One more Vermeer down; only six more to go! Six! This is kind of crazy and hard to believe - have I really seen 29 Vermeers already?
Anyway, my London weekend at the beginning of the month was lovely. There was only one thing on my agenda that I HAD to do, so the rest of the time I could just chill out and enjoy the city in the spring time, which I had not gotten to do since 2007. What a difference between November and March! London truly is one of my very favorite places, especially when the weather is warm enough for comfortable strolling with a light jacket and no need for gloves and multiple layers to fend off the cold and damp.
To make the most of my time, I took a red eye from JFK on Thursday night (I only took Friday off of work for this little adventure). The flight was nowhere near full and I didn't have anyone sitting next to me, so I was able to stretch out and get nearly four hours of dodgy sleep, which is certainly better than none. The food served on the flight wasn't bad: marsala-y chicken with mash and green beans and a nice little salad, plus one of those damn addictive American Airlines croissants for breakfast. I actually felt quite refreshed when we landed at Heathrow around 11:30 in the morning on Friday. The immigration line was the shortest it has been in a long time, and I hadn't checked a bag, so I breezed on down to Heathrow Express. £32 for a return was a rather steep first hit for my wallet, but definitely worth it. I just can't bring myself to take the Picadilly line into the city now that I am not a thrifty Uni student.
From Paddington, I hopped the Bakerloo line down to Embankment and proceeded to my hotel. I love staying near Trafalgar Square and Westminster because I am in walking distance of all my favorite tourist haunts (Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Covent Garden, etc.), which comes in handy when I go to late movie and then need something to eat, plus saves quite a bit on tube fares (I still have and use my Oyster Card though). My favorite late night snack stop is the M&S Simply Food in Charing Cross. I absolutely love M&S's salmon and soft cheese sandwich, as well as their Wensleydale with carrot chutney. It is very difficult to find British ready-made sandwiches without mayo, but these two and a few others fit the bill.
Fortunately my room was ready when I arrived at the hotel and I was able to go straight up, unpack, freshen up, get my bearings, and figure out my plan of attack for the rest of the afternoon. Because I am too organized for my own good (and hadn't brought my computer with me - I thought it might be nice to partially unplug for a few days), I had already done up a map of every place I needed to go to get everything on my shopping list. And of course I also noted closing times! If you've been to England, you know how important this info can be, even in London. I wouldn't even begin to count the times I or my friends have uttered the words "But it's only ____ o'clock! Why are they closed?"
Being practical, I thought I'd better head toward Picadilly Circus first, so that I could stop in the Trocadero HMV and see how many of CDs on my list I could find there before going out of my way to Oxford Circus or other HMVs (as it turns out, the Oxford Circus HMV was closing the weekend I was there, so it is probably best that I had not made a special trip to go to it). I actually did pretty well, only failing to find Little Red's sophomore effort, Midnight Remember. I did, however, pick up the following:
- Blue Songs, Hercules & Love Affair
- Hunger, Frankie & The Heartstrings
- We're New Here, Jamie xx and Gil Scott-Heron
- James Blake's self-titled
- Chilled House Session 2, Ministry of Sound
With that out of the way, my first REAL stop, as on every London trip, was Harrods, because I love their dim sum counter in the food halls. I got my standard order of roast pork buns and chicken & prawn sticky rice. Sooo yummy and the perfect size for a light lunch. While I was at Harrods, I picked up some of their Earl Grey tea for a friend and I FINALLY made it to the Ladurée tea room for some macaroons. It has only taken me 5 years! And I even worked at Harrods for two weeks! Major fail there, especially since the macaroons live up to their fabulous reputation. I got three flavors: violet & black currant, rose, and caramel & salted butter. Violet & black currant was definitely my fave. After battling leg cramps caused by dehydration (must drink more water on flights!) and tight jeans, I hopped back on the Picadilly, destination: Covent Garden.
As noted on the map, important stops to be made here were M&S (Dr. Who Easter egg for one of my friends), Aubin & Wills (hoodie I had been coveting on their website), Jack Wills (just to see if there was anything new I had missed online), and Tesco (in search of Maltesers, Fruit Pastilles, Decaf Nestle Instant Cappuccino, dark chocolate McVitties, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Cadbury Mini Eggs). I found the Dr. Who egg, and the hoodie was as fun as I'd hoped with a nice light terry texture. There was nothing new at Jack Wills, but I did pop into the Tintin shop on a whim and found that they had Tintin in the Congo in English! This is so much more useful to me than the French version, and I have been looking for it for ages.
It was a gorgeous sunny day and strolling in London's fresh air is such a pleasant change from New York. I wanted to take advantage of the slightly longer daylight hours in England and spend as much time outside as possible. I had no luck with my shopping list at Bedford Street Tesco, so I headed over to the one on Regent Street, which had been kind to me on my last trip. Sure enough, I was able to find everything on my list, save for McVitties and mini eggs, which I was easily able to find elsewhere. It's the damn cappuccino that gets me every time. This time they only had two boxes in stock, but two is better than none.
At this point I had quite a collection of shopping bags, so it was time for a brief return to the hotel to drop everything off before going for another walk. I was amazed that I was able to get through my whole shopping list in one afternoon. I guess this is where the whole planning thing comes in handy. My spoils looked something like this:
It was turning to dusk, but it was still a lovely spring evening, and I strolled along the Thames toward Westminster, past Big Ben, and on to St. James park, where I took a turn around the nice little pond there. By this point, my four hours of "sleep" was catching up with me and I was starting to flag a bit, so I headed to Starbucks for a soy latte and a stem ginger skinny muffin (still waiting for Starbucks to bring skinny muffins to the States.....).
One of my London friends came and met me for a coffee and a quick visit on his way home from work, and then it was off to the cinema for me, even though I felt a dehydration/fatigue headache coming on. I just couldn't pass up seeing Julie Taymor's The Tempest in the cinema after I had already missed it's US theatrical run. Sadly, the movie isn't that great (review forthcoming in my March recap), but it was probably better to see it on the big screen than on my TV. By now it was on the late side for my weary body, and I was ecstatic to grab the last salmon & soft cheese sandwich at M&S before returning to my hotel to collapse.
Saturday was THE DAY. I had a small lay in and was ready to go around 11:40, delayed a bit past my desired departure time by waiting for my BlackBerry to charge after searching for signal off and on all night. I scooted on over to Victoria, bought a return ticket to West Dulwich for all of £5.80, grabbed a snack at Boots (I missed you, Sweet Chili SnackAJacks), looked at the board to see that there was a train leaving in a matter of minutes, hurried over to the appropriate platform, and was on my way at 12:21. Efficiency!
Dulwich is a rather lovely little village from what I could see, though by arriving at the West Dulwich station rather than North Dulwich, I think I missed most of the village proper. Instead, I got to walk up a lovely, quiet road that ran through a country day school and on toward the gallery and the village. The walk from the station to Dulwich Picture Gallery wasn't actually that long, but I was very glad it was just slightly overcast rather than raining (I really lucked out on the weather during this trip).
The gallery is quite small, but the grounds and the collection make it worth the visit. Of course my first order of business was to gaze upon Vermeer's The Music Lesson, since it was the whole purpose of the entire trip. It was a bit too much to take in upon first viewing, so I decided to check out the special Norman Rockwell exhibition, which was very interesting and quite comprehensive. Getting to see many of Rockwell's original oil paintings was quite a treat. I didn't realize that he used such beautiful warm yellow-gold light as much as he did, as seen in pieces like Volunteer Fireman and The Young Valedictorian. I also browsed through the permanent collection, which included a painting by Claude Lorrain, one of my pet artists ever since I had to do a project on one of his paintings for Art History class in Uni.
Finally, it was time to gaze on the Vermeer and really take it in. I probably will never get another chance to see this painting, so I wanted to really soak up all the details as much as I could. The painting is of course gorgeous, with Vermeer's typical mastery of natural light and impeccable attention to detail. My favorite bit of the painting is the shades of blue in the tapestry draped over the table in the right foreground. They are luminous, almost to the point of seeming phosphorescent. While it is hard to fully describe what it felt like to see this painting, I can say that it was more than worth the trip. I tip my hat to Jonathan Janson and his wonderful Essential Vermeer website and newsletter for tipping me off to this extremely special opportunity; he provides an invaluable resource for Vermeer lovers.
I had to check out the gift shop to get a memento of this epic journey, and while I was in there I found an eraser nearly identical to the one I got at the British Museum when I was three (23 years on, and some company is still making rainbow striped erasers for museums) and a very nice phone box key ring. The girl at the register informed me that the reason they have a phone box key ring in the gallery gift shop is that the design of the phone box was inspired by the Mausoleum attached the the gallery. Another fun fact: Dulwich is England's first public art gallery (history of the gallery here). To think that I could have missed out on this gem if it hadn't been for this one painting!
I was sure to take in the gallery as fully as possible and enjoy the grounds a bit before setting back to the station. I returned to Victoria and the sun had finally come out for a while, so I took a nice stroll toward Westminster and then over to the South Bank. One of the things I was trying to do on this trip was stray from my usual paths and see London from some new angles - a rewarding resolution on which I followed through. With nothing better to do, I decided that lunch at my other favorite dim sum place, Ping Pong, was in order. More roasted pork buns (Ping Pong's pork buns are tantalizingly light and fluffy!), as well as veggie sticky rice, baked pork puffs, and chocolate filled fluffy buns for dessert, with a lychee and ginger iced tea to wash it all down. It was an enjoyable change from my norm to have a leisurely lunch and know that I was in no hurry to get anywhere.
In fact, I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself for the rest of the day, so I decided I would stroll over to Waterloo and see if I got inspired. Seeing the Jubilee line reminded me that I had been wanting to go to Greenwich to see the Royal Observatory since my first Thanksgiving trip in 2008. However, since Greenwich is kind of a pain to get to and requires somewhat decent weather, I had yet to make it out there. I decided that would end then and there, despite the gray skies that had returned. I hopped the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf and then caught the DLR to Maritime Greenwich. Since it was quite overcast and the afternoon was getting on, I didn't get in a full exploration, but I did see the main sights. I had a gander at the Royal Naval College, walked through the grounds of the Maritime Museum, and then burned off my dim sum calories by climbing the very steep hill up to the observatory at my usual break-neck pace.
It was very cool to see the Prime Meridian line, especially after having read Longitude for summer reading once way back in high school and being the map geek that I am. The observatory has some charming architecture. I would love to return to Greenwich on a sunny day because the view back across the Thames seemed quite spectacular, even with cloud cover.
It was close to closing time by the time I had finished roaming the grounds of the observatory and admiring its adorableness, so I headed through Greenwich Park and then back down the hill to the DLR, which I rode all the way to Bank station (even more of a pain to navigate than usual because some of its escalators are closed for works). From there I caught the Central Line to Bond Street because I thought I might as well go check out the Oxford Circus HMV. However, as I mentioned before, when I got there the store was on it's very last legs and they weren't letting people into the store because it appeared that Mike Skinner (aka The Streets) was inside doing a meet and greet with the staff. No Little Red CD for me (the HMV in Harrods didn't have it either). With nothing else that I particularly wanted to see or do or buy, I aimlessly continued on up Oxford Street and then down Regent Street, which was typically unbearably crowded.
When I arrived back at my hotel, I decided that some chill time was in order before getting on with my evening, whose main event was seeing The Adjustment Bureau at the Odeon Leicester Square. It was very fun to see this movie on a giant screen with top notch projection quality. After the movie, it was Charring Cross for a small brie, bacon, & cranberry baguette from Upper Crust and a prawn & smoked salmon deluxe sandwich (NEW! - and recommended) from M&S, where the sweet little checkout guy seemed to recognize me from the night before.
Sunday I had to check out of the hotel, so I was up, ready, and packed by 11:30 (this time I charged my BlackBerry while I was getting ready - multitasking!). I left my bags in the baggage room and then set out for a jaunt down Pall Mall with my destination being Automat in Mayfair. I fancied a bit of brunch as one last vacation treat, and I knew of Automat from Essex Eating's favorable review last year. I was not let down. The vibe of the restaurant was perfect for a chill Sunday morning, and I didn't feel out of place dining on my own. I had a lovely and filling meal of smoked salmon and eggs on toast, home fries (a bit on the bland side, unfortunately), and grapefruit juice. As a bonus, I got to eavesdrop on an awkward blind date going on a few tables away from me.
After my yummy and filling brunch, I walked trough Mayfair and then over to Carnaby to check out the new Johnny Cupcakes shop that would be opening there the next weekend. I was kind of bummed that they weren't open yet, because I would love a London themed Johnny Cupcakes tee. More wandering around through Soho, and then it was back through Leicester Square and to the hotel to collect my bags. I could have hung around the city for an hour longer, but I was at that point where it was just easier to head on out to the airport.
It was good that I got to Heathrow a little earlier than planned because there was actually a line at the American Airlines check-in counter and several families with lots of bags, so it took me a while longer to check-in than it has in the past. I also got in a bit more shopping time, which was great because I ended up finding six books I wanted at the WH Smith bookstore. It is so not fair that books come out in paperback in the UK much sooner than in the US. My reading list of the near future:
- The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
- Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
- The Nearest Exit, Olen Steinhauer
- The Confession, John Grisham
- Home, Bill Bryson
Once again I lucked out and didn't have anyone sitting next to me on the flight, though I was surrounded by an affable group of Uni students on their way to NYC for a week-long field trip. My little TV wasn't working, but that was okay because I spent the WHOLE flight reading through magazine articles that had been hanging around for way too long. It was nice to know that when I landed, they were finally off of my plate. Plus the only movies showing that I was remotely interested in were Made in Dagenham and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the later of which probably wouldn't be that great on a tiny screen. Dinner was chicken with rice and carrots and all the usual accompaniments, and the before-landing snack was the usual personal pizza.
I arrived at JFK only to be greeted by a monsoon and was partially soaked while waiting for the subway at the lovely outdoor Howard Beach station. Oh the irony of returning from sunny London to rainy New York. But what a truly amazing and fulfilling weekend!
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