So yesterday was a bit of a crash course in hearing British spoken regularly, as a member of my old community and her daughter came out to give me the tour of the city. A lot of what was said took me a couple of times to hear, as the accent definitely takes some getting used to. Part of the day was simply spent talking about the large differences between the U.S. and England, despite the common language. Bou's daughter found it funny that I was talking about money in phrases like "one and a half pounds" instead of "one pound fifty." Apparently a clear sign that I'm a foreigner.
I've also gotten an Oyster card, which is apparently for regular tube travel. It's going to cut down on the amount I pay to sport about for the next two days, which is good. Bou and her daughter suggested it, so I picked one up. Tube travel later in the evening can be a bit hectic, but I'll get to that in good time...
We started out the morning at Westminster Abbey. I got a handful of photos outside, but mostly I wasn't allowed to take pictures there, which was a bit of a bummer, as there was some absolutely lovely things to see. Wonderfully dark architecture and tombs of all sorts of famous people. (While the tombs of kings and queens were nice, I was more taken in by Poet's Corner, where people like Charles Dickens and Lewis Carrol were buried. Quite an honor to be buried so close to royalty, I'd guess.) Took a while to meander through, and Bou's daughter got herself a chocolate coin from doing a sort of "were you paying attention" thing as we went.
From there it was off to the National Gallery. There were a handful of things I was quite impressed with here, and lots of things that were nice to see, although not as striking to me. I appreciated looking at actual Van Gough's. There were some of Da Vinci's paintings as well, but I think i burned through much of my interest for his work while I was in Rome/Florence many years ago. Again, the National Gallery didn't allow me to take pictures inside, so I have to content myself with my memories, which I'm sure regular readers of this blog know is pretty spotty from time to time. I did get a handful of wonderful photos from the outside, all of which I'll post when I'm back in the states. I haven't tried to figure out if I could manage the photo archive from the laptop, so I'm basically just using it as a storage place for photos so that I don't overload the camera, but no actual posting will occur until I'm back in San Jose.
Next, we grabbed lunch in a "greasy spoon" which is really just a cafe, basically. I ordered ham and turkey on "brown bread" as wheat is called, and, sure enough, that's exactly what I got. I apparently should've specified that I would've also liked lettuce, mayo, cucumber, onion, etc... But, being as I didn't ask, I ate my meat and bread contently.
From there, we strolled up Book Row and stopped in a Murder One, a bookstore almost entirely dedicated to murder mysteries. I ended up picking up the second of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" books, and have determined that British book covers are almost inevitably cooler than ours. Regardless, I have more things to read now, should I go wanting.
We also stopped in Picadilly Cirus, and I ended up picking up a ticket for Spamalot, since I'd never actually seen the show. Cheap show tickets seemed a fun idea, and I paid about half of what I would've otherwise. Might try and see another show tonight, haven't quite decided yet. It was quite a bit of fun, but I'm not sure if there are other shows I have a big interest in. The seat for the show was quite good (although not "the seat" as fans of the show will know what I'm talking about). I had parted ways with Bou and her daughter a little bit earlier in the day, and didn't mill around Picadilly Circus long after the show let out. Despite the fact that it was a Wednesday night, it was pretty crowded on the streets, but I guess that's the effect of all the shows basically letting out near the same time.
The tube ride home was pretty zany as well. I took the northern line just a few stops and then changed over to the central line, which helped some. The Northern Line was packed to the gills, mostly with tourist I could tell. (There was an entire class worth of french high school students crowding around me.) I heard a multitude of languages over the day: English, German, Spanish, Russian, French, a few eastern European languages I couldn't identify on first listen, what sounded like Turkish, a bit of Hebrew, and at least one Scandanavian language (Swedish, I think, but I only heard it in passing).
After I got back to the hotel, I probably spent about an hour or so just watching out my window. I have a sneaking suspicion that this could become an addicting habit, just glancing out my fourth story window onto the street below, or the windows across the road. It's entertaining to watch people coming and going, see what they're milling about with, knowing they may be wondering the same things about me. There are a couple of other small hotels near my hotel, but mostly I think it's just flats around me, so I see people in their normal lives, whatever that happens to be. It's fun enough to watch.
Anyhow, not sure what I'm going to do today. Think I'm going to make a stab at the London Dungeon and just wait out the lines. Probably have to pick up cash again, as well, as London has eaten through my funds much faster than Berlin did. S'aright though, I'm enjoying myself and that's all that matters, innit?
I've also gotten an Oyster card, which is apparently for regular tube travel. It's going to cut down on the amount I pay to sport about for the next two days, which is good. Bou and her daughter suggested it, so I picked one up. Tube travel later in the evening can be a bit hectic, but I'll get to that in good time...
We started out the morning at Westminster Abbey. I got a handful of photos outside, but mostly I wasn't allowed to take pictures there, which was a bit of a bummer, as there was some absolutely lovely things to see. Wonderfully dark architecture and tombs of all sorts of famous people. (While the tombs of kings and queens were nice, I was more taken in by Poet's Corner, where people like Charles Dickens and Lewis Carrol were buried. Quite an honor to be buried so close to royalty, I'd guess.) Took a while to meander through, and Bou's daughter got herself a chocolate coin from doing a sort of "were you paying attention" thing as we went.
From there it was off to the National Gallery. There were a handful of things I was quite impressed with here, and lots of things that were nice to see, although not as striking to me. I appreciated looking at actual Van Gough's. There were some of Da Vinci's paintings as well, but I think i burned through much of my interest for his work while I was in Rome/Florence many years ago. Again, the National Gallery didn't allow me to take pictures inside, so I have to content myself with my memories, which I'm sure regular readers of this blog know is pretty spotty from time to time. I did get a handful of wonderful photos from the outside, all of which I'll post when I'm back in the states. I haven't tried to figure out if I could manage the photo archive from the laptop, so I'm basically just using it as a storage place for photos so that I don't overload the camera, but no actual posting will occur until I'm back in San Jose.
Next, we grabbed lunch in a "greasy spoon" which is really just a cafe, basically. I ordered ham and turkey on "brown bread" as wheat is called, and, sure enough, that's exactly what I got. I apparently should've specified that I would've also liked lettuce, mayo, cucumber, onion, etc... But, being as I didn't ask, I ate my meat and bread contently.
From there, we strolled up Book Row and stopped in a Murder One, a bookstore almost entirely dedicated to murder mysteries. I ended up picking up the second of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" books, and have determined that British book covers are almost inevitably cooler than ours. Regardless, I have more things to read now, should I go wanting.
We also stopped in Picadilly Cirus, and I ended up picking up a ticket for Spamalot, since I'd never actually seen the show. Cheap show tickets seemed a fun idea, and I paid about half of what I would've otherwise. Might try and see another show tonight, haven't quite decided yet. It was quite a bit of fun, but I'm not sure if there are other shows I have a big interest in. The seat for the show was quite good (although not "the seat" as fans of the show will know what I'm talking about). I had parted ways with Bou and her daughter a little bit earlier in the day, and didn't mill around Picadilly Circus long after the show let out. Despite the fact that it was a Wednesday night, it was pretty crowded on the streets, but I guess that's the effect of all the shows basically letting out near the same time.
The tube ride home was pretty zany as well. I took the northern line just a few stops and then changed over to the central line, which helped some. The Northern Line was packed to the gills, mostly with tourist I could tell. (There was an entire class worth of french high school students crowding around me.) I heard a multitude of languages over the day: English, German, Spanish, Russian, French, a few eastern European languages I couldn't identify on first listen, what sounded like Turkish, a bit of Hebrew, and at least one Scandanavian language (Swedish, I think, but I only heard it in passing).
After I got back to the hotel, I probably spent about an hour or so just watching out my window. I have a sneaking suspicion that this could become an addicting habit, just glancing out my fourth story window onto the street below, or the windows across the road. It's entertaining to watch people coming and going, see what they're milling about with, knowing they may be wondering the same things about me. There are a couple of other small hotels near my hotel, but mostly I think it's just flats around me, so I see people in their normal lives, whatever that happens to be. It's fun enough to watch.
Anyhow, not sure what I'm going to do today. Think I'm going to make a stab at the London Dungeon and just wait out the lines. Probably have to pick up cash again, as well, as London has eaten through my funds much faster than Berlin did. S'aright though, I'm enjoying myself and that's all that matters, innit?
Labels: artwork, bumming around, Germany/England trip
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home