Last post

Well, London, it's been great. I got a lot of work done, made it to Spain twice in one summer, made some new friends, and saw lots of cool cultural and historical highlights. But seven weeks is a long time to be away from home, so I am pretty happy to be shipping off this afternoon. 

It's funny how when I'm in the US I'm always pretty pessimistic and critical (especially in an election year), but whenever I spend a substantial portion of time away I appreciate and remember all the good things about my own nation, rather than just the bad. America, as Leonard Cohen once brilliantly put it, is certainly "the cradle of the best and of the worst." So prepare yourselves, people, I am coming back to the cradle. 

Bob Dylan put it best:

I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough!

Final things

Today was my last full day here, and has been lovely! Time to finally blog all the stuff I haven't yet. I had a bunch of great meetings and encounters with warm and kind English people, so I know they're not all like the naysayers at the Independence Day party. It has been a great seven weeks here, all told. 


Some highlights from yesterday:

Katie and I walked across London Bridge to Borough Market to have some delicious market fare. Tower Bridge is getting into the Olympic spirit.

Walking across London Bridge; the new Shard building, now the tallest in Europe. 

Looks like a shard, indeed!

This was, with no hyperbole whatsoever, the best coffee I have ever had. 

And I've had a lot of coffee.

Following our jaunt to Borough Market, I took a bus across town to meet my friend Cressida and snapped these pix from the bus. This is the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.

Side view, with a statue I think of Wellington himself

Above and below: Green Park

Large, prideful billboard. Not sure who they are "victorious" over but let's leave that for now

And, my own version of the photo (not by me) that provides the blog header.

Independence Day

Normally I am not patriotic at all, but celebrating July 4 in England brought out my Revolutionary spirit. I read the Declaration of Independence yesterday morning, and cannot agree more:

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We went to a party hosted by some Americans who even provided fireworks! 

Not bad for someone's backyard. 

The British people present mocked us. I was glad to be independent of them.

...in a basement down the stairs

Outside the British Museum. This one is for you, dad (click to enlarge and read sign)!

The Globe!

On Tuesday evening Katie and I went to see a smashingly fabulous production of Henry V at the Globe Theatre! We were groundlings. The good thing was the tickets cost 5 pounds; the bad thing was we had to stand for three hours. And it rained intermittently. But hey, it was AUTHENTIC. Here are some photos I snapped before they yelled at me. (There was not clear signage that this was not allowed.) Note presence of raincoats. You can even sort of see the actors.

These were some cool trees next to the Millenium Bridge on our walk home: 

Last Days in London

The last couple of days have been quite hectic and consumed with last things - seeing people I'd yet to see or for the last time, meetings with some professors, visits to museums, and the like. After 6 weeks here I left a lot till the end (since I was actually working, after all), but managed to do most of it!

So, here are some photos from earlier in the week. First, another walking tour of off-the-beaten path sights thanks to Mick, starting with the Christopher Wren-designed Church of St. Stephen Walbrook!  A very beautiful space with ample light and a neat central round altar. The pulpit is crazy big, as you will see in the photo below.

 Then we moved on to the Guildhall, below (including adorable Dick Whittington's cat sculpture):

Courtesy of Katie, the Ballad of Dick Whittington and his Cat! (Click to enlarge):

One of the most bizarre things I've seen to date was this Roman amphitheater. The actual ruins are not much to write home about (no pun intended) but the crazy Tron-style illuminated gladiator scene certainly gives it an interesting vibe.

From there, we went down to the Docklands and the Museum of London there. Some interesting exhibits on the triangle of trade and slavery (rather depressing, of course) and a very bizarre exhibit called "Sailortown" which replicated a sailor hangout of the nineteenth century. It smelled really weird and was very dark. Didn't spend much time there.

Now off to farewell dinner with Katie, who leaves tomorrow, but more to come!

Rainy morning at the British Museum

Yesterday morning Katie and I popped into the British Museum on our way to the office (it is, literally, on the way to the office, which is pretty great). 

Love the entrance hall!

I used to go to the British Museum a lot when I was on a fellowship at Cambridge and would escape to London on the weekend, so I enjoyed showing Katie some of my old favorites.

I'm a sucker for Assyrians.

The lion hunting scenes are really impressive, especially when you consider that they're almost 3,000 years old. If you're interested there's more info on them here.

This lion is having a rough time. You can tell we've been away from home for too long because Katie and I both started hardcore missing our cats in this exhibit.

My iPhone camera doesn't do so well with low light, but you can still sort of tell that the detail on the upper left lion is pretty incredible.

Then, on to the Parthenon marbles!

A couple of highlights:

Cats are becoming a theme here

This foot is pretty amazing

I leave you with possibly my all-time favorite little guys, the Lewis Chessmen: