With the American elections just over a week away, Mrs. C encouraged me to post this picture of a statue of the Bard located in Leicester Square. Um, conspiracy theorists? Enemies of democracy? (Recall that another Englishman, Mr. Churchill, said that democracy is the worst form of government ever invented, except for all the others.)
We might also think of the sentence the playwright gave Puck, What fools these mortals be.
The famous statue of Eros in London's Piccadilly Circus. It's not that big and a little hard to see high up its pedestal. It has an interesting story. It was the first cast aluminum statue. One source says the figure is actually not Eros but his brother Anteros. Interesting description at https://www.thepiccadillywestend.co.uk/blog/london-icon-eros-statue-piccadilly-circus/
This crowded. Maybe it's because we have generally visited Portobello Road in the winter but we've never seen such a dense mob. I had more trouble standing and walking a long time on this trip, possibly because the joints in my feet have been more messed up by RA. I got my new orthotics yesterday and I'm hopeful they will help. Still, you need good weaving skills, some verbal courtesy and the occasional gently applied sharp elbow to get through.
Another vendor in Portobello Road. I don't know if all of this is silver, plate, stainless steel or what. Awfully bright and it would have been better if there were a polarizing filter on my lens.
There are dozens and dozens of stalls set up on Saturdays, plus the physical stores behind them. Amazing that there are buyers for all this but the streets were packed.
Another find in the Saturday market along Portobello Road. I don't know if this expression is emotionless or hostile. The hand on the left is that of the vendor, who can barely be seen in the shadows. And the old gent in the mirror is not me.
...not in your hands. That's the famous slogan of M&Ms, sold in vast quantities at the company's store in London's Leicester Square. The photo is deliberately as over-saturated as the candy. From what we saw of the shopping bags up and down the street, the pellets were flying out the door.
In and out of the King's Cross - St. Pancras Underground station in London. Whoever created the famous logo was a graphics genius. Note that most of the travelers are walking on the same side of the road as the British drive. Someone, however, is an individualist.
The plaza outside busy King's Cross railway station in London. This side looks very different from the old 19th Century facade. This is the station where the famous Mr. Potter would find the mysterious Platform 9 3/4 to board the train to Hogwarts.
This show has been playing in this theater for decades. It's a wonder that it still sells tickets but it does. The image brought back a memory.
August 1989. I had a big herniated lumbar disc and was scheduled for surgery the next month. Bad pain down my left leg when I was up very much. Our family had scheduled a trip to London and Ireland before my injury. I asked my surgeon whether I could go. He gave me a prescription for Vicodin and said to do what I wanted.
So off we went with a rented wheelchair. We went to this show, with me sitting in a handicapped area at the back. I have a strong memory of sitting in my chair on this corner in the West End swirl after the show, trying to wave down a taxi from a position where I was very hard to see. Let's say it took a while.
There were some benefits from this situation. My wife and I got into the London Zoo for free because I was an "invalid" and she was my "pusher." And later, when we got to Ireland, I found that Vicodin and Guinness was the perfect pain cocktail.
Here we are in the American Airlines lounge at beautiful (not) Heathrow Airport, waiting for a flight to Chicago and then home. Paris is definitely off. Besides, my back has not been doing well at all and trekking through another set of museums would be really hard. We may try it again in the spring.
We returned to the National Gallery to catch some of the stuff we didn't get the first time. This is the central rotunda. But for now I'm actually looking forward to a nice nine hour sit.
Portobello Road, in the Notting Hill area of London, is known for its antiques dealers. On Saturdays, everything you could imagine is sold in stalls in the street in front of the usual shops. It turns right from this viewpoint, becoming much narrower and horribly crowded. We used to go to London in the winter to avoid the crowds but on a mild October day the hoard was too much for us.
As I mentioned on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10160630841302313&set=a.128314812312 , we have canceled the Paris half of our trip. Mass French labor protests could slow life to a crawl. There is a risk the air traffic controllers could go out on strike, which could leave thousands stranded. We're playing safe and going home from London on Tuesday.
Yesterday looked like it was going to be a tough day physically for me. I'm getting old and my back is not in great condition. We started the day walking the length of the Portobello Road Saturday market. It was so crowded that if you stumbled you might be trampled. So we thought the National Gallery would be a nice change but I was so tired that after a while I thought that if I looked at one more Tintoretto I was gonna - well, you know.
We stepped out on the portico so I could get some wide shots of Trafalgar Square and found a large demonstration for freedom and democracy in Iran. That perked me up. It was pretty intense.
Or almost everybody with a real camera when they visit the British Museum. That's what we did yesterday, to the point of exhaustion, on our first full day here. The central courtyard was covered with this eye-popping roof some years ago. The geometry is irresistible.
Parts of the place, particularly the famous Egyptian galleries, were impossibly crowded. On a weekday in October. Lots and lots of school groups with small children. People from all over the world. We still don't have our clocks reset and it wore us out.
We are still figuring out what to do today, depending on the typically damp autumn weather. Tosca at the English National Opera tonight.
And we still don't know if we will get to Paris on Tuesday. Much of France is in another labor dispute meltdown and there may be a general strike on our travel day. There are worse places to get stuck than London but the hotel is fully booked and we don't have a place to stay after Monday night.
I just love the Tate Modern, London's museum of 20th and 21st Century art. It is in a recycled large electric power plant. There is an escalator that goes from the third to first floor, skipping the second. The surroundings of the escalator are all glass, creating a vision-bending transition between floors. I am riding the escalator in the top picture and standing on the second floor looking back at in in the lower one. That's a rare special appearance by Mrs. C. just to the left of me in the picture.
A quick post while we snag some WiFi. There is a growing set of London photos on Flickr here. I'l be editing more at the airport and on the plane today. More soon.
An Italian liqueur company organized mass kissing in Trafalgar Square and around the world for Valentine's Day.
On the London Eye Ferris wheel, 135 meters over the Thames.
More filler from the archives: a trinket I found at a tin soldier shop in London years ago that I keep in my office. I make a contribution to the organization whenever I'm in town. This little thing is just 3 inches / 7.6 cm tall. 
