A Whole Lotta London

9-28-2008

Today I gallivanted around London with the ISH tour group. For a mere £22.50 we got a hipster guided walking tour around Parliament, Westminster, and Big Ben, a boat cruise of the Thames where a comical deck hand pointed out great sights along the way, lunch at a casual-smart diner (where I had some delicious salmon in a plumb sauce), and the icing on the cake a flight in the London Eye.

The guide on the boat informed us that a popular thing to do nowadays is get married on the London Eye. It’s quite perfect really. Round trip it’s a half hour flight. Do the beginning mumbo jumbo on the way up, say your vows and the very top, then it’s all down hill from there….I told you he was comical.

But really I can’t say much more about the London Eye. It’s an experience and I’ll try to let a picture do the talking.

Upon the end of the London Eye flight, our tour with ISH travel group was over, but our day has just begun. Jenny and I met up with a lovely German girl named Karen. The three of us spent a good hour watching the amazing street performers around the Eye. Then went to an exhibit surreal artist Salvador Dali.

His exhibit was a journey into the mind of a genius. Since I was in his head, I figured I would right down a few thoughts of this master:

• What is important is to spread confusion, not to eliminate it
  
• I’m in a permanent state of intellectual erection
• Life is aspiration, respiration, and expiration
  
• For me, love must be ugly, looks must be divine, and death must be beautiful
  
• The fact that I myself do not understand the meaning of my paintings at the time that I am painting them does not mean that they have no meaning

After Dali, we journeyed to Westminster for a 17:45 Organ Recital featuring the Deputy Master of Music at the Chapels Royal, Ian Keatley. We were surprised to see the he was joined by Jim Motherwell, Her Majesty The Queen’s Piper. It was a brilliant performance consisting for only four pieces.

• Prelude and Fugue in C - J.S. Bach
• Pslam prelude Set 1 No. 1 - H. Howells
• Highland Cathedral - Korb, Roever (almost put me in tears, featured the Piper)
• Final from Sept pieces Op. 27 - M. Dupre

And that, my friends, is how you spend a day in London.