Royal London

You are in London, the home of the Royals. So of course you will check out the life of the Royals. At least we did. 

St James Park

We started by walking through St James Park, the oldest royal park in London. We were on our way to somewhere and it seemed like a promising route. It was quiet with the usual birds and flowers, as well as some nice views, To the east there appeared to be a castle which turned out to just be an area of government offices. To the south we could see "The Eye", 

In 1532, King Henry VIII added St. James's to his royal collection of deer parks, fenced it off to the general public and built the hunting lodge that would become the Palace of St James's. The park was a Tudor playground for jousting, fetes and festivals. Today St. James’s Park is the home of ceremonial events. Seeing a pelican was unexpected but  pelicans have been kept at the park since 1664, when a Russian ambassador presented them to King Charles II

Buckingham Palace

We signed up for a tour of Buckingham Palace. At least it seemed like it would be a tour. In reality is was a combo of paid admission and guidance to get us fast track access to the Palace. No photos were allowed inside so all we have are our memories. And basically my memories of most ceremonial palaces are that they sure look uncomfortable. Clearly they are only ceremonial. No one would want to live there. We did get to pose with the King and Queen (sort off) after the tour. 

Royal Mews 

The Royal Mews is home to the horses, carriages and grandiose Rolls Royce (and likely other cars that weren't on exhibit. The highlight of the visit is the carriage collection. Only a few horses are housed here regularly but usually a couple for exhibition purposes. Unfortunately the stalls are so high you can't really see the horses. Consequently we focused on the impressive carriages.

 

- clockwise from top left 

• The Gold State Coach, "one of the most magnificent royal coaches in the world, was commissioned by George Ill in 1760. It was delivered to the Royal Mews and trialled on 24 November 1762. The next day, huge crowds turned out to see the king use it for the first time as he travelled to the State Opening of Parliament. It worked well, although a pane of glass cracked and one of the door handles broke.
• The Diamond Jubilee State Coach "is the newest coach in the Royal Mews. It was created for Queen Elizabeth lI to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee ... The coach is postilion-driven by a groom on each pair of horses, and is almost five-and-a-half meters long, over three metres high and weighs over three tonnes. The body is aluminium which gives it strength and stability."
• The original Irish State Coach "was built as a speculative venture in 1851 by John Hutton & Sons of Dublin, who held a Royal Warrant as coachbuilders to Queen Victoria. Exhibited at the 1853 Great Industrial Exhibition, it was admired by the Queen, purchased and delivered to the Royal Mews. It was damaged by fire in 1911. It was restored in 1989 by the Royal Mews carriage restorers."
• The Glass Coach "was originally acquired for the 1911 coronation of King George V. Its name comes from the use of glass in all the top panels except for the back. The coach has been used for several royal weddings, usually to convey the bride to the ceremony.The interior is lined with blue satin and the exterior panels are painted with the royal arms in the centre, flanked by the heraldry of the Order of the Garter.

Changing of the Guard 

We were positioned to catch the replacement guards as they were leaving the barracks. Then we went through Green Park to catch the off-duty guards as they returned to the barracks via The Mall (along the north of Green Park).

Westminster Abbey

Benedictine monks founded Westminster Abbey in 960AD. Formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, it has been the setting for every Coronation since 1066 and for numerous other royal occasions, including sixteen royal weddings. It is the burial site for 18 English, Scottish, and British monarchs (and some of the most significant people in Britain's history including Lewis Carrol, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking). The interior is truly lovely and well loved. There was a large crowd but it was well managed. 

The Tower of London

In 1070 William the Conqueror built a stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. The Tower served as a "surprisingly luxurious palace" for 500 years. Over the centuries it has proven to be safe place to keep precious jewelry and worrisome enemies. It also housed the Royal Mint, the Royal Armories and even a zoo. Today, as home to the Crown Jewels, the Yeomen Warders and its legendary guardians, the pampered ravens, the Tower now attracts over three million visitors a year.

We arrived early and headed straight to the Crown Jewels. When we arrived we there were a few others around but we were able to make two full passes around them without waiting, Pat needed a third pass. By then the crowd had picked-up and we had to patiently wait our turn. Aside from the 3rd pass at the jewels, our tour of the walls and the exhibits on the history of the tower was pretty sane and enjoyable. 

When we noticed the Ravens, we were reminded of the legend that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, the kingdom and the Tower will fall. (Note: Less romantic but practical - The ravens are also scavengers and help clean the grounds.) 

We were charmed by troupe of monkeys made of thick wires. And later a huge bear also made of wires. These appear to represent when the tower served as a zoo. The monkeys made us think of the live moneys we would have seen if this were in India.

We had intended to take a Beefeater Tour and made it through several stops on the tour, along with our fellow audience of at least 100. It wasn't as bad as I would have expected but it became too much for us and we escaped to wander on our own.

The Mystery of the Throne in the Throne Room -- It's a lovely throne and looks to be a replica of the Coronation Chair which dates back to 1296 when King Edward I seized the Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation seat of the Scottish kings. The Coronation Chair, a Gothic-style high-backed armchair was made by order of King Edward I to enclose the Stone of Scone in about 1300. It has been at the centre of English coronations ever since. The lovely throne we saw here is not that. We saw that in Westminster Abbey. So what is this?  A replica in style but unlike the original wooden throne it is decorated in lovely gold or bronze. Or maybe it has more of a story. We don't know.

St Paul's Cathedral 

A Roman temple to Diana may once have stood on the site, but the first Christian cathedral there was dedicated to St. Paul in 604AD. That cathedral burned, and its replacement (built 675–685) was destroyed by Viking raiders. 

The present structure, which was completed in 1710 was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The cathedral's reconstruction was part of a major rebuilding program initiated in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London.

St. Paul's Cathedral serves as the Anglican Episcopal see in London and thus has figured prominently in many major cultural and religious events, from the funerals of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill to the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.

Royal Albert Hall 

An impressive space for all kinds of events with special rooms for the Royalty to entertain before or after. performances. The Royal Albert Hall was built by Queen Victoria to fulfill the dream of her husband Prince Albert of promoting understanding and appreciation of the Arts and Sciences in the heart of South Kensington. Everyone who is anyone has performed and /or spoken here. There is a great tryptic mural with 400 of them included, along with Albert the cat honored for keeping the organ safe from rodents. 

Here's a enlarged view of the center of the tryptic with Bill Clinton and cute little black and white Albert the cat behind Bill's left shoulder.

Kew Gardens / Royal Botanic Gardens

It's a direct underground ride from Sloan Square to Kew Gardens. Easy peasy. 

We visited Kew Gardens in1986. We had no maps or books, just personal recommendations to go there. A lot of time has passed, and while we remember that garden as being impressive and having an amazing glass house, neither of us remember there being 3 amazing glass houses or the garden being as massive as it is with 330 aces. 

The Palm House has an indoor rainforest with tropical plants from some of the most threatened environments in the world.

The Hive is a striking art installation that recreates life inside a beehive.

It is 56 feet high with 1000 LED lights that glow according to the vibrations of bees that live in the Gardens. 

The Botanical Brasserie is a fine restaurant with a view of the Palm House.

On the grounds are several stainless steel artworks by Marc Quinn, who, after touring Kew's Palm House, was inspired to create three monumental artworks that "celebrate the palm tree's spectacular sculptural form and striking silhouette."

The Princess of Wales Conservatory (10 controlled climate zones, desert to the tropics), the celebrated giant waterlily Victoria Boliviana floats in the wet tropical zone. Its spectacular flowers open at sunset, close in the morning, closing in whatever insects are on them. But they are not carnivorous because when the flower open again at night the insects are free to continue their pollination efforts. Nearby is, however, a great display of carnivorous plants.

The nondescript brick Kew Palace, was home to George III and Queen Charlotte. Grandmother of Queen Victoria and great-great-great-great grandmother of Elizabeth II, is the oldest structure on the property. Later the house became a refuge for George III, when he fell ill and was thought to have become mad. The gardens were cultivated as an idyllic pleasure ground for the royals. 

The Tree Top Walkway, nearly 60 feet high walk passes through the canopy with views of the treetops and of the Temperate House, home to 1,200 species from Asia, Australasia, the Americas, and Africa. Most of the species grown in the Temperate House are unable to tolerate temperatures below freezing with a preferred minimum temperature kept at around 10F.

Nearby is the Giant Pagoda with 80 dragons; a Chinese building built in 1762

and restored in 2018. Inside is an exhibit of its history.

London Shows

We went to five shows. Four were traditional theater. A couple were quite flashy but still, theater. We enjoyed them all even though they varied from Matilda - The Musical to Shakespear's Coriolanus.

The fifth was a digital illumination. More on that below.

Matilda: The Musical

This is a Children's Book translated to the stage. It had the simplest, staging, just something that served as a protrusion of land or some furniture and some similar background. Being a children's story, many kids were in attendance. and, for us, it won the post-show award for charm....After exiting the theater we were surrounded by colorfully decorated electric carriages loaded with or waiting for kids and families to tour around the neighborhood. 

Coriolanus 

This is a Shakespearien story of "Public" life in Rome and the difficulty of transferring battle field skills into Political life. For staging it uses an interesting huge cubical structure suspended over the stage. This was lowered briefly between sets to reveal a wide range of smaller rectangular pieces to frame the action. And while the play takes place in Roman times, the costumes were modern dress.

Coriolanus was at the National Theatre which has a fine dining option (Ladnum). We met our friends Mark and Rosemary Keatly there for lunch before the play.

SIX

SIX gets the award for cutest concept. The storyline is that the 6 wives of Henry VIII compete to see who had it the worse. Which is worse, having the whole church changed so he can get a divorce or being beheaded?  It is a colorful show, again with pretty basic staging.

Wicked

Wicked takes place in OZ preceding Dorothy's visit. It is the background story of the Wizard and two of the witches. It's glitzy stage is overlooked by a flying dragon and clock backdrop (we aren't sure why they used a clock though.). There were very few props, it was all in the costuming.

Frameless, the ultimate immersive art experience

This is an entirely different experience from the other shows. Imagine a large basement of a large city development that is intended to house a multi-screen cinema but converted to house 4 large vacant rooms equipped with 50 of Panasonic's most innovative projectors and 360 degree surround sound provided by 158 loud speakers all connected to the main control room with over 100km of cables. Primarily the 4 walls of each gallery serve as the screens. (The audience also serves as small screens.) 

Highly regarded artworks, 42 masterpieces, spanning 1C BC to nearly present day are projected individually in huge scale; in whole and in parts with the images moving around the room. The effect is truly mesmerizing and immersive as promoted.  We walked into one gallery to see "The Wave" appearing to be actively crashing in front of Mt Fuji. Breathtaking.  

It's impossible to convey the experience in photos but we snapped lots of shots. They may look like just views of various pieces of the artworks but they are pictures of the walls acting as screens. The people in our photos are others in the audience. but help provide a sense of scale. Additionally we did our best to correlate our photos to the works of art they reflect but no promises of accuracy,

We really enjoyed Frameless but felt bad when we learned it had replaced our friends local cinema (a huge Odeon complex) with an event that attracts a wider audience to what is there lovely neighborhood (in the heart of London just on the north side of Hyde Park). 

Entrance is by escalator lit up with changing colors. 

The four galleries have specific themes, a couple with unique features. 

We started with The Art of Abstraction.

Extracting a bit from the signage: In 1906 Hilma af Klint, formerly a traditional landscape painter from Stockholm, started to create radical works of art made up of only abstract shapes and fervent color to convey spiritual meaning. ...Through abstract art artists could express spiritual experiences, inner thoughts and feelings, and external social and political realities, without directly relating to our visual world.

This gallery was laid out as a maze with walls of cheesecloth which acted as intermediate screens interacting with the varied views of the artworks.

Pieces displayed in the roughly 25 minute show included:

• Hilma af Klint's Group IV No. 3 (top left, bottom right)
• Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VIII (top right)
• László Moholy-Nagy's Composition 1939 (bottome left)
• Piet Mondrian's Composition with large red plane, yellow, black grey and blue (center left)

We moved on to The World Around Us

Again, excerpted from the signage: The World Around Us captures the drama and beauty of our physical world. using art from the Baroque and Romantic periods, Impressionist and Post Impressionist movements, as well as Japanese woodblock art.

 Pieces displayed in the show included:

• Artwork from Pompeii (top left)
• J.M.W. Turner's Sun-drenched Ethereal Plain
• van Gogh's Starry night in Provence, 
• Hokusai's woodblock Mt Fuji series (top right, bottom left) 

• J.M.W Turner-the fighting Temeraire (top left)
• Eruption of Vesuvius by John Wright of Derby (top right)
• Rembrandt van Rijn's Christ in the storm on the Sea of Galilee 
• Canaletto's views of the Venice Grand Canal (left center and bottom)

Color in Motion Gallery

Once gain, excerpted from the signage:  "Color In Motion connects you with every brushstroke ...in works by Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Vincent van Gogh - who were synonymous with Impressionism, Pointillism, and Post-Impressionism.

The works represented include:

• Monet's The Water Lily Pond
• Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
• van Gogh's Stary Night
• Van Gogh's Self Portrait
• Paul Signac's Mont Saint Michel, Setting Sun

A world BEYOND REALITY

Throughout the ages artists have constructed alternative realities through paint with interpretations of myths, dreams, nightmares. The most famous group of artists to produce such works were the Surrealists such as Max Ernst and Salvador Dali, who created surprising, and often challenging imagery with deep symbolic meaning.

• Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (top left, 2 top & center right)
• Henri Rousseau's The Dream (center right)
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Spring (bottom left)
• Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory (center left)

• Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights (2 left)
• Max Ernst 's The Fireside Angel (top right)
• Henri Rousseau's The Dream (center right)
• Salvador Dalí's The Elephants (bottom right)

A Sampling of London's Museums

London has numerous highly regarded museums. We focused on the few that  most appealed to us.

Victoria & Albert Museum

We decided to start with the nearby Victoria & Albert Museum since it was the last week of the Taylor Swift exhibit. Interestingly, it wasn't the typical special exhibit confined to one or two rooms. It was spread out all over the museum so you got a good selection of the normal exhibits while hunting down the Taylor Swift ones. They say there are 7 miles of galleries, we missed a couple....

The Taylor Swift exhibits spanned her life and career with vignettes, referred to as "Chapters", featuring costumes and props from her various shows and releases, as well as some movies and photos of her childhood. 

The exhibitions span the world with religions, arts, and fashion. Below are Christian artworks from Europe; an asian statue of Virupa (a Buddhist holy man); a lovely sculptured bust and a very ornate piano.

Below CW from top left: A state carriage, a couple Dacre Beasts, Trajan's Columns (the story of Trajan/Hadrian's battles scroll around the column from bottom to top). and a portion of the massive sculpture display.

The Dacre Beasts, each over six feet tall, are rare survivors of Tudor heraldic woodwork. In heraldic terms, the figures were 'supporters' - the creatures that appear on either side of a shield.

Below are a selection from Pat's favorite galleries, the ones focused on fashion.

And of course there are wonderful glass pieces. Below CW from top left: Deep Blue and Bronze Persian Set by Dale Chihuly 1999, Venetian glass pieces, another Chihuly piece hanging from the dome, and a piece called Tactual Stimulation made from Lamp-worked glass by Kaffeman. "This piece explores the complex psychology around our urge to touch things that are both beautiful and dangerous, alluring and repulsive."

The British Museum 

"Two million years of history and culture across more than 50 galleries".. No wonder it takes days to do it justice. But, having been there before, we relegated it to one morning. We know, we know. We clearly missed some great stuff but we are fine with that.

In the Ancient Egypt galleries we found: 

• The upper part of a colossal seated statue of King Ramesses II, carved from one block, quarried at Aswan almost 200 kilometers further south.
• The Ram sphinx of King Tahargo with the supreme god Amun represented as a ram, protecting a figure of King Tahargo. 

• These colorful mummy cases.

• Roman mosaics from Northern Africa. 
• Gold chariot model with the Egyptian god Bes is depicted on the front. 
• Sculpture of a bearded Mercury. 
• Another mosaic from North Africa.

Some more European focused exhibits include:

• Horned helmet found in the River Thames. It is the only Iron Age horned helmet to be found in Europe. The helmet is made from sheet bronze sections held together with bronze rivets.
• Marble statuette of Bacchus shows Bacchus in a typical pose, holding an empty wine-cup in his right hand and leaning against a tree-trunk which supports a fruiting vine. His panther is at his feet.
• Amphorae.
• Bronze & gold plated rings, bracelets, ingots, coins and broken torcs (a neck ring that opens at the front; we'd call it a necklace).
• The front of the British Museum with a Greek style pediment.

The Courtauld Gallery 

The Courtauld Gallery houses the collection of the Samuel Courtauld Trust and is noted for its remarkable group of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including works  by Manet, van Gogh, Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Renoir, Seurat and more. Additionally there are works from the Renaissance to the 18C. Plus a collection of Medieval and Early Renaissance paintings and decorative arts, as well as Rooms devoted to 20th century art and the Bloomsbury Group.

• A Don Quixote work by Honoré Daumier, a caricaturist for French newspapers but also a painter. He devoted over 20 works to the story of Don Quixote. "This piece conveys the tragic and comic qualities of the story. The proud, chivalrous but deluded knight is contrasted with his down-to-earth groom, Sancho Panza. The gaunt horse and plump donkey gently mock the unlikely pairing of these two men."
• A  painting by Alfred Sisley shows a view of the river Seine. "The brushstrokes are remarkably rough and sketchy. They help to give the picture its sense of immediacy."
• Eugène Boudin typically depicted fashionable Parisian visitors at seaside resorts. "The figures in this scene - beachgoers and local fishermen with their horse-drawn cart - are captured with quick strokes of paint. The main subject is the sky and the effect of light on the billowing clouds."
• A troupe of dancers perform a high-kicking dance popular in Parisian nightclubs in the late 19C ...by Georges Seurat.
• This haymaking scene in Brittany, captured by Paul Gauguin, is typical of the radically simplified approach with forms "rendered as flat patches of vibrant color, while three-dimensional relationships and perspective are deliberately ignored. Gauguin reduces the peasant women raking hay to the basic shapes of their black-and-white regional dress, presenting their actions as a timeless ritual."

• Claude Gellée, nicknamed 'Lorrain' spent his entire career in Rome, favoring idyllic landscapes set in the town of Tivoli, outside of Rome, "which combined ancient Roman ruins with expansive views of the countryside. More than an accurate depiction, however, Claude sought here to render a general atmosphere."
• Pesellino specialized in small-scale pictures for private devotion. The Annunciation was a common theme for such works. In this piece, "the angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary outside her chamber, telling her she will soon give birth to the son of God."
• Pieter Bruegel "depicts the story of Mary, Joseph and their infant son Jesus on their way to Egypt, fleeing persecution. However, Bruegel sets the scene in a dramatic European landscape, perhaps recalling his experience of crossing the Alps." 
• This bust of Mette, Paul Gauguin's "Danish wife, is one of only two marble sculptures he ever made. The other is of their son Emil. The finely ruffled collar and gap between collar and neck demonstrate a level of technique surprising in someone with no formal sculptural training." 

The National Gallery

Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalizing an existing royal art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. And it grew and grew from there later spinning off the Tate Gallery. Some of the highlights (for us) are:

• Hendrick Avercamp's  "A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle". This busy winter scene, reflects the unusually cold winters Holland experienced in the 17C. 
• Andrea Mantegna's "Samson and Delilah" with Delilah cutting Samson's hair as he sleeps with his head in her lap. "The painting imitates ancient Roman relief sculpture. The boldly patterned marble background suggests the dawn sky.'"
•  Van Dyck's "The Balbi Children".  "Their intricately ornamented attire and elegant bearing suggest their high birth." 
• Jan van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Portrait" ... "probably shows Giovanni Arnolfini, a wealthy Italian merchant resident in Bruges, and his wife. ...The painting is signed on the wall above the mirror, 'Jan van Eyck was here'."

• Claude Monet's "Snow Scene at Argenteuil". "It evokes the cold winter atmosphere through a steely palette of blues and greys, occasionally given depth by sharp accents of colour."
• Vincent van Gogh's "Farms near Auvers,"  "A row of dilapidated farm buildings dominates this picture, made a month before the artist's death. Their shapes are mimicked by the fields and hills behind. The hasty brushwork and blank sky suggest that the painting is unfinished."

• "Coastal Scene" by Théo van Rysselberghe, a Belgian artist who adopted the pointillist painting technique of Georges Seurat. 

The Museum of Natural History

Another museum close to our apartment is the Natural History Museum. IThe building is gorgeous. In front of the entrance is the Nature Discovery Garden. Below are two views of the building and a small Wollemi pine tree, once thought to be extinct until being found in Australia in 1994...see story below. 

Here is the story of the Wollemi pine tree.

There are fine carvings and sculptures of animals. Some as design details on the building and some as parts of exhibits. Below: Monkey on a column inside the museum, bird carving on panels inside, a mini dinosaur replica, a Pterodactyl on the outside of the building, and a small furry creature (maybe 6 inches long) that lived 200 million years ago and is one of the earliest known mammals.

This sign displayed in the Nature Discovery Garden tells the story of the 79 feet long Diplidocus (long necked dinosaur)

We enjoyed this display of Macaws, the suspended skeleton of a Blue Whale, and a slice of a sequoia was a seedling in the year 557 and was felled at the age of 1335.

London - Getting Settled in Chelsea

We were driven from St Ives to the train station in Bodman for our move to London. The train ride produced one interesting picture, the Westbury White Horse, 180 ft (55 m) tall and 170 ft (52 m) wide, dating from the 1770's. 

Our apartment was at the intersection of Cheltenham Terrace and King Street. It was a great location a few steps from Duke of York Square and Partridges (small super market targeted toward apartment dweller with a fine deli counter, interesting wine selection, fresh fruits and veggies, and a bakery.)  The Saturday Market in Duke of York Square had a great selection, veggies and fruit, fresh made pastas, cheeses, pastries, and prepared dishes representing the world of cuisines. 

It was less than 10 minutes to Pavilion Road (another foodie stop with a fine wine shop, great bakery, green grocer, butcher, and cheese shop).

After a couple of walking trips we had our morning and evening bites and sources of supplies for the rest of our London stay. We also had two lunches in Duke of York Square:

• Vardo - Veal Schnitzel & Smoked Chicken Caesar
• Polpo - Octopus & Sea Bream (red snapper)

A little further afield we went to Harrods (20 min walk). The Italian lunch was quite satisfying at 

• Pasta Evangelist - saffron risotto and carbonara. 

We found most of the rest of the store too biased to the priciest of their genre, including the wines. The Egyptian decor around the escalators was eye-catching.

Our apartment overlooked Kings Road with a continuous line of shops (clothing, wine, food, …) and restaurants. While we were there there was a Public Art Trail, a temporary exhibit of animal sculptures along Kings Road.

It was less than a 10 min walk to the tube station in Sloan Square. And the walk light at the only cross street always seemed to be in our favor.

The Circle or District lines that passes through Sloane Square also stops near many of the sights we were interested in seeing. A few sights required one line change (Covent Garden, Marble Arch, Oxford Circus for example). Paying for the tube was a simple tap in and out (credit card, phone, or like Pat & I, our watches). Buns from Home near the tube entrance provided us with some breakfast treats.

Our days fell into a relaxing rhythm. Our month long stay in London was a favorite "activity" on the trip, despite the amount of cold, rainy, windy weather. A typical day consisted of:

• Spending the early morning catching up on email /messages from the US, making blog notes, making plans for the day or for future days in London (book tix for the couple tours we wanted or shows, laying out the transportation and touring plan for different areas, reviewing dining options).
• Assessing just how cold, windy, rainy we should expect and work out what this meant regarding activities and how to prepare for the weather. Deciding how to dress, and what to carry (hint: carry an umbrella, fortunately we had picked up a very compact one which worked well). We had maybe 5 or 6 truly sunny, comfortable days. We saved outdoor activities (visiting Greenwich, Kew Gardens) for these.  
• Heading out for our activity of the day (museum, shopping, exploring, ...)
• Finding our targeted late lunch experience or choosing an appealing option as we wandered.
• Exploring a bit in whatever neighborhood we found ourselves in.
• Returning home, shopping for a light meal as we go
• Some leisurely computer time uploading photos, making blog notes, paying bills (yep they accrue as we travel but we just pay them on line), and Pat checking in / catching up on i3 activities
• Partaking of our evening meal while enjoying a streamed movie

We expected to get bored and need day trips....but we loved the relaxing pace and Greenwich and Richmond / Kew Gardens became our longest treks.

A couple days were planned around availability at the Apple Genius bar at Covent Gardens, a convenient neighborhood for restaurants, shopping and museums. Pat's MacBook Air had an intermittent problem which didn't go away even with a completely new install of the OS or replacing the logic board. Looks like Apple will replace the computer, but that requires being somewhere long enough to ship the old one back and receive a new one (10 days). We've decided to wait til we go to the US sometime in the next few months. Bill needed to get his computer checked out because of a liquid spill on the keyboard. It seemed OK but he may need a new keyboard (fortunately all this is on Apple Care).