STL DPB ON THE ROAD - FREEDOM FOR IRAN

   

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.

               

EVERYBODY TAKES THIS PHOTO

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.                         

BURN, BABY

Our Lady of Artica, in flagrante, as you might say. I'd guess the top of the head was 50 - 60 feet / 15 - 10 meters tall, not counting the wings, if that's the proper term.

London tomorrow.          

PRELUDE TO THE BONFIRE

When this post goes up at midnight in our home time zone we will be somewhere over the northeastern U.S. or eastern Canada. Heathrow awaits at the other end.

Longtime readers of this blog know that Artica ends on Sunday night with a bonfire of a huge wooden effigy known as Our Lady of Artica. Current and recovering Catholics will get the reference. It is preceded by fire dancers. I'll get a pic of the bonfire posted before I start with images from London.               

DEDICATED TO ART AND FREE TO ALL

Those words are inscribed in the granite lintel over the entrance to the Saint Louis Art Museum. The same could be said for Artica, which is completely commerce free. Someone set up this long line of plywood panels, supplied paint, brushes and drop cloths, and invited everyone to have a go at it. The mural changed form a number of times during the two days of the festival. This was the scene late Sunday afternoon. 

Big adventures await us beginning tonight.