Five Days in the UK

Tuesday January 7, 2014

Welcome to the City of Cambridge,UK!

Since I have visited Cambridge, Massachusetts, MANY times, I luckily decided to visit the other Cambridge. I say luckily, because I was invited to couch surf with Clare Harriette and her delightfully interesting 5 year old Arthur. Her couch surfing profile says she is a fashion designer and mom. Well, she is a very talented seamstress! These pictures show the tuxedo jacket she designed and made for herself for New Year's Eve in TWO HOURS!! As one who used to sew, I have an idea of what this project would entail!

Wednesday January 8, 2014

While I was fully prepared for cold and rainy weather, it promised to be a lovely day in Cambridge, as Clare Harriette and I walked Arthur to the Park School Church of England Primary School along the very swollen River Cam.

Our first stop was coffee at Bill’s where I succumbed to an English breakfast of eggs Benedict. We wandered through this charming old city filled with wonderful architecture and Cambridge University consisting of various colleges and more than 400 churches and chapels. Clare Harriette’s favorite is the King’s College Chapel, which we toured.

Then we walked over to the famous Fitzwilliam Museum, where we had a tasty lunch of leek and potato soup with egg mayonnaise rolls. We wandered through this very pleasant museum filled with a John Braxton show, pottery, wide variety of paintings from Monet, Matisse, Modigliano, to some Italian Renaissance paintings. They have very cleverly built a very small display around the periphery of one gallery (pictures). I had never seen something like this before. She especially enjoys the small fan collection where each fan tells its own story. 

Signs warn you not to bang the paintings!

The athletic shoes...going down!!

The athletic shoes...going down!!

We picked up Arthur at school, stopped at his grandfather's

house, where Clare Harriette put together a delicious dinner of ham, risotto, and veggies. By about 9 PM, six of her friends had come by her house, as she had organized a sewing or knitting (or whatever you want to do) circle! One woman was crocheting; one was making drapes!

Thursday January 9^th

Clare Harriette’s friend Jason had offered to drive us to London along with her father-in-law to see Paul Klee’s show at the Tate Modern. But I was to meet Kathleen and Phil at 12:30 at Waterloo Station, so I had to meet them instead. Luckily they also wanted to go to the Tate Modern, so we had delightful walk along the Thames. They are members, so first we went to the 5th floor for lunch with a spectacular view!

We went to the Klee exhibit, and, while I really liked his use of color, his pictures for the most part did not appeal to me because they are quite abstract.  It was interesting that he had worked with Walter Gropius who came to the US and has built a home in the Bauhaus style in Lincoln, the next town to Weston, which is open to the public. I did see someone taking pictures, so I thought it was allowed, until I was told differently!! I had already taken these.

"Threatening Storm"

Then we saw the Mira Schendel show http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/mira-schendel This ranged from abstract paintings to 3D works which really looked like clear or plastic thread hanging from the ceiling in an area roughly 8' X 8'-maybe bigger.

Friday January 10th

Today I went to meet my friend Anne's cousin Wendy whom I had not since for eight years. We met at the Victoria and Albert Museum which I had never visited. But while I waited for her, I enjoyed this interesting garden in the courtyard.

It was done by Xu Bing and based on a 421 Chinese fable called Peach Blossom Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peach_Blossom_Spring. He gathered rocks from five places in China. It was very special!! And I have not even read the fable!

After a nice lunch (LOVE eating lunch at museums!) and lots of catching up, we went to see the "Club to Catwalk:London Fashion in the 1980's"....OH, MY!!! London fashions I never knew!! Wendy and I both felt old as we looked at some of these-High Romantic and High Camp!-which are now quite dated!

So tomorrow I am back to Nice, as January 31st looms on the horizon, when I will be off to Collioure!

Thanks again for coming along!!