We arrived in London yesterday around noon and set off to Wimbledon to the house of a family friend, namely my mom's college friend Wendy who along with her daughters I've known all my life. We took the tube, which was very much like DC, and looked eagerly out the windows and said "How European!" at all the small cars and chimneys and nice shoes, etc. in an unconcious effort to look like big dumb Americans.
Got right into town and had amazing luck. Went around parliment and tried to look for pages. Kevin thinks we may have seen some. Walked up Whitehall St. and looked at all the government buildings.
One of the most intresting differences that I've noted as been in the character of public art. Here, as in our national capitol there are many statues to various personages of various ages, but here I feel like they are fundementally more accessible. They have wrinkles in their clothes and funny hats and indignent/cocky expressions on their faces. Not as many of these "great men" as it were are on horses, they are right on the street with you and me and I can see the bags under their eyes. I like that.
We saw the Queen's Guard House which is an extremely old building surrounded by high fences. It made me want to gather the peasants and storm it.
We went into Traglagar Square and sat around the fountian for a while. Some guy went up to Nelson's Column, stripped naked and stood in a sort of crucfix position. He just stood there. The best part about it was that we noticed well before the other tourists who were sitting directly below him and so they just sat there, la de da, while some dude was naked. It was a pretty intresting scene as a crowd gathered, likely 1,000 people before the police came and took him away. He took a bow. We clapped.
Then we wandered around Picadilly Circus which is a huge mixed-use metro area with retail on every ground level. It's an NYC amount of people with georgetown or french-quarter new orleans (pre-flood) sort of set up if I may be so ethnocentric. Lots of shops of every ilk. Kevin and I wandered aroud for about an hour and a half just sort of taking it in.
Another point about Picadilly is that we almost died a couple of times because cars are coming from every which way and they are moving fast. We have learned the lights a little bit, but walking these streets would even be a challenge for great J-walker Montini.
Then we were standing under a monument to Waterloo making Napolean jokes when lots of horses started coming by. On horseback, 40 red-coats complete with bearskins marched down the street on their black stallions with their instruments. They marched into St. James park and began playing a concert. What??!?! Yes!!
We watched for free from the back. A crowd of about 2,000 was in the stands opposite us. This all was compeltely by accident. We watched them do a sort of mounted field-show with great sound. An old woman in blue was seated in a place of honor. Eventually the pipers and than other honor guards came out and we watched the British pagentery.
Leaving, we asked a cop if that was the queen.
"No," he said, "It's old Margaret Thatcher."
"Oooh" I replied.
"Actually she's been dead five years, but they filled her up with anamatronics, you know robot stuff, and they bring her out every now and then. They thought it'd be bad for the national morale if we lost old Maggie."
cheeky bobby, o cheeky bobby.
went back to the house and ate fish and chips. splendid.
today we went to the british museum. its the archive of the empire. the acropolis and the roseta stone etc. very cool. bog man off display. boo.
ate lunch at some korean place.
got very lost trying to go to St. Pauls. wound up watch street performers including opera. Saw Drury Lane but no one would sell us muffins there. Went elsewhere and bought muffins.
Generally wandered the streets, which was great given the weather. Went to London City and thought to myself a great deal about cross-cultural municipal boundaries. I am a nerd.
Came back here and took a much needed nap before going to dinner with our hosts and a pub in Wimbeldon. Very cool. Ate "Bangers and Smash" and drank enough Peno Gresisos to make me swoon. Whee!!
Tomorrow we see Westminster and Tower of London and then fly out in the evening. It's a whole lot of travel before we reach Hyderabad. More then!!
Pictures to follow.
Got right into town and had amazing luck. Went around parliment and tried to look for pages. Kevin thinks we may have seen some. Walked up Whitehall St. and looked at all the government buildings.
One of the most intresting differences that I've noted as been in the character of public art. Here, as in our national capitol there are many statues to various personages of various ages, but here I feel like they are fundementally more accessible. They have wrinkles in their clothes and funny hats and indignent/cocky expressions on their faces. Not as many of these "great men" as it were are on horses, they are right on the street with you and me and I can see the bags under their eyes. I like that.
We saw the Queen's Guard House which is an extremely old building surrounded by high fences. It made me want to gather the peasants and storm it.
We went into Traglagar Square and sat around the fountian for a while. Some guy went up to Nelson's Column, stripped naked and stood in a sort of crucfix position. He just stood there. The best part about it was that we noticed well before the other tourists who were sitting directly below him and so they just sat there, la de da, while some dude was naked. It was a pretty intresting scene as a crowd gathered, likely 1,000 people before the police came and took him away. He took a bow. We clapped.
Then we wandered around Picadilly Circus which is a huge mixed-use metro area with retail on every ground level. It's an NYC amount of people with georgetown or french-quarter new orleans (pre-flood) sort of set up if I may be so ethnocentric. Lots of shops of every ilk. Kevin and I wandered aroud for about an hour and a half just sort of taking it in.
Another point about Picadilly is that we almost died a couple of times because cars are coming from every which way and they are moving fast. We have learned the lights a little bit, but walking these streets would even be a challenge for great J-walker Montini.
Then we were standing under a monument to Waterloo making Napolean jokes when lots of horses started coming by. On horseback, 40 red-coats complete with bearskins marched down the street on their black stallions with their instruments. They marched into St. James park and began playing a concert. What??!?! Yes!!
We watched for free from the back. A crowd of about 2,000 was in the stands opposite us. This all was compeltely by accident. We watched them do a sort of mounted field-show with great sound. An old woman in blue was seated in a place of honor. Eventually the pipers and than other honor guards came out and we watched the British pagentery.
Leaving, we asked a cop if that was the queen.
"No," he said, "It's old Margaret Thatcher."
"Oooh" I replied.
"Actually she's been dead five years, but they filled her up with anamatronics, you know robot stuff, and they bring her out every now and then. They thought it'd be bad for the national morale if we lost old Maggie."
cheeky bobby, o cheeky bobby.
went back to the house and ate fish and chips. splendid.
today we went to the british museum. its the archive of the empire. the acropolis and the roseta stone etc. very cool. bog man off display. boo.
ate lunch at some korean place.
got very lost trying to go to St. Pauls. wound up watch street performers including opera. Saw Drury Lane but no one would sell us muffins there. Went elsewhere and bought muffins.
Generally wandered the streets, which was great given the weather. Went to London City and thought to myself a great deal about cross-cultural municipal boundaries. I am a nerd.
Came back here and took a much needed nap before going to dinner with our hosts and a pub in Wimbeldon. Very cool. Ate "Bangers and Smash" and drank enough Peno Gresisos to make me swoon. Whee!!
Tomorrow we see Westminster and Tower of London and then fly out in the evening. It's a whole lot of travel before we reach Hyderabad. More then!!
Pictures to follow.
2 comments:
wow wow wow, you two have been VERY busy. Your days sound great, I love just walking around and taking it all in. And how appropriate that you had fish and chips, I trust they came wrapped in newspaper.
"Saw Drury Lane but no one would sell us muffins there. Went elsewhere and bought muffins"
These are the kind of stories I expect (and laugh out loud about) from you.
Thank you, Laura Meixell.
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