Farewell London

Our last day in London and the UK. Initially this meant packing, a slightly more difficult task at this end of the trip given all the stuff we've bought since we arrived. Mercifully, our lovely hostess here at Cap'n Bligh's has allowed us full use of our rooms here today until we have to go to the airport. A shower just before we leave will be just wonderful after a day of running around.

With all the packing, we left our rooms quite late. This was fine, since we wanted to avoid the crush of the rush hour, and get a cheaper non-peak public transport ticket which can only be used after 9:30am. First we headed to the British Museum, where Phil had some specific things he wanted to see. First was the display of finds from the Sutton Hoo ship burial (around 600AD), especially the hugely famous helmet...

He also wanted to check out the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon friezes...

Petra was immensely patient with all of this, and found many of the displays were quite interesting. We were both impressed by the museum building though. In one of those "small world" moments, Phil saw someone he knew from the ANU at the Museum.

After a few hours, we had lunch at yet another nearby pub and then caught the Underground to Southwark. Phil wanted to have a look at the Tate Modern, a fairly new gallery of modern art which is housed in a former power station south of the river across from St. Paul's. Petra decided to take in the sights and sounds of the riverbank while Phil did a quick tour through the gallery.

We then decided to take a final walk back to Lambeth. Now all we have to do is get ourselves ready, get to the airport and get going home.

Three hours later...

We have made it to the airport. Car arrived on time, but because it was afternoon peak hour it took just over an hour to get to Heathrow. We then spent the next half hour going through check-in and security. What fun! Petra has gone off to do some duty free shopping to recover from the security ordeal. Phil sits patiently. Plane boards in a little less than an hour and a half. Can't wait...

So what haven't we done yet?

With only two more days in London we decided that we needed to throw away Phil's ambitious daily programs and devote our days to those things we haven't managed to fit in yet that we absolutely have to do.

So first thing we walked over to Westminster and did our tour of Westminster Abbey. A much less impressive building than St. Paul's, Phil says. Really all it is is a collection of tombs and monuments. Mind you, there are some pretty amazing tombs - Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Queen Mary, Henry VII, Chaucer, Churchill, Edward I, Richard II, Henry III, Isaac Newton...the list just goes on. Again though, photographers are discriminated against, so no pictures.

After going all through the Abbey we walked up to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard - we missed this last time we were at the Palace because it coincided with our Palace tour. We got to see a lot of men in fuzzy hats and red coats march by us...

...and amused ourselves by trying to work out which regiment they belonged to by the arrangement of buttons on their tunics. The chaps above were Welsh Guards, while the ones below were, we believe, Grenadier Guards...

...or not. We were pretty sure that these were Horse Guards...

After the guards were all changed we walked through Green Park to Hyde Park, even though it was raining a bit by then and we were getting wet because we believed the internet weather forecasts. We stopped for lunch at The Serpentine Bar & Kitchen which overlooked the eastern tip of The Serpentine, which itself was very pretty even in nasty weather...

A bit further on we found the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, but we didn't go as far as Kensington Palace as we had sort of planned. Rain does that to you.

So off we trudged to Harrods, which was yet another over-the-top retail outlet with prices that made Phil just chuckle to himself. The only part of the store that was crowded with shoppers was the Harrods merchandise section, jam packed with tourists like us buying the only things in Harrods which had less than three figures to the left of the decimal point in the price tag.

Having been retail-shocked by Harrods, we sought a dose of reality by catching a bus to Debenhams department store in Oxford Street, a few blocks down from that other icon of retail excess, Selfridge's. Petra much enjoyed wandering through the shoe section there, particularly since the prices didn't make Phil chuckle with disbelief.

So back to Lambeth for our last night at Cap'n Bligh's. Oh, and we went to the pub for dinner...

The Tower, St.Paul's and the Globe

Almost made a full week without rain, but it was a bit drizzly this morning. Nothing to cause us much distress though.

We had our first experience of peak hour travel on the tube this morning, since we wanted to get to the Tower of London in time for their 9am opening. At Lambeth North station we watched in awe as dozens of people crammed themselves into an already overpacked train. We, well we chose to wait for the next train which was shown as arriving three minutes later and was marginally less overpacked.

In any case, we arrived at the Tower soon after 9am and stayed there until almost 1:30pm.

Again, wow. We started off with the Crown Jewels, which were amazing even to a suburban-socialist-republican like Phil. Unfortunately no photography allowed, so we can't show you how truly beautiful it all is. Phil loved the St. Edward's Crown (the one used for the coronation of QEII), while Petra was smitten by the Anointing Spoon, of all things.

After having a coffee to recover from all that wealth and ostentation, we then wandered through the walls and towers pretty much at random. The armoury displays were very nice...

...and some of the towers had some excellent short historical videos and explanations of great historical events that are supposed to have happened there. Many towers had graffiti carved into the stone by famous prisoners...

Then there was Tower Green, where people such as two of Henry VIII's wives and Lady Jane Grey (Queen for about 9 days) were executed.

Eventually we ran out of Tower to look at, so we walked down to The Monument (which commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666) and St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Petra was a bit footsore, so Phil Looked around inside St. Paul's while she recovered. A truly amazing building with lots of monuments to some very famous people. The Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson are both interred in the crypt, but Phil though the drama of their magnificent tombs was somewhat cheapened by the souvenir shop, toilets and (can you believe it) noisy cafe not 50 feet away.

From St. Paul's we walked across the Millennium Bridge (pedestrian only) to the south bank and visited the Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the theatre where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed. Unfortunately we were too late to tour the theatre itself, but we went through the museum and watched a demonstration of dressing an actor (or in this case a hapless tourist plucked from the audience) in Ophelia's costume from one of the productions of Hamlet. It was an authentic Elizabethan-period costume, and quite interesting to see how it all held together before buttons, zippers and velcro.

After walking back to our rooms for a bit of a rest, we walked up to another nearby pub and had an excellent Thai meal...just for something different...

Greenwich, the British Music Experience and tryin' a little tenderness

Another late night, but this time the blog comes before bed.

When we finally crawled out of a deep sleep this morning (following yesterday's Paris excursion) we made our way to Westminster Bridge and caught a boat down the Thames...

...to Greenwich.

What a place. We both loved it out there, maybe partly because it reminded us of being in the countryside and smaller, picturesque villages. Naturally we visited the Greenwich Observatory, which has wonderful views down to the Maritime Museum and Canary Wharf in the background...

...and squirrels frolicking everywhere. We sought out and found the markings for the Prime Meridian so that each of us could have a picture of ourselves with one foot east and the other west. What a tourist hoot.

After walking back down the hill, we took a bus to North Greenwich and "The O2", a large entertainment complex...

Inside this is the British Music Experience which is an interactive exhibition of all things relating to British Popular Music. Phil headed straight for the area where visitors can play various Epiphone guitars (proving he hasn't forgotten how after so many weeks away from it), drum kits, and keyboard, and can re-mix Queen's Radio Ga Ga (Phil turned everything off except the guitar). Petra went straight to the display of memorabilia from various periods, and Phil soon joined her. Petra was a bit peeved that there was hardly any Elton John stuff, but Phil was blown away by an old guitar owned by Pete Townsend (completely smashed to pieces at one of The Who's shows) and some of David Bowie's stage costumes.

As time was now getting on, we went back to Greenwich and cruised back up the river the way we had come, this time accompanied by some very entertaining commentary provided by one of the members of the crew. We had never before speculated what Big Ben would be called if its designer had been named Richard rather than Benjamin.

Back at our rooms we immediately had to get ourselves ready to go out for dinner and a West End show, The Commitments. A decent feed and a great show, particularly the music. Phil decided that he'll need to convince his band to bring soul to the people of Canberra.

Phil got us lost again coming back from the theatre, but luckily Petra's sense of direction got us home OK.

Un jour à Paris

The blog is late today since we were a little bit weary after our day-trip to Paris.

Our day started at 4:30am when we quickly got ourselves ready to catch a 5am local bus that would take us to St. Pancras International station, luckily from virtually right outside our guest house. London is very serene at that time of the morning. When we arrived we had to go through all of the check-in, immigration and security checking before we could sit down and have a coffee and muffin in lieu of a proper breakfast.

The Eurostar train to Paris was very comfortable, whisper quiet and very fast (maybe even as fast as Petra's uncle on the autobahn, which we think was our previous land speed record). After only a bit over half an hour we had reached the Channel Tunnel, which took us about 20 minutes to get through giving us the opportunity for a snooze in the absence of anything to look at except our fellow passengers. Then we were in France in bright sunshine. Unfortunately the sunshine didn't last as far as Paris and it was rather drearily overcast for the day.

We arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris around 10:30 local time (Paris being an hour ahead of London) and immediately jumped on a local train to Notre Dame where we had one of the most interesting toilet stops ever and viewed the cathdral from the outside...

The queues to get inside were already so long that we decided it would take too much of our short day in Paris before we could have a look, so only a bit reluctantly decided to move on.

The nearby Latin Quarter was our next destination. Lots of narrow streets with all sorts of cafes and other food sellers...

We just wandered around (often in circles) until we decided to have an early lunch in a cafe looking straight out at Notre Dame.

From there we started walking - about 6 kilometers we think. We visied Le Bon Marche, a Parisian department store that makes Selfridge's look like K-Mart, and eventually found ourselves at the Eiffel Tower...

Next was a cruise up and down the Seine before we hopped on a local train again to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees (another famous street that we found disappointing).

By this time it was getting late, so we hurried off to Montmartre for our final stop. We took the obligatory photos at the Moulin Rouge (which we had to walk through Paris' red light district to find), then ventured into Montmartre's back streets and found a cafe where we could sit at tables on the footpath and sip red wine (Phil) or an oh-so-Parisian pina colada (Petra).

Another local train from Montmartre took us quickly back to Gare du Nord where we went through all of the check-in, immigration and security again and had a very nice baguette while waiting in the extremely uncomfortable "lounge" to board the Eurostar for the trip back. Not nearly as interesting a return trip as it was all in darkness, but we got back to St. Pancras on time at 9:30pm. Then the local bus back to Lambeth again. Quite a day.

Shopping

Today was shopping day. We headed off early on the bus to the Old Spitalfields Market out in the East End.

Well worth the trip as there were lots of excellent stalls with high-quality and quirky things. One of our favourites was a guy who made jewelry out of twisted and bent antique silver and silver-plate cutlery. After some time there we went on to the nearby Petticoat Lane Market, but it was full of mostly cheap and nasty stuff. Both were quite crowded though.

Finished with markets, we caught the underground in to Baker Street where first stop was The Beatles Store. We then walked down to Oxford Street and Selfridge's Department Store, which absolutely blew Petra away with its high-end merchandise and general fancy-ness. Lunch was overdue when we left Selfridge's and we were able to find quite a nice pub just off Oxford Street.

After lunch we continued down Oxford Street to Regent Street...

...and turned off to Carnaby Street. Unfortunately the Mod Era is well and truly gone, and Carnaby Street is now full of the usual trendy shopping mall stores. Sad. We continued on browsing at shops as we passed through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, ending up once more at the Square of the Blue Chicken of Trafalgar.

More walking to get back to our rooms. The best way to see London is definitely on foot.

St. James, Westminster and Lambeth

We took our time this morning, with nowhere we had to be until late morning. We are really enjoying living at Captain Bligh's, and Lambeth is a great location - close to everything, but away from the huge crowds. Apparently as recently as 20 years ago Lambeth was a pretty rough part of town and taxis would refuse to come here. All changed now and it's quite trendy.

When we were finally ready we headed off on the tube towards Buckingham Palace. We had a tour of the state rooms booked for 11:15, but we got there early enough to have a good look around outside first...

The tour inside took about an hour, and it was all quite impressive in a completely-over-the-top sort of way. The rooms and furnishings and artworks were designed to impress and did not fail. There was also a display commemorating the Queen's coronation all those years ago, including the fantastically ornate dress and jewelry she wore. Sadly, no photography allowed inside the Palace.

After the Palace we toured the Royal Mews, which is basically the royal garage. State coaches, stables for the horses who drag them, the Queen's Rolls Royce, a random Maserati of unknown provenance (not pictured)...

By this time we were hungry, so when we exited we bought some lunch and ate it sitting on the lawn in front of the Palace, even though it had started to turn a bit cold by then.

From there we walked down the Mall to Trafalgar Square - we just love the big blue chicken - and then to the Houses of Parliament past some men in red jackets and shiny hats sitting on horses...

We wanted to go to Westminster Abbey, but by the time we got there it was closed. Apparently someone wants to use it for some religious ceremony tomorrow (Sunday). Go figure.

Thwarted at the Abbey, we walked over Lambeth Bridge to Lambeth Palace and the nearby Museum of Gardening, which is unremakable except for the fact that William Bligh's tomb is there. Since we are staying in his house we felt obliged to stop by and pay our respects.

Petra had had enough by then and went back to Cap'n Bligh's for a rest while Phil visited the Imperial War Museum across the road. Unfortunately it's in the middle of a huge renovation, so the displays are limited. There was a very good display on the secret services though - MI5, MI6 and all that.

When Phil returned we set off on a mission to find a decent traditional pub, and after a good deal of wandering the streets of Lambeth and Waterloo we finally found just what we were after. Bangers and mash never tasted so good. Again, inevitably, a group of Australians sat at the table next to us and it was good to swap travel stories and places to go.