Part 2: London , the rest of the weekend.

We all agreed that we wanted to go to the British Museum. Lindsay went on a Starbucks run and brought us all coffee to get us going. We stopped at the concierge on the way out to see if could get tickets to a play. She was surprised to find that there were three available that evening, third row orchestra, for The Phantom of the Opera. We were thrilled. So off we go to find our way to the museum. The Marleyboned station is located directly out the back door of the hotel. Karina acted as the tour guide, figuring out the correct trains to get us to our destinations. Only two train changes and we would be where we wanted to be. Ok, it was a Saturday. and it was Christmas time… a zoo! People were pushing, people were hurrying, but generally in polite mode. It was easy to get caught up in the hustle. I like moving fast, and you definitely had to move fast or get trampled. Once on the street, we found walking on the outside of the sidewalk, sometimes on the curb, was the best way to move ahead.

The museum was surprisingly non-descript from the outside. Inside, it is amazing!! A main feature is the Rosetta stone:
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ67

Also, the Egyptian artifacts are impressive. Like Karina said, “pots, pots and more pots!”

We decided just to stay downtown instead of returning to the hotel before the show. So… off to Harrods (with a Starbucks stop, of course..) where I purchased a Harrods ornament, supposedly something one must do every year… It was fun moving through the store that is about a block long and three stories high. It is very garish inside but it was decorated for Christmas, so very cheery!

The play is performed at Her Majesty’s Theater located in the Picadilly area of London. The theater was designed in 1896. It is ornate and very intimate. We sat in the third row, off center to the left. Awesome seats!
http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/londontheatre/westendvenues/hermajestys.htm

After the show we went to an old pub about two blocks up, off the main street. It was very bright and festive looking so we went in. It was just a little after 10pm and they had stopped serving food :(

We were ok with that, but they stopped serving drinks at 11:30… some kind of law. It was OK because we wanted to walk around and see all the lights and the people hurrying from one place to another. As we got up to leave the pub, we noticed a happy group of people standing at the bar, enjoying their last drinks… It turned out to be most of the cast from the Phantom. The very cute boy who played Raoul, the smitten boyfriend and the girl who played Christine… and other cast members. We engaged in conversation, telling them how much we enjoyed the performance. To make my night, the cute boy asked if I had been sitting in the first row, I said no, the third row. He said, Oh, I remember you, we made eye contact! I was thrilled. I didn’t know that they really did make eye contact. Anyway, quite an exciting end to the evening. We then walked for a long while checking out all the lights and activity. We got ourselves back to the hotel about 1am. Fun, fun.

The next morning we slept in, took leisurely showers and decided to have breakfast in the lovely atrium in the center of the hotel. It was almost 1pm before we headed for the British Library. This a newer building, opened in 1998. Despite the modern outside, it houses some of the oldest and most amazing things. The original Magna Carta, the original Handel’s Messiah, the first written bible, many, many other old documents. It also holds a display of more contemporary artifacts, such as some of the Beatles original song lyrics written on napkins… not kidding! Anyway, a WOW!

http://www.bl.uk/about/history.html


To complete my goals for the weekend, we made our way to Paddington train station and located the correct train to get us back to my house. The Maidenhead station is about a 10 min cab ride to there. The girls were carrying two bags each since they had been traveling throughout Europe for almost three months. We purchased our tickets and had five miuntes to make the train which was at the furthest most track, of course. So, off we ran, Lindsay hauling two big suitcases and Karina and I with the rest. We were comical at the very least. We made the train though with less than a minute to spare. Lindsay used the suitcases as a seat, I found a seat and after a few stops, so did Karina. Again, fun, fun! We made it successfully to the Maidenhead station. It was dark, we had no idea how long it would take and we gotten on the train that stops at every station on the way. After about 45 minutes we reached our destination. I was thrilled. Not only had I gotten a good taste of London, I also was able to make my on the tube and train routes! Yeah…Goals completed!


…More to come ---- London, the “drunk train” and.. a weekend in Istanbul!

Discovering London

London – it is quite a city.
I was invited into London for a charity luncheon at the Landmark Hotel on Friday, Dec 8th. This seemed like a great opportunity to stay for the weekend in London. I have not really spent any time in London since I arrived in England. This coincided with the return of the Scarborough sisters, Lindsay and Karina, from their travels through the rest of Europe. They willingly agreed to “hang out” in London with me. So the adventure began. I had two objectives, one, to begin exploring London and two, to learn how to use the underground and train system.

The Landmark hotel is a historical hotel located next to the Marleybone tube station in a busy area of the city. It is a beautiful old building built in the late 19th century. It is famous for it’s atrium center. It is a place where people have weddings, gala events, company parties and charity events. It is a five star accommodation.

Before the girls arrived, I accompanied one of my co-workers on a manic trip to the industrial area north of central London after the luncheon. She was in search of the perfect wedding dress for her second marriage. (so not white) A friend of hers had recommended a designer who sold dresses wholesale. Only glitch was that you had to go to the “factory” where they were produced to try one on. We left the hotel about 16:00 (4pm) for a 16:30 (4:30pm) appointment. We purchased our tickets for the underground, heading for the (Can't remember the name...)station. This meant two stops, a change of trains and then four more stops before we made it to our desired station. It is very similar to the New York system, only ten times more crowded! There is no crowd control, people just keep piling in until there is no room to breath!! I don’t think I could do that every day… Anyway, once we reached our stop, out of the ground we go, running up an escalator (yes running… we were late , of course) bringing us at least ten stories from what I think must be the bottom of the earth…( so far down…) Once above ground we notice a brass plaque proudly displayed at the entrance that stated something like, “… in memory of 143 women and children who were killed during WW11 by a bomb that hit this station as they were heading underground to the bomb shelter...” Makes you think…

We called for directions from there and were told to walk about six blocks on the right, turn at the water, go under a bridge and look for the iron gates with the number 43. We made it, in the dark and past questionable characters by 5pm. Unfortunately, the dress was not the “dream dress.” However … the adventure for me was well worth it. I got a good feel of what it was like to work and live every day in London. We made it back the same way we came, arriving back at the Marleybone station at 7:00pm. My friend took a cab to the Paddington station where she caught the train to Windsor, her stop for her home in Sunningdale. I checked into my hotel.

The girls arrived about 20:30 (8:30pm). Being the helpless (yeah, right) females that they are, a young bellman from the back door helped them up with their luggage. Our room was huge. It had a very nice bathroom, appreciated by the girls, who had been in a small apartment in Barcelona for a while. There was plenty of room for them to open their suitcases and show me all the “goodies” they had purchased in their travels. Shopping seemed to be a major part of each city they visited. They filled me in on all that had gone on since I last saw them which was in mid-October. Boy did they have a great trip. Day 1, part of objective achieved.. more to come...

Been in the states...

I was back in the States for Thanksgiving. Once I was home, back in my familiar surroundings, around my friends and family, I asked myself, "What have you done?"...
Returning to the UK was not easy. Once I got here, I have found that it is OK. I still miss all my familiar surroundings, familiar faces, familiar life but it is not bad here. We do what we must do... I am going to spend this coming weekend in London so I will have lots to write about then.

Here are two pictures from our Thanksgiving... 80 people, pretty much all related!