London Day 2

Well our trip started out with a bang. It was actually a great way to start out the trip because when I arrived at the apartment (about an hour after the blog post) Natali and I had a great laugh and a great story. It also helped with the jet lag because it certainly woke us up. So I learned the first rule of traveling: don't hop blindly on a train when it is warning that the doors are closing when you and your wife are carrying luggage and your wife is behind you and is smaller than 5'3.

So we walked around for a bit after that, going to Buckingham Palace and St James Park where we rested for a bit (pictures added in previous post). We were proud of ourselves for staying up until 9:00 PM. Natali suggested that we set an alarm but both of our phones were dead so I assumed we would be able to wake up at a decent hour for our only full day in London. BIG MISTAKE. We ended up sleeping in (I won't even say the time because it is embarrassing) and rushed out the door. I learned the second rule of traveling: ALWAYS set an alarm because after an all-night flight you might be surprised at how long you can sleep.

Our first stop was the British Museum.

We focused on the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek rooms because that is what Rick Steve's audio guides focus on and we like to be able to have a little history to what we are seeing. Here are a few of the highlights:

The Rosetta Stone! I learned British in a single day with this stone! You all probably think that is rubbish but I assure you I learned loads of new words. Now I can add British to the list of languages that I know. Brilliant! 

And finally, Ginger. Known as Ginger because of his "wifts of curly red hair" on his head. Who ever thought Egyptians could be red heads? It was interesting that it was just the desert sand that mummified Ginger. 

We couldn't go to London without trying to find something "Harry Potterish" so we set of to King's Cross. We found Platform 9 3/4 with a huge line to take a picture with a cart that was sticking out of the wall. Because of our limited time, we just took a picture of a random person up with the cart.

Navigating around London was great fun. Natali got embarrassed every time I busted out my handy dandy map so she had to take a picture. For lunch we stopped at Marks and Spencer and got a couple of pasta salads and I got a sandwich. Natali was skeptical because the sandwich I got was a cheese and onion sandwich. It turned out to be surprisingly good.

Next up was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. I love bridges. Natali might even tell you I am a little obsessed with them. We have a "game" where if we see a bridge the first one to say "bridge" wins. It doesn't matter if you see it in a movie or in real life. Play this sometime and you will notice that bridges are everywhere.  My love of bridges made seeing the Tower Bridge really cool. It is a very unique bridge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Because of time restraints we were not able to go inside the Tower of London. 

 

We then went to a museum called Tate Modern. Natali told me that it was a modern art gallery for the "Philistines" (she read that online) so I was a little nervous going in. I'm not a big fan of abstract "art" but I went in with an open mind. We would each go and look at a piece of art and read the history behind it. Then we would tell the other about the artwork that we were now so familiar with. It made it very interesting. This is what we found. 

This represents travelers jostling each other after a long trip. So in seven weeks we will probably look something like this (maybe only when jostled?). 

The artist's explanation next to this painting read "Load the brush and draw a line. At the beginning it will appear dark and thick, then it will get gradually thinner and finally disappear..." What more can I say?

Look at the picture above closely and tell me what you see. This work of art was called "Melted Elephant" just for a hint ;).

This was probably our favorite painting in the exhibit that we saw. If you are thinking that it looks like a little kid painted the picture then you are almost correct. The artist named this "Painting for my Son" and is a collection of the painter's favorite paintings that his son made for him as a child.

Then we went to the whole reason we came to London, Wicked. Natali loves broadway plays. I had not been to a Broadway play before meeting Natali but I now can claim to have gone to 5 broadway plays. Natali has gone to loads more than I have but had never seen Wicked. I had heard many of the songs from Wicked (often on repeat in the car as Natali sung at the top of her lungs). We were both excited but Natali was happier than a munchkin with a lollipop.

The play was amazing. I think Natali described it best with one word when she told me why she loves Broadway plays: Perfection. It is one of the few places where you can see pure perfection. It is amazing to see the work of people that are so talented and work so hard to put on something truly perfect for all of us to enjoy. I enjoyed other plays that I have seen like Les Miserable or Lion King but Wicked was on another level. It might have been because I have grown to love the songs that Natali loves to sing on road trips in the car. Or maybe it was the familiarity with the Land of Oz from childhood. Whatever the case I would suggest seeing Wicked in London should be on everyone's bucket list.