20110822  Atlantic & London, UK

I woke up when the lights came on. D said she had barely slept.

We had a muffin and coffee, then the plane went into the landing pattern. There must have been many other planes also arriving, because we wandered all over the sky southeast of London. Finally we went out to the west and doubled back, landing at Heathrow about an hour late.

We cleared immigration and bypassed customs (nothing to declare). We hit the kiosk for tickets for the Heathrow Express, which departed soon and deposited us at Paddington Station. There, we found the taxi queue and claimed one. He dazzled D with his driving through tiny spots at high speed directly to the hotel for 11.9GBP. Not bad.

We checked into the hotel, where we were noted as arriving under the name “Owen”, but that was sorted out. Our room is tiny, in the European manner, but has everything one needs – just very compact.

D is napping now (1330 (all times local)). Bryant called, still sick, says he'll nap then come to us at 1600, then we'll wander and do dinner.

I went for a walk around the neighborhood. Around the corner to the British Museum, down Museum Street to New Oxford Street, west on that for a bit. Found an umbrella store – nothing but walking sticks and umbrellas. Found the Tottenham Court Road tube station to scout that place, then back toward home. Then I reconsidered and went back to the Museum Tavern and had a pint. I talked a bit with a Scotsman named Graham and had another. Then I went back to the hotel.

D was up and getting ready to meet Bryant. We went out onto the street where I could show D some of my findings. Then we saw Bryant coming up the street. We greeted and chatted and then walked into the courtyard of the BM so he could tell us a little of it. He's still coughing and in the throes of the cold, but he's having a successful trip.

We agreed on pub food and went into the Museum Tavern again. Bryant had bangers and mash, D had steak-and-ale pie, and I had fish and chips. All were good solid pub things.

Then Bryant showed us to Foyle's bookstore on Charing Cross Road. We bought a couple of books. Bryant looked to be fading and D wasn't charging for the goal, so we said our goodbyes there and parted to see each other again in two weeks.

Bryant has work tomorrow and will go home the day afterward; we'll be busy and then have theatre in the evening, so that's that.

We hiked back to the hotel with the full intention of dropping in our tracks to start again tomorrow. I'll finish these, then lie down to read. That will probably last 30 seconds.

Owen Photos     Dolores Photos    

20110823  London, UK 

We slept until 0808 this morning, a new record for a post-flight recovery period. We scurried to get dressed and down to the “full English breakfast”, which is reached by a tight little tunnel to the basement – no space wasted here. Now that I think about it, this compact room is good training for living on the boat.

The cheerful host asked our desires, and brought out pots of coffee, and orange juice, toast, and a plate of two eggs done your way, a sausage, a slice of ham, a tomato, and mushrooms. Just right to start the day.

Now were off to the building behind ours – the British Museum.

.. and back. We toured one major exhibit, “Treasures of Heaven”, subtitled “saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe”. Many relics and treasures of the early church and its patrons. More gold than I've seen since the Royal Jewels. Quite interesting and very well shown. One museum helping set up the exhibit is the Walters Museum in Baltimore. It's located in the circular building erected a while back in the center of a previously-open courtyard. The dome was placed on top of it, and then the whole courtyard was covered to make a huge interior space. The collections shown are in the surrounding buildings.

We did a somewhat slow walk through the Egyptian collection, said to be the largest in the world outside Egypt (and still a sticky point with the Egyptians).

Then we felt like sitting, so we walked across to the Museum Tavern and had a pint. To dry-run our trip this evening to theatre, we strolled to our hotel and the bus stop in front of it. We caught the #24 bus to Leicester Square and walked to Wyndham's Theatre. We checked at the box office and were able to pick up our tickets without having to do “will-call” later. We wandered around Leicester Square for a bit, seeing the “real” Tkts booth where one buys tickets for plays that haven't sold out by noon. We also saw the W hotel where Bryant is staying (and which he dislikes for several reasons). Then back to the hotel via the #29 bus to Tottenham Court Road and a two-block walk.

Owen Photos     Dolores Photos    

Now we have our feet up for a bit.

(later) We headed out for the evening around five, took the bus to the theatre, and ate at Cafe Koha, a nice place in an alley next door. D had a scallops starter, then salmon on risotto. I had a mushroom soup followed by venison sausages on mashed potatoes. We shared a chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis with our coffee. Very nice.

Then we walked around the (very busy) neighborhood for a while. When the doors opened, we went in and seated ourselves in seats M13 & M14, center of the house on the ground floor. The theatre is quite small, only 20-some rows, so everyone is close to the action.

Dolores gave “Much Ado About Nothing” a grade of “Fantastic”, and I'll admit it was very good, even though I couldn't hear some of the female voices. Tennant and Tate can surely do comedy as well as serious acting. The lines are Shakepeare's but the setting and costumes are set at Gibraltar in the 1980's. You have to see it to believe how well it comes off.

The evening is mild, so we just took a bus back to “near-by” and then walked back to the hotel, where we're doing notes and talking.

The play following this one in Wyndham's Theatre (Sept – Dec) will be “Driving Miss Daisy” with James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. Makes us want to change our November reservation to come here a couple of days early to watch it.

When we got back to the hotel, we found email about the earthquake today in Mineral, VA, not all that far from where we lived for 26 years (Manassas). Susan said there was shaking at her place, but only “scary”. No word yet from others.