Travel Denver - London
Tuesday, Nov 20 depart 73B at 1:10 pm via CME to DEN for 5:40pm BA0218 (Economy Plus), nonstop to London, arriving Wednesday, Nov 21 9:55 am. The most challenging part of the trip was the VERY long line to Passport Control for Non EU passports; 1 hour 15 minutes from deplaning to baggage pick up and exit from LHR! Met Blacklane driver, Ejaz, at 11:15am... arrived Rembrandt Hotel at 12:00pm. Total travel, door to door was 17 hours, Easy enough, although night was short and moderately uncomfortable.
Wednesday, November 21 --
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| Marc and me... |
Dinner at J. Sheekey, seafood restaurant in Theater District. I had Lemon Sole... very good and properly cooked, All vegetables were a la carte... Marc ordered spinach and brussel sprouts. Would have loved a salad!Shhhh... a famous guest was at a nearby table...
Very good and long night's sleep...
Thursday, November 22
Getting a feeling for London... today we walked almost 11000 steps and rode on a dozen trains! Our day started with 9:30am breakfast at hotel. Visited British Museum (I spent 2 hours in China exhibit)... museum is vast. Visited Andrew's apartment, then early Thanksgiving dinner at Riding Horse Cafe for Thanksgiving dinner. Okay, but not as good as we can do at home! I am moving in an entourage of Marc, Ellen, Laura, Tilly Field (Ellen's Niece), Marcia Field (Ellen's Mom) and, frequently, Andrew and Carolyn. We are traveling by foot and 'tube'... a most intricate and comprehensive system! However, Google does a great job of advising us which 'line' to take in which 'direction', which 'stops'. We only messed up once -- getting on the wrong line. Fortunately a man saw me puzzling over my phone and told us our mistake. So we circled back and started again!
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The British Museum. Ellen and Marcia on left. Note all in down jackets and coats... to ward off the dampness.
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Some photos from China exhibit at British
Museum...
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| Food Urn 5000 - 1800 BC |
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| Butterfly Sculpture in shape of Kimono |
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Reminiscent of my visit to the Shanghai Museum in 1999 and its amazing porcelain exhibit.
China's history of art and culture is deep and vast...
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I have traveled this part of the southern Silk Road... from Xi'an in the East, crossing the Taklamakan Desert, visiting MIran, Niya, Khotan - famous for jade - to Kashgar, border with Pakistan, and in Kyrgyzstan, from the Tian Shan mountains to Samarkand in Uzbekistan. It is exciting to see this exhibit and to reminisce about my 2000 trip across the Taklamakan and 2005 in 'the Stans'. Special memories of Dunhuang and the 'Art Museum in the Desert' ... Buddhist paintings in more than 500 caves. In 1994, I had traveled to Tibet from Nepal. Exciting to see these remote places on Earth and their unique cultures! Perhaps this was a precursor to visiting the remote areas of the Polar Regions in the Arctic and Antarctica :-)
Family... in Andrew's apartment.
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| Andrew's Apartment .. East India Docks, Blackwall |
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| Laura and Andrew... |
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| Marc and Andrew |
Thanksgiving Dinner at Riding Horse Cafe... traditional menu with Turkey, gravy, stuffing (shaped as meatballs!), green beans, mashed sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, creamed corn and pumpkin pie or pumpkin brulee! Christmas decorations on streets,,,
Friday, November 23
Breakfast at 9:30... then, off and 'running'! Marc and I spent the day together in South Kensington neighborhood, where Hotel Rembrandt is located. Our first stop was
Royal Albert Hall, an entertainment venue since 1871. We roamed the neighborhood awaiting our tour at 11:30am; embassies, high end residences,... Tour was just over an hour; the only way to see this fantastic space, learn its history, and get to see the Royal Family's Box!
Next stop was the Royal Geographic Society. There was an excellent exhibition of photographs from the 1921 expedition to Everest... of the mountains and the people.
Marc and I spent time in the RGS Library looking at maps. I was especially enamored of photos from Ernest Shackleton's trip on the Endurance, trying to reach the South Pole. These are the original photos!
One gets hungry and thirsty with all this sightseeing! So tea and salad at Opera Delicatessen!
Then back to Hotel to catch up on reading and writing... then Asia food for dinner.
Dinner at Kirin Restaurant... chinese food. We were a large group of 13. Family of Carolyn Blumberg, (Andrew's girlfriend who is also studying in London this semester) joined us... Sydna and David Blumberg and their daughters Hannah and Claire, We had anadults table and a kids table!
Saturday, November 24, 2018
A 'relatively' early start today so that family traveling to USA this afternoon can enjoy The Clock at the Tate Modern. We stayed about 1.5 hours then a light lunch so family could head to airport and New York.
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-clock
Exceptionally clever .. "24-hours long, the installation is a montage of thousands of film and television images of clocks, edited together so they show the actual time. It is a thrilling journey through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece."
This evening, Andrew and I visited and had dinner with Ann Wingerstrand and Don Harris! Exciting to be here while they are in their London home (rather than Sweden or Breckenridge!).
Our conversations roamed around the world of art, science, politics, religion and spirituality, ... how wonderful to have friends who are citizens of the Earth!
Sunday, November 25, 2018 off to Wales...
Royal Albert Hall, an entertainment venue since 1871. We roamed the neighborhood awaiting our tour at 11:30am; embassies, high end residences,... Tour was just over an hour; the only way to see this fantastic space, learn its history, and get to see the Royal Family's Box!
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| Royal Albert Hall... built by Queen Victoria |
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| Prince Albert Memorial |
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| The performance space can be converted to a sports arena... or ice skating rink or... |
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| Luciano... |
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| Lighting check for tonight's performance of :Classical Spectacular" |
Next stop was the Royal Geographic Society. There was an excellent exhibition of photographs from the 1921 expedition to Everest... of the mountains and the people.
Marc and I spent time in the RGS Library looking at maps. I was especially enamored of photos from Ernest Shackleton's trip on the Endurance, trying to reach the South Pole. These are the original photos!
One gets hungry and thirsty with all this sightseeing! So tea and salad at Opera Delicatessen!
Then back to Hotel to catch up on reading and writing... then Asia food for dinner.
Dinner at Kirin Restaurant... chinese food. We were a large group of 13. Family of Carolyn Blumberg, (Andrew's girlfriend who is also studying in London this semester) joined us... Sydna and David Blumberg and their daughters Hannah and Claire, We had anadults table and a kids table!
Saturday, November 24, 2018
A 'relatively' early start today so that family traveling to USA this afternoon can enjoy The Clock at the Tate Modern. We stayed about 1.5 hours then a light lunch so family could head to airport and New York.
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-clock
Exceptionally clever .. "24-hours long, the installation is a montage of thousands of film and television images of clocks, edited together so they show the actual time. It is a thrilling journey through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece."
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| River Thames... crossing to South Bank and the Tate Modern |
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| Ellen, Marcia, and Laura ... Tate Modern in background |
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| St Paul's Cathedral |
This evening, Andrew and I visited and had dinner with Ann Wingerstrand and Don Harris! Exciting to be here while they are in their London home (rather than Sweden or Breckenridge!).
Our conversations roamed around the world of art, science, politics, religion and spirituality, ... how wonderful to have friends who are citizens of the Earth!
Sunday, November 25, 2018 off to Wales...
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