SALONICA TO LONDON

On June 18, I think it was, a very nice young nun drove us from Akritochori to Thessaloniki (Salonica), where we had dinner for three nights in a row with Domna and Simon, good friends of Frank but otherwise did not do much.  They apologized for asking us to eat early because of the difficulty of getting reservations at the proper dinner hour.  As 7:30 was considered early, that was fine with me.  Domna is a concert pianist and Simon is a brilliant man of many achievements, now retired and talked into being on the city council.  Here is a sweet picture of them.

We left for London on June 22 to stay with Frank's former student Pernille and her husband Barry.  Like all of Frank's friends, they were great company and obviously very generous.  Pernille had the time to drive us here and there and I used to bus system to get about.  One of the first places I visited was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was pretty disappointing because its East Asian collection was not that great and the Japanese gallery was closed for remodeling.  A few things did really catch my eye, none more than the three nineteenth-century wooden sherbert spoons from Iran, of which this is the largest (over 21 inches long):

The photo isn't very good because of the reflections in the glass, but you can still see why this is stunning.  Here is a detail:

I left the V&A after sooner than I had expected to and went to the Museum of Natural History, a grand cathedral of science.  Here is a not very great shot of its main entrance:

But what really took my breath away was the great hall:

The romanesque style, the use of terracotta tiles of varied colors on the walls, the steel (iron?) arches, and the simple expanse of space just made me happy.  The next outing was with Frank and Pernille to Eltham Palace, which Frank had long, long wanted to visit.  The palace consists of a main hall that dates back to the start of the fourteenth century and an attached twentieth-century grand home with an Art Deco interior.  Given Frank's interest, we stuck to the medieval part.

The great hall is all that is left of the original palace, which was a favorite of many kings, including Henry VIII.

For me, the best part is the great hammer-beam ceiling.  I am not sure if it is original, but it is certainly the sort that would have been there if it isn't.

Another day I went into central London to St. James Park to see all the waterfowl there.  As birding goes, this was like shooting fish in a barrel since species from around the world swim lazily around or get attracted to food offered by tourists.  Her, for example, is a Chiloe Wigeon, which is native to South America.