London

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So, flight into London was with a budget airline called easyJet. And it was _seriously_ budget. It was 5 hours from Amman to London, there were no drinks/meals, no assigned seats (so it was a free for all) and the seats didn’t recline either. Despite that the flight was still ok for the most part (I was in the aisle and didn’t have to sit next to anyone in the middle) but the pilot wasn’t very polished. It seemed like there were some overly quick drops and turns made.

Landed ok and was then given the 3rd degree by the customs official asking me more questions than I’ve ever had to answer before. He was very nice about it and told me that they’d normally like to see proof of insurance and funds, etc but that he would let me in this time. So that was a relief. Then I had to face the 9 hour wait for my Mom’s flight. Yay.

Once she arrived we made our way out and had our first experience with the awesome London train system! As someone who has often used public transit in Guelph I was so happy with the trains in London. They’re so easy and convenient to use, timely, efficient, clean, and basically everything Guelph’s busses are not.

We made it to the hotel and then went out for a brief visit to the Natural History Museum. It was similar to the ROM back home except that it was free which makes it infinitely better. Anyway, because it was so similar to the ROM we weren’t super impressed and didn’t stick around too long. Spent a little time looking at the mineral display and found out they had a lot of replicas on display, so that was a little disappointing.

Next day it rained we took the ‘Big Bus Tour of London’. Hopped on a bus and were taken for a tour around all the different sights. Our bus gave an audio commentary on things like Baker Street, Hyde Park, Cleopatra’s Needle, Big Ben, and Tower of London. We got off the bus near the river and took our included free ferry to the Tower of London. I thought the Tower would be just a single tower. Turns out it’s many towers and more like a fortress. Inside we saw the crown jewels, the armory and heard a little of the history given by one of the Beefeaters. Back to the hotel and then a trip to Harrods. That pretty much rounded out that day.

Next day we decided to go try another museum, the British Museum. We were hoping to get more British history and semi-succeeded so we left before exploring the other exhibits. We both found that the museums were too similar to the ones at home to keep our interest. After that we headed on the underground to use our coupon on one of the “London walks”. This one took us around a bit of the city of London and ended at the Tower of London. The sun sets so early so despite the fact that it was only about 5 we headed back to the hotel.

Following day we decided to go on three walks. The first was ‘Ceremonial London’ which took us to see the changing of the horse guards, past Buckingham Palace, and through Green Park. After that we decided to see if we could catch a movie and went to go get some expensive tickets for Haywire later in the evening instead of doing our third walk. Following that was the second walk in and around Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. This walk we both found to be not as much fun because the guide talked waaaay too much and seemed to only be concerned about telling us things he’s researched or written things about. He took too long and we were worried that we’d miss our movie but ‘luckily’ managed to get there in time.

Unfortunately, from the very beginning, you could tell this movie was going to be bad. And it was. So very bad. Mom and I both agreed it was the worst movie we’d both watched all the way through. There were only about a dozen of us in the theatre and at least one person walked out. The entire movie consisted of walking, painfully pointless dialogue, chasing, or horrendously extended fight scenes. There were a few funny moments that were very certainly NOT meant to cause laughter (my favourite was a random suicidal deer that decided to jump into the path of a car backing up in the forest in broad daylight thus bringing a hilarious end to yet another chase scene). I want to know how this movie got such big names stars (Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas). They must all be seriously hurting for money. That terrible film finished the day.

Next morning was bright and early because we were going on a day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. As an added bonus we got to stop in Lacock, a small village that has lots of old houses and is the set for many a period drama. First stop was Windsor, we got to see the Dollhouse and the State apartments and were supposed to see St. George’s Chapel also. Unfortunately, we were given nowhere near enough time to listen to our audio guide in the apartments and had to rush out and didn’t even get to see the chapel!

Next stop was Stonehenge and another audio guide gave us background info as we made a large circle around the site. Mom wasn’t super keen on going at first but she seemed to think it was an alright thing to do after the fact.

Lacock was next and we stopped there for a pub lunch. Then we ran out and had to hustle to explore the little shops around the town. Both of us were glad to have stopped here as it showed us a little bit of what a small English village was like.

Next was Bath where we were given probably too much time to just wander and explore (having chosen not to pay more to see the Roman Baths and Pump Room). Bath is technically a town although it’s definitely city-size and feel. There really wasn’t much for us to see or do here so we just wandered along and bought stuff at the grocery store.

After that was back to the bus and a two hour ride to London. We finished off that night by watching Ocean’s 13 which we were both stunned to discover was directed by the same person as Haywire.

The next day was my last in London. We decided to check out a local arts and crafts market which occupied us for a bit before we went hunting for Giraffe. We had a coupon for a restaurant called Giraffe and were looking to use it. It was a real safari trying to find the place and then, after we’d sat down, we read the coupon and realized that it wasn’t valid for today. So we paid full price for a rather expensive and subpar burgers. Too bad. We left to look for another market but weren’t able to find it before we got too tired of walking and called it quits for the day.

That was the end of London for me as I had to get up bright and early the next day and make my way back to the airport. Flew Ryanair (budget again, no assigned seats, no recline) landed in Ireland and took the free transfer to the hostel. Checked in, went grocery shopping in the rain, found and wandered around a mall, back to the hostel, met Alex (Kiwi), Willica (Canadian), and Claire (Auz).

Architecture:

London – The pictures of the old churches, abbeys, palaces and iconic London landmarks really speak for themselves in terms of describing the architecture in a way I could never do myself. I will say that I was most impressed with the parliament building (the one Big Ben is next to). As someone who took drafting classes and got tired doing the three sides of a building I can fully appreciate that it was entirely designed by one person down to the inkwells and coat hooks all in under 150 days. Understandably that also caused him to go insane.

Windsor Castle – The State Apartments were really impressive. No pictures allowed so I’ll have to describe, unfortunately (although I’m sure you could find some pictures on Google). Some of the rooms were _so_ incredibly lavish that there was barely a square foot on the wall that didn’t have some kind of decoration. Many of the rooms kept the decorating scheme that previous rulers had chosen so no matter where you were it all seemed like a palace.

Bath – There’s a law in Bath where any new buildings have to be constructed using this yellow stone that is iconic to the area. It gives all the buildings a kind of symmetry and is nicer than the mish mash of building types that you can find in most large cities.

Also, funny observation...most of the people we talked to didn't have an english accent. Similar to Canada in that sense, lots of foreigners.

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Photos

Giant Raven at the Tower of London
They say that if all the ravens leave the Tower then the British Monarchy will fall. So someone is employed to keep seven ravens there at all times.

British Parliment Building
This is the one that drove that guy insane designing it

More of the Villiage
I can see why the film industry likes this place

Comments

[Meg Davies]

What a job O-o; I wonder how well that person gets paid? Either way, that raven is pretty badass looking XD