The Wizz Air plane started its descent to the runway airport Luton next door London, turbulence was minimal and everything seemed to be going well. Just a few meters above the runway, the autopilot abruptly pitched the plane, a common procedure when crosswinds are so strong they threaten a safe landing. Our pilot explained over the loudspeaker what it was all about, and informed us that he would soon try to land again. Ten minutes later, the same scenario repeats itself, the plane rises sharply before landing. After a third unsuccessful attempt, the crew reports that the plane will land at Stansted Airport, 40 kilometers east of Luton.
An hour and a half later we arrive by Uber in rainy London. According to tradition, the first restaurant we go to when we arrive in the capital of the United Kingdom is "New China" in Chinatown in the very center, which is festively decorated and illuminated. As always, Armin was sitting at his table right next to the bar. We asked him to give us a bigger table "because there will be a lot of food", he agreed with a smile.
Armin Loetscher, better known as Sweety (87), came to London from Switzerland as a pastry chef. He personally made cakes for Winston Churchill's 89th birthday and met him on that occasion, then he also made desserts for the royal family. Then he took over the "St. Moritz Club" in Soho, and in 1974 he opened a restaurant that has been serving the best fondue in London.
During a walk through the city, I stop in front of the Monument to the Soldiers Fallen in the Crimean War (1853–1856), which Great Britain fought with France and the Kingdom of Sardinia on the side of the Ottoman Empire and against the Russian Empire. Russia was defeated and financially exhausted in this war, so much so that 11 years later it was forced to sell Alaska to the Americans. It took decades to recover. Members of the Russian educated elite saw rapid modernization of the country as the only way to restore the status of a European power. However, during the First World War, the October Revolution broke out, and after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Soviet Union collapsed. It will be interesting to see if history has been a teacher to new generations of Russian leaders and intellectuals.
For the umpteenth time I go to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, one of the largest art galleries in the world. Every time I stop in front of a work of art and devote more time to it than usual. "Does everything have to happen to me?", Emperor Francis Joseph allegedly said when he received the news about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Manet's painting Execution of Maximilian in the National Gallery bears witness to the historic event that was the first in a series of troubles that befell Emperor Francis Joseph. Namely, Maximilian of Habsburg, brother of Francis Joseph, was appointed emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III. Rebels shot him in 1867 along with two of his generals. After that, there was the suicide of Franja's only son Rudolph in Mayerling, then the assassination in Geneva of his wife Empress Sisi, who was killed by an Italian anarchist... and finally, the Sarajevo assassination and the murder of Ferdinand.
Every time I'm in the National Gallery, the Met or other similar museums and galleries - the same scene: children sitting on the floor while the teacher questions them about what they see in the picture. Apart from our project "Our children in our museums" and several other similar occasional actions - this is, unfortunately, a rare practice in Serbia.
One of the most famous Christmas markets in London is located in Leicester Square. Since this year, there is also a small ice rink that has a special charm because the ice surface is placed around the monument to William Shakespeare.
While the audience waits for the continuation of the film The Devil Wears Prada, which should premiere in 2026, a musical of the same name was staged in London's West End. Unlike The Wizard of Oz i Phantom of the Opera, where two years ago the main female roles were given to black women, it did not go so far here: Nigel is black and Tom Holt is Chinese, while the main female roles are white, as in the film. We will see if political correctness has loosened up a bit or if something else is at stake, in the following divisions in London musicals.
As we walked from the city center towards Big Ben on the wide boulevard The Mall, which ends in front of Buckingham Palace, British and German flags flew. On that day, during his visit to Great Britain, he was the President of the Federal Republic of Germany for the first time in 27 years. Frank-Walter Scheinmeier and his wife Elka Buddenbender were received at a formal audience at Windsor Castle by King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate. The German president and his wife arrived in front of the castle in a festively decorated carriage.
photo: Robert Choban…and Brexit protests
As we approach Big Ben, I hear rhythms coming from the speakers Yellow submarines group The Beatles, with its refrain being "We all live in the Brexit tragedy, Brexit tragedy...". A group of demonstrators with a large number of EU flags and the inscription "Rejoin", advocating the return of Great Britain to the European Union, also sang Living next door to Alice so in their version you can hear the line "Who the fuck is Farage?" with a clear allusion to Nigel Farage, currently the most popular politician in the United Kingdom who is considered most responsible for the fact that in 2016 the people of Great Britain voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU.
Goran Aleksić, the ambassador of Serbia in London and his wife Svetlana are waiting for us at The Leighton House Museum in Holland Park, a place that most travelers and Londoners have not even heard of. The fantastic mansion belonged to the painter and baron Frederick Leighton (1830–1896), who gathered some of the most interesting personalities of London at the time. Leighton hired architect George Aitchison for the construction of the villa, whose task was to create a combination of a residential home and an art studio with a large number of oriental details that the owner bought on numerous trips to the Middle East. The construction of the villa began in 1866 and was completed in 1895, one year before the death of its owner.
As we dine on fish & chips with Guinness beer, we talk about the phenomenon of the millionaire exodus that London has been facing over the past ten years. According to projections, about 30.000 millionaires left. In 2024 alone, as many as 11.000 are believed to have left. The destination of most of them is Milan and its surroundings. Also, a large number of them went to the USA, UAE and Switzerland. The most common reasons for this outflow of pockets are increased taxes, especially those that have hit the rich foreigners who have been besieging the British capital for decades.
On my last night in London, I went alone to see a new production of a musical Producers, Sandra refused, explaining that she had seen them so many times from New York to the Terazije Theater in Belgrade, even once in German in Vienna. I watched too producer many times, both in films and on Broadway in the original production with Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman, in the West End in London, several times at the Theater on the Scales where it has been playing since 2011, the aforementioned production in Vienna... The new production of this musical at the Garrick Theater in the West End is the most wittily directed and the best acted of all that I have seen so far. And he received a well-deserved several-minute standing ovation. In an interview with "The Guardian" in March of this year, the famous Mel Brooks, the author of the musical, who will celebrate his 100th birthday next year, said: "Today, Great Britain is a country where Nazi salutes have become a frequent occurrence at large political gatherings. At the time I was writing producer In 1967, Hitler and the Nazis were a distant past and laughable. Today the whole thing takes on a different meaning!”
The next day, while we were waiting for the flight to Belgrade, this time at the functional Luton Airport, a group of about twenty preschoolers sang the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas from 1790. A simple way to create a festive atmosphere at this slightly social airport from which low-cost company planes take off.
Three hours later, we landed in Belgrade and passed under a string of glowing umbrellas, the only sign that (some) holidays were in progress.
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