When I first began writing this blog in 2017, I started with my first two trips which were to London in 1983 and overall Europe in 1984. Although I started a trip journal with that first 1983 trip, it didn’t have a tremendous amount of detail for the first few trips.
Photography-wise I had a rather limited film camera that I had picked up in a pawn shop when I was in college and had no money to buy something good. The camera couldn’t zoom and was a view-finder, not through the lens (which meant I had no real clue of how the photo would turn out until it was developed). But it worked well enough at the time for basic quick travel pics (and I still didn’t have much money).
In 1992, I started a new job for a company which had a monthly newsletter published for the department I was in. I joined the newsletter, writing articles to explain upcoming projects and initiatives. Then, when they also wanted some lighter fare, I wrote some humorous articles — especially about my travels. I was quite relieved that they were popular.
Since I was new to traveling those first few trips, I had a lot of silly things that I did or that happened to me. One of my first stories was about nearly getting creamed by an articulated lorry in Stratford-Upon-Avon during that 1983 trip to London. Since I still have those publications containing my articles, that was the same story with which I began my A Traveling Fool blog.
I had a few photos scanned into my computer and my old articles and my journal. As time went on and I started to have better cameras, disks of photos as well as the prints, then moved to digital photography, I could include better and better photos. My journals included more and more detail, so I could provide a better narrative of my adventures, comical, not so pleasant, and just normal.
In 2020 when none of us could travel (plus I hadn’t been anywhere in 2018 or 2019 either), it became clear to me that I would need to go back to those earlier trips and fill in with what I hadn’t written about in the beginning. Then, look at some of the more interesting adventures that popped up here and there through my travels and could use more of a spotlight. So, I scanned several more of those earlier photos in and also used some later photos, if needed, for when I visited the same place more than once and the early photos were too dark or fuzzy or just not really usable.
So, for these posts on my early travels, I have been relying on sketchy journal entries, scanned photos (unless I have later photos of the same place), and my memory. This particular post includes three places that I have so far only visited during this one trip (Madame Tussauds, Kensington Palace, and a nightclub called “The Beefeater”) and one that I have been to a couple of times (Victoria & Albert Museum).
The day was a Sunday and we started out at Madame Tussauds. The London location is the original. Madame Tussaud had been taught wax modeling as a child and had created models of the heads of several of the victims of the French Revolution. After taking her wax heads and other figures around Europe for several years, she traveled to London for a show of her wax figures. She was then unable to return to France because of the Napoleonic Wars. So she set up shop in London in 1835 on Baker Street, a short distance from the current location.
This was the first wax museum that I had ever been to at that point and it was huge. It is even larger now with several special exhibits and experiences (such as an interactive Sherlock Holmes Experience with live actors, wax figures, and film where the audience joins in to help solve a mystery). I had planned to revisit the musuem during the trip I had booked for late in 2020.
In 1983, I was especially interested in the historic figures such as Henry VIII and his six wives and the current royal family (included here is a somewhat fuzzy photo that includes Prince Charles and Princess Diana). I also took a photo of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens together. Neither one of them looks all that happy. Dickens actually looks as if he is somewhat frightened about something he is seeing. Shakespeare is looking away from Dickens as if he sees something more interesting elsewhere.
We took the tube over to Kensington Palace and had lunch in the vicinity. I did not know at the time that a great, great grandfather of mine had been butler in a house (that still stands, but has been converted to luxury apartments) not far from Kensington Palace. I had planned to revisit Kensington and take some photos of the house in which my ancestor had served during that cancelled trip.
At the palace, Mom and I toured the State Rooms as well as Queen Anne’s private rooms (she was queen from 1702 to 1714 and died at Kensington) and the suite of rooms where Queen Victoria had grown up and where she had been told that she was then the Queen in 1837 when she was only eighteen. We then checked out the gardens and the orangery. Charles and Diana were living in another part of the palace that was far from the public eye.
We took a stroll through part of Hyde Park to get to the Victoria & Albert Museum where we took special interest in the costumes, period furniture and tapestries. After our visit there, we took the underground back to our hotel to get ready for our dinner out.
As part of our package, we had tickets to a nightclub called “The Beefeater”, which was (and still is) located at St Katherine’s Docks near the Tower of London. I have a photo here of the exterior that I took many years later. Transportation was included so we didn’t have to try to find the place on our own.
The club was built in one of the old warehouses (Ivory House) down in the vaults. The theme was the time of King Henry VIII. He and his courtiers came around and encouraged much revelry. For entertainment, we had knights, jesters, acrobats, singers and dancers. The food was served on large platters (and the soup from a caldron) with wine and ale in large pitchers. Again, they were going for a banquet feel from Henry VIII’s time, so only utensils in existence back then were used. The platters and pitchers were passed around for everyone to help themselves.
We were seated between a French football (soccer) team and a group of German tourists. The tourists were not at all friendly. They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak German, but they didn’t even smile. They also didn’t pass anything our way.
The football team was quite friendly. I could speak some French, which helped. But they were also quite drunk. They did make certain that we were fed, but I did have to ask for the wine. They sort of wanted to keep that to themselves.
Next time — a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.
Henry VIII & two (and part of a third) wives 
The remaining three wives 
The Royal Family 
Shakespeare & Dickens 
Kensington Palace 
Kensington Palace Gardens 
Victoria & Albert Museum 
Courtyard of V&A 
Some costumes 
Outside the Beefeater Club