kidzdoc achieves TBR domination in 2014, part 8

This is the facade of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona, designed by Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The hospital was built between 1901 and 1930, and was created as a replacement for the Hospital de la Santa Creu, which was created in 1401 from the merger of six small medieval hospitals. The original Hospital de Sant Pau was replaced by a new building in 2009. It has been designated as a World Heritage Site, and it is being renovated for use as a museum and cultural center.




Currently reading:

    

Lost Luggage by Jordi Puntí
Rochester Castle by Jeremy Ashbee
Gaudí: Introduction to His Architecture by Juan-Eduardo Cirlot
Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs van Hensbergen

Completed books:

January:
1. Homage to Barcelona by Colm Tóibín (review)
2. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (review)
3. How I Became Hettie Jones by Hettie Jones (review) (TBR)
4. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
5. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordechai Richler

February:
6. Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past by Giles Tremlett (TBR)
7. Christmas in Purgatory: A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation
by Burton Blatt & Fred Kaplan
8. Down's Syndrome: The History of a Disability by David Wright
9. Lizard Tails by Juan Marsé (TBR) (review)
10. The Comedians by Graham Greene (TBR) (review)
11. No Name in the Street by James Baldwin (TBR)
12. The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie Ramsey
13. An Unexpected Twist by Andy Borowitz (TBR)

March:
14. The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó
15. Between Friends by Amos Oz
16. Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel
17. The Weir by Conor McPherson
18. Wounded: A New History of the Western Front in World War I by Emily Mayhew
19. The Husbands by Sharmila Chauhan
20. We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury
21. Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
22. 1984 (play script) by George Orwell

April:
23. Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise
24. Ruin Lust: Artists' Fascination with Ruins, from Turner to the Present Day by Brian Dillon
25. Secret Barcelona by Veronica Ramirez Muro and Rocio Sierra Carbonell
26. Barcelona by Robert Hughes
27. Everyman Mapguide Barcelona
28. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (TBR)
29. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
30. Notes for a Spanish Odyssey by Calvin Baker
31. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa
32. I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière (TBR)
33. Gone by Colum McCann

May:
34. The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (TBR)
35. Gasoline by Quim Monzó (TBR)
36. Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (TBR)
37. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
38. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
39. Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov

June:
40. The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal
41. Quietly by Owen McCafferty
42. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos
43. Shanghai Nights by Juan Marsé
44. This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson
45. Vlad by Carlos Fuentes

Purchased and acquired books (purchased books in bold):

January:
1. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (1 Jan, Strand Book Store)
2. The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1 Jan, Book Culture)
3. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild (1 Jan, Book Culture)
4. U.S.A. by John Dos Passos (1 Jan, Book Culture)
5. Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities by Mark Anthony Neal (1 Jan, Book Culture)
6. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes (1 Jan, Book Culture)
7. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat (1 Jan, Book Culture)
8. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon (1 Jan, Book Culture)
9. My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit (1 Jan, Book Culture)
10. Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize by Sean B. Carroll (1 Jan, Book Culture)
11. The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (8 Jan, Amazon Kindle e-book)
12. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark (18 Jan, History Book Club)
13. The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
14. The Odyssey: A Dramatic Retelling of Homer's Epic by Simon Armitage (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
15. Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey by Robert O'Meally (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
16. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis (19 Jan, Kindle e-book)
17. The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
18. The New Spaniards by John Hooper (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
19. Barcelona by John Hughes (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
20. Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends by John Leguizamo (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
21. Just Kids by Patti Smith (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
22. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
23. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)

February:
25. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (6 Feb, Kindle e-book)
26. Christmas in Purgatory: A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation by Burton Blatt, Fred Kaplan (9 Feb, PDF download)
27. Spain in Mind by Alice Leccese Powers (16 Feb, gift book)
28. The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (21 Feb, Kindle e-book)
29. Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, MD (LT Early Reviewers book)
30. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
31. Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty by Emily Mayhew (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
32. Creation: The Origin of Life by Adam Rutherford (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
33. Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
34. Far From the Tree: A Dozen Kinds of Love by Andrew Solomon (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
35. Inconvenient People by Sarah Wise (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
36. An Unexpected Twist (Kindle Single) by Andy Borowitz (27 Feb, Kindle e-book)

March:
37. Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are by Robin Robertson (3 Mar, gift from Karen W.)
38. Thrombosis & Bleeding: An Era of Discovery by Cecil Hougie (5 Mar, Kindle e-book)
39. On the Rez by Ian Frazier (9 Mar, Kindle e-book)
40. We'll Always Have Paris by John Baxter (10 Mar, Kindle e-book)
41. The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
42. The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
43. Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
44. Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
45. 1984 by George Orwell (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
46. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
47. The Weir by Conor McPherson (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
48. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
49. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
50. Sol Campbell by Simon Astaire (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
51. Nomad's Hotel: Travels in Time and Space by Cees Nooteboom (22 Mar, Stanfords Bookshop)
52. The Husbands by Sharmila Chauhan (23 Mar, Soho Theatre)
53. The Hill Station by J.G. Farrell (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
54. Gob's Grief by Chris Adrian (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
55. Falling Out of Time by David Grossman (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
56. Plague and Cholera by Patrick Deville (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
57. The Making of Mr Hai's Daughter by Yasmin Hai (26 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
58. We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury (26 Mar, Bush Theatre)
59. The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times by Barbara Taylor (27 Mar, Daunt Books)
60. Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs van Hensbergen (27 Mar, Daunt Books)
61. Ruin Lust by Brian Dillon (27 Mar, National Theatre Bookshop)
62. King Lear by William Shakespeare (27 Mar, National Theatre Bookshop)
63. 1984 (script) by George Orwell, adapted by Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan (29 Mar, Almeida Theatre)

Purchased and acquired books (purchased books in bold):

April:
64. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (11 Apr, Kindle e-book)
65. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor (14 Apr, Kindle e-book)
66. An Introduction to the Catalan and Valencian Languages by David S. Luton (14 Apr, Kindle e-book)
67. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa (15 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)
68. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Callahan (19 Apr, Kindle e-book)
69. Notes for a Spanish Odyssey by Calvin Baker (20 Apr, Kindle e-book)
70. Gone (Kindle Single) by Colum McCann (20 Apr, Kindle e-book)
71. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (30 Apr, Kindle e-book)

May:
72. Lost Luggage by Jordi Puntí (6 May, Kindle e-book)
73. The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga (7 May, Kindle e-book)
74. All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
75. Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
76. The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
77. The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (16 May, Kindle e-book)
78. Pocket Rough Guide Madrid by Simon Baskett (19 May, Idlewild Books)
79. Barcelona Baedeker Guide (19 May, Idlewild Books)
80. Madrid: A Cultural History (19 May, Idlewild Books)
81. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life (19 May, Idlewild Books)
82. Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov (19 May, Book Culture)
83. Spilt Milk by Chico Buarque (19 May, Book Culture)
84. Family Life by Akhil Sharma (19 May, Book Culture)
85. Book of Hours by Kevin Young (19 May, Book Culture)
86. Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham Aidi (19 May, Book Culture)
87. Stokely: A Life by Peniel E. Joseph (19 May, Book Culture)
88. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur (19 May, Book Culture)
89. The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
90. Glyph: A Novel by Percival Everett (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
91. Sleet: Selected Stories by Stig Dagerman (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
92. Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
93. Paul Robeson: A Watched Man by Jordan Goodman (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
94. A French Book by John Christy (24 May, Kindle e-book)
95. Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende (25 May, Kindle e-book)

June:
96. The Londonist Book Of London Pub Crawls by Matt Brown (1 Jun, Kindle e-book)
97. River Gardens by Lynda Kiss (2 Jun, Kindle e-book)
98. Lancelot by Walker Percy (3 Jun, Kindle e-book)
99. The Physician by Noah Gordon (3 Jun, Kindle e-book)
100. Quietly by Owen McCafferty (3 Jun, Soho Theatre)
101. In the Approaches by Nicola Barker (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
102. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
103. I Am China by Xiaolu Guo (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
104. The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-War Immigration by David Goodhart (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
105. Lost for Words by Edward St Aubyn (6 Jun, Brick Lane Bookshop)
106. This Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Alan Johnson (6 Jun, Brick Lane Bookshop)
107. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
108. Fima by Amos Oz (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
109. Don't Call it Night by Amos Oz (8 Jun, Baggins Books Bazaar)
110. Our Street: East End Life in the Second World War by Gilda O'Neill (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
111. Rochester Castle by Jeremy Ashbee (8 Jun, Rochester Castle gift shop)
112. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (12 Jun, gift book from Bianca Buchholz)
113. All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque (12 Jun, gift book from Bianca Buchholz)
114. The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico Garcia Lorca Ascends to Hell by Carlos Rojas (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
115. The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
116. Outlaws by Javier Cercas (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
117. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo (13 Jun, Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop)
118. Vlad by Carlos Fuentes (13 Jun, Waterstone's Gower Street
119. Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Mash (13 Jun, Waterstone's Gower Street
120. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (13 Jun, Foyles Bookshop)
121. A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie (13 Jun, Foyles Bookshop)

This is a list of the TBR books I'd like to read the most. I hope to complete 10-15 or more tomes (500 pages or longer), and 30-35 shorter works. This is a first draft, so the books that are listed here will almost certainly change as the year progresses.

TBR Books to Read in 2014

Tomes (500 pages or more):
      Nicole Barker, Darkmans
      Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
      Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
      Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
      Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before the Shooting...
      Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
      David Grossman, To the End of the Land
      Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
      George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
      A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
      David Macey, Frantz Fanon: A Biography
      Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
      Paul Murray, Skippy Dies
      Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
      Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
      Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
      William Trevor, Selected Stories
      Patrick White, The Vivisector

Non-tomes (less than 500 pages):
      Stuart Altman and David Shactman, Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
      Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
      Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
      Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out & the Gone
      Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
      Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
      Randy Christensen MD, Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them
      Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel
      Jean Echenoz, I'm Off and One Year
      Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
      Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
      Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
      Paul Farmer, Haiti After the Earthquake
      Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
      Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
      Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
      Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
      Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
      Graham Greene, The Comedians
      Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
      Jonathan B. Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine
      Hettie Jones, How I Became Hettie Jones
      James Kelman, Kieron Smith, boy
      Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
      Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
      Eric Lax, The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle
      Charles Lemert, Why Niebuhr Matters
      Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails
      Juan Marsé, Shanghai Nights
      David A. Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors
      Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf
      Claire McCarthy, Everyone's Children: A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice
      Ian McEwan, Atonement
      Andrew Miller, Pure
      Quim Monzó, The Enormity of the Tragedy
      Quim Monzó, Gasoline
      Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
      Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
      Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood
      Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
      Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost
      Laura Katz Olson, The Politics of Medicaid: Stakeholders and Welfare Medicine
      Brian Orr, MD, A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System
      Orhan Pamuk, Snow
      Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
      Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
      Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir
      Giles Tremlett, Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past
      Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
      Richard Wright, Black Boy

Recommended reads for the CanLit 2014 Challenge (by Canadian LTers) (books in bold are ones that I'm most interested in reading):

   Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (Joyce, Nancy, Cait and Cyrel)
   Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (Cait and Joyce)
   Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (Tui)
   Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride (Joyce and Nancy)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tamarind Mem (Tui)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tell it to the Trees (Cait)
   John Bemrose, The Island Walkers (Lori)
   Marie-Claire Blais, The Day Is Dark and Three Travelers (Suz)
   Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road (Suz and Cyrel)
   Joseph Boyden, Black Spruce (Suz and Cyrel)
   Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony (Nancy)
   Michael Crummey, Galore (Sassy)
   Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy (Suz, Cait, Tui and Zoë)
   Suzanne Desrochers, Bride of New France (Zoë)
   Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (Nancy)
   Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Cait)
   Timothy Findley, The Last of the Crazy People (Lori)
   Timothy Findley, The Piano Man's Daughter (Tui)
   Timothy Findley, The Wars (Suz and Joyce)
   Kenneth J. Harvey, Blackstrap Hawco (Sassy)
   Tomson Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen (Joyce and Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, Coventry (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Frozen Thames (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, Baltimore's Mansion (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (Cyrel)
   Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water (Joyce)
   W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe (Tui)
   Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel (Tui)
   Mary Lawson, Crow Lake (Lori)
   Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man (Suz)
   Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief (Cait and Nancy)
   Beatrice MacNeil, Where White Horses Gallop (Nancy)
   Rabindranath Maharaj, The Amazing Absorbing Boy (Cyrel)
   Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (Tui)
   Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (Tui)
   W.O. Mitchell, Who Has Seen the Wind (Tui)
   Lisa Moore, February (Cait)
   Alice Munro, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (Suz)
   Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness (Cyrel)
   Alice Munro, The View from Castle Rock (Cyrel)
   Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (Joyce)
   Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (Cait)
   Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
   Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table (Suz)
   Jacques Poulin, Mister Blue (Suz)
   Mordechai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Cyrel)
   Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park (Joyce)
   Kim Thúy, Ru (Suz)
   Michel Tremblay, The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant (Lori)
   Jane Urquhart, Away (Tui)
   Jane Urquhart, The Stone Carvers (Tui)
   Ronald Wright, What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order (nonfiction) (Tui)

Darryl, congrats on your new thread. You will definitely enjoy Barcelona. It's such a gorgeous city. Be careful with your money and papers, there are a lot of pickpockets.
I'm looking forward to reading a lot of your European trip. Wishing you a safe journey.

Ah Barcelona! Wow, that former hospital building is beautiful. I know that back in the day opulent building projects probably went on in the face of the hungry poor, but boy, did they create some lovely architecture then. Now it's all tilt-slab concrete and flat planes in our cities.

Happy new thread and happy travels!

Happy New Thread, Darryl! Barcelona is beautiful, enjoy your travels.

Hi Darryl, going back to your last thread, there is a connection between Paul Robeson and my home town:

Every year between 1952 and 1957, Robeson was invited to sing at the Miners’ Eisteddfod in Porthcawl but he was unable to travel because his passport was revoked from 1950 to 1958 under the McCarran Act and he was under surveillance by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency and by British MI5 for well over three decades until his death in 1976. In October 1957 however, Robeson was able to participate in the Miners’ Eisteddfod at the Grand pavilion in Porthcawl in 1957. A transatlantic telephone link was established between Paul Robeson, in his own apartment in New York, and the gathered miners and their families in Wales.

I believe he attended in person the next year.
The bar at the Grand Pavilion, which is just around the corner from where my mother lives, is named after him.

Glad your hip is feeling better! See you on 8th!

>9 SandDune: that's an interesting story Rhian!

Nice new thread Darryl!! I'm really glad to see you are feeling so much better.

Happy New Thread, Darryl!

Morning Darryl- Happy New thread! Lovely Barcelona topper. I was there for a very brief visit in the early 80s. It's a beautiful city.

I was thinking about jazz the other day and it led me to you...of course. Here is a little nugget by Pancho Sanchez, covering the great Cal Tjader. I dare you to sit still for the entire 8 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtgOyCT96Ps

>6 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. Yes, I have been forewarned about the pickpockets in Barcelona, by LT and non-LT friends. I've also been warned about scam artists and pickpockets at Gare du Nord in Paris. I couldn't find a travel pouch when I went to a travel bookshop in NYC last week (Idlewild Books), so I'll look for one after I arrive in London on Tuesday. I can't assume that I'll blend in as well in Paris and especially Barcelona as I can in NYC or London, and I know several people who have fallen victim to pickpockets in those cities, so I don't think I can rely on my usual street sense to keep me safe.

>7 LovingLit: You are right from what I've read, Megan. The working class who lived in Barcelona were paid wages that were below a minimal standard of living in the 19th and early 20th century, when projects like that one were being built.

>8 connie53: Thanks, Connie!

>9 SandDune: That's a great story, Rhian! That event is mentioned in Paul Robeson: A Watched Man as well, on page 280:

Just over four months later, Robeson's voice was once again carried across the Atlantic. A deputation of miners from South Wales who had attended the St. Pancras Town Hall concert had been so impressed by the evening that upon their return to South Wales, the convinced their union officials that they should invite Robeson to sing down a telephone line at their forthcoming Eisteddfod, scheduled for early October in Porthcawl. Some five thousand people crowded into the festival pavilion on the evening of October 5, 1957, and at 6:30 p.m. Robeson greeted his listeners and gave them a concert of songs. The Treorchy Male Voice Choir responded, and Robeson ended his part of the evening by singing a verse of the Welsh national anthem. In return, the entire Porthcawl audience joined the choir for a rendition of “We'll Keep a Welcome on the Hillside”—more than 5,000 voices booming down the cable to New York, promising Robeson a warm reception in Wales when he was free.

Hmm. I'm now very tempted to bring this book with me on tomorrow night's flight.

>10 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony. See you next Sunday! Hopefully some other LTers will join us in Rochester as well.

>11 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. Congratulations to Julia's graduation; the pictures of you and your daughters that you posted are lovely!

>12 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

>13 msf59: Good morning, Mark! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Barcelona. A friend of mine from work is there now, as part of her two week vacation in Spain, but she'll be gone by the time I arrive there on the 17th.

Great Sunday morning jazz choice! I grew up listening to Cal Tjader, as my father and my mother's sister and her husband, all loved his music. I'm a fan of Latin jazz, as I also heard it often when we visited my maternal grandparents in the Bronx (I spent probably half of my summers when I was young there or at my aunt's house a few blocks north, along with my brother and cousins). I need to become more familiar with it, though.

Here's a nice song, from Cal's 1971 album Agua Dulce:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8UGyo1HD4s

Happy Sunday, Darryl. I'm excited for you as you prep for your upcoming Euro trip, especially since I know I'll get to enjoy some good armchair traveling via your posts and photos. What will you be bringing with you to read, I wonder.

>15 cameling: Happy Sunday, Caroline! You've read my mind, as I was just thinking about the books I plan to take on tomorrow night's flight. In addition to at least half a dozen travel guides Gaudí: A Biography and The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla are definitely coming with me. Pla's book, which was recently published by NYRB, is a 600+ page chronicle of the author's life and experiences in Barcelona and Catalonia from 1918-1919, so I'll read it in small chunks while I'm there. Madrid: A Cultural History will likely make the cut, and I'm also thinking of reading Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos; I picked up the new version, reissued in preparation for next month's World Cup, last week. I'll have to see what else calls out to me, but there are also several books I'll want to buy in London or Paris and read soon, including This Boy by Alan Johnson and Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe, so I may restrict myself to "only" four books.

Re pickpockets -- it's not just about blending in, it's about tourist body language: knowing where you're going and how to get there, walking briskly, etc. vs gazing around, walking slowly, changing directions, stopping to look at a map, etc. All of those things send signals to people that you might be a good target. Which is why railway stations are a great place (sarcasm) to become such a target. A good idea is to familiarize yourself with the rough layout of the station in advance, and to keep your eyes on signs, so you can just move briskly through, from point A to point B. After that -- don't leave your phone sitting on cafe tables; hang on to any bag straps while walking and secure your money & valuables in an inner pocket or bag. You should easily find something suitable at Heathrow.

>17 Chatterbox: Right, Suz. I think I do a good job of that already, which I attribute to my NYC- and Philadelphia-area upbringing, and living in New Orleans and Atlanta, two of the least safe big cities in the US. I get asked for directions at least once a day when I'm in London, which included several times on my first trip there. One ?French woman playfully smacked me on the arm when I, wandering like a lost child outside of Waterloo station, told her that I was from the US and was thoroughly lost myself when she asked me for directions. ("Ah! I thought you were from here!" she told me.) Two rather inebriated young women were a bit miffed when they approached me (out of several other people) at Cambridge station earlier this year to ask for directions after I met Fliss and Rachael for dinner there, and on my last day there a slightly less inebriated Scotsman was mildly but playfully disappointed on a Friday night near Holborn station when I didn't know where a particular pub was; he told me that "you look like a Londoner", which needless to say I took as a compliment.

My favorite directions story, though, took place in San Francisco during the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, when a couple of friends of mine and I stood on an island on Market Street, waiting for the F streetcar to arrive. A Latino man in a car pulled alongside, and asked for directions to Mission Street, in Spanish. My friends were amazed and impressed that he thought that I was also Latino, and that I, as a visitor, could give him correct directions, and in Spanish!

I thought I might be caught out as a tourist if I carried an English language book or newspaper, although I suppose that there are no small number of Britons, Americans and Canadians who live or regularly visit Paris, Barcelona and Madrid.

I generally do familiarize myself with the layout of stations, airports and other public spaces as best I can. I have looked at several YouTube videos on Gare du Nord, where the RER is in reference to the Eurostar departure area (it's to the left), and where the ticket machines are and how to use them. I need to do the same for Gare de Lyon, which is where I'll get off the RER D train to reach the hotel I'll stay at, and Barcelona Sants station (and I still need to figure out how to get from Barcelona Sants to my hotel; I'll probably take a taxi, since the TGV train won't arrive until after 10 pm, and there aren't any Barcelona Metro stops in close proximity to the hotel).

In train stations and other places I'm unfamiliar with I've learned to look as I'm walking, instead of standing in the middle of a public area looking lost, and to follow the crowds, especially those people who look like they know where they're going. I've also learned to keep my shoulder bag in front of me, especially on elevators and escalators, instead of letting it dangle over my back where prying hands can reach into it, and, as you said, to keep my right hand on my strap.

I had completely forgotten that I've already purchased a travel pouch from Amazon; I'll pick up that package, and several others, including a new set of luggage, tomorrow morning. My flight doesn't leave until nearly 11 pm, so I'll have plenty of time to pack between now and then.

Woot! I'm buckling up for my trip to Spain with you, Darryl : ).

>19 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! I'll need the company in Spain, since I don't know of any active LT friends who live there. :^)

Hi, Darryl, and happy new thread. I'm just catching up and glad the hip is doing better. Wishing you great travels.

>15 cameling: I'm another one looking forward to the armchair travelling with you dear chap. Hopefully you are fully mobile in time so that you can get the best out of the trip. Spain is not devoid of the odd hillock or two for sure.

Great start to your new thread, Darryl.

>21 tymfos: Thanks, Terri!

>22 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. My hip is now at least 98% back to normal, as I have full mobility, and the occasional mild twinge of pain with stretching or bending movements is the only reminder of last week's difficulty. I haven't taken any pain medications (naproxen) since yesterday afternoon, but I feel even better today than I did yesterday.

>23 kidzdoc: Great to hear you are pain free - enjoy that holiday!

Safe journey and happy vacationing!

>24 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex!

>25 richardderus: Thanks, Richard!

Safe travels, Darryl - I can't wait to hear about your trip!

Book #40: The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal



My rating:

The sons of Juan Salvatierra have returned to their home village in an Argentinian border town to claim their inheritance, a decade after their father's death. Salvatierra, rendered mute by a childhood accident, spent much of his free time during the last 60 years of his life painting on long scrolls of canvas, one scroll for each year of his life beginning at the age of twenty. His works, housed in a shed, give voice to the history of his town and the lives of his family and close friends, in a continuous fashion akin to a book of non-fiction:

Salvatierra painted without any lateral divisions so as to achieve continuity between the different scenes. That was something that obsessed him. He wanted his painting to encapsulate the fluidity of a river, of dreams, the way in which they can transform things in a completely natural way without the change seeming absurd but entirely inevitable, as if he were revealing the violent metamorphosis hidden within each being, thing, or situation.

Salvatierra received little attention for his work during his life, but after his death several European museums expressed interest in purchasing and displaying his canvases, while his own country's institutions seemed largely disinterested in it.

As the two sons examine the canvases, they discover that the scroll painted in 1961 is missing. The youngest son embarks on a quest to find this scroll, in order to complete the collection, but also to investigate what led to its disappearance. In doing so, he learns about his father's life, family secrets, and how his past life fits into the story told in the canvases.

The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra is a short but multilayered and evocative novel, which would appear to be a mystery novel but is also an homage to the life of an artist who is voiceless, yet uses his paintings to tell his story and communicate with those who view his work. The rich descriptions provided by Mairal allowed this reader to easily envision and reflect on Salvatierra's paintings, and, like a work of art that reveals more of itself on a repeat viewing, this book would seem to lend itself to a second or third reading to appreciate it more fully.

>27 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! I'll be sure to take plenty of photos, especially in Paris, Barcelona and Madrid.

Morning Darryl- Great to hear that the hip is doing so well. When are you going to Europe?

Thanks for the tasty Cal Tjader. Nice. What a terrific artist. This may have inspired me to go back and start listening to my jazz collection, which has been sorely neglected.

>30 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'm leaving tonight, and will arrive in London just after noon BST (British Summer Time) tomorrow. I'll stay in England until the 16th (except for a possible day trip to Brussels), take the Eurostar train to Paris that afternoon, meet up with Pat (@phebj) on the 17th, then take a TGV train to Barcelona later in the day. I'll probably spend a couple of days in Madrid, and I'll fly back to Atlanta on the 27th from Barcelona.

I'm glad that you enjoyed that Cal Tjader piece. I want to delve into Latin jazz a bit more deeply this summer, so I'll probably post albums and songs that I particularly like here and on Facebook.

>29 kidzdoc: Oh, excellent! I'm excited!!

>14 kidzdoc: Darryl, we wear a soft 'money' waistbelt under the trousers when we go to place which are known for pickpockets. Those special belts have enough room for money, passports etc.. So we don't have a lot of money or cards what we could lose.

Wishing you a safe journey.

Sounds like a wonderful time, Darryl! Be safe and enjoy!

You're trip sounds so good, Darryl - have a great time.

So excited for you! Safe travels!

Bon Voyage Darryl

LONG trip! I know it's the product of all those long work stints, but nice to get away for so many weeks consecutively. Have fun! And DO go to Brussels. Have a pint of Stella in the Grand' Place for me. *sniff*

I am sooooo far behind with threads its embarrassing. I missed so much on your previous threads but I am here now to visit Barcelona and Madrid vicariously through you, Darryl. Have a wonderful time!

Safe travels, Darryl!

Safe travels Darryl! Looking forward to seeing you on the London leg of your tour.

Have a great trip, Darryl! I eagerly await your updates.

Are you bringing your e-reader with you too, Darryl?

Loved your review of Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra ... off to the obese wish list it goes.

In known areas skillful pickpockets, I usually carry a small wallet with an expired credit card and $3 in local currency (or something equivalently little) in the backpocket of my jeans or purse and my 'real' soft travel wallet that hooks onto the front of my jeans. It has little metal clasps that I can constantly feel against my skin, so I know it's there, and I always wear a shirt that's tucked in, so it's even more difficult for sticky fingers to get to it. It can be a bit of a pain to get to your money when you do need it, but if I'm going to take a train, I'll prepare some cash in my front pocket first or credit card, and if I'm wearing a buttoned shirt, it's easy enough to just undo the buttons near the waist and start examining my navel and cleaning the lint out of it (that's what a store clerk in Delhi thought I was doing) before flourishing necessary cash to pay for purchases. :-)

>18 kidzdoc: I get asked for directions at least once a day when I'm in London, which included several times on my first trip there.

I get asked for directions almost wherever I've traveled. My favorite experience was in Paris, when an American asked me for directions in French. So I answered him in French (my French was better then).

Enjoy Barcelona, Darryl. It's a gorgeous city. I love the picture at the top of your thread. I hope we'll hear about your adventure...

My most bizarre moment of being asked for directions -- by a French couple in the Czech republic. I didn't know either, so we found the stationmaster. He didn't speak English or French, and neither of us spoke Czech so he and I dredged out our mutually very rusty Russian and got it all figured out!

I think the trick is the shoes. If you're wearing bright white sneakers, you're clearly a tourist! (Well, and if you're clutching a map and a camera...) There are places where it's pretty much impossible to blend in -- body language will give you away instantly. Morocco is one, I think. I might get mistaken for a Spaniard these days, but probably not for an Italian any more, though that used to happen. Oddly, no one ever asked me for directions in Scandinavia, though... :-) Not even in places like Sweden's Bastad peninsula where I spent weeks whizzing around on a moped and could quite easily have given them!

I'm in the International Terminal at ATL, and the flight is scheduled to depart in one hour, at 22:49, so we should be boarding soon. I'm already sleepy, but I'll take two Nyquil capsules shortly after I reach my seat, and hopefully I'll sleep like a baby until the flight attendants serve breakfast over the UK, as I did on the flight in March.

>32 scaifea: I brought my camera with me, along with my smartphone, which is what I usually use to take photos. I will need to buy an SD card adapter for my iPad, so that I can transfer photos from my camera; otherwise I won't be able to display those pictures until I return to the US at the end of the month.

>33 Ameise1: I ordered a money pouch from Amazon, which I picked up today. I'll carry one credit card and a limited number of cash with me, and leave the rest in the safe in my hotel room.

34-37 Thanks Mark, Joe, Marianne and Brenda!

>38 Chatterbox: Right; this is the longest stretch I'll have off from work or school since 2000, when I took the month of July off from work after I finished residency, and before I started my current job.

39-42 Thanks Lori, Katie, Heather and Laura! (I'll be in touch later this week, Heather.)

Paris. Barcelona. Madrid.

Count me jealous. Looking forward to photos.

Truly, I hope you have a wonderful time, Darryl!

I'm at Heathrow now, on a very long line at Border Control. I'll check back in later today or tomorrow.

Good luck with Border Control! I have to come into central London later to do a library run (Holborn Library on the south eastern edges of Bloomsbury), but if you've made it you'll probably be having a rest at your hotel?

Have a blast Darryl!

I'm envious and anxious to enjoy vicariously your travels, again. Photos please.

Happy landing and welcome to Europe :-D

I know you are off on your Iberian adventure, Darryl, but the new ER list has a New Orleans book in which I think you would be interested.

The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of New Orleans and the Future of Urban America by Scott Cowen (Palgrave Macmillan)

Description: After seven years of service as the president of Tulane University, Scott Cowen watched the devastation of his beloved New Orleans at the hands of Hurricane Katrina. When federal, state, and city officials couldn’t find their way to decisive action, Cowen, known for his gutsy leadership, quickly partnered with a coalition of civic, business, and nonprofit leaders looking to work around the old institutions to revitalize and transform New Orleans. This team led the charge to restore equilibrium and eventually to rebuild. For the past nine years, Cowen has continued this work, helping to bring the city of New Orleans back from the brink. The Inevitable City presents 10 principles that changed the game for this city, and, if adopted, can alter the curve for any business, endeavor, community—and perhaps even a nation.

This is the story of the resurgence and reinvention of one of America’s greatest cities. Ordinary citizens, empowered to actively rescue their own city after politicians and government officials failed them, have succeeded in rebuilding their world. Cowen was at the leading edge of those who articulated, shaped, and implemented a vision of transformative change that has yielded surprising social progress and economic growth: a drowned city identified with the shocking images of devastation and breakdown has transformed itself into a mecca of growth, opportunity, and hope.

*jumps up and down*

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

>55 avidmom: We are here! My flight landed at Heathrow just after noon BST (British Summer Time), a few minutes ahead of schedule. Fortunately I did sleep well on the plane; I fell asleep within minutes after take off, and other than a couple of brief disturbances I didn't wake up until the flight attendants turned the overhead lights on for breakfast, as we passed over the Irish Sea. I also managed to catch a few zzz's on the Piccadilly Line Underground train from Heathrow airport to Russell Square station.

The line at Border Control was hideous, and it took roughly an hour for me to pass through it. I didn't check in to my hotel room until nearly 3 pm, which gave me just enough time to get settled, take a shower, and meet one of my colleagues (an ER physician at Children's) and her husband for dinner.

We dined at 10 Greek Street, a fabulous little restaurant in Soho that Fliss and I went to in March. It was just as good this time around; I had chilled pea soup with a duck egg and summer truffle, which I ate every bit of short of licking the bowl clean, along with some of the most tender and flavorful sea bass I've ever had. Lily also had the sea bass, and her husband Angel had grilled asparagus with a poached egg.

Lily and me:



Lily and Angel:



We parted ways after dinner; Lily and Angel went to the Lyric Theatre to see the musical "Thriller", and I walked to the nearby Soho Theatre to see the play "Quietly", which was very good.



Unfortunately yesterday was Lily's and Angel's last full day in the UK, after a whirlwind 10 day Trafalgar Tours trip. They had a blast, as it was their first visit to the UK, and they plan to return here soon. We vowed that we would have dinner again soon, but probably in Atlanta the next time around.

I have a ticket to see this afternoon's performance of "Wolf Hall" at the Aldwych Theatre, which starts in a little more than three hours, but at the moment I'd love nothing more than to just stay in my PJs and go back to sleep.

>43 cameling: I did bring my Kindle with me, Caroline. There are several e-books I plan to read on this trip, including The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, which is the leading candidate to win this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (which will be announced here tonight), and several novels and short story collections written by Catalonian authors, namely Lost Luggage by Jordi Puntí, The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga, Death in Spring by Mercé Rodoreda. If I have time I'd also like to read The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally, which is also on my Kindle.

I'm glad that you enjoyed my review of The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra; I look forward to your comments about it after you read it.

Good idea about the fake wallet. I usually wear pants that have buttoned rear pockets, which provide me with an additional sense of security; I tend to put my wallet in my front pocket if the pants I wear lack a button in back. I'll probably try out the money pouch I bought before I travel to Paris in two weeks, to get used to it.

LOL about your belly button hygiene story!

>44 rebeccanyc: Nice story, Rebecca. The only other time I've helped someone in Spanish was when an older Spanish speaking couple were behind me in line at a Caffè Nero close to the hotel I'm currently staying at several years ago. They were having trouble with the menu, so I asked the woman what they wanted in Spanish, and then gave the order to the barista in English. The baristas were impressed and appreciative, since either of them spoke any appreciable Spanish.

>45 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. The hotel I'm staying at in Barcelona has free WiFi, so I'll be able to post photos and snippets about my experiences there.

>46 Chatterbox: I like to avoid pulling out a map whenever possible, and I usually keep a mental picture of the area I'm traveling to in a map in my head. Yesterday I had to navigate a trip from Russell Square to Greek Street, between Cambridge Circus and Soho Square, as the Russell Square station was very crowded (one of the three lifts was out of service, so the waiting area past the ticket barriers was completely filled), and the number 7 bus wasn't running, due to road work. I was going to take a 91 bus to Trafalgar Square and transfer to a 24 bus to go to Cambridge Circus, but I decided that it made more sense to get off at Holborn station and walk to Cambridge Circus via Covent Garden. I knew enough of the area to be able to make the trip with relative ease, although I did check the convenient maps on the streets to be sure that I hadn't strayed off path.

>48 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen! There will be more photos to come. Luci and I will probably get together tomorrow, and on Friday Paul Harris (@Polaris, from Club Read) and I will meet for the first time during the day. I'll see Lesley Hossner, a non-LT friend, that evening for dinner and a play, and several of us (myself, Bryony (@BBGirl55), Claire (@SakerFalcon) and Caroline (@Caroline McElwee)) will spend Sunday in Rochester, about an hour south of London. There will be more meet ups next week, before I travel to Paris on the 16th and see Pat (@phebj) the following day.

>50 elkiedee: I'm still on for tomorrow, Luci. Let me know when and where you would like to meet. I'm staying at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square, so I'll be close by.

>51 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta!

>52 catarina1: Will do, catarina. I should take more London photos this time around, so I'll remember to do that.

>53 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I feel completely comfortable in the UK, and I'm eager to see if the same applies in Paris and Barcelona (and I expect that I will).

>54 ronincats: Thanks, Roni. I did see the June LT ER list, and I requested that book and one other one. I was a student at Tulane from 1978-1981, so I'm very interested in reading The Inevitable City.

So glad to hear that you arrived safely, Darryl - have a fantastic time!

>59 scaifea: Thanks, Amber!

Darryl, already your visit to what I think of as your favorite city sounds and looks divine. (I imagine, actually, that you have multiple favorite cities, but London is clearly very high on the list!)

Your meal with Lily and Angel sounds fun and delicious (I really have to try a Duck egg one of these days). I might have joined Angel in the grilled asparagus. Yum. I also very much like the look of the Soho Theater and I'm very interested to hear/read your thoughts about "Wolf Hall" as a stage play.

Keep having fun so we can all live vicariously!

SOOO ... Any news on the book purchasing front?

Glad to hear you made it safely. Count me as another looking forward to your thoughts on "Wolf Hall."

Stupid question but I've always wondered how people cope with the laundry situation on extended trips like yours... ;-)

Whew. I've had two busy and very enjoyable past two days, particularly today (it's nearly 11:30 pm here in London). Yesterday I briefly met Luci for lunch, made my first set of book purchases, at the London Review Bookshop, then saw the fabulous production of Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare's Globe, the first time I had been to the replica of Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre in London. This morning I met up with Paul Harris (@Polaris from Club Read), and we spent an picture perfect day walking around Greenwich and the East End, had lunch at a superb beigel (not bagel) shop on Brick Lane (the street made famous by Monica Ali's Booker Prize winning novel Brick Lane), and finished our day with conversation over coffee in a café just off of Brick Lane. It was our first time meeting in person, but it certainly won't be our last. I took the Underground back to my hotel, showered and changed quickly, and then took a bus to Southwark, in time to meet Lesley (a non-LT friend who I, Heather, Luci, Jenny and Rachael met last year) for dinner, followed by the excellent play A View of the Bridge by Arthur Miller at The Young Vic. We parted after a post theatre drink around 10 pm, and I headed back home.

I took plenty of photos today, so I'll post them here to Facebook and then here, along with my book club purchases, either later today or tomorrow.

>61 EBT1002: Right, Ellen. I do have multiple favorite cities, including NYC, Philadelphia and San Francisco, but the combination of friends, theatre, bookshops, museums and a diverse and vibrant culture put London on the top of the list.

I love duck eggs. Fliss and I went to a restaurant near the NT a couple of years ago, and I had a delightful duck egg scramble with lox over toast (just thinking about it set my salivary glands into overdrive). The meal at 10 Greek Street was delightful; Fliss and I went there for lunch this past March, and I was impressed with that meal. Lily, Angel and I were very pleased with what we had as well.

I missed Wednesday's matinee performance of Wolf Hall, as my brief pre-theatre nap turned into a full on snooze that lasted for at least four hours. Fortunately I just bought a ticket for Monday night's performance; I hadn't made any plans that day, so I won't miss seeing anything else. I'll see Bring Up the Bodies on Wednesday.

More fun is definitely in the works! Tomorrow looks to be an awful weather day, with hot and humid weather in southeast England at best, and that combined with possibly torrential rain at worst. I'll meet Fliss for drinks tomorrow afternoon, and I'll probably see the play The Silver Tassle at the National Theatre that evening. On Sunday four of us, namely Bryony (@BBGirl55), Caroline (@Caroline_McElwee), Claire (@SakerFalcon) and I will spend the day in Rochester, which is about 50 miles south of London. The weather should be much nicer then.

>62 michigantrumpet: Yep. I bought four books at the London Review Bookshop yesterday, and two more at Brick Lane Bookshop, which Paul and I stumbled upon this afternoon. I'll list them here shortly.

I usually find a nearby laundromat when I'm on extended holiday travel, and wash my own clothes. I'll probably do that on Monday morning, which is my usual laundry day when I'm out of town.

Delurking to say Hi! What a fabulous trip. Places AND people!

Any thoughts about the Bailey's/Orange Prize winner? I admit it's the one book that doesn't automatically appeal to me that much, based on the style, but...

>62 michigantrumpet: I've always wondered how people cope with the laundry situation on extended trips like yours...

That was one of the funny things in Steinbeck's Travels With Charley - the practical and very inventive way he figured out how to do his laundry on the road!

Looking forward to the next travel updates and pics ....

>64 Berly: Thanks, Kim! I just finished uploading and tagging photos I took on Thursday and Friday from my smartphone to Facebook, so I'll post them here shortly. There will be more photos to come after our meet up in Rochester on Sunday.

>65 Chatterbox: Rachael was very fond of A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, which influenced me to buy it in March. I'll probably read it in July or August.

>66 avidmom: Photos on the way...

As I mentioned above, Wednesday was a day to catch up on sleep and to adjust to British Summer Time, so I stayed in my hotel room for the entire day and did nothing useful. After Luci and I had lunch and dessert at the Peyton and Byrne bakery in St Pancras Station I proceeded to the London Review Bookshop, where I bought four books:

The British Dream: Successes and Failure of Post-war Immigration by David Goodhart: Shortlisted for this year's Orwell Prize, this book recounts the history of immigration to the UK after World War II and after 1997, describes how the two generations of immigrants are faring here, and charts a course for the future, in which ethnic minorities are projected to account for 25% of the population by the early 2020s.

I Am China by Xiaolu Guo: This latest book by the author of the novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is a love story about a exiled Chinese musician who finds himself in limbo in a UK detention center, his girlfriend in Beijing, who sends desperate letters to him in London, and a British woman who translates their letters into English, in an attempt to help to aid the seemingly doomed couple.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez: A novel about a family who has recently emigrated from Mexico to a university town in Delaware to escape trouble at home and pursue their American dream, but find more trouble and tragedy than they bargained for.

In the Approaches by Nicola Barker: Just published this week, her tenth novel is set in the English coastal town of Pett Level in 1984, and is centered around a controversial Irish muralist, his promiscuous half-Aboriginal wife, and their saintly daughter, whose lives are disrupted by a mysterious visitor on a pilgrimage.

That night I made my first visit to Shakespeare's Globe, the open air theatre modeled after his original Globe Theatres, which was first built in 1599, burned down in 1613, rebuilt the follow year, and ultimately demolished in 1644. It was my first visit to the Globe Theatre, and sitting in the wooden theatre, overlooking the "groundlings" (the audience members who stood around the stage) and seeing the play would have been an unforgettable and unique experience even if the performance wasn't a good one. Fortunately Titus Andronicus was a very good production, which did not have any actors that were recognizable to me (or my friend Lesley, who saw it earlier this week), but it was a very energetic and entertaining performance, which was filled with humor despite the grim script, as the actors played to the audience, particularly the groundlings who had to frequently move aside as the actors and equipment passed through them on the way to and from the stage.



The play was set in Ancient Rome, as the victorious general Titus Andronicus returns after a successful 10 year campaign against the Goths, bringing with him Tamora, the Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron, the Moor who is her secret lover. Despite her pleas for mercy, Titus has one of her sons put to death, in revenge for the deaths of two of his sons.

The Emperor of Rome has recently died, and his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, both desire to succeed him. Titus is offered the position as Emperor, but he declines, and suggests that Saturninus should fill the opening. Saturninus chooses Titus' daughter Lavinia as his bride, but she is already betrothed to Bassianus, and the two protest bitterly and force Saturninus to look elsewhere. He selects Tamora as the Empress and frees her two surviving sons and Aaron. However, Tamora vows to enact revenge on Titus Andronicus and the Romans, and she, her sons and Aaron engage in a diabolical plot that strikes at the heart of the conquerors, and leads to a series of murders and other grisly acts of violence.





The actors were all very good, but I thought that William Houston (Titus Andronicus), Flora Spencer-Longhurst (Lavinia), Obi Abili (Aaron) and Indira Varma (Tamora) were particularly good, as was David Shaw-Parker as the drunken fool Bacchus.

Yesterday Paul (@Polaris) and I met at Canary Wharf, and from there we took the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) to Greenwich. We walked through the Old Royal Naval College, stopped briefly in the National Maritime Museum, walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory, and saw the Cutty Sark, chatting merrily all the while.

Some photos of the Old Royal Naval College:



(I caught Paul in this shot)

The National Maritime Museum:





The Royal Observatory:







The Cutty Sark:

We returned to Greenwich station and took another DLR train from there to Shadwell station in East London. We walked through the East End, mainly on Whitechapel Road to Brick Lane, where we had lunch, went to a bookshop and had coffee before we parted.

The following photo is the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, which opened in 1903 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning synagogues in East London.



The older buildings of the Royal London Hospital, which has been in continuous operation since it began as the London Infirmary in 1740.





The East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre, the oldest mosque in the heart of the East End and one of the largest ones in the city:



A monument to King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, from the Jewish residents of East London:

On Brick Lane:



The Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, one of the oldest Jewish run beigel shops in the East End. It's a well known stopping point for late night partiers, since it stays open 24/7/365 and serves fabulous beigels, breads, sandwiches and sweets (cheesecake, strudel, etc.) at reasonable prices. It only serves one type of beigel, a plain one; those who want cinnamon raisin, honey walnut or other absurd varieties will need to look elsewhere. Paul and I each had salt beef with mustard on a beigel, which was divine:

Oh, wonderful photos! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us, Darryl!

After lunch we stopped by the Brick Lane Bookshop, which Paul had spotted on our way to the beigel shop. It was a small but nicely stocked bookstore, and I came away with two books from my wish list:

This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson: The winner of this year's Orwell Prize by the former Labour MP, which describes his poor upbringing in the 1950s in a cramped flat in Notting Hill that lacked heat, electricity or running water, while his mother battled poor health and depressed and his older sister Linda held the family together despite being a child herself.

Lost for Words by Edward St Aubyn: His latest novel, which recently received a favorable review by Deborah (@Cariola), is a satire on the British literary prizes, inspired by the 2011 Booker Prize debacle created by Stella Rimington.

We stopped at a café just off Brick Lane and chatted until 4 pm, then traveled back to Bloomsbury on the Underground until we parted after a splendid day, which was made that much better by the perfect weather that we had.

>74 scaifea: You're welcome, Amber! I wish I had brought my digital camera, as the photos would have been much better. I'll remember it when we meet up in Rochester tomorrow, though.

Oh, wait...there are still a couple of photos I forgot to post. First, the Old Spitalfields Market, which has been in operation since 1638:





Finally, a photo of Christ Church, Spitalfields, which was completed in 1729:

Looks like a fabulous day, Darryl. Say hi for me to all my LT pals, when you see them in Rochester today.

Always a treat going out and about in London with you vicariously. My wife and I miss it terribly. More, please!

Darryl, great to see you're having a good time in London. And as you're clearly posting things from your phone to LT I wonder if you'd mind telling me how it's done! I can upload photos to LT (to my member gallery) from my phone, but I can't get them from there to appear on my thread. I know how to do it on a PC but not on my iPad or IPhone!

Darryl, I'm very interested in the answer of Rhian's question, too. I wish you a lovely weekend.

London sights, books, theatre reviews, food - what more could one want? Except "could I have some more, please?"

>72 kidzdoc: -- It's Edward VII, not George VII... Baby Prince George will one day become George VII, assuming the monarchy lasts that long... (Anal retentive English history person chiming in here...)

Glad to see you made it to the East End. Love it out there - fascinating history. If I recall correctly, a lot of French Huguenots settled out in Spitalfields, making it a center of England's embryonic silk-weaving industry. Greenwich is great... Did you go onto the Cutty Sark? That was a great school trip for me as a kid and probably countless others!!

And it looks as if the weather has been brilliant, in dramatic contrast to this time last year when I was there shivering to death in the rain and catching the cold from hell. Hope it lasts!

I've seen Indira Varma in several TV drama shows, and she has been excellent; I would definitely go out of my way to see her. I think the only thing I've seen at the Globe was As You Like It (if there's one play by WS I can stand NEVER to see live again, that is probably it, because it seems that is ALWAYS the one being performed wherever I go -- Shakespeare in the Park in NY, Shakespeare festival up in the Berkshires, the Globe, Shakespeare in Regent's Park years ago -the open air theatre - etc.). A group of us went as groundlings and it was great fun. Now that I'm older, I think I'd be glad of the seats!

Oh, Darryl, I just love going on holidays with you! Thank you for the evening out at the theatre, the photos, and for the duck scramble with lox over toast. *salivating here … *

Such a wonderful collection of memories, Darryl, that I feel like I'm there too. Thanks for making all this effort to keep us all in the loop. it's a lot of work, very appreciated for sure, but still a lot of work.

I am loving the photos Darryl, it looks like you have had perfect rambling weather. I am curious to know how long you stayed in the Brick Lane bookshop. Those stops always seem to eat up my day!

Just chiming in with appreciation for your updates. I know from my own, more limited experience, that it is a lot of work. Make sure you save some reporting energy for Paris and Barcelona!

Time to launch Darryl's Global Biblio-Theatrical Ramblings Blog, methinks!

Acquire lots of followers, then sponsors, then it becomes a self-funding enterprise... :-)

The hotel's WiFi is acting wonky at the moment, so I'm typing this message on my smartphone. I'll reply to messages once it's up and running.

Back in business now.

>77 lauralkeet: Will do, Laura, although we're not going to Rochester until tomorrow morning. I'll give your best to Caroline and Claire; the three of us are planning to take the same train to Rochester tomorrow, and we'll meet Bryony at the station at 10 am.

>78 RandyMetcalfe: Thanks, Randy! There will definitely be more pictures, including a couple from today, and a lot more tomorrow. I need to buy an SD card adapter for my iPad, though, so it may take me until Monday or Tuesday to post the photos I take using my digital camera.

>79 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. I have an Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S3), and I use my iPad, with a case that includes a Bluetooth wireless keyboard, as my computer when I'm away from Atlanta. I can upload photos directly from my smartphone to Facebook, but these photos also eventually appear in my Google+ account, which I can access on my iPad or home computer. I usually save those photos to a Facebook album as well, and from there I can easily download them, copy the link, and paste them here.

Fliss and I met at the Searcy's Champagne Bar in St Pancras station this afternoon, where we split a bottle of champagne and had a light meal (raw oysters for me, and a bagel with salmon and cream cheese for her), and just after we parted I took a couple of photos of the station using my smartphone.

This photo shows the portion of the station where the Eurostar trains for Paris and Brussels arrive and depart. Unlike the other major London train stations I've been to the trains are located one level above the ground floor. The champagne bar is also visible in the middle of this photo, which is a few feet away from the nearest Eurostar train, seen on the left. We sat in one of the booths closest to that train.



There may be a better way, but that's how I do it.

>80 Ameise1: I hope that you are enjoying your weekend as well, Barbara!

>75 kidzdoc: re This Boy You refer to Alan Johnson as a former Liberal MP, ummm, Alan Johnson is still a Labour MP, he was a Cabinet Minister in the last Labour government.

>81 catarina1: And you shall have more, catarina!

>82 Chatterbox: Oops...thanks for picking up on that mistake, Suz!

Your recall about the Hugenots is spot on. Paul mentioned the same thing as we walked through Spitalfields, and he pointed out a couple of street names that were French in origin. The Hugenots were also mentioned in a play I saw at the National Theatre several years ago, England People Very Nice, which was a very humorous look at the history of immigration to nearby Bethnal Green, starting from the Hugenots and extending to the Bangladeshis. Paul, who is Jewish, grew up in the East End, so it was especially interesting and educational to hear him talk about the history of the area, and his family's own history in the 19th and 20th century.

>83 lit_chick: You're quite welcome, Nancy! I'll have to ask Fliss for the name of that restaurant (I think it's housed in the BFI (British Film Institute) or Royal Festival Hall) if I can't find it, so that I can go there sometime next week.

>84 richardderus: Thank you for that kind compliment, Richard. I greatly enjoy it when my LT and other friends post photos and descriptions of their travels, so I'm happy to do the same.

I'd love to find a readable history of those successive waves of East End immigrants. The ones I've seen have all concentrated on single periods, and mostly on the late 19th century/early 20th century (Eastern European/Jewish) and the latest waves from Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. But finding something that puts all that in a broader context -- the East End as the first stop for new arrivals -- would be fascinating. For instance, I don't know who took the place of the Huguenots in the 18th century. Were there refugees from the European wars of the period? Is that where folks who fled Napoleon fetched up? I'm intrigued... (and glad to know my recall isn't failing me on that front, although I can't remember WHICH hospital "Spitalfields" draws its name from. I also seem to recall, though, that some excavations in that area have revealed remarkable plague pits, possibly 17th century? That I CAN'T recall.)

loving the photos - looks like you are having a grand time with plenty of locals to tell you the stories ....

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time in London and great to have Paul as tour guide for a day. I spent a morning in Brick Lane on my last trip to London, it's an interesting area to wander in. We also had bagels from the same shop.

>92 Chatterbox: Suzanne, I still haven't read my copy of Jeremy Gavron's An acre of barren ground but it might offer a little of what you are after.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview22

eta: Darryl - as if you need even one more cafe recommendation, but I'll give one anyway - Kopapa in Monmouth St. http://www.kopapa.co.uk/

Looks fantastic Darryl. You pack more into a vacation day than anyone I know :)

>94 avatiakh: Thanks for that suggestion, Kerry; I've added it to my Amazon wish list. Alas, it's not Kindle-able in the UK, and I've sworn off mailing books from there unless they are absolute must-haves (the last one I purchased was the Leigh Fermor travel book, last fall... it has done wonders for my budget!) But there are copies I can get from US Amazon vendors at some point, when I'm willing to invest!

>94 avatiakh: Thanks for the link, right up my street as well ......

Very envious of your trip to the new Globe. I would love to see a play there.

Strangely, there are no Thingaversary cakes....

>99 richardderus: Happy Thingaversary kidzdoc! Lovely cake, but also the little rainbow of light on the side is pretty too.

All this wonderful travel/food/history/theater AND a Thingaversary, too? Darryl, you are truly blessed, man.

Great photos! I loved the Golba pics and the review of Titus A. I have never seen that play.

Happy Thingaversary! Thank You for a loverly day!

>99 richardderus: Clearly a business opportunity.

I'm sure it's purely a coincidence that you are in London on your Thingaversary, isn't it?? Happy Thingaversary...

Darryl, thanks a lot for sharing those gorgeous photos and what you have experienced. We'll be in London from the 1st til the 8th of August. Probaly our hotel we'll be close to the Globe. Enjoy your time.

I am loving your travelogue, Darryl! The pictures are amazing. I was fascinated with you picture of the galvano magnetic clock at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, particularly because I have just finished reading Umberto Eco's The Island of the Day Before where time zones come into play.

If you ever decide a side-line business as a travel writer, I think you would be amazing at it.

Thanks for the Thingaversary wishes everyone! I didn't buy nine books (as Sunday was my eighth LT anniversary), but I had a full and enjoyable day in the company of Bryony (@BBGirl55), Caroline (@Caroline_McElwee) and Claire (@SakerFalcon) on a picture perfect day in Rochester, a historic town on the River Medway roughly 30 miles southeast of London. I took over 100 photographs using my digital camera, which are posted in a Facebook album; I'll post some of them here in a travelogue later today.

Catching up:

Back to >80 Ameise1: I forgot to thank you for the lovely photo, Barbara! I've loved ladybugs since I was a small child, so I appreciate that beautiful photograph.

Back to >82 Chatterbox: The weather in London on Friday and Sunday was spectacular, with blue skies, plenty of sunshine and highs in the upper 70s. It rained for most of Saturday, sometimes heavily, but by the time Fliss and I met for champagne and oysters in the late afternoon the rain had stopped and the sun peeked through high clouds.

Indira Varma's name is vaguely familiar to me, although I don't believe I've seen her on the stage or television before.

I'm glad that I consulted the Internet to get seating recommendations for Shakespeare's Globe. My seat was dead center in the last row of the middle gallery, which allowed me to lean against the back frame. I rented a cushion, and that was definitely needed, since Titus Andronicus didn't end until roughly 11 pm, 3-1/2 hours after it began.

>85 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. We stayed in the Brick Lane Bookshop for roughly 30-40 minutes, as it was on the small side. It takes me much longer to shop at the larger stores like Foyles, or medium sized well stocked ones like the London Review Bookshop, Daunt Books and City Lights. I think that the new Foyles on Charing Cross Road is about to open, if it hasn't already, so I'll definitely stop there later this week.

I continue to be amazed at how early the sun begins to rise in the UK. It's just before 4:30 am, and it's already starting to lighten up outside.

>86 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie; it definitely takes time to post photos and write descriptions, but it's an enjoyable task. I thought that I wouldn't be able to post photos from my digital camera yesterday, as I didn't bring the SD card adapter for my iPad. However, I did bring the mini USB adapter, which connects to my camera, so I did bring the right one after all. I'm sure I'll take hundreds of additional photos in London, Paris and Barcelona, so I'll post the full sets in Facebook albums and a much more limited number on LT.

>87 Chatterbox: Ha! One of my partners at work, who travels much more than I do, edits a travel blog, and she frequently encourages me to create my own blog. She spends a lot of time working on her blog, and I don't think I have enough spare time to do that, stay active on LT, and work, at least not now.

>90 elkiedee: Thanks for that clarification about Alan Johnson's party status, Luci. Needless to say I don't know as much about the political parties and the leading politicians in the UK as you and other Britons do!

Back to sleep...

>92 Chatterbox: I'm also interested in reading more about the history of the East End and its inhabitants. I own On Brick Lane by Rachel Lichtenstein, and I bought another book about the East End at a secondhand book shop in Rochester yesterday (I'll mention it shortly).

>93 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. Yes, I've met plenty of friendly LTers who live and work in the UK on all of my trips to London since I first met Rachael (@FlossieT) in 2009. I'm pretty sure I've met more LTers from the US and Canada than ones from Europe, but I'll do a head count later this week to see if that's still correct.

>94 avatiakh: Definitely so, Kerry. I have another full seven days in London before I leave for Paris next Monday afternoon, and there will be another group meet up in Bloomsbury on Friday.

Paul was a fabulous tour guide, and we had a great day together in Greenwich and the East End. I'll definitely have to return to Beigel Bake, possibly tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks for that recommendation of An Acre of Barren Ground; I'll add it to my wish list, and look for it later this week.

Thanks also for recommending Kopapa. I should be able to make it there this week, either before a play or the day that I make my first visit to the new Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road.

>95 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda. As we were saying yesterday, though, I (and others) often like to alternate between jam packed days, like yesterday and Friday, with more relaxing ones, as today will be. Other than doing laundry (which I may actually put off until tomorrow, since I was up in the middle of the night) I don't have anything planned until tonight, when I'll see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Wolf Hall at the Aldwych Theatre, which is a short bus ride away from my hotel.

>98 Oberon: I hope that you can see a performance at Shakespeare's Globe soon, Alex. It was definitely a worthwhile and very enjoyable experience, and my only regret is that I hadn't gone there before.

That reminds me...I still haven't reviewed two of the plays I saw last week. I'll get to that later today or tomorrow.

>99 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! Actually there was at least one Thingaversary cake, which the LT brass made for (but didn't share with) Nora last year:





Mmm. Hopefully someone will get her a cake this year.

>100 avidmom: Thanks, Susie! That is a lovely cake. Or was; it's gone now. ;^)

>101 michigantrumpet: I completely agree, Marianne. I did mention my Thingaversary to Bryony, Caroline and Claire, and they encouraged me to buy nine books in Rochester yesterday, but I only came away with four (five if you count the guide book I bought at the gift shop in Rochester Castle). I did buy six books earlier this week, though, so I'll count them toward my Thingaversary haul.

>102 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. I nabbed those photos from the Internet, as photography was not permitted during or prior to the performance. I did take some photos of the building's exterior during intermission, and others afterward, as I crossed the Thames over the Millennium Bridge as I left. I'll see how well they show up here, and post a couple of them if they look alright.

>103 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony! And thanks to you for your splendid idea of spending a day in Rochester, and for being a fabulous tour guide. I'm very happy that the four of us got together, and that you got to meet Caroline and Claire.

>104 Chatterbox: Thanks, Suz. It was a coincidence that I was in London for my Thingaversary, as I didn't think about it until a week or two ago.

>105 Ameise1: You're welcome, Barbara. I know that you saw the photos I posted on Facebook yesterday. Ah...I have an idea. Okay, I've just made that album (Rochester UK June 2014) public, so I think everyone should be able to see it via this link:

https://www.facebook.com/darryl.morris2/media_set?set=a.10203192635830463.104509...

>106 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! I'm glad that you mentioned the Shepherd Gate Clock and its mention in The Island of the Day Before, as I own that book and will probably read it in the next year or two.

A Sunday in Rochester, part one.

Bryony suggested spending a weekend day in Rochester, a historic town located roughly 30 miles ESE of London. Caroline and I boarded a Chatham Main Line train at London Cannon Street, as Victoria Station was closed this past Sunday. Claire got on the train at an intermediate stop, and Bryony took a westbound train. We met at Rochester railway station, which unfortunately is scheduled to be relocated next year:



(This was actually the last photo of the day; Claire is to the left, and Bryony to the right, walking ahead of Caroline and me.)

From the station we set out for the nearby Rochester High Street, which was filled with dozens of very nice shops, restaurants and other establishments:



Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe, a restaurant that dates back to the 15th century; note the crooked door at its front entrance:



A shop with an even more crooked front door:



We loved the external design of this building:



The Deaf Cat, a café named after Charles Dickens's favorite feline during the last year of his life, where we had tea in the early afternoon and cold drinks a few hours later:



One of the buildings of the Guildhall Museum:



The Six Poor Travellers' House:

A Sunday in Rochester, part two.

As we walked along Rochester High Street we made a detour to see the Eastgate House and Gardens. Eastgate House was built in 1590-1591, and became famous after Charles Dickens used it as the setting for his novels The Pickwick Papers (Westgate House) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (the Nun's House):



A fake heron in the pond of the Gardens; a real one flew away before I could take a photo of it:



Some additional photos of the Gardens:







Caroline and Bryony (sitting) and Claire (standing) in the Gardens:



The Swiss Chalet House, where Dickens wrote five of his novels and other works from 1875 to his death in 1880, which was relocated from his nearby summer home at Gads Hill Place to the grounds of Eastgate House:



A horse powered well pump from Charles Dickens' summer home:



Some additional photos taken by Caroline and Claire:

A Sunday in Rochester, part three.

After we walked the length of Rochester High Street we proceeded to Rochester Castle, which was built in the 11th and 12th centuries near the River Medway to protect the southeast coast of England from invasion. Bryony, Clair and I walked to the top of the stone tower, which provided spectacular views of the surrounding towns and hills, along with nearby Rochester Cathedral.

Approaching the castle tower, seen on the right; Rochester Cathedral is to the left:



A surviving portion of the king's chamber block can be seen to the right, which was built by Henry III in the 1220s:



A portion of the northwest bastion of the castle, built between 1377 and 1384:



Views of the stone tower, from different angles:







Views taken within the interior of the tower:







Claire and Bryony within the tower:



Finally, some views from the top:

Very cool pics!

A Sunday in Rochester, part 4.

After we left the castle we had tea at The Deaf Cat, then started shopping. We went to three stores that sold books, and I acquired four from Baggins Book Bazaar, "England's largest secondhand and rare bookshop":

The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin: A middle aged apparatchik lives comfortably in Moscow, having foregone his previous existence as a talented underground artist, until a shakeup in the Kremlin leads him to question his decision to betray his personal values, as his life descends into uncertainty and fear. This debut novel was written by the first Russian student to obtain a bachelor's degree in the US, at Emory University in Atlanta (where I completed my pediatric residency). I read her later novel The Line, which I enjoyed, and this book was on my wish list (I could have gotten it in Atlanta, of course, but it was impossible to pass up a like new hardback edition of it for £3).

Fima by Amos Oz: A middle aged man examines his life from his shabby Jerusalem flat, one which was filled with promise and lofty dreams but led to nothing, similar to many people in his generation.

Don't Call it Night by Amos Oz: The relationship of a childless Israeli couple in a small desert community is precipitated into crisis when a pupil of the woman dies under mysterious circumstances, as the townspeople cast suspicious eyes upon them. I hadn't seen either of these books by one of my favorite authors in the US, so I couldn't pass them up.

Our Street: East End Life in the Second World War by Gilda O'Neill: After my visit to the East End of London with Paul on Friday I was curious to read more about the lives of its inhabitants, and this book caught my eye.

We had a nice lunch at a fish and chips shop on the far end of Rochester High Street, did more shopping, and then proceeded to Rochester Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in England, home to the second oldest bishopric in the UK after Canterbury, and located on grounds where Christians have been worshipping since 604 AD. The oldest portions of the cathedral date back to 1080, and many of the newer portions were completed in 1240.

We toured the church briefly, then attended an Evensong service.

Some additional photos of the church's grounds and exterior:













The cathedral's great organ:



Another view of the organ, taken just after the conclusion of the Evensong service; we sat on one of the pews to the right of this photo:



Some additional photos within the cathedral:





Finally, the great west door of the cathedral, which was built during the early 12th century:



We all had a splendid time, thanks largely to Bryony's superb guidance, and also to the picture perfect day that we had. Rochester is just over 40 minutes by train from central London, so I would encourage any visitors to London to consider spending a day there. Thanks to Caroline and Claire for coming as well!

>115 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

Thank you so much for the photos and book suggestions. It looks like you had a wonderful day - good friends, good weather, wonderful sights and, of course, books and book shops.

I just checked with my local library (Baltimore County) for The Dream Life of Sukhanov and found that it is only available in Russian! Go figure.

Happy (belated) Thingaversary, Darryl. Thanks for all the photos; it looks like a wonderful trip. Glad you got some balmy weather and a chance to hook up with pals.

Oh how beautiful Rochester is! And the book-haul sounds good, too.

The organ in the cathedral is astounding. How very beautifully ornamented it is.

Woot! The architecture is absolutely splendid, Darryl! Thanks for the fab photos.

>118 catarina1: You're welcome, catarina.

Interesting that the only available copy of The Dream Life of Sukhanov in your local is in Russian. My copy wasn't translated into English, and I would assume that she didn't require a translator to convert it into the Russian language. I'm curious to know which language she first wrote it in.

>119 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe.

>120 richardderus: For the first time in any LT meet up I may have purchased the least books of anyone! I know that Bryony and Caroline bought at least five books, but I don't know how many Claire bought. We were so busy talking about nearly everything else that we didn't think to show our book purchases to each other.

I was enamored with the organ in the cathedral, too.

>121 lit_chick: You're welcome, Nancy!

Fantastic pictures and review of your day in Rochester! Nice to meet Bryony, Caroline and Claire :)

>123 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda! It was nice to see Bryony again (we spent a half day together in London last year), and to get to know Caroline and Claire (we met briefly during the Virago group meet up earlier this spring).

Gorgeous photos, Darryl! Thanks so much for sharing them.

>122 kidzdoc: I ended up with 6 books in total, thanks to Caroline's sharp eyes spotting a Virago in the Oxfam shop! It was a great day out; thank you for suggesting I join the party!

Can’t do justice to your Euro travel thread in the few minutes before I start work, but at least technically now I’m caught up...

I too ended up with 6 books Brick Lane was my 6th.

*catches all the pics I missed on other threads*

:)

>125 scaifea: You're welcome, Amber!

>126 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad that you joined us on Sunday, Claire! I enjoyed getting to know you and Caroline a bit better, and it was equally as nice to see Bryony again. Which books did you buy?

We should have a nice turn out for Friday. Bianca is definitely going, and hopefully Heather and Jenny (@lunacat) can make it as well.

>127 qebo: Are you back in Lancaster, Katherine? It seems as though you had a splendid time in Maine last week.

I may visit my parents again briefly in early July, as I'm off from the 9th through the 13th. I'll keep you, Laura and other Philadelphia area LTers posted, in case we want to have a mini-meet up then. Have you seen the exhibitions at the Penn Museum yet?

>128 BBGirl55: So I definitely came in last place then, in terms of the number of books each of us bought. I did buy books earlier in the week, and I'll certainly buy more later in the week.

Thanks for being a perfect tour guide on Sunday, Bryony! The day wouldn't have been nearly as enjoyable without you.

>129 SqueakyChu: Hi, Madeline! Will 2014 finally be the year that we meet in person? :^)

>130 kidzdoc: I got home late Wednesday night, spent the next two days at a conference, and now I'm back to regular programming, which includes dropping in to LT threads when I should be working. Nope, I haven't been to the Penn museum, so if you're up this way again and get to Philadelphia, count me in for a mini-meetup.
>129 SqueakyChu: SqueakyChu, come to Philadelphia!

Happy Belated Thingaversary! Great cake. Love all the pictures. Awesome trip!

>130 kidzdoc:

Hi, Madeline! Will 2014 finally be the year that we meet in person?

I certainly hope so!

>131 qebo:

come to Philadelphia!

It's not as easy as it used to be. My vision is not good enough for driving long distances. I hate high speed highway driving in traffic and driving on roads I don't know. Since I lost my job, I do what I can to avoid spending extra money. Hence I don't plan many out of town trips any more. Visiting with others here in my own area (Baltimore/DC) works out much better for me.

Great idea to visit Rochester! I always think of it so much as being associated with late Plantagenet and Tudor England, and now I'm going to need to venture off to find out precisely WHY.

(Wondering why Nora didn't get to eat her cake???)

I must read that Grushin novel, which is sitting on my Kindle. I've read The Line and liked it tremendously.

Love the Evensong service. Did you go to Ely on a previous trip, Darryl? I seem to recall that you did. I've attended Evensong there in the past -- September at dusk in the Fens is VERY atmospheric!

>134 SqueakyChu: I wouldn't drive it either. Take the train... yeah, it costs $. :-(

We can always crowdsource the train fare, no?

>110 kidzdoc: wow, a thingaversary cake! haha, of course there had to be one out there somewhere. I love it

>116 kidzdoc: a 12thC doorway. Incredible. I love the sheer age of things in Britain. Anything over 120 years old here is fenced off and protected.

>131 qebo: I'm back to regular programming, which includes dropping in to LT threads when I should be working.

Yep. That sounds right.

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to return to London in September, as I usually do, or spend some extended time with my parents, who I've hardly seen this year; at the moment I'm leaning toward the latter. If I do visit them I'd be less inclined to visit them in July, especially since I'll only be there for three full days. I'll keep you and others posted.

>132 Berly: Thanks, Kim!

>133 SqueakyChu: I hope that we can meet up later this year, Madeline. I doubt that I'll go to the National Book Festival in Washington in August, but if I visit my parents in September I could make a day trip to DC on Amtrak and visit you there..

>134 SqueakyChu: I agree. I hate driving around Washington, and I'd be loathe to travel by car from Philadelphia to DC. Amtrak is so much more convenient, especially since my parents live within 15 minutes of the Trenton train station, where most of the Northeast Corridor trains stop. I haven't visited Washington since I was in medical school in the late 1990s, so I'm overdue for a trip there.

>135 Chatterbox: Bryony gets full credit for suggesting the trip to Rochester on Sunday.

Rhian and I met for the first time in Ely last year, and we did visit the cathedral, although we didn't go to any services (I think we met on a Wednesday, her day off from work). I enjoyed the Evensong service, particularly the singing by the young choir.

I also liked The Line, Olga Grushin's second novel, and The Dream Life of Sukhanov has been on my wish list since then.

>136 qebo: Train>>>car.

>137 Chatterbox: That's a good idea, provided that Madeline would want to do a day trip to Philadelphia. It's probably easier for me/us to visit her in Baltimore or DC, though.

>138 LovingLit: Hello, fair Megan! I happened to remember from a past monthly newsletter that the LT leadership bought a Thingaversary cake for Nora, but I think they ate it in Portland instead of sending it to her.

Anything over 120 years old here is fenced off and protected.

In Atlanta and much of the US, nearly everything over 120 years old was torn down 50-75 years ago.

What a magnificent trip you are having! I am so envious. But I'm also thankful for the beautiful pictures. I am making note of the various cafes, bookstores, etc. in the hope that I someday can make a return trip to England.

BTW, I did try to follow your link to the facebook pictures, but FB wouldn't allow me access. Is it because I'm not a facebook member?

>137 Chatterbox:

Thanks, Suz, but I wouldn't want the train fare crowd-sourced. I'm not poverty-stricken...yet! :D

>139 kidzdoc:

I hate driving around Washington

That's funny because I really like driving around DC. I used to do all my home visits in the city and really, really like the city. I'm still okay driving in familiar areas and on familiar roads. It's the non-existent parking here that I hate. I live within walking distance of the DC Metro so getting around the city is really easy for me.

If you plan on coming to the DC/Balto area, we'll need to plan a HUGE meet-up for that occasion. Nora?! Are you listening?? (She's our official DC meet-up planner.) :D

One thing I might do is see if my friend Barbara would be willing to drive up to Philly. We talked about that last year...but in the end, it just seemed like too much of a hassle.

Belated happy thingaversary Darryl! Fabulous pictures and now I've decided I need to go to Rochester one day!

>141 arubabookwoman: Good to see you here, Deborah! I hope that you can a return trip to England in the near future.

I logged out of my Facebook account, and I couldn't access my album either, so I think you're right. I made the album Public, so anyone who has a Facebook account should be able to view it. I chose what I thought were the best photos, but the album contains over 100 photos.

>142 SqueakyChu: I hope that your situation remains that way, Madeline!

>143 SqueakyChu: I haven't driven in the District very much...in fact, I think I've only done it once or twice. I know that I drove from Pittsburgh to DC when I was a medical student to attend my cousin's graduation from Georgetown Law School, and took the train another time to visit him and his wife. I found DC area drivers to be hyper-aggressive and a bit cut throat, so I was happy to reach the relative tranquility of western Maryland and central Pennsylvania. The train trip was a very pleasant one, though, so because of that, and because I'd have to use one of my parents' cars (unless I drove all the way from Atlanta to DC or Philadelphia, a trip I'd rather not take), I'd strongly prefer to travel by Amtrak to Baltimore or Washington.

A big meet up certainly isn't necessary! Although I thoroughly enjoyed last year's Philadelphia mega-meet up I like smaller meet ups like the one we had on Sunday just as well. I'm definitely eager to see you, Jim, Anne and, of course, Nora for the first time, and see old friends again.

I'll let you know what my plans are for late summer and early fall. I have three weeks of vacation to use before the end of the year. I'll probably use one week to go to San Francisco in August (I like to go there then to get away from the hot summer weather in Atlanta), another week in mid-October if the Cranswicks decide to visit California (I'll attend the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in San Diego from October 11-14, and maybe travel to the Bay Area before or after the conference), and a week in early September, to either return to London or visit my parents.

>144 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather! It didn't take long to travel to Rochester; Caroline and I boarded a 9.06 Chatham Main Line fast train from London Cannon Street that arrived at Rochester at 9.47, which only stopped at London Bridge and Swanley. I think that those trains normally originate from London Victoria, but that station was closed last Sunday.

I'm finally feeling nearly back to normal today, after what I think was an allergic reaction to the calamari I had on Sunday. I've had this happen on a couple of occasions before, with moderately violent GI symptoms, but this time the reaction was far more delayed in its onset and lasted for much longer than it usually does. I can eat Szechuan salted squid without difficulty, and most calamari and other preparations of squid don't bother me, but when this happens it's quite troublesome. As a result, I missed seeing Wolf Hall (again) on Monday, and a play I bought a ticket for at Barbican Centre last night. I'll definitely see Bring Up the Bodies tonight, and hopefully I can nab a last minute ticket for Wolf Hall on Sunday.

WOW, Darryl. Such very, very beautiful pictures of your travels! I thank you for sharing them!

>146 connie53: Thanks, Connie! I'm glad that you enjoyed those photos.

Yes I really did. You are a much better photographer!

>145 kidzdoc:

It would be a delight to meet you - whoever accompanies us, big crowd or small. :)

Enjoying your photos of Rochester, which led me to do some reading up on the castle and cathedral online. Beautiful. There is a lovely little town near me here in MA (my insurance agent is there) called Medway.

Please keep those posts coming -- we're all enjoying your trip so much!

Gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing. :)

Woot! Tickets to both Bring Up the Bodies and Wolf Hall would be fabulous!

I had a wonderful time sharing your trip, Darryl. And elsewhere, Caroline shared too. I will get to some of these places one day, I hope. And the Baggins Book Bazaar will be very high on my list. Long may it survive.

>145 kidzdoc: Sorry to hear you missed seeing Wolf Hall. Hopefully you can get another ticket.

Hi Darryl, it looks like you have a fabulous time. When are you leaving for the continent?

There's something going on with you and Wolf Hall - that's three times, for entirely different reasons, you've missed it. Hope the fourth attempt works!

>156 jjmcgaffey: I was about to make the same comment! Clearly, Thomas Cromwell (or Henry Tudor?) is pulling some strings. Fugheddabout Montezuma's revenge -- revenge of the Tudors, since Cromwell gets the last word like this??

That said, sorry you've been ill and hope you bounce back in time to enjoy the other shows; at least you have read the books and so you'll know the "backstory". I'm sure that at least they'll make it to NYC, worst case scenario.

>148 connie53: Thanks Connie, although I suspect that the foolproof camera is the main reason for the quality of the photographs.

>149 SqueakyChu: I'm certain that we would have a splendid time even if it was only the two of us that met, Madeline!

>150 michigantrumpet: Thanks, Marianne. A day in Rochester would definitely be a very enjoyable venture for anyone who visits London; I would say the same thing about Cambridge and Ely as well.

There will definitely be more posts, photographs and meet ups. Bianca and I are getting together tomorrow; she, Claire, Heather and I are meeting on Friday; and I'll see Pat in Paris on Tuesday.

>151 avidmom: You're welcome, Susie!

>152 lit_chick: I did see the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of Bring Up the Bodies at the Aldwych Theatre last night (it's nearly half past midnight here), and it was superb. My only complaint was that there was insufficient leg room in the Grand Circle (uppermost balcony) of the theatre, and I was very uncomfortable at the conclusion of the second act. I have at least one last chance to see Wolf Hall before I leave London on Monday, as I might be able to get a £10 same day ticket for the Saturday matinee. However, I also have a ticket to see a play at the Almeida Theatre that evening, so I'm not sure I'd want to see two plays that close together.

>153 laytonwoman3rd: I hope that you can visit the UK in the near future, Linda.

>154 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. If all else fails I would imagine that the RSC will publish DVDs of both performances, or perhaps it will make its way to the US. I saw the RSC adaptation of Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last year, so there is a decent chance that Wolf Hall could appear there as well.

>155 Ameise1: Definitely so, Barbara. I leave for Paris on an early afternoon Eurostar train on Monday, and after I meet up with Pat the following day I'll take a late afternoon train to Barcelona. I'll be there for 10 days, and return to Atlanta on June 27th. I probably won't visit Madrid, as the temperatures are supposed to be brutally hot there (33-36 C, or the mid to upper 90s F). The temperatures in Barcelona are supposed to be in the low to mid 20s C (mid to upper 70s F), which is much more to my liking.

>156 jjmcgaffey: You're right, Jennifer. I missed seeing Wolf Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon in March, and twice more in London this month. Unless there is a performance on Sunday I doubt that I'll see it this week.

>157 Chatterbox: Thanks, Suz. I'm nearly back to normal now. I agree; I would expect that the RSC would bring Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies to BAM or elsewhere in 2015.

Off to bed...

Darryl say hello to Bianca and have fun at your meet up.

Darryl

I am sitting here enjoying all the photos of your travels and the lovely images of you and LT friends.

I'm so glad you are having a wonderful time!

In the words of Hank Williams, Jr.: Are you ready for some football?



The World Cup (La Copa Mundial) opens with the host country, Brasil, facing Croatia in São Paulo this afternoon. I'll be in London on Saturday for England's match against Italy, and in Barcelona for two of Spain's matches, against Chile on Wednesday and against Australia the following Monday.

Google UK is also getting into the spirit:



A couple of Portuguese language tips: "ã" is pronounced "uhn", and "ão" is "ow-uhn", although the syllables are blended together, sounding like "ow-n". The letter "ç" sounds like "s", and "ei" is pronounced like a long "a" ("ay").

>161 luvamystery65: Will do, Roberta.

>162 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda!

Google US has the same Doodle today :)

Darryl, I can't say that I'm enamoured of the whole World Cup business! I suppose you don't get so much coverage in the US but here it is just wall to wall football that seems to go on for months. Actually it is a little more subdued than usual this time, as everyone seems to have decided that England don't have a cat in hell's chance of winning. Actually that is pretty much always the case but the whole country - or at least the English part of it - usually go into a period of mass hallucination and decide that England are the best team in the world. The Scots, of course, tend to support whoever are England's opponents, and the Welsh (like me) are ambivalent!

We had a World Cup Sweepstake at work today but I am not holding out much hope for winning the pot. I drew Ghana at 200-1 and Australia at 500-1!

Thanks for the photo information by the way but I still can't do it! I am going to try and find an iPhone expert somewhere who can show me, as I must be doing something fundamentally wrong.

>163 kidzdoc: Darryl, you'll be in the heart of football fever during your European trip. Especially in Spain you won't get any sleep. There will be one big party in the streets. Furthermore, Spain will get a new king next week. So enjoy the big European party. :-D

...Barcelona during World Cup...*shudder*

Here I thought I was keeping up via Facebook! Wonderful pictures, Darryl!

A quick update: I had a splendid day with Bianca yesterday afternoon and evening. We had coffee al fresco at a nice café in Covent Garden (Cafe Mode), served by a very friendly waiter from Morocco; dinner at Belgo Centraal, a boisterous Belgian restaurant that specializes in moules-frites (mussels with Belgian fries), which was superb; then scurried to Waterloo to see the play Red Forest at the Young Vic. It was a unique and spell binding performance about a Nigerian woman displaced from her homeland, who makes a mythical nomadic journey to other troubled lands to find shelter and companionship.

Bianca is doing well, and she sends her love to all of you. She hopes to return to LT on an active basis at the beginning of the year.

Here's a not very good photo I took of her at Belgo Centraal, attempting to enjoy moules-frites despite her worrisome companion (namely me):



Bianca, Heather, Caroline and I will meet later this morning to go on a medical history walking tour in Bloomsbury. Luci will join us at the conclusion of the walk, and we'll have lunch and go book shopping afterward. The weather in London continues to be splendid, with mostly sunny skies and warmer than usual temperatures (it's supposed to reach 26 C (79 F) in the capital today).

>164 katiekrug: Ah. I couldn't log onto Google US from my iPad, so I wasn't sure if the image on Google UK was the same as the US version.

I think today will be the day that we'll have Pimms in your honor, Katie. We'll probably go to the London Review Bookshop, then sit outside in the courtyard of the pub next to it.

>165 SandDune: Other than the occasional World Cup poster or person wearing a football jersey I don't think I would have known that yesterday was the first match if I hadn't been already aware of it. I'm sure that tomorrow will be a different story, when England play its first match against Italy. (I'm still getting used to the concept of referring to the team in the plural (e.g., "England play" instead of "England plays"). In the US if we use the team's name we would use the singular ("Philadelphia plays Dallas"), but if we use its (their) nickname we'd revert to the plural ("the Eagles play the Cowboys").)

I took this photo while I was on my way to a barbershop in Islington:



The World Cup is definitely a minor event in the US, as you said, and even when the tournament took place in the US it was received with far less interest than that given to major sports like professional and college American football and baseball. The only time I saw any celebration after a match was probably in 1998 (or maybe 2002), when I was visiting San Francisco and had coffee in North Beach, a predominantly Italian section. Italy had just defeated Germany, I think, in a semifinal match, which put them in the final (against France?). It was early on a Sunday morning, but the match had just finished, and Columbus Avenue was essentially shut down for nearly an hour, as Italian supporters sang and danced in the middle of the street. I look forward to seeing similarly boisterous celebrations in England and Spain the next couple of weeks.

>166 Ameise1: Although I may not sleep well I'm eager to see (and possibly participate in) World Cup fever in Spain, and learn more about the installment of the new king.

>167 richardderus: I think I can safely say that being in Barcelona during World Cup easily trumps being in Atlanta at any time of the year.

>168 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I'll take more photos today, and post them here tonight or tomorrow.

>170 kidzdoc: I'm still getting used to the concept of referring to the team in the plural I'd never noticed that at all until you pointed it out! But I do definitely say England play ....

>170 kidzdoc: Not much doesn't trump Atlanta, I grant you. *shudder*

>170 kidzdoc: - Enjoy that Pimms! Sounds like a perfect day for it.

Pimms! Please sip one on my behalf as well!

Lots of Futbol talk going on here. The next town over from mine has a HUGE Brazilian population. There's been lots of street paining and celebrating going on. Tons of fun!

Another amusing English-ism/London-ism that I hadn't realized I was using until someone pointed it out to me -- there are a certain number of streets in London whose names are usually prefaced, in conversation, with "the" -- as in "the Edgware Road", "the Brompton Road", "the Cromwell Road". Not just when they are one word, eg Strand becoming "The Strand", which makes sense (although Piccadilly doesn't become "The Piccadilly"; there's no "The Knightsbridge", "The Cheapside", or "The Holborn".). And while it's almost always applied to thoroughfares ending in "road" (you never here it with "street" or "avenue"), not all "roads" get the designation. I don't here it used with Clerkenwell Road, for instance, or King's Road, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Horseferry Road, etc.)

And that "the" is stuck in the way I give directions or tell people where I'm going or describe the city, as it with a lot of Londoners I know. Then someone I know just moved to London and sent me a bemused e-mail about this.

>175 Chatterbox: the hubs and I refer to any major shopping thoroughfare as "the High Street." Even if it's one of those busy Amurcan 4-lane roads lined with strip shopping centers, as long as it contains all the typical retailers, it's "the High Street" to us!

Another geographical oddity between British and American English that I have noticed is in the names of rivers. Ours are always River something, (River Thames, River Severn, River Avon), whereas the ones I've heard of in the US are the other way around (Missouri River, Hudson River etc).

>175 Chatterbox: I say The King's Road as well.

(A tired but happy) woo! It's 8 pm, and the five of us (Bianca, Claire, Heather, Luci and myself) parted not long ago, after we spent a very pleasant day walking about The City and Bloomsbury, going to way too many bookshops, stores and cafés, and buying obscene numbers of books. Claire and I took plenty of photos, and I'll post them on Facebook and here soon.

Unfortunately the one thing we didn't do was order Pimms.

>177 SandDune:, you're right on both counts, about rivers and the King's Road! You see, when I typed it, it automatically came out that way. But I have no equally compelling urge to put an article before Horseferry Road.

>170 kidzdoc: missing a photo there?
I am in two minds about the Football WC. All the corruption and blatant money-making (at the expense of the common-folk) that goes with it is, imo, disgraceful. That the 'game' should make all the 'other stuff' a non-story is infuriating. But on the other hand, I like to see people having fun. So.

>178 kidzdoc: glad you had a great day, and the walking medical tour sounds like a really cool thing to have done.

It sounds like you are having a lovely, socialble time. Looking forward to the pictures, and the lists of books purchased.

Totally jealous that you are going to World Cup football!! We are a big soccer family. My son was on the Timber's Olympic Development Team this past year. Have a great time!!

I fell asleep after I downloaded photos from my camera to my iPad, created an album on Facebook, catalogued my new books on Goodreads and LT, and watched the second half of two World Cup matches, Spain vs Netherlands and Chile vs Australia.

The original plan of yesterday's meet up was to start the day with a medical history walking tour of Bloomsbury, which was to be led by Richard Barnett, the author of the book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures. I found out about the walking tour via the book's web site, www.medicallondon.org, and I noticed that there was a guided tour scheduled for Saturday 13 June, starting at the Holborn Underground station. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that 13 June was a Friday, not a Saturday, which was my first mistake.

Claire, Bianca, Heather and I met at Holborn station at 11 am:



We didn't see anyone there who seemed to be part of this tour, so I pulled up the map from the web site on my smartphone, and we made our way along the route, first going to nearby Lincoln's Inn Fields, the largest of the public squares in London. We passed by, but didn't enter, Sir John Soame's Museum, and we stopped to look at the buildings of the Royal College of Surgeons on the far end of the park:



A monument to barrister Philip Twells, outside of the southeast entrance to Lincoln's Inn Fields:



I checked the Medical London web site again, and it wasn't until then that I noticed that the walks were held on 13 June 2009! Since we forgot to bring our pocket time machine to transport us five years into the past we decided to visit the original Twinings Tea shop on the Strand and the Temple Church, passing the Royal Courts of Justice and the buildings of several organizations associated with it along the way.

Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Honourable Inns of Court of London, where barristers have belonged since the early 14th century:



A building and a gate on the campus of St Patrick's College, a for-profit business school in operation since 1803:





Along the way we found a perfectly sized car for Bianca:

Continued...

Claire and Heather standing in front of a portion of the Royal Courts of Justice:



More photos of the Royal Courts of Justice, from the front and one side:





Claire, Bianca and Margaret standing in front of The Seven Stars pub:



The Silver Mousetrap, a jewellry founded in 1690:



The Temple Bar, which marks the historical boundary between the City of London and the City of Westminster, created to regulate trade into the City:



Heather standing outside the front entrance of Twinings Tea Shop, which opened at this location in 1706:



Finally, some photos of the Temple Church, founded in the late 12th century. Unfortunately it was closed, so we weren't able to go inside:

Continued...

We walked back to the London Review Bookshop, where we were fortunate enough to nab seats for four at its lovely Cake Shop, which sells excellent soups, sandwiches, quiches, salads, desserts and tea. The tea that Claire and I had were in served elegant small pots, with cups that were equally stylish and functional:



I was famished after the walk, so I had the tomato soup and smoked salmon on a baguette:





Luci joined us at the Cake Shop for dessert, and we began our book buying frenzy. At the London Review Bookshop I came away with three books:

The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico García Lorca Ascends to Hell by Carlos Rojas: I chuckled when I saw the title of this book, which uses the poet's death at the hands of Francoist rebels in 1936 to explore his life and work. I just noticed that the author is a professor of Spanish at Emory University, so I'll have to learn more about Dr. Rojas when I return to Atlanta.

The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim: The winner of this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which explores "the dark absurdities of Iraq's recent past and the torments of its countless refugees."

Outlaws by Javier Cercas: The latest novel by the acclaimed author of Soldiers of Salamis and The Anatomy of a Moment, which focuses on the generation of youth caught in the chaotic years between Franco's death and the rise of democracy in Spain.

From the Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop I bought one book, an advance review copy of Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo, a novel about an elderly man born in Antigua who moved to the London Borough of Hackney in the 1960s and has lived flamboyantly with his wife and children, but also has a secret relationship that enriches and complicates his life.

Luci suggested that we visit the Waterstones branch on Gower Road, on the edge of the campus of the University of London, to check out its selection of remainder titles. I bought one remainder book and one new book there:

Vlad by Carlos Fuentes: A novella in which Vlad the Impaler is dispossessed after spending several centuries
in Eastern Europe, and finds himself in modern day Mexico City, where he causes havoc in the bourgeoisie there.

Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Mash: Claire pointed this out to me, since I had mentioned that I was planning to visit the Portobello Road Market this weekend. The author explores this iconic street that is representative of the diversity and energy of London, by telling the stories of its inhabitants.

We were some distance away from our last planned bookshop visit, the newly opened Foyles on Charing Cross Road, so we took a quick bus ride there. We didn't think to take any photos, since we were all entranced by the impressive appearance of the bookshop. I bought two more books from my wish list:

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: This novel, shortlisted for this year's Orange Prize Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, which tells the story of Agnes
Magnúsdóttir, who was one of the last three people put to death in Iceland for her role in the murder of her lover and another man in 1829.

A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie: A novel set in the mid-1910s, centered around the relationship between an Englishwoman and a young man returning home after being seriously injured while serving in the British Indian Army, who meet on a train heading to Peshawar, and then encounter each other again 15 years later during a brutal fight for freedom. I loved her earlier novel Burnt Shadows, so I wanted to buy her new book straight away.

We said goodbye to Claire, and the remaining four of us walked to Cafe Mode, an Italian restaurant in Covent Garden where Bianca and I had coffee yesterday. Bianca, Heather and I had dinner (I had grilled lamb with a salad and new potatoes, which was excellent). We proceeded back to Holborn station, nearly nine hours after we first met, and parted ways.

It was a very enjoyable day, despite its unauspicious beginning, and the weather was very favorable, with partly sunny skies and slightly warmer than normal temperatures.

>171 SandDune: I thought that the use of a plural to describe a team was a typo ("England play Italy tonight") when I first saw or heard it on my first trip to London, Rhian. It wasn't long before I realized that this was the standard here.

>172 richardderus: Atlanta is a great place for me to work, and I appreciate living in the city that has the world's busiest airport, as it offers direct flights to nearly every place I want to go. The early spring and middle and late autumn weather there is glorious, and the cost of living is much lower than comparable cities in most of the rest of the country. Other than that I can't think of much else that I like about it, though.

>173 katiekrug: It was a perfect day for Pimms, but we didn't go to the pub next door to the London Review Bookshop. I suspect that I would have been alone in having a Pimms, so we'll have to save that for our future meet up in London, Katie.

>174 michigantrumpet: Will do, Marianne! Clearly we need to plan an LT London meet up primarily for people from the US in the near future.

>175 Chatterbox: I noticed that too, Suz. The streets I think of the most are The Euston Road (mainly in books I've read about London), The Strand, and The King's Road.

>176 lauralkeet: I had no idea what a High Street was until I came here for the first time, Laura. Have you ever seen any cities in the US that use that designation? I wouldn't be surprised if there are some 17th or 18th century cities in New England that do so.

>177 SandDune: Right, Rhian. The only river in the US I can think of that puts the word "river" first is the Rio Grande ("Great River"), which runs from Colorado southward to form a portion of the western border between the US and México. However in Spanish the word "rio" always comes first, e.g. Rio Bravo and Rio Negro.

>180 LovingLit: I largely agree with you, Megan. FIFA is clearly a corrupt organization whose leader needs to stand down immediately, especially in the wake of evidence suggesting that Qatar representatives successfully bribed FIFA officials in its campaign to host the World Cup in 2022. The book I finished earlier this week, Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, describes the pervasive corruption in Brazilian football, in which most players are paid a pittance, and often not paid for months. And, of course, the obscene amount of money spent on building new and refurbishing old stadiums for the World Cup and preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games will have little if any benefit for the poor living in decrepit favelas in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere in the country. However, I'm also a relatively avid sports fan, and I can enjoy the matches on their own and get caught up in the excitement of the World Cup, especially being in Europe this month.

Although we were five years too late for the planned medical history walking tour the book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures contains pamphlets for six of the walks throughout London, that can be used for readers who wish to follow the tour on their own. I brought the pamphlets with me to London; unfortunately I left them in my hotel room yesterday (my second mistake of the day).

>181 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! I'll take more photos tomorrow, when I go to the Portobello Road and Spitalfields Markets, and possibly Borough Market if I have time. I'll use the bulk of today to get organized for my trip to Paris on Monday, and decide what I want to bring with me, and what items (especially books!) I'll ship back to the US.

>182 Berly: Thanks, Kim. Because of the time difference the World Cup matches come on here from the late afternoon to the late evening; England's match with Italy starts at 11 pm tonight on BBC One. Although I will see one last play tonight I'll watch the match in my hotel room, and I'll probably avoid large group gatherings in Barcelona, as I'm sure that the city's notorious pickpockets will be out in force.

>187 kidzdoc: Have you ever seen any cities in the US that use that designation?
No I don't think I have, Darryl. I agree with you though, that if it were found anywhere it would likely be in New England.

I enjoyed your photos of the day, because I've not been to that part of London. I'm also rather amused by your little mistake, although it looks like you recovered quite nicely and found plenty to occupy your time!

Despite being 5 years late for the walking tour it was a very good day :-)

Darryl, I wish you a wonderful weekend.

Only slightly resentfully following your trip...and muttering sulphrously as my Ammy cart grows ever fatter with your irresistible temptational book-shopping.

Envying you your fun in Bloomsbury! You should venture back one day to Sir John Soane's museum, and to venture inside the Temple church to do homage to William Marshal, the Winston Churchill of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, whose tomb is there.

I can't think of any High Streets here (although this made me think of High Street Kensington in London, another oddity, since it's got its geographical location tacked on to the end of it, which I suspect is probably a legacy of simply being a "High Street" back when Kensington was nothing more than a village in the country, in the 17th or 18th century). Perhaps the North American equivalent is Main Street? We have one of those here -- indeed, there is N. Main Street and S. Main Street!

>192 Chatterbox: oh yes, you're right -- Main Street would be the North American equivalent. Funny how you don't notice it when it's right in front of you.

Woo! I found out earlier today that one of my classmates from residency, who is also an avid reader and is a friend of mine on Goodreads, will be in Barcelona with her boyfriend for most of the time that I'll be there. She noticed that I was reading books about Barcelona, and told me that she and her BF were planning to go there this month, and we found out that we'll overlap from June 21-26. Catherine and I probably won't do much together, as they have a preset itinerary, but we'll definitely meet up at least once while we're both there.

I had all but ruled out a trip to Madrid, given the high temperatures there, but according to the long term forecast the high temperatures will be in the low 80s (27-28 C) instead of the low to mid 90s (33-35 C). If that holds then I will make a quick trip after all.

>188 lauralkeet: I'm glad that you liked those photos, Laura. I'm quite familiar with Bloomsbury and The Strand, although I hadn't been to Lincoln's Inn Fields before. Fortunately Claire knows the area well, and after we picked up maps of "Midtown", the new (and rather strange) designation for the area that comprises Bloomsbury, Holborn and St. Giles, it was easy to come up with an alternative plan.

>189 souloftherose: Right, Heather! I'm glad we all got together, and it was great to see you again. I'll almost certainly come back one more time in mid September, so hopefully we can get together then as well.

One of these times I'll end up staying here permanently...

>190 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I hope that you are enjoying your weekend as well. Thanks also for the lovely photograph!

>191 richardderus: Good Saturday to you, kind sir! None of us intended to buy that many books yesterday, and the restraint I demonstrated on Sunday's trip to Rochester was nullified by this haul.

>192 Chatterbox: We had hoped to visit the Temple Church, so I/we will have to do that some other time.

The other odd "High" designation I can think of is High Holborn, the street we walked on after dinner to go from Covent Garden to Holborn station.

I'd agree that Main Street would be one equivalent to High Street. Market Street would be another name I think of that describes the principal shops where stores are located in a city, e.g. Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Wow...Costa Rica has started the second half with a vengeance, scoring two goals against favored Uruguay in less than three minutes after they nearly scored a few minutes beforehand. My friend Amalia must be dancing and grinning from ear to ear.

I learned somewhere that the name Holborn came from a stream in a hollow -- (a hole, literally, and a bourn) -- and may have referred either the Fleet River just beneath it (now covered over) or a tributary of the Fleet. I always wondered if High Holborn (which pre-dates the construction of the railway viaduct) was because part of it ran along a dike or something beside the river or stream? Because it's not the High Street in Holborn, really? Hmmm.

I am in Anglophile Heaven!!!! Thank you, Darryl!!!! I'd ask you to marry me except that I already have the one and you wouldn't anyway. But I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying your trip. But it's MUCH!

>185 kidzdoc: Oh my my my...they do know how to do things well there, don't they?

>176 lauralkeet: The 'High Street' is used in a very generic way here to indicate town-centre (as opposed to out-of -town) shopping areas, even when in practice that area might be composed of several different streets, which in a lot of towns won't have the name 'High Street' at all. So you will see newspaper articles with headings like 'How the High Street is surving the economic downturn' or 'What is the future of the High Street?'

>185 kidzdoc: Having just read Dracula I like the sound of Vlad, not one I'd come across before.

Earlier this morning I decided to check the CDG airport web site to see when Pat's flight from San Francisco to Paris was scheduled to arrive. When I did I saw the following message: "French railways strike: access by train to Paris airports will be strongly disrupted. Aéroports de Paris advises passengers to check train schedules and to go earlier to the airport." WTF???Needless to say I had a mild panic attack when I saw that, as I'm supposed to take a SNCF train from Paris to Barcelona on Tuesday afternoon. I checked online news sources, and found out that up to half of the inter-city trains, including the long distance TGV trains to Spain, have been cancelled since the strike began last Tuesday. The strike will continue at least into Monday, and there is no clear end in sight. The train I'm scheduled to take is the last one for Barcelona that day, and if that train was cancelled I would be stranded in Paris (probably not the worst thing in the world, but still a bit stressful).

I've now made a refundable reservation on a flight from London Gatwick to Barcelona that leaves Tuesday afternoon, and unless something changes dramatically by this evening I'll reserve a room in my current hotel for one additional night, and leave for Gatwick on Tuesday morning. That, of course, means that I won't be able to meet up with Pat tomorrow after all.

I did send several text messages to Pat to let her know about this strike, as I don't think she is aware of it, based on our conversations this weekend.

I'll check back in later today.

That's such a pain, Darryl. French transport has an annoying habit of going on strike at the drop of a hat. Hopefully it will be sorted before you travel. I hadn't seen anything at all about it in the news though, I suppose there's quite a lot else going on in the world at the moment.

>200 SandDune: I didn't hear or see anything about it either, Rhian. And, if I hadn't looked at the CDG web site this morning I would have been completely blindsided by this strike. I seriously doubt this will get sorted out by tomorrow, so I've cancelled my hotel room in Paris (which I had to do by 1 pm to get a full refund), and I'll see if I can get refunds on my Eurostar and TGV tickets.

Ugh, that's stressful, Darryl. I'm glad you were able to make alternate arrangements but it's a shame you won't get to see Paris, or meetup with Pat.

Darryl, saw this bookshop on Twitter as one being up for creative design awards. Passing it on here and on FB in case it piques your interest.

Beckenhams very own independent bookshop!

help@beckenhambooks.com

42 High Street, BR3 1AY · beckenhambooks.com

>199 kidzdoc: I won't be able to meet up with Pat tomorrow after all
Oh no!

Ugh. Sorry to hear about the train strikes - thank goodness you happened to see there were strikes before you tried to catch your train on Tuesday. Sorry you won't get to see Pat or Paris this trip but it sounds like it will be much less stressful to fly direct to Barcelona.

Argh, yes, train strikes... I remember one version of this in Belgium back in ancient times, pre Eurostar, when I was trying to persuade Wall Street Journal Europe to give me a job in Brussels. They agreed to interview me when I was going to be in London, which meant getting to Brussels and back in a single day, which was still (barely) do-able via Hovercraft. Except that when I got to Folkestone, they were warning us that there were no trains from Ostend to Brussels -- a wildcat strike. From Ostend I took a bus to Ghent; from Ghent I hitchiked to the outskirts of Brussels and then caught a city bus all the way downtown. Arrived right smack on time. After my meeting, the office secretary helped me make a sign so that I could hitchhike back to Ostend and got a ride back there with a Belgian military officer in charge of downsizing the country's armed forces in the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin Wall (this was 1991.) And no, I did not get the job, although I think they should have given it to me for my intrepid insistence on getting there alone.

I do hope that you end up less fraught as a result of all this, but am glad you were aware of it in time and were able to make alternative plans quickly and (relatively) easily. Thank heavens for the Internet!!

Darryl, the photos of your time in London are wonderful. Thank you for posting them and for taking the time to label them! Richard said that if I came over to your thread I would *expire* from envy and he is not far from wrong. After Scotland, P and I have been talking about Peru and New Zealand for our next big trips, but London is exerting its magnetic pull.

I hope the journey to Barcelona goes smoothly. You're clearly doing some Plan B development, so I trust you'll get there one way or another.

I'm also happy that you were able to make alternative plans fairly smoothly. Strikes or even the threat of are annoying.

Sorry to hear that your plans for Paris will probably be disrupted. But, sad to say, most of the times I have travelled to Europe there has been one strike or another. The last Italy trip the trains were on strike, but just for a pre-announced three days. Then the last two trips to Paris the museum guards went on strike at the Musee d"Orsay closing the building for my entire stay and then the next year the garbage collectors were on strike. Seems routine.

I couldn't connect to the hotel's WiFi yesterday, but that problem has been fixed today.

>202 lauralkeet: Right, Laura. I communicated with Pat via text messages after she arrived in Paris; she was apparently unaware of the strike as well. She and her friend travelled by taxi from CDG airport, and said that the roads were a nightmare, as very few trains into the city and the suburbs were running.

Oddly enough my father had read about the strike, but he didn't realize that I might be affected by it.

News reports indicate this is the worst rail strike in France in years. Talks are still ongoing, and most trains aren't running again on Monday, which will affect students taking their crucial baccalaureate exams that begin today. Two long distance TGV trains, similar to the one I was scheduled to take tomorrow, were apparently sabotaged, which left ~2300 passengers stranded for hours between France and Nice. So, I think I made the right decision to find an alternate route to Barcelona.

>203 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. I won't have time to go there (and I more than enough books as it is already!), but I'll mention it to Bianca, as the flat she stays in here should be relatively close to Beckenham.

>204 qebo: Yep, we're both very disappointed about this sudden change in plans, Katherine. We were going to have breakfast at a café near her apartment (La Palette), spend a couple of hours at Shakespeare & Company Bookshop, and have lunch and tea at the nearby Tea Caddy before I left to catch a TGV train to Barcelona.

>205 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. And you are absolutely right in saying that this route to Barcelona tomorrow will be less stressful one than the original one. Although I was excited about going to Paris and seeing Pat I was also getting a little bit anxious on Saturday and early Sunday about the logistics of the plan, especially going for the first time to a place where I didn't speak the language at all.

There is a very good chance that I'll make one more trip to London in mid September, and I'll try to make a two or three day trip to Paris then.

>206 Chatterbox: I'm very glad that I decided to check on Pat's flight on the CDG web site, which is where I first learned about the strike. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have been aware of the strike until I arrived at St Pancras this morning, or Gare du Nord this afternoon.

>207 EBT1002: I'm glad that you liked the photos, Ellen! I'm looking forward to seeing the ones you post on your trip to Scotland, as I want to visit Edinburgh in the near future. Peru sounds great as well; I'd love to visit it and Chile.

I think that tomorrow should go smoothly. I flew into and out of Gatwick on my first three trips to London, so I'm relatively familiar with that airport, and there is direct train service from BCN to central Barcelona. Hopefully there won't be any transport strikes there!

>208 avatiakh: Right, Kerry. At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest I will say that I think that transport unions and other ones that provide essential public services should have limited ability to go on strike without severe penalties. Most health care workers in the US, including myself and my colleagues at Children's, aren't members of unions, but I don't think the public would find it acceptable if we decided to go on strike and abandon our hospital duties.

>209 catarina1: There do seem to be many more transport strikes or protests in Europe than in the US, although I just heard about the transit strike in Philadelphia from my mother yesterday. There was a brief protest by cab drivers in several European cities, including London, last week, and two of my past trips were disrupted by tube strikes. I can live with one or two day strikes by transport unions, but one that lasts for a week is unacceptable IMO.

>207 EBT1002: WOOHHOO, Ellen and P are coming to NZ
*starts planning*

>187 kidzdoc: I brought the pamphlets with me to London; unfortunately I left them in my hotel room yesterday (my second mistake of the day).


The French are very good at asserting their civil rights, much to the disruption of the civilians....sorry to hear your trip was much-changed because of it.

eta: the reason I came to visit....I made Darryl's White Bean Chilli Chicken tonight and it was a hit, as usual. So thank you :)

>175 Chatterbox: It might be that those streets are actually "the street to Brompton", "the street to Edgware" (though I'm not aware of a place called Cromwell...). So "the" gets tacked on to the front automatically. Both in Virgina and in London (near Richmond-on-Thames, where I went to university), there are roads that have opposite names at each end - it runs from A to B and in A it's B (Street, Road, Pike) and in B it's A (ditto). Richmond Road and Sheen Road are one pair.

>187 kidzdoc: There's a High Street in Alameda, California, where I now live - but oddly enough it's got practically no shops along it. It may be a literal "high" street, running along a ridge of high ground in what was (in 18xx, when the island was settled) marsh and wetlands - not sure. Or named for a person, I suppose. I do think of both Main and High Streets as shopping streets/downtown, but then I grew up in various countries overseas (never lived in England, until university, though) and may have picked it up somewhere not-US.

Hmmmm Summer & Strikes in France are very good friends ...... Hope you have managed to work you way around them

>211 LovingLit: Where did you find that perfect likeness of me, Megan?

I definitely made the right decision to cancel my Paris plans. The unions have voted to continue the strike at least into tomorrow, and I just saw that the train I would have taken tomorrow, TGV 9717, was cancelled for today. I haven't received any new updates from Pat since yesterday, after her "horrendous" trip from CDG to central Paris by taxi.

I'm glad that you've become as much of a fan of Heather's white chicken chili recipe as I have! I told her last month that a friend of mine from New Zealand (namely you) is also fond of it, and she was tickled pink.

>212 jjmcgaffey: I can't think of any place I've been in the US that has a high street, but I'll keep my eyes open for one in the future.

>213 roundballnz: Now you tell me, Alex! If I ever decide to travel to Paris again I'll be sure to avoid it during the summer months.

I'm all set for tomorrow: First Capital Connect train from nearby St Pancras station to Gatwick railway station, flight from Gatwick to BCN, R2 Rodalies de Catalunya train from BCN to Sants Estació, the main railway station in Barcelona. I'll probably take a taxi from there to my hotel, since there are supposed to be thunderstorms in Barcelona tomorrow night.

I also purchased boxes to ship books and unneeded clothes back to the US, as I want to travel as lightly as possible tomorrow.

Darryl, I wish you a safe journey. It's always a good idea to take a taxi.

Glad for your dodged transport-snafu bullet, Darryl, and wishing you an amazing trip to Barcelona!

You're organized! Yes, taxi to your hotel. You're in a city you don't know yet, arriving in the evening, after traveling. Taxi. You're not a 20 year old backpacker on a budget, either...

>214 kidzdoc: ... umm *** head sags**** sorry thought you were very well travelled so knew this, otherwise would have piped up .... good to hear snafu has been averted though .....

>217 Chatterbox: I agree ....

Sounds like you are having a fantastic trip, Darryl. Thanks again, for the wonderful photos.

¡Bon dia desde Barcelona! (Good morning from Barcelona, in Catalan.) I arrived safely in Barcelona, after a journey that was smoother than I expected it to be, thanks in large part to my ability to speak and read Spanish. After I boarded the flight on Vueling Airlines from London Gatwick airport I didn't speak to anyone in English until I called my parents last night, and I even gave instructions in Spanish to an older man to help him purchase a train ticket from Sants Estació, the main railway station in Barcelona, to the airport. I am aware of my limited ability in Spanish, as I'm conversant but not completely fluent, but so far I've communicated with at least six to eight people, including a taxi driver, the hotel concierge, and Rodalies guides at El Prat airport and Sants Estació quite easily.

I checked into my hotel room just after a heavy thunderstorm began at around 8 pm, so I ordered room service, watched the Brasil v México World Cup match (the most thrilling scoreless draw I've ever seen, thanks in large part to a brilliant effort by the Méxican goalkeeper), and called it a night.

I'll probably walk around the neighborhood for a bit and get breakfast (read: caffeine fix) shortly, and possibly take a tourist bus to get a feel for the city. We're supposed to get heavy thunderstorms again starting this afternoon, so I may wait to ride the tourist bus until tomorrow.

Apparently several people I spoke with in London, along with my parents, think Barcelona is blazing hot in the summer; it isn't, as it is cooled by the Mediterranean Sea breezes. It was 24 C (73 F) when the flight landed just after 6 pm (Barcelona is one hour ahead of London), and that will be today's high temperature as well. The temperature is supposed to remain pretty constant after today, with highs in the 24-28 C range (73-80 F), which is only a couple of degrees warmer than it was this past Friday and the Sunday before last, when several of us met up in London and Rochester. I did buy summery linen and light cotton clothes on Sunday, so I won't be wearing my usual mock turtlenecks while I'm here.

>215 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. It was a safe and surprisingly easy journey, and getting a taxi was no problem at all. The hotel isn't as close to Sants Estació as I had thought, and I probably would have been caught in the thunderstorm if I had decided to walk it.

Someone here (maybe me?) posted an article from one of the London newspapers listing absurd complaints from Britons traveling abroad, and one of them lambasted Barcelona taxi drivers for their inability to speak English! I doubt that any Barcelonians would expect a London cabbie to be able to speak Spanish.

>216 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! I feel quite comfortable here so far, as the people I've encountered have been very friendly. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I suspect that being able to speak Spanish has more than a little to do with this.

>217 Chatterbox: Right, Suz; there is no need to rough it, since I'm a card carrying AARP member who isn't on a tight budget. I probably would have walked to the hotel if it was closer to Sants Estació, or taken the Metro if there was a station nearby (Sants Estació is the closest one). Three of the city's tram lines run along Avinguda Diagonal, which is a short distance from here, so I'll probably use them to connect to the Metro, rather than walking to the very busy Sants Estació Metro station. I did buy a 5 day transit pass yesterday at the railway station, so I'll take my first tram ride very shortly.

>218 roundballnz: I do travel a lot, Alex, but I generally go to the same familiar places: NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco and London. This is my first visit to Spain, and my first trip onto the European continent and away from the UK, after nine visits to London in the past seven years.

>219 msf59: You're welcome, Mark. I'll take plenty of photos over the next week while I'm in Barcelona and Madrid.

Great to see that you managed to get to Barcelona without difficulty in the end! We found Barcelonans (is that a word?) very friendly as well, despite not speaking a word of Spanish. Having a three year old in tow who was going through a particularly cute phase might have helped too!

Hope that the threat of rain goes away so you can enjoy every day to the full.

Back to LT after 2 1/2 weeks of spotty internet and enjoying your trip reports. I was in Barcelona in 1967...definitely think it's time to go back. Have a great time and thanks for the photos and interesting commentary.

Lots of Brazilians here locally, so we've been following (quite vicariously) the matches here.

So glad you made it safely to Spain, but how disappointing to have all your plans upset!

Just wanted to add, Boston has a High Street (my office was at 125 High Street) and there is no Main Street.

>222 SandDune: The Barcelonians I've met so far have been quite friendly, and I'm glad to hear that you had the same experience, Rhian. Cute toddlers are the best travel ambassadors; I'll never forget the spontaneous smiles that appeared on the faces of passengers on a flight I took several years ago, as an adorable 2 year old girl stood on her seat just ahead of me and said "Hi!" to everyone that passed by.

>223 avatiakh: Fortunately there wasn't any rain yesterday, Kerry, and it was a very pleasant day, which topped out at about 23 C. I was utterly exhausted yesterday, though, so I spent most of the day lying about and sleeping, although I did venture outside briefly to walk around the neighborhood. I did use my time to make some plans for the next few days, so I'll be going out in about an hour to have breakfast at La Botiga, a restaurant that one of my guidebooks recommended, which happens to be just around the corner from my hotel, on Avinguda de Josep Tarradellas near la Plaça de Francesc Macià. From there I'll take one of the Trambaix trams that run along Avinguda Diagonal to la Plaça de Pius XII, and explore the nearby Pavellons Güell, designed by Gaudí for Eusebi Güell, and Palau Reial. I'll then buy a pass for the hop on, hop off Barcelona Bus Turístic, and spend the bulk of the day exploring the city via its three routes. I'll probably also visit La Casa Vicens, the first major work commissioned by Gaudí, as well. Needless to say I'll take a ton of photos, and post them here.

I'll explore other specific sites on Friday, and probably take tours of the Hospital de Sant Pau and the Palau de la Música Catalana, both designed by Lluís Domènech.

I bought a guide book, Gaudí: Introduction to His Architecture by Juan-Eduardo Cirlot from Divers, a convenience store in Sants Estació, which has hundreds of color photographs and is a perfect accompaniment to Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs van Hensbergen, which I'm still reading.

>224 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. I'll be interested to get your take on how Barcelona has changed from the photos I'll post since you visited the city.

>225 michigantrumpet: Atlanta has a small but sizable Brazilian community as well, concentrated mainly in the nearby suburb of Atlanta. They are dwarfed by the Mexican community, though, who must be in heaven after their thrilling 0-0 "upset" of mighty Brazil, which was highlighted by the brilliant goaltending of the Mexican keeper Guillermo Ochoa.

Yesterday was a momentous day in Spain, for two reasons. King Juan Carlos I, the ruler of Spain since Franco's death in 1975, signed the abdication proclamation in a televised ceremony in the royal palace in Madrid, which marked his last day as king. His son, Felipe, became the new King of Spain at midnight, and there will be a formal ceremony that starts later today. The excitement of that event was greatly tempered by the performance of La Furia Roja (The Red Fury), the Spanish football team which won Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 and followed up its humiliation at the hands of the Dutch last week with an equally inept and dispirited performance in losing to Chile last night 2-0. That loss combined with Holland's 3-2 win over Australia means that Spain (and Australia) are officially eliminated from the round of 16, which marks the first time in World Cup history that a defending champion was eliminated after only two matches. Spain and Australia will play each other in a meaningless match on Monday, and it will be interesting to see if La Furia Roja display any fight in that match (I suspect that they won't).

From Telecinco (Channel 5, the station which broadcast last night's match):



"Spaniards, the Red has died." I suspect this photo shows an anchor announcing the death of Franco on television in 1975. BTW, he is still dead.

I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to see Paris and meet up with Pat, due to the French rail strike. I haven't heard from her since Monday, but hopefully she is enjoying her holiday there.

Does the High Street in Boston have numerous shops, similar to the ones in the UK?

Glad you have made it safely to Barcelona and are getting settled in. Can't wait to hear of your explorations and see photos!

>226 kidzdoc: "La Roja Ha Muerto" -- Love the meme. Are we sure Franco is still dead? Ha!

Boston's High Street at one time may have had many shops, but not any more. It's in the Financial district and mostly contains big office buildings. I think it was the victim of the Boston Fire in the 1870's. There is a tiny harware store, 3 stories high, smushed between two tall buildings that looks as if it may date back to the 1800's. It sort of reminds me of the children's book The Little House or the house in the movie "Up".

Just checked. The fire was in 1872 and definitely ate up large portions of High Street. Here is a view of the damage:



Poor High Street.

Here's that hardware store, which I've learned was built in the late 1890's

Woo! I'm back from a very fun filled day here. La Botiga is no longer there, and after passing a couple of tiny cafes on Avinguda de Josep Tarradellas, which was named for the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia from 1954-1980, I decided to go into a Starbucks on la Plaça de Francesc Macià, named for the short lived President of the Generalitat of Catalonia from 1932-1933 who proclaimed that Catalonia was a free republic but was forced to settle for partial autonomy within the Spanish Republic. I ordered a Caffe Americano, made with Starbucks' Kenyan blend, and I was amazed with how good it was; I doubt that I've ever had a better cup of coffee at any Starbucks chain I've been to in the US or UK. I ordered a sandwich (I didn't get the name, but I will the next time I go there), which was made with ham, mozzarella and a fried egg on a rustic white bread roll, which was served hot. Again, it was easily the best breakfast sandwich I've ever had at a Starbucks. I'll probably go here most mornings, since it's easiest to walk to La Plaça de Francesc Macià to take the Trambaix (tram) to connect to the Barcelona Metro.

After breakfast I took the Trambaix T1 along Avinguda Diagonal, one of Barcelona's main thoroughfares, to Pius XII station, and walked to the Pavellons Güell, an early complex designed by Antoni Gaudí for his friend and benefactor Eusebi Güell that contained at least one house, horse stables and other structures. Unfortunately it was closed to visitors at that time, so I was only able to take several photos of its impressive exterior. (BTW, I took so many photos today that my fully charged battery died; I have to figure out how to change the settings so that the flash doesn't go off every time I take a photograph. I think I took close to 200 photos before that happened, though, along with a few more on my smartphone).

I walked back to Avinguda Diagonal and up the street a few blocks to La Palau Reial, the royal palace where the monarch and his family stayed in the early 20th century whenever they visited Barcelona. I boarded a Barcelona Bus Turístic, the city's own tourist bus system, which consists of three interlinked lines that provide hop on, hop off service. It may seem a bit pricey at €27 for a one day unlimited pass and €35 for two consecutive days, but it was a perfect way to see the highlights of the city in a relatively short period of time. I rode all three lines, which took nearly five hours, and I took as many photos as I could, although many of them were limited due to bad angles or the movement of the bus. I'll create a photo album on Facebook once my camera battery has revived sufficiently, and post the best of them here afterward.

I had a light and late lunch at a café next door to my hotel, so I'll probably want something more substantial later tonight (it's just past 6 pm here).

I'm thanking you in advance for the photos of Barcelona. That city is one of my "dream" trips. I've been to Starbucks in Japan and China and can attest that there is not much better than a Starbucks iced coffee on a hot day in Kyoto.

I'm going to be looking for those books that you mentioned about Gaudi.

>228 michigantrumpet: I overheard snippets from a couple of conversations in Spanish today about the dramatic downfall of La Furia Roja earlier today. From what I've read, Spain weren't the favorites to win a second consecutive World Cup, but most expected them to make the round of 16, along with Holland, although Chile was expected to be a tough opponent for both European clubs. (Oh, wait, isn't there a match on now? Checking...yes, it's Colombia vs Côte d'Ivoire, which is 0-0 in the 23rd minute. It seems to be on a German channel, so I have no hope of following the announcers.)

I'm vainly proud that I communicated with roughly half a dozen people entirely in Spanish today, and didn't speak a word of English to anyone. I visited a local farmàcia, as I wanted to get a pumice stone. The farmacista didn't know what "pumice" was in Spanish, but when I said "Quiero a comprar una cosa que remueve piel de los pies" ("I want to buy a thing that removes skin from the feet"), she immediately understood and showed me a pumice stone.

I was planning to read English language newspapers, either The Guardian or The New York Times, and watch CNN International or BBC World News on television. However, this trip (and especially riding the tourist buses with a surprising number of visitors from the US and UK) has inspired me to immerse myself in the Spanish language as completely as I can. So, I'll buy and read El País, the country's main center-left newspaper, buy the Spanish version of Time Out Barcelona, and watch the news on the Spanish television stations as much as possible.

>229 michigantrumpet: Thanks for that information and those impressive photos of Boston's High Street, Marianne! I hardly know Boston at all, but I'll look it up to see where it is.

>231 catarina1: You're welcome in advance, catarina! I'll connect the cable that connects my camera to my iPad shortly, to see if the battery has enough power to allow me to transfer the photos. I'll also create a new thread once I'm able to post these photos.

I'm really impressed with your command of Spanish, Darryl. It's great you're able to manage so well and I'm sure it's providing you with unique experiences & insights. I'm enjoying your travel posts very much!

P.S. If you need to cool off in a unique way, a certain college student I know would recommend Ice Barcelona ...

>194 kidzdoc: Philadelphia's Market Street was originally named High Street.

You really are an intrepid traveler, Darryl. I enjoy your accounts and pictures so much. And let's see one of you in your "semi-tropical" gear, sans the mock turtle. I want to see if I recognize you!

How are you finding the restaurant opening times Darryl? When we were in Barcelona we had rather a conflict between our desire to try some authentic Catalan food and feeding the aforesaid toddler in a restaurant that opened before 9pm! We did eventually find what we considered a suitable restaurant that opened at 8pm, but it took a little searching. Although to be honest it wasn't so much of an issue as when we went on holiday to Northern Spain and were in an area where they didn't have a lot of foreign tourists. We couldn't find any restaurants at all in the town where we were staying that opened before 9pm. We were frequently standing on the pavement hungrily waiting for the doors to open: even then we were frequently the only customers until about 10pm.

Wow, Darryl, you have really done a great program so far. I guess the Spanish mood was down after the match and there was no big party.

Oops, I forgot to answer these posts before I created a new thread.

>233 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. Obviously there are a number of people in this group who are far more fluent in two or more languages than I am (e.g., Barbara, Diana, and Connie). My pride is probably better described as relief, since I was afraid that I would have a hard time speaking and understanding Spanish here.

Ice Barcelona does look, um, cool, but I suspect that I'd be too old to go there even if I was half my current age.

>234 laytonwoman3rd: That's right, Linda! Now that you mention it, I do remember learning that Market Street in Philadelphia was originally named High Street.

I'll have to find a way to take a photo of myself while I'm here. Oh...when Catherine, my former classmate from residency, comes here next week we'll probably take photos together, so that may be a good time to do it. Yesterday I wore a pink short-sleeved Oxford shirt with vertical white stripes, cream colored loose fitting cotton pants, and brown sandals. Today I'll wear a white short sleeve Oxford, blue loose fitting cotton pants, and black sandals. I'll look for similar shirts and pants while I'm here, as I can wear them in Atlanta as well.

I haven't had a formal dinner in a restaurant yet, Rhian. That is going to be my biggest struggle of this trip, as lunch is generally my largest meal of the day and I strongly prefer to have early dinners, to avoid dealing with acid reflux symptoms in the early morning hours. I ordered room service on Tuesday and Thursday, and skipped dinner altogether on Wednesday. I haven't yet made eating a focus of this trip, and I'm reluctant to leave the area on public transit just to have a late dinner. I was hoping to try my first tapas at La Botiga, on the nearby Avinguda de Josep Tarradellas, but now that it has closed I'll have to find other places nearby to eat. That would be a good question for the staff at the front desk of my hotel.

>236 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara; I'm glad that you liked my Facebook photo album. I wouldn't have noticed anything special about the mood of Barcelonians yesterday in the face of La Furia Roja's meltdown and the installment of the new king, but it could be because I spent the majority of the day with tourists and not local people. I guess that there would have been more celebrations if Spain had won its two World Cup matches, and qualified for the round of 16 after Wednesday's result.