The Art Gallery Is Closed | Gentle Musings for Background Listening

In this gently wandering episode of The Insomnia Project, hosts Marco Timpano and Amanda Barker set out for a cultural outing only to discover that the Art Gallery of Ontario is closed on Mondays. What begins as a simple trip to the gallery turns into a calm, meandering conversation about Toronto history, theatre memories, travel, and the small observations that make everyday life quietly interesting.
Amanda and Marco reflect on their visit to the area around the Art Gallery of Ontario, which leads them into a discussion about The Ward, one of Toronto’s historic neighbourhoods. Amanda shares a few thoughts about the area and its fascinating past, while Marco offers observations about train stations and the kinds of places that quietly shape the rhythm of a city.
The conversation drifts into the world of theatre when Marco recounts playing a judge on stage, complete with a gavel and a memorable moment involving a music box. From there, the discussion moves effortlessly across continents — touching on Portugal’s beautiful tiles, the elegance of Cunard Line ocean liners, and eventually landing in Bermuda, where the hosts talk about the island’s famous chowder.
Along the way they ponder small everyday questions like whether coasters make a good gift, and Amanda shares a quick review of Scarlett Johansson. As always, the conversation unfolds slowly and comfortably, creating a relaxed listening experience perfect for bedtime, late-night wake-ups, or quiet background listening while working or unwinding.
The Insomnia Project is a weekly calming podcast featuring gentle, mundane conversation designed to help quiet racing thoughts and guide listeners toward rest. Not every episode will put you to sleep, but the goal is always to help you reach a peaceful, relaxed state.
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Resource Mentioned:
Art Gallery of Ontario – ago.ca
Quote from the episode:
“I banged my gavel on my gavel spot.” – Marco

​The Art Gallery is Closed
(Original airdate: April 6, 2023)

 Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax, and listen as we have a calm conversation that's designed to help you find your way to sleep. Uh, this is the only podcast that I'm aware of that is recorded by Insomniacs for Insomniacs. So we hope you. You will enjoy or get something from it. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda:  Here I am. I'm Amanda Barker, and Marco, I actually, I'm gonna get real technical, and you asked me earlier could I hear you, and I could, and now I can't. Okay, so I'm not sure what the change is. Oh, there we go.

Marco: Okay, there you go.

Amanda:  Things change sometimes from, uh, rehearsal to performance, right?

Marco: That's right. Seasons change, as they say.

Amanda:  Yeah. For everything there is a season, and a season unto everything through heaven. Turn, turn, turn.

Marco: Amanda, I have to correct something that we said last episode.

Amanda:  Controversy.

Marco: So I think we said we were talking about, uh, A Streetcar Named Desire when we should have been talking about, uh, what's the other one?

Amanda:  A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And you and I both were talking about A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and yet completely calling it A Streetcar Name Desire. So what's the guy's name in A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, then. Because I was all like, oh, I guess it's Stanley.

Marco: No, it's not, uh, not who I was referring to. I was still referring to Big Daddy, but Big Daddy from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which, of course, not

Amanda:  from the Golden Girls.

Marco: No, not from the Golden Girls. I never even thought of that. Big Daddy from the Golden Girls in reference to. Yeah, I didn't. For some reason, I never associated the two.

Amanda:  But, uh, I'm sure that's where he's, um, from.

Marco: That's me hitting my computer in case you, um, heard that noise. Gooper.

Amanda:  His name is Goo. Remember, I said it was like Kid or Mitch. I knew it was like, a nickname. Okay, uh, Brick. Brick. Brick.

Marco: Brick.

Amanda:  I was close. I said Mitch or Kit.

Marco: Yeah. So there you go.

Amanda:  I mean, his name. Brick. Really?

Marco: I forgot, I guess. Well, that guy is, um.

Amanda:  Yeah. My favorite, uh, Brick was our friend David Snelgrove.

Marco: Yes.

Amanda:  Who performed that role in Stratford. And I'll tell you, I saw that. I've seen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the theater a few times, which is just a random thing that's happened to me. And it would have actually been this, uh, month exactly 10 years ago that I saw Scarlet, now that I think about it. I saw Scarlett Johansson on Broadway, um, performing Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Marco: And how was she?

Amanda:  She was amazing.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  And I have a real respect for her as a performer because of that performance.

Marco: If anybody knows Scarlett, let her know that this is what we've had to say.

Amanda:  I'm going to Margo. I want to call something out as well.

Marco: Okay, sure.

Amanda:  This might be the episode where we just discuss random things, but as always, my voice might sound a little different to some people today, and I don't want anyone to worry. I do not have a cold.

Marco: She does not have a cold.

Amanda:  Ah. 100% I don't. I was performing on Friday, and that performance involved a fair bit of, um. Screaming.

Marco: Yes.

Amanda:  I don't know, a delightful, soothing, mundane way to say it. Other than that. Um, but I'm fine. That was just my acting.

Marco: There you go.

Amanda:  And I figured I would lose my voice, but it's interesting. I didn't lose it that night. I lost it more the next day.

Marco: Sure, sure. And also, you know, adrenaline and whatnot. When you. When you use your voice like that, it can get stressed and you feel it the next day. Kind of like a muscle when you're working out.

Amanda:  Yeah, for sure. It's a good way to look at it.

Marco: We went to the museum today because we were going to go see a lovely exhibit that I thought we were going to talk about on the podcast episode Leonard Cohen exhibit at the ago, which stands for the Art Gallery of

Amanda:  Ontario, of which we are members. Some kind of membership.

Marco: We're not. We're not, uh, we're. We have a membership, but not the highest membership or whatever that is.

Amanda:  Right.

Marco: That gets you into the secret restaurant.

Amanda:  There's this.

Marco: Well, it's not a secret restaurant, but you know, the restaurant that's attached to it. You need that membership. And we had that membership in the past and we liked it and we did. But this time we got this membership.

Amanda:  We got a cheaper membership.

Marco: It's true.

Amanda:  Because we know that we're busy and we may not, uh, use it to the fullest extent. I think you can always upgrade it anyway.

Marco: Yeah, yeah, of course you can.

Amanda:  So I want to just address the secret restaurant.

Marco: I should say we went to the ago, but it's closed today, which is Monday when we're recording.

Amanda:  So a really hot tip from those of us here. Just check and see if things are open. When you have big plans for a Monday morning.

Marco: It's true.

Amanda:  When you find you have a Monday morning off. Which we did.

Marco: Especially on a Monday.

Amanda:  Yeah, exactly. Um, so, um, uh, uh, my stomach is making a lot of noise.

Marco: Oh, is that your stomach?

Amanda:  Yeah. So I apologize. I just want to call it out and I hope it's soothing for someone.

Marco: I mean, the odd little growl isn't going to disturb too many people in

Amanda:  my m. It's just fascinating because you don't think your stomach makes any noises and then suddenly you're like. Well, there's nothing else that. That could be.

Marco: Fair enough.

Amanda:  When you're in this little booth. Anyway, um, so the secret restaurant is the original home that was on that site.

Marco: That's right.

Amanda:  And they built sort of around it. So there's actually an old Victorian house embedded inside a very modern museum. Is that right to say.

Marco: I would say they kept the structure of that home and built the museum sort of attached to it. Mhm.

Amanda:  Does that make sense versus around it?

Marco: Yeah, they sort of.

Amanda:  It sort of sticks outside of it, I guess. Yeah, it's connected to it.

Marco: It's connected to it. It would almost be the street behind the street that it's on.

Amanda:  So what's interesting is where the Art Gallery of Ontario is, is in an area that was once known as the Ward in Toronto. And the ward was where it's sort of, I guess for a better lack of description. Sort of midtown Toronto. What we would think of as midtown.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  No, you're giving me.

Marco: Aren't we midtown?

Amanda:  Sure. I mean, I think our area was sort of the upper ward, really.

Marco: Okay, I didn't know that.

Amanda:  Yeah. But, um, like where we are right now used to be, uh, um, a factory for, um, skates. They made skates. Did you know that? Ice skates.

Marco: I wasn't sure. I knew they made something, but I didn't know it was skates. I thought it was other things.

Amanda:  It might have been the blades. The blades for ice skates, but I think it was the ice skates themselves. They made them where we're sitting right now.

Marco: I totally believe you.

Amanda:  I think there was a big, bigger demand in the 1900s, early 1900s, for ice skates.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  Um, but eventually the factory was, uh, discontinued for whatever reason. And then they built homes, and here we are. So the ward was, um, a very diverse, um, population of people who were new to Toronto.

Marco: Right.

Amanda:  So same as the tenements, the lower side in New York, or anywhere in New York, really. Or Boston, you know, um, the communities around, uh, Boston, especially the north end of Boston. Um, the Ward was very well known for, um, immigrants from Russia, immigrants from, uh, Poland, Italy. I'm trying to think of some other countries that were really heavily.

Marco: There was Jewish.

Amanda:  Um, a lot of Jewish. Yeah. From various countries. M. At that time, um, at the turn of the century. I'm trying to think of some other people that the war was known for. Uh, less Portuguese, I think. Um, Russian, Russian, Ukrainian, Ukrainian. So a lot of Eastern bloc countries. But that wasn't the only other countries, uh, represented, certainly. But those were the. I think at that time, a lot of Irish, uh, immigrants as well. And, um, the ward was, uh, made up of sort of small, simple homes, uh, that people lived in when they were working in the factories.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  Uh, downtown and the shops downtown kind of thing. So I would have. What's sad about our city is that a lot of that. Some of that's still there, but a lot of it is no longer there, like so many cities.

Marco: But our city in particular is sort of notorious for tearing down homes and building condos and not giving the interesting homes their due. So we.

Amanda:  There's. I mean, the flip side of that is they're trying to make space for everybody. So I actually do think it comes from somewhat of a good place or an accessible place. The bad side of that is that we do lose some of our rich history, architecturally and otherwise. So that home in the ago Was uh, one of the featured homes of the Ward, I think. Um, certainly that area was the Ward, of course. Um, Chinatown I should say. There was a large influx of uh, Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese immigrants at that time.

Marco: Wow.

Amanda:  Yeah. And it's now the ago is pretty much adjacent to Chinatown. So that population has remained for several decades, century at this point.

Marco: If you're listening and you're one of the people that watches the television program called Murdoch Mysteries. Hm. Doesn't a lot of it take place around the ward at that time?

Amanda:  Right, yeah. And what's interesting is we still use the words ward. So we'll say ward 76 ward. You'll hear that in Toronto. That's not a word that, that is used in every city.

Marco: What does that mean? Ward?

Amanda:  I think it's just an area, just like district.

Marco: Oh I see.

Amanda:  It's just an old timey word for, you know, an area, a segmented area on a map or a district. Um, another part of the ward was demolished, uh, for the um, Eaton center, which is a big mall but a landmark also of Toronto. Um, the, so the Dundas area, the Yonge area. Gerard. Um, sort of the west of Yonge kind of area. That was the Ward. Um, so there's still remnants of the Ward today. I think that's really fascinating. And so that's one of the really interesting remnants for me anyway of the Ward in Toronto. It's just one of those areas of the. I think Toronto has a lot of rich history, but it doesn't have the um, pride in its history that it could have. And so it takes some time to uncover it because no one's thinking to put it front and center. So you have to go and look for it.

Marco: I love when you're in a city, including our own, but when you're in a city and you see architecture from the 1920s that Art Deco, art nouveau architecture, this is one of the things I love about Los Angeles in particular because so much of that has been kept or remained, remain or it happened to be a city that was going through a lot of building during that time. So you see those, those and you often see it if there's a Union Station in your town or city that's called Union Station. Well it would be the main station.

Amanda:  Right.

Marco: The main train station. Uh, a lot of cities have a Union Station.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco: And a lot of those were built around that time and they're grandiose and when they built them they wanted them to look wonderful. And so going to a train station in a city Is something I enjoy doing. I think we went. Did we go to the one in San Diego once? And it was so beautiful.

Amanda:  I've never been to San Diego. Okay, so that wasn't me.

Marco: Who did I. Where did we go? We went to a train station that was all mosaic tiles. Blue mosaic tiles.

Amanda:  Well, I know there's one in Nashville.

Marco: No, this was in California.

Amanda:  Blue mosaic tiles.

Marco: Oh, no, Santa Cruz. I don't know Santa Cruz. Was it Nashville? Uh, I just remembered that it had blue mosaic tiles.

Amanda:  I think it was the. Do you want me to look up the train station in Nashville?

Marco: Yeah, look it up and see. And then look up San Diego, because maybe it was in San Diego.

Amanda:  I've never been to San Diego.

Marco: San Diego's beautiful.

Amanda:  Where were you and who did you go to San Diego with?

Marco: Did I go with Mark? I don't feel like I went with Mark. I feel like I was there for work.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: Although now, uh, I don't even remember if I've been to San Diego. So San Diego, south of Los Angeles it is.

Amanda:  Apparently. I, ah, don't think I've actually ever been.

Marco: I have been to San Diego. Anyways, regardless, look up the train station in San Diego and see if it's beautiful. But I love going to train stations, even though I'm not one of these people who is really into trains. Uh, you know, there's people who love to look at trains or have train sets or. You know, we talked about train sets around the Christmas tree. Yeah. I think that's.

Amanda:  Oh, that's Nashville and that's Nashville.

Marco: That's Nashville.

Amanda:  That's a Union Station in Nashville.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  But we have been there, and it's beautiful. So that's the one that.

Marco: Why did we go to the train station in Nashville?

Amanda:  We were walking around, I think, downtown, and I've been there a few times because I also went there with Victoria.

Marco: I see.

Amanda:  So I had one trip to Nashville without you, with my dear friend Victor. Victor. I almost want to just talk about Victor right now.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  I don't know if it's interesting for anyone, but he is an actor and director. Actually, he's more of a director now. I think he gave up his. He hung up his acting shoes or masks, as the. Whatever the expression is, and he moved to London, England. Now, he is actually somebody who lived in the ward area of Toronto. And he is one of those people that was born and raised in Toronto, specifically in the Ossington and Dundas area, which was still considered the ward, although a bit west for the Ward. But anyway, um, how far does the ward go? In my brain, it's like everywhere. But I think I thought the ward

Marco: was just University, that little strip of

Amanda:  University Ave. You know, I'm gonna look that up.

Marco: I think you should. While you're doing that, I'll talk about Victor. So Victor is a friend that I met through Amanda, and we were doing a play together with Victor, and it was a reenactment of a trial that took place 100 years ago in a courtroom in a city north of Toronto called Brampton. And so we were sort of. The play took the transcripts and sort of brought them to life. And I was the judge.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco: So I was playing the judge, and I remember telling the director, who is also a friend of ours, who said, marco, I really want you to play the judge. And I said to her, I said, look, I'm just coming off a really big show. I'm really exhausted. I don't know how much time I have to dedicate to this show. So you might want to pick someone else for the judge. And she's like, no, no, you're the only one. And I said, I just don't know if I can commit more lines to memory right now. And she said, you won't have to commit your lines to memory. You're the judge. You can sort of have them in front of you and kind of be familiar with them and then just go from there. And because I'm an improviser, I said, okay, I will do that. But because this was staged in the actual old courtroom, which is no longer used, and the audience sat in the seats that you would go if you went to a trial, I was there front and center. And I remember saying to, uh, to our director, because some of the people got to sit where the jury would be. And I said to her, what if someone's cell phone rings? Because this play takes takes place 100 years ago, in the 1900s or whatever it was, 1910s, 20s, there was no cell phones at that point. It's going to sort of break the illusion since the audience is sort of incorporated into the space. And she assured me that would not happen. And then a week before we were to go on, she's like, I expect everyone to be memorized. I expect this, I expect that. And I said, hang on a second.

Amanda:  It was all lies.

Marco: It was all lies. And sure enough, on one of the performances, Amanda, I don't know if you remember this, because Amanda was playing the busybody lady who was on the stand.

Amanda:  It was one of many busy bodies I've played in my career.

Marco: You're a good busybody.

Amanda:  I am. I'm the original busybody.

Marco: Okay. The OG Busybody. Yeah. So of course it was the most packed night on a Saturday. M. And in the jury section, which were the premium price tickets.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco: Someone's cell phone rings.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: So I.

Amanda:  But it kept going.

Marco: And it kept going.

Amanda:  I ignored it kept ringing like she. And then she shut it off. It would.

Marco: It just kept ringing. And so I grabbed my gavel and I banged it on my gavel spot. Whatever. Gavel spot, you know, the old cause, great bar. And I said, would someone turn off their music box? Because I had to think, what would they have had back then?

Amanda:  Sure. Yeah.

Marco: And so.

Amanda:  Which is very brilliant, actually.

Marco: I didn't want to say, but you know, when you're. When you're hitting the gavel spot, you really have to think.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: Uh, what comes to mind? So. And this patron was kind of arguing with me and I would have nothing of it because I'm the judge. So I had my stenographer go collect the music box, AKA the cell phone and take it out of the courtroom.

Amanda:  Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.

Marco: And there are still people who will come up to me today and say, I remember that time you were a judge and you banged on your thing. You had that cell phone removed from

Amanda:  the blasted music box.

Marco: Music box.

Amanda:  And my courtroom. That was. I mean, again, that was from the same. Same sort of time, that courtroom in Brampton, which would have been a very much a farm community at that time.

Marco: Sure. And Victor played the crown attorney. If I'm not sure, I forgot we were talking about Victor. He played the crown attorney and he

Amanda:  had even more lines than you. I mean, it was ridiculous.

Marco: So many lines.

Amanda:  And I feel like it was a big ask. Friends, we love our dear friend who directed this. But she made some pretty big asks.

Marco: Well, she masked it.

Amanda:  Yeah, she did.

Marco: She masked it. And it's not that much work. And then easy peasy, you can have

Amanda:  it in front of you. Except for you can't have it in front of you.

Marco: Exactly. So. And Victor, being the great actor that he is, was tried to be memorized in that week. And I said I wasn't going to do it.

Amanda:  He also was very. He did it as a favor to her. And if I remember correctly, he. Victor, um. I just feel like talking about Victor right now. He used, uh, to manage film festivals.

Marco: Right. All over the world.

Amanda:  All over the world. And he was managing a film festival In Toronto at the time. Um, he would work. He would manage the box office, uh, specifically of the film festivals.

Marco: And you've been on trips with Victor.

Amanda:  He's a lovely man to travel with. I've traveled to Nashville with him. As I said. I've also traveled to Lisbon with him. Um, those are two places.

Marco: Is Lisbon nice? We never talked about Lisbon on the air. I really want to go to Lisbon. I want to go to Portugal.

Amanda:  Lisbon is nice. I'd like to go back, and I'd like to go to Porto, because I've heard that that is even nicer. Lisbon was lovely because I went for, like, three days, four days maybe, and it was a lovely city to do that in.

Marco: And when Amanda came back from Lisbon, we had to do Portuguese. Portuguese style tiles.

Amanda:  I was very inspired by the tile.

Marco: You were inspired by Portugal, for sure.

Amanda:  It was in 2007, I think. And I. Wow. My feet. We are both our feet are on blue and brown tile right now. On white tile. Because I was so inspired by the, uh, beautiful tiles of Portugal.

Marco: And you brought back beautiful, uh, coasters with that style, if I'm not mistaken. From Portugal.

Amanda:  I did. I think. Yeah.

Marco: They're the blue and white ones we have over there.

Amanda:  Are those from Portugal?

Marco: I believe so Sour.

Amanda:  No, I think those are from Turkey or Portugal. I think we got those in Istanbul.

Marco: Okay. Wow.

Amanda:  Coasters are nowhere close.

Marco: Do people still use coasters?

Amanda:  We do.

Marco: Are coasters a good gift? You know, when you can't, uh, think of. When you can't think of something to purchase for someone. Are coasters the go to gift?

Amanda:  I think coasters are a wonderful gift.

Marco: What about those jade rollers for your face?

Amanda:  Not for me. Not a wonderful.

Marco: Okay. Because you've received at least one of those.

Amanda:  A few jade rollers. Everyone wants my face rolled.

Marco: I guess so. Um, for the record, I did not

Amanda:  buy her a jade roller yet.

Marco: Yet.

Amanda:  What anniversary is Jade?

Marco: Don't know.

Amanda:  But is it coming up? We think we're on lace. We have an anniversary in a few weeks, and it's lace. And neither one of us isn't it.

Marco: Look up what anniversary Jade is, because I bet it's really high up there. Like, I'm gonna say 21.

Amanda:  I feel like I'm taking. I'm your secretary today or your assistant. I have the ward up.

Marco: Okay. Oh, yeah. You were going to tell us.

Amanda:  I know. We're.

Marco: Amanda has both phones right now, so that's why I'm asking her to look things up.

Amanda:  So it looks to me that the Ward. It's hard because I wrote 1920s. Um. Oh, my goodness. There's things I did not know were in here. That's interesting. Um, so a lot of these streets, I mean, they've changed the streets since then.

Marco: Change the names or change the actual streets?

Amanda:  The names of the streets and the streets.

Marco: I'm curious to know what the names were before.

Amanda:  Well, I'm in a place called. Oh, okay. Bellwoods Park. So the ward goes from Arthur Street. Again, I don't know.

Marco: Arthur Street. Yeah.

Amanda:  Is it a thing?

Marco: Yeah, sure it is.

Amanda:  Sort of. That area of Bellwoods a little west of Bellwoods. So that isn't too far from Osington. No, it's not actually all the way over to. Sorry. It's taking me to, um, like City Hall. Victoria Street.

Marco: Oh, to Victoria.

Amanda:  Okay. Just pass young a little bit.

Marco: That's quite a ways.

Amanda:  Yeah, it is. And then in terms of how far

Marco: north Victoria street is where I go to get my passport renewed.

Amanda:  Just above St. Patrick is where. So that's. Yeah, yeah. All the way down to front, apparently.

Marco: Nothing to snark at, that's for sure.

Amanda:  No, not at all. And then other maps are telling me even more than that. So I'm not sure. I think it depended on what. Because the ward was sort of really well known at the turn of the century, up until I think the 1930s and 40s. Um, but I wanted to talk about what Victor's doing now. I don't know if you've seen this.

Marco: No, I haven't.

Amanda:  Victor is directing because as I said, he's a director. He is directing murder mysteries on the Canard Lines, ocean steamers.

Marco: Oh, this is amazing.

Amanda:  Yeah. And now you and I have worked on cruise ships. We have, but this is actually what he's doing. Are the old English fleet. I guess they could be considered cruise ships, but they're much more like old steam. Old timey.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  In the time of the war, if

Marco: I had my gavel when people came over, I'd hit my gavel spot.

Amanda:  Old timey, sort of. I, um, want to say steamboat ships, but I don't think it's quite that. But anyway, the Canard Line, which is, by the way, the oldest of the cruise lines in the world. World. Um, it was, ah, arrival to the White Star Line, which of course we all know from the Titanic, was a White Star ship. Um, and I guess White Star didn't survive. Um, but Canard is still around. And I went through a phase in my life where I got very involved and interested in different Ships, ship companies. I was applying to work at all of them. It became a new dream for me and I succeeded. I worked for Royal Caribbean and then you. And I worked for Norwegian much later. But, uh, anyway, he's working for the Canard Line.

Marco: This is amazing.

Amanda:  Yeah. And he's traveling to, um, India. Dubai. Wow. Yeah. As the director.

Marco: That's so great.

Amanda:  On the ship. Yeah. And they do this and it's all in the style of 1920s.

Marco: Oh my goodness.

Amanda:  I mean, I would like to just be there just to enjoy it.

Marco: What a wonderful thing to do on a ship or on a cruise of some sort where it's like you can participate and still be entertained. Yeah. Much like the woman who had her cell phone during the performance was participating when she shouldn't have been.

Amanda:  Perhaps he's telling his cast the story that she. That exact story. Since he was in that interactive experience with you.

Marco: Well, wherever you are, Victor, we send you, of course, our biggest, warmest hug and love.

Amanda:  I miss him. You know where else we went with him? You remember we went to Stonehenge with him.

Marco: We did, yeah.

Amanda:  Because we went to England about six, seven years ago. And uh, he lives there. So he journeyed around England with us. Had a great time.

Marco: Yeah. And we had a great time at Stoneage. I love England. I have to say, it's funny, Amanda,

Amanda:  like I always say, I love Victor.

Marco: I love anywhere I go, I fall in love with that place. So listeners, when you hear me talk about places we've been, I'm always going to say, I love that place.

Amanda:  Mhm.

Marco: There's very few places I've ever been where I haven't had a wonderful time in some capacity.

Amanda:  That's interesting. I can think of one city that you did not have a good time.

Marco: Okay, well, we won't talk.

Amanda:  I won't name it. Can you think of any city that I didn't enjoy?

Marco: I know that you, you, when we went to Bermuda, you weren't too happy.

Amanda:  What with me.

Marco: I think you were always mean to me in Bermuda. Was it Bermuda where you were mean to me?

Amanda:  This is a story.

Marco: This is a story for another time.

Amanda:  I was not always mean to you. I think that was a joke.

Marco: That was a really joke.

Amanda:  Yeah. I like Bermuda a lot.

Marco: I love Bermuda too.

Amanda:  Bermuda's amazing. Bermuda is so special because it's sort of out there on its own, which is always exciting to me. I love an island.

Marco: Here's one of the lovely things that I'll always remember about Bermuda. We had a fish soup. It was kind of like a stewie fish soup.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: And they put a shot of dark rum into the.

Amanda:  They did. It was a chowder.

Marco: It was a chowder.

Amanda:  It was a stewie chowder, but like a red chowder.

Marco: Yeah. Not a. Not a white New England chatter chowder, but a. A Bermudian chowder. It was fantastic. And they added the rum and it was fantastic.

Amanda:  Do you know something about Bermuda?

Marco: The sand is pink.

Amanda:  It was the original setting for the Tempest.

Marco: There you go.

Amanda:  Um, Shakespeare had heard about Bermuda reports about Bermuda and was very enchanted by them. And so he wrote the Tempest sort of as an idea behind it. He called it the Still Vexed Bermudhs. That's how we know bermouth for Bermuda.

Marco: Oh, that's awesome. Well, there you go. Well, thank you for taking this journey with us. The museum may have been closed, but we brought a lot today. Until next time, we hope you were able to listen and sleep.