Dream Theater – Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Uriah Heep – Into the Wild
Alonso Arreola Project – Musica Horizontal
Sarah McLachlan – Laws of Illusion
City & Colour – Little Hell
Grand Theft Bus – Made Upwards
Dar Williams – Many Great Companions
Grachan Moncur III – Mosaic Select (3CD)
Up at 3:30 and out into the morning at 4am...
..to Dr Prog's to pick him up for, today, we were off on our second annual trip to High Voltage - a rock festival (around 40 bands on the prog, metal and main stages over two days) in London...
Our journey began at the bus stop, as Dr Prog studied the line ups...
To the airport in plenty of time, given the now overwhelming security checks that take place but quickly through and breakfasted in the departure zone prior to take off around 6:30 am...
Glorious views of the Forth as we turned South...
..including the island Anne and I sailed out to a couple of weeks back...
...and the Forth bridges...
Equally spendid views as we came in to land at Stanstead...
...and on to the 8:30 bus to Liverpool St, passing the Olympic Stadium on the way...
..and the gherkin..
...arriving at Liverpool St around 10 and ready for action...
Day tickets bought, it was into Tottenham Court Road and walk to Soho Square...
..then through Wardour St and Dean St to Berwick St, where I found this tasty wee morsel at Reckless Records for just £2.50...
Post a pick me up coffee, it was on down through Chinatown towards Trafalgar Square, where we spotted this church, which, unbeknown to us at this point, was to figure in our itinerary later today...
For now though, we doubled back past the English National Opera (ENO)...
...and found the self same tasty place where we lunched last year - and we lunched again...
...before finding FOPP - a big FOPP...
I picked up Wim Wenders' film "Lisbon Story" which features my Portuguese faves Madredeus - been looking for that for ages...
Time to book into the hotel so into the subway again...
...and a three train journey to Limehouse...
A good quiet, comfortable room...
No rest for the wicked though and it was back out again to the Docklands Light Railway and back into town...
Our target was the National Gallery (we did the Tate Modern last year)...
...but we got sidetracked by a park and some ice cream...
..before heading along the banks of the Thames, noting the London Eye...
...and the quite magnificent and moving Battle of Britain rememberance sculpture...
...then, on to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament...
..and up Whitehall, past the Cenotaph...
..Downing Street - an American tourist asked the policemen if this was where No 7 Downing St was...
...on past the Women's monument you never see on the telly...
...a gorgeous, sunny day...
..finally into Trafalgar Square...
..where the preparations for upcoming broadcasts re one year to go till the Olympics were underway...
...to the National Gallery - there's that church again...
A quick look onto the square and in we went...
We spent a good couple of hours looking mainly at wonderful, colourful paintings from the 15th to 17th Centuries...
Of course, the pics (taken surruptitiously) don't do the gallary justice but give you a wee taste of the wonders we saw...
Back out into the square, vowing to return to the gallery on Monday...
..and left to the church of St Martin in the Fields...
..where we discovered a concert was about to take place, featuring some of our favourite music by Bach, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Pachelbel and Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"...
Tasty...
Top notch music makers...
When we emerged just before 10, it was pouring so we made a dash back into Chinatown and enjoyed some tasty Chinese fayre, with beer of course...
Back into the underground - it was packed due to an earlier signal failure...
After a journey of over an hour we made it back to the hotel for a cheeky wee nightcap before turning in after a twenty two hour day...
A good start to the trip...
Highlight of the Day : St Martins in the Fields and the National Gallery...
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