As I’m sure you can tell from the title of this post, I love London. Love, love love love London. I’m pretty sure because to me, it seems just like New York, but with accents! I also love that there are tons of foot-bridges all throughout the city, I love that there is a subway, underground, tube, metro... whatever, I love that there are tons of free museums, I love that there is Royalty, I love that it is an international city, I love that it’s the same distance away from New York as California, I love that we have great family friends here, I love how quirky it is, I love the pub scene, I love everything.
This is the second time I’ve been here since I’ve set out on my trip, and it definitely won’t be the last. In November I’m meeting Shley here again for a mini Emma Reunion with the head of school and other alums. I have kind of made it my home base abroad, and I am seriously thinking of applying to Graduate School here.
Yesterday was a big walking day out and about in central London. I needed to find an HSBC bank to conduct some business, and on-line I found one near Charing Cross. I decided that I wanted to continue to explore London, so I took the northern line into the city center. Of course, the HSBC that I had found on-line was just an atm, when I needed a bank, but it was only about 10am, so I decided to walk around town. I generally think I have a pretty good sense of direction, so without my map, I set out to explore. I ended up walking pretty much everywhere and stumbling upon everything that I wanted to. I saw the West End, Randall Square with the Umbrella Man, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, Parliament and THE Big Ben, (as my sister says).
As I made my way through the Tudor exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery I was confronted with an unusual problem. I couldn’t really navigate the galleries because the floor was filled with colored pencils and kids about 7 or 8 years old all drawing different people, (most infatuated with Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn or Catherine of Aragon). As I stepped a little closer to one painting, a little boy looked up and demanded my opinion of his picture. Shaking off my carefully practiced, “museum face” that I am sure is identical to my mother’s, I told him that it looked great, exactly like, (my eyes searched for the name plate…) Mary I. He seemed satisfied with my answer, and went back to drawing her bejeweled crown in detail. The only thing lacking in the exhibit, in my opinion was the picture of the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon. Any of you who have sat through Sunday evening with me know that I love the TV show The Tudors, and Charles Brandon is played by an extremely good looking Henry Cavil. I was hoping to see what he actually looked like! No worries though, I’ll be heading to Windsor Castle tomorrow as hopefully they have a portrait!
After the Museum I decided that I would cross the river and find the Soviet tank that I have wanted to see since I visited London this past summer. For those of you who I haven’t told the story to, I’ll recap. There was a developer in London named Russell Grave, who wanted to use a plot of land in the south part of London (Bermondsey) for apartments. When he applied to the zoning board, however, his plan was rejected. Grave angered reapplied to put a tank there, and the zoning board thinking he meant a septic tank, approved his application. A few weeks later he rolled in an old Cold War era Soviet T34 tank. It wasn’t just a normal tank; it had been painted bright pink and positioned so that the barrel of the gun is pointed right at the zoning board building. Today it is used a place for local graffiti artists to show their work. After walking from Parliament all the way to Tower Bridge, (it took about 2 hours from where I was) I finally found the tank! It was fabulous!!! It is painted yellow, has tons of graffiti al over it, and on the back wall has two smaller murals by a very famous London street artist. I was going to climb onto it, but I had already climbed through a hole in the gate, and it looked a little unstable, so I was contented with just my extended arm pictures with the tank. You literally just turn the corner and there is a bright yellow tank in the middle of the road. It is amazing, and if any of you come to London, you have have have to go see it. Even if you don’t love Russia like I do, I swear it is worth it. ,
Tomorrow I’m heading to Windsor for a castle tour, which includes an exhibit of Henry VIII, the State Apartments and the kitchen! So excited! On Monday morning I head to Bath, where I’m going to have my first official couch surfing experience. Can’t wait to explore the rest of the UK!
Hi Claire! I think when all is said and done with the baseball season, you should post a blog update on how you managed to watch, stay awake and cheer on the team from many countries in many circumstances!.
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