Temporary Nomad

New York – yes it’s big, it’s brassy and it’s full of art. We’ve been gorging ourselves on both the masters and the most confronting contemporary art since we arrived. The MoMA was the kind of gallery where everything is so incredibly famous and well-known that when you do come across a new name you feel mildly embarrassed at the gap in your knowledge.

One of my favourites was Klimt’s The Park:

while Mike was taken by Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror:

and we both appreciated Rachel Whiteread’s reverse library.

We also popped into the MoMA’s affiliate contemporary gallery PS1 which was doing it’s best to shock and mostly succeeding. But it’s almost worth it just for the building, a converted school, and especially the former gym upstairs – the ultimate white cube.

Next up on the art front was the Frick Collection - an absolute revelation. Three Vermeers! Not only that, but the Vermeers weren’t even the highlights. Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas More is stunning, and paired with his Thomas Cromwell it’s even better. A few gems from Renaissance masters like Piero della Francesca and a rather sombre but pretty Monet also caught my eye, and again the magnificent building added to the experience. A tip for anyone thinking of making the trip – every Sunday between 11am and 1pm entry is ‘pay what you wish’ rather than the usual $15.

A visit to the American Museum of Natural History revealed plenty of dinosaurs and a planetarium show, and that was already too much. Maybe it was lucky the human evolution rooms were closed for refurbishment (trying to update in light of the Flores hominids perhaps) because we might have needed another afternoon.

A week wasn’t really enough to do London justice, especially as we squeezed in visits to Coventry and Oxford as well. It was mainly a chance to say goodbye to a lot of old friends in the UK – that we did manage.

Thanks everyone for your hospitality, especially Toby who like a trooper kept us fed, watered and housed, showed us parts of London we’d never seen and introduced us to the delights of Valrhona 64% and Brick Kiln Shiraz.

We did a bit of low-key sightseeing, Tate Modern, Dulwich Picture Gallery and a quick look at the British Museum (where we saw the Lewis Chessmen), but mainly London was good food, sunshine and friends. We ate tapas at Brindisa near Borough Markets, slow-roast lamb “for five-ish” at gastropub Anchor and Hope in Southwark, and burgers at Gourmet Burger Kitchen in West Hampstead.

Up in Cov we were treated to some more good food and hospitality (great chowder Dave), plus an impromptu IKEA furniture-building session in Solihull and a visit to a currently hip Kashmiri restaurant on Balti Mile followed by a bit of gate-crashing at a friend of a friend’s party in Warwick.

The next morning was a chance to chill out at Coventry’s best (some would say only) trendy café, Brown’s.

In Oxford we breezed by college (Univ), paying a visit to the Shelley Memorial.

Then, after a last night in London, seeing an interesting production of Lorca’s Yerma we bid farewell to Europe to seek our fortunes in the New World.

After Lewis it was off to Harris – fabulous day – sunshine, 16C. Lovely bays on the eastern side:

sandy beaches on the west:

- between the rocky outcrops:

Best spot of all was St. Clement’s church at Roghadal (Rodel), but we took no photos there, too caught up in the atmosphere. You can see images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maciomhair/tags/rodel/

We did a bit of genealogical research at the Seallam! Centre in Taobh Tuath (Northton). Mike may have found a link to his ancestor Flora MacLennan who left Harris for Australia some time in the 1850’s.
Amazing landscape. See a few more pictures on Flickr

Image Credits: Mike and Helen

A few magical days on Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides at the end of August. Magical in part due to the sunshine. A highlight was the blackhouse village at Gearrannan (Garenin) which was only finally vacated in 1974.

Black refers to the colour on the inside – they used peat fires but without chimneys, letting the smoke escape through gaps in the thatch roof with the expected sooty results. The smell of burning peat is a lot sweeter than you’d think, certainly compared with coal. We’d hoped to stay in the hostel in one of the restored houses but missed out to people who’d claimed their bunks with plastic bags and dirty tracksuit pants.

The Butt of Lewis (Rhuba Robhanais) was a surprise with a great sense of being on the edge of the world.

Plus Lewis boasts standing stones,

unexpectedly sandy beaches (where the Lewis chessmen were found)

and an Iron Age broch (fortification).

For more pictures see www.flickr.com/photos/nomadical with tag Hebrides.