Mathematical History Tour (Plus): Travel and Arrival

It seemed surreal yesterday that, after 2 years of planning, the day to fly had finally come! Fortunately for me, I got to go to my final destination; others on my flight got turned around. When we took off from San Francisco, "pandemic" had not yet been officially declared; when we landed in Boston it had, and airline employees were scrambling to deal with the ramifications of this for passengers who were heading through the UK (London) to another European destination. That could have been me. The final destination today was supposed to have been Rome, but I made the hard choice a couple of weeks ago to cancel my Italian study destinations and move all my research and travel to the UK. But who knows what even that will look like a week or two or a month or two from now! I just have to reiterate how bizarre it was to be in the air, literally, as these changes were implemented - got on the airplane in one place under certain rules - got off that same airplane 5 hours later under different rules!

I feel very bad for the other travelers. Astonishingly, my experience was that it was one of the easiest long-distance travel situations I've ever been in. The decision to go forward with it wasn't easy, but doing it was. God's hands were just all over this, and I feel blessed. One of the things that throws me is that I can tend to get anxious about details, especially when traveling alone, but everything went so smoothly. For example, getting an Oyster Card from the machine at the airport was probably one of the easiest things I've ever done in my life! (Some of you are probably thinking to yourselves, "Duh!" and others are thinking, "What's an Oyster Card?!")

This was a milestone moment - plane travel was over - last leg of the journey was here - HOPPING ON THE TUBE! What a joy to see it! (Piccadilly to District and off at Bayswater - no problem!)

And what a joy to see my hotel! It's very pretty . . . on the outside . . .

I think this room is tied for the smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in. I took this picture from just inside the door to the room. You can barely open the wardrobe doors without banging the wall, and see that rectangular thing in the front middle of the picture? That's my chair(?!). That's where I'll be sitting to do my reading and research and blogging and communicating. And this room is actually BIGGER than the one I originally booked because I got an email a couple of days ago asking if I wanted to upgrade to a bigger room for a reasonable charge. Here it is - the BIGGER room! (Online pictures in hotel advertising can really be deceptive!)

I'm also reasonably certain that the paper coasters left in the room came pre-used, which makes me wonder about the cleanliness of the room in general (ooph!).

I mean . . . it's actually pretty cute . . . from certain angles . . . But the room is basically this bed, and that's it. I'm really, REALLY hoping that neither I nor anyone else in this hotel gets COVID-19, because if I have to be quarantined in this little teeny-tiny room with not even a chair for 2 or 3 weeks I think I will lose my mind!

I decided to get out immediately and get walking while I can - just in case!

I love it that the British do this on their roads! My travels were easy, but I still basically had two back-to-back days with no night, and I was TIRED. Given that they drive on the opposite side of the road than I'm used to, it's really nice that they've provided reminders for which way to look for the traffic to be coming from. (I might have died today otherwise!) Well, not right here since there's a barricade, but . . . you know . . .

So . . . I should have been in Italy today . . . today Rome, then many other cities, including Venice. I feel like I saw a little bit of a faux Venice in London today with the canal and boats and also the pigeons, which I hear fill St. Mark's Square.

There was more of a purpose to my walk than just getting out. When I was here 4 years ago for a week, I tried really hard to get out to Kensal Green Cemetery, because there is a famous mathematician buried here, and I wanted to include this person in my previous travel report. But Kensal Green is rather away from the other sights I needed to visit, and I was always WAY too tired at the end of the day to try to tack it on (which is saying something!) So this time, it was my first excursion.

I had learned from previous, unsuccessful ventures into graveyards to try to find a specific grave that it's harder than finding a needle in a haystack. So this time I got smart and did my research.

And then I left my research in the hotel room and had to go from memory. Check out the map above, that I came across when entering the cemetery, how many areas and lanes there are! When I found the grave I was looking for I raised my hands in the air in triumph and gave a little "Whoo!"

But, both the mathematician and the cemetery are going to have posts of their own, so here's a lovely picture of some stones for now:

As I walked I noted that the US is not the only country that has had a run on sanitizers and antibacterial wipes. (Thank you Jacqueline!)

After all the travel and the walking (45 minutes each way with way too long spent standing and walking in the cemetery), I decided just to take one other quick jaunt before heading to dinner and "home." I decided to just cut across the corner of Hyde Park that separates me from my neighbors William and Catherine.

The rainbow over Round Pond felt symbolic and gave me joy to see! And I imagine Wills and Kate and their three children must have enjoyed it as well, as viewed through their windows.

So, here we are at Will and Kate's place: Kensington Palace. Just a guess here, but I'm thinking their rooms are a tad bit more spacious than mine . . . just guessing . . . just guessing . . .

Since I was supposed to be in Italy today, what else would I eat but Italian food - my standard choice: the most plain pasta dish I can find with a lemon-lime soda. Ah . . .