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: 

Trans Executives

It would be interesting if the text on this bus were descriptive of its contents.

Greenwich part deux; Peckham

Our lovely afternoon in Greenwich continued with a picnic beside the observatory:

Then we climbed up to the observatory itself; you can see the Olympic stadium they're almost done constructing below, and a nice view of the city:

And of course, the obligatory photo straddling the Prime Meridian! Yes, ladies and gents, I am standing in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres AT THE SAME TIME. And that time is GREENWICH MEAN TIME.

We then headed over to Peckham, in South London, where my friend Cressida lives, to go to a crazy rooftop party. I felt great saudade for Brooklyn, as we climbed the steps of a public parking garage to attend the opening day of Frank's pop-up bar; just like in BK you could see the main part of the city at a distance and across a river, there were hipsters all over the place, and the neighborhood was dotted with jerk chicken joints. Also, it was a beautiful day:

The view

Hipster couple; eco-friendly built porta-potty

Ropes keeping the canopy from blowing away

It was very crowded. Apparently there was a feature in TimeOut, Cressida said it was never this full last year. She, brother, and boyfriend worried that "too many people were discovering the neighborhood." See previous ref re: Brooklyn.

This photo was taken to showcase the matching Navajo pattern sweaters on the right

They specialize in Campari. These beautiful drinks were only 1.5 pounds (about $2.25)

Campari contemplates the city sunset

This photograph has not been altered. It actually looked that cool.

Not a bad day, London. Not a bad day.

We had a mean time....

...in Greenwich! Yes, I went there. You know you love a good pun! 

Yesterday Katie and I took a mini-expedition to Greenwich, which despite feeling like a quaint and distant village is in fact part of London. We went out on the very nice Docklands Light Railway, getting off at the Island Gardens stop just across the Thames from Greenwich. Here are the Royal Naval College buildings as seen from there:

Then, we took a really cool foot-tunnel under the river. It felt like the X-Files:

We emerged on the other side at the newly-refurbished Cutty Sark!:

The view from right there (as you can see it was a lovely day):

Then we went and poked around a bit at the Royal Naval College. I'm just going to paste from Wikipedia here, it's late over here and I can't think of a witty or amusing version! 

"The Old Royal Naval College is Sir Christopher Wren's domed masterpiece at the centre of the heritage site. The site is administered by the Greenwich Foundation and several of the buildings are let to the University of Greenwich and one, the King Charles block, to Trinity College of Music. Within the complex is the former college dining room, the Painted Hall, this was painted by James Thornhill, and the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, with an interior designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart. The Naval College had a training reactor, the JASON reactor, within the King William building that was operational between 1962 and 1996. The reactor was decommissioned and removed in 1999."

Here are some photos, including the Painted Hall set up for a fancy schmancy wedding complete with candelabra and the like!

I am retiring for the evening, more to come tomorrow including my standing simultaneously in two hemispheres and a hipster party that reminded me of dearest Brooklyn.  A thousand times good night!