London 6
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2008
1
7
102
Trip End
Feb 26, 2009
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Today was to be my solo day; to visit places in London the others weren't as keen on. I managed, however, to talk Mich into joining me at the British Museum, home to an apparent 7 MILLION items!
On the way, we had to change trains at Kings Cross station. As a joke, I went up to a guard and asked him where I would find platform 9 3/4. I thought he'd be wondering what the hell I was talking about, but he responded: "Oh, Harry Potter: Turn left after the stairs" - they actually had a platform nine and three quarters! It turned out not to be a platform between 9 and 10, but a little touristy sign with a luggage trolley simply for photo takers.
British Museum
We arrived at the museum at 11:45, and I immediately paid my 5 pounds for the 1pm Guided Highlights Tour. Mich was more keen to check out Kensington Palace, Princess Diana's home, so she spent an hour with me checking out the mummies and the historic Rosetta Stone. The rest of the time we ate crap take-away pasta and Mich tried getting her camera fixed. She ended up buying a pretty nice one because her original camera kept taking photos that came out plain white.
I expected more than 2 other people to join me on the museum tour. These 2 others were an Australian couple, who must have been pretty pissed at me taking photos of every major artefact we were shown. Our 70-something tour guide took us first to the Rosetta Stone, and I was in awe standing before an artefact I'd heard so much about. For over 1000 years, nobody knew how to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, until the deciphering in 1822 of this document, written in Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphic scripts.
We were next shown the Elgin Marbles, now called the Parthanon Marbles, which were on the Acropolis in Athens. The museum building itself was designed to look like the Parthenon in this particular room, and the marble sculptures, many displaying battle scenes, took up an enormous space. When I asked the guide if the Greeks were claiming them back, she became quite passionate about how the British legally acquired them, and preserved them far better than the Greeks apparently would have.
Other highlights on the tour were monuments from one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus), and some ancient Roman artefacts, yet not nearly as interesting as the first two sights.
Palace of Westminster / Houses of Parliament
I arrived at Westminster Abbey at exactly 4:29pm, not knowing that entry closes at 4:30, but the guard wouldn't let me through. Instead I decided to watch a session of British Parliament, which can be far more heated than the Australian variety. I entered the House of Commons after numerous security checks, only to find that there was no Gordon Brown, nor any other people I knew, but about 15 no-name politicians discussing the Ministry of Fisheries. I could have sworn I saw one of them fall asleep, as I was about to before leaving after 20 minutes.
Classical Spectacular at Royal Albert Hall
I had been more excited for this than any other in my time in London, including the Premier League. I had hoped to watch Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture somewhere in Europe, and found that not only was it playing in London, but it was playing at possibly the world's most famous concert hall, and with many many other of my favourite pieces of music!
My ticket was 20 pounds (there was no way Mich or Deutsch would join me here), sitting behind the choir, giving a surprisingly great view of the conductor and the sell-out crowd. There is something mesmorising about watching a conductor as the orchestra plays beautiful music, his hands fluidly swaying to the music and showing a visible passion for the pieces that the viewer can't help but get swept up in. The music truly was beautiful. In case your name is Alex Owen, or you are otherwise interested, here are just some of the pieces the Royal Symphony Orchestra performed (some along with a choir, and many which you will all recognise):
* Fanfare for the Common Man (played before all Channel 7 sport)
* Grand March from Aida
* Pachelbel's Canon in D Major (intro to Coolio's "C U When U Get There", and Vitamin C's "Graduation")
* O Sole Mio (a famous Italian song)
* Brindisi from La Traviata
* Sorceror's Apprentice (Fantasia)
* Land of Hope and Glory / Pomp and Circumstance March (graduation song and Randy Savage's theme music, there u go Josh Milston u got your wrestling reference)
* Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker (u all know this tune)
* Rule Britannia
* Nessun Dorma (Pavarotti's signature song, from Turandot, u all know how this one goes too)
* 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, my favourite classical piece, and we got the full 18 minutes
The 1812 Overture was a show in itself. All throughout the concert, coloured lights had been used to add to the ambience, yet in this piece they added far more - soldiers with muskets, lasers, indoor fireworks (!!), as well as (special indoor) cannons, which Tchaikovsky actually wrote into the score! It was fantastic. My eyes were getting watery as I was so caught up in the moment. Truly brilliant.
For the encore, dancers were brought out for the Cancan, which was a light change from the previous war-themed piece. As the finalé, red, white and blue balloons were dropped from the ceiling while "Land of Hope and Glory" was replayed, while EVERYBODY was singing this triumphant de-facto English anthem patriotically and waving English/British flags. That includes me, I knew every word to the song and was singing like I was British. Never have I felt so proud of another nation.
Britain, Britain, Britain. I have had a wonderful time in my week here, and will no doubt be coming back many times.
End of the day
While I was at the concert, the others joined Max and his roommate Jeff at the Lion in West Hampstead, apparently London's Thursday night equivalent of the Sheaf's former "Jew Night". When I arrived at 11:15, the pub was all but deserted, and we were all kicked out at 11:30 because of their stupid rules about drinking hours. Jeff suggested I go early in the morning to Westminster Abbey, it's quite an ambitious plan considering our flight to Amsterdam is at 1pm and we need to arrive at the airport 2 hours early. I think I'll give it a shot.
