London with Grace: Day 2 (22/5)

London is so magical

Our second day in London started off uneventful- we woke up at 9:30 and ate breakfast in our hostel before hitting the town. Our hostel was fairly close to Westminster so we started there. As many of you know, having photo shoots with my sister is one of my favorite things to do so we climbed on a lamppost on Westminster bridge and shot some pictures...

...actually I was kinda chicken so Grace climbed on the lamppost first.

And we posed while people stared at us.

Precious

And while we were shooting photos....

...we took the necessary London snapshot.

Grace on Millenium Bridge

After taking a bunch of pictures we began a stroll down the Thames, crossing it at Millennium Bridge. Grace saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on one of our maps (I usually carry around mulitple) and said she wanted to check it out so that was our destination.

Here are some facts we learned while on the Globe Theatre tour:

• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was made with all the original materials, including a thatched roof. The original Globe's thatched roof lead to its downfall when a flaming ball of rags used as a cannonball during a performance of Henry VIII got lodged in it and set the roof on fire. Thatched roofs are banned in London (because they are a fire hazard)but this replica is allowed to have one.
• The Globe Theatre's season is from April to October. Shows are not longer performed in the winter because the actors and the audience are exposed to the elements, which brings me to my next point...
• The actors perform during the rain. The Globe is somewhat doughnut shaped and therefore the stage can get rained on, but the show must go on.
• Actors who perform in the Globe have to learn to "play the building." Because they do not use mics the thespians must learn where the dead spots are and how to make sure they are heard throughout the entire house.
• We also got to watch some actors rehearse (Henry VIII)

After the tour we got matching bags that say "All the World's a Stage" in the gift shop.

We had already accomplished one "must" in London (taking pictures in a phonebooth) so up next was mastering riding the Tube. Grace and I bought a day pass for the Tube, got a map, and descended into the bowels of London. Our first destination...

Abbey Road

Our second destination...

Platform 9 3/4

We worked up an appetite visiting all these tourist attractions so Grace and I bought a ham and cheese sandwich to split at King's Cross. After that we were pretty tired so we decided to head back to the hostel so that we could nap before seeing Billy Elliot.

London-Day 3: A Workout

View of me and Big Ben from the Thames

(Reminder that you can blow-up any of the pictures by clicking on them.)

After a decent rest in the Journey’s London Bridge Hostel and their lovely complimentary breakfast we started out for the day.

Honest Abe, the second American president I have seen while being in Europe.

Brittany and I were determined to see everything we could in London so that meant that we could not let the elements detain us. Every day I wore a sweater, my fleece jacket over that(actually it was Grace’s Northface that she let me borrow), and my black trench over that. Many days I could take off the fleece and just stow it in my backpack. I also wore long underwear every day and when we went to our shows I wore two pairs of nylons to keep my legs warm. Long story short, I did not want to be cold and have that detract from my London experience.

Another obstacle we had in London was the lack of crosswalks. This may sounds like a small issue but we walked about thirty miles in total throughout the four days there and every time we jaywalked I feared for my life. I did not want to get smashed by a double-decker bus.

Finally, we kept meeting people who wanted to be our friends, from the nice Aussie at the hostel, to the very intoxicated Turkish girl at the Icebar, to the genuine creepers that were all over the place. I don’t think we formed any long lasting friendships.

And back to our day on Monday. The day started with a trip to the Billy Elliot box office to pick up my ticket for that night’s performance that my parents gave me for Valentine’s Day (and I am very thankful but more on Billy Elliot later.) After getting the ticket at 10 am we headed over to Buckingham to get situated for the Changing of the Guard that was supposed to happen at 11. We got front row viewing which was a positive but the Changing of the Guard itself was kinda bland. Not a lot happened, just some music and some synchronized movement. The most entertaining part was the hats that the guards were wearing. Where they walked in a straight line back and forth I could not stop thinking of the Winkies in Wizard of Oz.

After the Changing of the Guard we headed over to catch a cruise down the River Thames that was starting at Westminster. The cruise was nice and meant less walking. It had commentary which I always appreciate and we departed the boat at the Tower Bridge.

HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

Tower of London

First up was the Tower of London. We did not spend a long time here because it was something that seemed to require a lot of time, especially seeing the crown jewels which had an extremely long line. We had a lot to see that day so we just went through and saw the carvings on the cells left by prisoners and the memorial to all those executed there.

Traitor's Gate

For a place of torture and execution, the exhibit at the Tower of London had a strangely juvenile feel. There were people in costume and well as a lot of interactive sort of exhibits for children. I was already getting a bad vibe from the place where so many met their end but then to see how kid friendly it was bizarre.

And then we were off the St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s was quite a hike away but I think it was worth it although Brittany was dubious to begin with. We waited in line to get in free with our London Pass and unfortunately we couldn’t take picture inside, although it was breathtaking. We then began the 528 stairs up to the top of the dome.

The first stop was the Whispering Gallery at the base of the domed ceiling (second largest in the world) but we could not hear each other whisper due to the organ music in the background. Next we got to the Stone Gallery, and here are some pictures from there.

After the 528 we reached the Golden Gallery which had beautiful panoramic views of London. It was worth the jello feeling that remained in my legs for an hour.

We were feeling quite hungry after scaling the dome of St. Paul’s so we headed over to Marks & Spencer for some sandwiches which we ate on our way to the Tower Bridge Exhibition.

The Tower Bridge and its views paled in comparison to St. Paul’s but the exhibit itself was interesting. It took them nine years just to decide on a design for the bridge! And once a double-decker bus actually had to jump the gap in the bridge as it was raising, just like in Spice World. The worst part about the Tower Bridge was that we had to climb more stairs.

After browsing through the Tower Bridge exhibit we hightailed it back to the dock just in time to see the boat pulling away. No worries, a cruises comes every 30 minutes so we just journaled a little while waiting. It had gotten very cold while we waiting and as we were queuing it started to snow. We piled onto the boat and promptly fell asleep. We had planned on walking back to our hostel from the dock at Westminster but we were too tired from the day and opted to take the tube. It was a good decision. We didn’t want to be tired for seeing our shows that night in the West End.