Jake is on the couch working on math. Noah and I are at the kitchen table, he working away at anthropology, and I now sitting down to write a bit having spent the past several hours booking travel for other parts of the UK. We're with T&S until the 31st and then at a family farm near Eastbourne Sussex (yes, I've got family with a big dairy farm here - more about that another time, like when we're on the farm), and then off to travel a bit up into northern England and then into Scotland.
I'm getting way ahead of myself though.
It's been an interesting first several days here. I've actually tried to write about it a couple of times but have felt frustrated about what was coming forth from my finger tips, so have stepped away. Other days have been too darn busy.
London has been calling, and it's been a bit stressful I will have to say. Honestly, I think the boys are way better at it than I am. Since the moment we got here I've wanted to be on the move, total tourist, checking it all out, showing the boys the things I really liked when I was here a few years ago with my Dad, and discovering new ones with them. The boys on the other hand are pretty relaxed about it all. Happy to have a lie in, wanting to get into their school work, as they had decided that London would be when that started. They seem to be able to just ignore all of the awesomeness around them that is this city and just live.
Jerks.
I mean, that's the whole point of this trip. To live. Not to tourist. I've been saying that the entire time up to our departure. Put to the initial test, I am failing. And doing so brilliantly I might add. So I need to take a few pointers from the boys. I need to breathe. I need to relax. It will all be here next time, so whatever we see and do, we see and do. And those things will be great, as will the rest of whatever we get up to.
And it's not like we have been on the go non-stop since our arrival. But I've been wanting to, and it's been driving me a bit batty. Thankfully Noah and Jake, while not necessarily so patient with each other, cut me a decent amount of slack. Thank you gentlemen.
Apparently this is going to be something I will need to remind myself of on a regular basis. Hopefully I figure it out over time and hopefully that will make this gnawing feeling of "get out and do something damn it" subside. We'll see. I expect Noah and Jake will be able to help me with that process. They already are.
With that now partially exorcised from my system I can now say that we have seen a fair bit.
We got here Saturday night and Sunday was a lazy day with a walk around the neighbourhood. Pretend Tanya has just got three new kittens and needs to house train them, so upon arrival to their new home, puts them immediately in the litter box, so that they can then explore from that point, and orient themselves accordingly. So, while not as cute, we're the kittens, the house is London, and Tanya and Simon's house is the litter box. Their house is quite lovely, so not the best metaphor, but you get my meaning. That was Sunday.
Monday was St. Paul's Cathedral, that wonder designed by Christopher Wren post the fire of 1666. It boasts the second largest free standing dome, right after St. Peter's in The Vatican. The three of us having been in St. Peter's last summer, had this one on the top of our list. And unlike our trip to St. Peter's, this time we climbed the dome. Firstly up 250 odd steps, or about 30 metres to the Whispering Gallery - where the acoustic allows you to breathe heavily into the wall and have someone here you on the other side. Then another 120 and a bit steps or another 20 metres to the Stone Gallery where you get to wander outside. And then finally up another 150 odd steps or around 30 metres to the Golden Gallery, where you are again, outside, on a small, oh so small balcony.
Have I mentioned my thing about heights yet? I have a thing about heights. Silly, irrational thing, but a thing nonetheless. I'm working on it.
So you can't take pictures inside St. Paul's. You can though, take pictures of London from the two upper galleries. London looks something like this from that high up.
It is a remarkable view, and that's just one angle.
Above is the front of St. Paul's. Below is the front of Westminster.
Second though, and I can't show you this either because interior photos are not permitted, the inside of Westminster is essentially the stone version of The National Portrait Gallery. It is filled to bursting with memorials of the who's who of British history. And I think the thing I like most about history are the people. Not necessarily what they did, as people can often suck, but more so the moments when I go "Hey! I know you!" I like that little connection. Also, aside from the people who suck there are also many who don't, so it's nice to take a moment and think about them.
Oh, and so no one is worried that we actually did this, as it would be nuts to do, we did not see both the Cathedral and the Abbey in the same day. We did however see the Abbey and the Tower of London in the same day, which is equally ridiculous, but I'll get to that.
In between the Catherdral and the Abbey we saw pelicans. Yes, pelicans. They live in St. James park and we stumbled by them purely by accident. A lovely serendipitous moment mind you, as Noah had come across their existence while surfing through Atlas Obscura, and now we had a chance to see them. Check that one off the list.
Pelicans were on Tuesday. Tuesday was originally to be Westminster Abbey followed by a guided walk around Old Westminster with London Walks, a tour company providing, you guessed it, a variety of walking tours of London. I cannot speak highly enough of this group and our guide for this walk Judy. It's also, for London anyway, quite affordable. Well, we didn't get going soon enough to do the Abbey justice given the following formula: arrival time + abbey queue + abbey visit time + getting our butts to where the tour started + food < tour start time.
There just wasn't time. So we walked, and looked around, and got some food, and then did the tour. Judy took us by many a splendid place filling our minds with the history of Westminster both the abbey and of course the house of commons and house of lords in what is officially called Westminster Palace, as it was, afterall, a palace, right up until Henry VIII went on a building spree, moved to Whitehall, and never looked back. Or something like that.
Above is a small portion of the parliament, you may recognize it as the recently renamed Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben, as EVERY tour guide will tell you, is actually the bell.
The walk got us wandering through some of the residential streets in and around the abbey.
What is fascinating about this home, aside from it being a block or so away from where Lawrence of Arabia once lived, are the two signs painted on the wall. The S on the bottom right indicates that this home has a lower level that the then owners made available as a public shelter during war time bombing. As this house is early in the block the the sign in the top left indicates that there are shelters on the street.
The closed blind indicates that current owners are tired of people photographing their home.
The tour ended up back at the abbey. Good reason for another picture of my favourite building in the city. It helps that while doing the tour there yesterday the audio guide played little bits of Zadok the Priest. Boy I love that tune. Oh, and Jeremy Irons narrates the tour. And who doesn't love the voice of Jeremy Irons. Sure, he's no Morgan Freeman, but for touring an abbey, an excellent choice.
Post tour we headed on home by way of grocery shopping in the Woolwich market. Some stuff at a local halal butcher, others at Tesco. Don't know Tesco? Think big, everything store. The UK version of Walmart I suppose. Convenient. Inexpensive. Works for me. Why Tesco works for me in the UK and Walmart doesn't in Canada? I imagine it has to do with not thinking about it much. I am going to keep it that way for another week or so I imagine.
Yesterday was a big tour day.
Noah, Jake and I got up and out pretty early. I can no longer refer to them as "the boys" or "the kids" as the night before Simon would tell me they are not either of those things whenever I used one of those terms. Henceforth they shall be the guys.
So the guys and I got up and out early and over to Victoria station to pick up London Passes, this lovely card that, if you go crazy for a day or so running around like complete idiots, lets you save loads of money on various sites. With it we got: Westminster Abbey, The Churchill War Rooms, The Horse Guard Museum, a Thames river tour from Westminster to The Tower of London, and the Tower of London. Lots, lots, lots more is accessible with the card, this is just what we wanted to cram in and still allow a little time to eat and rest our ears, eyes, minds, and feet prior to going on a Jack the Ripper walk in the evening with the London Walks folk (not included on the card).
I'll skip further pics of the abbey.
Below though is one of the many rooms that makes up the Churchill War Rooms, the underground rooms that, as it name may suggest to the most astute of you, was used by Churchill and his wartime cabinet. Very neat and a fascinating look at one small but crucial aspect of the war. Basically a whole bunch of people lived down there for extended periods during the war. Churchill while he slept there only a few times (too bad given his private bedroom and dining room) spent much of this time there with his cabinet managing the British efforts.
From there we went to the Horseguard Museum (actually it's called the Household Cavalry museum, but the horseguards are there so ya, Horseguard museum it is). If you watched beach volleyball during the London Olympics then you know this place, or at least it's courtyard. The Horseguard are to the Royal family what the Swiss Guard are to the Pope. Their official protectors. There are two regiments in the Horseguard: The Life Guard, and The Blue and Royal Guard. Anyone in the commonwealth can apply for entry. No riding experience required.
Now, I do have a couple of picture of the guys in full ceremonial uniform but I'm not allowed to post them, so instead here is a really cool canon that's in the parade ground.
The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure I have a picture of this canon on my other SD card from the trip here with my Dad. The same is likely true for alot of these shots. Huh. Well, I'm not going to cheat. Only 2014 originals here.
The river tour was a nice relaxing trip down the Thames. I really do like the Thames. When I was here last Dad and I spent a goodly amount of time walking along its banks. Not so much this time, but I remain hopeful.
Anyway, we arrived at Tower Bridge, which, in addition to having two towers is also right at The Tower of London, which is why it actually has that name.
As a note, London Bridge remains wholely unremarkable. Great little tune, but boy, they sure were singing about something else back then.
And then into the Tower of London.
There is alot to see here. A. Lot. The crown jewels for example, if you're into the big shiny object sort of thing. Plus of course there is all the history of it as a working castle and royal residence, and of course of it's less nice history as a jail. I'd recommend this being something you take a day for, or at least, don't do it and another big thing, like for instance, an ABBEY, on the same day. My brain was mush. Total mush, and I did not get as much out of this as I would have liked to.
My fault, not the Towers. Don't blame the history, blame the dufus trying to absorb it all in one day. Again though, the guys rolled with it way better than I, and likely retained more information than I did.
This though I found kinda fun.
It's essentially graffiti done by one of the prisoners in the tower. Now, Draper was being held on charges of sorcery, which he admitted to doing at early points in his life but argued when arrested that he was done with. Just a phase apparently. Well, it would seem that smart people back in the 16th century can be just as daft as smart people now-a-days, because what did Draper spend his time on carving into the wall during his incarceration? A zodiac sphere. Yep, zodiac sphere. Somehow this didn't help his case much, though there is no record of what eventually happened to him, so who knows, maybe the stars did align in his favour. Ba-da-dum.
Then it was off to a pub for a curry and a pint (or two), and a quick meet up with Tanya who swung by on her way home from work. Tanya is super awesome that way. She and Simon are super busy with their work and lives, and they kindly open their home to us and then find ways to connect when and where they can, even if it does mean going 30 minutes out of the way. Super, super cool.
The evening was spent on a Jack the Ripper London walk. This, like the day leading up to it, was fascinating. Now, I am sure that there are literally dozens of different companies offering Ripper walks. I am equally sure many of them try to be "spooky" or sensationalize the whole event. London walks version? It is graphic. It is explicit. These things are true. And I had no idea how brutal these slayings were. I will not go into it; my mother is afterall reading this. But that is not the part I found fascinating. What the tour is really doing, is giving us a view into life at that time. The conditions people in the "east end" lived under. Who lived there, where they came from. Why they were there. The very important distinction between what is officially the City of London and other areas like White Chapel, Westminster, and the townships that morphed into what we think of as London today. The origins of those boundaries and the affect those boundaries had upon life in London then, and continue to have today. It's a history lesson with a bit of evisceration to help keep you focussed. If only they had that for Grade 11 math, I likely would have done much better.
No, no I wouldn't have.
And then we headed home to regale Simon and Tanya with the days events and to learn a whole lot about Simon, a black duffle bag, and a trip to Westminster. His story to tell, and a fine teller he is, so I will leave it to him. The one thing I will say about last nights conversation, is that I am very thankful for having friends who like to talk and share their stories, knowledge and opinions. I am just as equally thankful for having two sons who are interested listeners to these stories, and participants in these conversations with thoughts of their own to provide. I am hoping it is a small glimpse into the types of evenings we will be sharing this year with the people we meet along the way. That is the point afterall.
Having now written all this I am wondering what the whole first section was about. We're seeing and doing lots. London is a fantastic city. And we're finding our balance, or more likely, I am finding mine and the guys are keeping calm and carrying on despite my shennanigans.
Well, it's nearly 6pm here. Time to get out of my pyjamas and go get some groceries.
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