Mr. PotatoMouth

Mr. Hunter turned himself into Mr. PotatoMouth after he spotted some notably connected potato wedges at a pre-flight lunch at Heathrow.

Giraffe

Heathrow Airport

London, England

September 2011

Official site for Giraffe - http://www.giraffe.net/classic

Mr. Hunter Takes the Tube

Don't be fooled.  Mr. Hunter may have eventually found an empty seat on the London Underground, but when he first got onto this train, places to sit were hard to come by.  It was only after we got further out of town and closer to Heathrow that these seats opened up.

Some of the people on the Tube.
At one point on the journey, Mr. Hunter and I were especially intrigued
by one passenger who was transporting a big stack of pies.  Yum!

London Underground

Piccadilly Line

London, England

September 2012

Mr. Hunter Still Loves Jamie's Italian

Mr. Hunter and I have already sung the praises of Jamie's Italian in an earlier post.  But seeing as he and his companions dined at Jamie's more than once, he'd like to remind you how good the food was -- especially the addictive Mushroom Fritti appetizer.  Somehow those little paper cones of fried portobello mushroom slices never held as many fritti as we would have liked...

Spaghetti Bolognese

Mushroom Fritti

Bruschetta with ricotta cheese and delicious tomatoes

Of course, the restaurant's menu changes with the seasons.  Mr. Hunter can't wait until he can return to London and see what's for dinner at Jamie's Italian.

Jamie's Italian

London, England

September 2011

Official site for Jamie's Italian - http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/

Children Must Not Play On These Stairs

Mr. Hunter has this thing where he sees warning signs and immediately feels like breaking the posted rules.  Well, except that since he's not a child, maybe small wooden carvings would be allowed to play on these stairs.

on Millbank, along the Thames River

City of Westminster

London, England

September 2012

The Great River Race on the Thames

We left the Tate Britain and headed back along the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament.  As we walked we heard sounds of chanting and drumming, and the sounds seemed to be coming from the river.  

It turned out that the Great River Race was being run.

Might be a little hard to make out over the traffic noises, the wind, and a bit of rain, but this video shows some of the racers and includes at least hints of the drumming:

We saw a variety of boats in the race, and some of the teams seemed to be in it especially for the fun.  We also ran into a few groups of spectators who either ran along Millbank or who had arranged to get dropped off by cars at certain points along the route so that they could cheer on their friends.

Good fun, even if it did start to rain.

A more serious looking crew,
with another boat's "Party Time" flag in the foreground.

I think this boat is called Holo Nui.

I do believe that boat #110 is Llangwym Skiff.
The hats these rowers wore made me think
of the people you sometimes see in a Monet or Renoir painting.

This yellow boat features some Batman flags.

The Naiads on the Sheila Lewis.

Dragon boat.

I quite liked this view with the greenish buildings in the background.

The view as we got closer to the London Eye.

Passing underneath Lambeth Bridge

A piratical flag on the boat called 2-6 Heave.

The Great River Race

Thames River

London, England

September 2011

Official site for The Great River Race - http://www.greatriverrace.co.uk/

The Tate Britain: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

At the Tate Britain, Mr. Hunter stepped in front of the camera to pose with a favorite John Singer Sargent painting: 

the luminous Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.  

The extensive JSS Virtual Gallery web site has an interesting article on how the artist created his work.  In order to capture his true impressions of a certain kind of light--a balance between twilight and the colorful glow of Chinese lanterns--Sargent would apparently paint this scene for about two minutes each day, gradually shifting the time from day to day as the sun went down earlier.

As you can see, I spent more than two minutes taking in this painting.   I especially loved the golden pink glow of the Chinese lanterns.

Roses.

Lily, lantern, rose.

A lily.

The lilies and the glowing lantern.

You can make a virtual visit to see Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose on this page of the Google Art Project.

Tate Britain

London, England

September 2011

Official site for Tate Britain - http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain

Westminster Abbey

Mr. Hunter and his cohorts stopped at Westminster Abbey but didn't feel like waiting in the super-long queue and paying the £16 entry fee.

The Abbey's clock tower, whose clocks
each have only one hand.

Some of the ten modern martyrs above the Great West Door.
See this BBC article about the unveiling of these statues.

The Royal Coat of Arms on the west facade.

May God grant to the living Grace
To the departed Rest
To the Church & the World Peace and Concord
And to us Sinners Eternal Life

The long line to get into Westminster Abbey.

A bit of color showing through the stained glass windows.

Westminster Abbey

London, England

September 2011

Official site for Westminster Abbey - http://www.westminster-abbey.org/

A Protest March in London

We were walking down Whitehall when we noticed a crowd in front of 10, Downing Street, and a group of bobbies getting ready for something.  It turned out to be a protest in support of a secular Europe.

A little crowd in front of 10, Downing Street.

Here's the web site for the Secular Europe Campaign.

Whitehall and Downing Street

City of Westminster

London, England

September 2011