The dense and delicate petals filled the branches, accompanied by the bright sunshine, which brought an extremely transparent good mood. (There were many visitors sitting in the monks' garden, and each of them had a relaxed and comfortable expression on their faces. Some even simply lay on the green lawn, looking at the pink flowers on the trees. It must have been a very beautiful moment.
It was almost evening when we left Westminster Abbey. We took the subway and arrived near the square again. We walked towards the theater because we had bought tickets for The Phantom of the Opera that would be performed that day before we left.
When finding the theater, Yunluo Koala discovered that theaters in the UK and theaters in China are completely different in terms of scale and concept. In China, when a theater is mentioned, it must be a very tall and magnificent modern building with a large square in front of it. This was also the case with the two performances of The Phantom of the Opera held in Sihai ten years apart.
The Sihai Grand Theater and the Cultural Plaza are both large and magnificent theaters with modern facilities. When you walk in, you will indeed feel that art is shelved. Even the plays performed in such a large theater that can accommodate a large number of audiences are not very affordable. Compared with the prices of foreign theaters, the prices of domestic theaters can almost be said to be the same as those abroad.
When you arrive at the theater, if it weren't for the eye-catching sign, it would be a typical British building, or even a residential building. It is not huge and not gorgeous, but it is in this place that the Phantom of the Opera was born, and it is also the place where this masterpiece has been performed for so many years.
At the entrance, I met many Chinese families who came to watch the show. It is understandable that in China, The Phantom of the Opera has an unparalleled status and popularity compared to other plays, but in fact, there are very good plays performed every once in a while, some of which are not necessarily ancient costumes. There are also modern ones, all of which are good plays.
The theater entrance was not even as grand as the cinemas in China today. Yunluokaoala had booked a balcony seat, so she had to climb up the narrow stairs. The theater guides were all handsome London guys wearing red vests and dressed neatly. Walking in front of Yunluokaoala was an elderly couple. The woman was quite old and big, so the three flights of stairs made her breathless.
A guy who was checking tickets in advance said to the woman in a friendly way, "Oh, dear, it's okay. Even at your age, it's hard enough to climb up and down these stairs. It's really exhausting to go up and down them every day."
Of course Yunluo didn’t think that his lean and capable body would be exhausted by these few steps, but this friendly and cute remark gave Yunluo Koala a lovely impression of the British.
The manager of the balcony area was a very young man with black hair, black eyes and a slight mustache. He spoke very directly and interestingly, which gave Yunluo Koala a very good impression of the civility and etiquette of the younger generation in the UK.
The next day, when visiting the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, the security guy at the gate said to Yunluo Koala: "Oh, sweetheart, please open your bag. Check it." The aunt and grandmother behind Yunluo Koala became "dear, sweetheart" in his mouth, which must have brought them a good mood, and the same was true for Yunluo Koala.
Since the theater itself is not large, even in such a remote seat, the view is good. The plays performed in those large theaters in China are beyond reproach. The Phantom of the Opera is a rare masterpiece. Yunluo Koala also wants to express his respect for the cast and crew. In their performance, Yunluo Koala saw talent and hard work.
They are very dedicated in their performance. As a professional singer and actor, Yunluo Koala also understands very well that such professional performances must be based on excellent talent and very professional and hard training.
After watching the performances in China, Yunluo still wants to say sincerely that for the music, art, painting, and performances in China, apart from hype and flattery, we should really improve our artistic accomplishment and rigorous attitude.
As he was nostalgic for the comfortable beauty of Hyde Park, Yunluo Koala once again followed the beautiful path and came to Kensington Manor. The weather today was particularly gloomy, so Yunluo Koala felt the bone-chilling temperature in Britain. When the clouds blocked the sunlight, only the whistling wind on the open lawn took away the heat from his body.
As they arrived early, Kensington Manor was not open yet, so Yunluokala waited in the cold wind with other tourists for it to open. In fact, Yunluokala only found out later that Kensington Manor was where Princess Diana used to live, and many royal members and families had lived there before. There are many royal family portraits on display in the manor, especially portraits of princes and princesses.
The time Yunluokala went there happened to be an exhibition of paintings from the early Renaissance. The paintings in it started from the history of the development of early woodblock prints. There were not many things, but it was relatively comprehensive. There was also a video introducing the coloring process of woodblock prints.
However, when leaving the inner square and on the way back to the subway station, Yunluo Koala discovered an arcade-type shopping mall. Later, after checking the information, he learned that this was the ancestor of the arcade shops and had a long history.
There are many boutiques inside, among which the jewelry store is particularly eye-catching. There are all kinds of jewelry of all sizes, and each one is unique, well-made and designed. Of course, there are also many expensive watch stores, sweater stores, etc.
It is worth mentioning that this can also be seen in other European countries. There are some very beautiful jewelry with exquisite design and workmanship, but the price is much lower than expected. This doubt was explained in Yunluo Koala's subsequent itinerary.
European jewelry and inlaid jewelry may be made of white gold, platinum, and silver. Those very low-priced jewelry may be made of 8k or even less than 8k white gold or silver, but the gems inlaid on them are real gems or broken diamonds. On the contrary, 24k gold and platinum jewelry are rarely seen in the European market.
It was already late when Yunluokaoala arrived at Oxford Street, but after going there, he realized that Oxford Street was a bit like the Western Road of Sihai, with all kinds of shops, from mid- to high-end fashion brands to private clothing stores, digital stores, etc. But there was nothing special about it, and tourists were constantly coming and going.
The British Museum, one of the four largest museums in the world, is a temple-style building, but it is truly a different world once you enter it. The simple, stylish and magnificent beauty of the entrance hall is in sharp contrast to the classical exterior shape. The number and richness of the exhibits are indeed beyond the reach of domestic museums.
Many travel guides specifically recommend the Egyptian Pavilion and the Chinese Pavilion. It is understandable that the Egyptian Pavilion, like the Louvre in Paris, displays many rare exhibits from ancient Egypt, but most of the objects on display in the Chinese Pavilion are somewhat strange. In short, they are Chinese cultural relics that are more in line with Western tastes, and the number is not as large as imagined.
The British Museum is different from the Louvre. First of all, the number of exhibits is completely different from the Louvre, but there are not as many visitors as the Louvre, so basically you can calm down and look at the exhibits. At the same time, the placement of each exhibit is not as compact as the Louvre, so there is a lot of space for visitors to move around.
Like other British museums, the British Museum is free of charge, but there are donation boxes at each entrance. From the attitude of Europeans in building museums and the funds invested, we can see their emphasis on history and education. All the way down. In Europe and Western countries, the most exquisitely built and largest buildings are churches and museums.
Both are open to the public, one represents faith, the other represents history and education. Rather than being a government authority or a commercial skyscraper, this is also a kind of urban and even cultural language, telling what people really value in this place.
The Egyptian Museum has a complete set of disassembled real mummies, and most of the others are still wearing bandages. Unlike what people in China know, before the inner coffin lid is closed, there is actually a frontal facial portrait of the owner at the head of the shroud, and this style of mummies is not unique to Egypt.
Similar coffins and mummies have also been unearthed in other ancient countries in the Middle East. Apart from slight changes in shape, canvas was also used to cover the face of the shroud.
What surprised Yunluo Koala was that the painting skills of the Egyptians thousands of years ago were not just the kind of concave and convex outlines like those on mummy sarcophagi or murals, which were mainly based on lines and freehand brushwork. There were already some shadows of oil painting techniques in those facial portraits, and in some fine paintings, the faces were indeed drawn very lifelike.
In addition to the British Museum's very complete preservation of British history and objects, Yunluo Koala was impressed by the artworks from ancient Greece and Rome, which were much more impressive than the exhibits from China. They displayed different Roman capitals, and even had original murals and sculptures excavated from temples.
One cannot help but sigh that the sculptors of ancient Greece and Rome thousands of years ago had reached such an incredible level of art. The wrinkles of clothes, the structure of human faces, and the texture of war horses have all been reborn in these stones.
While resting on the bench in the middle hall, the London local who was sitting next to Yunluo Koala had a conversation with Yunluo Koala. He was as polite as all British people, and during the whole conversation he was very interested in China, where Yunluo Koala came from, so he repeatedly asked Yunluo Koala questions.
Sometimes the fun of traveling alone is that, because there is no one to accompany you, you are open to others along the way, chatting with different people, seeing China in their eyes, and seeing your own country in their eyes. There are too many strangers on the road who you only know by name and have only met once, and you will never see them again, but right now, right now.
Yunluo Koala was already starving when he walked out of the museum. He felt that he was too exhausted to walk to the nearest restaurant, so he ordered a chocolate muffin and a cup of tea at the mobile coffee bar outside the museum. As usual, pigeons also came around looking for food.
There really aren’t that many delicious foods on this trip to Yunluo Koala. Most of the meals are eaten in small coffee bars like this, and people only eat when they are starving. If they are not feeling hungry yet, they will continue with their trip to Yunluo Koala and skip the meals.
Another point is that for most people, or from a traditional perspective, Western food is always known for being high in calories and greasy because many fried foods are unhealthy. But in fact, Yunluo Koala ate a lot of Western fast food on this trip. The cakes were indeed very sweet, and the UK is a country that particularly likes fried food.
On the contrary, the food in China, even vegetables, actually contain a lot of invisible fat and salt. Under the label of high calories, you may feel full every time you eat, but in fact, you consume not only calories, but also the kind of oily substances that are difficult to digest and deposited.
It was also during this trip that Koala became more fond of walking. If the distance did not seem particularly far, Koala would rather walk to the destination, just like Koala's entire Edinburgh journey was completed on foot. The feeling of measuring the city over and over again with his own feet was something Koala had never experienced before. He also saw more details.
Koala insisted on walking every day for most of the trip. She would only stop when her feet completely stopped or when her stomach was full. Yunluo just doted on the little princess and walked with her.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
Many people know Notting Hill because of a movie called Notting Hill. A big star lived in the wealthy area of Notting Hill, but fell in love with an ordinary working-class girl. The movie was plain and simple. I remember this name deeply.
For the British, Notting Hill is still a very expensive area, and the price of real estate is twice that of the most central areas of first-tier cities in China. However, the reason why Yunluo and Koala went to Notting Hill was not the life of the rich there, but a very famous flea market in London.
This market is open all year round, unlike ordinary markets that are only open on weekends. This market is open almost all day on weekends and weekdays, and there are small shops selling things and temporary stalls, almost 4 floors of stalls on both sides. It stretches all the way to the bottom along the gradually rising terrain of Notting Hill.
In such flea markets, you can see Indians buying hats and top hats, stores selling furs, leather clothes and windbreakers, merchants selling antique furniture, vintage decorations and silver tableware, stalls selling all kinds of out-of-print books, small vendors selling all kinds of postcards or hand-painted pictures, almost everything, as for whether the items are real or fake. The price is all up to the eye.
There are also many stalls selling second-hand vintage pocket watches and compasses. At the back of the market, there are many small food stalls, among which pizza is particularly cheap. There are also many Lebanese and Indian street food, and even places selling pickles, condiments, vegetables and fruits.
At the bottom of the market, there is a gathering place for second-hand clothing. For foreigners, buying second-hand goods or old clothes and shoes is not as taboo as it is in the eyes of Chinese people. Since the clothes are well maintained and generally the clothes sold are washed and taken care of, most of the second-hand clothes on display are classic in style and of good quality, it is worth a look.
There are many jewelry stores in the market. The decoration is very ordinary, and some are even small stalls. However, some of them are merchants who sell genuine jewelry, and some of the jewelry is even quite old. Even so, Yunluo and Koala are very sure that there are some fakes among them. Whether it is real or fake, and the price is almost entirely determined by eyesight.
Yunluo once met an Indian-Malaysian in the market. He had lived in London since he studied at university there. He liked to shop here very much and told Yunluo that he knew a lot of antique dealers here. If you want to find good things, you have to come very early, for example, before seven o'clock, so that you can see good things and get good prices.
Then he proudly showed Yun Luo his spoils of the day, one of which was actually a "Chinese antique". But when he took out the antique, Yun Luo was a little surprised, and then he felt like laughing but couldn't. He spent about 3,000 pounds on the antique, and the other party told him that it was definitely a Chinese antique, and the dynasty might be the Qing Dynasty.
But Yunluo saw at first glance that it was actually a rectangular piece of pottery with a rough texture. The most surprising thing was that the lady was half-naked, half-leaning on the bed. Looking at the upper part of the painting, he saw that this "Chinese lady" had the face of a Japanese maid.
I don’t know if it’s to increase the credibility of the antique, but this piece of pottery also has a very old wooden frame. The wood doesn’t look top-quality, but it’s definitely not new. There are also rusty iron handles on both sides that are Chinese elements.
But after looking around, Shu Yunluo has been visiting domestic museums over the years, but has never seen any rectangular pottery pieces of ladies made in China, especially half-naked ones. And the wooden frame at the back looks like an object taken off old furniture.
Friends who are going to London are advised not to miss this market. Unlike Paris, this market is located in a wealthy area, so the security is relatively good and you can go there alone.
The Victorian-style St. Paul's Cathedral is a classic that cannot be missed. Its exterior is magnificent and solemn. There are almost no commercial facilities around the church, so it is particularly quiet. The church is open to the public for a fee from Monday to Saturday and is open to the public free of charge on Sundays, but the church art gallery will be closed.
The round vault and elegant Romanesque columns, inlaid with statues of saints, look extremely beautiful under the azure sky that brings good luck to Yun Luo. Turning back to the main entrance of the cathedral, there is a completely different facade. At the corner of the street in front of the square stands a monumental sculpture, which is very exquisite.
On the street side of St. Paul's Cathedral, Yunluo and Koala took a bus to London Tower Bridge. In fact, in terms of straight-line distance, the Tower Bridge was not too far away. The bus stopped at a bridge near the Tower Bridge and walked all the way to this iconic building in London, from blurry to clear.
As expected by director Robert, dating photos of Koala Siren, the celebrity rumored couple, were everywhere. The British entertainment industry is shameless and will do anything for money. At the same time, the reporters are not stupid. They all mentioned the French art film "Three Me" in which Koala Siren is currently starring.
In the eyes of director Robert, the success of a film depends on the box office, which is why Robert has been able to make art films for many years. Robert rarely loses money, and most of the time he makes a small profit, which can satisfy the film investors. Such a director who takes both art and box office into consideration is rare in the world. (To be continued...)