Naples

We've been in Naples for two days, and have seen pretty much all the sights.  Saturday we started with the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, which is full of treasures taken from Pompeii, Herculaneum and some other places during Roman times.  There are some impressive intact statues, such as this, the Toro Farnese.

The twin sons of Lycus and Antiope are tying Dirce, who seduced their father, to the horns of a bull, so that he can bash her against some rocks.  You can see Antiope standing in the background.  It's the largest statue group ever recovered from early Roman times.  It is (as many of the statues were described as being) a third century AD copy of a first or second century BC original.  This one was "improved upon" by Michelangelo and others after it was recovered in the 16th century.  

There is an entire floor of mosaics from Roman houses that would put to shame a lot of early Renaissance art for its mastery of dimensionality and perspective.  And another floor of frescoes, including something called "The Secret Room", which is all erotic frescoes, mosaics and statuary. A little bit of everything, though very focused on the male -- lots of huge penises, some attached to owners and some alone.  Men with women, men with men, men with animals, men with gods/mythical creatures.  

The top floor had an interesting sundial.  It went the length of the main room, maybe 40 ft, and was meant to show you the date.  Here is one end of the dial

And here it is, a few minutes after 1 (1 because of DST, not sure why it was 4 minutes "late"), showing the correct day of the year according to the zodiac:

You can't see it at this resolution, but the circle fits between the markings for two different days.

After the museum, we took the Rick Steve's walking tour, through a bunch of interesting neighborthoods, past palaces and churches.  None of them were really worth going into, but the outsides were impressive and Rick always has great historical tidbits.

That evening we were walking along the Bay after dinner (where apparently all of Naples strolls), and I caught this view of the water

Notice how rocky the shore is.

Sunday we took the funicular up to to Castel Sant'Elmo, a fortress that has been around for over 1000 years.  It's impressive as really old fortresses go, but mostly you go for the view.  It's at the top of the city and then the Castle itself is seven stories higher (by the way people at that time counted stories -- we would probably consider it to be 10 or 12 stories high).  Here is a view looking out over the port from the top

Next to the castle is an old (no longer in use other than as a museum) monastery, which the hotel receptionist told us was "not to be missed", but we mostly found to be ho-hum.  However, it contains a collection of Nativity Scenes that were quite impressive.  In the style that you see at the NY Metropolitan Museum at Christmas -- quite large figures, and many, many of them, representing townsfolks of all sorts of occupations and activities. 

Here is just one of the setups (though the most elaborate)

I was only able to capture a small number of the angels descending on the place.  It's almost like a "Where's Waldo" picture, where you could spend hours noticing all the details.

We found a lovely park, Villa Floridiana, which had a porcelain museum, but the tickets had to be purchased at the top of the hill, which was far from obvious, and the museum/Villa was way down the hill, and we weren't motivated to trudge all the way up the hill again.  Our trip back down to the hotel was an adventure -- Google sent us on a very quiet street, quiet because we went down 400-500 steps, so it was quite traffic free. 

Tomorrow morning we begin our hiking trip with a visit to Pompeii

Random observations

Things I noticed in London

• I am always impressed by the London Underground.  It's clean, it's well signed, of the more than 30 tube trips we made during the week, we only waited more than three minutes for a train twice, and one of those was about 10:30 at night.  Even then, our wait was only 10 minutes.  And it goes everywhere, at least everywhere we as tourists wanted to go.
• It's a cliche that the English are unflaggingly polite/apologetic, but it's so true.  Our guide in Oxford would say things like "do you mind if we walk in this direction?" when he wanted us to turn onto another street.  Almost everyone who bumped into me apologized, and people were very good about giving up their seat on the tube if I was standing (which I suppose means that I look my age).
• On the other hand, Londoners are not particularly law abiding.  Traffic lights are "advisory" for pedestrians and cyclists.  My theory is that they would drown if they waited till the light turned green at some of these intersections.  Londoners also let their dogs poop on the sidewalk (even when right next to a park or verge where there is actual grass) and leave more trash around (though that could be tourists).
• The most common foreign language I heard people speaking (including English with an American accent) was German.  Germany did have a four day holiday during the time we were thre, it is close by, and Germans are doing well financially, so lots of them can afford London, but I was somewhat surprised to find such a high concentration of them.
• In contrast to most of the places we've gone elsewhere in Europe, London tends to have senior discounts to various attractions (the museums are mostly free -- not the Churchill War Rooms, though).  The few places I have seen senior discounts in continental Europe, you need to be an EU citizen with a retiree ID.

Fanny and Alexander and our best meal in London

We started Wednesday with a quick trip to the British Museum.   We sort of did the "highlights tour", seeing things like the Lewis chess set, a lovely ornate set that dates from the 12 century, and this Easter Island statue.

It's smaller than a lot of them (at least I think so, I haven't seen other Easter Island statues, except in pictures), maybe 15 feet or so high, but also incredibly well preserved, because it spent most of its pre-museum life in a chief's house.

Our afternoon was our final play, Fanny and Alexander at the Old Vic Theatre.  It is a stage adaptation of an Ingmar Bergman film, with all of Bergman's Scandinavian gloominess and his symbolism.  We chose it at the last minute, based on a tube poster, because of the cast -- Penelope Wilton and Kevin Boyle from Downton Abbey and Michael Pennington, a noted British stage actor whom we had seen before in Lear.  What we didn't manage to read before we got to the theatre was that the play is three and a half hours long!  Not sure I would have chosen it if I had realized that, but we sat enthralled through all three acts.  Fanny and Alexander are two young children (I would guess the "stage ages" to be about 5 and 8, and the actors to be about 7 and 11, assuming they were small for their ages).  Fanny doesn't have much in the way of lines, but Alexander is the focus of much of the play.  In short, it's about a semi-happy family of actors, including the lover of the matriarch, an old Jewish guy who runs a magic shop (symbolism alert).  When the children's father dies, the mother, who is trying to find herself (symbolism alert) marries a strict and cruel bishop (symbolism alert) who mistreats the children (big symbolism alert).  The old Jewish guy helps them escape, the mother gets out too, and they live somewhat unhappily ever after.  

The cast was fantastic and despite the heavyhandedness of the story, it was compelling to watch.  I enjoyed it as much as Hamilton, though I suspect it isn't for everyone.  The descriptions of the meals they ate (narrated) were both comedy gold and detailed enough to make me hungry (the play would have been at least 15 minutes shorter without them).  You could have fed a small village with one of their meals.  

We had our final dinner in London at The Five Fields, a restaurant I found online, but turns out to be a Michelin one-star.  We had the three course prix fixe menu (the other option was an 8 course tasting menu, though the portions of that were small enough that I don't think it was significantly more food than we had).  Both the food and wine were superb.  We both started with the foie gras, which came with pieces of beet and some pickled mushrooms, that sounded weird but cut the richness of the foie gras very well,  I had mutton (chosen for the accompaniments, but it was nicely tender and flavorful) and Jay had venison.  Our desserts were a rhubarb concoction that is hard to describe.  It was good, but not rhubarby enough for me.  Jay had a chocolate decadence with sesame ice cream.  There were the usual amuse bouches, pre dessert, chocolate after dessert (we could have had a cheese course, but skipped that) and they sent us home with two cannelles.  It wasn't cheap, but after our disappointment with almost all of our London eating (J Sheekey was good, but not as good as this place), it was great to end on a high note.

Thursday we leave for Frankfurt, to spend a day catching up on laundry at the airport.  On Friday it's on to Naples for a few days before we start our Amalfi Coast walking tour.

Museuming, cream tea and Hamilton

We started Tuesday with the Churchill War Rooms, which is a museum created from an underground warren of offices and living spaces that the people running the war effort in WWII England used to work and sleep (they were down there so many hours, they were required to have sun lamp treatments to prevent rickets).  Very interesting museum, with lots of rooms set up as they would have been at the time.  I've read the series that starts with "Mr. Churchill's Secretary" (the Maggie Hope series), and the author was clearly inspired by visiting this museum.  It's really important to get tickets in advance (on line).  Not only does it save money, but they only let in people who didn't buy advance tickets after all the ticketed types are let in.  We were there at 11, and the non-advance ticket line, led by a rather entitled acting guy, was in revolt after being told they probably wouldn't get in till after 2pm.  (and of course, it was raining).

After that we went off to the Tate Britain, so that Jay could get his fill of JMW Turner, his favorite painter (I love some of his work, and other pictures just do nothing for me).  Apparently his (self) portrait and most famous painting are going to be shown on the 20 pound note starting in 2020.

We found a quintessential British tea shop, the English Rose, for a cream tea (given our various play schedules, we been going for a two meal a day schedule).  Tea, warm scones, clotted cream, jam, finger sandwiches and cakes.  I love clotted cream, but it will clog your arteries just by slavering over it, so I try to have it once every year or so.  We tried out the two ways of eating scones -- in Devon it is cream then jam, in Cornwall it is jam then cream.   Jay likes jam first and I like cream first -- both of us because cream first causes the cream to melt a bit.  I had a piece of Victoria sponge, another very sweet British cake.

The highlight of the day/night was Hamilton.  We had row F seats for the cost of the nose-bleed seats in New York City.  The productions was everything people say it is.  It was in a newly refurbished theatre (the Victoria Palace), which is gorgeous.  Here are a couple of photos of the theatre

They obviously wouldn't let me photograph the performance, but here is the set

I can't say enough good about the production.  Of course, I haven't seen the Lin Manuel Miranda version, but I can't imagine those actors were significantly better.  The dancing and singing was superb, and the story, from what I can tell (I haven't read the Hamilton biography that it was based on) ,veers from historical accuracy just enough to make the story exciting.

Stonehenge and Bath

We wanted to see both Stonehenge and Bath, so we took a group tour.  It was not the most successful experiment.  All those glowing reviews are either by company shills or people with lower expectations than we have.

We met at the Victoria Bus Station at 8:15 -- over a hundred of us, but we broke into two busloads, and we never saw the other group again. Still, fifty isn't an intimate group. Two hour drive to Stonehenge, about an hour to visit the site and tour the visitor center (all this in the rain and wind, of course).  Here's the obligatory photo

You can't go into the actual circle -- you get close enough to take good photos, but it would be interesting to see it from within.  Lots of information about what is known about the people who built this (which is not much), the purpose of the site (not much about that either), and how it was built (they know quite a bit about that).

Back in the bus (which was comfy, but not as nice as our Oxford Tube bus to Oxford, which was just regular public transportation) for an hour's drive to Bath.  We toured the Roman Baths (it was optional/extra cost, but was the highlight of the trip), found lunch (more British food, though I managed to get a salad instead of fries) and wandered around town.  Here are a few photos,

The Bath Abbey

The main pool of the Roman baths, looking much as it did in Roman times (though I suspect it got enough use that the water wasn't green with algae.)

The upper level of the baths; these statues were added in Georgian times, when the baths were first restored.

There are many more rooms to the Baths, and a good audio guide (with some commentary by Bill Bryson) and a lot of semi-interactive exhibits.  I especially liked the origin of 'curses', which were (often petty) complaints to a god, written on lead and thrown into water dedicated to them.  Often "may the person who stole my clothes while I was bathing develop leprosy" or something like that.

A Georgian arcade.  What makes Bath lovely is that the city was (re)developed as a unified whole in Georgian times out of Cotswold stone (here called Bath stone)

This currently seems to be a wine shop.  We aren't sure if "The Giggling Squid" is a recent name or it's been called that forever, but I loved the name

Part of a circle of townhomes, at the top of a hill overlooking Bath (probably the most expensive address) called the Circus.

We spent about 3 hours total in Bath.  Due to parking restrictions, they were rather martinet-like about meeting the bus on time -- we ended up picking up people who had missed their bus from an earlier tour.  Then about three hours back to London.

That we spent more time on the bus than visiting sites was probably unavoidable, but more or less all the tour did is drive us to the sites, tell us where to go and when be at the bus for the next leg.  Our guide had a bit of patter, but wasn't particularly good.  We won't be doing this again.  We went with Premium Tours, but I suspect all of them would be similar.

After coming back, we looked for a "not so British" meal.  Succeeded: Jay had pasta, I had a wonderful kale, lettuce, apple and hazelnut salad and a sea bass crudo, but with the worst service we have had yet.  We are not developing a good feeling about British restaurants.

Witness for the prosecution (and better food)

Sunday (Easter Sunday) we walked around Buckingham Palace in the morning.  I got a pretty good video of the changing of the guard as they marched from their staging area in the Mews.  (Sorry, I don't know how to edit videos in Google Photos so you may want to skip to about 30 secs into it, where you start to see the marchers)

We also walked by the tailor shop "The Kingsman" which was used in the second Kingsman movie (which Jay had seen) so we had to capture that.

They weren't open on Easter Sunday, so we couldn't go in and chat with Colin Firth :-)

That afternoon we went to a production of Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution", put on at the former County of London Courthouse.  We got to sit in the visitors stalls, and experience it as if it were a real trial.

Here is where the judge sits, with liberty above him (you may notice that she isn't blinded in this statue -- not sure what that means.)

The play was excellently done.  If you hadn't read the story (it's in a collection of short stories she wrote, but is also available online as a pdf at   http://www.juliojeha.pro.br/course39cmt_pgs/The%20Witness%20for%20the%20Prosecution.pdf )
there are two well done twists at the end, and if you have only read the short story and not the play, there's still one that will get you.  It's classic Christie -- very "intellectual", but it all hinges on the personality and believability of the main characters.  For (a lot of) extra money, you got to sit in the jury box, and one person in that group read the verdict toward the end.  We very much enjoyed it.

Dinner tonight was at J. Sheekey.  On the way there, crossing Trafalgar Square, we discovered some unusual traffic lights (well, pedestrian green lights).  They were various combinations of the gender symbols.  Startling, but cute.  Apparently, they were put in for Gay Pride Week in 2016, and were kept.  Here's an interesting article that shows the different lights (we didn't happen to cross at any of the intersections that have the people running pictured)   I love it that the Brits call these "Gay traffic lights".

J. Sheekey is a very upscale (owned by the same group that owns the Ivy) fish restaurant.  Definitely a much better class of British food.  We had local oysters (called natives), a crab souffle and a mixed seafood grill.  The oysters were quite different in flavor to the ones we get in the US, as was the crab.  The salmon was the best of the seafood, but we also had halibut, sea bream and john dory and maybe one other fish.  I also got a salad for the first time in England.

Oxford

Saturday we went to Oxford.  We took the Oxford Tube, which is a bus that happens to leave right in front of our hotel (there are trains, which are faster, but not when you have to take the tube for 20 minutes to the train station).  We had scheduled a private tour of the town, which was well worth it.  Our guide was a sort of free-lance academic (if that concept makes sense) in archeology.   He had a university ID, which got us into places we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.   We visited several colleges, part of the Bodleian library, and looked over a few ancient pubs and other "relics" of Oxford.  We got to see dining rooms, chapels and courtyards. I can't remember which college is which, I'll just show you a few photos with only partial identification

I think that above is the back side of Baliol College

I forget the name of the building, but I took the picture primarily to show that there was sunshine that day (as well as intermittent rain)

I forget which college, but that hallway is one of the oldest building parts in Oxford

This is the dining room at King's College, which was also used as the dining room at Hogwarts for the Harry Potter movies.  

William Gladstone, one of Jay's ancestors, was once a proctor at Kings.

The back courtyard of Kings College

A pre-Raphaelite window at King's College

The tour was well worth the time and money.  The company we used was footprints tours, and our excellent guide was Mark.

After leaving the tour, we went to the Eagle and Child (apparently known locally as the "Fowl and Foetus"), which is the pub where Tolkien and C. S. Lewis regularly met (they and a few others were known as the 'Inklings') to meet another physicist/engineer whom Jay had interacted with at conferences over the years.  His wife joined us, and we had lunch while the two guys caught up on science and we told them about our travels.  After that we got a custom tour of Worcester, his college, including the newly restored dining room (gorgeous window, but it didn't come out in a picture) and then we had coffee in the fellows commons room.  Term is not in session, so we were the only ones there.  All in all we spent about three hours with them. 

We took the Oxford Tube back, and had a simple supper at the hotel.