Last full day in London

Today was our last full day in London (sad times), but we got to see and do some cool things and play the quintessential tourist for awhile too. From playing on the Princess Diana of Wales' Memorial Playground with Peep to strolling in Hyde Park and eating lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, it was a laid back kind of day, at least for the first half, followed by a mini shopping marathon...


I'm not sure I knew or perhaps had forgotten that we'd be going to the playground this morning during adults-only time (I know, it seems a little odd that there's special playground hours set aside for adults only), but it was actually pretty cool. The weather was pretty cool too, and I made the mistake of wearing a skirt, so it wasn't so easy to be climbing around on the big pirate ship or the platform playgrounds, even for fun photos. There were cute little school kids in uniforms—think twelve little girls in two straight lines—walking near the playground when we left, and a line of parents waiting to get in, but it was neat to be able to see and walk around in the playground when it was virtually empty. (In this Peter Pan picture, look for Peep on the lower right side towards the middle.)

After playground time, we wandered towards the Peter Pan statue and fountains in the park. There was a nice little cafe/restaurant that had amazing hot chocolate, and given the breezy cool weather outside, I was definitely glad for a hot drink. I also had a super huge blueberry muffin, which made for a nice late morning snack/early lunch. :) The park was strangely deserted for the most part, perhaps because of the weather, but following our snack we split into separate groups pending whether people wanted to go to Harrod's or the Hard Rock Cafe. The last Hard Rock Cafe I've ever been in was literally half my life ago in Washington, D.C., so it was fun to see the London one, which is also apparently the original Hard Rock. Merle was nice enough to split one of their huge burgers with me since the muffin put a damper on my appetite for lunch. Still, the food was good and it was a nice change (free refills!). The real touristy fun began after lunch, though. :)

We headed down as a group of six to Harrod's but basically gave up on the idea of sticking together in such a huge store. I had a mini list of souvenirs to locate, if possible, which happened to match up with some of Joanna's, so we navigated five stories together, including toy world and the book area (of course...a must for librarians). On a random side note, one strange thing I noticed, besides the poles that block people from taking strollers on the escalators, is that the sales people consistently check i.d. This is likely because my credit card doesn't have the special chip that cards here seem to, but still, it was kind of nice in a way that they do want to confirm you are the right person to be using that card. At any rate, Harrod's was quite the experience, especially the food halls (I got a picture of giant cupcake! Peep would love it).

My souvenir to-buy list was not satisfied at Harrod's, so we went on a quest to find a bunch of random stores and items that took us up and down Oxford and Great Russell to find everything, and I think it was successful. The crowds of people by the Oxford Circus underground station were totally insane; I think I was dreading huge and immovable crowds like that everywhere from the start, so we've really been fortunate not to have had major crowds and pedestrian traffic as we've toured the city. Now that the shopping blitz is over, I'm the proud owner of a bunch of random London knickknacks to commemorate the trip (a la charm bracelet charms, a tea towel, etc), but it is fun to be a tourist and do touristy things sometimes; we definitely see our share back home...

All in all, the shopping was fun, except that we were for some reason very hurried and walked at a pretty frantic pace. There was no schedule for the afternoon, so I'm not sure why we were in such a rush, but it did speed up the process and got us back in time to make dinner, do laundry, and pack for Paris! The dinner is going to be pretty special too, if the prep is any indication, because our baking directions want me to cook the quiche for twenty-five minutes and then let it cool for thirty, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out in the end since the "cooking" part is really just a reheat anyway. Oh well. It's one more fun memory for today. :)

Peep eyeing my muffin and hot chocolate

Giant cupcake!

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An amazing time at Hampton Court

Aside from a trip to Hampton Court Palace, we were challenged today to tell a story in five pictures (sans the captions I do love to add). Below is my five-picture story, titled "Reunion" ( and you can read more about my fun times at Hampton Court behind the cut). :)

Reunion

Trains and palaces! We took a train from Waterloo Station this morning to get to Hampton Court Palace, which was once home to Tudor king Henry VIII and later, King William III and Mary II. Having heard about Hampton Court from various English courses and reading several of David Starkey's books about Henry VIII and his wives, I was excited to see it. The grounds are huge, though, and it is very possible to get turned around, even with a somewhat guided audio tour...

The guided audio tour was excellent and, pending which section of the palaces you were in, provided extensive coverage of the history. There were strolling reenactments of King Henry VIII's marriage to Kateryn Parr (the last of the six wives), and we even had the opportunity to bow/curtsy before him during several photo ops. My touring went awry after viewing the chambers of Henry VIII and previewing a very interesting (though not commentated) exhibit in the palace dubbed "Henry's Women," complete with portraits and info about each of the six wives and some personal artifacts associated with them. Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed in that room or I would've had a ton of pictures to post. After that tour, though, the self-selecting audio guide didn't exactly prompt which direction I should head, and so I found myself wandering down hallways lined with pictures, eventually moving towards an exit. The exit didn't have any special signage to indicate how I might find the next audio point of interest, and the audio recording relies on the user to tell it what section you want it to discuss; the directions is provides are somewhat in order if you started in the palace kitchens, but since I did not, I got to stroll in the light drizzle and try to figure out where I was.

After unintentionally finding the kitchens, I caught up with that audio tour in time to get mowed down by a group of tourists sans audio guides that were rather impatient to get to the next area of the palace. The kitchens tour itself is extensive, judging by the audio guide, and so I wandered in and around the various kitchen stops, ovens, etc. listening to the food historians' perspectives (I never before knew that was a specialty) until I found myself in the colonnade once again, which was familiar territory. I wanted to see the William III/Mary II tour, which was quite different from Henry's court, but the audio tour started to become very detailed and I felt like I was blocking the path since the audio for each room was at least three minutes bordering on five. All of the information was interesting, particularly in explaining the progression of public and private rooms (and all the weaponry in the guard room!), but by the time that tour was finished, it was raining again and lunchtime.

Lunch was a quiet affair (an indoors picnic since it was still raining), and I managed to stay with others and/or on marked paths so I didn't again get lost accidentally in the afternoon. I did get to walk the maze on the grounds, which was more fun that I thought it might be. When first entering the maze, it appears to be unicursal, which isn't so much a maze to me as a garden path. We did come across a fork in the road, so to speak, rather quickly, though, and wove around without knowing how large the maze really was. I thought the goal was to get to the end, but apparently, you are supposed to go to the middle and then find your way back out. We got to the middle without any real problems, but then got a little turned around trying to find the exit because we didn't know the entrance served double duty as the exit as well. On the plus side, though, we made only two wrong turns (as in choosing dead-end paths), and got out of the maze literally right before it started to pour rain again, so it was fun.


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Parks and Recreation

Unfortunately, I subbed out my rain jacket for my umbrella this morning, thinking it would leave more room in my bag for Peep, my picnic lunch, and my un-assembled kite. Rain jackets or coats are more preferable in actual rain, though, since the wind can and will invert umbrellas, and my mini umbrella—conveniently purse-sized—is also conveniently small enough to get either my bag or me wet, meaning poor Peep got a little damp. The rain didn't last for long, though, and we did have nice, cooler weather for walking around Regent's Park and lunch on Primrose Hill.

Prior to today, I haven't actually been inside of any of London's parks, so it was nice to be able to walk around and see all of the beautiful flowers and gardens. The street noise is surprisingly muffled and the park seemed very quiet and relaxing. Seeing all of the flowerbeds, arrangements, and the occasional small topiary reminded me of Cypress Gardens in the old days, and I almost expected to see some strolling belles appear to greet visitors. They, of course, never appeared, but the most people I ever saw, aside from the group of children playing cricket on the sports fields, were in the rose garden, which was a highlight of the day for me...

It did start raining while we were strolling among the rose beds, but it was still beautiful and smelled wonderful. I always think of rosebeds as containing a variety of different rose bushes since ours does at home, but the massive rosebeds in Queen Mary's Gardens were each devoted to one particular kind of rose, so there were these blankets of pink, then red, then golden yellow, then white, then blush, etc. With the breeze from the approaching rain shower, the buds and blooms were all swaying and waving. It seems almost prettier that way than they might appear in average weather with direct sunlight all around. At any rate, the gardens were gorgeous and I spent lots of time photographing the name of each rosebed's variety before getting some shots of the blooms themselves. This earned me some strange looks from another couple roaming the grounds, but I think it's nice to know the name of the flower too, especially since some of them were actually familiar to me.

After our garden tour, we walked to Primrose Hill for our picnic lunch and kite flying. I don't really remember if or when I last flew a kite, largely because I think all previous efforts failed due to a lack of wind. There was no shortage of wind atop Primrose Hill, though, and it was really fun to fly my little owl kite after a quick lunch. The sky was bright blue again, so all of the kites from class really stood out, and it was neat to look around and see ten or so kites flying around and trying not to cross. I'm not sure why or how Primrose Hill got its name since I didn't see any flowers on or around it specifically, but it did provide quite the observation point to get a panorama of London. (I tried taking some panorama shots with the help of my camera, so hopefully those will come out and I can add them to my London pics slide show in the side column.)

We're all going to see Billy Elliot the musical tonight as a class, which should be exciting since it's always fun to see shows and Billy Elliot has won so many awards and is much acclaimed. I did see the movie when it came out, so I'm looking forward to seeing the stage adaptation too. Since we'll be out later going to and coming from the show, I'll even have a chance to get some more evening shots around London to pair with my daytime shots of activities and attractions.

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Traveling in London

My first few days in London, I was more than glad to be part of a group traveling around. Aside from the 'safety in numbers' adage always flashing in the back of my mind, it was nice to have some guidance as I transitioned into London transit options. I don't think I have some horrible sense of direction that would've gotten me lost had I branched out on my own initially, but London is a big and bustling city, and for awhile, I felt like I was in the locals' way, whether on the pavement or boarding the tube. Although I asked a lot of pre-departure questions of friends and co-workers who have traveled abroad before, it didn't occur to me to ask about transportation or get any tips for getting around the city. Thus, for other inexperienced newcomers and/or novice travelers like myself, I created a short podcast of tips and examples for traveling in and around London.

Surviving London: A Novice Traveler's Tips for Navigating the Foreign World of Transportation in London
by Stephanie Brown
recorded July 5, 2009 at Flat #10, 102 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London



This podcast is 4.83 MB and runs approximately 5:16.
For anyone with difficulties loading the embedded player, the podcast can also be retrieved from http://www.divshare.com/download/7834842-620

Recording the various traffic sounds for my podcast was entertaining, partly because there was no shortage of traffic to observe and partly because I caught myself breaking one of my own rules by standing in the middle of the pavement (semi-blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic) just to record them. It was fun to catch screeching tires and sirens amongst the zooming cars and pedestrian chatter, and thanks to my experience traveling around London with our program, I feel more confident now about public transportation and solo travel too. :)

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It's moor fun in Devon

London is fascinating to me because I've never really been in huge cities before, and I've definitely never lived in one for any period of time. The lights, the noise, the constant activity, the completely foreign transportation system, the vast numbers of people are all completely new to me and, though occasionally intimidating, are still interesting. On the other hand, though, I come from a small city in a somewhat rural/agrarian county, and thus it's neat to get outside of London's maze of streets, sights, and shops to see some smaller and/or more rural areas of England. Our class trips to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Oxford were all fun excursion day trips, so I wanted to travel outside the city once, if possible, during the free weekend.

Prior to departing for this trip (as seen in earlier blog posts), I debated what activities or places I might want to do or see. The ancestral connections won out, though, so I headed southwest to Devon and a little village few people know exists...

Chagford is an incredibly small little village. The B&B owner who met me and helped facilitate my trip to Devon provided me with a map that basically outlines maybe six streets in the entire town. All of the buildings are circa 16th or before, many with thatched roofs, and the roads into and out of the village are small, winding country lanes with high hedgerows and stone walls. When I arrived, I half expected to see James Herriot pop out from one of the many footpaths toward the River Teign, it's that idyllic. From my room in the little B&B, I could hear sheep bleating out on the moor, which was cool and a little odd at the same time. After all, it's quite the switch from traffic noises and people talking to wind, sheep bleating, and birds everywhere.

In a way, since Chagford is off the beaten path, as they say, it feels a little like stepping back in time. Everyone was very friendly and very curious to know why I was visiting and how I'd heard of Chagford. Nonetheless, I arrived in time to watch the weekly cricket match and got invited to come to the bazaar in front of Endecott House in the town square the following morning. As it was a bed and breakfast, I also got to eat my first full English breakfast, or rather, I also had a chance to eat a full English breakfast. It's quite a lot of food, but it was lovely sitting out in the garden to do so.

Coming from Florida, the moors are incredible to me, and it's fascinating to watch the low, fast-moving clouds cross them. I didn't particularly notice a change in weather from said clouds, but it was definitely much cooler and windier in Devon, and I finally had occasion to use my rain jacket because it started to rain as I was scheduled to leave. It was a lovely place, and their ancient stone church, though much smaller and less grand than the beautiful cathedrals we've seen during class trips, was charming in its own right. It would be fun maybe to return someday with more of my family (they could appreciate the ancestry connection more), but I'm glad to have gone during my free weekend. (They even had an Independence Day celebration with "American-style" food at one of the local pubs—The Globe—so I had a chance to commemorate the 4th of July sort of in England.) :)

St. Michael's Church

Sunset over the moors (note those low clouds)

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Finding Lewis

I've been looking forward to our group trip to Oxford practically since it was announced on our group itinerary. Since I've never ridden a real train—by real I mean a train that isn't a slow scenic one just for tourists—it was exciting to go to Paddington Station and ride a real train, By far, the train is my favorite transportation method now, although I'm not sure how that might be affected by taking actual luggage along with me besides just a purse. Nonetheless, we had a fascinating tour of the Bodleian Library in the morning, which was cool because I heard about that library all through undergrad from my various English professors who would visit there while on sabbatical. It was neat, then, to see the stacks and the reading rooms and even a small part of that massive collection personally since I've heard their stories before and now know a little more of the history too. Cool Bodleian aside, though, my anticipation of going to Oxford centered on one goal: finding Lewis Carroll...

Visiting Christ Church wasn't scheduled, but since we had a lot of free time after our Bodleian Library tour to eat lunch and explore the city, I got to go. I think I was probably the only one who was interested in the Lewis Carroll aspect of going to Christ Church—after all, scenes from the Harry Potter movies were also filmed there—but it was still fun. We got a student rate on our tickets and had the chance to wander on a self-guided tour (with pamphlets) that took us to the famous dining hall, familiar to Carroll and Harry Potter fans alike for different reasons. Since I'm not a super huge fan of the Alice books, it might seem strange that I would be excited to see Christ Church at all, but it all stems from undergrad, rather like my interest in the Bodleian Library.

The summer between my junior and senior years of college, I researched and wrote a SURE grant paper about Carroll, his symbollic logic and mathematics, and the Alice books. While it was tedious sometimes to read his journals, I learned quite a bit about Dodgson (Carroll) that summer and always wanted to see where he lived and worked. Our student tour didn't take us to his cottage, but seeing the famous dining hall, Christ Church cathedral, and the grounds was more than enough to make me feel like I'd found Lewis. The city is even hosting a special "Alice's Day" this Saturday, when it appears they will be celebrating all things Alice and Carroll. I might just have to check that out too since the events include visits to the cottage and perhaps more about the Liddell family too. I was surprised but glad to still be able to recognize his picture when I spotted it across the dining hall. :) Their little gift shop was fun, as was seeing oodles of Alice stuff (I was expecting a lot around Oxford, so it was nice to see at Christ Church), but I tried to limit myself. :) It was also cool to see that John and Charles Wesley were actually ordained in Christ Church cathedral, so I took lots of pictures of their memorials as well.

It's Lewis! This was the picture I spotted across the dining hall while following the walking tour through. I had to circle round and cut through to get close enough for a picture.

The famous dining hall...Harry Potter fans (on the tour) were excited to see this too

A shot of the beautiful grounds at Christ Church College

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Ups and downs

What a day! We didn't have the early wake-up time this morning like yesterday (and tomorrow when we head out early for Oxford), but our travels today presented a different set of challenges and highlights. I quickly learned that I am fairly horrible at taking action shots, or rather, thanks to my camera's kind attempts to be sophisticated and compensate for any blur or jarring in a given shot, I am fairly horrible at taking action shots. We had some free time in Trafalgar Square this morning before the National Gallery opened to take some photos and capture transportation and motion in the city. There is quite the mix: the usual cars, motorcycles, and bikes, along with more city-oriented mass transit like buses and taxis, and (my favorite) mounted police. As a pedestrian, it seems like traffic is constantly bustling around you and you'll get plowed over if you attempt a crosswalk against the light. Enter Murphy's Law...

Standing by said crosswalks to capture moving vehicles today, it seemed like every shot stalled out because of a red light. Perhaps it was the time of day or a poor location choice in the Square on my part, but I got some rather unusual shots and probably some strange looks since the tourists usually turn and face the buildings rather than traffic for their pictures. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience and really drove home for me the major differences in traffic and transportation here compared to IPC. It was also an interesting opportunity to people watch and listen to the sounds of the city. I did have to relocate after awhile because the beeping of the crosswalks every time it's "safe" to cross can get a little shrill after awhile, but it was still an interesting way to experience London and definitely a new experience for me.

After touring the National Gallery and eating lunch in the Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Field (so cool), we got to my favorite part of the day. I enjoyed touring Westminister Abbey despite its picture ban and really liked Salisbury Cathedral (and the Magna Carta!), despite not knowing of or about it really beforehand. Both were great cathedral tours and fascinating architecture, but by far, my favorite place I've been has got to be St. Paul's. The outside, which we saw on our bus tour on Sunday, was impressive enough, but the inside is absolutely beautiful. I'm not so familiar with the famous royal wedding staged there since it happened before I was born, so St. Paul's wasn't on the radar for me as a must-see. I was very pleased with our "supertour," though, and really enjoyed seeing all of the monuments and chapels inside. I was surprised but glad to get to sit in the choir area and then see the chapel behind the altar area dedicated to American servicemen of WWII. Not knowing what the Florida symbol would be in the stained glass windows, I couldn't definitively spot it, but I did immediately find Indiana's, along with Kansas and Nevada (which the tour guide lady thought might be Texas but actually spelled out NEVADA around the points of the star). It was a fascinating tour, and we concluded with the chance to climb up to the galleries, which were something akin to observation platform/walkways in the central dome of the cathedral. The whispering galley was the lowest (and had a view of the inside), while the stone gallery was higher and exterior and the golden gallery, some 528 steps or approximately 85 metres above the cathedral floor, topped out the gallery viewing tours.

I think living on the fourth floor here helped with making the trek up, because after the whispering gallery, the stairs get steeper and narrower and become one-way. Of course, when I was climbing the last 152 steps between the stone gallery, there was one lady who freaked out one flight of stairs into our climb and insisted on going back down. With the narrow staircases, this didn't work too well, and even though I was able to let her pass, I think the group of tourists behind me was giving her a bit of a hard time about it, which was kind of sad. Two seconds later, though, we reached a "mind your head" sign that was not exaggerating. The guy in front of me who was a head taller than I am, hit his head and backpack while climbing up this super short final set of stairs. He was teetering around on the stairs and I had visions of him falling backwards onto me, which would then send me down the rest of the staircase to the landing some thirty steps below. Not a happy thought indeed. He recovered, though, and we made it to the top; it was definitely worth all of the winding steps, even if the top gallery was super narrow and crowded. (Peep made the climb as well, but given the height and wind, did not come out for a photo op beyond the stone gallery level.) It's amazing to think of how old those staircases are, though, and what they might have been used for. It was also good exercise and helps me to appreciate that we have only 59 stairs up to our flat. :)

An illuminated Book of John in the Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields

Winding staircase in the south tower at St. Paul's

Peep in the staircase

Peep on the Stone Gallery level of St. Paul's (afraid to get too close to the edge because of the wind and the fall)

A view from the Golden Gallery

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