Actually it makes sense to do it this way. As may be apparent, I planned the tour to be more structured at the beginning, and then to loosen up the "official" group activities as time went on and the group got more comfortable moving around the city. Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly free days: all day Tuesday was free until dinner and the Jack the Ripper tour, and today (Wednesday) was free except for a matinee of Othello at 2pm and dinner soon thereafter. I can only really report on the stuff I did, so that's what I'll give you.
On Tuesday, most of us chose to go to museums. London is full of museums, and we will not have time to see even a quarter of them while we're here. Different students were interested in different things, so we had a museum morning (except for a few folks who went shopping). People broke up into groups to visit various places. Jen and Liz and I traveled together.
We went to the Dickens House Museum first. Dickens lived at 48 Doughty Street for three years, while writing Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and part of Barnaby Rudge. Because Dickens was extremely popular during his own lifetime, lots of personal effects were kept after he died, so there's lots of ephemera that makes this place more fun (for English majors) than some other museums: Dickens's walking stick, change purse, furniture, clocks, etc. They also have the best collection of various editions of his work, as well as a dangerous gift shop. Here are Jen and Liz outside Dickens's house:
After that we went to the British Library, where we all three had spiritual experiences. I can't even begin to list here everything they had on display, but here's a small sampling of what we saw: the only Beowulf manuscript in existence, the manuscripts of Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland, Middlemarch, Jane Austen's writing desk, handwritten scores by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Rachmaninov, and handwritten lyrics of ten or twelve Beatles songs, including "In My Life," "Ticket to Ride," and "Strawberry Fields Forever." And a fragment of the Dead Sea scrolls, dated around 50 AD.
The library was next door to the huge neo-Gothic St. Pancras station:
From St. Pancras we went south to the Imperial War Museum, which is housed in the old Bedlam Insane Asylum. We were able to do the exhibits on both World Wars and the Holocaust exhibit before we needed to leave to make dinner. We had to go in the side door of the War Museum, because Margaret Thatcher was in the building when we got there and was about to leave through the front door (police cordons and friendly bobbies kept us away). The museum was good, though the Holocaust exhibit left me feeling slightly dazed and sad, as it was supposed too. We ran into Brandon and Jamie in the Holocaust area, and we all hopped the Tube back north for dinner.
Dinner was at a good Japanese place called Wagamama. We all met back up and recounted how our day was. Various people went to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the British Museum, and the stores on Oxford Street. Rebecca, intrepid explorer, actually left London. She wanted to see Oxford, and Mike and I helped her get on the right track to finding the train station and what to do once she was there. She took a five hour tour of Oxford and was back in London to meet us for dinner.
Chris ran into actor Christian Bale in the street, but didn't want to stalk him, so kept on walking.
After dinner we did the Ripper tour. Our tour guide, Heather, was great--very entertaining and a great storyteller. She led us all over the East End while telling the story of the five Whitechapel murders in the summer of 1888. Our group was enthralled:
Chris ran into actor Christian Bale in the street, but didn't want to stalk him, so kept on walking.
After dinner we did the Ripper tour. Our tour guide, Heather, was great--very entertaining and a great storyteller. She led us all over the East End while telling the story of the five Whitechapel murders in the summer of 1888. Our group was enthralled:
After being horrified out of our minds, most of the group elected to return to the hotel. Museum walking is often more tiring than regular walking, and more deceptive, because it doesn't feel like you're tiring yourself out. I went with Chris, Liz, and Rebecca north to Regent's Park, where we walked through the rose gardens in the drizzly dusk before subsiding into a pub.
WEDNESDAY was much the same in the morning. The group split up and either hit museums they'd missed or did some final souvenir and gift shopping. I went the shopping route, and then walked down the Victoria Embankment by the Thames to meet the group at the Globe Theatre for the 2pm showing of Othello.
The Globe is beautiful. It's a reconstruction done in the 1990s, as exact a replica of Shakespeare's theatre as can be reasonably done. Seven of us bought cheap tickets to stand in the pit, and six of us (including me) bought pricey-er ones in the balcony. The play was excellent--I love Othello, and this was well acted. They played Iago and Rodorigo more for comedy then I was used to, but it worked, and the murder scene in the last act was uncomfortably intense. Here are some photos. We couldn't tkae pictures during the performance, of course, so these are from the pre-show musical warm-up.
WEDNESDAY was much the same in the morning. The group split up and either hit museums they'd missed or did some final souvenir and gift shopping. I went the shopping route, and then walked down the Victoria Embankment by the Thames to meet the group at the Globe Theatre for the 2pm showing of Othello.
The Globe is beautiful. It's a reconstruction done in the 1990s, as exact a replica of Shakespeare's theatre as can be reasonably done. Seven of us bought cheap tickets to stand in the pit, and six of us (including me) bought pricey-er ones in the balcony. The play was excellent--I love Othello, and this was well acted. They played Iago and Rodorigo more for comedy then I was used to, but it worked, and the murder scene in the last act was uncomfortably intense. Here are some photos. We couldn't tkae pictures during the performance, of course, so these are from the pre-show musical warm-up.
After Othello it was dinner-time.
Tomorrow is the trip to Canterbury and Leeds Castle; I"m sure there'll be lots of pictures and things to tell. Then Friday, it's up and off, flying back to see you.
Sleep well.
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