Stalking Boujis (Day 9)

This morning we had breakfast as usual downstairs and then checked out. Marty and I said our farewells in Penge and he headed to the train and I to the bus. I took the bus up to Forest Hill, where I was going to be staying with Lizzy and Robin for tonight before jetting off tomorrow. After dumping my crap, Lizzy and I zoomed off, once again, for central London. After arriving at Charing Cross, we hopped on the bus (double-decker, natch) for a ride through Trafalgar Square…









…Picadilly Circus…



…past Green Park…



…and past the Wellington Arch.



We finally arrived in South Kensington near the Albert Memorial.


Ehh, you can’t see it well, but it’s just a giant gold statue of a man reading. This statue was commissioned by Queen Victoria to commemorate her late consort.

We also saw this fancy building…ack! I actually forget what it was. But it was nice.



By this point, we were starving. While in search of food, Lizzy was kind enough to show me the place I had only heard about in stories (about the raucous behavior of the Princes William and Harry) – the infamous Boujis.



Pronounced “Boo-geez”, this place, I understand, is the “it” place in London if you are young, hip, rich and dying to socialize with all the aforementioned (if you are not). Next time you read a story about William or Harry partying, chances it is either at Boujis or Mahiki. Now you know.

We ended up eating at a restaurant called Little Japan (which was owned by Chinese, naturally.) After lunch, we headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), where Lizzy works…colour me impressed.



The museum was quite brilliant indeed. They had many different galleries specific to different countries, as well as galleries devoted to glass, metalwork, ceramics, sculptures, and fashion. The fashion gallery was interesting as they had an extremely rare Vivienne Westwood shirt…which I had to press my face against the glass to examine.



I was pumped to see the Japanese gallery, but was somewhat disappointed by the lack of woodblock paintings.





The next best part of the museum was the area where they had the plaster-casts of various famous things around the world.
















This was a miniature sculpture which was extremely impressive. The entire thing was about the size of my hand.



We then decided to check out the cafeteria, which was very uncafeteria-like with it’s decorated ceiling, glamorous soft-lighting and stained-glass windows, and munched on some dessert.



After checking out the gift shop and discovering they sold tatebanko (hooray!), we headed over to the Science Museum on the next block. Fantastically, these museums charge no admission and this one promise an original space module (not specifying command, lunar or otherwise) from the Apollo 10 mission. Psyched as any former (or current) space nerd would be, I found no original component and was somewhat disappointed. But they had other space-related items.


Fake. Tin foil!





After we’d had enough there, we headed over to our next museum stop, the Natural History Musuem, where our only way up was through Mother Earth:



There were lots of things going on inside.






Cute.

We also got to experience a simulated earthquake in simulated Japan. They had Pocky on the shelves and everything.

Our next stop was the exclusive Fortnum & Mason’s, which we had been to earlier in our visit. This time, I actually purchased several items and felt like an upper-class citizen. This involved buying a card for $10. Yikes. At least they had cool lights on the front of the building.



Our last stop of the night was at a little joint called Pizza Express. It sounded like a fast food joint but was not. It was a cute little place where the waitresses were quite terrible. This made us very cross. The pizza was good though, and again, I had to cut it myself. Boo.





This was the end of the line for mine and Lizzy’s exciting adventures. With a bit of sleep, I was up and gone by 7:40 AM to battle rush hour on the London Underground and make my way to Heathrow. Ten hours after departure and many snoozes later, I arrived back in Vancouver in one piece.

Lizzy was as fantastic of a host and friend as I hoped she would be and hopefully it won’t be another 15 years before we meet up again…though I highly doubt it will be. Thank you so much for everything. Cheerio London.

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Tales of Queens, Druids, and Romans (Day 8)

We sure were up bright and early today – one might even say ‘crack of dawn’.



We were up early as we had a bus tour leaving the Victoria Coach Station at 8:30 and we needed to pick up a few things before taking off. After a trip to the Sainsbury grocery store inside the rail station, we headed over to the coach station to procure our spot on the bus. Thanks to my speedy vision and legs, we landed the primo spot – front seat behind the driver, which gave us an unobstructed view of whatever lay ahead. Shortly after planting ourselves on the bus, we were off to our first destination, the chosen land of the Queen, Windsor.




English countryside


Our first glimpse of Windsor Castle.

After landing in town and given our instructions, we gleefully headed inside to explore the rooms in which Queen Elizabeth chillaxes. We weren’t allowed to pictures inside, so all I have is what I could scrounge up on the Internet.






The oldest tower of the castle. We weren’t allowed in there.



To MY delight, we were shown the most exciting sight in Windsor viewable from the castle, the College where both Princes William and Harry attended, Eton.












Cool fact about the banquet room above: If you look very closely, you can see many different coats of arms decorating the ceiling in this hall. These are put up to honour the many families of soldiers who have fought for England. When a solider of a particular family is disgraced, his family’s coat of arms is not removed; rather, it is blacked out. That seemed a bit snarky, but the Queen can do what she wants.


This is indeed a painting, but this room also does exist in the castle. They had a few rooms with these amazing painted ceilings…it was a refresher from the gaudy gilded gold crown moldings everywhere.

I can’t find pictures of everything, but we saw many, many more exquisite rooms than those shown above. The taste is garish to be sure, but there is something completely fantastic about it. Very regal.

After viewing the state apartments, we headed to St. George’s Chapel, the church inside the fortress.








The granite rectangle in the floor is marks the grave of King Henry VIII, one of the most influential rulers in England’s history. Here also lies the third of his six wives, Jane Seymour.













Since we about two hours to explore in Windsor, we spent the entire time at the castle and then headed back to the coach to make our 12:10 departure time (and so that no sneaks could steal my spot). We ended up waiting ten minutes for this Asian man and his eight-year-old son who never ended up making it back to the bus. I still wonder what happened to them. This was a valuable lesson to teach the rest of the bus – don’t be late, or you will be screwed. We wait for no one.

Our next stop on the trip was in Salisbury plain, but before arriving there, we headed through more English countryside and passed Ascot, the track of the royal horse races.





Eventually, we arrived at our next destination, which appeared like a mirage…



Excited? I know I was! I could wait to get out and get all up in the grill of those stones. I wanted to get all up it its crevaces.




Twins of sheeps.





It was a freaking freezing day in an open field with winds from Siberia (no, seriously) and my feet were killing me. It was cool, but the novelty wore off after about 20 minutes and we hauled our cookies back into the bus.


Salisbury plain



After more driving, we arrived in the Roman town of Bath.



We toured the Roman baths, constructed in the 2nd century while England was under Roman occupation.





















The town was similar to what I imagine Rome would be like, on a much smaller scale. I guess I’ll have to head down there and find out for myself.







One of the coolest sights in town was Bath Abbey, where Kind Edgar was crowned. We didn’t have time to go in, but we could at least appreciate the intricate detail on the exterior.




Angel’s on Jacob’s ladder.


Founded in the 7th century, it was one of the most elaborate examples of gothic architecture.

After a long and exhausting day, we snoozed in the bus on the way back into London. Arriving back in Penge, we packed up as we were moving out in the morning. There were only a few tears as hunkered down for the night.

Tomorrow Marty departs and Lizzy and I undertake as many museums as one body might handle in a day. Tomorrow is also the end of the line for me, as it is my last full day in London. But…I think I will be back.

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