We have tackled London as best we could in three days. I think that San Francisco, being only 49 square miles, makes it much easier on tourists. This place is huge - very spread out. Fortunately our guide book broke it into areas and that helped us focus and conserve our energy, at least a bit. We have a new friend at the Oxford train station - seemed to remember us from day to day - and an hour express train (only 2 or 3 stops) brought us into Paddington Station. Pleasant sites along the way, including people walking through fields with metal detectors. A curiosity answered today at the Ashmolean Museum here in Oxford (more about that on a later post). We then switched to the underground which was easy to navigate.
As we first arrived to London "above ground" at the Victoria station, our first sight was the Victoria Palace theatre and "Billy Elliot" on the marquis. It was all too simple - we walked up to the box office and purchased same day "reduced rate (haha)" tickets for that evening. Center orchestra (here referred to as "stalls"), on the aisle, row J. Into the purse went the tickets and we were off to explore.
We went on the audio tour through Westminster Abbey. Massive, beautiful, full of history - but most moving was "Poet's corner" where authors, poets, actors are either buried or memorialized with plaques.
We have seen the tombs of so many royals, can't even remember which ones are buried here - but there are a bunch. No photos were allowed but at one point we sat down to enjoy the choir rehearsal (Jim strategically placed the Flip Camera under his brochure so we have a bit recorded) and took notice of how the church here (versus some of the current religious debate in the US) has no difficulty reconciling religion and science - with the alter flanked with the tombs (and corresponding statues) of Newton and Darwin. Would have been a great photo...I thought I'd be able to put on videos from the flip, but doesn't seem to upload and probably means converting file, etc...too lazy to figure that out.
Not sure I'd want my wedding photos in such a public venue, but it was entertaining for us to watch...
We walked through various streets, including the highly guarded entrance to Downing Street and wound our way back towards the theatre. While we were looking for a spot for a light dinner we were caught in our first English downpour. It was short-lived but it sent us rushing to the first cafe we passed. We did have umbrellas, but it came on so quick there was barely time to put them up.
The show was fabulous, particularly for all you (like us) Think You Can Dance fans. The 12 year old star danced with such passion and completely lit up the stage. The rest of the cast was equally as talented - but amazing that such a young kid can "lead" a cast like he did. Theatres here don't appear to give out a PlayBill. Instead for 5 pounds - which I wasn't willing to pay, you can be the proud owner of a glossy photo-filled program. So I did need to to research once we were home to find out who this amazing young man was - his name is Dean-Charles Chapman. While doing this (or "whilst" doing this as they say here) google research, I did find him on YouTube if you are interested - although it is bootleg so quality is not so great...just copy and paste the link into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ttNoEl7ng&NR=1
Tired as we were, we returned to London the next day (Sunday) and spent most of the day enjoying Notting Hill. It is as charming as depicted in the movie of the same name.
Throughout England, it is important to look up as you pass houses, as they will have plaques, such as the one below, depicting the famous person that resided there.
This is the "modest" home of George Orwell. We did pass by real estate offices, and this is quite a pricey area, but it does have the neighborhood feel. And do take notice of that wonderful blue sky - a perfect, warm day.
including the Travel Bookshop (actually on a side street) that the Hugh Grant character owned in the movie.
Over a few blocks was the more "posh" shopping area and prices in the stores went from affordable to "are you kidding me?"
We continued to walk, not quite sure where we would end up, but found ourselves at Kensington Palace. Too late to do a tour (stores and venues shut down much earlier here),
but the gardens were open. Each section of the garden had an archway with a whimsical metal sculpture.
Day three in London (after taking a much needed break on Monday) was specifically planned to include rain - and as we had seen in weather reports, it did rain most of the day. But it was more of a drizzle and it was not cold out, so we managed.
We started the day at the Tower of London - a drab fortress from the outside, but hey, we had a two-for-one coupon so why not!
The interior was surprisingly more of a like a small village. It was a very confusing place, and the audio tour was not particularly helpful, but we found the dungeon with the torture devices, a museum exhibit of armory and lineage of the royals and, of course, the crown jewels.
We had booked ahead our tour of Buckingham Palace. One of the advantages of coming during peak season is that BP is only open for tours in August and September since it is still a working Palace and the official home of the Queen. We had learned during our tour of Windsor castle last week, the Buckingham was first open to tourists in 1993 to help cover the cost of fire damage repairs at Windsor. Definitely worth seeing. So that fire was the tourist's gain.
After putting up our umbrellas back up we splashing along the exit path through the gardens and then headed over to Hyde Park. In spite of the drizzle we enjoyed our stroll on the Princess Diana memorial walk
That is Jim with my adorable polka-dot umbrella...I had a hooded rain jacket so I loaned my umbrella to him...
We did a brief stop at Piccadilly - much like Time Square but most of the buildings are more beautiful - and then collapsed back on the train to Oxford.
So, we know we will hear from many of you about what we didn't see - I can hear it now, "what do you mean, you didn't go to...(insert your item of choice)". Believe me, I could have spent every day seeing another play, let alone all the tourist spots and museums. Just means we'll have to return some day.
And we still have more to do in Oxford.
No comments:
Post a Comment