Day 34 - Europe 2010

Today was pretty awesome.  We got to see quite a few cool things and experience the best of London, I think.

We started out heading to the Parliament buildings where we saw could see the River Thames and the London Eye and the Big Ben all from one spot.  After a photo shoot there, we walked through the Parliament buildings which were really impressive.  You can go inside and watch Parliament in session, which would have been really interesting, no doubt, but the line to get in and watch was a bit too long and we had too many other things to do today.  Just the outside was fascinating enough and I thought it must be cool to work in such a fancy district of London.

We walked through St. James Park a bit, which had a lot of different kinds of ducks and geese resting and playing on the ponds there, some I’d never seen before.  I love all the big parks in the big cities and London has quite a few.

We were right by Buckingham Palace after our walk and were ready to see the changing of the guard.  The whole experience was slightly disappointing, actually.  Buckingham Palace was much smaller than I expected.  See how jaded I am?  Not even Buckingham Palace can faze me now.  It was still an impressive building but the Victoria Monument in front of it was more interesting, with a beautiful golden winged woman on top.  I took a ton of pictures of that monument and just a few of the palace.

The street was completely flooded with people to see the changing of the guard so I really didn’t get that great of a view.  The guards in their red coats and fuzzy hats went marching through the street with a band accompanying them.  That part was neat.  Inside the gates of the palace, more guards were all lined up ready to change over.  Once the marchers got to the palace and inside the gates though, I couldn’t really see enough to enjoy it.  There were rows of people in front of me blocking my view.  I heard there wasn’t all that much to see anyway so we just left and I was happy enough to see the guards marching.

We headed back toward the Parliament area and popped into the Cabinet War Rooms museum.  This is a set of rooms underground where Churchill and other government officials made plans and preparations for WWII.  The cool thing about this place was they left it undisturbed from its previous use so a lot of the furnishings, wall hangings, and light fixtures were all original and untouched.  They had wax figures dressed in 40s clothing doing the various jobs in the rooms so that made it more interesting and more real too.  There was also a very good audio guide included in the price and it explained the purpose of the rooms and what went on there.  It was very informative.

I especially liked the maps on the walls.  These still had pins in them showing where ships were going or troops were stationed.  I also liked the room with the typists where they had to write out things that Churchill said.  On the audio guide you could hear what one of the typists wrote about Churchill and how difficult it was to work for him.  She said if you misheard him and you weren’t sure what to type then you could either ask him to repeat himself and risk getting your head bitten off, leave it blank and hope it came to you later, or leave it blank and take your best guess at what he probably said based on what you had already written.  Anyway, it sounded pretty stressful.

There was one room that was very interesting because on the door it said it was a bathroom and the lock showed it as always being occupied.  But inside was a room where Churchill could call the president of the United States and others without risk of being overheard or his call being traced.  I guess almost everyone working in the war rooms there thought it was a bathroom always occupied or out of order when really it was one of the best kept secrets of the place.  How cool is that?  Overall, we really enjoyed that museum as it was a great look at history.

From there we went just down the road to Westminster Abbey which ended up being my favorite of all the churches I have visited here in Europe.  Like the war rooms, they also had a fantastic audio guide explaining a lot about the church and its history, including the many different rooms and tombs there.  Wow, it was all so fascinating and the church itself was so very beautiful.  Too bad I couldn’t take any photos inside, agh!

What I loved about this church was that it was big but not overwhelming big, beautifully decorated but not distractingly so, and it was so much more lit up than other churches I’d been in.  I really enjoyed the colors and decorations in the center of the church.  There was a lot of red and gold and a rich blue too.  There was a glorious golden altar with an impressive tile floor before it.  A barefoot priest was walking along the tile floor cleaning it and looking for spots he had missed.  This is where kings and queens of England, including the current Queen Elizabeth, had been coronated.  There was a feeling of quiet and respect there and I sat on one of the chairs to experience the atmosphere for a while.

Along the back of the church were a great many tombs all decorated with sculptures.  Many of the tombs were topped with a sculpture of the dead figure within which was slightly creepy but more fascinating than anything since I got to see what Queen Elizabeth looked like along with many others.  Other tombs told more of a story about the dead, including a man and woman lying on a bed with their six sons holding it up, only one looking up to heaven as only one son outlived his father.  It was fun to hear the different stories about the tombs on the audio guide.  I love history!

There was a really neat room at the back of the church with an incredible ceiling.  It kind of made up for my bummer Cambridge experience since the fan vaulting inside this room was similar to that of Kings College.  The columns of the room come up along the walls and spread out into a web of white lines when reaching the ceiling.  It is much more beautiful and impressive than I am able to describe.  Adding a lot of color and interest to the room were hangings of different flags along each wall, most likely representing different royal houses though I’m not really sure.  At the back of the room was a beautiful stained-glass window that was built to commemorate the soldiers of WWII.

In another area very near the center of the church was a collection of tombs and memorials for writers and poets, called the Poets Corner.  There was a statue of Shakespeare there and I especially enjoyed the statue of Handel, composer of the Messiah.  There were a lot of memorials on the floor there but most of the names I did not recognize as I’m not much of a literature buff.

From there we went out into the cloisters which I really loved.  There was a little square there and all along it ran this hall with arches looking out onto the square.  It felt like something out of a story book or a movie, especially with that medieval feel and the light coming through the archways to light up the shady halls.  There was another room off the cloisters called the Chapter House with a domed roof and very old frescoes covering the greater portion of the walls.  This is where the monks would meet to hear and recite the scriptures.

There was a quiet garden there and we stopped for a quick break, taking in the beauty and quiet of the place.  I was very much enjoying my experience in the abbey and there was only one more part to see: the nave!  So we went back through the cloisters and into the abbey to the long hall leading up to the golden altar.  This is where you appreciate the height of the building and its golden interior, along with its peaceful atmosphere.  Like the Triumphal Arc in Paris, there was a memorial to an unknown soldier who had died in the Great War.  Then we exited having fully enjoyed our experience in that very unique, beautiful, and historic church.

We walked back up along the Parliament buildings to Trafalgar Square which really isn’t all that impressive when it comes to squares.  The monument in the middle is pretty lackluster compared to others I have seen, the great lions on bottom outshining it by far.  But that wasn’t our destination, really.  By the square is the National Gallery, our final art museum of this trip.  Not nearly as extensive as the Louvre, it is still home to a few famous works that we were excited to see.

I suppose I most enjoyed seeing the Ambassadors the most.  You would probably recognize this painting with the two men standing in front of a green background with a variety of objects, including maps and globes and such, in between them.  Most recognizable is the very odd elongated skull at their feet.  It was a much bigger painting than I expected and yet another that is so much more impressive in person.  I also got to see the Arnolfini Marriage which is so detailed I just couldn’t stop staring.  Way to go Jan van Eyk!  I mean, the woman’s hand, though maybe the size of a quarter if that, had these tiny little lines along it to show the creases and wrinkles.  I was especially impressed by the grainy texture of the sandals on the floor.  Wow.

There were a few other famous works but nothing that got me to stop and stare as much as those two.  I was a little frustrated because we were short on time and my feet were killing me at this point.  I was trying to see everything so we were running through as efficiently as possible but I was still short on time.  Unfortunately, we got to the really good stuff last, which were the Impressionist rooms.  We were able to see Seurat’s Bathers at Asnieres, which was very large and so neat to study.  I am telling you, these prints you see in books do not even compare to standing in front of the painting when you can really see the brush strokes and appreciate the colors.

We saw some more Renoir but were suddenly shooed out of the room when getting to the van Goghs.  I admit, I was really mad.  I still had five minutes before closing and that would have been enough to fit in the last two rooms.  But they started lining us up and kicking us out and I got cheated out of my five minutes.  I started walking up to the van Gogh, his sunflowers, mind you, and this woman told me to stay in line toward the door.  I wanted to say, “Really?  I think I have five more minutes and I only need 20 seconds to look at this painting, lady.”  So, if you know there is something you want to see in a museum and you’re limited on time, go there first and see if you can fit in the rest after.  I was going for efficiency and it cost me my Impressionism experience.  Darn!

We rested our feet for a bit and watched this man walk his crazy pet ferret.  No London experience is complete without a bit of ferret watching, right?  Anyway, we had a bit of time to kill so we took our time heading toward the theatre and enjoyed a bit more of the London scenery.  We decided that we really liked London.  It has such neat historic buildings but is still very modern and very clean.  And hey, everyone speaks English so that’s a plus!  We were feeling glad to be there.

We headed toward the theatre to watch Wicked and were getting pretty excited.  Right away we could tell this was going to be quite the production.  The theatre was big but we were happy with our seats and had a decent view of the stage.  The stage itself was decked out.  There were multiple levels to it and on top was a huge mechanical dragon.  Wow.

I suppose I should give a little synopsis for those who aren’t familiar with the story.  Wicked is about the Wicked Witch of the West, as seen on the Wizard of Oz, and how she came to be where she was on the movie.  She was born green and went to school to learn magic and sorcery where she met the much less talented but very popular Glinda, the White Witch in Oz.  They become friends and the story goes on from there but I don’t want to get into details.

The show was really quite the experience.  Right away I enjoyed the very creative costumes which were definitely fantasy.  The sets and props were also very impressive.  But the cast and the music were the best!  Both Elphaba, the green witch, and Glinda, the white witch, were incredible singers.  Nick and I loved the music and the acting talent!  They were busting out these incredible notes like it was nothing and the characters were so believable!  We have since bought the Wicked album but I think the cast we had in London sounded better.  Anyway, if you have a chance to go and see that show, do it!  Although I would say the story itself was more like a ‘B,’ I still gave the whole show an ‘A’ because of the incredible soundtrack, acting, and costumes.  It was a really good time through and through.

So we went home very happy with our day and what a great ending it had.  Only one more day left of our trip before heading home!

PHOTOS:

(Sadly, these photos are not my own.  See Day 36 for details)

We saw the Big Ben and heard it chime too!  I thought of Peter Pan landing on it in the Disney movie.

Here are the Parliament buildings as seen from across the River Thames.  You can see the Big Ben there too.

Buckingham Palace was much smaller than I expected but the grounds around it were beautiful with this big red carnations.  You can see the Victoria Monument in the front, which I thought was gorgeous.

Here is another look at the Victoria Monument.  I loved the golden winged woman on top.  Her wings were beautiful.

The changing of the guard included a band and that was fun to hear.  We loved their outfits but it must have been so hot!

On the lower right, you can see the entrance to the Cabinet War Rooms which go down underground.

Here is a wax figure looking at a map on the wall.  Look at the phones, light fixtures, books.  Everything is authentic, including the map on the wall!  So cool!

Outside Westminster Abbey.  I had no idea I would love this church so much!  It was beautiful inside and out!

This is the choir area just across from the golden altar.  It was really peaceful in that area and the audio guide let you here some choir music which was neat.

Here is the chapel in the back of the abbey.  See the fan vaulting above?  That's what I was hoping to see at Kings College Cathedral but at least I got to see it here and it was gorgeous!  I loved that room!

Here are the cloisters.  Again, I felt like I was walking through a bit of fantasy land here because the arches and windows and lighting made it feel so enchanting.

This is the chapter house where the monks would gather to hear and recite scriptures.  This was a stunning room with the stained-glass windows and old paintings along the walls below them.

Here is a look at the nave with the memorial on the ground below.  I sat on those chairs for a while and enjoyed the much lighter interior than so many other churches we'd been in.

Trafalgar Square - not much to say about it.  I guess if I knew my history better but on this I don't.

From another angle, you can see the National Gallery there where we were able to see a lot of cool paintings!

This is the Ambassadors painting by Holbein.  I was so impressed with the textures in this painting which you can't really get on screen or in print.  See the funky elongated skull on bottom?  Who knows.

And the Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyk.  It wasn't really that big but he had is jam packed with detail so I spent a good while staring at it.  I am definitely an admirer.

This is one of those paintings that I wasn't a big fan of until I saw it in person.  Just seeing all the brush strokes and the different colors used, it's really fun to pick it apart and see the skill involved.  What a fun piece!

I found pictures of the actresses we saw in London here.  I thought the cast was just too perfect.  What a fun time that was.  Nick is listening to the soundtrack as I write this.

And I just LOVED the costumes.  They really added so much flare and color to the stage!  This doesn't even show the best of it but it was the biggest I could find.