The Last Night

Well, its our last night in London, but not the last blog entry. I still have plenty of pictures to sort through and post from today too, not to mention other days, and maybe some more photosynths.

I'm going to blog backwards chronologically today. This is the city of Bath, which is known for being the one and only hot spring in England. The Roman Baths were build here by the Romans, and the magical waters apparently helped get a queen pregnant.
The water is pretty nasty looking, but back in the Roman days, there was a roof over the main bath, so there wouldn't have been any algae growing in it. It would have been a pristine pool of 80 degree water five feet deep.

When we went, it rained! I think its rained pretty much every day we've been in London, on and off. I love it!

Our first stop before Bath, however was Stonehenge. My 900 picture photosynth of Stonehenge didn't work, and it probably won't work, since I ran out of memory the second time around. So I'll have to be more selective of the pictures I use in it to make the 360 around Stonehenge.

Today we went to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels, and to the Tate museum of modern art, to see some mind-numbingly good art. Unfortunately no photos are allowed in the Tate, so I'll just relate to you the highlights: a Calder Mobile that was tiny, one of the first ones he made, a few Picassos, Kandinskys, a whole room of Warhol, a giant table and chairs that I could stand under..... I know what my cats feel like now, and so much more. Some of the most fun I've had in an art museum in a long time.

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning, we'll be landing around 3 in the afternoon pacific time, which means it'll feel like its 8pm for us.... or something like that. So this will be the last blog for awhile, but not the last blog. so keep checking, and I'll keep posting. At least two more I think.

Cheers!

stonehenge

Really tired this morning.... But I wanted to share with you my photosynth link to Stonehenge. I took almost 900 pictures of Stonehenge, but Photosynth kinda putters out at 300 photos. I might try again to make the 900 picture.

Theatre, Books, statues, and Goths

So first, I must tell the tale of seeing two of the greatest actors in our time, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen acting in proximity, and NOT playing Xavier and Magneto was quite a treat! I've never seen Waiting for Godot performed, and I was very much pleased with it. Perhaps the best part was when Stewart and McKellen were taking their bows, they did a little dance routine together, then walked off stage opposite each other, then threw their hats onto the empty stage! So much fun! Picadilly Circus was the stop that we used to get to the theatre, its supposed to be London's version of Time Square. I've never been to Time Square, but I found it a little underwhelming. The need more lights. :) So today we started our adventures at the British Museum. Its nestled inconveniently equal-distant from two underground stations, so we had to hike a bit no matter what. We got a little lost, but I found a comic book store and picked up a bit of reading material for later. When we finally found the museum, it was quite an entrance. that ceiling stretches around the entire great hall entrance. I'm not sure whats in them middle, because we weren't planning on staying very long.

This is what brought us to the museum. A big piece of rock. You might know it by its name, the Rosetta Stone.

Apparently in Europe, ancient artifacts are common place enough that they turn them into millstones! Yikes!

Lely's Venus. I really liked this statue. I liked it so much that I made a photosynth of it. It's not as good as the vatican ball photosynth, but you get a good idea of it, and you can zoom in and out in some places. :) Try it out!

When I think of slingshots, I always think of tiny little pebbles. these are the rocks that they use in slings. Yeah... Those are about the size a scoop of ice cream. Ow. We saw Parthenon Friezes, the ones that Greece wants back and the British Museum kinda wants to keep. I picked up a flint axe that was 350 thousand years old.... and alarms didn't go off! They had these hands on stations with museum staff there to help show them off. After a sandwich at the Pret we were off to our next stop

What do you do at King's Cross station? Well duh! You go to Platform 9 3/4 to visit Hogwarts!

Unfortunately, when we arrived, the Hogwarts Express wasn't taking people to Hogwarts. Why? School is out for summer holiday! The Hogwarts Express doesn't start up until August.

From there we walked a short block to the British Library to see things like Shakespere's own handwriting on paper, The Magna Carta, Da Vinci's sketchbook, a guttenberg Bible, one of the oldest known copies of the Qu'ran, y'know the kind of stuff that is just lying around in European's attics. Unfortunately there is no photography of any kind allowed inside the exhibition halls, so you'll have to settle for a link.

Then we went to the Camden Town market where we got to see the alternative world of London. It was a lot of fun seeing goths, punks, and such walking around. The clothes they had were really great there! I'm not sure why I didn't snap many pictures there, I didn't snap any. I think I was just overwhelmed with all the stores and nooks and crannies and people around me.

We stayed there pretty much until things started closing, which was around 7pm. Then made our way back to the hotel. We have to get up early tomorrow for our trip to Stonehenge, so we're not going to push ourselves too much. We're both pretty tired from our european adventure in general, and even though we've got a few more days to go, we're both rather homesick. We miss our kitties.

London town!

Our first full day in London, we didn't take many pictures. We had to take a hike to get our underground passes validated, so that took up a good hunk of the day. then we hopped on the tube, and found ourselves in front of the venerable Jeremy Bentham! Dead philosopher, one of the fathers of utilitarianism, and the pseudonym of John Locke in Lost, it was really neat seeing him, and reading about his head (yes the head was preserved and used to be displayed with his body, but unfortunately college students are college students, and now it is safely stored in the college's vaults.)

After that trip, we went back to the hotel, to freshen up a bit, and then we went to the Globe to watch As you Like it. All the world's a stage, and such. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing a play in such an intimate setting. We were in the top floor, not with the groundlings.
Today, we had a hop on hop off bus tour, where the bus would drive around, and we could hop off at any of their stops, and hop back on later. Its a really neat idea, and very convenient for seeing what you want to see, and the guides helped us figure out what we really wanted to see and what we could skip. This is a picture of the gates around Downy Street, home of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Down the road are the mounted guards for a museum. I forgot what the museum was though.

Entering London proper, and exiting London proper is marked by little dragons. Funny enough, St. John's cathedral isn't in London proper. Neither technically is the Globe or the Tate, or the London Eye.

All wedding cakes that are tiered, are modeled after this church, when some duke wanted his wedding cake to reflect this church's tower.

On the left is a government building, and on the right is what our guide called "The Gerkin" I really liked the building, but I can understand why they call it the gerkin as well.

Tower Bridge. Its really pretty, but not nearly as tall and thus as awe-inspiring as the Golden Gate.

The Sherlock Holmes Pub!! Woo! Apparently on the first floor (2nd in the US) is a recreation of Holme's study that was given to the pub by the family of Arthur Conan Doyle.

We saw the Ritz with one girl wearing very fashionable shiny leggings.

This memorial was opened earlier this week, for the victims of 7/7, the subway terrorist bombings. One pillar for each victim. Today in the news, someone had already scrawled some graffitti on it. :(

Westminster Abbey, and to the left, Westminster academy. I didn't know this but Helena Bonham Carter was educated there. She's such a great actress!

This is one of the new buildings, a new hotel, in the city. There is a ton of construction all over London going on. Cranes are everywhere, and many monuments are getting restored. Why all the fuss? the 2012 Olympics are going to be here. I like the colors on this hotel. You can tell at night that this would be something really nice to look at. Penthouse suites go for a million pounds.

And of course, Big Ben. You can tell from this picture that we're having some beautiful English weather. It rained on our double decker open aired bus, but we toughed our way through it.

But I saved the best part for last.... When Tiffany and I were looking for the bus stop for our tour, we ran into a few theatres. One was playing Phantom of the Opera, the other was playing Waiting for Godot. I stopped and my jaw dropped. On the giant poster outside the theatre for Waiting for Godot, was none other than Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart, and Gandalf the Grey, Ian McKellen!!!! They're the stars of the play! The guy outside said they still had tickets, we walked up and plunked down 30 pounds, and now we're going to see two people who I would listen read the phone book, do Waiting for Godot tonight!! How cool is that!?!

Montmartre and Moulin Rouge

When we visited Montmarte, the highest point in Paris, there were the usual suspects, hucksters trying to sell people bits of string that they braid on to their wrists. But they don't actually tell you they're selling them. They come up to you and just stick some string on you and start braiding. And they're rather aggressive about it too. We pushed our way through the first group, and took this picture from the next level up on the hill. At that level, Tiffany saw a lady get pulled in by one of these hucksters. She told him no, and tried to get away, when he grabbed her hand and started braiding. Tiffany yelled at him telling him that she said no, giving her time to get away. Then the guy started yelling at us calling us names and stuff. I was this close to yelling back at him accusing him to be a pickpocket.... which he wasn't, but it would bring him enough unwanted attention that it would be worth it for him to shut up. But we just started up the hill again.
The church itself, is really pretty. We walked inside, and did a little cattle line around the inside of the church. I've felt a little funny inside churches as a tourist. People inside are praying, and we're inside going ooh and ahh at the architecture and stained glass. I think I'm pretty churched out on this trip.

Walking to the artist area from the church, was this puppeteer. He was making his puppet sing Oasis' Don't look back in Anger. It was really fun to watch. We didn't have any euro coins to give him unfortunately. I felt bad that I wasn't able to tip him. There are so many people in Paris just begging for money, that when I see someone really earning it, I feel obliged to give.

Speaking of which, the French have always had a snotty reputation, and beyond the hucksters, beggers, con-artists and the ONE rude waiter that we've had, the French have been absolutely wonderful to us. An old man stopped to give us directions to Montmartre, as we were clearly lost tourists staring at a map, and looking around at the street. A tobacco shop owner who didn't speak english, was very patient with me trying to figure out that I wanted stamps for postcards, and when I got what I wanted we had a mini-celebration together! The Parisians are great, and I can't say enough nice things about them.

Walking back down from the church, we ran into this precious scene. A man and his daughter playing soccer in the street with two other friends, a very young boy, (maybe his son?) and a twenty something. Every so often a car would come by, they'd move aside, and start playing again. This continued until the young boy accidently kicked the ball over a wall. It was definately one of the highlights of my day. I think watching people is far more intersting and fun than seeing paintings on the wall (not to say that isn't fun either).

Moulin Rouge is down the hill from the Montmartre district. I took a few more pictures between this sight and the last. Maybe about 75. But you're not allowed to see them, as I want to keep this blog family friendly. :) Lets just say that there was a museum involved.

To cap off our trip to Pais, the Eiffel Tower. We got there pretty late, this is about 9:00pm there. Yeah, it doesn't get really dark until about 11:00pm. To give you an idea, Seattle Washington is 47 degrees North. Paris is 48 degrees north, and London is 51 degrees. So it takes a while for it to get dark, especially in the summer.

You have to buy tickets to use the elevator. There are a couple of floors on the tower. The first floor (what Americans would call the second) which has a restruant on it, the second floor, which is an observation deck, gift shops and some food, and the third floor which is the top. the elevator goes to the second floor, and if you want to go to the first floor, you need to take the elevator down, or use the stairs. Yes there are stairs. 710 steps total. We took the elevator all the way up to the top. To get to the top, however, you have to use a second elevator from the second floor to the third.

This is Tiff on the second floor of the Tower. We're waiting in line. Lets set the stage. We waited almost 45 minutes in line just to buy a ticket, to use the elevator, then about 15 minutes to use the elevator (which is right after we buy the ticket). Then we have to wait in line again to get to the top. I don't know how long we waited in line to get to the top, but it was pretty long. Notice the sky... its pretty cloudy...

When we finally made it up to the top of tower, all you could see was clouds. I was foresighted enough to bring my trench, but it was still pretty cold and windy.... and rainy.... We were out on the upper observation deck for maybe 3 minutes, at the most. It was fun to see clouds pass below us. But it was just too cold to stay up there, and so we got in line to get back down. They closed the stairs to the top, so you had to take the elevator. Now at this point, I would tell you that if you ever find yourself in Paris, don't go up to the top of the tower, since the waiting in line, really is not worth the sight. We were able to see through the clouds, and the view isn't that much more spectacular than from the lower level, since Paris is mostly flat anyways. But, I know that if I were other people, I wouldn't really listen to that word of advice, because we've travelled nine thousand kilometers, I'm going to the top of the darn thing. So I won't give you that advice. Instead, I'll give you this piece of advice, take the stairs down if you can. More on this later.

By the time we made it back to the third floor, they had turned on the lights of the tower. We got a bite to eat, all they had for us to eat was french fries.... again (I don't know how often we've eaten french fries in Paris, but it was way too often at least once a day I think.)

Then I talked Tiffany into taking the stairs down. She didn't really want to, because she was tired, but I gave a little pouty face and she gave in. So we took the stairs down and seeing the tower from the stairwell is really amazing. Unfortunately, its kind of hard to take pictures of the tower, since they have safety barriers up so you don't start getting any ideas about climbing on the tower. But going down the stairs (at least from the third floor) isn't very bad at all. The handrail is a little grimey, but it was a lot of fun. They also had these signs up telling you about the history and construction of the tower. I'm pretty sure that the signs were a temporary exhibit though. The best signs were the signs around the first floor, which showed how they lit up the tower in different ways throughout the years. E.g. for the countdown to the new millenium, a full 1000 days before new years eve, they lit up the tower with a giant countdown clock. They had plans for building two side towers next to the main tower at one point.

Every hour after they light up the tower, the tower gets sparkly for 5 minutes. When we were walking back to the hotel. It did this while we were in the tower too, and people started freaking out and running out to take pictures of it. I really couldn't understand this, since from on the tower, all you would see would be a strobe light flashing on and off, which wouldn't be terribly exciting. But from far away, it really does look pretty nice. We left the tower at 11:00, and made it back to our hotel, which is by the Louvre which is about 3 kilometers, by 11:40. We were pretty beat, and we had to be up and ready to leave for London by 10. We were pretty wired, too, since we were having fun watching the bats fly around at night.

Speaking of our hotel.... This is our hotel's elevator. Most of the hotels in Paris are converted apartment buildings, and some of them never had elevators. So at our hotel, they stuck an elevator in the empty space of the stairwell. It fits two people. Its pretty awesome! Getting our luggage in and out of it however, not very cool.

So that was our last day in Paris. We took a cab to the train station, I gave the cabbie my last euros, and the train to London was pretty quick. We got to the hotel, went to the grocery store and got some real food, walked around the hotel garden, met a very cute kitty cat, who smelled really good (yes I smelled it). We're both just rather happy that we are in a place that speaks english, and can get some food besides french fries and eclairs. Not to say that eclairs are bad either.... just too much too often.

Versailles

The home of French Royalty, that saw Marie Antonitte walk through its halls is currently being restored.

You can see the incomplete restoration process here. This tour was much better than the pompeii one, since our guide was much more easy going. He dropped us off, and told us to be back at 11:00 and went away. :) Thats my kind of tour. We got an audio guide too.

The famous Hall of Mirrors. This will be my living room one day. Really.

I forgot what this hall is called, but it contained paintings of the history of military conflicts in France. Everything on the right was Napoleon pretty much. There was a special exhibit going on, where they combined photos of modern conflicts with the paintings.

"War... War never changes." - Fallout 3

I really liked the exhibit.
After the tour of the palace, our tour guide drove us out behind Versaille to see the estate.

It used to be a swamp, but the grand canal drained the swamp and made a wonderfully beautiful park there. We had one of our tour members take a shot of us together. It was windy that day. Clouds were rolling in. We got back to our hotel at noon. After a quick freshen up, we went to The Deux Magots.

This is where Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir hung out, drank coffee and developed ideas like Woman as other, radical freedom, and bad faith.

Then we went to an art museum.... when I saw this sign I got excited! Bring on the nympheas!

Aww.... they were just blurry flowers. I'm not a big fan of impressionism, but Tiffany really enjoyed seeing the very large panoramas of Monet's waterlillies. I have to admit, I was taken aback a bit by their size and the way they were arranged in the room to kind of envelop you.

We called it a day then. I'm still a day behind on blogging. I have to go through our last night in Paris. We're in London right now. Today is going to be a rest and recover day. Its nice that people speak english and we're hoping that the British understand the concept of vegetarianism better than the French.

Summer reading

During my layover in Heathrow I bought a book, to read when I finished my current book Under the Skin. I don't know why, because I brought three books with me, but in all honesty, it was the cover that sold it. It was called A Cat Called Norton, and on the cover was the most adorable scottish fold kitten ever (the ones whose ears fold over). So I picked it up, and I've been reading it since I finished Under the Skin (also a good read too). Its short, and I devoured it in two sittings pretty much. But I highly recommend it. Its a non-fictional account of a guy who doesn't like cats, and the cat that changed his mind. The US title is The Cat who went to Paris. There are two sequels, The Cat who went Abroad, and The Cat who will Live Forever.