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Post by dreamsincolour on May 6, 2017 23:18:30 GMT
It all sounds really lovely Roverpup!
I've never actually seen Leeds Castle in real life. I'd love to go there!
I thought they were filming the Avengers in Edinburgh at the moment, though. It could also have been second unit filming, I suppose, as well.
And there was a tweet in another thread saying someone had been sitting opposite BC on a train for at least two hours today (which may have effectively been last night). He had still been in Suffolk for the television filming according to the other tweets, so I wonder if there was a chance he was coming back for something to do with this Whitehall filming?
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Post by roverpup on May 7, 2017 2:09:56 GMT
I saw that someone also tweeted that they saw him at Hampstead Heath a day after we were there and there were a couple of tweets about him at some singer's venue in London last night.
I can't say what the filming was (first or second unit) - we were a long way off - but I believe it definitely was for the Avengers movie. There were multiple trucks with the sign "Mary Lou" in big letters on their windshields.
:-))
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Post by dreamsincolour on May 7, 2017 3:04:27 GMT
I saw that someone also tweeted that they saw him at Hampstead Heath a day after we were there and there were a couple of tweets about him at some singer's venue in London last night. I can't say what the filming was (first or second unit) - we were a long way off - but I believe it definitely was for the Avengers movie. There were multiple trucks with the sign "Mary Lou" in big letters on their windshields. :-)) Wasn't doubting that what you saw was for the Avenger's movie at all. Was just wondering at how surprising it was to have filming there when Edinburgh is supposed to be the current venue of the moment. And whatever they were doing was seemingly very, very hush hush. I wonder how that location relates to the location shooting for Strange when London stood in for New York before?
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Post by roverpup on May 8, 2017 7:58:03 GMT
No problem, I know you weren't doubting me, I was just reiterating what i saw.
Day 6
Today we went to the National Gallery for most of the day. We rented a couple of audio guides and spent the rest of the time covering about 80% of the museum (not the special exhibition of David Hockney, though - we might come back to see that later on). Truly I have never seen such a collection of art with such a wide range of pieces. I have this book at home of western art and everywhere I looked there were pieces that I have seen in my book! Such a collection! To see them so up close and be able to almost touch them! You could feel the brushstrokes. Van Gogh, Botticelli, Turner, the Arnolfini Portrait, Vermeer, and especially one of my favourites - Agnolo Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time.
Just amazing!
We also had a relaxing lunch in the restaurant there in the museum. Dan had a chicken dish with a very mellow sauce surrounding it and I had a grilled fish with capers. A very pleasing blush wine (as well as a cocktail before) made the meal fine dinning.
We left the museum in the late afternoon - the sun was finally out and the day was upliftingly beautiful. We had to go back to the apartment to change into our concert clothes and pickup the tickets but then we were back out and on our way to Royal Albert Hall.
Very pleasant tube ride and walk down Exhibition Road to the Hall getting there just about 15 minutes before the start.
Gobsmackingly beautiful venue! We managed to take a few shots of the hall itself before the concert and I must say our seats were perfect! A bit elevated so we could see the orchestra but in the centre stalls so we could view almost the whole hall.
The programme was Mozart, starting out with the sparkling overture to The Marriage of Figaro, then the marvellous Fourth Horn Concerto and Exsultate jubilate with its famous ‘Alleluia’. In the second half was of course the Requiem done with the 1,500 voices of The Really Big Chorus singers from around the world. They were outstanding! A wall of human voices in perfect harmony! The sound was thunderous especially the finale.
We found (by accident) a shortcut route back home on the tube after the concert and were home in no time flat. I made up a little snack platter for us and we planned some future events that we wanted to go see (and timed them according to the weather reports).
So it looks like tomorrow we will be taking an excursion on the train to Hampton Court Palace.
Talk to you later...
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Post by mllemass on May 8, 2017 11:12:22 GMT
That's such an elegant-sounding sentence!
By comparison, today is garbage day for us, so I was up early to sort the recycling, and then get the garbage bags and recycling bins to the curb by 7 am. What an exciting life I lead!
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Post by roverpup on May 8, 2017 20:32:15 GMT
Day 7
Last night coming home from the Mozart concert I developed a rather bad blister on the bottom of my left foot. I don't know why because the shoes I was wearing were perfectly broken in and a pair that I have had no trouble at all with before this. But there it is - a huge blister and by the time we got home it was almost incapacitating me. I tried to clean it and put a bandage on it but by the morning came round it was still very sore and a big bother.
So we stopped into a Boots on the way to the tube station and got some antibacterial cream and some blister bandages. Today we are going to Hampton Court Palace which is a train ride of about 30 minutes to get there. We asked around while in Waterloo Station about activating our BritRail Passes and getting on the train. The fellow didn't activate it but just let us on the track areas (it turned out all right in the end though - we just activated them on our way home). Our train was already unloaded and waiting to be boarded so we just hopped on. Half and hour we were in Hampton Court and thanks to the internet I knew exactly the route we had to take. Just across the road from the front gate of the palace was a pub called the Mute Swan so since it was very close to lunch time we popped in for a bite to eat.
Great pub! We ordered a couple of pints and some of the soup of the day (asparagus) and a charcuterie platter. On the plater were full size capers! I love the little buds but I have never tasted the full size fruits before and good god they were good!!! We topped the meal with a pot of tea and then we were ready to go through the palace.
The palace was a very impressive place. It is huge so we concentrated our visit on the Henry VIII part which concerns the oldest part of the complex. We did get the audio guides which were supplied free of charge but they were uniquely boring and we didn't use them after a while. Really this is the first time that has ever happened and both Dan and I were very surprised. But that didn't spoil the tour because they had guides posted in every room so if your were curious about something and the printed explanations weren't detailed enough you could always ask them to fill in the gaps.
The most impressive architecturally speaking was the Great Hall and the King's Chapel. Beautifully detailed ceilings and the size of the Great Hall was... extremely large!
By the time we got around to the gardens my blister was giving me problems again so we had to cut it short and head home. Luckily when we got to the station we only had to wait 10 minutes at the most before the train back to London was ready to be boarded. Once back at Waterloo station we finally got our passes activated and then it was only a quick tube ride back to our apartment. We were both very tired so we picked up some groceries and a bottle of wine before heading home. Dinner was quick and light. Now just relaxing with a glass of wine before making some plans for tomorrow.
We might go to Windsor Castle tomorrow or perhaps do something closer to home (it depends on how my foot feels). The big news is that this morning I was able to scoop a reservation at the Pollen Street Social restaurant for dinner tomorrow night. So blister or not we are going to have a special meal at a restaurant run by a Michelin starred chef!!! Can't wait! Now eating a few meals in and saving some £££ will be rewarded - good thing we saved that money too because this meal could be around £500 or so.
Anyway I have to finish up with a bit of research about trains to Windsor and then say "nightly-night" to get my beauty sleep!
:-))
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Post by dreamsincolour on May 8, 2017 21:10:03 GMT
I thought you were going to Hampton Court tomorrow, so was leaving some tips. But you've been and gone already.
In recent years, I've only been back for the Hampton Court Flower Show, which is nearly as wonderful as Chelsea, but long before that existed, it was a regular visiting place when I was a kid. I'd still know my way round the maze, it won't have changed. It was pretty local and apart from the Royal Apartments tour, it was all free then too. Not so now, of course, they charge a fortune just to leave your car in a muddy field for the flower show and that's a trek away as well, before you've even got near the palace or any of the flowers. But the gardens there were always divine regardless.
Did you see the kitchens? I always loved the kitchens. And I was going to tell you check to see if anyone was due to be playing on the real tennis courts when you arrived (they're still used), because it's worth seeing the original game actually in action. Real Tennis is a bit like a cross between modern tennis and squash and it's interesting to see. Old Henry was quite an athlete in his day, and could apparently turn a reputedly very fine leg to a mean game of tennis. He was practically unbeatable supposedly.
But thinking about it had me feeling quite nostalgic. I'm glad you had a good day though in spite of blisters!
I can't imagine spending 500 on a meal out! I'd been going to mention what is probably THE most famous restaurant in the country, which is "The Fat Duck", just because that's out at Bray, near Windsor. But I wasn't really thinking you'd be likely to go somewhere like that. That's the same sort of price. It's 265 per person for a set menu. But it's Heston Blumenthal!
Have a lovely day tomorrow!
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Post by mllemass on May 8, 2017 22:42:08 GMT
I would see this as a clear sign to go shoe-shopping!
During my London trip in 1985, my sister and I missed a tour to Stonehenge because she insisted that the bus wouldn't leave without us. It left without us. They were kind enough to refund half of the un-refundable ticket price - probably because we were obviously idiot tourists who didn't know how schedules work. I was so upset at not seeing Stonehenge and losing all that money, but it turned out to be lovely day after all. It ended up pouring rain (the only day it rained), so we spent the entire day at Harrod's, instead.
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Post by roverpup on May 9, 2017 9:58:04 GMT
Sorry about the confusion "dreams" - sometimes I am writing early in the morning and other times later in the even whenwe come home so there is bound to be some mixups of times I suppose. But thanks for the tips anyway - much appreciated that you are thinking of me!
We unfortunately didn't get to the kitchens. It is such a huge place so we had to pick and choose a bit. We did get to see some of the gardens but not all of them. I saw that the flower show was on - that would have been cool to see (since I love my gardens).
I wish I could have seen more of the gardens but my foot was hurting so bad at that point I could bearly walk so I had to think of my general condition and weigh it against forcing myself onward despite the pain.
The good news is that my foot feels a bit better today so we are going back to the drugstore and buy some more bandages to make sure it doesn't get infected.
Tomorrow it looks like an ideal day to journey to Dover by train. They are calling for real sunshine and warmer temps. Hope this forecast holds up! We want to see the castle mainly and take in the cliffs. Maybe even go for a boat ride.
Thursday, if it isn't rainy we may go to Greenwich to look at all things navel and scientific. We also have tickets for Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre at night.
Friday the only thing planned is to go to Damien Lewis and Sophie O.'s play : The Goat. The day time is open for right now.
Then Saturday is moving day! We move over to a two bedroom apartment in Belgravia and meet up with my sis and her husband. So we will be a group of four from then on (except they have some out of town trips planned in the week they are with us and Dan and I won't be going with them at that time).
For now though we are still on our own on Clarges Street.
Mllemass - still haven't got a chance to go shopping! Maybe when I meet up with my sister we will make some shopping time!
:-))
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Post by mllemass on May 9, 2017 11:54:45 GMT
You're finally going to make time to do the important things!
Reading your posts has reminded me of things I haven't thought of in years. So here's a question for you: at what time does it start getting light out in the morning? When I was in London, it was at the end of April and the beginning of May - just like now. One day, I met up with my childhood friend who had moved to Ireland and we sat in the hotel lobby talking until 3 am. When I went up to my room and looked out the window, I could see it start to get light out and it was very confusing. Where I live, even on the longest day of the year in June it's still nighttime until at least 5 am.
I've been a bit surprised by the length of day in Italy, too. I've only ever been there in the summer, so I wasn't expecting it to be dark by 7 pm. In Canada in the summer, it can still light out at 9 pm.
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