Lou Ann's EuroBlog

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."
- Anatole France

My mom is the BEST!! She's like an information hound! (That's why she's a librarian!) All you have to do is hint that you need some information on whatever random topic that you're interested in and she finds it for you, post haste! (That "post haste" thing is a thing that my mom says all the time...) Anyway ... she sent me an e-mail this morning (or yesterday?) about Paddington. Here is a link to his biography. Short story is that he was born in Lima, Peru, and was raised there. But he was sent to London by his aunt (he was an orphan) and arrived at Paddington Station, and was found there. Cute, huh? Apparently, I never really cared for the Paddington stories when I was little (Mom remembers things like that!) Well, when there were fun things to read like "The Boxcar Children", who would get into Paddington Bear?? ;-)

Now that you know more than you ever wanted to know about me ... I will try to finish telling you about my time in London here so that I can get on to Denmark while I'm still in Denmark! :-)

Day Twenty (7/15/05) - London
I had some "errands" to run this day, so of course, I got up early with the intention of getting the boring stuff done so that I could get going on the fun stuff. As it turns out, most places where you do boring stuff in London don't open until 10:00, so I ended up sitting at (you guessed it) Starbucks sitting around across from the railway ticket office reading my Michener novel and doing some Su Doku puzzles while waiting. (Excuses, excuses...)

Finally, I got to the Rail Europe office. Now, I originally (a couple of days before) went to the railway ticket office at Victoria station to ask about train tickets from London to Dover and from Calais to Paris (my original plan had been to do a train/ferry/train thing back to Paris). But the guy at Victoria station told me that they don't have any info about that type of rail ticket. He is the one who gave me the address to the Rail Europe office. He told me that they would be able to help me no problems. I feel like I was running all over London with this same question, and really, no one ever did help me answer it. At the Rail Europe office, they don't sell any tickets for rail travel within London. Duh! But they could sell me a ticket for Calais to Paris if I wanted. They also showed me the price of the Eurostar from London to Paris, which I thought would be outrageous based on my experience from the previous week. Well, it was VERY reasonable, which leads me to believe that the man at the ticket office in Bergerac who sold me the original Eurostar ticket was just being mean. I guess. Anyway ... I figured that since the cost of just the ticket from Calais to Paris would have been more than one-third of the ticket on the Eurostar, I'd just do the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel again. Bottom line: I saved ££ and travel time. Bonus on both ends.

I sort of feel like Friday (day 20) was a wasted day. I didn't do hardly anything interesting until the evening. From the Rail Europe office, I went to Covent Garden again and did some more street shopping (Jackie - I bought a couple more scarves ... the smaller, silkier ones ... I LOVE them!!) and then made my way to the Tate Modern museum (across the river). It was lunchtime so I had lunch in the museum cafe before starting to "do" the museum.

Now, I like modern art, or so I thought. I mean, I have a working knowledge of art from the past 100 years, and like some of the more abstract artists such as Jackson Pollack. There's a magnificent Pollack prominently placed in one of the main hallways at the Albright-Knox art museum in Buffalo, and I really like it. Another thing to point out is that the Tate Modern doesn't hide the fact that they have an unorthodox arrangement of their works. They arrange their works by chosen themes rather than by artist and/or time period. Great! So I took the map of the museum, circled the rooms with the names of themes that I thought I'd be interested in and went at them.

Wow ... I went through almost the entire museum and I'm not sure that I enjoyed more than two or three pieces in the whole place!! The stuff was for the most part too abstract for me. Even the pieces by Picasso and some of the other impressionists were from their weirder works (except that they have Monet's "Waterlilies" ... lacking a perspective point and horizon ... I love it!) Anyway ... at the end of the visit, I left wishing I had gone to the Tate Britain or the British Museum instead ... but as I really only made time for one museum, now I know. Wasn't quite my speed! I must be getting old!! :-)

Well ... I had to run home and change my clothes and make myself look relatively neat and clean because I had a ticket to see a show that evening. There were LOTS of shows playing in London while I was there. LOTS. Many that I haven't seen, and some that I have seen. Chicago starring Brooke Shields (I just can't imagine her as Roxy Hart!!), The Lion King (I'm wanting to see that ... but not this time!), Saturday Night Fever, and so on. I could honestly list 10 or 15 shows that I probably ought to have gotten a ticket for. But no ... I had to go with a show that I've seen several times already. Les Miserables. At the Queen's Theater.

Before I went to the show, I treated myself to a nice dinner at a restaurant very close to the theater. It was an Italian place, and I went all out. Started with a nice chianti, had some foccacia bread with oil for an appetizer, linguine with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, a chocolate tart, and a cappachino to finish. YUMMM!!! It was fabulous!!

As I was going in the door to the theater, I recognized one of the women from the trip to the Cotswolds the previous day (one of the teachers). Funny! We were practically standing in line next to each other. She had gotten her ticket at the last minute, and got a GREAT seat on the floor in one of the first few rows. My seat was in the second balcony in the front row. (When I worked at the theater box office in Buffalo I learned that usually front row balcony seats are fabulous seats!)

Okay, okay, the show. It was FABULOUS!! I am very familiar with that show (maybe not so familiar as Nancy is ... but I feel like I know it pretty well). I was SO impressed. I came prepared with lots of tissues ... and used them almost from the beginning (I seem to be a weep-fest lately) ... it was SO good. I don't know if you all know the story or not, but if you don't it's fabulous!! Although the setting is the French Revolution, I kept seeing compassion upon compassion upon compassion. Well ... except the whole Javert story line ... he's totally obsessive ... but it's a wonderful story! The actor who played Valjean was probably the best tenor I've ever heard in person! His range was great, but the most impressive thing were his dynamics. Amazing!! All of the actors were fabulous, the set included a rotating stage that was used very effectively, and everything was just wonderful!!! Absolutely one of the best shows I've ever seen!!

After the show, I decided to take a taxi home rather than walking to/from Tube stations after dark. I don't think that I've ever hailed a taxi before, and apparently I don't know how to do so because I waved at the only two or three taxis I saw with their light on and that were empty, and they drove right by me. Ugh!! I waited and walked a bit for about a half hour before hopping on the double decker bus that would put me closer to home. That was an adventure in and of itself. It seems like the evening crowd that rides the city busses are quite a bit rowdier. This one was a relatively 20-something crowd, and certain people who had never met other certain people started arguments about stupid things, and got rather loud. They even started telling-off the man who stands at the back door of the bus to check tickets and tells people to sit down. They called him a racist and it went downhill from there. Ugh!! I got to Victoria without being yelled at by anyone I do or don't know ... easily found a cab, and got back to my hotel without further incident. All in all, a GREAT evening!! :-)

Day Twenty-One (7/16/05) - London
I allowed myself to sleep in that morning, after the late night at the theater (yeah, 7:00 is WAY sleeping in for me!!), but made sure that I was at the bookstore about 15 minutes before they opened so that I could purchase my BRITISH copy of the new Harry Potter book.

Funny story that some of you have already heard (more than once!). When they announced that Harry Potter, book 6, would be released on July 16, I was SO disappointed. I always order the book ahead of time so that it's delivered on the day that it comes out and I can start reading right away. But, I was disappointed because I wasn't going to be home to take the delivery, and I'd have to wait to read it. Are you laughing at me yet? Darn that I'm going to be in LONDON on the day it comes out. DUH, ME!! Not only is JKRowling British, but they have a different version in England because they use different idiomatic language for the Brits than for us Yankees.

So, not only did I get my copy of the Harry Potter book on the day it came out, but I also got the British version, for comparison. Actually, there was no line at the bookstore (how unlike the States!) and the woman who worked there saw me waiting, and unlocked the door for me (and locked it again behind me) and made the sale (I also bought a few more Su Doku books ... to use in my classroom ... really!!) How nice of her!!

Now, Kate, you'll be disappointed to know this, but I've decided not to start the Harry Potter book yet. In fact, I'm seeing people all over reading it ... on the Tube, in restaurants, on trains, in the airports, etc., etc. But, there are a couple of things that led me to this decision. First of all, I am reading a fabulous James Michener novel, Centennial. I'm loving it!! But, if you know Michener, his books are over a thousand pages long. And, if you know me, I read VERY slowly. I actually started this Michener book twice ... once in the summer of 2003, and put it down when the school year started, and just picked it up again at the end of this school year and decided to read it from the beginning again to get into it. So ... since I'm almost half-way through, I didn't want a repeat performance, so I want to keep working on the Michener. Secondly, the Harry Potter book is bigger and is hard-covered, and I like to carry a smaller book onto the Tube and the trains and planes with me. Harry Potter was just too bulky to slip in and out of my backpack and so on. SOOOOoooo ... I have no opinion on the newest HP book, and won't have for awhile. I'm in the middle of Michener's gold rush years (the book Centennial is set in Colorado), and it's getting really exciting!! :-)

Now, London has a deal that is similar to Washington's TourMobile. It's called The Original London Tour Bus. They have red double decker busses that do four different loop tours of the city, and you buy an all-day pass, and can get on and off at many different stops around the city, and then hop back on any other bus that comes along. I probably ought to have done this the first day I was in London to give myself an idea of the city ... but better late than never (I was so into riding the London eye that day!)

I hopped on the bus at Victoria and sat on the top. The tour bus tops are open air (unlike the double decker city busses). I sat through (without getting off) all of West London (including Westminster), and saw things like Margaret Thatcher's house, Sean Connery's house, and MI-6. LOL!! It's always interesting listening to the tour guides talk about the city.

I actually got off of the bus at St. Paul's cathedral. Someone (I don't remember who, but thank you to whoever you are!) told me that St. Paul's is one of the best sites in London. It's a gorgeous church! I walked around downstairs for a little while. Then I climbed. And climbed. And climbed!

The first set of stairs takes you to a loft sort of thing around the inside of the dome, where you can look down on the Nave. It is a fabulous view from there!! Then, you climb some more and you are outside, and can walk around the outside of the dome and get a great, 360 view of the city. THEN, you walk some more ... the steps get narrower and narrower (I can't imagine anyone who is more than a couple of inches wider than I am fitting through the last doorway) to the top of the dome, and you get a spectacular bird's eye view of London. It was a gorgeous day (the weather in London was gorgeous the ENTIRE time I was there!!), and I took LOTS of pictures!! You could see the London Eye, many of the galleries and museums, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, etc. It was fabulous ... and well-worth the climb (530 steps in all!!) and the sore legs the next day. :-)

After climbing back down, I had lunch in the basement of the church. Now, you know what they have in the basements of old European churches? Well, I'll give you a hint. The cafe is called the "Crypt Cafe". LOL!! I ate my salad near someone named the Honorable Sir William Ponsonby who died in 1815 (on June 18) at the battle of Waterloo. LOL(??)

Getting back on the tour bus, it was absolutely PACKED (go figure ... I decided to ride it on a Saturday ... another reason I should have done it Tuesday instead!!) But I enjoyed seeing some of the East London sites ... and got off again to see the Tower Bridge and some of the things nearby. Now, FYI ... some people picture the bridge with the two towers and the suspension cables as "London Bridge", but that is incorrect. The real London Bridge is the next bridge west. It's a plain bridge and doesn't look any different than the 14th Street bridge in DC. It's in that nursery rhyme because the original London Bridge (the one that had real live tudor row houses lining both sides) burned a long time ago and was replaced with this modern bridge. Anyway ... the bridge that you picture when you think of London is called the Tower Bridge. It's relatively new, in London terms, at only a hundred or so years old. And, it's a draw bridge, and I saw it open a couple of times to allow larger ships to pass.

The Tower of London is on the other side of the bridge, but the tour of that place is VERY long, so I just looked at it from the outside (Mom wanted me to see the crown jewels, but I didn't ... sorry!) I was much more interested in what's on the other side of the Tower Bridge. Do you remember that last fall I blogged about the New London City Hall? Well, if not, take a quick look at the picture that I posted there. The new city hall is truly new, built in 2002, and the architecture is fabulous. Since I love photography, I have been looking forward to photographing this building. Not sure if I got any good shots, but I gave it quite a tremendous try!!

I ended up back on the bus, and got off again at Trafalgar Square, walked around a bit, took some more pictures, and got back on the bus and headed back to Victoria.

And thus ends Saturday in London.

Day Twenty-Two (7/17/05) - London
A friend recommended that I visit a church that she attended while living in London for two years a while back (thanks, Lauren!) Holy Trinity Brompton. So ... I looked up the church, and it was only a few Tube stops from Westminster near my hotel. I called and got the service times, and headed out there. Of course, I was rather early for the time of the service that I had chosen (I never know how long to give myself on the subway!), so I took a walk. The church just happens to be across the street and down about 5 minutes from Harrod's department store. The store wasn't open yet, but I got a good look at the building, which is quite ornate from the outside. Interesting.

The church itself is Anglican, but rather evangelical. The vicar's name is Sandy Millar, who was preaching his last sermon as vicar of that congregation before being moved to a bigger and more prominent congregation downtown. The current associate vicar, Nicky Gumble, will be taking his place as of August. I mention these names because it turns out that Nicky Gumble is the man who started the Alpha Course. Interesting!! Anyway ... his sermon was taken from Psalm 34:8,9, but was rather about change and saying good-bye. "Change is here to stay" was his quotable quote! :-)

After church I went to try to catch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (obviously not high on my priority list), but only got to see the guard marching with the band down Birdcage Walk toward the palace. The crowds were more than I wanted to fight.

I tried to find a take-out sandwhich on the way home, but apparently everything edible is closed on Sundays in London, so I ended up at the local corner store buying their refridgerated sandwhich. Ugh!! Anyway ... I spent the majority of the afternoon packing and getting ready for the train in the morning.

But ... I headed out of the hotel and back toward the new City Hall building to re-examine an exibit that I stumbled upon while there the previous day. You must check out this link: Earth from the Air. It was an outdoor photography exibit, with photos taken from helicopters of different parts of the earth with an eco-message theme. The images are tremendous and the message came through loud and clear. I wish I had more time to spend at that exibit. But I will certainly be back to the website to explore. Maybe some stuff for our new International Baccalaureate program that we're adopting at school...

Anyway ... the reason to go back toward the East side of town was that I had a ticket to see The Tempest at the New Globe Theater. Remember that the original Shakespeare's Globe Theater no longer exists. But they have constructed a near-replica, and show plays there in the same spirit as they would have been presented at the original Globe. Now, when I bought the ticket earlier in the week, I thought it would be fun to stand (there are three levels, the bottom being the "commoners'" area where you stand on the ground to watch ... the others are tiered balconies where you could sit.) Well, standing through a two-hour play with NO intermission ... the day after I climbed 530 steps at St. Paul's (up and down again!!) was a dumb idea on my part. I actually had to leave at one point to go outside and sit down. But, I got to see most of the play. It was very well done. I have to confess that I have never been very good at interpreting Shakespeare without reading a written synopsis (which I did not do before, during or after the play), so a lot of it didn't make sense to me. I'll need to go back and do that at some point before I get back. But the actors were great fun, and interacted with the audience, and at the end did a traditional dance (which they apparently did after all of Shakespeare's plays at the Globe back then!) Another fun evening!

Well ... that's it for London chronology. Just a couple of quick comments on the driving and I'll let you go. :-) Remember that the U.K. uses the left-hand side of the road instead of the right like most of the rest of the world. The cars are built backward with the driver on the right hand side of the car, too. When I was looking at visiting London, Colin e-mailed me and said that it wouldn't be too tough to get used to driving on the other side of the road. But, the thing that really convinced me not to even try was that the stick shift is backwards with the left hand. NO WAY!! I could never get used to that. Good thing I didn't try. I had trouble crossing the street even!! I kept looking the wrong way. I can't even tell you how many times I almost got hit, and was most certainly beeped at!! The most embarrassing thing about that is that at most of the major cross walks, it says "Look Right-------->>" (arrows and everything) right on the street in big white letters. Then, when you get halfway across the street, it says, "<<---------Look Left", again, arrows and everything. I'd look right, and then feel like I was doing something wrong, and so I'd look left, and then step out, and in the meantime, a car or bus would come along and beep at me. I never did get it right. So ... it's a good thing that I didn't try to drive, or I would have been on the wrong side of the street WAY too often!! Ugh!!

Another interesting tidbit ... when you are walking on the sidewalk, or up a flight of stairs or down a hallway or something, instead of moving to the right, you are expected to move to the left. If you move to the right, you usually bump into people. In fact, the escalators and staircases and walkways that are marked for a certain direction are always on your left, just like the streets. I found that to be fascinating (and also a bit confusing).

Interestingly enough ... at the intersections where there were traffic lights, I noticed that when you had a red light, it would blink yellow for a moment (with the red still lit) before changing to green (to give you a warning). It's the same way in Denmark, and it's wonderful to know exactly when the light is going to change!!

Well ... unless I think of something else later, that will be London for you! In my next chapter, I'll talk about another frustrating time passing through the Paris train systems, getting to Denmark, and maybe even my first day or two in Denmark. It's really pretty here!

Until then....