London – A Museum, a Play and a Street

October 5, 2022 Of course it only took a day for me to backtrack on my attempts to slim down my posts. Certain things we see will do that.

We usually try to go The Museum an hour or so after it opens, but today we joined the throngs in the long line on the sidewalk to get in.

It truly is one of the world’s great museums.

And it is great in more ways than one.

You can’t just walk up all 72 steps at once as there are exhibits everywhere in the museum.

Someday, somehow we will get her one.

With our upcoming trip to Egypt, we spent some time in the Egyptian rooms.

Containers that held the internal organs of the mummies.

The vessel with the conical top is an Egyptian wine “bottle”. The marks on the conical top are the equivalent of today’s wine labels. Grapes did not grow in Egypt, so the grapes/wines were imported.

We walked through several over rooms on our way out of the museum.

The world famous Sutton Hoo. We have watched several YouTube videos over the years produced by the museum, so this was a real treat to see it in person.

The Lewis Chessmen hold a special place in our hearts. The first learned about them several years ago during a trip to Scotland where they were discovered in 1831 in a hoard buried in a sand bank.

She who walks up 72 steps must also walk down.

Back again to see this wonderful play.

The set may be minimalist, but the play delivers maximum impact.

A good selfie on my first attempt today.

We call it guitar street, but actually is Demark Street.

It’s not just looking at the classic guitars in the windows, it’s also hearing the sounds of guitars being played before buying in the different stores. To us it not just a street, it is an experience, which is why we travel.

London – A Little of This and That

October 4, 2022 A little different post for today.

Looking down from the bedroom window in our apartment we can see the food prep area of the small café across the alleyway. They only are open for breakfast and lunch.

Our favorite eating premises, it has been around on this corner for over 800 years. They have a pamphlet describing the history of the White Hart and the immediate area. For example, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engles lead discussions and seminars in large room at the rear of the building. Born in 1650 in the lane behind the White Hart (which is where our apartment is located) was Nell Gwyn who became the mistress of King Charles II.

Someone is happy!

My kind of pub food.

While eating we able to observe this strange custom the English appear to have. After eating they position themselves on the floor and stretch. We guessed it was to provide room for dessert.

Just because we are in England doesn’t mean we can’t order needed items from Amazon. The post office a minute away from the apartment is a pickup location for Amazon deliveries.

Most every day is a play day, This was today’s. We really like the location we are staying at as we have been able to walk to every play we have seen in 10 minutes or less.

This was a two man play with plenty of scary effects. It also included a ghost (The Woman in Black) who would appear at times. Then it was over and the two actors took their bows, the ghost never appeared to take a bow which we thought fit in very nicely with what the paly was all about. Did the character known as the actor really see a ghost or was it just his imagination.

Linda’s gin and tonic (after she drank it).

As always, our theater selfie.

Getting that selfie isn’t always easy. My first attempt.

Second attempt. The third time was a charm.

At Linda’s suggestion we stopped at the Quik Shop down the street from the apartment on our way back from the theater and look what they had in the cooler. My favorite.

In case anyone wondered what we bought from Amazon. A four USB outlet with US, UK, Europe and Aussie plugs. We have too many things charge with USB cables, or we had before we bought this. It works great.

London – Off to the Library

October 3, 2022 Spent some time today at the British Library. Am trying shorten these posts as there is only so much time in the day and I keep falling behind in posting.

Every time we go to the Library we always seem to exit at the back side of the Kings Cross Underground station, meaning we have to walk all the way around it to get to Euston Road.

Then we always walk by St. Pancras Hotel, never going inside to look at how glorious it is inside as well as outside.

The British Library building is not what one expects since many of the famous buildings in London were built so very long ago.

Our destination. This is one of those places we visit every time we are in London.

The oldest surviving copy of the Magana Carta.

Another very early copy of the Magna Carta with the complete Royal Seal attached.

Ornate bible written in two languages with gold highlights,

One of the first English bibles. The church wouldn’t allow English bibles to be printed in England so they were printed in Germany. This copy belonged to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII., Anne Boleyn was executed by beheading three years after her marriage to Henry.

We are avid viewers of the British TV series, Time Team which is available on YouTube. In many of the archeological dig the team is shown consulting old maps to help determine what was where. This is a map of the type they use and dates from the late 1600’s.

The lighting is very low in the gallery and with some exceptions, the Beatles exhibit being one of them, photography is allowed with no flash.

Michelangelo did not just start chipping away at a chunk of marble. He extensively studied human anatomy and the results show the effort it takes be a genius at something.

Shakespeare’s First Folio.

Of the millions of books in the Library, Linda found one she liked best in the bookstore.

It is always amazing how fast the underground trains come into the stations.

The Piccadilly Line is known as a deep line. It takes two levels of extremely long escalators to go down to the tracks or up to the surface.

London – The Marathon and More

October 2, 2022 Watched the London Marathon today as a portion of the route ran not far from where we are staying.

We watched the start on the TV in the apartment.

With approximately 50,000 participants, there were three starting locations and multiple stating times.

The world class men ready to start.

One of the many mass starts.

Crossing the Tower Bridge.

My traditional Sunday Roast at the White Hart Pub just around the corner from the apartment.

Linda chose the non meat version. Both were delicious.

Afterwards we walked down the Thames to watch the masses of runners stream past.

It didn’t take long for some folks to leave and spot in front opened up.

If it wasn’t one person blocking my ability to take photos of the runners it was someone else.

Below is a gallery of some of what we saw. We were less than 2 miles from the finish line and many of the runners looked like they were feeling every last one of the 23 or so miles they had come so far. As always, clicking on a photo enlarges it.

By the time we were ready to walk back up to the apartment the number of runners who were now walking had increased significantly.

Several things in this photo. In the distance is the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben. The white object right of center are clothes on a clothes dryer above one of the runners. We remembered seeing him in the TV when he started the race.

Back at the apartment we turned on the TV and who should be one of the first people we saw just having crossed the finish line? The fellow with the clothes dryer. What are the odds?

Hard to tell since it jumped as I took the photo, but this is the Rhino that is in the gallery just having finished.

In the evening the use on technology when traveling allowed us to watch the US version of Amazon Prime video. Set the palm sized travel router up as a wifi repeater, then ran the VPN on it going through the US. No dumbed down “while you travel” video selection, rather everything we normally watch at home. Technology, never leave home without it.

London – Our Favourite Funny Play

October 1, 2022 Another play day enjoying one of our favorites, this being the fourth time we have seen it over the years.

We both agreed, this was far too much chocolate to start the day. Just call us the jittery twosome.

Typically we seldom plan ahead as to when or often even what we are going to do in the days ahead. Sometimes we discover things too good to pass up, so now next Saturday and Sunday mornings are booked up.

You never know what you will find on the streets of London.

The first time we saw this play was almost 10 years ago with the original cast.

The curtains are open showing the set before when you are admitted to the theater. I got to talking to an Australian couple sitting beside us when we first sat down, then later after the theater was filling remembered to take this photo. As it has been every time we have seen it, it was a full house.

Selfie at The Play That Goes Wrong. I showed the photo to the girl sitting behind us and teased her she didn’t smile.

Part of the fun of going to the theater is interacting with the people around us.