Western Europe continued
London, England, Sep 13 - 17, by Aaron
We might have laid around in Brighton for a week, but we DID London. We got there on September 13 and left on Monday morning, the 17th, and inbetween, we did as much as was humanly possible. We dropped our bags off at Lisa and John's apartment in East Dulwhich, prounounced East Dulige, don't ask me why, and then fired our way back into London. But first, we stopped at a little diner in East Dulwhich and had shepherd's pie! Oh boy! We wandered around London, got lost, then found the old London Bridge, which is not the big ornate bridge you are thinking about. The London bridge looks just like a bridge, but the Tower bridge, that's in all pictures. One of the London Bridges was sold and is in Arizona, on Lake Havasu there. There's a cool movie where Jack the Ripper is pulled through time from London to modern day Arizona where he continues his grisly work. Well, I haven't seen it, and if you want a cool Jack the Ripper time travel movie, see Time After Time. Anyway, we walked over the Tower Bridge, around the Tower of London, and then back down to where the remodeled Globe theatre was. Yeah, you guessed, Shakespeare's Globe! We were just going to walk around, but then we saw we could go to a play there, so we bought tickets to King Lear for the next day. Then we wandered over to the Tate Modern Art Museum. It was free! There were tons of kids hanging out, and we wandered around the rooms, looking at whacked out shit. You can quote me on that. The Tate was ultra cool and it was one of the best things we did in London. And it's free! We were booted out as it closed, and we made our way to where our walking tour was starting. We didn't have time for pub food, darn, so we bought a sandwich, crisps (chips for all you Yanks out there), and a soda, and ate on parkbench at a busy street in the rain. It was so romantic. We then caught our Jack the Ripper walking tour, and were lead around where Saucy Jack did his thing over a hundred years ago. Our guide was a pretty, Irish woman, and we thought she was on her way to a hot date because she walked and talked really, really fast. We wandered around the streets, and while a lot of London was destroyed in the bombings during WW2, we did get to see some actual places where Jack murdered, even some of the original stones where the bodies were found. The tour ended the Ten Bells, part bar, part brothel, and we sipped Evian and watched a working girl chat up a John of her own. We got back late and found Lisa and John waiting up for us. We talked late into the night and then we headed off to bed.
We were going to wake up early and go to the Tower of London before a special service at St. Paul's Cathedral in reverence to the world trade center attacks, but we didn't make it. We ate scones in the courtyard of a church and then went straight to St. Paul's. The service started at noon, and we got in line at ten. The streets were packed with Americans, Brits, and people from all over in mourning over what had happened. We waited in line and at one point, a policeman told us that wouldn't get in. There is like two thousand seats in St. Paul's and there were thirty thousand of us in line. We still walked forward, were checked by security, and got up to the front barricades. At eleven, all of Europe had coordinated three minutes of silence for what had happened across the Atlantic. At eleven, the crowds hushed, the traffic stopped and all we stood there, remembering what had happened, and praying for peace in this troubled world. We heard later that traffic had even stopped in Rome, as people stopped their lives, stopped talking, and sat in silence. Three minutes later, some with tears in their eyes, we all continued to wait.
Now, we were near the barricades, to the side, and the guards were letting in people from the middle. I didn't want to push and shove, so we just got to the front of the barricades, and that was all right by me. They were going to broadcast the service outside, and better yet, the Queen, Queen Elizabeth II was going to walk out and shake hands with the people at the front of the barricade. Oh, how cool is that? Shaking hands with the Queen of England! But alas, a kind guard opened up our side of the barricade and we walked into St. Paul's, and were escorted to a side chapel. We couldn't see anything, but at least we were in the church. I must say, I was a little disappointed because I wouldn't be shaking hands with royalty. At some point, people were then lead out of our chapel, and we watched them go, but Laura, I, and another woman (the last ones left) weren't sure what we should do. I then saw Tony Blair walk past us. He had been so eloquent during the first minutes after the attacks, and actually, he had been down the street from Sarah and John's house in Brighton, giving a speech to the trade unions. Now he was just a few feet from me, walking into the church. I poked Laura and said, "Hey, isn't that Tony Blair?" She nodded and poked the woman next to her, and then took pictures. We were told not to take pictures. Yeah, we were being too American at that point. Just as we resigned ourselves that we would be staying off to the side, not being able to see a thing except the backs of people's heads, an usher came and lead us down the main side row. We got closer and closer to the front and soon all of the colors of attendee's clothing became a distinct navy blue. We were lead right up to the front, row eight from the front & twelve seats from the main aisle, and sat down in the middle of MP's, American Foreign Staff, military, and important people. Tony Blair sat in front of us, just a little down the way. We watched as the Queen, Prince Charles, and the rest of the royalty was escorted in, and then the Archbishop of Canterbury. Laura puts it best, on the one hand we had to be solemn because of why we were there, the attacks and the bloodshed, but on the other hand, we were surrounded by Britain's elite! Good heavens! We started off the service by singing the American National Anthem and then different people read from the bible, we sang more songs, and then the Archbishop spoke, and he spoke really well. He talked about how we needed to find the people who had done these terrible things, and there should be justice, but that Christianity, like Islam, like Hinduism, like Buddhism, like Judaism, called us to higher things than revenge. It called us to live together, one people, different beliefs. I was very impressed. We then sang the Battle Hymn of the Old Republic, and some of hope waned, but the sermon was still very good. Finally, we sang "God Save the Queen", and I'm not talking about the Sex Pistols version. God Save the Queen, and then we walked out, Laura and I, with our backpacks and in our North Face coats, surrounded by men in navy blue suits and women in black. We stood out a little, I must say.
We then hoofed it on over to the refurbished Globe Theatre, that actually was the dream of an American. It was built in 1995, because an American thought that it would be great to have the Globe back and running. Laura and I bought apples to eat inside, along with sandwiches we had made the night before. Did I mention London was THE most expensive place we visited on the trip? We were high up, on the sides, and we looked down on the groundlings and the stage, and it was amazing. King Lear was wonderful. I had never read or seen the play (or listened to the play, as Shakespeare's audience would have said), and it was moving, funny and dynamic. The actors really used the stage. At one point, the bastard villain, during a lively speech, walked over and plucked a groundling's Diet Pepsi off of the stage and took a swig of it, right when he was talking about drinking from the goodness of life. Very cool. Laura snuck pictures and we walked around during intermission and had a great time. Another thing that is a must to do in London. Lear, at one point, he is disoriented, near the end of the show, and he looks up and says, "Am I in France?" Laura and I cracked up at that and used that line for the rest of the trip. After the play, we had some time, so we wandered around the city, and then went back to East Dulwhich. Lisa and John met us there and we went to Thai food and had a great time, laughing and talking.
The whirlwind trip continued the next day. Saturday we started out with the London Tower and did the tour with the Beefeaters, and then saw the Crown Jewels. We really saw the whole complex, and as a result, didn't have time too much else. We saw the Parliament Building, which you can tour, and that is something I would want to do on the next trip, and we saw Big Ben and took pictures. Of course. The real bummer was that Westminster Abby was closed in the afternoon, so we didn't go in. Buckingham Palace would have taken too long, so we just saw the outside of it. We made our way, though, to where Patsy and Edwina love to go, yes, Harrod's. I found a Guess Watch I loved, and I seriously thought about buying it. Laura was blown away. All of my life, I said I would never buy a good watch because I lose them and they are too much money, but here I was, looking at this Guess Watch at Harrod's for three hundred dollars. I didn't buy it, but I should have. The watch would haunt me for the rest of the trip. We walked through the boutiques, I found a nice stoll for Laura that was only four thousand dollars, but we thought it might clash with her ensemble. We were meeting Lisa and John for a pre-show dinner, so we didn't have much time. We left Harrod's and moved on to Harvey Nichol's, pronounced Harvey Nix, darling. Fabulous, darling, absolutely fabulous. We were hungry by then, and from Wallace and Gromit, we heard about Wendsleydale Cheese, so we bought some at the very expensive Harvey Nich's grocery store on the top floor. It wasn't very good, but we ate it on the tube and met John and Lisa, had pub food, sausages and mash, and then walked down to the theatres.
Sarah and Lisa had organized tickets for us all to see Les Miserable, my favorite musical. It turned out to be a gift from them, they are just too sweet. We sat down and watched the musical, and I must say, I kept it down to only a half a box of Kleenex, and not my usual full box. We then had an equally tearful farewell to Sarah and her John, and then went back to East Dulwhich, the long way, but we made it home. Sunday we slept in, ate breakfast with Lisa and John, and then did another walking tour, this time with the London that Charles Dickens and Shakespeare would have known. Elizabethan and Victorian England came together that afternoon as we walked the streets these two literary geniuses had walked. Along with the bombings of the 1940's, we also saw how the great fire of 1666 had altered the city. Our guide pointed out some pieces of cracked stone that had been the result of more modern attacks, as the result of Britain's own terrorists. In light of the events of September 11, it was sobering. We got back home and had a final dinner with Lisa and John, and I got to watch a special BBC documentary on Star Trek, in preparation for the upcoming movie. We chatted for awhile, and then went to sleep. Lisa and John insisted on staying up and making us sandwiches for our travel day the next day. They wouldn't take no for an answer. Lisa, Sarah, and their Johns, truly made our stay in Britain memorable, and I would want to treat my guests the same way they treated us.
Aaron waiting for the train at East Dulwhich station
Laura and the Tower Bridge. Notice all the flags are at half mast
The line behind us early in the day to get into St. Paul's for the memorial service for Sep 11.
Contraband picture from inside St. Paul's
Aaron in front of the Globe theatre
Inside the Globe, the actors are taking bows at the end of the play.
Delightful Thai dinner with Lisa & John. We hadn't had Thai in a long time.
Beefeaters at the Tower of London
Me, Sarah & Lisa with their John's in front of the theater. We had a wonderful time!
