London, under the Channel to Paris

Thursday, July 25th:  Yesterday we were up early and packed, at the St. Pancras Station by 8 am,  ready to board the Eurostar to Paris.  But we had to wait an hour to run the gauntlet for crossing from British territory into French territory (at the train station).   The passport control and security check was completed, though they found my Swiss Army knife in my luggage (which is normally checked on airplane flights so it is not an issue) and had to unpack my suitcase to view it.  After finding it, they said it was okay and I re-packed my bag and we moved on to the premier lounge/waiting area.  There were orange jacketed athletes from England in the lounge who were getting special treatment for their ride to the Olympics.  Also, a group of tall men arrived who were also ushered somewhere and never seen again -- perhaps the British basketball team.

The train ride was smooth and fast.  The one speed for the train I saw was over 125 mph.  We were served drinks, then I lunched on chicken, potatoes, zucchini, with a hummus starter and rhubarb tart for dessert.

We arrived in Paris at the Gard du Nord (the North Station) and while we thought we might be able to take public transit to our accommodation in the Marais district, we opted instead for a taxi.  This choice was influenced by the number of people and cars milling about outside the station.  It was only the start of the madness of Paris before the Olympic Games.  The taxi went a few feet and ran into congestion, then moved sort of well down a major street only to be told by reversing taxis that the street was closed ahead.  Our driver reversed also, and tried several more routes to our accommodation and finally said he could not get us to it and it would be a short walk.  So after our final jam (near the Place de la Bastille), he pulled over, unloaded our luggage and we huffed it.  With GPS, I found the apartment directly, but we had to cross several streets that were in the process of being barricaded.  There were many police at every intersection.  But we made it to 20 Rue de la Ciresaie at about 2:40 pm. (Note:  there is a hour time change between London and Paris.)  The flat was not quite ready (although we could drop off our luggage), so we lingered at a nearby cafe for a while.  The flat is on the ground floor of an apartment building between the Place de la Bastille on the edge of the Marais District, not far from the Place Des Voges.  The street is quiet (many inner city streets have been designated a bike lanes with limited vehicle access) and our flat is tucked into the ground level courtyard.  It is tiny and idiosyncratically furnished but we did get a good nights sleep for the first time on this trip.  But the plumbing and hot water is insufficient.

My first order of business was to get an eSim card, which was successful (I reported on this strategy in previous post).  And then we went to an ATM to get some Euros.

We then decided to walk along the barricaded road (Blvd Henri IV) to see how far it went.  And it went way further than we did.  All of the locals who were commuting home swith their bikes had to use the sidewalks and they were congested.  But it didn't stop them from riding their bikes.   It seems as if the city has closed and barricaded the main arteries along the river and limited access to the riverside neighborhoods.  Unless you can prove you live on the Ile Saint Louis, for example, you are not allowed to pass.  And it seems as if these conditions will last for several weeks, which much be very frustrating for locals.   Here are some photos:

The street that was barricaded was being used by cyclists training or whatever.  Notice the red shirted guy who is a blur compared to everything else in the photo.

These were USA guys.

Two more guys with their chase car.  Note the people on the opposite sidewalk.

We crossed the Seine at the head of Ile Saint-Louis

This was the only bridge open to pedestrians and riders. 

The waterfront has been barricaded for days and the purple curtains on the bridge in the foreground is the backside of bleachers.  Notre Dame is in the background.

A better view of Notre Dame and the re-construction progress.

Returning to the initial bridge, we noticed what looked like spray underneath the arches of the neighboring bridge (Pont d'Austerlitz).  I suspect this is a visual barrier preventing boaters from seeing the barges of the opening ceremony.  It is likely that the athletes' barges will come out just downstream from this bridge from the Basin de l'Arsenal.

The Basin de l' Arsenal

Our dinner spot a few hundred feet from our apartment -- a quaint, small cafe with outdoor seating.  The cafe's name translates to "the season of cherries."  We talked with a guy at the next table who was in Paris looking for a new French Horn.  He is an Italian classical musician who plays for the Malta Symphony.  His English was quite good and he seemed more interested in talking about basketball than music -- he knew of the Blazers and the trading of Damian Lillard.

We slept late and were challenged by the plumbing in the apartment -- very glad we are here for only a short time.  And we particularly pity the locals who chose not to leave town.  The city is a mess!  Ralph, good luck on moving about...the number of metro lines, stations, bus routes, and streets that are closed is mind boggling.  The police folks are going to make a lot of overtime pay.

Last day in London

Wednesday, July 24th:  Yesterday was split into 3 main activities -- 1) meeting up with Leslie and Dennis at the St. Pancras Train Station (they came in from Windsor and caught the Eurostar train to Lille, France going through the Chunnel), 2) wandering around Bloomsbury, attempting to visit the British Museum (unsuccessful because thousands of people were waiting in the "no-tickets" line, so after having a break in Russell Square, we visited the Grant Museum), and 3) attending an evening theater performance of Guys and Dolls.

The meet-up with Leslie and Dennis went well.  They had taken an early train from Windsor and were at Carluccio's Restaurant by 8:30 am.  We arrived around 9 am, and caught up on our respective travels.  L&D had a wonderful time in Ireland, hiking the Kerry Way and then visiting much of the rest of the country north of Killarney.  We heard about their various visits.  We walked with them to the boarding gate of the Eurostar.  We will be rejoining them in 4 days time in Bayeux, France to begin the bicycle tour of Normandy and Brittany.

The afternoon was spent resting/reading and walking to the British Museum.  We walked "around the museum," just not inside.  One can get free "timed-entry" tickets (which we didn't) but the guards said entrance with no tickets was available at the back of the museum.  So, we went that way (completing our circling of the museum) and rather immediately saw that the queue was quite long.  We went next door and rested in the park (Russell Square) and considered options.  

We decided to go see the Grant Museum of Zoology, which is on the campus of UCL (University College London).  The museum is one room with over 8,000 specimens, many in glass jars and mostly in skeletal form.  Here are few photographs that give you a view of the museum.

The museum is small but we walked in directly and could view all of the cabinets easily.  There were maybe 10 to 15 other folks in the museum.

A Susu or Ganges River Dolphin, endangered.

Lots of prehistoric skeletons with actual fossil bones and a few 3-D printed bones to complete the skeletons.

Archeological finds.

Betsy caught this curious fact - limpet teeth are the "toughest biological material in the world."

Cabinet stuffed with skeletons.

A dugong skeleton.

The card so I could identify the skeleton.

Another famous fossil find showing that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Bird species heads - a Hornbill is the one in the center, top.

On the walk back to the hotel, we saw another piece of sidewalk cover - over an "earth rod" for a building lightning protection system.  An earth is another name for a "ground" in electrical systems.

And, now for the last part of the day.  The best performance of a musical I have ever seen - the music was great, the staging was very innovative, the seats provided a close view of the action, and the energy of the cast was extraordinary.  The show was recommended by Todd and Wenwen via his mother Sue.  We left early for the theatre which was on the south bank of the Thames River by Tower Bridge.  We arrived on the Queen's Walk and managed to get a bar table in the Cote Brasserie.  We both had a mocktail, lightish meals (salad and tuna nicoise) with a side of frites.  We finished with a shared cup of coffee which was excellent.  We walked along the busy quayside for some good views across the river to the City of London, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.

HMS Belfast in front of the City of London.  The battleship is the last WWII British ship remaining in existence and is available to tour inside.

The River Thames and Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London with a river cleaning system in front.

Another view of the City of London.

And, another view of Tower Bridge./

Lobby of the theatre.

As we entered the theatre, the scene was a New York City street scape with pavement, traffic lights, neon shop lights and even a manhole cover.  It was all accompanied by the typical din of a city.  As the show started it became clear that each section of the floor outlined in white lines could be raised up to about 5 feet from this lower level.  There were at 6 independent sections in the center rectangle, along with 2 or 3 more in each wing out the center sections, letting the action happen on multiple levels.  

Members of the audience could spend the show right on the floor during the performance as long as they stayed out of the way of the action and the moving parts of the sets.   About a dozen cast members costumed as police officers  herded the patrons back from the stage portions which would rise in the next scene or allow them to press forward after the stage returned to the lowest level.  The police also were responsible for moving stairs into place for the actors to use to enter and exit, and for placing all props on the raised parts of the stage, mostly tables and chairs.  It made for a very dynamic staging as platforms became the Hot Box Club, Mindy's cafe, a sewer tunnel, and the mission.  The cast was terrific - the woman playing Adelaide was a bosomy black performer with a fabulous voice, Nicely- Nicely also had a great voice - multiple encores of You're Rocking the Boat, and Sister Sarah Brown was also a powerhouse.  As a warm up to the second act, Nicely-Nicely and 3 other singers did 'doo-wop' versions of the show tunes. 

Obvisiouly, this was only part of the stall patrons, since no photos during the performance.

The Shard at night.  Sorry, it was too dark for a clear photo - we were hustling back to the Underground Station at London Bridge.

We are currently in Paris, after a smooth ride by train going as much as 125 miles per hour.  We have checked into our apartment for 3 nights after an aborted taxi ride from Gard du Nord Train Station to near the Place de la Bastille.  Lots of streets are closed in the area and there are police everywhere.  We had to walk to our accommodation, crossing several barricaded streets.  I pity the poor people who will endure this 'mess' for the next two plus weeks.  We used an ATM, and I got a "Free" eSim card for my phone - the number is +33 7 44 93 25 97, if anyone wants to call me.  Note:  Free in this case does not mean no cost - it is the name of the brand.

Cheers!

A stroll around Finsbury and Spitalfields & Shoreditch

Tuesday, July 23rd:  Yesterday was a low key day with a couple short strolls in new neighborhoods to us.  The day started out cool and cloudy but eventually cleared.  

We ventured out for breakfast toward Islington, finding the quaint  Chapel Market Street, full of small little shops, fruit stands, a Turkish barber, and a "locals" cafe.  I enjoyed a "set breakfast" that took about 3 minutes to prepare and included one egg, one sausage, 2 strips of bacon, chips (what we know as French fries), beans and toast.  Betsy described the operation as a tight ship.  Lots of construction workers came in for their mid-morning break and several old guys were served "their usual."  It was not a place many tourists would find.

While it was a street, vehicles were mostly restricted.

After breakfast, we went into the Finsbury area, specially to the Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Spa Green Garden.  The theatre is about the fifth or more incarnation, dating back to the 17th century, and is now specializing in modern dance.  And they are starting a new season of shows on August 1st with A Chorus Line.  Across the street and down from the theatre is Spa Green Garden, a strip of park with a memorial to the Finbury Borough War Memorial (WWI flying corps and others).

Sadler's Wells Theater.

After a break, we ventured out in search of the Shoreditch Murals (aka Street Art).  We took the Underground to near Spitalfields and its famous market.  It was once a meat market and we had visited it many years ago when it was full of dead animals and blood on the floor.  It has been completely redeveloped as an upscale market selling typical but attractive fare (clothing, jewelry, leather goods, and assorted crafted tchotchkes) surrounded by trendy cafes, coffee shops, bakeries and restaurants.

On the way from the Underground Station to the market, we passed by this unusual building, seemingly braced for earthquakes.

A view of the Gerkin building.

We found some street art, after a short break for pastries and a coffee.  Here is the art we saw:

Entrance to Spitalfields Market.

An example of the many elephant statues around the market commemorating orphan elephants.

The first of maybe the official Shoreditch Murals (i.e., we had left the Spitalfields area and crossed north into Shoreditch).

Outside the Bull in a China Shop shop.

Another unusual access cover, that Betsy spotted.

The art'otel which reminds me of the twisted cables.

An optical illusion building on our way back to a subway station west of Shoreditch.  It's hard to tell in the photo but none of the windows are normal right-angles.

We supped at Lucas Arms Pub and retired.