On Thursday we took a couple trains to get from Lyon to London. It was one of those unfun travel days where a lot of things seem to go wrong. We were tired and grumpy and both of us, though we loved France, were glad to be leaving because it is hard work trying to communicate in one’s non-Native language. It was great at first and at about two weeks, I was over it.

I booked us a room at the Holiday Inn Express Southwark in London, because it is five minutes away from the Tate Modern Museum, which currently has an Ana Mendieta exhibit that I wanted to see. The plan was to go to the exhibit Friday morning and then, at our leisure get a train to Southampton, where we would spend one night before boarding the Queen Mary 2 and sailing home.

One of the things that went wrong on Thursday is that my reading glasses were no longer with me when we arrived in London. This was really bad because I have astigmatism and also a strong correction so I can’t use OTC readers. And, my plan for the Queen Mary 2 was to read, write, and do crossword puzzles, all of which would strain my eyes if I attempted to do them with my regular glasses.

I spent two hours crying and trying to find someone who could replace my glasses and eventually was successful. It wasn’t going to be cheap – 300 pounds for the lenses plus the cost of the frames, which started at 300 pounds. I made an appointment to go to the optician at 11:30 the next morning, pick out a frame, and then wait for them to make my glasses.

All this stress made me more tired than I already was and Mary said she didn’t want to go to the Tate the next day and didn’t think I should try to either, given that I had to go get my glasses. I figured she was right and halfway gave up on my plan.

The next morning, though, I woke up very early and decided to go to the Tate when it opened at 10, spend an hour there, and then get an Uber to the opticians. I got to the Tate at about 9:50. There were 5 or 6 people standing in line in front of a door that said to use such and such entrance instead. I went to that entrance and was the only person there for a few minutes and then a huge line began to form behind me. I noticed a sign that said the line was for people with bags that needed to be checked and that all others could walk in. It wasn’t open yet, but I went and stood next to the line, again in the very front. No one joined me.

When the museum opened, I was the first person in the door. The Tate Modern is free to the public, but the special exhibits aren’t. I went to the counter, bought a ticket to Ana Mendieta, and found the gallery. I was the only visitor there. For at least 30 minutes, it was me and a bunch of guards.

I discovered Ana Mendieta many years ago in Las Vegas. At that time the Bellagio had a very small art museum – maybe it still does. We went there to see a particular David Hockney painting. I don’t remember if we chose to do a guided tour or just fell in with one, but we went through the museum with a young, very knowledgeable art student. In my memory, the Ana Mendieta was a photograph of the artist lying naked in a stream bed, but I’m really not sure what it was, just that I was very taken by it. I asked the docent about it and she told us that Mendieta had died in 1985. She supposedly “fell” out of her NYC apartment window, but everyone believed that her husband, a sculptor named Carl Andre, pushed her.

This fact is one that the curators of the current exhibit don’t mention – specifically because they don’t want Mendieta’s death to overshadow her work or be part of people’s interpretations of her work. So why do I share it with you? I don’t know – for me it makes her work more poignant. Even before I knew how Mendieta died, I had a visceral response to the one or two photographs I saw in Las Vegas.

A lot of her work is self photographs, where she is naked and in communion with the natural world. She also did sculptures by burning wood, arranging sand. One of her videos is of her pouring cow blood all over her naked body, rolling in feathers, and then standing up.

I have no idea why I am so drawn to her work, but it felt breathtaking being in that gallery all by myself and standing in front of her art. I even felt a little teary. Here is a link to the New York Times article I read that prompted our hotel reservation near the Tate:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/arts/design/ana-mendieta-tate-modern.html?searchResultPosition=1

I only got to stay at the Tate for 45 minutes or so but I am so glad I was able to salvage that part of the trip. From the Tate I got an Uber to Hodds Barnes Dickins opticians. They were in a neighborhood with tons of restaurants and stores. I had to ring a bell to get in, as they keep their door locked. Since the neighborhood did not seem at all unsafe, I thought maybe this was a sign of their poshness, I realize now it’s probably because their lab is downstairs and they may not always be in the upper part of the building. And they have a lot of very expensive frames.

I didn’t even look at the frames on the main level. They were way out of my price range, according to the optician. He led me down some narrow stairs to a windowless room where they kept the plebeian frames. He told me there were a few that were 250 pounds. I asked to see only those and when we found one that fit me I said, “Let’s do it.” I didn’t really care what they looked like, but they’re actually kind of cute. We went upstairs, I paid the 250 pounds, and he said they’d be ready in about an hour. I really enjoyed my hour wandering around the neighborhood. Eventually I went to a poke bowl restaurant and got a delicious poke bowl with grilled shrimp (no raw fish) and lots of other yummy things I can’t remember. I asked Google Maps if there was a park nearby. There was one about 3 minutes away, where I found a bench and sat with all the pigeons and people on their lunch hours.

The park was called Bloomsbury Square Gardens and I realized I was in Bloomsbury, famous for Virginia Woolf, but also where I lived for a month on a college overseas trip to England decades ago. I have very fond memories of that time and I loved that Bloomsbury is where I ended up.

When I picked up my glasses, the optician said I had paid in full, so I guess I misunderstood the pricing. I ended up only paying 300 pounds, which is still more than I’ve ever spent on a pair of glasses. (Costco is my go-to). We had a 2 pm check out at the Holiday Inn Express and I managed to get back there by 1:30. We got a train to Southampton and checked into our hotel there, which had gotten very good reviews. The room layout was great and there was a loft that we took turns going up into, but the hallways smelled like insecticide and the room smelled like mold, and we were happy to only be there for one night.

In the morning, we walked down to one of the cruise terminals and then wandered around the city a little bit. Back in the 14th century, Southampton had town walls. Some still stand and we walked along a few, which are right next to modern buildings. Back at the hotel we had leftover lasagna which I had gotten from the bar the night before and then were on our way to the Queen Mary.

My new glasses