It’s
a very posh hotel in a very good location, and I’m surprised they spent that
much money on us. We drove in on Friday, saw the British Museum and Sherlock
Holmes Museum, and then went to our hotel and had a free evening.
The
British Museum was very cool. I enjoyed seeing the Elgin Marbles particularly.
Side note: Athens wanted the marbles back, and Britain said, “No, you don’t have the space for them.” Then Athens built a new museum with a huge room that says something like, “Awaiting the return of the Elgin Marbles!” The room displaying the marbles in the British Museum says something like “This space was generously given for the display of the Elgin Marbles by [some British guy].” Passive aggressive archaeological disputes are delightfully sassy.
Disappointingly,
you had to pay to get into the Herculaneum and Pompeii exhibit, which was a
special rotating collection. I wish I could’ve seen that (it’s one of the
things I studied in Roman Archaeology this year). I caught the barest glimpse
of the Rosetta Stone—and a longer glimpse from the back—but of course it was
very crowded in that area.
Fun
story: there’s a copy of the Rosetta Stone in the Enlightenment Room, with no
cases or ropes around it or anything, and it was one of the first things I saw.
And I was looking at it thinking, “Wow, it’s weird that there’s no case around
it like there was last time I was here. And it’s also weird that there are no
people around it.” And then I saw a sign that said PLEASE TOUCH and I was like,
“Oh, they put—they—wh, wait, what?!?!” And that is the story of the time it
took me almost a minute to figure out if something was the Rosetta Stone or
not.
It’s only a
model. (Shh.)
The
Sherlock Holmes Museum was cool but MASSIVELY CROWDED. We were in line for two
hours. Everyone was very grumpy by the end but I didn’t mind waiting that much.
I
was extremely surprised by the spontaneous statues on the upper floor,
especially a creepy one of a small blond child (not pictured). A few of my
friends went to Madame Tussaud’s on Saturday, but I didn’t really want to and
it was a lot of money. I think the Sherlock Holmes surprise made up for my not
seeing other wax figures.
Irene Adler and
the King of Bohemia.
Letters to
Sherlock. “Dear Mr. Dead Sherlock Holmes…”
We
were on our own after we checked into the hotel, so we went to Harrods to look
at things we will never be able to afford. The most expensive thing a friend and
I found were some large ugly statues for 475,000 pounds. The toy/kids floor was
magnificent. There was a cloth playhouse that was big enough for both of us to
sit inside and, at its highest point, tall enough for me to stand up in without
brushing the ceiling.
We
had dinner at an Italian place in Piccadilly Circus and then went to an ice
bar, which has a room made of ice imported from Norway. EVERYTHING (the walls,
the chairs, the glasses) is made of ice and the room is kept at -5 degrees C.
Ice, ice, baby.
You book a 40-minute session in the room (some of my group members initially thought this was not long enough, but by the end we discovered that 40 minutes was almost too long!) and they give you a special thermal cloak and mittens to keep you from getting too cold. It was very cool (pun unintended). After that we walked around for a while and then went home. We’d been on our feet for about 8 hours so we were very, very tired by the time we got back to the hotel.
On
Saturday, we walked through Hyde Park to Parliament, where we had a tour. It
was very informative and we had an excellent guide. All of the rooms are very
elegant and beautiful. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures
behind the scenes :(
Obligatory shot
of Big Ben.
The only piece
of Parliament I was allowed to photograph.
After
Parliament, we had lunch at the Borough Market. We found yummy pies, and they
were delicious, but I wish we had walked around more before getting lunch.
After we’d eaten, we were walking around and discovered kangaroo burgers. I did
get some delicious goat milk honeycomb ice cream, and sampled about 500
different kinds of olive oil. There was an especially tasty one with saffron,
but it was rather expensive and I worried about the bottle breaking.
I have a bunch
more pictures from the Borough Market, but I’m saving some for the special food
post I’ll do at the end of the trip.
The Shard! I
recognize this from a Doctor Who
episode.
Three
of us hung out in the market for a few more hours, talking to locals and stuff.
(The others went to see wax figures.) Then we went to King’s Cross to have our
pictures taken at Platform 9 & ¾. You can’t get onto the platform proper
without a ticket, but they have a display set up outside the toll where you can
have your picture taken with a cart disappearing into the wall. There is a guy
there whose job it is to put a Hogwarts scarf on you and then, right before the
picture is taken, flick the end of the scarf so it looks like it is flapping in
the wind from you running at the wall.
All
three of us chose blue Ravenclaw scarves (naturally). When the last of us went
up and asked for the Ravenclaw scarf too, the photo guy said, “Really? Three
Ravenclaws in a row? This has never happened!”
Since
it was nearby we also went to the British Library. We only saw the special
historical collections section, but it was AMAZING. There were old
manuscripts—one of the original copies of Beowulf, ancient sheet music,
Mozart’s marriage contract (apparently the ceremony was so beautiful, Mozart
reported, that he cried during it), and the oldest page of written English—and
a whole room devoted to the Magna Carta, including a copy of it from 1215.
We go all the
way to England, and who do we find? Uncle Sam. Can’t get away from ‘Murrica!
After
that, we met up with another friend and sat in the Italian Gardens in Hyde Park
for an hour or so. It was a relaxing end to the day. We’d planned to go out
with our four other friends, but they got VERY lost after they went from the
Eye to Buckingham Palace, and it took them 3 hours to get home. I was very
tired at that point, though, so I’m kind of glad we didn’t wander around London
some more that night.
The
Critical Thinking professor, Neal, led the trip to the Globe on Sunday morning.
It was REALLY cool—especially the fact that they sell yard seats for only 5
quid, and that they’re building an indoor theater to go with it.
The Millennium
Bridge, which I recognize because the Death Eaters destroy it in one of the HP
movies.
My
friends all wanted to go to other places, but Neal was leading a group to St.
Paul’s for a sung Eucharist service, so I went there. We couldn’t find the
group that was supposed to be leaving the Globe, but since the cathedral was on
the way to the tube stop, my friends walked me to it. We were almost there when
Neal runs up.
Neal: Are you guys
going to St. Paul’s?
Me: I am, but I
couldn’t find anyone else so they were just walking me there.
Neal: I couldn’t
find anyone either so I just left.
Oops!
So I was the kid who sat with the professor during the whole service
(afterwards we found some others from the group who had independently made
their way over)—classic me. St. Paul’s is breathtakingly beautiful—but once
again, no photos allowed inside :(
At
that point, I was on my own, and since three of my friends had gone to the
Victoria and Albert museum, I had a small London/tube adventure and made my way
over there. I was not impressed with the V&A at first and tried to convince
them to ditch for the natural history museum nearby (we just had to visit one
additional museum in London), but then we found some exciting interactive sections
which we all greatly enjoyed. Afterwards, we visited the Prince Albert memorial
and rested in Hyde Park for an hour before we left for Cambridge.
I’m sorry I’ve been no good at blogging this! Hopefully I’ll write more posts this week and upload them before I’m back in the States.
