Extension of a Sunday in North London

Take a swim in the Ladies Bathing Pond

Have a little extra time during that epic adventure on Hampstead Heath? Well, on your way up to the Kenwood Estate, why not take a dip in a chilly freshwater oasis in the middle of the city? I supposed this one is a little unfair to the gents, but only a little since they can just head down the hill to take a dip in the Mens bathing pond. The ladies bathing pond is truly serene. It is surrounded on all sides by trees, so it is just you, the sky, and the other intrepid ladies who want to swim on a brisk, windy day late in the English summer. Oh, and the ducks, who at this point are so used to their pond companions that they just paddle around with you. And after you swim you can soak up the day's last rays of sunshine, as you lay in one of the "meditation gardens", where no cell phones are allowed. Okay, so there's a bunch of leaves and sticks floating on much of the surface, as well as duck feathers, and there may be a blue-green algae bloom warning that discourages you from swallowing water or indeed putting your mouth under water at all. But all of that is a pretty fair trade-off for getting to feel like you're enjoying a Maine vacation, just over a mile from your doorstep.

À Paris!

I realize that the Random Photo Of The Day is kind of a misnomer, because I'm not blogging every day (lately it's barely been every week!), but I'm going to continue calling it that anyway:

More birds! The first day Jessica arrived (yay!) we set off immediately to see some of London's great sights - Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the posh shopping area of Knightsbridge, finished off with a trip to Harrods. Somewhere in the middle of the day we took a break in St. James Park, which is a green, peaceful oasis in the middle of the madness of central London. And it has pelicans! Jessica felt a little guilty for falling asleep on a park bench, but it actually worked out really well because the pelican and the heron took that time to pose for this perfect picture. Jessica will hopefully be doing a guest blog post later this week (an option for all visitors!), so I'll let her share more stories of what we did while she was here. But I will talk about Paris!

I'd like to say that I was able to resist the temptation of all the cliched Paris activities - Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, etc, but it would be a lie. I had only been to Paris once before, for a few day in high school, and I don't really remember much of it except going up the Eiffel tower, so I felt that I had to start over. Luckily, even though Jessica had been there 5 times (!!!) and Danny had been there 3 times, they didn't object. I apologize in advance if this post just reads like a list of things we did - I'll try to provide some exciting commentary as well.

First of all, many thanks to Maike for recommending the Hotel Saphir - a nice location on the rive gauche, at a very reasonable price! The most exciting thing for me about this place was the shops it shared a street with - at least 3 boulangeries, several fruit and vegetable grocers, a gelato stand, a lively café on the corner, and the most tempting cheese shop I've ever seen (Fromagerie Vacroux et Fils, slogan: "Sauvons Le Goût," which I think translates to "Savour the taste," or something like that.) I was charmed the minute we stepped off the metro and onto our little street.

Day one went something like this: dropped off stuff at hotel; bought croissants and a baguette; walked through cemetery Montparnasse (lots of Jewish headstones mixed in with Catholic and other religions, which I thought was very interesting); relaxed in the extremely french Luxembourg gardens and ate said baguette (Frenchness is derived from the perfect organization); visited the beautiful churches St. Sulpice, which has an impressive organ, and St. German de Pres, which was incredibly dark because, as Danny put it, "They hadn't figured out how to do windows yet."; got crepes and cider at a Breton restaurant; walked to Île de la Cité to visit Notre Dame cathedral, walked to Île Saint-Louis for the famous Berthillon ice cream (I got pear and gingerbread...soo delicious) and on the way passed some WWII-era movie being filmed; headed back toward the Louvre via the Hôtel de Ville, which was hosting a music festival that at that time was featuring French hip hop...later on in the evening was going to be the "French rival to Lady Gaga", and the Centre Pompidou (crepe #1 for Jessica - with Nutella); took advantage of the Louvre's late night hours on Fridays, where even though we split up, Jessica and I both decided we like Dutch art from the 17th century (Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque, apparently), and I just happened to bump into Danny in the Caravaggio section; walked back towards the hotel for a late and yummy dinner at Restaurant Polidor; finally crashed at the hotel, exhausted after our 5:25 train that morning!

I can't believe that was just one day! The second day followed a similar pattern of walking and eating, with maybe a church or museum thrown in. Basic rundown: missed breakfast at the hotel because we needed our sleep, which forced us to get more pastries on our street; walked directly to the other side of the river then sprawled out on the grass in well-planned square that is the Place des Vosges; enjoyed the small Victor Hugo museum, which is located in the apartment where he lived from 1832-1848 and houses quite a collection of letters, portraits, and examples of his gaudy taste in furniture; wandered around the Marais district of the city, which is both the traditionally Jewish neighborhood and a trendy shopping area (we got falafel for lunch and weathered a rain storm in an expansive bookstore); fought the crowds to get hot chocolate at Angelina's; wandered through the Tuileries to Place de la Concorde and down the Champs Elysee with a destination of the Arc de Triomphe, but took a detour midway through to check out L'église de la Madeleine, a church in a neo-classical building that Danny remembered learning about way back in his Humanities class in high school; made the obligatory trip back across the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, which you have to admit is a very impressive structure; got on the metro (Jessica and I split a crepe with strawberry jam on the way) to go to Montmartre to have dinner (a dinner which featured a cheese plate to die for); Jessica got her 3rd crepe of the trip - plain chocolate this time; took in the view of the city from the steps of the Sacré Coeur, where guys are walking around selling bottles of Heinekin - so weird; rode the metro back to our neighborhood, where Danny and I split a carafe of Côte du Rhône and Danny and Jessica got crepes (just sugar for Jessica this time) at the aforementioned café on the corner. What a great way to end a busy day!

The last day we just had the morning, as out train was leaving at 2:40pm. We decided we would either just wander the neighborhood and have a relaxed picnic lunch in the Parc Montsouris or see another museum, depending on the weather. We woke up and it was pouring - well then! We enjoyed baguettes with jam for breakfast, and we were joined by the tiny black cat that lived in the hotel. Jessica headed off to the Musée Cluny to look at old stuff, and Danny and I headed off to the Musée Marmottan to look at only moderately old stuff...impressionist painting, to be specific. Thanks to my mom for the tip on this museum! It was in a cute, quiet neighborhood, on the edge of a very nice park. A park that was home to a statue of Jean de la Fontaine, with his Corbeau et le Renard! This may not mean much to most of you, but in AP French we had to memorize a poem each semester, and the first semester we all had to stand at the front of the class, one by one, and dutifully recite "Le Corbeau et le Renard...par Jean de la Fontaine". I still remember most of the poem, so seeing this statue was really amazing! The Monets at the Marmottan were also quite good. It was also nice to see a collection of paintings by Berthe Morisot, since female painters don't really have much of a presence.

We successfully met up with Jessica at Gare du Nord for our Eurostar train home. What a trip! The only sad part of the weekend was that we found out that Danny's family dog Buddye's bladder cancer had spread and that he really wasn't doing very well, so he was going to be put down on Sunday, the last day of our trip. We were hoping that if we raced home from the train station Danny would be able to see him on skype one last time, but unfortunately the train left 15 minutes late.

We miss you, Buddye - we hope doggy heaven is full of tennis balls, swimming pools, and belly rubs, and that there are never any thunderstorms. We know that there are lots of nice dogs there for you to play with...

Frantic catch-up post

It's been a while, we know.  So instead of trying to get through the backlog in anything approaching thorough-ness, we'll give you the super-quick version of the last few weeks.  Then we'll do our best to keep up in the future, I promise.

Wednesday, July 28 - Five Days in the Lake District, Part 5

The day began in Keswick, a town of pubs and outdoors stores.  Seriously, there's not much else.  I've never seen so many outdoors stores in such a small area.  But given Keswick's centrality in the Lake District, it makes sense.  After a lazy morning wandering around Keswick, we hopped on the bus to Carlisle, where we raced around the cathedral and castle.  At the Carlisle train station, I practiced my forward defensive shot, much good that it did me.

Tuesday, August 3 - Our First Night of the Proms
Each summer, Royal Albert Hall hosts "the world's greatest classical music festival," a series of daily classical music concerts.  Seats aren't cheap, but there's the wonderful tradition of "promming" - show up a few hours before the concert and buy a standing-room ticket for just £5.  We went to Prom #23 and heard Fould's Dynamic Triptych, Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music and "The Lark Ascending," and Elgar's Symphony #1.  We'll prom at least once more this summer, so we'll provide a fuller report then.

Thursday, August 5 - Went the Day Well? at the BFI Southbank
My adviser recommended this, a WWII film that imagines a German invasion of a strategically located English village.  Full of simple English folk, from all walks of life, doing their duty.  Rather charming.


Friday, August 6 - The National Gallery
We met up with a friend from college (and elementary school, in my case) at the National Gallery to see the exhibit on Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries.  If you have any doubt about the role that science plays in the art world these days, have a look.  It also raises all sorts of questions about authenticity and the experience of seeing works of art - does a work suddenly become less powerful because it turns out that it was done by a student of Rembrandt rather than the master himself?

Sunday, August 8 - A day with the birds

Another nice day brought us out to the London Wetland Centre in Barnes.  Wholly man-made, it has a zoo-like section with micro-climates supporting birds from around the world as well as a larger, more open area where you're on your own in terms of spotting the birds.  I'll leave the list of birds we saw to Becca - she's much better at identifying them than I am.  I'm pretty sure these guys are ducklings, though.

Monday, August 9 - Harrods
Becca's cousin arrived last Monday.  She enjoys a good department store, and we hadn't been to the spectacle of Harrods yet, so off we went.  Our visit was made all the more sweet by the fact that I had a gift certificate (thanks, Mom and Dad!) just waiting to be used on chocolate truffles.  Harrods isn't really the sort of place where graduate students actually buy anything, so this was mostly a time for ogling.  If only I had £1,200 for that smoking jacket...

Tuesday, August 10 - An afternoon at the palace
Liz and Phil  spend their summers in Scotland, which means the likes of us get to scope out their place.  A good day for it, too, since the rain that had been holding off for so long finally descended on us.  What struck me is how you can trace the history of the British monarchy over the past few centuries through the changing styles and decorations of successive rooms.

Wednesday, August 11 - Othello in Waterlow Park
Somehow I've gone the first 28 years of my life without seeing Othello.  Yes, it really is that good, and yes, Iago really is that devious.  The actor playing Iago was superb, not least in dealing with the hiccups that inevitably come with outdoor theatre, like a group of loud, loutish teenagers walking by in the middle of a monologue.  Is there any better way to spend a summer evening than seeing Shakespeare in a park while drinking a beer?

Whew.  With that, I'll turn it over to Becca for a recap of our weekend in Paris.

Parks of London #1: Waterlow Park

First, a photo of my breakfast this morning:

All from the farmers market! I haven't seen cherries at the markets I've been to in New England, so this was pretty exciting. This was also my first time trying homemade, organic yog(h)urt (ingredients: cow's milk, probiotic cultures). It tasted kind of like...cheese. By which I mean, it was delicious.
Anyway, back to yesterday's London adventure, which was a visit to Waterlow park, a lovely park between us and our very posh neighbor to the North, Highgate. Waterlow park has everything a great urban park should have: bodies of water for waterfowl and other wildlife, organized sporting areas (in this case, tennis courts) as well as open fields for football kicking and disc throwing, well-manicured flower gardens as well as untended wildflowers, sunny knolls for reading and relaxing as well as shady wooded groves for the paler of us, and an abundance of walking paths to hold it all together. Waterlow park is also home to a small cafe and the Lauderdale house, which hosts jazz concerts, plays and art galleries. In other words, it has just enough to bring all members of a community out to enjoy a beautiful English weekend. We saw lots of families with young children (including what looked like a girls youth soccer team and their coaches having a 3-legged race), as well as old friends meeting for a cup of coffee. As I said, it was lovely.

We were there to people-watch and to remember how to throw and catch the disc, but I was immediately charmed by the rather large population of waterfowl. Thank goodness Danny got me the RSPB Guide to British Birds (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). We were able to come home and identify all the ones I didn't know already.

This is a male tufted duck (note the tuft in the back of the head), apparently the commonest diving duck in Britain. It was, in fact, a very good diver. There were several families of tufted ducks on the various ponds of the park - the largest one had 9 ducklings! But as they were practicing their diving, it was very difficult to get all of them in a photo at once.

We also saw several families of Coots (right), which were the aggressors of the ponds. As confirmed by the bird guide, coots are very territorial, and they were constantly chasing off the other ducks on the pond. The chicks, however, were adorable and noisy.

And just for good measure, here's a picture of a juvenile Moorhen (below), one of Britain's more awkward-looking birds. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll post some pictures of the adults in the future.


Want more pictures of baby birds? Of course you do. Here's one of some mallards we saw in Montreal in June:
The ducklings proceeded to attempt to fly off the bridge, but since their wings were so small they just flapped helplessly and plopped into the pond below. It was quite endearing.

And lest you think we only care about waterfowl, here is probably the cutest thing we saw in the park all day:
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in London, families play cricket in the park. I'll leave the heavy blogging about cricket to Danny (he's working on a doozy right now!), but let me just say that it is truly adorable to see five year olds have the patience and hand-eye coordination to play the refined, slow-to-progress game of cricket.



So in summary, Waterlow park is a great place to watch birds and people interact with their environment and their peers, a great place for the community to come together. We plan on returning for an outdoor performance of Othello, an evening bat-watching walk, and an afternoon of jazz in the garden. And of course we'll have to see how our little ducklings molt into their adult feathers!

The evening after this trip to the park we hosted our first house guest! David, who is now a world-famous musicologist, joined us at one of our local pubs to watch the world cup final. In the words of the woman shouting in the pub, vamos España!