Back in May you may have heard me mention that a few podcast episodes had been prepared in advance while #1 and #7 and I were on vacation. We were enjoying a week-long holiday in the UK, which was #7’s first international vacation and my first international trip in over a decade.

Did we go out of our way to visit podcast-related stuff? Damn straight we did. Do those field trips enable me to write off the trip as a business expense? No, because we’d have to be a money-making concern first…

First, here’s a shot of the finest cuisine Terminal D of Keflavik International Airport has to offer: Sbarro’s. (I kid. The finest cuisine Terminal D has to offer is actually the hot dog stand around the corner from this.)

One of our first stop was Hastings, where #7 and the Grand Jackalope fulfilled a life-long dream to dip their toes in the English Channel. Mission accomplished, and we got this great shot out of it.

On the way back to the train station we spotted this Spiritualist Center. Which is the first time that’s ever happened, because there aren’t a lot of those in the United States any more! They’ve all turned into Scientology Centers and Christian Science Reading Rooms.

We also spent a whole day at the British Museum, which had a whole bunch of stuff that could be turned into episode but only one thing that had already been featured in an episode. This isn’t the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull (“Lost Legacy”), which is still privately owned. This is the one that used to be in the “Museum of Mankind,” but more importantly it was one of the first skulls to undergo rigorous scientific detection and be exposed as a modern fraud.

Also, more people should go around the back of the Parthenon Marbles, because these Greeks are caked. (And, also, while we’re on the subject, the Brits really should give them back. Along with the big chunks of the other Wonders of the Ancient World they’ve got lying around.)

Most folks in Westminster Abbey are there to see Poet’s Corner and the tombs of Queen Elizabeth and Edward the Confessor and the coronation chair. Which means that a lot of them just step over this monument to the Hyde Family. The entire Hyde family, including Edward Hyde, third Earl of Clarendon, former Governor of New York, and purported cross-dresser. (“Universally Detested”) If you want to see it, look down when you’re in the line to see Queen Mary’s tomb.

Pittsburghers, you should also make sure you don’t walk past this crazy, over-the-top monument to William Pitt the Elder which is hidden behind the ticket counter. (And for those in the Greater Pittsburgh region, John Ligonier is on the other side of the abbey.)

When we were at the Greenwich Observatory I forgot to get a shot of the actual telescope William Herschel used to find Uranus (“The Number of the Stars”), so this shot of a different and much more interesting-looking telescope in the main observatory will have to do.

Over in the National Gallery, of course, we had to see Berthe Morisot’s Jour d’été, which you may remember was briefly stolen by Irish nationalists (“More Lovely and More Temperate”) who believed it rightly belonged in Dublin. Strangely the National Gallery doesn’t mention how easy it was to steal. Go figure.

The Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon Railroad (“Such Was Railroading”) ran on a narrow 36″ gauge, but the Mail Rail that used to run under London ran on an even narrower one! A small section of track has been converted into a tourist attraction and it’s well worth the price of admission.

And finally, Cutty Sark has nothing to do with the podcast, but it’s really damn photogenic. That is all.

Published

September 22, 2025