We arrived at Heathrow airport at about 3 PM on the 8th of March and proceeded to our hotel.
A 4 star property owned and operated along with several others by my former client and now friend, Shiraz.
In our room awaited us a lovely arrangement of flowers, a bottle of Champagne, one of Red wine, a Delicatessen tray, as well as a bowl of fruit. All this was a token of the hospitality of Shiraz and his wife, Shamin. A hospitality which we enjoyed for the next 6 days.
The weather was cloudy and cool, when on the next morning we took a boat ride along the Thames from the Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge and back again. There is history along this river, which goes back almost 2000 years.
You can walk and walk and each 100 meters or so there is something else of keen interest to see, photograph and talk about.
Let me not bore you with a day to day description of our activities, but let me just tell you that we visited the church of St. Martin in the Field where an "eclectic choir" sang at a "Candle light Vespers"...
In the "Royal Albert Hall" we saw and heard an absolutely wonderful performance of Verdi's "Aida".
It was performed in the costumes of its time and place, but beautifully framed by silent scenes of a relatively modern "archaeological excavation" during which artifacts were found which then played a role in the actual Opera. This was in no way intrusive, but, in fact, was so cleverly arranged that it felt as if it actually belonged to the Opera. The Voices were stunningly beautiful and the acting superb.The music was performed by the Royal London Symphony Orchestra... You can't get it much better... Can you?
Westminster Abbey is an absolute "Must" for any visitor to London. There is more history in this place than you can shake the proverbial stick at. Every square foot of every wall features History (spelled with a capital H)...
The Abbey was founded in the 10th Century and it seems as if every King and Queen, every Duke and Earl was buried there, along with Generals and Explorers.
Naturally Photographing is strictly prohibited within the Abbey. Many "information guides" clad in red, green or blue gowns make sure that you don't use your camera. It's not just that you may not use a camera flash, which I could understand since it would be disturbing to have 100s of flashes pop off all around you, but there is a total photographing prohibition.
I carried my D300 over my left shoulder. I had set the 'mode' to "P" fully automatic program, the ISO to 3,200 the lens to 18mm and when I saw something worth a shot or two, I pointed the camera in the approximate direction of the subject, while I looked into the other direction and clicked the shutter.
Quite frankly, I did not expect great photography, but some of the shots came out quite well. Well composed,
beautifully exposed... and I never got caught.
So, down along this Blog I post several of these images, taken in this rather unorthodox way.
In the National Theater we saw Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors"... beautifully acted...in a modern setting... unfortunately I had a hard time understanding much of the dialog.
Then we saw the Chelsea Football Club play against Stoke City F.C.in the Chelsea stadium, fully packed.
Although a low scoring game, (1:0 for Chelsea ) it was exciting from opening to closing whistle.
Our host Shiraz owns a box there. Quite frankly: That's the way to see a soccer game.
In the "Tate Modern" Art Gallery an exhibition by Boetti was on display. Don't ask me ...
look him up on Google....
When is the next plane leaving for London?
Bertstravels would like to be on.
1 comment:
Great pics dad - glad you enjoyed yourself as much as you did. Another trip in late spring/early summer, rent a car and drive to Scotland.
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