Weird find in Windsor

Went to Windsor Castle last week.

On the way out of the castle, after checking in about three gift shops on Her Majesty's premises, I mentioned to these men that there were no Windsor Castle floaty pens to be found anywhere.

They are in charge of taking back audio guides as visitors depart the castle. They also ensure that tourists behave themselves.

The man on the left shouted at some tourists to get out of the way when these soldiers marched past.


"Tourists think they are just for show," he said. "But they are working."

He also said: "I think you'll find some of those pens in the shop across the road."

The man next to him gave my friend and I a mint from the bag he's holding in his hand. He's got relatives in Winnipeg, he said.

We went across the road to a pub and then went into the shop. Lo and behold there were floaty pens made in Denmark:


It seemed weird that one of them was an Abbey Road Beatles pen, but I snapped one up anyway.

London loot

I found these London "made in Denmark" pens in a shop on the Strand. I wandered in expecting nothing as usual, but found a great stock of Eskesen brand pens.


I was so taken aback to find them after so many months spent looking for Danish-made London floaties that I asked the shopkeeper if they were knock offs. He obviously thought I was a lunatic of some sort, smiled and pulled out an extra stash from underneath the display area as if to placate me.

Parisian pens

The pen selection in Paris was unique. These are all Eskesen pens made in Denmark, but the styles are quite different.


The clothing seems to disappear when these pens are tilted back and forth. In actual fact, it seems that there's a tube of black floating up and down inside the pen. The places where the clothes appear are cut away and on a different level so the black can slide between. Clear as mud?

The reverse side of these pens show the backs of the subjects.


Note the unique floaty quality of the green pen. It is the background that slides back and forth to create the day and night effect.

Santa Barbara and Los Angeles

Some of the best floaty pens are the ones that come from art galleries and museums. It wasn't surprising that California was a great place to find floaty pens, but it was surprising to find such a unique pen as the one with the pilgrims floating in front of the mission in Santa Barbara. The Huntington pen and the Getty Center pens were great finds.