"As I Was Walking Down Grosvenor Square" and Hamlet!

Statue of Gen. Eisenhower in Grosvenor Sq.

On Saturday morning, they got up early and LT planned a walking trip on the maps while Allie prepared tea, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast.  At 8:30AM they left Citadenes and headed west on Holborn.  Since it was early there was hardly any foot or vehicle traffic and they enjoyed the cool morning air and the relative quiet.  They kept walking straight on Holborn until it turned into New Oxford Street and then just plain old ordinary regular Oxford Street, all of which is the "shopping" district of London.  They walked past all of the big department stores with their display windows--Debenhams, Selfridges, Marks and Spencer.  Oxford street is open only to buses and taxis.  LT's plan was to continue on Oxford street until it hit Hyde Park--maybe a mile and a half--then saunter down Hyde Park until they reached Grosvenor Square.  Grateful Dead fans will know what's coming.  LT wanted to actually visit the site that influenced one of the Dead's greatest songs, "Scarlet Begonias" where the lyric, which, of course is just the beginning of a extravagant Dead instrumental exploration of the melody, goes "As I was walking down Grosvenor Square, Not a chill to the winter but a nip to the air, From the other direction, she was catching my eye, It could be an illusion, but I might as well try, She had rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes, And I knew without asking she was into the blues, She wore Scarlet Begonias tucked into her curls, I knew right away she was not like other girls...."  The Dead's song is totally relaxed, romantic and groovy, however, one thing it doesn't tell you is that one entire side of the "square" is dominated by the American Embassy, a great 'modern' 4-story hulk that is now surrounded with security walls and check points and would not look out of place in a James Bond movie.  It must have looked imposing and hulking in the 70's when the Dead wrote the song, (and when the security check points and blockades had not been added) but it even looked more out of place now.  Nevertheless, LT was happy to be on home turf for a Grateful Dead song.

LT in Grosvenor Sq.

Anyway, Grosvenor Square itself was green and verdant and LT and Allie really did walk all round the square, admiring the trees and flowers--the special statue of General Dwight Eisenhower, and the beautiful September 11 garden with black and white tulips and herbs--rosemary for remembrance, ivy for loyality, etc.  Unfortunately, they did not see anyone with "rings on her fingers and bells on her shoes...and scarlet begonias tucked into her curls." Leaving Grosvenor Square, they walked a few more blocks south and glimpsed the quiet entrance to the Grosvenor   House--site of LT and Eli's wedding night.  LT explained some, but not all, of the details of their room--including heated towel racks and coffee with real English cream for breakfast.  The multi story houses in this area are really posh and the few pups we saw were incredibly clean and bright.  For most of the shops, you had to "ring" a bell, before they would let you in.

Leaving the Grosvenor House, Allie and LT scampered across St James and Green Park walking downhill on Constitution Hill, admiring the greenery.  Allie kept saying "Why are there two different types of barbed wire on those high brick walls?" and LT explained that they were walking past the "grounds" of Buckingham Palace.  Sure enough, in a little while Buckingham Palace emerged on their right, with crowds of people and lots of big green "viewing" stands for the Royal Wedding which is less than a week away.  Allie and LT now walked east on Birdcage Walk where they saw some huge pelicans and even sat down to enjoy the long lake which stretches the entire length of this end of the park.  We soon intersected Storey Gate and found Westminster Abbey at the end.  The tall, impressive Gothic facade of the Abbey was totally white and clean--usually it is covered with scaffolding--probably for the Royal Wedding.  Long lines of tourists wound around the church, making it impossible to even walk on the sidewalks and definitely foolish to try to queue up for a visit inside.  So Allie and LT carefully manoeuvered through the pedestrian and vehicle traffic, walked up Parliament Street and Whitehall past all the government buildings and eventually reached Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.

Allie in front of Buckingham Palace--we traced the route
of the Royal Wedding parade.

                                     
 Although the father-daughter duo did go to the National Gallery, they didn't actually re-visit any of the galleries. Instead, they went to the cafe on the bottom level, and Allie bought a blueberry muffin and two water bottles, and the two sat at one of the little tables in the cafe, and rested after their long walk from Holbourn to Westminister (the pastries there are to die for, by the way. Also, hi, this is Allie, finally chipping in.) After that, the two decided to pop into the National Portrait Gallery to find three portraits that they hadn't been able to find on their last visit: one of the three Brontë sisters, one of George Eliot, and another of Virginia Woolf. They were able to find the Brontë sisters easily enough but Eliot and Woolf proved a bit tricky, and they had to ask a museum employee for help. It turned out that the Eliot portrait was in the same room as the Brontës, right behind Allie and LT in a glass case. Seeing Ms. Woolf in person, according to the employee, was an impossibility, as she was "resting," or so Dad and the employee jokingly put it. The employee did tell us that we could look up a digital copy of her portrait on one of their computers, and so we were able to see Virginia Woolf's portrait. Allie also took this time at the computers to look up photographs of one of her favorite bands, The Clash.

Allie and LT with Italo in Trattoria San Francesco

By this point, it was time for lunch, and so Allie and LT went to Italo's a second time. They arrived right at 12 PM, the opening time for the trattoria, and were the first to be seated. Dad had a caprese salad and trout, while Allie had a papardella with eggplant (or aubergine as it's called here) and mushrooms. Italo made an appearance at the end of the meal (he always calls Allie "La Bellissima"), and not only took a photograph with the father and daughter, but also gave them a bottle of Prosecco/champagne!

With Italo's gift bottle of Prosecco in tow, Allie and LT went back to the hotel room, dropped the champagne off, and then went outside a second time to Sainsbury's (why didn't they just take the champagne with them into the store, you ask? Because it would have looked really weird, okay? Think about it.) They stocked up on their necessities: smoked salmon, roast chicken, fruit salads, etc., etc. Once purchased, the two returned to their hotel room, and rested up for their visit to the National  Theater to see Hamlet in the relatively small Lyttelton stage.  This is a special, award-winning production of Hamlet, brought back for only 12 performances, and this was one of the last.

Foyer of the National Theatre--just before
going in to see Hamlet

This narrator will not tell you what happened during the play, because you can very easily look up the plot on Sparknotes and Wikipedia, but she will say that Hamlet was awesome. Rory Kinnear did a great Hamlet, and Allie loved Claire Higgins as Gertrude. The director added these little details to the stage that were just fantastic: He had most of the events of the play take place in a White House/Downing Street environment, with hidden doors and extras dressed as security standing behind windows and near entrances, even when an actor was giving a soliloquy. It added further to the pre-existing tension of the play, and was great to watch.

The play ended at 10:45, and, seeing as it wasn't raining like the BBC weathermen predicted, Allie and LT decided to walk back to the hotel. The walk was quiet, the two weren't stopped by any weirdos (which is always a personal phobia of this narrator), and the air was surprisingly warm enough that Allie didn't have to put the raincoat she had folded up in her bookbag on. They made it back to the hotel safely, and after quick dinner of some soups from Sainsbury's, the two went to bed.

Rory Kinnear in Hamlet 2011 National Theatre