England/France Trip 2012: Day 4

July 1, Day 4

View from top of the double decker bus

Today was another lazyish day, but not as lazy as the day before. My mom and I decided to take the Open Bus Tour (you know those double decker buses that take you around to see all the sites?) and see what there was too see. The main goal was to get to Harrods. But that is later in the day.

After traveling on the double decker bus for about an hour, we got off around South Kingston for lunch. I had told my mom that I wanted to go down that street because there was a little place I wanted to eat lunch. Little did she know that I just wanted a cupcake from Hummingbird Bakery for lunch, so she complied. When my mom figured it out, she was kind of... I don’t know, not mad, but probably not happy with me either, but she let me have my cupcake.

Beautifully frosted cupcakes at Hummingbird Bakery

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Hummingbird Bakery, and I’m not sure how I came across the name, but I think it’s supposed to be a well-known bakery in England. Anyways, I wanted to try it out. The bakery in South Kingston is so cute and there is a little pink hummingbird painted on a wooden sign just outside the door. The inside of the bakery is marvelous! There are rows upon rows of colorful frostings on top of little cute cupcakes. And then there are brownies and cookies lining the shelves. I was almost tempted to try one of their brownies, but I had come for cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcake

Unwrapped

After taking a few minutes to ponder over the delicious looking flavors I chose the Red Velvet, seeing as I don’t remember ever tasting red velvet anything! After paying for my cupcake (my mom wanted an actual lunch) –side note- here’s something non-Englanders probably don’t know: If you chose to eat in someplace, like a bakery or café, the price of what you order is higher than the price you would pay if you took your order to go? Ok side note over; like I was saying once the cupcake way paid for, my mom and I sat down at one of the little tables. First I tried the frosting, which was really creamy and soft. It wasn’t the best cream cheese frosting I’ve ever had, but it certainly was tasty. Next came the most exciting part, the cake! To be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled about the cake part. It didn’t really taste like anything. It just tasted like, well, cake. There was nothing really special about it, sadly.

Even though the cake was a little bland, that didn't stop me from eating it

A Diplodocus greets you at the entrance

After the cupcake had been consumed and my mom got some “real” lunch at a little French café just down the street, we walked over to the Natural History Museum. Have I told you I love museums? Well I do! They are so much fun, especially the dino exhibits! And this dino exhibit has got to be my favorite of all time! It had so many facts I didn’t know like how crocodiles and birds both see in color! If you’re ever in London, definitely see this exhibit in the Natural History Museum.  I also so the stuffed mammals exhibit, which was also really nice (I found Pumba!) and I saw some skulls and skeletons of mammoths. Those things were ginormous!

Camarasaurus (Kam-are-ah-sore-us): This stocky and powerfully built plant-eater is a relative of the much slimmer Diplodocus in the Central Hall of the museum. Camarasaurus had pillar-like legs and a huge backbone to support its 25 ton body

Warthog: Warthogs are widely distributed in open country in Africa, south of the Sahara. Food: grasses, roots, fruit, bulbs; Social Grouping: family groups called sounders. Old males may be solitary; Natural Predators: lions, leopards, hunting dogs, hyenas; Conservation Status: declining, but kept in game reserves and National Parks

Dorcas Gazelle: This is a male. Females have much smaller horns. They live in deserts from Morocco and Pakistan Food: shoots, leaves, grasses, roots; Social Grouping: alone or in small groups; Natural Predators: lions, jackals, hyenas, cheetahs; Conservation Status: endangered in some areas of its range

Mammoth Skull: no info, sorry

When we were done wandering around the exhibits, my mom and I caught the Open Bus Tour one more time so we could finally go to Harrods. When I was in New York City for New Years I went to Bloomingdale's, and I kind of expected Harrods to be kind of like that. Well, Harrods is nothing like Bloomingdale's; it’s so much… MORE! The main reason we went to Harrods was to see the food part of the mall. The food section (on the first floor) was incredible! You walk in and you’re immediately greeted with sweet little cupcakes on the left, and a Japanese restaurant on your right and the food just goes on forever! I ended up buying a chocolate-hazelnut scone (Perfect butter taste with a little sweetness from the giant chunks of chocolate; this one was really nice.) and a plain scone (Also buttery and very pleasant. Each scone had perfect crust and soft and delicious insides). The basement floor is dedicated to Princess Diana and Doti.

The chocolate-hazelnut scone are the ones in the middle; the plain scones or to the left

Princess Diana and Doti

As we left Harrods (which felt like being in an amusement park; it was so crowded and there were so many shiny things to pay attention to, it was crazy!) I noticed a sign for a Jack the Ripper tour. Now I love the history of Jack the Ripper. In the AP Lang. class junior year we were supposed to compare and contrast two things. I compared Jack the Ripper to Ted Bundy. I’m pretty sure my teacher thought I was morbid, because the year before I had written an essay for my advanced world lit. class I wrote an essay on the Salem witch trials. My two teachers are best friends and I’m pretty sure they compared notes on me *snicker*. Anyways, I saw that the tour started at 15:30 and since I’m not used to military time, I assumed that meant 5:30. Turns out we had missed the tour by 2 hours. It was sort of disappointing, but it wasn’t such a big deal. Instead we took a walk through a fair that was going on. It turns out that July 1st is Canada Day! It was fun just walking among the throngs of proud Canadians. I even saw some invisible people!

Happy Canada Day

Canadian Flags

Invisible People!

England/ France Trip 2012: Day 3

June 30, Day 3

Today was a lazy day. My mom and I had done so much the day before that we just decided to walk around a see the British museum.

Rosetta Stone

The museum was pretty cool. There were lots of sculptures and paintings. Oh, and the mummy exhibit. That was kinda freaky, yet really cool at the same time. I love learning about ancient Egypt and looking at all the old artifacts. There was a skeleton that had been buried under sand and he had been so well preserved that some of his hair stayed intact! I was looking at the mummy and hadn’t even noticed it until a little girl asked her mom why the skeleton had hair on it. One of the coolest parts was seeing the Rosetta Stone. It’s this ancient tablet with hieroglyphics carved into it. This tablet was able to help Champollion unlock the messages written in hieroglyphics.

A little history (click picture for larger image)

Understanding hieroglyphics (click picture for larger image)

Other than the Ancient Egyptian stuff, my favorite part was this little showcasing of horses and their ancient relatives. I couldn’t find any pictures of the horse exhibit, so I assume that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in that area, which is a shame because there was some really cool information I would have liked to re-visit. But anyways, the entire exhibit was about purebred horses and race horses and how every race horse can be traced genetically back to just three (yes THREE!) Thoroughbreds.

Mini diorama of Olympia 100 BC

"Typical Egyptian grave containing the naturally-preserved body of a man with a collection of grave-goods. Late Predynastic, about 3400 BC"

Pretty clock in the huge clock exhibit

After spending about an hour and a half at the museum, my mom and I decided just to walk around, get some lunch, and so a little more strolling around parks. After about an hour of strolling my mom and I went back to the hotel to rest a little while before meeting my mom’s brother for dinner.

After dinner is when things got really interesting. Before we left, my mom asked if I’d like to see a play in London. I love seeing plays. People that preform onstage have such amazing acting and vocal talents. I’m just always in awe! (I attended about 85% of all the plays my high school put on) My mom gave me several choices and I ended up choosing Phantom of the Opera. I know it’s one of those plays that everyone needs to see at least once in their life, so this week was going to be the week.

The stage before the play began

Phantom was preformed really well and the story line is fantastic, but I’m not so sure about the high notes that went on in the opera singing. I guess I’m just not an opera person. But the play was indeed spectacular. I have to admit that jet-lag started to take over and I feel asleep for two minutes in the first five minutes, but I quickly woke up once I saw the chandelier come to life. I stayed awake for the rest of the play, except for the last two/three minutes, which I know is supposed to be fantastic because the phantom is supposed to disappear in the last few minutes; evil jet-let.

When I got to the hotel room, I basically had enough energy to change into PJs and brush my teeth. After that, I believe I just collapsed on the bed.

England/France Trip 2012: Day 2

June 29, Day 2

After having a semi-good night’s rest (jet-lag can really do a number on you, as well as the drunks singing on the streets at 2 in the morning) my mom and I were ready to do some real sight-seeing.

The day started out as kind of overcast and gloomy, but that didn’t stop us from doing a little bit of walking to get to the Tower of London. We mainly went to see the Crown Jewels, but we decided to take a little mini tour given by a guide dressed as a beefeater (an old English term for a royal guard). He was really funny and had some good stories, most of which were about all the beheadings that went on within the walls of the castle. The Tower actually started out as royal residency, but it soon became a prison. Young princes Edward V and Richard were supposedly murdered in there in the late 1400s. Excavators even found the skeletons of two children buried on the grounds, but there’s nothing to link the skeletons to the brothers.

Inside Tower of London

Tower of London

Royal Guard

After the mini tour was done, guests could wander around the grounds of their own accord. My mom and I took a look in some of the rooms, and we took a look in one of the prisons. After a quick go around of some of the places, we finally made our way to the jewels. Now I didn’t get any pictures of the jewels because pictures weren’t allowed in the room, but boy were they spectacular! The crowns and scepters were just so pretty and shiny. There is a conveyor belt that keeps people moving along the row of crowns (which was pretty smart since I’m sure there would have been an enormous crowd around the glass). Then, in it’s own little showcase at the end of the hall is Queen Elizabeth II’s crown. It is stunning to look at. The best part about the crown (besides the diamonds and other sparkly gems) is the four dangling pearls in the center of the crown. Those pearls were once Queen Elizabeth I earrings! Imagine wearing Queen Elizabeth I’s earrings on your crown? (Let alone actually having a crown!)

Outside Tower of London

London Eye

While we were in the jewel room the sun had decided to finally come out and play. I had told my mom before that I really wanted to go in the London Eye (a huge ferris wheel type thing that gives you an incredible 3D look of London), however, my mom suggested going on a different day because of the sulky weather. But as soon as we saw the sun had come out, we hastily made our way to the line for tickets. We didn’t even need to wait that long to get into our little bubble, which was nice. However, the little bubble room on the ferris wheel don’t sop to let you on, so I was strategically trying to get on without falling on my face, when a little rugrat kid, pushed me out of the way. I still managed to get on before the bubble left, but I was kind of peeved. This didn’t stop me from enjoying the view, though. My, oh my, the view from every angle was just spectacular. The view from the very tippy top was probably the best view you could possibly imagine. You can see the city with all it’s modern buildings on one side, and on the other is the historical side, a side that I absolutely loved looking at. My dad wanted me to go to the building that’s shaped like a giant glass egg, but I wasn’t able to, so instead I got some pictures for him.

The View

View of Big Ben from the London Eye

The egg building I was talking about

After going on the London Eye, my mom wanted to visit Westminster Abby (she loves old churchy places). I thought it was cool, but I’m not very religious and it didn’t interest me much, but it was kind of cool to see the caskets and architecture. But I must admit, jet-let got hold of me and I started to take a nap on one of the benches. After about 10 minutes, my mom suggested we move to the seats in the middle of the room because people were trying to look at the writing hidden under my feet. When I moved to the chairs, I just collapsed and napped for a good half hour on my mom’s shoulder (Thank you mama). By the time I woke up I was just so groggy that I wanted to go back to the hotel and rest a little more. That is until I saw a kiosk with food for sale. I picked up a brownie to get some sugar into me (I was so groggy I didn’t even have my eyes open. I kind of just shoved the brownie at the cashier {sorry Mr. Cashier} and grunted). Once the brownie was in my system I perked right up.

Westminster Abbey

Since I was no longer tired, my mom and I decided to take a stroll through St. James Park (a really beautiful and lush park) and on the other end was Buckingham Palace! We crossed the street and stood at gates, watching the guards march around in their tall fuzzy hats. My mom noticed the flag was up, which was kind of exciting because when the flag is up it means the queen is home.

Buckingham Palace

After staring at the palace walls for a few minutes my mom and I decided to walk back towards to hotel to find a pub nearby for dinner. We ended up going to one called The Swan which had the most amazing looking food! I got the Taylor Walker Platter which consisted of British sausages, two mini meat pies, and little bread puddings. I didn’t want to pies, so my mom gladly took them off my hands. The entire plate was the most amazing main dish I had in London, period.

Taylor Walker Platter

Queen Square Garden

Dinner gave us a little more energy, so we took the long way back to the hotel and strolled through Queen Square Garden. There was a little plaque and fountain dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. Casually walking through the park was really nice way to relax before heading to the hotel to energize for what the next day would bring us.

For the queen's Silver Jubilee

"In times when nothing stood but worsened or grew strange there was oneconstant good she did not change" -Larkin 1977

Tiny Elevator

P.S. This doesn't have to do with anything other than the fact that England has TINY elevators. This elevator held me, my mom, and one other person quite snuggly and it was meant to hold six people.

England/France Trip 2012: Day 1

June 27/28, Day 1

So a few weeks ago I told you that I was going on a trip to England and France as a graduation present from my parents. I had talked a lot about traveling to Europe over the summer before I started college and after a lot of deliberation, my dad proposed England and France, since I couldn’t make up my mind about where I wanted to go and for how long.

Row upon row of British flags outside

The trip kind of got off to a rough start. You may have heard about the Colorado wildfires, but the day my mom and I were supposed to leave, the DIA area got a lot of rain and lightning and every time lightning struck, another 15 minutes were added to the delay of our first flight. So instead of leaving at 3:45 pm, the plane took off at 5:20 pm. We had only one hour layover in Dulles so my mom didn’t have much hopes of us catching our connection to London. I however, just prayed that the other flight would be delayed.

So, we finally get to Dulles and my mom and I run off the plane and see that the plane to London has been delayed to 11 pm. So we take off running (I learned that I have really gotten out of shape by doing this) towards the waaaaaay other side of the airport. When we get there, we’re huffing and puffing and people are looking at us all weirdly. Turns out the plane has been further delayed until 2:35 am!

London Bridge

We finally board the plane about a quarter to 2 and I’m just so exhausted I fall asleep three minutes into the flight and stayed asleep throughout the entire 6 hour and 30 minute flight. When we finally get to London, it’s 4 in the afternoon on the 28^th.

By this time, my mom and I were just too tired to do much, so we took the Underground (England’s version of a subway), which was actually kind of scary and really, really cramped (Londoners really like packing themselves in trains, even when it’s clear there is no room what so ever) and checked into our hotel. However, we weren’t too exhausted to not walked around and see what there was to see for a little bit before dinner. We walked down the streets and got a little bite to eat at a pub around the corner, and then we visited a little bookstore that sold books (new and used) for half price. It was amazing! I even got two books, one of which is Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell. It took me about 45 minutes to finish and I giggled, snickers, and rolled my eyes at the stupidity of some people. It’s really a funny book.

Anyways, by the time my mom and I were exploring the neighborhood, I was way too exhausted to do much else and I was in bed and asleep by 9 pm.

The George - an old style pub (we never went in, but I thought it was cool)