Back in London

After another week in Kitzbuhel, I'm back in London. My time in Austria was amazing - Joe and I saw 4 cities (Bratislava in Slovakia, Vienna - aka Wien, Innsbruck- we took a day trip there, and Kitzbuhel). We went snowboarding a total of 4 days - I even mustered up some energy to go on the last day - which was cool, but the conditions had already worsened for spring snow was turning to slush. I also went to the spa after there last day and got a massage. It was one of those traditional European spas, though - lots of naked old people, but infinitely relaxing.

The day trip to Innsbruck was particularly cool - the city was beautifully nestled between the mountains and just a short 2 hour train ride from Kitz. They'd hosted the winter Olympics 2 times, so there were some cool relics from that. We visited the ski jump which was amazing to see in person - so steep it looked like you would land right into the city. The day was really nice too, so we got a chance to walk all around the city and see the many brightly colored buildings and old city streets.

The follow week I attending a work training in the Kitzbuhel hotel on leadership and interpersonal communication skills (listening, asserting, influencing, coaching, leadership). As these trainings often do, I left inspired!

I got back into London on Friday evening and went to sleep early. The week was fun, but pretty draining, so it was good to be back in my own bed. On Saturday, Joe & I took one of the London walks from a new book I got the other day around Chelsea. We started at Sloane Square (the posh shopping area), walked back to the Royal Hospital which is now a place where retired military people can live and along the river, across a pretty pink bridge (complete with a warning that marching troops must break their step when crossing - is that true that it destabilizes the bridge?? - Joe and I had a debate about that because I believed it but he didn't). Then we went on into Battersea park, which was just beautiful given that the sun was shining.

That night, we had tickets to see the American Ballet Theater (ABT - who I spent a summer studying with in NY back in 1998) perform Le Corsiare at the London Coliseum. It was cool to see the ballet in full (its old classic that's rarely staged these days), but I must say that the lead Paloma Herrera appeared to be phoning it in. I've seen her perform before and was infinitely impressed by her charisma and strength, but tonight the magic just didn't come back. Jose Manuel Carreno was opposite her too & he was superb, but I just couldn't get excited about her in the lead. Here's a clip of the 2 of them performing the main Le Corsiare pas de deux on YouTube. If you contrast that with her signiture piece from Don Quixote, you'll see what I mean - she just lacks that charisma that she brings to Don Q in Le Corsiare.

After the show, we headed on to a cute French restaurant in Covent Garden for a post-theater dinner.

Also - check out the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. I stayed up until 2 AM the other morning watching this it was so good! They have the whole thing on youtube.