London Theater and Pubs

Another glorious day in london. Even the locals are surprised, and not all pleased, with the warm weather.

We've seen our third London musical, Billy Elliott, and thought it was time to make some observations about London theater. Of course, we know that we may see something completely different tomorrow when we see Wicked and then War Horse, but for now.

London theater is different from theater we see at home. The theaters we've been to so far have all seated fewer than 1500, with two at about 1000. There are some very large theaters that hold 2500, but they are not the norm. Tonights theater, the Victoria Palace, will be 100 years old in November and is beautiful with its 3 tears of seats.

London Theater during the week at least, is more casual. No one appears to have changed from whatever they were wearing during the day. Even the live orchestra is dressed in black golf shirts. There's much less pretension about everything. Not every actor is gorgeous or thin. This evening's production actually had dancers who were plus sizes and who moved with the rest of them. It's a refreshing change and takes the pressure off of trying to be perfect.

The theatres have multiple bars and encourage beer drinking. You may bring your beers and champagne or wine glasses into the auditorium but not your coffee cups. During intermission, in addition to having 6 or more open bars spread throughout the various lobbies, there's refreshments sold within the theater. Ice cream cups are a favorite. One night Hagen Das gave away free samples prior to the performance.

You have to earn the standing ovation, it's not automatic. Something we Americans should rethink.

The pubs, which are everywhere, share customs. It is the norm to go to the bar for your drinks, even if you happen to be lucky enough to have a table. Many, perhaps most, of the patrons drink standing up. There's no smoking inside the pubs any longer, but you may bring your beer or wine outside with you. Walk down any street in the evening and there will be crowds outside the pubs standing around, drinking, talking, socializing. It may be that apartments are so small it is not so easy to have friends inside, so you meet at the pub. This was certainly the case when I lived in Belgium and the local cafe/bars were where people hung out (families including dogs were invited). It is actually quite pleasant to see all the people milling about, not drunk and disorderly, just socializing. What amazes me is that there is such a lack of toilets and with all that beer drinking one has to wonder. Most of the pubs are housed in buildings that are 200 plus years old so toilet facilities have been added, generally very small one seaters downstairs somewhere. Today we passed the King George (pub) which was established in 1609 and probably was frequented by Shakespeare, as it is in his old neighborhood by the Thames.

Today we did some more exploring searching for the London Bridge market. We arrived, alas, a bit late but enjoyed the site and had another lovely outdoor market lunch. Stu's paella was cooked in a pan that was at least 3 feet across. We wandered from the market to the Globe theater where Stu had the chance to be a peasant and stand in the open space before the stage for the opening of Hamlet.

We are loving the bus system and are happy to hop on and off the buses using our Oxi pass and its unlimited travel for the week. We've fallen into a routine, touring about in the morning and early afternoon, then home for a power nap before dinner in the apartment and a show in the evening. We are feeling more like Londoners daily as some of the accents no longer sound strange.

Until tomorrow dear friends, Adrienne and Stu

London Sunshine Reigns supreme

We are truly blessed by this wonderful spring weather. Even the Londoners are surprised that the sun is shining. At last, we're doing something right.

We end our days with plans to get up and get out early, but we don't seem to make it out the door before 10 AM. Nevertheless, the days are filled with activity.

Today we began with a trip north to visit the Jewish Museum near Regent's Park. It is situated on a street of genteel attached row houses and blends well into the surroundings. The museum, small, is surprisingly well set up complete with a cafe and gift shop on the ground floor, two security guards at the front door, and lovely ladies at the ticket counter. They were welcoming and friendly, even the security folks.

The museum focuses on the presence of Jews in Great Britain, mostly in London. There have been Jews here since the 11th century, at least. The remains of a mikvah (ritual bath) were found during an excavation for a new building in 2001. These remains date to approximately 1047 CE. There are accounts and artifacts, some quite personal and touching, of Jews who have been dispersed from their native lands and who came to Britain from Morocco, Europe, Israel, etc. Always there are stories of the diaspora, the Jews who created wealth and commerce, were involved in politics and contributed to their countries only to be persecuted and tossed out. But we rise again. There's been a Jewish Prime Minister of Britain in the 19th century.

The second section of the museum addresses the holidays with a focus on Jewish family life. It was a most pleasant part of the museum. I left feeling despondent over the many times the Jews have been persecuted, and proud of the many times that the Jews have risen and been contributors to making society better. We are a good people.

Just north of the Jewish museum we traveled to Camden Lock and Camden Lock Market. That is a happening place. It is the equivalent to Haight Asbury in San Francisco, only larger and more compact. Situated along the lock of the canal, Camden Locks were massive stables in their day and are now home to a hundred or so small shops and boutiques selling food, clothing, offering tattoo services, jewelry, shoes, and many t-shirts and alternative gothic wearables. We were a bit out of our element but loved the atmosphere and the vibrancy. We saw more tattoos than we've seen all together since we left Arizona. We had a taste of Indian food from a stall shop, not bad and we didn't get sick.

We took a long bus ride back to Trafalgar square where Stu headed for ice cream and a rest, and I wandered about for an hour. I discovered China Town, all 2 blocks of it, and we returned there for dinner a few hours later. I also stopped in at the National Gallery, I'd visited before but forgot what a wonderful display of art works including Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, and many of the Italian masters. I recognized a Sargeant immediately. I'll return with Stu on another occasion. The National museum is free for everyone, it is quite a treasure.

On the Square (Trafalgar) there's a constant street fair in play. Jugglers, mimes, break dancers, roller blade tricksters. It's friendly and vibrant, filled with tourists and locals. We've loved being so close and passing through it several times each day as we go about our business.

The evening was special, we saw the London production of Les Miserables which has been running for 25 years. It received the standing ovation it deserved. Even on a Monday night, the place was filled, we were fortunate to get good tickets. The difference from our American productions we've seen was marked. The stage, indeed the entire theater, is quite small. There's a revolving platform center stage and the action moves with this platform which brings performers to center stage and back again seamlessly. The lighting is darker than we are used to and you have to go out and meet the story, it doesn't shout at you. Everything is underplayed until the final scene where the Inn Keeper and his wife dance in outlandish costumes and make up. The performance received the standing ovation it deserved.

Tomorrow we're off to Harrod's, we think, and the Albert Victoria museum. We are finding getting around on the bus and metro lines to be quite easy and efficient and cheap. For the price of an oxy card we can travel wherever all day any day, no restrictions within London. We did score for theater tickets again, we managed to get two tickets (a bit scalped, we'll see if they are worth it) for War Horse on Thursday night. We're loving the theater and the city in general. Definitely our kind of town.

Until tomorrow, Adrienne and Stu

Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath

Today we left the city center and headed out to the country. First stop those amazing stones at Stonehenge. None of the current theories, an astronomical site, a witchcraft scene, a cemetery, seem to hold up for very long. Nevertheless, the stones are amazing to behold set as they are at an apex in the fields surrounded by burial mounds some dating to Roman times and before. We picked an amazing day for this trip as it was raining in London and sunny with moving clouds when we arrived in Stonehenge. We have seen the copy above the Columbia river in Washington state, but they didn't compare to the real thing, although I thought they would. The setting is grandiose and to imagine 1500 years in the making speaks volumes for the persistence and relevance to the makers. There is much in our world that remains a mystery, and Stonehenge is but one.

Then it was back aboard the bus and off to Salisbury and the Abbey for a very brief stop. The Magna Carta began here and there is one of the 9 original manuscripts housed in the Abbey. It was also the site of the first King Edward's coronation and is considered one of the finest midevil churches remaining having been completed in the 13th century in only 55 years--a record considering Westminster Abbey took 800 years to complete to its current state.

Our final stop was Bath and its Roman ruins and picturesque town. We viewed the baths quickly, as we had seen Roman baths in Israel, and so spent our brief time walking about town. The town is alive as a vacation destination sporting over 800 shops, street fairs, musicians, singers, performance artists. The town and its church, every town of any size has a church, were worth viewing, but it was the street performers who caught our attention. There's a playfulness in the air in Bath, a sense of having fun, stopping for tea, but not in a very serious way, that was enchanting. We purchased pastis to take home for dinner. These are the eating kind, not the wearing kind.

Thus far, we are finding London and its environs much more friendly, more casual, a lot more accepting of odd people and types. Paris, we thought, was a bit more about presentation, and London is certainly not--at least not in the Soho areas where we have been spending our time. We will hit the Kensington Area soon, with the museums and Harrods and upscale shops. For now, we're enjoying the "low" life. It fits.

Love to you all, Adrienne and Stu

London is now home

Hello all,

We had a safe and efficient exit from Paris via the Chunnel, a two plus hours train ride to London and then an adventurous trip on the underground tube to Piccadilly Circus, which is a bit of a circus but is only 3 short blocks from our London apartment.

We are very well situated. Pubs on every street, tourists and every language spoken here, and theaters within walking distance in every direction. We are between Mama Mia, Phanton of the Opera, and several other less known productions. Our first night we saw Andrew Lloyd Weber's newest, a continuation of Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies. It is a spectacle, interesting play on two very distinct sets. The Phantom, who escaped from the fire that destroyed the Paris Opera House 10 years earlier, now resides in Coney Island where he operates, from a private spot, the magical, mystical, fantastical show, Phantasma. When Christine comes to New York to perform on opening night at the Metropolitan Opera House, invited by Hammerstein, the Phantom meets up with her. What follows is an haunting opera, not really a musical, where the theme of Love Never Dies plays out in multiple sequences.

Saturday we spent the day sightseeing. First Westminister Abbey, truly magical, but the trees from the wedding are gone. Then off to the Tower of London following the trials of 16th century beautiful Anne Boelyn, wife of Henry until she couldn't produce an heir and was executed (cheap divorce of the time). Then for a spin on the famous London Eye with its overview of Buckingham Palace before we headed home through Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.

The area is teeming with people out and about enjoying this beautiful spring London weather. We're pooped. Tomorrow we're taking it easy with a day in the country, Bath, Stonehenge, and Salisbury by bus--we're leaving the driving and thinking to them.

We close the day with wonderful thoughts for each of you and a self-reminder that this trip is a gift.

Love and best, Adrienne and Stu

touring Paris

Finally, it is two days before we leave and Stu and I made it to the Hip-Hop bus. We strongly recommend this as a first day adventure for anyone on their maiden voyage to Paris. We rode the tour bus all day getting on and off to see the venues we wished to see in more depth. Our first stop was Ile de la Cite, the site of Notre Dame Cathedral. We arrived before the crowds and were able to enter, view the magnificent stained glass windows.

Then it was off to Place de la Concord where the beheadings were held with great ceremony during the French revolution. When one sees the lavish palatial homes and the statuary and bridges of the period, one can almost feel the anger the peasants must have felt over the contrast of their near starvation lives and the wealthy government and royalty. It's somewhat akin to how we feel when the bank executives, responsible for so much of the economic downturn, are getting millions of dollars in bonuses while the workers are having salaries cut and taxes raised. The difference is that we take it, we complain and do nothing. Ah, but enough politics.

Our favorite stop today was the Champs Elysees near the Arc du Triompe. Stu and I stopped for lunch on this most famous of streets and sat for nearly 1 1/2 hours enjoying our small meal topped off by a fabulous dish, 3 boules de glace (3 balls of ice cream). This was perhaps the best chocolate ice cream either of us had ever eaten. You wanted to eat it slowly and savor the flavors and texture. Even the strawberry, which Stu normally doesn't eat, was amazing and flavorful. We are finding all of the food to be more flavorful and satisfying, even in small quantities.

We're all getting more comfortable with our area of the city, recognize the streets and the shops---much too expensive for us to buy anything, but we do window shop. Across diagonally is one of the premier boulangeries where the bread and pastries are fresh daily. Directly across is a church whose bells ring every 15 minutes until 9 PM. We've grown so accustomed that we don't pay attention any more. To the left of our apartment is the American University in Paris and the dorms. Young people abound in this neighborhood, but their fees must be paid by their parents because it is a very expensive district.

This is a neighborhood. We begin to recognize the shops, the brasseries where Shirley had her first crepe with nutella. We've eaten at the Cafe Rue Cler. And tonight it was Thai food, very delicious. The waitress of this tiny restaurant helped us with our choices, inquired after our lodgings including what we were spending, etc. She told us about the proprietor who is Thai and retired in Bangkok while she serves at the restaurant and her husband cooks. At 55 he looked 35! The food must have secret ingredients because he looked very young. She, on the other hand, was funny. She rolled our sticky rice into balls and dipped them into curry then put them on our plates. She scrapped the last of the food onto my plate and admonished us to go for a walk after dinner. She was so odd, not offensive, and we just smiled as she touched all of our food. She then regaled us with stories of the young child pickpocket who was working the cafe next door yesterday. We've been warned about pickpockets on multiple occasions. It seems that there are many Romanian Gypsies around and they ply their trade in this neighborhood. We've been very careful and never felt in any danger at all. The streets are safe, everyone walks. Pickpockets just want your money, not your life.

Another wonderful day in Paris.

Adrienne and Stu

Adventures in Paris

Monday was overcast and rainy with bouts of sunshine. We met up with Danielle who is here for 3 months visiting with her mother and brother. We toured the Marais, the Jewish quarter, visiting the Chagall visit at the Jewish Museum. I did not know how religiously dedicated Chagall was and how well he illustrated the bible. We know Chagall from the Hadassah windows and the windows we saw at the Rockefeller church in upstate New York. During the years he worked on the Old Testament, he took commissions from churches and personal commissions but never betrayed his dedicated to Judaism and the Old Testament.

From the museum we visited the area a bit and stopped for a Kosher lunch of falafel, lamb gyros, and Israeli salads. It was wonderful, we all cleaned our plates.

We had a short day because Bob, Shirley, Stu and I had plans for the Paradis Latin show in the evening. We had a meal of left overs, fresh salmon, rillette, salads, wine, cheese, and then took a taxi to the Paradis Latin where we planned to see the follies. The opening numbers were as expected. Lots of bare bosoms, male dancers in tights, everything we wanted. Shirley left for the restroom and never returned. Sadly, she fell and hurt her arm, felt quite dizzy. She gallantly returned to watch the show but it was evident after a few minutes that she needed to leave. That's when our great adventure began.

Shirley and I went to the back of the theatre where the maitre d' said we would have a doctor come to check her out. No doctor arrived, but an ambulance with three non-English speaking young Frenchmen arrived. And off we went. Shirley on the gurney in the ambulance and me sitting on a chair beside her. This was way more attention than we needed. This was not an American ambulance. Shirley wasn't strapped into the gurney and I feared that going over all the cobblestones she might bounce off of the gurney. We laughed more than anything else, although her arm hurt very much where she had twisted it.

Our husbands didn't know where we had gone. We had told the maitre d' to let our husbands know after the show was over and then to give them directions to the hospital and hail them a taxi; which he did. Stu and Bob enjoyed the two hour spectacle. Stu claimed that the best part was the juggler, I know otherwise. He has had visions of young perky boobs ever since, although he swears he only thinks of me!

Two exrays and 4 hours later, the men joined us at the hospital and we all went home. Shirley is fine, a bit sore, but otherwise okay. Home at 2:30 AM was way past our bed time. The next day we were all pretty wasted.

Tuesday was our day for the Eiffel Tower visit. We arrived there early for our 12:30 reservation. Never go to the Eiffel Tower without prior reservations. If you do, you might wait 4-5 hours to enter the Tower by elevator. Stu and I had a lovely visit to the top. The day was clear, the view magnificent. You can see the old and new parts of the city, the plan of the boulevards, the Seine. Well worth the trip.

I did have a funny event. I went to the restroom at the top of the tower, very clean, very tiny. In fact so tiny, that I wasn't able to completely dress afterward. A very nice lady stopped me a few minutes later to tell me that one side of my skirt was pushed up. I laughed along with her and thought, I'm definitely getting older. I didn't even care, I'll never see these people again. And, it could have been worse, at least I didn't have any toilet paper trailing from my shoes!

Dinner was Indian food at a lovely restaurant. We've had some lovely times. We are so fortunate.

Adrienne and Stu

Montmartre -that's the plan

Today, Sunday, is a national holiday, May 1. Museums and most other venues are closed so we all decided to head for Montmartre to see the Sacre D'Coeur and the seedier side of Paris' artistic bohemians. Six of us headed out and were fortunate to find a bus to take us to a second bus. The first ride was great. We had correct change, my minimal French was good enough to get directions from our very nice bus driver, and we enjoyed the passage from our home area to the Louvre where we would catch the next bus. Only, the next bus, number 95, had been detoured due to the holiday closing of the Louvre and the parade that was happening somewhere in the city. And we couldn't find where the detour was. Second choice, a taxi. But no taxi would take the six of us so Shirley, Carol, Stu, and I leapt into the first cab heading to Port Montmartre with instructions to Steve and Bob to follow in the second cab when they got one.

That was the last time we saw them until 5 at night.

Our driver left us at Port Montmarte, which is what I said but not what I wanted. Here's where just a little bit of French gets one in trouble. We were deep in the Arab quarter, facing an open air market very different from the one we went to on Saturday, and completely out of our element. And we were waiting for Steve and Bob thinking that they would go the same place. So we waited. But Steve and Bob were smarter than we were, which I hate to admit, and they headed for the Sacre Coeur (the big church at the top of the hill). We waited where we were, they waited where they were. We finally got to Montmarte and the Sacre d'coeur but by then the guys were gone and Stu had to escort the three ladies. We wandered through the area, which was very crowded. Shirley bought some paintings, Stu and I had our portraits done but we don't recognize the folks in the picture, and Carol window shopped. We had a lovely lunch, plat du jour (chicken or bifsteak, fries, salad, and dessert), and then wandered some more.

Stu walked all 275 steps from the top of Montmarte to the bottom--which may not have been the best idea.

Our second effort was to meet at the Bateaux Moche on the River Seine where we agreed to meet with Linda and Bill (they picnicked at the Eiffel Tour). By our meeting time Stu was wiped, some were cranky because we had never met up with Bob and Steve, and the crowds were everywhere. The group decided to turn around and I went onto the boat down the Seine. My first French words when I was in high school began "Ella roule, roule, roule. . ." referring to the Seine. The ride was beautiful, the buildings amazing. The number of statues on building facades and roof tops is staggering. The French built magnificent buildings in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The stone facades are magnificent, the gilt on statues remains bright and impressive. The few 20th century buildings that are mixed in, and fortunately there are very few, are among the worst architecture that I've ever seen. The contrast is mind-blowing.

After the boat ride I met the magnificent 7 back at our apartment. They were happily playing Mexican Train when I arrived. They'd already eaten the appetizers Shirley prepared the day before. Some had been drinking as well as eating so the game was rowdy, filled with laughter and good fellowship. We shared a wonderful dinner Shirley prepared, I was only the sous-chef, played Mexican train once more and called it a night.

So here is beautiful, warm Paris beckoning us, but we're ready for bed by 10 PM. Yes, we're all old geezers.

There's always tomorrow.

Adrienne and Stu