Defying Gravity

Day 72

Yesterday we went to Wicked! It's a musical about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, and about how she's not really as wicked as you think. I've had the CD for a few years, and I love the music, so it was way fun to see it performed! The costumes were really cool, and the whole show had a lot of energy. So fun.
Okay, so the cool thing about London, how often do you get to say you sat outside the Queen's gates and ate lunch? This is the fountain outside Buckingham Palace. Notice how the pavement is red.
Buckingham Palace
Funny sign on the tube.
We also went to the Tate Britain. They have an awesome collection of guides to going through the museum.I really like the "I'm in a Hurry" collection. It basically says there's not enough time to give you all the details, so just look at these two pictures while you're dashing through.

Primary children are hilarious. My favorite today was a little boy sitting next to me. When we were singing "Away in a Manger" and got to the 'Asleep, asleep' part, he did a different sleeping pose for every asleep. It was really funny. I also enjoyed listening to him tell how Joseph Smith "couldn't join any of the churches 'cuz they were all rubbish."

Elementary, my dear Watson

Day 66

Thursday we went to the Imperial War Museum. It's a really awesome museum.
They have a special exhibit on Ian Fleming right now, the creator of James Bond
The main exhibits are on the two world wars, with additional exhibits for the Holocaust, children in the second world war, and spy work. And then of course it is subdivided within those.

Here's a collection of some of the signs they had to guide people through the trenches in the Great War.
A model of what it was like down in the trenches

Another cool cabToday we went to Baker Street to see where Sherlock Holmes "lived." As you can see from the tiling in the Baker Street tube station, he may have been a fictional character, but he's exceptionally famous.

221B Baker Street: The fictional home of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. I'm solving the latest case.
They have a little museum here, and you get to see what Holmes' house would have looked like, and artifacts from the stories.

And here apparently is where Holmes shot Queen Victoria's initials in the wall. Because he can.
Watson
Holmes
They also had awesome wax figures of a bunch of the villains. So Lindsay and I thought it would be great fun to pose with them. Here I am looking shocked, and the revelation of this awful corpse.
Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Dr. Moriarty. It was actually really disturbing to have to get close enough to take a picture.
Haha, apparently I was not meant to have a hare lip, because I don't do it very well. But I had to make this face for like 5 minutes while Lindsay tried to take it because they kept coming out blurry and then I'd start laughing, because you can't make that face and not laugh, and all the while people are walking by and staring at me. It was hilarious.

This one, however, is NOT a wax sculpture, and when he started moving Lindsay almost had a heart attack. However, Watson was very nice an posed with us.
Note the creepy phantom face in the window?
After the museum we walked around the surrounding neighborhood, looking for houses of famous people.
There is always construction and scaffolding going on in London. Always. Well, most especially in the winter when all the tourists are gone.
It took me a long time to figure out what this was. It is NOT strange brightly colored animals, but actually a load of laundry.
I've never seen so many giant recycling bins in my life. And they keep going past the tree.
Apparently you can rent a bus for your wedding.
What? Arizona's a cafe? Additionally, there is nothing Arizonan about this cafe, which sells English breakfasts, and says something about being an Athenian night club.

Fit for a King

Day 65

Yesterday, Thursday, we went to Hampton Court. This was (one of) the royal homes for a number of years around Shakespeare's time (Shakespeare, in fact, performed here. This is where Macbeth was first performed and A Midsummer Night's Dream was also done here--in fact, we stood at the top of the Great Hall where plays were performed and quoted some Shakespeare!). The place is simply immense, with all the state and living chambers, and regularly feeding 600 people a day, with an army of servants, cooks, and food suppliers to match.
This clock is really cool.
We're about to go into the Maze! It's one of, if not the, oldest garden mazes.
Debating which way to go...
We made it to the center!
The gardens were my favorite place, especially these funny moundy trees and fountains

Me: Tracy, take a picture of me in front of this really cool long pond! What should I do for the picture?
Tracy: Look pretty
Me: Uhhhhh

Me looking pretty:
Apparently, jumping is the thing to do in this picture spot
The moundy trees had really cool ropey trunks. And a nice British man volunteered to take our picture
More cool gardens with topiary and statues

Also, while we were wandering around, I saw a little boy about 7 or 8 who simply has to be Rupert Grint's little brother. There's just not any other option. He was such a Weasley!

They make candy a little differently here (Bounty is like Almond Joy without the almond, or a milk chocolate Mound). These are for passing our cleaning checks :)

We finally had a free night, so a group of us decided to go out to see a show. They're all right around Picadilly Circus.The first of the Christmas lights at Picadilly Circus
Random really cool cab

We saw Les Miserables!! It was incredible. If you've never seen it, I'm telling you now that your life is not complete until you've see a good production of Les Mis. The singing and music was amazing, and they did a phenomenal job with the lighting and staging. They had a huge circular portion of the floor of the stage that could rotate, which let them do some amazing things with moving characters and sets around. Simply stunning.

More pretty things in London

Day 68

I stopped by the Victoria and Albert Museum recently. It's a really cool museum, very conducive to wandering, with everything from portraits, to ironworking, to fashion, to photography, to period artifacts. Also, a few very cool contemporary artworks.

November 11 is Remembrance Day. It's a day to remember all those who have laid down their lives for their country and their cause since the Great War. People on the streets are wearing poppies, as well as everyone on television. Poppies became a symbol of remembrance during the first world war because poppies grow on disturbed ground, such as what you found in the trenches. There was also a very famous poem called "In Flanders Fields" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The grounds of Westminster Abbey were filled with small wooden crosses with red poppies attached, were people came to pay their respects.


Me, in London

This is just a couple blocks from where I live. Isn't it pretty? And you all thought London was dismal, wet, and dreary!


These tiny one bedroom houses where you live over your garage are actually worth over a million dollars. They're quite cute though. And those little doors are actually where you keep your trash.

I went to Holland Park today, which has a really cool giant sundial with turtles.
It's a much wilder park than most of them, and fairly empty of people.
The Kyoto Gardens.
The Kyoto Garden is a Japanese Peace Garden. It's very small, but immaculately kept, and very beautiful.


I'm pretty sure this is where Van Gogh got his inspiration.
That's actually a statue. In case you were confused.
More pretty gardens.




This building has a cool mural painted all the way along the side under the arches
And what park is complete without a playground?

The British are very concerned with keeping things clean.
I still like the leaf sweepers.
I have absolutely no idea what this field of poles is for, but it was cool.
In the evening we went to see Aida. It's a pretty famous opera. Opera's not really my thing, but I did enjoy it. Especially as we got into it and the plot got interesting.