On the eight day after Christmas...

We departed on the tube nice and early to get to Windsor Castle just when they opened. And it was a good thing too bacause there was a long line to get in after just an hour or two. Started off seeing the Doll's House which was freakin' awesome! Great detail, but definitely not the kind of doll house you play which (which it was never designed to be played with). Then it was up thought the State Aprtments which where also very cool. Very nice to see all the different styles and stories behind them. The only stinky part was that photography was strictly prohibited. Interesting that you can take pictures in Hampton Court (minus a few rooms) but not in Windsor Castle... Oh well, I got a few exterior shots of the buildings...

St. George's inside the compound was also gorgeous! I just love all those wonderfully old architectural styles. The quire with all the knight's seats were nice, especially with all the coat-of-arms decorating the various knight's stalls.

The Windsor trip rounded out with a nice lunch at one of the many cafes near the Windsor Station. I had a nice two course meal that started out with a mushroom dish accented with spinach leaves and a mild cheese. The main course was a French variation on bangers and mash. Both were pretty good, especially the mushrooms.

The afternoon was a bit of a debacle... Elaine (the art professor) and I were planning on going to the Design Museum because Bernie (the other theatre professor) had a coupon for "two for the price of one" deal. He was picking tickets for a show tonight and there was a miss communication where we thought he was coming back to the hostel so we went back there and waited... and waited... and waited... Long story short, he was still out shopping for his family. So, not museum today, it got rescheduled for Wedensday morning...

Then several of us when out for dinner and a show. We ate at the Spaghetti House and were served by a waitress from Poland! One thing I've noticed here is that most of the people who work in restaurants are not English. It can make ordering and whatnot a little interesting at times... then we were off to the Criterion Theatre to see "39 Steps." It was hilarious! It's a four person show but way more than just four parts. One guy played just one character and the other three, a gal and two guys, played all the other roles (and one of the guys, the short one, played half the female roles). It's a rip roaring time, especially since it was an Alfred Hitchcock movie and the mentioned most of his movies as part of the dialog. Basically, if your get a chance to see "39 Steps," take it!

Well, it's past midnight and the coach leaves tomorrow at 8am so I'll sign off for tonight...

On the seventh day after Christmas...

Was another rainy day... Well, it started out just being overcast and it wasn't supposed to have a chance of rain until around 16:00, but this is London and it started raining about noon. The stinky part about this was that we had gone out to Hampton Court today (the estate that Cardinal Woseley "gave" to Henry VIII) and we didn't get to walk arrouond and enjoy the Gardens because of the rain.

The actual palace was great! We got to go through the whole Tudor era kitchen complex where they were actually preparing a meal for that afternoon so we got to watch them and see things like the roasting rack in use (picture to come later). Learned lots of cool stuff too, like approximately 70% of the court's diet was meat (because meat was expensive and Henry VIII had to impress the foreign dignitaries)! The court had to travel around the country and spend time in various places because it would literally consume all the areas resources, and they paid for it too, so nothing so the king didn't get any freebies. And did you know that the pies (a meat pie for example) were just another method of cooking? That is to say that when you got the pie, you cut off the top, ate the insides, and discarded the dough shell (which was just flour and water anyway). It was a very education experience learning about the dietary and culinary practices of the time...

The Tudor part of the palace was really interesting and it was great to see a lot of Tudor era architecture, furniture, and tapestries in person (and many pictures we taken for source material).

The Georgian era additions were pretty interesting as well. The layout was very familiar having already been to several royal palaces in St. Petersburg, Russia, but it was nice to see the darker, wooden textures used more at Hampton Court as opposed to lighter, plastered textures Peterhoff or the Winter Palace in the Heritage. All in all, it was a designer/architecture lover's paradise...

Following that, I went back to St. Paul's Cathedral tonight to hear an organ recital to began the celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year. It was a pretty interesting concert, although I personally felt that the acoustics hurt the softer sections of the music because it just kind of got all muddled together and the delicate details got lost in the vastness of the space. Oh, we'll... It was a free concert and it was enjoyable overall.

Alas, the alarm clock will be sound off in just shy of seven hours so I suppose I should go to sleep... Tomorrow, we are off to Windsor Castle!

On the sixth day after Christmas...

We went to the New Globe Theatre complex this morning. I've seen pictures of it before but it was really cool to actually see it and walk aroung in it. They wouldn't let us go on stage but that's OK I guess... probably something about liability if someone feel off it and hurt themself... The only bad thing about being in the Globe was that they are doing some repairs to part of the roof over the stage so there was scaffolding covering up the sides of the stage. I could have spent another hour or two in the museum but Bernie said they had added alot since there were here three years ago so he hadn't scheduled enough time... I just need to head back over there to pick up a few things from the gift shop if I can, they have reprints of some of th plays in the actual origingal first folio typography!

Then we had a short walk over to St. Paul's Cathedral... Yippe! I had a blast... I only wish we were allowed to take pictures inside the church, oh well... There wasn't anything scheduled afterward so after we got there it pretty much was up to each person to decide how long they wanted to be there. We got in the building a little before 13:00 and I finished up my personal tour (I listened to every audio bit on the personal "tour guides" you could pick up and listen too as you walked around) around 4:15, had dinner at a little pizza place across the street, and then went back in to St. Paul's for the evening prayer service. I was a little bummed it was just a prayer service and not the Evensong service but seeing how it was New Year's Eve, I made my peace with it... But I might try to make it to one next week...

I finished up the night in Parliment Square where I celebrated the arrival of the New Year with hundreds of thousands complete strangers! I had a great view of The Clock Tower and could eaily hear Big Ben ring in the New Year. I shot a 10+ minute video of the countdown and the massive firework display that followed. And I'll try to post it when I get home and actually have a reliable, fast internet connection...

Well, it's the New Year here in London and I need to go to bed so I can make it through tomorrow...

On the fifth day after Christmas…

I…. Saw… Some… Stones…

Yup, that’s right, we went to Stone Henge. I would like to go back again someday in the future though. We only had 45 minute there and that just wasn’t enough time for proper picture taking in my opinion… Although, it was raining which made for a little challenge trying to keep my camera lens dry. And just so you know… The Druids had nothing to do with the building of Stone Henge. That’s a bunch of hogs wallop promulgated by some dude long ago who made a guess that they built it, but he was wrong…

We then got back on the bus and headed over to Bath. The rain made our time in there a little on less fun side. Most of the Roman bath build/museum was indoors so that was good. It is interesting how, after they were discovered, they just took the old Roman ruins and foundations and just built right on top of it to create a new version while preserving as much of the original as they could.

After that we split up into smaller groups and had some free time to explore whatever we wanted. I went to the Fashion Museum… Well, it was a great source for period clothes. I didn’t have much time so I mainly just took a lot of pictures of the clothing and the descriptions so I can go back later and actually read about it. But, this is a must stop for all my costuming friends out there in theatre land. Not that you should fly over here just to see it (because it’s not overly large and they rotate the displays), but if your over here sometime, I think it would be worthwhile.

It was raining pretty steadily after that so I we tried to stay indoors a little more than I would have liked. Plus, I didn’t get to take as many pictures of the various architecture styles as I would have liked to… It was mostly Georgian/English Baroque but I know I’ll wish later that I could have taken more shots…

On the fourth day after Christmas…

We went to the TOWER OF LONDON!!!! Don, don, DOOOOONNNN!!!

OK, It’s not really scary but it was pretty cool and educational! I was disappointed with the Crown Jewels though… I mean the crowns and what not were nice and I enjoyed some the historical aspects like the coronation robe (incase I need it for Henry the V).but overall I was disappointed with the lack of volume. I guess I just expected more than just a couple of rooms, something more like a dozen rooms with more than just crowns and plates. Not that any of it wasn’t cool… I just thought there’d be more… One suggestion though, go early in the morning, like shortly after they open and head straight for the Jewels! We didn’t wait at all to get in but an hour later there was a line 200 people long, at least…

Now, the Beef Eaters are pretty cool! And pretty funny as well, so if you’re ever at the Tower, I strongly suggest you take a tour with them… They are a wealth of information! So just do it…

After the Tower of London, we hoped on over to Westminster Abbey. It was also pretty neat, and I could care less about the whole William and Kate wedding, I just liked the memorials and tombs. Interesting history that place is… Of course, next time I go through (and there will be a next time), I think I get one of the personal tour guide listening devices so I can learn a little more rather than just looking at stuff. And yes, Poets Corner was up there with my favorite parts, so many names of people I’ve read and performed.

Then we went to TKTS to look at shows with half price tickets available. I ended up going to see “The Lion in Winter.” It was kind of cool to see a play about English monarchs played by British folks… Of course, I the guy playing King Philip of France should have had some sort of French accent…

On the third day after Christmas…

We arrived in London, took the Tube from Heathrow to Gloucester Road, and got to the Hotsel that we are staying at while here. We got there around 11 am… but we couldn’t check in until 2pm…

First they said we could stow our luggage down stair so we all started down only to stop with a third of the group downstairs, a third on the stairs (and were talkin’ tight, twisty Georgian era stairs and I was near the bottom), and a third still at the top because there wasn’t any space down stairs… So we had to go back up the stairs and wait in the lobby while we try to figure out what to do. We ended up being able to put all our bags in “The Guys” room until two when we could get the other rooms. After that we walked around a little bit in the area checking it out and grab a little bit to eat until the rooms were ready…

I went with a couple of folks to a little local place called “Paul’s” and had a latte, a French bacon and tomato thing, and some French custard and pastry layered thingy that was delicious! I was really glad I went to a local place instead of the BK or KFC  that were right next door… I didn’t want my first meal in London to be at an American fast food place…

After finally getting into our rooms we had a little time to relax and get ready for a night on the town. I took a shower, which was great after a long day on planes and sitting in airports.

We left around 5pm to head into town for our first night in London. So we went to the Eye… But the first thing that we see when we came out of the Tube was the Parliament Building with Big Ben (the tower clock) staring right us. It looks awesome at night! In fact lots of London looks great at night is pretty…

Finally, it was bedtime… And sleep was much needed…

On the second day after Christmas...

Today's another experiment... Since most major airports like to nickle and dime you by making you pay for Internet access, I'll rebel in the only way I know how and post today's blog from my phone taking advantage of the unlimited data plan I have with Sprint.

Up and at 'Em early this morning as my super long day got started. I was at Detroit Metro by 10am (after catching the Michigan Flyer in Jackson at 8:55am). Flight was delayed an hour but I had planned for delays and got to Atlanta with plenty of time to spare. Chilled in the B gate terminal while I awaited the arrival of the rest of the Bryan Folks.

They got here about sixish and I met them at the North Terminal British Airway where I did some repacking before checking my bag (which they had brought down for me so I didn't have to take it up to Michigan). Now I'm just relaxing in gate E14 as we wait to board the plane to London. In fact, they just started the boarding process so I should wrap this up...

Next post will probably be tomorrow before hitting the hay. I'm sure I'll be tired because I probably won't sleep before then (other than short, restless naps). Hopefully I'll have the picture thing worked out be then...