The GCW Tour, A Few Bits of the UK and Ireland: Contraptions, or, The Reason People Should Go to Stratford-upon-Avon

Shakespeare's nice and all, but there's a better reason to go to Stratford: they have some really cool contraptions. 

You'll find the first near the canal behind the main theater...

We had no idea what we were seeing until we saw the sign. And for 50p of course we took a ride. The old guy turns the handle, which spins the upper wheel, which turns the chain, which spins the lower wheel, through which is running a chain that traverses the canal. The turning wheel drags the chain through which pulls the ferry across the river. 

Very cool.

If it hadn't been so late in the day, I might've given the guy a fiver and just let him drag me back and forth across. The anachronism of it all was hard to resist.

But we moved on.

The second set of contraptions comes in town. About a block or two from the Shakespeare Centre you'll see a little sign for something called the Mechanical Art & Design Museum, which is a name pretty much guaranteed to get my attention. And so we went in.

One of the best things we've done on this trip so far.

The MAD Museum (as they call it) is a collection of whirligigs, oddball clocks, ball bearing roller coasters, and other Rube Goldberg machines. They all work, and it's a blast to just stand and watch and try to figure out what's happening.

Of course, the point of all this is motion, so the stills don't really do the works justice. However,  museum includes a small theater cycling through various commercials, music videos and other short films that rely on the same kind of logic. I found one of my favorites on YouTube, so am pasting it below. Bear in mind, however, you may have the same reaction to this that I did: fascination, but also frustration that somebody had to design this thing, somebody had to build it, somebody had to tune it, somebody had to compose for it, somebody had to play it, and quite likely, all those somebodies are the same somebody, so what the hell have I been doing with my life? 

Anyway, enjoy...

And, please, don't anyone tell me this was faked. That would be just too depressing for words.