/graphics/London1/index.html

Suzuki DL-650

The little V-Strom is probably one of the most successful bikes I’ve owned. Like the GSX-650 I also own, the 650 makes use of the DL-1000 chassis but with a different swing arm and fork. You can even tell that the left side muffler is missing. The bike is a little high in the saddle, but easy to handle for short people such as myself. It has very good parking lot manners and I’ve never dropped it, probably because it doesn’t feel top heavy at all. In reviews the bike has been noted for its ugliness, but a high school aged girl came up to me once and said the bike looked really cool. Maybe the Japanese stylists know something that middle aged motorcycle reviewers don’t.

The bike is very user friendly with no bad handling or power traits. Unlike the 1000cc Suzuki V-twins, it doesn’t have any funny powerband flat spots. Throttle response is fairly linear. Sometimes in a great while it will stall when cold. Mine has survived a trip down the Alcan highway with not problems except for a worn out chain and a flat rear tire. On longer trips its only disadvantage as a tourer is that it show its gutlessness in a strong headwind. Mileage is usually near 50 mpg, and with the 6.5 gallong tank that gives a lot of range.

I’ve added a hugger to it, although I left that off when I went to Alaska. The forks do need to be reworked due to dive issues. A change of springs and fork oil works wonders. A Superbrace was a noticeable improvement, removing the twitchiness when going around a tight on-ramp at speed. I did have SW-Motech crash bars and bash plate, but swapped them for sliders when I got home from Alaska. I had the first generation bash plate that hung pretty low and had a tendency to bang into everything, eventually breaking one mount. However, it did pay for itself once. The crash bars were fine, but I just figured I didn’t need them anymore since I don’t plan on doing anymore adventure touring.

I also took off my Givi saddlebag racks. The racks have held up fine, but with the Givi saddlebags they make for an awesomely wide package that becomes a liability in tight traffic. Unlike my BMW racks for the R100S, the Givis held up fine. The saddlebags are pretty tough, too, although they are now quite scratched up since they are so wide. I also use one of them as a trunk sometimes on my GSX. The Givi adapter for a trunk and the trunk are still on the bike and are very convenient for commuting, along with my early Mags Bag. I have the SW-Motech centerstand which simplifies maintenance, but it does hang down low and weighs a ton. On the radiator I added the SW-motech grill since Suzukis have completely exposed cooling fins there. At least Yamaha provides plastic grill protection, as well as huggers.

After 30,000+ miles no mechanical problems. I did experiment with gearing. For some reason going one tooth higher created an incredibly noisy drive train, although it seemed to work well. I ended up with one tooth less both front and rear. This combination may result with in shorter chain life, but it does give me slightly lower gearing and is as quiet as stock. The front brake lines were replaced with longer than stock Galfer braided lines to accommodate my aluminum handlebars. Going down Highway 1 I noticed that the otherwise benign handlebars could become akward when doing a lot of cornering. Straighter bars with an adjustable riser solved that problem.