Friday, May 15, 2009
London
The day dawned all too quickly when Chriselle had to leave London and return Stateside. Cliches come to mind in such situations: All good things must come to an end; Every parting is such sweet sorrow, It's not Good Bye but Au Revoir, etc.
For some reason, despite having gone to bed rather late, Chrissie awoke by 6. 30 and could not sleep any more. For another inexplicable reason, she feels horribly lethargic about 11. 3o am when she has this uncontrollable desire to curl up somewhere and go straight to sleep. Jetlag does funny things to people...
My next-door neighbors Tim and Barbara are leaving for Seattle this morning and we wanted to say Goodbye to them. Ringing their door bell produced Tim on his way out somewhere. A little later, Barbara rang our doorbell and we had a chance to wish her Bon Voyage and all the best on their Stateside rambles.
We ate our breakfast quickly--lovely Walnut Bread from Waitrose with Boursin cheese and Sainsbury Three Fruits Marmalade with English Breakfast Tea--I am so going to miss these British treats when I leave. And then we dressed to start our last bout of sightseeing. There was some parts of London I simply wanted Chrissie to see before she left.
The Smithfield Meat Market:
Top of the list were the new digs into which I will be moving on May 31--the penthouse is on Cowcross Street right outside the Farringdon Road Tube Station. We walked along there via Hatton Garden, the London equivalent of Manhattan's Diamond District with its shop windows that winked and glinted at us as we passed by. Then, a quick right into Greville Street brought us to the building which, I noticed, was recently painted and refurbished. I had no real idea exactly where it was located the last time I saw it, but today, I noticed that it is right off a cute square called St. John's Square which sits right across from the ornate and very beautiful Victorian Meat Market called Smithfield.
Chriselle who is a vegetarian did not fancy walking through it but she tolerated the short excursion on which we saw white-coated butchers and health inspectors in their white helmets still bustling around though most of the day's activity had ended. Helmets? Why on earth would you need a helmet when working in a meat market??? At any rate, I have been promising myself an early morning visit to this place to see the butchers at work, the restaurateurs selecting their favored cuts of meat and the restaurants around (that specialize in big meaty breakfasts with large pints of ale--yes, at 8 am!). I must put that on my list of places to go and things to do...
The Church of St. Bartholomew the Great:
Across Smithfield Circle we went through the medieval gabled doorway that leads to the beautiful black and white checkered Church of St. Bartholomew the Great where we entered to find that we were meant to pay a fee for a visit or enter for free if we wished to pray. I have attended Sunday Communion Service at this Norman church and while its age (dating from the 12th century) is deeply impressive, and it does contain a sprinkling of memorials to a few famous Elizabethans, it is the black interior that is most interesting. Centuries of dirt and grime and dust seem to have seeped into the stone pillars that support the ceiling. This is how the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral might have looked before its 11 million pound refurbishment. It was the best indication we could have had of what time can do to an architectural masterpiece and an ancient Gothic interior. After saying a few prayers, we left.
Checking out London's Public Toilets:
OK, the next thing wasn't really on my List of Things To Do, but I have to say that I have been curious and never really had the courage to check one of them out--the Public 'lavatories' of London! With Chrissie by my side, I finally plucked up enough courage to venture underground and check out the one in Smithfield Circle. We expected it to be stinky and water-logged and falling apart and Chriselle even turned up her nose at my suggestion that we explore it.
Imagine our shock when we found it spotless, odor-free, spanking new and clean and free to boot! How startled we were! Indeed both of us exclaimed that it was the kind of toilet we could use without hesitation and, next thing you know, we did! There was actually an attendant downstairs who sat in a small cabin watching TV. There were four stalls with brand new toilets, doors with latches and hooks all in order, small sinks (or 'wash basins' as the English call them) with running water and toilet paper and paper napkins were in abundant supply. How marvelous! The Victorian exterior with its turquoise painted iron grill work belied the modernity of what lay beneath and we were completely bowled over by something as simple as public toilets! What a great deal we can learn from the English!
A Bus Ride to King's Cross for a Trip to Hogwarts:
Then, we were sitting in a bus that took us past the great old buildings of one of London's oldest quarters to arrive at the red brick expanse of King's Cross. One of my goals was to finish reading all seven Harry Potter novels before I left London and I have to say that this has prevented me from reading anything else since the end of January! I am now in the middle of the fifth one (The Order of the Phoenix) and Chrissie's visit has halted my progress through its labyrinthine paths. It does not help that the books get more voluminous as the series marches on so that reading one of them is like reading three! Chrissie, on the other hand, read every one of the novels as they were published and saw each of the movies as they were released. Having such an ardent Potter fan on my hands, I simply had to take her to King's Cross to see St. Pancras Station from where the Hogwart's Express carries the students from Platform Number 9 3/4 to their School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Chriselle was excited but not overly enthusiastic. I could see that the non-stop sightseeing of the past 5 days had started to take their toll on her--that, I suppose, combined with the late nights and lack of sleep had served to take the wind out of her sails. But when we arrived at the station, she brightened up considerably. I discovered that due to construction activity, Platform Number 9 3/4 has been moved to another location to which Harry Potter fans are being redirected. Yes, we did find it, a few minutes later--the stone wall into which the luggage cart disappears and we did take our share of pictures as we attempted to evaporate into the wall! This is such a fun excursion for kids and we marveled at the sense of indulgence that allows the English to create a spot like this just to appease young readers.
Off to the British Museum:
Then, we were aboard another bus headed to Russell Square to see the Highlights of the British Museum. Though the approach with its Neo-Classical facade is really the best way by which to enter this hallowed institution, we took a side entrance along Montague Place which brought us directly into the Asian Galleries.
Now as anyone who has visited the British Museum knows, you can spend a month of Sundays in the place and not finish seeing everything. My list of Highlights was short and the items that I did want Chriselle to see are the most talked-about ones in the Museum as well as the most unusual. Oh and I made sure she saw the rather lovely Great Hall with its new Millennium structural additions.
Here is what I showed her during our visit:
1. The Easter Island Sculpture
2. The Rosetta Stone
3. The Parthenon Marbles
4. The Caryatid from the Erectheum on the Acropolis
5. The Temple of Nereid
6. The Sculpture Bust of Rameses II that inspired Shelley's 'Ozymandias'
7. The Assyrian Temple Carvings and Bas-Reliefs from Nimrud
8. Ginger--the Mummified Woman in the Egyptian Section
9. A Number of Mummies
10. The Portland Vase.
By the time we finished seeing these, it was 11.30 and the drowsiness that Chrissie has been fighting washed over her and she was ready to collapse. It was time to head home, so she could get started on her work with Fusion and start packing for her evening departure.
Getting Ready to Leave London (And the Kindness of Strangers):
With all the things that Chriselle is taking back to the States for me, she had two large suitcases and a carry-on strolley that made our journey to Heathrow pretty excruciating. We hailed a cab to take us as far as Holborn Tube station from where we intended to board the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow.
Everywhere we have traveled in London in the past week, Chriselle and I have been deeply impressed by the general sense of politeness that prevails here (especially among service personnel of any kind) among the general public. Numerous times people have stopped on the street while we were consulting our maps, to find out if we needed help. So I was not surprised when so many of them came forward to give us a hand with our baggage as we struggled to get it on the escalators and into the trains during peak hour rush! Poor Chriselle was battling huge butterflies in her tummy as she tried to think about the ordeal of carrying such heavy baggage back to the States. I owe her big time for the great big favor she has done me in taking so many of my belongings back home for me. At any rate, once we did get our baggage into the train (with a lot of willing help from other passengers), the worst of it was over.
Once at Heathrow, we found carts that allowed us to load our bags on them and push them to the Terminal for her American Airlines flight to New York. No, she was not overweight as we had weighed each bag before we left the house to make sure we stayed within the limits. Once she checked her bags in, she was left with a very light and easily malleable strolley and off she went. I have to say that it was my turn to go all emotional and I was teary as I said my goodbyes to her as we had one of the best weeks of our lives together, enjoying and exploring and sharing London like nobody's business. Chriselle left with a great love for the city and I was so pleased that I was able to communicate this great passion that I have for London to her as well as get her to share in some of it herself. As we hugged, I quite forgot that in less than three months,I will be back in the States myself. So those cliches came back to mind again--about parting being such sweet sorrow, etc. as I saw her off at the Security gates.
I turned to leave and pulled out my cell phone to call her fiancee Chris who will be picking her up from Kennedy airport. We had a chat and I left and all the way in the Tube getting back home to Holborn, I kept thinking about how much we had covered in such a short space of time and how joyful was Chrissie's reception of everything I had recommended she see. I know that she learned her way about the city and as she put it, "received a crash course in British history, culture, art and society" in the short time she spent with me. Considering that there were so many glitches and so many things that had to be sorted out in the process of planning this trip, I felt that it had been completely successful and I was very glad about the outcome.
Back home, I felt suddenly and deeply fatigued. I called Llew for our daily late-evening chat, then downloaded my pictures and began to edit them. When sleep washed firmly over me and I could shake it off no longer, I switched off my bedside lamp but not before I made a list of all the things I have to do tomorrow.
As the days slide by and the date of my departure from this flat approaches, I want to make sure that I stay on track with all the things I have to do and not feel overwhelmed at the very last minute.
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