LONDON: While 'twas a first for me... 'twas barely a beginning...

  While I have been in this city several times I had never set foot out of Heathrow Airport until this trip. 

Stephen & I had designed a week with our friend Bill to explore the city together. That seemed a fine way to begin what would then become a two-week Viking cruise around the British Isles with our Minnesota family... making us a party of six sailors with numerous stories, some of which I intend to share over the next series of posts. 

I liked this sculpture, in the Tate Modern Museum, which now seems to offer useful notions, should one desire to map, or attempt to develop a 3D drawing... or a hologram of this "family" sextet. Stabilized slippage. Learning inside, under, over, ultimately finding smooth.

Bill Monson is Stephen's friend since meeting during junior high school & still lives in Minneapolis. I've come to know & appreciate him as well over the years we've shared in friendship. I have found a unique intellectual connection in our later years, while the two of them continue evolving the friendship which has deeper roots. The three of us have such new & vital currency in our own history. Hallelujah! 
 

I continue being enthralled in one of London's numerous small squares by a sculpture... or is "sculpture grouping" a better description?  So many archetypal stories in a delightfully complex cartoon of stories! "Aint we got fun?!"

 Stories presaging playnotes for this trip, perhaps?  

We arrived fairly early on coordinated flight schedules -- Seattle & Minneapolis meet London, within a few minutes -- just like fantasy. Our driver met us after we cleared customs, giving us time for hellos & debriefing into story.  It was too early to check into the hotel so we stashed our bags & decided to tour the city by riverboat on the Thames. Handel did not provide a soundtrack, but we got to view a parade of the great new modern buildings from a riverine viewpoint, at a relatively quiet pace... ideal for gentle antidote toward possible jet lag, which turned out to be quite mild.'

The Tower Bridge is so iconic for the city that it is often mistakenly called "London Bridge," but the true bridge of that name was long ago moved to Arizona, while I was living there! 

A friend of Stephen's who is familiar with current London proved to give us good recommendations, beginning with The Charlotte Street Hotel,  https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/charlotte-street-hotel which we made our home, being the perfect set-piece in which to play... while happily knowing that none of us would wish such folly to become true.

Two rooms of a boutique hotel re-designed by decorators with deep chintz sewn up with their own stories. Our rooms... Bill's was a door down the hall wrapping around the elevator & service core...  were in the quieter walled-in hedged back space with a tidy industrial vibe below a healthy span of sky. 

 

A dressmaker's form was a feature in each room, icon to the very notion of design?

The hotel featured a great dining spot called -- Oscars... 

... offering a happy array of breakfasts ... 

 Which we often enjoyed in the sun at one of the tidy tables on a narrow terrace a bit higher than the sidewalk in front of the building... making for perfect people watching amidst the traffic of cyclists & morning delivery vehicles elucidating the neighborhood's morning slice of the city's life. 

Charlotte Street view at breakfast...

I alternated between tea with Bill or flat white coffee with Stephen, while I began to acclimate to such richness of choices. We would cogitate creating plans for our day. Several times the two of us paired off... giving Bill opportunity to tidy up of bits of work. 

One of our friend's suggestions was to visit the Soane Museum [https://www.soane.org] which we would no doubt have missed without his cue. 

 

 

We were pleased to be introduced to a 19th century architect who gifted his home & studio to the national trust as a perpetually free museum. Being within walking distance & the weather being quite gorgeous, we chose the delight of exploring into a bit of exercise. 

 

Only a few shots to share to entice your interest in his collection...

 

 

 

Because he also housed his school in this museum, there is a bold exhibit of contemporary conceptual drawings & models... as nicely presented as the other lower floors preserving his more classical bent. 

 

We have become quite aware of  the design of the exhibits we assiduously use & more actively & creatively critique since Stephen worked with the In & Out Exhibit. This one's exuberance enlivened this stately home museum's mission with a wink of stately sass! 

Another day gave us another differently similar opportunity to visit a much more grand & stately home, The Wallace Collection, of three generations of collectors. That included rooms full of armor & weapons, many of fascinating design. But the house is the showcase, part of a climb into the peerage. 

 

Our London was intimate, serving several varieties of function to our trio. As I've  intimated, we feel tantalized by the obvious need to return.

ENTERTAINMENTS:

THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL A water-themed orchestral Prom (a storied series of "promenade concerts")... 

A NORTH COUNTRY GIRL  A stage play inspired by Bob Dylan...

HAMILTON, which music I've enjoyed for the years of its success making tickets so unaffordable that one suspects many audiences attend for some other cachet than musical appreciation... 

The ABBA VOYAGE (actually, a matinee...) which was at top-height-to-broad-base, including light show with acres of twinkle & sparkle -- a production as immersive experience! 

To watch the crowd arriving, many living into our age-group, dressed as they might have for similar shows in their younger years. I saw three generations of a family gathered in the row in front of us, ranging from the grandparent walking with a match to my stick, soon to be abandoned to her very active dancing! We watched a parade of women in identical lighted headdresses, processing a fair distance through the crowd to find their seats, projecting a rather ceremonial manner... Such fandom consecreated this cash cow of a vast but temporary plywood venue specially built to ultimately become transportable when the current luster requires a new pasture to feed the holographic idols' egos to prove the longevity of what will someday soon become a group of deceased musicians embalmed in digital cryogenics. 

... HOWEVER...I must note that I was astounded by & certainly do appreciate this creation, especially  the technology involved in the entire experience!

The Cutty Sark became gradually became a landmark along our various comings & goings -- setting a note that it was from this dock that we will check-in/onto the Viking cruise around the British Isles for  the middle 2 weeks of this month of travel. We will be joined by Stephen's sister Alice & our brother in law & love, John Reimann...plus Mark Silha -- the three siblings, their partners & our family friend, Bill.

 

What a cast! What stories to tell! What better place for a beginning than the place where time itself begins ... or... where some English ego believe the cycle of time begins to turn. We are to set-sail from GREENWICH with the tide pulling us out of the mouth of the river Thames -- while we eat dinner at sea!