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Buckingham Palace
Look at the Gates. . .ooohhh Fantastic time in London! I spent three whirlwind days there and saw many of the sights. Two words: Spiral Staircases. Wow. On Friday I literally climbed 600 feet of spiral staircases, most of it in one go when I climbed to the top of Saint Paul's Cathedral which had beautiful views.
I arrived in London on wednesday having got no sleep in the plane (more on that later), and jet-lag does not even begin to describe how I felt. Although overjoyed to be in England at last I had no slept in many hours and my time sense was squawking 3 AM, 3 AM! It was, instead, 11am. Between that and lugging my heavy bags around on the Tube and down the streets to get to the Hostel my breath was taken away. Literally. I was tired.
But. . . I had a short nap at the Hostel and then walked down to the Thames that evening. Oh, yes, I had a proper English welcome doing that. I had walked two blocks to the river when the skies opened and poured forth all it contained. Naturally, although knowing the reputation of English weather, I had not brought my umbrella and
so had to dash back to the Hostel to get it. It has rained everyday since I've been in England. Most of my clothes are damp.
One upshot of acclimatizing myself to the new timezone is that I've been getting out of bed around 5:30 - 6:30 every morning. Those who know me well will understand how remarkable that is. However, being farther North the sun rises at 4am in the summer (it also sets near 10pm!) so it does not feel so early. I'm pretty sure my roommates in the Hostel hated me though.
Here is a list of the London sights I walked through over the last few days:
Tower of London
Definitely the best attraction I saw in London. I was the first one in the gate on saturday morning and went right to the Crown jewels which I had all to myself for 10 minutes of jaw-dropping ogling of jewels the size of a child's heart and massive platters and even a punch bowl that looked like it could have been filled with 30gallons made of solid gold. This was remarkable since this attraction normally has a line (queue, in the UK) rivaling anything at Disneyland.
It was just me and the most priceless gems in the world. And a half dozen gaurds. No, I don't have any pictures of me with the Crown jewels. Photography is not allowed in there.
Also in the Tower was an armoury exhibit. Among the many treasures there was Henry VIII's armour (I do have a a picture of that, and yes, in England that is how you spell armour), countless swords, armour and guns from ages past. Aaaaahhh, yes, heaven.
The building was really cool, too, being the only actual castle/fortress I've seen so far. Most places have been more Palaces.
Greenwich
Greenwich Maritime Museum
The Maritime Museum was moderately cool, but not as much as I'd expected. Yet, I did sort of hurry through it since I wanted to get to the Observatory.
Greenwich Royal Observatory
This place was pretty nifty, but the courtyard where the prime meridian was marked was really VERY small and crowded so it was difficult to really savor the thought of being in two hemispheres at once. I did have a little celebration in my head that I'd finally made it to the Eastern Hemisphere.
The exhibits on time (including the most
important timepiece in the world, the one that solved the longitude problem of navigation) were very interesting and there were some wonderful interactive exhibits in the astronomy section. I enjoyed designing a space probe. A new planetarium was on offer, but they wanted to charge 8 pounds (16 dollars) to get in, so I passed.
Cutty Sark
As you may know it caught fire just recently and is now very badly burned. I was only able to see a tiny bit of it. Very sad.
Buckingham Palace & adjoining attractions
Pretty cool. The gilding on the gates and fences has to be seen to believed. In Greenwich, for example, when you examine the gilding close you can spot all sorts of flaws like some spots done heavier and a bit of sloppiness in the application. Not so at Buckingham Palace where it looks just as good at close inspection.
Royal Mews
Stables. The horses were, well, horses but the giant gilded many ton coach which the Queen rides in only for the most ceremonial occasions was AMAZING! Really cool.
Queen's Gallery
Bunch of pictures by old masters (Raphael, Da Vinci, Michelangelo & their ilk). I was practically the only
one under 50 visiting. Moderately cool.
Kensington Palace
I had to wade through quite a few dress exhibits (mostly of the Princesses Margaret and Diana) before reaching the rooms restored to the glorious state they were in centuries ago. One interesting thing to note was that it was obvious the Princess Margaret exhibits narrative was designed to please the Queen. I liked exploring the rooms where the King received his guests in ages past. Then, after the Palace I went walking in Kensington Park and took a short rest/nap in one of the very comfy deck chairs they had out for public use near the pond. I was rudely woken by a park employee coming up and demanding 3 pounds for the use of the chair. Yikes! It was not THAT comfortable.
I saw other sights including the Tate Museum of Modern Art, London Bridge, Jewel Tower (not really much of a tower, and there are no jewels in it) and walked around the historic Westminster area with the Parliment, Westminster Cathedral, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square. In fact, the day before the attempted bombings I had been less than a block away from the target nightclub and was
fairly close (would have heard the explosion quite clear) on the night the first car bomb was discovered. No, I wasn't scared. Should I have been? Maybe, but it was pretty cool (since it didn't go off), which is bit of a window into my psychology, I suppose.
A bit of a word about money.
Everything is really, really, expensive in London. The rest of England is supposed to be only slightly cheaper, if at all. All the price numbers are the same (i.e. a candy bar that would have cost 85cents in America costs 85pence here), but because of the exchange rate that makes everything twice as expensive. I will be bringing back very few souvenirs, I expect. This has led me to begin to rethink some of my plans this summer.
Plane Trip
So, I met this girl (we sat next to each other). She is Danish, and was flying home after studying acting in LA for a few years. We were born a couple weeks apart and we really hit it off, having quite a bit in common. So. . .I'm thinking about visiting Copenhagen for a weekend this summer. There is much more to
Sovereign's Entrance
Hmmm, delusions of grandeur.
This is at Parliment this story, but that is all I care to share in a somewhat public blog ;-).
I have many more pictures, I've included a sampling but will be looking into a photo site that makes it easier to upload many pictures at a time. But, here a few!
Well, my next entry will cover my first experiences in Cambridge. I just got here, but it is already wonderful. Until later!
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That dad guy
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Yes, now I'm living (vicariously)
Mike, you seem to be doing fine. Proud and excited with/for/about how things are going. See you at Tahoe. Try to sleep on the plane this time. Your Dad