Hey, guess where I’ve been! On my long awaited vacation and whirlwind tour of London. It was a wonderful trip, and I’m very glad we went. I got to see just about everything on my “must-do” list: Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, the Tower of London, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Cleopatra’s Needle, Tower Bridge, the Millennium Footbridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Harrods and more. We drove under the green light that signifies the Meridian Line in Greenwich, took the Tube, trains, light rail and double-decker buses all over the city – I have never been so impressed by a public transportation system as I was by London’s – saw the guards doing something at Buckingham Palace, ate lunch in Green Park by the Palace, checked out Hyde Park and met ducks and a goose (yes, a real life case of duck, duck, goose) at the Serpentine and hung out in Wimbledon. We had a truly delicious Indian meal, proving that the best Indian food in the world is in London is true, as so many of my friends have told me. We encountered masses of soccer fans singing and chanting and cramming the Tube on their way to a match. I don’t know which team they supported, but I do know that they quite firmly believe that Chelsea is shit.
I absolutely loved the whole trip, but my favorites were the British Museum and the Tower of London. I know the Tower is supposed to be a huge tourist trap, but seeing so many years of history packed in to one place was just really, really cool. I don’t even care about the crown jewels. Frankly, I thought that was the lamest part of the tour. The best part was at the very beginning when John and I had parts of the place to ourselves as we went through the medieval portion of the Tower complex. Second best was probably the White Tower itself. My advice to anyone going to the Tower of London is go early, get in line before they even open, and make sure you set aside 2 ½ to 3 hours so you can see everything. Oh, and if you have a stroller to haul around, you won’t be able to see at least half of the place. Possibly more. Be prepared for lots and lots of twisty, steep, narrow staircases.
The British Museum has one of the best collections of pretty much everything historical that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to some good museums in my day. The Egyptian statuary and the Elgin marbles alone were worth the time we spent there, although I dragged my poor husband through just about every exhibit they had in the place. We skipped the Hopper to Pollack one because we’d just been to the Tate Modern, and I think we missed part of the Africa section as well. Ok, and even I can hit a wall on caring about Greek vases. There are only so many red figure and black figure vases you can look at before your attention wanders. The National Gallery was no slouch either, but so packed with people that it was actually frustrating. You could not see the Van Goghs at all because there were so many people piled up in front of them. After a while we fled the Impressionists for the relative quiet of 16th century Italian painting.
But it wasn’t all touristy stuff. We hung out with family too, and I got to see what it is like to be part of a very large group of interconnected people. It was fascinating and delightful and moving all at the same time. John’s oldest cousin has to be in her 40’s, and the youngest cousin (our niece) is less than a year old. You could see the resemblances running through all of them. It was lovely to attend a 50th wedding anniversary party, and see the life the two of them have built with each other through many twists and turns and ups and downs, for longer than I’ve even been alive. To meet people who knew the bride and groom in college and daydream a little bit about having an anniversary party with my friends and family in 2052. Or perhaps we’ll go for one in 2027. Anyway, we had a wonderful, romantic, fun-filled trip, and at the same time I’m very glad to be home.
The ultimate tourist shot -- me and a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London:
w00t!