England and London in Two Days – Part II

16 Mar 2009

After our morning at Windsor, Erin and I returned by bus to London and had a bit of time before her friend, Christine, would be arriving at the Top Floor Flat. Instead of wait around at home, we decided to do a walking tour of some of the major cultural locations and buildings of West London and so started at the Kensington Palace in Hyde Park. Although not nearly as impressive as Windsor when it comes to classic Castle architecture, it has its own Royal significance, most notably as the home of Princess Diana. A quick walk though the grounds revealed that this would have been a much more manageable castle for everyday life if, you know, we were on the market for a castle at any point.

We then walked through the west end of Hyde Park, stopping at the Round Pool and the Royal Albert Memorial before crossing over to the Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately the Hall was closed in preparation for an event later that night so Erin didn’t have a chance to see the inside, but the outside is certainly impressive enough! From there, we trekked down Exhibition Road to see the stunning Victoria and Albert and Natural History Museums, some of the most impressive buildings, in my opinion, in west London.

By that point it was just about time to meet Christine at the station so we walked back to the flat to have a quick snack, some water, drop off Christine’s things and make a plan for the afternoon before launching back into London beginning with a bus ride all the way through west London from Hyde Park to Piccadilly Circus. It was a chance to see quite a bit of the city without exhausting ourselves walking and we arrived in Piccadilly late afternoon to see the beginnings of the afterwork commute home. Piccadilly Circus is always busy – it brings to mind Time Square in New York with it’s LCD screens and tall(ish) buildings and is right near the heart of West End London Theatre scene so most of the hustle and bustle was related to the evening shows. We quickly made our way south towards the Mall, an impressive road that leads directly to Buckingham Palace. We bypassed the Palace, however (it was on our to-do list for the next day) and instead walked down the Mall to Trafalgar Square.

From the Square, which sits in front of the impressive National Gallery, Erin and Christine caught their first glimpses of Big Ben, houses of Parliament and the London Eye. We took a few minutes to stop into the National Portrait Gallery and admire some of the more famous pieces in the stunning collection – Monet, Picasso, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh and Klimt were all on display and in a relatively short period of time, we managed to see most of the heaviest hitters of the impressionist era.

After Trafalgar Square, we headed to Covent Garden, one of London’s most famous and popular tourist areas. The space is dominated by the glass covered market in which numerous stalls are filled with London and UK brick-a-brack from flags to photographs alongside posh pubs and little cafes. There is also a great deal of entertainment that takes place on the cobblestone plaza making the area fantastic eye candy.

We didn’t linger too long in Covent Garden after browsing through the market stalls and decided that it was time for a pre-dinner pint at the Lamb and Flag, a famous pub in the area that was already crowded with Friday post-work revelers. Although in the 17th century this same pub was known as the Bucket of Blood because of all the fights that took place, now it is a much calmer, throughly enjoyable and historic pub.

Our walk back to the bus stop took us through Leicester Square, home to a number of famous movie theatres and the location of just about every London film primier (once last summer, not paying attention to the date, I accidentally had my way blocked by a Batmobile on the opening night of Batman). It’s another busy hub of London activity and sits right between Piccadilly Circus and Covent Gardent making it a busy thoroughfare even without the hundreds of people there for the film, theatre or food entertainment it offers.

Before catching the bus back to west London and dinner, we took a peek in Lilywhites, home of possibly every sports jersey that could possibly be for sale in Europe. By that point, however, we were absolutely starving so made our way by bus over to Notting Hill for dinner at the Churchill Arms, a pub that I’ve written about before as a fantastic place for cheap, filling and incredibly tasty Thai food. We had a great dinner and were exhausted so made our way back to the Top Floor Flat for a long rest and prep for the next day of London exploration.

Take a look at the places we visited on Friday! Click for a Google map with pinpoints marking all the places we visited.

England and London in Two Days – Part I

15 Mar 2009

So my cousin Erin and her friend Christine came this weekend to visit and do some London sightseeing and because they were only here for a short time (Erin had all of Friday and Saturday, Christine had Friday afternoon and Saturday) I had to think about what would be the best way to make the most of their short time in England. We actually managed to pack an insane amount into less than 48 hours – so much that I’ll have to split this into a few posts; one for Friday morning when Erin and I went to Windsor Castle, one for Friday afternoon when Christine joined us and we covered Covent Garden, Soho and Notting Hill, and at least one for Saturday when we covered… well, everything.

Erin had arrived Thursday evening and we had a low-key, homemade dinner at the Top Floor Flat (knowing we’d be spending quite a bit over the next few days) and had an early night. On Friday morning, I took her to change her money and pick up the bus to Windsor, home of Eton College, Windsor Castle and Legoland London. Of course, our destination was the Castle, something I was quite excited to see as I hadn’t been yet since moving to London in June. The bus ride took less than an hour and Erin got to see at least a tiny taste of what England outside London might look like.

Windsor Castle is an incredibly impressive sight and immediately obvious as you get close to the town. It is the official residence of the Queen and royal family and is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. Although we didn’t see the Queen, we certainly got a taste of what life in a castle would be like – confusing! Without our guide map and well marked routes through the grounds and buildings we would have easily gotten lost. We had a walk around the grounds, complete with towers and moats, and visited the beautiful church within the Castle walls, the St. George Chapel which is the burial place of 10 previous rulers. Nearby were some of the royal guard, fuzzy hats and all, on an open parade ground.

The highlight of the Castle was, of course, the interior state rooms that were on show to the public. Much of the Castle is inaccessible to visitors but one area is devoted to showing life as it might have been for the residents of the castle. The first interior space we visited was devoted entirely to the famous Queen Mary Dolls’ House, a 1920’s to-scale doll house that contains such detailed design, decorations and furnishings that it is used as an accurate representation of how nobility lived at the time. Everything from the books on the shelves (filled with miniature writing and real original short stories) to the wine in the cellars (filled with the correct wines to match the bottles’ labels) is an exact replica to the scale of 1:12 of everyday Royal life.

Beyond the miniature, however, were the actual state rooms of the Castle. Although we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, you can imagine the sumptuous furnishings (fit for a king!) that decorated the rooms. The walls were covered in rich fabrics and ornate paintings, the furniture was exquisitely detailed, the decorative items covered in gold and jewels. The main rooms on display were those of the King’s private life – bed and dressing rooms as well as study and private meeting and entertainment rooms, as well as those of the Queen. It certainly illustrated the opulence of Royal life throughout the ages.

It was a relatively quick tour through all of Windsor which left us a little time for a walk through the town before catching the bus back to London. Windsor has a number of cute shopping streets and many cafes and restaurants along the Thames which runs past the town. Then it was time for a quick sandwich before hopping back on board the bus after a very fun morning and the promise of a busy afternoon.

Super Social

11 Mar 2009

Had a lovely evening catching up with Ann (my co-resident in the Top Floor Flat for those who have forgotten this blog’s characters over the last three months) and gossiping about our various jobs, extra-curricular activities and social networking grumbles. As we hadn’t had a proper sit-down since I returned it was great to just relax and chat.

In fact I’ll be doing an unusually large amount of socialising over the next few days as my cousin Erin will be arriving in London tomorrow evening and her friend Christine the day after that. I’m so incredibly excited to see Erin – I’m leaving right after work to meet her at the airport and can’t wait to show her all around London. I’ve already got our walking route planned out and hope to include a map and pictures in an update on the weekend. I think we’ll also try to visit Windsor Castle as well, something that will be exciting for me as I haven’t been yet.

Between showing off London, hanging out with my cousin and her friend, catching up with Ann and a coffee date with my new friend Em, this weekend of socialising might just force me to get out and meet more people in this city! Can’t just have museums and famous landmarks for company, can I?

Book Hunting

9 Mar 2009

After my eventful Saturday at the Science Museum, Sunday turned out to be fairly low key – I went to morning mass at the Catholic church I had discovered on my neighbourhood walk the day before and spent the afternoon reading next to my window while a fantastic thunder and lightening storm took place outside. I also put up some posters so the hills of San Francisco have joined me in my room.

My next task, I’ve decided, in my exploration of my local area, is to discover a ridiculously inexpensive used-bookstore. Now before you all start yelling “library” at me, I am a member of my local library and am incredibly disappointed with their collection. Now, I’m sure there is a bigger library in my network somewhere around, and I suppose it would be worth trying to figure out if there are any Hammersmith and Fulham libraries with more than the complete collection of Stephen King and six shelves of romance novels but I miss having my own collection available whenever I need a good read. Therefore I’m going to build it up book by book – for as little cash as possible. I know Alan Venning has had great success with a used bookshop near their east London home, I’ve got to be able to scrounge up something near me. Worst case scenario, I’ll troll the stalls at Portabello Road and Camden markets and see what turns up.

I’m looking forward to a bit of book hunting.

First Weekend [back] in London!

7 Mar 2009

I am just a few hours away from the one week marker for my return to the UK.  Aside from a string of particularly sleepy evenings, the jet lag really hasn’t affected me too badly and I’m starting to feel like I’m back in the swing of things, and certainly not like I’ve been away for ten weeks!

In order to further facilitate my acquaintance with the city of London, however, I decided to take advantage of the uncharacteristically good weather and walk the 3 miles or so to Exhibition Road in South Kensington.  This area is home to some of London’s, in fact the world’s, most impressive museums including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It was warm enough that I was perfectly comfortable in a long-sleeved tee-shirt and vest but when I got there I realised I hadn’t really decided which museum I wanted to explore today.  Finally, after weighing my options (the V&A has my favourite exhibits, the Natural History is my favourite building and I hadn’t been in the Science before) I decided to try something new and check out the Science Museum which is currently hosting a number of temporary exhibitions I’d heard good things about.

I had forgotten how crowded the area could get on a Saturday and while it was nothing compared to how overrun the place will be in the summer months, I definitely had to do my fair share of child-dodging.  Fortunately, the exhibitions that most interested me didn’t seem to be the main destination for the family groups so I quickly found myself in some of the more deserted parts of the museum.  I first made my way to the Future Foods exhibit which described highlights of the debate regarding genetically modified (GM) food.  Nothing particularly new or noteworthy but there was a virtual interactive bit where I got to pick and choose genes with which to genetically modify a tomato, including one from a blueberry to turn my tomato blue.

Next, I headed upstairs to the special exhibit Dan Dare and the Birth of High Tech Britain.  Dan Dare was a newspaper comic character born at the end of the second world war that flew around the planets in his spaceship, making use of such modern marvels as penicillin, nuclear energy, and lead-lined refrigerators.  The Dan Dare part of the exhibition was really a frame for a look at the technologies that Britain developed immediately following WWII but overall I thought it was a really fun and informative set up.

Finally, I made my way to the top floors of the museum to explore the permenate exhibits on loan from the Wellcome Collection, a museum a few miles away inspired by pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector, Sir Henry Wellcome, that reflects his vision to create a space where people could come to learn more about the development of medicine.  At the Science Museum, the entire history of medicine is laid out in chronological order with implements, artistic renderings and information about each period.  The whole thing was absolutely filled with fun and interesting facts.  Think of your barber.  Have a good picture in mind? Now imagine them doing any of your necessary surgical procedures as well.  Until the 18th century, physicians were much more highly regarded than surgeons, who often were only minimally trained and doubled as barbers.

In addition to the history of medicine, the Wellcome Collection donations also included several miniature and life-size replicas of various medicine-related scenes (some more gruesome than others).  From an ancient citizen suffering eye surgery while tied to a chair to ease the surgeon’s job, to the poor conditions of amputation in the WWI trenches to modern day open heart surgery, it was a very impressive setup.

After my afternoon at the museum, I made my way back to my neighbourhood of Olympia and for the first time, spent some time exploring the streets around my own.  Imagine my shock when I discovered, not two blocks away, a local park (complete with public tennis courts), a giant supermarket, half a dozen cute restaurants and pubs, a Catholic church and a girl’s school as well as countless other shops and cafes! I’m definitely going to need to spend more time exploring the area around the Top Floor Flat in the coming weeks but in the meantime, I think the jetlag is starting to kick back in, so unless I get a second wind and head out for a screening of Watchmen at the nearby movie theatre, tonight is going to be another low key, London night.