Hampstead Heath

Yesterday I found myself journeying to Hampstead Heath, which is a very old, very expansive portion of parkland. Unlike Hyde Park and Regents Park, Hampstead Heath is largely ungroomed, giving itself to forest and pond more or less the way it has for hundreds of years.

The earliest information concerning Hampstead Heath dates back to 986 when King Ethelred the Unready (certainly not a name I'd want. I mean, couldn't he have made people call him Ethelred the Awesome or Ethelred the Ever-pleasant or something? Ethelred the Unready seems downright insulting) gave 5 hides of land at "Hemstede" to a servant.

Hampstead Heath is huge, encompassing 790 acres of land, among which are many hills, several ponds, some playgrounds and running trails and even a few swimming pools. Although some bits of the Heath have been appropriated for buildings, it is for the most part the way it has always been, and all of it is open to the public. It is quite beautiful as well (see photos below).

I took these two while I was lying in the grass.

The only way I can actually manage to look tall.

The Pantaloons

Today, I went to see a show... primarily because it was free, and you all know how I love free stuff. Actually, it turned out to be a live performance of Romeo & Juliet, brilliantly performed by the Pantaloons, who are a young acting troupe. They're going on tour for the summer, but before they do, crowds at the Scoop (right by the river, next to City Hall) get the pleasure of a free outdoor performance. I've never laughed so hard at Romeo and Juliet in my life. Except for Romeo and Juliet, each of the actors played several parts (to great success, mind you). My favorites were the nurse (high-pitched, big-boobed and squeakily hilarious) and ever-so-deaf Friar John ("I want an iron crow-bar... not a statue of a crow made out of iron, not a CD of Iron Maiden to rock out to, not iron supplements; a crow-bar! To open vaults with!" ... as Friar John putters off-stage. I love the look on his face too; it's great.

Friar Laurence: "What news from Mantua?"

Friar John: "None, I couldn't find him."

Friar Laurence: "You went to Manchester, didn't you?"

Friar John nods sadly.)

They make it genuinely funny, entertaining enough to bring children to, but there's still a significant amount of Shakespearian speech throughout the whole thing and it's clear that these guys are trained actors, as opposed to just some goofs trying to make Romeo & Juliet funny.

This fight actually took place before the show officially started. The girl in blue plays Juliet and the guy in purple was Mercutio and Friar John. For sake of ease, I shall refer to them as B (blue) and P (purple).

B: What are you doing with a custard pie?

P: It adds to the comedy.

B: There are no pies in Romeo & Juliet. You're disrespecting the legacy of a famous drama.

P: But I want to add in the pie. It's no good without the pie.

B: I told you. No pies in Romeo & Juliet.

P: But I want pie. You want to make something of it?

B: Yeah, maybe I do. You want to fight about it?

P: Yeah. I do want to fight. We'll fight in the theatrical tradition: an extremely well-choreographed fight scene where no one actually gets hurt.

B: Let's do it with cricket bats!

(fake fight begins).
This is the guy who played Romeo. Can't see it in this picture, but he's actually pretty cute. Also, very energetic. He kept running into the audience and leaping all over the stage area while he was making his speeches. You might know what I'm talking about, if you can play the videos I've attached below.

Juliet's soliloquy from her balcony window, before the famous bit, where the guy who plays Romeo actually shouted "Here comes the famous part!" before they started in on it.

A better shot of Romeo during one of his soliloquys from the audience.

The nurse (who was awesome) and Mercutio (at the time). You can catch his death scene if you watch the videos I've posted at the bottom.

Juliet and her Nurse (Anon, fair Nurse!)

I love the look on his face. His walk, his entire demeanor in the character is hilarious. I think there's a bit of it in one of the clips.

By the way, I feel obligated to say that I do not own or have any copyright to this group's performance; I was just really impressed by it and wanted to show other people how cool they were. Hopefully you will get see one of their shows for yourself if you ever get the chance. Their website is: http://www.thepantaloons.co.uk/home/

In the meantime, enjoy the clips below. They're not great, because my camera wasn't really made for recording film (also because I'm less-than-stellar behind a camera). I'm also the loon you'll hear giggling in most of the clips; you can ignore that.

The Louvre

The Louvre has a grand and illustrious history, long before it was ever a world-famous museum. It was originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century, completing the ramparts that surrounded and protected the city. Later on it was transformed into a palace and the Tuileries garden was eventually built in front of it, designed by the same landscape artist responsible for the gardens of Versailles (tuileries actually means tiles. It's where all of the tiles and the rubbish was dumped while the Louvre was remodeled from fortress to palace). When Lous XIV (the Sun King) moved the official royal residence to the Palace of Versailles, the Louvres was used more and more for exhibitions, but it didn't officially become a museum until the Revolution, when the National Assembly declared that it should be used to display the nation's masterpieces. As a result, the Louvre opened as a museum on August 10, 1793, with a collection of 537 pieces. The rest, as they say, is history.

This is the famous glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei. Initially, people were quite upset about it because they didn't feel that it fit in with the classic architecture surrounding it, but I think it actually looks pretty cool. Whether you like the pyramid or hate it, you have to admit that it isn't very practical. The pyramid leaks when it's raining heavily and during the summer when it gets really hot, the pyramid functions like a greenhouse and amplifies the heat. People have fainted while waiting in line inside the pyramid because of the heat. While the Louvre is one museum, it is made up of four buildings, linked by the lobby underneath the glass pyramid. It's an immense place and if you want to see everything in it and stop for a minute beside each piece, it would take you four months to cover the whole museum.

I didn't get to see it for very long, I was only able to stay for about an hour and a half and I didn't get to see anything famous, but I did see things that I liked. As at most museums, you are prohibited from taking pictures inside the Louvre. Despite this fact, everyone does it anyway, so here are some of the pictures I managed to take. For the most part, I tried to do without the flash (so as not to attract the attention of the guards, for one, and also I figured it was a bit more respectful) but here are some of the photos that actually came out relatively well.

If you can't figure out from just looking at it, this is a painting of Cardinal Richelieu. I actually think that Tim Curry is quite a good likeness for him in The Three Musketeers movie, even if the plot is entirely untrue to the reality of the situation.

This one is the Roman goddess Diana and I wish I'd taken a picture of the plaque that said who'd painted it, because I can't remember, but I think it's lovely anyway.

This painting is an allegory of Charity, from around 1560, painted by Ecole de Fontainebleau.

The photo is quite blurry but I've included it here anyway because the painting was quite lovely.

This belonged to Charles IX, circa 1572

A ceremonial sword and scabbard belonging to Charlemagne. While most people tend to focus on the famous paintings and sculptures in the Louvre, they've got quite an impressive collection of antiquities, including Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Middle-Eastern relics as well as French ones. Well worth looking at and far less crowded than the galleries with the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa.

This statue is a representation of Jeanne d'Arc.

A statue of Hercules in action.

Montparnasse

We were able to go up to the top of Montparnasse Tower to take pictures just as the sun was setting over Paris. The building we were in is actually only two-thirds the size of the Eiffel Tower, but it's built on higher ground and as a result looks down on the city. Montparnasse is on the outskirts of Paris and wasn't actually considered part of the city until after the first world war. It was officially outside of city limits, which is also why they could build such a large structure. High buildings are prohibited within city limits, so as not to destroy the architectural integrity of the city.

Originally, the Eiffel Tower was lit up at night like this as a millenium project. After the millienium was over, however, the people of Paris petitioned to continue it. As a result, the Eiffel Tower goes up in glittery lights every hour on the hour after dusk, for about five minutes.

Madrid Photos