Of course for many people the big news in London this week is the birth of the royal heir. The media talk about it much more than the people on the street, but it is big news. This birth is hoped to do everything from revive the economy to save the monarchy. We now know that the baby is name George Alexander Louis.
Yesterday we returned to the National Gallery. We revisited the Turner and impressionist galleries and then toured the 18th century masters. This was quite an education in the development of painting style and technique in the last 3 centuries. There will be at least one more visit there before we leave London.
Today we took the plunge to go where we have not ventured in previous London visits…Harrods. This monument to excess and spending has never attracted us, but we decided it required our attention. Our first look was for 1000 GBP handbags, 300 GBP straw hats, and then we moved on to food and groceries. Here we watched people select hand cut steaks for lunch for 38 GBP a piece! For those of you who aren’t aware of exchange rates, that would be a $50-$60 lunch! Of course that’s only the steak. Drinks and sides are extra. We didn’t stay long.
Harrods sits on the southern edge of Hyde Park, so we decided to walk home. Our studio apartment is on the northern edge of the park and it was a good day for a walk. We crossed into the park at the south end of The Serpentine and followed the waterway across the park, then cut across to the west to the Queensway entrance. Along the way we stopped to sketch at a bench along the water. There we met the Russells from Australia and chatted for some time. David, Lee, and Shannon shared travel stories with us. David is also an artist with whom we could talk about sketching and painting. We invited them to visit us in Seattle someday and hope they will. After leaving them we wandered along the water and found Peter Pan. Our friend Brenda has encouraged us to find Peter, who is not well known or marked in the park. There he was with children climbing him, using conveniently placed bronze animals for hand and foot holds.
Here are a few photos from today.
Travels With Picasso 
I do so hope they call the baby Alex and not George.
You don’t like the sound of King George?
My friends, all this looks wonderful. I enjoyed the bronze (it is a bronze, is it not?) of what looks to me as a crane. Nice pix. I am as surprised about your not getting your lovely lunch at Harrods as I am about you not being invited to photograph the newest heir to the throne of Britain. Phooey! Apart from such crushing disappointments, I hope you can still enjoy the remainder of your Londonian stay.
From Espain, con amor, JP
Indeed both the swan and peter pan are bronze.
Harrod’s is amazing and the food court below has few rivals. We had Tandori Chicken sandwiches and they were to die for. Swans and Europe….you cannot separate them. My desire is to do a painting with a swan or two in it. 😀 Paul your pics are lovely. I took 40 rolls of film from London to Venice. We rode the Orient Express from Venice back to London. It was an amazing trip in 2000. The London Eye had just opened, but I (dumb) was too afriad to ride it. I hope you can ride it. What amazing photos you could take from it. My camera gave me trouble after just taking 3 pics. Maybe London would have been a better place to see if I could get it fixed, but I took it to a Paris shop instead. I did buy another camera, but didn’t take many pics with it :(. They purposefully destroyed my shutter, then sold me the 40 rolls of film….saying the ‘fix’ was free. I didn’t know it was destroyed till I picked up 40 rolls of Black Film…..so sickening. We will be going to Israel in Oct and Nov of this year. I pray I have better luck!