POST SCRIPT - got the picture up this morning, so there's hope! But I can't blog in the mornings - gotta be out and about - BYE!
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Well, I've been trying for a couple of hours to upload a beautiful picture inside the British Museum. Though I'm quite happy with most things about my new hotel room (first refrigerator I've seen since leaving home!) apparently internet connectedness is not going to be one of them.
Hopefully either it is just "spotty" or I can find a work-around - because I can't go a whole week without updating or this will snowball into an avalanche - am already at least two mathematicians behind. A good internet connection is not really something I can be without.
After arriving today I went to the Royal College of Physicians here in London and took in their exhibit on the very interesting John Dee - of whom I had not heard until I began studying for this sabbatical. However, from what I hear, sci-fi/fantasy and comic book fans have heard of him because his possible (well, more than possible, but who knows exactly how much) dealings with the occult have made him a fascinating figure to many. He lived at a time when chemistry & alchemy, astronomy & astrology, science & magic were not quite separate yet.
He was close to the center of the court of Elizabeth I and may have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's conjuror Prospero in The Tempest, and he may also have been part of the inspiration for Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. There is also a D. C. Comics villian named John Dee (aka Doctor Destiny). I'm ashamed I did not know all this, but I'm here to learn! Today I saw his crystal ball and others of his occult belongings, as well as books he wrote and books he owned.
Since the British Museum is near my hotel I went there too, and I gravitated towards exactly the same exhibits I gravitated towards 13 years ago during my only other visit to London - like everyone else - Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles.
Tomorrow I'll attend a lecture on Alan Turing and John von Neumann put on at the London Museum by Gresham College, and in the evening I'll be attending a MathsJam event. In between I hope to see some of the following: Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Temple Church, St. Paul's Cathedral.
Heidi, the National Portrait Gallery is one of my favorites, and it's a history lesson in itself. And free! So enjoy. And after browsing through the galleries, the place to eat is the basement crypt of St. Martin in the Fields, just across the street from Trafalgar Square. They serve delicious, traditional English fare (including apple crumble with custard) for reasonable prices, all in the ancient crypt. And there are usually free concerts in the sanctuary upstairs, I think at noon or at 1 p.m., if you're tired and just want to sit and enjoy good music. We do both every time we're in London. So happy to think of you there! But do take some time--even if it's just five minutes here and there--to simply sit, absorb the atmosphere, and think, "I am here now. I am here now. I am here now." Soon it will be a memory, but at this moment you are actually living in and experiencing the memory. Don't let your busy schedule and hunger to see everything stop you from treasuring a few moments of silence and inactivity to simply be. Love and blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteEdi, you are so right! I did pack my schedule as if it were a tightly fitting jigsaw puzzle - am running from place to place - and am doing more recording of it than living it. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to be in the moment, to BE here while I'm here! I was just thinking that I'll need to make more time for the Trafalgar Square area and get back over there - maybe into the National Gallery again. I love your idea about St. Martin's, and if I do get back to that area I will think of you while I am there! (I may hit up the National Portrait Gallery again - was so focused on seeing the two Bronte paintings by Branwell (and then it turned out to be a whole room dedicated to Charlotte whose bicentennial this is) that I didn't even look at anything else in there! It was hard to force myself to walk out of that room. I do so adore the Brontes! And love and blessings to you as well!
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