So glad we went to Greece (and London always)
 

Resting in the sunshine on top of the Acropolis, my daughter asked me what I thought the theme of this vacation should be. How about : It’s Good To Be a Regular, and It’s Good To Try New Things.
It had never occurred to me to go to Greece, my daughter’s first choice for our Reading Week trip. It was late February, so not The Best Time per guidebooks. My only bits of Greek were a few ancient root words and suffixes. Also, that part of the world has gotten some bad press lately. Altogether, too daunting.

But, on the other hand, why the heck not? Aided by EasyJet and Fodorite tips, Greece began to seem possible. It turned out that February was a perfect time to go, the Greek people were warm, fun, and happy to communicate, and we had sunshine almost the entire time.

First, a few days in London. I stayed at the Celtic Hotel, an homey favorite that happens to be a couple of blocks from Hannah’s dorm. The desk man recognized me from previous visits, and since things were a little slow he upgraded me to a lower floor with in-room shower. Darling Mrs. Marazzi is still at her post, or as she brightly said: "Still working!" So nice.

The previous morning just before leaving I had added one too many apps to my mobile phone (Greek language! TFL info! Maps!) when it made a piteous cry. The whole trip it held onto life by a thread, sometimes working barely when it had been plugged in for 24 hrs, sometimes not. Luckily I had the little blue £10 Nokia I’d used a couple of years ago, and though it made the nice young man at the Holborn Carphone Warehouse chuckle when I pulled it out, I got a SIM so Hannah and I could text. The internet and I parted ways for the duration of the trip, and I got along just fine.

Hannah and I had breakfast that morning at fine little 49 Café on Marchmont St. across from Brunswick Centre. Fortified with their good cappuccino, we walked down to Two Temple Place www.twotempleplace.org , tucked between Middle Temple Gardens and her College. The exhibit, Beyond Beauty, will run until 24 April, and then the house closes again for the year. The Egyptian exhibit was fairly interesting, but paled beside the mansion itself, built as offices for the Beyond Rich and Beyond Quirky American William Waldorf Astor. I enjoyed eavesdropping as a docent told some of the particulars of his overly-self-protective life, like his castle in Kent where houseguests had to sleep in the model village outside the moat and drawbridge.

Thursday and Friday: museums, the Temple of Apple Technology at Covent Garden, a NT play I hated and a ROH opera we loved.

You're so good and so funny, please rush on and get us to Greece! Cannot wait for your take on it!

ttt

Looking forward to more! Always love London, and loved Greece on my one (so far) trip - mainland as well as islands.

Love Greece-London too- so look forward to reading more about some of my favorite places.

Two of my favorite places. What opera did you see?

Ah,thanks, travelerjan. You were one who gave me courage to drive in Greece, and also said there was plenty to see not far from Nafplio. Both of those were huge helps.

Yes, thursdaysd, HappyTrvlr, and VirginiaC!

Lovely beginning - looking forward to more!

You seem to have several readers sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for your next instalment, me included.

Thanks, LCB.

Heimdall, you were one of those who made it all seem possible. Thank you so much for the Nafplio recommendation especially.

I ran around London for a couple of days, doing the usual museum things, loving it. One morning I dashed early to the Apple Temple of Teletechnology in Covent Garden, hoping to find a "genius" to help me make an old iPhone work. One presents oneself under their loggia at 0930 and gets a chance to consult. Sleek, bright, and full of steely-eyed security, I never feel at home in such a place. Afterwards I tried some perfumes at the Penhaligon store and chatted American politics with the bright young clerk. The British wants to know what the deal is with our presidential primaries, as if I could shed any light.

Hannah and I went to two operas at the ROH: L'Etoile and La Traviata. Both standing room, both delightful. I'd never heard of L'Etoile before, but it was as fun a romp as we'd hoped. Chris Addison (Ollie in The Thick of It) was one of the non-singing Rosbifs commenting on the French action. Almost too French in spots; we heard someone comment that it was unusually risqué for ROH.

For La Traviata, we'd hoped to hear Rolando Villazon, as advertised, but for the second time in two years we showed up and found he would not sing that night. The Alfredo we got sang just fine, but projected well-fed smugness instead of the passion I'd expected from my man Rolando.

Pre-theatre we ate at Brown's Brasserie, a bargain and fun atmosphere.

oh what fun. we are doing Greece and Britain this summer though in the opposite order, so looking forward to reading more of your adventures.

Good of you to say, lauram, and good trip to you.

The Botticelli drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy at the Courtauld were well worth seeing. Fine, small figures in ink, so much in his style. I got to see the Bruegel grisalles, too.

As I walked across the Millennium Bridge afterwards, I heard a boy ask his mother something about the view, and then say, "I'm having the time of my life!" She said, "Are you?" It was so much the right reply. The whole rest of the trip I realized I was having the time of my life, too.

>>The British wants to know what the deal is with our presidential primaries . . .

I found the exact same thing to be true on my recent very brief visit to London. They seem to think we've gone a bit crazy over here.

Tonight my swell daughter, her husband & their 16 yr old Fly OFF from Philly to meet up for 3 days with their other son doing his Oberlin Semester abroad in London -- and then the 4some have 4 days in Paris. Yes it will be windy and sometimes rainy, but they're going to have the Time of Their Lives! The parents work their dumb heads off 12 months a year (and are even taking along their laptops to work at night!!), and deserve every wonderful minute. I never could do it at their age, but I rejoice at their adventure. And yours too, Stokebailey ...

The Botticelli drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy at the Courtauld were well worth seeing. Fine, small figures in ink, so much in his style. I got to see the Bruegel grisalles, too.>>

I saw these too, stoke, a week ago on a literally flying visit to London, when I had to go up for the hearing of a case that in the end took all of 30 minutes; having several hours to kill before our flight back to Cornwall we went to the Courtauld and very much enjoyed what we saw there [and the afternoon tea, complete with cornish clotted cream that we had in the basement cafe afterwards!]

Anyway, I just found your TR and am enjoying it very much. You will be pleased to know that the descendants of W.W. Astor [who used to be sort of neighbours of ours in Kent] are nowhere near as snooty as he was and were very gracious when our choir went to their house to sing carols one Christmas. sadly though I worked right next to Temple Place for many years I never went to his mansion, nor did I know it was there! But then there are lots of places that I didn't go to when I worked in London, including the Courtauld, though I must have walked past it at least 100 times.

Carpe Diem was clearly not my motto.

looking forward to more...soon please.

LCB, yes. My response to questions about current politics is, "Umm, well." And then I'd pretend I saw it coming all along.

travelerjan, I wish them definitely the time of their lives, and if they have a telecommunications breakdown as I did they might enjoy it even more. Where's your Oberlin boy studying? Hannah spent her semester at Regent's, and loved it.

Ah, Ann, how fun. Mr. Hig got to fly along, too, I hope? We would be as gracious as Astors if your choir came and sang for us! The first time I visited London with my own mother the Courtauld was in Portman Square. It relocated to Somerset House in the late 80's, probably long before you worked there.

Most of what I did before we left London was as a repeat visitor, except Temple Place, buying a good quality umbrella as I'd always wanted at Jas. Smith & Sons https://www.james-smith.co.uk/ , and getting a student haircut at Toni and Guy. Four hours of London time spent in a brightly lit room watching a student snip at me ever so carefully.

Hannah's cut my hair for years, and I love the way she does it. Her living in London now makes this not so practical. Since this summer she's gotten her best-ever free model cuts at Toni and Guy, and she insisted I should try for a £5 cut. You either make an appointment by phone for 0900 or 1400 times, or present yourself at their Academy on Oxford Road before 0900 to ask for openings.

Quite a scene, handled competently by the receptionist. Women of all ages, some with photos of the stars they'd like to resemble, line up and wait to be summoned to the upper chambers. One young woman next to me was told to undo her thick waist length braid and tell what she wanted. She wanted just a couple of inches off, and some "style" around her face. She looked so brave and so much like someone making a leap between two cultures.

I was assigned to Georgia, and told to come back around 1300. I went to the National Portrait Gallery and then wound my way back to the Monmouth Coffee Company, where I got to share a booth upstairs, catty-corner from John Cusack and a couple of friends who were also sharing a booth with strangers. It was odd seeing him there after having watched part of Love & Mercy on the plane over. His British friends were asking his opinion about, what else, Donald Trump. I watched the rest of the movie on the way back, in his honor. He does a good job.

Georgia also did a good, if painstaking, job. She would carefully pull a strand up, snip, and compare it to another, then wait for the instructor to come approve. All this while I had the option of watching myself in the mirror while keeping my head centered upright, or checking out the progress of those in my sightline. It was an entertaining scene, for a one time deal, and Hannah was glad I looked kind of snazzier for the opera.

Regarding coll. programs in London, Lucky Hannah! Ben's in Oberlin's own program & his drama course is super, but his Lit Course is all about nonBrit Lit (!!!) & the homework is so over-top he's barely had time to explore London. His family is saying Play Hookey.

Definitely play hookey! That homework thing is out of control.

Breakfasts at the Celtic I chatted with a prof from a Mississippi college where students spend a London semester studying British Culture, with two of their own instructors staying at the hotel with them and helping shepherd them to plays and various other arts. I told him I'd arm-wrestle for that gig.

I agree! in 1986 my daughter's Earlham program, their Drama prof was drama editor of Guardian; their "course" involved seeing 4 plays per week ... changed her life.