"The girls," as I'm henceforth calling Riley and Tracey, and I woke up (actually got our wake-up call) at 7:15 a.m. Due to the debilitating jetlag, though, I made like a slug until at least 8...Oops. Then we got onto our bus and our tour guide for today was a cheeky, quirky, wacky lady named Maggie. She had a flashy golden umbrella that she carried over the crowd so that our group could see her. She took us on a sightseeing tour-a "panoramic tour" in Maggie-speak. (Actually, our bus driver from Scotland did---Michael.) He drove the way to St. Paul's Cathedral with the best traffic, and she told us what we were seeing. We passed Trafalgar Square, with its awesome statue of Horatio Nelson, and its gorgeous flowing fountains, and, to the utter and ultimate disgust of Trace, lots and lots of birds: pigeons! "Pigeons aren't the bad ones," she says. "It's the seagulls that'll getcha!" We learned from Maggie that the statue of Nelson points toward Plymoth, England, where his fleets were/are. I learned a ton from Maggie! Did you know that older buildings in London are more desirable and costly even than newer, fresher, and modern ones sometimes? Also, she said something that should've been kinda obvious, but which I never thought about before. In older days, there wasn't electricity. (Duh, right?) Well, that's why old buildings have big windows! They needed every ounce of light they could get. And did you know that London has just scads of Roman remains? It was originally called Londonium. On our 'panoramic tour' we also saw Old Bailey, the British Criminal Courts. Hey! I wonder if the word 'bailiff' is derived from Old Bailey. Or vice versa. Hmm...We saw a beautiful marble arch designed by a man named Mash; it was originally supposed to be in front of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's carriage to pass under, but the arch wasn't big enough, so they just 'plopped it down' in a square, according to Maggie. Did you know that Charles Dickens was originally a court writer for Old Bailey? Well, he was, and he would look at people in court and mentally use their personalities, features, etc. to construct the characters for his stories. Cool, huh? In London there are around 350 underground stations. And at one pound-eighty for a one-way ticket on the tube, they probably make a mint of money annually. Here, McDonald's has just recently introduced...'drum roll please'...The Hot Dog! Did you know that the Thames River is 200 miles long? Its source is really small--Gloucester. We also saw "Her Majesty's Theatre."
Finally arrived at St. Paul's. It wasn't as beautiful as I remembered it being before, but we were also with a tour group and there was some renovation going on. I pretty much loathe traveling with the other half of our tour group. But oh well! They haven't spoiled it so far, and I will not allow them to spoil the rest! At St. Paul's the vast majority of the wood used is called lime wood. The darker it is, the older it is, as it darkens over time. This is why the altar is considerably lighter than the rest of the lime wood--during the bombing of London during World War II, the altar was destroyed and a new lime wood altar had to be created. Later, when we went down to the crypt, we went to the gift shop. (I will take this time as an opportunity to point out that Maggie had a peculiar habit of wanting her tour group very close to her at all times). At one point when Maggie was talking about the crypt and had moved on to another tomb, we saw the tomb of the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Vincent was standing next to me and I heard his musings. "I wonder if 'Beef Wellington' is named for the Duke of Wellington.
Miss Wagner and I were the only ones who weren't interested in going to the Tower of London excursion, so we decided to get a spot of lunch and then go to the Westminster Abbey. No matter how much I see it, I don't believe that I will ever be able to get used to grown men in business suits lying asleep on the grass in the warm sunshine (during their lunch breaks). The line for the Abbey was long, but the pleasant weather made it seem to go really fast. I got a Student discount and Miss Wagner and I went inside. I was in awe. I think it is one of my favorite places in England, both times I've been, and it's definitely been my favorite this time. It holds the bodies of famous kings and queens, military heroes, martyrs, etc., but my absolute favorite was the "Poet's Corner." There was a fabulous shrine to William Shakespeare, and buried there were Charles Dickens, all three Brontes, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Lawrence Olivier, and Caedmon. Also buried there was Mary, Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth I, Winston Churchill, and Edward the Confessor. It was a truly spiritual and amazing experience. Usually when I go to a place like this, I notice some detail that makes the trip even more enjoyable and awesome. At Westminster, it was the side entrance to the Abbey...sculptured in stone above the door was, among other things, God on his throne, but what I felt was particularly awesome was that God held the Sovereign's Orb, which is reserved only for true royalty and majesty.
The events of the next day consisted of a visit to the V & A (The Victoria and Albert Museum), Covent Garden, and the British Museum. I'm so psyched, because there was a very special, awesome exhibit at the V & A...Chihuly! (The whole time, I kept forgetting and calling him 'Chinchilla' and Tracey's personal fave: 'Chicuchi!') Chihuly is this awesome glass artist, my personal favorite. He's an American, from New Mexico, I believe. The museum also had medieval stained-glass windows and tapestries, pictures, and the like. Some people really want to see more paintings there, but but there aren't as many of them as there are artifacts.
After about two hours, we were hungry and ready for Covent Garden. We went and looked around a bit before we ate. We got food from a little restaurant and took it outside to eat. While the others shopped, I listened to the music. If there are some things about Covent Garden I remember, it's the musicians and street performers. The musicians who were playing today were quite good, consisting of a cello, two violins, and a flute. The flute was by far the best though. They played pieces from Titanic and classical music. Also, not there the first time I was there, over one of the little pit patios was an awesome collage-y kind of thing hanging from the ceiling. They were acrobats, silver with harlequin masks and bright clothes. Then I walked outside to leave, and as usual, there were street performers everywhere! One in particular caught our eyes though. His 'name' was "Lucky Rich," but he introduced himself as "The Tattooed Man." (Yeah, no lie) This guy was so covered that almost an entire leg was green. Even his scalp was tattooed! Face, hands, stomach, back--everything! He had huge gauges in his ears, and since he was bald, he looked kind of like a monkey. He wore a black bowler hat, a red tartan kilt, and red army boots. Quite a character, that one! He did all kinds of tricks: juggling apples, machetes, and butcher knives; rode a 14-foot unicycle (which wasn't cool for "Hans from Denmark," who had to hold said unicycle. Rich kept saying, "Just don't look up, Man!") Rich juggled while on the unicycle, he had people throw apples and he caught them while on the unicycle, he ate an apple while he juggled it with knives...He ate the apple while throwing it under his leg, still juggling. And not only was he good, he was hilarious! We were going to stay five minutes, but he was so cool we watched the whole show!
After the performer's prestidigitation, we got back on the metro and took it to the stop where we had to walk to the British Museum. We walked to a sign that read 'British Museum' on a REALLY tiny building. We were all thinking, '
THIS is the British Museum?' Mr. Vincent asked a shopkeeper, who said to turn the corner. What we saw when we did so took our breath away. The British Museum was humongous and beautiful...granite and
white marble. Inside, we walked through a lot of rooms with
Assyrian artifacts. Then we went into the library. Bookshelves lined
every wall--three stories high! It was beautiful. We were late to meet the rest of our group, so really fast we took the tube to
Piccadilly Circus,
just in time for dinner at...
Planet Hollywood for a
last hurrah on our last night in
Britain.