Al and I woke up early the next day and finished assembling all of the necessities for our first day of intense London sight seeing. Two days really isn’t all that much to spend in such a big and historical city, but I was determined to do my best. We gathered our helmets, keys to bikes, oyster cards for the tube and buses, and various layers and maps and were ready to go. We got out the door at an impressive 9am-ish and used a bus/tube combo to get from the flat to Tower Hill where we began our day at the Tower of London. We got in just after opening so things were relatively uncrowded. We took advantage of this and immediately set off to see the Crown Jewels since I remember having to wait in a long line and shuffle through the crowded exhibition on a previous visit. We were able to walk right in and see all of the pieces without fighting everyone for a view. The intricacy and preciousness of the pieces was really very remarkable. The jewels were enormous and it was also a good way to get a bit of the monarchical history of England/Britain.
After that we wandered back down to the entrance to start our tour with the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater). I’d done this before, but now that I’ve actually had some proper history and context at school it was a bit more real and interesting to hear. There were quite a few successions that were made clear on the tour and the rather ancient history of the tower was also good to know. After ending the tour in the Chapel, Al and I headed to the White Tower to walk through the exhibits (On the way we got to watch the Tower ravens being hilarious and like chasing people down, whilst hopping). We quickly did a tour of the various armors and weapons before deciding to move on.
We left the Tower and headed along the Thames a bit to get a good view of the Tower Bridge so that we could check that off of Al’s list.
Then we grabbed some Barclay’s Bikes and rode over to St. Paul’s. Not gonna lie Al was a bit nervous and had some minor biking issues, but we worked them out. J By that time the weather had actually warmed up to the point that we were shedding down to our base layers. What kind of British weather is in the mid 60s during the last 2 days of October?
After snapping a couple pics of St Paul’s we walked across the Millennium Bridge and into Tate Modern where we went to the top floor café. We had a really tasty lunch. After that we took a leisurely walk along the Thames and through the South Bank area. Once we arrived at the London Eye we crossed a Bridge and proceeded to walk on towards Parliament. Once we’d taken a couple of pics with Big Ben we turned the corner and went into Westminster Abbey. Once inside we followed an audio guide tour led by Jeromy Irons and spent some time wondering the abbey. We both really liked the tour.
After we left the Tower we walked up a ways and saw Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column. Unfortunately we were no longer allowed to climb the lions, so we headed to the tube and rode back towards the flat. We briefly looked around King’s Road on the way back to the flat and stopped for some delicious desserts (I had two cookies with cream in the middle). Once we got back we rested for a bit and eventually Uncle Tim and Aunt Jill got home. We had some leftovers from the previous night and after dinner we headed out on the bikes to the Victoria and Albert museum for their once-a-month late night event. Inside we saw an awesome exhibit devoted to making stuff. It had all kinds of cool inventions and gadgets and crafty-creative things. Then we toured around some of the various exhibits like the Japanese exhibit. After a bit more touring we all got tired and headed back to the flat.
The next day we left on the bikes and headed toward Hyde Park. Our arrival there marked great successes both in my navigational skills and Al’s bike riding skills. We entered near the south west corner in what I believe was actually Kensington Park and quickly saw the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial both built by Queen Victoria. We then continued through the park and out the other side where we parked the bikes and proceeded to walk over to Portabello Road. Once we arrived at the markets on Portabello Road it was so crowded. We were supposed to meet up with some Duke folks, but when my phone failed to work I decided to leave it to a chance run in. Luckily we eventually ran into Maggie and Katherine and shopped around with them for a while. Later we serendipitously met up with all of my other friends when we converged by chance in one spot. We talked for a few minutes and I was able to say hey to all of them before we split up to attend our various other activities.
After getting some awesome marshmallow and nutella crepes Al and I got back on the bikes and traced a new root through Hyde Park. After a few minutes of bike parking confusion we set a course for the movie theatre where we saw The Lion King in 3D. It was awesome and I’m really glad I got to see it since I missed it in the states. Afterwards Al got some frozen yogurt and we met up with Aunt Jill. We were subsequently swept up in a whirl of Halloween preparations and plans that lasted through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. The idea for our costumes spun out of Al's similarity to Kate Middleton which we naturally Halloween-ified by making her a zombie. Aunt Jill gave Al her wedding dress and we used some tool to make the veil and then some hose to make the lacey sleeves. It naturally followed then that I was to be a zombie William so I used a collection of Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim's clothes to craft my outfit. We decided Aun Jill would be Beatrice because her fascinator upstaged the whole wedding and was therefore necessary, so I whipped one up out of cardboard. And then of course, the royal wedding wouldn't be complete without the Queen, and the part could go to none other than the only native Brit among us: Uncle Tim. (I would like to add here that though reluctant at first, Uncle Tim quickly embraced the role and made the evening by staying in character with every stranger and insisting on being called Your Majesty.) We spent a lot of time preparing our hilarious zombie royal wedding costumes and eventually headed out to dinner at a pub.
We met up with Aunt Jill and Uncle Tim’s friends Keith, Guy, and John and went to a thing that I’m still not sure how to describe. It was in this large house like building where there was plastic all over the walls and bars and everyone was in costume. Then we were all able to go into different rooms where they had different entertaining things. One room had (bad) comedy, another had a dance floor and beat boxers, one had a little interactive theatre skit-like thing that simulated a séance. There was also one room with people wearing plastic suits standing in a roped off area covered with plastic and random things like balls, a xylophone, a bucket of water, flour, confetti. These people would stand at a table on each side of the square, get the audience to roll some dice then proceed to do something strange. One man acted like a dog. One woman continued to stick her head in a bucket of water. They all ran around in a circle with their hands over their head while some sound went off. It was very bizarre and we left quickly. After looking around the building for a couple of hours and getting many praises on our royal Halloween costumes we packed it up and took a cab home. We stopped by Buckingham Palace on the way to take some in-character pictures and then headed back to the flat to get ready to leave early the next morning.
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