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Published: December 18th 2008
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Royal Horse Guards
They might be royal protectors but you still get to pet them. Well most everyone has left London by now with the exception of a couple Marquette girls. It was strange saying goodbye to my floor mates, knowing that I probably won’t ever see them again. It’s kind of like summer camp in that way except it lasted three months. My dorm feels a bit like The Shining now. But I have had this week and the rest of it to finish my exploration of London.
I spent all of Monday hiking around the city. I went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the adjacent Winston Churchill Museum in the morning. It’s pretty amazing. When the war ended, the rooms were locked up and nearly everything in the museum is exactly as it was on August 16, 1945. The rooms and living quarters of Churchill and his staff were built underground with a steel roof to protect them from the bombings and to stay out of sight. Churchill’s wife lived there too. But I guess it didn’t really matter because I learned through the always amazing audio guide that Churchill actually liked to sit on the roof during the Blitz to see where the bombs landed. I’m sure his secret security loved
that.
Churchill also had a secret Transatlantic Telephone room with a direct, secure hot-line to call President Roosevelt and later President Truman. The equipment for this secure line was so big that it had to be installed in the basement of Selfridges, the Bloomingdale’s of London. There was a lot of attention towards the fact that Churchill knew he couldn’t win the war without the good ol’ USA. So yeah for us! It’s nice to be old enough to understand this history. I don’t remember anything from the museum when I went with my family five years ago except that I was probably really bored. I can’t memorize history but I enjoy learning about it and I finally appreciate it.
St. James’ Park is right across the street so I walked around there a bit and then cut through the Royal Horse Guards Parade Ground. The English have to say “parade ground” instead of stable. I walked around Parliament again and snapped a few more photos of the London Eye. It was a cold day so I bought a slightly over-priced soy vanilla latte and then walked down the Thames Riverwalk to the Tate Modern.
Art definitely
is not my passion. I do appreciate art for what it is but I had no idea what I was looking at in the Tate Modern! I got through three floors in about 25 minutes. I should have known I wouldn’t like it by looking at the map guide. With room names like Poetry and Dreams, Material Gestures and States of Flux I would have gone in expecting to be weirded out. The dots and lines and swirls looked like a pre-schooler's art project.
Even the building was confusing. The escalators were in weird places and the ones I thought were going down were actually going up and it was just too much. So I left, crossed over the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s and back to my dorm.
I went out that night to Hyde Park because I wanted to see it at Christmas time. There’s an ice skating rink and carnival rides and lights but no Santa. There were also a lot of craft and food booths and with an eagle eye, I spotted a sign for eggnog! I ordered one and told the man how excited I was because I knew it was nearly impossible
to find eggnog in London. Then he asked if I was from Germany…I should have seen that as a sign. I took a big sip of my drink only to discover that is was burning hot, had an orange citrusy taste and was spiked! I didn’t even give it a second try.
After that disappointment I thought that I could walk around to parts of the park that I haven’t seen yet like the Peter Pan statue and Speaker’s Corner. Luckily I didn’t drink all my spiked eggnog so my mind was still sharp and I realized that walking through a dark, unfamiliar park at night by myself wasn’t a good life choice. So I backed out of that one and went window shopping instead.
I spent a little time at the British Library this week too. It holds over 14 million books! I did a little bit of research and it is only second to the Library of Congress. The centerpiece is the four-story glass tower that is the King’s Library. Collected by King George III, it holds 65,000 books, pamphlets, manuscripts and maps. The Magna Carta is also in the British Library.. I planned on actually
reading a book there but to sit in a “Reading Room” you have to get a “Reader Pass” for security and I didn’t want to take time applying for one.
I went to Greenwich today which is a short train ride away from the city. I went to the Royal Observatory which is home to Greenwich Mean Time and the famous Prime Meridian. I felt like quite the science geek. I never knew what GMT meant until today so that was a good lesson and something that should be obvious for a 21-year old. EXCEPT I just got off the phone with my dad and he didn’t know it either so I give myself credit for learning it before him.
So the Prime Meridian is the designated spot on the world where longitude is 0°. Latitude is defined by the axis of the Earth but longitude is arbitrary (don’t a sound like science geek?) and the tiny London suburb of Greenwich was voted to be the Prime Meridian during an international convention. So along with a group of about 50 Chinese tourists, I put one foot on each side of the line which meant that I was standing
in two hemispheres at once.
The Flamsteed House, named after John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal (what a dorky title) is now the main museum. It focuses mainly on the importance of time and latitude and longitude for ships. I paid more attention to the old telescopes and architecture of the building. The Octagon Room which was used to observe the movement of stars and planets was built by Sir Christopher Wren, the same man who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral. After my Historic London class, I know all about Christopher Wren. He basically became the main city planner after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Look who knows her stuff!!!
The Royal Observatory also has several private buildings with telescopes and a massive planetarium. There were interactive “learning devices” in the planetarium but I was trapped between two British prep schools on a field trip and I never got a chance to play. I forgot how annoying 6th graders are. Oh I got to touch a meteorite that is 4.5 billion years old; the sign said this is the oldest thing I will ever touch.
And I just got back from seeing Josh Hartnett in “Rain
Man” at the Apollo Theatre. For anyone not familiar with the Hollywood scene, Josh (first name basis) was an A-list celebrity who stepped out of the lime-light for a bit, making him a B-list celebrity is now performing in London! There have been pictures in the newspapers about Josh making an appearance here and there and I finally got to see him!
Oh oh oh! Speaking of celebrities and theatre - Brian and Anthony went to see “Spamalot - The Musical” and saw Prince Harry when leaving the theatre! Who is less deserving of seeing a prince than Brian and Anthony? No one! Brian claims that Harry’s fiery red hair was too hard to miss.
Well, that’s about it. I’m going to the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow but my museum patience is running low. I'm back in the States on Monday!
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