One last City Tour of London

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

July 22, 2010

I set my alarm for 8:00 since none of the places that I wanted to visit would open until 10. Many shops and places of interest in the UK do not open until 10 a,m. I woke up however at 6:10 a.m. I tried to go back to sleep, but my body clock had gotten used to being up by 6:30 everyday for the tour, it was pointless just to lay there. After washing up and getting my things together for a day of sight-seeing, I headed down to breakfast. Before entering the dining room, one had to give your room number. I blanked on mine when it was my turn! I had stayed in so many hotels, that all I could remember that it was on the 8th floor. The lady had to go onto the computer to look it up for me! The typical English breakfast was once again my choices, so I had some scrambled eggs that I skimmed from the top of the soggy mess and toast. A few from my tour group were staying a couple of days in London or flying out today. Charles was just finishing his breakfast, so we wished each other well. After eating, I went to the Trafalgar/Insight Tour Desk to see if I could get a ticket for the theatre tonight. I want to see “Phantom of the Opera.” I have seen it performed in Indianapolis and Los Angeles for a total of 3 times so far. Unfortunately, no seats were available at 8:00 in the morning, but the clerk took my information and would try again after 10 when some seats usually become available. I headed over to Hyde Park again to catch the hop-on-hop-off bus. 3 more people from my tour bus were there too. We chatted a bit about our tour and plans for the day. I took the bus to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I had about a 30 minute wait before the doors opened at 10 a.m. While waiting, I worked on my blog near one of the fountains. When a maintenance man was cleaning the nearby fountain with a high pressure water hose, I decided it was time to move. Just before I walked up the stairs to the main entrance, I noticed a small crowd near another fountain. A man had a hawk perched on his arm. I took a few pictures, and then he sent the hawk off into the air. The hawk settled onto a lamp post nearby. After talking with the man about the hawk, I came to find out that the hawk patrols the square for pigeons for about 3 hours. I asked the man if the hawk ever catches any of the pigeons. He laughed and said, “Rarely.” The National Gallery has over 2,200 paintings covering the years from around 1250 to 1900. I viewed paintings by Botticelli, Canaletto, Cezanne, Constable, Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt, Renoir, Raphael, Seurat, Titan, Turner, and Van Gogh. There were over 50 rooms where one could view all these paintings. My favorite is always the Impressionists. After doing a quick hour walk through (had other places to go), I headed to Parliament. Before going there, I made one more stop to the restaurant that I had gotten the delicious Shepherd's Pie back in June. To my surprise, I ran into two more people from my tour group. They had just finished eating there and were heading off to Churchill's War Room. We wished each other well. The last two times I had eaten at this location was in the evening. It was busy for the noon crowd, and unfortunately, the pie was very greasy. I ate more of the potatoes and vegetables than the meat, which seemed a little undercooked. I then headed towards the Houses of Parliament. It was clouding up just before entering the National Gallery, and now it began to sprinkle. I made it to the 1st security check point before entering just as it began to come down a little harder. I went through the 2nd security check point where they take your picture (this is your entrance ticket that also has your photo on it), scan your belongings and make you walk through a metal detector. I finally reached the visitor's entrance. The main hall, called Westminster Hall, was completed in 1099. It has been used for many things; coronation banquets, law courts, coffee shops, laying in state for monarchs (and 3 Prime Ministers like Churchill), and famous trials (especially of Guy Fawkes and King Charles I). There is a limited amount of rooms that one is opened to the public. After leaving the Great Hall, one enters St. Stephen's Hall. This area of Parliament has statues of famous statesmen and of various kings and queens of Great Britain. From this location one can enter the area set aside for the House of Lords or the area set aside for the House of Commons. The public viewing was only in the House of Commons. When one enters the viewing area, you have to climb a few flights of stairs that is not very wide (only way up or down besides the lift). Then you have to hand over all bags, purses, cameras, and cell phones to the clerk, who will store them for you. You walk through one more metal detector. Then you walk further down the hall to where you are met with a man dressed in what I would best describe as a long, black suit coat with tails, a crisp bowtie looking neck apparel, and a very bright white shirt. Reminds me of pictures of the past when men would attend balls or formal functions. We sat in the upper gallery behind bullet proof glass. One could see most of the room, and video and speakers allowed one to see and hear everything. At the time I was there the two sides (government and the opposition) were debating an upcoming vote on equitable life (living wages). When one person finished speaking, those wishing to speak next would have to stand up. Sometimes, some of the people looked like yoyo's going up and down in quick succession trying to decide if the person was done speaking or not. The debate at one point became heated and one could here the government side voice their disagreement to what a person said from the opposition side. One man sat in a chair at the front, whose job it was to control both sides and make sure they stay focused on the topic at hand. He had to interrupt them and call back to order the groups. A lot of “harrumphing” was going on! After about 15 minutes I walked back up to the entrance and asked one of the well-dressed men, how does the chairman decide who speaks next with so many people bobbing up and down, He pointed out to a man standing next to the chair. He is the one that actually decides and keeps track in a book next to him. This entails that no one person continually gets to speak as well as no one has to keep bobbing up and down for too long. It was very fascinating. I left the Houses of Parliament about 1 p.m. and grabbed the hop-on/hop-off bus again to Hyde Park where I have to change to another line going towards Kensington Palace. Once I got dropped off at the Kensington Palace stop, I had to walk through parts of Hyde Park to get to the palace which is in the park itself. No cars are allowed near the palace. Then, I had to walk around to the front since the bus stop that I got off on dropped me in the back entrance to the palace. I did see the location where all the flowers for Princess Diana had been left when she died. Some people still had some flowers tied to the gates recently. The place is under construction or repair so I couldn't see all of the grounds around the place. The garden was closed, but I did get some pictures from over the wall. A woman was feeding some pigeons and two little squirrels nearby on a bench. The squirrels would climb the bench and her arm as she held a bag of nuts in her hand. They would grab one and then scamper off to the bushes behind her. She let me have one nut and I held it out to one of the squirrels. The squirrel ran over to me, placed its front paws on my hand and grabbed the nut. It was cool. Kensington Palace still has royalty living in some of its rooms, so one only sees a handful of rooms that are open to the public. While I have visited many castles and palaces during my trip and enjoyed them immensely, this place was a great disappointment. The directors in charge of this place has decided to make the tour an “Enchanted Palace” theme. However, it was something decidedly not enchanting. Most of the rooms were poorly lit with odd and strange artwork (reminded me of junk and trash thrown together) to form imagery of animals and people. One could not properly view any of the paintings and all rugs and furniture have been removed. A handful of people wearing metallic gray outfits that looked part mad scientist and part servant apparel spoke odd lines to portraits or interacted with people. It was very disconcerting. After 5-10 minutes of this, I was ready to get out of there!!! Nothing about it was enchanting and it was positively ghastly. I bought 1 postcard and then on my way out I saw the guest register. I signed it Malinda from USA stating, ‘What a huge disappointment! Too much of the modern overshadowing the history of the place!' As I was leaving the grounds, a couple of young women were standing in front of the admission notice. Over hearing their conversation about whether to go in or not, I immediately told them what to expect inside (darkened rooms, lots of modern-styled art work, and weird characters), and that they should definitely not go inside. I walked through to the other side of the park, which had a large pay-to-play area for children. The street that I ended up on was a lot closer to the palace than the street where I originally was dropped off on. By this time, I was tired, and needing to use the restroom. So, instead of waiting for the next hop-on/hop-off bus, I took a city bus back to Marble Arch. I grabbed a meal from McDonalds and went back to my room to rest. On the way up to the room, I stopped by the Concierge desk to see if I had gotten tickets to the show. I had a seat in the orchestra section of the theatre with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m. It was now 4, so I had time to relax, shower, and change. I took the city bus at 6 p.m. to Her Majesty's Theatre on Haymarket Street (named so due to all the hay that was once sold in that area). I went inside and after seeing that a bottle of water (glass) was £ 2.95, I left and went down the street to a market to buy a bottle of water (plastic) for £ 0.70. I tucked it into my purse and headed back to the theatre. I purchased a magnet and bookmark for £ 7.00, and went to find my seat. The location of the theatre has had 3 former buildings at the same site that were also theatres. This current building was built in 1897 and it definitely showed once you walked deeper into the building. The ceilings were low in the bar and hallways. Once you got into the main theatre, it was surprisingly small. The balcony reached over to almost the very front of the orchestra section. I was in row L seat 5, and the balcony just stopped in front of me. I could see almost to the top of the stage, but anyone further back would miss all the action that happens at the top of the stage during the performance (This happened to me once in LA when I saw the show at Pantages). The seats were threadbare and not very wide. The actual performance was good, and most of the singing was great. The only distraction besides the seats that sloped a little (one had to keep re-sitting upright), was that on each actor and actress one noticed a large bump on their forehead. This was the microphone. On most of the women it was artfully disguised with hair, but on the men with their slicked-back hair, it looked like a large wart (all the microphones were flesh colored) near their hairline. The show had one intermission and lasted 3 hours. I wanted to take a bicycle cab (think horse carriage, but instead of horses they use bicycles), but the driver wanted £ 20.00. I took the city bus instead. When I first got on it, it was relatively empty. But once we got past Piccadilly Circus, it got packed with people! I almost missed my stop because I couldn't get through the tightly packed people. I saw a Pizza Hut that was still opened, so I ordered a pizza to go, and went back to my room. I ate, watched some TV, and packed up for the morning. Before leaving for the theatre I had my pick up time to the airport changed to an earlier time. I didn't want to chance being late for my plane due to unforeseen circumstances. I was asleep by 12:30 a.m.

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