Europe 2009, part 2

Thursday, the 23rd:

• Explore Oxford Street.
• Fish and chips in a pub (Mortimer Arms). Pretty good.
• Explore Charing Cross Road down to Leicester Square. Nice.

Friday, the 24th:

• Show Leicester Square to Mary Ellen.
• "Sasha Grynyuk" played piano at St. Martin in the Fields. Ligeti, 3 etudes; Chopin, 24 preludes. Free. Excellent.
• London School of Economics
• Lunch in cafeteria
• National Gallery. So-so. IMHO, Washington's National Gallery fares well by comparison. Lovely triptych of the Passion by the Master of Delft and Botticelli's wonderful "Venus and Mars"
• A chamber group rehearsing at St. Martin in the Field. Very nice.
• A garden along the Embankment. Pleasant.
• British Museum. Elgin Marbles and lots more. (Yawn.) Rosetta Stone -- interesting.

Saturday, the 25th:

• breakfast at the hotel. So-so.
• Leicester Square (buy day of performance theatre tickets)
• Houses of Parliament (Big Ben), Westminster Abbey, Saint James Park, Buckingham Palace. Big buildings. ho-hum.
• Portobello Market (lots of people, lots of crappy stuff for sale)
• dinner at a Turkish Restaurant (Tas). OK
• "A View From the Bridge" at the Duke of York's. FABULOUS. Maybe the best written, best acted play we've ever seen. And The Duke of York's is an excellent place to see a performance.

Sunday, the 26th:

• Move from The Bloomsbury Hotel to Millennium Knightsbridge Hotel
• Walk through Hyde Park for a bit. Pleasant.
• St. George's Day celebration: Patriotic music by Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall: "Rule, Brittania," "Land of Hope and Glory," "Zadoch the Priest," "The White Cliffs of Dover," etc. We had great seats in the last row of the highest balcony. A real treat.
• Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding at a pub across the street from the hotel. Afterwards, we returned to the hotel to put on some warmer clothes and head down to Tower Bridge, but when we got back to the room we found a complimentary bottle of champagne waiting for us so we decided to stay in.

Monday, the 27th:

• Stand in line in a cold rain for 25 minutes to get day-of-performance tickets for "Duet for One." None available. Decide to buy tickets instead for "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolfe?" None available. (Sigh)
• Tube to Westinster Abbey. Stand in line in a cold rain for 5 minutes. Learn that we won't get in for at least an hour. (Double sigh.)
• Tube to Victoria and Albert Museum. Spend 3 1/2 fascinating hours there, barely scratching the surface of the collection.
• Back to the hotel to rest.