Weekly Roundup

Saturday (May 5)
Walking around the neighborhood bleary and jet-lagged

Sunday
Walking Tour of Westminster

Monday

Ghost tour

Tuesday

First day of class. Walking about, Buckingham Palace, and Fleet Street (there really is a barber shop there...)

Wednesday

Tea at Hyde Park in the rain. Here's another photo at the Princess Di Memorial Fountain instead

Thursday

Class. Sherlock Holmes museum. Play, "One Man, Two Guv'nors"

(Yes, it's a toilet, but it's SHERLOCK HOLMES' TOILET)

Friday

Kew Gardens. 300 acres of botanical delights. We probably covered....like, 54 acres. Every inch glorious, my favorite part was the greenhouses, the oldest in the country.

This jerk was loud.

Tree-top walk. Yep, we went up there, and yep, it was high.

Notice that tiny speck near the middle of the picture, above the trees? That's an airplane (it's a lot bigger and closer than it looks), the gardens are near the airport and planes are constantly whizzing overhead to land, disrupting the peace and reminding me of air raids.

Saturday

Market at Portobello Road. (Apparently this is quite famous from films and such, but I was only vaguely aware of it before then, so feel free to insert your own comments on "Oh yeah, THAT place!") I got some scarves and books on the cheap, as well as bratwurst and this DELICIOUS ETON MESS CUPCAKE from the Hummingbird Bakery. (Eton Mess is a regional special, it was strawberry with bits of meringue and whatnot)

Then Roommate Ian and I went out for a bit and ended up at a fairly swank speakeasy in SoHo where I had the most delicious drink of my life. We also went to the Tate Modern and saw some Picassos and other fascinating works. It was really just too, too cool.

(I wanted to take a picture of our delicious drinks, but it seemed way too 'I'm American and Twenty and Overly Excited about Being Able to Buy Alcohol in a Fancy Private Space I Needed an In on the Guest List to Access'. Plus they already carded me at the door so if I started flashing the side-ways peace sign at Ian's iPhone, they probably would have just taken away my fantastic drink and given me a glass of apple juice.)

Sunday

The Tower of London and church service therein. We wore Sunday best and looked very sharp indeed. There was outdoor market today as well, that took FOREVER to get to and it took FOREVER to get home because one of the Tube lines was down.

The Tower is tremendously old, originally constructed around 1080. Among other things, it's been used as a prison and as a palace (a very tiny palace, reconstruction above of bed chambers) and today houses the Crown Jewels. I don't have any photos at all of these lovelies, in part because I don't think they were allowed, in part because they wouldn't do them justice (seriously, a 500 pound golden wine tub?! Those diamond-laden crowns?!), and in part because the photo I really wanted was of myself in a grey t-shirt and jeans, listening to "The Thieving Magpie" through earbuds, wearing the jewels and murmuring "No rush..." to the guards. Obviously that couldn't happen, because I was wearing a dress and jacket. *SIGH*

(If you are baffled by this strange desire, then you have my deepest condolences because you are clearly unaware of BBC's Sherlock and that is just sad)

Best Play of the Week

"One Man, Two Guv'nors," a HILARIOUS farce based on The Servant of Two Masters. Several factors made this play even more enjoyable:

        -It was the freebie we got from the BYU group, regularly something like 40 pounds. Sweet.

        -The BYU group was sitting in front of us. The play had some incredibly raunchy bits and jokes, half of which appeared to fly right over their heads (...and hit us square in ours? Weird metaphor) and the other half had them gasping and clapping their hands over their mouths. Priceless. (Thanks again for the tickets though!)

        -The little group I went with did not have adequate time to finish our dinner. We got fish and chips from a takeaway stand and were forced to eat them while running to catch the show in time. We did not finish. We shoved them inside our bags and sneaked them in. I ate mine during intermission. You read that correctly: I, Dani Zimmerman, actually consumed cold fried fish and French fries out of my purse in the middle of a sold-out, first-rate play at the Haymarket theater (imagine eating a McDonalds hamburger at a Broadway production and you'll have a rough idea). Ridiculous.

         -The lead actor was hysterical. Audience participation was part of the play and at one point, he started jokingly asking for a sandwich. A wrapped parcel was thrust into the air and someone shouted, "I'VE GOT ONE HERE." The actor was genuinely floored (a more elaborate bit near the end actually was staged, but this one was not). Even better, somebody else, thrust up a bottle of wine. We lost him completely, and no one could breathe for laughing. Groovy. 

Most Magical Moment of the Week

Tie

-Walking around near St. James Place at night. No pictures will really show the beauty of this city at night. 

-Making extended eye-contact with a hottie after Portobello Road. He just stared...and stared....and I just stared...and stared....I should have run him down, I know, I know...

Trippy Telly Times

I've now watched Sherlock, Doctor Who, AND Harry Potter whilst in London. (Hey, I can't go out all the time)