Hampton Court, London

It might seem odd to spend a day at Hampton Court when one is in London for just a few days, but I chose to do so for a couple of reasons. One, it was the only one of the top London sites in 1001 Places to See Before You Die that I had never visited. Two, originally built by Cardinal Wolsey and later serving as one of the palaces of Henry VIII, it plays a major role in Wolf Hall (which I really will finish one of these days—really, truly). It also serves as the setting for much of the action in A Man for All Seasons, which I read for my Royals and Rulers book salon.

Visiting the palace does take a bit of effort as it is located in the borough of Richmond Upon Thames at the extreme southwest edge of Greater London. It takes well over 30 minutes by train from Waterloo, but the station is just a short walk from the palace, so overall the trip is not too bad. You can also arrive by boat, but then the travel time is extremely unpredictable (and can be hours).

As you can see in the above photo (taken from a postcard), the palace is quite extensive, as are the grounds. In fact, the palace itself is a bit confusing to navigate, so, once you arrive in the Clock Court, you may want to take the time to figure out what you most want to see and then head there directly using your map.


Anne Boleyn’s gateway and the astronomical clock

Really, use the map. I know that we ended up in a part of the palace that my friend had never seen before, and there were interesting things that I realized later we never saw. My favorite spots were the Great Hall and the Chapel Royal in Henry VIII’s State Apartments, the King’s Staircase and the King’s Guard Chamber (weapons!) in William III’s Apartments, and the gardens, especially The Maze.

The Great Hall, as its name indicates, is one of those huge medieval halls that served many purposes besides being a communal dining room, for example, Shakespeare’s company performed here for King James I. The hall is lined with magnificent Flemish tapestries depicting the story of Abraham and has an elaborately carved wooden ceiling. At the end of the hall is an incredible stained glass window from the mid-1800s depicting the arms of Henry VIII and his six wives.

Great Hall, Hampton Court

The King’s Staircase in William III’s Apartments is the most mind-blowing mural I’ve ever seen in a setting like this. It’s perhaps hard to see in this photo but the painting, by Antonio Verrio, wraps around the stairwell and onto the ceiling. It depicts William III dominating a group of Roman emperors (representing the king’s Catholic enemies) as well as a banquet of the Gods (representing the peace and prosperity of William’s reign).

The King's Staircase, painted by Antonio Verrio

The Hampton Court Maze is the oldest hedge maze in the United Kingdom. And I guess that might mean the world, because where else would they have hedge mazes that are older? Do the Chinese have some sort of hedge maze tradition that I’m unaware of? (Because, if so, China will move way up on my must-see list.) In any case, even though I am still recovering from the difficulties I encountered in the pineapple maze on Oahu, I love mazes of all kinds, so this is where we headed first.

Other lovely spots on the grounds include the Privy Garden, which was the private garden of the king and has a very geometric style, the Pond Gardens, which are sunken flower gardens that were originally ornamental ponds used for holding fish, and the Great Vine, a grape vine planted in the 1760s by Lancelot “Capability” Brown. [Side note: I’m really not sure which is worse, having the name Lancelot, or being called Capability.]

Privy Garden, Hampton Court

In short, there is much to see and do here, and Hampton Court is certainly worth the detour!

Borough Market, London

Nothing like a good cup of coffee for a Monday morning!

If you happen to find yourself in Borough Market, near London Bridge (and you should), be sure to check out the coffee at Monmouth Coffee Company on the corner of Park and Stoney Streets. Much like Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco, this is a place that takes coffee seriously (although, apparently, unlike Blue Bottle, they will deign to grind beans for you). Be sure to get the special pour-over filter coffee of the day and not espresso. Delicious.



Monmouth Coffee by Manic Street Preacher via Flickr

Borough Market is open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and is well worth the detour. Maybe I’ve been watching too much No Reservations, but, these days, this is the type of place where I prefer spending time on vacation, rather than any monument or museum. There are people selling all kinds of produce, as well as fish, meat, dairy, bread, and tons of prepared food. In fact, it was seeing all the spices available here that made me go a bit overboard when I was later in France. Stall vendors change depending on the day, but there are a number of permanent traders as well, so, if you are in the area, feel free to check it out any day but Sunday.

Sampling cheese at Neal's Yard Dairy

If you like cheese, I highly recommend Neal’s Yard Dairy, right next to Monmouth Coffee on Park Street. When I was there, they were very generous with samples and explanations about the different kinds of cheeses. I tried a few kinds of Stilton and Cheddar and all were to die for.

Chorizo Grill lunch

Also incredibly delicious are the chorizo sandwiches made by Brindisa Spanish Foods. Their store sells all sorts of meats and products from Spain, but make sure to stop at the Chorizo Grill outside to pick up their specialty, a ciabatta roll filled with grilled chorizo and piquillo peppers, and topped with arugula. Lunch heaven.

*Both the Borough Market and Covent Garden (27 Monmouth Street) locations of Monmouth Coffee Company, as well as Neal’s Yard Dairy, are open Monday-Saturday. Brindisa Spanish Foods is open Tuesday-Saturday. Unless indicated, photos are from each store's official website.

Westminster Abbey

Yes, I insisted on revisiting Westminster Abbey on my trip to London last month because of the royal wedding this morning. I hate to admit it, but I’m a sucker for the pageantry of it all. It’s one reason I love attending Catholic mass despite the fact that Protestant hymns are vastly superior.

In any case, it had been a long time since I had been inside. I was quite shocked by the entrance fee, which is £16, or about $25. As a rule, I have a problem with a church charging an entrance fee. There just seems to be something inherently wrong in that. And, when that church also asks that you respect the setting and not take pictures? That seems a bit like trying to have your cake and eat it too. In any case, the photos here are from the official website.



Quire, Westminster Abbey

It was crazy crowded, which was a shame, because there really is a lot to see beyond just the architecture of the church itself. The audio guide is decent, but could give more detail. Of course, with so many people (and a friend waiting outside), I couldn’t really linger. Highlights include the Quire, the Chapel of Henry VII with the tombs of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, the Cloisters, and the Coronation Chair, which for restoration had been moved to near the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at the main entrance. Personally, I found Poet’s Corner a bit disappointing; it was too crowded, both with the dead and the living. My favorite piece by far was the monument commemorating Lady Elizabeth Nightingale in the North Transept and Ambulatory. The figure of Death reaching out to grab her is incredibly moving.

Sculpture by Louis François Roubiliac

All in all, despite the cost, I highly recommend a visit. The church is very beautiful and there is lots to see inside to make it worth the detour.

* Photos were taken from the official Westminster Abbey website.

The Phantom of the Opera

—What’s wrong with it?

—I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!

—No, no, it’s uh,... resting… it’s, ah... probably pining for the fjords…

It seems only fitting to resurrect this long-dormant blog with an entry about the home of one of the most famous “ghosts” of all time. This post is dedicated to La Javanaise, who has been looking for a new entry here for quite awhile and who thinks that the Palais Garnier is worth the detour.

Palais Garnier facade

Marc Chagall's famous ceiling

While in Paris to visit family last month, I had the great good fortune to attend two performances at the historic opera house of the Opéra National de Paris, the Palais Garnier. For some reason, throughout my time living in Paris, I never made it inside this building, despite attending multiple ballet performances—all of which happened to take place at the Opéra Bastille, the new opera house in the twelfth arrondissement.

You can, of course, take a guided tour of the opera house itself, but I highly recommend attending a performance if you can. For one, you might get to sit in the best cheap seats I’ve ever experienced:

Seriously, if the War Memorial Opera House had this kind of seating in the upper balconies, I would get full subscriptions for both the opera and ballet every year.

So, how does one get tickets? Well, if there are tickets available, you can reserve online (in either French or English) at the official website and print out your ticket. Unfortunately, to even check availability, you have to first register, which is annoying. Furthermore, the seating and pricing chart is very complicated and advice on where to sit was hard to find on the Internet (the reservation site will tell you your potential seat, but there is no corresponding chart with numbered seats to let you know where it’s located). For the boxes pictured above, it’s important to know that the boxes are numbered starting at the stage with even numbers to the right (stage left) and odd numbers to the left (stage right). So, the lower your number, the closer you are to the stage, and the more cut off one side of the stage will be. Boxes numbered in the thirties are at the center of that particular level. Ideally, in each box, you want seats #1 and/or #2, which are at the front, or #3 and #4, which are in the second row; it will be very difficult to see from seats #5 or #6. One great feature of the reservation system is that it picks the “best” seat for your price range and, before you actually purchase your ticket, you see a photo of the view from your exact seat, so you do eventually see precisely what you are buying.

For Kátia Kabanová, I was able to buy tickets online and was seated in the 2ème loge, box 12, seat 1. This box was fairly close, which was nice, but much of the right side of the stage (stage left) was blocked from view. Luckily, the performance was primarily blocked to be on stage right; I’m not sure what I would have seen had I been in a box on the other side. You can see my write-up of the performance over at Sly Wit.

For Coppélia, I had to be a bit more adventurous. I went early for last-minute tickets, but only three tickets were available for the Sunday matinée and there were already quite a few people in line. I ended up buying tickets from a scalper at the front of the opera house itself. Obviously, I was taking a chance, but I had scoped out the guy in advance and watched him sell a ticket. Since he stuck around, and he was right in front of the security guard, I figured I could immediately check its authenticity and would at least have the recourse of yelling at him if it didn’t work. Based on the prices I was quoted, I would plan on paying an extra 30-40 euros per ticket. For my seat, which was in the 3ème loge, box 23, seat 3, this meant paying about $70 total for an $18 ticket (an orchestra seat would have been about $185). Technically, this seat had reduced visibility, but it really didn’t and I could see everything. Given the luxuriousness of my loge, it still seemed a better value than the opera house tickets I buy in San Francisco. While I still wish I had seen the production here in San Francisco, I don’t regret it one bit.

For both performances, the chandelier stayed in place. No phantoms were seen.

2011 Travel Goals

As per usual, the coming year's travel goals remain loosely defined and I need to come up with some concrete plans in the near future.

In the spring, I head to Paris to visit family. I will be there for at least a week, guiding my brother and sister-in-law around the city. I’m really looking forward to it because, having lived there off and on in the 1990s, and visiting family from time to time, it’s rare that I simply play tourist and it will be interesting to see the city through those eyes again. As part of that trip, I’ve decided to cross the pond a week early to experience more of a “vacation” somewhere else in Europe. I really want to go to Istanbul, but don’t know if I’m up for that on my own. However, if anyone has recommendations for a place to stay, that might help seal the deal. Italy is another option I’m considering, since I’ve been working on an Italian textbook for the past year and would like to see more of the country beyond my one visit to Tuscany years ago.

Joshua Tree National Park, November 2009

My other big trip of the year will involve national parks. For Christmas, my extremely generous sister (who, like me, enjoys hiking in the parks) has offered me a trip with her to any park in the lower forty-eight. The only question is which one? To date, I have visited Joshua Tree, Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, Arches, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Big Bend, Yellowstone, Glacier, Carlsbad Caverns, The Petrified Forest, and Saguaro (although my memory of the last three is dim at best since they were visited on a family trip in sixth grade). Right now I’m leaning towards Grand Teton, which I always regret not visiting when my father and I were in Jackson Hole after a visit to Yellowstone, and Crater Lake, which I’ve been hoping to visit since moving out West. Again, I welcome suggestions.

Yosemite Valley and Half Dome, April 2009

Otherwise, this year I hope to further explore California. I've seen quite a bit since moving here, but there is so much more to see and do, including the remaining national parks on my list (Channel Islands, Death Valley, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Lassen Volcanic, Redwood), but also Napa Valley, the northern coast (especially Mendocino), and Gold Country.

Happy New Year and safe travels everyone!