British Cruise.. another restart...

 

 

Greenwich & Canterbury were next destinations by the calendar, which I will continue to use as a spinal reference of time & place, while I reserve my creative proclivities to wander in some subjective, sometimes more contemplative, fertile, even if imaginary, parts of my own travelogue. Hopefully we'll all find a good cruise in the process!

Because time is one of my big bugaboos, Greenwich seems to be pretty much be "ground zero" for what I might consider many "crimes of the clock"! Such uncomplimentary comment is overstatement, but I'd be bereft without some place of focus for the construct of my frustrations. I'm simply more content to live in the present than to be in timing & future-planning mode... while also appreciating the scheduled timing bits... when they arrive in the present. Thus I get, by a bit of cheating, to the same joys & complaints everyone has about time... being "under the gun" of the clock. That's what I mean to suggest as a crime to my preference for taking a slower... more "civilized" pace... too valuable to be squandered with the time it takes to fully be me.   

Curiously, I felt content in Greenwich (London), the place where stands the now rather quaint observatory which functions as the center point of a world-wide construct, framing & running nearly everyone & everything now digitized into nanoseconds. [Nanoseconds X times-multiplied by infinity!] The place is a peaceful park... a surrounding garden for The Queen's Palace. 

 

The observatory sits on a rather subtle rise, seen between the two center columns (in this photo) of that  four-square, rather "Palladian" design by Inigo Jones, who was also an astronomer... as was Christopher Wren, the architect responsible for this historic royal complex from 17th century London, after the great fire. Many architects were polymaths: scientists, inventers, collectors, designers & builders in those times.

I'll go back (and forward--Dover was our next stop) to Canterbury to tell a story of my lagging behind Stephen & Mark as we approached the entrance of the cathedral with my camera dancing clumsily with my walking stick as I tried to capture these photos of the carvings on surrounding the portal... without enough hands to manage my devices.  I lost sight of my companions. When I managed to safely enter the shade & allowed my eyes to slowly adjust I became distracted & amazed by the light in the huge, graceful fan-vaulted volume of space holding its deep breath of ancient air. 

 This Cathedral let me play in several ways with Chaucer's Tales of personages-on-pilgrimage. I could begin to populate & add characters for some of the stories as I could see how the wear & abrasion of soles could sand divots into stone steps. 

I've long lived my own version of playing "monk" as part of my own consciousness during the quiet hours of contemplative work in my studio... perhaps echoing a distant past life of mine, working in a scriptorium illuminating manuscripts. Probably such quiet monk feet did not create the divots worn & sanded in steps & stairs so much as the rough footwear of weary pilgrims. But to see that unintentional sculpting there is to appreciate time in a viscerally visual manner.

The primary moral of Chaucer's "The Monk's Tale" is the fickleness of fortune and the inevitability of fate.

Because walking was a large & mostly welcome part of many days in this travel, my feet met many beautiful cobblestone streets & simply ancient, uneven pavements. I loved the exercise, even as I respected my need to be careful & cautious.  I have for some years habitually used a stick as tool & prop, playing-out my own version of being a flaneur, which is a notion I also love & embrace.

I've needed to attempt numerous gentle lessons & reminders with Stephen about his saying "look at that"...  pointing vaguely upward... while I am needing to concentrate on my footing with my evermore complicated eyesight. We gradually are teach/learning together the advantageous limitations of our evolving ages. 

I must now confess that I enjoy traveling the retrospective musings after coming home almost more than the mileage on foot...

He did not need to prompt me to "look up" once I passed through the doors of Canterbury Cathedral. The volume of space sucked my attention into full expansion.

Its precision of fan-vaulting moves so simply & smoothly skyward.

A very different geometry ruled the floor. Was this the beginning of my fascination with cathedral floors in the previous post?

 

 

In that moment, finding myself moving along alone, I simply began following my architectural curiosity, keeping only half an eye out for Mark & Stephen, exploring space after spaces: quire after side chapel; expansion after expansion; more expansions to accommodate more chapels -- all built with income from centuries of pilgrims' gifts honoring their pilgrimage to Becket's marterdom. Many steps accruing as the building grew to climb the gentle slope it occupied... at the top I turned 'round to began the return... when we found each other... they having been taken up with a useful docent's stories, making their own pilgrimage to match mine. Huzzah! 

Long ago in our travels Stephen & I came to appreciate being comfortable welcoming such bits of independence as we move around individually, experiencing differently... using our separate lenses to enrich our shared adventures.

Mark wanted to see Scottish castles, so this Beaumaris Castle in Holyhead, Wales was a rather handsome & concise preview -- having a moat & drawbridge before the gate with slots for a portcullis (now gone) as part of its defensive design, as well as crenelated walls & towers which were never actually finished. What great set-piece for one's imaginations! 

A different bit of engineering presented itself in the form of hydraulic stanchions dropping below the pavement (in Canterbury) to allow vehicle passage into a restricted area, when operated remotely by an authorized vehicle, before raising again into function afterward. Shades of quite a different version of the function of an ancient castle's draw-bridge?      

At the port in Edinburgh I took a quick education by close visual inspection as to the size of & strength of the wind turbines ready to be shipped to their sites, assembled & put to work. All along these coast lines we saw an abundance of such forward thinking...  by the time we reached Norway the boast topped out at a 100% power grid of renewable energy.... funded in part by their exports of abundant North Sea oil. Our country, even with our own abundance of oil & gas certainly lags severely behind in such competition!

The turbines are mammoth machines, built (in China) to be sleek... often more beautiful, I believe, than all the Interstate highway concrete infrastructure we all live with in order to transport goods & gasoline.

 

This technology seems to be another version of strong national defense -- that of protecting our planet with smarter use of renewable energy sources. A castle gate of another sort...

 

 I have few qualms about the visuals of the landscape...  although I also acknowledge our further need to make windmills safer for birds! All systems need constant tweaking to finesse function...

 'That vigilance & patience can fuse into true progress, I believe.

Cruise Of British Isles: The Beginning...

 The Viking Saturn is a 2-year-old cruise ship carrying just 930 passengers, with each cabin having its own heated-floor bath and outside deck. Other amenities include 3 fine dining restaurants, plus the World Cafe, which was an effulgent buffet where the family met up to choose breakfast from its wide variety... & we often returned from the city trips for lunch.  

The Viking Saturn upclose & from above the city of Bergen, Norway at the end of the 15-day cruise, showing the size & scale of the ship.

 

I am always fascinated by the more technical aspect of my environment... particularly the way tools & equipment are designed & their functionality.  One piece of that was the "tenders", the orange lifeboats so visibly attendant on both sides of the ship. They were used to carry us closer to the shore when the ship could not. It was a bit of a complicated piece of work, done almost 'automatically,' but also requiring human guidance... rather graceful in its execution, making it seem much like opening a drawer with a crane. 

 

The crew was a tight-knit unit of multi tasking skills, executed by happy smiling handsome humans. Admirable in capability to add to the general effect of the efficiency of good service. 

The overall design of so many of Saturn's details was impressive: 

 

Like railings softened with padded leather upholstery on the railings of the of a generous stairway rising like a spine through all the decks from the performance space of the living room. (This was also served by adjacent elevators, which were frequently busy.) We often used the steps as part of our exercise to work off our rather generous meals. The landings were decorated with huge images of the Bayeux Tapestry [wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry], famous for telling the story of the Norman Invasion of England in the 11th Century. These photographs were so enlarged as to make the stitches visible, often arresting my attention for craftsmanship. Many paintings & original prints were also part of the general decor, for which a catalogue was available for deeper appreciation.  Edvard Munch was another featured artist, being also Norwegian. I was not familiar at all with his work other than The Scream, so I became educated & often enthralled by the images of a slide presentation which ran in the Living Room while the pianist played Greig and Sibelius. 

 

Of course there was a pool... having a roof which retracted seamlessly according to weather. Several bars catering their own specialties & timing. The "living room" was a spacious three decks in height with deep side "balconies" holding like box seats small tables for drinks overlooking a grand piano furnishing music for the cocktail hour, sometimes joined by another instrument or voice for variety. This was often themed to music resonant with the geography in which we were sailing, so because this is a Norwegian line, Greig was frequently on tap. Occasional couples might take a turn on the floor to dance. 

        I did exuberate being literally at sea for the first time in my life!

  

In the cast of characters for this adventure, Brother Mark Silha immediately became the star... he is, after all, the original impetus for this trip! (Mark asked for a family trip to Scotland a decade ago.)

This trio had great three-witted times.

Sister Alice & Bro-In-Law&Love John 

with whom the trip was co-planned. 

Stephen & I danced well through a maze of potential plans which were floated over the course of more than a year as we finally confirmed with Mark about his desire to see castles in Scotland. 

 

This family saw that as an invitation from our brilliantly challenged 66-year-old Downs socially likable miracle of a music maven. There have been numerous family trips over the decades, but it has been awhile since the three siblings traveled like this. John & I have long played well in the "out-law" roles. Dear long-time friend Bill Monson shared a stateroom with Mark.

Cocktail time we would gather on a mezzanine deck open to the living room, with good tables for cards. Mark loves collecting a group with whom to play Kings-On-The-Corner, which has long been his specialty... he's a sharp player. He often wins!  Gradually during the game, we'd become ready for our dinner reservations... which are the big event of the day...  even as the theater shows ending each evening regularly won our biggest kudos. 

There was a full-time mixed quartet of lively & capable voices & attractive faces full of playful character & snappy showmanship. Choreography was necessary on this shallow stage, on which the performers were rather constantly moving, even dancing, playing on the stepways down to the main floor all becoming useful circulation of action while inviting intimacy with the audience. All collaborated with the accompanying small band. Good writing, directing & lighting made for properly fulsome productions of rock, Broadway, Beatles, ABBA, crooner, and other music. Oh! The wardrobes gleamed with subtle flashes of sparkle! Good Theater! 

One could find a variety of nooks for private moments to read or engage in conversation. Shops also had their specific open hours, while displaying goods in unmanned cases to tantalize between time.

As we reached Norway after a good long sleep, we both woke quite early & decided to walk a up to the observation room for coffee -- a rare quality of date for us. We were with only 5-6 fellow early risers.. all respectful of peaceful quiet passage of bridges overhead lacing together both sides of this fjord cradling the home port of Bergen. It made me wonder what a cruise would be like for us as a gay couple without a family - probably quite a different experience!  I add that thought to the debate I have with myself about "cruising": pro or con?

I am enthusiastic about sailing. I spent a good deal of time on our little deck... watching the parade of landscape from a waterscape. 

I much appreciated viewing the extensive infrastructure of wind turbines.

 While the water grass flow of an abandoned mill-stream told the retirement of another natural energy source

A millstream 

Canterbury Cathedral has fourteen centuries of tales.

Especially those sanded & buffed by the feet of pilgrims. I've become enamored with such floors along the visits to churches, this trip...

A joke with another shot of visually resonant pattern of floor/ground matting on paths around the henge.

Then continuing in my imagination adding this bit of handsome stone carving in a Leo Toye calligraphic style... 

But then something florid happens...

Back to the cruise... we need to catch one of the last two tenders to take us get us onboard!

I'll call this as the end of the post. I'm continuously cogitating how to write about a schedule of 14 ports in 15 days on a ship in a family party of six. I did not find time to journal much so I'm still learning to find enough clarity to begin activating useful memory. I will continue inviting you to join wherever I'm going. 

 

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!