Friday-Saturday 25-26 April 2025 

London and New York

I decide to take an afternoon break from packing and go out for the ten-minute walk to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest collection of applied arts, decorative arts and design in the world. The collection, established by the afore-named monarchs after the Crystal Palace Exhibition (1851), ranges from the high art of Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel in Rome to the latest trends in men's clothing. It would take a week to see all that the museum contains.

I have a late lunch in the Cafe, visit the gift shop (probably the best in London), and marvel at all the changes in the building's design since I last visited several years ago. Like most London museums the V&A is free, except for special exhibitions.

V&A Main Entrance (1857; Aston Webb, 1899)

Two Views of the Raphael Room

Contemporary Men's Fashion in the Costume Institute

The Ornately Decorated Cafe

Saturday

Today is a long and busy travel day that takes me from London to New York. I have arranged a car pickup at 8am to get to Heathrow Airport, from where my United Airlines flight to New York/Newark Airport (EWR), departs at noon. Of course I am early, but it helps me get through the pre-boarding formalities without rushing. Interestingly, in London security requires everyone to remove shoes, unlike in the US where travelers over 75 years old can keep their shoes on. But I am soon in the United Lounge, where I wait comfortably for my flight to be called. 

But it is not quite as comfortable at the gate. The primary gate attendant, a woman in her 40s, coughs out loud constantly the entire time I sit waiting. None of the other United Airlines employees makes any attempt to relieve her and she never puts a mask on; she just continually coughs her guts out. As I state in my note of complaint to the airline, even if the attendant was coughing only from allergies, it is not very customer-friendly behavior to be forced to witness.

Once on board everything is fine. I have my business class lay-down seat and I manage a four-hour nap, just about the only time I'm not busy eating the excellent meals provided by the airline. The flight departs and arrives right on time; my suitcase is off the plane very quickly, and I am whisked into Manhattan by another hired car.

I am staying at the Hyatt Centric Hotel on 39th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. "Centric" is a sub-brand of Hyatt that is designed to cater to a younger generation and those with technical expertise. This one has surprisingly good rates for mid-town Manhattan, where it is difficult to find anything under $400.00 a night. The Centric costs less than $600.00 for two nights.

It has been a long day of travel and I have been fed very well on the seven hour and 30 minute flight from London, so I am ready to call it a night. LFLatSea will be back with one more blog from New York.

Wednesday-Thursday 23-24 April 2025 

London

Although I promised my Wednesday blog in yesterday's posting, I never was able to get around to it. So now I will begin with another two days in London starting with a busy Wednesday. 

I begin the day at Sloane Square, visiting my favorite London department store, Peter Jones. Smaller than pricier stores like Harrod's and Selfridge's, Peter Jones has an excellent selection of a variety of contemporary goods, housed in an art deco building that has recently gone through major interior re-designs.

From Sloane Square I take the Underground for a short ride to Blackfriar's and then it is around a 15-minute walk across the bridge and then along the south bank of the Thames to the Tate Modern Museum. I visited the original Tate when I was in London in May 2023, but this is my first visit to the Modern. Housed in a 19th-century power plant, the museum is a huge display of art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection has much in common with the Broad Museum in Los Angeles that I visited this past November, but the building here is probably four times the size of the Broad.

View of East London Business District from the Walk
Along the Thames (above), and View of St Paul's
Towers and Dome (below)

The museum building is much too large to encompass in one photograph:

The Massive Central Hall: View Toward Entrance (left); 

Mamam, Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, 1999 (right)

Left:  The Dali Estate Wouldn't Let Me Use His Lobster-Phone to Call Home;

Center:  Private Joke About Mountain View Retirement Village;

Right:  I Just Like the Colors

After crossing another pedestrian bridge to the north bank of the Thames, I have a close-up view of Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral (1710).

From here I head back to Sloane Square and a quiet evening in my flat.

Thursday

As I wind down my adventures and prepare for my trip back to New York City and Tucson, I decide I need a rest day on Thursday and stay in my flat until dinner time. It's a good occasion to start wrapping up and repacking so I won't have to rush on Saturday morning.

For dinner I make a reservation at a nearby Italian restaurant (yes, another Italian restaurant), Al Dente. The food and ambience is quite nice:  another glass of Montepulciano and  a bottle of Pellegrino; three pieces of tomato-garlic bruschetta, that I manage to make a mess around the table; tortellini aranciata; tiramisu in a jar for dessert.

I have one more day in London and two in New York, but they will have to wait until I return to Tucson.

Tuesday-Wednesday 22-23 April 2025 

London

More beautiful weather has accompanied me to England. These two days offered bright sunshine, light winds, and on Wednesday temperatures in then low 60s. This is so much better than my four-day visit in May 2023 when it was cold and blustery every day.

On Tuesday morning I put a load of t-shirts and underwear in the washer-drier combo in the kitchen area. The washer does a good job but the drier finished and my stuff is still pretty wet. Fortunately there is a drying hanger, so I place it in the very large shower and load up my clothes--everything will be dry in two days. Then before I leave the flat, I turn on the small dishwasher to clean up all the glasses, cups, plates and silverware I have already used. They all come out sparkling clean and dry very quickly.

It's another fine day for walking, so I take the Undergound to the Embankment station, just on the north shore of the Thames, very close to Trafalgar Square. But I head in the other direction, east to Charing Cross and the Strand, which will eventually lead me into the City--the area of London home to law courts and post-modern business buildings. In many ways this is the most historic part of London, with the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and many smaller churches designed by Christopher Wren. But it is also the site of the large massing of new skyscrapers representing London as the financial and services capital of the world.

But first a note about Easter Eggs. Many cities around the world have asked artists to paint objects--javelinas, elephants, horses, etc--to be placed around the area. People are invited to purchase the objects when the exhibition ends. Right now, London is the site of many hand-painted Easter eggs placed all around the city. Here are a few examples I see along my walk today:

From the Embankment I walk up to the Strand, one of the longest east-west streets in London, linking the West End (Trafalgar Square) with the City. Close to Trafalgar Square, in front of the Charing Cross Railway Terminal, stands the Charing Cross itself (19th century copy of 13th century monument).

In the photo on the left, above, you will see the steeple of St. Martin's in the Fields (James Gibbs, 1722-26), at Trafalgar Square. The photo below shows it in more detail.

I walk east on the Strand passing a plethora of theaters, shops, pubs, restaurants, and places of business, all crowded with office clerks and tourists at this late morning hour.

Scenes Along the Strand--

Left: Art Deco Adelphi Theatre (Opened 1806, Rebuilt 1840, 1858, 1901, 1930). Center: Savoy Hotel (Opened 1889). 

Right: Another Pub Sign.

At the eastern end of the Strand stands St Mary le Strand church (James Gibbs, 1714; restored 1871).

I make a u-turn on the Strand and walk toward Kingsway, the wide north-south axis that marks the division between the West End and Holborn.  I stop for a late lunch at Elaine's, a traditional Italian restaurant, where I enjoy a house salad with vinaigrette, a very strange-looking but delicious pizza, a glass of Montepulciana (one of my favorite Italian wines that is difficult to find in Tucson), with a latte for "dessert".

Because I am rejuvenated and refreshed after this leisurely lunch--far superior to yesterday's meal at Carlucci's--and possibly just a little tipsy, I am ready to continue my day in another part of London, this time on the south bank of the Thames, logically called "Southbank." This area is the location of the massive post-WWII cultural center housing the National Theatre, the London Symphony and many other artistic organizations. The architecture is massively Brutal (remember, I watched the fictional film on the subject while on the cruise), attesting more to the power of government spending than to the beauty of architecture. The bleakness is somewhat relieved by the large crowds of colorful locals and tourists, as well as many restaurants, bars, and shops. To get there I take the Underground under the Thames to Waterloo Station, from where it is a short walk to Southbank.

The Escalators Go Very Deep on the Northern Underground Line

Left: Millenium Pedestrian Bridge Connects the South Bank with the City; 

Center: View of the London Eye from Royal Festival Hall, Southbank;

Right: Royal Waterloo Hospital

Having walked and eaten enough for the day I continue a short way to Westminster Bridge to take a bus to Sloane Square. As I walk to to the bridge I get this last view of Parliament and Big Ben.

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.