London Flashback

While we were in London, it had me wondering about the pictures I took half a life-time ago.  I went into our storage and dug them out of the bottom of a plastic container.

So here I present: England Trip 2000, along with some observations and comparison

We flew from Boston to London, and then hit the ground running by going to Stonehenge.  I laugh whenever I see this picture, because it definitely looks like we just rolled off an airplane.  Also, I decided this will probably be the one and only time I see Stonehenge, because there's no way I'd drive on the wrong side of the road (or let Hyrum drive on the wrong side of the road.)  Fortunately for us, my dad was a pro and safely drove us around England.  

When my dad took us, we spent a full week in England, so we saw all the main attractions in London.  Many of them we re-visited on our recent trip so Hyrum could check them out.  What a difference... returning with a husband and baby!

[Same spot at Tower of London]

 Looking through my pictures, I noticed several differences in the way we take picture today vs 2000.  First, no digital cameras.  So I literally had one or two rolls of film for the whole trip (vs the hundreds of pictures we take on most of our weekend trips now.)  Our camera today takes much better pictures to start with, and then photo editing makes a huge difference.

[Westminster Abbey... not much change]

I also noticed a big difference in the subjects of my pictures.  Most were just buildings, several were of my sister, and I was just in a few.  I feel like today we take pictures of ourselves doing just about everything, and then publish them on the internet.  They're no longer just personal reminders of a trip, but also public travelogues for strangers.  Slightly more narcissistic, but also more interesting.

[Jenna at Buckingham Palace]

[St Paul's Cathedral... much less crowded on our recent trip, and it looks like the pillars were cleaned]

 Cell phones existed in 2000 (even much earlier, as Saved by the Bell proves), but it was a few more years before they really gained traction.  (Four years later, by the end of high school, many students had them, but not all.)  Anyway, on our first trip I think these phone booths were still used for phone calls.  Today, they mostly collect trash.  They're dirty, and there's no way I'd step inside.  

I was surprised when I found this old Tube ticket and saw that our fare was only 80 cents!  On our recent trip, it would have been four pounds for a single ticket.  Using Oyster cards, we still paid 2.20!

 Lastly, London is the first place I saw Les Miserables!  And loved it, of course.  With a baby in tow we weren't able to see any shows this time, but when we saw posters for Lion Kind and Wicked I really wished we could!  Maybe an excuse for a 3rd trip?

Last day in London

Having spent the previous day running around to all of London's expensive sites, we were able to take our second (3rd for Hyrum) day at a slower pace.

Our first stop was St Paul's Cathedral.  It was really the only part of the day where it rained, but we spent the rest of the day dry and freezing.  It definitely didn't feel like May.

Hyrum told me to pose like this queen... so here's my best effort.  Yep, I'm not really sure either.

Hyrum is better at coming up with poses.

This building is HUGE.  Buildings usually don't seem that big until you're standing right next to them.

Hyrum crossing two "streets"... one was fake (and legal) and the other was real (and jaywalking)

 Hyrum considered it his exercise for the day to run up the stairs in every Tube station (while carrying Tiago's stroller--sans baby).  I happily rode the escalator and met him at the top.  There's enough walking involved in traveling for me to 'choose the stairs'.

 Two street views:

 Our second stop was the [free!] British Museum, where we spent several hours.

As I'm usually the one who makes plans, I just give Hyrum an overview of where we're going right before the trip.  After I told him we were going to the British Museum he kept referring to it as "my" museum.  As if I were going all for me and just dragging him along.  When we're done with your museum, can we go here?  

I finally convinced him he'd like it more than me... and he did.  (I liked it, but my attention span in museums is limited.  Hyrum could look at mummies and ancient artifacts all day.)

Here's an overview of the museum:

The British have spent centuries plundering the world, and now have all their treasures in one place!

Next month we're going to Greece, and Hyrum is flying to spend a day at the Acropolis.  I'm afraid when he gets there he might see a naked Parthenon, because the British Museum was filled with its columns, friezes and stratues.  What's left to see in Greece??  We saw several rooms of the museum lined with pieces of ancient Greece.  It's kind of astounding that they don't give some of these treasures back.  

I wouldn't be surprised if Egypt's pyramid's were completely empty with the amount of stuff found in the British Museum.  

Ethics and social responsibility factor aside, it was neat to see everything.  

Right up front is the Rosetta Stone, a decree from 196 BC written in 3 languages--one of which was Egyptian Hieroglyphs.  It's the key to understanding all those little pictures.  After that was a LOT of Egyptian things--mummies, heads, tombs, etc.  I enjoy seeing big artifacts like that (as opposed to coin collections... we hurried through a 'currency' section of the museum later on.)

Then we got into knights, and gladiators, and the first wheel (?).  I might have made that up.  

 Fortunately Tiago was asleep for most of the museum.  When he finally woke up he just wanted to be held, then he was all smiles. Hyrum decided the most comfortable way to carry him is like a sack of potatoes.  Just toss him over the shoulder.  The funniest thing about that is the number of tourists walking behind Hyrum who start making faces at Tiago, and he flirts back with them.  The picture I have below if fuzzy, but you can see the technique.

 There were some artifacts from the Americas, including a statue from Easter Island.

 Leaving the museum, we decided to walk to Hyde Park.  Hyrum found some soccer players along the way.  (I surprised myself by being able to recognize several of the players by name.  Who have I become??)

 Because it was Sunday, Speakers Corner was in full swing.  There were several people standing on ladders talking (debating) with the crowds nearby.

Our last stop of the day was at a Colombian restaurant.  One of Hyrum's good friends from college in Colombia now lives in London, so we met up for delicious food.  Colombian food is very labor intensive, so any time I can pay someone else to make it I am happy.  (It's a much better alternative than slaving away for hours in a hot kitchen.) 

There were two guitar players, and whenever they were near us, Santiago looked at them like they came straight from planet mars.  

Hyrum got the bandeja paisa, which is a LOT of food.  I got ajiaco, which was also a crazy amount of food.

And that concludes our fun in London.  

We took the bus back to the hotel (Santiago was exhausted!), and woke up at 3:30 in the morning to catch our early (but cheap!) flight home.  It was great to be unpacking before noon, and we had the rest of the afternoon to relax and recover from our traveling. 

Whirlwind day in London

Last weekend we flew to London!  It was our first time flying with RyanAir, and I'm on board!  There's no leg room, and they don't have drink service in-flight, but I have short legs and can bring water with me.  I'm definitely in favor of cheap tickets.  I just wish they had more flights out of Nuremberg.  (They only fly to 3 locations at the moment).  

London is expensive!  Very, very expensive.  We made a list of all the places we wanted to visit, and decided it was worth it to buy the London Pass (ie: get into everywhere 'free' after paying an arm and a leg for the pass.)  That meant we were trying to cram in all of the expensive places we wanted to see in one day to take advantage of the passes.  

Hyrum spent Friday afternoon feeding his soccer obsession, so I'll have him write about that another day.  

Saturday was our whirlwind day through all of London's top sights.  (At least in our book.)

First up, the Churchill War Rooms.  Fourteen years ago my dad took me and my sister to London.  (Half of my life ago! Crazy to think about...)  This was one of the museums we went to, and I knew Hyrum would love it.  I was right--he said it was one of his favorite things from the trip.  (Probably right after the soccer stadiums.)  

  

You can walk through the underground bunker where the British government directed their efforts during WWII.  Winston Churchill slept, ate, and worked here.  Everything looks like it did in 1945 when the war came to a close... gas masks on the dresser, rows of telephone lines (one line going straight to FDR), maps on the walls, etc.    

[bottom right picture is Churchill's bedroom]^^

I think that since Hyrum just came back from deployment this all hit home for him.  We saw Britain's Chiefs of Staff conference room with maps all over the walls and pins tracking the movement of troops around the world.  Hyrum said things worked the same in Afghanistan, but the technology was a bit more advanced... maps shown on screens instead.  It was interesting to see all the signs up, just as they were 70 years ago:  "Quiet Please" on top of the Prime Minister's office door.  

The three photos below give a glimpse of the construction of the underground network.  To the left is the staircase coming out of the museum.  On the right (top) you can see the thickness of one wall, and on the right (bottom) is a section of the 5' thick concrete/steel slab built above the bunker protecting it from bombs.  

An addition they've made since my last visit was the Churchill Museum--a huge display of artifacts, correspondence, quotes, and interactive displays giving a glimpse into the life of the Prime Minister.  To give my feet a rest, I spent some time at a machine reading some quotes from Churchill.  He said some pretty funny things:

"I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks."

“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

Lady Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife I’d put poison in your coffee.”

Winston Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your husband I’d drink it.”

Hyrum thought it was pretty cool to see Churchill's gun

 And I'm pretty sure I need this war propaganda poster to hang in my kitchen:

From there, we ran through St James Park over to Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guards.  I hate big crowds, so it was kind of miserable.  (Plus I was trying to feed Santiago while we stood and waited.  Not ideal.)  But we saw it, despite a few heads in our way.  

 

Here you can see Santiago's just-woke-up face.  Full of joy, right?

After all this traveling I feel like I should start a list of all the odd places I've fed Santiago.  Here we are in the park with some Asian tourists.  With everyone flooding past after the changing of the guards.  Good thing I'm so discreet! (ha, or just don't care anymore.)

Walking back towards Westminster Abbey, we saw a double-decker bus that said, "I Love Mormon".  Hyrum didn't realize it was for the play, and said, Mormon ads in London!  Take a picture!  And even though they're for the Book of Mormon show, I still think the publicity is cool.  Why not let someone else pay to get the word out?  Another bus said "I love the Book of Mormon."  Yes!

Westminster Abbey is THE church to see.  British royalty have been crowned and buried there since 1066...almost a millennium!  We walked across the tombs of Charles Darwin and past Sir Isaac Newton.  Then on to Queen Elizabeth, and her half-sister Mary who she killed.  All the King Henrys...  Everyone.

Pictures inside aren't permitted (except for the cloisters) so here are a few pictures from the internet:

I mentioned before how ridiculous it can be to get someone to take a picture for us.  We wanted a shot in front of Westminster Abbey, and the first two people as asked failed miserably.  One took the picture horizontally and cut out the entire church, and the other person took the picture and included more of our legs than the church.  Then we tried a 'selfie' (hard with a dslr camera!)  

Finally someone offered to take one for us.  Great!

In the same area we were also able to see the Parliament building, Big Ben, and the London Eye.  (Nothing sounds more miserable to me than being stuck in the compartment of a ferris wheel standing up with a bunch of strangers for such a long time!!)

 We took a boat cruise down the Thames River, and got out at the Tower of London.

We had a great view of the London Bridge (actually called Tower Bridge).  Except Hyrum doesn't know the nursery rhyme so it didn't mean anything to him.

The weather in London is crazy.  On Saturday it wasn't all that cold, but we'd go through periods of heavy rain and wind.  Then 15 minutes later the sun would come out and we'd see blue skies.  During one rain storm the umbrella attacked Hyrum and he got a huge cut across his face.  (You'll see it in all of Sunday's pictures.)  We escaped into the museum in the White Tower to see the suits of armor, and then to the crowned jewels display.  It's amazing that after seeing a dozen crowns with real diamonds and stones the size of Tiago's fist, there was a donation collection at the exit!!

Santiago was always happy for the chance to get out of his carrier and stretch his legs.  

Here we are with the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters).  We went on part of a tour that they were giving.

Just like Westminster Abbey is where everyone was crowned and buried, the Tower of London is where everyone was imprisoned and executed.  It's been around since 1077.  Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded there.  The tower also housed the Royal Mint and Royal Jewel House, among other things.

After a long day, we grabbed some Chinese food to-go and rode the bus back to our hotel to get this sleepy baby into his uncomfortable hotel crib, and grab a bit of sleep ourselves before continuing our adventures the next day.