London Adventures (Take 2)

Big Ben from Trafalgar Square

Wait a minute, weren't we just in London? Yes, I hear you. But that was only for a week. This time, Brad and I were in London for five weeks, giving us a chance to really live like the locals live and experience a different side of this marvelous and busy city.

Since we had already visited a majority of the big tourist sites when we were here back in May, this trip was all about having the time to wander through a park, visit one of the many free museums, and take our time to find some of the nooks and crannies of every day life living in London. We also took advantage of all the wonderful things a big city has, like food, culture, and fun!

Home Sweet Home

The giant red arrow below points to the little red heart that was our home for five weeks. As you can see, many of the tourist sites, like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, are in the bottom right corner of the map. Our place was close to a tube station that could get us anywhere we wanted to go in the city, but it was far enough away from the tourist center to be a place where people actually lived.

The streets around our Airbnb were filled with activity day and night. Red, double-decker buses whizzed around the corners, and people visited the many grocery stores, shops, and restaurants seemingly at all hours of the night. People were always out and about, and what a diverse bunch of people we got to live with! It seemed like every age, color, language, and ethnicity was represented in our area, and there was a specialty store to cater to each of them.

While this activity was energizing to be in the midst of, we were very grateful that our Airbnb was tucked away down an alley that was protected on all sides by larger buildings. A wizard had clearly used some kind of Harry Potter magic on this alley that kept the chaos and noise out. We got to live in this magical alley in a flat just above the Thai Angels Massage parlor, and the peace and quiet was a welcome change from the commotion outside. It was also a great base to explore the city from.

Parks

The best cities know how important it is to have space for its inhabitants where they can go to recharge and connect with nature. London has some exceptional parks that do just that, and we had the added bonus of visiting in the fall with its colorful foliage on full display.

Hyde Park

Apparently, Hyde Park was first created as a private hunting ground for Henry VIII. Fortunately, there is no longer any hunting here as attested to by the large and fairly aggressive squirrel population. It was also a famous dueling ground in the 18th century, seeing 172 duels with 63 resulting deaths. I didn't see any of those, either, thankfully. I did hear a lot of yelling, but that was coming from Speakers' Corner. People have been yelling at the masses here for over 150 years, and this day was no exception. The loudest Speaker had a cowboy hat and was letting us all know the various reasons we were all going to hell. It felt too much like the U.S., so I quickly moved on.

The rest of the park was peaceful and filled with gorgeous fall leaves, both on the trees and carpeting the ground. Some of the trees were massive and had clearly been around for many decades. One massive trunk almost had me believing it was a dinosaur foot (see the last picture). The rare blue sky day made the pictures extra spectacular.

Kensington Palace and Gardens

Next to Hyde Park is Kensington Palace and its gardens. Apparently, some famous people have lived here? A statue of Queen Victoria sits just outside of the palace drive, and a leaf-covered archway leads to a sunken garden dedicated to Princess Diana. I'm sure it's a lovely place to live, but I would not like the life and responsibilities that come along with it. I'm glad they let me just walk through it.

Regent's Park

We visited Regent's Park later on in our stay as you can see from the lack of leaves on the trees and grounds. This park also started out as a hunting ground, but is now the playground for many dogs and people. We found a comfy bench and spent an afternoon watching the dogs enjoying their freedom and chasing the fat squirrels.

Museums

We would probably need another few months (years?) living in London to visit all of the museums, but we did hit a few of the key places we have always wanted to see.

Victoria & Albert Museum

A museum of stuff! I'm not sure how else to describe the interesting, and sometimes weird, collection of things on display here. Furniture, musical instruments, paintings, costumes, jewelry, ceramics, giant wooden doors, ancient spiral staircases, a Chihuly glass sculpture, and two huge halls filled with replicas of famous works of art from around the world. It's all here and free to wander through and explore to your heart's desire.

My personal favorite was this painting of people having a grand old party. Everyone is having a great time drinking, eating, playing music, dancing, and generally whooping it up. Everyone, that is, except for the dog under the table who seems to be having an existential crisis as he sits in judgement of the obnoxious idiots he is surrounded by.

Judgement Dog says, "What did I do to deserve this indignity, and how can I get the hell away from these idiots?"

British Museum of Stolen Things

Long before we ever visited London, our first visit to Europe together was in 2013, along with Brad's parents and our friend Claudia. It included a stop in Athens, Greece with a visit to the Acropolis, of course. We also visited the beautiful, modern Acropolis Museum and saw the entire floor they have dedicated to preserving and showcasing the artifacts from the Parthenon. They are beautifully displayed, but they are missing about half of what should be there. The Elgin Marbles and other artwork from the Acropolis have been on display at the British Museum for over two hundred years, in spite of many requests from the Greeks to have them returned.

I'm glad we had that context before we ever set foot in the British Museum. It is indeed a very impressive collection of historical objects, in addition to the Elgin Marbles. Ancient artifacts from Egypt, Asia, Africa, and anywhere else the British Empire touched (conquered) are represented. The collection of Egyptian mummies and burial artifacts was jaw-dropping, and standing in front of the Rosetta Stone was spine-tingling.

Parthenon Judgement Horse says, "Where is the rest of me, and why the hell am I in England?"

The National Gallery

The National Gallery is another totally free museum with an astonishing collection of paintings by numerous masters including Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Rubens, Seurat, Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, and many more. I took way too many pictures (seen below) and still left out a pile of equally blog-worthy paintings. It also has a fabulous view looking over Trafalgar Square all the way to Big Ben.

Culture

One of the big benefits of living in a large metropolitan center like London for a month is access to the many cultural events it contains. What a privilege to be able to go to a play, concert, movie, tour, or to worship a platypus whenever we wanted to. And we did all of the above!

Plays

The play Stranger Things: The First Shadow was a glimpse into what came before the events of the TV series. It was set in the 1950s and featured some of the older characters from the TV series when they were back in high school. We both thought it was a creative and very entertaining way to show the origins of the series main villain.

The other play we saw, Stereophonic, was less of a hit with us. It followed a rock band as they struggled to record the album that would shoot them into superstardom. While the band was fictional, it was obviously based off of Fleetwood Mac and their struggle to record their mega-hit album Rumours. It was entirely set in the band's studio, and featured many scenes of chaos as the band members struggled with their convoluted relationships with each other, lots of drugs, and a little bit of music. We both thought it could have done with a lot more music and a lot less arguing.

Concert: More Glen Phillips!

As a bonus exclamation point to our October cruise adventure featuring Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, Glen just happened to be performing in London while we were there. Serendipity! In London, Glen opened for Colin Hay, lead singer of Men at Work. More serendipity, as our good friend Lisa happens to have Colin as a client. Lisa pulled some magic strings, and we not only got tickets to the show, we were in the front row. Thanks, Lisa!! Both artists put on an excellent show using nothing more than their unique voices and an acoustic guitar. Superb!

Glen Phillips

Phantom Peak

Enter the platypus! How do I describe the adventure that is Phantom Peak? Phantom Peak is a live action adventure that's like being plopped into a video game with quests to solve.

The actual location looks like a small town taken from an old Wild West movie set. It has both indoor and outdoor areas which are filled with shops, saloons, a theater, post office, and various other places you might find in any other town. However, it is the people that make it special. They are all actors playing the roles of various townspeople like the mayor, general store manager, lawyer, mad scientist, mortician, and church bishop.

Our job as tourists to this town was to solve various quests. The adventure started with a Opening Ceremony in the town center to introduce the current theme, the Lunar Festival (essentially, Halloween), and set up the scene for our quests. We then had to wander the town to find clues, watch videos, discover hidden areas, and most importantly speak with various townsfolk to help us solve our quests.

We had almost three hours to solve as many quests as possible before the Closing Ceremony. We managed to solve two and start a third quest before the end. Everyone, both tourists and townsfolk, came together at the Closing Ceremony to sing a rousing chorus of Eggs of Truth to show our respect to the platypus who is revered as a deity in Phantom Peak. Both Brad and I had become members of the Church of the Platypus as a requirement of one of our quests, so we joyfully joined in to extoll the virtues of our new egg-laying, mammalian overlord:

Oh, Fly WIth Us

Abide WIth Us

Give Us Eggs of Truth!

(full song lyrics below)

We had so much fun at Phantom Peak that we returned a second time a few weeks later to celebrate Wintermas with our new townsfolk friends. The theme at Phantom Peak changes every season, and they have all new quests to complete to go with the theme. Again, we completed two quests and almost finished a third before the Closing Ceremony.

Most importantly, we got to interact with the fabulous townsfolk who clearly love their jobs and play their parts to the fullest. The Wintermas Closing Ceremony ended most appropriately with snowfall and much rejoicing. I wish I could visit Phantom Peak every week!

Warner Brothers Studio Tour: Harry Potter

Brad will be the first to tell you that I have a bit of a Harry Potter obsession. When Trump was elected the first time, I spent the first few of those awful months escaping reality into a reread of all of the Harry Potter books. In addition, the escape was bolstered by the movies being shown on TV practically every weekend. It became a comfort thing to just have a Potter movie on the TV whenever it was shown (which was most of the time). I needed the escape of seeing good triumph over evil time and time again through the power of love and friendship.

Fortunately for me, the movies were all filmed at the Warner Brothers Studio just outside of London where we could pay a visit to see all of the sets, props, and movie magic preserved for our enjoyment. To start our adventure, I devoured a Hogwart's House Pride Pizza featuring four sections, each representing a different Hogwart's house (Gryffindor: pepperoni, Slytherin: pesto chicken, Ravenclaw: mushroom and bleu cheese, and Hufflepuff: yellow peppers and corn). Those poor Hufflepuffs are always getting the short end of the stick, as their section was awful. The rest were great!

We spent the next few hours immersed in the sets which have been wonderfully preserved. It truly felt like we were hanging out in Hagrid's Hut, chilling in the Gryffindor common room, and walking into Gringott's bank. We rode the Knight Bus, had dinner with the Weasleys at the Burrow, investigated Bellatrix's bank vault, and tried out Hagrid's motorcycle. We even got to ride a broomstick through some of the movie scenes, but we didn't pay the large fee to get a copy of that video. Just know it happened.

They have preserved the Harry Potter magic well, and it was an excellent escape from the real world that continues to horrify us. Here is but a small collection from the massive stack of pictures I took at the studio tour.

Food

We took advantage of the many international food options available to us in London, and enjoyed all of them. Of course, the best British food is Indian, and we were not disappointed. We accidentally stumbled onto a Mexican restaurant with a fabulous and authentic Sunday buffet complete with made to order tacos. We went back to that one a second time. But by far our favorite, was an Ethiopian restaurant just around the corner from our Airbnb. It was some of the best Ethiopian food we've ever had, and we happily went there every week. I even found a place that had my beloved Sabich sandwich, though it was not up to the standards of the original I found in Amsterdam. The search continues.

Christmas

As the month of November progressed, more and more Christmas decorations and markets began to appear. Lights, trees, ice skating rinks, and mulled wine stalls were on nearly every corner by the end of the month. London already has a lot going on at any time of the year, but they add in the magic of Christmas quite well.

Goodbye

As November came to a close, it was time to say goodbye to the never-ending activity of London. As London is such a hub for many European adventures, I'm sure we will be back again soon for another visit. There is always another museum still to visit, play to see, or platypus to worship! Until we meet again.

All of the London Christmas festivities had set us up well for our next adventure....snowy Tromsø in December!

Sheri & Brad