The English Oboe : Rediscovered

Dave has been getting into the Oboe lately, so we thought we would go along to an Oboe recital we found.  It was actually to celebrate the launch of a CD (of the same name).  It was held in the Royal Overseas House, which is an organisation working on international friendship through the arts.  Kind of strange, though their patron is the Queen, so I guess it is fairly establishment.  It's in a great location, backing on to Green Park.

The actual recital was in the Princess Alexandra Hall, though calling this lady a Princess is a bit of a stretch, she is 42nd in line to the throne and is the Queen's cousin.  If Kate is only the Duchess of Cambridge, I'm not sure how this person is a Princess.

But anyway, it was a bit of a stretch calling the room a Hall, it was a room, at best.  But the recital was interesting, I didn't know any of the pieces, all British composers.  Some of them were better than others, I find the really modern stuff is probably more interesting to play than to listen to.  But the oboist was obviously quite good, and even better was before each piece he would give a little background, on who the composer was, who it was written for, what it's about, that sort of thing, which really added to the enjoyment.

Would I recommend the CD, hmmm, if you really, really like oboe and already own all the other, more melodic, oboe pieces, or if you just like a challenge, then go right ahead.

Ham House

The front of Ham House

We have annual passes to the National Trust and so we decided to put them to good use with a trip up the Thames to Ham House.  This was our first visit to the village of Richmond, though really it is still inside London, but still it feels like you are somewhere completely different.  It feels quite similar to Greenwich really, but fewer tourists, which is pleasant, and a less impressive food market.

The Thames, it looks very wide here

The formal gardens

It's then a very pleasant walk along the Thames to the house, which according to the NT is important due to it's display of 17th century power and fashion.  It was built in 1610 and ended up in the hands of William Murray, who was interesting because he was Charles I's whipping boy, a young boy who grows up with the prince and is punished in lieu of the prince.  A form of psychological torture on the young prince who has to see his friend punished for something he had done wrong.  It basically remained in his families hands, even surviving the Civil War, before it was donated to the National Trust in 1949.

We probably should have looked closer at the opening times on the website, since when we turned up we were told the only way to get inside was on a guided tour, and the next one wasn't for another hour or so.  We took a turn about the gardens, but then my feet started to get reeeeally cold and it was still a while for our tour, at which we had already been informed would be cold inside, so we returned our tour tokens and walked back along the Thames.

The rear of Ham House

It seems that the National Trust is very much a summer organisation, I guess that's due to the hundreds of properties they have, which seem to be staffed entirely by volunteers.  And on a cold winters day I wouldn't have been so keen to volunteer to sit around a freezing house making sure the few visitors don't steal anything or smash stuff.

The gardens were quite nice, even in winter, and they had this weird "wilderness" out the back, which was just patches of trees planted at a slightly higher density than normal.  With very well-kept walkways between them.  They did also have an ice-house, which was pretty interesting.  It was like a stone igloo, but dug into the ground as well. It was pretty big, you could have fit a serious amount of ice in there.

Matilda the Musical

I've been to a few shows whilst being here, it being the home of West End and all, but I was really keen to go see Matilda once it opened.  The music and lyrics were written by Tim Minchin after all, and you gotta support your fellow Aussies.  But even without the Aussie factor, it was awesome.

I was a little dubious about it being carried by children actors, but there were no worries about that, they were all sooo good.  This is what musicals should be, before this one I had always held Wicked up to be my most favourite musical, but Matilda surpasses even that.

If it opens in your city - go see it!

Walking in the Chilterns

A proper snowflake!

The Chilterns are an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty just north of London.  In fact the Metropolitan underground line (one of my favourite lines) goes all the way north to them.  They have been in the news a bit lately because of the proposed HS2, which is a high-speed railway between London and Birmingham that the government is thinking of building.  The proposal goes right through the Chilterns, in fact right between the two towns we walked from, Great Missenden and Amersham.

Now that's what I call outstanding natural beauty

I'm kind of all for high speed rail, since having spent a year living in France I have been massively spoilt by their TGV system.  And now having been out to the Chilterns I'm not convinced that it really is an area of outstanding natural beauty, since there is already this massive, high voltage power line running through it.  We ended up crossing under this power line 3 or 4 times, it really was a bit of a feature of the walk.  I wonder if they couldn't just set up the train line under this power line, since that part of the Chilterns is kind of already destroyed, and if they just stick in some transformers every now and again then the train already has all the power it needs.

One of the main reasons for doing this walk was that it was still winter and this was meant to be an easier one in winter.  At this point in the year we were sure all the snow was over, it being February, and yet as the train pulled into the station for the start of the walk, it started to snow.  And actually since it was still snowing a week ago, in early April, apparently snow in February isn't that unexpected.

Since it was either snowing or raining on and off the whole day it added an extra degree of freakiness to crossing under these massive power lines.  As you got closer you could swear there was a river or a waterfall nearby, and it wasn't until you were standing under them that you realised that sound was from the power lines.  You don't really expect electricity to make noise.  The other really weird thing was that under the power lines the snow was turned to rain.  I'm not sure what happens to birds if they land on these wires, if they have that effect on snow.  But it kind of puts paid this idea of great natural beauty.  There were moments were I could swear we had wandered into the apocalypse, or had somehow woken up in Fallout, which is a video game set in a post nuclear war wasteland.

St Peter and St Paul's church

Perhaps the people in living in the Chilterns need to get out to Scotland and Wales to see some true areas of outstanding natural beauty, or even the peaks district, if they hate foreigners.  And you know if we had HS2, it would make getting out to the peaks district so much easier.  But then perhaps we were in the wrong areas and maybe there are some truly nice spots in the Chilterns.

This walk was a bit of a church walk, the first church we came across was built mainly in the 14th century and is the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul.  It is located on a hill outside the town of Great Missenden.  When it was built there was no town, just farms, and so having it on the top of a hill made it a good focal point.  I don't know what the mounds of dirt are on the lawn, but I hope they are mole holes.

Further on was the St John the Baptist church in Little Missenden.  This was an awesome church, and one of the most welcoming ones I've ever seen.  I don't know what the etiquette of churches are, are you just allowed to walk inside them at any time, or do they have set opening hours, or is it trespassing if you aren't of that parish.  So I'm always a bit wary or just walking right into a church.  But this one actually had a sign on the door welcoming people, and asking them to just switch off the lights when they were done.  I thought that was how it should be done really.

St Christopher in Little Missenden

This church was super old, part of it was built in the 10th century and inside there is this massive 13th century mural of St Christopher carrying the Christ child across the waters.  This is a great church, if you are in the area, pop in for a visit.  You can still see red Roman bricks that were used by the Anglo-Saxons in the initial construction.  And the mural is pretty cool.  There is also a mural of the parish, when all the fields were actually given names.  Man, the history in this country!

Snowdrops - not realising there is another 2 months of winter to come

A very attractive graveyard

This church was also pretty because it was surrounded by snowdrops.  They didn't seem to realise that spring was still at least 2 months away, because they were flowering like crazy around here.  It was one of the more attractive graveyards I have seen.

One thing I won't forget about this walk was the incredible amount of mud.  It has been a rather wet winter, and this region seems to have quite clay-ey soils.  At some points I thought I should have brought my micro-spikes along.  You would end up with maybe a kilo of extra weight on each foot just from the mud.  And as you were crossing these post-apocalyptic wastelands at the time there were no trees to bang your boots against.  So you would have to skate across these expanses, as your boots got heavier and heavier until you reached a fence post.

Landscapes at the RA

I noticed that there was an exhibition showing at the Royal Academy of Constable, Gainsborough and Turner, three massive names in English art, and some of my favourite landscape artists.  So I was always going to go along.  Though now having been, I wish I had read the Guardian's review of it before going.  There were a lot of engravings, and not many landscape paintings.  The engravings were of the 3 masters' paintings, I just kind of wished that they had the paintings instead.  It was cool to see engravings of places we have been here, like the peaks district and Wales.  It was just a bit disappointing that there weren't more of the 3 main guys.  I thought the Royal Academy would have had the sway to demand these paintings when they want to exhibit them, but perhaps they don't have the same power they used to.

It was interesting to visit the building though, as unknown to me there are about 6 royal academies in the same set of buildings, geology, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and they all share the same courtyard.

New Years in Florence

Sunset over the Ponte Vecchio

We had a great few days in Florence in the New Year.  On our flight out we were thinking, great maybe we'll get a few days of sunshine now.  But to be fair on London, I don't think their weather is all that bad compared to other European cities.  I just think the British talk about it more, and perhaps other cities have a better PR machine.

David and David outside the Town Hall - with his clown gloves

The Duomo, Baptistry and Bell Tower - pre-tourist time

I was surprised with how full Florence was, I guess I was thinking, why would you visit Tuscany in winter, when it is all about sunflowers, and olive oil and sitting on hills drinking wine.  But apparently it isn't all cultural stereotypes.  Though since it was so busy, it did mean that everything was open, and we got to see a few things we hadn't seen the last times we'd visited.  We also ate a surprising amount of gelato given how cold it was.  I guess Italian gelato is an all-weather food.

We went for a few runs around the city, which I always enjoy in these old, compact towns, since you can see most of the sights in one run, and there aren't thousands of tourists milling about.  Though since it was still early January, there wasn't a lot of light around.

The interior of the Duomo

The Duomo in the twilight

We managed to get inside the Duomo, just before closing time, so we didn't have to pay for a ticket, but we got to see the dome, which I don't think I had seen before.  I wasn't expecting something so colourful, or the almost 3D effect achieved, as if the people were about to step out of the dome.  Quite impressive.  Though we didn't get too much time to enjoy it as the guards started to herd the tourists out.  Since it was about 5pm at this time, and the sun had long since set, it was time to admire the facade in the twilight instead.  That church really is quite pretty, in all lights.

This time round we also got to visit Santa Croce, which is the really sacred church in Florence, you would think it would be the Duomo, but all the big names are buried in Santa Croce.  It has these incredible chapels inside, where the walls and ceilings are all painted.  They were really pretty.

There are also three statues to Dante in and around the church, though he isn't buried here, and I'm still not sure just how much the Florentines like him.  Since they have given the statues rather funny nicknames, one of them they call Dante on the toilet and there's also one where he is scratching himself.  Not super respectful.

Dante scratching himself - outside Santa Croce

Inside this church there is also a leather workshop, which seems like an odd mix.  Apparently the Franciscan friars running the church wanted to give orphans something to do after the second world war.  Though after having smelt the leather preparation process, I'm not so sure if that was a really generous thing to have done.  But now you can watch the artisans make wallets and handbags, and spend far too much money on belts.

In the grounds there is quite a plain little chapel, designed by Bruneschelli, who is the guy who made the Duomo. What is slightly freaky about this church is that the night sky pictured in the dome is exactly the same as the night sky in another church in Florence.  These two churches were built at the same time, by completely independent families, and yet they managed to chose exactly the same date for their skies.  It is thought that this was the date that Rene of Anjou, the King of Naples and the father of Margaret of Anjou, visited Florence.  I really liked this little chapel, tucked in beside the much grander Santa Croce, it had great lines.

July 4th 1442 - the sky in the Pazzi Chapel

The Bruneschelli designed Pazzi Chapel

This visit was definitely a visit of the churches, since we also managed a trip into San Marco.  This is a church and convent together.  You can take a look into each of the cells, and they all had a painting on the wall, kind of like early versions of posters.  Though here there was only one band, Jesus.  This church is also famous because it was where Fra Angelico lived and there are a lot of paintings by him, in the cells and in the chapel there's a great altar-piece.

I really like Florence's embrace of technology in their museums here.  So this altar-piece had been scanned into a computer, so you could zoom in on the picture, and find out about every bit of the painting, which was pretty cool.

As well as this monk there was also Savonarola who was this fiery guy who got excommunicated by the pope and preached against corruption and despotic rule and managed to get the Medici kicked out of rule, which is impressive given their power.  Unfortunately you can't mess with the Medici and get away with it, so Savonarola was eventually tortured, burned and hanged and his ashes were scattered in the Arno.  There is a painting of this event in the church, as well as the horse hair shirt he used to wear and his self-flagellating whip.

Santa Croce in the dawn light.

View from a Tuscan village on the way to Greve

We also managed a few trips out of Florence, which was great, since the last times we have been to the city we haven't managed to see much of the rest of Tuscany.  So we made a day trip out to Greve, which is the centre of the Chianti region, though we didn't drink any Chianti, which perhaps we should have.  I'm actually keen to try this Brunello wine they make, it seems to be the Italian wine to drink, at least it is by far the most expensive one, whether that makes it the best is debatable.  I'll have to keep an eye out for it in our local wine shop and see how it compares to Rioja (my current favourite).

Tiny village in the Chianti region

Anyway Greve was a great little village, with this super cute town square, as well as shops selling just cheese and meat products, with added massive stuffed boar out the front.  That was a major hit.  We stopped off on the way up there, at this tiny little town, it was literally just a 300m round path, with all the houses coming off it, and a church at the edge.  It was classic Tuscan.  And the weather was great, which always helps.

The main square in Fiesole

The mist over Florence with the great day above it

We also went out for a walk in the hills surrounding Florence.  Apparently the Italians are even better than the British about the rights of way.  In that you are theoretically allowed to walk anywhere, fences should be no obstacle to walkers as they are allowed to go wherever they want.  We didn't quite manage to experience this though.

Just above Florence is Fiesole, so we headed off there, this village is 240 m above Florence, and you can see it from most places in Florence.  Especially the very characteristic tower with the square crenellations.  When we were in Florence it looked like a terrible day, very foggy, and almost raining.  But as we climbed up towards Fiesole it became clear that it was just Florence that was covered in cloud, and once you had climbed out of it, it was actually a really nice day.  I was almost thinking I should have worn sunscreen, until I remembered it was January, in Europe.

There were heaps of these shrines all through the country-side

From Fiesole we headed into a forest, and this is where the walk turned bad.  Mainly because of the book we were following.  Never use the Sunflower walking books. If the one we had is any measure of the average standard, then I wonder if any one in the whole place has ever actually been walking. I really thought at some points we were about to either be arrested or shot, just because we were so obviously in places we shouldn't have been.

We head into the forest from Fiesole and the book tells us to start counting wooden benches, bad sign that!  From then on we had no idea where we were meant to go, or which was the correct path.  Luckily we could see Florence at all points, so we were never worried about not making it home, I'm just glad we didn't try to do a harder walk, we would still be there now, lost somewhere in the Tuscan hills.  The first thing I did upon reaching civilisation was chuck the book in the bin, so nobody else would have the misfortune of using it.

Now the walk was actually pretty good, the first part of it anyway, with no thanks to the book.  We leave Fiesole, past Frank Lloyd Wright's house (he was an architect who lived in Fiesole in 1910) and into the forest where we climbed Monte Ceceri which is 414m high.  This area is famous because it's where Leonardo da Vinci attempted his first flight, there is even a plaque to this feat at the top of the mountain.

The Arno in the dawn mist

The frescoes inside the Santa Croce

From the top of the mountain it really started to get sketchy, we managed to cross a low fence and carry on.  But at some point we had to get back across this same fence.  Unfortunately it had at this point grown into this massive 3 metre high construction, with multiple strands of barbed wire on the top.  I managed to just squeeze through the gate, but Dave had no chance.  It was very obvious that we weren't where we were meant to be, and at this point we could hear a truck approaching.  I was sure it was going to be some farmer with a shotgun who would call the police on us or something, so I was getting a little desperate at this point.  It was just lucky that whoever had constructed this fence had been quite lazy, and only made a little span between two rivers.  It was possible to follow the fence down, through blackberry bushes, into the river and then back out the other side.  Which is what Dave had to do, all the time with the sound of this truck getting closer and closer and me getting more scared.

Once out, we walked about 10 metres down the road, only to discover the shotgun wielding farmer's truck was actually a garbage truck.  At this point we decided to give up on the absolutely hopeless book, so we end up basically following this garbage truck back down to Florence, luckily it turned off at some point, and we walked back through some fields.

More Duomo goodness

It was actually a pretty good walk for most of it, I would definitely do more walking in the hills, just using a different company's books, and perhaps with some topographical maps and a compass.

Our final excursion from Florence was to Lucca.  Which is this completely walled town about 30 minutes drive from Florence.  The walls were amazing, I'm going to assume these are similar to what Florence used to have, but they were incredibly wide, maybe 100 m wide at some parts, and really tall.  You would have had a hard job attacking the city with those defending against you.

Inside the city, because there was very limited space, everyone was living on top of themselves.  It had a feeling quite like Venice, since there weren't many cars allowed inside the walls.  Pedestrians ruled the streets, which I always like.

It must be one of the only Italian cities with a round square.  Instead of the usual square piazzas, this one used to be a Roman amphitheatre, and people had converted the outside bit into houses, leaving the oval bit in the middle as their piazza.  Hard to capture in a photo, but kind of cool.

Not all that it seems

Again there were a lot of churches, they really do love their church, the Italians.  There was one really cool one which had this incredible facade, but then, the facade was about three times as high as the building, so when you walked around the side, you could see that the frontage was just that, only frontage.

With the amount of old stuff we had seen, it really makes you wonder how they can afford to look after it all.  I mean this stuff must need constant conservation and restoration.  How do they make the decision as to which stuff to save and which stuff to just abandon to it's fate?

The round square in Lucca