David Tennant – A Traveling Fool

August 16, 2020

London: Don Juan in Soho, Verger’s Tour at Westminster Abbey & Hail

As soon as I returned home from my 2016 trip to NYC, Edinburgh & London, I went online to Rabbie’s Tours site to see what they offered in addition to day trips out of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I found numerous short trips (for a few days) and long trips (for a couple of weeks) out of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Dublin. All of them were small group tours for 16 people max. Perfect. I printed out the ones in which I was especially interested and began to think seriously of returning the following year to take part in them.

So when, in November of 2016, I discovered that David Tennant would be starring in a comedy, Don Juan in Soho, in London’s West End in April, May & June of 2017, I already had planned everything else I wanted to do. With a few calendars from MSWord printed out and the dates of the play plus the available dates of the tours I wanted scribbled on them, I went online to the theatre site for the play and bought tickets for two performances. Then I booked the Rabbie’s tours — one for five days out of London and another for four days out of Edinburgh. I planned the remaining days and booked the day trips, air, hotels, airport transfers, and round trip train to and from Edinburgh. All set. Just needed to wait until April.

This time I had enough frequent flyer miles to get a free round trip flight. Yay! That saved a good amount of money. Enough that I decided to splurge a little on my first hotel in London, which was next to the river, and get a room overlooking the river. Since I didn’t want to go back to the hotel I used to use in London, I was experimenting with other hotels.

For the first three nights (before taking off on one of Rabbie’s tours) I had booked the Royal Horseguards. This was the one on the river. Built in 1884 as a luxury apartment building, it was located close to the Horse Guards Parade and Banqueting Hall just off Whitehall.

After my plane landed at Heathrow, I was supposed to meet the transfer I had booked to get me to my hotel. They were late. I called the company (I always keep the information about my bookings with me just in case) and asked where he was. They said he should be there. I said he wasn’t. Eventually he showed up. He didn’t speak much English and left me to deal with my own bags while I followed him to where he had parked. Then he drove like a maniac all the way to the hotel. I had been in some taxis with some wild drivers before, but this guy won the prize. I closed my eyes and prayed like crazy.

I was there too early for the hotel to be ready for me (checkin was 3pm). So I checked my bags into their baggage room and set off to get some lunch. One of my favorite pubs – the Sherlock Holmes – was nearby. So I walked over there and ordered some fish & chips with a half pint of cider (hard cider). In pubs it is necessary to place your order at the bar, and then sit down. They bring it to you once it’s ready.

While waiting, I received an email asking me to give feedback on my airport transfer. I kept it clean and civilized, but really let them have it regarding the driver they had sent.

When outside of the US, I turn my cellular data off so I can only receive and send data via WiFi. I always get hotels with WiFi included. Sometimes pubs and other places have WiFi available to customers. The cellular data bill would be astronomical. Once it is late enough in the day so I am not waking anybody up, I send a quick text message to the family letting them know I am safely at my destination. Otherwise I mainly use the hotel WiFi at night to post a few photos on Facebook and send any emails that need sending. Since free hotel WiFi is not secure, I am very careful about what I do on my phone — no banking or anything else dangerous should someone else be able to see what I am doing.

After lunch, I walked to Wyndhams Theatre to pick up my tickets and vouchers (I had a voucher for a program, another for a glass of wine, and one for an ice cream at the interval – intermission). I also took a few photos of the theatre and scouted out where the back stage entrance was located. I had decided to do something I had never done before and wait at the backstage door to ask for an autograph.

The play was both very funny and very tragic all at once. Things didn’t end any better for Don Juan than in any other version of the story. The cast was very talented. Both David Tennant and Adrian Scarborough were especially wonderful.

The mistake that I made was getting my ticket for that first night in the first row center of the Royal Circle (one level up from the main floor). I couldn’t get out of there and down the stairs fast enough to get to the backstage door and be anywhere near the barricade. No autograph for me that night. It was also cold.

I headed back to the hotel and discovered my second mistake. The last block from Whitehall to the hotel was deserted. Never a good idea to be on a street completely alone – especially at night. I stepped up my pace to a very brisk walk.

The next morning, I arrived at Westminster Abbey at 9:35am. I then bought the Verger Tour ticket for £5 on top of the regular admittance. It had taken a while to get through the line. I had until 10:30am to wander around the abbey on my own before meeting up with the rest of my group and the Verger (who is a caretaker of the abbey). That ended up being about twenty minutes from the time I got the tickets.

The Verger was a young woman and was absolutely delightful. She was very knowledgeable about the history of the abbey. She didn’t sound like she was reciting what she had memorized, but like she actually knew all of the information she was giving us. We could ask questions and she knew the answers. She started us off at the Coronation Chair and the portrait of Richard II, followed by the memorial to Sir Isaac Newton. Then came the quire.

We are able to sit in the stalls. This was where she gave us the history. Henry III built the abbey from the quire back to just before Henry VII’s chapel (demolishing much of what Edward the Confessor had built in the process). Richard II built the part from the quire forward to the front door (where his portrait was). Henry III had also created Edward the Confessor’s Shrine, which is between the High Altar and the Henry VII Chapel.

When we left the quire to take a look at the altar and the floor in front of it, she pointed out where Anne of Cleves (fourth of Henry VIII’s six wives) was buried. Of all of the times I had been to Westminster Abbey, I had never seen her grave before. It is very unassuming, just a plaque in the wall.

The big reason why I wanted the Verger tour came next. This was Edward the Confessor’s Shrine. They only allow ten people at a time up there. So we needed to wait for some of the clergy of the abbey and some special guests of theirs to vacate the space before we could go up.

In addition to Edward the Confessor and his queen Edith of Wessex, the shrine platform contained the tombs of Edward I and his queen Eleanor of Castile, Henry III, Edward III and his consort Philippa of Hainault, Henry V, and Richard II and his queen Anne of Bohemia. Most had the effigies of whoever was in the particular tomb. But Edward I had no effigy at all on his very plain tomb. He hadn’t planned to stay there long. He expected that his son, Edward II, would conquer the Scots and that he would be buried up there in the country he had tried so hard to conquer and control. His queen and Edward the Confessor’s queen were not buried in the same tomb with them, but in separate tombs nearby.

Although we couldn’t take photos and we weren’t allowed to touch any of the tombs or effigies, we could kneel in one of the niches of Edward the Confessor’s actual tomb and pray if we wished. I wished. It was a place where people have knelt and prayed since 1269, when Henry III had the new shrine built.

Once we finished our tour and I explored the rest of what I wanted to explore, I headed over to the Westminster Arms, where Mom and I had usually eaten lunch on our prior visits to Westminster Abbey. I had bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) with a half pint of their special ale.

After lunch I took a walk, first over to the Horse Guards Parade on the St James Park side. It decided to rain, so I put my cap on, pulled my jacket hood up and tied it on over the cap. A few seconds later, it stopped raining. I pulled the hood back down and the cap off and it started to rain again. It went back and forth like that for the rest of my walk through the park to Buckingham Palace.

From the palace I walked over to The Mall and then Green Park. From Green Park, I could pass through a gate to go by Clarence House (though I could get a better photo from The Mall). This used to be the home of Elizabeth II’s mom, the Queen Mother, and is now the home of Prince Charles and Camilla. It is right next door to St James Palace.

St James Palace was commissioned by Henry VIII in 1530 and was the secondary palace after Whitehall for the Tudor and Stuart monarchs. After Whitehall burned down, the Hanover monarchs used St James, then Clarence House, and then Buckingham Palace as their main residence. When I was there in 2017, Prince Harry was living there as were Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice of York, and Princess Alexandria.

I went around the side of St James Palace along Marlborough Road to get back over to The Mall. I had just crossed The Mall over to the park side when the heavens opened up again. This time, though, it was hail – about marble size. Since there wasn’t any thunder and lightning involved, I took refuge under a tree, on a bench. I sort of went into a seated fetal position until it was over, trying to make myself a smaller target.

Although I will carry a small, lightweight umbrella in my case when I travel, I have it along for the possibility of rain when going out to a play or dinner at night. During the day when sightseeing, I leave it behind. It isn’t possible to take photos when trying to hold an umbrella over my head. I wear an all-weather jacket and a baseball cap. If the weather is warm, I’ll take the lining out of the jacket, roll the jacket up, and stuff it into the lightweight nylon bag I carry with me. It has various pockets to keep my camera, maps, water bottle, extra camera batteries, purchases I might make in a gift shop, etcetera, and it packs easily in my luggage.

Once the hail ended, I headed back to the hotel through the Admiralty Arch. The central arch is only used by the queen, so the gate is closed and locked unless she is using it.

On the other side of the arch, I took a photo of the Statue of King Charles I. He has stood at this location, which was the original location of the Eleanor Cross (a copy of which now stands in front of the Charing Cross Rail Station) from the 1290s until it was destroyed in 1647, since 1675. He faces down Whitehall in the direction of where he was executed in 1649.

The Statue of Charles I had been created in 1633. During the English Civil War, the statue was sold to a metalsmith to be melted down. But he hid it instead. Once Charles II was asked to return to England from exile and crowned king, the statue of his father was brought out of hiding and set up where it stands now.

This time at the play, I had a seat at the end of the second row in the stalls on the main floor. This time, although I didn’t make it to the first row behind the barricades (Did those people even see the play? Or did they just line up outside at the stage door?) I found a couple of short women who seemed friendly and chatted with them before David Tennant came out. It wasn’t terribly long before he flew out of the door, waved at everyone and dashed down the line to the end so he could work his way back down to the stage door.

I managed to get my ticket autographed (photo included here), but I couldn’t get a selfie taken with him since I wasn’t close enough. However, I did manage to take a few photos of him after he signed my ticket. We also exchanged a few words when he handed my ticket back to me and I thanked him for having signed it.

Next time – the Tower of London and an experience with Scotland Yard

May 10, 2020

Upper Manhattan

My second day of the Hop On Hop Off bus tour, I boarded the Upper Manhattan route at Times Square, which then set off for Columbus Circle. From there we went to Lincoln Center (which houses the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the Juilliard School of Music) and into my former neighborhood. When I had lived in NYC, I spent part of my time in Queens (in Elmhurst, then later in Jackson Heights) and part in Manhattan (on West 73^rd between Central Park West and Columbus).

Three of my favorite residential buildings – the Ansonia, the Dakota, and the San Remo – are also in the vicinity. The Ansonia was built in the 1890s as a luxury residential hotel. Now it has apartments and condos – still luxury. The Dakota was built in the 1880s and supposedly called the Dakota because that part of the city was so sparsely populated when it was built. It was even more luxurious than the Ansonia. The San Remo was the newest of the three, having been built in the 1930s. It has also become the most expensive and deluxe of the three buildings.

The building I lived in (right around the corner from the Dakota) was built in the 1870s, so was already there when the other three buildings were built. It was originally a private house later turned into apartments, two per floor over five floors. I cannot imagine what the rental price would be now for my tiny apartment at the back of the fifth floor (formerly servant’s quarters). Most likely three times as much in monthly rent as the mortgage payment for my whole house.

In 1892, construction began on the Cathedral of St John the Divine in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan. It is still only about 2/3 completed. Even unfinished, it is the world’s sixth largest church. There are several reasons for the building taking so long to complete. One is that ancient, manual stone cutting methods are being used throughout the building. Then there have been a few wars, the Great Depression, changes in what the style of the church should be, ups and downs in funding, etc. What is completed is stunning. I got off the tour bus there and spent quite some time walking around, looking at everything and taking photos. Then I wanted to pop over to Columbia University briefly.

Founded as King’s College in 1754, Columbia University changed its name in 1784, outgrew its Lower Manhattan location and moved farther up the island to midtown (around Madison Avenue) in 1857. In 1889, it moved to its current site in Morningside Heights, a short distance from the Cathedral of St John the Divine. I had attended some music classes at Columbia when I lived in Manhattan, so I was fairly familiar with the school. Hamilton Hall was the building where I wanted to take a quick photo.

When I got back on a tour bus, we rode to Grant’s Tomb. The old joke is “who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” That would be President (and General) Ulysses S Grant and his wife, Julia. It is in quite a nice location with great views of the Hudson River and New Jersey beyond. It is a rather impressive monument besides.

Next, we crossed into the Manhattan neighborhood known as Harlem. This is a part of the city with some really nice brownstones. Originally founded as a Dutch village in 1658, Harlem (then Haarlem) evolved into a mainly Jewish and Italian settlement in the 19^th century, becoming predominantly black and Puerto Rican in the 20^th century.

The area which is now Harlem was occupied by the Manhattan tribe of Native Americans before the Dutch settled there. During the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. The village rebuilt slowly, but then began an economic boom after the Civil War. Prosperity ended with the Great Depression when roughly 25% of the population was hit by unemployment. Once again, it was a long recovery.

Harlem is also home to the Apollo Theatre, which opened in 1934 in a former burlesque house. This venue gave a start to the careers of numerous musicians and singers throughout the next several decades, especially through its Amateur Night contests. Jimi Hendrix won first place in one of those contests in 1964.

On our way back down the island towards Fifth Avenue, we passed a group of beautiful townhouses that were built in the 19^th century and are on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. We also passed the Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, a Sunni Islam Mosque which, when a Nation of Islam Mosque (named Mosque No. 7) was where Malcolm X was an Imam before leaving in 1964 for Sunni Islam. We were turning a corner as I was taking a photo from the rear of the upper deck of the tour bus, so the photo looks a bit tipsy.

Along Fifth Avenue, we passed several museums such as the Museum of the City of New York, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Guggenheim, the Neue Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection. Then we passed Temple Emanu-El, where I used to attend services.

The Plaza Hotel was someplace that I went to a few times when I lived in NYC – to attend various recording industry events (the industry in which I was working at the time) and to take my mom to lunch in the Palm Court one of the times when she came to visit me.

When we reached Carnegie Hall, I left the tour bus to get some lunch and switch to the downtown loop so I could complete it. By this point, I was getting tired, so I stayed on until after we left the South Street Sea Port. Then we visited Chinatown, Little Italy, Delancey Street, the United Nations, the Chrysler Building, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall.

When we returned to Carnegie Hall, I found that, instead of ending at Times Square, the tour was ending there. Times Square was a bit of a jaunt from Carnegie Hall. I stopped off for some refreshment (ice cream) and set off down Seventh Avenue.

When I got to 45^th Street, I took a detour to Shubert Alley to visit the theatre shop at One Shubert Alley. Then I turned on 44^th to head back to Seventh (my hotel was at 41^st at about the middle of the block between Seventh and Eighth). I ended up going right by the theatre where David Tennant and Matt Smith were doing a “Meet the Doctors” event – they had been the 10^th and 11^th Doctors in the BBC series Doctor Who.

Next time – A very special time among the Scots in and near Edinburgh with a lot of time spent at Hadrian’s Wall

April 26, 2020

The Met & Richard II

When I found out that the Royal Shakespeare Company was bringing Shakespeare’s King Cycle to New York with David Tennant playing Richard II, I started planning. David Tennant is my favorite actor and this was my chance to see him onstage. I quickly joined the Brooklyn Academy of Music (where the King Cycle would be playing) so I could hopefully get a ticket immediately after they went on sale.

The season tickets went on sale first. Since I don’t currently live in NYC, that wasn’t an option. I needed to wait about a month before the single tickets went on sale. BAM members still had an advantage over the general public, however. As soon as I was able to purchase a ticket, I also booked my airfare, hotel, and the rest of what I had come up with while planning.

Since I had lived in New York City for several years back after university graduation, I planned four nights in NYC followed by six nights in Edinburgh and six nights in London. Being able to investigate and book everything online is an enormous plus. I got all of the air travel, train travel, and airport transfers, all three hotels, and several day trips booked as planned.

This was April of 2016 and several of the presidential hopefuls were in NYC, which tied up traffic considerably. It took two hours to get from LaGuardia to the hotel at Times Square. I was so glad that I had booked a shuttle transfer instead of a cab. I was also glad that I didn’t have anything important planned for that first day.

As I was checking in, I asked about a car service for the following night when I would be going to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theatre to see Richard II. They said they would get something arranged and let me know. When I got to my room, I called and confirmed my Super Shuttle to get me to the Newark Airport in four days. Although the plane wasn’t leaving until 8pm, they said they would be there at 2:35pm.

Then I spent some time walking around the neighborhood and getting re-acclimated. I hadn’t been back to NYC for several years and a lot had changed.

Breakfast was included at the hotel. So the following day after breakfast, I took the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before entering the museum, I went around to the park and found the statue of Alexander Hamilton that one of his sons had placed there. I had also tried to get a ticket to Hamilton, but had been unsuccessful.

After grabbing a map of the museum, I set off to see the Egyptian Art. I am a huge fan of ancient Egyptian art. The Met also has a temple that they moved in pieces to the museum and reassembled it. I spent a lot of time in the Egyptian section.

Then came Byzantine Art, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Arms & Armor, and Medieval Art. The Arms & Armor included Middle Eastern and Asian as well as European. The dagger second from the bottom in the photo was similar to one that I bought while in Jordan, though mine was without the gold and jewels.

After lunch (which was in the museum cafeteria), I had enough energy to tackle Greek and Roman Art. There was a bust of Alexander the Great, which I thought resembled Brad Pitt. They had a very intact statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa that I really liked and some cool Roman armor. Then I took the subway back to the hotel. I never did get to any of the paintings.

The driver who was taking me to the Brooklyn Academy of Music had felt that we needed to allow for quite a bit of time to get there. So he picked me up at 6pm for a play that began at 8pm. He was right. It was a little after 7:30pm when we arrived at the theatre. The play went for three hours. He would be back to get me when it finished, but we exchanged phone numbers just in case. Good thing. He had some traffic to deal with to get back to the theatre and I needed to wait a bit.

The seat that I had managed to get was on the end of the second row and essentially on the stage. I was often very close to several of the actors in the play, including David Tennant. I was absolutely mesmerized by the entire production. The acting by all was superb.

The photo I have included here from the play was not one that I took myself. In NYC, it is illegal to take any photos inside the theatre itself, even when nobody is on the stage. I just include it to give an idea of the play. It was said at the time that this was the other production, besides Hamilton, that was completely sold out.

Next time – a Hop-On/Hop-Off tour of Lower Manhattan and a harbor cruise