A COLLECTION, A PARK & BIRDS

Brumus

Last evening was a successful ending for the London part of the trip. The pre-show dinner was Brumus at the Haymarket Hotel. It is a quiet, table-clothed dining room that was only three or four blocks from the Prince of

Opening set of Kinky Boots

Wales Theatre where Karin and Susan went to see The Book of Mormon. We walked them to their theater and then headed to ours to see Kinky Boots. 

On the way, we walked through Trafalgar Square and said hello to London's Feng & Shei (in-joke). 

After the shows, we hailed a taxi, drove to their theatre, picked them up, and returned together to the flat. During the ride, they alternated between giggles and whooping gauffaws as they recalled their favorite scenes from the show. I had the distinct impression that they enjoyed Book of Mormon. Kinky Boots was fun, but there is hardly a story line and the plot is sort-of missing. But the totally pop score had the audience clapping along.

Bob was up at 7:00 this morning to help Karin and Susan into their cab for the airport, but I slept in. (So did he after they left.)

Our last day in London is cool but sunny, so we strolled over to the Wallace Collection, the small museum that Karin and Susan visited earlier this week. Then we bought some

Regent's Park

sandwiches for lunch in Regent's Park, which we had never been to. It's a lovely place and sun-seekers were out in abundance.

Heron

 

Baby Heron

After having lunch on a park bench, we chatted with an elderly lady who was feeding the birds from her ample supply of goodies. All the birds seemed to know her, and she identified for us the herons and coots. I think they all knew her, since even the swan came up for his share.

The Swan out of the Lake

This afternoon, we'll clean up the flat, repack, and ready ourselves for our own ordeal of a trip home. We're having dinner at our local Italian restaurant (Sergio's again!) and plan to have an early night. So, this will be the final blog entry for this trip unless there's some reason to add a postscript about our trip home.

Adieu, France. Ta-ta, London.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

Where does the time go? We have 15 minutes to post this blog before we head out again. Unfair! But...

The Tate British

Once again, we went our separate ways: Karin and Susan to the Tate British museum (versus the Tate Modern) while Bob and I went to the Museum of the City of London. The latter traced the city's history from the last ice age when England was still part of the continent (waaay before Brexit) to the 2012 Olympics. 

In the Tate British, Susan got to see her all-time favorite

painting...The Woman of Shalott. Always a pleasure to realize a dream!

 

We found parts of the Museum of London interesting, but even though it was organized chronologically, it was still hard to follow in order. Also, parts of the museum were so poorly lit that it was difficult to read the signs. Or maybe I'm just expecting too much. There was, however, a very interesting section that was titled A Victorian Street.

Tonight we have reservations for a pre-show dinner at Brumur's in the Haymarket Hotel followed by Book of Mormon for Karin and Susan, and Kinky Boots for Bob and me. 

Time's up for today!~

KINKY BOOTS & REBECCA

Okay...the blog is late being posted. We've been busy and time overlapped. Cope! It's now 10:30 PM here and we're doing the best we can! Oh yeah...sorry...not many pics.

Royal Academy Entrance

Great news from France! The EU may stay together for awhile longer. As for us, we didn't. Karin and Susan spent three hours at the Wallace Collection, a small mansion museum with an eclectic group of paintings including some Rembrandts and Fragonards. Bob and I meanwhile walked to the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand for tickets to Kinky Boots for tomorrow. Then we stopped by the National Portrait Gallery to ask what they'd done with Winston Churchill. (In storage. Can you imagine?) Across the street, we had lunch in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church before going upstairs for a free half hour concert of Bach choral music.

Rebecca Salter

Later, we all gathered at the flat before setting off for the Royal Academy of Art, an organization that dates back to the 18^th Century and admits only eighty members at a time. Pim, our friend from New Zealand, had arranged for us to meet Rebecca Salter, an old friend of hers who is now one of the Royal Academicians. We had tea with “Becky” in the members' lounge and then viewed a special exhibit America After the Fall, a series of paintings from the depression era. The exhibit included many impressive works of art including the most famous, American Gothic, the one of a stony-faced woman and man, the latter holding a pitchfork. Part of what I found most striking was the feeling of yearning, particularly by “middle Americans,” for “the good old days.” These were the very ones who, last year, voted for You-Know-Who as President.

Becky, I want to add, was what people in the 18^th Century used to call “an original.” She was at once funny, charming, intelligent, knowledgeable, and—I don't know—just fun to be with. I'm extremely grateful to Pim for arranging the meeting.

Tonight we plan to kill a bottle of Prosecco before going out to dinner somewhere in the neighborhood.

ANOTHER VISIT TO THE BM! ...and a gelato

As we start to wind down this trip, we had a lazy Sunday. Bob did some laundry, but that's about the only accomplishment for the morning.

Karin, Stew & Susan

Around 1:45, Karin's friend Susan Westwood arrived, after a five hour drive from Somerset. As an outing for the afternoon, we walked to the BM (British Museum), where we said hello to our lion Feng's English relative and visited “the marbles,” the ones that Lord Elgin brought from the Parthenon a couple of hundred years ago.

Main court of the BM

They celebrate the triumph of reason and civilization over the forces of darkness and chaos. Unfortunately, the Greek civilization did not last all that long, and as we anxiously await the outcome of the French election today, we wonder how long ours will last.

Small section of the Elgin Marbles

Hadrian & Antonious

Then we split up, Karin and Susan checking out some water colors while Bob and I strolled through the throngs of largely far eastern tourists taking selfies to view some of the art from ancient Greece and Rome. From a distance, we immediately recognized Emperor Hadrien and Antinous. 

Lovely, lovely Amorino!

On the way home, we passed our favorite Italian gelato store: Amorino. Needless to say we HAD to stop. Again. Bad, bad, bad!

 

Nothing else is planned today except for some down time before dinner at our local Italian restaurant, Sergio's.

OLD FRIENDS--TRIED AND TRUE

A comparatively easy day. No rushing. No tickets to buy.

When we had all pulled ourselves together, we set out for

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square using Karin's favorite form of public transportation, the London underground.Yesterday, during the day, we'd been surprised at how crowded the underground was, but last night made the day trips feel like strolls in the park. Coming back from the play, for example, the crowd was so backed up that the hallway leading to the train platform was totally blocked. Couldn't move. So, today, we were prepared for the worst, but the trains were almost empty.

National Gallery

Anyway, our goal was to visit old friends in the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. In the former, I like to say hello when I'm in town to Rembrandt's Self Portrait at age 62. Wasn't there. Part of some special exhibit, just as it had been a couple of years ago. So, on to the Caravaggios. Of three, two were on loan to the National Gallery in Ireland for a special exhibit. Fortunately, there were we several other old friends who were still there including Vermeer's A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal. Striking.

In the National Gallery

Their ONE Caravaggio!

In the Portrait Gallery, which is just around the corner, we

National Portrait Gallery

spent some quality time with Elizabeth I and members of her circle, and (for me) Sam Johnson and his biographer, James Boswell. Karin particularly wanted to see Lawrence Olivier, but like Rembrandt and Caravaggio, he was out. I was interested though, to see how much they've modernized the Portrait Gallery. Great job. 

Finally, with sore feet but warm hearts, we took an almost-empty train back to our neighborhood, where, walking back to the flat, Bob and Karin stocked up on Prosecco and red wine. That's sure to dissipate any of the minor disappointments we endured.

Tonight, for theater, we saw "An American in Paris." How can you go wrong with Gershwin music? Show was great!

An American in Paris, the opening set

 

TICKETS, THE UNDERGROUND, AND THE V&A

From the quiet countryside and clean air of the Dordogne, we ventured out in the cacophony of London, where the wind whipped up invisible particles of dust and soot that had us all coughing and blinking. London seems more crowded than ever and there is construction going on everywhere.

Karin & The Book of Mormon!

However, we had a successful day, buying theatre tickets to Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (tonight), An American in Paris (tomorrow night), and for Karin and Susan Westwood, Book of Mormon (Tuesday night). 

Reinforcing ourselves at the V&A for the V&A

We also “did” the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum), where Karin viewed its extensive collection of snuff boxes, while Bob and I toured a special exhibit on the history and significance of theatre, and the gallery of Victorian era reproductions of famous sculpture. The latter was created toward the end of the 19^th Century so that people who could not travel abroad, and students of art, could study such Italian Renaissance sculptures as Donatello's David,

M's DAVID and D's DAVID

Michelanglo's David, and even some monumental reproductions of church pulpits and entryways to public buildings. They're made of plaster and painted to look like marble, bronze or whatever material the original was made of. Remarkable. I remember that my first view of Michaelanglo's David was here many years ago, long before I visited Florence for the first time, and I was astonished at how huge the sculpture is. 

We should also mention that Karin bought an Oyster Card allowing her to travel on public transportation with Bob and me—that is, the famous London underground.

 

And now, as promised, a few more pictures:

We need these signs too!

Medieval wooden staircase

Reproduction of a pulpit

IF IT'S THURSDAY, IT MUST BE LONDON

Samuel Johnson (d. 1794) once said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." Although we've all been here before, some of us many times, our list of “possible destinations” this week is long enough to last into next year.

 

I remember once driving with our old friend Tosh Lee in Scotland where the beauty of hills and locks was so overwhelming that she said it was almost too much, like drinking heavy cream. We all felt that way about the Dordodogne. However, all that curdled the moment we arrived at the Bergerac airport. 

First, there was no one at the Europcar office to give the car keys to, or let us into the returned-car lot. A note on the office window said they were out (Duh!); just leave the keys in some other car company's lock box. But no instructions about where to leave the car itself. Fortunately, Bob bumped into someone who gave him the secret code for the lot. 

Then, there was the airport itself, which was little more than a quonset hut, where we spent a couple of hours waiting for Ryan Air to fly us in crowded seats to London.

And next came passport screening. We waited easily an hour in line as only one or two windows inspected passports and visas. We watched one person led off by police and a couple more finger-printed. The one good part was that when we got to the luggage carousel, our luggage was about all that was left to be picked up. No waiting there. 

The Stanstead Express train took us in 47 minutes to London, where we caught a cab to our flat. Never have I seen such a jumble of people, cars, taxis, and buses. It felt as if we were in the middle of a hill of angry ants. An hour later, we arrived at the flat, which is adequate but below expectations.

After stocking the kitchen for breakfast and tulips for the table (Thanks, Karin.), we found a great Italian restaurant: Sergio's. Some red wine for Bob and me, and TWO glasses of Prosecco for Karin, the tensions of the day began to seep away, and that night we slept the sleep of the righteous.

Bob promises to take some pictures today!!