Day Fifteen, Last Day

Today is our final day in London. We started off the day at the Tate Modern Museum. It was nice to see that there are helpful orange lampposts that lead from the Underground station all the way to the museum. Ben said every attraction should have orange lampposts leading to it . . . which I guess would work until the entire city was blanketed with orange lampposts!

There were lots of interesting things to look at, including many works by artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Pollock and Warhol. Ben was especially a fan of the display of four new vacuum cleaners, which were shown to demonstrate "newness." I'm sure it wasn't what he was expecting when he headed out to an "art museum" this morning!

After that, we went back to Covent Garden to eat at Ben's favorite pizza restaurant. He was especially interested in watching the street performers. There were unicyclists, machete jugglers and some guy doing dice stacking that I never really understood. We had also intended to visit the Transport Museum, but I was shocked and horrified to see the £10 entrance fee. I had totally gotten used to London's "free" museums (they do ask for optional donations), and on our last day, I was in no mood to part with my dwindling pounds for something I had expected to be free. Oh well, plenty more to see . . .

Next, we headed toward Piccadilly Circus. On the way, we stopped in for a quick look in the Trocadero. I wasn't exactly sure what it would be, but it turned out to be an indoor shopping center with video games, sports bars, bowling alleys and other assorted entertainment options. We stopped for a quick look around the always busy Piccadilly Circus before heading back to the hotel to pack.

Naturally, when we got back to the hotel, we discovered that the scaffolding which had been obstructing our view since we'd been here had been removed . . . at least we have a clear view down the street for our last few hours!

Early tomorrow we have to lug our suitcases down the street to Victoria Coach Station (it seemed like a good idea at the time) to catch the bus to the airport. We will be leaving London with lots of great memories and a desire to come back as soon as possible!

Day Fourteen, Belfast and Witches

Today we headed out first thing to visit the HMS Belfast. The Belfast is a huge ship which was launched in 1938, shortly before World War II. It participated in the D-Day landings, and later saw action during the Korean War. The ship ceased to be used for naval activities in 1963, and it was destined to become scrap, but thankfully it was eventually preserved. It is on permanent display as a museum right in front of London City Hall.

The ship has many floors, and so there's a lot of climbing backwards up and down narrow stairwells. We toured the boiler room, the sailor's living quarters and areas were the guns were loaded. It was fascinating to see the "floating city," which contained things you would expect to find (mess halls, bunks, a laundry) and things you wouldn't (a surgery, a radio/broadcast area, a chapel and a "light industry" area). Since the ship was expected to be out at sea for months at a time, the sailors had to be prepared for every possible situation, and to take care of any problem which might arise.

While we were walking toward the ship, we heard a strange noise coming from Tower Bridge. Then we happened to notice that the drawbridge was going up and a tall ship was heading toward it:

After the Belfast and a quick lunch, we headed off to see Wicked. I had seen it a few years ago, and I thought Ben would also like it. I had read in a newspaper that Kerry Ellis, who played the "wicked" witch Elphaba, had just finished playing the role last week. The new Elphie, Alexia Khadime, is really excellent also. As Ben said, "The green girl can really sing!" It tells the story of what happened before the events in "The Wizard of Oz" and how the Wicked Witch of the West got to be that way. It was as colorful and impressive as I'd remembered.

Next, it was time to climb aboard a red double-decker bus to head out to Oxford Street. I wanted to see if the crowds in Primark were as violent and crazed as I had remembered. They were. Ben had a good seat at the front of the top level of the bus:

Tomorrow is our last day in London. We are planning a visit to the Tate Modern Gallery and a stroll around the Picadilly Circus area.

Day Thirteen, Ben Visits Bedlam

Today Ben visited a place that was once known as "bedlam" -- the former site of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in the 1800s which gave its name to the term "bedlam", meaning confusion. The former hospital is now used as the site of the Imperial War Museum. Ben was especially interested in the entrance hall, where there were tanks, planes, shells, jeeps, submarines, etc. Naturally, there were also 57,847 schoolchildren visiting the museum at the same time we were, so it was a bit crowded in places. Still, it was very interesting and fascinating. The Holocaust exhibit is really moving, and the Blitz Experience lets you feel what it was like to be in London during World War II when it was being bombed.


We didn't get to spend nearly as much time in the museum as we would have liked, because we had ticket to see The Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world. It is currently in its 57th year. We went to an afternoon performance, and the theatre was not very crowded. It was smaller than the other theatres we had visited recently. We were up high, but had a very good view of the stage and the action below. The story, written by Agatha Christie, concerns a couple who have just opened a small hotel. Their first guests arrive just as a blizzard cuts them off from the outside world. At the same time, news of a recent murder in nearby London reaches them. A policeman comes by to question everyone, as he believes the murderer is at the hotel -- and has more victims in mind. It was very good and quite interesting! We were sworn to secrecy at the end, so I can't tell you "whodunnit."

Our final event of the day concerned real, not fictional murders. We went on a Jack the Ripper Walk to visit the areas where the famous murders were committed. The guide, Philip Hutchinson, was knowledgeable as well as entertaining. Aside from having a lot of background information about the area and the times of the events, he also had laminated photos which showed how the area (and the victims!) looked at the time. Most of the sites are now completely unrecognizable from the contemporary sites shown in the photos, but our guide knew exactly where the events occurred. He also showed us a restaurant, whose doorway is the very site where Jack the Ripper dropped part of an apron he'd used to wipe his bloody hands and knife, below the famous "Juews" graffiti. The guide pointed out that the doorway was one of the few areas that it can be definitely stated that Jack the Ripper actually stood!

After that scary tour, we are off to the HMS Belfast and Wicked tomorrow.

Day Twelve, Dinos and Portraits and Keys, Oh My!

Today we started out at the Natural History Museum. Ben was excited to see the dinosaur exhibit.

We had planned several other activities for the day, but I was surprised to find that we ended up spending 5 hours in the Natural History Museum. After that, we planned to have lunch in the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church. Naturally, due to the long time spent in the museum, we happened to get there at a period when they weren't actually serving food. They did have some desserts on display, though, so we were able to refresh ourselves with lots of chocolate cake.

Next, since we were already in the area, we had a quick look through the Tudor Gallery area in the National Portrait Gallery. I wanted to find the portrait of the Duke of Monmouth that we had been told about on an earlier London Walk. He was executed in 1685, after attempting to overthrow the current king and claim the crown for himself. The story goes that after he was executed they realized no portrait existed of him, so his head was sewn back on his body and his portrait was painted, and this portrait hangs in the gallery today. Of course, looking for a specific painting in a huge building full of them was not an easy task. We never did see it. Could this have been what we were looking for?

Of course, no visit to London is complete without a visit to Harrods department store. Naturally, just about everything was out of my price range, but it was fun to look around, especially in the extensive food halls. There was counter after counter featuring all sorts of delicious looking chocolate. Luckily, after the chocolate cake overload at the Cafe in the Crypt, it was fairly easy to resist more sweets. We did have a late lunch at a pizza restaurant in the store, though, that was very good.

Our last activity of the evening was to attend the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This ceremony has taken place every evening for 759 years. Approximately 140 people still live inside the Tower of London, but every evening the outer gates of the tower must be locked. There is a group of soldiers that accompanies the Chief Yeoman Warder as he goes around locking various gates. I did take a video, but as it was dark by the time the ceremony took place, there's not much to see!

It's good we did the Tower Bridge Experience a few days ago, because today an elevator accident in the tower and injured 6 people. It will be closed until the elevators can be repaired and checked for further problems.

Tomorrow it's off to the Imperial War Museum, the Mousetrap, and a Jack the Ripper Walk!

Day Eleven, Kew Gardens

Today we went on a special London Walk to Kew Gardens, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. Over the years, Kew Gardens has served many purposes, including growing plants for their beauty, for botanical study, for conservation and for preservation. Today, the gardens have seeds and plants from all native UK species, as well as many plants from all over the world. It serves an important purpose in conserving plants which are threatened in various parts of the world. The gardens cover a huge area and there are many buildings to explore, including one which recreates a tropical rain forest, one which houses a display of water lilies, and one which demonstrates the evolution of plant life throughout history. There was also a "Tree Top Walk" built to allow visitors to view an area of the gardens from the tops of some of the taller trees (warning for motion sickness in the shaky video!!):

Later, after our visit to the Hard Rock Cafe in Cardiff yesterday, Ben wanted to see what the London location had on offer (again with the overpriced food). He first of all got up close and personal with Mick Jagger. We then had a tour of the vault of rock and roll treasures. The guide assured us that the building used to be a bank, and that the vault did once serve as a bank vault. They helpfully allowed the visitors the opportunity to pose with various guitars to have photos made for the bargain basement price of only £10 (about $15). Of course, Ben couldn't resist the lure of the Gene Simmons ax guitar . . . There were TVs throughout the restaurant showing various music videos, but the sound was blaring so loud that anytime the waitress came to our table everyone had to shriek at the tops of our lungs to be heard.

Tomorrow we will visit the Natural History Museum and attend the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.

Day Ten, Wales

We caught a bus early this morning for the nearly 4 hour trip to Wales. We stopped once along the way, but most of the trip was looking out at English countryside and farmland (canola seems to be popular).

Once we reached Wales, we picked up a local guide and took a bus tour throughout the main sites of the city of Cardiff. I was surprised to learn that Cardiff has only been a city since 1905 and the capital of Wales since 1955. It was also interesting to learn that 25% of the Welsh people speak Welsh as their first language. It is an old Celtic language, totally unrelated to English. All of the street signs are written in both English and Welsh. We didn't have much time to explore the city, but we saw the castle, the large city park and the huge rugby stadium.

We had an hour free in the city, so we took the time to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Ben was excited to see Eric Clapton's guitar, the drum head from Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Ozzy Osbourne's jacket. We had some good, if overpriced, food, but it took the entire hour so we didn't have any further time to sight see in the city.

Next, we headed out to Caerphilly Castle. This castle was built in 1270, and is mostly in ruins today. There are several areas that have been reconstructed, mainly the wooden areas which had rotted over the years. The Great Hall has also been restored, and events are held there today. Our tour guide gave us an overview of the "castle within a castle" layout:

We had some free time to explore the castle. Ben helped out by trying to hold up the leaning tower. According to the guide, the degree to which it leans is greater than that of the tower in Pisa. That part of the castle is just a ruin, with the outside part of the tower still standing (if crookedly), but the inside part of the tower missing.

We also climbed up several narrow, winding stone staircases in order to get some photos over the various parts of the castle, the surrounding water, and the courtyard.






Tomorrow we are headed to Kew Gardens, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year!

Day Nine, the Mega Truck

On the way to the Lion King, Ben was impressed by this "Mega" (it says so on the door!) truck. It looked like a toy, but I assume it was a real, operational vehicle!

Ben enjoyed the Lion King a lot. I asked for a review and he said, "It was good." Really, he said that he enjoyed it a lot. Auntie, on the other hand, regretted not going to see Wicked again . . . so we are going to see it on Wednesday.

On Friday morning, we started out the rainy day looking for the entrance to the Hunterian Museum. It was supposed to be "easy" to find, near the Soane Musuem, which we spotted right away. However, it was raining, and the numbers were not visible on all the buildings. Eventually, we found our way there, but not before getting thoroughly soaked.

The museum is large and covers two floors of the Royal College of Surgeons Building. John Hunter was an 18th century surgeon who devoted a great deal of time to studying anatomy. He was also interested in collecting specimens of plants, animals and humans for research and study. His collection was enlarged over the years, but much of it was unfortunately destroyed by bombing during World War II. However, a great deal of it remains, and it shows the amazing dedication of Hunter and his unbelievable curiosity about the natural world.

There were jars upon jars of specimens, and there seemed to be no explanation for how they were arranged. There would be a shelf of skulls showing dental problems, followed by a shelf of lizards, followed by a shelf of excised skin showing smallpox lesions. It was generally fascinating and not really gruesome. There were also skeletons from a giant and a tiny girl which were preserved next to more "normal" sized skeletons. Modern and older medical instruments were also displayed and explained. Unfortunately, we did not have time to study everything thoroughly. It was a very interesting morning, and best of all, FREE!

We next headed to the Globe Theatre to see Romeo and Juliet. I had purchased tickets to stand in front of the stage, so that we could experience what it would be like to be "groundlings." Ben said he would have enjoyed it more if he could have sat down. Obviously, he didn't really understand the "grounding" concept . . . It was interesting to be so close to the actors. Also, they would occasionally leave the stage and walk through the audience. The nurse was funny and the blood looked very real!

I took some video inside the theatre before the show started. Unfortunately, the sound is a bit noisy, because we were surrounded by school kids:

Some musicians came out before the play started and performed a few songs. Here is a short snippet:

After the Globe, we headed to the BBC to see the filming of a new series called, "We Are Klang." It was set in the fictional town of Klangbury, and concerned three incompetent councilmen who are desperately trying to bring in tourists to keep their town from being absorbed by a more successful local town. This performance required a lot of audience participation. There was a "warm up" comedian who continually walked around the audience between breaks in the filming. The entire process lasted nearly 3 hours. It will be interesting to see what the final product looks like!

Tomorrow we are off to Wales!