Palaces and plays and pilgrimages oh my!
Sorry It's been so long since my last update post. I'm having such a good time its hard to find time to write and reflect.
Now...where did I leave off...
Greenwich. Now Greenwich is kind of off the beaten path a bit, there are a couple of ways to get there. I chose the river, seeing as London is on the river and so is Greenwich. It takes about an hour to get from The London Eye to Greenwich. I love being on the water. But eventually we came to Greenwich pier. Greenwich is a cute little hamlet, with a gigantic hill. My first order of business was to find lunch. It was Sunday so many restaurants have a Sunday roast on their menu. I love roast beef so I thought hey why not. This is what arrived....
What you see there is a huge slab of roast beef, roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, green beans and horseradish sauce. It was delicious, and for the record I love Yorkshire pudding! After lunch I walked over to the fan museum, which is exactly what it sounds like, a museum dedicated to fans. As a Spanish teacher I was especially interested. It was quaint.
Then came the trek up to the observatory. This is where the Greenwich line is that separates the Eastern Hemisphere from the Western Hemisphere. There were some exhibits that talked about why we needed a prime meridian, then there's the marker that shows where the line is, and the long line of people waiting to take their picture in front of it. Meanwhile 10 feet away is still the line and no one standing, so I went there to take my picture.
Monday was quite eventful. I went to Hampton Court Palace. This place is beautiful! It has the most glorious garden, plus they have actors dressed in costume that wander the palace and interact with the people. I loved it there. I loved it there so much that after I left, I turned around and went back. I made it 2 stops down the train line and realized I didn't have my camera! I got off the train and got on the next one back to Hampton Court. I asked at the ticket counter and someone had found my camera and turned it in! I am so lucky!
I rushed to get to Kensington Palace so I could take afternoon tea at the Orangery there, but they closed early for a private event, which made me sad, but if you've read my post about afternoon tea you'll know it all turned out well. Since I couldn't take tea, I toured the palace instead. It's a lovely place, its where Will and Kate live. I didn't get to see them though.
Tuesday dawned bright and sunny. Westminster Abbey was beautiful. My London Pass allowed me to skip the line that was at least an hour long, huzzah! I really liked that every hour they ask for a moment of silence and do prayers over the loud speaker of the Abbey, it really reminds you that this is still a working church.
After Westminster, I went to St. Paul's cathedral. It was designed by Christopher Wren, he built like half of London! Seriously, he built 51 churches in London, and before he built a church, he built a pub nearby so the workers had somewhere to go, so he contributed 51 churches and 51 pubs to the London cityscape. At St. Paul's, I actually attended the service. It was a little weird to have so many people milling around talking while a service is going on, but whatevs.
After St. Paul's I made my way back to Kensington Palace for tea. It was glorious. Read my earlier post to read all about it.
Tuesday night I went to my first of 2 plays. I went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was amazing and so entertaining. It's one of those shows you leave feeling good. If you haven't read the book, do so, it's spectacular.
Wednesday I went to the Tower of London and saw the crown Jewels. Holy jeez! They're a little over the top, though I suppose crown jewels should be prominent and bold.
After the tower I had to find a laundromat. I only have so many clothes with me. Luckily there's one just 3 blocks from my hotel. It was a bit on the expensive side, but I was able to get all my clothes washed.
Thursday was the best day of my trip so far. I went to the Harry Potter Studio. I'll write a whole post on the tour, so all I'll say here is...WOW....so much to see and it's amazing all the little details that were put in to props and sets that people never notice.
Thursday night I went to The Crucible at the Old Vic Theatre. I chose this one because Richard Armitage plays the main character. It was incredible. 3 hours and 45 minutes of intense emotion and action. And the play was in the round so I was so close to the actors, plus I was on an aisle. At one point I was less than 3 feet from Richard Armitage! Squee!!!!
This picture is not zoomed at all, that's really how close I was to the performance.
Friday brought me to Canterbury. Now there's a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. I was thinking I should do that one sometime, it's only 70 miles so it takes about 4 days. But it's the pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. The cathedral is quite beautiful, but the town is really the star. This was the first time I really FELT like I was in England. The town has all these quaint old buildings and it just feels very British. London is great, but London is a huge city and it kind of feels like any other big city. London feels like Madrid, which feels like Amsterdam. Obviously each city has it's own characteristics, but as a whole they feel the same. Canterbury felt like it could only be in Britain.
After visiting the cathedral I went to the Canterbury Tales. You'll remember that from high school British Lit. Well they have a little museum thing that walks you through some of the Canterbury Tales. The audio guide was good, but most of the figures were just creepy. It was extra creepy because I walked through it by myself, but these are some of the mannequins that were set-up for the displays...
Creey huh?
This brings me to today. Saturday. Saturday brought me to Bath. My first stop was the Roman Baths which gave the town it's name. The Romans built a bath house on the place they found a natural hot spring. It was quite a site. There's even a place to try the water with its "healing powers" It was luke-hot mineraly water, I tried it, which means I drank Bath water...
Then on to my main reason for going to Bath. The Jane Austen center. The tour starts with a short presentation on Jane's life then you get to guide yourself through the exhibit. It was great. I even got to write with a dip pen, where you dip the pen in the ink and write, it made my handwriting really good! I might have to write with nothing but that from now on! The gift shop of the Jane Austen center is dangerous. SO much stuff I wanted, but I restrained myself.
When I went to leave, it was raining, so I headed up to the tea room and had afternoon tea again. I tried a crumpet! I wasn't impressed.
But that brings me to now. Tomorrow I'm off to Oxford, and then I leave London for Cardiff. It may well be the next time I write, I'll be writing from Ireland!
Hope you are all doing well! Leave comments if you're reading! I have so many views, but I don't know who's reading!
Cheerio!
Now...where did I leave off...
Greenwich. Now Greenwich is kind of off the beaten path a bit, there are a couple of ways to get there. I chose the river, seeing as London is on the river and so is Greenwich. It takes about an hour to get from The London Eye to Greenwich. I love being on the water. But eventually we came to Greenwich pier. Greenwich is a cute little hamlet, with a gigantic hill. My first order of business was to find lunch. It was Sunday so many restaurants have a Sunday roast on their menu. I love roast beef so I thought hey why not. This is what arrived....
What you see there is a huge slab of roast beef, roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, green beans and horseradish sauce. It was delicious, and for the record I love Yorkshire pudding! After lunch I walked over to the fan museum, which is exactly what it sounds like, a museum dedicated to fans. As a Spanish teacher I was especially interested. It was quaint.
Then came the trek up to the observatory. This is where the Greenwich line is that separates the Eastern Hemisphere from the Western Hemisphere. There were some exhibits that talked about why we needed a prime meridian, then there's the marker that shows where the line is, and the long line of people waiting to take their picture in front of it. Meanwhile 10 feet away is still the line and no one standing, so I went there to take my picture.
Monday was quite eventful. I went to Hampton Court Palace. This place is beautiful! It has the most glorious garden, plus they have actors dressed in costume that wander the palace and interact with the people. I loved it there. I loved it there so much that after I left, I turned around and went back. I made it 2 stops down the train line and realized I didn't have my camera! I got off the train and got on the next one back to Hampton Court. I asked at the ticket counter and someone had found my camera and turned it in! I am so lucky!
I rushed to get to Kensington Palace so I could take afternoon tea at the Orangery there, but they closed early for a private event, which made me sad, but if you've read my post about afternoon tea you'll know it all turned out well. Since I couldn't take tea, I toured the palace instead. It's a lovely place, its where Will and Kate live. I didn't get to see them though.
Tuesday dawned bright and sunny. Westminster Abbey was beautiful. My London Pass allowed me to skip the line that was at least an hour long, huzzah! I really liked that every hour they ask for a moment of silence and do prayers over the loud speaker of the Abbey, it really reminds you that this is still a working church.
After Westminster, I went to St. Paul's cathedral. It was designed by Christopher Wren, he built like half of London! Seriously, he built 51 churches in London, and before he built a church, he built a pub nearby so the workers had somewhere to go, so he contributed 51 churches and 51 pubs to the London cityscape. At St. Paul's, I actually attended the service. It was a little weird to have so many people milling around talking while a service is going on, but whatevs.
After St. Paul's I made my way back to Kensington Palace for tea. It was glorious. Read my earlier post to read all about it.
Tuesday night I went to my first of 2 plays. I went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was amazing and so entertaining. It's one of those shows you leave feeling good. If you haven't read the book, do so, it's spectacular.
Wednesday I went to the Tower of London and saw the crown Jewels. Holy jeez! They're a little over the top, though I suppose crown jewels should be prominent and bold.
After the tower I had to find a laundromat. I only have so many clothes with me. Luckily there's one just 3 blocks from my hotel. It was a bit on the expensive side, but I was able to get all my clothes washed.
Thursday was the best day of my trip so far. I went to the Harry Potter Studio. I'll write a whole post on the tour, so all I'll say here is...WOW....so much to see and it's amazing all the little details that were put in to props and sets that people never notice.
Thursday night I went to The Crucible at the Old Vic Theatre. I chose this one because Richard Armitage plays the main character. It was incredible. 3 hours and 45 minutes of intense emotion and action. And the play was in the round so I was so close to the actors, plus I was on an aisle. At one point I was less than 3 feet from Richard Armitage! Squee!!!!
Friday brought me to Canterbury. Now there's a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. I was thinking I should do that one sometime, it's only 70 miles so it takes about 4 days. But it's the pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. The cathedral is quite beautiful, but the town is really the star. This was the first time I really FELT like I was in England. The town has all these quaint old buildings and it just feels very British. London is great, but London is a huge city and it kind of feels like any other big city. London feels like Madrid, which feels like Amsterdam. Obviously each city has it's own characteristics, but as a whole they feel the same. Canterbury felt like it could only be in Britain.
After visiting the cathedral I went to the Canterbury Tales. You'll remember that from high school British Lit. Well they have a little museum thing that walks you through some of the Canterbury Tales. The audio guide was good, but most of the figures were just creepy. It was extra creepy because I walked through it by myself, but these are some of the mannequins that were set-up for the displays...
Creey huh?
This brings me to today. Saturday. Saturday brought me to Bath. My first stop was the Roman Baths which gave the town it's name. The Romans built a bath house on the place they found a natural hot spring. It was quite a site. There's even a place to try the water with its "healing powers" It was luke-hot mineraly water, I tried it, which means I drank Bath water...
Then on to my main reason for going to Bath. The Jane Austen center. The tour starts with a short presentation on Jane's life then you get to guide yourself through the exhibit. It was great. I even got to write with a dip pen, where you dip the pen in the ink and write, it made my handwriting really good! I might have to write with nothing but that from now on! The gift shop of the Jane Austen center is dangerous. SO much stuff I wanted, but I restrained myself.
When I went to leave, it was raining, so I headed up to the tea room and had afternoon tea again. I tried a crumpet! I wasn't impressed.
But that brings me to now. Tomorrow I'm off to Oxford, and then I leave London for Cardiff. It may well be the next time I write, I'll be writing from Ireland!
Hope you are all doing well! Leave comments if you're reading! I have so many views, but I don't know who's reading!
Cheerio!
You have been BUSY, girl!! <3
ReplyDeleteYou've convinced me that I NEED to visit Westminster Abbey. You know me and all things spiritual. I think I would love the bells ringing and the prayers every hour. :)
You look GORGEOUS in your Van Gogh dress!! Please tell me some geeky chique (a.k.a. sexy) guys hit on you at the theater!! ;)
I'm nearly finished reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" that you left here for me to read! It is SO good, I'm so glad you let me keep it to read while you're gallivanting in London!
"The Crucible" sounds like it was AMAZING. WOW. I love theater in the round, it's so personal. Three feet away from the characters?? Just like you're part of the play!!
Thanks so much for posting about your adventures so we can read what an awesome trip you're having!! xoxoxox
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteokay ! try again! via computer so hopefully, no errors! haha!
ReplyDeletewhat on earth is yorkshire pudding, and which is it in the picture? is it what looks like a roll? LOL
a FAN museum! i still have that fan you got me in spain. it was in spain right?
i LOVE how you tell the story about the line... you know, only 10 feet away is STILL LINE! LOL! hahaha thats awesome! nice feet! :P
i hope there are pictures of the garden! ! :)
hahaha loved it so much... i love how you talk. :P so funny!
kensington! so sweet! i didnt realize you had a tour, either i missed that or you didnt go into that detail before! so cool!!
the story of the pubs and churches is funny . :P
crown jewels! wow!
great move with the laundry. ;)
so who is this armitage? i could google him but my computer is psycho and i dont desire to have any errors while posting on this. haha!
i love in the round. :)
canterbury sounds enchanting!
wait wait wait jane austen center?!?!? im so insanely jealous! :P a center! wow! i didnt know such things existed!
i want to write with a dip pen!! sounds so nice!!
so what is a crumpet like? whats it made of and whats it taste like?
you must surely have eloped with some hot irish guy by now since you havent posted. :P yup. thats the story im choosing to believe. haha!