London - Day 1

July 8th (Tues) – Breakfast at our London hotel was the usual with one key exception. They had hot chocolate on the menu and when I ordered it, it came in its very own little pot! Unlike the instant kind I got at a few other B&Bs, this was the real deal and was an excellent way to the start the day. Also, the young woman who served us at breakfast was really nice and had a great smile. Although the hotel itself doesn’t really live up to its guidebook description, the staff have all been very pleasant.

After breakfast, we stuffed our dirty clothes into one suitcase and wheeled it down to the laundry we’d visited the previous day. We dropped it off and then caught the tube at the Notting Hill station. We gave ourselves some extra time to negotiate the tube to St James Park, but in the end, it was very straight forward. This meant we arrived ahead of Deb, who called to say she was running a little late. It was raining a bit when we got up to the street but it slackened off very quickly. Mike and I decided to head towards Buckingham Palace, which we found with no difficulty. It’s hard to miss although at this time, there was very little going on. We did take a peek at the guards on duty and there was a huge fountain out in front that was pretty amazing as well. In the end, we got a call from Deb suggesting we meet her at the other end of St James Park near Parliament Square. She figured we had time to kill before the events we came out to see, so this would let us get in a little more site-seeing in the meantime. It turned out to be a pretty long walk, but the gardens were lovely. There were all kinds of birds by the water – some little black ones that I didn’t recognize, a mama and two babies, that I later learned from Deb were Moorhens. They have the most ridiculous feet! And some water birds that were too big to be ducks, so I guess they must have been brown geese, and also some enormous white pelicans. Despite Mike’s misgivings that we were in the right place, we ended up at Parliament Square, which contains Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Big Ben was very majestic, as you might imagine, but the Houses of Parliament looked very different than I had expected. They are neo-gothic type buildings and look almost church-like; with Westminster Abbey right there, it seems fitting.

Coordinating by cell-phone we managed to find Deb and Ali (short for Alistair) on the square. Ali is Deb’s blonde-ringleted three-year-old and is cute as can be. He was a bit shy at first but warmed up to us in no time. As for us, well how could we not be charmed by Deb’s son? As time was actually running short, we hustled back through the park to the Welsh Barracks near St. James Park to see the inspection of the guards; this happens every day before the guards march from the barracks to the palace to relieve the guards on duty. Although the events had already started when we got there, we were able to scoot right up to the wrought-iron fence and had a great view. There were many red-jacketed, tall-black-furry-hatted soldiers, some with instruments, so we got to hear some music and watch the inspection. A couple of mounted policeman arrived to clear the road for the march to the palace, and as the soldiers marched, we trailed behind. The peaceful square in front of the Palace that Mike and I had seen earlier was now packed with tourists, so getting a view of the actual changing of the guards was pretty much out of the question. Deb (and our guidebook) said it was fairly anticlimactic and not much to see in any case. Still, not to be defeated, Mike climbed up a decorative limestone wall (as had many others) – and Deb passed Ali up and got halfway up herself – to see what little could be seen. Not wanting all of London to see what would surely be an inelegant, likely to be unsuccessful attempt to scale the wall myself, I stayed on the ground and took photos of Mike and Ali and Deb.

From here we decided to head back to St. James Park (Deb’s favorite London park), where there was a children’s playground that Ali could enjoy. After he played a bit, it was snack time. Deb came prepared for things for Ali, so Mike and I went to a little snack bar and got tea for Deb and Mike and an orange Fanta for me. After this little respite, Deb suggested we head to Trafalgar square, which was part of a recommended walk that Mike wanted to take and also was a place that Ali wanted to go. We got to see other parts of the park this way, although we did stop to feed bread to the geese I had seen earlier. There were some great views of London from the park as well. On our walk through, we came across some topiary – elephants, deer, and other critters – although they were made from fake clover, not real greenery. They were pretty amazing even still and Ali ran around and under them for a few minutes before we continued on. We ended up walking out of the park, down Pall Mall (said "pal mal"), through the Marble Arch to the square.

Trafalgar Square is dominated by the statue of Admiral Lord Nelson that sits atop a huge pillar. At its square base sit four huge bronze lions, one on each corner. The area is actually roped off, but no one pays any attention to it and people were climbing up and sitting on them. This is not as easy as it sounds because the base of the pillar is really very high and the lions themselves are enormous. As Ali has a book in which the lions come to life, he was so happy that Mike managed to get up on the base of the pillar and from there to the lion; with Deb passing Ali up so he could sit with Mike on top of one of the lions. I was the picture-taker again because my little short self was no way going to make it up – even Deb, who is taller than me, had trouble and had to be hauled up by Mike.

After this, Deb and Ali headed home for Ali’s nap and Mike and I wandered a bit on the square, which contains the National Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Field Church. Deb told us about a cafe in the crypt of the church, so we went to check it out but it was more food than we wanted to eat at the time. Mike pushed for continuing the guidebook-recommended walk, and so we kept walking down Whitehall Rd to peek down the street at Number One Downing Street, home of the Prime Minister. From the little I could see of it, it was fairly unassuming compared to the White House, for example. Kind of nice, if true. We also passed the Horse Guards (two), who were dozing on their horses amidst hordes of photo-taking tourists. The horses were so patient and good. It was raining off and on as we walked and by this time, my feet were sore and we were both ready for some tea. The walk ended up at Westminster Bridge and we sat on the steps and looked out at the Thames and the London Eye (giant Ferris Wheel) across the river. While resting our feet, I looked through a London brochure that I’d picked up at the hotel and found a tea shop advertised that was housed in the London Review Book Shop. As it was a ways away for tired feet, we hopped on the tube and found it, as we did most things, by accident – right near the British Museum. We had our tea and Mike had a croissant and I had a piece of carrot cake. We then decided to take in the British Museum for a little bit, as we were so close.

Words can’t describe how impressive the museum is. There’s is simply so much to look at that is phenomenal. Mike went straight for the Rosetta Stone, which when he had visited many years ago was stuck in a dark corner, unloved. This time it was the first thing you saw as you entered the West Hall – encased in glass, having its day in the sun. For linguists, this was a great thing to see. Next were Greek, Roman, and Assyrian statuary – topped off by the Elgin Marbles. In the latter room, there were pamphlets addressing the current controversy with Greece, who want their Parthenon ruins back. The British Museum maintains that they belong to the world and should stay where they are. Not sure I follow that logic as they could belong to the world in Greece just as easily as in England. In any case, they are extraordinary. Lots of people were taking pictures of the exhibits but Mike and I felt that many were taking pictures without really seeing what they were taking pictures of. Mike and I had similar mindsets for the museum, which was to read and look – getting our fill with our eyes and not our lens.

At this point, Deb called to set up a rendezvous for dinner later. As we still had our laundry to pick up, we decided to meet up at our hotel rather than have Deb come out to the museum. We took the tube back, picked up our laundry, and had just stowed it all away when Deb arrived. She and Mike had wine in the room and then we ventured out to look for a place to eat, where Mark (Deb’s husband) would join us. My little feet weren’t up for much more walking, so I was happy when we settled into a pub to have a pint and wait for Mark. When Mark arrived we switched to a little Persian restaurant that Deb and Mike had sussed out on our pre-pub walk. This turned out to be a gem. Our waiter was eager to give us a true Persian food experience and we had several tasty appetizers plus Naan before I got my chicken dish; this was chicken stewed in walnuts and pomegranate juice that you spoon over basmati rice. It was heavenly! On our way out, Mike stopped to investigate the pottery oven they were using to bake the bread. Our interest garnered the attention of the owner, who gave us a demonstration of how it works. There’s a sort of round pillow that the dough gets draped on after it’s rolled out. They then take the pillow with the dough on top and basically use the pillow to throw the dough onto the inside wall of the oven. The dough sticks there and cooks that way. The owner covered the hole of the oven with a small round metal lid and held it there to the count of seven. When he removed the lid, the bread was golden and bubbly and ready to be eaten. He scraped it off the wall and then put it in a bag and let us take it home with us – for free. It was a very thoughtful thing to do and made a nice ending to our evening out. We gave the Naan to Deb and Mark to take home for her mom and Ali and we all strolled back to our hotel, with Deb and Mark continuing on after that. That night we fell asleep full of Naan and other delicious Persian food.