Man vs. City

Clearly I’m a little behind in my blogging! But, I have to catch up as tomorrow I’m off to Prague for the weekend! Be warned, another LONG post

A few weeks ago, I commented on how in love with London I am. Well, Nathan came to visit for a little over a week and gave London a run for her money. I don’t know which I love more….man or city?

City

Man

 vs.

I picked Nathan up from the airport and he endured the 1.5 hour tube ride from Heathrow to my flat on the west side of central London. He thought he could make it a full day without sleeping but totally failed and went to bed early.

We went to Greenwich on Sunday. I’ll spare you the details, mostly because I’ve already told you a lot about Greenwich. But we did enjoy ice cream in the park and we touched a 4.5 billion year old object, a meteorite!

Monday we went with the group to see Billy Elliot. AMAZING. I wanted to dance all the way home. If you haven’t seen it, GO.

Tuesday we went to the Tower of London. I’ve been there before – in high school. All I remember seeing there were the crown jewels. It was a lot more incredible than I remember it being. We went on the Yeomen tour. It’s a free tour given by the Yeomen guards or “beefeaters.” Fun fact, the Yeomen are all retired military who have put in extensive service and won honors. They get to live in Tower with their families and give tours. Pretty cool life if you ask me.  It was almost surreal seeing laundry hanging in the flat courtyards – new clothes hanging in such a traditional household chore. I’m not doing a very good job of explaining….

Henry VII armour. I wish you could see the massive cod piece.

My favorite story from the Tower, however, is the story of a Priest who was imprisoned in the tower. He was able to escape by writing a letter to his friends on the outside. No one suspected anything because he wrote the letter in the juice from an orange. It dried clear, but you could read the message by holding the paper up to a candle. Now, why someone would think to hold a seemingly blank sheet of paper up to a candle I don’t know, but it worked and he managed to escape the tower.

Only part of the Tower of London.

Wednesday we went on the group excursion to Oxford. This is an absolutely incredible city. It’s somehow remained practically unchanged for centuries. Most of the buildings are made from sandstone and the roads are primarily cobblestone (I don’t know how women in heels walked around in the old days). We ate lunch in a park and then walked down to the river (honestly I don’t know which one), and got nearly attacked by swans. Most of the tour was spent touring the campus of Oxford University – most of the buildings in the town belong to Oxford University. In the University system here, all students pay the same amount to go to school regardless of the school. You just have to get in.  At Oxford, the students still must come to exams in a cap and gown. Yes, a black gown and a mortar board. We didn’t get to see as much as I would have liked, but we did get to see a lot of Harry Potter sites. Many scenes from the movies were filmed at Oxford. We walked into the “Great Hall” and the room that held the “Goblet of Fire.”

The Great Hall - people actually eat here!

This is where Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire

Attack Swan

Thursday Nathan and I went on another out of London excursion to Maidstone. It’s the town where I was born! If we had been brave enough to rent a car, I would have driven past my old house, but alas, neither of us wanted to attempt to drive a manual car on the wrong side of the road in a strange place. So, we took the train. We spent the day at Leeds Castle. We had read that it is the most romantic castle in England. I’d agree – maybe that’s just because I went with my boyfriend (Just an FYI, you can get married at the castle – DREAM COME TRUE). One of the things I loved most about the castle was its history of ownership. Mostly that the castle always belonged to the wife of the King. She was always in charge of the running of Leeds Castle. It continued to belong to the wife of the monarch even after he died. Eventually the castle became owned by dukes and lords and finally became a private residence. Now it is open to the public and showcases traditional rooms as well as 20 century rooms.

Front of the Castle

Archway over the mote

Back of the Castle

Hedge Maze at Leeds Castle - WAY harder than it looks.

Success!

 We stayed a very cute bed and breakfast in Maidstone. The closest pub was a mile walk away. We went to the “Cock Horse” for dinner – gotta love the names of British Pubs – and decided to stay for the Pub Quiz. A pub quiz is essentially a trivial game played at a pub. Many pubs do them weekly or monthly and at established pubs they get quite rowdy. This pub was new to pub quizzes, so we decided to join in and were then duly dominated by the locals. In the morning we went back to Leeds Castle to play 9 holes of golf. Who ever said that I was a natural clearly didn’t know what they were talking about. Worst game ever. It was absolutely incredible to play golf with the castle in the background so loosing 3 golf balls was well worth it.

The Golfer

The "wannabe" golfer

 

 

 

Friday we went on a night tour of the city – well I took Nathan to Harrods and then around the city by bus and foot at night. I love how London lights up at night even though the streets are eerily quiet by 7:00.

Tourism

Giant toys in Harrods

Clock tower and the London Eye

Houses of Parliament

Saturday we lounged around and then attempted to go to a play. FAIL. But, we ended up touring Chinatown and Covent Garden and then went to a movie in the hip young neighborhood of Camden Town.

Sunday we went to church at Westminster. It’s a sneaky way to see the inside of the church without paying. It was slightly amusing to go, because neither of us is Catholic and we really had no idea what to expect in a Catholic Church service. It was really touching, however, to hear the organ play in their old church and to hear the choir’s voice echo. The head guy (not the priest) at the beginning of the service talked about how we were all worshiping universally. When we looked around, it was clear that there were people from all over the world. I thought it really highlighted one of my favorite aspects of London – diversity.

We went to the V and A museum (Victoria and Albert) in the afternoon followed by the Natural History museum. Two incredible free museums. Lots of art lots of old dead stuff.

T-Rex at the Natural History Museum

We went out for a really romantic dinner Sunday night. 50 % off with my restaurant discount card. We sat at the restaurant for over 2 hours drinking a bottle of wine and savoring delicious Italian food. It was the perfect end to a fantastic week.

I fell more in love with London – and with Nathan. Even though I had been to many of the places in London before, I still discovered new things to do and see in this incredible city. It was really wonderful having someone to share the adventure with.