London Day 1
It's been a long time since I updated as we've been travelling, but here goes.
On Monday we checked out of our hotel and took the metro to Gare du Nord to board the chunnel train. The check in is like a sped up airline checkin and we even got stamps on our passports, which hadn't happened to me on any of my travels before. The trip was only about 2 and a half hours. The time through the chunnel is only 20 minutes or so of a lot of ear popping.
On our arrival, we picked up some 3 day travel cards, which gave us free access to all the tube and bus systems in London and took the tube over to our hotel. Unfortunately, the closest station to our hotel, Queens Park, was closed for renovations so we got off at Lancaster Gate, right across from Hyde park.
We stopped at the first pub we saw, I forget the name, but it had Goose in it. Mandy and mom got Fish and Chips and I picked up the roast of the day. The Guinness did taste better than in the states, but it might have been the psychosomatic effect of drinking it at an actual London Pub.
After lunch, we walked to our hotel. The room was not much to look at, but we had a second story view of Hyde Park which was really stunning. It was so stunning that we went for a walk right after we dropped off our bags.
Hyde park is huge and its design is interesting. Only the areas right next to the walking paths are mowed, the rest of the huge expanses of the park are tall grass and scattered, untrimmed trees. The untrimmed grass is a welcome change from Paris, where most of the parks have dirt paths and fenced off grass that you can't walk on. We made our way from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the park. On our way we came across the serpentine gallery, a free art museum near the middle of the park. There are a lot of free museums in London. Even the British Museum and the British Library are free. The serpentine gallery is not as large or as majestic as those museums, but its selection of ultramodern displays are really cool. One display was a working household, where people were living and sleeping in plain view of hundreds of visitors. It was the epitome of life as art. My favorite exhibit is a giant wooden jigsaw puzzle of about a thousand pieces, which you can sit down and work on. The puzzle is a picture of a black and white design which is devilishly similar all over. I could have sat there all day and worked on that puzzle. After the serpentine gallery, we walked along the lake in the park and came across the Princess Diana memorial fountain. I'm not a Princess Di fanatic, but I came across a short article on the checkered history of her memorial fountain. At its unveiling, the fountain was accused of looking like a sewer drain, which admittedly, it does. It is a short granite half tube which curves in a circle. The goal of the designer was to capture Diana's friendliness and willingness to accept people of all backgrounds. However, the smooth granite fountain was too smooth and many early visitory slipped and hurt themselves. The granite also started growing a lot of algae and mold. After a while, they had to hire a team of workmen to carefully rough up the granite and treat it so it didn't grow so much crud on it. There was no algae on it when I saw it, but even though I'm not much for royal majesty, it didn't look majestic enough.
After the park, we caught the tube over to Westminister station, which we left right before they closed the station temporarily. We saw a K9 police vehicle pulling up. There was probably a bag left somewhere according to a local paper seller who overheard us debating what might have happened. Right across from Westminister station is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Big Ben is really a sight to see. Standing alongside the houses of parliament the whole area has a feeling of imperialism and industry of a bygone era. My lifetime of playing Civilization made me really want to click on it and watch little political envoy units pop up.
We walked to St. James park and went to the Cabinet War Rooms museum. These rooms were the actual bomb shelter that Churchills war cabinet used to fight World War 2. It has been preserved in the same state that it was back then. They have the actual tables they met in to plan the assault on Normandy. The international telephone that connected Churchill with the American Presidents was kept in a locked room that used to be a lavatory. As the rest of the shelter had no flushing toilets, many were convinced that it was the only flushing toilet and that PM Churchill refused to let anyone else use it. The most incredible piece in the museum for me was the map where they tracked the transport convoys from America. There were thousands of pin holes, which held little cardboard ships with the number of ships in the convoy. It must have been the most depressing job in the war room, constantly erasing the number of ships and writing the new number as the convoys were attacked by u-boats.
After the museum, we walked up to Trafalgar Square. I just love places like this where there are hundreds of people just hanging out, eating lunch by the fountains, feeding the pigeons, climbing on the statues, chasing the pigeons and so on. There aren't enough communal city areas like this built now-a-days, but then again there are few history changing naval victories against Napoleon happening now-a-days to require the building of city squares.
We walked from trafalgar square up towards Soho but stopped in an internet cafe when it started raining heavily. Internet cafe's are only 50 pence a half hour. Mom sent off a quick email to dad and I started, but didn't finish this post.
From the internet cafe we walked past the gala opening of Fantastic Four, with huge TV screens and fire spouts, and on to the Horse and Carriage on Greek street. It's a great pub, with hand pumped Bombardier Ale (my favorite English Ale now) and homemade sandwiches for 1 pound each. These sandwiches provided a perfectly delicious counterpoint to our high priced lunch at Le Cinq in France. There was a very friendly English chap who talked with us over a pint while he was waiting for his mates. He asked if we had been on the tube and he was glad to hear that we were. He suggested that we need to get out of London to really get a feel for what its like to be English.
After the sandwiches, we caught a little black London cab over to the London Eye, the giant ferris wheel hung over the Thames. We happened to get the ride right at sunset, so we watched as the lights came on all over London. You ride in these big glass capsules with air conditioners, which we didn't need but must be nice during the rest of the summer. Big Ben still dominates your field of view as you look across London, though the high rises spread much farther than they seemed to in Paris and are a sight in and of themselves.
We caught the tube back to Lancaster and walked home to our hotel exhausted from a full day.
On Monday we checked out of our hotel and took the metro to Gare du Nord to board the chunnel train. The check in is like a sped up airline checkin and we even got stamps on our passports, which hadn't happened to me on any of my travels before. The trip was only about 2 and a half hours. The time through the chunnel is only 20 minutes or so of a lot of ear popping.
On our arrival, we picked up some 3 day travel cards, which gave us free access to all the tube and bus systems in London and took the tube over to our hotel. Unfortunately, the closest station to our hotel, Queens Park, was closed for renovations so we got off at Lancaster Gate, right across from Hyde park.
We stopped at the first pub we saw, I forget the name, but it had Goose in it. Mandy and mom got Fish and Chips and I picked up the roast of the day. The Guinness did taste better than in the states, but it might have been the psychosomatic effect of drinking it at an actual London Pub.
After lunch, we walked to our hotel. The room was not much to look at, but we had a second story view of Hyde Park which was really stunning. It was so stunning that we went for a walk right after we dropped off our bags.
Hyde park is huge and its design is interesting. Only the areas right next to the walking paths are mowed, the rest of the huge expanses of the park are tall grass and scattered, untrimmed trees. The untrimmed grass is a welcome change from Paris, where most of the parks have dirt paths and fenced off grass that you can't walk on. We made our way from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the park. On our way we came across the serpentine gallery, a free art museum near the middle of the park. There are a lot of free museums in London. Even the British Museum and the British Library are free. The serpentine gallery is not as large or as majestic as those museums, but its selection of ultramodern displays are really cool. One display was a working household, where people were living and sleeping in plain view of hundreds of visitors. It was the epitome of life as art. My favorite exhibit is a giant wooden jigsaw puzzle of about a thousand pieces, which you can sit down and work on. The puzzle is a picture of a black and white design which is devilishly similar all over. I could have sat there all day and worked on that puzzle. After the serpentine gallery, we walked along the lake in the park and came across the Princess Diana memorial fountain. I'm not a Princess Di fanatic, but I came across a short article on the checkered history of her memorial fountain. At its unveiling, the fountain was accused of looking like a sewer drain, which admittedly, it does. It is a short granite half tube which curves in a circle. The goal of the designer was to capture Diana's friendliness and willingness to accept people of all backgrounds. However, the smooth granite fountain was too smooth and many early visitory slipped and hurt themselves. The granite also started growing a lot of algae and mold. After a while, they had to hire a team of workmen to carefully rough up the granite and treat it so it didn't grow so much crud on it. There was no algae on it when I saw it, but even though I'm not much for royal majesty, it didn't look majestic enough.
After the park, we caught the tube over to Westminister station, which we left right before they closed the station temporarily. We saw a K9 police vehicle pulling up. There was probably a bag left somewhere according to a local paper seller who overheard us debating what might have happened. Right across from Westminister station is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Big Ben is really a sight to see. Standing alongside the houses of parliament the whole area has a feeling of imperialism and industry of a bygone era. My lifetime of playing Civilization made me really want to click on it and watch little political envoy units pop up.
We walked to St. James park and went to the Cabinet War Rooms museum. These rooms were the actual bomb shelter that Churchills war cabinet used to fight World War 2. It has been preserved in the same state that it was back then. They have the actual tables they met in to plan the assault on Normandy. The international telephone that connected Churchill with the American Presidents was kept in a locked room that used to be a lavatory. As the rest of the shelter had no flushing toilets, many were convinced that it was the only flushing toilet and that PM Churchill refused to let anyone else use it. The most incredible piece in the museum for me was the map where they tracked the transport convoys from America. There were thousands of pin holes, which held little cardboard ships with the number of ships in the convoy. It must have been the most depressing job in the war room, constantly erasing the number of ships and writing the new number as the convoys were attacked by u-boats.
After the museum, we walked up to Trafalgar Square. I just love places like this where there are hundreds of people just hanging out, eating lunch by the fountains, feeding the pigeons, climbing on the statues, chasing the pigeons and so on. There aren't enough communal city areas like this built now-a-days, but then again there are few history changing naval victories against Napoleon happening now-a-days to require the building of city squares.
We walked from trafalgar square up towards Soho but stopped in an internet cafe when it started raining heavily. Internet cafe's are only 50 pence a half hour. Mom sent off a quick email to dad and I started, but didn't finish this post.
From the internet cafe we walked past the gala opening of Fantastic Four, with huge TV screens and fire spouts, and on to the Horse and Carriage on Greek street. It's a great pub, with hand pumped Bombardier Ale (my favorite English Ale now) and homemade sandwiches for 1 pound each. These sandwiches provided a perfectly delicious counterpoint to our high priced lunch at Le Cinq in France. There was a very friendly English chap who talked with us over a pint while he was waiting for his mates. He asked if we had been on the tube and he was glad to hear that we were. He suggested that we need to get out of London to really get a feel for what its like to be English.
After the sandwiches, we caught a little black London cab over to the London Eye, the giant ferris wheel hung over the Thames. We happened to get the ride right at sunset, so we watched as the lights came on all over London. You ride in these big glass capsules with air conditioners, which we didn't need but must be nice during the rest of the summer. Big Ben still dominates your field of view as you look across London, though the high rises spread much farther than they seemed to in Paris and are a sight in and of themselves.
We caught the tube back to Lancaster and walked home to our hotel exhausted from a full day.
posted by sfphotoblogger at 8:17 PM
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