San Francisco Boy

LHR T5

Just off the plane at London Heathrow's new Terminal 5. Club World video.

Ceilings to make Frank Lloyd Wright wink.

Park Life

Clockwise from upper left: 1) Rain flowers in Soho Square. 2) Bed upon bed upon bed of colour in Regent's Park. 3) There we are, off to Gloucester Gate (northeast of the "Honest Sausage", email: chiefpiggy@honestsausage.com). 4) Bliss is walking, running or skipping through this utterly manicured park, one of the "lungs of London". A sunny weekend day is like stepping into a Seurat painting: joggers, picknicks, sunbathers, balloons, strollers, ice cream, tea.

Read All About It

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Above: These Three Men in a Float adventurers rode a 1958 milk float (van) 600 miles across England from Lowestoft to Land's End at 15 mph for a month to "slow down" and "really travel" rather than "simply arrive", part of a "Slow Down" ethos. We heard their adventures (causing traffic jams, being overtaken by rabbits, re-charging at strangers' homes and businesses) at Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross Road. Left: In flight from SFO to LHR, swine flu exploded worldwide. Hearing we'd just landed from the States, a table mate at Monmouth Coffee asked how we were. Didn't get his cheekiness until he explained the media hysteria.

Brief Encounter at St Pancras

English rail stations grand and modest never had a better friend than John Betjeman, poet, author, commentator, presenter. He helped personally save London St Pancras from demolition in the 1960s. When it was completely refurbished this decade to accommodate the London-Paris Eurostar Terminus, a glorious sculpture by Martin Jennings was erected in his memory and honour. Nearby, Paul Day's towering Lovers by dwarfs the edge of the platforms, known as The Meeting Place. St Pancras video.

Red London

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Top: Andrea in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, near our Morgan Hotel flat, red filter on. Morgan video. Above: Famous Covent Garden emporium with whole floor devoted to London books and maps. I bought Eleven Minutes Late—A Train Guide to the Soul of Britain. And a London bus guide, which Andrea lost an hour later. Left: Heading to the Strand. Central London walks video playlist.

London Chums

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From top: 1) Andrea flanked by our great friends Rob and Di Bradford near Leicester Square after dinner at the Covent Garden branch of Masala Zone, which followed a day out to Kew Gardens and Thames cruise. Thames video playlist. 2-3) Andrea and me with Rapiers confidante, gallant LHR driver and ace Reuters editor Ralph Gowling on Oxford Street. 4) It's nice to go traveling and meet up with a fellow San Franciscan. Ed Meares and me outside Hakkasan, on Hanway Place, where we dined on royal dim sum for lunch. (Nice photo, Andrea, worthy of a profile pix!)

That's Entertainment

Clockwise, from upper left: 1) The Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End was home to Three Days of Rain, starring Andrea's cinema boy, James McAvoy (peeking over her shoulder. 2) Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc!) and Ian McKellan (Gandalf!) dazzled for two hours at the Theatre Royal Haymarket near Piccadilly Circus. 3) Always time for a spot of classical performance. Cadogan Hall in Chelsea was the scene of a beautiful bit of acapella Renaissance Top o' the Pops from the talented Tallis Scholars. 4) A major bummer, The Boat That Rocked (retitled Pirate Radio in America) purportedly tells the story of English pirate radio in the '60s. Alas, even with a cast of memorable actors including the great Bill Nighy, it stank and sank under its own ballast bloat and faux-Austin Powers flower power glasses.

Fernandez & Wells, Beak Street, Soho

Clockwise from top: 1) Minute by minute, the sun slowly revealed the establishment's name in shadow on the counter. 2) Soho morning view. 3) Contemplative Andrea captured by mobile phone camera. 4) A "flat white"—perfection in a cup.

London Eats

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From top, then clockwise: 1) Morning still life at Patisserie Valerie, Old Compton Street, Soho. 2) Colourful confectionary concoction at Masala Zone, a genius Indian chain expanding all over London. 3) Ex-colleague Ed Meares experiencing a very British kind of sugar rush after his first ever Sticky Toffee Pudding at Mother Mash, off Carnaby Street, on my birthday. 4) It got a much-desired red star in its review in Time Out, so we rode a long way by bus to Hammersmith to feast on Persian cuisine at Mahdi, a real local. Of course the kebabs, bread and salad were phenomenal, and the service as friendly and cordial as possible.

Rockin' Palmers Green

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British music makers backstage at the Intimate Theatre, Palmers Green, North London, for Rapiers fan Dave Coleman's birthday (a week before mine). I spy Rapiers Colin Pryce-Jones, Nathan J. Hulse and John Tuck, plus guests Fabienne Delsol and Liam Watson, Toe-Rag Studio whiz producer and the man behind the knobs for both The Rapiers and The White Stripes (now that's variety). Intimate Theatre video playlist.

Venice Arrival

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Above: Ah, Venice (almost)! In a booth at the Arrivals Lounge of Marco Polo Airport, awaiting an Alilaguna water taxi to Venice proper. Little did we know our boat would have to rescue another—out of gas and bobbing in the Lagoon—and half-tow, half-bump the vehicle to its Murano Island destination before heading back on course to ours. Those Italian mariners! I bled on that boat, too, after having a stuck window slam my thumb. Left: All is well on land. To complement an ethereal, practically deserted square under a centuries-still Venetian sky like no other I've seen, dinner essentials include guidebook, map, phrase book and bottled water. Ca' Angeli Hotel video playlist.

Pizza Pizza Pizza

Top left: I read the first pizza you have in Venice will always be your true love. Perhaps, but this Campo San Polo spot recommended by both our Ca' Angeli Hotel night manager (who spent lotsa minutes practicing his English describing how to find this place, a mere five-minute walk) and Time Out Venice hit the spot for us, despite a loud, obnoxious Australian couple seated next to us. Loved the Daviola, spicy salami! We went a second night. Bottom left: Our Venice map had a tiny caption calling this restaurant "Venice's best-kept secret", so following day we beat a path to it and found ourselves feasting on fantastico pizza and surrounded by locals. Curiously, all the artwork was '40s and '50s American advertising and brands. I also spotted a huge SF Giants baseball logo in one corner. Yes, pizza three straight days, despite roaming past the eateries seen in video below.

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Vaporetto Cruising on the Grand Canal

"Don't touch the water in the Grand Canal," everyone warns. But it looks so gossamer pretty from the deck of a water taxi. BTW: Our Vaporetto stop was San Silvestro.

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Caffè del Doge

Outside: Caffè del Dolge menu, gray street and walls, white umbrellas, black leather. Inside: Living La Dolce Vida on cappucino transfusions. Caffè del Dolge video.

Spices, Sweets and Pesce

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Top: Spice is the variety of life. "We must remember that spices used to be the currency of choice in ancient times," writes a friend. Middle: Licorice through any window. Bottom: Rialto Fish Market. Rialto Market video.

Andrea Unmasked

"Venice is like a movie set," said my mother-in-law. Indeed. Andrea in front of a shop near our hotel.

Venetian Style

Clockwise from top left: 1) Eyes wide open in Venice. 2) If you gotta go, it's about $1.95—a male or female attendant stands ready to make change, so you can enter. 3) Gelato gelato gelato round every corner. Andrea: "The gelato with the walnuts was really good!" 4) Loved that coke cans in Italy were slimline, a la Red Bull, for a more aerodynamic style sense.

Girl About Town

Clockwise from upper left: Some people perspective with Andrea just outside Church of the Frari, Sestiere San Polo. Composer Monteverde is buried here. Frari video. 2) Andrea foreground, Campanile in San Marco Plaza background. 3) Look closely, you can see the far shore of the Grand Canal reflected in Andrea's sunglasses. 4) Andrea sporting her best Continental look on the Rialto Bridge. Doubtless I was blocking foot traffic by taking the photo. "But that's what all tourists do," was my probable reply. "Does this photo make me look pregnant?" a woman asked me one evening near the same spot. "Yes, it does," I answered. "See? At least he's honest," she called to her boyfriend/husband/fiance. I took a better photo of her.

Good to the Last Drop

Yes, come to Venice! Drink $12 cappucinos (including cover charge) while the band plays on!

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Grand Canal by Moonlight and Streetlamp

Walking east past our hotel entrance we came to a mini-pier dipping its feet into the Grand Canal. Sounds on tap: water lapping, oars skimming, gondoliers crooning. Grand Canal video.

Volare

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Top: Blue tarps, blue skies, black and white all the rest. 2) Left: Far down this watery tunnel you might glimpse the Bridge of Sighs.

Following the Sun on the Grand Canal

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Surely one of life's great pleasures is sitting in the bow of a Vaporetto water taxi, wind and sun in your face, sailing up the Grand Canal into a Canaletto masterpiece, palazzi galore.

Seating Marco Polo Airport

Hypnotic, blood-red shadows (no camera trickery) cast by row upon row of plastic seats upstairs at Marco Polo Airport.

Leaving Venice

Clockwise from top: 1) Ready for takeoff, back to London. 2) En route, the Alps sparkled. 3) Possibly where pastels come from. Somewhere over France.

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Birthday at Amersham

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Top: Backstage at the Amersham Rock 'n' Roll Club on my birthday, May 9, I count 5 Rapiers and 4 Shakers—proof positive clothes do make the men and musicians. Above left: The Rapiers for Comfortable Shoes. Above right: Our table, with Andrea, Julia and Barry Gillam, Alan Taylor, Ramon Garcia and, um, Ulf? Amersham video playlist.

Kew Gardens

'Twas a splendiferous sunny afternoon at Kew for a wedding, California Lilac, bluebells and rhododendrons. Only a sweltering greenhouse proved too much for my tolerance.

Kew Buzz

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Top: Busy bumble bees buzz Andrea during lunch. Above right: Behold the giant lily pads! "That's where the fairies sit," I heard a mom tell her daughter.

London Sky Views

Clockwise, from upper left: 1) A London afternoon sky worth photographing. 2) A mast of the Hungerford Bridge over the Thames pierces the London Eye. 3) On Victoria Embankment with the London Eye as halo. 4) Majestic Victoria Embankment memorial to World War I fallen.

Where Georgy Girl and Morgan Lived

Top: Up this very Holland Park staircase trundled Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave and Charlotte Rampling in Georgy Girl, one of the key swinging London films of 1966. Bottom: The Notting Hill house where David Warner and Vanessa Redgrave warred in the 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment.

Burlington Arcade

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Andrea in front of Penhaligon, Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, London. Me there too, holding my Duchamp London bag with a floral spring tie inside.

Roman Britain in British Museum

Clockwise from upper left: 1) Greg's Museum Rule: Target one area, spend 45 minutes absorbing, leave. Learned this the hard way over many years and burning out in the Louvre, British Museum, etc. So, I took my own advice and spent quality minutes in Room 49, "Roman Britain", British Museum. 2) As the Romans were withdrawing from Britain, Christianity was taking hold. 3) From Wikipedia: The Mildenhall Treasure is believed to have been buried in the 4th century. It includes some of the finest surviving examples of Roman silversmithing, including the mid-4th century Great Dish which measures 605 mm in diameter and weighs 8256 g. The dish glorifies Bacchus and is decorated with a wide band showing a Bacchic revel, at the heart of which is a drinking contest between Bacchus and Hercules, who is shown dead drunk and having to be supported. An inner band of nereids surrounds a foliated head of the sea god, Oceanus. 4) Cool reflection of silver on glass.

LHR T5 Homeward Bound

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Clockwise from above: 1) View from Club World South Lounge, Terminal 5, London Heathrow. 2) View from Club World Lounge, Gate B, Terminal 5. 3) Feet up, drinks full, journey map on monitor. Bliss on way home from London to San Francisco. 4) If they could talk, they'd say "ah". Fin. LHR T5 video playlist.