tea |tē|

a hot drink made by infusing the dried, crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water.

crumpet |ˈkrəmpət|

a thick, flat, savory cake with a soft, porous texture, made from a yeast mixture cooked on a griddle and eaten toasted and buttered.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Second Day in London

The day began with my morning 60-minute run. And, since I was in London, I thought that I might just run over and visit the queen. Although she didn’t come out to chat, I did enjoy running through St. James’ park, which happens to be located directly in front of the royal palace. The park was originally constructed for royalty to walk amongst the gardens and talk with the people about the affairs of the country. Maybe the queen will meet up with me for tomorrow’s run...or she could just send William or Harry, I wouldn’t mind. :)
For our second day in London we decided to visit all the big attractions first. We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. All so beautiful! We then moved on to see the “Magnificent Maps” exhibition at the British Library. This was an amazing collection of ancient and modern maps from all over the world. It was fascinating to see all the different styles, shapes, and colors of these famous maps. One of my favorite displays was an old English map from around the 6th century. It was drawn on a piece of canvas in an odd triangular shape. Dr. Connor explained that this map was actually made from a cow’s hide. The artist drawing the map maintained the shape so that the map could be as large as possible. Another interesting feature of the maps were the many occurrences of sea monsters roaming the deep oceans. There were also many geographical “mistakes” such as the “Sea of California” (a sea separating California from the rest of the continental US) and an Australian continent that stretched all the way around the world.
I was planning to take some pictures of these maps and had actually just taken a very nice shot of Dr. Connor admiring an early map of Italy, when a library security guard approached me. He curtly informed me that picture-taking was against the rules. He then proceeded to have me take out my camera and delete, in his presence, all photos taken in the British Library. :( My friend, Christine saw this whole incident and just assumed the friendly British guard wanted to see all the pictures that I had taken. Well, not exactly.
The other fascinating sight in the British Library, which, after learning my lesson, I did not photograph, was the original Beowulf manuscript. (English majors I know that you are jealous!) I’m not sure if everyone remembers reading Beowulf in high school, but it is the epic tale of a brave warrior and his battle against the monster, Grendel. Well, at the British Library, I got to see the original Old English manuscript! I must say that I was awestruck by this ancient work of art. Many scholars consider Beowulf to be the foundation of all English literature and that is a huge honor!
After the library, we moved on to free time in London. I tagged along with the group going to Camden Market in order to taste the wide variety of international delicacies. If anyone has heard Amanda’s description of “ghetto food alley” in East Asia—this was extremely similar. There were all sorts of tents, stands and corner shops selling Chinese, Thai, Moroccan, Indian, Middle Eastern, Italian, Greek, and a couple of French creperies. As you walk along the food stalls, its like the sellers have a giant competition to try to get you to choose their food. Chinese women hold chunks of orange chicken on forks and call “Free sample. You like chicken? Come try sample!” Across the alley the Indian women are preparing vegetable curry, while the Greek chefs offer freshly grilled kebobs. Different sellers have different chants, so sounds like “3.99!”, “Rice, chicken, vegetable!”, and “Healthy and fresh!” fill the air. I finally settled for a Middle Eastern salad with couscous, hummus, cucumber and tomato, lentils, and French bread (don’t ask me how the bread got there, but it was really good!). Shannon decided to try a Nutella and banana crepe for dessert.
After lunch, the girls decided to go shopping, while I went with Kevin, Gary, and Dr. Stewart to the British Museum. We didn’t stay long, but the glimpse of history I got to see was fabulous! Most remarkably, I got to see the original Rosetta Stone. This stone, containing the script of 3 different languages was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was amazing to think that the piece of slate before me singlehandedly opened the vault to thousands and thousands of years of Egyptian history. Without uncovering that ancient slab of rock, who knows how long the world would have waited to read the history of Egypt. Perhaps we’d still be waiting...
Also in the museum were the detailed stone carvings from the top of the Parthenon in Greece. Although these carvings are originally from Greece—England acquired them in 1816 by purchasing them from the Ottoman Turks. Greece has been trying desperately to get these works of art back, but the British government argues that it has been Great Britain and not Greece who has protected and preserved them all these years. It is still an ongoing debate.
I also had the opportunity to see who I thought was the original Cleopatra. Of course, I was thrilled at this idea….until I later found out that what I saw was simply “a Cleopatra.” It seems that there are several, and experts are not really sure which is the right one. Well, at least I got to see one of them!
The boys and I then decided to travel back to Camden Town to take a ride on a British canal cruise! This was an awesome adventure. We started in Camden and sailed all the way down to Little Italy, which is the part of town where Robert Browning used to live! (He wrote “My Last Duchess” and various other famous British poems). The tour included all kinds of interesting facts about the canal culture and lives of those who lived on the boats. It was so intriguing to see this other side of London. By the end of the cruise, it had just turned 6:00pm and we were supposed to meet at 6:45pm to travel to the Globe Theatre. Therefore, Gary, Kevin, Dr. Stewart and I literally ran to the Tube station (“Mind the gap, please!”) and quickly sailed back to the Victoria tube stop.
Coming soon…the Globe Theatre!

No comments:

Post a Comment