Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park was beautiful as it always is, but as I said COLD. Chilly, damp cold. We stopped by the statue of Peter Pan, and everyone posed. Here's me, because my kids are wondering why I'm never in the photos:
And here's Jamie, Meagan, and Ashley:
And here's Jen, Liz, and Rebecca:
It was Peter Pannapolooza. We also saw a group (battalion? herd?) of Royal Horse Guards going through their paces on Rotten Row in Hyde Park. It was very impressive, but my camera batteries died just at that point, and by the time Ashley M. had loaned me some new ones, the horses and their guards were gone. Trust me they were impressive.
We ate at a pub in Covent Garden, and then split up again to shop. I went book shopping and got a beautiful old edition of Othello, since we'll see that play Wednesday afternoon. I also found Miles Davis' Kind of Blue for six pounds. Others arrived at dinner laden with bags, happy with their haul as well. We ate traditional British fare--"bangers and mash," which is sausages and mashed potatoes. Again the food was excellent, possibly because we walked so far and were so cold by the end of the day.
After dinner a few folks went to see 300 at the IMAX theatre, many went back to the hotel, and I helped Jamie find a club she wanted a picture of (for a complicated in-joke with some friends in the States). Later a few folks went to the local pub (the Pride of Pimlico) and I tagged along.
Tomorrow will be a little different, as it's the first day we'll have mainly free time (no organized walking tour, etc.) Quite a few of the group are going to spend the day at museums (trying to fit in a couple of the dozens we haven't seen). I'm going to the Dickens House museum, and maybe to the British Library for an exhibit of sacred books there, possibly with a few of the group in tow. We'll meet for dinner and then at 7 do the Jack the Ripper walk, which should be good fun.
I think I've worked out my camera battery problems, and should have more pictures for tomorrow.
Good night.
It was Peter Pannapolooza. We also saw a group (battalion? herd?) of Royal Horse Guards going through their paces on Rotten Row in Hyde Park. It was very impressive, but my camera batteries died just at that point, and by the time Ashley M. had loaned me some new ones, the horses and their guards were gone. Trust me they were impressive.
And we saw the always huge, ever gaudy Albert Memorial:
After the park we followed another group of horse guards (they were everywhere!) across Hyde Park Corner, through the Wellington Arch and down to Buckingham Palace. The group as a whole was unimpressed with the Palace, which frankly isn't that stunning or overwhelming after St. Paul's and the Houses of Parliament. But it's big, and we were there. We then walked down the side at St. James Park down to Parliament Square and so on to Westminster Abbey.
There is nothing unimpressive about Westminster. We waited in line for a while (here's Chris being cold and wishing he'd bought an umbrella).
After the park we followed another group of horse guards (they were everywhere!) across Hyde Park Corner, through the Wellington Arch and down to Buckingham Palace. The group as a whole was unimpressed with the Palace, which frankly isn't that stunning or overwhelming after St. Paul's and the Houses of Parliament. But it's big, and we were there. We then walked down the side at St. James Park down to Parliament Square and so on to Westminster Abbey.
There is nothing unimpressive about Westminster. We waited in line for a while (here's Chris being cold and wishing he'd bought an umbrella).
Inside, where it was warm(er), and no cameras were allowed, we spent an hour seeing tombs and effigies and some of the most ornate Gothic stone work in Europe. The tombs of numerous monarchs, including Elizabeth I, Henry VII, and Mary, Queen of Scots. Also there are the graves of luminaries like Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, and Handel (who wrote the Messiah amongst many others). Also on hand was the Coronation Chair, in which every monarch has sat to be crowned since 1308. That chair was almost five hundred years old when the American Revolution began. Several of us remarked on the amount of history breathing in the stones around us.
The part of Westminster Abbey that always floors me emotionally is Poet's Corner. As a professor of British Literature, it's almost overpowering to stand above the mortal remains of so many of the writers I spend my life reading and teaching. Byron, Tennyson, Browning, Hardy, Trollope, Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Samuel Johnson and a host of others are lying interred in Poet's Corner; so many that it is impossible to look at one stone without standing on another. And for me, two writers who encompass almost the whole of what literature is and does are there as well--Geoffrey Chaucer (died 1400) and Charles Dickens (died 1870). I spent a fair amount of time with both this morning, and feel the better for doing so.
By the exit, the best story of the whole tour happened while we were waiting on everyone to finish the tour. Will thought a guy across the room looked familiar. He looked closer, and the guy looked at him, and then they realized that they knew each other. This guy had gone to elementary and middle school with Will, and they had been good friends. They hadn't seen each other much recently, but here they both were standing in Westminster Abbey. They spent a few minutes catching up before we moved on. Pretty amazing!
Outside we split up--Brandon and Ashley F. went to find the Harley Shop to get souvenirs for a friend who's into motorcycles, and the rest of us caught the Tube to Covent Garden. Here's Rebecca, cold and wet like the rest of us:
The part of Westminster Abbey that always floors me emotionally is Poet's Corner. As a professor of British Literature, it's almost overpowering to stand above the mortal remains of so many of the writers I spend my life reading and teaching. Byron, Tennyson, Browning, Hardy, Trollope, Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Samuel Johnson and a host of others are lying interred in Poet's Corner; so many that it is impossible to look at one stone without standing on another. And for me, two writers who encompass almost the whole of what literature is and does are there as well--Geoffrey Chaucer (died 1400) and Charles Dickens (died 1870). I spent a fair amount of time with both this morning, and feel the better for doing so.
By the exit, the best story of the whole tour happened while we were waiting on everyone to finish the tour. Will thought a guy across the room looked familiar. He looked closer, and the guy looked at him, and then they realized that they knew each other. This guy had gone to elementary and middle school with Will, and they had been good friends. They hadn't seen each other much recently, but here they both were standing in Westminster Abbey. They spent a few minutes catching up before we moved on. Pretty amazing!
Outside we split up--Brandon and Ashley F. went to find the Harley Shop to get souvenirs for a friend who's into motorcycles, and the rest of us caught the Tube to Covent Garden. Here's Rebecca, cold and wet like the rest of us:
We ate at a pub in Covent Garden, and then split up again to shop. I went book shopping and got a beautiful old edition of Othello, since we'll see that play Wednesday afternoon. I also found Miles Davis' Kind of Blue for six pounds. Others arrived at dinner laden with bags, happy with their haul as well. We ate traditional British fare--"bangers and mash," which is sausages and mashed potatoes. Again the food was excellent, possibly because we walked so far and were so cold by the end of the day.
After dinner a few folks went to see 300 at the IMAX theatre, many went back to the hotel, and I helped Jamie find a club she wanted a picture of (for a complicated in-joke with some friends in the States). Later a few folks went to the local pub (the Pride of Pimlico) and I tagged along.
Tomorrow will be a little different, as it's the first day we'll have mainly free time (no organized walking tour, etc.) Quite a few of the group are going to spend the day at museums (trying to fit in a couple of the dozens we haven't seen). I'm going to the Dickens House museum, and maybe to the British Library for an exhibit of sacred books there, possibly with a few of the group in tow. We'll meet for dinner and then at 7 do the Jack the Ripper walk, which should be good fun.
I think I've worked out my camera battery problems, and should have more pictures for tomorrow.
Good night.
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