So, if you read the last couple of blogs, you know that Kellie and I went to England for a spell in the last days of May. We stayed 2 1/2 days in London. Then, we rode the train for roughly five hours to Edinburgh, Scotland where we spent another couple of days. Upon leaving Edinburgh, we rode the train to York, which was our favorite stop of the whole trip. I will explain later. After York, we went to Kellie's old college town of Nottingham where we rode the bus up to Newstead Abbey, the childhood home and inherited estate of my favorite English Romantic poet, George Gordon, Lord Byron. After Nottingham, we went to Oxford, which was the most disappointing place of our trip. I will explain later. On a Sunday morning, we bussed from Oxford to Heathrow Airport, and we have been back in the good ol' US of A since late, late Sunday evening because we gained six hours from London. Right!
Anyhow, though I always post pictures based on our activities, I never thought of this blog as a travelogue, but why the heck not? If I comment on some of the pictures, maybe it will be a bit interesting. Keep in mind that I am kind of weird and eclectic. Kellie took a lot more and a lot better pictures than I did, and maybe we can share them later. Today, I would like to share some photos that I took on the first day.
Oh, and, by the way, Aunt Marty, the trip never inspired me to poetry. I guess travel does not inspire me. I will probably not have any poetry for a while. Who knows? The muse, Erato, may infuse me tomorrow. It's a hit or miss thing. OK...the trip.
Kellie and I arrived in London at 7:30 on a Sunday morning, so we couldn't check into our hotel, but we did drop the bags by, bought our Oyster cards for the Tube, and headed into the center of London before most people were even out of bed. We walked to the British Museum from Piccadilly Circus (Kellie has the pictures!) and were among the first to enter the museum that day. Here is the first picture that I took.
That's right! The first picture that I took was a set of Shakespeare works in King George's library. That would be King George the Third, the scoundrel who made war against the American colonists. It might be the complete set, but it is not all of the works of Shakespeare. Sadly, the books were behind glass (thus the blue glare), and we could not touch them or smell them. I love me some old books!
Speaking of books, since Kellie and I were headed to Scotland, I snapped a pic of the Lives of the Scottish Poets by David Irving. Notice that these books were published in 1810 in Edinburgh. Also, you may note that the author says "Irvine" not Irving. I can't find anything about the name's misspelling on Google, probably just the 18th and 19th century English disrespect for the Scottish.
After we did a rather quick run through the British Museum, we headed over to the National Gallery. I will just go ahead and post the pictures of the Lions all together.
Well, I thought I had more, but I guess that I didn't save them. Coming up next is one of the only photos that actually prove that Kellie and I were actually there. Oddly enough, either of us rarely take photos of the other or of the two of us together. No selfies for us!
The rest of our first day in London, I took pictures of nothing else but paintings, and I will tell you what they are. Oh, and the picture of New Scotland Yard.
This is Portrait of a Young Man by Andrea del Sarto. Many of you may never have heard of Andrea del Sarto, but his greatest claim to fame may be that he gives the dramatic monologue in Robert Browning's poem Andrea del Sarto. It is truly one of the saddest poems in the English language. Andrea, who could be as great an artist as Michelangelo or Leonardo, has basically given up his artistic opportunities to pursue the love of a woman--probably a prostitute--who does not return his love. He gives everything for her and gets nothing in return, yet pursues her to his own ruin. It is from this poem that we get the quote "Your reach should exceed your grasp, or what's a heaven for."
Next are a couple of Monet's paintings. It is truly amazing to be standing there looking at the real thing. Pictures cannot do them justice.
Next up, I will show you a couple of Van Gogh's. They come with a story because just to the right of these paintings by Van Gogh is the much more famous Sunflowers, but we could not get close to the painting for some reason that we could not figure out at first. The crowd was simply too thick and not moving toward the painting. Everyone was kind of moving in and then like a stream around a rock, making a big curve. I was not to be denied though, and I worked my way through the crowd to get a look. The reason for the crowd was that a young woman and her two children, probably about 8 to 10 years old, were lying on the floor in front of the painting with paper, crayons, markers, and pencils spread all about them in a huge circle on the floor. Yes! Right in front of the painting so that no one else could get in front of it. I have never seen anything so rude in my life, and the ushers and security were walking all around, and nobody said a word! Anyway, here are a couple of lesser known Van Gogh paintings.
Whoops! I said I had two, but I only had one. The others are in a gallery from the next day. Yes! We came back to the National Gallery on Monday when it was not so crowded.
Anyway, after leaving the National Gallery, we wandered around London in a daze. We had been awake for over 36 hours. I took some pictures of some things that we walked past like White Hall, the White Hall gardens, and the Horse Guards parade, but I didn't save any of them. They just weren't that interesting. One thing that was interesting to me was the courtyard of the New Scotland Yard, I guess because I have seen it in so many movies. Here it is.
Do you recognize it?
Anyway, my phone is not sending all the pictures that I am telling it to send. I have probably missed half a dozen good photos, but maybe this is enough for one day.
On this, our first day in London, after being awake since 5:30 AM the day before and losing six hours of time, we were bushed by the time we figured out how to get back to our hotel on the Tube. WARNING: When you are riding the Tube, which really is the best way to get around, you not only need to know what your stop is but where the line ends. The Piccadilly line goes to North Ealy and to Uxbridge. To get to our stop at Park Royal, we had to be on the Tube going to Uxbridge. If you get on the Piccadilly line going to North Ealy, you cannot get to Park Royal from there. Just letting you know. I think that Kellie and I were in bed and asleep by 7 PM, but we were up and at it early the next morning. I will share the picture from Day Two in the next day or so--if I can get my stupid phone to share them to my computer. Aargh!