On My Own, Exploring London, England

On par for any first night in Europe, you try to go to bed at your normal time even though your body hasn't adjusted to the time change, and while your body is tired, you actually fall asleep.... For about two hours and you wake up and it's the middle of the night and you are wide awake.  At least British TV is in English, it's harder to watch TV in countries that don't speak English.  Anyway, you get tired again and you finally fall asleep.  Then your alarm goes off at the time you really want to be up, in this case it was 8:00am and you don't want to get out of bed because you are now really tired.   Anyhow, you think about all the things you want to accomplish and you are finally motivated to move.  You get in the shower and all now seems right with the world and you are on your way.  Breakfast in the hotel, included with the room, good enough to get started and away you go!

I made it to my tour bus "The Original London Tour", or something like that, and hopped in.  I really wanted the "yellow" line, but the "blue" line is the one that stopped near me, so I transferred to the "yellow" line at Picadilly Circus.  You know, there are no animals at Picadilly Circus, Circus is Latin for "Circle" - I had no clue, now it all makes sense.   Here are some pics from the bus.  I'll try to caption them as best I can.

First, here's some music you can play while you scroll through these.   This is one of my favorite oldie but a goodie...

Oldest tube station in London

Interesting thing about the windows.   You can tell they get smaller toward the top.  Now Walt Disney would say that is force perspective to make the building look bigger - however in this case, in the 1600's, some king created a window tax.  Yes, as in taxing the land owner for the size of the window.  Later on, another king decided it was wrong to pay for daylight and the tax was lifted.  

Ah, Harrods.... I'll be visiting tomorrow I think.

More Harrods

Canadian Embassy - I don't know why I took this.

National Gallery

This was my view from the bus of the changing on the guards.  I might do the walking tour that includes a better view.

I hopped off the bus near the London Eye, because I wanted to visit Westminster Abbey.   I couldn't take any photos inside.  I attended a communion service at 12:30 which was cool considering I don't think I've ever done something like that before.  Before I took my seat, I asked if it was ok because I was Catholic. The guy chuckled and said "of course". It was a lovely service, very much by the book and no sermon, which I was hoping for.  The priest was a woman, which was neat.   It was different hearing words I normally hear from a male priest come out of a female's mouth.  One of these days, the Catholics will catch up.  I toured the Abbey using the provided audio tour and visited some of the side chapels, which were crypts as well.  I saw where Handel was buried, which was neat.  

Outside, I took these pics

Nearby, there was this church - which is said to be the church where the very first performance of "Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" took place.

I thought this was cute

And here are a few pics of the London Eye - which I decided not to partake in.  

And Big Ben and Parlament

Big Ben doesn't refer to the actual clock tower, but rather the bell inside the clock tower.

Parlament

Back on the bus and heading toward the city of London, which is guarded by dragons.  When you pass by one of these dragons, it mean you have entered the actual City of London.  Also, I found it interesting that the Queen has to knock before she enters the City of London.

The City of London is basically the financial district of London and is only 1 square mile.  It's where all the money is made.   The bus took us down Fleet Street, but I didn't get a picture and yes, I did look for Sweeney's Todd's Tonsorial Parlor.   It was no where to be found.  I think I'm going back down there for a tour on Friday, I'm not quite sure where said tour begins.

Here are some pics from the City of London....

The dome of St Paul's

Steps of St. Paul's .... No bird woman to be found... Or birds for that matter 

St. Paul's again

London Tower Bridge

Old Tower of London and the new Tower of London in the distance.

I took the bus back to Picadilly Circus and hopped off and explored TheatreLand.  Well, before that, I made sure I got a ticket for Les Miserables for the evening.  Here are some marquees and stuff like that

The Mormons have set up shop in the West End

Behind the scaffolding is Her Majesty's Theatre.... I guess. LOL

This is for my brother, Chirs.

TKTS booth in Leicester Square

I didn't know this was playing.... I love Show Boat!!

Well. I guess the Piragua Guy won't get any business here in the West End  :-(

Ooooo, Drury Lane!!  I looked and looked and counldn't find the Muffin Man :-(

But I found Charlie!!!

And an iStore?   Apple Store?   I dunno....

And The Lion King theatre

For dinner, I went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant "The Diner" - which was kinda just OK.   Nothing really exciting.

I then attended my first West End show, Les Miserables which is the longest running show in the West End.  

I went on and on about not wanting to see this production because of the orchestrations - and bear with me as I totally geek out for a minute.

I saw the show for the first time in SF in 1990.  It was the show that may have been the beginning of my love for theatre, which is why I have such a soft spot for the British Mega-Musicals of the 80's-90's.  While I've seen the show several times since, you never really forget your first time.  There was a major overhaul of the show for it's 25th Anniversary.  There were some nips and tucks made, the U.K. and subsequently the US tour had a new physical production (new set, no turntable, new staging etc)and that seem to be the norm for the show from that point forward.  Well, for those of us that loved the original, this was a sad day.  However, I still had hope that in London, while they were unfortunately using the new orchestrations, they kept the original staging.  Well, what's in London now is the original set... and that's about it.  The staging is basically the new staging but on the old set, and that was sad to me also.  We won't mention the bits that were added after the movie came out.  So, what's at the Queen's Theatre in London is a mash up of everything new on the old set.   FAIL.     But that's just my opinion... It still hit the right moments musically, and I still cried at the end of Act One and Act Two because the score is just that good.  The voices were cast correctly (almost) and it sounded great.  Except for the fist French Horn player - I wonder if he/she was a sub tonight,it didn't help that I sat almost right in front of the brass section.

Well, that's enough of THAT. 

I took the tube home quite successfully.

Tomorrow.... Well, I have some ideas which will probably see me on the tube most of the day and then back in the West End in the evening, ether for a concert or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....we'll see.

Mattei

A Rainy Day? This is London, My Boy, Every Day's a Rainy Day!

Every walked in the rain and didn't really care if it was raining because you were in LONDON??  I'll just leave that there.

My flight on Virgin America was quite uneventful.  A few good points - a free drink, decent food and some good movies.  I watched "The Danish Girl" - which was fabulous, and then I watched the remake of "Vacation" which was fine, it did what it set out to do, I guess.  The only thing that would have been a negative was that there were two screaming babies on board, both in my section.  Thank goodness for noise cancellation headphones.  Eventually, they calmed and went to sleep.  Hard not to feel bad for these little ones.  They can't tell you what's wrong, and I bet it had something to do with their ears. Another good thing was that I didn't have anyone next to me, so I was able to spread out a bit more.  I can't really sleep well on planes, as long as I'm relaxed that helps.   I listened to some music and watched movies.  

Getting through customs was easy.  I never know what to say when an official asks if I've been to London before.  I'd hate to lie, but in the end, we just agreed it was a "no". LOL. I took a cab to my hotel.  I booked this hotel under the recommendation of Ricahrd Newton, my resident English expert.  It's a great place, very roomy and comfortable.  As per Euopean tradition, a double room is two single beds.  At least I don't have to share with another person or a dog.  I got settled in my room and laid down and watched some TV and fell asleep for an hour or so.   I woke up and thought "ok, now what?"   I remember when I was in Venice a few years ago, and I had such a crappy first few hours in Venice trying to get to my hotel that I was "done" before I began.  But a text from mom told me to get out and start exploring - and I did.  So, that's what I did.

I had a small list of things to do - I had to find a second Rick Steves guide to London as I forgot the one I was reading and studying at home, and I needed a second electricity converter.  So, I put long pants on and my jacket and took off.  I walked out of the hotel and realized that yes indeed, it was raining - just enough to annoy me. I realized this wasn't going to happen without an umbrella, and I hadn't packed mine because I couldn't find it.  So I went to the gift shop and bought an umbrella and an electricity converter.  I was on my way - singing all the way "I'm just a fella, a fella with an umbrella". I walked the few blocks up to the main drag through Kensington, and started to walk toward the Royal Albert Hall.  I found it interesting that I saw this

At least I knew where I could go that might have been familiar.

I made it to the Royal Albert Hall - the world famous Royal Albert Hall, that is.  Here are some pics

Front of the Royal Albert Hall

Back of the Royal Albert Hall

Royal Albert Hall and Double Decker Bus selfie

This was across the street from the Royal Albert Hall, I believe that is Albert.  

Tomorrow, I'm doing the Hop On/Hop Off Bus thing, I found the stop closest to me.  Here's the bus

I found a church, it was locked.   Here is the Netherlands embassy. 

I walked up toward Notting Hill, hoping to recreate a scene from the movie, but on my journey up, it really started to come down.  I found a bookstore and bought a pocket version of the Rick Steves London book, and then headed back to the hotel.  I kinda took a wrong turn on the way back and went way out of my way,  In the pouring rain, this happened:

From the streets of London:

(Pouring rain, I'm trying to get back to the hotel)

Two guys stop me and said--

2 guys:  excuse me, can we borrow your umbrella

Me:  uh, may I ask why?  

2 guys:  so we can walk around London in the rain

Me:  yeah, well, that's what I'm doing, so good luck with that.

<end>

They had an accent, so I don't know if they were locals or maybe just high??  I finally made it back to the hotel, but not with my Visitors A-Z London app that Raegena said I should have.   It lead me back without a hitch.  So, back to the hotel, out of my damp clothes and then headed downstairs for dinner.  London doesn't seem like other countries I've visited, it's not like "Let's try and eat the cuisine of the country", well, I did - I had fish and chips for dinner,.  Very yummy.  

Tomorrow, hopefully lots of London sites and my first West End show.  It's probably going to be Les Miserables.  I'll suck it up and deal with the tin pot orchestrations.

Pip Pip Cheerio! 

Preparation for London - Maestro is on the move again!

And the preparation begins.

School is officially out until April 4.  The Easter Triduum begins this evening with the Holy Thursday Liturgy and continues for the next few days until Easter Sunday.  After 20+ years of doing music ministry, I can safely say that I am ready for the weekend.  People are telling me that I must be exhausted because it's a busy weekend.  Seriously?  It's all in a days work.  If Easter weekend is exhausting at this point, then I'm in the wrong business.  However, what makes it exhausting is the situation I've put myself in - which is I'm leaving for London on Monday afternoon.

London?  Yes - London.  Have I been?  Yes - for 5 hours in July of 2005.  That was a cluster.... you can read about it here.

Maestro in London - 2005

So, I think it's about time that I go back, huh?   However, with the bombing in Brussels the other day, I'm a bit hesitant.  But as my mom tells my niece, you can't stop the world.  So, we journey on.  

Why now?   Well, for the love of my Sunset Blvd - that's why now.  You can read about that here....

Matt's Sunset journey

It was announced last year that Glenn Close would be making her West End debut in a revival of Sunset Blvd. in a semi-staged performance with the English National Opera.  There was really no way I was going to miss this, and since it happened that performance's began during my Spring Break, it was a no-brainer.  I wasn't missing this for the world.

So, I'm leaving Monday and coming home on Sunday.  I have tickets for Sunset of course, and for Phantom of the Opera - which is another blog post all together.  I also have reservations for a hop on/hop off bus tour and a walking tour that includes English Afternoon Tea.  The rest we'll just have to see.

This is going to be a great trip... so stay tuned!

Geeking Out - Day #2

Today's blog is brought to you by BLOGGER the app.   And that's all I'm saying about that. 

We'll start with a picture of the Orlando Eye, only because I didn't take any pictures at the conference as I was too busy taking notes!

I had set 3 different alarms this morning to make sure I was at my 8:00am workshop this morning, but when the first alarm went off, I seriously did not know where I was and why I was there.  My brain actually hurt trying to figure that out.  That was a weird and concerning experience.   As was almost leaving my phone in the LYFT car this morning.  But I didn't, so we move on.

I was 10 minutes late for my workshop, but it really didn't matter.  It was called something like "App-Smashing" - using several apps to create one project.   I love the workshop experiences where you walk out ready to conquer the world with this new knowledge, and this was no different.  Lots of great ideas to digitally share and present students work.  This is where we are headed.  It's nice to know what the beginning tools are to get that started at home.

I took a coffee break and then wandered around the exhibits and had some great conversations with a lot of great people.  I picked up a lot of brochures and learned a lot of new things.  Some are really exciting.  So exciting that I really can't mention it here on the blog, just know that it's exciting.

The rest of the day, I attended 4 short sessions on some great subjects.  The first one was called "Social Media for the Classroom".  I was quite intrigued by the title, but was pleasantly surprised at the actual content.  While always keeping digital citizenship at the forefront, many social media sites have bad raps when it comes to kids, but by using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and a few others correctly - as they were created to be - they can be great tools for the classroom.

Speaking of Twitter, I ran into the lady that I talked to last night about Twitter in the classroom and she presented me with the name of the person that runs the catholic ed chat on Twitter.  I was surprised she remembered me.  I took a picture of the info.  Later this evening, I ran into her again on International Drive along with Paul Shircliff, the guy that runs the catholic ed chat on Twitter.  Such a  small world.

Second small session was "Go-to Apps and Web Tools for Every Classroom, Every subject"  Wasn't too exciting, but I have a list of apps for the classroom to share.

After these, I took a Walgreen's break and picked up some things.  I'm having some issues with my right heel, etc - definitely planter fasciitis - and I was having issues with the arch, etc and haven't been taking ibruproffin to keep the swelling down, so I went and picked up some things for that at Walgreens.  They all helped.  

Stopped for some lunch and then if was off to Introduction to Coding for Elementary and Middle School Students.  It was mostly on Scratch, which I already have a working knowledge of.  So, it was not really a bust, but I would have liked to see something a bit less involved than Scratch and more involved than Scratch Jr, which we already play with at school.

Final session of the day... "Welcome to HAA:  Hopelessly Devoted to Apps" - Apps Anonymous.   Basically, 22 or so apps that your need on your ipad or device that will do everything you need - not 225 apps.   It was fun and a great finish of the day.

But the day wasn't really over.  Tonight was a Karaoke Event held at a karaoke bar on International Drive - which is like Las Vegas without the casinos - craziness, but fun.  I took a LYFT to the place and stayed a while.  It was kinda boring, no one was really any good and there was a contest also - which I wasn't aware of - cuz I would have entered  LOL.   I ended up leaving and walking down International Drive .  I stopped at Shake Shack for dinner, which was just kinda ok... I heard it was the best thing since sliced bread, but it wasn't that great, but still yummy.  I walked to my hotel and here I am.

Tomorrow, another 8:00am workshop - which means up early to pack and check out before I head to the convention center.  The day will end sometime in the afternoon and then it's off to Disney for a few days.  I promise the blog won't be as dry!!

Geeking Out Day #1

So. last night found me back on a red-eye flight to the east coast.  This time for work, although it will prove to be fun work.  I was on my way to the Fuure of Education Technology Conference in Orlando, Florida.  This was because of my new job at work, Technology Coordinator.  A job that I do take very seriously and has been something new and challenging for me this year.  Evidently, this is the 36 year of this conference here in Orlando.   Anyhow, the flights were good - the connection was quick, and I think I made it in my sleep.  When I got to Orlando, it was a whole new experience for me as I'm always flying into Orlando to go to Walt Disney World and when you do that, your bags are automatically transfered to your resort, etc.... so Mickey wasn't waiting for me this time.  I guess it was time to be an adult and get my bags and a taxi to my hotel.  I was kinda stressing over being in a new place that I didn't know (even though it was Orlando) but Mom gently reminded me that I travled all over Italy without knowing where I was and I didn't have a problem.  She was right, of course.

I got to my hotel, took a nap and a shower and I was ready to head to the convention center.  How was I going to get there?   I had a few options, but the first option is always to walk, which I did.  Sort of... I  realized after a few blocks, that the walk was not going to happen.  So, I hopped on the trolly for the rest of the way.   The driver was nice to tell me where I had to get off to get where I was going.  I got off and saw this

Well, it looks like we are sharing the space with a Surf Expo.  How exciting.

I grabed my name badge

and got some lunch and shared a table with a guy named Ivan who was the IT support for several schools in the Orlando area.  We talked about iPads vs. Chrome Books etc, we also talked about the schedule of the conference.  I was still having a little issue understanding the schedule and what were considered workshops and what were "drop-ins" etc.  I have a ticket for two workshops for the conference.  I figured out that you don't sign up for them, but just show up early and get in line and hope you'll get in.  So, with the app, I made my schedule and such I finally felt that I had a plan.

As I look around, I notice everyone had a device or two and that there were meetings on the floor around outlets.  It was kinda cool.  It was almost like the Religious Education Congress without priests, and liturgies.  I hung out and waited for the keynote address to begin.  It was a great talk given by the founder of Girls Who Code. 

The exhibit hall opened and it was neat to walk around and collext some ideas.

I chatted with a teacher about the use of Twitter in the classroom, which I was reticent about but now I get it.  I'll be sharing those thoughts with the faculty

It took me quite a while to get home because I kept getting on the wrong trolly.  When I finally got to my hotel, I decided to go to the Universal City Walk for dinner.  I did an d it was yummy and nice to at least lay eyes on Univerasal Studios in Orlando.  I'm going to need to go back.

Tomorrow is an early morning becasue my first workshop is at 8:ooam. 

Looking forward to a great day tomororw.