Return of the High Priestess

All hail the High Priestess returning to her ancient haunt of Stonehenge to examine how it is holding up. She ordered me (her slave) to hire a care and together we travelled to Salisbury Plain to have a look around. We took an audio tour of Stonehenge in the freezing cold and rain - I am sure that, with the wind chill factor, it was about five below zero. The canteen made a fortune selling hot tea and coffee. We then travelled to Bristol to catch up with Sharon's nephew who is living and working there and had a good look around the town, Finally we drove to Wales where we will spend some time looking around. Basically, we have rented a car for a few days to drive around the countryside and get a look of life outside of London. We ended up buying a GPS as the rental company did not provide any and we thought it would be a good investment - plus we got so lost it was the only way we were going to find our way around. We intend using it in Ireland and Europe when we get there and then back in Australia when we return - they are great and I thoroughly recommend them. After America it was great getting in a car and driving on the right side of the road even if it was down narrow country lanes that will only fit one car at a time.

The 6th Beatle - or just a wannabee?

Went down to Abbey Road and walked in the footsteps of the Fab Four. It was quite surprising as there were no markers or indicators of the crossing which featured in one of the most recognizable record covers of all time. We took our pictures next to the Abbey Road road sign just to prove that we were really there. We also spent a lot of the day at Westminster Abbey where it was fascinating to see the markers and graves of so many people we were taught about in high school history. Oliver Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Victoria, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill and many more are buried and immortalized in this church which is steeped in over a thousand years of history. The architecture and sculptures are truly a marvel and well worth seeing. We also had Twinings Tea in the cloisters of the Abbey - how English is that? Also today we went to Westminster Cathedral which also has a long history and great architecture. Finally we spent some of the day riding around on the double decker buses viewing the sites/sights of London from the top deck whilst sheltering from the rain which was pouring on and off throughout the day. Yesterday we visited the Tower of London where we saw the gruesome history of England in its full glory and learnt all about the many beheadings. We also visited Parliament House, Buckingham Palace (where the lights were on upstairs), Trafalgar Square and All Hallows Church. Finally we walked through St James Park and took pictures of the many frolicking squirrels.

Return to civilization - almost like we know it

We got into Heathrow at 9.30am local time after a rather uneventful flight with British Airways. We had a last minute hitch the day before when we tried to check in using the online process only to discover that Qantas had not issued the tickets. A call to Qantas resulted in the answer - they are in the queue and should be issued in an hour. We refused to accept this and after some time of discussion they issued them on the spot. We then had to print out all the e-tickets and schedules etc however when we got to the counter they didn't even look at them (c'est la vie). When we got to Heathrow we checked out a whole lot of travel options and, after getting some wrong information, we caught a train, another train and then another train to Sharon's nephew's place where we are staying in Gipsy Hill. After lugging our suitcases up a gigantic hill we finally arrived and promptly fell asleep on the couches. Today we looked around and went shopping where we found Vegemite, proper bread and real cheese. It is my theory that a country's evolution is not measured by its laws, its buildings or architecture or its customs but rather by the quality of its food especially its chocolate. We were able to have a proper breakfast consisting of toast with butter and Vegemite and real tea - what magnificence.

Guitar man - ready to travel

We went back to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second day and had another great day of fun and frivolity amongst the exhibitions. We paid for an upgrade to the two day ticket price but when we got to the entrance door the staff recognized us as the "two Australians who loved Rock and Roll" and they were really chuffed that we had come back. As a result they refunded our money and told us that we shouldn't have to pay. We had a long talk to many of the staff and got a lot of "inside information" which made it even more special. Again we spent the whole day at the Museum and finished off by buying a couple of things from the gift shop. The next day we headed back to Chicago and decided to stay at a hotel near the airport since the GPS in our car was a bit dicey. Amongst other things it had tried to send us the wrong way up a couple of one way streets, it had taken us to a Kmart which didn't exist and it had almost taken us across the Canadian border. Today and most of tomorrow are "rest days" while we prepare to catch the plane to London tomorrow night for the start of the European leg of our journey. Hope my new guitar (see picture) will pass through customs so that I can use it to busk in London to help pay for the trip.

Rock and Roll forever

We hired a car and drove to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. On the way we had to detour due to roadworks and our GPS system almost took us to Canada - we got off the border crossing just in time. What a magnificent place is the Hall of Fame - 6 floors of exhibitions, interactive displays, films, music and lots more. We spent all of today looking through the exhibits and will go back tomorrow as there is so much to see and so much to do. This place is truly remarkable and has been set up with great love and respect of the music/people that it documents and honours. My favourite exhibition so far has been the psychedelic Porsche owned by Janis Joplin but there are many things that run a close second including the interactive displays where you can listen to the songs of inductees and trace all of their influences and listen to their music as well. I loved the Rolling Stones pinball machine which took me back a few years to my university days where, if I say so myself, I would have got a Distinction in Pinball Playing if it was offered as a course. I was finally able to obtain a couple of Sugar Pie Desanto CD's and meet some people who had actually heard of her. The only disappointment was the fact that you could not take pictures inside the museum - therefore the pictures in this blog are downloaded from the net.

Chicago Blues

Got into Chicago a few days ago after a nine hour Greyhound bus trip which was actually quite fun. After getting settled in our hostel we ventured out into the windy city which was very cold (31 degrees Fahrenheit or -1 degree Celsius) to see some of the nicest architecture we have ever seen. We went to the Chicago Cultural Centre and got a tour of the inside design which was extremely elaborate and ornate - full of marble and Tiffany stained glass. We also had some of the best soup I have ever tasted at a bakery nearby. The next day we went down to 2120 South Michigan Avenue - the location of Chess records and the home of the Blues Heaven Foundation - where some of the best Chicago blues artists recorded, including Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, the Rolling Stones. and Houndog Dumitriu (see picture). Yesterday we went to the St Patrick's Day parade as did about 20,000 other people - we saw many, many people dressed up in green looking like leprechauns. Today we went and had a Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues which was a spectacular event, both musically and gastronomically. One of the great things about Chicago is that it has 24 hour public transport passes which allow you to see a lot of the city very cheaply - we have spent much time riding around and hopping on and off to view sites of interest including the Wrigley Field Baseball Stadium and many of the places where the Blues Brothers film was shot. Unfortunately, Chicago is trying very hard to disassociate itself from its gangster/prohibition past so there are no markers/reminders of any of the places so prominent in shows like the Untouchables especially since most of the buildings have been torn down. Nevertheless we have seen the locations of some things like the St Valentines Massacre place, the site where Al Capone lived, the cemeteries where some of the more notorious are buried etc.

Down to the Crossroads - hellhounds on our trail

We rented a car and toured down Highway 61 to Clarksdale to see the Delta Blues Museum and then on to Indianola to see the B.B. King Museum. Both of these were quite spectacular with lots of original exhibits, memorabilia, pictures and films. We talked with the Communications Manager of the B.B. King who gave us the inside scoop of how it was developed, how much it cost and how important the museum is to Indianola's future. On the way back the GPS system in the car took us to the wrong place and we ended up about one hundred and eighty miles away - as a result we didn't get back to about one in the morning but got quite a good view of Arkansas and Mississippi at night. The next day we went to Nashville and caught up with The Grand Old Opry - a 390 mile (not kilometer) round trip. During this time Sharon got to see her first American bookshop - a Barnes and Noble. I had to drag her out of the store kicking and screaming. Today we drove around Memphis hitting bookshops and DVD/CD shops and ended up buying some great DVDs relating to Blues music which we have never seen in Australia. Memphis is amazing with music everywhere. We caught a great performance in a park, just two minutes away from where we are staying, and watched some great blues music free of charge. We also saw a couple of acts, again free of charge, at the Centre for Southern Folklore - a group of people dedicated to documenting and presenting the people, music and traditions of the region (check out their website at www.southernfolklore.com/ - especially their Archives section). All in all, a few days completely immersed in the Blues - how great is that? (PS: on our Nashville trip we stopped off at Loretta Lynne's Kitchen to have a bite to eat where we met some touring dogs who travelled on a trailer like device attached to a motorbike and who loved to wear their goggles when on the road - check out the picture)

Today we visited the Stax Museum of American Soul Music which celebrates the music of such greats as Isaac Hayes, Booker T & The MG's, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, the Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett, Luther Ingram, Albert King, the Bar-Kays, Ike & Tina Turner, Ann Peebles, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Rufus Thomas and many others. It was interesting to hear that in an environment of racial segregation and tension, Stax was "color blind" having blacks and whites working together at all levels of the industry. It was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. which caused distrust and unrest to occur which led to the ultimate demise of the record label. Eventually the building and its surrounds were levelled to the ground (including the Satellite Record Store which was its forerunner) and the current museum was built on the original site after an anonymous donation of two and a half million dollars from two business people. The love and respect of the music and the label's accomplishments shines through the whole museum and there are many great artifacts including Isaac Hayes' amazing Cadillac Impala. Later in the day we visited the Centre for Southern Folklore and Cafe which aims to preserve the historical content and resources associated with the people, music and traditions of the region. It has a lot of exhibitions and produces festivals and musical entertainments (via their famous brown bag lunches) - all free of charge.

That's alright Mama

Today we visited Graceland and saw everything Elvis. We saw his house, his cars, his planes, his grounds, his records, his trophies, his clothes, his gym, his stables, his meditation place, his burial place and above all his merchandise. All in all we found this to be the most disappointing part of the trip so far as it was so grossly commercialized and, in our opinion, had little/none of the soul that was his music. The whole place lacked the air of excitement and energy that the rest of Memphis has. In contrast, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum which was built on the spot that Martin Luther King was assassinated (the Lorraine Motel). Unlike Graceland, this place captured the spirit and soul of the Civil Rights Movement. It was eerie to stand in the location that James Earl Ray supposedly shot from, as it was to be in the same spot that Martin Luther King was standing at the time of his assassination. The love and respect for Martin Luther King Jr. and his accomplishments came through every presentation in the museum and it was a very moving day.

Let the good times roll

Fought our way through the snow - yes it is snowing today in Memphis - to go to the world famous B. B. King's Restaurant and Blues Club on Beale Street where we heard Blind Mississippi Morris and the B. B. King Allstars Band featuring Z'Da. Whilst the food was not bad, Morris was fantastic and really lived up to his reputation of being a great blues man. Unfortunately, the Allstars were a bit disappointing as they tended to play pop soul music rather than blues. Earlier in the day we found a supermarket and were able to stock up on some fresh food including fruit - we know that this may sound mundane but it is a real luxury when travelling in a country where fast food and sugar seem to be the order of the day. Had lots of fun playing in the snow when it first appeared around mid morning and all of the locals thought we were crazy. We also heard one of the best/funniest lines we have ever heard when we went to a car rental place near the motel where we are staying. Upon finding it closed we asked the next door garage owner when the rental place would be open, to which he replied: "won't be open - he's in jail - he stole a lot more cars than he ever rented". We just couldn't stop laughing.