Travel Tuesday || London City Culture
Ah, here it is, the last post in the series of Travel Tuesdays! Today is a whirlwind tour of all sorts of culture in London: musicals, art, buildings, museums, etc.
Our Wednesday started out at St. Dunstan-in-the-East. This church was built back in the 1100s, and then damaged in the Great Fire of London. After being fixed just a bit, it was just about destroyed again during the London blitz. Now it’s a nice little park-style area with places to sit while trees gradually reclaim the site.
Not too far from the church is the Great Fire monument. Like most monuments in London, this thing was a hulk, and had something shiny and gold up top.
Borough Market was next, with classic fish and chips for lunch. If I had the money, I would have bought every single dessert I saw in the booths there. There were booths with seafood laying out, homemade cheeses, meats, a rotisserie hog, and that was only in the first row we walked down!
In one atrium section of the market, we found cardboard animal heads hanging from the ceiling. I don’t know what more to say that the photo doesn’t say for itself.
We headed on back towards Tate Modern (the modern art museum) and got to see loads of art that we didn’t understand. It was very impressive and very colorful. Below you’ll find my own version of modern art, “Tamzen and Caleb in the reflection of a Matisse Painting.”
After Tate we had a whole photoshoot all for ourselves! Caleb was a sweetheart and booked us a couples session with Frances Sales Photography. She was magnificent and we had so much fun seeing new landmarks and getting to act cute in front of a camera. It’s not too often that someone else takes our photo, especially not professionally, so it was exciting!
We had a little time to kill after the shoot, so we grabbed some food at Pret a Manger (they had a pizza roll sandwich, it was amazing, America needs it) and then we went to the SeaLife London Aquarium!
(Not too long after we returned from overseas, Sherlock had an episode that went to that aquarium. We felt pretty cool that we’d been there.)
The next day was our “we are walking everywhere and we are going to smile about it” day. We began our day with a trek to the National Gallery, where I knew van Gogh and da Vinci paintings were waiting for me. Outside of the gallery is Trafalgar Square, where there are giant lions that you aren’t allowed to climb on. We took all our photos before the rain started. Luckilly, we were about to spend two plus hours indoors.
Caleb was a patient man, letting me take photo after photo until I was satisfied.
Caleb also thought he had jokes. When he saw this painting he turned around and said, “I know that artist. He’s a ninja turtle.”
I may have a cried just a bit when I saw this painting. Next on my to-see list is Starry Night!
From the gallery, we walked around town, heading to St. Martin-in-the-Fields to see the wonky window, and then on to Forbidden Planet, a huge geek megastore. We bought comics there (because why not do the same things you’d do if you were back home?) and marveled (pun intended) at the sheer amount of superhero, Doctor Who, Star Wars, and other memorabilia around the store.
We went to store after store, wandering through Piccadilly Circus, until we landed at Fortnum and Mason. I had heard just a little about this store, mainly that it had tea. Little did I know, it was a five-or-so-floor experience. Tea and biscuits and candies were on the main floor, where I spent most of my time. The rest of my time was spent admiring tea sets and Christmas decor I couldn’t afford. At Fortnum and Mason, I treated myself to some macarons. I have never had macarons so perfect before this, and I likely won’t have any as wonderful unless I go back. We bought a lot of food souvenirs here, including the queen’s blend tea and chocolate-orange biscuits.
We walked through Green Park (did you know that there are Royal parks in London? They have special rules, and they are very pretty) and made our way to Buckingham Palace. No guard change for us that day; they began doing it every other day in the fall.
From Buckingham Palace we moseyed on over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.
That night, after another dinner at another Pret a Manger, we fulfilled another dream of mine, seeing Phantom of the Opera. On the West End! The week of its 30th anniversary! Ah! It ripped my heart out just like I had hoped it would.
We took a nice long walk back to our hotel (two miles at night!) and promptly conked out during reruns of The Middle.
That brings us to our last full day in London! This post seems like it is going on forever. I wish the trip would have done the same!
Among many things, we went to Kensington Palace and its gardens. We met Peter Pan and some swans and tons of magpies, and then sat down in The Orangery for a fancy afternoon tea (another thing America needs more of).
After gorging on gorgeous mini-foods we set our sights on the Natural History Museum. We started with the dinosaur exhibit before heading to the section about mammals, where we were stopped by a small German girl who had lost her dad. The only word she could say that we understood was, “Papa, papa!” We took her to the guest services station feeling a bit like we were kidnapping a child. She must have eventually found her family, because as we left the museum, we saw he standing outside with her dad and sister.
That night we had a nice candlelit pizza dinner beside the Thames River and then went to bed early so we wouldn’t lose any time in the morning.
It was, to be very cliche, bittersweet to leave. As much as I wanted to sleep in my own bed and eat “normal” food, I didn’t want to end the trip. The whole experience was more spectacular than I could have dreamed. I got to explore my heritage in Ireland, and immersed myself into the culture of London. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip, nor a better travel companion.
Thus concludes our overseas plight! Thanks for sticking around and looking at all the photos I wanted to share with you. Hope you enjoyed!
Travel Tuesday Series:
Dublin & First Flights
Northern Ireland Bus Tour
London Part One