Science of the Past-Friday, July 24.2009

Our last day of sightseeing before leaving tomorrow.  Kind of sad.  I love vacation too much!!

Stair climbing

Today we traversed the halls of the Science Museum.  Way cool stuff in here.  The medical history section is brilliant!  We spent quite a bit of time  parousing the engineering and flight sections, but I really enjoyed the medical history.  There are 2 floors with many things to see.  This is where I did see some history of the Hunter brothers and one of John Hunters anatomy pieces ( in case you are wondering, I am reading ‘The Knife Man’-which chronicles the life of John Hunter, a surgeon and anatomist in the 1700’s).  There was also lots of interesting ancient medical devices.  Guess what? We even spotted an old anesthesia machine and an operating theatre depiction in the museum.

anesthesia machine c.1980

Operation in 1980

They use ’swabs’ instead of sponges in this time period.  Funny…

After grossing Jessie out with all the medical stuff, we decided to try out Coven Gardens.  It is a lovely area with many shops and eateries.  Incidentally, it was the site that the anatomy classes and public exhibitions were done by William and John Hunter.  Most people probably remember it from ‘My Fair Lady’ with Audrey Hepburn.  We shopped and bought some fun London memorabilia to take home.  We ate lunch at the Covent Garden Kitchen, feasting on the best chips we’d tasted so far.  They had a different batter they were cooked in and they were tasty.  We also got a couple of ideas for recipes at home by trying the basil/olive tapenade and mushy peas and mint mixture.  Loved the mushy peas!

We asked Jess what she wanted to do for her last evening in London.  She wanted to go to a pub and taste another drink while still legal.  We also decided to take in the Peter Pan play at Kensington Gardens theatre.  We got our tickets at a discounted price at one of the discount ticket counters  (locations are listed on most maps).

Tasting a Cider

We went to the Stanhope Arms Pub just down the street from our hotel and tested a tropical drink, ate some dinner and headed off to the play.  The theatre is really unique, for me at least, as it was located in a tent in the middle of the park.  You can buy refreshments and request a picnic dinner if you like.  The stage was round, so all the seats were pretty good.  The play was very clever in terms of making everyone fly and moving the props around, considering the limited space.  The actor playing Peter did a great job (who was also not too hard on the eyes), and the actor who played George Darling/Captain Hook was Jonathan Hyde.  You would recognize him from playing the Egyptologist in ‘The Mummy’ and Bruce Ismay in ‘Titanic’.  My favorite was Tinkerbell.  Small role, but funny.  Great show.

Covent Gardens Architecture

Environmentally Safe Paper

Anyone for Tea? Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Since we hadn’t officially had any English Tea yet during our stay, we walked to the tea room in Kensington Gardens called The Orangery for breakfast.  It was a striking old building next to Kensington Palace that has served the Queen dating back to the early 1700’s (Queen Victoria, that is).  We each got our own pot of tea and a breakfast item.  Jessie and I both tried the scones with clotted cream and Roger had the porridge with sultanas (that is oatmeal with raisins to you and me).  We also cheated and tried the yummy treat of shortbread with caramel and chocolate on it.  OMG-super yum!  Too sweet though, we couldn’t finish it.

Gardens

The Orangery

After tea, we walked through the park to the Victoria and Albert museum and the Natural History Museum, which happened to be down the street from our hotel.  The V&A, as it is known in London, is a collection of items from Queen Victoria’s reign and some current things to see.  We really enjoyed the descriptions of fashion from the 1600’s to current and future fashions as well as the jewelry collections.  Talk about some expensive jewelry.  All I can say is I want a tiara! Or a huge emerald and diamond necklace and earrings!

V&A Museum

Next we walked across the street to the Natural History Museum.  It is filled with dinosaurs and other ancient animals, insects, minerals, you name it.  We really loved seeing all the dinosaur bones and the skeleton of the humongous Blue Whale.  This museum also has some impressive gems in ‘the vault’.  The building architecture itself is a marvel to visualize.  We liked the museum, but it is really targets a family with younger children.  There are a lot of interactive design features that are great if traveling with your children, but since my younger 2 were at home, we didn’t spend as much time going through everything.

There are many museums to see in London.  Most have free admission, but ask for donations throughout the museums.  If you can, donate!  These really are wonderful treasures to be able to see.

grand entry

Outside the museum

After the museum, we rested our weary feet for a bit and got dressed and spiffed up to go to see Wicked, the musical.  We minded the gap and hopped the tube to Victoria Station.  We ate at an Italian restaurant called Prezzo and walked to the Victoria Apollo Theatre to see the show.  It is an older theatre, but grand to say the least.  Most everything is decorated with a greenish hue, fitting with the theme of the play.  The play was wonderful.  It was a very creative twist on the Wizard of Oz.  We really had a great time.  We bought souveniers at the close of the show, because we haven’t done enough shopping, and went back home for the night.

The cost of the show varies, but we got the 4 0 lb tickets.  There are more expensive and less expesive, but we had really good seats.  You can also consume beverages of the alcoholic variety in the theatre.

Victoria Station

???

Wicked

Elche/Elx (7/23)

With an estimated 200,000-300,000 palms trees in the municipal area, Elche is the place to see palm trees. A cheap (4E, roundtrip) and quick (30 min) bus ride from Alicante delivered me to two UNESCO World Heritage sites. This first are the palm tree gardens circling the old quarter of town. Phoenetian in origin, the date palms go back 3,000 years. The dates represented a key source of nutrition for the Phoenetian mariners. The current arrangement of palms and gardens, however, dates back to the Arab occupation.

After getting my bearings, palms to the left, right, behind and forward and not a map with a compass direction in sight, I headed for the Tower of St. Mary’s Basilica (below), where I was promised a great view of the palms. Started in 1673, the basilica represents the fourth religious building to be located on this site. Of note (again, think bar bet or Jeopardy!), this basilica is the ONLY temple in the Catholic realm which is allowed to perform a play (the other UNESCO World Heritage designee) within its walls. Granted this privilege by Pope Urban VIII in 1632, the religious drama (were you expecting “Wicked” or “Rent”?) “Elche Mystery Play” continues to this day – - it’s a production worthy of Las Vegas, with angels appearing in “aerial devices” and a pit known as the “tomb”.

The Tower roof is reached via a tight spiraling staircase. Exactly 167 steps (yes, I counted) plus three more to the metal observation platform, I was treated to, well, a lot of palm trees. And, a self-portrait opportunity (yes, it was bright and 38 degrees celcius).

 

After enjoying the tower views and getting a better idea of the town’s layout, I visited several of the gardens as well as the river-bed park.

Along the way, I discovered that Elche has more talented taggers (below) than Alicante.

Tired Toes (7/18)

“You’re going to wonder,” explained Luis in accented English, “why I sent you to this rock. Woosh [he uses his hands to suggest a sheer vertical face], you can’t climb this. But, there is a tunnel.” Luis was right about the tunnel. He was a little off as far as how close the tram station was to the park. In highly technical terms, it wasn’t even close (see first photo). The tram drops you off in the ‘burbs of Calpe. I figured if I just headed downhill I would eventually hit the beach.

Signs pointing the way to Burger King outnumbered directions to the Rock of Ifach 6 to 1. Once I hit the Burger King, I used my finely tuned bat-sense of direction and followed the biggest road going towards the park.  Walking in the man-made canyons of Calpe’s vacation towers, the Rock of Ifach wasn’t available as a point of reference. Along the way I found this cool piece of artwork (below).

After an hour walking, I arrived at the Penon de Ifach (Rock of Ifach), the largest rock in the Mediterranean. I realized I had a lot more climbing to do before I reached the summit. Referred to as the Northern Rock by the Phoenicians (Gibraltar is the Southern Rock), this rock looms 332m over the Mediterranean. The first part of the trail meanders pleasantly through low pines, carnations, and Robertonian orchids.

 After about twenty minutes, I reached the tunnel (about 30m) leading to the other side of the rock. The dark tunnel provided a welcome break from the sun.

 After exiting the tunnel, the trail becomes more primative and dangerous. (There’s several signs along the way that tell you just this.) A few places have ropes tied to anchors in the rockface to steady yourself as you cross a stretch with a nearby drop to the ocean below. I divided my attention between where I was placing my next step, the vertical drop to my left, and the frayed rope which looked like it last saw action in the rigging of a Spanish galleon. The trail eventually forks: one trail going to a guardhouse lookout and the other zigzagging to the summit. The trail reminded me a lot of hiking in the Sawtooths of Idaho, except for the squaking seagulls and the dull thrum of powerboats in the distance. The gentleman who strode by me wearing nothing but a black speedo and flip flops was another clue I was hiking in Europe. The upper trail is steep, mostly obvious, with several rock scrambles. Occasionally, I gingerly crossed a section with a long drop and quick stop facing me on one side. By the time I reached the summit, about high noon, I was sweating like a fifth-round draft pick at rookie camp. After congratulatory self-portraits, I enjoyed some fresh cherries I picked up at the Central Mercado before leaving.

 

 The views in all directions were spectacular. In the photo above, you can get a feel for the height of the rock as well as how far the tram station is from the park. (Find the clouds over the far peak, then immediately in front and to the right of that peak is a long, flat outcropping of rocks with green below it. When the white buildings begin, that’s where the tram lets you off.) The way down took me about as long as it took to reach the summit (about an hour). Looking like polished bone, the granite is slick from years (centuries) of foot traffic. Momentum, gravity, and granite wanted me to take the quick way down, while occasionally trying to keep one of my Salomon trail shoes. I took the 10 minute stroll down the other branch in the trail and out to the guardhouse, which was actually a rock with a bunch of seagull crap on it. The trail was mostly flat and shaded by pines, so that was a plus. 

On my way back to the tram, I took the seafront promenade. Just off the promenade are the partially submerged ruins of of an ancient fish salting factory from Roman times. Clear green water sloshed back and forth across the ruins. Very cool. I thought about snapping a few photos, but there also happened to be several topless women swimming among the ruins. Not wanting to seem like a perv, I continued walking, eventually cutting back to the main road I had walked down in the morning. You know darn well that I stopped at the Burger King and ordered a wonderfully cool cola light grande. And, then, I ordered another one, while I rested my tired toes.

Mine is Bigger than Yours (7/17)

As if the Holy Grail and a saint’s arm weren’t enough for one trip, in Alicante we are treated to a visit from one of the world’s elite yachts. The super wealthy (i.e., the sultans who own their own country and computer geeks) compete for bragging rights of who has the biggest yacht on the high seas (usually the Mediterranean or Caribbean). One of the largest, the Al Said, is docked in Alicante.

The Al Said is the second longest super (mega, giga, luxury, etc.) yacht at 155m. Costing in excess of $500 million dollars, you can almost hear Tim “the Toolman” Taylor (ABC’s Home Improvement) grunt his approval. Owned by Sultan Qaboos (Sultan Qābūs ibn Saˤīd ibn Taymūr Āl Bū Saˤīdī, for short) of Oman, only the Sheikh of Dubai has a bigger toy at 160m in length.

However, a more accurate measure of a yacht’s size is its gross tonnage, or its volume. Historically, the taxation on a ship’s cargo was based on tuns (casks) of wine, and such a measure was later used in reference to the weight of a ship’s cargo. However, not to be confused with displacement (i.e., the actual weight of a vessel), gross “tonnage” specifically refers to the volume of a ship. Further, we can quickly get wrapped up in messy calculations such as gross register tonnage, net register tonnage, and Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (or PC UMS net ton). Clearly, such calculations are difficult to manage after a few beers and, thus, make them ill-suited for the gentlemanly bar argument of who has the biggest yacht.

License to Chill (7/14)

Grooving to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet on my iPod, I boarded the Kon Tiki Quatro for the 60-minute trip to Isla de Tabarca, a nearby island. Tabarca was once a staging area for pirates making plans to plunder the Costa Blanca. The dark grey clouds and gusts of wind at the marina suggested I take the trip another day. However, after baking in my Alicante apartment for the past two weeks, I thought some chilly weather might feel good.

Once outside the shelter of the marina, the wind blasted the Kon Tiki as waves slammed into its port side. Wallowing commenced, as the boat rolled side-to-side with each passing swell. Below decks, it was a barf-fest. The crew seemed to anticipate this and gave clear plastic bags to many passengers. Me, I would have opted for the “no-see” type of bag. One poor woman had the plastic bag over her nose and mouth. She didn’t look like she was having fun. In fact, she didn’t move much at all. Happily wedged between a chair and a rail topside, I tried to take some pictures, but the camera couldn’t focus quick enough with the boat rolling.

Shaped like an hourglass, Tabarca is a small island, only 1800 meters long and 400 meters wide. I was already wondering how I would spend five hours here before the Kon Tiki returned. I started with a quick tour of town. The usual restaurants, bars, gift shops, a few hostels, and more private residences than I first thought formed the hub of the town. Unpaved mainstreet (below) didn’t strike me as too lively on a Monday morning.

On the other side of the island is the protected marine sanctuary where I headed as darker clouds blew in. The path around the perimeter of the island is obvious and can be completed in a leisurely hour. Besides the rugged coast, the Tower of Saint Peter (described as a chopped-off pyramid), a defunct lighthouse, and a mostly rubble house were the points of interest.

At the far tip of the island is a cemetary. Makes sense: where do you stash the dead bodies? As far away as possible. And, that’s where I was when the rain and wind hit – - as far away from shelter as possible. The wind whipped the spray from the crashing surf and raked it right across the small island. I snugged up to the leeward side of the cemetary wall. At least it kept my back dry. I wouldn’t have been opposed to snuggling up next to a grave marker for shelter, but the cemetary was locked. The rain and wind didn’t let up, so I decided to take a walk in the rain. It was pleasant having cool rain dripping off my nose for once, instead of sweat. Less pleasant was the red clay, turned silly putty, caking onto my Keens. (I’ve happily switched alligence from Teva to Keen footwear.)

Once back in town after a short walk in the rain (remember, small island), I took shelter in an arched entrance and read while the wind quickly dried my quick-dry clothes. With another four hours to kill, I took a few more laps around the island. On my last loop, behind the cemetary, I found this bench right at the waterline. A perfect place for a self portrait.

Back @ Home 4 Lisa

Well, I managed to make it home safe and sound after a high speed train adventure, the metro, getting lost (again) trying to find my hotel, and a super long flight home.  The train was really nice and pretty fast, but nothing like what was in Mission Impossible.  The seats were comfy and plenty of leg room.  Yes, I got lost again looking for my hotel, only proving that I really am directionally challenged.  Oh well, I did find it eventually.  I just wanted to say ‘Hi!’ and post a few pics we had taken on my camera.  Sounds like Roger is still having many more adventures on his own.  Cool stuff!!

Note to Hulk: No Going Bare-Chested (7/13)

Leaving centuries old religious relics and basilicas, a twenty-minute bus ride delivered us to the very modern Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (The City of Arts and Sciences). Here C-3PO and R2-D2 would seem right at home. Looking like a set from the 70s TV show Logan’s Run, the City of Arts and Sciences is a living city in more than one way. Designed by Valencia-born and internationally famous architect Santiago Calatrava, each building is inspired by a living creature: a turtle, a shark, and a whale’s backbone. More buildings are on their way, with completion of the ”city within a city” slated for 30 years in the future.  

Resembling a turtle or a giant floating eyeball, the “Hemesferic” (above) features a planetarium and IMAX theater. Watching a laser light show with a Pink Floyd soundtrack would definitely be a trip at this planetarium.

 

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (above), or Palace of the Arts, hosts a variety of opera, dance, theater, and classical music performances. Does this bring back memories of JAWS?

 

Construction of a public plaza (above) is underway in the distance. What creature does this remind you of? A scorpian tail?

 

The Principe Felipe Science Museum (above) invokes images of a giant whale backbone or a collapsed T-Rex, whichever you imagine, it’s big and it’s cool looking. Inside is a hands-on science center where kids (and adults) can take an active part in discovering the laws of science. The “block and tackle” exhibit (below) is typical of the exhibits. Rigged with a different number of pulleys, participants can try lifting a heavy anchor, with varying degrees of success.

 

When I visited the science museum, two special exhibits where on display. The top floor of the museum was devoted to the life of women, from conception to death. For example, they had a display of a teenage girl’s bedroom, complete with Avril Lavigne posters and clothes strewn everywhere. Later, I encountered not one but two walk-through vaginas. Only in Europe. One was an giant inflatable vagina, and I’m not sure what the point was, except to get visitors from one lifestage to the next. The other walk-through vagina was a bit more sophisticated. Depicting conception, you could walk towards a pulsing egg, surrounded by a million sperm making the same journey. Got to give the curators props for a memorable visual of conception. I can only imagine what these same curators would design if they built ”Man, the Exhibit.”

Although the Woman Exhibit was memorable, the Marvel Superheroes exhibit stole the show. The Incredible Hulk smashing a car greeted you. Visitors could also pose with Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, and Storm. Other displays featured the artwork from the various comics.  

Missing was Aquaman, my favorite superhero. Of course, Aquaman along with Justice League standouts Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Captain Marvel, and Plastic Man are creations of DC Comics and weren’t invited to the party.

The son of a lighthouse keeper and Atlanna, a water-breathing outcast from the lost, underwater city of Atlantis, Aquaman would have liked Oceanografico. The Oceanografico (the biggest aquarium in Europe) is home to 45,000 creatures representing 500 different species from all the world’s seas and oceans. Above ground Oceanografico (below) is dominated by placid blue pools ringing the entrances to the nine underwater towers and submerged aquariums.

The most impressive feature of the complex are its two underground tunnels (70 and 35 meters, respectively) These tunnels allow visitors to walk among the sea creatures, offering views to the left and the right as well as overhead (above). As close to swimming with the sharks as you can get without visiting Amity Island.

Along with the typical theme-park signage of “do not feed the animals” and “no flash photography,” I did see the rule “It is not permitted to go bare-chested.” I wonder who is going to tell the Incredible Hulk that?

Holy Grail, Batman (7/12)

My throat parched like a Crusader retaking the Holy Land, I went in search of the Holy Grail in Valencia. Not THE Holy Grail, the one Indiana Jones found, but a simple cup of cola light with ICE. If I wanted an entire salted leg of ham, I could easily find one on every block, I just couldn’t carry it very far. Finding a cold soda with ice–not a warm can of soda poured over two brittle flakes but a thirsty-two ouncer filled with real cubes of wonderfully cold ice –is quite a chore and worthy of a Crusade. I found a soda machine, but it was out of product.

Down into the old river bed, which is now a beautiful park, I marched. The city rerouted the river around the city a while ago. The river kept overflowing its banks in the spring and then fell stagnant in the summer, creating an awful stench.

I finally stumbled upon a Burger King. It was next to a store specializing in giant bongs and indoor growing systems for “oregeno.” To my dismay, I watched the staff pour soda from warm two-litter bottles of pop, no ice. Apparently, the soda dispenser and ice machine did not work at this location. Sheesh. I kept looking for cold soda and found bats instead.

The bat is the symbol of Valencia. Consequently, the architectural flourishes are a bit more interesting than the standard saint statue here in Valencia. According to legend, with the Christians laying seige to the Muslim held city, a bat showed the Crusaders a passge into the city and to victory.

Today, I thought the bats were resting on their laurels a bit too much. The fly cloud buzzing around me in the river park needed to be thined. The bat also serves as a pretty cool logo for the city’s soccer team. Team color? Orange, of course: Valencia orange groves ring the city.

I ate lunch at the Valencia Central Market. It’s very similar to Alicante’s market. I found a mediterranean deli inside and picked up some hummus, fresh tortillas, basmati rice, and hefty marinated, stuffed artichoke hearts.

Next up was a quick walk through the city’s first public building, a bank of sorts, with cool spiral columns. The spirals would serve as inspiration for a very famous Valencia architect, but that story is for tomorrow’s blog.

I never did find that cola light with ice, but I did find the REAL Holy Grail. I know you’re thinking, “WHOA, I saw Indiana Jones battles the Nazis for it, and then it was lost.” That’s just Hollywood, duh. The real Holy Grail is in Valencia and hundreds of thousands pilgrims visit it each year. No kidding. I was shocked to find it tucked away in a small sideroom of the city’s cathederal. It’s amazing:

I also found Saint Vincent’s arm (a religious relic) stashed behind the altar pictured above.

This was just a bit creepy. Because I’m reading Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons right now, I just knew that there must be all sorts of things hidden in this cathedral. However, we had to board the bus and head for La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (The City of Arts and Sciences). There I’d see penguins, meet the Incredible Hulk, and walk through a giant vagina.

Oh, The Places We’ll (Not) Go (7/11)

Today, I realized I took Lisa to the really lame places in Alicante. She saw the vacant outlet mall; I shopped in a four-story mall . She saw faux sunglasses, suckling pig on a stick, and a topless grandma; I saw a centuries old Greek merchant ship and a few skeletons. This will teach her to let me play travel guide.

The day started with me walking across the street to the Central Market to buy some more fruit and veggies. I spent some time wondering around the fresh seafood area, drawn by a morbid curiosity of all the dead sea life for sale. The seafood market is kind of like a Sea World Cemetary. At Sea World you get to look at lots of sea life you usually don’t get to (or want to) see up close. At the market, it is the same thing, except it’s all dead and you can take it home. I strolled among a variety of fish and squishy things. Stopping to watch a fisherman heft a huge tuna onto the cutting board and take a big swing at it (a sharp knife and strong arm is required to cut through the backbone), I was sprayed with fish guts and scales. It’s experiences like this you just can’t put a price on. Then, the police asked for my identification. Out of the hundreds of people milling about, I somehow was deemed a person of interest, again. Obviously, I am a lot less respectable looking without Lisa around. Out came the creased photocopy of my passport. This seemed to satisfy them and they moved on, perhaps, to get away from the fish guts.

Cleaned up, with iPod in hand, I headed for the MARQ (Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Alicante). About a twenty-minute walk from the apartment, the MARQ is an award-winning museum (Best European Museum Award in 2004). Luis, the resident USAC director, had recommended we visit this museum. However, Lisa and I decided not to. Someone (I’ll blame a student) had described it as a regional museum. This brought images of our own Boise Historical Museum: a few wagon wheels, a stuffed deer with mange, and slightly disturbing wax mannequins of Lewis and Clark. So, we passed on the MARQ. Our mistake.

The MARQ is one of the best museums I have visited. Arranged around a central core are eight themed halls, each focusing on a specific period of history in the region: Middle Ages, Roman Culture, Prehistoric, etc. Each room has just the right amount of artifacts, including very modern CGI movies, sceneries, full-scale diaramas, and interactive displays. In the Roman Culture hall, for example, one wall displayed a CGI looping panorama of a day at the Roman bathhouse. However, with slightly odd images of guys taking their clothes off in the changing room and splashing water on each other, it did nothing to dispell the sterotype of bathhouses.

One odd element (as if the CGI bathhouse wasn’t) is that you can’t backtrack. That is, once you leave a hall you must keep going to the next hall, and then out the exit. Once I finished the last hall, the Contemporary Culture Room, I wanted to go back to look at the shipwreck diarama again. I made it only a few steps and a guard appeared. I instinctively reached for my photocopied passport; however, in perfect English she tells me that if I want to return to an earlier hall, I had to exit the museum and reenter at the start. Odd, but OK. Overall, the quality of the exhibits, layout, and up-to-date use of technology earns this museum a 10 out of 10. And, I am not just giving this museum a good review because I got in FREE (finally, a perk for being a professor).

According the map, the Centro Commercial Plaza Mar 2 is nearby. We had seen it from the Tram on our way to Playa San Juan last week. The Centro Commercial Plaza Mar 2 looked like a big mall. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the MARQ. Yes, it’s a four-story retail mall, just like you find in the U.S. A few differences though. Wandering in and out of stores, I rounded an aisle and WHOA, that’s a huge …and those are …I found the adult sex shop. Also, the escalators do not have steps but instead are slanted conveyer belts (like the walkways at airports). Finally, the Alicante version of Wal-Mart (it’s huge, running the whole length of the mall) has security people at the entrances. Before entering, you must place everything bigger than a wallet–purses, backpacks, bags, etc–in a plastic bag, which is then heat sealed and handed back to you. I wonder how this would go over in the U.S.: imagine a Wal-Mart greeter with giant shrink wrap machine. Otherwise, the mall is fairly typical, except perhaps, an over abundance of shoe stores and coffee shops. Lisa would have loved it.