Knights to the Phantom and beyond

Thursday brought another matinee, this time for both of us, but what to do in the morning? Wednesday really took it out of me, so I did not want to do too much. One of my goals was to visit the Templar Church. The Templars were an order of knights who chose to take monastic vows beginning g in 1118. It was their wish to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land. They became one of the most powerful groups in Christendom. They built the round church called Temple Church and other monastic buildings on the Thames, consecrating the church in 1185. The unusual round shape of the church reflects the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which supposedly sits atop the site of Christ’s death, burial and rising. Many of the Templars were buried in the English church, with stone effigies as seen above. You probably remember the scene in the film ‘The DaVinci Code‘ set in this part of Templar Church. To my great surprise, I discovered that the knights at my feet in the photo above are a part of my direct family tree which goes back to Alfred the Great, King of Wessex! I have recently been working on my genealogy, confirming this lineage back to the seventh century, and these two fellows, William Marshall, first Earl of Pembroke and Gilbert Marshall, third Earl of Pembroke are in my direct line and were real Templar knights. Wow!

Surrounding these effigies are faces, some of which are absolutely hilarious.

Around midnight on May 10th, 1941 an incendiary bomb fell on the roof of this part of the church. The fire spread rapidly, causing a lot of damage to both the church and the knight’s effigies. Seventeen years later Temple Church was fully restored and rededicated.

Time to get some lunch and find our way to Her Majesty’s Theatre for ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ There are not a lot of eating choices around Temple Church, nor was there an easy way to get to the theatre in time other than a taxi, so we splurged. Unfortunately the massive Extinction Protest caused the taxi to take tiny back streets way out of the way to the theatre, which is just on the other side of the protesters In Trafalgar Square. The traffic was mostly at a stand still. Thankfully we made it, having racked up a lot of extra pounds (£) just sitting. There was not a lot of time before the theatre opened, so we had to choose the Sports Bar next door to grab a bite of lunch. They served the best fish and chips! That and a pint of cider which we split fixed us up nicely.

Her Majesty’s Theatre had crowds outside waiting to get their bags checked before setting foot inside. We found an usher with no queue, so got in right away. We had great seats in the Royal Stalls (the first balcony).

The opening set

And yes, that chandelier does come out over the audience and then crash back on to the stage! Glenn enjoyed the show very much. For me it was sadly too amplified and was nothing more than noise. Oh well...

Following the show we headed to the nearest tube station which is Charing Cross. The only problem was that Charing Cross is the tube station for Trafalgar Square, so we were blundering into the protest. I gather that we were in good company as Benedict Cumberbatch also visited the Square. Unfortunately the tube station was chained shut. It was a very long walk up Regent’s Street to Piccadilly Circus, so we hailed another cab. Thankfully we were driving away from the madhouse, so traffic actually moved!

Friday held a lot of promise, and that promise was more than fulfilled! We were invited to lunch by my very good friend Kristin. She had eaten at an amazing restaurant, and knew that I would be especially excited by eating there. So Glenn and I took the tube to Knightsbridge, my old stomping grounds as my high school nearby. We ‘had‘ to walk through the famous posh department store Harrod’s to get to and from school. Well, we could have gone around, but where’s the fun in that? Anyway, Knightsbridge tube station has two exits, and we needed the other one, a ways away from Harrod’s. I had to get my bearings as we walked outside, knowing approximately where we were and where we were going. We started across the street, but I turned around and looked at the building next to the station. It was one of those really grand buildings with lots of flags flying and a liveried footman at the base of the white marble stairs leading to the door. I saw no sign, but then I saw the middle flag - the Mandarin Oriental Hotel - exactly where we were headed! So we walked back, past the footman, up the marble steps to the front door which was opened for us. (What a job, opening the door all day long.). We asked if there was a place to sit and wait as we were early. The lady started to show us to a spot, but then I said we had reservations at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, so she immediately took us to a different location to await Kristin’s arrival. Her cab was also delayed by the protest. Sitting in an elegant bar (bar seems the wrong word for it), we were given sparkling water and munchies while we waited for Kristin. She arrived just in time to be ushered into this very elegant restaurant swarming with wait people. It turns out that Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is a two-star Michelin restaurant, and there are not a lot of those around the world. Heston Blumenthal is fascinated by English cuisine of years gone by. He researchers ancient recipes, figures out how not only to prepare them but how to make them show-stopping. Many of the recipe books that he uses are actually in my collection. That being said, just having them in my collection does not mean that I can prepare them easily as most of them are the original recipes from the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, etc., centuries. They sometimes list ingredients that we do not know, and do not give any measurements, or at least not precise ones. Redacting recipes is quite an art, and is one which both Kristin and I are interested.

We did not have a waiter. We had a whole staff of waiters. Each time a dish was served it was done so by three people all at once so Kristin, Glenn and I were served at exactly the same time. When the dishes for that course were removed cloth serviettes (napkins) whisked away any crumbs left on the table before the next course. It was an elegant ballet of (mostly) men in black. And the food. From the lunch menu you had a choice of two starters, two mains and two sweets. Each was elegantly described and given the date of the original cookbook. I so wish we had taken pictures of our food as it arrived in spite of being a touristy thing to do. The salad that I chose had smoked Scottish salmon in thick pieces, and variety of greens including one that was some sort of sea vegetable. It was arranged beautifully on top of a swash of maroon-coloured sauce. So many layers of flavours that bloomed in your mouth. It was exquisite! Then came lamb, also gloriously plated and utterly delectable. Finally I had a pudding that was light and flavoured with mace, put together with pears, caramelised sauce and topped with a few thyme leaves. Thyme leaves! Who would have thought of putting thyme in a sweet? It was exceptional! Kristin’s and Glenn’s chocolate dessert had grapefruit ice cream with the chocolate and was topped with gold leaf. Our head waiter brought us copies of the menus to keep, and Blumenthal’s cookbook to peruse. Some people take pictures of food, of drinks, of friends, we took a photo of the cookbook!

But Glenn did get a great shot of us as well!

The day was not finished yet. We were off to The Delaunay, a wonderful restaurant on Drury Lane near Covent Garden. In their less formal café my dear friend Cynthia, from my days at Trinity College of Music in London, met us for tea. Cynthia was the other American student at Trinity at the time, and we were bosom buddies. I also had my British bosom buddies, but Cynthia happened to live in a bed sit just around the corner from me, and she was alone and very far away from home, so we were together a lot. Cynthia has had the good fortune to have lived and worked this whole time in England as a very successful musician, with many years being leader (concertmaster) of her orchestra. While we enjoyed wonderful cakes and pastries we all talked and talked, catching up and trying to figure out how to solve the problems of our two countries. After several hours we could no longer push the café’s good will, so we bid a fond farewell until the next visit. What a day!!!