Unfortunately, our Internet connection in London was acting up, so I couldn't post anything new for a while, but it was a great weekend. Here's what we did:
Sunday: We started the morning off with a nice Cadburry Egg breakfast. We knew many places would be closed for Easter, but the Tate Museum of Modern Art was going to be open, so we made plans to go there. We walked along the south side of the Thames to get there and then spent several hours exploring the free exhibits. The central exhibit (located in the expansive central open area) consisted of a variety of clear plastic slides taht started from various different stories of the building and spiraled down to the first floor. You can see the photo of two of the five slides. The slides off of the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors were the most popular and you had to get a ticket in advance for a time slot to use them. We never got around to this, but we did try the second story slide. We lucked out - it was the last day of that particular exhibit.
We crossed the Millenium Bridge (pedestrian only, and quite cool looking) to get back to the North side of the river, and went by St. Paul's cathedral. We had been by St. Paul's earlier in the weekend, but this time we had our camera and were able to get a picture. By this time, things were really closing up, so we went home and ordered dinner in.
Monday: We decided to hit a few of the larger tourist sites we had so far missed. First, we went to (and this time actually went in) Westminster Abbey. One of the major draws of the Abby (other than its beautiful architecture, of course, are all of the famous tombs it houses. Many past kings and queens are burried there, as well as other people of note (Handel, Laurence Olivier, Chaucer, Isaac Newton, the guy who invented Penicillin, etc.) The church was packed with plaques, tombs and statues on the floors, in the walls, in the chapels, everywhere. It makes one pause to wonder where the future monarchs think they're going to squeeze in...
Another item of interest in the church is the coronation throne. I can't remember who had the throne built, but all monarchs since have sat on the throne (with the Stone of Scone from Scotland set inside it) for thier coronation. We overheard a tour guide talking about the coronation of Elizabeth II. Apparently the Abbey is only big enough to seat 2,000 people maximum, but there were, of course, far more people (and people of import, for that matter) that wanted to be in attendance, so the Abby shut down for some months (4? 6?) before the coronation in order to build seating for 8,000. The seating apparently reached as high as the stained glass rose window (which you can see if you look for the photo of the North Entrance about half-way down the wikipedia page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_abbey
After Westminster Abbey, we walked over to Buckingham palace. There wasn't much to see here. The changing of the guards appaerently only happens on even days, so we missed that. The guards on duty were up against the main building, which was a good distance away from the front gate. We watched one guard be relieved, but it wasn't terribly exciting. The flag was up, though, so the queen must have been in there somewhere.
Next we walked to Hyde park and strolled around a bit. We walked to the speaker's corner and listened to three different speeches being given. Apparently anyone who wants to speak is free to do so, and others come specifically to listen and debate with the speakers. It was interesting to listen in. The speakers were quite passionate, though some were considerably more focused than others.
We ended the weekend by going to Spam-a-Lot, the theatrical version of Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was a fun show. Much of the material was pulled directly from The Holy Grail, but there was a healthy dose of new material and pieces from other Monty Python sketches mixed in as well.
We caught the midnight train back to Reading and Russell was off to work the next morning, bright and early. I was luckier, I got to spend the day resting after the long weekend. :) It was great. Today, I decided to be adventurous again, though, and I ventured to the OTHER side fo the train tracks *gasp.* I walked through two parks, one was a groomed family park with swans, ducklings and a playground along the Thames, while the other was on a hill with a beautiful view of the city and a nice uphill hike into the trees.
1 comment:
What a cool weekend!
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