Two days is never enough time to see any city in Europe but definitely not enough time to see London. There were many sites we had to scratch off our list but that just gives us a reason to come back some day, right? We got into London pretty late and checked into our hotel. We really went cheap when it came to spending money on lodging, this gave us more money to spend on the theater:)
Hyrum and I in our ultra "posh" hotel room. We had a sink in our room but the bathroom was shared with about 8 other rooms. The floor was so slanted that I kept rolling onto Hyrum all night. All part of the experience:)
The next morning we took a walking tour of London which started at Big Ben. It was really neat, we walked out of the underground station and about 2 minutes later got to hear the bells ring the 9:00 hour. I always thought the tower was called Big Ben but "Big Ben" is actually the name of the bell inside the tower...now YOU know.
Each city has it's own unique architecture, London was full of these row houses.
Me with a friendly lion at Trafalgar square. The steeple in the background belongs to the Church of St. Martin in the Fields. We were hoping to catch a concert featuring their famous choir but they only perform on Sundays, we'll just have to come back:)
Cafe in the Crypt. A lot of the churches in London have cafes in their basement. It's kind of cool to eat a sandwich sitting on a chair that is resting on a 200 year old grave.
Trafalgar square is home to the National Gallery. The best part about London is all their museums are free! I remember learning about this painting in my Humanities 101 class at BYU. It still amazes me to see the actual works of art I learned about in that class. This painting is "Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife" by artists Van Eyck.
Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers"
After our stop at the National Gallery we walked our way to St. Paul's Cathedral. There has been a church on this spot since 604 AD. Another cool fact: "Despite 57 nights of bombing, the Nazis failed to destroy the cathedral, thanks to the St. Paul's volunteer fire watchmen, who stayed on the dome."
The interior of St. Paul's.
After our tour of St. Paul's we walked over to London Bridge. From London Bridge you can look out across the Thames River to the beautiful "Tower Bridge" It's funny how I always thought this bridge (pictured) was the London Bridge, but you learn something new every day.
We walked across London Bridge and stopped briefly outside the Globe Theater. This is historians best guess as to what a theater would have looked like in Shakespeare's day. Unfortunately, it has the traditional open roof arena so they don't put on plays during the winter months, but it would be fun to come back and see one of Shakespeare's plays in an original setting.
The Soho district of London at night. They lit the Christmas lights the day we flew into London, they must have heard I was coming and wanted to put on a good show:)
By far our biggest expense for the trip was our theater tickets. But we were in London, you can't miss the opportunity to see shows in London! The first night we saw Les Miserables. It was fabulous (of course) and the man that played Jean Valjean was amazing...his voice was AMAZING.
The next morning we headed over to the British Library. Among the amazing collection they house is the "Codex Sinaiticus" which is the oldest "Bible" in existence. It was a first attempt to collect various books of scripture into one anthology. Written in Greek around 350 AD. They also had on display an original version of the "Magna Carta" written in 1215 with an original seal from King John. My favorite piece was Handel's "Messiah." He wrote that whole piece in 24 days and when you look at the notebook you can almost see the inspiration flying through his pen, almost as though he couldn't write it down fast enough!
Yes, we did the extremely touristy thing and went to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Unless you get there 3 hours early and are pressed right up against the fence, you can't see much. It was cold and there were a lot of people, but that's about all I got out of it, we couldn't see the actual ceremony.
Nothing could cheer me up more after a lame changing of the guard ceremony than a fabulous boxed sandwich from Pret a Manger. When we first got to London we decided to try and eat cheap because everything is so expensive so we originally ate one of these sandwiches because they were cheap, but man they are good. They have the best flavors and all fresh ingredients...mmmm, I could go for a brie and cranberry sandwich right now:)
On to the British Museum. In two hours we toured through the rise and fall of three great civilizations--Egypt, Assyria and Greece. This is a picture of the Rosetta Stone. This stone allowed scientists to break the "code" of hieroglyphic writing. So cool to see this in real life.
This photo is mostly for my boys, who love anything creepy.
This is one of two statues that guarded an Assyrian palace. This was carved around 860 BC...I can't even wrap my mind around how something can stay around for so long. Will there be Walmarts standing in 3000 years? I don't think so!
Last stop, Greece. The entire frieze, pediment sculpture and metopes from the Parthenon in Greece was chiseled off in 1816 and brought to London. It's kind of sad you can't see these sculptures in their original setting but it's also kind of awesome that you don't have to go to Greece to see this amazing piece of history.
Westminster Abbey. Hyrum and I went to the Evensong service. It was beautiful but I have to admit the service we attended at Kings College was more spectacular.
This is the High Altar at Westminster Abbey. Since 1066 British royalty have been crowned right in front of this altar. The cool part: For the service I was sitting about 10 feet from the coronation spot.
Our second night in London we saw Billy Elliot. I had heard good reviews for this show and it was a pretty great show but I guess we shouldn't have seen Les Miserables first because anything you see after that is sort of a let down.
Our final look at London, Big Ben at night. We left pretty early the next morning for our 2 hour train/bus ride to the airport, 2 hour flight and then 3 hour drive home from Munich! Goodbye London, we will see you again!
