Tag Archives: London

#TBT: July abroad

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I realized the other day that I have spent quite a few days of July abroad in recent years.  Here are a few photos from July excursions to Europe.

And we crossed the city limits a few times.
Lunch in Florence, after a cooking class.
Choir and clergy after final service.
Fish & chips from a market stall.
Her cell from garden.
With Ramelle Sarna.
With Ramelle in Exeter.
Taking a photo at the Sky Garden.
Religious library.
I was at the Berliner Oper.
In the small library.
In the master’s garden.
Midday. Happy guy with Cava.
At the waterfront, with the city center behind me.
I’m trying my hand at being a Rembrandt model. Amsterdam, 2015.
A solitary bicycle.
Flowers on the bridge over our canal.
At Wells Cathedral.
At Michael’s grave in July 2013, Twigworth Church, Gloucestershire.
Cardiff Castle.
A pint of Brains!
In the very room….
At the Elgar Birthplace Museum outside of Worcester.
My choir colleagues and I surrounding the tomb of King John.
Tudor buildings in Ludlow.
Sheep! I smell lamb chops….
At the hotel.
With John Schaefer and George Emblom, Worcester Cathedral.
Today’s beer at lunchtime.
The garden
In the cloister after the service.
At the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The Vicars Close, a national treasure.
At St. Mary Redcliffe.
With Kevin Cherry at Sutton Mawr Farm outside of Cardiff.
On deck, with Wales in the distance as we move up the Severn Estuary.
Kevin dancing with Jenny from Sydney.
A beautiful sight.
Glendalough, Ireland.
Ailsa Craig.
In the forecourt of Holyrood Palace.
At Wordsworth’s grave.
A British version of Dollar Store.
An old house, now a shop, collapsing of its own weight.
At Shakespeare’s birthplace.
Tower Bridge.
A Greenwich street scene.
Sunset in York, July 2013.
Standing astride the Prime Meridian.
Astride the Prime Meridian, one foot in the Western Hemisphere, the other not.
Kevin views the Mona Lisa.
Shopping for postcards in the Louvre.
Eiffel Tower et moi.
6.30 a.m. boarding call.
Pimms!
Windsor Castle.
Moi.
At the Tower.
Me at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal.
Restaurants on Place Jacques-Cartier.
My Tuesday lunch of Swedish meatballs, whipped potatoes, pickled cucumber, and tart lingonberries.
Looking at Manhattan.

Scenes from Montreal, Vienna, London and every one of the countries in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Stockholm, Antwerp, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Florence, other points in Austria, and Paris.  I think that’s it.

Travel was by jet, plane, car, bus, train, and bicycle!

Many of these adventures were with my friend Kevin Cherry, or with the choir from Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City.  I’m grateful to Webster University for the Messing Award that allowed me to spend three weeks in Vienna in July 2018 for curriculum development.

Tangier round two: the saga

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Updating from my post on Sunday afternoon! . . .

Now Monday at 10 a.m. body time, or 4.10 p.m. in London.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a lovely jet!  And American Airlines really took care of us in spite of the weather problems in the eastern USA.

Look at this ground agent’s face, in Saint Louis. She was not happy about how slowly the luggage was being loaded!

We arrived in London on time this morning.  Knowing that our luggage would not make the 7 p.m. flight yesterday, we checked with AA customer service to learn that our luggage was on the later flight, and would arrive around 11 a.m. in London.  The friendly agent gave us instructions on what to do next about the luggage, and then Kevin and I were off on Heathrow Express to Paddington Station, where we had eggs Benedict at a pub in the station.

Then we walked to the Hammersmith and City Line and went by Tube to King’s Cross, then headed south on the Northern Line to London Bridge station.  We wandered around Borough Market for a while; Kevin found some spicy chicken to eat.

I had an old £10 bill, and needed to change it at a bank, so that was next.  (The new bills are plastic!)

I bought some Caerphilly cheese to bring home too!

Reversing our trek, we headed back to Heathrow and went through elaborate security checks to gather our luggage, only to find that it had been transferred after all to Royal Air Maroc for our flights today.

On the Heathrow Express.

Now, at 4.20 p.m., we are in the lounge in the quiet and the air conditioning, with hot food.  Our flight to Casablanca leaves in two hours.  I’m hopeful we make the final flight tonight from Casablanca to Tangier!

 

2018 in photos

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Click on any photo for the full version! Happy end of year!!

  • The final tally, before collapsing in exhaustion.
  • Fruit.
  • Am loving this soda!!!
  • Looking at Manhattan.
  • With Isabella, a junior at Burroughs.
  • Before leaving my hotel.
  • Kurt.
  • Chase.
  • Audrey and Eden.
  • Audrey.
  • Austen.
  • Luke.
  • Karen went home with this family Bible from my great-grandparents Carter.
  • Conservatory 50th Anniversary – Donor Dinner-Bust Unveiling
  • View from inside the Kremlin to one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters.
  • A lone daffodil.
  • Noah
  • Ben
  • Jacob
  • Dianthus.
  • My Tuesday lunch of Swedish meatballs, whipped potatoes, pickled cucumber, and tart lingonberries.
  • Stockholm from my hotel room.
  • Detail, crown of Stefan Bocskay. Turkey, 1605.
  • And we crossed the city limits a few times.
  • The official Christmas 2018 portrait.

London: Friday and Saturday

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Photos from Friday and Saturday in London and away . . . .

STREET SCENES:

The Shard peeks through the leafless trees.
HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge, on a gray day.
Friday morning: a line for breakfast.
A lone daffodil.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE:

Countryside.
My friend Robin lives in the mews on an estate. This view is from his front door.

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM:

The remnants of a Japanese fighter from WWII.

And this: the London flat of Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty:

The blue plaque marks the home.  This is a block from my own flat in Lambeth North.

Easter Sunday 2018

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Easter Sunday 2018. London, England.

I attended the standing-room-only festive Choral Eucharist at Westminster Abbey this morning. Tourists were everywhere, but enough of us were taking matters seriously that I knew I was in a holy place.

On the way to communion, I walked right over David Livingston’s grave!

And the Dean himself, The Very Rev. Dr. John Hall, administered my communion this morning.

At noon, with the service ended, I found the sidewalks around the Abbey and Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge to be jammed with tourists on a very chilly early Spring day. So half-way back to my flat, I jumped on a bus for the final blocks.

Luncheon was a Sunday pub meal of pork roast, crackling, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, parsnips, and applesauce. And a Fuller’s London Pride. I couldn’t finish it all!

Oh — and kale. I didn’t even try.

Now for Evensong at St. Mary’s Bourne Street, with the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The music list includes Harwood in A-flat, one of my favorite settings of the Mag & Nunc.