Hmmm. No, it's quite defunct, tracks pulled up and the railbed made into the Monsal Trail. We detrained at Chesterfield and were picked up by B&B host, then took excellent bus back on our return.

stokebailey, I know a rather rude story about a famous actress and "character" (now resting in another place) and Brompton Oratory, but it's not for this board (BTW, were we discussing draperies on a certain other messageboard - it's so hard to keep track).

Yes, I am lola over there. Send me an email with the rude story, please!

sorry to have missed you, stoke, how was the ballet?

ref the UK politics that you so enjoyed, you were lucky to be over here when there was so much ging on that might interest a non-Brit. it isn't always this fascinating.

I caught up with Sunday's Bremner Bird and fortune [Channel 4, 7pm] tonight. it is worth watching for the song finale alone - "Gordon Brown" performing Mica's "I could be brown, i could be blue". a real hoot if you can get it on the web, somehow.

regards, ann

Hi, Ann,

Sorry we missed you, too! Next time for sure.

One senses that Brown is not too beloved right now.

Looking for the Mika song- and getting angry doesn't solve anything -- stumbled on YouTube clip called "Gordon assesses the fallout from the Euro Elections." (in translation from the German, Brown depicted with small moustache discussing the aftermath of MEP elections with his staff.)

How much is just bad timing? I don't see how any one person could ruin an economy, for instance.

About getting angry: a few more weeks there and we'd be pronouncing the t's in the middles and ends of words.

stokebailey:

I just found your wonderful trip report.

I fly out of St. Louis and I am especially interested to hear a bit more detail about Amtrak to the Chicago Loop and light rail to O'Hare. How much time was involved and the cost vs. simply flying.

Thanks for taking the time to share.

Sandy

Hi, Sandy. We seem to travel many of the same roads. (I'm the fellow survivor of I-44 March snowstorm.)

We took the 0640 Amtrak Lincoln Service from STL, arriving in CHI 1220. This train originates in STL and therefore departs on time. It zipped through IL and even arrived as scheduled, but in the past we've taken the Texas Eagle and been several hours late boarding and arriving.

With a 7 hour buffer between scheduled arrival and the time we'd need to be at ORD for our 2200 flight, and a beautiful day to putter around the Loop, it worked out very well for us.

A quick check of www.amtrak.com shows the fare for at $42 later this month and $23 in September. We paid $21 each I think, a considerable saving for the two of us over airfare, plus the bonus adventure of the Loop. Trains didn't work out, so we flew ORD to SLT on return home.

For the truly frugal, there's also MegaBus.com and its fabled $1 seats, Union Station to Union Station. Probably more likely to be on time than TX Eagle.

The light rail to ORD is the Blue Line, from the Clinton two blocks south of Union Station. Part of the CTA. Departs every 10 min, and takes ~ an hour. As it happened, we travelled on a weekend when they were working on the line, had to shuttled by bus for quite a few miles through some interestingly funky neighborhoods. Still arrived in plenty of time since we decided to allow 1.5 hrs for that leg of the journey.

stokebailey:

Thank you for such marvelous detail - it is certainly another way to think about the journey if connecting thru O'Hare. Obviously you have done this more than once.

Yes we did survive the March I-44 snow storm, totaled the vehicle we were taking to our son in California. I was a bit sorry that I wasn't able to travel one time by road out to California. We did of course later fly out and that is our usual mode of travel.

Carry on with your delightful report.

Sandy

OPERA, BALLET, AND A WEST END PLAY: CULTURE HEAVEN FOR PROVINCIALS

We were still a little jetlagged when we arrived at Covent Garden for L’Elisir d’Amore. Buskers in the Piazza took cover from a light rain. We sat in the Lower Slips Left, where you lean forward onto a velvet railing and still can’t quite see all the stage. My favorites.

I can’t remember enjoying a performance more. The staging was inventive, the acting frisky and funny, and the whole tastefully and appropriately sexy. The curtain rises to a huge stack of hay bales, with Adina sunning herself halfway up, painting her toenails. I was all theirs from that moment on. Nemorino reminded me of John Belushi, very physical and a fine tenor. Loved his Una furtiva lagrima.

I admire the way ROH set designers keep us Lower Slippers in mind. The play was set around 1940 in rural Italy, with the open door of a trattoria back lavatory facing us. The poor emerging with toilet paper trailing from his foot.

Opera is my pricy art form of choice, though I have developed more of an eye for dance over the 15 years my daughters have been studying. At the ROH later in our visit we saw the combined ballets Les Sylphides, Sensorium, and the Firebird: respectively very nice, all right, and wonderful in my estimation. MC enjoyed Sensorium, a new piece by Marriott, and she would be a better judge than I. Our seats for the ballet were high but with unobstructed view, good for dance.

Were those coughing during the ballet all Americans? Thoughts of swine flu flit through the mind at such times. My first time at ROH was with ages ago with my mother, who whispered a question to me during the overture, then firmly shushed when I started to breathe an answer into her ear. Oh, for such shushing in the US, where some people think nothing of carrying on low conversations throughout concerts, oblivious to glares. I’ll save my comparative analysis of standing ovation inflation for another time.

I wavered back and forth about seeing The 39 Steps, with so many alternate entertainments available, though I’d long been interested in the production and really like the older English Hitchcock.

Then we saw that Jude Law would be playing Hamlet at the Wyndham, previews and then opening that week, and were tempted by that prospect. Because, umm, well, high minded literature, you know. More indecision. Our last evening in town we opening night and Hamlet sold out. So much the better. We popped over to Piccadilly Circus and the Criterion, got our tickets 10 min before curtain time. What a great theater, built 1870s. You descend to the highest balconies, and further to the dress circle and our excellent bargain seats.

39 Steps closely follows the Hitchcock version, with 3 actors playing the hundred-odd parts besides a consistent Hannay. Very clever, brisk, and funny. We laughed all the way through.

I mean to say that the poor people in pricy orchestra seats would miss gags like a man exiting with, okay maybe you had to be there, toilet paper dragging from shoe.

OUR ANSWER TO THE OYSTER vs PAPER TRAVELCARD QUESTION: YES

We’d be in London for a week or so, then in the country, then back in town, and many of the 2 for 1 offers looked attractive. So we decided to go with both Oyster and 7 day paper Travelcard. We put £20 each on Oystercards at terminal 5. Luckily we were just ahead of the group of ~25 sari’d travelers who queued behind us, so it only took a few minutes.

The “all you care to ride” Travelcard turned out to be just right for our personalities. No matter whether it was less expensive overall, we like being able jump off and on the underground and buses without concern for each fare. One less decision, one large No Agonizing Zone. Psychological, if you follow me: it feels financially prudent, whatever the reality may be.

We bought our Travelcards at the National Rail ticket counters in Victoria Station a few days after arrival. Quick, easy, and started using them right away.

The only 2 for 1 offer we ended up using was at the Courtauld, and saved £5. MC and I kept mentioning the Thames Clipper, but somehow never ended up at the correct pier at the right time. By the time we saw 39 Steps our Travelcard had expired, and anyway the box office gave us a last minute deal for good seats that otherwise would have been empty. The two mornings we’d considered for the Fat Tyre tour were wet and chilly, so we let that pass, too.

When we got back to town after Bakewell we used our Oysters, and had plenty of money left on them after underground ride back to Heathrow.

no luck I'm afraid in getting Channel 4's on demand service to work for me - you clearly need better IT skills than mine to access whole programmes.

However, I did manage to access these clips, which should give you a flavour of mr. brown's level of popularity:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/b...s-16/episode-1

regards, ann

Thanks, Ann. Channel 4.com tells me I'm in "the wrong country" to watch them, though; how do computers know these things?

Wow, L'Elisir d'Amore @ the ROH, what a treat, even if it's Lower Slips! :)) I used to sit there long time ago, but I didn't like how I had to crank my neck for the whole time. (I also paid my dues at the Upper Slips... those are brutal!)

And you missed Jude Law??? OMG. Even if the show was sold out, I would have just waited at the stage door for him so I could salivate. =P~

Hamlet's the longest Shakespeare play, though. Lots of soliloquies and bloodshed before he'd have emerged.

A few years ago I saw Hamlet at RSC in Stratford w/ Sam West (maybe even more breath taking the Jude Law)

I had dashed to the box office and hadn't even noted who was in the the title role. Was sitting in the 2nd row w/ my shoulder touching the bit of stage the protruded out from the proscenium. A cast member came out and sort of crouched down in the darkness about 6 inches from me. The soliloquies and such took place and then it was Hamlet's turn and the spotlight shown on this dark figure (and my shoulder) and he turned and said his opening lines and I about fainted :)

Jude Law would have had about the same effect . . . .

PUBS AND FOOTBALL

Our behavior all along was pretty much beyond reproach, except for taking up with a London man and having him show us some pubs. You know how it is: you model virtuous bourgeois womanhood all those years, and then you demonstrate what not to do. Shamelessly picking up men, I mean. He was charming and knowledgeable, didn’t seem too very dangerous, and was probably more fun to talk to than Jude Law would have been anyway. Plus MC and I were there to chaperone each other.

Our Holiday Inn was a stone’s throw from Fitzroy Square and the prime pub territory in Fitzrovia. First stop was The Hope on Tottenham Rd behind Goodge St. tube stop; on this fine evening the sidewalks were crowded with people chatting and having a pint. I didn’t have time to notice the décor, but the Landlord’s ale was very good. MC downed a pint of cider, legally. Good atmosphere, and everyday authentic, so just what we wanted.

We moved a couple of blocks southwest to The Newman Arms, and formed part of the sidewalk scene with a glass of London Pride -- the only beer brewed in London nowadays. We never ventured into the pie serving area upstairs. I really admire their pub culture, an unfilled gap in our country's soul, and enjoyed that evening very much.

Another evening MC and I went to the Fish Bone, a nearby chippie on Cleveland St. http://www.timeout.com/london/restau...atures/28.html
The fish was crisp and tasty, and each portion comes with a family sized mound of chips. We dawdled there and so arrived later than we intended at The Lukin on Conway St. just off Fitzroy Sq.
www.fullpint.com/showpub.php?pubid=1089
We were in it for the European football final between Manchester United and Barcelona, and the place was packed. We checked the upstairs room, seemingly full of men. As we stood there considering our options, two women over by the wall waved us towards a chair near them, so grabbed another and squeezed in. Very Kind!

I resolved to back whoever the friendly women were rooting for, since I didn’t have a dog in that fight, but warmed towards Barcelona as the game went on. A group of eight or so French and Spanish speakers sat to one side of us, cheering Barcelona, and the rest of the room was for Man U. Messi’s lovely headed second goal took the remaining wind out of Man U’s sails, and the entire room applauded the winners at the end. Next day we read of less sportsmanlike reactions elsewhere in Europe.

We felt perfectly safe walking home from all of our late night adventures, in all three of our neighborhoods.

OMG, two american women go to pubs, get picked up and cavort with football fans.

this is extremely unfodorite behaviour Stoke. the "is it safe to go out at night" brigade will be fanning themselves and reasching for the smelling salts. AND you took a minor with you AND gave her alcoholic liquor.

Have you no SHAME, woman?

Walking on the Wild Side in Foreign Capitol: us.

All that was missing was you, ann. Next time!