Sunday, May 29th and Monday May 30th
— London-Manchester-Bolton-Manchester-Fresno (via Philadelphia and Phoenix)
Today was the day for traveling home. Actually, Neptune had left late the night before.
Neptune trying on impossibly expensive but pretty cool clothes in The Face on Carnaby Street.
He’d taken a bus back up to Manchester for an early flight back home. Later, he related the adventure of a middle-of-the-night bus trip filled with disappointed Manchester football fans after Italy won the European Cup (see Saturday’s post–”Day 8″).
John, Leland and I had a Monday morning flight out of Manchester, so we figured we could get ourselves and our baggage over to Euston Station (from which we could travel to Manchester) and then perhaps do some last minute souveneir shopping or looking around. When we got to the train station, we checked our bags into the storage room and headed for the exit. I noticed on the map, that we were right next to the Bloomsbury neighborhood–a neighborhood that looms large in the legend of Virginia Woolf. Being a fan, I convinced John and Leland that it’d be great fun to go and explore a bit. They kindly relented. First, we found a big, beautiful bookstore (formerly “Dylan’s”..can’t ‘member the current name). I found a book about Virginia Woolf and scribbled down some local addresses.
Here’s the email I sent the band explaining the addresses soon after we returned:
All the Stephen children (Virginia’s maiden name was Stephen) moved here in 1904, and her brother
Thoby began their “Thursday Evenings” here—(that was a night of intellectual snobbiness where they
watched fine films like “That Hideous Sun Demon” and “Plan 9 From Outer Space”).
note: in spite of what this blog implies, it's not commonly believed that Virginia Woolf ever viewed the film "That Hideous Sun Demon"
From 1907-1911 Virginia lived with her brother Adrian at 29 Fitzroy Square–the second place we visited.
They renewed these “Thursday Evenings” here, but I think the focus was more on discussions of the various
beat groups in Liverpool, and which ones had the tightest trousers.
the source for the discussion of 'Liverpool beat groups" amongst Ms. Woolf and her friends is of dubious quality.
Sometime in 1911 Virginia meets Leonard Woolf (future husband and publishing collaborator) for the second
time at the 46 Gordon Square address, so the other siblings must’ve held onto that address for a bit.
There are other ‘big’ addresses in V.’s history..so probably even more plaques I can search out some day…like where the Woolf’s started their ‘indie’ pubishing house “Hogarth Press” which published V.’s books as well as T. S. Elliot.
The economist, who beat out V. for the plaque on that first house moved there in 1916. Below are some bits from wikipedia about who the heck John Keynes is…I think I’ve heard people use the term Keynesian…and I bet his books are even harder to read than Ms. Woolf’s. She is also more attractive.”
a view of Gordon Square
After this Virginia Woolf excursion, we found a nearby tube station and headed back to Tourist Central..which seemed to be around Leicester Square. There were still a few more William and Kate (royal wedding, you know) coffee mugs to buy! After a bit of shopping (Do they actually raise the prices on the weekends? It sure seemed like it.), it was time to get on the train up to Manchester.
It's sort of a "Where's Waldo?" pic in Picadilly Circus. Spot Leland and John.
On the train, it was our turn to experience the mass exodus of football fans back up to Manchester. We spent the entire trip sitting on our suitcases on the floor…sort of between the bathrooms and the dinner car. We were right in the line of traffic for the football folk to walk past with their massive shopping bags full of beer bottles a’ klinkin’. A nice enough trip in spite of the luxury commodations..we were in Manchester by dinner time…and time for another walk! (Oh boy!) We asked some locals where to get something good to eat…and c’mon Leland, Chinatown wasn’t all *that* far to lug our suitcases (laughs), and the Thai restaurant *was* pretty darn good! Then it was back to Bolton, where Olly and family graciously put us up for *another* night–bless the good people of Bolton! In the morning, he and his father drove us into Manchester to the airport…and we were off. Several long flights…Manchester to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Phoenix (where we had fun reviewing pictures from the trip, and called home [Lauri and Tague were having a blast in Nashville after seeing my neice get married in Kentucky..they live in NYC...long story with lots of purdy pictures for another blog somewhere!]). Back home to Fresno by around 9:30pm . Todd picked me up—bless the nice people of Kingsburg!—-and that…is the end of this story. Great tour. Great friends. Great time.
Had to stick this picture in somewhere. There's this old church...across the street from EMI Abbey Road studios...and the church has these two more modern wings--condos built onto either side. Interesting.
Thanks for posting the jacket picture. I might have been persuaded to actually buy it if I’d known it looked THAT good on me!
Comment by Neptune J. Max — June 28, 2011 @ 1:01 pm