15 November Friday
LONDON
We got up this morning at 7. We got out of the hostel just before 8, and Haley, the twins and I headed off on our adventure. Well first, as we were leaving, Monika grabbed her jacket off her bag and knocked her camera to the ground! Her lens broke. it was actually very, very scary....luckily the body of her camera is okay, just the lens fell apart a little bit. So the pictures from her were with one of Haley's lenses, and for some reason that combo left a black edge in the corners.
SO-
I had a list of 24 things to see, I knew we could see half of them if we tried really hard. First thing on the list: WESTMINSTER CHAPEL (not a part of the Westminster Abbey/parliament area). This is one of the most beautiful churches I've been in...and so different. The ceiling of the middle main nave was just these huuuuge black empty domes. They were kinda freaky honestly. The place was full of mosaics....the exterior was awesome. I really wanted to climb the tower but we didn't have time....next time, London.
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| our hostel-- 369. |
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| Westminster Chapel |
Next stop was Leicester Square (pronounced "lester"...) to check out discounted tickets for musicals on London's West End. They opened at 9 so that's when we got there. Les Mis was playing tonight, but they wouldn't know about tickets till after 10 they told us, so we walked down the block to Trafalgar Square. There's a big pike..some lions, some fountains, a blue chicken, the national gallery, and St. Martins-in-the-Field's Cathedral. We explored this area for a bit, and went into the cathedral. Somebody was practicing the organ while we were checking it out so that was really cool.
(MO)
Oh, sometime in here we grabbed breakfast at a local delicacy...the BK Lounge. AKA Burger King. Sausage egg and cheese sandwich for 2 pounds..! Some people in our group got a "real English breakfast" for like up to ten pounds I think? Eggs, bacon, sausage....that is a normal breakfast!! Haley, the twins and I didn't spend any extra penny on food this trip because we knew the food wouldn't be that special and we knew we needed the money for other things!
When we went back to Leicester Square to check on tickets, they didn't have ANY for Les Mis :( so we were able to get some for Wicked for tonight for 35 pounds. Kelsee, Rachel, Klint, Haley and I all got tickets. The twins got tickets to see Enders game at 9 hahahahah.
Next stop: Westminster!! We bought a public transportation pass this morning for the day (expensive..but necessary). It allowed us to go on the underground -aka the "tube"- and also the double-decker busses! So we stuck to the busses when we didn't have that far to go because it was cool to see the city as we drove through. The directions were easy to figure out, and we were able to just ask lots of people if we were not sure, because PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH IN THIS COUNTRY. Oh how I've missed it.
When we got to the Westminster area, we only had time to circle around all the buildings...the abbey, and the parliament building, and Big Ben. Haley and I got some delicious hazelnut hot chocolate outside Westminster Abbey. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL and somehow there are still colorful falling leaves here despite the freezing weather! Just look how beautiful.
(MO)
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| first sight of Big Benny |
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| parliament building |
(MO)
(MO)
We found this nice grass park area at the side of the parliament building...the sun was beautiful and warm. The leaves were golden and the grass was sooo green. Just before that I had found a perfect MAP of London on the ground! Just what we needed! So I became the map lady (I was before...but now I looked more official). The park went all the way up to the side of the river, and we could look over a wall right into the water. We could see the bridge and the London Eye, and seagulls were flying all around us!! There were leaves piled up next to the wall we were crunching through. We were all so happy and enjoying ourselves here...a great feeling.
(MO)
(MO)
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| back/side view of Westminster Abbey |
MANY PHOTOS OF BIG BEN...we got to hear him chime noon!
We crossed over the bridge away from Big Ben. We found a Subway where the twins got lunch. Haley and I were planning on holding out till an early dinner or something, so we didn't eat. We walked past the Eye (this ferris wheel if you didn't know). Someday I will ride on that. Next stop was heading over to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. They have a lot of free exhibits! It is HUGE and was pretty crowded, but we stayed in for an hour or so..they had two paintings by Salvador Dalí.
We crossed over Millennium Bridge which leads straight to St. Paul's Cathedral. These men (above) were playing the greatest music and we stood on the bridge and listened to them for a while and watched the cutest little maybe 3-year-old boy dance and dance to their music. It was adorable. Oh, while we were crossing the bridge a freaking pigeon flew into my face. Hahahahah kinda. It's wing brushed my face but still, yuuuuck!
We went to St. Paul's. We didn't want to pay to go in...but we were able to go in the front doors and see the inside. We found some information panels we could read about the history..although I don't remember much.
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| Satan birds |
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| this bridge was built somewhere else...and they took it down brick by brick and moved it here. |
ran into everybody on the steps!
We headed out in search of the next church...Temple Church. This one we didn't know much about, so I researched it when we came home. Dad had just put it on our list of things to see and we were close to it. Anyways it took us a while to find it.......in the mean time we walked along a great street and saw some beautiful buildings. We went past/into the front doors of one of the colleges there. We bought grocery store food for "dinner"...I got a bagel and a little pineapple cottage cheese thing, and a donut. Cheap dinner! We found this Confucius (I think?) statue. More pretty buildings, then finally the Temple church!
"The Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th century. The Church is in two parts: the Round and the Chancel. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem. It was designed to recall the holiest place in the Crusaders’ world: the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is a numinous space – and has a wonderful acoustic for singing."
The temple was back in this alley-way in this back-street place...super hard to find. But there were some cute park things back there too between the backsides of buildings. I love finding little places like this. We wandered around, we found some little boys playing soccer yelling at each other in cute little British accents.
We wandered back to a bus stop then to Trafalgar Square again. We passed this beautiful building--the Royal Courts of Justice. SO COOL.
Back at Trafalgar Square! The lights were beautiful. Believe it or not it was only like 4:30 when I took these....yuck. We were standing on the front steps of the National Gallery. This art museum was free....which blows my mind because it holds some of the most incredible masterpieces of all time!!! We had no idea what we were getting into, and we had less than 2 hours to cover it all! There was not even time to sneak that many photos! There was one Da Vinci, a whole room of Rubens, some Velasquez, one Vermeer, one Caravaggio, two Michelangelo, a room of MONET...some Renoir, and finally some Van Gough. The freaking sunflowers man. And the CHAIR. And the field with the tree, whatever it is called. If I could I would go back for five hours, no joke.
Haley and I got out of there at 6:45, found the right bus, and headed to the Victoria Theater! AHHH. Our show started at 7:30. Kelsee, Rachel, and Klint were all there already when we got there. Our seats were pretty high up, but near the middle! Not even bad at all. That music is incredible...it was fun to hear all the lines in their British accents, too. The only character whose voice I didn't love was Fiyero. It was still great, though. I've seen that show four times now I think...it was Haley's first! She loved it. We were soooo tired after, it was past 10:00, and we went straight to the hostel. Everyone had figured out plans and things and we all got in bed by 11:30.
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