I would like to introduce a new series of guest bloggers with my sister-in-law, Heather, and her tale of times in London with my brother on their honeymoon. Pictures follow. Hope you enjoy...
So my brother-in-law
STEVE runs this fantastic blog, and was kind enough to let me brag about my
honeymoon to all his readers. His brother Ryan, my new husband, and I spent two
marvelous weeks in London and Dublin, with a three-day jaunt over to Galway on
the western coast of Ireland. Everything was beautiful - more than I could have
possibly imagined - and other aspects, well….you'll see.
I'm going to do this
post in two parts: first will be London, and I'll have a follow-up in the next
week or so about my time in Ireland. This is for both our benefits (but mostly
mine - my fingers will get sore from typing).
I get a little snap
happy with my camera (these pics are from my iPhone and my Nikon D300) but
lucky for all of you, they're not bad representations of life over there! I
tried to eliminate the requisite photos of my standing in front of Big Ben with
my hand out to make it appear as though I were "leaning" on it…there
were a frightening number of those happening and I don't want to talk about it. Anyway…..
After a six hour flight,
Ryan and I had a one-hour layover in Dublin before heading onto Heathrow
Airport in London (that flight was like a commuter train - 50 minutes and tons
of business people). I thought by taking an overnight flight and landing in
London at 11 am, we would abolish any and all troubles with traditional jet
lag. HA! We literally spent our first day in London passed out on the bed.
Like, that's it. I think we went to some sushi place that night, but honestly,
I was a zombie.
So after my embarrassing
waste of my first day in a city I've always dreamed of visiting, we got right
into some of the more "touristy" things before coming back to our
B&B in Notting Hill. The Main House sits among the residential Georgian
townhouses of London's West End neighborhood, which boomed after that movie
with Julia Roberts came out. There are a bunch of designer boutiques and plenty
of fun places to eat, but surprisingly, it didn't cost as much as you'd expect.
By London standards, it was downright cheap. London seems to have no middle
class. I'd normally be fine with a hostel, but this was our honeymoon, so that
wasn't exactly going to work out. Our options were literally The Dorchester or
the spare room in some Indian family's basement. Was it too much to ask for
some middle ground? We found it at The Main House. Caroline Main turned her
white Georgian townhouse into five separate apartments, and has hosted everyone
from Japanese pop stars to Hollywood film producers. We stayed in a suite on the
third floor: a spacious, hardwood bedroom with an enormous private bathroom and
period antiques everywhere. It was beautiful, huge for European lodging, and
very private. The only problem we had was in the third night: a car alarm
started going off around 10 pm, and rather than shutting it off, another car
full of Lebanese people drive up, get out, and start kicking the shit out of it
- so now the car is rocking around AND squealing alarm sirens, when yet another
car drives up, a fourth Lebanese man gets out, and starts blaring Katy Perry's
"Part of Me" at max volume and he joins in kicking. This went on for
about twenty minutes while Ryan was trying to Skype with his parents. Their
first taste of London was, um, colorful.
On the second
day we spent a fair amount of time at the Tower of London, seeing the ravens
(whose wings were "trimmed" not clipped. Uh huh. The legend goes that
should the ravens ever leave the Tower, the monarchy will fall. Leave it to the
Brits to head that one off), the crown jewels, the armory (which featured
amazing steampunk-looking dragon constructed out of old knights' armor), and
the torture chamber exhibit. It turned out to be the best tour we took while in
London. We ate fish and chips from a street vendor….not the best idea. I like
to disregard stereotypes, but you know the one about how British food sucks?
That one is effing true. The crust was flaky and golden and very tasty, but the
fish itself was full of tiny bones and was a little gray. We didn't eat much except
ginger ale and tums the rest of the day.
Later, we went to St.
Paul's Cathedral. There was a sign that said, "No photographs,
please." Pssh. You charge me 15 pounds for entry, don't expect me to keep
the iPhone in my pocket. We did, however, get a different kind of tour on the
advice of my friend Jen who went to London last summer. She advised us to climb
the stairs all the way up to the top of the dome, and promised the views would
be better than if we took the London Eye (overpriced and SO not worth it,
compared to what we found at St. Paul's). We saw a warning sign at the base of
the stairs advising anyone with heart problems or who might be pregnant not to
continue on. Since these signs usually designate an increased level of
awesomeness on theme park rides, we nodded once to each other and carried on.
15 minutes later: "Can't…make it…one….more….step…GAHHHHH!!" Just
kidding. it wasn't quite that bad, but there were 597 steps to the top, and
they weren't all nicely paved cement steps, either. Some were around turrets,
others were big enough for one foot through some custodial cabinet that hasn't
been used since 1870. I'm 5'4" and pretty tiny, so the fact that I had
trouble didn't bode well for people of a much larger size - then again, if they're
that big, they should probably have headed the "heart condition" sign
at the start of this ride. (I also noticed the age of climbers decreased the
higher we ascended into the tower.) When we arrived at the top, however, all
the pain and sore calf muscles were worth it: London on a misty day, with views
as far into the distance as the River Thames.
Across Millennium Bridge
(the one the Death Eaters blew up in Half-Blood Prince) we could see
Shakespeare's Globe. This isn't the original where Shakespeare premiered his
plays - that one was destroyed by fire in 1613, the rebuilt in 1614 only to be
demolished in 1644. This one is a replica built in 1997 about 750 feet from the
site of the original. So, still cool, but in a museum kinda-way. We arrived too
late to tour it, but not too late for happy hour at The Swan, a pub built right
next to the Globe in 2007. Again, not exactly the oldest thing in London, but
it was their menu that caught our eye. Every drink was named after one of
Shakespeare's plays, characters or scenes, with lines from that play describing
it. VERY cool. 8 pounds so I didn't get to try one, but still, VERY cool.
Our third day was
probably my favorite, only because I LOVE HARRY POTTER (sorry, was that too
loud?). The new Warner Bros Studio Tour London opened at Leavesden Studios,
where all eight HP movies were filmed, just two weeks before we got married and
came to London (coincidence? Or do the Fates just favor me THAT much?). I
advise any HP fan to bring a change of pants. These are THE sets that all those
incredible, legendary British actors played wizards in for over ten years.
Without spoiling it, I will say that they take you into a room with incredibly
comfy seats and show you a movie with Dan, Emma and Rupert introducing the
studio and how they grew up there, blah blah blah. Only kidding - it was a good
intro, but I was just super excited. I'm super excited just telling you about
it (probably should have had only 3 cups of coffee this morning). When the
movie ends, they all say, "Welcome to Hogwarts." You think you'll be
taken into another room, but NAY - the flipping' screen goes up, and there
right in front of you are the doors to the Great Hall! Joy. The tour guide asks
for a volunteer. Side story: when I went to the HP Exhibit at Chicago's Museum
of Science and Industry, they picked a volunteer to be sorted. A little
two-year-old got picked and it was infuriating. He didn't even know how to
read, let alone grasp the importance of such an occasion as being sorted.
Determined not let that happen again, my hand shot up before the guide could
finish her sentence, and she picked me. ME! My honor? To help open the doors to
the Great Hall and be the first welcomed into Hogwarts. Huge moment for
everyone. Ryan was taking video the whole time, so he got a little gem we've
passed around family and friends a few times: when I opened the door, I thought
I was supposed to pull. I also forgot that these are not thousand-year-old iron
doors, but plywood painted to mimic patina as a movie set. Thus, I nearly broke
the Great Hall. Luckily, I tossed my hair and recovered with a winning smile.
And I still beat the token two-year-old in, so it was cool.
The specifics of this
tour would take another few blog posts to get into, so I'll let a few pics
suffice. The sets were everything: potions classroom, Gryffindor boys' dorm,
common room, the giant clock thing that suddenly appeared in Prisoner of
Azkaban, the Burrow, the ministry of Magic, and then outside, the Knight Bus,
Godric's Hollow, Tom Riddle's grave, and Number 4 Privet Drive. We also got to
try Butterbeer :D The next building had all of the behind-the-scenes stuff,
like Creature creation, concept art (LOVED that) and the Hogwarts model, which
is HUGE and what they filmed when you thought you were filming the outside of
the castle. They CG'd tiny actors into the courtyards and stuff and filmed it
all on green screen. The wand room and the inevitable gift shop followed.
The rest of our time in
London was spent at Westminster Abbey (huge for me, I love the Poet's Corner),
the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Harrods, Fortnum and Mason (where they were
charging 7 pounds 50 - thats about $13 - for Aunt Jemima syrup, that foreign
delicacy), the British Museum aka the Rosetta Stone, some walking around Soho's
red light district (actually super fun), a play by Scrubs' Zach Braff called
"All New People", and basically trying to find something edible. I
would say fudge but I'm severely allergic to nuts, so that was out. Then we
discovered Spaghetti House. OH MY GOD. Started by two Italian brothers in the
1940's, this London chain had every bit of tasty food you could imagine. I
don't know if we were just super hungry or if it was true culinary excellence,
but that food was GOOD. We started with bruschetta that we watched the chefs
make behind a counter with the reddest tomatoes I've ever seen. My main dish
was penne pasta with smoked salmon in a basil cream sauce. Obsession. Feeling
like normal human beings once again, we celebrated our final days in London
with street shopping at the world-famous Portobello Road Market - a two-mile
stretch of antique and food vendors - and a last glimpse at the skyline before
jetting off to Ireland.
No comments:
Post a Comment