The sun comes up at like 6 in London. Especially before the time sprung forward.
Sarah had to work on Friday and Alex left for the weekend for a photography retreat.
I woke up to the sound of school children lining up outside the kitchen window. I don´t know why I felt compelled to take their picture...they just look like any other school children lining up. But at the time I thought, "Oh how cute British children lining up for school."
I took my time getting ready and enjoying a whole flat to myself....realizing how much I miss things like comfortable CLOTH couches (Dad, I don't wanna hear how much you don't like the new couch..come to Spain and sit on our plastic couch with plastic pillows)...and carpet! I miss rugs and carpets so much! So, I sat around and enjoyed these newly discovered luxuries along with a clean kitchen and TV in English. Then I got my act together for hard core London tourist day.
Never say apartment in England.
I also took this picture so I could remember what floor Sarah lived
on in case I needed to get back.
And a picture of her flat complex.... my own digital bread crumbs.
Ready to go. I got my map with the top 10 places to see in London and I got my directions to
the tube.
Walking down Sarah´s street.
I came a little close to getting hit by a motorcycle because I looked the wrong way when
crossing the street. Look right THEN left.
Photos taken on my walk to the tube.
Battersea Bridge
The Prince Albert Bridge
Under construction
Chelsea... a fancy smancy neighborhood near Sarah´s.
Sarah said Hugh Grant lives somewhere in Chelsea. Maybe he lives here.
Walking down the King´s road. A road full of stores and shops
Harry's cousin?
Exiting the tube, I ran into the London Eye!
crossing the street. Look right THEN left.
Photos taken on my walk to the tube.
Battersea Bridge
The Prince Albert Bridge
Under construction
Chelsea... a fancy smancy neighborhood near Sarah´s.
Sarah said Hugh Grant lives somewhere in Chelsea. Maybe he lives here.
Walking down the King´s road. A road full of stores and shops
Harry's cousin?
Exiting the tube, I ran into the London Eye!
And I was taking a picture of the Loo sign and wondering where I should go to find Big Ben, I turned a corner and ....
Bam. I was right under him. Turns out, he's not that hard to find.
AND it turns out I couldn't take enough pictures of him.
Guards.
Can you really take them seriously in those hats? Like crime fighting seriously?
Can you really take them seriously in those hats? Like crime fighting seriously?
Not sure what this was all about
Traveling solo means you gotta photograph yourself sometimes if you want any pictures with
you in it.
you in it.
Me and Parliament
The antique look on photo editor
This thing
It was an incredibly gorgeous day... sunny and warm. Not exactly normal for London. So there were tons of people out enjoying the weather. I had come prepared for much colder weather so I was a tad toasty.
Look who´s peeking around the corner....
Another shot of the eye. Sarah told me it is 60 pounds to ride. I think I'll pass this time. 
Time for a stupidity confession. I had been thinking in my head that the river was the Thames (pronouncing it 'Tames' in my mind)....luckily this error was just between me and myself because somewhere I heard 'Tims' and thought, "Oh yeah... not 'Tames." But in my defense, it is partially Hampton Thames' fault (my youth director in 6th grade). He pronounced it 'Tames'.....or either I have been messing up his name too all these year. At least I knew the TH was just the T sound. Oh stupid English language.
Time for a stupidity confession. I had been thinking in my head that the river was the Thames (pronouncing it 'Tames' in my mind)....luckily this error was just between me and myself because somewhere I heard 'Tims' and thought, "Oh yeah... not 'Tames." But in my defense, it is partially Hampton Thames' fault (my youth director in 6th grade). He pronounced it 'Tames'.....or either I have been messing up his name too all these year. At least I knew the TH was just the T sound. Oh stupid English language.
More Ben and Parliament
Westminster Abbey
Ok now back to Ben
Westminster again. It was 16 pounds to enter. Of ALL the churches and cathedrals I´ve visited none of them have charged. Tacky. For a second, I was tempted to pay, but then I asked this couple if it was worth it. They chuckled and the man said, ¨I guess mentally it is worth it, but not physically.¨ So, I decided not to pay 16 pounds just to be able to say I´ve been in Westminster Abbey, especially when I've been in the biggest cathedral in the world for free. I also decided if I wanted to bad enough (16 pounds bad enough) then I would just come on Sunday to a worship service and get in free.
Instead I went in the gift shop and looked at post cards of the church's interior.
Display outside the gift shop. Again, tacky on you Westminster. All the other souvenir stands, sure. But you're getting the real deal.
But first I HAD to have this hot dog. It is a crime that I have not had a hot dog in 3 months.
It was mouth watering delicious.
It was mouth watering delicious.
As I've said before, instead of buying souvenirs on these weekend excursions for everyone, I am taking pictures of what I would've bought if I had the space in my bag and the money. These Christmas "Kate and William" ornaments would be for Bet, my aunt. 
I took the ornament picture and a man employee shook his head at me.
"Oh sorry," I said.
Then took this one (below) when he wasn't looking.
I took the ornament picture and a man employee shook his head at me.
"Oh sorry," I said.
Then took this one (below) when he wasn't looking.
I feel like the Halls are gonna be into this wedding and could use some Kate and William mugs, so these would be for you Robin, Ann Marie and Elizabeth. 
Don't let anyone tell you that Americans are more obsessed with this royal wedding than the English. Absolutely not true. Kate and William are EVERYWHERE.
Don't let anyone tell you that Americans are more obsessed with this royal wedding than the English. Absolutely not true. Kate and William are EVERYWHERE.
Sarah says they even have face cut outs of Kate and William that you can wear as masks. Oh, if only I´d gotten my hands on those.
Westminster and Big Ben together.
Westminster and Big Ben together.
Me and Ben
Big Ben and Double Decker bus... two points.
He´s just so shiney. But I still have no idea why he is called Ben. Probably should've learned this while in London... or maybe I should've already known it. Oh well, google it later.
Left Ben´s part of town and started making my way to the palace. Walked through this park which was exploding with daffodils and other flowers. 
The palace
The eye
More park
Nice perch
Man it's great to see you spring!
Yeah... so... the negative thing about traveling alone is you have to either take pictures of yourself or ask someone else. On the up side, you can take as many pictures of yourself as you want until you get the perfect one and not be embarrassed at your ridiculous display of narcissism.... that is, until you post it on your blog.
Emily and daffodils with glasses
Glasses on the head
Ok no glasses at all
Change of background
Back to daffodils. Except now with head next to flower
Gave up trying to get my head in with this background... and just took a regular picture. 
Leaving the daffodil park and on to the palace
Construction going on right outside the palace. I decided they were doing it all to get ready for the wedding.
I know I don't have a palace or anything grand like that in my name, but if I were the queen...I would want something a little more showy and... palace-y. Maybe I'm imagining to much along the lines of Aladdin-type palace or fairy tale castle...but this big gray building is just not much to gander at. No offense Royals, I'm just sayin... it could at least sparkle or something.
Oooo how swanky
Then it pulled into the palace gates! I'd hoped it was coming to pick up one of the royals. . . but no.
Guards
Guards guarding
I didn't see any changing of guards. That happened earlier in the day. And later, someone told me they charged for that. I'm not sure though. Either way, it was not on my must-do list.
Drab drab drab
The gates are nice and shiney though
Me and the not so impressive palace entrance
Had my picture taken by this Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang lookin' man
Me and impressive gates
And moving on... So far I have learned that all these major cities I've visited have an arch and a main river that runs through it (which the river makes sense).
So here is London's arch.
oooooooo
ahhhhhrch
Entrance to Hyde Park
More pretty flowers
But the first park was a bit prettier than Hyde Park.
Womping willow
When I came upon this restaurant area, I overheard a minor conflict between a mom and a cute out-doorsy tourist couple. The mom was saying, "Excuse me...excuse me but you can't take pictures of children." The couple looked at her like she was insane and started to walk off. But the woman (and her small, 4-ish year-old child dressed in a pink princess dress) followed the couple and kept on.
"No excuse me. You can't take pictures of children in England. It is against the law. People abduct children." The couple looked stunned and still didn't seem to believe this nut mother. The mother threatened to get the police. She asked the lady to delete the picture. The lady still seemed to refuse. Until finally, after more threatening, the issue was resolved...the picture was deleted and the couple left. I had noticed the mother sounded not completely fluent in English. She sounded like a foreigner who had learned British English as a second language. And sure enough, she soon started draggin her daughter into the restaurant, and when the daughter refused, the mother began yelling in Spanish.
I don't doubt this English law's existence...but this woman was in a tourist park with a kid in an outfit. . . and this couple was really harmless looking. She made quite a scene. It was also funny because Spanish people in Spain...well they are just not as paranoid as this. You saw how many pictures of kids we had from Fallas. Joe ripped one from a mother's arm for a photo op.
Soon after the skirmish, (and apparently risking arrest) I had to take a picture of this kid in her school uniform. Yeesh. If these were the school uniforms in the U.S., the pro-uniform argument would lose every time. The drop out rate would start at kindergarten.
More Hyde Park
The Swan Segment
Look at me Swan
Thank you
Ok now turn your head just soo ... So I can get you and the park.
No that's too far... a little to the right.
Perfect
Then I stumbled upon this
Yeah, I know. Doesn't exactly look like a fountain at first.
Still a little apprehensive about taking pictures of kids. But come on. If they are in the middle of Diana's memorial fountain, it's their own fault if they get photographed abducted.
Now it looks like a fountain
This is posted on the sign outside. Hmmm...
Guess we just ignore that request.
I was burning up and my body was getting really tired of walking. Made it to the Victoria and Albert museum.
First stop was the bathrooms then the café
I was told to have scones and clotted cream. Scones, no problem. But what is clotted cream? I waited in line and hoped to see a sign for it. That way I could look at the items around it and at least understand what category it fell into. Drink? Yogurty-thing? Dessert?
Do I say a scone and clotted cream? Scone with clotted cream? Scone and A clotted cream?
But I didn't see any sign with clotted cream on it. So I turned to the guy next to me and said, "Can you tell me what clotted cream is?"
"Oh, it's like butter."
Ooooh. Got it.
The butter and jam were out next to the scones but not clotted cream.
So, I ordered a scone and then asked for some clotted cream with it.
This is clotted cream... Just really thick butter basically. Indeed, it is yummy on a scone.
More pictures from the outdoor café
Sat next to the fountain and polished off the scone.
Wandered around the museum a little... but I was getting really tired and it was getting close to time for me to meet Sarah again...so I didn't see too much.
Guess what this lady's name is...
I hopped over to the Natural Science museum (it was right there and it was free) to kill 15 more minutes. It was all about the earth and natural disasters. In one part there was this Japanese earthquake simulation. Ground shaking and everything. The Japanese products on the shelves shake, the lights go out, and you watch the same thing happening on the TV....which was a real recording from the actual earthquake on a store's surveillance camera.
It was from an earthquake in 1995...but it felt a little inapropp given all the recent events.
I met Sarah at her work again. We went for a drink at a fancy hotel bar. Met up with her friend there then went to dinner with more friends from Sarah's art master's program.
We also met some guy from FOX news at this fancy bar... his name was Leeland Tivertt or something. I asked, "Oh, will we be seeing you on the news then?"
Sarah, realizing that my question insinuated we had no clue who he was said, "Ooor should we have already seen you on the TV?"
Sorry Leeland, we don't get FOX in Spain. ... and even if I watched FOX news I don't think I would remember you.
You'll never guess what we had for dinner...
Amazing, scrumptious, delicious, splendid, fabuloso MEXICAN FOOD! A restaurant called Crazy Homies.
The scone, clotted cream, and cider are literally the only English things I've even tried at this point. Ask me how much I care. No, ask me how good the guacamole was. aaaaahhhhh I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
After shoveling loads of guac in faces and paying the bill, we contemplated going to a pub. It was one of those, "Well..do y'all wanna go somewhere else...." and people weren't sounding to enthused. I finally just said, "Sarah, it's really ok if we don't go out." (I could barely move my guac filled, toured out body) With a huge sigh of relief Sarah said, "Yeah, I am actually really tired." It has been a while since I've been around people who are totally ok with going to bed before midnight on a Friday night. I miss you mid to late-twenties friends :)
Taxi ride home! The cab driver may have well been speaking French...at one point he turned to ask something and I had no clue what he'd said. But Sarah answered without missing a beat.
So British you are.
I know I don't have a palace or anything grand like that in my name, but if I were the queen...I would want something a little more showy and... palace-y. Maybe I'm imagining to much along the lines of Aladdin-type palace or fairy tale castle...but this big gray building is just not much to gander at. No offense Royals, I'm just sayin... it could at least sparkle or something.
Oooo how swanky
Then it pulled into the palace gates! I'd hoped it was coming to pick up one of the royals. . . but no.
Guards
Guards guarding
I didn't see any changing of guards. That happened earlier in the day. And later, someone told me they charged for that. I'm not sure though. Either way, it was not on my must-do list.
Drab drab drab
The gates are nice and shiney though
Me and the not so impressive palace entrance
Had my picture taken by this Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang lookin' man
Me and impressive gates
And moving on... So far I have learned that all these major cities I've visited have an arch and a main river that runs through it (which the river makes sense).
So here is London's arch.
oooooooo
ahhhhhrch
Entrance to Hyde Park
More pretty flowers
But the first park was a bit prettier than Hyde Park.
Womping willow
When I came upon this restaurant area, I overheard a minor conflict between a mom and a cute out-doorsy tourist couple. The mom was saying, "Excuse me...excuse me but you can't take pictures of children." The couple looked at her like she was insane and started to walk off. But the woman (and her small, 4-ish year-old child dressed in a pink princess dress) followed the couple and kept on.
"No excuse me. You can't take pictures of children in England. It is against the law. People abduct children." The couple looked stunned and still didn't seem to believe this nut mother. The mother threatened to get the police. She asked the lady to delete the picture. The lady still seemed to refuse. Until finally, after more threatening, the issue was resolved...the picture was deleted and the couple left. I had noticed the mother sounded not completely fluent in English. She sounded like a foreigner who had learned British English as a second language. And sure enough, she soon started draggin her daughter into the restaurant, and when the daughter refused, the mother began yelling in Spanish.
I don't doubt this English law's existence...but this woman was in a tourist park with a kid in an outfit. . . and this couple was really harmless looking. She made quite a scene. It was also funny because Spanish people in Spain...well they are just not as paranoid as this. You saw how many pictures of kids we had from Fallas. Joe ripped one from a mother's arm for a photo op.
Soon after the skirmish, (and apparently risking arrest) I had to take a picture of this kid in her school uniform. Yeesh. If these were the school uniforms in the U.S., the pro-uniform argument would lose every time. The drop out rate would start at kindergarten.
More Hyde Park
The Swan Segment
Look at me Swan
Thank you
Ok now turn your head just soo ... So I can get you and the park.
No that's too far... a little to the right.
Perfect
Then I stumbled upon this
Yeah, I know. Doesn't exactly look like a fountain at first.
Still a little apprehensive about taking pictures of kids. But come on. If they are in the middle of Diana's memorial fountain, it's their own fault if they get photographed abducted.
Now it looks like a fountain
This is posted on the sign outside. Hmmm...
Guess we just ignore that request.
I was burning up and my body was getting really tired of walking. Made it to the Victoria and Albert museum.
First stop was the bathrooms then the café
I was told to have scones and clotted cream. Scones, no problem. But what is clotted cream? I waited in line and hoped to see a sign for it. That way I could look at the items around it and at least understand what category it fell into. Drink? Yogurty-thing? Dessert?
Do I say a scone and clotted cream? Scone with clotted cream? Scone and A clotted cream?
But I didn't see any sign with clotted cream on it. So I turned to the guy next to me and said, "Can you tell me what clotted cream is?"
"Oh, it's like butter."
Ooooh. Got it.
The butter and jam were out next to the scones but not clotted cream.
So, I ordered a scone and then asked for some clotted cream with it.
This is clotted cream... Just really thick butter basically. Indeed, it is yummy on a scone.
More pictures from the outdoor café
Sat next to the fountain and polished off the scone.
Wandered around the museum a little... but I was getting really tired and it was getting close to time for me to meet Sarah again...so I didn't see too much.
Guess what this lady's name is...
I hopped over to the Natural Science museum (it was right there and it was free) to kill 15 more minutes. It was all about the earth and natural disasters. In one part there was this Japanese earthquake simulation. Ground shaking and everything. The Japanese products on the shelves shake, the lights go out, and you watch the same thing happening on the TV....which was a real recording from the actual earthquake on a store's surveillance camera.
It was from an earthquake in 1995...but it felt a little inapropp given all the recent events.
I met Sarah at her work again. We went for a drink at a fancy hotel bar. Met up with her friend there then went to dinner with more friends from Sarah's art master's program.
We also met some guy from FOX news at this fancy bar... his name was Leeland Tivertt or something. I asked, "Oh, will we be seeing you on the news then?"
Sarah, realizing that my question insinuated we had no clue who he was said, "Ooor should we have already seen you on the TV?"
Sorry Leeland, we don't get FOX in Spain. ... and even if I watched FOX news I don't think I would remember you.
You'll never guess what we had for dinner...
Amazing, scrumptious, delicious, splendid, fabuloso MEXICAN FOOD! A restaurant called Crazy Homies.
The scone, clotted cream, and cider are literally the only English things I've even tried at this point. Ask me how much I care. No, ask me how good the guacamole was. aaaaahhhhh I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
After shoveling loads of guac in faces and paying the bill, we contemplated going to a pub. It was one of those, "Well..do y'all wanna go somewhere else...." and people weren't sounding to enthused. I finally just said, "Sarah, it's really ok if we don't go out." (I could barely move my guac filled, toured out body) With a huge sigh of relief Sarah said, "Yeah, I am actually really tired." It has been a while since I've been around people who are totally ok with going to bed before midnight on a Friday night. I miss you mid to late-twenties friends :)
Taxi ride home! The cab driver may have well been speaking French...at one point he turned to ask something and I had no clue what he'd said. But Sarah answered without missing a beat.
So British you are.
you're so cute! i love reading this and reliving it again...can't wait to get to the edinborough part. bahahahahaa xxxxxxxx
ReplyDeleteDon't quote me on this, but I think the carriage you saw at Buckingham Palace might have been Her Maj's mail. I've got a pretty good hunch, based on what we saw last time I was there and mom wanted to go see the palace.
ReplyDelete