A Wee Hike Along the Fell up to the Tarn, Aye

Hello from Glasgow! I know I hinted that you'd have heard more from me by now, but even though we have the laptop with us, we haven't been able to get online until today (and even then, we're at a library, using their computers). We're off to northern Scotland tomorrow, but so far I can report that England's Lake District is an amazing, idyllic place (very photogenic, you'll be happy to know ;-)) and our hosts Grahame and Jo treated us wonderfully, and took us around on boats, scenic drives, hikes, and, most importantly, like their coffee-and-sweet breaks even more than we do! We truly feel spoiled. As for Glasgow, we've only been here for seven hours, but so far we've seen lovely Glasgow cathedral and the oldest house in Glasgow--both pretty great . . . and as soon as I log off this computer, we're heading upstairs to check out some contemporary art. We're both having a bit of city-shock (where did all the sheep go?), but we'll be back in the countryside soon enough.

Off Again

Tonight we went to Camden to see Bill Callahan play a show--his last show in Vancouver was one of the best we've ever seen (that voice; those songs), and even with that precedent, tonight didn't disappoint. He's just plain great . . . that voice; those songs . . .

But now that we're home from the show, we still have a few things to do before we leave tomorrow. Yes, we're barely back in London and we're heading away again, this time through England and Scotland for a bit of a wander, with stops with family in England's midlands and lake district and up near Inverness in northern Scotland, and two city stops on our own in Glasgow and Edinburgh thrown in for variety. We won't be back until the end of the month, but we're taking the laptop this time, so you might be kept more up-to-date than usual when we go away, depending on how many rainy days we get while we're in the country (BBC weather currently tells me that we're bound to get some). And if you have any tips on what we should see or do in any of those areas, feel free to let us know!

Renewal

It's been a while since we visited our Clissold Park deer, and they look like they've been having a good summer. I never thought that grass would ever grow back in their muddy pen, but I guess I was wrong, as the grass looked as lovely as the contented deer on this cool afternoon:

Joining the Queue

One of the things I like about London is that you can be heading to a library, doing some errands, and come across something like this:

We just saw some of Mondrian's lesser-known (at least to us) paintings on our Scandinavian trip, so it seemed appropriate to stumble upon his former abode so soon after our return. Later in the day, we joined this queue
outside this building . . . can you guess why?
Here's another hint:
We were lined up to go to our first BBC Prom! A summer institution in London, the BBC puts on classical concerts ("proms") at the Royal Albert Hall every night from mid-July to early September, with tickets usually ranging from £6-£25+ per concert. The best thing about the proms are the day tickets: if you line up early enough, you can get £5 standing tickets for any show on the day, so that's exactly what we did. We had our choice to stand on the floor or up in the gallery,
and we chose to be up top--you can't really make him out, but that's Bob standing in one of the archways with his arms on the railing,in front of the bright light. That was our spot for the show.
Amazingly, people brought in picnic blankets, food, wine, and paperback novels to keep them occupied during the show. If we had known we would be allowed to bring in an entire picnic, we would have done the same. (That sort of thing would never be allowed in Canada--sometimes ramshackle London rules come in handy.) It was my first time in Royal Albert Hall and it was a gorgeous space.

Our particular prom featured the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
and the Marcus Roberts jazz trio in an engaging performance. The last piece, the trio's improvisations on Rhapsody in Blue, was especially fantastic, with each member of the trio doing extraordinary solos on drums, double bass, and piano that were worth our wait in line on their own. This next photo is of the trio bowing to the crowd after their encore:
All in all, it was a great night--a perfect example of what makes London pretty great.

Ideas

We went to a few libraries today, returning various books we used on our trip, and included in those errands was a visit to this library--oops, it doesn't call itself a library; it's an "Idea Store."

Whatever the name, it's nice to have a library that's open seven days a week, with late closures four of those days--a definite rarity in London. The Whitechapel Idea Store also has a great café on its top floor, with nice-looking treats, a wide selection of newspapers and magazines, and a nice view of the neighbourhood:

Scrumptious + Yummy

I like a handmade, organic dessert made from a family recipe, containing local ingredients as much as the next person, but I also have a soft spot for instant treats like the ones Bob and I had for dessert tonight:

He preferred his (crazy chocolate overload) and I preferred mine, so we picked well, Actually, Bob had originally picked a different dessert for himself, but when he saw what the top of mine said, marketing worked its trick, and he went back to the wall of desserts to pick out one with a similar claim!

Music on Our Doorstep

There are always so many things going on in London that being away for nine days meant that we had no idea what was going on anymore when we got back! We almost missed yesterday's Rose Melberg show, but Bob saw a small listing for it the day before, and we also learned that our neighbourhood was hosting a musical fringe festival of sorts, of which these were the final days. That was a great reason to stay local and walk up to a neighbourhood church

after dinner to get a peek at the interior and hear some free music, courtesy of Charlotte Hatherley.
We didn't stick around for the whole show, but it was nice to be able to sample some music in our neighbourhood and then walk home in ten minutes in the cool night.

You Turn My Winter to Spring . . . This Must Be Love

After yesterday, we were ready for a bit of walking, so we went up to Queen's Wood, where we've been meaning to go for some time. Directly across from Highgate Wood, which we loved,

Queen's Wood is also a London oasis,
complete with a nice park café that we filed away for another day. In the evening, we went to a show at Luminaire, a wonderful venue conveniently located one trainride away. The Dreamers were the opening act, and they said it was their first show ever!

They were nice enough, with mellow songs and some French covers thrown in for good measure. Next up was Harvey Williams, a very earnest and odd performer (whom Bob happened to see the following day on the train).
Finally, the reason we were here: Rose Melberg (on the left, now a Vancouverite) playing her first UK show:
Although we enjoyed her performance, her old songs were the ones that stuck in our heads afterwards (the title of today's post is from one such song). In any case, Luminaire was a wonderful venue and we got to sit on the steps right in front of the stage for the entire show (odd that there would be steps there, I know). Throw in the smoking ban and the venue's rather vocal attitude toward the dreaded I've-come-to-this-show-to-talk person, who inevitably ends up standing right next to you while you're trying to hear your favourite band,
and it's definitely a place I hope to see a show again.

Potential

Today was a trip-recovery day: no pounding the (cobbled) pavement, no planning what to do next, no trying to decode menus in Norwegian, Danish, or Swedish . . . just some quality home time and a whole lot of laundry. Today's photo is still courtesy of our trip, though, as it's of the only souvenir either of us bought during our nine days away:

I got this great glass jar and wooden lid in a secondhand shop in Södermalm, where the staff and the customers were equally friendly, and the clothes and household goods were cheap and pleasing. My kind of shop! I don't yet know what I'll put in this jar, but hopefully it'll soon be filled with something good . . .

Our Scandinavia Adventure: Day Nine (8 August)

Although in a way this trip seemed really long, it mostly felt pretty short, since we changed locations so much, and somehow here we were already at our last day in Stockholm, and it was barely a half-day at that. With still so much we wanted to see and do, we settled for just wandering around, saying goodbye to some of our favourite places. We saw some more interesting public art in the subway stations

(this station really could be a sci-fi set, don't you think?)


and got caught in a dramatic downpour in Gamla Stan. As we huddled in a doorway for about fifteen minutes, waiting for the rain to stop, we were treated to a performance of rain on cobblestones, a nearby church bell ringing, thunder shaking the sky, and shooting of cannons somewhere in the distance, perhaps for a changing of the guard? It was the most dramatic combination ever!
Eventually the rain stopped, and we had one last fika, even including the birds in our break, as Bob fed them from the tip of his shoe.
The sun came out again, making the oranges of Gamla Stan glow,
but all too soon we had to return to the hotel

to get our bag and head for the airport. Several times on this trip, we noticed tourism billboards for Finland,
and as two readers have already admonished us for, we also regretted not making the trek out to Helsinki on this visit, but the (not cheap) 16-hour boat from Stockholm to Helsinki coupled with a feeling that we were already moving around quite a bit during our stay meant that we'll have to save Helsinki for another time. At the airport, we used up the rest of our Swedish money to have a quick meal before getting on our (budget, no free meals or drinks) flight. I quite enjoyed this yogourt, both in terms of its delicious taste and its pleasing representation of strawberries and limes:
Today was the second time on this trip that we flew with airlines that we'd never heard of until we flew with them, but Sterling is apparently Europe's fourth largest budget airline.
The flight was fine, except for the fact that our cheap fares meant that we were crammed into the seats in the first six rows, which had substantially less legroom than the remaining rows. It didn't make my flight any less comfortable, but Bob's knees took a bit of a bashing. Still, he (and the very elderly woman sitting next to him) enjoyed their sudoku (I teased Bob that he's now officially an old lady), and before we knew it, we were back in London, on the train home, wondering where all the great light fixtures had gone and where we could fika.

Our Scandinavia Adventure: Day Eight (7 August)

I wanted to see the inside of the beautiful National Theatre, but full access was only allowed by guided tour, and so we lingered around the lobby and outside and even thought about visiting the great terrace restaurant (but again, huge breakfast=not able to eat or drink for a while!), but just went on our way.

The Music Museum is in a great building, which used to house a bakery--that's a lot of bread!
We took this cute ferry
over to Djurgården to visit the Vasa Museum, which houses the Vasa, a ship that sank not far from shore on its first voyage in 1628, as well as all of its contents. The museum was built around the ship, whose masts are visible from outside,
and as much as I'm not usually impressed by maritime museums, the ship was definitely incredible, although for sheer artistry, I still prefer Oslo's Viking Ship Museum.



Some figures had been painted to show the way the ship might have looked at the time it sunk; exact colours are still being researched. With the size of the ship, such vibrant colours would have made for a spectacular sight! Next up was one of my favourite places in Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall, a sublime gallery space whose current exhibit was simply wonderful.
Equally sublime was the neighbouring Blå Porten, which we stumbled on, only to read later that it was "Stockholm's most romantic café," an assessment with which I wholeheartedly agree.
A beautiful garden
(notice the small tree laden with birds),
and a tempting array of bread
and desserts

meant that we ending up returning here for dinner! For now, we enjoyed coffees on the movie-inspired trays

while I played with my free souvenir from the Liljevalchs Konsthall exhibition.
The next few modes of transportation we took were very different; first there was the cute, retro trolleycar (better than anything San Francisco ever showed us)

and then another subway trip--from one incredible station

to another

and another.

Not only are the Stockholm subways filled with art, they are also cool and comfortable (something which London tube stations definitely aren't), even to the point of the rock walls being cold and wet to the touch. Natural air conditioning, perhaps? Back on the surface, we walked past some interesting seating,
great shops,
and this window display, which Bob found very amusing. "Even in Sweden, Canada's winning and all the Swedish players have fallen down!" Bob said when we passed by this game in progress.

More walking
meant we earned a nice bakery break, and Blooms Bakery was a perfect place for a quick sandwich, some cold drinks, and a nice flip through Swedish Elle Decor!
We passed by a few nice courtyard restaurants,
but already had our heart set on Blå Porten, so we took another ferry back that way, during which I took this photo of us in the sunshine.
We passed by Stockholm's tivoli (amusement park), which seemed to be as immensely popular as Copenhagen's tivoli was, although we didn't visit either place.

Back to Blå Porten, which was even nicer in the warm evening!
After we got some help decoding the menu, Bob had lamb
and I had some kind of fish, which I later found out is "pike-perch":
Both were incredible, as was the bread, and as I've already said, the restaurant's setting really can't be beat. With evening quickly growing dark, we decided to use our Stockholm cards to peek into massive Skansen,
where a flock of cute geese were having their own dinner by the ticket booths. Although the complex is open until 10:00 P.M., the building interiors closed earlier in the day, so we just walked off some of our dinner and took in some of the sights, like this rune stone
and this I-have-no-idea-what-it-is totem, which I instantly liked.
Scandinavian animals, you say? Well, alright!
We saw goats,

a lynx,
a great grey owl,
bears,
moose,
a horned owl,

and reindeer!
Oh and "horses."
Even though we couldn't go into the buildings, it was still great to see so many characterful buildings in one relatively small place. We passed by the soldier's cottage,
a milestone from 1666,
a belfry from the 1730s,

and a 1750 windmill to which additions were made in 1828.
As the sun set, Skansen felt even more like a fairy-tale place
until we met up with the crowds who had come to participate in a Skansen singalong that was broadcast on TV (when we entered the park, the woman warned us that the buildings were closed and that most people were here for the Swedish singalong, just to make sure that we knew what we were in for),
but even then, the picnicked-out crowd made their mellow way to the exits and we enjoyed walking with them, as if we too had just sung our Swedish hearts out on national TV.