So to recap, I made it back from Montego Bay at 2am on Sunday morning. I left for London 6pm eastern time on Wednesday. I took care of all the odds and ends of being out of the country and getting a new job in those three days, in addition to buying a new watch because I had ruined mine swimming in the Caribbean.
Mom dropped me off at Dulles and I easily made it through security and to my gate for my lovely Virgin Atlantic flight to London. An overnight flight, I had anticipated sleeping and maybe I did okay for not having someone sitting next to me, but it was still rather rough. They take excellent care of you on Virgin flights, though.
Made it through immigration easily, though I can tell you they did not approve of 'just visiting' as an appropriate answer for a young woman travelling alone. The looks that I got! Luckily, I have a cousin in London and was able to claim him as a reason to visit. Managed to find the tube okay and get on it and to Bayswater, which was where my hostel was. It was very well placed along Bayswater Road, right across from Kensington Gardens. Dropped off my LLBean backpack containing all my belonging and set right back out to the glories of London.
It was raining, by the way. How apropos!
As a note as I go along, I had a Travelcard and a London Pass. What are they? The travelcard was prepurchased for one week of travel throughout London, free on any public transport. The London Pass was a pass into specific places of interest; it also allowed me to bypass lines, get discounts, and frequently free audio guides.
Also note: I have a degree in history, focused on British history. That will be relevant; it's also how I can remember so many details and also why I saw so many things. I thought I had broken my foot at one point, it was so painful and I had done so much walking (I hadn't, but ankle braces came in handy!).
Onwards! Rainy, rainy London. Where else to start but Trafalgar Square? Specifically, the Charing Cross tube station so you come up right by Nelson's Column. Nothing like the experience of walking into bright Times Square, but quintessentially London with the dreary rain and red buses and black taxis everywhere.
I walked down Whitehall, passing 10 Downing Street, the Cenotaph, Household Cavalry and Horse Guards...lots of Governmental buildings as you're heading in the general direction of Parliament and the Palace. I crossed over at St. James Park to walk Pall Mall, bypassing some giant pelicans specifically owned by the Queen. They have their own fountain designed by Tiffany. Anyway, I walked down Pall Mall to Buckingham Palace.
I was attempting to be there for the changing of the guards at 11:30--but that was quickly derailed. Not because I'm not tall enough to see over the people who were staking out the gates, but because they cancelled it because of the rain! So I missed out on that spectacle, and my plans were slightly derailed.
I wander around for a bit, and eventually tracked down the Imperial War Museum--Churchill's War Rooms. It's the underground bunker from which Churchill ran the war effort and it's been left the way it was in 1945, or recreated as such. Rather chilling to see that and a reminder of how WWII touched Great Britain in a very personal way, as it didn't touch America. This was something that would recur all across the country, as there are markers of bombings and plaques for all the lost soldiers in every town and church.
I also hit the National Gallery, which is a bit like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its vastness and collection of notables. Luckily, I collected a guide which was their version of the top 100 and just circled through those. It was fun to begin the seeing pictures I've only seen in textbooks in person....there's the notable painting of Charles I on horseback, and it's absolutely huge! (like Washington Crossing the Delaware huge!)
Next door is the National Portrait Gallery, where you start at the top with the Tudors and Stuarts and work your way down to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. It was like walking through a yearbook, seeing all those paintings of monarchs I recognize and many, many paintings I've seen in textbooks throughout the years.
I was really starting to get tired at this point, so I headed back to Bayswater and my hostel. I was in one of those old row houses that had been converted at some point, and I'm pretty sure I was up in the servant's quarters at the very top of the house--about five floors up.
I headed to Westminster and then Greenwich as planned for Friday, but that was not to be. I walked up to Westminster Abbey, and I was not happily surprised to see closed for services sign on the front door! But I'm flexible, I'll head to Greenwich in the morning and then back to Westminster in the afternoon. This was not to be, I realized slightly later, as Westminster closes at about 3. But we'll get to that.
It was another rainy, chilly, and windy day in Londontown. But I was embracing it for every experience possible--so I got on a boat to head down the Thames to Greenwich. Which was of course a lovely experience as I froze on the observation deck--all kinds of museums and monuments (including the oldest in the world, Cleopatra's Needle, once in Turkey, now in London). You can see the Traitor's Arch, now bricked in, but imagine entering the Tower that way. They pointed out the spot where the Mayflower was berthed before taking off for the 'New World;' there's also the spot where Pepys watched London burn. There's St. Paul's dome, Christopher Wren's masterpiece hovering over all of London. Glorious.
Greenwich itself is lovely, and the Royal Observatory is on top of a hill. First of many climbs I did in Great Britain...but I knew I wanted to stand on the Meridian Line. And I did! Also, since it's on top of a hill, it offers a great view of London from St. Paul's down to the Olympic Stadium.
It was on the trip back to Westminster that I realized that it would be closed, and I was scanning my itinerary for movable trips. Oh! The British Library and the British Museum! I could do that. Also, I could get off at Tower Pier and scope it out for the upcoming visit to the Tower, and then go to the BL in Bloomsbury. Done.
I am still in raptures over the glorious treasures in the British Library. I even bought the coffee table book so I can look at them myself in the years to come. I wrote down what they had on display, all originals:
Thomas Tallis
Henry Purcell
JS Bach
Handel
Mozart
Arne (the original copy of God Save the Queen)
Gluck
Beethoven
Chopin
Debussy
Bartok
Stravinsky
Puccini
Elger (Pomp and Circumstance)
Beowulf
Thomas Wyatt
Laurence Sterne
Sir Walter Raleigh
Austen
Shelley
Dickens
Charlotte Bronte
Hardy
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Wilde
William Morris
Auden
Plath
Olivier's Macbeth script
Also:
warrant for the execution of the Earl of Essex
speech from George III
Lady Jane Grey AND Elizabeth I's prayer book (Elizabeth had amazing handwriting)
letters from Princess Elizabeth to Edward VI, from Newton, from Cromwell, from Darwin, from Napoleon
Edward VI's biblical translation
letters from Queen Mary I to Thomas Seymour, and Henry VIII to Philip of Burgundy
and oh yeah A GUTENBERG BIBLE. oh hey there's the MAGNA CARTA. Fleming's notebooks on the discovery of penicillin, Shakespeare's first folio, da Vinci's notes....
So I'm a musician, a scientist, a reader, and a historian...can you see why I was in love? I'm sighing over the Tyndale bible, and then there's the Gutenberg bible. I was flipping out inside.
And it only got better. So my senior year at William and Mary (and they got to provide lots of geeky moments too), I did a paper on the development of public health in Victorian Britain, which was started through the work of John Snow and cholera epidemics.
I was checking out a brief exhibit on science, and I turn around...and there is John Snow's original cholera map. THE ORIGINAL. Talk about primary sources!
I was duly excited. I was in raptures. So then I headed to the British Museum. Not so much in raptures. I had my first cream tea there, which means tea and scones with clotted cream and jam. Refreshing myself to check out the Parthenon that's in England, not Greece, and also the Rosetta Stone. It's a reminder of all the great archaeology that the British have done, but not exactly my cup of tea (pun fully intended).
So then it's Saturday, which I fully believe will be one of the coolest days of my life. The sun was up and it was glorious weather in London. Early start to get to the Tower before the hordes descend, and I enjoyed it. Lots about the history as a palace, not so much as its role as a prison, except for mentioning Raleigh. A small plaque to the princes, and a beautiful memorial to those executed there. But really, a showplace for the crown jewels, the armor of all the kings (including several sets that show how big Henry VIII was and became), and some really awesome Latin graffiti.
I headed up the Tower Bridge next--I'd gone under it, only right to go up it (plus free access with the London pass). I tracked down an old medical museum, which was highly disappointing except it also allowed me the track down the Southwark Cathedral, the Clink, and the Golden Hinde. I got lunch and sat overlooking the Thames, with St. Paul's everpresent dome on the other side.
I had reserved tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing in the actual Globe theater. To see a play in Shakespeare's playhouse, written by the bard, performed in true Elizabethan style with singing and music, and to do it all from the groundling perspective--priceless!
Trekked across the Millennium Bridge (which Facebook would like to call the Harry Potter bridge!) towards St. Paul's, down Fleet Street towards Covent Garden, had a little Eliza Doolittle moment, down some great shopping around Covent Garden to the Leicester Square tube station because the Covent Garden one was closed. My feet were killing me, but I had seen London.
Sunday: off to Windsor! My first real train trip, and it departed from none other than Paddington station--and yes, there's a shop filled with merchandise about the bear. Windsor is spectacularly castle looking, and apparently the monarchs have made it look that way on purpose, and some really cool collections--random things, like the bullet that killed Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar. Pretty. I also had my first truly English dish of food here--a sausage pastry. Not that I can't get them in America, but we don't eat them like they do there (I ate meat while I was travelling to make it easier on myself).
I met up with my cousin that afternoon, and we did a mini-pub crawl. It was amazing to consider drinking alcohol early in the afternoon and also to not have to think about driving! He also showed me the Savoy while we were wandering, before we ended up hitting a local pub and I got to order bangers and mash. :) Also, he introduced me to Pimm's. Amazingness.
Onwards! Monday! Bank holiday Monday for the working British, just another day for me. Started out in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, wondering at the people swimming in the Serpentine. Fascinated by the duckling everywhere. And highly amused by the rider on Rotten Row, just like they would have done in the Regency.
I found my way to Harrods...also mindboggling, like swimming in the Serpentine. Bought some food to take with me throughout my day because that was about all I could afford. I head over to the Victoria and Albert and was rather disappointed (though they have a cool glass sculpture in the entry hall) because the exhibit I wanted to see was closed for renovations, but they did have a temporary exhibit on Wedding Dresses, 1776-2014. I loved it. I knew a lot about how Victoria had changed traditions, but it was still cool. They had Camilla's dress from her wedding to Charles, near Gwen Stefani's. :) They also have a generally cool exhibit on fashion throughout the years, which was enjoyable.
Did a quick walk through of the Natural History and Science museum, and nerded out at Watson and Crick's DNA model.
Headed over to Kensington Palace...lovely. W&M lived there, and it was where Victoria lived pre-Queenship, and they have a nice display of the room where she held her first meeting as Queen, including the dress she was wearing. Also, fabulous fashion exhibit of QE2's dresses from the 50s on. Quite the fashionmonger, the Queen.
I met my cousin Joe again for tea at the Orangery at Kensington Palace; it's quite famous for their tea. And they do it right--sandwiches, scones and clotted cream/jam, and desserts. Delicious! I have no idea why anyone would want to put mint and cucumber on sandwiches, but the ham and mustard and salmon and cream cheese were delicious (I premedicated against the allergens, fyi, but did not tempt fate with the egg and cress sandwich). Joe and I had a serious discussion about whether it should be jam then cream or cream then jam on the scones, and then we devoured the delicious desserts. Yum.
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| My mom calls this Where's Waldo went to Kensington |
We wandered around Kensington for a bit, before I went off to walk around the City for a bit and then on a Jack the Ripper walking tour (walks.com, highly recommended!). They take you around to where the prostitutes were killed, showing you those narrow walkways and gates in the East End, and explaining how he could have gotten away. Gory and fun, especially for anyone familiar with the stories.
This is now on to Tuesday, where I made it back to Westminster. Glorious weather is continuing, and beautiful against the stonework of Westminster, Parliament, and Big Ben.
Westminster is glorious beautiful, as anyone who watched Will and Kate's wedding will know. The fabulous thing are the tombs of all the famous people buried there--did you know that Mary I and Elizabeth I share a tomb? And share a room with Mary, Queen of Scots? Who knew that Henry VII could create such a beautiful Lady's Chapel. And the genius buried there--Newton, Darwin...the poets and author in the Poet's corner...
Off to trek up the Monument's 311 steps, Christopher Wren's monument (and yes, it is called The Monument) to the Great Fire of 1666. Straight up, straight down. Whew.
A little refreshment before tackling St. Paul's--Victoria sponge and ginger beer. A little too gingery for me, but enough calories to fuel me for the 528 stairs to go.
St. Paul's in also a wonderment...Christopher Wren is a genius. Truly. And then there's the touches, like leaving the transept that was bombed in WW2 undecorated (there was a fire brigade stationed in St. Paul's every single night to prevent it being burned down--Winston Churchill knew not to let St. Paul's burn. And there's a plaque to those who protected it). Wellington and Nelson are both buried there, and Nelson is buried in Wolsley's sarcophagus! A great number of scientists, including Alexander Fleming, are buried in the chapel and that's also where Christopher Wren is buried (Lector si monumentum requiris circumspice!).
And then I climbed it. The dome, that is. All 528 steps.
I trekked over to the Museum of London for a bit, but went back to St. Paul's for evensong, which was quite the experience. The music was absolute phenomenal and the acoustics...it was spiritual and would have been so even if it hadn't been a church.
Okay onwards to Wednesday...the Cotswolds and Oxford. Cutesy little English villages and kissing gates and all that....fish and chips for lunch...and the glories of Oxford. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in Oxford. It's glorious, I'll not deny, but it's not like the scholarship is emblazoned on the buildings. More Wren architecture, and then there's the spots where Harry Potter was filmed...that was fun. Also briefly ducked into the Museum of the History of Science to check out a chalkboard Einstein wrote on while he gave a lecture at Oxford and also the equipment of Florry's purification and manufacture of penicillin (taking Fleming's work of the discovery of penicillin and making it the antibiotic we all know).
Thursday was my last day in London (day 8 of the trip, if you're keeping track), and I wandered. I headed to Grosvenor Square and walked up Brook Street, like I was in a Regency romance. I wandered up and down Oxford Street, Bond Street, Savile Row, and past all those designers...lusting after Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choos, laughing that Tiffany's is beckoning at the end of one of the streets, imagining I could run into Kate doing a little shopping. I detoured into Soho to actually see the famous pump of the cholera epidemic, of John Snow's work and my paper in college... and then I wander through Piccadilly. I went into Fortnum and Mason's. I am a huge tea drinker (before I even got to England!) and I bought a LOT in F&M (I also bought a lot at the Globe, so that tells you what kind of souvenirs I have). I also had tea at F&M, because why not. No picnic hampers for me, but I could imagine picking one out.
By the way, the tea blend I bought for myself--Royal Wedding Breakfast.
Continued on to Hatchard's, a bookstore that has been there since the 1700s. I walked out without anything, but that took some willpower. Wandered back over to Buckingham and the queen was in residence this time! Said my goodbyes and headed to King's Cross...and platform 9 3/4.
I took 1600 photos during my trip and that is the only one my mom wants. :)
I wandered home, then back out to Westminster for the sunset photos of Parliament all lit up before setting an early alarm for my train to Scotland!
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