Virtual age a great time to explore distant places
After receiving one of those DNAtest kits over the summer as a birthday present, results frommy mailed-in spit reported Iwas about 25% Scottish. Iwas adopted as an infant, so that kind of stuff forme has always been shrouded in vagaries.
The neat thingwas 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 nowI’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 ofAuchterhouse, Kirkbuddo or Kilspindle. Andmy 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 aftermy wife and sonwent to bed, I opened theGoogle onmy computer, cracked a Scottish ale — albeit one thatwas brewed in Michigan— and started exploring the city of Perth via Street View.
Granted, clicking isn’t nearly as fun as strolling and is muchworse 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 themenu. 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 howjusticewas executed hundreds of years ago. Later that cold December night I strolled in the sunshine along the summery banks of the RiverTay.
Virtual exploration doesn’t offer complete immersion. Notably, you can’t chat with passersby, taste the food fromfaraway eateries or hear or smell the surroundings. In some cases, that’sOK— city smells aren’t always the best smells. Perhaps technologywill 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 Imunched on a hard salami and cheddar sandwich at noonThursday, Iwas simultaneously enjoying a guided tour of theU-505 submarine exhibit at Chicago’sMuseum of Science and Industry with a group of 15 or so others participating from their homes.
For $15, guidesNate and Jessica, fromthe museum’s education division, took us back in time to the era of theWorldWar II German submarine. Jessica, carrying a video camera, walked through the craft’s narrowcorridors, pointing out howand where crewmembers slept, ate and fired torpedoes, which in some caseswere 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, justmodified into a Zoom presentation. To add to the experience, they included sounds those on board likelywould have heard, including even a French record playing on a turntable, both of whichwere captured with the submarine in 1944.
There alsowere combat sounds, some imported fromthe German submarine film “Das Boot,” such as those accompanying the firing of a torpedo and the nerve-wracking increasing volume of sonar pings froman approaching enemy and subsequent depth charge explosions.
“Once you heard the splash therewasn’t much to do except hold on andwait,” 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 ofwhat 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 menwent running and piled up at the front to make the boat tilt and dive even more quickly,” Jessica said.
Theywent into “stealth mode,” she said, using only electric power to run as quietly as possible, but it didn’twork. Adepth 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 stopwater rushing into the boat through a pipe, thus saving it sowe eventually could virtually tour this piece of history decades later.
There are severalmore virtual tours scheduled for the submarine exhibit through January, and museum officials said plans are in theworks to offer more, including expanding the offerings to MSI’s popular coal mine and other exhibits.
Aswewere touring the submarine, Jessica told of one aspect that may not have been good to experience in person.
Therewas only enough fresh water on board for drinking and cooking, she said. So therewere 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 towear day in and day out.
“They spent a lot of time patrolling thewaters ofWestAfrica, and it could get anywhere from90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on board,” she said. “Itwas pretty hot and sweaty for those guys.”
While technologymay someday allowfor more sensory virtual experiences, that may not always be such a good thing.
For now, though, aswe get through what hopefully are the few remainingmonths of the pandemic, it’s a good time to go exploring, And you don’t even have to dress for theweather.