Big Ben and the London Eye
random London shot
Trafalgar's Square
Tara and I on a double decker bus in London
view from the double decker bus
I couldn't resist a picture of the woman with pigeons... must be all that Mary Poppins growing up...
Tara hitting the paths in Hyde Park
pizza beetle
Lorie this is for you! LUSH in Portobello Market
Portobello Market
I got a kick out of this Whole Foods promotion of Icelandic water
grainy picture of nut cheeses at Saf
Ros in front of Saf... bad picture, good memory
Roslyn, Tara and I after eating at Saf
yogis Mark and Tara
London
Tara and I arrived in London on Monday, January 12 and made our way (despite issues with the Tube and bus stop) to Tara’s friend Mark’s apartment. Mark is a yogi and fellow student of Dharma Mittra like Tara. His apartment had a wonderfully warm presence with high ceilings, clever artwork and a clean simple taste for design. Tara and I couldn’t be happier.
Over the next two days we wandered around London on Oxford Street and Portobello Market. We also walked through Trafalgar’s Square and Hyde Park. From the bus I saw the Parliament building and Big Ben. We walked by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Natural History. On Tuesday we visited the Hare Krishna temple and ate vegan food at Govindas, the cafe attached to it. Later, we met up with Roslyn at the V&A, who was sick with a fever but happy to see us.
Roslyn, Tara and I wandered up in the direction of Portobello market, but instead found a Whole Foods. Ecstatic to find food Tara could eat, we wandered around stocking up. Before we arrived, Roslyn had done her homework in London and found a raw foods restaurant called Saf, so we decided to split from Whole Foods and go there. The place was amazing. It had an on point design sense with organic designer lamps and a good selection of choices on the menu. I ordered a beet ravioli dish with cashew ricotta. Tara and Ros each ordered their own dish and split a sampler of nut cheeses. They were surprisingly good, although very rich. There were olive, sundried tomato and chive flavored cheeses.
Following the raw food splurge, we went in search of a bar called Roxy Bar and Cinema. When I was putting together Videohm, I was contacted by someone from Roxy as they were preparing to open with questions about how I was finding artists and how the installation was working in Ohm, etc. So I was always curious to see the place. It was not what I expected, but Ros and Tara both said they were impressed. It was like a normal bar in the front but there was a large back area after passing the bar with a large screen, a movie playing and couches and chairs everywhere. The red velvet lining the walls made it feel like a theater.
Before we knew it, time had flown by and we were trying to take public transportation home at 12:30 a.m. Ros did not feel good at all, but she was kind enough to take us to the stop we needed to get off at on the Tube right before it shut down. Tara and I popped out of the Tube at the intersection where our bus supposedly ran, but we’d never been there before, so we were disoriented and confused. Tara knocked on the door of a bus that had just stopped service and was sitting on the side of the road. She was asking about where to find the bus we needed to catch and the bus driver, a younger guy, kept asking for more details about where we needed to go. Eventually we were describing the landmark we knew to get off at and he told us to take a seat and he would take us there. We couldn’t believe it. He made sure to tell us he’d never done this before and as if from a movie Tara replied, “Well, neither have we.” Sure enough, he dropped us off at the church we described. It was practically door to door service. Incredulously grateful, we said thank you over and over and waved goodbye. I remember the look on his face as being priceless, like he’d done his good deed for the day. When we told Mark about it, he couldn’t believe it. He’d never heard of something like that happening. It was just our luck.
On Wednesday, January 14, Tara and I visited a store called Liberty, which Tara had seen before and wanted to go back to. The place was impressive. It’s in an old building with intricate woodwork inside. Every floor is like a balcony looking out over two interior empty spaces. It was like a designers department store. We saw the lamps we liked at Saf there and many other things… a 1920’s leather and industrial steel vintage dining table… sofas… fabric… lamps… etc. Tara found some spoons on sale and we both came away inspired.
We wandered up Oxford Street where I looked for shoes, but didn’t buy any. We walked through Hyde Park on the way to Whole Foods to meet Roslyn for the second day. We had fun picking out tea and chocolate as presents for Mark and ate dinner in the massive top floor of Whole Foods, which had every kind of prepared food you can think of. Ros (who was feeling much better) and I split a ploughman’s board, which is traditional English fare- meat, cheese, bread and chutney. The Ros splurged and ordered us both crepes with gelati… delicious. We finished our previous night’s journey of returning to Portobello market, although most everything was closed. Most important was spending time with Ros and then returning back to the apartment early to spend time with our host Mark. We said goodbye to Ros after some bus craziness and headed back.
We didn’t get delivered this time by a nice bus driver but we did manage to make it back okay. We had a great conversation with Mark about Dharma and yoga in London, about Italy (he’s a fan) and various people from Dharma’s studio including Lorie (hi Lorie!). It really was a wonderful chat. I thank Mark for being such a gracious host. (Thanks Mark!)
The next morning (January 15, 2009) we were out the door at 5:40 a.m. to catch the Eurostar to Paris.
