Leo in London: Part II

I've heard about nothing but da Vinci all week. Ever since missing out on tickets on Saturday, Paul's been miserable.

But he's got a plan.

eBay. Where everyone's a winner.

We agree on a top price and only get into one argument during the bidding. I even pause Glee to find out if we've won.

I'm a little disappointed when we find out that we have. I’m sure my first car cost less than these tickets. A bargain at only three times face value.

eBay. Where winning isn't really winning.

But we go. And they let us in despite the fact that neither of us looks much like a 'Shahzad Malik'.

And, in the understatement of the century: it's great.

Leo in London: Part I

They’re calling it the greatest exhibition in history. More Leonardo da Vinci works in one place than ever before - including during his lifetime.

Of course, it sells out in record time. The National Gallery opens extended hours for three months and still sells all the advance tickets in less than a week. We miss out.

But there’s a glimmer of hope aside from the scalpers on eBay.

800 tickets per day are still available. In America they’d have a lottery. They believe everyone should have a chance. In England, they believe whoever puts in the most effort should end up on top. So they sell these tickets on a first come, first served basis.

Which is why Paul arrives at 7am, three hours before the ticket office even opens.

By 7:30, he’s been informed that he’s in the ‘maybe’ zone. He prays that the several hundred people who arrived even earlier are all nuns and widowers who won’t use their plus one, leaving his own entry within reach.

He sets about making friends with those around him. There’s a couple from Manchester who caught the train down just for this exhibition. None expected that 7am would put them so far behind the crowd.

The line starts to leak as people give up in favour of a hot coffee or a toilet break. Paul and his posse soldier on, blinded to their inevitable failure by an attempt to show solidarity.

The gates close around 1:30pm. The tickets have sold out about 20 people ahead of Paul. The group have waited for six and a half hours together and can’t bear to leave so soon. So they keep waiting (for some unknown reason).

A guy approaches Paul.

“My friend can’t come anymore. My ticket is for right now. I know you’ve been waiting for ages, so I don’t want to make any money off you. Just give me face value and it’s yours”.

Paul has no cash.

He comes home.

Florence

We had a blip when we first arrived in Florence. It was pouring with rain, and the hotel owner informs me that he accidentally overbooked and transferred our booking to another place on the other side of town. We were planning on visiting David at the Galleria dell'Accademia but had tried and failed both online and by phone to make a booking. Apparently the queue can reach five hours if you don't have a booking at this time of year, so when the hotel was mucking us around we were getting quite worried about missing it altogether.

As luck would have it, the rain was our salvation. 

Paul ran off to the Accademia to wait in the queue while I figured out the hotel. Which, I should mention, involved carrying all our stuff up three very steep flights of stairs. It'd be fine to do one load, but as I didn't want to let any of our stuff out of my sight I had to do it bit by bit which took a very long time. Anyway, whinge over: the rain scared off half the queue at the gallery and it only took an hour, giving me plenty of time to arrive, and us plenty of time to appreciate David before closing.

The most captivating artwork I have ever experienced.

On the way home we had the most delicious cannelloni I've ever tasted. Well, I haven't had cannelloni very much. But it was good. The next morning, the rain had disappeared and we were able to experience the sights of Florence with a brilliant blue backdrop.

We spent an hour or two at the Uffizi Gallery before continuing on to Siena at about midday.

Day Two in Madrid: The Spanish Way

After the bedbug incident, I'm not really in the mood for an Art Gallery this morning. But, because it's the Reina Sofia, and they have Picasso's magnum opus, Guernica, I make the effort to be chipper.

The sculpture in the lobby is of a paintstroke. Paul fell in love and took about 100 photos.

The Reina Sofia was huge, and free because it's Sunday! We weren't so lucky at our next gallery, the Thyssen Bornemisza. Because they're a private collection they charge too much all the time. I decided not to go, as I felt I'd had my fill already from three enormous galleries in two days! Paul spent the afternoon there while I checked out the markets near our hostel.

In the evening, we made good on our promise to have proper tapas in Spain, and walked to La Latina, where there's a street of the cutest little Spanish tapas bars you ever saw. As we walked through Old Town, I finally felt like I was in Spain. The rest of Madrid is fairly non-descript, and could really be any modern city. But Old Town (and La Latina) couldn't be anywhere else, and I loved that.




We feasted on three tapas and drinks at three different bars. My favourite dish was like a potato quiche with a crunchy top that I plan to find a recipe for. And, since discovering them not so long ago, I've believed that a good caipiroska is one of life's best treats. And though they're mainly a South American drink, I can tell you that the Spanish make a great one! I love the the way the fruit is muddled, rather than blended, so it's like a cross between a cocktail and a fruit salad.




When we got home, there was a huge party at our hostel. It's totally that kind of place. Knowing we wouldn't be able to sleep (and not wanting to be reacquainted with the bedbugs too soon), we decided to join in and get to know the people in the hostel. It was worth it - by the time we got to bed (way too late, as per usual), we'd had a great night.


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Day One in Madrid: The Rain in Spain

My first impression of Madrid by daylight wasn´t great. We headed straight to the Prado  (Spain´s major art gallery which includes Las Meninas, a work often called the greatest painting ever). Unfortunately, it was raining and we didn´t have an umbrella. We also weren´t expecting queues that snaked around the building (damn you Lonely Planet for saying it would be empty!)



The museum itself was great (and enormous). Once we left, naturally we headed straight to the next gallery! Caixa Forum is a lesser known gallery but I would totally recommend it. It features a wall garden (pic below), and mainly newer works including (at the moment) a really cool photography exhibition covering the life of a prodigy photographer who started at the age of 8, in 1905.


The garden wall at Caixa Forum. Not posed. I actually did look this stupid.

 The sun had decided to come out to play by the time we left Caixa Forum, so we headed into Parque del Retiro, the Madrid equivalent of Central Park, and wandered around for an hour. The highlight was the Crystal Palace, in the middle of the park. Being inside it feels like standing in the centre of a palatial greenhouse!

We were hoping to find a nice tapas bar for dinner, but there were no decent ones near our place, so we had a really nice kebab instead, and promised ourselves we´d do tapas tomorrow.

 

 

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Day Two in Paris: Monmartre

This morning we braved the crowds at the Musée D'Orsay. They had a great Manet exhibition on, and also some of my favourite Monet works.

check out that queue. C'est incroyable!

Once the Musée closed, we hopped on the metro to Monmartre, my favourite district in Paris. We climbed the hill to Sacré Coeur the back way, up narrow streets that are probably the most stereotypical French I've ever seen. We shared an incredible baguette on the way up, and a few sweet treats too. 

Sacré Coeur 

I took a panorama of the view from Sacré Coeur on my iPhone.

What we did next was the highlight of my trip to Europe so far. Les Refuge de Fondues is a little bohemian fondue restaurant in a narrow street. The walls are covered with scrawls from people who have eaten there, and you have to literally climb over the table to sit on the other side (the waiter helps you over). They even  avoid the tax on serving wine in a stemmed glass by serving it in baby bottles. Yes, baby bottles.

We had heard about this place from our friend Alix and planned on just having a quick wine, but somehow ended up having a three course meal. Blame it on the language barrier? The fruit salad was from a can, and the entree was average... but the fondue was great, and the atmosphere was alive. We made friends with the couple next to us and ended up sharing some of our cheese fondue for some of their meat.

 

After about four hours in Le Refuge de Fondues, we wandered through the red light district to that windmill everyone seems to have heard of.

I don't know why I was so excited.

We only just managed to make the last metro back to our hotel, and it was 2am by the time we got to bed... but well worth it!

Day Six in NY: Ground Zero & The Empire State Building

Ground Zero affected me more than I thought it would. I came here five years ago, but things have changed a lot, mainly after a little museum opened late last year. We were both quite surprised at how it got under our skin. There was a school choir going through too, and when they finished they sang a beautiful song which was quite moving to be there for. We were also able to see some of the construction work on the memorial park (opening in September on the 10 year anniversary) and the new towers that are going up in the space.

The memorial fountains (with museum in the centre) that will mark where the twin towers used to stand.

The freedom tower, which looks about half complete now.

We needed a breather after leaving, so opted to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge rather than take a subway. Despite the overcast sky, we still found the view from the bridge breathtaking.

After walking over the bridge and back, we hopped on the subway north to the Guggenheim Museum. 

From there, we headed to Columbus Circle to catch up with Matthew Windsor, an old friend I hadn't seen for years who (I was excited to learn) is working for the ACLU in the UN building! (jealous much?)

A few hours later, after seeing a crap show, we met up with Roxie (the kiwi we met at our hostel a few days ago) and went to the Empire State Building together. We'd heard the only way to beat the queues was to go late at night (it closes at 2am), which fitted nicely with our schedule. It was eerily quiet, which we found really cool. I definitely recommend going after midnight.

Chrysler Building on the right.

With Roxie.

Feeling a little windswept as we step out of the lift.

We decided to walk back - it's only about a dozen blocks, and we got to pass through Times Square.

By the time we got home it was about 2am. I didn't get to sleep for at least another hour, which was partly from nerves (London is starting to loom) and partly because Snoring Lamp Man was in particularly good form.

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NYC Day Three: MoMA and Nightlife

Today we visited the Museum of Modern Art. They have some amazing work there, including Starry Starry Night by Van Gogh which I've always adored.

They also have the original concept boards for I Heart NY.

After MoMA we popped past the International Center for Photography, then headed to our evening show; Anything Goes (it was fantastic!). Afterwards, we headed a few blocks away to meet our friend Dennis who came home to New York about 18 months ago after several years in Auckland. He's a fantastic host, and we had a great night seeing some of his favourite Manhattan bars.

We started the night with an incredible lime based cocktail at Aureole.

Enjoying the Manhattan nightlife with Dennis.

We got to bed at about 3:00am (I think?). We ended up crashing on his couch so we wouldn't have to walk back to the hostel. We slept well.


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NYC Day Two: The Met & Central Park

Paul just about wet himself with excitement this morning. He's dreamed of going to The Met for years. We got up later than we planned (familiar story, I know), but we still made it to The Met by about midday.

Hot dog on the stairs at the Met. As ya do.

I think my favourite work there was this piece by Dali:

We stayed until closing, which was about six hours. Phew.

The Met is right on the edge of Central Park, so we headed in there afterwards and walked right through.

Then, we headed back downtown for Spiderman. After the show we ended up chatting until about 2am with a kiwi we ran into at our hostel called Roxie. Typical small world - we have tons of mutual friends. She's awesome and we're hoping hang with her again.

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