London part 1…
It is now Wednesday and I should have posted last Sunday but I was away in England and I did not have my laptop with me so I could not write this blog but here I am now back in Wuerzburg. I may split this blog into two parts, being the second part posted next week as well.
Last week we were in London, we left on Wednesday morning and came back on Monday early evening. We were invited by a friend of us Jeff Stewart to sing under his baton the Petite Messe Solennelle Rossini in the little town of Thame which is I guess around one hour north from London. In the middle of the countryside.
The first few days (from Wednesday to Friday) we spent them in London and during the weekend we stayed at Jeff's who lives in the middle of the countryside just around 40 minutes with direct train from Marylebone station. In London we stayed near Queensway tube station in a very small but cosy hotel called Caring Hotel. It was no more than 10 minute walk from the beautiful Notting Hill area. The hotel was located in a block of very beautiful white Victorian buildings. The hotel was also only like 5 minute walk from Hyde Park, knowing this before getting to UK I packed my running shoes and they came to great use. I twice went jogging to Hyde park and I managed to do 6 K both times. It was not because I wanted to jog that long, it was merely that I could not stop jogging because I was enjoying so much this early atmosphere of the park, with people walking their dogs, lots of people also jogging, there were one small like lake and a huge pond both with swans and geeses, I even saw people on horses giving them a morning stroll I guess from some very posh nearby stables. It was just fantastic to feel the morning fresh air and the smell of the grass and trees, plus the very horizontal sun coming up, shading some of the trees and little coffee places and small restaurants I came across, there was even an Italian garden. It was just an incredible experience.
While in London we did to visit so many places unfortunately we did not manage to go into any museums but we will go back to UK and see few that I really want to show Akiho. We managed however, to go to the Royal Academy of Music where I studied. We also went to Oxford Circus, Wigmore Hall, Carnaby Street, Piccadilly Circus, China Town, Covent Garden, Westminster, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Kings Cross Station (Where Harry Potter's 9 and 3/4s Platform is), Camden Town, Notting Hill Market, Tower Bridge, Borough Market, Tower of London, St. Pauls Cathedral, the Business District and many other locations I wanted to show Akiho.
Whenever we travel we always search for the best coffee places and London has a great deal of them. I discovered my love for Flat white coffeee but to be more precise I found this new love of mine in a place called Grind just perhaps 7 minute walk from Oxford Circus tube station, it was so tasty and we did went twice there, and for sure I must go back whenever I am back in Lodnon. In terms of food we had some great meals for example a great English Breakfast, Scones with jam, fish and chips, enligsh tea as well as some Japanese food including a japanese bbq place that it was deliciuous.
We also visit from the outside the house of Handel next to Jimi Hendrix house, we saw the changing guard at Buckingham Palace on Sunday because we decided to spend our last day in London so we took the train back for our last day before we flew on Monday. Later on Sunday we went back to the countryside to spend our last evening at Jeff's where I finally got to see briefly one of the most important poeple during my studies in London and that is my vocal coach Audrey Hyland. Audrey was always very strict but really encouraging, I speacially loved that she would always point out that my eyes should be telling and expressing what I was singing about. Not let them show what technically I was thinking or doing. Not death eyes, always alive. She was also very supportive. With me being a foreigner she understood the challenges that come with it and I felt the warmth coming from her, not only in her teaching but in her friendship, during my years in UK adapting to a complitely new culture and at the beginning specially with the language barrier.
to be continued...
