UK Trip Day 2: "London & Fog!"

"London and fog! When these two come together, it is time to be a writer!"
–Mehemet Murat Ildan

       
          Well, there's no better way to start off a post than such an appropriate quote! While we unfortunately did not see any fog, London is certainly a writer's dream!

         But of course, I must start at the very beginning: breakfast! I have to say, a full English breakfast is a wonderful thing to be had– cooked tomato halves, beans on toast, marmalade and blackcurrant jam, cooked mushrooms, cumberland sausages, and a rasher of bacon! A couple interesting differences about their breakfast meats: 1) their sausages are much more bready in texture than American sausages, and 2) their bacon is almost a mix between ham and American bacon, since their's has a bit more meat and a bit less fat, which makes for the most delicious bacon ever. And I may or may not be addicted to baked beans as a breakfast food now... :)

The deliciousness that is a full English breakfast!

         After charging up with a delectable and hearty breakfast, we set off to explore the magnificent city of London, and we decided to start with a short stroll through Hyde Park to get to the childhood home of Queen Victoria– Kensington Palace. Admission turned out to be rather dear, but now at least I can say I have a membership card for the Historic Royal Palaces. :) While the gardens and tearoom were stunning, the majority of the interior turned out to be quite a bit plainer than I had expected after watching movies like "The Young Victoria"– but I could definitely imagine the young queen growing up and there in those spacious halls. They had an exhibit on William and Mary there as well, who were the first inhabitants of Kensington, and there we saw some of their belongings, as well as some of the games and very interesting fashions of the time.

A view of the tree-lined lane through Hyde Park– some of the park is just
non-manicured grass and wildflowers, and it's gorgeous!

The grand facade of Kensington Palace, with a statue of Queen Victoria in front.

One of the long portrait halls in Kensington Palace

A view of the garden at Kensington through the window of one of the halls in
the William and Mary Exhibit

Of course, I had to add a picture of William and Mary's writing desk. :)

Some of the moulding in the palace, with William and Mary's combined
 initials with a crown on top to form their insignia.

Looking down on the stairs to the King's State Apartments

One of the grand rooms in the William and Mary Exhibit

A model of men's clothing during William and Mary's time

...And a model of women's clothing– holy hips! :)

A gaming table in the King's entertaining hall

         My favorite exhibit by far, though, was the Victoria and Albert– featuring music and various gifts he sent her during courtship, some of her dresses and his uniforms, and even lock of his hair she had preserved in a little glass heart after his death. On our way to and from the palace, we also caught glimpses of the Royal Albert Hall, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, so I think it's safe to say we covered pretty well Queen Victoria's life in our short tour of the Kensington area. :)

Portraits of Victoria and Albert, with their combined initials insignia on the
wall behind

Albert's dress uniform

One of Victoria's dresses as a young woman

The glass heart containing Albert's lock of hair– unfortunately due to the
dark room and lighted case, you can't see it very well :-/

The piano on which Victoria would have played the music Albert sent her,
with a portrait of them on the wall above

A doll belonging to one of Victoria and Albert's children

         After exploring Kensington, we decided to take the Tube (or the London Underground) to get to our other destinations, which was really neat– it's a lot like the subway, except there are so, so many levels quite deep underground, and you end up riding quite a few very long escalators to get down to your level. And each time you get on or off, you're always reminded to "mind the gap" between the train and platform, which can sometimes get rather large-ish.

The London Underground St. Paul's Station

         We all agreed that we needed to visit St. Paul's Cathedral while we were in London, so off we went! If there's one thing I remember about St. Paul's besides the beautiful architecture inside and out, it would be that there are so. many. stairs. We climbed the hundreds of stairs all the way to the top, which gives you the absolute best, most stunning view of all of London. Be prepared to huff and puff a little on the way, though. :) From the top, we saw Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre, Big Ben, the London Eye ferris wheel, and the Tower of London, among a few dozen other famous landmarks. We also got to look down from a small viewing window in the top of the dome to see the interior of the cathedral a few dizzying hundred feet below, which was amazing. Unfortunately, though, they don't allow photos within the cathedral, so I can't quite do justice to the gorgeous inside, but if you are really curious, Google it. :) My personal favorite, however, was the crypt. Now, before you get all grossed out, I have to explain that it isn't at all like the cobwebby crypt beneath Trinity Church in "National Treasure"– it's actually basically like a basement with large stone coffins and plaques and monuments to the famous people buried there. I thought it was the coolest, though, because both the Duke of Wellington, famous for leading the victory over Napoleon a Waterloo, and Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, who led the victory in the naval Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (on his flagship the HMS Victory, which I toured and have pictures of in this post) are buried there, and we were able to see their monuments and coffins. As a cool side note, we were also able to see the Temple Bar arch, which is featured in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities", so I more than fulfilled my nerdy history and literary nut bucket list on this stop!

Looking up at the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

The street view of the Temple Bar arch

The view of London from the tippy top of St. Paul's

Looking down on the dome of St. Paul's

Temple Bar through the iron railing in the top of St. Paul's

         We stopped by a little Sainsbury's (one of the prominent grocery stores over there) for lunch after we finished at St. Paul's, and let me tell you, they have some really, really good fresh bread and sharp white cheddar! :) Then, on to the infamous Tower of London!
         We had a really great tour guide through the Tower (they call them Yeoman Warders)– he was hilarious! Every time we would go to the next area of interest, he would say, "Now let's be-heading this way!" (For anyone who might not know, the Tower of London is famous for beheadings, including those of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey, and is usually associated with the phrase, "Off with her head!") Perhaps a bit of a macabre sense of humor, but I couldn't help but laugh. :) He also gave us a tip to avoid the monstrously long line to see the crown jewels (which snaked back and forth in front of the building 5 or 6 times before winding clear out of sight)– he told us that if we went at 5, when they were nearly closing, the line would literally disappear. And it was true! :) We were able to get in to see all the glittering crowns and scepters and golden punch bowls (yes, that was a real thing) without any waiting time at all. Again, unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures in there, so I have none there. I did, however, get a couple shots of the beefeaters guarding the outside (who knew that's what they were called?). Although I wouldn't try to mess with them like you always hear about people doing (and like we saw)– their fully automatic guns with the wicked knife-looking bayonet points are enough to convince me otherwise!
         The neatest part here though, I thought, was the Royal Armory housed in the main building on the inside of the walls, called the White Tower. Our tour guide also told us this was said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman whom one of the kings that ruled there imprisoned– he said you can still hear her screams as she runs away after looking at the prices in the gift shop in the basement. :) In the armory, though, they have the original armor of kings from centuries upon centuries ago, along with weaponry and even torture devices of all sorts. I like the horse armor the best, which was displayed on life-sized wooden horses carved in the late 1600's for display. So cool!
         As another random tidbit, our Yeoman Warder told us that according to an old myth, at least 6 ravens have to be present at the Tower at all times, or it and England will fall. So today, they keep 7 ravens at the Tower– one extra, just in case. :) There was also apparently a zoo of a sort there at one time, and the king who commissioned it even kept a polar bear there!

One of the massive portcullises in the Tower

A beefeater outside the Crown Jewels

Horse and rider armor

Armor of King Charles I 

Yet more armor and weapons!

A dragon made entirely of weaponry!

Execution block of the same type that would have been used on
Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey

Torture devices– on the far left, a gibbet, made to hold the bodies of executed
criminals as an example to the people; the donkey-head device was a Scold's Bridle,
traditionally put on women accused of gossiping to humiliate them (not a bad idea... ;) );
and bar shackles below were put around prisoners' ankles and secured to a wall or floor

A rack of old swords

Looking up at the White Tower, where the Royal Armory is housed

A side view of the White Tower

         Well, after finally leaving the Tower of London, we made our way back to the King's Cross area to find some dinner and rest up, since my feet, at least felt like they were about to fall off. We passed under the edge of the Tower Bridge on our way, and we also popped into King's Cross Station for a quick look, since we were so close.
         We ended up eating fish and chips (and in my case, a pork pie with chips) at a little shop run by Turks– not exactly authentically, English, but still good food. :)

The famous Tower Bridge

A shot of the Tower Bridge I took right before we went under the archway on the left

The inside of King's Cross Station

The archway entrance to King's Cross Station

My English–I mean Turkish?–pork pie with chips :)

          Well, I've got to bid London goodnight now, so stay tuned for another post soon!

UK Trip Day 1: On My Way to Adventure!

UPDATE: Well, my plans for blogging actually during my trip didn't exactly pan out while I was there, thanks to the odd thirty minutes of free internet provided at the majority of the hotels we stayed in (yes, Travelodge, I mean you!), so all of my UK trip posts have been written (with the exception of this post, which has only been updated) after the fact.      


May 12, 2016

          Hello everybody!! I am writing this post from London, England tonight, in a little hotel near King's Cross, and I have to say, it has been one whirlwind of a long, exhausting and exciting day! We left Salt Lake City yesterday at 8 pm on a direct flight to London, which was an incredible ten hours long–the longest flight of my life EVER, and overnight across a few timezones to boot. Thankfully, Delta knows how to take care of their guests. :) They provided us with complementary pillows and blankets, and by the time we arrived in London at around 1 pm today London-time (Friday, May 13th), we were completely stuffed from the diner, 2nd dinner, breakfast, second breakfast, cookies, pretzels, peanuts, drinks, and midnight and midmorning snacks they gave us (I swear, every time I turned around, they were offering us more food–it was good though :) ). We also were able to entertain ourselves with free movies along the way, so I watched most of The Sound of Music before deciding I probably ought to sleep so I wouldn't be dead the next day.
         Despite the fact that my attempt at sleep was somewhat of a vain endeavor (nothing like loud jet engines and tiny cramped seats for a good night's sleep!), I was just about bursting with energy when we got in. Must be the fuel I've saved up all those days daydreaming about this trip. :) I will admit I had a rather difficult time trying to wipe the silly grin off my face at how very British everything is over here. Maybe it's just me being silly, but I swear the air even feels different over here– and I love all of it!  I still haven't quite adjusted to the fact that everyone has an accent though, and now I'm the anomaly, but I completely love it.

Pulling out of the London Heathrow Airport in our "people mover"
– their fancy name for a van. :)

         The other thing that might take a smidge of getting used to here is the teeny, teeny, tiny little... well, everything! The parking garages, the buildings, the streets, the hotel rooms, the toilets, and even the cars (excepting, of course, the famous red double-decker buses that literally dominate the streets here). They always say that "everything is bigger in Texas", but everything is definitely smaller in the UK!
          Anyhow, I'll try to come down from cloud nine now and get to the real details of today's adventures. :) We decided to pop over to Windsor Castle as our stop today, and as you might guess, we were super excited to get over there– only to discover that it was closed for tours today because of an event. That's right, we started out our trip just like that. So we got to see Windsor Castle, at least, which still just makes my life. Every building over here is so beautiful! It makes American buildings seem like dull boxes in comparison when you're surrounded by gorgeous, ornate grey stone buildings in practically every direction as far as the eye can see. So the architecture so far has definitely met my high expectations, just as I knew it would!

Some shots of the outside of Windsor Castle :)

          Anyway, after our little Windsor disappointment, we wandered down a few little back streets and just soaked up the atmosphere. The streets are basically all cobbled in the Windsor area, and I may or may not have almost gone sprawling a few times when I wasn't paying attention. :) On the particular street we went down, there were pennant banners strung across the length of the street, and all the shop windows were brightly decorated for the Queen's 90th birthday celebration, with "Happy Birthday, Ma'am!" painted on most of the windows (although I learned after that the Queen's birthday is, in fact, not actually in May–that's just when tradition states it be celebrated). We even found a cut out of the Queen, and of course, my aunt wanted a picture. :) We also found a little chocolate shop, and as is now our goal in every country we visit, bought some divine dark chocolate to try. It was also on this street that we exchanged our money for the first time, and I got to bid my $100 goodbye and say hello to some £60 or £70.

A horse and carriage for hire across the street from Windsor

A typical side-street in the Windsor area

           After that whole escapade, we finally went and checked into our hotel here in King's Cross (the King's Cross Station is only about a block or two away from us as is), and decided to round up a bite to eat. We ended up at a little genuine Italian joint right across the street from our hotel, and I actually tried my first whole little fried fish– super yummy! :)

King's Cross Station, near our hotel

The view from the window of the Italian restaurant we ate at

The long, old hallway of our hotel

Typical London traffic!

A view from the lobby window of our hotel– the building on
the far corner was the restaurant we ate at.

          Well, that's all I've got for now– but you can bet I'll be back tomorrow with more adventures!