Living in London

We made a fantastic discovery today. We found the Royal Academy of Arts.

The academy is a fine building, next to the Royal Astronomical Society and the Society of Antiquarians, with a nice blend of old and new architecture. They had an exhibit of the work of William Nicholson, a British painter, print-maker and theatre designer who lived from 1872 - 1949. His wood cut prints are just fabulous, and still somewhat available.

I have become suddenly aware this week, over my few days off, that we need to buy art to remember our life here and to decorate the fabulous new place we are going to buy. Better get back to work soon or this could get expensive.

LmG

The management company of our housing complex has decided to invest some of the homeowner dues in a few capital improvements. Their current project is to update the lobby in our building and today they are pouring concrete. As a result, we had to be out of our apartment between 10:00 and 5:00 PM. Well, actually they didn’t care whether we were in or out, but they did, in the very polite British way, say that we should not annoy them by running in and out all day. Rather than risk having to climb out the bathroom window with an urgent need for a latte, we decided to just leave and play tourists for the day.

So off we went, only to discover 5 minutes into our adventure that we had forgotten the camera. (Doh! We were scared to go back lest we end up embedded in concrete.) Cameraless, we plodded full speed ahead. Our first stop was Westminster Pier only to discover that the boat tours of the Thames are rather limited this time of year. We had hoped to take a cruise down to the Thames Barrier, a part of the flood defense defence system protecting London against rising water levels and tidal surges. (We know you all remember that the Thames is a tidal river which means its level can rise or fall up to 20 feet!).

So we looked around for the biggest tourist attraction we could find, feeling it is our duty to visit each of these so we can steer our American visitors to only the best when they finally get over here.

We ended up at the Tower of London, slogging through the rain listening to taped tours. The place was filled with a surprising number of people given that it is 52 degrees, rainy, and a Monday in November. The highlights were the Crown Jewels and the six ravens that are permanent residents of the tower. We would rate it a C overall, which means that you should probably see it if you are interested in British history, but we won’t be going back with you. (We have been educating ourselves on British history through Simon Schama's 6 DVD setA History of Britain.) Delighted to tell you how to get there however!

-HrH and LmG