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November 18, 2011

Changing of the Guards, London Eye, and a show

Pageantry. Pure and simple. Interesting to watch? Not really. Reason to watch? None except to say you did it while in London. If you happen to see it while glancing around Buckingham Palace, great. Although I would not go out of my way to see the pageantry of some people coming in and some people going out.

Buckingham Palace

Since members of the Royal family do live there, you can only tour specific parts of the palace. And since this is the off season of London travel, even those limited location are off limits. That being said our visit to Buckingham was more or less to see the changing of the guards and to get some pictures of the exterior. Pretty uneventful.

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a shopping area filled with everything from street vendors selling cheap souvenirs and chicken sandwiches to high end brand stores.  All throughout our travel in London we were looking for some local art and were coming up empty.  At Covent Garden we came across a stand of watercolor arts by John Pester- he was selling his own art.  He had some pretty fantastic stuff and we walked away with a few prints :-)

London Eye

This is one of those really touristy, overpriced things to do in London- and honestly, if we hadn’t had a 2for1 coupon for this I don’t think we would have done at.  At more than $30/person it’s expensive!!!  But it was $30 for both of us because of the coupon so we went for it!  It was a beautiful, clear day (God always blesses our weather so abundantly when we travel!) and the views were amazing from the Eye.  I really enjoyed being able to see London’s skyline and especially St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance, it was great to see it from another point of view.

Phantom of the Opera

After dinner we headed over to Her Majesty’s Theatre to see the Phantom of the Opera. New York and London are considered the best of the best in the theatre world, but based off my recollection of the first time I saw the Phantom at the Orpheum theater I did not perceive to large of a difference in the quality of the production. Amy disagreed stating that since we saw it so long ago at the Orpheum (roughly 7 years) that to compare it to the London production was not even relevant. That aside it was a very well done production with the leads roles playing by very talented vocalists. I would definitely recommend taking in a showing of the Phantom of the Opera should you find yourself in London.

~Nathan
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November 17, 2011

Windsor Castle

Castle

Today we went took the train to Windsor and toured the (Windsor) castle. Have you ever heard the phrase or a variation of the phrase  ”money making money”? To me Windsor castle is an example of money costing money. By this I mean all of the luxuries, art, and treasures seem to cost a fortune to own and maintain. That of course if fueled by historical preservation (which has merit) and the pageantry of royalty (not to keen on). That aside, the priceless treasures are amazing in their historical value. The arms, art, housewares, furniture, clothing, architecture and many more things. It have been an amazing opportunity to come see this living part of history. Picture were not allowed inside the castle unfortunately.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

After the castle, in search of delicious food, we stumbled into a more unlikely joint called the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK). What makes this place unlikely is while on traveling we tent to avoid places the serve food from home. So a burger joint was not the top of my list. As many of you know I do not consider a good burger a crowning achievement for an American restraunt. A good burger is like having clean bath rooms, it is baseline expectations. Similarly I do not travel abroad to have a burger, we do burgers the best in the U.S.

What we found at GBK was a delicious burger based on naturally fed beef. Coupled with some fries (chips) and a Chocolate Milk shake, and you had a smashing lunch.

Also, while at GBK, Amy and I realized the British Sterling Pound monetary system has too many coins. Amy could not figure out how some of them worked and I just took a picture.

Less Eventful Rest of the Day

Ater lunch we did a little bit of shopping in the touristy mall area next to the train station. After an some uneventful shopping we headed back to the hotel for some relaxing before dinner. After having enjoyed Nando’s in Maryland and seeing a location on our way to the hotel when we arrived, we decided we would have to eat during our visit here. So we hit Nando’s for some spicy Peri-Peri chicken. We topped off the meal with spicy chicken with some sweet and smooth Carmel Cheesecake.

~Nathan
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November 16, 2011

A Whole Lot of London!

I think we are finally on London time! We awoke this morning and headed down to the “Breakfast Basement” at our hotel where we had the option of coffee or tea, orange juice, and ham & tomato or hard-boiled eggs, or a fried egg, bacon, and beans. Having tried the beans yesterday and not liking them Nathan and I opted for fried egg, bacon, and no beans. Delicious and free traditional English breakfast- check! Just another perk at our Victoria hotel, Luna Simone.

After our hearty breakfast we set out to see St. Paul’s Cathedral- something we skipped on Monday because of the fog. Arriving at the Cathedral around 10am we set out to climb the dome first. Hundreds of stairs later we arrived at the tip-top of St. Paul’s Dome with jaw-dropping views of London. So glad we skipped this during the fog and waited for God to do his thing and drop down some sunshine! Definitely worth the climb and cost (sidenote: buy the travelcard from a National Rail station and get the 2for1 offers at various London attractions- we are saving over $100 using this method and the weeklong travelcards for both of us only cost around $86!)

Next stop: Westminster! Arriving at Westminster Underground station we set out on Westminster Bridge to get some awesome shots and views of Parliament and Big Ole Ben. A little bit surreal to see some of London’s iconic sights! Onward to Westminster Abbey where we did not have a 2for1 ticket, but the price was still worth it. The included audio guide on this tour was a lifesaver and so informative! It really detailed what we were seeing and gave more history than we would have gotten otherwise. While there I kept trying to imagine where the 100s (1000s?) of people were seated during William and Kate’s wedding- I’ll have to do a google image search…

Onward to lunch at Westminster Arms- a small pub that after we had eaten there noticed that our Rick Steve’s guide book suggested eating there before going to the Cabinet War Rooms- which is exactly what we did! We split an order of fish and chips and a coke. Delish!

The Cabinet War Rooms were surprisingly awesome. I was unsure about doing this sight/museum, but once I realized that it focused on Winston Churchill during WWII I knew it was something Nathan would love, he’s got a thing for that era… (We also had another 2for1 coupon here!) Again, make sure and pick up the included audio guide- so great to get background details on the bunker/bomb proof spaces that Churchill strategized WWII from.

After learning a lot about the UK during WWII we headed over to Trafalgar Square to get some touristy pictures with the lions and tour the well known artists in The National Gallery (free). I adore Monet so of course we hit those paintings up along with some Rembrandt, Da Vinci (we actually got to see The Last Supper from a distance- crazy awesome!), Michaelangelo, Raphael, (typing this out makes me want to watch some TMNT), Van Gogh, and Renoir. We did kind of zoom through this museum, at this point in the day we were pretty museumed out.
All afternoon I was pretty darn excited because I was taking Nathan to see Wicked for the first time that night!!! (I’ve seen it in NYC with Jessica before :-) After the Gallery we headed back to the Luna Simone for a little rest break and to get fancied up for dinner and the theatre.

On to Bumbles we went where we ordered a bottle of Gewurztraminer (yum, one of my faves!) and we each ordered the 10 pound special 3-course meal. I got soup, pork, and brownie for dessert. Nathan got salad, fish and chips, and vanilla ice cream. Bumbles was highly recommended on the Trip Advisor board and I agree. Their customer service was excellent, food delicious, and the price just right.

Wicked was fantastic! It was different hearing the British accent from the actors, but it seemed to add a bit more class. I didn’t really like the actor that played Glenda the good witch in comparison to the New York version of Glenda. Her tone of voice and her acting in general just didn’t compare. Alphaba on the other hand was fantastic. Either way, everyone on stage had amazing talent in the singing department- wow- just wow.

Gotta wrap this up now, we’re heading out to Windsor Castle tomorrow!!!

~Amy
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November 15, 2011

Tower, bridge, art, and luxury mall

Action pack day 2 in London was a hoot despite the gray sky. We started out adventure at the Tower of London where we some of the crown jewels of the monarch. Of course the jewels could not be photographed. All I could think when looking at all of the different robes, crowns, scepters was how could someone actually prance around wearing such things. This and many other reasons are why I am not royalty. That is cool though. The structures of the tower were pretty cool, but honestly I was more impressed by the work of the Incas. This is likely due to the fact that I view the Europeans as having more advanced tools….oh and the Incas did not need mortar for their stone work. Definitely cool to see a true castle structure and a place I have only read about or seen in movies.

Next up was the Tower Bridge. It is a bridge. It is old. We walked across it. I think that is about it.

After a quick bite to eat we hit the Tate a modern art museum. While there we saw a mix of wows which included Monet and Picasso, and a New York artist of which I cannot remember the name along with the standard bunch of “okay?”s. Art that attempts to defining meaning in life typically falls on my not so interesting list. That and of course the many art pieces that seem to be a cry for attention by lashing out at others.

Lastt stop of the day was Harrod’s. I honestly had no clue about this place, but Amy mentioned it was a must and she is not wrong about these things. Harrod’s is a luxury department store. From what I could observe and learn from the fact that they get upwards of 30k visitors a day (not sales, people coming in/out) I realized this place is as much of a luxury brand as the very brands (like Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton) they sold.

And scene.

 

If there is something more I should mention as I talk about our trip please feel free to let me know. :-)

~Nathan
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