Responding to the MyChums survey, we spent a long weekend there to see the wonders of the Prado and the Escorial. There are some photos posted on forum .
A few notes on our trip to
Istanbul in October 2009.
On the first day the group set off for Sultanakhmet ( without me as I was lame) and looked at the Haghia Sophia the sixth century masterpiece of Emperor Justinian. It was pleasing to see it being renovated as it suffers from not being the responsibility of either the Christian or Moslem churches.
Haghia Sophia
I can imagine how long the golden mosaics will last under the daily onslaught of ten thousand flash cameras. Later at the Chora the authorities had trained the staff in turning the flash feature which solved the problem but at the Sophia it was bedlam.
The scale of the Haghia Sophia reminds you of the relative power of Justinian over his rival in
Rome that would not matched until Michelangelo designed the dome at
St Peters eight hundred years later.
Those who came on the Victorian walk in June remembered the two themes of architecture that we saw amply evident in Knightsbridge: the classical world of Thomas Cubitt in
Belgravia and the stylised designs of Pugin, Morris, Norman Shaw and Gilbert Scott all around
Sloane Street.
We took the story a few decades on, with the majestic structures of Lutyens down the cool classical line, and the stylised world of Art Nouveau moving onto Art Deco.
Following on from the successful Arts Supper in June which explored issues around notions of avant-garde and commercialism in contemporary art, our speaker Jennifer Thatcher (who teaches at Sotheby’s) spoke to us for an hour on the autumn show at Tate called Pop Life: Art in a Material World -October to January.
October 24th- By tram to Sultan Akhmet area- Haghia Sophia, the Hippodrome, the Cistern and the Blue Mosque. Nobody forgets seeing the Haghia Sophia for the first time. How Justinian built something so huge and wonderful so long ago will amaze you. We will look at the exterior of the Sublime Porte where Lord Elgin negotiated his permission to remove the Parthenon Marbles for the British Museum. We will dine in the flower market.
A long weekend in this perfectly preserved medieval city. It has delightful squares and fine buildings of many styles from the Romanesque to the fin de siècle.
We traced the life of Paul Cezanne and toasted him in local rose.
I was surprised to read how revolutionary the Victorian zeitgeist was: they delight in the shock of the new. Will, energy, money, power and trade are the driving forces in this period. The old buildings must be destroyed and replaced with railway stations and gas storage; especially if they are inhabited by the poor who are unlikely to complain. Dickens likens the destruction to that of an earthquake
We visited Waddesdon Manor home of the Rothschilds. The magnificent house is complemented by its fine gardens and we were indeed lucky to have with us Barbara Simms a garden historian.
There is a wonderful portrait of Diaghilev in the Russian Museum in St Petersburg by Leon Bakst. Diaghilev is proud, gay, impressively turned out in his Savile Row suit, slightly decadent and the epitome of the Silver Age that ran as a theme through our Chums trip to Russia.
This supper was in the very successful format where we meet at a smallish and cheapish restaurant and spend some time chatting to each other. We were 30- our largest gathering to date.
Food was low key gastro and praised by all for taste and value.
Travel & Events 
