For me, Rome is about piazzas. Not pizzas, though they are at that too. Gotta wonder about the etymology of those words. London however, I think London for me is quickly becoming about the markets. Each area we go into has there own, and they are a bustling space, alive with so many people, selling, buying, watching, wandering, enjoying their days, rushing somewhere, taking pictures, picking pockets, busking, spray painting, screaming, jostling, and many other words ending in "ing".
And I'm still ahead of myself.
Thursday was a school day, but I believe I've already mentioned that. School is going to be an interesting part of this trip. Figuring out how to schedule it, and commit to that schedule. Figuring out how to self-monitor progress and quality. Yes, assignments do get handed in to ILC (Independent Learning Centre) for marking, and teachers are available online to provide support, but it's pretty much in the hands of Noah and Jake. Where my hands fit into this picture remain to be sorted out as well. So there is lots of "sorting" to do as we get that particular ball rolling, and I am without a talking hat. I think the toughest part is really about trying to have lots of flexibility to "do things" while maintaining the structure necessary to be successful in school. I don't think it's something that can be done willy nilly, but actually needs to have A PLAN. And a long running plan. Other aspects of the trip though, we're still trying to go for a "planning light" approach. So accomodating both will be interesting. I guess we'll see where that leads itself. And yes, be prepared to modify blah, blah, blah. I know. It's in my wallet.
Friday was a school evening, and was preceded by a park and gallery day.
We began by getting our butts down to Trafalgar Square, home to Lord Nelson's column, his lions, and the National Gallery.
Here is a rare photo of one of the lions at the base of Nelson's column.
"Why rare?" - you might justifiably ask.
"Because there are no children between it's paws, or tourists clinging to its haunches" I might snippily respond, showing signs of the annoyance I felt as I waited to take a picture of said lion, unmolested, in all it's glory.
The National Gallery is one of the many amazing spaces that is essentially free to go to in London. I say essentially as they suggest a recommended amount for donation, and helpfully provide you many a place to make such a donation throughout the gallery. And London truly is marvelous this way. Many of it's museums and galleries are free/donation based for the permanent collections. The City, and I emphasize "CITY", is fantastic that way. Now, unfortunately that does not seem to be the case for any of the royal properities open to the public. They cost a fair chunk of change. And let's just say that, the day prior having been the London Pass, the "let's do things that cost lots of money day in London" day; we were due for a "let's do the free things in London" day. I do have a budget, and I do have an estimated burn rate, and I am, amazingly enough, attempting to track them both. London hurts. Thank goodness for Tanya and Simon, as if we had to cover our accomodations, the only blog entry you would be reading about London would have been my opinions on Heathrow airport.
So yes, The National Gallery. It's a wonderful building to look at from the outside and even more marvelous from the inside as it is full of this stuff on it's walls that people commonly refer to as art. And some pretty amazing art too. They've got names of people I have heard of. And they're not part of a travelling exhibit brought to you thanks to the generousity of another museum or a family who has more money than god (not that god is flush or anything - who really knows).
I say all of this because, growing up and living in Toronto has meant I've had the Art Galley of Ontartio (AGO) at my disposal. And I've used it a fair chunk I would say, including having had personal or family memberships for various years. And don't get me wrong, it's a good gallery, with some very cool work. I'm quite fond of the giant hamburger for example.
Yes, you might argue that the AGO has Henry Moore. Ya, well, St. Paul's has got one of those. And you might say that they've got the Group of Seven. This is true, and I do not have a pithy response for that one. The National Gallery though has paintings people make jigsaw puzzles of, that three out of every five college students hang on their wall. Some into their mid-thirties. They have the things that apparently are universally agreeed upon to be "very, very good".
They also have things that are shite.
But they've also got Turner, and you gotta love Turner. If not, my father is going to be quite displeased with you about that, or at least wonder if you have gone soft in the brain.
Anyway, yes, the National Gallery. And around the back, the National Portrait Gallery. I was introduced to the NPG by my friend and colleague Steve Dalton, prior to my first visit to London, which, if you've been listening may recall, was with my Dad a few years ago. Anyway, Steve said it was his favourite gallery. I like Steve. I trust Steve. We went to the NPG. He was right. So naturally I wanted to introduce the guys to it as well. Carry on the legacy.
A quick note and then I will move on from this topic. Galleries aren't for everyone. They're not like museums or science centres or other such attractions. Art Galleries I think demand much more of us in terms of audience participation. And you're not sure what to look at, or why you're looking at it. And they seldom provide enough information to help you interpret everything around you. So it's hard work. And it's not work we always feel like doing, or necessarily "get in to". Which is all good.
Our trip to the National Gallery and the NPG felt kinda like Goldilocks and Three Bears, with each of us, I think anyway, being a different kind of porridge.
It's Tuesday. Please mind the gap.
If you take public transit in Toronto you may wonder at the 'mind the gap" signs on subway car doors. The gap is a uniform size in all stations, and you would really have to put some serious effort into it being some sort of tripping hazzard or obstacle of any kind. London however is quite different. When they tell you to mind the gap, you should heed the message, and heed it well.
Gaps between trains and platforms range from slivers to canyons. Trains are not always flush with the platform so there can also be a reasonably sized stepping up action to board a train as well. You really do actually have to pay attention.
Anyway, it's Tuesday. Perhaps I should say "pardon the gap". Much has happened since Sunday morning when I was last writing, but I'll get to that. Now, back to being porridge at the gallery.
It's not the best of metaphors, but hopefully you get my meaning.
Post Gallery we headed off to St. Jame's Park. London is also about parks. St. Jame's Park connects with Green Park which practically connects with Hyde Park, and they Kensington Gardens, which combined make, well, make a lot of park to walk through. Which we did.
St. Jame's Park is home to a variety of water birds. I believe I've already introduced to you the pelicans. This one is called a coot. I am curious if this is where the term "old coot" came fom. Here's one person's opinion. Anyway, I don't think I've seen a coot before, and found them quite the striking bird. Especially their feet, which appear to be encased in rubber halloween skeleton gloves.
The rain took the opportunity to visit our particular spot of London at this time so we took to some lawn chairs, made our way to shelter under the trees and enjoyed our books for an hour or so.
Three comments here:
1. The weather has been warm and sunny almost the entire time. Little rain for us in London. I am told this is rare. I am fine with that. Knock on wood.
2. The lawn chairs are for rent. Yes, you rent them. Sit awhile and someone will show up and ask for a pound sixty per hour, and then print you up a little receipt. No, they do not chalk your foot. This particular shot is for my Dad.
3. I remain thrilled that both Noah and Jake enjoy reading. They had actually asked if we could stop and read for awhile before the rain had begun. Yes, they like to spend time in parks reading. All is not lost.
Eventually though the rain abated (I had to double check as I had started with abetted and that is wrong on many levels) and we stirred ourselves from our various fictional adventures to pick up on our actual one.
Which lead to water works:
and pretty flowers:
And eventually into Hyde Park to see my favourite tree.
I am quite pleased as I've talked about this tree several time and the guys wanted to see what the hubbub was all about. That in and of itself made me happy. Happier still I was made (hear Yoda there) by actually being able to find the tree again with little difficulty.
Why is this my favourite tree? Because you can go inside.
Simple things. They make me happy. Feel free to draw your own conclusions on that one.
Then there was frisbee. I believe I've mentioned this before. We brought a frisbee. Noah's idea, and an excellent one. He carries the frisbee around in his day pack everyday pretty much, and if we come across or deliberately go a find a green space large enough, like the fields in Hyde Park, then out it comes and disk throwing ensues. You may have seen a post to Facebook on this one. Right, we're posting to Facebook as well if you're interested.
We eventually left the parks and continued our walk. To where, we weren't quite sure, but it didn't really matter. Exploring is exploring and this was a day just for walking around. Now, one of the fun things about that are the unexpected places you run in to that you had no idea were there to begin with.
Like the Royal Albert Hall. Apparently how many holes take to fill it is a well kept secret.
And the Natural History Museum, which is beside the Science Museum and across from the Victoria & Albert museum. We popped into the Natural History one for a short bit. Lots of great stuff in there I am sure, however what I enjoyed the most in our short time was the building itself.
We were getting tuckered so headed our way home. Conveniently though we all now knew where these were, which worked out well for Saturday.
Saturday Noah and Jake went off in the morning to visit with their friends Eli and Gabriel, brothers originally from England who now live in Toronto. Noah met Eli at school a few years back and they have gotten on well since then. Eli is over visiting family and was staying in Brighton so they had arranged a meet up.
I hear they had a good day. You'll have to ask them yourselves.
At this point you may be asking what the heck is it about the market thing he said at the beginning. Well, that was my Saturday with Tanya.
I am hearing the voice of my father though, so, while the title of this blog now makes very little sense given its subject, I feel I should give him, if not the rest of you, a bit of a break.
At least we know where to pick up from.
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