That is one thing about getting up early to catch flights, sometimes sunrises in Berlin can be quite beautiful....
So I heard of an open-air opera in Holland Park, London. So I went on my way and was quite impressed by the 'hood...tres chic if you ask me....
:)
These are the Kyoto gardens in Holland Park....quite peaceful....
And here we have the main event, the opera 'house' ;)
I had a bit of time before the show, so I wandered....
Nice gardens here too...
:)
So tonight we're going to see Beethoven's 'Fidelio'. It was his one and only opera. I liked it and the story was good (a wife pretends to be a man, works in a jail in order to save her husband)....
Then two days later I watched 'Don Giovanni' by Mozart. The story is...scandalous, but thankfully I was in England and so it wasn't 'shown' like it would've been in Germany or elsewhere...
Don Giovanni is quite the philanderer...and in the end the words to the closing song are 'so dies those who lives such a life', cuz in the end Giovanni 'gets it'....sorry for the spoiler! :)
As you can see, Don Giovanni's favorite person in the world is...himself :)
Thought it was hilarious that this was there in the park....makes sense though....especially since during the break in the opera I stepped in someone's 'canine negligence' shall we say....GRRR.....
So I had never been to a cricket match, and so here is our chance - off to Lord's Cricket Pitch for Australia vs. Pakistan!
It started to rain so they brought out this 'hover craft' thing and put it over the 'sandy' pitching mound....quite interesting....it made noise so I wondered if it was also drying the sand and not just 'covering' it....
And then the sun came out, wahoo! So cricket is interesting....I asked an 'information' guy about the game and he explained some things. In cricket you don't 'pitch' the ball, i.e. bend your arm/elbow and throw the ball, you have to 'bowl' it, i.e. straight armed....
The batsman protects the 'wicket', aka wooden sticks, with a bat. The players were quite 'smashingly' dressed, i.e. woolen sweaters, light-colored trousers, etc. Quite a 'gentlemen's sport' ;)
They even had a half-time show....
During half-time I walked around the grounds...here is a guy making bats that people could buy....
These guys were playing....jazz/rag time music....I thought it was interesting and made the whole experience very nice....being at Lord's cricket grounds was almost like being in old Imperial Britain....
People eating and drinking....cricket matches can last for days so it's not uncommon DURING the match for people to leave and get something to eat....
Another band...made it fun....
That is the media room for Lord's cricket grounds....looks more like an emissary from the 'Mothership' if you ask me :)
First of all, I find it funny that an alcohol is called 'Pedigree' (immediately makes me think of dog food) and their ads were quite....well....you can read for yourself.
(Their other ad said 'Pedigree would like to send you to a country without one (a pedigree)' Umm...yeah...doubt a whole lot of Aussies drink their stuff....)
See...a celebration of all that is English! Read for yourself....
And, at a celebration of all that is English, it is not unheard of for some to catch a few naps...or do Sudoko...or read....or have a picnic....
Seriously, I think cricket is much more about the experience and atmosphere (which I myself also enjoyed) than the actual game....
Come on Australia! Come on! You can do it! Or is that Pakistan at bat? I don't know.... ;)
And what was supposed to be a yuck day turned into a 'brill' day (as the English might say), blessings and more blessings....
Later on that day I was going to go to an open-air theatre in Regent's Park. Here is one of the entrances to Regent's Park with canal....loverly, eh?
Regent's Park complete with football pitches (soccer fields) (it's amazing how much of English-English I've taken on :)
Loverly.....
Boating lake....loverly....
The London Central Mosque borders the park....lots of Muslim families were walking around together....
Rose garden....I think this is where 'Painting the roses red!' from 'Alice in Wonderland' started running through my head ;)
Wunderbar....
And here we are the open-air theatre...looking great so far!
Tonight's performance will be 'Comedy of Errors' by Shakespeare....hope you're ready ;)
So, SPOILER ALERT, long story short: two brothers and their twin servants are separated during a storm at sea from their parents. They all land in different areas. Dad goes to Ephesus (which as a man from Syracuse he's forbidden to do and so will die) to continue 20-year search for his family. Both of his sons and their twin servants (who don't know of each others' existence) walk around town and are mistaken for each other left and right. Story ends with Mom, an nun, recognizing her old husband and then all the family is together again. I REALLY liked this play! I didn't know the story and enjoyed it; they did it all like 'Casablanca' 1930's, complete with some songs here and there (who turns Shakespeare's lines into song?)....loved loved loved it....
