There’ll always be a London…

And London will always have more things to do than you can possibly find time for. As the famous quote says, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” After five days here, I am not tired of London but I am tired FROM London. Ken is hiking the Scottish Highlands and, according to his most recent text to me, considers covering 12 miles an “easy day,” while I’m touristing 8 hours/day on the tough streets of “the Great Smoke” and feeling more tired than he is. So that explains why it’s taken me this long to write the first real blog post of this trip.

“We welcome all dogs into our pub, however we must ask that they remain in our bar areas only.”

Sign I saw on my first day here. I’m sure the dogs prefer to remain in the bar, too, drinking.

I’ve been to London several times, most recently with Ken in 2015, but it’s been close to 30 years since I was here alone. After the near insanity leading up to this trip (alluded to in my first blog post), I was looking forward mightily to just doing whatever I wanted all day long as much as I was to immersing myself in culture-vulturing. Although of course I’m doing that, too.

I was not present at Meghan’s labor today, but I did spend my first day (last Wednesday) in London visiting Kensington Palace, home of the younger royals — although what you get to see as a tourist is the older historical part, not their digs. It was one of a number of things I’d never gotten around to seeing in London that I decided to hit this time. Frankly, while the gardens are beautiful, I found the palace a dark and depressing old place.

But as is so often true in the UK, the tour guides were extremely entertaining. The most memorable historical tidbit was a description of what it was like when the nobility visited the 18th century royal court (picture powdered wigs, women in those super-wide mantua skirts and men in silk stockings and breeches). It was considered the height of gaucheness to excuse yourself from the room, so young boys walked around with bordaloos, holding them not just for the gentlemen, but slipping them under the ladies’ skirts so they could relieve themselves while continuing their socializing. A lady would need to signal with her fan to get a bordaloo and if the room was crowded and the young page didn’t make it there in time, well, they just peed on the floor. But this was considered just fine whereas leaving the room would be a scandal.

Related fun fact: Many people use bordaloos they’ve found in antique shops as gravy boats, having no idea what their original purpose was.

It’s late spring in the UK, so of course that means the weather is the same as our California coastal winters. Temps in the 40s at night and low 50s during the day, blustery and raining whenever it feels like it, forecast or no. I’m staying in an AirBnb flat in Notting Hill, not far from Portobello Road. On Saturday, I went out to cruise the legendary Saturday street/flea market there, which I found very underwhelming. But I did accomplish my purpose — getting myself a much-needed, lovely large and very warm yak wool scarf/shawl at an excellent street vendor price.

So now I look like every other woman (and many men) in London, with a thick scarf wrapped around my neck at all times against the ever-present cold and wind. It makes me feel like we’re all characters in the 19th century British novels that I studied: Absolutely terrified that we’ll catch a chill and die from some mysterious respiratory ailment.

Another thing I’ve always meant to do in London is visit Parliament, so on Saturday when it was not in session (and at the beginning of a Bank Holiday aka long weekend when both domestic and foreign visitors overrun the city), I took a guided tour. This is now one of my top 20 things I’ve done in England. Originally built and used as a palace, the building has many rooms of staggering opulence (and many rooms, period — 1100!) that are a feast for the eyes. But even better is the walk through English history that the guides take you on as you progress through the tour. After many visits to this country, and many times hearing about them, I think I finally absorbed key historical facts such as what the Glorious Revolution was and how the Germanic Hanovers ended up taking over the British monarchy (and keeping it to this day).

Best of all, we got to walk right in-between the leather benches in both the House of Lords and House of Commons, something that I don’t think you get to do on tours of our own Congress. (I was seven when I last did that, so can’t say for sure.) If I have time, I’d love to go back when Parliament is in session and sit in the visitors gallery as you are allowed to do. Too bad they’re not debating anything exciting right now….

Been to any art museums, you ask? Oh yes, I’ve been to a few already. Was fortunate to get one of the last tickets to a very crowded Pierre Bonnard exhibit at the Tate Modern, featuring paintings such as this lovely:

As a chaser, the Tate also had some conceptual art by Jenny Holzer:

And despite my focus on doing new things, I had to visit some old favorites at the National Gallery, such as these vivid Van Gogh crabs:

I also saw an interesting exhibit at the Serpentine Gallery of artwork that recalls our childhood Spirographs, but made decades before we were born by a Swiss artist, Emma Kunz, based on her psychic intuitions. Here’s one:

Today I visited a new Design Museum exhibit on Stanley Kubrick which featured many artifacts of his career (see some photos I took below). But what I found most fascinating was the fact that at each spot where they were screening clips from his movies, that’s where people not only most lingered but looked most entranced. In the end, it’s the finished work. The building blocks seem puny by comparison.

Although I have to admit the guy had a sense of humor. Not to mention filial devotion:

I’ll be back with more London travelogue later…after I’ve seen a couple plays I have tickets to and hoovered up more museums.