Virtual age a great time to explore distant places
After receiving one of those DNA test kits over the summer as a birthday present, results from my mailed-in spit reported I was about 25% Scottish. I was adopted as an infant, so that kind of stuff for me has always been shrouded in vagaries.
The neat thing was the genetic testing company narrowed down the origin of a quarter of me to a specific region of Scotland called Fife & Angus, centered on the cities of Dundee and Perth. Cool stuff.
I’ve not been to Scotland but now I’d like to check it out. Of course, the pandemic kind of rules out traipsing off in person to Fife & Angus towns such as Kirkton of Auchterhouse, Kirkbuddo or Kilspindle. And my long-term financial outlook offers a high percentage chance I will never see Bridge of Earn in person.
Luckily, we live in a golden age of virtual everything. One night after my wife and son went to bed, I opened the Google on my computer, cracked a Scottish ale — albeit one that was brewed in Michigan — and started exploring the city of Perth via Street View.
Granted, clicking isn’t nearly as fun as strolling and is much worse exercise, but after a bit of exploring it doesn’t take much imagination to become immersed in virtual surroundings. As I passed restaurants, I’d look up their websites and check out the menu. Many of the cultural attractions, especially small museums, offer an online glimpse of their collections and exhibits.
One institution offered a deep dive into a set of ancient stocks that had been unearthed near the local police station, giving a glimpse of how justice was executed hundreds of years ago. Later that cold December night I strolled in the sunshine along the summery banks of the River Tay.
Virtual exploration doesn’t offer complete immersion. Notably, you can’t chat with passersby, taste the food from faraway eateries or hear or smell the surroundings. In some cases, that’s OK — city smells aren’t always the best smells. Perhaps technology will advance to offer more of a sensory experience in years to come.
One doesn’t have to rely solely on self-guided tours for virtual travel adventures, and there are a tremendous amount of resources close to home.
As I munched on a hard salami and cheddar sandwich at noon Thursday, I was simultaneously enjoying a guided tour of the U-505 submarine exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry with a group of 15 or so others participating from their homes.
For $15, guides Nate and Jessica, from the museum’s education division, took us back in time to the era of the World War II German submarine. Jessica, carrying a video camera, walked through the craft’s narrow corridors, pointing out how and where crew members slept, ate and fired torpedoes, which in some cases were the same tiny room.
Nate, meanwhile, answered questions through a chat function.
It’s the same tour, they said, offered in person at the museum when there’s not a pandemic raging, just modified into a Zoom presentation. To add to the experience, they included sounds those on board likely would have heard, including even a French record playing on a turntable, both of which were captured with the submarine in 1944.
There also were combat sounds, some imported from the German submarine film “Das Boot,” such as those accompanying the firing of a torpedo and the nerve-wracking increasing volume of sonar pings from an approaching enemy and subsequent depth charge explosions.
“Once you heard the splash there wasn’t much to do except hold on and wait,” Jessica said.
One of those depth charges brought the U-505’s military career to an end just two days before Allied troops landed on D-Day. The MSI guides painted a picture of what happened on June 4, 1944.
“When the German sailors spotted the Americans on their tail, they alerted the captain and then they did an emergency dive. In addition to opening the ballast tanks, all the men went running and piled up at the front to make the boat tilt and dive even more quickly,” Jessica said.
They went into “stealth mode,” she said, using only electric power to run as quietly as possible, but it didn’t work. A depth charge disabled most of their electricity and forced the U-boat to surface.
They tried to scuttle the submarine to protect military secrets, but Americans rushed in and were able to stop water rushing into the boat through a pipe, thus saving it so we eventually could virtually tour this piece of history decades later.
There are several more virtual tours scheduled for the submarine exhibit through January, and museum officials said plans are in the works to offer more, including expanding the offerings to MSI’s popular coal mine and other exhibits.
As we were touring the submarine, Jessica told of one aspect that may not have been good to experience in person.
There was only enough fresh water on board for drinking and cooking, she said. So there were no baths for any of the submarine’s 59 crew members for the duration of the typically three-month missions. They also had only one uniform to wear day in and day out.
“They spent a lot of time patrolling the waters of West Africa, and it could get anywhere from 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on board,” she said. “It was pretty hot and sweaty for those guys.”
While technology may someday allow for more sensory virtual experiences, that may not always be such a good thing.
For now, though, as we get through what hopefully are the few remaining months of the pandemic, it’s a good time to go exploring, And you don’t even have to dress for the weather.