Arrival
“TEA!” dad yelled.
My Dad, stepmom, Beth, and 8-year-old sister, Grace, had
just gotten off a non-stop flight from LAX and we were waiting for the car I
had ordered. Dad and Grace had started to go through their British bit to keep
themselves entertained.
“TEA AND TOAST!” Grace yelled back, doing a pretty good impression
of an old English man.
I had gotten on a Bakerloo line train at Kenton Station
about an hour and a half ago. After switching lines several times I wound up on
a moving walkway underneath Heathrow airport where I would meet my family. I
was a mixture of excitement and nerves; I couldn’t wait to see them and share
the London I had come to love with them, but knowing well my singular talent
for getting lost and having put quite a bit of effort into a schedule that
attempted to fit in as much London as possible into the three or four days we
would be in the city, not including our drive up to Scotland, my stomach
churned a bit.
“I WOULD LIKE SOME TEA!” Dad shouted back.
They had been the last ones to exit the sliding glass
doors that separated the small lobby from the rest of the airport,
but they’d emerged smiling; tired and jetlagged but excited to see me and
finally have begun on the long-awaited Thanksgiving break trip.
Grace yelled “SCONES” back at my dad as our driver walked up
and introduced himself before leading us out to the black cab. He was a
friendly man, and shared stories of London and his life as white row houses
passed in between stormy grey sections of the Thames. It didn’t take us too
long to reach our hotel on the embankment.
Once we had settled in, we went for a walk across Westminster bridge, past the Houses of Parliament and Westminster
Abbey, and came to a pub called the Red Lion. Dad had eaten there once before so we stopped for dinner.
(Side note: Defense of British Food part 2 - yes, the bangers were just plain sausage
and the mashed potatoes were basically just boiled potatoes that had been
mashed and the gravy was simple, but when you combine the three they become a
dish fit for gods. I’ll take warm, gravy-smothered, potato-bedded, pastry-covered,
hearty comfort food over fancy, spiced, braised, sautéed things any day.)
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| Delicious |
Day 2
London Eye
Grace and I were up early the next morning, eager to get
going. We ended up chatting and looking out the window for over an hour though since
Dad and Beth rose and readied themselves rather slowly. It was past noon by the
time we had settled on breakfast at McDonald’s next to the London eye.
Ok, so it wasn’t the British breakfast of champions, but it
was quick and easy. While Dad and Beth bought tickets for the Eye, Grace and I
got skewers of chocolate-covered strawberries and looked at the Harry Potter
wands and trinkets in a souvenir shop.
The London Eye is nowhere near as thrilling as you might
think. If you haven’t been on though, it’s one of those iconic things that you
have to experience for yourself just to say you’ve done it. Once you have, you
most likely won’t really want to go on again. It’s an hour to go around the
wheel once, and the view is really cool but it’s pretty much the same once
you’re about 15 minutes up. It was a slow day though, so we only had a few
other people in our pod and we enjoyed it.
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| Wembly Stadium in the smoggy distance by my campus |
Tower of London
The Tower of London, a fortress that is composed of 21
separate towers, is located next to the Tower Hill Tube station. We walked to
Waterloo station, got Oyster cards for Dad, Beth and Grace, and, under my
direction, took the tube to the London Bridge station.
Oops.
Well, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get lost at least once.
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| Trying to figure out how to get to the Tower on Dad's iPhone |
After walking back and forth through the London Bridge
station several times and around the area outside the station, we decided that we
were, in fact, slightly lost. I knew where we were because I’d been there
before (also lost), but I didn’t really know how to get un-lost.
We finally asked a cab driver to take us after half an
hour. He laughed and said it would be ridiculous for us to take a cab such a
short distance before pointing us towards of the Tower and driving
away. Restraining screams of “just take our money!!” we finally we started
walking. And walking, and walking, and walking.
It was quite a while before we saw the blue beams and thick towers
of Tower Bridge looming ahead of us. While Dad and Beth bought tickets again,
Grace and I stopped at a kiosk to get more hot chocolate, which was delicious but thick as pudding. Refreshed from our leisurely break, we strolled beneath the portcullis.
The
last Yeoman warder-led tour had been at two, and as it was closer to four, we stopped at
the side to get the audio guide before continuing on.
Watching Grace looking at the tower was like seeing into my
past. In fourth grade my mom took Mike and I to Germany and France. I remember
standing in the Heidelberg Castle in Germany in front of the powder turret and
staring in awe at the massive building that was far older than any I had ever
seen. It was even cooler for me to see my little sister, almost exactly a year
younger than I had been, staring up at a different set of equally old stone
walls. Although my first castle was in Germany and hers was in the heart of
London, I could see near identical thoughts running through her mind. The Tower is still the part of that
trip that she talks about the most and I can’t help wondering if it will ignite
in her a similar passion for traveling that my first trip abroad lit in me.
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| Traitor's Gate |
“Traitor’s Gate. Traitor’s Gate used to open onto
the Thames, and at one time it was where honored guests and future queens entered.
Later it became the gate that traitors passed through on their way to execution.
Anne Boleyn entered through this gate once with great honor, then several years
later as a prisoner, never to leave the tower again.” (I'm paraphrasing obviously - the audio guide man voice was much wordier.)
We walked along holding the audio guide phones to our ears,
stopping every once in a while to press another number and generally rock the
tourist vibe that came with our audio guides.
Walking past the gate and several towers built into the
walls, we came to a staircase that led up to the main courtyards. Christmas trees had been placed around the grassy courts, bringing the warm
feeling of the season to the tower.
“The monument in front of you was placed on the spot where
important people were beheaded. The glass pillow on the two circles of frosted
glass symbolizes that the spot is the final resting place for many. Those
executed, including several British Queens, such as Anne Boleyn and Jane
Gray, and other nobles were then carried into the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula nearby to
be buried in the floor.”
I turned to take in the small, unassuming chapel with pretty
windows, but since the tours had ended two hours earlier we couldn’t go inside.
I went the other way instead, towards the wall by the iconic White Tower in the
middle.
Legend says that if every raven ever leaves the tower, it will fall.
So, to prevent the tower from ever falling, there are ravens with clipped wings
chained in the tower. The Yeomen warders, each of whom has at least 22 years
honorable service in the armed forces, live with their families in the Tower buildings and take care of the ravens and
the rest of the fortress. Once I had harrassed the birds with my camera, I backtracked to see the crown jewels
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| I took this as my warning not to get closer. |
I had seen the permanent exhibition before when I visited
with People to People in 2007, but they were just as impressive the second time.
A moving walkway conveyed us past the main jewels; huge crowns lined in ermine
with plum and royal blue velvet between gold arcs, solid gold scepters with
jewels the size of eggs and other impressive pieces. The jewels were so large
they looked fake.
When we came back outside into the courtyard, it was getting
dark. We walked through a section of military history and then into Beauchamp
tower, built in 1280, where they
used to keep prisoners. Names, symbols and stories had been carved deep into
the stone by the former inmates of the tower, some with messages of hope and
others despair. Several were amazingly elaborate, testifying to the time some of the inmates
spent between the tower walls.
Harrods
After chatting with a Yeoman warder for a while, we took the tube
to Oxford Street for some quick shopping and another traditional British meal
before catching a cab to Harrods.
We took the Egyptian elevator up and up and up, passing
children’s clothes that cost more than my clothes, a food court with an absurd number
of options and finally settling for strolling through gowns that cost more than
my car. (Actually, tens of thousands of pounds per gown could probably buy my bug twice over.) Dad and Grace took a cab back to the hotel at that
point while Beth and I, not ready to turn in yet, took a cab to a pub in Holborn
in the center of London for a few pints.
Day 3
Camden Town
Day three started at Camden Town with a walk through the maze
of brightly colored buildings on the high street, the Camden Lock market
stalls and the odd mix of people. Soon we sat down in a pub restaurant for a
traditional English breakfast. Our
plates came, baked beans, roasted tomatoes, ham, sausage, egg, mushrooms and
toast all sizzling deliciously. I passed my mushrooms around to whoever would
take them while beans and tomatoes were passed my way.
(Side note - At first I
didn’t understand the brilliance of British Heinz baked beans, but now I see
the light. Beans with breakfast? Why not. On toast? Yes please. On fries with
cheese on top? Best. Meal. Ever.)
King’s Cross Station
You may not know this yet, and I know it’s a bit shocking if
you take into account the rest of my blog posts, but I am a bit of a Harry
Potter fan.
Okay, so maybe I mentioned it a few times before now.
Being a huge fan, I naturally began trying to pass the love
on to Grace from the time she could understand words. Beth and I must have read
the first chapter of The Sorcerer’s Stone
to her over a dozen times before it finally clicked. By the time she got to
London, she was well over halfway done with the series.
So, naturally, the next stop on our itinerary was King’s Cross
Station, where the Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9 ¾ every September 1.
We walked through the tube station then up through the train platforms, pausing
to see the barrier at platform 4 (which was used in filming the Harry Potter
movies as 9 ¾, since there is no barrier between platforms 9 and 10) before we found the platform that had been set up for photos outside of the station.
British Museum
Jet lag had caught up with Dad by this time so he took a cab
back to the hotel for a nap while Beth, Grace and I stopped by the British
Museum. Since Felicia and I had been about a week before, I knew my way around
pretty well and was able to navigate us by the main pieces. We saw the Rosetta
Stone and the Elgin Marbles before getting lost somewhere in the middle of
Asian artifacts.
Buckingham Palace
We left the British museum before too long and took the
Tube to Green Park station. More hot chocolate in hand, we strolled through the fallen leaves and
large, skeletal trees of Green Park towards the gates of Buckingham Palace. The
leaves had been green the last time I had walked through the with Palak when we
were on our way to see Kate’s dress, but since then most of them had dried to
shades of amber, half of them falling to cover the grass and sidewalk and the
other half still clinging to the branches.
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Soon the gilded iron gates rose in front of us and we
climbed up to sit on the steps of the gold statue directly in front of the
palace, watching the guards mill around in front of the royal residence.
After stomping through the piles of leaves along the side of
the palace grounds, we came to the entrance to Hyde Park where we met back up
with dad.
Winter Wonderland at
Hyde Park
I love winter. It’s by far my favorite season, especially in
London because I love the cloudy, cozy, rainy weather. Plus, in London, Winter
Wonderland isn’t just a song; it’s a whole fair at Hyde Park with a blinding
array of Christmas lights, archery games, giant slides and - I can barely
contain my excitement here - CHESTNUTS ROASTED ON AN (iron pan on top of an) OPEN FIRE! That’s right, all of my favorite Christmas songs come to
life! These things aren’t mere holiday myth; I’ve just been celebrating
Christmas in the wrong country.
We went down the giant slide, shot several arrows
and spun ourselves sick in Alice in Wonderland teacups before grabbing Christmas dinner baps that were basically Thanksgiving in a sandwich: freshly
sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, lettuce, stuffing and gravy all on a dinner
roll.
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| ROASTED CHESTNUTS! Which taste like sweet potatoes. |
Other Photos
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| Getting ready to leave the hotel after they arrived |
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| My favorite photo that I've taken of Grace |
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| The Gherkin |
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| One of the many chocolate snacks |
RLO - Christmas #2 (This
isn’t slightly repetitive or anything…)
I know most people love the Christmas season, but I Love it
with a capital L. Cozy weather, decorations everywhere, long break from school
and most of the world takes a day to celebrate my Christmas Eve birthday.
That said, I LOVE the Christmas season in the UK (if you
didn’t gather this from the section above). It basically starts the day after
Halloween since there is no Thanksgiving to take up November. When I first made this observation in early November (a few blog posts back), I thought the festivities might taper off or get stagnant. Far from losing steam though, the Christmas spirit continued to increase in intensity until it surpassed the season back home. Christmas
decorations and lights started to go up en masse early November, and by the
middle of the month when the days were short and the weather was crisp and cool,
every high street in the UK and all of the major streets in London were glowing
with Christmas spirit. Not to be outdone, the coffee houses started serving toffee, pumpkin spice,
apple-y, buttery drinks in special holiday cups and then the stores all unveil creative, festive window
displays and stocked snuggly jackets and scarves. Festivals sprang up in every major park and on the major streets and the farmers markets changed their themes too. Happy Christmas indeed.
Londonisms
Sport - Sports
(i.e. I love sport, vs. I love sports.)
Macintosh/Mac -
Raincoat
Cock up - Mess up
Get stuffed - Get
lost
Us - used a lot
in place of me. (i.e. “Give us a ring tomorrow," vs. “call me tomorrow.”)
Hiya - Hi
Leg it - Run
(i.e. “Let’s let it," vs. “Let’s run”)
Shirty - to get
mouthy, bad tempered (i.e. “Don’t get shirty with me.”)
Skive - skip
(i.e. British people might say “Let’s skive off school," vs. “Let’s
ditch” or “Let’s skip school.”)
Waffle - To talk
for a while about nothing. (i.e. “They always waffle on the news when there’s a
slow news day.”)
