Time for London

Christian Marclay's spellbinding installation "The Clock" is a 24 hour long montage of thousands of film and television clips of  scenes with clocks, edited and synchronized to show real time.  We had the fortune to stumble onto it at the Tate Modern Museum in London.  Due to the crowds we were only able to watch it for about 10 minutes from 3 pm to 3:10 pm.  People were let in in groups of ten into a large room filled with maybe 50- 60 couches to view.  We were literally nudged off the couch after 10 minutes, otherwise we would have stayed until the museum closed.  It was memorizing with the anticipation of what the next minute would bring.  It made every scene shown no matter what movie it was extracted from,  more suspenseful and interesting. We left wanting to see each entire movie the clips were pulled from.  The editing was such that it seemed to flow and tell it's own fascinating story. The installation was apropos of our travels; the awareness of time, catching buses, catching trains, running to new platforms and making connections, the rhythm of the day, the changing sky, times to eat, walk and rest.  But also the unexpected of what is next; and the unexpected beauty around (well almost) every turn,  rounding a corner to find a spectacular building, a truly take-your-breath-away painting, a meadow opening from a wooded trail, an iconic vista or staggeringly impressive sunset. Call it serendipity, luck or in this case just good timing, discovering these surprises has been the fuel for travel.

Even train stations provided the unanticipated when we spotted trainspotters.  Didn't realize this was actually a thing, but it is a very real and kind of a fascinating niche.  We first saw them at a stop at the York train station (apparently a prime location for this activity) Guys (almost always only guys) with binoculars, notebooks, ipads, and cameras waiting, watching and recording the types of trains and their locomotive identification number. With station security getting tighter this can now also be done from home with closed circuit tv links/live streaming, chat rooms/online sites. https://railcam.uk/. Here are a few we saw in Reading (wearing train station camouflage?) no worse I guess than other hobbies like following the Minnesota Twins which are just a train wreck.

Not looking at the Rosetta Stone

We hadn't originally planned to see London, but with 3 days before our flight to Dubrovnik, we settled on Horley 25 miles south of London as a compromise for it's proximity to 3 areas-first- Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (it's actual name, so hard to pass up). The train from Oxford actually traversed much of this area, and it looked similar enough to the other areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK that we decided it wouldn't require further investigation.  Second area was London.  The train dropped us off at the London Bridge Station (the bridge is gone, but fortunately they left the station).  We first went to The British Museum, which if all the people we've seen in all the museums we've visited on our trip, had decided to meet in one place this was it.  The line to get in was close to half mile long.  It was packed.   Looking at Rosetta Stone, don't they know they can get it in any language online (just like trainspotting)?  The Parthenon section was one of those take-your-breath-away moments, but it was a guilty pleasure considering  how everything had been "borrowed" from Greece. As per the museum's explanation,  this "borrowing" has preserved the pieces from further damage,  destruction and pillage; which unfortunately is very relevant due to pollution, global economics and religion/war (Taliban, Iraq, Syria, etc).    We meandered through this huge repository of the world's culture, passing through the many displays of china (felt a little like the Bloomingdale's wedding registry). Once we squeezed out of The British Museum, we toured the Tate Modern. We have the pleasure of daughters who are well versed in art, which definitely has  enriched our museum viewing; especially in regards to curation. The Tate really shone for us in this area with interesting pairings of artists and themes. In addition to  The Clock, the Tate also had a Guerilla Girls exhibit and Jenny Holtzer section- both of whom figured prominently in our youngest daughter's teen years, so visiting these almost felt like time traveling.

During our travels, Patricia has felt, at times, somewhat unmoored (even though we spent almost a week in The Moors). For a night her fugue settled a bit, eating an (excellent) home cooked meal at the home of her closest friend from teen years (who has lived in London for 36 years) and her wonderful partner.   Provided a bit of grounding and a bit of home which at times is missed. 

As with London, we hadn't originally planned to go to Horley (well, who would? Patricia's London based friend had  never visited). We did feel that now that we had chosen Horley, we needed to actually experience Horley.  Like all British towns, this was inexplicably filled with thrift shops and barber shops. But in this case we actually took advantage of these bonanzas Patricia at the thrift shops ( (seeking gloves as Patricia has lost 1 1/2 pairs)  and Nick at the barber shop. Nick got his professional haircut  for the first time in over 3 years which the  barber noted, as the first thing she asked was if he cuts his hair himself (yes), because it looked pretty chopped up.  We also found the "area of outstanding natural beauty" in Horley at a large forested park along the River Mole, utilized by locals to walk their dogs or as a  short cut bike commute from the train station or airport.  The park info sign noted it has remained untouched for several centuries even though it was half a mile from Gatwick and was reminiscent of the 100 Acre Woods (and we did see poo.)

Finally, our third reason for the Horley choice, the airport trip to another out-side of Schengen area location- Croatia.  A quick drive to Gatwick,  and a lovely Easy Jet flight to Dubrovnik.

This week's photo of topless old man looking out window contemplating his life: