The Eurostar “Chunnel” train from Paris to London may cost a bit more than flying but it is much more civilized. We cleared both EU and UK immigration at Gare du Lyon in Paris, carried our own luggage onto the train and were in London in just over two hours with no airport hassle.
Our studio apartment in the Kensington and Chelsea neighborhood couldn’t be nicer—cheaper, certainly but it has everything we need. We have a well-appointed kitchenette and there’s a great Sainsbury supermarket nearby. With a choice of three Underground lines and £20 on our Oyster cards, we can easily go anywhere in London.
We are in London mainly to arrange for visas to Ghana, a much more involved process than we had hoped. Even though we are officially in the UK and using a visa service, the adage “Africa Always Wins” seems to be effect. We spent a good part of Monday morning with Dina at VisaHq’s office and part of the afternoon emailing additional documents. Fingers crossed, everything will be settled in a few days.
We didn’t need the Underground today—the Victoria and Albert Museum is within walking distance of our flat. It would take more than an afternoon or even a week to see everything in the V&A—it has 145 rooms covering 12 ½ acres and spanning 5000 years of history! And unlike France, where everything comes with a hefty entrance fee, most museums in England are free.
We came to see a tiny part of the V&A, “American Photographs” featuring Walker Evans. But we got side-tracked by the incredible Weston Cast Court, a collection of reproductions of everything from both Donatello’s and Michelangelo’s “David” to Trajan’s Column and “Puerta de la Gloria Gateway” from the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. While we have been fortunate enough to have seen many of these great works “in situ,” it was wonderful to see them again, all in one place. As one guy whispered to me, “For fakes, they’re bloody good!” So good, in fact, that one artist sat sketching details of “David.”
