Anyway, today we went out to the outskirts to see an old house with a great art collection that contains a Vermeer and a famous Rembrandt. You don't have to put "famous" in front of Vermeer, because there are only around 30 of them and so they're all rare and precious. Rembrandt did lots of stuff, and this was his best known self-portrait. There was a nice Hals portrait too, and some other good art. The house had been left to the National Trust by on of the Guinness family. So raise a glass.
After that we went to a pleasant area called Hampstead. Nice place to walk around and browse. It's perfect weather- 68 degrees and sunny; we were in Ireland for 2 weeks last year and didn't have a single day like that. Then came back and rested before we went to Covent Garden, which is one of the least gardenlike spots I've seen around here. In general, this area of London is mobbed all the time. And Covent Garden and the streets around it were simply too damned crowded to enjoy walking. We stopped in a bookstore and then went to get something to eat.
From there, off to the theatre, where we saw a play written by and starring Jesse Eisenberg. He plays, believe it or not, a very smart but very unhappy, privileged, manipulative and socially inept jerk. It was difficult to watch at times, just because it was uncomfortable, but the cast was great and parts of it were very funny. There was an extended bit that plays off "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" that was really funny and another rapid-fire exchange, think Aaron Sorkin crossed with Woody Allen, where the actors, who have been doing this play since 2013, cracked up. I can't even remember what it was about but everyone, including the actors, were laughing nonstop.
Then a futile search for some ice cream (how you walk through a city and pass 20 pizza places without passing a single ice cream shop?) and back to the hotel to rest our tired feet. More stuff to do tomorrow.
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