Anyway, I promised yesterday to tell about the Tower of London, so here goes:
Sunday I was originally planning to go to church at Calvary Chapel Docklands, but the service was at 12:30 pm, which is a super awkward time because it's right in the middle of the day. And I had morning activities I wanted to do every day. So I ended up deciding to not do the church service (probably bad of me, I know, but 12:30 is such a weird time!) and to go to the Tower on Sunday morning. It was the weekend and I knew it would be crowded, but I sort of wanted it over with because I knew it would be packed with tourists no matter which day I went.
I bought my ticket at the hostel because they had discounts (which was a good thing, because normal admission fee is upwards of $30 U.S.!), and got to the Tower about 20 minutes before opening. There were a ton of people, which I of course expected, but I have to say as the day went on it got more and more annoying. Sometimes I felt more like I was at Disneyland than at a historic site!
The Tower itself is very cool, though. In my mind, I had always thought of it as a sad and forbidding place because of Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and all the other people who had been imprisoned and/or executed there. But it actually has been used for much more than just a prison. It was built in 1066 by William the Conqueror, and was used as a palace and fortress where the nobility could take refuge in case of threats from other kingdoms (or from other nobility who were seeking to seize the throne). There were some famous deaths and executions that took place there, including the mysterious death of Richard III's young imprisoned sons (it is speculated that they were murdered so they would not be a threat to Richard's throne). But it was also used as a coin mint, an armory, and a treasury for the Crown Jewels! It even had its own menagerie for several centuries, with all kinds of exotic animals from far-off lands such as elephants, lions, bears, monkeys, jaguars, emus, and kangaroos, but a few people were attacked and even killed by the animals and so they ultimately decided to move the critters to the London Zoo in the early 1800s.
Today you can still go inside the White Tower, the central part with the four mini-towers that stick up, to see the fantastic displays of armor and weapons. The armory has been a tourist attraction for centuries! In the 1600s they opened the "Line of Kings" in the White Tower, which displayed wooden mannequins painted with the face of and dressed in the armor of each king of England, all mounted on armored wooden horses. It was a way for them to demonstrate the power and splendor of the kingdom of England to visitors. They also have the crown jewels on display today, and you can go in and see not just crowns and scepters, but also coronation robes and all kinds of incredible gold and silver dish ware (like the Exeter Salt) that is used in the royal coronation ceremony and in the banquet afterwards. When they have a coronation (like Elizabeth II's, for example), they take the items out of the Tower, put them into their special cases, and transport them to Westminster Abbey for the ceremony. It was really amazing to see so many jewels and precious metals packed into each ceremonial piece--you can't believe how elaborate and glittery they are. Somehow I miraculously got into the exhibit when the line was short. I came back out at the end and the line was ten times as long as when I'd gone in!
The old rooms where William the Conqueror had lived were really cool--definitely very medieval--and I liked the Crown Jewels and the view of Tower Bridge from the top of the wall. But by 1 pm or so, I was done with it. I needed to get away from all the tourists before I lost my mind. Seriously, it really was like being at Disneyland--they have multiple gift shops and concession stands inside the Tower walls, and everybody was acting so ridiculous. Case in point: I was sitting and eating lunch before I left, and the guard standing within the roped-off area in the southwest corner was slowly marching back and forth, back and forth. He had been doing it for over five minutes and I assume he was just stretching his legs--I'd want to stretch my legs too if I'd been standing there like a statue for so long!--and everybody was gawking at him and taking pictures and pointing at him saying to their kids, "Look, Billy, look, Susie! He's patrolling!" I was like, I have got to get outta here.
I had a quick look inside All Hallows by-the-Tower, which is apparently the oldest church in London. It wasn't terribly exciting, actually--fairly plain architecture and no interesting stained glass.
From there I took the Underground to Regents Park and swung by the Sherlock Holmes Museum, which is actually located at 221B Baker Street. The museum is set up inside to resemble Holmes' house, but it was £10 to get in and there were quite a few people milling around. I decided not to pay the admission price, but I did go in the souvenir shop and spent a few minutes cracking up at all the fun souvenirs. They had everything from Holmes business cards to little sculpted plaster busts to the DVD versions of the stories, and of course walking sticks, pipes, and the famous plaid hat. It was pretty classic. I wished Aunt Nadia could have been there--she's a huge fan of old detective series (not just Sherlock Holmes, but Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple too). It would have been right up her alley!
After that I walked to Regents Park and went through a corner of it (the whole place is pretty big, like the Stadtpark in Hamburg or something). It was like being in an Impressionist painting! The day was hot and rather humid, and of course it was Sunday, so there were people everywhere strolling the pathways, playing games and relaxing on the lawns, lounging on the banks of the ponds. I even saw a guy lying under a tree reading The Screwtape Letters . . . he had his ear buds in or I would have struck up a conversation . . .
I was tired from getting up early and from my crazy morning at the Tower, so I finally just did what everyone else in the park was doing and found myself a spot under a tree to lounge in the grass for a while. When in London, do as the Londoners, right? It's a hot Sunday afternoon, so stop trying to walk around and just chill for a while!
I left the park at 5 to go back to Westminster Abbey. There was an organ recital with free admission and I wanted to go inside again. But when I got there, it was already full. So instead I took the Underground across the river to Southwark, bought another Tesco Express sandwich and a mini-pouch of Cadbury's "chocolate buttons," and decided to try the Queen's Walk along the South Bank. I started at Blackfriars Bridge, but this time I walked the opposite direction from the way I'd gone the first day, back towards London Eye and Houses of Parliament.
It ended up being the best part of the day. Lots of people out, of course, but in a place like that, all the activity is what makes it so exciting. There are tons of restaurants and food stands along the river walk, all kinds of activities and attractions going on, a few piers sticking out into the river, and even some little strips of beach along the bank. I went down the stairs to one of the beaches and walked under the piers, collecting rocks and shells. I saw the marine patrol put a girl on a backboard while I was on the beach! She was lying on the sand with her friends around her, and the marine patrol came in with their rubber boat, brought all the equipment, and strapped her onto the backboard. I don't know what had happened--she was awake and talking, and she didn't have any visible signs of damage, but I didn't see the accident happen so I don't know what it was. Anyway, that was mildly exciting and then I climbed back up the stairs and sat on a bench to eat my dinner. The sandwich I got was a pesto-and-pancetta sandwich, which was amazing, and the Cadbury's was yummy too. While I was sitting on the bench I heard the old Amy Grant version of "El Shaddai" and it was coming from the little hand radio of these two older men on the bench next to mine. I asked them about it, but the older one just humphed and muttered something about "sappy old radio songs" and I couldn't understand what the other one said, so I ended up not pursuing it further.
Anyway, I kept walking after that and headed towards London Eye. I passed a big tent with music playing inside and a bunch of people dancing to it on the lawn, and a really cool skatepark that was underneath an upper-story concrete balcony thing sticking out (it looked extra awesome because the sunset light was shining straight into it and illuminating all the graffiti on the walls), and a couple of busking musicians with amps and mics, and a carousel, and a sandbox. I also walked up onto Waterloo Bridge and the Golden Jubilee Bridge. Just before I got to the Eye I turned around and went back. It was a really fun and interesting walk, and such a beautiful evening! I stayed out until it was almost dark . . . I didn't want to go back to the hostel . . .
The next day was Monday and I got up early to do my day trip to St. Albans! I took the regional train from the Blackfriars Bridge station (this station is cool, it's actually a bridge over the Thames with windows that look out to the river in both directions) north of the city. St. Albans is just beyond Hampstead Heath, Finchley, and the other northern edge suburbs. It's not way out in the country or anything, but it definitely has the country-town feel as opposed to the urban or suburban feel. I had originally thought of going to Hatfield House (one of the Tudor mansions) while I was out that way, but Hatfield was closed Monday and after the Tower of London I didn't want to deal with any more crowds. So I just decided to do a day in St. Albans and stop at Hampstead Heath for a while on the way back if I had time.
St. Albans was really a nice spot for a day trip! The highlight is the medieval history--its abbey was its claim to fame for centuries--but the town dates all the way back to Roman times and has continued to have close ties with London all the way up to the present. So there was lots to see. I picked up a walking-tour guide at the train station, and though I didn't do the whole tour or go in the order it said to do, it gave me a good idea of the highlights and helped me find them. I started with the St. Albans Museum, which has free admission and is just a little place with exhibits about the history of the town. There were a couple of ladies there with their babies who had full-on cockney accents, which was a crackup to listen to, and a group of special-needs people who came in too. It was an entertaining experience as well as informative! From there I went through the old town center to the abbey.
Though it doesn't hold the influence it once did, St. Albans Abbey is still the highlight of the town. It was founded in early medieval times, on the site where St. Alban, England's first Christian martyr, was supposedly beheaded in the early 4th century, and the building that is there now was first established in 1077 (around the same time as the Tower of London!). Until the 1500s, the Abbey was the center of life in the town. Everything revolved around the monastery, school, and other church workings, and the town itself was also a center of culture and learning. It was influential not only in English Christianity, but in politics--an early draft of the Magna Carta was drawn up there. At some point, however, tension grew between the ever-growing town and the abbey--the citizens wanted an identity of their own, based on trade rather than on religion. So in 1539 they dissolved the monastery and made St. Albans into a borough. The church still existed as the head of the parish, but the Abbey no longer had the influence it once did. If you visit it today, though, you can see it is still a very active church. While I was there, the boys' choir was practicing, the priest went up into the lectern and led a short prayer at noon, staff members were bustling back and forth working on some sort of display for an event, and right before I left a bunch of people were coming in for a service.
The Abbey would definitely qualify as a cathedral, and an impressive one at that. It is one of those churches that's definitely worth a visit. Even from the outside, I was thinking, "Man that nave is long!" and when I went in and got the visitor's guide I found out that it is one of the longest naves in Europe! The first section of it is basically the regular length of most cathedral naves, and it has a screen at the front end of it. Behind the screen is the choir, and behind that is the crossing (the spot where the nave and transept cross each other), and beyond that is the main altar. Then behind that is the shrine of St. Alban, and at the farthest end is a smaller chapel called the Lady's Chapel (which is absolutely beautiful, by the way, with elegant Gothic arches and beautiful stained glass). Most of the cathedral is built in the Norman style, with rounded arches. The tower above the crossing is 44 meters high (that's 145 feet!), and has the red and white roses and family crests from the Wars of the Roses painted on its ceiling. The other parts of the ceiling have really beautiful wood carvings and paintings too, and the main altar is this giant spectacular wall of Gothic lattices and statues with the crucifix in the middle. Even the floors have pretty patterns or relief tiles. Then you walk back to the shrine of St. Alban, and they have the original "watching chamber," a sort of giant wooden box with windows in it, from which monks would supervise the pilgrims who came to the shrine. It's from the 1400s and is made out of oak, and though it's worn it is still in pretty decent shape! The shrine itself has a big fancy roofed box which holds the bones of St. Alban. I got a pilgrimage pin from the basket on the way out of the shrine--a good souvenir, I think. And then there's the Lady's Chapel at the back, facing the shrine, which as I said is stunning in and of itself. Not sure how long I spent in there, but it was at least an hour.
After I came out the side exit, I was confronted with this big, beautiful rolling park that spread down the hillside next to the abbey, with trees beyond. Exactly like a scene from a Jane Austen movie. So, Jane-Austen-style, I spread my coat out on the grass, laid down (propping myself up on my elbow, that's the essential pose) and ate my lunch of apple and crumpets. Not a super glamorous picnic lunch, but it was an absolutely beautiful day with big puffy clouds in a bright blue sky and I fully felt like I was experiencing the English countryside even if I was only just outside London.
When I had finished my leisurely lunch, I walked across the street from the Abbey to see the old town gate and the Abbey school, and then, guided by my map, went down the cobblestone street to the bottom of the hill to the big regional park. On the way I passed Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which is famous for being the oldest licensed and inhabited pub in England. (As I found out from the museum, St. Albans has a very large number of pubs due to its being a stopping point for coaches traveling to England.) The park has a Roman museum (which I did not visit) and a building that houses a Roman mosaic floor with a hypocaust (under-the-floor heating system) which was really cool. I also walked to St. Michael's Church on the far side of the park, which was closed but had a super pretty churchyard with old gravestones. I walked up a street called Fishpool to get back to the center of town--it was a long street and the name supposedly came from the fishing that the monks did at the Abbey during its heyday. I took a different way going back to the station and the streets were kind of confusing, so it took a while to find it. I was really sweaty by the end of the walk because it was a humid day. And I had a sunburned neck. I didn't mind. Ah, summer days in the countryside!
By the time I finally got on the train it was too late to go to Hampstead Heath--I didn't want to do a bunch more trekking across grassy fields in the humidity. A slight bummer, since at the John Keats House near the Heath they were having the 200th anniversary festival of Keats' first poem and I kind of wanted to go. But it was just one thing too many. (Sorry Joanna, I couldn't make that one happen.)
I looked at my list of "stuff I want to see" and saw that the British Library was just outside the St. Pancras station, which my train was going through, and it was open till later. So I decided to go there. I saw original music pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Handel (it was his famous "Largo"), and a bunch of others, as well as lyrics scribbled down on random scraps of paper by the Beatles. Unfortunately I didn't get around to the Alice in Wonderland manuscript or the Magna Charta . . . the display room closed at 6 and I took too long on the first half of it! Still was really cool!
From there I decided to walk back to St. Paul's. I wanted to explore Holborn a bit (more research, mostly). So I walked, and actually it wasn't really as far as I would have expected. I stopped at a to-go fish and chips place to grab dinner. I'd been wanting to get some fish and chips, but at all the pubs and restaurants they're kind of expensive. This place was better--I got a fish cake, a big bag of chips, and some "mushy peas" (the classic pairing) for 4 pounds. When I got to Lincoln's Inn Fields (which is a garden square with fancy old buildings around it), I ate my dinner sitting under a tree to avoid the light rain that started coming down. (There were a lot of homeless people in that zone--I think because the Samaritans organization was coming to pass out food--so I kind of fit in there, sitting on a tree root with my dinner in a plastic sack!) The fish cake wasn't the traditional beer-battered filet, but I tell you those Brits know not only how to do their sandwiches, they know how to do their fish. That was the best and most tender fish cake I have ever eaten in my life and was far better than I would have expected a fish cake to be. I loved the mushy peas too (I'd never had them before then, but they are DELICIOUS . . . though pea haters probably would hate them), and of course the chips were great. There were more than I could eat--I kept the rest for a snack later.
I cut back to Smithfield Market on the way back to St. Paul's to try and see it without the bicycle race blocking it off, but as it turned out, it's not open every day of the week and it's just like empty warehouses on closed days. Right as I left the market and passed St. Bart's Hospital, it started dumping down buckets and I had to duck into a doorway and wait it out. Which wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that I really had to go to the bathroom and I was about to explode by the time the rain let up enough for me to walk the rest of the way back to the hostel!
After I had done a bathroom run into the hostel, I sat on the St. Paul's steps and ate most of my leftover chips before they got totally cold and soggy. Then I was really full, and the rain had stopped, so I decided to do one more short walk to digest and to give my damp clothes a chance to dry out all the way. I went down to the Thames and crossed Millennium Bridge, the modern footbridge between St. Paul's and the Tate Modern art museum. It was funny because the bridge walkway is aluminum, and people were running and then sliding in their tennis shoes on the wet metal. From there I walked towards Tower Bridge. "What the heck, I haven't crossed Tower Bridge--I'll just walk there," I thought. It was a very nice walk, and fun to cross Tower Bridge, and the twilight was beautiful with the rain clouds in the west, but it was a lot longer than I had thought! I wanted to do a 20- to 30-minute walk, and it took me over an hour. I was happy, but had sore feet, when I got back! I think I did more walking on Monday than I had done on my Friday walking tour . . . I looked at Google Maps to try and figure it out and I think I logged more than 8 miles total. No wonder my feet hurt!
The next day, Tuesday, was my last day. Waaaah! I got up extra early and, since I hadn't actually been inside St. Paul's yet, I went in for the Matins service at 7:30. I actually got there before the service started and they said the service was in the side chapel, but I could go into the main part of the church for prayer. So I just went into the nave, found a seat, sat down, prayed for a little bit (since that was techically why they admitted me and because praying at the start of the day is a good thing to do anyway), and discreetly admired the architecture from my chair. It was very peaceful in there because it was early and there were no sightseers yet. I enjoyed it a lot, though actually I think I like the exterior better than the interior. The inside is very cool and extremely big, of course, but it's very heavy and somber. The outside is more beautiful, I think, with its dome and towers reaching up into the sky and its impressive presence taking up an entire city block.
Went back to the hostel for breakfast after that (polished off the Weetabix) and then took the tube to Kensington to go to the Victoria & Albert Museum! I got there before 10 and the museum wasn't open yet, so I did a quick spin by Royal Albert Hall and also saw the Albert Memorial at the edge of Kensington Gardens (I think a more appropriate name for it would be the "Albert Shrine"--it's absolutely ridiculous!). Photos will come later, I promise. After that I walked back to the V&A. I was determined to get back to the Dickens House for the tour and told myself: I am here to see only three things which I've been told they have--costumes, swords, and Alfons Mucha. That is all I can take time for.
As it turned out, they only have Mucha on catalog in their archives, and I didn't even get around to the weapons. I spent a couple hours in the fashion exhibit, drawing like mad. Pictures of these will come later too, but I tell you I went hog wild. I absolutely love historical costumes--maybe more than I realized! Also got a peek at a couple of other random things as I wandered through rooms: some incredible Ottoman weapons, tiles, pottery, and rugs, all kinds of furniture from different historical periods, and some incredible metalwork. Seriously, you could go back to the V&A twenty times. It's like the Louvre of London.
Got out of the museum after 2, later than the 1-pm deadline I'd set for myself, but it was okay. I took the Underground back to Bloomsbury, did a quick peek into the Foundling Museum, located on the site of the Foundling Hospital which took in orphaned or abandoned children starting in the 1700s. The organization still operates today to help struggling kids. George Frederic Handel and Charles Dickens were both benefactors of the Hospital.
Finally wound my way back to the Dickens House around 3:30. I had read that the café served good lemon cake, so I went in and got some before its 4 pm closing time. There was basically nobody there except the staff, and I sat out on the back patio and took my time with my cake. Probably was a little too long, because when I finally came back inside it was after 4 and the staff were like, "Oh, no, we didn't realize you were still here! You'll have to do your walk-through quick!"
So I didn't get a whole lot of time to linger, but it was still cool. On the top floor, one of the staff, an Indian man named Caesar who was probably in his late fifties or early sixties, started talking to me and telling me about Dickens and about himself and his family. He said A Tale of Two Cities is his favorite book and he has read it more than a dozen times. When I mentioned my studying in Germany, he said he was planning to go to Stuttgart to meet his daughter, and he was going to surprise her by telling her he would help pay for her to study in France! We had a really nice talk, until one of the other staff came up to tell us it was 5:10 and they had to lock up. I didn't mind the hurried walk-through of the house--the best part was meeting Caesar! He was awesome!
Walked back to the hostel after that (I saw a police bust on the way, right in the middle of the huge busy street that runs down to Blackfriars Bridge! The police all parked their cars every which way and tackled a guy to the ground to cuff him). Then I walked to Spitalfields Market (which turned out to be kind of a waste of time, because it's totally modern and I had to wade through the chaos of rush hour in the business district to get there), and then took the tube back to the hostel. From there I went to Tesco Express, got a tuna and cucumber sandwich, and returned to the Queen's Walk on the South Bank for one more evening view of St. Paul's and the Thames. Found a very nice bench and had a good dinner, but I didn't get to draw for very long because the wind got chilly and I had to get up and move!
I was planning to go to bed earlier because I had to get up early, but of course I didn't want to go inside and painted in the hostel courtyard for a bit. And then I went back to my room and, like always, made friends with all my roommates on the last night. There were two German girls (from Stuttgart! I tell you, I've met so many people from there!), an American girl named Lori from Georgia who plays softball and is currently on a team in Germany, and a British girl named Abi who was in London doing job interviews to be a nanny. We talked until midnight . . . heehee, so much for the "going to bed early" thing.
Found out from Abi, though, that the earliest trains didn't start running till almost 6, so I was able to move my wake-up time ahead from 4 am to 5 am. It was already light when I got up, and the tube station gate was still closed when I got there, so I did one more farewell lap around St. Paul's before heading down into the station.
Not much to tell after that . . . one hour on the train to Heathrow, and then I had a panic attack when I got off at the terminal because I couldn't figure out if I was in the right terminal or not and I thought my flight time was 8:50 am Central European time, so I was afraid I would miss my flight. Turns out my flight was scheduled for 8:50 Greenwich Mean Time, and then it was delayed three hours. So I was more than fine. It was like God was telling me (gently, but very clearly), "See? I HAVE THINGS UNDER CONTROL, RACHEL. Do you fully trust Me to take care of you yet?" Boy, I wish my emotions wouldn't get the better of me when I get stressed. I KNOW God will take care of me--it's getting my "freaking out" instinct to believe that!
Anyway, that was my adventure in London! Super tired today and I came down with a sore throat this afternoon, but I don't care. It was an awesome week. Before I sign off and go to bed, here's one more thing (sorry, it's not photos--those will have to wait till tomorrow):
Fun and Random Stuff about London
- Joanna and Mom, here's one for you: Runners run with backpacks. Most of the people you see out running the river walkway or the parks have packs on. And they're not the little teeny packs. No, these packs are full and go thunk, thunk, thunk when the person runs by. What do they put in there? Water bottles? Weights? Bricks? It's a mystery.
- The Salvation Army, which was founded in London in the 1860s, has its international headquarters on Queen Victoria Street, the street that runs down from St. Paul's to the Millennium Bridge.
- London accents are not the "proper" British accent Americans tend to associate with the English. It's actually a lot more cockney-sounding, or if not cockney, then it sounds sloppy: "Well, I told 'im it might be a li'l be'er if 'e took the rail to 'Ampstead, rather than goin' the long way round . . . "
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