Europe Trip 2018 – week 2 London
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| Entrance to EuroTunnel Your get the idea |
Thursday 11 May 2018. Day 11. This was a huge day. Eurostar From Paris to London and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre production of Twelfth Night at 7:30. It all ran exactly to plan and from that point of view was extremely boring. 7am start and down to the baker for the final croissants and one baguette. Our lady came at just before 10am to check us out and we headed for bus 38 to take us from just outside the apartment (200m walk with no stairs) which delivered us to the Gard du Nord station in 15 minutes – without stairs. For the price of a coffee, we waited in a book/cafe shop that had chairs. Two hours before departure we could go though checkin and immigration to the UK. (An aside. Just before the checkin, there is a sigh in French and English saying that travellers must have a ‘Landing Card’ – but no ‘Landing Cards’ in sight. Two yanks charged through French boarder security looking for the cards and then demanded to go back through to look for them again. Not surprisingly, French Boarder Security were not impressed and would not let them. The Yanks were in panic. English immigration just said ‘there are no Landing Cards, we are making do without them’. The Yanks are still fuming and upset having abused everyone in sight.) Our Eurostar train left on time (to the second), arrived on time (to the second), travelled at a hefty speed, made not a rattle or a shake anywhere along the way, plunged under La Manche for 22 minutes. It was so quiet and stable that in tunnels, the only way to tell that we we moving was an occasional light would flash past.
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| Shakespeare’s Globe |
Arrived at London St Pancras station, bought Oyster cards for the train, clambered onto a Piccadilly line for South Kensington and walked 600m to our apartment where we were met and shown our very tiny apartment in Sloane Ave Chelsea Cloisters. A tiny kitchen and bathrooms and in what looks like a corridor a bed pulls down from one wall and touches the other wall. I think that this would be our smallest apartment yet, though very well appointed – adequate for what we need. We had just enough time for a quick omelette before heading off to Shakespeare’s Globe for a production of Twelfth Night. A packed house and pit.
We were way up in the gods. I had booked seats and cushions back in Australia. A small troop of players (very good) with numerous costume changes – plus a few songs – put on the farce of Twelfth Night. The extra trick in this production is that there is even more cross-dressing than in the original – especially as in Shakespeare’s time all parts would have been played by men. Viola (the main character – a woman who pretends to be a man) is played by a woman. Her employer (Duke Orsino – a man) is played by a woman. Sebastian (Viola’s brother) is played by a woman who also plays Maria. Sir Andrew Aguecheek is also played by a woman. The extra cross-dressing is very effective in adding to the confusion. It was a long day and we did not get home till after 10:30.
Friday 11 May 2018. Day 11. We went on the Walks London Brunel’s London Walk. 10:40 start at Embankment – £8 each for super adults plus river boat fares. We took the river cat down river to Isle of Dogs (almost at Greenwich), a couple of trains – one through the first underground rail tunnel – gouged out under the Thames – originally conceived as a haulage tunnel for horses, became a pedestrian tunnel and then a rail tunnel. We ended up at the Brunel Museum at Rotherhithe. A bit worn by the time we returned. 12,000 steps and 22 flights of stairs for those who are counting.
Saturday 12 May 2018. Day 12. Mostly a day off to recover from the last two days. Space Music tonight at Royal Albert Hall – Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra under the baton of Anthony Inglis. An excellent concert mainly of concert scores of famous space movies – Star Trek, Thunderbirds, Start Wars, Superman, ET, Close Encounters – plus a couple of Elgars (Jupiter and Mars). Much of the music featured the excellent composing of John Williams. The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra too is extremely good – extremely well disciplined – every bow moving in unison.
I think we had about 70 players – timps, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, 8 woodwinds, 5 horns, 2 big percussion sections, full set of strings, 4 double basses, harp and piano. Lots of lighting effects and a few indoor fireworks. Anthony Inglis’ commentary and introduction of the pieces was informative and amusing. He had two costume changes: he began in a white tux and for the first encore appeared as Obi-Wan Kenobi and for the second encore stripped down to Superman on his podium. Much audience involvement to keep them amused in the second half – a few extra rehearsals for the audience. Spectacular!
There wasn’t an empty seat in the Hall. At the end of the concert a stream of humanity exited the doors and flowed toward the closest tube station – no need for a map, just follow the crowd – passing Imperial College, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, the V&A. Fortunately the drizzle had stopped and it was a pleasant walk home.
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| Attacker Swan Wings in attack mode Seeing off geese |
Sunday 13 May 2018. Day 13. A circular route. We’ve decided that the buses offer a better way for us to get around. They may take a bit longer, but we can see out and we are not locked in a tunnel. We took a 360 bus (which passes our front door) and a 414 bus to Little Venice – at the junction of several main canals. (Had lunch.) And then, took a canal boat tour (Jason’s Trip) along Regent’s Canal through Regent’s Park passed Lord’s Cricket Ground to Camden Town. A very good commentary along the way that informed us the ‘narrow boat’ we were on, ‘the Jason’, was built in 1906 as a work boat. Narrow work boats were pulled by horses along the canals until the 1960s. Camden Town was packed with sight-seers. we came back by tube.
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| Ball drops at Greenwich Observatory at exactly 1pm each day |
Monday 14 May 2018. Day 14. Another of the London Walks. This time we did the the Classic Greenwich Walk led by Ann – the walk and Ann are both excellent and recommended. We began at Tower Hill tube, caught a boat down river to Greenwich Peer and walked around the main attractions of Greenwich with Ann drawing us into a group and explaining. Very good and amusing anecdotes. We saw the ball drop at the Royal Observatory Greenwich at exactly 1pm – by which ships set their time and which gave the term for someone ‘to be on the ball’ ie delegated to watch the ball’s drop and thus let the ship set its clock and so leave that day.
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| Harrison IV about the diameter of a dinner plate much smaller than Harrison I, II and III |
After the walk and a bit of lunch, we walked up to the Greenwich Observatory for a disappointing tour. The only thing of interest there are the four Harrison clocks by which Harrison solved the problem of Longitude – about which Dava Sobel wrote an interesting book.
Helen reports: 10,500 steps, 23 floors, 7.5km. I report: pretty buggered.
Helen and I worked in London for 3 winters in the early 1970s and left in 1975. This is our first time back. So, what has changed in 43 years? The tube is just as grotty – even the new lines have been smeared with a layer of grot. Helen keeps itching for a Karcher when we walk past rows of buildings. The main change is tourists. Back in the 1970s there were few, now there are many – armed with guide books/smart phones (that did not exist back then) to tell them what to see, when, why and how much. We had to rely on rumour and Time Out. When we left in 1975, we had waited for the first guide book for the Overland Trail back to Australia – The Bit Book – which predated Lonely Planet by a good few years. These London Walks that we have found so good began about the time we left. So, the big change is ‘guide books’ that brought tourists and more guide books and more tourists.
Tuesday 15 May 2018. Day 15. Monet exhibition at National Gallery, Future Exhibition at V&A and Lion King. First to the National Gallery for its Monet and Architecture exhibition (I had bought tickets on line for a 10am entry). A wonderful exhibition of 75 Monet paintings – many of which we had not seen before. We are both Monet fans. It is a delight to see how he sketches in the framework of buildings and then spends all his time and energy working to express light, its reflections colours and tones at different times of the day. Figures too are vestigial.
Often painted from hotel rooms or balconies where he could store a set of paintings each representing an exact time. In later life, Monet entirely abandoned painting buildings and people and concentrated solely on his lily pond at Giverny.
Next, the Future Exhibition Starts Here at the Victoria and Albert. This represents V&A’s collection of artefacts, icons, items, clips of what is on the cutting edge of thought about what the future might be like – democracy, cities, housing, transport, climate, planet engineering. Suspended above the lot is huge internet station wing of the solar powered drone launched by Facebook.
In the evening, we went to the Lyceum Theatre for a production of The Lion King – excellent set, staging, dancing, lighting, puppetry (crap score – not a single memorable melody). The puppetry is extremely good and sometimes borrows from Indonesian Wayang Kulit. The closest tube to Lyceum Theatre is Covent Garden – “193 steps from platform to street level (that is equivalent to 15 storeys), please use one of our four lifts”. We had booked seats in the Grand Circle – up with the gods. The chap at the door took one look at us and said “80 steps up, why don’t I have you taken up by lift”. So we were escorted to and from our seats. We were older than most in the audience by at least a generation (maybe two). Almost all those around us are in their late teens, early 20s.
Wednesday 16 May 2018. Day 16. Mainly a day off to recover and pack. We had an Indian lunch at a local excellent small restaurant Khan’s of Kensington where we had by far the best meal we’ve had in London. In the evening we went to see a Play That Goes Wrong. Same track to Covent Garden as yesterday. The Play That Goes Wrong is a wonderful farce. The plot is a murder being put on by a local amateur drama society. Every thing that can go wrong does: lines forgotten, skipped, mixed up, said early, even a loop when the wrong line is given that triggers the replay of a sequence; players are knocked out, fight; the set eventually completely collapses – at one point a player is on a partially collapsed now sloping mezzanine floor with a table, a chair, a device on rollers and a potted palm; improvisation and overacting. Extremely well done. It has taken much good writing, rehearsal and acting to put together such a funny production. Tears rolling down cheeks laughter.
London tubes trains are packed and grotty, roads are packed with crawling traffic (mainly taxis), thousands of buses with very few people on them. I’ve been trying to use the buses but they are very difficult. I spent 3 hours on Monday trying to work them out. They have stopped issuing a bus map – which means people have no idea what bus goes where. Yes, there are apps where you type in starting and ending points and are told what to do. But, buses run late and there might be other options than the one plonked out by the app. So far the best planning tool has been Google Maps. I will not be sorry to leave London. I’ve had Banjo Paterson’s Clancy words in my head the whole time we were here.
“I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all”
Tomorrow begins our major jaunt around the country by car.
