London

Friday, September 21^st, 2007

Good day ladies and gents!

The Jewel Tower is a medieval tower (so cool, I know!!) built c. 1365 to house Edward III's treasures.

It’s our third day in England and I’m already so in love with the country! The British phrases are super cute. Here’s some of my newly acquired vocabulary:

Watch your step = Mind the step (also “mind the gap” when stepping off the Tube)

Rent = Let (for real estate), Hire (i.e. "bikes for hire")

Elevator = Lift

I’m sure you knew some of that already, but every time I see/hear them I smile. Anyway…getting back on track here…

We landed in London on Wednesday 19 September at 9:30am London time (5:30am our time). We were fortunate enough to be seated in front of two young children, who I swear were quiet until I tried to fall asleep . Mom and dad got a couple hours. I estimate about 20-45 minutes for myself. But once we landed, despite fatigue, just being in London was enough to wake me up! :) We landed in Gatwick and took the train into Victoria Station in Central London (comparable to Toronto’s Union Station or Montreal’s VIA Station – it’s nice). From there, we dragged our heavy suitcases (which I’m being blamed for…I guess they are pretty full of my stuff) to the hotel, which is only about a 5-7 minute walk from Victoria Station (but 10 with suitcases and confusion about directions). We stayed at the Best Western which was central, very clean, friendly, and had a nice continental breakfast. It was just tiny. It was actually bigger than I expected since I was pre-warned bout the compactness of London’s lodgings, but still not much room to move around with 3 of us. The elevator was super cute! Quite small (it JUST fit the 3 of us with luggage) and even it’s ceiling was lower.

But anyway, rather than bore you with the travelling details, I’ll get to the good stuff…

After checking in and changing into nicer clothes, the first thing we did was head out on a walking site-seeing tour of central London. Our first stop, Buckingham Palace! I can’t begin to describe it – beautiful! The gates, the guards, the surrounding park (with the biggest most beautiful trees!), the architecture…it was just gorgeous. We picked the right day to come because although there are surely always tourists in these areas, mid-week September helps to avoid large crowds. After Buckingham Palace, we walked along St. James’ Park (with the gorgeous trees and even a river running through it!) to find lunch. If I can say anything aobut London it’s that their parks are very large, very well kept, tranquil, inviting, relaxing, and refreshing. I guess that’s a few things. I could definitely see myself walking for hours weaving through the parks and bustling streets. We stopped at a small café for a quick lunch, and then continued along the other side of the park to Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Jewel Tower. All of these sites are within 2 blocks of each other – so convenient! Once again, there are no words to describe the beauty of these marvels. Big Ben was much larger than I expected, and attached to the astonishing Parliament Buildings. The Jewel Tower is a medieval tower (so cool, I know!!) built c. 1365 to house Edward III's treasures. There was a fire in 1834 Which burnt part of the structure down but the stone Jewel Tower, now a historical site, survived. It was fantastic. I almost died. I can’t believe that I’ve visited a few medieval sites already (the Jewel Tower was my first). Something comes over me when that much history surrounds me. I can’t explain it. Maybe the pictures will help. Anyway, we toured the Jewel Tower (just a small site) and enjoyed the other sites mentioned above from outside. And we really lucked out with the weather. We haven’t had rain since we got here. Okay I shouldn’t say that, it drizzled a bit yesterday (the 20^th) when we were on the Tube. But now I’m getting ahead of myself. After our site-seeing tour, exhaustion took us over. We walked back to the hotel (about 15-20 minutes), got ourselves organized, and went to bed. We didn’t even have dinner. That’s how tired we were. So I think it was 7pm (3pm Orillia time) when we went to sleep.

We woke up the next morning bright and early and ready to go! Begin our busiest site-seeing day yet, and also the most exciting!

At about 7:30am we were downstairs for the continental breakfast, which had a good selection. Their “hot breakfast” included scrambled eggs (very white, not sure if they add cream?), baked beans, baked tomatoes, and mushrooms. The rest was pretty standard, peaches, pineapples, toast, cereal, yoghurt, coffee, lots of tea (as there should be in England), juice, etc. They also had fantastic croissants which teasted completely different from ours, in a good way. Yum!!

Once we re-fuelled, we walked to Victoria Station and each bought a day-pass for the Tube (unlimited use in one day). First stop, The Tower of London!!

The Tower of London has been my favourite site so far hands down! It is the most beautiful/amazing/awsesome/interesting site that I can’t even decide which word best describes it. As you may know, the Tower of London is a medieval site (so already I’m jumping up and down). It’s on the Thames and was originally built as a city and fortress. In the Middle Ages, it included a town, church, armory and even a Zoo (with elephants and everything). Obviously, it’s massive. We spent 5 hours there. The history was fascinating! I almost bought a book, but then I figured I could find the information online (or at least in the library). The fortress’ function changed over the years, mostly with the expansion of the armory (no more zoo). The armories were so extensive and so awesome! There were weapons and armor from all eras on exhibition. Since the Tower of London was where the royal family lived, much of the exhibit focused on the arms of Kings – so cool! The armor went right back to William the Conqueror, who led the Normans in their invasion of England and won the infamous Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Tower of London has so many stories, some scandalous, some mysterious and even unsolved. One that still fascinates me is about two young princes, rightful heirs to the throne, who were “imprisoned” there and then mysteriously disappeared. It is unclear exactly who murdered the princes (there are two prime suspects), but their skeletons were found in the walls of the White Tower (one of the gorgeous buildings inside the fortress/city), once the church and now home to the armories exhibit. I could go on forever with this but I won’t. You simply have to see it for yourserlf. You may be wondering, since I haven’t mentioned it yet, about the Crown Jewels. Yes, the Tower of London is home to the Crown Jewels. And we have been assured by the security guards that the jewels on display are the real ones. Fakes would be insanely expansive to create and in some cases almost impossible. The detailing is magnificent. It’s not only the jewels that are on display, but also weapony (i.e. swords), serving items (I would say silverware but given that they were all made of pure gold with incredible hand-crafted detailing and ornamentation, somehow it’s not the right word), ornaments, etc. I almost couldn’t take my eyes off of a huge gold serving bowl, which resembled a small pool), that was covered with ornaments…it was certainly a piece of art and I literally could not get my mind around it. I had to make myself leave the display or I would have stared at it for hours. I would love to show you pictures, but as you might expect, no pictures were allowed in the crown jewels (and related items) exhibit and security was tight. Essentially we didn’t walk into a room, we walked into a vault. I’m serious. The jewels were in their own tower (medieval, so the stone walls were super thick) and the door wasn’t made of wood, but was rather an extremely thick vault door. Imagine something from Mission Impossible. The entire experience was incredible. I hope you have the opportunity to visit someday.

After spending most of our day at the Tower of London (a misleading name because, as I’ve said, it’s more like a medieval fortress/city), we walked down the Thames to London Bridge! London Bridge is right beside the Tower of London so it only took a minute to get there. We went up the elevator (lift) to the very top where we walked through the exhibit, learned the history and mechanics, and then enjoyed the view while walking from one end to the other. It was really neat! At the other side of the bridge, we walked down to the engine room where we got to see all the machines we’d learned about at the exhibit. They were huge and it was good to see.

At this point in the day, we were so hungry that I felt like falling over (we hadn’t eaten since breakfast). So we went for lunch at a great café on the water with a view of London Bridge. It was then I remembered that lunch is the biggest meal of the day in London. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich on fresh ciabatta bread with grilled yellow, red and green peppers and a pesto sauce. It was so good!! But to make my point, it was also massive! I’m not kidding when I say that my sandwich was the size of an 8” pizza. It really hit the spot, but I couldn’t finish it. :) We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the rest, and afterwards walked along the boardwalk for about 15 minutes to the Tube. The walk was gorgeous. We then headed north west (underground) to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Like all famous cathedrals, St. Paul’s was magnificent. Very large, very beautiful, and with a great view from the top (so I’m told from mom who climed 400+ stairs to the dome-shaped observatory at the top and got a great bird’s-eye view of the city. My feet were very sore at that point so dad and I hung out on the ground floor. I guess it was my own fault for not wearing my running shoes. But you just can’t wear runners with a skirt. :)

After St. Paul’s it was back on the Tube to Baker Street! As a Literature student, anything related to fiction, writing and literary history excites me. So when I saw that there was a Sherlock Holmes Museum I forced the family to go (they though it would be fun too). Although there is no real address of 221b Baker Street (as anyone who took Philosophical Approaches to Lit with Prof. Bristol knows), the Baker Street Museum managed to create one. Situated just where it should have been at the top of Baker Street, and only a block or two from Regent’s Park, the Sherlock Holmes museum was an enchanting 4-storey apartment decorated in the style of Detective Holmes himself. I felt as though I’d gone back in time from the moment I walked through the door and saw Sherlock’s top hat hanging in the Hall. The museum was careful to incorporate journal entries, pictures, notes, and even newspapers around the apartment that tied into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. We had a really fun time there, and I had to hold myself back from buying a bunch of souveniers at the museum’s gift shop. After a short visit with Sherlock, we walked up to Regent’s Park for a quick walk. The park was beautiful. It’s also very large (an understatement) so we didn’t even come close to walking through a good amount of it. I’ll leave that for another London viist.

Noticing that it was getting late, we took the Tube back to Victoria Station. At this point it was almost 6pm and we still had to have dinner and get ready for an exciting evening. Mom and I decided earlier that day that we wanted to see a musical in the evening, a special treat for us! We love musicals!! Victoria Station is quite big and we weren’t sure which way to exit to get to the street that led to our hotel. So we just walked out in a random direction to re-orient ourselves. Then fate kicked in. We walked out only to face the theatre currently home to the smash new musical Wicked! I have wanted to see this musical since I first heard about it. I love the soundtrack (which I downloaded last year) and knew that the show would be perfect! Like I said, it was fate. We walked to the box office where only a few tickets for the evening’s 7:30 show remained. The most expensive were 60 pounds ($120+ dollars), there were no 50 pound tickers left, and there were some in the lower 40-25 pound areas. Obviously, the cheaper you go the worse the seats would be. Deciding that we deserved a treat, and not thrilled by the more affordable seats, we purchased seats in the centre area only 8 rows back from the stage!! Advertised at 60 pounds each, I had the good sense to ask if they had a student rate –and they did! I still can’t get over the deal I got and I am most definitely going to see more shows in London this year because my student card got me the seat for only 25 pounds! So for all you students visiting London in the future, make SURE that you bring your ISIC Card (they’re only $20 and good for a year, McGill sells them in Shatner)!! You will score HUGE savings if only at the London theatres! Let me know when you’re coming and I’ll join you. J

As for Wicked, how do I start?? (For plot outline and information, read the book or check out the website:http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/) The show was SO GOOD!! I had really high expectations and it exceeded ALL of them! The performers were amazing! Not only were their voices phenomenal, but they were SUCH good actors! Their emotional expressions and everything were so real.  It was unbelievable, really a fantastic show!! And it was so SMART! The story was interesting and so well written! I didn’t expect it to do more than give us a cute story about how the Wicked Witch of the West became wicked. But it went right up and through Dorothy’s involvement (a.k.a. the Wizard of Oz plot) in the second act. It was very interest and complex (in terms of the detail and believability of the plot alongside the movie). In short, it makes the film even more interesting and adds much more dimension to it (the two stories, movie and musical, are intertwined and work together). It was hillarious (blond jokes, lines like “they’re just shoes” <deep breath>) and even political (it dealt with many things that are so pertinent to today’s society). Such an enjoyable spectacle! It really did much more than I ever expected. I was on such a high after the performance that I had to take mom out for a drink at one of the surrounding pubs to clam down. On that note, allow me to recommend vodka and pomegranate juice for a nice light, simple, sweet and refreshing beverage. After our drinks, we walked back to the hotel (only 5 minutes away) where we finally rested and I dreamt of life in the Emerald City.

Now I’ve caught you up to the present date: 21 September 2007. It’s been a busy couple of days! I’ll never forget them. This morning we slept a little later than I wanted to. I guess the prior day’s events wore us out more than I’d realized. We finished breakfast around 9am and then packed everything back up, checked out of the hotel, and walked (rolling our suitcases behind us) to the car rental place. There, we picked up our 4-door Kia with a big trunk (key) and made our way out of the city. At first I was nervous with dad driving a standard on the wrong side of the road, but he’s been pretty good so far. The roundabouts are fun, though the busy ones can be kinda scary when you’re not 100% sure where you’re going. But dad brought his GPS with him (with UK maps), so we’ll always know where we are and where we’re going. I know, we’re spoiled.

I’m writing from the car right now (I love having a laptop!). We’re on our way to Wareham, southwest of London, to visit my parents’ friends Pauline and Eddie. They were all friends back in the Brampton days when my parents were first married, before they moved to Owen Sound and had me. They’ve kept in touch over the years, although they haven’t visited Pauline and Eddie in England for 25 years (Pauline and Eddie moved back to London just before my parents moved to Owen Sound), which means that they’ve never actually met me. So it’ll be neat to see what they’re like. I’ve only heard stories and seen very old pictures. They’ve invited us to stay for the weekend so the next couple of days will move at a slower pace than the last. We’ll be doing a bit of local site-seeing and lots of visiting. We leave them Monday morning at which point we’ll drive to Stonehenge and begin more busy days full of adventure.

There’s one last thing I have to tell you about as part of our London journey before I let you go. Before picking up the Highway to Pauline and Eddie’s, we drove to Hampton Court Palace (also southwest of London). The drive took us through Chelsea (the shopping!! I need to go back!) and even Surry (home to Kate Winslet in “The Holiday" and hometown of Cary Grant). Hampton Court Palace is a medieval palace used as a country escape for the King/Queen and his/her court) that was expanded in the late Renaissace and Victorian periods. They are especially famous for their beautiful gardens, the project of King William III and Queen Mary II, husband and wife who ruled as a team. We spent just under 3 hours there touring this mansion (it’s much larger than I’d expected!) and its gardens. Once again, words aren’t enough. It was very interesting, there was lots of history, and definitely worth seeing if you have the chance. My favourite part was probably the maze, part of the extensive gardens, which was quite fun to wander through. The gardens are so extensive that they’re hosting a 10K run on the grounds on the 30^th of September! Yeah. It was absolutely beautiful, and we saw it on the perfect day, lots of sunshine. :)

Rather than continuing to ramble, I’ll let you go for now. I don’t expect all of my blog entires to be this long, it’s just that we’ve accomplished a lot in the past two days and I wanted to describe all of it for you, if only briefly. I hope the pictures will help me to re-create my experience for you and that you’ve enjoyed reading about my travels so far.

Check back later for more updates! I'm writing them as I go, which might be werid to read at a later date but I'm sure it'll be fine.  :)

Thanks for reading and I look forward to talking with you soon!

Cheerio,

~ Jaclyn