The Euston Road

Either the distance between points has gotten greater or I'm just not as speedy as I once was. Yesterday had me rushing from place to place in order to work everything in, but I managed to do it. Today's plan is probably overly ambitious given my slower mph, and I want to get an early start for my long walk on the Mile End Road, so this post will be brief.

Here's what I saw and did on Wednesday:

• Got to the Design Museum right when it opened. Saw two exhibitions -- Breathing Colour and California -- and took a quick look through the permanent collection. Also got a good look at the building, the former Commonwealth Institute, which is an amazing work of design.
• On to the V&A to see the Plywood exhibition and to look at the new entrance in Exhibition Road.
• Up to Regent's Park for the Frieze sculpture. Had to take shelter in the station to wait out a torrential downpour, then ducked under trees in the park as the sky changed from bright blue to stormy grey every five minutes. (Notice I have more to say about the weather than about the sculpture.)
• Met Molly and started our walk down the Euston Road. She likes Antony Gormley, so I promised I'd show her his four pieces along with the other public art I knew of between Regent's Park and King's Cross.
• Stopped in at the Wellcome Collection, one of my London favourite places, to see objects contributed by the public to represent their personal relationship with nature.
• Stopped at Platform 9 3/4 so Molly could get a snap of the punters getting their own snaps.
• Didn't make it up to Granary Square for a look around, but pointed out some of the refurbs and new development. I hadn't seen the buildings in the gasometers. Glad to see the beloved gasometers back in place, but not impressed with the look of the buildings. 
• Hopped the tube for the Barbican and walked to the Museum of London to hear the Gresham Lecture about the Thames by the bloke who used to be head of English Heritage. He told the history of the river through art, from the sixteenth century. Very interesting up to the end, when he covered the whole of the twentieth century with, "After the war, the Pool of London closed." No 20th century images. If he couldn't find a modern piece of art, I would have closed with a photo of the cranes lowering as Churchill's funeral barge passed, but I wasn't consulted.
• Back to Queen's Park for a pub meal at the Alice House.

Stats:

9 pounds for Design Museum exhibitions (50% off with Art Pass)

4 pounds 25 for quick lunch at EAT.

20 quid for dinner

23707 steps

10.17 miles

Art, Art and More Art

Tuesday was my day to be arty in central London. I arrived right on time to meet Judy at the Photographer's Gallery to see a large (all three floors of gallery space in the building) exhibition of large-format photos by Gregory Crewdson, called Cathedral of the Pines. The photos were all taken in Becket, Massachusetts, a town of about 2000 people in the Berkshires. Like all his work, these photos were highly staged, with great attention to detail, lighting and how people were posed. His aim was to depict intimate views of the working class residents of the town, in homes or in the landscape, and primarily in emotional and/or physical isolation. I had been looking forward to this exhibition and wanted to like it, but my overall impression was "meh." Less would have been more in this case.

We next moved on to two gallery shows, one recommended by a friend and one I had found on the ArtRabbit app. The recommended one was called Playground Structure and was at the Blain Southern Gallery in Hanover Square. A group exhibition of abstracts, all the pieces were in reference to or conversation with a large photo of a kiddies' climbing structure that formed various grids, lines and angles. Judy and I both enjoyed this show a lot.

Following the ArtRabbit app,  we wove our way around hoardings and heavy construction equipment to the nearby Ronchini Gallery to see work by Samantha Bittman, who combines weaving and painting to make vivid (and a bit eye-hurty) abstracts. Her technique is to first weave her pieces, I think in a jacguard pattern but I really don't know much about weaving, and then painting over some of the individual threads. I'm looking forward to showing photos to my friend Kay, a master weaver, who I'm sure will be able to explain it to me.

Zigging and zagging through Soho and Covent Garden, Judy delivered me at Somerset House, where I learned that the tour of the crypt was cancelled because the guide was ill. I tried to do the tour a few years back, but then too it was cancelled, that time due to flooding. So, we had a leisurely lunch that fueled me for my solo wanderings in the afternoon.

My Art Pass got me in free to the Courtauld Gallery, where I saw a small exhibition by the Bloomsbury Group and then meandered through much of the permanent collection.

Now in need of another sit down, I made my way to the Coliseum to meet Barbara for tea and a catch-up, which was lovely as always.

I had just enough time afterwards to pop into the NPG to see this year's BT Portrait Award exhibition and a very small exhibition of photos by the Douglas brothers before heading back to Queen's Park for a 7 pm Pilates mat class.

Back in my Airbnb, I heated up the mini quiche I bought Sunday at the farmers' market, then slept like a log.

Stats:
All the art was totally FREE
17 pounds for Pilates

24180 steps
10.52 miles

Camden Town, Highgate and Belsize Park

Monday was spent revisiting some old familiar places, while ticking off two more things I'd been meaning to do for a while. I arrived in Camden Town at 10 am, but needed to make a stop on my way to the Jewish Museum. My travel power strip/USB charger thing was acting up -- power kept going on and off, and it was feeling hot -- so I stopped at an electronics shop in Parkway, where I spent more than I wanted in order to charge my devices without burning down the flat.

I'm really interested in the history of the Jews in London, so had been meaning to go to the Jewish Museum. The special exhibition on Amy Winehouse, plus free entry on my Art Pass, moved it to the top of this year's list. The Amy exhibition, put together by her brother, centered on her childhood and teen years as well as her family history. It was fun (and sad) to see all the photos of her as a vibrant, healthy kid -- a nice Jewish girl from North London. The permanent exhibition was great, particularly the objects that people brought with them when they immigrated to Britain.

It was warm and sunny as I mooched around Camden Town, taking in Gloucester Crescent (where Alan Bennett had lived) and walked though Camden Lock Market and Stables Market for the first time in 10 years. It's crowded, expensive and overwhelming.

A quick tube ride got me to Archway, where I looked around in confusion among the multitude of bus stops before finding where to catch the 143 bus to Bisham Gardens. There, a short walk took me down the hill to the entrance to Highgate Cemetery where I met up with David to do the West Cemetery tour. I'd been to Highgate before, but only to the East Cemetery. Our guide was fantastic and I learned a lot about Victorian funereal motifs and about some of the people buried there. Just as the tour ended, the rain came pouring down, but we did manage to pop over to the East Cemetery to see Karl Marx, Elgar and a few other notable dead folks.

I then rode the C11 from Swain's Lane to Belsize Park, where I took refuge in a caff to wait out the rain. When it stopped, I meandered through some familiar streets and slowly made my way to the Finchley Road, where I had sushi for me suppa at the Udon Cafe. It was tasty and cheap.

Last thing on my itinerary was theatre -- a new play called Prism at the Hampstead Theatre in Swiss Cottage. It's about Jack Cardiff, a British cinematographer, who has dementia. Though I struggled a couple times to stay awake (due to my exhaustion, not because the play was dull) I thought it was witty, touching and well-acted.

The 187 took me back to Queen's Park, where I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

Stats:
33 pounds for 7 day zones 1-2 travel card
15 pounds for power adapter
Jewish Museum FREE with Art Pass
12 pounds Highgate Cemetery Tour
27 pounds for theatre ticket (Monday tix are the cheapest)
3 pounds 55 for falafel wrap at Cafe Nero
2 pounds 50 for tea at Gail's
5 pounds 80 for sushi for diner

26473 steps
10.93 miles

Don't Trust the Weather

I should know that by now, shouldn't I? I've always had such great weather in London in Septembers past, but it's let me down yesterday and today. Both days started out clear, bright and sunny, and both ended grey, wet and cold. Personally, l'd rather have the opposite and that's my hope for tomorrow. Whinge over.

During the bright and sunny part of today, I walked through Queen's Park (the actual park) before going to the farmers' market at the Salusbury Road Primary School. The park is a little green gem, with places for walking, running, doing some kind of fitness training, learning about trees, playing football, etc. There's a caff and a bandstand as well. I so envy the people who live close by. (There's also a Victorian cemetery near by, which makes this a prime location in my estimation.) My only complaint is that the squirrels and the kiddies got all the good conkers before I arrived.

At the market, I stocked up on all my favourites: goat cheese and veg pie, walnut and raisin bread, olive bread sticks. Also picked up a small roast veg quiche, tomatoes and a cucumber. I'm set for the next few days.

Then the adventures commenced. I got to tick off two places that had been on my list for yonks: Dulwich Picture Gallery and Eltham Palace. Thanks to Janie and David, and with mutual friend Judy, we got to see both (which probably wouldn't have been doable on public transport) AND we had a scrumptious lunch at an Italian family restaurant in leafy, lovely Dulwich.

The Picture Gallery is the first purpose-built public art gallery in the world. The building, designed by Sir John Soane, contains the tombs of its two founders in a small mausoleum smack in the middle. A bit creepy, but a good way to ensure they aren't forgotten. We did a quick look round the permanent collection of masterpieces by old masters.

Eltham Palace, once owned or visited by kings and queens since the middle ages, was a bit of a wreck when acquired by the Courtaulds in the 1920s. They restored the Tudor great hall, where Henry VIII had wined and dined, and they built their own home adjoining the hall. I'm not sure what to call the style of the exterior, as it's neither faux Tudor nor contemporary. Where they really expressed their style was with the Art Deco interiors, full of fantastic woodwork and all the mod cons of the 1930s. Built at a time when most Brits lacked indoor toilets, this was truly a Palace of Plumbing. During the Courtaulds' occupancy, they frequently held swanky parties with celebs and jazz bands. The gardens are supposed to be lovely as well, but the weather was not conducive to strolling through them on our visit. We did get to see the wall of the Tudor moat that surrounded the palace and that was pretty impressive.

Stats:
Spent about 12 quid at the farmers' market
Dulwich Picture Gallery FREE with my 10 pound Art Pass
Treated to lunch -- thank you, David and Janie!!
Eltham Palace FREE with Art Pass

17516 steps
7.23 miles

The Aer Lingus Experiment​

I'm declaring it a success for the following reasons:
1) Fare to London from Hartford is really not much more than from Boston
2) Bradley Airport (Hartford) is significantly closer than Logan (Boston) to my house
3) Convinced an OAP to give me rides to/from Bradley, saving cost of parking in the MassPort Framingham lot and Logan Express bus fare
4) Here's where it really gets good: Going through immigration/passport control in Dublin at 4:30 in the morning was quick and easy. No landing card to fill out and no queue to speak of. Landed at Heathrow as an EU flight into Terminal 2. No passport check whatsoever. Just got my luggage at baggage reclaim and went on my way.

The only downside was that I only got two hours of sleep on the flight before waking up to the announcement that we would soon be landing in Dublin. Consequently, I've been even more dazed and confused on arrival day than usual, but I managed it by sticking close to familiar territory.

I arrived at my AirB&B (which is lovely and comfortable) by 11 am, unpacked, took a shower and was out the door by 12:30. I'm staying 3 short blocks from Roger's old flat. I headed up the Harrow Road to Ha'Penny Steps, crossed the canal and cut through Meanwhile Gardens (the site of my yarnbombing a few years back), then down through Golborne Road and Portobello Road markets. A bus ride took me to Bayswater where I got my UK sim card at the EE store. From there, I walked through Kensington Gardens under sunny, blue skies (though it had rained when I was eyeing the street food at Acklam Road) to the Serpentine Gallery. Friends David and Janie got there seconds after me and we queued for Grayson Perry's Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! Lots of great recent stuff to see -- ceramics, tapestries, gigantic wood cut prints, sculptures made of assorted bits and bobs, a bicycle and a motorcycle -- all witty, satirical, biting and astute social commentary. Judging from the number of people and the enjoyment they exuded, I'd say the exhibition lives up to its name.

After, I took a quick look in the Serpentine Sackler, but I was really too knackered to take it in, so I walked north (in real rain at that point) out of Hyde Park, back to Bayswater, onto two buses that took forever to arrive, and to the Coop in the Harrow Road to buy something for me evening meal. I'm going to force myself to stay awake until 10 pm so I can get a good night sleep and awake fully on GMT, or BST, or whatever time it is here.

Stats:
20 pounds to top up Oyster
15 pounds for sim card and 30 day package
2 pounds for Portuguese custard tart
65p for water
1 pound 50 for Grayson Perry postcards
20p to use the loo in Kensington Gardens
12 pounds 50 for various groceries

18489 steps
7.61 miles