In between days (part 2)

Tuesday

After a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast watching the BBC 1's Breakfast show, we headed to St. Lawrence Jewry-next-Guildhall for a free Tuesday concert. Two graduates of the Guildhall Academy played violin and piano peices: Yuki Hayakashi (v) and Kanae Furomoto (p). The 45 minute concert consisted of Koichi Kishi, Taketor's Story (1933); Benjamin Britten, Three Pieces for Violin and Piano from the Suite Op 6 (1934-35); and Johannes Brahms, Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major Op 78 (1879). We intended to have a tapas lunch at Tendido Cero, suggested by a NY Times' piece, but we arrived just after 3 and they were on siesta. Walked back up the Old Brompton Road toward South Kensington station and stopped at Abbaye, a cool Belgian brasserie. I did moules et frittes of course and washed it down with a nice Pauwel Kwak in the traditional beaker-like glass. Then we headed to the Science Museum for the frankly overrated Plasticity exhibition.

That evening we wandered down Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue to Picadilly Circus/Leicester Square to catch Mamma Mia! Given the Greek isle setting, I rapidly figured out that there would have to be an Abba-esqe encore to fit in "Waterloo", their first big Eurovision-Song-Contest winning hit. Score one for me.

Wednesday

With the exception of the Wednesday evening Bloomsbury pub walk completed in our first real rain of the trip and discussed earlier, we made our second Wednesday an unscheduled free day. spent much of it visiting famous and not-so-famous Rock and Roll sites and snapping photos. Here goes

3 Savile Row, former Apple Corp HQ; yes that is THE ROOF.



Here some German tourists do the wacky Abbey Road zebra walk.



The unprepossessing frontage of the most famous music studio in the world.



In the 1960s, the basement of this building was Regent Studios, where the Beatles did their first day of recording for Sgt. Pepper's.



This office on the west side of Soho Square is Paul McCartney's; a large room on the second floor displays many of his gold records.



The most famous phone box in London (Heddon Street off Regent Street); seen in Antonioni's Blow-Up and on the back cover of Ziggy Stardust.





Perhaps Warren Zevon had Peking Duck in this Soho establishment?



And finally, one for all you Floyd fans.