London: A Continuation.

Yikes - when I don’t update for a few days I really get quite the pile up of stories and photographs! I hope that I can somewhat decently remember everything and hopefully fit all of the important photographs! I’m sorry for the delay in any updates, but we had quite the busy week!

When I left off, it was Wednesday! Wednesday was quite a lot of fun. We started the day by going to Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill. This was quite a lot of fun…reminded me of a blown-up version of the street shopping in Sacre Coeur. It made me think of the film Notting Hill! There was about a ¼ mile of street vendors out, plus a lot of real shops with sales. We popped in and out of several, and Alex tried a Middle Eastern chicken wrap, which he enjoyed quite a lot. They had delicious spicy onions (I had a bite!). 

Turns out they actually DO sell Portobello Mushrooms there! I had been wondering…

We then went into one of the pricier (maybe priciest) shops on the road - a bakery. We weren’t planning on getting anything, but a freshly baked carrot cake called our name…we ordered a slice which ended up be ~5£!!! It was very worth it, but ironic that we found one of the most expensive things to eat while there! 

We didn’t do any souvenir shopping there in the end, but did try to make a deal with one vendor…she wanted £4.00 for a reusable shopping bag that said “Portobello Road at Notting Hill.” She offered £3, I wanted it for £2.00. She wouldn’t go down to that price so we simply walked away…she still wouldn’t break down but in the end I was happy to put those £2.00 towards the carrot cake instead :)

After that, we went to…M&M World!!! I know, not something most people would think to do while spending time in London… especially because there are several of these in parts of the United States. I think we needed a break of the touristy, cliché shopping scene, and also needed something that was a small filler before we had to be at the New London Theatre. So that’s what we did.

I really enjoyed it, but mostly in theory…in reality it was ridiculously packed and though there were four floors of M&M merchandise (more merchandise than the actual candy!), I was almost constantly touching another human being. People were literally packed in there like sardines.

There was a rainbow assortment of any color M&M you could think of. I had thought they’d have all flavors (peanut, peanut butter, coconut, crispy, dark chocolate) but they only had peanut and plain! I was a little disappointed but of course I still wanted to get a few…

In the end I decided to get silver, and some pinks and purples. All colors that you don’t find in the average package! I’m trying to make these last until May - they’re a fun thing to bring back to the United States.

That evening we went to the Theatre district for War Horse. We bought cheap seats for the show but ended up VERY close to the stage anyways! We did have a rail obstructing our vision but it was not a problem and we were very pleasantly surprised by how much we could see for such a cheap price. We both like the theatre and adored War Horse. The horses were incredibly life-like and could actually be ridden. I was very impressed indeed! 

Afterwards we went back to the hostel and tried to get ourselves together for our big day on Thursday…a bus tour from Windsor to Stonehenge to Bath - all in one day!

We woke at 5:45AM to get ready…we had to take a taxi to our stop, where our coach tour bus then picked us up. We got going a lot earlier than we needed to, and stood waiting outside a hotel for our tour bus. We were supposed to get picked up at 7:10…and by about 7:12 we were very concerned. At 7:20 I said “I’m really starting to lose hope.” I thought we weren’t going to get picked up for our $160 tour! As soon as I said it, a gentleman rounded the tour and said “Premier tours?!” Our driver had arrived - thank goodness!

We set off and picked up other tour members before really getting going. Our guide was AMAZING. He was an older gentleman (about the age of Prince Charles) and had been giving tours like this for 29 years. He was great. There was a lot of commute time between stops, and he really broke things down for us and added in a lot of other stories during the downtime on the bus. We learned quite a lot, and this helped make the tour worth the price. Not only did we get transport, commentary, and a lunch, but also a lot of extra anecdotes!

We stopped at Windsor first. This castle has been inhabited for over 900 years, and still is! The Queen was due to arrive that afternoon or the next day. Our guide said that Windsor was “home,” and Buckingham is more like “work.” 

The Queen’s “quarters.” The tour guides inside said that she was often seen walking her dogs in the park on the grounds.

In 1992, a huge fire took to the castle, and all of the ancient, priceless works of art and pieces of furniture were hauled onto that lawn in the above photo during a state dinner of some sort, which was going on when the fire started. Presidents, kings, princesses, dukes, and the like all  removed their jackets, rolled up their sleeves and helped to drag things out and save precious items. In the end only one armoire was lost. And guess what? Windsor was  completely UNINSURED at the time of that fire.

One of my favorite rooms in the tour (we weren’t guided specifically, but had audio guides to listen to) was the armor room. Pictures were strictly forbidden, but I took some anyways.

Alex said he’d like this suit of armor for his next birthday. 

There were many grand paintings and artworks, but my favorite was this one of Queen Elizabeth I when she was young.

This picture is very familiar to me - I’ve seen it re-printed in the many biographies I’ve read of her. I LOVE Queen Elizabeth I and was thrilled to walk around the castle that she’d sometimes lived in. She is one of my big role models. I was disappointed that the audio guide didn’t talk much of the Tudor era - that’s the one that I know quite a lot about, just due to personal interest. I’m not sure why it wasn’t discussed more.

Next stop was Stonehenge. This is something that I’ve always wanted to see, and I’ve been quite intrigued by it’s mystery and murky past. Our tour guide said Stonehenge was a building by definition, because it has joined walls and ceilings. It could’ve been a temple of worship, or a hospital. Or something else. We got an audio guide for this one too, which I looked forward to hearing. There also was a very new visitor’s center (née 18 December) and a new service where trams took you up to Stonehenge, which was about 1.5 miles from visitor parking.

Unfortunately after the above picture, plans changed. We got pelted with a hard, icy, and intense apocalyptic rain fall. Within seconds, we were soaked through, frozen, and miserable. I knew I might regret it, but we both just wanted to go back to the visitor’s center and dry off. We didn’t bother with the audio guides. I do regret it a bit. But it’s alright. We were too miserable to stay out there and focus on enjoying Stonehenge at that point, I think.

Our final stop was Bath. We didn’t actually have entry into the actual baths here, but we wandered around the city which was very quaint. All of the buildings are created of an old limestone, and it’s completely paved with cobblestones. 

We had only an hour, so we took a quick walk around and stopped for a cup of tea in the “Mad Hatter.” 

On the way out, we drove by Jane Austen’s residence of four years. Number 4, Sydney Lane. I FREAKED OUT. I loved that I had been walking around her old stomping grounds. In a way, I feel honored. 

We returned to the hostel, exhausted. We stayed up though (somehow) to do laundry and pack for checkout the next day (which would be Friday). We had to get ready to meet our class in Birmingham!

We took the train from London Euston, about 2 hours. While waiting for our train in the station, I found a special cup of coffee…called a “cookie latte.” Best cup of coffee EVER.

I tried to get coffee and the shop in the background.

After meeting our class we checked into the hotel, which was VERY fancy…a Hampton by Hilton but even fancier than in the States. I got referred to as “Madame” by the concierge and found that they had soap and moisturizer dispensers in by the sink in the restroom and shampoo/conditioner dispensers in the shower… 

That life of luxury was short lived though. We checked out this morning and will spend the next 3 nights in a hostel in London. I guess traveling Europe is still pretty luxurious though :)

Before leaving though, we had an event as a class in Lichfield, which was a short ish train ride from Birmingham. We went for a theatrical reenactment/interpretation of the interactions of the Lunar Men. This took place in Erasmus Darwin’s (Charles’s grandfather) former home, and involved a storyteller who recounted stories of the Lunar Men, and a musical accompanist/vocalist.  It was very interesting to be there, and the performance was a great way to talk about history don’t get me wrong, but we didn’t quite understand the performance. Maybe it was our lack of sleep and excess of travel that day…

Afterwards we had time to walk around in the park with a group of our friends. It was very cold, but also very picturesque and quite refreshing. 

(We got to go inside that cathedral in the back!)

Afterwards, the day wrapped up and we watched the Olympics in the hotel with our friends before enjoying hot showers and comfortable beds.

Today we went to a museum with our class, and as I write this we are on our train back to London (also with the class). Sunday/Monday in London and then we begin our travels back to Luxembourg at about noon on Tuesday!

Still in store is a dinner with my friend who I haven’t seen since third grade (tonight!), a coffee house tour, the Victoria Albert and British Museums with our class, and maybe enough free time to go to Covent Garden or Westminster Abbey. And of course, Les Miserables on Monday :) I’m anxious to get back to Luxembourg and settle back in (and SLEEP) but the next few days should be quite a lot of fun!