9 May 2015 - London, Day 3: Busy, Busy, Busy Seeing the Sights

Day 3 was a big and busy day for me, and I was glad to have been able to rest the night before, because, like the first two days, day 3 involved plenty of walking, especially because I ended up on another trek through a park! This day was the day that I checked some of the most recognizable sights in London off my list, and I had gorgeous weather in which to enjoy them.

The first thing I did was go to see Parliament. Of course, we Canadians have our own Parliament, and it's impressive in its own right, but the Parliament building in London was breathtaking. Have you ever been to a place that just exudes an aura of authority and history? Parliament is like that. Even without going inside, you can feel that this is a place where big things have happened and will continue to happen. The pictures can really say it better than I can, so here are a select few out of the hundreds I took of this stately, gorgeous building. (Click for bigger images--I didn't want to break anybody's device trying to force it to load extra-large versions of these.)

Parliament looking imposing from the river side.

The requisite selfie.

Since it's right there (you can see it peeking in from the corner in the above selfie), the next thing to admire was, of course, the iconic clock tower that most of us refer to as Big Ben. In fact, Big Ben is actually just a bell, but I'm going to keep referring to the whole thing as Big Ben for convenience. It was an incredible experience to see it in real life. I've seen pictures, of course, and shots of it in movies, but nothing compares to actually standing right there looking at it. Here are some of my favourite shots.

Probably one of the best shots I got in London. featuring Big Ben, a black cab, and the London Eye all in one!

My next stop was supposed to be Westminster Abbey, right across the street from Parliament, but it was closed to visitors on this particular day due to the VE Day ceremonies. This was a bit disappointing, but I decided not to dwell on it for two reasons. Firstly, the exterior of the Abbey is gorgeous enough. Like Parliament, it radiates a sense of authority, of a religious sort rather than a political one. It's the kind of place that I always joke would eventually get me to start going to church. Secondly, it was at that moment, while I stood admiring the Abbey, that an amazing experience kicked off. The bells inside the Abbey began to ring out beautiful music, and, to quote my journal entry regarding this day, I was just swallowed up by a feeling of experiencing something big, iconic, important. Soon, Big Ben started striking the hour. All of these bells ringing together created a soundscape that's hard to describe. Again quoting from my journal, in that moment I was in London, experiencing something that tons of other people experience every day and have been experiencing for centuries, something that even more people will never get to experience in person. Anyone can Google what Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey look like. I had done it dozens of times myself. Anyone can listen to a recording of the bells, and I certainly had, in movies and television shows, but nothing can compare to actually being there, standing in front of the Abbey with Parliament just a short walk away, listening to the bells ringing.

The Abbey from the Parliament side, across the street.

How could you look at something like this and not feel at least a little intimidated?

My plans to visit the Abbey disrupted, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I had expected a visit there to take some time, and so I hadn't planned to do anything else that day. I walked around for a bit, just appreciating the buildings around me, and I came to a small park that offered a view of the river. Across the water, I saw the London Eye, and, while I had never planned to ride it, I once again exercised the lovely flexibility of travelling solo, and thought, "Why not? I'm here, and it's right there." So, I marched myself across the bridge, found the ticket booth, and took a ride on the iconic Eye. It didn't make me feel as connected to history as the bells at the Abbey had (to be fair, I doubt anything really could have topped that experience just then), but it was a fun little ride, and I got some great pictures.

With my ride on the Eye finished, I still had lots of daylight left that I didn't want to waste, and so I decided, inadvertently, to have another trekking adventure! My intentions were simple enough. On my first day, I had seen lots of Barclay's Cycle Hire kiosks around Green Park and the other parks I'd been through on my way to Buckingham Palace. So, I thought it might be nice to hire a cycle and have a little ride around Green Park. Since we have Bixi in Montreal, I knew how the service worked, so I found a kiosk and printed out a code to unlock a bike. Of course, someone grabbed the last bike in the rack before I had a chance to get it, so I was left standing there with a code but no bikes. To make a long story short, determined to get my 2 GBP worth of bike time, I hauled myself all the way from Green Park to the northeastern tip of Hyde Park, where the next cycle hire kiosk was, which took me much longer than it probably should have because I kept getting turned around by the park maps. In the end, I did get a bike to ride, and I cycled around Hyde Park for a bit, though I was too tired to go very far by then. The bike was comfortable and the paths in the park were wonderfully maintained, so it was a nice enough ride in the end. I really can't say enough good things about the Royal Parks. They actually feel like being on a movie set. When you walk through, people are actually having outdoor exercise classes, doing yoga on their own, going for quiet walks with their babies in strollers (excuse me--prams/pushchairs), reading on the grass, and just generally enjoying the outdoor space. The grass is beautifully maintained and, often, there's a canopy of trees overhead filtering the sunlight down in a very flattering way, making the whole place look that much better.

By now, it was early evening and I was pretty much exhausted after a long day of walking, so I went back to my hotel with my now-customary Tesco supper, and pretty much fell right into bed and slept like the dead after showering and eating. I didn't even write a journal entry that day, but, luckily, I made up for it the next day.

(I also made a quick stop at London Euston train station to pick up my sleeper train ticket, as well as learn how to validate my BritRail pass so that I would be prepared for my first train trip outside of London, in between all of my activities.)

Continue to Day 4

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8 May 2015 - London, Day 2: Museum Hopping

My first full day in London was spent visiting the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert (V&A), and the Science Museum, since these three museums are all very close to one another. Another fun fact is that they are all free to enter, making it very pleasant for a traveller who wants to see as much as possible without constantly being dinged with entry fees! I also chose my museum day well, since it kept me inside most of the time and this was the only day of my trip on which it rained for any length of time. I seriously lucked out on weather for my whole trip, only getting rained on once or twice the whole time. Considering I was in the UK, I count myself very fortunate.

Museum 1: The Natural History Museum

This imposing, intricately constructed building is an absolute beauty. I think, in all honesty, standing outside and admiring it was the best part of the visit for me! Not that there's anything wrong with the place, of course. The thing for me was that most of the exhibits and information dealt with things that I, as a university student with several years of science education in elementary and high school, already knew. I wouldn't say that the museum is geared toward children, exactly, but it's nothing that you haven't seen before if you remember your early science classes and/or have visited a natural history museum before. Another thing that cut my visit short was that I arrived pretty much as soon as the museum opened, since I wanted to get three different places in that day, and this meant that I showed up at the same time as the multiple school groups that were visiting that day.

Of course, I fully support children being taken to museums to learn about science. It's a great opportunity for them to see amazing things and become more interested in science as they realize that it isn't all about learning facts for a test. At the same time, I have anxiety issues that make it difficult for me to handle the presence of loud, unpredictable groups of young children, and a large number of exactly that sort of children entered at the same time as I did. I managed to get through a few rooms, and it was all very nice and well-designed, but eventually the groups of children cranked up my anxiety until I started to feel ill, and I decided it was probably best that I move on and leave them to enjoy their school trip. I enjoyed admiring the building for a little longer and taking some more pictures when I was back outside.

Museum 2: The V&A

The V&A was a much more relaxing visit. It was really interesting to see all of the beautiful art pieces, from Roman statues to religious triptychs, stained glass and handmade clothing. The illuminated manuscripts were especially beautiful, considering that books are a passion of mine! I walked around for a while and admired lots of different kinds of art, but the previous day's trek was getting to me and I was pretty sore and tired, so I decided to take a break. To my delight, the V&A boasts a lovely little courtyard, where they sell light lunches and water, so I bought a bottle of water and settled down to rest on the grass for a while. It was nice to just be able to sit quietly and people-watch, taking in the pleasant experience of listening to people chattering away in British accents as though it was no big deal (which, to them, I'm sure it's not, but this Canadian is unashamedly in love with English and Scottish accents, so it was a treat).

Museum 3: The Science Museum

The Science Museum was definitely my favourite visit of the day, but I had been expecting that to begin with, because science museums have always been really enjoyable for me. There are always lots of neat little gadgets and displays to look at, and this was certainly no exception. As it was the end of the day and I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the museum, I evaluated my options and decided to prioritize the Information Age floor, since, again, a lot of the other subject matter on offer was the kind of thing I had already learned about in school and from other museums. Because of the poor lighting conditions, I wasn't able to get any pictures of the displays, but I had a great time checking out slide rules, counting machines, switchboards, early computers, and ERNIE, the famous random number generator. Back in the day, it (he?) was used to generate the winning numbers for Premium Bonds, and hopeful people would send letters and gifts to it (him?) to try to get their numbers picked. Another display that I really liked was a selection of early word processors and personal computers. As a bit of a computer geek, I loved looking at the earliest iterations of the PC. It really evokes a sense of wonder, thinking about these still-very-recent machines and comparing them to the powerful home computer I'm using to write this blog post. The last thing I looked at was a video display that told the story of the BBC's first international television broadcast. There were interviews with people who had worked on that broadcast, as well as clips from the little performances that each country came up with to show in the broadcast. Like the computer display, it really made me think about how recently the world was amazed by something as simple (by our standards) as being able to see a live broadcast from another country.

At 3pm, the museum observed a two-minute silence for VE Day, which made me happy because I think it's important to keep that kind of tradition alive. It was strange, but exciting, to think that I was observing this silence not so very far from Winston Churchill's war rooms. London is a place where a great many important historical events have come to pass, and you can almost feel it in the air there.

At closing time, I took the Tube back to Hammersmith, got another Tesco supper and happily settled back into my room pretty early in the evening. One of the joys of travelling alone is that you can simply call it a day when you get tired, and tired I was after all the walking I'd done in the past two days! There was something immensely satisfying about settling into bed to watch some TV, knowing the whole time that I was in London--really in London. I'd made it, spent a full day seeing the sights, and I still had a few more days to do whatever I liked, in a place I'd been dreaming of seeing for years.

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