Today, I hobbled around London. Literally. I walked so much yesterday that my muscles threw in the towel… I received so many funny looks going one step and a time down into Tube Stations clutching onto the hand rail for dear life…
Anyway.
Getting up this morning was tough… and it wasn’t until a late 9am that I actually left the hostel (full of bacon and egg English muffin, nom). I headed straight to the Globe Theatre, knowing that there were lots of people headed in that general direction and hoping to be there early enough to avoid the chaos. Well, when I say ‘straight there’, what I actually mean is arriving on one side of the river and then spending an awful lot of time hobbling trying to find a bridge that would let me across!
Got there eventually, and five minutes before a guided tour started. Not too much to say here. I was a bit bummed to find out it wasn’t the original Globe (though perhaps I was silly for thinking it was). It was still a very good replica and I enjoyed sitting there and pretending I was a 14th century theatre goer. Apparently in the evening there was a performance of Hamlet scheduled… in Lithuanian?
Out onto the river bank again. I should mention at this point that the crowd along the river was already two people deep, despite the first boat being 5 hours away! There were a lots of flags and royal family masks, although perhaps more cold, miserable, grumpy people than excited ones (did I mention it rained all day and barely stopped once?)
On to the Tate Modern next door. This was a little self indulgent, I enjoyed casually wandering around looking at all their free art installations. It certainly is very modern and stark. And warm, did I mention warm? I always like modern art galleries, if only because I can spend time wondering what on earth the artist was thinking, and how you can paint a grey rectangle and become famous? I did get very excited to stumble upon Salvidor Dali’s Metamorphisis of Narcissus, a poster I had on my bedroom wall for years!
Then reluctantly out into the cold again. At 12pm, the crowd was now 6 people deep, there were blockages everywhere and it was still 3 hours before the first boat. Getting out of there was tricky, so many people and so many places I wasn’t allowed to go!
Off to Baker St next and a brief attempt to find the Sherlock Holmes museum there. I found a Sherlock Holmes hotel and a Sherlock Holmes bar, but no museum. I was an awful Sherlock Holmes fan and couldn’t remember which street number he was meant to have lived at (except that it ended in B), so I abandoned the chase and headed off the Madame Tussuads.
Entry was nice and quick (yay prebought tickets!) Madame Tussuads was interesting, because really the whole purpose seems to be taking photos of yourself with famous people, which is hard when you are on your own. I did annoy someone for a picture with Colin Firth but didn’t want to do that the whole way through! I spent a lot of time being annoyed at the crowds, VERY busy there! I mostly enjoyed the historical figures that I haven’t seen on TV etc. Oscar Wilde for example, it was interesting to see what he would have looked like when he was alive. It’s also interesting to see how short people are! Hitler, for example, is tiny!
Overall, it is certainly a visual spectacle, complete with a Spirit of London ride and a 4D Marvel Comics show. I got a bit sad because I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere and missed the torture chamber section, which is my main memory of being there as a kid. And I couldn’t double back either :(
After the craziness of the wax museum I allowed myself half an hour to sit down with hot chocolate and free wifi Then I started to feel guilty about missing the Jubilee action, particularly as people were watching it on TV at home and seeing more than I was! So I decided to be brave and attempt a visit to the London Eye.
The first thing I saw walking out of Waterloo station was the throngs of people leaving the banks. Initially I thought it must mean the boat parade was over, in fact what it mean was that they had all seen the Royal Family, that the rest of the boats were boring and that it was cold and wet and time to go home! I arrived at the river bank to find a crowd still there and headed over to the giant Ferris wheel.
With the amount of people in the area, coming here had seemed a bit risky. I’d prebought a priority access ticket but wasn’t sure whether than was still going to valid on a day such as today. Well, it was! 10 minute wait, success! I loooved walking past the giant line of people who had bought tickets on the day, and was lucky enough to be up on the Eye whilst the boats were still going down the river! Particularly lucky to be warm and dry as it was teeming down at this point – I did feel very sorry for all the soggy people on the boats waiving at the now very diminished crowd :(
Getting home was a drama. The nearest tube station had a line all the way down the street – just to get into the station! I walked around feeling sorry for myself before finding a station with a much less crazy line. I should mention that I had made an exceptionally bad shoe choice in the morning… shoes that apparently have lots of holes in them. As a result, I spent the whole day walking around with cold, wet feet, somewhat like wearing wet socks. At the end of the day, walking around in the pouring rain with sore muscles and wet feet was making me feel pretty miserable!
A quick stop in an Italian restaurant on the way home for spaghetti and wine, much needed comfort food! And then finally back home – I meant to get straight into packing and blogging but lay on my bed and promptly fell asleep for two hours, oops! Now I am sitting up on my bunk writing two blogs whilst the other three ladies in my room sleep!
I’m leaving London tomorrow. I really do like this city a lot, particularly its history and the small glimpses I’ve gotten of its more livelier social districts. This weekend has been somewhat defined by sore muscles, cold, rain and crazy crows but I look forward very much to coming back here and spending some time socialising and relaxing in this wonderfully interesting city!
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