Favorite Fotos: countryside out the windows

Sorry to have neglected the blog the last couple of days, but they were the last ones with all my kiddos at home. Sally had to get back to work today, but Hal and Carey are still around. They went off to work at a neighborhood coffee shop this morning, though, so I have some time to blog now.

I tried several times, on several different trips, to take pictures outside the train, car, or plane windows, with very little success. But I did come up with a few shots that, I hope, will give a little flavor of the lovely English (and Scottish and Welsh) countryside. Everything was so green! and looked so much like it does in movies both actual and those that play in your head when you're reading.

The picture at the top of the post is out of the Oxford Tube bus window on my first trip to that lovely city. This was in September, before fall colors were in evidence. Could you possibly mistake this view for anywhere but England?! Another picture taken on that sunny day is this one, taken a bit earlier in the journey....


.... and this one, a bit further on:


Notice the good view of the hedge of trees in this shot. Here is a more panoramic view of hedge-y countryside, this one taken from the little Flybe jet we took to Inverness. The countryside we're circling is that around Gatwick.


I was fortunate enough to take two trips to Scotland during my time in the UK. Here's a shot from the train window during my earlier journey, in September to Edinburgh. I don't think we were in Scotland yet when this was taken, but unfortunately I don't know what lovely town this is. It might have been Durham; I'd love to hear from someone who could let me know. This lack of info doesn't spoil the enjoyment of the photo, however, at least I hope not:


By the time the following shot was taken, however, I'm pretty sure we were in Scotland. Love those lighthouses!


Another very scenic trip I got to take was to Wales. This one was by car, which certainly added another element of adventure to the journey. On the right is a shot out the windshield as we crossed the Severn Estuary on the M-4. What an impressive bridge! No breath-holding possible for this transit!

We generally managed the driving pretty well, with Henry behind the wheel and me navigating, but some of the roads were very, very scary. Fortunately, however, not very crowded. Below is a shot of a typical minor Welsh road, in the rain. Note lack of shoulders, proximity of hedges (which hopefully would have been soft landings, had we needed to collide with them) and, above all, narrowness of road. At least you didn't have to worry about which side to drive on!


It was also rainy on our trip to Bath in October, but I was still enchanted enough by the view out of our bus window to try and take some photos. I'll close with this view of the lovely countryside near Bath. You can't complain too much about the rain when its result is such a "green and pleasant land!"


Looking through the photos to find these countryside views got me excited about more of my scenic shots, so I'll try and post collections of some of these in the next few days.

Favorite Fotos: London buildings, part 2

Here are the promised photos of some of the many impressive new buildings all over London. While it doesn't have the quantity of real skyscrapers that you see in places like New York and Chicago, I'd certainly put its inventory of office space, not to mention apartment space, alongside that of any city in the world. And they're busy building more, as you can tell from all the cranes in the photo at the left, taken from the first viewing level on the climb up St. Paul's. Construction is booming all over the area, in large part, I imagine, due to making preparations for their hosting of the Olympics in 2012.

Most of the buildings in these photos I won't be able to identify, but the one on the right is unmistakable—the famously-shaped Gherkin, located in the City of London, that is becoming one of the city's major landmarks.

I also know what the one below is. It's London City Hall, just across the river from the Tower of London, making a picturesque, made-to-order contrast of very old and very new.


I know where the next photo was taken—in front of the Tate Britain, looking back toward Vauxhall Bridge at the very large and very photogenic complex on the other side of the Thames.


Some of the city's most impressive new structures are along the river, and here is another example. This one's located somewhere further upstream, near Battersea Park, judging by its position in the sequence of photos I took that day. Does anyone else think it would make a good component of that cell phone commercial, showing all the bars?


Here's an impressive building, seen from the observation tower on top of Westminster Cathedral. If the photo is looking north, which I think it is, then the complex is probably the Cardinal Place development, but I'm not sure about that.


Here's another one whose identity I'm also not sure of. But I think the photo was taken near St. Paul's.


And one final example, this one taken somewhere along the south bank of the Thames.


And, speaking of that wonderful river, it will be the subject of my next series of favorite photos. I plan to reward myself for getting all my presents wrapped with some happy hours spent going over river photos.

Favorite Fotos: London buildings, part 1

Henry gave me the idea of finishing up my London diary with a series of photo collections. I eventually plan to put together a large website highlighting many of mine and his best photos, similar, although on a much larger scale, than what I've done for previous vacations of ours. But for now, these shots and the ones to come in the next days and weeks will be results of a quick run-through of my "My Pictures" sub-folders.

I thought I'd start with some glimpses of some of the beautiful older buildings that fill almost all of London's streets. It's hard to look down a single block and not be charmed by the lovely architecture. I can tell you where most of the buildings featured here are located. But I hope you'll agree that they're quite photogenic, if not always precisely identified.

The one at the top of the blog is easy, though, since it's my own little block of flats. I'd love to know more about its history, but we were told the buildings were probably built in the early 1900's.

Another address I can precisely identify is this house on the left, at #2 Cheyne Walk, former home of Vera Brittain. Hal and I specifically sought it out on our stroll along the Chelsea Embankment back in September.

Here is another identifiable street, Queen's Gate Terrace, where the students had their lodgings. I love the long line of snow white facades; and we all found it so interesting that cars park in the middle of the street.


Here are a couple of examples of the neighborhoods I walked through on my way to and from the office. Not bad scenery for such a mundane chore, eh? The porches on the houses in the first photo had these lovely round stained glass emblems set into them, and at night they glowed, making the houses even more beautiful. I wish I'd been able to get a good photo of that scene.


The photo below is of one of my favorite little squares along the route. Not only was the park nice, but the houses surrounding it were some of my favorites, architecture-wise.


Here are a couple of random buildings. The first shot, I believe, was near the Imperial College campus, if not actually on it, although I can't be sure. I have no idea where the second photo was taken, but I could handle living in that penthouse, couldn't you?!



I'll end up with two shots that I can identify. The first was taken in Grosvenor Square, near the American Embassy. (Although it's not one of these lovely buildings, but rather a more recent construction from a less elegant architectural phase.)

And finally here's a really impressive hotel, the Hotel Russell on Russell Square. I visited a librarian in his office nearby and was pretty taken with the look of this place as I left. Fancy as it seems, the rates aren't all that outlandish—perhaps accommodation for a future visit?


London does have new buildings, too, and they will be the subject of my next collection.

More out and about

After another morning spent piously grading papers, I rewarded myself yesterday with a visit to the last of Rick Steves' major London recommendations, the Courtauld Gallery. What a gem of a place! It's small enough (three levels reached by the winding stairs at the right, but it has a small footprint) that it doesn't feel overwhelming the way the larger museums do. However, it packs quite a punch in the quality of its collection. Cezannes, Gaugins, Manets, Degas' and Rubens' by the dozens—thanks, again, Rick, for not steering me wrong!

A special treat was their current temporary exhibition of Turner watercolors—a mesmerizing little collection of small paintings and drawings. Can't ever get enough Turner!

Actually the Gallery was my second stop of the day. I first headed to the Temple Inns of Court, which had always sounded intriguing to me—a cluster of offices and residences for barristers, like a little college in the middle of London. It was intriguing in person, too, especially since I had trouble finding my way out of the maze of buildings. It would probably be a more interesting place during the week, when there would be more activity. As it was a Saturday, I just enjoyed admiring the architecture, and eventually found my way out using breadcrumbs that led back to the way I entered—apparently the only open gate at the weekend.

I think you should look for something like this in your next law office, Henry:


I'd ridden buses often on the streets around the Temple and the Courtauld, but never walked them, and there were lots of fine views of wonderful buildings and churches like St. Mary-le-Strand and St. Clement Danes, seen at the left (St. Mary's in the foreground). After ambling around this area for a while, I still had some time to kill before evensong at St. Paul's, which was my plan for finishing off the day. So I stopped off in one of Joan's favorite haunts, a Costa Coffee, this one on Oxford Street, to warm up and refresh myself with tea and a muffin.

I'm enjoying these last few days of London sight-seeing (and it is nice not to have competition for the computer 8-) ) but I really miss my guests! Wish you all could have stayed longer!

Evensong at St. Paul's was very nice. The choir (mixed children and adults) and the organ sounded marvelous, but overall the musical selections weren't anything special. However, just being in such an amazing space, with any kind of musical accompaniment, is a pretty awesome experience.

Here is the view along a festively decorated Watling Street (I think) as I approached St. Paul's just before dark (this is at 4:30). I cannot get anywhere near this edifice without "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins starting to play on my mind's radio, and it even plays when I see this picture. Anyone else have this malady?

Out and about in London

I spent Thursday doing a variety of things around London. That's how my days are going to be spent from here on out, I suspect—trying to wrap up loose ends, check off things that need checking off, and trying to be sure I haven't missed too much of the city.

Using my trusty Central London Bus Map, I was able to plot an interesting route between a museum visited with my colleague's history of science class and Grosvenor Square, home of a few memorials I wanted to pay my respects to before leaving. Along the way was Carnaby Street, where the Ghostbusters-like Christmas decorations you see above made a great photo op.

The museum we visited was a small, very new one, the Wellcome Collection, which features the history of medicine, health, and related sciences. It was nice to visit an interesting museum that wasn't so enormous that you felt you had to spend the day there. It was small but definitely educational, with lots of interesting displays, some of profound historical significance like this material (on the left) taken from Dolly, the famous cloned sheep.

After a couple of Christmas shopping stops (one successful, one not so much) I headed on over to Grosvenor Square. It's a lovely small park with lots of benches and paths, and very nice monuments, mostly related to the U.S.—a new one for the victims of the 9/11 attacks and an older one honoring FDR.

The photo above is of the nicely poetic plaque at the 9/11 memorial, which also lists the names of British citizens that were killed in the attacks on a separate plaque. In the photo of FDR's monument, please note the lovely blue sky—and this was after a hideous weather forecast almost made me cancel this trip. It's been pretty cold the last few days, but except for some occasional rain bands, quite sunny.

The reason for the U.S.-themed nature of the decorations in the Square is that it's been home to our embassy for many years. Here's a photo of the building (unfortunately by far the least attractive of those ringing the square, having been constructed in a distinctly less than golden age of architecture), with Old Glory peeping through the leafless branches of the Square's trees. Seeing the flag reminds me of my impending trip home, and actually makes me feel pretty good about it. I think I'm about ready to return to the land of e pluribus unum, in spite of my fondness for London.

Multicultural London

Friday the students went for a neighborhood ramble in the East End, finishing up with a really great meal at one of the many Bangladeshi eateries in the district, and I was happy to join them. The idea was for them to see an area of London that they might not ordinarily get to, and to try and appreciate the way this area has changed and adapted over the past couple of hundred years as it has welcomed different waves of immigrants.

Now it's home to this mosque, one of the largest in the city, we were told, and a thriving and energetic Pakistani/Bangla ethnic enclave. The street signs tell the story, as they're bilingual. I'd noticed the street signs in Chinatown, earlier, were in Chinese as well as English, too. I wonder how many different alphabets London street-sign-makers have to know? (Note the English language school sign, too; I must have seen 4 or 5 in the short time we were in the neighborhood.)

The neighborhood stroll was fun and interesting, thanks to the expert commentary of the students' British Culture prof, who was our guide. And the food was really good, very different from anything I'd had before—also incredibly spicy! Plus I was able to do some needed shopping, both for groceries and souvenirs. An altogether rewarding few hours, on a beautiful day, something that's sort of becoming a rarity around here.

The next night the rain held off for a while and my guests and I made our way downtown for the Lord Mayor's fireworks show, going by this gathering in Trafalgar Square. We're pretty sure the flags were Polish, and the speaker under the shell sounded somewhat Slavic, but we knew she wasn't speaking Russian, so we think it was some sort of Polish celebration. The subject of the event eluded us, but it was just another example of multicultural London, where the cultures are many and ever-present—what a show!

More London sights

We put in a full few days in London last week in addition to our day trips, and were fortunate in the weather most of the time. Some of our sight-seeing was constrained by errands needing to be run, such as picking up some forgotten souvenirs from the Stonehenge-Bath bus. Their office was near the Tower Bridge, though, so it was easy to combine the trips. (Plus we found a good inexpensive eatery—The Cat and Cucumber—in between bus lot and bridge for lunch.)

After walking across the Bridge (and taking many more photos of this incredibly photogenic structure) we headed upstream toward our main target, St. Paul's. Hal and Sally had heartily recommended climbing to the top and we found that to be good advice. It was a somewhat taxing climb, but the views, both at various points along the way, and at the summit, are fabulous. I was also quite taken with the details of the church itself, like the golden pineapple/acorn/or whatever in the picture above. I took this picture, I believe, from the Stone Gallery, which is the next-highest stopping point.

Here's a look at the view from the top (the Golden Gallery) of the lovely Thames, Blackfriars Bridge, The Eye, and points in between. What great weather for distance viewing!


The interior of the church is quite impressive, too, of course, and unbelievably huge, but no photos are allowed. The American Chapel on one end was a highlight for me. After walking all around we took some time to just sit and soak in the atmosphere (and also rest up from our climb).

We still had time for more sights, and since the Millennium Bridge is right there, leading to the Tate Modern, we went there for a quick visit. Here is a view of the Bridge from the Stone Gallery of St. Paul's. You might notice there's not much traffic on the footbridge. I didn't notice it until later, when we were crossing. There was a sign saying it was closed for a good bit of the day for inspection and maintenance. We trust they found no structural weaknesses!

Our visit to the art museum was brief, but about long enough for art that we old fogeys don't find as interesting as the older stuff. I did enjoy it more than I expected, however, particularly finding a gallery of Soviet propaganda posters quite fascinating. And the building itself is quite a marvel. Plus, it's so perfectly located in London! Here's a lovely sunset view from the Bridge heading back to the north bank, which is better for bus and tube catching.

Trying to catch up....

A first effort to try and catch you up on our jam-packed last several days.

Before having our yummy Tex-Mex dinner and attending the concert at St. Martin's in the Fields, we took in several London landmarks. I managed to get my guests to the V&A first. Even Henry, who had protested. But he found plenty of interest once inside. And—surprise, surprise—there were galleries I hadn't seen on my previous visit. Like the Cast Courts, which is where the picture on the left was taken. A huge collection (as are all of the V&A's collections) of plaster casts of famous sculpture, it sounds weird, and it is, I guess, but also very impressive.

Joan and I also wandered through vast halls of tapestries, a whole room of amazing lacework, enormous rooms of other crafts like ivory carvings and ornate furniture. Our goal was the fabulous jewelry collection that I remembered from my earlier visit and we eventually made it there. (Although I still haven't found the musical instruments room.) But not without a major detour when we saw a hall that must have been a mile long filled with silver trinkets such as the monstrance pictured here. Too bad there was nothing beside it to prove its scale, but, believe me, it was three feet high if it was an inch. And the whole hall is full of stuff like this. Truly amazing stuff.

We made the mistake of deciding to take in Harrod's next, which was a mistake because it was Saturday and it was packed. I didn't enjoy it at all, when I had before. Possibly because the previous visit had exhausted all its charms. Or maybe it was just the crowds. At any rate, we didn't stay long. After buying some yummy baked goods for a picnic we split.

More park rambles followed. We wandered around through Belgravia to get to Green Park, where we saw the quite lovely and interestingly-designed Canadian Monument pictured here. Those are sculpted maple leaves on the surface of the monument under a thin stream of water, augmented by some real leaves from nearby trees. (Fall is really here now and the trees' color, while not in the same league with Maine's, is still quite nice.)

We also made it to the National Portrait Gallery, next door to the National Art Gallery we visited the day before. It was pretty interesting, and, of course, enormous. I cut my viewing time down to a manageable size by searching out the women's pictures. Of which there are precious few. However, the final room made the visit worthwhile because I saw a picture of my hero Vera Brittain, one that she refers to sitting for in The Testament of Experience, her World War II memoir. I was thrilled! In fact, the room she was in, the 20th century room, proved to be the most interesting, which is not what I'd expected upon entry to the Museum. I suppose that's the mark of a good museum, when you find something unexpected?

After such a busy day we were happy to relax with the beautful music elsewhere described.

I need to grade a few more papers before hitting the sack tonight, but will try to continue catching you up tomorrow. I leave you with a new shot I got of the ubiquitous London Eye this day, here with the back of the Horse Guards building, on the edge of St. James' Park, in the foreground.

All along the Embankment

We took advantage of the super weather today and spent almost all of it outdoors and walking. So we're pretty pooped tonight but had a fun time. And got lots of good views—you just can't get too many pictures of the Houses of Parliament, especially when you have a new guest to feature in them.

Plus just walking along the various embankments, and crossing the odd picturesque bridge when you feel like it, is a pretty cheap date. We did stop for a late lunch in a charming little pub called the Southwark Tavern, near London Bridge. After being thus fortified, we stumbled upon a real gem of a church, Southwark Cathedral, parts of which date from the 1100 or 1200's. But it's still in use, as we got there just as a service ended and I got to hear an amazing organ piece being played as a recessional.

You also can't take too many pictures of the Tower Bridge, or the Tower of London, either, especially when the latter's walls are draped in fall finery.

We finished up with a fine dinner at a pub near the flat, where I had the best fish and chips yet on the trip. It's great to have such a good place so close at hand. Our dessert was leftover birthday cake in the flat, but it brought back visions of the store we happened to see when changing busses near Picadilly Circus. How about one of these for a wedding (or any other occasion) cake?! Does the one on the left remind any other Amens of Kelsey's wedding dress?

Three Texans in the big city

Just another beautiful sunny day in London. We made a quick stop at the Royal Albert Hall, where they have a free exhibition in the corridor around the performance space, featuring pictures from Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration, held earlier this summer in London. We mainly just wanted to see the inside of this concert hall, and we were able to sneak a quick peak.

Then we hopped on the #52 bus to Victoria Station, where we found a geo-cache—pretty different place to look that the placid parks where we'd found our earlier caches! A longish but scenic walk led us past the very photogenic Westminster Cathedral (above) and we decided to take the lift to the top of its tower to catch the view—fabulous!

We walked on after this serendipitous scenic stop to and across Lambeth Bridge, ending up with another geo-cache, as well as fabulous views of the Houses of Parliament and some yummy local cuisine at the Festival of Food. Highlights were some solid British bread and cheese, and incredible mushroom sandwiches.

After such sustenance, we were ready to wander about central London for a while, showing Sally Trafalgar Square and Chinatown. We sampled the liquid fare at a couple of pubs before calling it a day. I'm so excited to have both my kiddos here! We had a great time today and look forward to several more days of fun and sights.