Greenwich #4

Way back when Kristen's friends, the Himes, were here we visited Greenwich, and all the stuff there to see. There is really alot to see but to be honest with you it wasn't all that exciting. Seemed more of a check the box kinda visit vs. anything really impressive.

The biggest thing to see is the Old Naval College, which was the Greenwich Hospital until 1873.

In true British style the buildings of the hospital/college were super fancy and had great design/painting/architecture within. I can't imagine that the Naval students were being taught to be anything other than painters living and going to school within these buildings. In fact the College and related buildings have been in more movies than you could ever hope to be, Patriot Games, Tomb Raider, the King's Speech, and most of the Pirates movies, to name a few.

Also on the property was the national maritime museum. Wasn't too much within to talk about, some boats here and there (imagine that!!), and general ocean stuff. The coolest part was a display of the actual uniform that Admiral Nelson was wearing when he was fatally shot. I know its a bit morbid, but to see the bullet holes and blood spatter on it was strangly intriguing. He was really a little fellow, even though he stands pretty tall in the center of Trafalgar square now.

Last but not least was the Royal Observatory. This was probably the most touristy of all the sights, and rightly so, since probably everyone in the world has heard of it and its influence on the world. It was one of those things where you just feel kinda wierd knowing you are at what is essentially the center of the world for both time and space.

Kristen stradleing the Prime Meridian. Standing in two hemispheres at once

Synchronize your watch, you will never be more on time than you would here. Greenwich Mean Time

Don't know why this was so funny to me, but it was one of the stops on the DLR on the way to Greenwich. Someone seriously needs to put through a petition to get it changed.



Buckingham Palace #3

Life has gotten a bit in the way of the blog for awhile, but we are back, and will be catching up on the happenings over the past month or so, and catching everyone up on what has been going on here in London.

As was seen a few weeks back Scott and Monica were here taking in a bit of London before they headed off to explore real Europe, and take in the fun and sun of Spain. Well lucky for them when they were here, half of Britain was on holiday, and that provided a unique opportunity to take in, maybe the most iconic of London's landmarks.

Every year the Queen goes away on holiday for two months or so, and they open up Buckingham Palace for visitors. Extra special this year was the addition of Kate's wedding dress to see and stare at. Tickets actually sold out for touring the Palace, something like 6 weeks in advance. I didn't quite understand how it was possible to 'sell out' a tour, but after seeing the #s of people going into the palace we figured out why.

Unfortunately for anyone who wasn't with us there were no pictures allowed inside, but let me tell you, it was quite impressive. The tour only went through what I estimate was a third of Palace, and everything was VERY impressive. Clearly it is a place where the World's most powerful are impressed on a regular basis.

Just about the only thing we that I can show you, is the throne room. And we can only show that because that is where the wedding party pictures were taken.
We watched the changing of the guard before we went on our tour. Scott was a bit impressed but more so confused. The band played ABBA during their march. Not regal by any sense of the word.

Views from the back of Buckingham Palace. No cameras inside, but they were more than happy to let us shoot the back yard.

Lots of mowing!!!

These were the lines waiting to go into the the Palace tour. You had tickets with a specific tour time, so it was packed like this all day long.

We stopped by the Prime Minister's house on the way to the Palace. Lots of guards and lots of machine guns. Still was really surprised how close you could actually get to the house/flat.

This should have gone on another post about signs, but since I saw it on the way to the Palace I thought I would throw it up here......We kept looking to the left but never saw any eyes walking that way.

Spring!!!

A bold statement yes, but I think we might have actually turned the corner. It was 29 this morning when I got up, 36 when I left to ride my bike, and 51 when I got home. Bright sunshine all day, now wind and a high of 56. I can see why they say summer here is so great.

During the ride this morning, I saw an old guy, and I mean OLD, at the least 60, skate sking around the park. Now this wouldn't be so strange if he would have been out in some kinda of track suit or something that looked like he actually left the house with the intention of an athletic venture. But oh no, he was wearing corduroys and a sweater vest. Had a lock on his face like he couldn't believe what he was doing or where he was. I really wanted to stick around and see what happened next, but he didn't look like he was planning on going into motion any time soon.

Went out this afternoon to tour the HMS Belfast. Its moored right in the middle of town and seemed to be a pretty big attraction. There is rumor that they are going to move a aircraft carrier into town to tour, and put the concord on its deck, for people to look at. Anyway, pretty impressive ship, but couldn't imagine myself living on it. Give everyone who has ever served tons of credit.

Hard to imagine it was built in 1938 and was in service to 1970 something.  People on board had to be thinking it wasn't logical to be sailing around the world in something that was older than they were, and probably older than their parents.

That can't be good!!

Aye Aye Captain!!



Went to a French place for dinner on the way home....Didn't think I would like French food, but as long as it all comes like this, it is moving right up to the top of the list. Mmmmmm.

Seriously Turbo, nothing can be that bad that you have to look so sad.  She uses her ball as a pillow everyday now.  Not sure what her plan is, but it would probably work, if we just knew what she wanted.

# 1

It was #1 on the top 25 list, which was apparently not in any particular order, because it was not the highlight of all London's landmarks. It was a kinda strange experience, and didn't really have the historical or old feel. You wouldn't even know what you were looking at from the outside, as it looks just all the buildings around it. On the inside its strange too, since it is still used for banquets and parties, it was just a big open room. The story around it was super interesting though. The building is the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall, which was destroyed by fire in 1698. The story is that Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Pauls, blew up the buildings around in to keep the fire from spreading.

The most impressive piece of the building was by far the paintings on the ceiling. Crazy to think that they have been hanging there for almost 400 years. They have only come down during WWII. James I built the hall, and his son Charles I had the paintings made to honor his father. All of the pictures were supposed to tell a story about virtue and such but were more fun to look at than learn about, sorry!! Ironically, Charles I was executed for treason in front of the building in 1649.

This is the view walking into the hall

Top 25

Found this list of the top 25 things to see and do in London. Obviously since it is only 25 there has to be a ton of stuff missing, but I guess its better than the other list I found online which was 771 things to do. Would have to do 2 a day, and I think that is setting our sights just a tad too high. So we will be working through the remaining items over the next 18 months, and will keep you up to date where we are on the list. Stay tuned.

1. Banqueting House
2. British Museum
3. Buckingham Palace
4. Greenwich
5. Houses of Parilament
6. Kensington Palace and Gardens - Done (need to revisit due to construction)
7. Natual History Museum - Done
8. National Portrait Gallery - Done
9. National Gallery - Done
10. Musuem of London - Done
11. London Eye - Done
12. Knightbridge Shopping Spree
13. Portobello Road Market - Done
14. Kew Gardens
15. St. James's Park
16. St. Pauls Cathedral - Done
17. Science Musuem
18. Sir John Soane's Museum
19. Somerset House
20. Tate Britain
21. Tate Modern - Done
22. Thames River Cruise
23. Tower of London - Done
24. Victoria and Albert Museum - Done
25. Westminster Abbey - Done

Tate Modern

We have been planning on going to the Tat Modern since just about our first day here, but for whatever reason kept putting it off, till now. I think part of it was we had been to so many museums already and had gotten a little burnt out. I wish we had gone earlier, as it turned out that I enjoy modern art far more than 'old' art. Not sure if any of the stories or information about some of the exhibits have made it over to the US, or not but the main reason for going as been to see Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds. (more later) It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, and as a 'artistic design' they retained the original shape while renovating it to an art gallery.

The entrance to the Tate Modern is through the old Turbine Hall, you can see how this could have been a power station.
Sunflower Seed is made up of over one hundred million seeds, all hand painted ceramic seeds. The say it is to make us question things. 'What does it mean to be an individual in today's society? Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together? What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for society, the environment and the future?' But I just thought it was cool to look at, and the only thing it made me think was 'wow, thats a lot of seeds'. I guess I am not too philosophical.

The grey area is the seeds
Close up
Picasso

I will let you guess who's exhibit this is.
Monet

Jackson Pollock

Not sure who this was, but I just thought it looked cool.

Millennium Foot Bridge, leading to St. Paul's Cathedral. I miss driving a car, but hard to take your own picture while driving, so I guess the tube has its perks.

The REAL Stairs

The Dome

A few months ago, I posted about the stairs at The Monument. Those stairs were nothing compared to the stairs at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It took 570 steps, but the view was beautiful. St Paul’s Cathedral is called the Nation’s Church. The current St. Paul’s Cathedral was built in 1710 by Christopher Wren, although worship has been occuring at the site since 604 AD. Fire destroyed the previous churches in 962, 1087 and 1666.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We started off with a guided tour, which was great because we got to see places you don’t normally see. First we went inside the south bell tower and saw the geometric staircase. For my Harry Potter fans (myself included) this is where the moving staircases scene was filmed for the 3^rd Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Not sure what it was really used for, I got distracted by the Harry Potterness of it.



Harry Potter Staircase from the top

Harry Potter staircase from the bottom



After that we moved on to the Chapel of St.Michael and St. George. This a private chapel for the use of members of the Order of St Michael and St. George, basically British citizens who served as ambassadors or done something overseas. (I think). Some of this stuff is still a little confusing to me. 



Chapel of St. George and St. Michael

Next we continued up the Nave and stood under the dome. . The dome rises 365 feet to represent the days in a year .  The east end of the cathedral was destroyed during WWII.  It was rebuilt as the American Memorial Chapel, which was created to honor American soldiers based in Britain who gave their lives during WWII. The stained glass in the chapel depicts each of the 50 states.





Stained Glass in the American Chapel

Next it was down to the crypt.  People are no longer buried in the Crypt, but Sir Alexander Fleming's ashes were buried there in 1955 .  Christoher Wren, the achitect of St. Paul's Cathedral, along with Lord Nelson and Duke of Wellington are buried in the Crypt. Surprisingly they have a little cafe in the The Crypt, so we ate lunch and prepared to climb the dome.

There are actully three levels of the dome. After 259 steps you enter the interior Whipering Gallery. You get a really good look at the paintings of St. Paul's life inside the dome. Next it is up 119 steps to the exterior Stone Gallery and if want to can go an additional 192 steps to the exterior Golden Gallery.  I was sad when we got to the Golden Gallery because people had written all over the Cathedral.  I couldn't believe people would do that. 

Don't forget your 80's attire when you come visit.