What an Evening!

We extended the lease on our apartment to our new completion date here of 10 July 2007. The landlord let us know that as a token of his gratitude for our staying on he was giving us tickets to see the Bolshoi Ballet here in London. We went last Tuesday night. His gift included dinner with all the trimmings in the Opera House restaurant.

What a spectacular evening! First, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is magnificent; a real gem of Victorian architecture. The foyer is a trademark glass and iron arched space which now houses a bar and two of the three restaurants. The auditorium is the traditional European horseshoe style, and is spectacularly decorated. Gold and deep red velvet abound. The ceiling is a work of art. The stage is huge.

The itinerary was: show up at about 6:30 for our reserved table in the restaurant – enjoy a cocktail, appetizer and main course. Then go into the auditorium for the 7:30 start of the ballet. At about 8:00 return to our table and have dessert and coffee during the 25 minute “interval”. Then back for Act II of the ballet and afterward back to the reserved table for port and mingling with the crowd in the open portion of the restaurant. Then back to the auditorium for Act III.

Of course, the Bolshoi is renowned for its mastery. With little knowledge of ballet, I’m sure we didn’t appreciate (or realize) the degree of excellence being performed. The audience was, on the whole, much more knowledgeable of ballet than either of us. And it was very interesting to hear the collective intakes of breath, the spontaneous smattering of applause and even fairly widespread “bravos” in the middle of routines – indicating, no doubt, an especially well-done jump or turn or other dance move. Kathi and I were finding it all spectacular, but with little basis for any comparison.

The ballet was “The Pharoah’s Daughter”. The number of dancers was enormous (there are 213 in the Bolshoi). The costumes were almost beyond belief – I doubt if the ancient Egyptian court ever looked as spectacular in reality as it did on the Opera House stage. The costume changes were numerous. The scenery was extremely grand, with many changes. And, beside the lead ballerina and male dancer (is there a male equivalent of “ballerina”?) there were another dozen or so soloists who put on bravura performances at various points in the story.

After that evening of spectacle and treats for the eyes and ears (the Bolshoi orchestra would probably outshine many of the world’s philharmonics or symphony orchestras) it was difficult to go home and go to sleep.

And what a great thing for our landlord to think of -- sincere thanks have gone to him.

Unfortunately, cameras were not permitted in the Opera House, so we have no photos of our own. The ones here are from publicity material.

Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg, Germany, from 27 to 30 July -- Chuck was visiting the Hamburg Ship Research Institute and Kathi went along to see some of the sites. We were there during a few days of particularly beautiful weather.

The research institute, like so many of the places Chuck goes to in his work, was fascinating and staffed by very interesting people -- doing interesting research.

The city is one of those heavily bombed during the war, though there is little to make one aware of that now -- it is a bustling city of business, part of the vibrant economy of post-war Germany. The traditional, and still important, heart of the city is its very large and very active port.

Despite the effects of the war, there are still many large and architecturally interesting (and beautiful) buildings in Hamburg. The first picture is of a statue of St. Michael the archangel slaying the devil on the front of the large church bearing his name -- said to be "the most beautiful Lutheran church". We took the opportunity to take a boat tour on the canals and in the harbor and also took a sightseeing bus tour about the town.

Hamburg's waterfront area contains a very large number of 18th and 19th century warehouses -- very large, multifloor buildings which were, in their day, at the heart of Hamburg's wealth. Today, they are no longer used for that function and are slowly becoming offices, restaurants, stores and other attractions. One of these is the Miniature Wonderland, which was very highly recommended to us as a "not to be missed" stop. Of course, we visited it (along with a very large number of other people; it's very popular). It contains an absolutly enormous display of HO scale model railroad track running through dozens of scenes, including locations all over Europe as well as the US. The guidebook informed us that there are 15 kilometers of track (that's 10 miles of model railroad track!); more than 1000 trains; about 1/2 million miniature lights; 250,000 human figures and 250,000 trees. It is operated by 60 computers and is the largest model railroad in the world. A picture of the control center is nearby.

The plaza around our hotel was the site of the Duckstein festival -- an annual street festival sponsored by a German beer. As soon as we went out the hotel door we were in the midst of food stalls serving ethnic foods from all over the world, the typical variety of stalls hawking merchandise, street performers and a stage with musical performances each night. It was all very European and very festive.

A high point of the city's buildings is the Rathaus, the castle-like city hall, more modern than it looks, having been built in 1887 to replace its predecessor destroyed in an 1842 fire. It contains 647 rooms -- more than Buckingham Palace, the guides are quick to point out.

A very moving site (and sight) is the tower of St. Nikolai Church. The church was destroyed in the World War II bombing and it was decided to leave the tower, which had survived, standing as a memorial against war. The very ornate tower, rising from the barren site of the church, is very moving and is visible from much of the city. This, among other things, can be seen in our photos at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1741715