It seems there’s much more to do in central Kansas than we realized. We stopped at Fort Riley only to learn that the US Calvary Museum is currently closed for renovation. The good news is that gave us time to say “Let’s stop!” when we passed a brown sign telling us that the Eisenhower Boyhood Home and Presidential Library in Abilene could be accessed from the next exit. The treasure on this site is the modest home in which David & Ida Eisenhower raised six sons to adulthood and successful careers and where they lived the rest of their lives. Upon Ida’s death in 1946 the house was donated to a foundation for preservation even before her son was elected to the Presidency of the United States. The museum is currently being renovated but many of the displays are set up in the Presidential Library and give a good look at the life of the humble man from Abilene who served as Supreme Commander of Allied Troops in the Second World War then as President of the United States led our country through the 1950’s.
Ever since its debut on Broadway the two of us have wanted to see “Wicked the Musical”. Today we realized that dream. In the Apollo Victoria Theater in London’s West End we were witness to the incredible prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the story of the Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
London’s National Portrait Gallery’s temporary exhibition, “Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens” presents an amazing collection of portraits, jewelry, personal effects, books, costumes, and more to illustrate not only the lives of the six women who married the second Tudor king, but the effort across five centuries to keep their memory alive.
The purpose of our trek to Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham in the southwest of London was to see a recently recovered bronze bust of the Emperor Caligula but we discovered so much more in the recently restored 18th Century “little Gothic castle” built by Horace Walpole.
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