London Again
For Ryan's 16th Birthday trip Dad brought him out to London and I had enough time off school to go out and join them! I met them at the apartment in Earl's Court and we did a quick tour around Parliament. My personal favourite part was the giant Tudor hall at the beginning of the tour but all the chambers and rooms inside, the King Arthur wood carvings and the Tudor portraits are amazing too. There are signs absolutely everywhere that you're not supposed to sit down on anything and I've never wanted to sit down more. We finished up and went to have dinner, now I have been getting really good at making spaghetti but having Spanish Tapas was a welcome change.
Day one we made pretty good time; did the Churchill war rooms and museum, walked along the Thames to the HMS Belfast and the Tower Bridge tour. The war rooms are one of my favourite places in London, just trying to put your mind back and imagine the chaos, the noises, and the flood of information and world changing decisions that was passed along those halls. The lights of the tunnels did not go off between 1938 and 1945. The Belfast had a similar history but more wide spread, they had been involved in WWII but a German torpedo took it out of action for a good part of it. Ryan and I kept hitting our heads on the low doors. Got a lovely view from Tower Bridge and the glass floors of the walkway are not recommended for anyone with acrophobia. I think for most of my pictures I'm just going to add some to my already existing London travel page otherwise this blog is going to be really long.
Monday was the Tower of London. It's so fun that now I at least have a frame work of English history that I can fit the Yeoman Warden's information into and make a more complete picture of what he's saying. There were a bunch of people in tudor kit wandering around and telling their stories of being kept prisoner in the tower - made sure to take photos so I can make my own kit when I get home.
We don't need to question where Steve gets it from. We had supper at the Grenadier, Dad's secret pub in London that was amazing. We watched a bit of British tele back at the apartment, mainly their shows about people who live in the northern regions of Canada and Alaska, and hunts and scavenge for their existence. Tuesday we got all the way out to Hampton Court, the seat of the English King after the Reformation and the legendary court of Henry VIII -Ryan was most interested with the one legged duck in the gardens. Everything in the castle was meant to reflect the wealth and power of it's monarchs, the place is built to impress; chimneys peak up from around the courtyard and the massive kitchens showed the warmth and welcome to those welcomed to the court. Originally Hampton was the home of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's house until Henry said "mine now." The great hall is one of the most majestic things I've ever seen, Dad had to pretty much drag me out of it.
If there every is an apocalyptic zombie attack, I'm heading straight for Hampton Court, arming myself and running a court from there. If they come I'll die with glory in the great hall. The other half of Hampton Court is the Georgian section that was all remodelled to look life Versailles but fortunately they ran out of money so part of the original Tudor palace stayed in one piece. Another side note is seeing the personal history of Henry, and specifically the wives throughout the architecture of Hampton; near the beginnings Katherine of Aragon's symbols are above the door, the great hall has one remaining set of Anne Boleyn's initials and Jane Seymour's family crest is on the ceiling near the Privy Chambers. All aside, definitely a trip highlight.
For our last day together we went to see St. Paul's Cathedral, do the tour and walk all the way to the top and get a beautiful view of London. I met up with the rest of my Early Modern Drama class at the Globe and we had a walk around it and then went through the streets to where The Hope and The Globe would have been, and where they have recently uncovered the archeological remains of the The Rose Theatre. The Tudor South Bank would've looked very different and been a lot more stinky. The street that now holds a Pizza Express and a Starbucks would have been brothels and taverns right beside the bear-baiting ring and next to an open sewer and after a night of unbridled debauchery finding a ferryman to take you back across the scummy Thames to London.
Dad and Ryan had gone to Evensong at Westminster so I met up with them again and collected my stuff from Earls Court. We had a lovely dinner, with me savouring the taste of real food, and then to St. Pancreas. It was great to see them again, Ryan has grown and Dad has shrunk (he may deny it but whose blog is this), and it was nice to have a bit of a break from missing them.
