Houses of the Famous Museum Visit Wishlist - Elvis, Freud, Levi, Trotsky, Twain and more

I'm researching a book of quotations and keep coming across new museums in the birthplace of somebody famous - or where they lived and died. You can visit Trotsky's house, where he was murdered, in Mexico. You can see exiled author Stefan Zvieg, home, where he supposedly committed suicide with his wife - although conspiracy theorists think he was murdered in the Rio area, Brazil.
   Sometimes you visit a country or place and the most interesting or mysterious part, such as the controversy about how the person died, is not mentioned at all. Instead you are shown only the verifiable facts, such as this was his pen or Freud's spectacles. I imagine guides are wary of giving misleading information or being negative when people are trying to have a happy holiday.
  I went to Molly Brown's house in the USA and heard not a word about the Titanic. Then when I visited Jim Thompson's house in Bangkok, twice, I had to buy a book in the bookshop to find out the theories as to where or why he disappeared on his last walk through the jungle.

Today I've added more places to visit to my wish list.
Here are the ones I have done and my most significant memories:

My Been There Top Ten:
1 Anne Frank House,
2 Bronte Museum,
3 Disraeli,
4 Dickens, London
5 Rothschild,
6 Freud, London
7 Jefferson, USA
8 Webster, USA
9 Poe, USA
10 Scott, Scotland.

My Wishlist Top Ten:
1 Elvis Presley's Graceland,
2 Mob Museum Las Vegas,
3 Jane Austen, UK
4 Mark Twain, USA
5 Jim Reeves, TN< USA
6 Robbie Burns, Scotland
7 Abraham Lincoln (I've done the theatre in DC, a battlefield with explanation of how he wrote his Gettysburg address speech, but not the birthplace area),
8 Trotsky, Mexico
9 Chagall, France (or Eastern Europe)
10 Robben Island

BEEN THERE _ DONE THAT
USA - BEEN THERE
Elvis Presley museums/souvenirs -
when living in the USA I seemed to find an Elvis souvenir such as a car in every city.( But I still haven't done the big Elvis centre Graceland.)
President Jefferson home, Washington DC.
Fallingwater designed by architect by Frank Lloyd Wright
Edgar Allan Poe House Museum, Baltimore.
Home of Jack London, California.
Home of Molly Brown.
Home of Pearl Buck.
Home of Clara Barton.
Buffalo Bill Cody Artwork museum.
Hearst Castle, California.
Noah Webster. The man who wrote the dictionary, revised spelling, and made a grammar book.
Noah Webster House 227 Main St W Hartford CT 06107
noahwebsterhouse.org
(NB on the web your search for Webster will probably bring up a different Webster, Daniel,danielwebsterestate.org and Tripadvisor you'll see Daniel Webster House.)
Winchester Mystery House
Deadwood, reproduction of poker table with Wild Bill Hicock's dead man's hand

CHINA
Sassoon hotel in Shanghai - not much to see. Great place, with small plaque in hall, but having been there made me read about Sassoons.

UK
London - Dickens house.
Keats House.
Freud's house - highly recommended.
Bronte's house in Haworthy, Yorkshire - highly recommended. Loads of info and shop.
Rothschild home Waddesdon. National Trust.
Disraeli's house.
Portsmouth - another Dickens' house.

SCOTLAND
Home of Walter Scott;
David Livingston.

WALES
Dylan Thomas (3 locations).

EUROPE
Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Highly Recommended.
Hans Andersen Museum, Denmark.
Puccini's house, Italy.
Bialik's house, Israel.

ASIA
House of American, Jim Thompson, who started Thai silk industry, Bangkok, Thailand.
Gandhi's House, Delhi, India.
Sun Yat-Sen's home, Shanghai, China.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND
Katherine Mansfield Birthplace museum, Wellington, New Zealand Katherinemansfield.com

SOUTH AFRICA
A former home of Nelson Mandela was included in a tour I took around Soweto. You can also visit Robben Island.

*****
TODO - WISHLIST
England
London: William Morris house. Hogarth house.
Jane Austen.

Scotland
Robbie Burns House.

USA and North America
Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Connecticut. marktwainhouse.com
Niagara - Houdini Museum
Graceland - Elvis
Hemingway
Cemetery with Al Jolson statue.
Replica of White House President's room in Boston.
Homes of Country Music stars: Jim Reeves near Nashville, TN.
Abraham Lincoln museum.
Several halls of fame - though most are online and some are only online with no premises.
Whitehouse tour, Washington DC.
Las Vegas Mob Museum.

MEXICO
Trotsky museum.

S AMERICA
Stefan Zvieg museum near Rio, Brazil.

PACIFIC
Robert Louis Stevenson home and hilltop grave in Pacific.

EUROPE
Birthplace home of Levi-Strauss in Buttenheim, Germany.
Brothers Grimm fairytale trail.
Chagall Museum - Eastern Europe.
Chagall Museum, France.

I'll add some more details and books later this week so keep checking this post daily.

French words discovered today

beau
boudoir
demi-monde
emigree
genre
in lieu
pastiche
rapport
reverie
trousseau

French accents?
Can somebody please tell me where to find French accent to insert in blogs without copying words from elsewhere which puts them in a different font?

The Weald Stone by Wealdstone Inn near Harrow and Wealdstone Station, NW London

This is supposedly the original weald stone out side the Wealdstone Inn.

This Harrow heritage plaque on the front wall of the inn explains the history.

Unfortunately the pub is now boarded up awaiting new tenants. The Harrovian Toastmasters club used to meet here. Harrovian means related to Harrow.

A few steps from the Wealdstone Inn are Waitrose supermarket, Homebase, a drive in fast food place, as well as ethnic restaurants.

Look closely at the inn walls and you'll see that it has fine brickwork on the front and would look quite attractive if it were restored.

Harrow and Wealdstone station takes its name from the Weald stone. The Harrow and Wealdstone station links south to Croydon and north via Watford to Milton Keynes, Birmingham.

Another line, the Bakerloo, takes you south via Queens Park and Paddington to Baker Street, Piccadilly, Charing Cross, Waterloo, Elephant & Castle.

The front car park at the station currently costs £5 for the day. This photo shows the back car park where you can have Asda groceries delivered (see my previous post).

Berlin's projected three-faith complex

In the USA when I lived in Washington DC we had one building shared by a church and a synagogue (for economic reasons?). The sign outside pivoted reading synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday. You simply locked away your cross or star of David in a cupboard before shutting the front the door as you left and turned the sign when you got to the gate. Does anybody know the name? It must still be on the internet. Heathrow airport has a multi-faith room.

Click and collect At UK railway stations

Order from Asda before noon and collect after 4 pm the same day from Harrow and Wealdstone, Stanmore and more stations.

The Asda van parked outside Harrow & Wealdstone station has the information on the outside. Posters around the site also alert you to the opportunity.

Other supermarkets have similar arrangements already or planned at other stations.

More details from asda.com

Summer On the Streets Of London - Restaurants, Caffes and Pubs With Street Seating Or Gardens

Flags flying at Fellini Caffe restaurant in Hatch End

Like Indian continent food? Coriander has some outdoor seating too. Whether you want to puff on a cigarette, or actually enjoy fresh air.

Prefer to be at the back away from traffic sights and sounds and smells?

Wetherspoons Pub in Hatch End

Eat at the front on the street in the Moon and Sixpence

Or on wooden benches and tables in their rustic beer garden at the back

 In a back garden next door at Pizza Express

Choose Chinese and sit outside at ChikaYan

Across the street more Italian and continental restaurants with windows open onto the street"

Dona Teresa on the left. 

FRENCH More French words you already know

Reading the titles of novel by Emile Zola, I was astonished how many French words would be recognised immediately by anybody who spoke English.
I wrote an earlier post about French words. Here are a few more.

accuse
amour
commune
confession
Debacle
excellence
experimental
fortune
joie de vivre
justice
humaine
soiree

Zola was first buried in a Paris cemetery where you can see his monument. He was later reburied in The Pantheon with other literary heroes.

Swiss bed in a box turns cars into camper vans

Swiss army knife ingenuity has made a bed in a box, with table and cooker too.
The bed can be pulled out and  put up in five minutes. There's a table and cooker too.
The inventor is Philippe Peraklis. I've just written to the company.

The bed even levels itself. I've written to them asking if, when and where you can buy and what price. I'll let you know later today or tomorrow or whenever they reply so come back to this blog and read again. (I'm also on Facebook.)
Angela Lansbury the author, travel writer, photographer and blogger

A bed inside a suitcase
And a suitcase in your car
You eat and sleep by day or night
You can stop wherever you are.

If you're out on a holiday
Or with your fancy man
Just bring your suitcase just in case
No need to make big plans

If your working on a big job
And need to take a little rest
Even at home, when not alone
And two too many guests

They've thought of something new
Well. bless their cotton socks
Well, goodness me, wish it were free
That handy bedroom in a box.
***

(I'll add a pic in a moment
Yes back in a jiffy
 -I thought that I would make a start
 'cause I don't want to lose my blog -
my internet connect's iffy!
If I forget give me a jog)


Here's a picture I downloaded from their press release.

I love their logo too.

Their details
swissroombox.com

Souvenir of London from Starbucks, London

We went into Starbucks for coffee.

Toilets
Good ground floor large toilet big enough for wheelchair. Unisex. Free?

Free - so? We failed to find a free toilet in another coffee bar. They claimed their toilet was out of order. So we didn't go there for coffee.

The public toilets in the nearby area were in pairs. They take a twenty pence coin. Or two ten pence coins. This confused one foreigner. He put in one ten pence coin. We all throughout the system was malfunctioning.

We stood in line twice. The first time I refused to go in. I'd read about a woman who died. She was electrocuted in a metal toilet. Vandals had broken a light bulb. So the electric part was exposed and touched the walls which ran down to the metal toilet which was filled with water and as soon as she touched it, the whole place was live and she was electrocuted.

Other people came out alive. And I was desperate after wine and coffee. After use the toilet is self-cleaning so you wait while it cleans. No proper maps or signs to the toilets. No sign saying how far away they are. You don't know whether the public toilets are 20 yards away, 500 yards, or a mile.

No toilets inside the Rioja festival. I had a long skirt and was starting to look for a drain!

Souvenir Cups To Buy
So I was well disposed to Starbucks for providing the toilet. Then I spotted this pair of espresso cups. I could not resist a little cup with William Shakespeare and scenes of London. We had just visited the Rioja wine fair next to Tower Bridge.

What's good about these cups? Under £10, price of two cups of coffee, for a couple of souvenir cups.
What would I have liked different? White inside. You have to hold them under the light and up to a window to be sure they are really clean inside.

I would also have liked matching saucers. Eventually going through my stock of saucers I found two roughly the right size. Reasonable match in colour. Not so big that the cup slides about. Not so tiny that it doesn't fit at all and scrapes.

The saucers look too big. Unless you like a small cup made more important by a huge saucer.

The cup showing Tower Bridge and Big Ben has the word London.

The cup showing Shakespeare says England.

Not ideal to have to find a saucer the right size from your stock. Ok to 'borrow' two saucers from elsewhere for just the two of you. But for a dinner of half a dozen people you might not want to be juggling saucers. Anybody else helping would not be able to work out which saucers went with the cups as they don't match.

I checked underneath the cups and the writing says the design is 2014 so they are new, which is why I have not seen them before.

I like the fact that they are different, so if one of you wants sugar or milk or decaff you know which cup is whose.

One more last good point, about the design. The handles are big enough for two or three fingers.  My favourite Rayware cups have smaller handles.

I can often buy a whole set of four espresso cups with matching saucers for that price in Oxfam. But if you fancy these two, you know where to buy them.

Aperitif In England And France

In England the traditional pre-dinner aperitif would be sherry from Spain.

In France the traditional pre-dinner aperitif would be Port from Portugal. Tanwny Port.

What's Tawny Port?
   When wine is picked from the grape it is red colour. Fresh bright red like fresh blood and fresh red grapes. After it ages in the barrel it goes brown like the barrel, like dried blood, or dried plums which turn into dark coloured prunes.

Here's a Tawny Port as an aperitif. You can see the tawny brown colour, like a tawny owl. My picture makes it look slightly red on my screen. the plate is red, but the drink is brown.

RIOJA By London's Tower Bridge

Yes, it's the Tower of London. We could see open-topped buses taking tourists across.

'Singing in the rain?' Not yet - fortunately before we had too much wine we went to an indoor tutored tasting.

A two day festival of Rioja and tapas. Free entry 12noon - 6 pm Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th June 2014. You could book tastings and demos on line, £6 + £1 booking fee.

Rain - no problem - buy a jolly red umbrella with the word Rioja on it for £6.

Rioja is in Northern Spain. Rioja wines are red, rosada (rose pink colour) and white dry wines.

The favourite grape of the region is Temperanillo. Add small quantities of other grapes, just as you would add sugar or salt to food, to spice up existing flavour or add a little new flavour.

The popular producers who produce large quantities of value for money wine were out in force.

TAPAS TASTING

I tried three kinds of tapas. Unfortunately the tapas offered was in snack size and prices. I had hoped for lots of dishes of little bite size pieces, canapés, so you could spend £10 and try 20 different snacks. I'm allergic to shellfish. I avoid preserved meats since a member of my family had cancer and we all went on a healthy diet of no preserved meats for months.

That left me with a small choice, but very enjoyable: large chopped mushrooms on a tranche of bread topped with a quail's egg; then chicken leg in rice - fried rice not so healthy? but in a tasty tomato sauce. 

EVENTS

1 Wine tasting

2 Walk about 

3 Cookery

The staff looked great in either red or blue t-shirts with the word Rioja.

More details from uk.riojawine.com

Anne Frank's posthumous step-sister Eva Schloss, book and music choices

Anne Frank's father came to England after waiting in Holland in vain for the return of his daughters and wife.

He had met Eva's mother, also hoping to be reunited, in her case having lost a husband and son.

They lived in Edware, where I lived as a post-war child. 

I just heard Eva Schloss’s choice of music on Radio 3.

Interesting insights on the Anne Frank family and Schloss family prewar and postwar.

Anybody interested can download it for the next (month?)

I have read Eva's Story by Eva Schloss (with Evelyn Julia Kent) and you might like to read it.

UK £6.99 US $10.99 

Anne Frank Memorial Park, Blaise, Idaho and other memorials

You think you know almost everything there is to know on a subject, but more facts emerge or more artwork is created. Wandering from subject to subject on the internet, you make happy discoveries - serendipity. I've been researching for a book of quotations and I was on the inventor of Braille, Loouis Brialle, born in January, died in January. I started looking for people who were born on the same day. The writer of a post on that subject sent me off on a search on ten facts you didn't know about Anne Frank. Then I thought, I'll check memorials to her. I found delightful pictures of statues and memorials all over the world.

I have so far found these:
1 Statue of Anne Frank in Westermarkt, Amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands.
2 Inscription on her saying in Harrow Civic Centre, Harrow, Middx, NW London, England, UK.
3 Anne Frank walkway in Anne Frank Memorial Park, Blaise, Idaho, USA. Bronze statue of Anne standing on a chair to wave.


(I'll update this later today. Come back.) 

Best apple strudel and lokshen pudding in London?

B & K in Edgware or Hatch End.

Apple strudel. Apple filling.

Lokshen pudding. Noodle pudding with sultanas. Hint of lemon. Suggestion of brown sugar on top.  Very filling.

Lokshen pudding is a Jewish style, but also Polish style. I believe the current owners are Greeks and not Jewish, don't have a kosher license, but learned from their former employers, and now make the most wonderful filling food. Turkey. Salt beef. Rye bread. Pickled cucumber.

Eat in or take away.

Balcony Safety

I just had an idea about balcony safety. Looking at a picture of the balconies on Knights Tower, Deptford, from which Students Miguel Ranos, 18, and Anastasia Tutik, 19, fell to their deaths, I was thinking, what if the balconies were arranged in alternating columns, with an exit one side only, glass at the front. Then I had a second idea, balconies stepped down the side of the building like a stepladder's rungs, so if you fell from each one you only fell one level. You don't have to make the entire building pyramid shape, just the balconies.
 _-_-_ -

or

 - - - -
- - - -

or
-
  -
-
  -
-
  -

or
-
  -
   -
    -
     -
or the same in a V shape down the building

Or a series of V shapes.

The story of the couple's fall from the sixth floor balcony is reported in Daily Mail, Telegraph, Huffington Post, Express.co.uk Independent, Telegraph, Mirror Ninemsn, Australian and Indian papers in the English language and worldwide in local languages, no doubt in Spanish in Mexico and Spanish speaking countries and in Russian in Russia and elsewhere on Wednesday June 11th and Thursday June 12th 2014.
   Too many people fall from balconies.

Buying wine - are you blank about Blanc de Blanc and plonk?

At the airport or supermarket wondering what those wine labels mean?
Blanc de Blanc means white (wine) made from white (grapes).

    That's usually white sparkling wine, Champagne if from the Champagne region of North East France.
   Champagne and other white wines are the 3Cs: Champagne, on chalky soil, from Chardonnay white grapes.
   (Chardonnay is a village, not in the Champagne region but further south of Champagne in Burgundy. A wine expert tells me the finest white wines in the world are white burgundies.)
(At the southern end of Burgundy you get Beaujolais.)

   (The German name for Pinot Noir grape is Spatburgunder - meaning late Burgundy, late to ripen? or lately or formerly from Burgundy.)

   Blanc de Noir is white (sparkling) wine from a black grape, Pinot Noir. Noir is French for black.
(Pinot is a kind of grape. You find more than one grape starting with the name Pinot then the colour. Pinot Gris is grey - a white grape with a reddish mottle.)

  Blanc de Noir is a white sparkling wine from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

For more details see a book called Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, speaker, speech coach and English teacher.

PS Plonk is supposed to be the English language attempt to say Blanc. Those not fussy about wine would just ask for a bottle of white, Blanc, called it Plonk.

Clean streets? World's best Singapore. Harrow and Hatch End efforts.

Cleanest places in the world? Disneyland and Disney World in the USA.

Singapore.

In Hatch End I met Chris, employed by Harrow. He is one of three in this area, Because of cutbacks apparently the cleaning is now reduced to three days a week. Once or twice a year a group of volunteers do a clean up, given protective gloves, pickers, bags, or other equipment.

London Loop and Walking around Hatch End

London Loop sign corner of Grimsdyke road in Hatch End pointing towards the railway station

Hatch End railway station with its clock tower

Hatch End station elaborate facade dated 1911.

Plaque inside Hatch End station.

The long walk from Hatch end to Elstree. Section 15.

For a shorter walk, turn left at the London Loop sign on the corner of Grimsdyke road. Walk along the Broadway (high street/main street) to Wooodridings Close. At the end is an alley way. 

A French jogger called Jacqueline told me that if you follow this path you come to horses and a golf course.

Jacqueline says follow this path to see the horses.

To buy books by Angela Lansbury the author go to Lulu.com

(Books on travel, comic poetry, quotations) 

More by and about Angela Lansbury author and speaker on Facebook (Harrovians and HOD speakers), LinkedIn, YouTube (videos on comic poetry and restaurant etiquette and public speaking and grammar)

Identifying an Elm Tree

We've all heard about Dutch Elm disease and how it was decimating trees. Driving along I was wondering how to identify an elm and if they'd all gone. Walking along a London high street (main street to you if you are one of my readers in the USA) I saw a small elm tree. I was so pleased it was labelled.
If you go onto some of the websites they show you the leaves. Not much good if you are driving along. But if you can recognise a leaf close up you can then identify the tree at a distance.

The Scouts Group paid for and/or planted this little elm tree in Hatch End.

The nearest tree is the elm.

Father's Day Cakes From Genuine Cakes, Hatch End, London

London Parks, England Suburban Pine trees, Green Belt Walks and June Roses

London is surrounded by 'the green belt'. Building restrictions are designed to stop developments on fields and high density buildings. (Although local residents and councils are locked in constant battles with appeals to planning committees.)
   London is known for its parks. You will find a green park next to Green Park station. One stop from Piccadilly underground station is Green Park underground station. You might come up the stairs next to the block with the Ritz hotel and find yourself by the entrance to the park. If you are opposite that station exit, just cross the road at the lights - or if you prefer, go down again and check the exit for the other side of the road and use the underground station as a way of crossing the road.
South London
  Going South you have Kew Gardens. Wimbledon. (City types would head for cosmopolitan Brixton markets.)

North London
  If you are staying out of London or want a walk, you can take lots of walks following signposts from stations such as Hatch End where the walk goes along the old Grim's Dyke from centuries ago.
  If you don't have the shoes for walking along grassy paths, or prefer to stay within sight of houses, it's very pleasant to walk along the historic buildings in Hatch End, Pinner, Rayners Lane (art deco), or Harrow. Free to walk. Brick built semis made from bricks in London's red clay, although you'll also see road names like Chalk Hill. The most historic area is Harrow on the Hill.


This is suburban Hatch End. Pine trees lean across the side streets. Gardens in June show roses. Other flowers include the poppy.

Pine trees in suburban street, Hatch End

Front garden with Californian poppy (yellow)

Yellow Rose in front garden

Orange rose in front garden

Pink Standard Rose In Front Garden

Angela is a travel writer, author and speaker. See more about Angela Lansbury the author in Lulu.com, Facebook, LinkedIn