FromSwamptoSummit

I actually wrote this aboard a train from Rye (via Hastings) to Gatwick. But, as all good travel blogs must, I have to go several days back to start the Six Month Sabbatical Saga.

After packing some and packing more, J and I journeyed off to Orlando Airport’s Terminal C. It is so much better than A and B it doesn’t bear comparison. I can only liken it to the international vs. domestic terminals at the airport in Dubai. After a very nice preflight snack and drinks at Cask and Larder, we made our way onto our Norse Airlines plane – the new budget airline with flights hundreds of dollars less than their competitors.

The planes are lovely, but they have definitely crammed a lot of seats in them. The middle one on Row 38, which was to be my abode, would have been all right but for the fact that Row 38 had no windows at all. I could see a slight sliver of the sky from the window in front of us, but not sunrise over the Atlantic. Avoid Row 38!

Generously speaking, we might have had a couple of hours sleep.

Landed at Gatwick and took a train to Victoria, underground to Green Park, change to the Piccadilly Line, and on to Russell Square. There’s still a lift there, no escalators, to ascend to the surface. London, or at least parts thereof, is filling up with skyscrapers worthy of one of the Asian capitals of the world but still looking somewhat out of place in what I think of as a human scaled city. There are cranes everywhere. But the parts I remember well, namely Bloomsbury and around the British Museum, are still as I recall.

Every time I come to London I have this eerie sense of familiarity. Perhaps that’s natural given that I was born here – at University of London hospital and within the sound of Bow Bells – and spent my first year plus living in Brunswick Gardens near Kensington.

We checked into the Tavistock Hotel, where we were given a small front room with a view of the square. Despite the lack of sleep, we couldn’t let even a jet lagged day go to waste. After a brief rest, we made our way to the British Library. The old reading room at the British Museum – where my parents spent many hours working on their dissertations both before and after my arrival – is now located there. It’s free admission (as seem to be all the museums here) and well worth a visit. It houses the Magna Carta – there are actually two – a very damaged original one, and the actual charter from a couple of years later, which is in much better condition. There’s a Gutenberg Bible as well, but I was equally interested in the illuminated manuscripts and modern books. Lots of ideas for calligraphy projects to come. I still think I would have been quite happy as a monk whose mission in life was to copy and illustrate books!

An interesting walk back. We went past my mother’s old residence hall at University College (Campbell Hall) which she says still looked the same, and through Brunswick Gardens (the actual gardens, not the street in Kensington where I lived as a baby).

After a drink at the Woolf (as in Virginia) and Whistle Bar at our hotel – the Tavistock Hotel, on the site of a former Woolf residence – we had an Italian meal at the restaurant across the street and collapsed.

Next day – truly an exploration of my origins. We started with coffee and croissant that we ate at Tavistock Gardens (surrounded by pigeons attracted by crusts someone else had left – we felt we needed a sign saying “it wasn’t us” after 30 plus birds arrived). Incidentally, we are finding London very inexpensive compared to the U.S., which is a pleasant surprise. Inspected the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of the square and all the benches in memory of those dedicated to peace, socialism, and against nuclear bombs.

Our next stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is where my mother started to go into labor with me in 1961. I’m not sure what that says about either me or her!

On our quest to find “Britain 1790-1900” we managed to see every bit of glass at the V&A, plus architectural designs, galleries full of Victorian casts of famous sculptures from around the world, thousands of pounds of Rodin, and ironworks. Finally we realized the staircases up went to different parts of the museum, found the correct one, and located Britain 1900. Starting with the Arts and Crafts movement, we wound our way back in time – an interesting way to view things.

After we were museumed out, we realized we had way too little time to walk to Portobello Market, as was our original plan, and instead wandered around South Kensington, window shopping at all the expensive shops.

After a quick dinner at a local pub we hopped on the underground again to Blackfriars, and crossed the river over the Millenium Bridge to reach the Globe Theatre – the recreation of the Shakespeare’s theater. We were last at these spots in 2000 – the Millenium bridge had just opened and was still bouncing! They had to close it immediately after for repairs. It’s quite sturdy now, and gives a good view of St. Paul’s.

We saw “A Midsummer’s Nights Dream” – interesting production, with nearly all the roles played by women. Best line – “from now on I want to be known as ‘Bo-toom’”. (For you English majors out there. Think Heather “Bou-Kay” in Keeping Up Appearances.) Also “pro-luge” and “epi-luge.”

Next day was a travel day. On to Rye!