London Day 2!

So today we walked around London. We took the Tube all day which was just as interesting as when I did it in high school. It was a little confusing at first but once I got the hang of it again it was a piece of cake. The only thing that is a little hard to get the hang of is whether I need north, south, east or west bound trains. It didn't take long to get the hang of navigating again.

I saw a sign that was kind of interesting. The funny thing about the Tube here is the recording that tells you to 'mind the gap' between the train and the platform. So of course everyone thinks that's amusing. Then on the way out of one of the stations I noticed a poster that said 'MIND THE GAP!' and below that it said 53 injuries last year. I thought it was a little interesting that the poster was hanging near and exit...after I could have already fell in the gap! haha Just thought that was interesting.

The first thing we did was travel to St. Brides Church on Fleet Street. St Brides is known as the journalists church because all of the newspapers used to be on Fleet Street and that is where all the journalists lived.

I know I've said before that I've seen tons of churches in six different countries and that was the last thing I wanted to see! But while the church looked a lot like other churches I'd seen it was set back off of the main street.

We had to walk down an alley and ups some stairs and around a corner before we got the entrance. And the church wasn't crawling with tourists (that's until we walked in! haha). But while it did look the same as all of the other churches I saw four years ago...there was the difference that this was the journalists church. All over the walls and pews were small plaques with someones name, their birth and death years, and whether they were a journalist, publisher, photographer. The plaques were everywhere! They also had a shrine in the back corner for all the war correspondents currently 'serving' who were captured or killed.

The man who ran the church was so friendly and loved talking to us about the history of the church. He gave us the churches newsletter and invited us to stay for choir rehearsal and service. We did sit in on the rehearsal but not service.

The choir was absolutely amazing!!! It consisted of about four women and four men and a beautiful organ. When the keys of the organ were struck this gorgeous hum crept through the Church and it rumbled up through the floor, my feet and into my body! I could feel the organ notes resonating in my chest! My favorite part of the choir's singing is when they were singing softly and then the women would just crescendo into this beautiful ghostly sound. They truly sounded like angels. You could see all 30 of us sitting in pews just completely transfixed, almost hypnotized, by the angelic sounds resonating through the tall, sculpted ceilings of the church.

After St. Brides we walked up Fleet Street towards Trafalgar Square. We had about 45 minutes to explore here. Me and about four other girls spent the time walking blocks turning around and walking blocks in the other direction looking for a place to exchange our travelers checks! Then when we finally found a place the woman had to ask one of the girls for her signature 3 times because she kept saying it didn't look enough like her signature on her license! It was a pain, but I guess it is good to know that they are double checking.

After racing back to meet up with the group again we all moved down to the Tube again and headed to the Imperial War Museum. www.iwm.org.uk I really enjoyed this. We all took pictures by an exhibit sign. It read 'Weapons of Mass Communication'. I thought it was picture perfect! (The exhibit was actually about propaganda posters used during WWI and WWII.


We took an hour tour of the museum with a guide which was interesting. There were WWI and WWII planes.

My favorite had to be the American/Canadian plane called 'Big Beautiful Doll'. It was silver with a checker pattern on the nose and it had the thick stripe symbol with the star in the circle. I think it was a typical marking of planes during WWII...I know Matt really liked that symbol and at one time wanted it painted on his motorcycle. After the tour we had an hour to go around and look at the different exhibits, but in the end that was not enough time!

I wish we could have stayed longer. I could have but everyone else wanted to go shopping. If I ever come back I'd love to go back to the museum and look at all the exhibits. The one exhibit I did get to go see was the Blitz. It is a small replica of what a bomb shelter would have looked like in London during WWII. You sat inside with about 20 people while the sound of a mans voice was played over a speaker along with sirens and the sound of bombs falling. I remember sitting there and hearing the high pitched whine that we heard in the documentaries and it was just whining and whining. Getting louder and louder. I had butterflies in my stomach because it was like I knew that one was ours. (sounds strange but that's how I felt!). Then there was the sound of a loud explosion and the shelter started to shake. Then we were instructed to walk to our left out 'into the streets of London'. It was supposed to look like what people who finally came out of the shelters saw...their neighborhoods destroyed. Their businesses and homes just piles of bricks, wood, and broken glass. I have to admit it was no Universal Studios but it was rather interesting to sit inside the shelter and listen to the sound the bombs falling. At the same time it is very very difficult to really imagine what it must have been like. We knew it was only going to last ten minutes. There was a woman with an Imperial War Museum badge sitting at the end of the brick seats. The sound of bombs was obviously recorded. We could never know what that was actually like. I will never be able to imagine!

After wondering the museum for a while...and almost buying Matt, my fiance, some WWII fudge rations (gross) everyone headed back out and walked the three blocks to the Tube.

The group I was with decided to go shopping. Our original plan was to go to Kensington/High Street I think but the Yellow/Circle line of the Tube was not operating because it was Sunday. We changed our route about 1/2 way through the trip and went to check out the street Harrods was on. I had never heard of Harrods until yesterdays bus tour but apparently its a big deal.

It reminded me of a bigger, fancier, more expensive Watertower Place. When it got dark the whole building was covered in lights! When we walked in the side entrance there were tons and tons of people! The first rooms we entered had shiny glass cases with women ready to sit you down and cover your face in expensive makeup in an effort to get you to buy. The second room had glass cases with purses...expensive purses. There were pristine men and women just waiting on the sidelines waiting to pounce and get you to spend upwards of £200 (about $400 US dollars).



Then we wondered into the food court (if I can even call it that). It was definitely NO college mall food court with Subway and pizza! Before you even got to the regular food there were rows and rows of class cases with some of the most beautifully crafted chocolates I've ever seen. I couldn't resist and spend £1 (about $2 US dollars) on the most amazing raspberry truffle I've ever tasted! (Totally worth it...)

Needless to say that was the only thing I purchased at Harrods. I think Matt would be a little angry if I spent Aprils rent on a new handbag! haha I also didn't purchase anything in the equally expensive stores that lined the rest of the street. Burberry, French Connection United Kingdom (fcuk), and some other insanely expensive stores I'd never heard of.

Eventually we hopped back on the Tube and rode back towards the hotel. I must say we looked like experienced Londoners and didn't seem lost at all. Pretty good for only being here 24 hours!

After 8.5 hours of walking in my rain boots I was ready for pjs and clogs...ready to relax.

We had dinner in a small British pub down the street. I had a chicken and pesto sandwich with onion rings. The others had clubs, salads, and beers!

An intersting thing I've noticed with the pubs is that you seat yourself at any table. Decide what you want and go to the bar to order it. Then they bring it to you when it's ready. It's so different from being served like they do in the US.

One thing that we are all very confused about tipping the servers over here. They don't serve us at all like we're used to in the US. I'm not saying the service is bad...far from it in fact. They are usually very friendly, polite, and very helpful when you ask them what beer they recommend. But it's just so different from the US where in my case we can't get our servers to leave us alone for five minutes. We just don't whether tipping is something you do here. Oh well, we do it anyway even if the servers are confused after we leave...at least we're not being rude by leaving nothing.

Everyone went out on the town tonight, but I didn't really feel like it. I'm tired and did NOT want to talk anywhere except from my room to the computers! haha I told them that I'd go in Paris. It's too early in the trip to get worn down.

Well, this turned out to be quite the long blog post. Wish I could add pictures but I can't figure out where the heck to plug in my USB drive! I will ask later and maybe add pictures soon!

If you've actually survived, not fallen asleep, and read this far...comments are welcome!!!!