touring in june

i, along with my three "independent travel buddies," decided to do northern italy this summer...i decided to join the group in torino as i needed a couple of days to set my mother up with my cousin on maui...so i joined them after acclimating myself in london for two days...i arrived early on pentecost sunday so i decided to visit the westminster cathedral for services...it was high mass with the men's and boys's choirs provided the singing...i enjoyed the mix of people in the congregation and the message of the gospel, sending the apostles forth to create the congregation i was part of...

after mass and the purchase of a ticket to gatwick, i headed for royal albert hall to watch english ballet company's production of strictly gershwin...i attended for the music and enjoyed the big band feel of the presentation...orchestra, girl singer (a little long in the tooth but good styling) but no boy singer a la frankie, a quartet to sing harmony, and a performing conductor...i enjoyed the balletic presentation of rhapsody in blue...although i thought an american in paris was a bit too camp for me...they threw everything but the kitchen zinc sink into the number including eiffel tower hats, garlands of garlic...some of the duets were just good dancing...

after the performance, i had a misadventure finding the hotel...the transportation out of royal albert is awful...one can walk back to the tube stop, but i think my hotel is closer and i'm across hyde park...there's a limited number of taxis...and the buses run on a regular schedule, no attempt to double or triple up service for post-theater traveling...i walked through the park in the rain (thankfully not cold) and took the wrong turn...i noticed a marble arch sign so turned around and found lancaster gate about ten minutes later.

on day two, i went in search of ottolenghi to complete ina's barefoot in london...i took a taxi to find the ledbury store where i purchased two arancinis, anzac cookies which i took with me for the gang, and spiced plum jam for the trip home...

i returned to the hotel to get ready for lunch with david, a local buddy's boyfriend, a brit living and working in london...she had a package of goodies for him..i met him at the sherlock holmes statue outside the baker street tube stop...we had lunch in the metropolitan pub where i had, of course, a pint and fish and chips...

after lunch, i returned to the hotel to get ready for the night...i left for wyndham without a ticket for much ado about nothing...i bought an sro (i've stood before but, granted, on lot younger legs...told to have dinner at cote around the corner...had a great two-piece prix fixe dinner, asparagus soup and coq au vin which was absolutely delicious...had calvados and espresso as my digestif...

walked over to the theatre and took up my station in the balcony and stood for the first act and then found a seat for the second act...the play starred david tennant and catherine tate, the pairing from dr. who...the audience was into the pairing and showed much love to the twosome...the play was set in modern day gibraltar...i enjoyed the lightness of the production, the pair doing well fighting each other off eventually to be paired at the end...i had some problem with shakespeare's plot of destroying the secondary female lead but maybe the extreme nature of the destruction was needed to make rehabilitation so complete...i left the theatre, fully sated...

the third morning, after breakfast and saying goodbye to the staff, i headed for victoria station for the train ride to gatwick..my taxi driver took me past edinburgh gates...i got to see epstein's pan...quite the sculpture grouping...it's very controversial...and must be seen in the context of the location south of hyde park/kensington gardens...

when i arrived at gatwick, i was totally turned around...until i found that ba was in the north terminal...when i arrived at the north terminal on the tram, i felt at home, having used gatwick once before...

i arrived in torino in the mid-afternoon...but that's a story for another day...