Monday, July 12, 2004

London.  Again. You know, I've now been to London four times in the past sixteen or so months, and I still haven't been to every place I want to go.  Part of the problem is I repeat myself (ridden the Eye four times now), but the real dilemma is that London has just way too many things to do and see.  Way too many.  And the places you do get to cram into your visit, the ones you do make time for, are so overwhelming that you end up just scratching their surface (the British Museum being the most obvious example).  So while this was my fourth tour through, I'm still far from finished with London. Here's what we did manage to squeeze in this past weekend: The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace:  After dropping off our luggage at the St. Giles Hotel (great location for a place to stay in London, btw), my mom and I caught a tube ride over to the palace about an hour before it was set to begin.  You'd think that would be early enough, right?  Nope.  If you want to be right up against the fence for the ceremony, show up even earlier than that.  Even so, we had a pretty good vantage point and I got some good pics.  The one shock of the whole thing was the music the band played.  It was a medley of different songs, and none of them were very Sousa-ish.  They even mixed in "Nobody Does It Better."  I busted out laughing at that one.  Advice:  if you want up against the fence so you can see every last thing, show up around 10am.  Otherwise you fight the huge crowd. The British Museum:  After lunch at the Bag O' Nails, we ventured over to the British Museum which is only about two blocks from the St. Giles.  The last time we'd been to the museum, we had a tour guide and he spent way too much time on just a few items on display.  This time we were determined to see more of the place.  Which I think we did, but since we'd been up since 2am, our energy levels weren't up to more than a few hours of poking around.  That included taking in their 3-D show called Mummy:  the inside story.  Interesting stuff, though I felt like a dork with those 3-D glasses on. Harrods:  Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to what may be the world's most famous department store.  I'd gone there last Thankgiving when it was decorated in all its X-mas glory.  This time it was decorated in all its sale glory, which generated the crowds.  Did manage to score a great chocolate sundae in one of the eateries located inside.  Cost more than three gallons of your favorite ice cream at your local grocery store, though. Hamlet at The Old Vic:  This was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to.  A chance to see Hamlet at the most historic theater in London:  The Old Vic.  Holy, Holy Crap!  Just walking up to the place had me excited.  I'd even managed to get us front row, nearly center seats with a pretty good view of the rather intimidating stage.  The only downer was that the guy playing Hamlet during the performance we saw, Al Weaver, was the back-up Hamlet.  The one getting all the rave reviews and appearing on the cover of the program, Ben Whishaw, didn't perform.  Not that Mr. Weaver did a bad job.  I thought he was pretty damn good.  But I couldn't get over wondering how the play would have been different with Whishaw performing the part.  I don't think I'm prepared to shell out for tickets and the flight back over to London to find out, though. The London Eye:  Like I said earlier, it was my fourth ride on The London Eye, though the first for my mom.  She seemed to really enjoy checking out the one-of-a-kind view of London that the Eye offers.  Glad were able to get on. If you want to see the rest of the pics from the weekend in London, there's a photo gallery for it.  For now, I just want to get a few days rest before Marcela shows up Thursday morning and we shift back into tourist mode again. 6:50:22 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.