aboard a train....

I am sitting on a high speed train ( ICE) on my way to Cologne, and pleased I made a quick connection with a kind woman on the platform who assured me that even though it said Frankfurt…my train was really going to stop at Cologne first…OI……the little things one learns as one goes along. It does not say this on my ticket or on any of the other info I have so once again, I am glad I always ask several people, if I am in the right place.

I am excited to be back in new and curious lands, with new and curious accents though. There is something very comfort in hearing your own language spoken, but it is much more a feeling of adventure to lose yourself in the sea of new voices around you that happens in a foreign environment.

So far my school french has seen me without the need for English to find my platform, train connections and other small details. …however…I do not have any Czech and am grateful the hosts where I am staying are English, in Prague.

The weekend went by in a whirlwind of all things Royal and English.

I arrived by train from Norwich into Liverpool St. Station……got befuddled as I did not know you need your train ticket to let you off the patforms through a gate and whew…after a small scramble through belongings, found it and got released…lol. D was waiting for me and we found somewhere to stow my luggage ( a long queue, with a very slow moving attendant….yeesh) and then we bussed about and made our way to the Victoria and Albert Museum. What a glorious setting for a museum. There was much that was fussy and we quickly scanned past, but the exquisite art nouveau/deco pieces, and the paintings and drawings we took in were amazing.

I am once again blown away by just how much art there is hanging int the world and am determined to see as much as I can while I am here.

Sunday was a day on my own and I was off to discover the Thames, and some of its sights.

Rode in on a train and then bussed about thanks to clear instructions from D, I found my way to St. Paul’s Cathedral……….it is really impressive…truly, even if old churches are not your thing….this one is spectacular and come one…how great is Christopher Wren as a designer?

I then walked across the Thames to the Tate Modern and wandered aimlessly at first…it ois big and industrial feeling…b ut once I found the materials floor I wanted….I welcomed my new friends, Kadinsky, Miro, Monet, Picasso , Pollack etc.

One room of Austrian postwar ( don’t mention the war ☺ ) art and film, was extremely disturbing but worthy of attention…gripping visuals of destruction and bodies….hmmmmm..

I left the Tate and found a seat by river listening to classical guitar music being played, chatted with a handsome Italian man and then found the Globe theatre.

The tour was a little disappointing in that, there was nothing new offered ( well it is Shakespeare I realize so I am not sure what I was expecting) but the space was amazing and easy to imagine the bard and his local actors doing their thing amongst the regular folk and prostitutes…lolololololol..no wonder actors get a bad wrap.

The river then called and I answered with a boat ride up the Thames to the Tower of London and while it was too alte to get inside, I did take in a very cool Tower Bridge exhibition on the design and construction of the bridge. I alsowalked loooooong around the Tower of London and to the entrance where death row was and the tortures and beheadings and all manner of ghoulish things we inflict on each other on dark and gloomy towers.

I feel I had a fast but good taste of what London had to offer and even managed to see Buckingham Palace and Hyde park while the changing of the guard was happening, enroute to train station today

It is a jolly ol’ town, but I wouldn’t want to live in London...whew....exhausting! ( pics to come)