Day 5 – Where East Meets West

We woke up that day wanting to just stay in bed, staying warm under the blankets. The morning was cool, wet and gray. We were slow to get up. By then we were in full vacation mode, lazy and threw the schedules out the window. I’d wanted to go to Greenwich Market that morning but the husband was not into shopping, and it was his birthday after all. So instead of taking the fast route to Greenwich, he wanted to take the Thames cruise. Boys and boats…*sigh*. I’d printed out a 2-for-1 offer for Catamaran Cruisers before we left, but when we got to the Embankment pier they had a special offer: 50% off everything anyway. I suspect it’s because of the dreary drizzle that morning. It was their first scheduled trip to Greenwich at 10:00 am but there were already a group of people queuing, about 20 or so Italian tourists eager to get on the boat. They were all chatting happily, more energetic and lively than we were, despite being seniors. Let’s just say that the husband and I are not morning people, we were still waiting for the caffeine from our lattes to kick in. Costa Coffee around the corner from our flat was a regular stop, the staff there were always friendly and the coffee better than Starbucks in my opinion.

When we got on the boat, everybody pretty much went and stayed in the fully-covered lower deck because of the rain. I gotta say I wasn’t impressed with the interior of the boat, the carpet was decaying, and the seating uncomfortable. But we just made the best of it, sat on the very front and enjoyed the view from the windows that surrounded the deck interior. The trip to Greenwich took a little over an hour, with a complimentary live tour from the boat operator. It was quite nice, and the rain wasn’t so heavy that we couldn’t see the buildings and landmark mentioned on the tour. We stopped at Waterloo, Bankside, and Tower Piers, with only two other people joining us from Waterloo.

Greenwich Pier was near empty when we arrived. We walked to the National Maritime Museum, just a short distance from the pier. Not a lot of people were around, it’s a nice change from the crowded central London. I was surprised to see the Maritime Museum building, from photos I’d seen on the website I got the impression that most of the building was white, instead most of the building was…peach (with sections painted in white). I guess the photographers didn’t set the white balance on their cameras correctly. I think the building looked more cheerful in peach anyway The admission was free, but we still had to get tickets at the front desk. I thought that maybe they just wanted to keep track of the number of visitors, but we had to actually show the tickets after having coffee at the Regatta Cafe. The ground floor of the museum, and the court just above it was bathed in light, spacious and airy. The displays were quite diverse, from figureheads of historical ships to a vortex machine. We moved on from there to the “Passengers” section of the museum, where passenger ships models and interior details were displayed. The boom in passenger travel at sea came during the 19th and early 20th centuries, brought upon by the massive expansion of emigration, and later, tourism. I guess taking a cruise for vacation was much more for the rich back then.

The museum was definitely the husband’s cup of tea, if I didn’t remind him that we couldn’t possibly see everything in this museum we would have missed visiting the Royal Observatory. He finally decided to focus on Nelson’s Navy Gallery and Ships of War, a small gallery filled with models of battle ships. I must have been tired (or bored?) since I dozed off on one of the comfortable chairs while he analyzed every single nook and cranny on the models. Now I know what he must have felt when I examined every single brush stroke on the paintings in The National Gallery. The Nelson Galleries proved to be much more entertaining to both of us. There was a super awesome electronic display of The Battle of Trafalgar with an audio guide describing the progress of battle, complete with the ships’ path that you could see just by touching the surface. The famous uniform worn by Nelson during battle, with the fatal bullet hole clearly visible, was a huge hit amongst visitors. One guy even broke the no-photography rule by quickly snapping a photo of it when the guards weren’t looking. I was reading the notes accompanying the display and got confused by the mention of one Emma Hamilton, to whom Nelson bequeathed his lock of hair (pigtail). My thought was, “Did she not change her name when she married him? How progressive! Or maybe they were just dating at the time?” Let’s just say that “dating” is an oversimplification of their relationship. My partner, who took a naval history course in college and reads books on the subject, never knew about Emma Hamilton and was quite shocked by Nelson’s tawdry affair. We read the displays concerning Emma Hamilton in amazement. There were love letters, caricatures making fun of pregnant Emma (they had a daughter), and the bizarre ménage-à-trois between Nelson, Emma, and her husband. It’s an unexpected side of Nelson that we weren’t aware of. It’s such a contrast from our previous experience, after visiting Trafalgar Square where his figure was immortalized on a monument, and his glorious tomb in St. Paul’s Cathedral with the audio guide’s vivid description of the grand funeral procession. The man was almost godlike, that day we realized he turned out to be a regular man after all, despite all the monuments and memorials.

 

Day 4- Lovely English Weather!

Well, the day got off to a slow start. We were both tired from the previous day’s climbs and wanted to take on a slower pace. So we didn’t leave until 10:00 am, and discovered much to our delight, how close the Victoria and Albert Museum was to our flat. It took us 5 minutes to walk over there. My first impression of the museum was that it’s so…pretty. If the British Museum and the National Gallery are the two older more serious siblings, then the V&A is the strutting, carefree, younger sister with a chic wardrobe. While I enjoyed the majestic, and highly academic atmosphere of the first two museums, I savored the V&A’s more intimate and luscious setting. I mean, who could resist a smile when greeted by a bright, twirly chandelier in cheerful colors?

My elation was slightly dampened by the fact that part of the British Galleries was closed (1500-1700 period). Despite many tempting offers by the V&A, we wisely decided to just focus on the British Galleries. The partial closing was also a blessing in disguise as we discovered how extensive the 1700-1900 period collection was. We entered a small, dark gallery. Such a contrast in experience from the previous two days of sightseeing. There’s no intimidation, pick-your-jaw-up-from-the-floor sense here, just an invitation to look, examine, and discuss. If I could imagine having a wealthy great-grand mother with a collection of antiques she wished to show me, that was the feeling I got. Amongst my favorites were the works of William Morris, the model for The Wellington Memorial at St. Paul’s (it was a bit surreal to see the miniature the day after), Mr. and Mrs. Garrick’s Fashionable Living exhibits, and the “Sleep of Sorrow, Dream of Joy…” sculpture by Raffaell Monti.

Afterwards, we just wandered around the museum, trying to go floor to floor by lifts as often as possible since our legs still felt like having climbed Mount Everest. We adored the gorgeous sculptures in the bright Dorothy and Michael Hintze Galleries. After lingering there for a while, we ordered a couple of lattes from the cafe and sat in the magnificent Gamble Room. There were couple of local families, sitting nearby having some lunch. It seemed that most of them were bringing their children to the Surreal Things exhibition. After coffee we strolled around the beautiful John Madejski Garden in the courtyard. I loved the rows of lemon trees lining the garden, they brought a cheerful touch to the place (not that the courtyard was gloomy). After checking out a few more exhibits, like the Northern Renaissance Europe, we left the V&A wishing we could have stayed longer. We barely scratched, no…more like tickled the surface there. But we enjoyed our pace and didn’t feel like we rushed things. Again, it was so convenient to have the museum right in our door step that we just came “home” for lunch. I was so tempted to take a nap, but alas a London vacation is unlike that of a lazy tropical paradise one where I could just waste the day sleeping on a hammock. Still, it’s hard to beat a place where I could visit Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb (yeah I know I’m a geek).

The mercurial London weather was upon us again as we stepped out into heavy rain and wind. We were determined to go to Kensington Palace by bus, but got lost somehow. So there we were, I don’t remember which street, holding our umbrellas 45 degrees from the ground to repel the windy rain when suddenly we heard somebody yell, “$%#@!*Lovely English weather!!!” in a thick accent that sounded like Groundskeeper Willie’s. We looked behind us and saw a man struggling to put some construction materials into his van, soaking wet, looking pissed off but somehow had managed to retain his sense of humor. When we turned the corner we snuck under a canopy and just burst out laughing. That man just summed up in just a few (quite colorful) words how we felt about the weather that day and during most of our stay in London. A bit of a love-hate relationship if you will. It’s the perfect kind of weather for the lush greenery we enjoyed in parks and such, the slow steady supply of moisture and the way that the streets glistened when wet…but it’s gotta suck when you’re a construction worker trying to get your outdoor job done. The heavy rain didn’t last long, it was soon replaced by the constant light drizzle we both had become used to by then.

 

Day 3 – Stairways to Heaven and Hell

We woke up slightly more adjusted to the local time. The biggest jet lag problem for me had been my hunger…I was getting hungry at the oddest times! One useful tip: I forced myself to eat during the regular times anyway (like morning breakfast, 12:00-1:00 lunch, 7:00-8:00 dinner) and if I did get hungry at 10:30 for instance I either grabbed a cup of latte or protein bar…or both. After breakfast we immediately headed off to Tower of London. It was such a peculiar sight walking towards the complex, the towers looked so ancient compared to their surrounding. The visitor center and ticket booths looked so modern and polished. I didn’t expect such a tourist-oriented entrance, it was looking a bit like a theme park (coming soon: Disney London? *shudders*).

Once we were inside however, the feeling of “uh-oh-we’re walking into a tacky tourist trap” disappeared. There was hardly any crowd, the towers looked so handsome and staggering, and there were Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) everywhere. Based on tips from guidebooks and travel forums (thank you TALFers) we went straight to the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels. I didn’t know we had to go through a labyrinth just to get to the them. OK, labyrinth is an exaggeration…but to see room after room filled with bars and small movie screens playing historical features, it was strange. Then it dawned on us that these rooms were for people standing in line to see the Crown Jewels. OMFG! I couldn’t imagine how crowded this place must be during the height of the tourist season. We were so fortunate to have been there with only 4 other people. The popularity of the royal bling was also evident by the automated moving walkway that only allowed us to catch a glimpse of the jewels. Because it wasn’t crowded we just went around and around, even walking in reverse to stay in one place. It was such a privilege to view the infamous Koh-I-Noor diamond,…and not just because we’re Doctor Who fans .

Afterwards, we raced towards the entrance to catch a tour guided by a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater). The tour was very entertaining, I highly recommend it. The Yeoman Warder guiding us seemed to bear a resemblance to Winston Churchill. He was quite funny and animated. There were about 20 other people with us as we walked around the Tower of London complex. Mostly Americans apparently, after the Beefeater took a poll. My favorite part of the tour was when he discussed the tales of the two young princes, and the notorious wife-collecting-executing Henry VIII. Our tour ended at St. Peter ad Vincula chapel, where they found the remains of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The chapel is still being used as a house of worship today, and families of Yeoman Warders get to have weddings and baptisms there also.

Our next stop was the White Tower, and the first room we walked into appeared to be an extensive collection of armories. Very impressive, and quite gruesome from some of the descriptions on how a particular weapon was used. I was particularly impressed by the Line of Kings, a magnificent row of sculptured horses and armories featuring 17 kings from William I to George II. However, only Henry VIII and Charles I were represented by their personal armors, the rest were given armors of the Tudor or early Stuart periods, regardless of date. One display amused us, an armor of King Henry VIII (see my Flickr photo). The armor originally formed part of a garniture of interchangeable pieces which could be adapted to different uses in tournaments or war. What we were wondering about was whether the piece that seemed to protect the nether regions was custom-made to Henry VIII’s personal measurements . Armories aside, another highlight of White Tower for me was the Chapel of St. John The Evangelist. I loved the elegant simplicity of the architecture, the space seemed light and airy despite being housed in a compound known for torture and murder.

Having gone up and down the stairs at White Tower, which seemed to be the pattern of the day, we decided to rest on a bench right outside the Tower. It’s people watching time! There were lots of school children, some groups behaving badly, most very well-mannered. The crowd definitely got heavier as the day progressed, with a lot more people in the Beefeater tour groups. The sky cleared up just in time for us to eat our lunch. When we looked up we almost didn’t recognize the bright celestial orb peeking through the clouds . I headed to the ladies restrooms after lunch and was pleasantly surprised by framed awards on the wall announcing “Loo of The Year” 2006 5-star award. How silly I thought, but couldn’t help but smile at the unusual enthusiasm for clean public lavatories. I fully intended to take photos if not for the sudden loud sobbing I heard coming from one of the stalls. Very…awkward…moment, I wasn’t sure what to do but it sounded like an adult lady so I thought well she could take care of herself, and I just left.

 

Day 2 – Westminster Rules

Our first full day in London! We woke up with a mix of anticipation and exhaustion. Note to self: Do not put in 60+ hours at work just before a major international trip. Our first stop that day was Westminster Abbey. That morning we armed ourselves with London A-Z Map, Oyster Cards, knowledge of the tube journey previously downloaded from TFL’s Journey Planner (I loved our apartment’s Broadband Internet!), umbrellas, and rain jackets. Yes, you guessed right, it was raining…again. I’ve read about the first view when coming out of the Westminster tube station but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer height and size of the tower that houses Big Ben. I couldn’t stand there for very long as the crowd started pushing their way out of the station, heading towards the Abbey. I had to smile as I observed large groups of Japanese tourists with their brightly-colored rain ponchos and huge DSLRs hanging from their necks. I prefer my compact Canon and my sleek black rain jacket. I couldn’t say whether I blended more with the locals or not, that was not my intention, but I did notice a lot of people wearing black in London.

Making our way to Westminster Abbey wasn’t hard, there were clear signs guiding us to the right direction (no, no more silently polite British gentlemen). Again, the initial sight was of awe and wonder as we entered the Abbey grounds. What a spectacular building, I wish I could take a photo of every single architectural detail. We entered with ease as I had printed out the 2-for-1 offer beforehand, and was only asked to show proof that we had purchased 7-day Travelcards. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there were very few visitors in the Abbey. I guess it did pay to arrive fairly early in the morning (they opened at 9:30 am). As we were going through the vast collection of monuments, tombs, effigies, and chapels we were guided by the audio tour. A couple of times as we entered a few small chapels the audio guide would urge us to move along as fast as we could because it might get crowded in there. We looked around us, “What crowd?”. It was very pleasant indeed! As the day progressed, more and more people came in but still no suffocating crowd as we’d expected (this positive experience soon eclipsed by the crowd at The National Gallery). We were interrupted a few times by calls to prayer, which was no big deal as the prayers were short and devoid of evangelical propaganda, i.e. no “Convert to Christianity now, you heathens!”. Instead we prayed for world peace, God bless England, world peace, and oh world peace again. One prayer totally confused us at the end because of a “double amen”, the priest had said amen, we started walking around again, then she continued with more wishes for world peace, finally ended by another amen. I did like the fact that the prayers were announced because they did serve as reminders that the Abbey is still a house of worship and not a religious theme park.

I was so excited when we finally arrived at The Nave, around the area often referred to as “Scientists Corner”. What an honor, being able to stand there amongst monuments remembering Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Ernest Rutherford, and Paul Dirac with his famous equation inscribed on his memorial stone. These are the giants whose shoulders I stand on, whose works enable my own work to progress. Along with “Scientists Corner”, my favorites were the tomb and effigy of Queen Elizabeth I (buried on top of her half-sister Queen Mary I), and the dramatic Nightingale Monument. The Cloisters provided an opportunity for me to take photographs, so I was delighted when I found Edmond Halley’s comet-shaped plaque on the wall. The British have certainly made significant contributions to science, and Westminster Abbey can testify to that.

We were starving by the time we’re done with Westminster Abbey. So we found a bench in St. James Park and ate our packed lunch there. It was so much fun to watch people around the park, especially since we were there around lunch hour. There were a lot of people jogging, and we couldn’t help feeling terribly guilty as we were munching on our crisps, watching London workers huffin’ and puffin’ their way through the park, having a much healthier lunch hour than we were. Not everybody opted to sweat profusely as they exercised, there were people in their work attire, wearing their trainers (sneakers), and just walking around the park. Some of them seemingly talking to themselves as they had the Bluetooth headset on.

 

Day 1 – Arriving in Londontown

We flew Air New Zealand out of LAX into LHR, a pleasant flight with spacious seating and friendly crew. During the flight we only had two negative experiences, none of which necessarily reflects poorly upon the airline itself. The first one were the screaming babies. We don’t have kids, after this experience I’m not sure if we will ever have them. The young families were seated so close to one another that the babies start a symphony of crying and screaming because they were feeding off of each other’s misery. The second negative experience we had was the slow pace of the flight attendants in collecting the used food trays after meal service. There’s usually a mad dash to the lavatories after meals, for a good reason. It’s kind of hard to get out of your seats when there are heaps of trash and food leftover in front of you. We waited…and we waited, finally I just stacked my tray on top of my partner’s and squeezed my way out of my seat before my bladder exploded. The pace picked up significantly on our flight back to the US from London, perhaps because the flight crews were mostly Americans? I hate to generalize things but we noticed that the pace of food service in London is considerably slower than in the US.

Fast forward 10 hours, we landed in Heathrow around 11:00 pm. We headed straight to immigration/passport control and stood in the queue. It didn’t take long at all for us to clear immigration, only 10 minutes. The officials were quite efficient, and apparently most of the visitors were prepared with correct documentation, so the line moved quickly. The two comments we got from the official were, “Your holiday is so short, only one week!” (followed by discussions on the differences between the US and UK in terms of paid holiday), and “Your country is so huge!” (we could only nod and mumble something about how it took us forever just to get out of Texas by car).

We took the tube (underground train) from Heathrow to Knightsbridge, which was so straightforward since both stops are on the Piccadilly Line. I noticed an interesting, unfamilar “smell” being wafted out of the Heathrow tube station as we approached the platform. It didn’t really bother me and the smell seemed to dissipate after awhile, maybe I got used to it eventually. The ride was a blur to me to tell you the truth, mainly because I kept nodding off. I remember thinking that the tube seemed smaller than the NYC sub, but I don’t know that for a fact. I did like the fact that the tube has a priority luggage area so they won’t block the other passengers. When we came out of the underground we were greeted by the shopping mammoth that is Harrods. Our apartment was 10 minutes away from the department store, and yet during our stay we only managed to visit the food halls once for an hour on our last day in London. Harrods just didn’t interest us that much. It’s packed with tourists and the prices were astronomical. I thought that at least the food halls merit a slot in our itinerary, but after having to pick up our jaws from the floor in palaces/museums/cathedrals Harrods failed to impress us.

After weaving in and out of the crowd, maneuvering our rolling luggages around the various bumps on the pavement we made it to our apartment. We immediately liked the space, quite spacious with a British king size bed (American queen size), dinner table, two leather sofas, and a well-appointed kitchen. The neighborhood is very nice, although a tad bit too bourgeois for our taste (it is Knightsbridge after all). I forgot when this incident occurred exactly but one day a speeding blue Ferrari almost ran us over, and I remember us being so dazzled by the car that we almost forgot to complete crossing the street. Also, one time we got lost and took a wrong turn into another street, we noticed a woman standing in the entrance of her flat talking to her husband. Feeling naughty and voyeuristic, we slowed down and caught a glimpse of their flat interior. All I can say is wow! How much are they making, and can we swap places with them for a day? Admittedly our rental flat sits on one of the most expensive addresses in London but the weekly rate was very reasonable (especially compared to most London hotels in the area), and the interior is far from luxurious. It’s clean, modern, and comfortable yes, but nothing like that flat we peered into.

I had planned a nice stroll in Hyde Park the day we arrived. Alas, the weather was dreadful and the husband was nursing a cough. Plus the jet lag was worse than we had anticipated. So we just focused on doing what we definitely needed to do…grocery shopping. So we took the 74 bus to South Kensington and shopped at the local Waitrose there. There were a Sainsbury and M&S Simply Food nearby but we couldn’t resist a chance to ride in a red double-decker bus. The shopping was uneventful, except for the instance when I couldn’t find the eggs. I thought that they’d be in the refrigerated section, but after a lengthy egg hunt and an exasperated, mumbled conversation with myself, a kind woman finally pointed me to the right direction. She basically just smiled and pointed, didn’t say a single word. I guess she took pity on the lost American girl who thought she could navigate the British grocery store easily. I noticed that the Brits were polite and helpful in an oh so subtle manner. We were standing around the tube station trying to find the correct “way out”, when a man simply gave us a “follow me” look and nodded towards the right direction. Either that or he simply had a nervous tick and we were dumb enough to follow a mute stranger…