England, May 17-29, 2016

Nereids. Sea-nymphs from Xanthos, southwest Turkey. 4th century BC.

One has to wait a minute or two to get to the front of the mosh pit in front of the Rosetta Stone to see its face close up.

The Library of Ashurbanipal from Nineveh, Assyria (near modern Mosul, Iraq). 7th century BC. One letter fthe size of a biscuit of shortbread reads, "Why don't you write your tablet and do your homework?!"

Buskers playing Vivaldi.

View from the Royal Opera House lounge balcony.

The bus we took almost daily to the Globe Theatre.

At the beginning of the extensive Exhibition adjacent to the reconstructed theatre.

Zubin Varla (Oberon/Theseus) practices his wire work with the help of Margaret Ann Bain (Flute/Philostrate) and Tibu Fortes (Fairy).

Perspective of a 'penny stinker.' It's five minutes before the second half of the show starts. Can you spot the actor on stage?

Ushers or players? This production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was a smash hit. Every part of the multidimensional play was perfect. I even caught the banana!

The edge of the stage. In Shakespeare's time this is where buckets were placed for audience members to urinate into during the show.

Timberframe and the only thatched roof in London. Permits for the roof delayed construction for years. London still remembers the great fire of 1666.

Because the Globe was reconstructed authentically, it contains no lobby or other facilities. These are housed in adjacent buildings which share a courtyard with the new Globe.

After a show, this gate opens so patrons can stream out of the complex onto the bankside.

Nixon. 1965/2002. Nam June Paik.

Mondrian influences textile design.

View from the restaurant. This photo makes me feel like a television show is about to begin.

Babel. 2001. Cildo Meireles. The radios were on and creating a gentle, well-mixed cacophony of voices and music.

The charmingest roundabout in London. Forget Picadilly Circus, come chill here.

I spent a few days wondering what Forbidden Planet sold. I finally went in. It's a superstore of comics and graphic novels. Geek heaven.

The Seven Dials Hotel is a budget hotel in the heart of it all. Clean and well run. We really enjoyed our stay.

The hotel's functional but pleasant dinning room is downstairs.

A traditional English breakfast powered us though each day of sightseeing. Yum!

Steps away from the hotel. It's day one and we're walking to the British Museum.

The writers group actually met a few blocks north of here at addresses around Gordon Square.

Cycle rental stations are everywhere making one way trips convenient. Rates are cheap. The system is automated and requires a credit card. I was tempted to give it a try.

This street performer looks like a commuter returning from a long day of work slaying dragons.

Can you spot the bowler hat?

This bobby proceeded to politely rouse a homeless man sleeping on the park's lawn.

I keep bumping into this guy everywhere!

Note the shadow on the building at left.

Hanging out. Trafalgar Square is one of the great public spaces. It functions just like an Italian piazza.

The Museum of London is the antithesis of the British Museum. It's unpretentious and modern, but still full of great stuff.

The museum includes lots of informative (and engaging) media displays.

Sometimes the displays themselves are antiques!

More rental bikes off to the left.

I'm pretty sure this cyclist is a courier delivering food.

Double-decker buses are just plain cool. Does London have a copyright on them? Why don't all big cities use them?

How many red buses can you spot? I count 12 not including the one I'm on.

The ballet was wonderful but at intermission I stumbled into this swank space and discovered what these evenings are really about.

Intermissions were long enough for a quick meal. Ordering is done ahead of time.

Growing up in the age of American empire, I find the name of this establishment refreshingly honest.

These kids are climbing a 15" shell that weighs 1938lbs and travelled up to 29kms when fired from the naval guns in the previous picture.

A Spitfire fighter plane soars in the atrium of the museum.

A Harrier jump jet, V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket are also suspended in the atrium.

Three floors of galleries surround the atrium.

WWI and WWII galleries occupy floors one and two. The galleries on floor three examine the Cold War, Iraq War & the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Best use of projection ever. The shadows falling on the trench wall are animated. A soundtrack lets you listen in on the soldiers casting the shadows.

The WWI galleries are the most detailed and evocative. However, I found the Holocaust Exhibition on the fourth floor the most moving.

I popped in here on my way to the British Library to see what modern train travel is like.

'Shakespeare in Ten Acts' was a special exhibition exploring the performance of Shakespeare's works over the last four centuries. I didn't have time to visit it intent as I was on visiting the Ritblat.

The Ritblat Gallery is a hushed, dimly lit gallery that houses precious manuscripts like a copy of the Gutenberg Bible and Magna Carta. But the stars of the show for me were a sonnet in Shakespeare's hand and scores in Handel's & Beethoven's.

The library was also hosting an exhibition about Punk. It was meager and misbegotten. What could be less punk then bunch of old posters, zines and t-shirts under glass? The title of the exhibition states the obvious: punk is over.

This cyclist is more punk than the exhibition inside the library.

Blake's 'Newton' (1795) in bronze by Eduardo Paolozzi, 1995.

Simthfield is within and just without the ancient city walls of the City of London. The meat market that operates there has done so continuously since the 10th century.

A traditional English pub which now does a booming trade catering a fixed menu to busloads of tourists. The food was good but the beer was better. London Pride is an award-winning cask ale.

A new bike path, a controversial construction that Londoners love to complain about.

The recently-new London Eye, a controversial construction that Londoners used to complain about but now love.

Parliament, aka the Palace of Westminster. You can see the twin towers of Westminster Abbey in the background just to the right of the clock tower.

Tower Bridge.

...and the Gherkin.

Somewhere in Whitehall, the set of government buildings around Parliament.

The Changing of the Guard. These are old troops going off shift. Bands played.

Flats and facinators. The Queen had held one of her regular garden parties earlier in the day. Those who recieve an invitation wait for hours on the lawns of the palace in order to meet her. Sensible shoes and fancy hats are required.

The Royal Standard is replaced with the Union Jack when the Queen is not in residence at the Palace.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, Windsor Castle organized a small exhibit about its history with the Bard.

Those rooms of castle open to the public are full of art and artifacts worthy of any museum. I found the castle's small collection of English Renaissance painting the best I'd ever seen.

The private wing of the castle.

The banquet hall is at left. This was one of Henry VIII's palaces, later William & Mary's, Queen Anne's and others.

The palace complex and grounds are large. William & Mary sought to renovate it to rival Versailles.

Our tour did not take us inside though Lonely Planet reports it's full of great architecture and art.

A scholar leaves Radcliffe Camera and braces himself for weaving through the throngs of tourists.

St Michael at the North Gate maintains the 11th century Saxon Tower as a tourist attraction filled with sundry items.

It's just tall enough to provide views of the University spires about town.

Entering the Schools Quadrangle, home of the Old Bodleian Library and heart of the old University.

The quad is ringed with doors to old lecture halls.

The Bodleian Library was founded in 1602 atop a collection begun in 1327. It quickly grew to be England's national library until the founding of the British Museum in 1753.

'Ancient City Wall' - 'Erected in 1912'

The large, modern entry to Shakespeare's Birthplace is off to the left. Ticket holders enter the historic building from a courtyard in the back. But the house itself fronts onto the street just like any other.

The displays, furnishings and costumed docents inside the Tudor home were interesting but a bit stagy.

King Edward VI School operated (and still operates!) in Stratford-upon-Avon's guildhall, then the centre of local governance. Shakespeare's dad was Bailiff (mayor) and the Borough promoted education.

The Guildhall and School had just opened as an attraction in April. It's staffed by enthusiastic volunteers. It tickled my imagination more than the Birthplace.

Our seats were fantastic, right by the stage.

The production rocked on all levels especially the modern African setting and the all black cast. All roles were acted superlatively. The youthful Hamlet rendered by Paapa Essiedu was perfect.

The Cotswolds, we criss-crossed their rolling hills between Stratford-upon-Avon in the north and Bath in the south, Oxford in the east and Wales in the west.

The area is typified by its golden limestone.

Broadway, Worcestershire is a tranquil village that attracted Victorian artists, writers and composers, and became the centre of the Arts and Crafts movement.

We dipped into Wales briefly.

Founded in the 12th century as a Cistercian monastery, the Abbey fell into ruin 405 years later after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

It's big.

Somehow the lack of a roof makes the abbey seem larger than all those other cathedrals.

An employee of the Roman Baths costumed as a classical Roman lady talks to school children. She has the easy job.

SPQR. Romans, everywhere.

People no longer bathe at the baths at Bath.

A choir was rehearsing. Sadly, a picture cannot capture the beautiful sounds filling the church at this moment.

Georgian architecture.

Celebrations big and small. The Queen had turned 90 in April. Official celebrations were planned around the nation in June.

Put a bird on it.

Stonehenge has a front and a back. This is the front. A procession of celebrants would approach the building along an ancient road for midsummer's eve.

The back of Stonehenge. From this angle of the circle the midsummer night's sun would set in the distance aligned with the approach avenue and other key features of the structure.

The path around Stonehenge allows you to approach the circle of stones relatively closely but not enter it. It's easy to see the inner structure of the building.

The other great church built on the Salisbury Plain.

Our guide was very nice. I don't mean to make fun of him or his religion. Just his religion.

The sculpture of giant feet is by Sophie Ryder and was part of her exhibition 'Relationships' in the cathedral and on its grounds.

Quintessential English countryside.

Bussing from Bath to Stonehenge we passed a military reserve.

Traditional english furrows.

Cricketers.

Our visit to England was just before the Brexit referendum.

Our hotel.

The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier, opened in 1899.

The West Pier, long derelict.

The arcade on the pier is filled with games like this. Coins you spend to play drop onto a shelf where coins from prevous plays sit. Little rakes move constantly forward and backward an inch sweeping the rear of the shelf. A luckily placed coin will push the coins ahead of it forward knocking them off the shelf onto the shelf below where this process repeats. An unluckily placed coin falls atop the other coins beyond the reach of the rakes. The rakes often push coins on top of each other which fails to advance the pile of coins. The layers of coins brace each other so that the pile of coins cantilevers far beyond the edge of each shelf. After much expenditure, a chunk of coins on the lower shelf may break free and fall into the reward chute. So many other coins will nearly fall that it is tempting to feed your winnings back into the machine in hopes of dislodging them too. A very clever, old-fashioned, engaging, mechanical amusement.

An underpass to and from the beach.

The Grand Hotel is right beside the Hilton. It was bombed by the IRA in 1984 in an attempt to assassinate British Prime Minister Thatcher. Thatcher survived but five other people died.

Anne Boleyn's home. Anne was Elizabeth I's mummy.

The castle is very small but contains a marvelous collecion of art and artifacts related to Anne, Elizabeth and Henry VIII, and others connected to castle.

The castle was bought and restored in the early 20th century by American millionaire William Waldorf Astor.

Our final hotel - the building on the right.

The atrium of the hotel offers a view of Westminster Bridge, Parliament and Big Ben (more properly called the Elizabeth Tower, Big Ben being the name of the largest bell in the clock tower).

A young girl pirouettes on top of some public art outside the hotel.

The final show of the trip. An obliging gentleman sold me a ticket for half-price just outside the theatre. The show had long been sold out.

The leads were movie stars who had just starred together in the wonderful 2015 version of Cinderella. Sadly, neither one could act for the stage. This was the only bad production we saw on the trip.

The art direction and costumes were wonderful, and the veteran stage actors were good. Sadly, the youngsters were not. Their beautiful faces and famous names made for a wonderful marquee though. I suspect they got rushed direction. Such are the economics of theatre in the West End.

After the show I walked back to the hotel across Westminster Bridge. The bridge itself is a lively public space. It was full of people.

View of Southbank.

Westminster Bridge.

England, May 17-29, 2016
photos by Jeff Hohner
the following photo essay and photographs are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

London, the British Museum

the Rosetta Stone

those Elgin Marbles

Covent Garden

the Globe Theatre

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" pre-show rehearsal

intermission "The Taming of the Shrew"

the Tate Modern

Seven Dials

view from our room at the Seven Dials Hotel

within a few minutes walk of Seven Dials...

...Bloomsbury Square

...Piccadilly Circus

...Oxford Street

...Leicester Square

...Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square

...and the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

the Museum of London

remains of an Iron Age resident

Oliver Cromwell's death mask

getting around London

traffic jam at Trafalgar Square caused by the Queen's transit to open Parliament

all vehicles in London required to be painted red

the Royal Opera House, "The Winter's Tale" Royal Ballet

the Imperial War Museum

St Pancras Station

the British Library

near Smithfield Meat Market

the start of our guided tour of southern England

the Thames River

the long hand of 'Big Ben' is the length of a double-decker bus

the Tower

Buckingham Palace

the Queen is in

Windsor Castle, west of London

Hampton Court Palace, southwest of London

Elizabeth's room

Oxford

Stratford-upon-Avon, outside Shakespeare's birth place

inside Shakespeare's birth place

the Guild Hall, Shakespeare's school

stage setting for Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company

to Broadway

Broadway

Wales
Cymru

Tintern Abbey

back in England, Bath

Bath Abbey

Castle Combe, public house

Castle Combe, parish church

Stonehenge

the midsummer approach

the midsummer view

Salisbury Cathedral

a Cathedral guide demonstrates the holy dipstick (the water table
is critical to the stability of the Cathedral's foundation)

British Army training exercise

furlongs of sheep

from the motorway

Brighton

Hever Castle, southeast of London

divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived

return to London

the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge

the Garrick Theatre

Richard Madden, Lily James, Derek Jacobi, Meera Syal, directed by Branagh & Rob Ashford

happy 80th birthday, Mom
thanks for the wonderful trip!