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! 

London.

Well - we wrapped up Edinburgh and have made it through our first day in LONDON. I'll take you through the end of Edinburgh before talking about our next stop :)

On Monday, we had planned to reach London by 3-4PM and meet one of my old friends for dinner, but we couldn't afford tickets that left Edinburgh any earlier than 6:30PM! Sad because we missed our date with my friend AND still paid a lot of money, but HAPPY because we got a whole extra day in one of my new favorite cities! 

After our morning ritual (grocery store for Alex's pastries, coffee shop & banana for me), we hiked up to the Edinburgh Castle and walked around - didn't go inside because $$$ (or should I say £££). It was still great to get to see more of Edinburgh and admire the views. 

Our time in Edinburgh taught us to LOVE Sainsbury's supermarket...this is where I get all of my bananas and Alex gets his ~4 fresh pastries everyday. They're small and inexpensive, but all over the UK and have good options for those trying to save money and time by NOT eating out every meal (AKA us). 

Yesterday before leaving Edinburgh I prepared for the day by getting a wrap, apples, banana, and salad to last at least through the day with my favorite go-to foods. We were thrilled to learn that there's a Sainsbury right near our London hostel as well.

Our train got into London at 11:30PM on the dot. Since we came into King's Cross, I wasn't leaving before doing one VERY important thing first...

(Please excuse my messy train hair.)

JUST like Harry, we found Platforms 9&10 and could NOT find 9 ¾!!! We walked all around with our luggage before finally asking a station employee. However, unlike what happened to Harry when he asked, the employee didn't even let me finish getting the question out before pointing us in the right direction...(it turned out it was off to the side of both platforms a bit). I ran right over and Alex snapped some long-awaited pictures with the cart going through the other side. 

We got on the underground and eventually made it to our hostel...finally getting in bed by about 2AM. Our hostel here is more expensive, so we have to share a room with 12 other people, "summer camp style." It's tricky with people going in and out at all hours of the night, snoring, and coughing/snuffly/sounding generally unwell all night. This is a small price to pay for all of our many opportunities as we travel, and of course we are thrilled to be anywhere sans bed bugs, but it's a bit of an adjustment, especially because we'll be here for a total of 4 nights (we'll join our class on Friday). 

One of the first things we did upon arriving in London was purchase "Oyster Cards" at the train station. These cards were £5.00 and are "reloadable," or in other words you can add money to them as is appropriate for you underground travel in London. For anyone who comes to London, I would recommend doing this right of the bat - like in Paris, you don't want to spend too much time between stations or stops purchasing tickets over and over again. 

All Alex has talked about in regards to London is the changing of the guards. After a quick breakfast, this was the first thing that we hurried off to do, by way of stalking up on food for the day at the Sainsbury. We got to the market at about 10AM and Alex looked for the normal "chicken fajita" wrap that he'd been getting in Edinburgh...only to find that they were OUT. He asked when those wraps would be in, and found that it wouldn't be until 11:00. One of my favorite Alex-isms of all time is now that "Sainsbury doesn't serve happiness before 11."

We finally arrived at Buckingham at about 11:10...which we quickly found out was just in time for the 11:30 ceremony! It was SO CROWDED that I really didn't see any of the procession but Alex climbed up on the gates of Buckingham and snapped lots of pictures and told me what was going on. 

At one point a big bus drove into the front "car park" of the palace and I could see silhouettes of fancy Kentucky Derby-esque hats. I was able to see when men in coattails and ladies in Royal Wedding-worthy get-up emerged. I'm not sure what they were arriving for or whether it was to do with the changing of the guards, but it was cool to see. Shortly after they arrived we got swept away with the dissipating crowds. 

Next up was checking out Big Ben and the London Eye. We hung out in this area for quite awhile. We had 2:45 tickets to go on a river tour in the area, and 4:30PM tickets to go in the Eye. While we waited, we went into a "4D video experience" of the Eye. I've never done anything 4D before, but this was AMAZING. They had you following a bird's eye view of London for the most part, and literally followed a seagull around. It looked like you could grab the seagull if you reached out! Even included getting sprayed with real water and I think there were sight-specific smells coming from somewhere but my sense of smell is not excellent so I'm not 100% sure. It was really awesome. I wanted to go again! But we had things to get to. 

It was pouring right before our boat tour but quickly cleared up and THIS is what we got. 

Obviously, we were VERY lucky. I thought the tour was great, and we saw a lot of attractions from a new point of view. We saw the Tower of London - probably as close as I'll ever get because it's £22.00 per person! I'm pretty sad to miss it but we're spending money on other things and it's a stretch to spend so much time in the UK (the pound to dollar doesn't convert very well these days). We also saw the newly built Globe Theatre (old one burned down during a performance of Henry VI - they wanted it to be lifelike and used canons!). We also learned that the Thames is pretty clean and healthy... 116 species of fish!

Going up in the Eye was pretty awesome. It moves really slowly and you get to see the city from all angles. Again, the great weather and setting sun made this extra special. 

Do you see Big Ben? Turns out that Big Ben is actually the bell inside the tower! The tower is correctly referred to as the Queen Elizabeth II Tower, and the one opposite it to the left is the Victoria Tower. 

We ended our adventures today getting lost in Harrods. I've heard people both love and hate the way that the department store sucks you in and makes it VERY tricky to get out/escape. I felt overwhelmed and out of place in the fancier departments (Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and the fine jewelry and fine watches sections...) but really enjoyed walking through the markets (Patisserie, Charcuterie, etc). When we found the special "Harrods" floor with Harrods-specific merchandise, I felt a lot more at ease. I thought of my dad a lot and how he'd been there about 10 years before, and brought back special things for my sister, my mom, and me - my first exposure to Harrods. 

I feel lucky to have experienced such a department store... even though most of it is more than I will EVER be able to afford in my life. There aren't many stores left like this - somewhat old-fashioned in nature and content. I thought it was very special indeed and didn't expect to feel that way! 

VERY fancy cupcakes in the Patisserie. 

They have quite the market/sweet shop - I never knew that until coming here!

I definitely did some shopping here. Exactly what I found remains a secret but I'm happy to have spent some £ in this special spot :)

Tomorrow... Portobello Road Market and Covent Garden! With an evening at the theatre to see War Horse!

Edinburgh, Part II.

Well, Scotland has continued to be a wonderful experience. We've spent the day doing all fun things, and taking in the culture and the sights as much as we can.

Last night when I left off, we headed to a Ghost Tour, which was pretty cool. Literally, actually, it was extremely cold! Our tour started at 10PM, and we walked around outside for several hours before that. By the time our tour started, I could hardly wait to get into the underground vaults to warm up - even though they are said to be one of Great Britain's most haunted places!

I thought the tour was great - it offered a lot of history and our guides were really informed and funny. I didn't see any ghosts though, and didn't really get too freaked out by anything. Still - a very fun experience and a way to be more exposed to Edinburgh.

The vaults under the city used to be home of many legitimate businesses - wine merchants, cobblers, leather merchants, etc. After awhile, they became leaky and damp - not a good place for a business - and became home to illegitimate businesses like brothels and taverns, and even a place for the poor or homeless to hang out, away from the elements. Now it's just "haunted!"

Before the tour, we did stop by "Elephant House," as planned. I ordered the Soup du Jour, which was pepper and coriander. It was one of my favorite soups EVER. Seemed to have some blended rice and celery in it as well. Wish I could replicate it at home! Though the soup was good, we were disappointed by the service...which was pretty poor.

Tried some good old British pb on my banana today...still not the same...

Europe is home to many spiral staircases. I really like the one in our hostel!

We spent the morning (after Alex got his 9834893 pastries) wandering around local shops and exploring the Royal Mile in daylight (since our ghost tour was obviously in the dark last night). We spotted this young bagpiper playing some tunes - I was excited for Alex to see a bagpiper up close! Sadly, he didn't play a "fling" or anything we used to dance to. Was still nice to hear that familiar sound!

Edinburgh is home to lots of statues of regal looking men, and lots of kilts.

And cool gothic architecture like this!

After another run (4.5 miles), we headed off to our Harry Potter tour. It was pretty cool to see all of JK Rowling's old haunts and some of the places that later popped up in her series. We went through the graveyard that not only inspired one of the more famous scenes in the series (the Harry/Voldemort duel in Goblet of Fire) but also is home to many of the names of characters in her books. 

Here, for example, it Voldemort's "grave." JK Rowling got the name "Tom Riddle" from this grave, and just changed the "ell" to "le," which also helped her to formed the famous anagram - "I am Lord Voldemort."

The tour stopped several other interesting places, including the boarding school that inspired Hogwarts - where Rowling's own daughter now attends! Apparently, she picks her daughter up once a month, but the nanny has to do it the rest of the time because she attracts far too much attention to make it a frequent habit. Our guide said that Rowling is actually spotted in this area fairly often! Not today though.

After dinner we headed to the restaurant that our hostel recommends. Trying to get the "full Scottish experience," I decided to try the vegetarian haggis. I don't think it was at all the same as real haggis - because one of the most important parts of real haggis is to cook it in a sheep's liver. I thought it was good in vegetarian form though. The top layer was some sort of grain, the middle layer was mashed carrots, and the bottom layer was potato. It was actually giant, and I didn't make it through the entire thing, but I enjoyed it!

Due to the way our train tickets worked out, we actually have another full day here in Edinburgh tomorrow, and don't set off for London until 6:30PM. I'm actually really pleased about this - this means one last run in the park and another full day to explore. We're going to try to make it to Edinburgh Castle. Hopefully more on that tomorrow before we leave... and if not, should be able to do an update on Tuesday, from London!