Julia took us back to her and Richard's house in Islington, a nice residential area of the city. We met their two cats (Humbert and Mathilda) and had tea, lebkeuchen, and oranges. We also looked at photos and then freshened up.
Julia took us back to her and Richard's house in Islington, a nice residential area of the city. We met their two cats (Humbert and Mathilda) and had tea, lebkeuchen, and oranges. We also looked at photos and then freshened up.
We left the house at around 11 am, with Julia as our guide. It was a beautiful day. It was near 50 degrees, the sun was shining, and the skies were perfectly blue. We caught a double decker bus (#38), and were able to get a seat in the very front of the upper section. We had a great view of the city, and I was able to get my bearings pretty quickly (a rare thing indeed!) You hop on the bus at any stop, and if you don't have a daily TravelCard, the conductors will come around and sell you tickets after you have gotten settled.
We got off the bus near Buckingham Palace. We walked around and saw the palace, the Queen Victoria Memorial,
St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the Thames, the
London Eye (the observation
wheel which was built for the new millennium whose opeing had been delayed due to technical
problems had just opened to existing ticket holders that very day), Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus,
Leicester Square, and the Covent Garden Opera House. We ate lunch outdoors at Ponti's at the Piazza in
Covent Garden. We then took the bus back to Julia and Richard's.
We originally met Julia and Richard online through the Tom Waits email discussion list. She
and Richard came to Boston in September 2000 to see Tom Waits in concert, and we met up
with them then. So it was fitting that at their house we sat and watched a tape of Tom Waits on
the BBC in 1979. We then listened to a recording of Jack Kerouac reading On the Road
and looked at more photos. We met Julia's daughter, also named Julia. We ate a wonderful
dinner that Julia had prepared (soup, toast, and salad with sour cream.) Julia went to the
theater that night and Richard was working late. We were exhausted, and after talking to the younger
Julia and her friend for a while, we went to bed at 8:00.
We woke up at 7 am. We ate hot cross buns and "American-style" chocolate chip muffins. We
then walked to the nearest bus station and took the bus to Piccadilly Circus. We saw the
changing of the Queen's Life Guard. We took an audio tour of the Cabinet War Rooms, where Churchill
and his cabinet met during the bombing of london in WWII. We went into Westminster Abbey, which was
beautiful, but it was also sensory overload. It was amazing how many people were buried there, and
there were monuments to countless others who were buried esewhere. We had bangers and mash for
lunch near St. James Park.
We then took the Tube to Tower Hill. We went to the Tower of London
and luckily caught the last Beefeater tour of the day. Our Beefeater
(Yeoman Warder) guide
was named George Brodie. He was quite entertaining and funny, and we
learned a lot about the history of the Tower. It was not crowded at all, and when we went to see the
Crown Jewels, there was only one other couple in the vault with us. There were moving
walkways so that there is not a bottleneck of people looking at the jewels. We were able to
get right back onto the moving walkway to have a second peek, since there were no crowds. By
far the most impressive thing (in my mind anyway) was the Greater Star of Africa, the world's
largest cut diamond. The weather was overcast and by the end of our stay at the Tower of London,
it was sprinkling.
We took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus and ate fish and chips at Waxy O'Connor's Irish pub. While walking back to the Tube, I spotted a poster for Fantasia 2000 at the Pepsi Trocadero IMAX theater. It never made it to Boston in IMAX format, so we were psyched to see it. The next showing was in five minutes, so our timing was perfect.
After the movie, we took the Tube to Angel and then caught a bus back to Julia and Richard's
where Julia served us authentic homemade Russian borscht. Not being big fans of beets, we
were very pleasanty surprised, as it was delicious!
We woke up at 7. After a quick breakfast, we walked through Canonbury to
Islington/Highbury Station. We took the Tube to Victoria Station, at which point we took the
British Rail to Canterbury West. It was a two hour journey. We realized afterwards that
Canterbury East would have been the better way to go (1 1/2 hours). We took a cab to the
Canterbury Cathedral. Before going on the
cathedral tour, we ate lunch at the Old Monk Refectory, which is in the building just next
to the Cathedral Gate. I had a beef and coriander burger, and Craig had lamb chops. After
lunch, we went on a self-guided tour of the cathedral. It was beautiful. It was much less
crowded and cluttered than Westminster Abbey.
After that, we walked around and went into some of the shops. One of my goals from this trip was to buy a wool sweater, and I found a pretty blue one on clearance at an Edinburgh Woolen Mill for 9.99 pounds! Craig found a new Rick Wakeman CD at the HMV there.
We walked to the Canterbury East station, and took the train to Chatham (it was a 40 minute ride). We walked through the shopping district of Chatham. We found the Central Theatre, where we had front row tickets to see Rick Wakeman. Thanks to Julia for procuring the tickets for us! Seeing absolutely no signs for the show, we asked two women in the lobby if Rick was indeed playing there that night, They said yes, and laughed that we had come all the way from America. She said that Rick's car was around back, though it was a bit dirty. So, of course, we walked around the back to catch a glimpse of his car (a BMW with a license plate of "RW 100"). It really wasn't that dirty.
We went into Woolworth's and some other shops in search of postcards, but none were to be found.
It really wasn't a touristy town. We went off in search of the vistor's center, but eventually gave
up. We went into the Hogshead Tavern for a pint. We killed a lot of time in there and planned
to eat supper there as well. The kitchen was closed, and there was confusion about when it
was to reopen for dinner. When it still hadn't opened at 6 pm, we left. What a difference! The streets
that had been bustling with shoppers were now deserted, and no stores nor restaurants were open.
We ended up settling for McDonald's. As it was the only place open, it was packed with
people. And we discovered that fast food is not as fast as it is in America. Also, there are
no "double" anythings at McDonald's in England. Portions are much smaller.
We then went back to the Central Theater. There was a lounge downstairs, and we sat there until it was time to take our seats. We were in the front row center, and Rick Wakeman was amazing. Craig wrote a review of the show for the Rick Wakeman website. At the end of the concert, Rick greeted fans in the lobby. We tried to get toward the end of the line, as we didn't want to be rushed. It turned out that when Rick came out, he started at the back of the line, so we became first. He was very friendly, and seemed genuinely delighted that we had come from the States to see him. He talked to us for quite a while, patted Craig on the back, and kissed me on the cheek. We apologized for taking up so much of his time when there were others waiting. He reassured us that they would wait if they really wanted to talk to him. We got some other fans to take our picture with him.
We walked back to the train, where we were able to sit in a first class car since it was so empty. At Victoria, we got onto the Tube. Craig got on before I did, and the doors closed as I was about to step on. I was mortified! He had all of the British money, so I was standing penniless on the platform, not knowing how or where to meet up. Luckily, someone must have seen me, as the doors opened for one split second and I hopped on, adrenaline rushing. We took a night bus from Angel to Islington, and arrived back at the house by 12:30 am.
We woke up at 8:00. After breakfast, we took the 38 bus to The British Museum, in time for its opening at 10:00. We saw the Egyptian exhibit (which was amazing...the Rosetta Stone, the Book of the Dead, and mummies galore), Greek and Roman artifiacts, and a fascinating money exhibit. Flash photography was not only permitted, it was encouraged. Also, it was amazing for us as Americans (who get chastised in a museum if we stand too close to a painting) to be able to approach the Rosetta Stone, which isn't even behind glass. We ate at the museum cafe. Craig had a curry chicken sandwich and I had a bacon and brie sandwich. After the museum, we did some souvinir shopping. We took the bus back to Islington and bought some groceries. Back at the house, we ate pasta and wrote postcards.
We got dressed up for an evening at the theater. We ate small pancakes with salmon pate and cod paste, as well as Smatana (a Russian version of sour cream). We departed for the Barbican. (It was very close by; we left the house 30 minutes prior to curtain time). Richard ordered drinks for the interval (intermission) when we arrived. The Barbican Royal Shakespeare Company theater was very nice. There are staircases on each side marked with letters so that you can easily find your seat without an usher. The seats were plush and had plenty of legroom. We were in the third row. The production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was phenomenal. At the interval, our drinks were waiting on a table, labeled with Richard's name. That was a major cultural difference between England and the States...in England, they trust people much more, and the people seem worthy of said trust.
After the show, we drove by the Lloyd's of London building in "the City of London" (the business district). It's a very industrial-looking structure (all of the duct-work is on the outside) and it was lit up blue at night. Then we went to the Marquess Pub in Islington (near Canonbury) for pints. I had an orange Bacardi Breezer (which was available in most bars and restaurant as a nice alternative to beer). We then went back to Richard and Julia's house and talked and played with the cats for a while.
We got up at 8:30 and ate breakfast. We chatted with Richard and Julia for a while and left the house at 10:30. Richard drove us all to Hever Castle. It turned out to be closed until March. We tried another nearby castle, which was also closed. We ate lunch in Tunbridge Wells (the site of a healing spring) at the Regency Restaurant and Tea Rooms. I had a chicken, leek, and bacon pie, and Craig had a beef and mushroom pie. They came with squash, potatoes, kale, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflour. It was delicious! Tunbridge Wells was a very picturesque little town with shops and restaurants.
We drove to Leeds Castle in Maidstone. It was very nice and had quite a history. However, it had been inhabited until 1974, so it was quite modernized. There were lots of birds on the gorgeous grounds, but it was drizzly and we arrived late, so we couldn't really walk around very much.
On the way back to Islington, we passed the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. Richard made a delicious dinner of cod with peppers and tomatoes. We also had mashed potatoes and a French white wine. His secret banana dessert was incredible!
We then went to the Barbican to see Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins. The singer, Anne Sofie von Otter, was incredible, and she did several encores.
We took the Tube to St. Paul's. We spent about an hour looking for a place to eat lunch. We realized we should have eaten near the Dungeon, where we had seen lots of restaurants. The places that existed near St. Paul's were mainly for businesspeople; signs forbade "site clothes". We ended up eating at the Grapevine at Cheapside. It was a tiny restaurant. I had spaghetti Bolognese, and Craig had chicken with cheese and mushroom's. After lunch we had planned to tour St. Paul's, but it was closed for a private service.
We took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus. The Lesbian Avengers were protesting a law which would forbid the teaching of homosexuality in schools. They hijacked a double decker bus and painted it pink, and they 
climbed the statues. Some young men standing behind us briefed us on the whole situation. We joked about how this would be handled in America.
We then had an early dinner at the Stock Pot. We got a 2 course chicken hot pot meal for 3.70 pounds. Craig got the minestrone soup, and I had the apple crumble custard. We decided to see Fantsia 2000 again. We went up the wrong escalator in the Pepsi Trocadero building, and were unable to find the theater at first. All escalators seemed to go up We finally went the wrong way down an escalator and found the IMAX thater again. We walked to Liecester Square, and then took the Tube back to Richard and Julia's for curried chicken and rice and good conversation. We went to bed at midnight,
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