Country #2

One last day in Dublin included an unexpectedly ornate church and great music at Mass as well as some beautiful street art, where I bought two small watercolors of Ireland.  Travel days are not too exciting, so I'll jump ahead to my first full day in London!

I took the tube (Please mind the gap!) to the Westminster stop and upon walking out of the Underground stairwell, I immediately had the "I'm in London!" feeling.  My first views were of Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Bridge, and quite a few red telephone booths!

After the initial photo burst past, I wandered around and made my way over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  It was fun to see, but spent more time waiting around for something to happen than anything else.  What was more impressive than anything was the crowd that gathered.  It felt like every tourist in London had come to the same place all at the same time!  I think I took as many pictures of the crowd as I did the guards and musicians.  My afternoon was spent in Trafalgar Square and in the National Gallery; to be perfectly honest, I can't really remember what I saw in there, until I look back at my notebook.  However I did spend close to 4 hours there, so I must have seen something!  It was a wonderful first full day in England.

My second day in London started at the Tower of London where I met up with two now old friends, Michelle and Kristin, who I had met in my hostel in Galway.  We had a blast on the included tour and hearing about all the famous people who got sent to the Tower and then subsequently beheaded!  We walked across Tower Bridge on our way to Shakespeare's Globe for about an hour's worth of Henry IV Part 1, about which I know nothing!  (Sorry Grandma, that gene and love didn't get passed down.) 

I still enjoyed my time there, and the inside of the Globe is very cool! We got groundling tickets - you stand in the pit in front of the stage - which are fantastic, up until it starts raining and you're in a space that doesn't have a roof and umbrella's aren't allowed! We huddled in the back catching some protection from the overhang of the outside walls, but after an hour of not really understanding the story and getting wet, I moved onto the Tate Modern.  Very cool modern art.  Bob (or if someone at work reads this and can tell Bob...), I saw a Mondrian and thought of our plan for the exhibit and was glad we didn't try and execute that - it would have been very busy!

My favorites in the museum were the two Calder mobiles.  If you don't know what they are, please Google them, and then buy me one. :)  I rushed through the second half of that museum so that I could get to the photo on the right - St. Paul's Cathedral for evensong - evening choir/organ singing of a Psalm and some readings.  It was very pretty music, but the best part was that it got me into the cathedral for free!  I loved the detail and wish that photos could do these places justice.  You'll just have to see it for yourselves.

More to come about London and Bath another day.  Time to move on from this cafe.