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Caravaggio.

From March 2-4, 2001 Marti & I were in London for a weekend visit.
It was essentially a continuation of last summer’s Caravaggio Quest,
which I wrote about in my Roma 2000 journal.





On Friday I took the Eurostar to join Marti, who was spending a week
in the U. K. on business. I love the convenience of going to London
via the chunnel train. I walk from our Paris apartment to
Metro Vaugirard in five minutes. From then until I emerge hours
later at the Russell Square tube station (just a five-minute
walk to our London hotel), I’m on trains all the way. No expensive
cab rides in heavy traffic. No backed-up airports to deal with.

After our rendezvous at St. Margaret’s Hotel in Bloomsbury
– Marti trained in from Ipswich on the east coast – we went
to dinner in Drummond Street at an Indian veggie restaurant
called Diwana. Bill Pannifer turned us on to this bhel-poori
house last year. The food is inexpensive & excellent, not your
ordinary Indian fare.




Saturday morning Marti & I went to the Hayward Gallery to see
an exhibition of Goya drawings that were charming, satirical
& wonderfully rendered. Goya is another of our favorite artists.
A second exhibition at the Hayward, of Brassai's photographs
of Paris, was also compelling. This despite the fact that
we'd seen many of these images before.




We left the gallery & went straight to the Borough Market, the gourmet chef's
paradise in Southwark that we discovered last spring.




Lunch consisted of goodies we bought at the various market stalls, starting
with tasty chorizo & rocket lettuce sammies from Brindisa, the Spanish grocer.




At Brindisa we visited with Monica, from whom I bought flavor-packed
dried choricero peppers & a 2.5 liter tin of extra-virgin olive oil.

Here are more scenes from the market . . .











After our trip to the Borough Market,
Marti returned to the hotel while I went to
the Webshack in Dean Street to post to this page.
Their map shows the world as printed circuit boards.


Go to page 2 of London Weekend 2001


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Email: phildemetrion@yahoo.com