Dave's European Adventure: Touring London

Wednesday May 20, 2009 2:47 PM GMT

Well as many of you know I went out to London on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I caught the bus early in the morning on Monday but there was a road closure so it ended up taking an extra hour to get from Bristol to London. Once I made it to London I found a place to get the classic London Fish & Chips. The place was called the Shakespeare and it was a little bit expensive and not all that impressive. Oh well, I guess there's only so much you can do with fish and chips. After lunch I started walking around. It's tough to remember exactly what order I did everything in now but I went by Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, the Tate Modern, London Eye, my hostel, and back to Victoria Station to catch Wicker. I wanted to go into Westminster Abbey but they were charging £15 so I figured maybe another time. I did go into the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square. I enjoyed the national Gallery much more. I don't think I've ever been a big art history fan before but this trip has definitely made me appreciate it more after seeing it in the Smithsonian, Met, and here. I think my favorites are the religious pieces. Maybe it's the fact that I'm tired of seeing the exact same set of Mormon religious art everywhere in Utah. I think someday I'd like to have a lot of non-Mormon religious art in my home. That Tate Modern is a museum of modern art and is pretty interesting but not worth paying to get into (thankfully it is free). I think the most interesting thing about it is the building itself. It's a giant warehouse and when you walk in it's like walking into a big hanger or something. Most of their space is empty. I didn't care much for most of the pieces in the museum. Some of it is really just out there. They had some ticketed exhibits I didn't see and maybe those are better but I don't know. From the Tate I walked down the river Thames (pronounced"Tims" by the British) to the London Eye. This thing is huge. I didn't ride it as it was expensive and I didn't want to really take the time but it would be fun some other time when I come back here (yes I do plan on coming back). After checking in at my hostel near there and grabbing something to eat at a not so good Chinese buffet I headed over towards Victoria Station to check out the theatre's I'd seen earlier. Turns out you can get a last minute nosebleed ticket to Wicked for just £15 so I did that. I really did enjoy the show. It wasn't exactly what I expected though. I'm not sure that it was the music that I enjoyed so much either. I think I just like the story and the conflicted characters in it. It was interesting too to see the differences between the musical and the book.

Tuesday morning I got up early and headed to Victoria Station again to catch my tour bus to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. One note though about the hostel I stayed in. It was nice and clean and cheap and everything but I was sleeping in a dorm with about 12 other people and I swear about 10 of them decided to come in or leave between 3 and 3:30 AM. It was a little tough for me to sleep after that but I think I did OK. The tour itself was pretty good. I wish that I could have spent the whole day at Windsor Castle though. Stonehenge is OK but I think you can get the gist of it by seeing it from the road. In fact I wouldn't pay the fee to go in if you are planning on going out that way. You can park and see it through a chain link fence. All you miss out on is a boring audio guide and some different perspectives. Next it was on to Bath which is a nice little town that is actually pretty close to Bristol. The main attraction here is the Roman Bath's built over a natural hot spring. You can try the water which is supposed to be very healthy for you but be warned, it's awful. After touring the Bath and the small museum they have there I walked around in the town for a bit and then caught a train back to Bristol instead of riding the bus back to London and then another back to Bristol. It was a really good tour though and our guide was pretty knowledgeable.

Well by the time most of you in the States read this I will either be on a plane or already in Italy. I'm flying out to Milan tonight and then Rome in the morning. Most of my time in Italy will be spent there. I'm very excited for it. I'm going to try to make some blog posts while there depending on how well my laptop battery holds out. Here's a few pictures from the past two days.