Last Day in London

Tony and I ventured out to Abbey Road this morning.  I have said many times on this trip you can spot tourists because we often walk on the right instead of the left.  Here, Londoners not only drive on the left, but they generally walk on the left.  It is very confusing.  Today, however, it became glaringly apparent that tourists are also very rude.  Londoners have continued to surprise us at every turn with house kind and helpful they are.  Regardless of whether it is sincere or not, it is heartwarming to feel so welcome everywhere we go. Tourists, on the other hand, often surprise us with how rude, thoughtless and obnoxious they can be.  When this happens, we just pray they are NOT Americans.  

We had a wonderful lunch at another magnificent historic pub called The Harp.  This pub has been named the best pub in the nation several years in a row.  I don’t think many tourists go here because when we walked in most of the patrons looked like bankers who were there drinking their lunch, and they all stared at us when we entered.  The lady behind the bar, however, was incredibly friendly, and she took our order.  In addition to some great beer, we ordered The Harp’s homemade sausages on homemade buns with onions.  I got lamb sausage (YUMMY!), and Tony got the pork sausage.  

Following lunch, we indulged in some delicious gelato – I had hazelnut, and Tony had some sort of chocolate. 

I am so ready to get home, sleep in my own bed and see my sweet little Ella, but I am already missing this place.  London is such and vibrant city, and there is just so much to do.  I may be a girl who has spent most of her life in small town Chattanooga, but I have always felt that I am meant to be a big-city girl.  Whether it is Boston, Chicago, Munich or London, I think I need to live in a much larger city at some point in my life.  My years in Cincinnati gave me a taste of a somewhat bigger city, but all my years of travel make me realize that I need more.  While Tony and I are both worn out, it is a good sort of exhaustion because we have seen and done a lot, but we also feel there is much more to do.

I remember someone telling me not long ago that only 20% of Americans have passports.  If you are part of the 80% that does not have a passport, seriously think about getting one sometime soon and go somewhere.  See the world beyond the U.S.  You won’t regret it.  There are places I have visited that I would probably not visit again, but I have never regretted going anywhere.  If you think you cannot afford it, remember that not everyplace is expensive. 

Life is too short to live it all in one place.

Thoughts on London

We are planning our final day here in London, and Abbey Road will likely be our first stop.  As we look forward to coming home, I generally like to reflect on our visit.  Among the things I adore about London include:

1.       The Tube: It is fast, efficient, clean, and it goes everywhere.  The “carriages” always seem to run on time, and I wish we had Tubes all over the U.S.

2.       The People:  In addition to the diversity of people here, everyone is unfailingly polite and helpful.  I don’t know that I have ever been anywhere in my life where people have seemed so genuinely kind and willing to help perfect strangers.  It seems so odd that in a huge city like London there are so many people that are willing to just be nice to perfect strangers.  The world would be a much better place if it were more like London.

3.       The Food: I can’t get enough of the food.  It is so good.  When you think of London, you don’t think of “cuisine,” but we have loved everything we have eaten here – fish & chips, fish dogs, British ice cream, sausages, etc.  My guess is part of why the food is so wonderful is that Europe does not allow GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) in their food like the U.S. does. 

4.       The Surprises: Everywhere we go, we see or experience something we did not expect.  It has been magnificent.  Heck, see Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles on the day we landed was certainly a surprise!

Among the things I won’t miss are:

1.       The Weather:  The cold I can stand, but the constant rain (or threat of it) is a bit much to bear.

2.       The Prices: This is a pricey city.  You need lots of money to live here.  Internet access has cost us about $17 per day!

Lear, Law, Lots of Climbing -- Oh, and Sausages and Spamalot!

I continue to fall in love with London – its people, its food, and its history.  The weather has not charmed me as much, but I still adore this city.  My feet are so sore from walking so much (I have lost several toenails as a result of the pounding my feet have taken), and my already weak ankles are taking a beating.  Despite the fact that Tony and I are enjoying the food, ice cream and beer as much as possible, it is evident to me that I am losing some serious weight because all of my pants are literally falling off of me, and all my shirts are much bigger on my.  Win-win!

Monday was another day of vigorous exercise and site seeing.  First on our agenda was St. Paul’s Cathedral.  St. Paul’s is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London.  It is dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle and was originally dedicated in 604 A.D.  It was the tallest building in London until 1962, and its dome is among the highest in the world.  St. Paul’s is one of the many buildings in London designed by Sir Christopher Wren.  The funerals for Lord Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher were all held here.  Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married here.  

When visiting the cathedral, you can climb to three different levels.  The first level is the Whispering Gallery, which runs around the inside of the dome.  Tony and I both climbed to that level.  The Stone Gallery encircles the outside of the dome, and the Golden Gallery runs around the highest point of the outer dome.

After tour the rest of St. Paul’s (including the crypt), Tony and I ventured back to the Westminster area of London to visit the UK Supreme Court.  This court is the supreme court in all matters until English and Welsh law, Northern Irish law, and Scottish law.  Everyone we met here was just so nice to us, and they answered all of our questions about how the court operated.  Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court where the hearings last just one hour, and each party gets 30 minutes to argue his/her case, and that is pretty much it.  The case is what is in the brief submitted to the court and the 30-minute argument.  One of the bailiff-type people at the UK Supreme Court told us that cases can sometimes go one for days, and that sometimes things get very animated in the hearing.  He chuckled as he told us this, perhaps remembering certain incidents.  I remember attending some hearings in the U.S. Supreme Court where people could get thrown out for simply dozing off.  What a difference!

After our great visit to the UK Supreme Court, we took a tour of St. Margaret’s Church next to Westminster Abbey.  It is an Anglican Church that is the parish church of the House of Commons (the lower house of Parliament).  It is named for St. Margaret of Antioch (also known as St. Margaret the Virgin).  Of note (at least to Tudor fans like me), is the east window of 1509 Flemish stained glass that was created to commemorate the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII (later to be King Henry VIII).  Other windows commemorate Sir Walter Raleigh and poet John Milton.  

Monday night, our entire group was lucky enough to have tickets to opening night of “King Lear” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  Beyond the fact that the play wonderful, and our seats were fantastic, I think my favorite part of the evening was all of the students’ excitement as realizing the role of King Lear himself was played by Joseph Marcell – the guy who played the English butler Geoffrey on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”  Good to know they are paying attention to what is important.  :-)

Today we slept in a bit then headed to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.  We had plans to find Sarah Gardner, Emilee Cutright, Kyle Marcum, Dacey Fisher and Kristen Stanfill amongst the crowds because we had a long-standing promise to treat Sarah to lunch.  Despite the masses of humanity there (and no one’s cell phones working) we managed to find them!  We watched the changing of the guard (in the cold London drizzle), and then snagged Sarah to find another pub on our list.

One of the “Top 10” lists we discovered listed Zeitgeist as one of the best.  The site declares:  “A German gastro pub, with German beers, German football and German staff. Quite a gamble in the back streets of Lambeth, yet Zeitgeist does a fine job of attracting locals and non-locals of every nationality. The selection is unrivalled, with 16 German beers on draught and 32 bottled. The kitchen serves well-portioned Teutonic favourites such as schnitzel, currywurst and schweinebraten. Things can still get "interesting" during Anglo-German sporting fixtures, but this convivial venue is a true wunder-bar.”  It was quite a hike from the Tube, but it was well worth the walk. (We even met some goats along the way!!!) The food was great, and the beer was even better.  The proprietor is from Cologne, Germany, and we loved him.  He even took a photo with us.  Magnificent experience in every way!

After the German pub, we visited the British Museum.  It has about 8 million pieces in its permanent collection, and it is one of the largest collections of its kinds that documents human culture.  Among the pieces we saw were some extraordinary artifacts from Egypt and the Rosetta Stone!  Very cool.  

 

We indulged in a taxi ride back to the hotel (me with my ice cream, Tony with his coffee and Sarah with her honey peanuts from a street vendor), and rested a bit before going out again to see “Spamalot.”  Tony and I bought tickets before we came, and tonight was our night to see the show.  We had fourth row seats, and the show was outstanding.  The cast was brilliant, and the actor who played King Arthur was perfect for the role.  We had a wonderful time.  

The students are all having a good time, but I imagine they will get home at the end of the week completely worn out.  I will write more reflections on our trip tomorrow.

Joanie (and Tony)

Sunday in London

I love London more every day.  In fact, I could live here.  As much as I have enjoyed visiting places like Istanbul, Rome, Paris, Dublin, Vienna and others, I see them all as wonderful places to VISIT.  That said, I have often said I could live in Munich, Germany, and I mean it, but now I think I could also live in London.  I really love it here.  I love the people, I love the food, I love the beer (but I still think German beer is the BEST), and I love the history.  Moreover, the city is far more beautiful than I imagined it would be.  Gorgeous, in fact.  I also love that in the few days we have been here we have already found a favorite pub, and when we go there, the Polish bartender recognizes and pours me my favorite lager without me having to ask for it.  That doesn’t even happen in Chattanooga!

Another wonderful experience we had today was being part of a sung Mass for the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord at the Westminster Cathedral.  Westminster Cathedral is the Mother Church for the Catholic Church community in England and Wales.  The site on which the Westminster Cathedral stands originally belonged to the Benedictine monks who established the nearby Westminster Abbey and was purchased by the Catholic Archdioceses of Westminster in 1885.  In 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee Celebrations, the Cathedral was visited by Queen Elizabeth.  This was highly symbolic since it was the first visit of a reigning monarch of the U.K. to a Catholic Church in the country since the Reformation (when the Church of England broke away from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church).  On May 28, 1982, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the Westminster Cathedral.

 

After Mass, we caught up with Tony’s cousin Ann and her husband Ralph for a river cruise on the Thames Clippers Riverboat.  While the weather here is more unpredictable than even Chattanooga weather, we were fortunate that we had a pleasant and sunny ride on the river.  After the wonderful ride on the river, we had lunch on the river at Frankie & Benny’s.  This place is an “American-style New York Italian Restaurant Chain in the U.K.”  Frankie & Benny’s serves what people in the U.K. believe is American food, but they serve is U.K. style.  It is really no different than how American restaurants serve U.S. versions of Italian food, French food, Indian food, etc.  We had everything from spaghetti to fish & chips to salmon cakes to hamburgers.  All good!

After lunch, we visited the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College.  The Painted Hall is often described as the “finest dining hall in Europe.”  Designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1698, it was originally intended as an eating space for the naval veterans, known as Greenwich Pensioners, who lived at the Royal Hospital for Seamen.  On completion, it was found to be “far too grand” for everyday use, and quickly became one of London’s first tourist attractions.  Respectable visitors were admitted for a fee and often hired Pensioners to give them guided tours.

 

From the Painted Hall, we moved to St. Paul’s Chapel the Old Royal Naval College.  Also designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the Chapel was the last major part of the Hospital for Seaman to be built.  The naval veterans who lived here (the Greenwich Pensioners) were required to worship in the Chapel on a daily basis.  It remains a place of worship and still hosts regular Sunday services.  The buildings that comprise the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich provided some of the scenery that was “supposed” to be France in the recent movie “Les Miserables.”

 

 

Our next adventure was the Royal Maritime Museum, but the highlight for us was the Royal Observatory.  The Royal Observatory Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time.  Before the introduction of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in 1972, Greenwich Mean Time was the global time standard and was a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields.  The Royal Observatory is also home to the Prime Meridian of the World – where the longitude is defined to be 0°.  The Observatory is also home London’s only planetarium, the Harrison timekeepers and the UK’s largest refracting telescope.

 

 

After hiking up the steep hill to the Royal Observatory and then managing to get back down, we caught a monorail back to our Tube stop with Ann and Ralph.  It’s funny, but Tony has not seen Ann in three decades, and I have just met Ann and Ralph on this trip, but I feel as though I have known them forever.  We have enjoyed our time with them so much, and we sincerely hated having to part ways. 

 

As we headed back to the Kings Cross part of London to return to our hotel, we thought about what we have noticed about this wonderful city so far.  One thing that is funny is that it is relatively easy to spot tourists.  Remember, in the UK, people drive on the left side of the road.  Many in the group have struggled to look the right way before crossing the street.  At many crosswalks, you can look down, and there will be painted directives on the street these little directives that remind pedestrians “LOOK RIGHT” or “LOOK LEFT.”  Nevertheless, when we are tired or hurried, it is easy to give into habit and look as we might in the States.  Tony almost got run over last night when we looked the wrong way before crossing the street. 

That said, however, we are often blessed because people here are just so nice, polite and friendly.  I have heard for so long about what a large and cosmopolitan city London is, so, candidly, I did not expect people to be too friendly.  I have been stunned at just how nice and helpful everyone here is.  Tony and I can be standing on the sidewalk, wondering aloud about something, and complete strangers will repeatedly stop and offer help.  I have never seen anything like it.  When we have accidentally walked out in front of traffic, drivers will always stop and wave us through.  It’s just wonderful. 

Londoners do not just drive on the left, but they generally walk on the left, too.  You can spot tourists, though, because we tend to walk on the right.  It gets very confusing sometimes when we are in Tube stations because some Tube stations are set up so that everyone can move to the left (including escalators), but then others are set up so that  people can move to the right.  I sometimes just don’t know what to expect.

The weather here changes more than Chattanooga weather.  We might go in someplace when it is warm and sunny, and then come out an hour later, and it is cold and rainy.  We can then go in some other place with it still cold and rainy, and come out and it is still misty but warm.  It seems like it is wacky like this every day.

Something else I really love about London is the mix of people.  I have never been in a city where the mix of languages and cultures seemed so diverse.  I know we think America is a melting point, but London truly feels like a melting pot of ethnic groups.  I just adore the mix of cultures here.

Tony and I capped off the evening with a later dinner at a nearby pub.  We ran into Adrianna Eder, Sylvia Zdunek (who has been studying in Finland this semester), Brittain Ayres, Kenly Ayres, Betsy Chapman, Rachel Brosius, and Alex Roorda.  They plan to visit Windsor tomorrow, but I am not sure what Tony and I plan to do yet, although I know our whole group has tickets to see “King Lear” tomorrow night.

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this!

Joanie (and Tony)