Monday 21 April 2025 

London

Today is Easter Monday, officially a holiday, but many shops and businesses have re-opened. The weather is quite pleasant, so instead of needing to keep dry and warm inside a museum, I will enjoy some outdoor wandering, focusing on parts of London that I haven't visited in a while. Some of these areas have gone through major changes and upheavals in the past few years. 

My first two chores of the day are to have my hair cut and find a place for lunch. Fortunately there is a great deal of information about near-by men's haircutters on Google. I find two appropriate places very close to South Kensington Station (where I usually catch the Underground). The first one is closed when I find it, even though Google says it's open. The other, the "1897 Barbershop" is open and there are no other customers. The elegant shop is designed to remind clients of bygone times, but the service is strictly modern and efficient. I am greeted by a young woman and her beautiful older samoyed and directed to the shop owner, a middle-aged former Iraqi who has been in Britain for 18 years, who will cut my hair. As everyone who knows me is aware it takes about five minutes to give me a good 0.5 buzzcut (Will usually cuts my hair for free in Tucson), but when you add on the cup of delicious fresh coffee, tea cake, and chocolate mint that is part of the service--plus some time petting the dog--I spend over 30 minutes in the shop.

I don't have big breakfasts since leaving the Nieuw Statendam, usually a bagel or croissant, cream cheese or butter, orange juice, and tea with milk (pretty much everything I put in my small refrigerator), so by now I am ready for a 12:30pm lunch at Carlucci's Restaurant at South Kensington. Carlucci's is a British chain of sit-down restaurants offering lunch and dinner at reasonable prices (think of a brighter-looking Applebee's or Chili's). Will and I had very good burgers at a Carlucci's in Southampton a year ago, while we were waiting for our departure on the QM2. Today I have a prix-fixe luncheon of tomato bruschetta and chicken Milanese. I should have stuck with the burger! The bruschetta was fine, but the chicken was very thin, over-cooked, with too much breading.

Today I am exploring the Seven Dials and Covent Garden area. I ride the bus, which is much more comfortable and easier to manage than the Underground. However, I am content to sit on the lower level and leave the bumpy stairs to the upper deck to those who care to climb. From the West End theatre district it is a very short walk, through very heavy pedestrian and motorized traffic, to Seven Dials. As its name suggests, it is a circular meeting of seven streets (several pedestrian-only), centered by a recently refurbished monument with seven clock faces.

I continue on to Covent Garden, formerly London's primary food market, but for the last thirty years a trendy center of theatres, museums, food halls, and tourist traps. On the way there I pass a number of interesting pub signs.

The Lamb and Flag is one of the oldest continuing-service pubs in London. Notice the date in the photo below:

I skirt the busiest parts of Covent Garden, but make a brief photo-stop in front of the old Bow Street Magistrate's Court, a place described in many London novels of Charles Dickens.

And that shall be the end of Monday.

Sunday 20 April 2025 

London

My first full day in London is Easter Sunday, when most businesses, amusements, and tourist sites are closed for the day. But the day presents itself with continuing sunshine and temperatures in the upper 50s. There is no rain, even though the winds become a little blustery in the afternoon. 

I venture out in the late morning to the South Kensington Underground station just a few blocks away, passing the restored Michelin Tire building along the way. 

At the station I purchase an Oyster Card, the now ubiquitous travel card for all public transportation. Like most other great cities of the world, almost everything in London is automated and cashless. Of course, the US is far behind in this movement to the future. I am mostly using buses--easier to get on and off, with stops closer to most destinations; when I need to travel faster I use the Underground.

Today I take a short ride on the Underground to Leicester ("Lester") Square, the heart of the West End theatre district. Earlier today I purchased a ticket on-line for the Tony-winning musical, Hadestown, which is still playing on Broadway. I will provide my critical reaction after I have lunch in Chinatown, just a few steps away.

There is an almost endless array of Chinese and Asian restaurants from which to choose; almost all London restaurants post menus outside to make choosing easier. Joy King Lau looks modern and fairly crowded with locals (always a good sign).

Left:  Wonton Soup--Almost a Whole Meal in Itself

Right:  General Tso's Chicken--Unlike the Breaded and Fried American Version, This is Sautéed with Lots of Garlic and Peppers

After lunch I have some time to wander Shaftesbury Avenue, where most historic legitimate theaters are located, and Piccadilly Circus, where the most tacky shops are crowded with tourists. The only Sunday performance of Hadestown starts at 3:00pm.

I thoroughly enjoy Hadestown.The Lyric Theatre is a recently refurbished auditorium (opened December 1888), seating 900 playgoers on four levels.There are two balconies reaching to the sky above where I am seated in the center of the front row of the Dress Circle, just above the Stalls (orchestra seats)--a really great location. The illustrations below are not mine; they are professional photos.

The cast is uniformly very good, and the actress playing Persephone, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, is terrific. The staging and choreography are excellent and excellently performed by the supporting cast. The music and lyrics are usually effective in making human the mythic love stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone.

But I have a couple of minor caveats. Some of the supporting characters pander to the audience for applause, breaking the spell of the story (although I believe that is the director's idea). And while it is helpful to be familiar with the story and characters beforehand, audience members can get along with the story until late in the second act, when the narrative and their repercussions come to an end. The final scenes are quite muddled and leave me somewhat perplexed (and, of course, I know the story quite well).

After these exertions for the day, I catch a bus back to South Kensington and the short walk home, where I have a light supper in the quiet of my flat--where, by the way, I have free access to my Prime Video account on a large-screen smart tv--and it behaves just like it does in Tucson.

Friday-Saturday 18-19 April 2025 

LeHavre, France, and Arrival in London

I have visited the port of LeHavre several times over the past few years. It is a common port for Holland America cruise ships because it is possible to take very long shore excursions for a very short visit to Paris. I suppose it is worth the four hours round-trip travel if you have never been. LeHavre itself is, in my humble opinion, one of the ugliest cities in Europe; it was bombed to smithereens by the Germans and the Allies during WWII. Like most cities in France, however, it does offer fine food and one really great art museum. 

I was last here in May 2023. Today, I stay on board because I have a great deal of cleaning up and going through stuff I have accumulated on the 14 day cruise—and eventually squeezing it into my suitcase and backpack so I can leave the suitcase outside the door before midnight.

If you would like to see photos from 2023, you can link back at the bottom of the page. I will add these few photos from this evening’s departure:

Three Panoramas of LeHavre from My Veranda

I drag myself to the dining room for my last on-board dinner and to bid farewell to the staff who have treated me so middling well. But tomorrow begins a whole new adventure as I fall asleep to the music of the English Channel crossing.

Saturday 19 April 2025 

Dover and London

Dover is another port where I spent a day in May 2023. If you link back to that date you will find many photos of the city and surroundings, as well as descriptions of the horrible traffic caused by a backup in the Chunnel. Today I spend only a short time getting from the ship to the waiting Mercedes Benz van ready to take me and three other passengers to London.

I have an early breakfast in the Lido Marketplace where I run into my main server from evenings in the dining room, Andrea, for another short farewell. Less than a third of the Nieuw Statendam passengers are debarking in Dover. The rest will spend one more night crossing back across the English Channel to Rotterdam, where the cruise officially ends.

I am off the ship at 7:30am and find my waiting luggage in the terminal. Right outside I am greeted by my driver from the International Friends Transport Service. The other three passengers arrive quickly and we are soon off for the two-hour motorway drive to London. 

Northbound traffic on this Saturday is not bad, and we enter the metropolis through the Blackwall Tunnel on the eastern end of the city. As we drive westward we have glimpses of many of the city's famous buildings and monuments. Indeed, our driver gives us an early morning tour of the highlights of London.

I am the last to be dropped off, since my flat is situated in the southwest section of London in Chelsea, between South Kensington and Sloane Square. I will finish up this first day in London with photos of my temporary home, flat #181 in Chelsea Cloisters:

Entry Foyer (left); View into Bedroom (right)

Two Views of the Bedroom

Great Room with Kitchen

Bathroom with Very Wide Shower and Very Narrow Sink

There is a mini-grocery just down the street I go to for supplies for some breakfasts and lunches. There are also many restaurants and boutiques within a short distance. But In shall wait until tomorrow to begin my explorations.

 Saturday 19 April 2025 

London

Today, indeed, I am arrived in London and settling into my private flat in Chelsea, near Sloan Square. Debarking the ship very early, meeting my pre-arranged ride to London, and getting into the apartment a little after 10:30am went very well. I will give more details and, of course, photos in a blog to come. But now LFLatSea returns to Thursday and my very long excursion day from Portland, UK.

Thursday 17 April 2025 

Portland, UK

If you look at the map of the south-central coast of England, you will see that Portland, at the vey bottom center, is an island attached by the thinnest of causeways to the mainland city of Weymouth. It does not have much of interest for tourists, except a high, steep hill which offers dazzling views of the island and towns farther inland. It is still an important commercial area, but it has been a major British naval port from the 15th century onward, including sending thousands of Allied troops to France during D-Day. The island is also the source of “Portland Stone,” used for some of the most iconic structures in England, including Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral. For more history, look it up in your Funk & Wagnell’s—oops! I mean Google.

From Left, Above:  Chesil Beach in Portland (see novel and film by Ian McEwan); Driving into Weymouth; Weymouth Panorama

Today I am going on my one official shore excursion, using free cruise credits from Holland America. The eight-and-a-half hour tour visits two places I have been previously. But it’s a beautiful weather day, and I am sure to see major changes from my visits many years ago. I previously visited Stonehenge by myself in 1976 and with Will on a driving tour in 1991. I was also in Salisbury at the same time as Stonehenge in 1976.

The first photo below taken during my visit in 1976 shows that tourists could walk right up to the monument and actually touch the stones. The second photo shows that by 1991 things had changed.

There are even more major changes today that I will describe a little later on.

It’s a two-hour drive from the port to Stonehenge, traveling through the very beautiful rural areas of Dorset and Wiltshire. Our driver stays off the motorways, guiding the coach on excellent primary roads instead (A-type). Except for one unfortunate diversion (British for “detour”), because of a car accident requiring fire engines, we suffer only a short delay.

Although the stones of “-henge” remain eternally the same, I am overwhelmed by all the tourist infrastructure that has risen around them. Cars and buses now have to park over a mile from the stones at a newly-built, very modern visitor center with shops, cafes, and other tourist facilities. From the visitor center, tourists take a free shuttle bus for the one-mile drive to the site (after waiting on line for the next available shuttle). The same works in reverse for the return.

The Visitor Center
(not my photo)

Views of Stonehenge from many different directions and angles:

Some local residents looking for lunch:

Before rebounding the tour bus for the next stage, I have a quick self-service lunch in the noisy visitor center. The second visit is to Salisbury, a historical city in the middle of the Sarum Plane, originally settled by the Romans and developed further in the Middle Ages. Salisbury is most noted for its magnificent cathedral (originally Roman Catholic but altered to Anglican by Henry VIII). 

Considered one of the finest examples of Early English Gothic design, it was constructed in a relatively short period of time, 38 years between 1220 and 1258. Thus it displays a unity and coherence that is unusual in medieval English cathedrals. The tower and spire--the tallest in England--were completed in 1330, at 404 feet.

The architecture of the church is set off by the park-like grounds of the church close. Cut off from the sins of the world by a surrounding medieval wall, established parishioners have been able to secure homes and lodging within the close walls.

In the late afternoon our bus drives back to the sea and the island/city of Portland, where we arrive at 6:30pm. It has been a great, but long, day so I opt for a quick dinner in the Lido Marketplace instead of my regular meal in the Main Dining Room.