Last drinks in London: Green Park Hotel, Soho, lots o' rain and Richard II at the Old Vic

Had an amazing last day in London. As usual, a slow start (catching up on the hard copy travel diary ...no time to blog!) - then off on the tube to Green Park where we tracked down the Green Park Hotel to trace the trip my parents took some thirty years ago. Tahne confirmed with the concierge at the (now Hilton) Green Park Hotel that this was indeed the same hotel bearing that name back in the olden days. To commemorate the occasion we had a quick beer in the lounge and then took a few photos.

We jumped back on the tube and headed for Oxford Circus. I've had an unexplained (and until today, unsatisfied) interest in the Soho district of inner-west London and armed with our trusty DK Eyewitness guidebook we took a walk through Carnaby Street, the Berwick Street Market (where we lunched at the amazing "beatroot cafe" - very "veg out"-eseque), Wardour street and, of course, Old Compton Street and Charing Cross Road. I really enjoyed the cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, street-smart feel of the place - Tahne wasn't quite so fussed. It was cool to go to a new (to us) suburb and just walk around ...no sites to see, just a vibe to absorb.

After Soho, we decided to jump on the tube (an art with which we are quickly becoming adept, but that with our imminent departure will soon hold little utility whatsoever) and headed to St Pauls Cathedral. To make a long story short - we were turned away by a rude and unhelpful woman who, despite being a native speaker of English, was unable to convey anything more to us than the standard opening hours for the Cathedral (which we already knew and were clearly well within). Taking refuge from the now pouring rain in the lovely Christopher Wren designed entranceway, we learned from a more helpful (but equally rude) servant of God that the church was closed for the annual service for seafarers, as well as being told impatiently that the growing crowd had to get off the steps because the cleaners were coming. The whole experience ratified my already weakened opinion of the church - as well as our initial disinclination to visit St Pauls in the first place. As Tahne put it - "we're going to see plenty of churches in Italy anyway".

So, rather than St Pauls, we took refuge in a French cafe down the street and up a lane, where we planned the rest of the day. Browsed a few book shops before catching up with Robin and Anthony to head over to Waterloo for dinner (at the awesome and very filling "Taz on the Cut") and a night at the theatre where we were priveleged enough to catch Kevin Spacey in Shakespeare's Richard II at the Old Vic. Absolutely awe-inspiring production, in a modern style that high-lighted a lot of contemporary themes. I can't put into words how special this experience was for me, particularly given my teenage years where the stage was such an important part of my life. I had hoped that we would be able to see a West End production whilst we were in London, but had been disappointed at what I had been able to find when we first started planning this trip. But this presentation of Richard II was exactly what I had been hoping for. Tahne loved it too, which was great as she had been worried about following the dialogue. It was tremendously entertaining, and now on reflection, also very moving for me personally as it has provoked me to again think of how I can revisit the creative pursuits that were once such an essential part of my life and fill that gap that I know that I have - where something tremendously important to me is missing. Anyway, enough deep and meaningful stuff ...great show - if you are in London, get along to see it.

Tommorrow we leave for Manchester on our free bus rides (fare = £0 + 2 x .25p booking fee), where we'll be catching up with Judith before heading off on a road trip to the Lakes and into Southern Scotland.

tower of london

First day without guides in London - and we spent almost all of it at the Tower of London! It was very exciting to see our first real castle.... we were lucky enough to come across a tour the moment we walked in, and our Yeoman warder lead us around describing the history of what we were seeing. (Lots of gruesome stories) we saw the crown jewels which looked like $2 shop fakes......but we totally loved the white tower - built in 1080! exactly how you imagine a castle to be! huge dining halls with wooden beam roofs, a church built into the castle, small windows, spiral staircases, armoury of all kinds (including henery the eighth's armour with a mound in the groin - very large - we think it was just vanity!) We spent ages walking around, along the castle walls, climbing the towers, with carvings from those that were awaiting execution.......the ravens with their clipped wings ( to prevent the doomed prophecy) roman walls that have been there for 2000 yrs, the whole thing was so awesome.

We then caught a tube to the Salvador Dali exhibit, which was lots of scribbles and sketches and bugger all actual paintings - we were a bit disappointed.....we thought the sculptures were great though....

We then walked down by the Thames, past bookstalls, skaters, buskers, the london eye, to the Tate modern. we had a really good look through it, and our favourite thing was a curiosity cupboard filled with items found in the banks of the thames.....so interesting!

a very packed full day.....we had a ball!

Barnes for lunch, plus our daytrip to Stonehenge and Avebury

We had a nice slow day on Sunday - went over the bridge to Barnes where we had a great gastro-pub lunch experience at the Red Lion. They have a great bear garden (really a garden) where kids and families and dogs sit on bench stools and bring picnic rugs (not the day we were there though).

Went on a bit of a walk through Barnes after lunch and got the pub average back up by stopping for a quick pint here and there. Lovely.

On Monday, Ant and Robbie both had the day off so we decided to all hire a car and go to Stonehenge and Avebury. Way too amazing to try and blog about with only 1:13 left on the internet cafe clock ...will update this later with the details.

To hell with the Northern Line - let's go shopping!

"We are currently experiencing extreme delays on the Northern Line due to a fault with the signalling system. Passengers are advised to make alternate arrangements..."

Ok - well there goes our plans for a picnic on Hampstead Heath and and a quiet amble through Camden Market. But not to worry - we formulated an alternate plan and made for Kensington and Knightsbridge where we went to Harrod's (not just for the tacky Di and Dodi memorial), the Natural History Museum (didn't spend a lot of time, but mainly went to check out the unique architecture ...little animals all built into the building facade), and the parks (Hyde and Kensington). Robbie had an emergency conker in her pocket which we deployed to get close up to a curious little squirrel. Tahne thought she was getting attacked by a Swan, but he was just rearing up to shoo away a large off-leash dalmation.

We had a great time in the parks, and then headed to Kensington High Street for Wagamama noodles (yummo) and to go shopping for a gift for Ant's friend Kate who was having a birthday party that night. We all went out to dinner for her birthday at this cool little Ethiopian restaurant near Kings Cross - it was totally amazing. We sat with the other vego couple and had a bunch of vego dishes that come out in little bowls and get dumped into a giant table sized crepe-style bread, then you use your fingers and other bits of crepe-bread to eat the food. Lovely spices, but not too hot - really, really amazing food (we will have to seek this out in the future).

Walks, art and tourist sites

Day two in London.......We started off the day with the Borough Markets = a gorgeous food market under a really big old train bridge. It was awesome! Lots of organic foods, amazing bright flowers,and fruit from all over Europe....And some of the most massive wheels of cheese ever! I couldn't help myself and bought tub of these bizarre clear berries - you could see right thru the skin and see the yellow seeds inside...Apparently they are called whitecurants...They had a strange flavour - very bitter like lemon...But really refreshing.

Ant spotted the stall that Jamie Oliver goes to when he gets strange types of mushrooms ( no I don't mean the magic type) they were awesome looking things, many looked more like toadstools, the type that your mother would tell you to stay away from.....There was some bizarre fungus amongus

we then walked thru old tunnels, along cobbled streets surrounded by fantastic old buildings, so beautiful....Walked down long the Thames to the globe theatre...A reconstruction of the Shakespeare one.....They rebuilt it without one nail or screw apparently......And its the only thatched building in London.....All this info was passed on to me by ant, our guide!

we then wa;lked to the Tate modern and chanced across an exhibition of the work of freida khalo....She is so amazing...I had only seen a small amount of her work before, but some of these paintings were absolutely amazing, so glad we came across it and it was well worth the money.....

this as followed with a beautiful lunch at an old pub in a gorgeous little old cobbled alleyway.....vego food is really easy to get over here too - all the stuff from the shops has suitable for vegetarians printed on stuff that's ok for us- so no reading fine print incidents! And its so easy to get vego food out as well.....Everything has been so yummy

anyway I digress

we then headed to big Ben - along with a million other tourists! I was totally stunned by the sheer size of it - how did they make stuff like that back in the old days? It and the house of parliament is really intricate and beautiful...And surrounded by ' bobbies' ! There was also a huge group of banners protesting the war in Iraq which was awesome to see

we then ducked into the Tate Britain to see my favorite painting of all time - 'the lady of shallot' by john William Waterhouse....It was such a great moment to sit in from of it - its totally massive...with a gigantic wide wooden gilded frame...We noticed details we had never seen and marveled at the huge brushstroke..I studied it for quite a while and we moved on


we then dragged our totally exhausted feet to the tube to head home.....But there was some signal failures, so the tubes were all stuffed up, and running late, so it was totally packed full.....Quite the experience!

london experiences

well after a long flight, with a very surreal stop over in Bangkok we are finally in London and seeing all the sights like the tourists we are! Having a great time hanging out with Ant and Robin....the similarites between Australia and England are greater than i imagined, but the differences make us smile.....like the red buses and phone boxes, and different chocolate and eavesdropping on the accents.....

it hasnt been that cold thank the goddess.....and it hasnt really rained, so its made it easy to visit stuff and walk around town. We have seen some truely amazing stuff.....we have only been here two days but we have really experienced so much already.

On the first day, we walked around town,saw some beautiful old buildings, saw picadilly circus....leicester square....ash's face was so wide eyed with amazement, like a little kid, it was gorgeous! we went to an oxfam, and i bought some indian bangles there as a souvenier, The British Museum was totally amazing - we spent a long time with the serious faces of the huge egyptian statues - i couldnt get over the size of them...we also saw an easter island dude and a Buddha state from saranath.....id love to have days and days to spend in there

ant took us to a totally beautiful old church called 'temple church' it had an amazing atmosphere and i could have happily sat there for hours as well

but we had to move on, through old cobbled streets surrounded by the oldest buildings, in a total dream like state, cant believe we are here

we visted some real old english pubs and had afew to mny beers...such a spin out to be drinking in a pub where people have been for over 400 years...

anyway thats the first day...and we have done heaps more in the second day, but i dont have time to write that now - as we are off for another fun packed amazing day...

spiral
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New blog

This is the first (of hopefully many) posts on the new team buzz blog. We at team buzz are setting this up in advance of our bug O/S trip so that we can test a few things out prior to hitting the road.