Saturday, January 13 – Harrow on the Hill

Time to get reacquainted with London. I’m heading into the city today! It’s rather overcast though, so I don’t plan on taking many pictures (be patient, I’ll be here for over three months!).

Travel Note

Where I’m staying is equal distant between two underground (subway in the U.S.) stations – South Harrow and Harrow on the Hill. The South Harrow station serves the Piccadilly Line, which stops at many of the popular tourist areas in Central London, including Knightsbridge, Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly Circus, and Covent Garden. It also provides service to Heathrow Airport.

The Harrow on the Hill station serves the Metropolitan Line. Stops on this line include Wembley Park and the King’s Cross & St. Pancras train station (with trains to Paris and other locations). This line can also get you into central London with less stops than the Piccadilly Line, but will generally require a transfer to another line, depending on your destination in the city.

It’s probably a 10-15 minute walk from Byron House to either underground station. The train ride into the city costs £3.50 ($4.40).

I’m not in a hurry this morning, so I’m taking the Piccadilly Line into the city. Once on the train it’s about a 30 minute ride.

I did a lot of walking today (London is a great walking city), passing by the follow spots:

• Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)
• Hyde Park
• Buckingham Palace
• Trafalgar Square
  • The National Gallery
  • St. Martin in the Fields (where I took a rest stop)
• Leicester Square
• Russell Square
• The British Museum (another rest stop)

And as I said, sadly I only took a couple pictures from my walk – things I found interesting…

I ended up with around 22k steps today. Pretty happy with that.

Sunday, January 14 – Harrow on the Hill

I had a leisurely morning and then just took a walk around Harrow in the afternoon. Pretty low key folks (I warned you that this year was going to be less manic than last year! But probably more boring for you!)

One of the perks of living in Harrow on the Hill is the access given to the residents by the Harrow School to many of their student cultural activities (plays, concerts, art showings, etc.). It reminds me of the similar opportunities provided by the University of Wisconsin to those living in Madison.

The spring term has just begun and this afternoon I had the opportunity to attend their fist event open to the public – a Cello Masterclass. In this instance eight students participated in the class. Each individually performed a short piece and were then critiqued and instructed by a visiting professor, who was sitting in only for this class. The visitor was Lionel Handy, who I learned via his introduction spent 10 years as principal cellist of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music since 1982. Impressive! The class lasted nearly three hours, but I was never bored. The students’ performances were amazing, and Professor Handy was very engaging.

Sidenote: Those of you who are University of Wisconsin Basketball fans (isn’t everyone?!?), will be interested to know that two former players, Jordan Taylor and Sam Dekker, play for the London Lions, the local professional team. I’d definitely like to see them play, especially after I discovered that tickets can be had for as little as £5! However, I looked at a couple recent box scores and neither of the two played in those games. I’m not sure if they’re injured, or what. I’ll need to do some research, because I’d like to know that at least one of them will be playing if I show up! Watch this space…

Monday, January 15 – Harrow on the Hill

It’s a beautiful day today*, so I’m heading into the city to take some pictures!

* Well, the skies are clear, but the temperature is only in the mid-thirties (still better than Madison though, where the expected HIGH temperature today is going to be BELOW zero!!)

Below are some of the views from my day. I’ve included captions on each picture, even though I’m fairly certain you’re familiar with most of these attractions.

Travel Note: Remember all the issues I had last year regarding the requirement for having proof of return or onward travel before being allowed to enter a country? (including being denied boarding of my flight from Chicago to Panama City) Well, I had a one-way flight from Newark to London and nobody cared! (I did have a one way return booked though, just in case!)