London

Kensington Gardens

Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show

Christ College Oxford

Hyde Park London

I have spent 5 nights in London so far and will be leaving on the 8.20 am train in the morning  to Wales to connect with a ferry to Dublin.

It has been nice to stop a while in one place and also somewhere familiar. I stayed in the same hotel last year when I was here for the Proms.

The weather was lovely on Wednesday but it  then turned cool and very changeable.
On Wednesday, after doing some necessary mundane shopping and having a haircut, I walked in Kensington Gardens (photo 1) which are only a few blocks from my hotel. It was very enjoyable and I would have liked to have done more but felt it wiser to return for a rest as I had a ticket that night to ‘Jersey Boys’.  I enjoyed the show with the nostalgia of the songs of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Thursday I went to the Chelsea Flower Show. When I planned my trip I had not realised I would be in London at the time of the show. Fortunately I discovered the dates coincided in time to make a booking as it was booked out.  I spent 5 hours there. The flowers in the main show tent were stunning. Thankfully the knowledge that I would not pass NZ customs prevented me spending a fortune on seeds. I tried to take photos, I took over 90 (Photos 2 & 3) with the labels but guess it will be hard to source the same back home.  There were intermittent showers and sunshine and by 2 pm the crowds meant it was getting hard to move around so I left and was back in my hotel when a severe thunderstorm struck.

That night I went to the Globe Theatre and saw “Much Ado About Nothing” It was an experience. Although I paid for a cushion, the seat had no back and I had not studied that play at school. It was very different form ‘Jersey Boys’.

On Friday I went by train to Oxford. The morning was spent wandering the streets and I did see part of Christ College and the cathedral (Photo 4). Other colleges were closed due to being the last day of term.  
However I had a lovely afternoon having lunch with Malcolm and his wife. Malcolm was a student at Kingsgrove High in my first year of teaching and went on the tour of New Zealand that year. He was a very close mate of Garry who died recently and we reconnected as a result. They now live near Windsor and kindly drove over to meet and take me to lunch. We talked until nearly 5 pm. Fortunately Friday night was my night ‘off’.

On Saturday  I visited the laundromat, it has been nice not to wash each night in the bathroom.  As the weather was still changeable, I went to nearby Notting Hill and the Portobello Road markets.  I was tempted by some antique prints of Sydney but decided they would be too much hassle.  Just as well there were none of Dunedin.

Then after another afternoon’s rest I went to see ‘Wicked’ The staging is brilliant and lively but I do not feel any of the tunes are memorable, unlike ‘Phantom’ or ‘Les Miz’. None stayed in my head to remove  ‘Walk like a man’ or “My eyes adored you’ from Jersey Boys.

Today, Sunday, I attended Eucharist at a nearby church then walked around Hyde Park (Photo 5) in a very cold wind. I have photocopied notes of park walks from a book out of the library which makes these walks more interesting. I will be back at this hotel for my final day in Europe so may do another in 3 weeks time.

Now it is 'Back on the road again'

London and the Lakes

I have now left England and to keep up the L’s am spending the night in Luxembourg.
My main purpose for visiting London was to attend the Proms particularly the last night so  I attended 2 programs in the Royal Albert Hall and the last Night in Hyde Park across the road. The Thursday night was excellent as I had a very good seat. It was the BBC Philharmonic and they played  Schubert’s Symphony No 8 and Mozart’s No 40 . There was a piano piece by Schumann and the soprano Dorothea Röschmann sang the premier of a piece by Robin Holloway. On Friday night I was sitting up behind the choir so while I had a good view of the Hall, it was not the best for listening. Monteverdi    Vespers of 1610 would not have been a choice of mine but the singing was beautiful with some voices coming from high up and original instruments being used. It was a very good experience. Despite having a ticket, I queued for 2 hours to get into the park on Saturday afternoon and was able to sit not too far from the grandstand. Perhaps that was not wise as the loudspeakers were very loud and the lead up music was not too my taste. Serpentine Fire and Nell Bryden are for a younger crowd but I may have enjoyed
the cast of “Jersey Boys” and “Bjorn Again” if the bass had not been ringing in my ears. As my sister says “I have to face it, I am getting old”
The actual program was better although Kerry Ellis and Brian May would have been better a little softer but I did enjoy Neil Sedaka and, of course , Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras. Crossing to the hall for the traditional final was great but I would have loved to be actually there. However unless I somehow find a way to spend a month in London and attend enough concerts to be eligible, this will never be. I waved both  the NZ and Aussie flags.

I had no particular plans for the day. I did spend over a month in London way back in 1974 and visited again in 76 and 80 so while the city has changed greatly I am sure the Tower, the Abbey etc. are still the same.  I decided to spend time on the South bank of the Thames so on Friday after a haircut and using a laundromat I headed for London Bridge and walked along the Thames and across the Millennium Bridge which was not there in 74. The Globe Theatre was not there but is only open for tours in the morning, The Tate Modern is also new but was evacuated by a fire alarm soon after my entry. I am glad London Bridge did not fall down to make a 3rd.

I travelled upstairs in a bus through the city and Westminster to Victoria and decided to try and find the hotel where I stayed so long those many years ago. i think I found the building but it is no longer a hotel. A decision to walk past Buckingham Palace was inspired as i discovered the State Apartments are currently open for just 8 weeks. It was put into my plan for Sunday.

Saturday I went back earlier and had a tour of the Globe theatre which was very enjoyable and informative. I have included a photo and would like to attend a performance if I return to London.  Sunday, after ridding myself of the headache created by those loud speakers I  went back to the South Bank and Southwark Cathedral for Choral Eucharist. The Dean preached at St James, King Street last year but was not there that Sunday. Then I headed for Buckingham palace and queued for tickets to the State Apartments. Any future visit to London is not likely to be at this time of year so it was a great and unexpected opportunity. I had a very late Salmon and cream cheese bagel lunch in the grounds of the palace. I believe Her Majesty is holidaying at Balmoral so did not meet her. although the news is full of her meeting the Pope today. I am glad to have left London before the confusion that visit is causing to the city.

On Monday I travelled by train and bus to Ambleside in the Lake District. My impression of rail transport in England is not very good to say the least not helped by pouring rain.
It was raining at breakfast time on both Tuesday and Wednesday but luckily I made the right decision to take a lake cruise on Tuesday and walk on Wednesday. The skies cleared as i boarded the ferry and I had a beautiful day for a cruise first to Bowness   then on to the end of the lake where I transferred to a steam train to Haverthwaite. Lake Windermere is one of the 2 lakes used by Arthur Ransome in his “Swallows and Amazons” series and it was great to recognise some sites. The second photo is one of many I took that day.
Wednesday I walked with intermittent showers first up the valley to some falls above Ambleside and across farmlands, then after a coffee right around Rydal Water and Grasmere with lunch in Grasmere. I passed both Rydal Mount and Dove Cottage where Wordsworth lived but did not go in. According to the guide book I walked over 10 miles (they still use miles??? in the UK). Views of the lakes, I have included one of Rydal Water,  would have been nice in sunshine which only appeared for a brief period although there was no rain after lunch.

On Thursday I returned to London, a late bus required sharing an expensive taxi. I stayed overnight in London and attended Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral . Then it was onto the Eurostar through the chunnel to Paris where I spent an all too short, less than 2 hours mainly walking between the Gare du Nord and the Gare de L’Est and buying a pannini while I waited for the train to Luxembourg. These two train journeys were much more pleasant than the ones in England. I now have less than a week left in Europe.

Last Night at the Proms

I know this is a bit late. Way back in 1974 I attended the Proms at the Albert Hall in London, it wasn't the last night and I cannot remember the program but I have always dreamed that if I came into lots of money I would go and spend a summer living near to London and attend lots of Prom concerts and especially the Last Night. I guess with some planning I might be able to join the crowd sitting opposite in Hyde Park some year.
They use to broadcast the Last Night on television here but not for the last few years.

Classic FM here in Australia has been broadcasting all the prom concerts over the past few weeks. I have listened to a number, usually while doing other things like reading the blogs. I was feeling very down last Friday (see last post) but perked up considerably when I realised that they were going to broadcast the recent Last Night at the Proms that afternoon. I stopped doing anything else and just listened to the 2nd half. I think I am more English than the English and love the great British patriotic songs.

When I first visited England in July 1974 I thought I had come home. I may have been influenced by the fact that I had just spent a month in Asia and had been stuck in Tehran as all flights to Greece (my next ticketed stop) were cancelled due to the Cyprus crisis and I spent some time in police stations having my visa extended. I was offered flights to Moscow and Beirut by different airlines which I declined but finally Swissair offered to fly me to Zurich and onto London.

Anyway listening to the Last Night on radio cheered me up immensely and I was delighted to find this excerpt from the 2008 concert with the wonderful Bryn Terfel singing 'Rule Britannia' in the amazing costume that had been described on radio. Note the Aussie and Kiwi flags can be seen waving wildly at different times. (I bet most of you cannot tell the difference.)