Tuesday we got up and had to pack and say goodbye to the lovely city. I think I forgot to mention, our hotel was not only very nice, but had an art exhibit of bunnies and was right next to the Tate Britain to boot, very us. The show in the hotel was called "Rabbits and Snow Angels" by Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson. After breakfast and packing we had just about an hour to walk around the Tate. No photos were allowed, so tried to scribble down a few names of the best work I saw there. Mike Nelson's Coral Reef, Susan Hiller, and Cerith Wyn Nelson stood out. We took two trains to the airport and flew British Airways to Rome. If you think I was impressed with Air Canada, I was equally impressed with BA! They are more expensive though, so we only used them for the small flight. We lost an hour traveling so it was late when we got to Rome. Fortunately, they don't even start the evening till 8pm there so it was no problem. We checked in to the Hotel Napoleon, a big change from the modern hotel we had, it was old-fashioned but very nice. I had been worried about not learning any Italian before going, but quickly found that Buna Sera (good evening) and Grazie (thank you) were the only terms needed, everyone spoke English. Being in London had felt like a vacation, it is a big city but everyone is so nice I could live there, though it would be hard to not start impersonating the accent everywhere. But Rome! Rome felt like a movie. Cobblestone streets, fountains, old buildings. . . there is a treasure around every corner and full of a feeling. We took the Metro to the Spanish Steps and had pizza and crepes. Walked around a little and decided to try and find Piazza Navona. Instead we wandered right to La Fontana di Trevi. If there hadn't been the crowd there it would have felt like "La Dolce Vita" in that we turned a corner and here was this gorgeous fountain tucked in around apartments. We threw in a coin and did some people watching.
"Brian" by Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson
The garden across the street from our hotel in London.
On the banks of the Livenza, silvery willows are growing in wild profusion, their boughs dipping into the drifting waters, vuurwerk, Idroscalo di Ostia, 1998-Cerith Wyn Nelson
The lounge in the Hotel Napoleon
The hotel still used keys, with giant fancy key rings!
Tom loves him some Italian pizza
I love me some Nutella crepes
The Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
The pictures can't show how gorgeous the floodlit fountains were
So Tom and I had the best intentions of getting up early Monday but over slept just a little. I dashed downstairs to grab some breakfast (they looked at me like I was a little silly since they were closing, but I wasn't going to miss out on free croissants!) We started out the day walking to the river Thames and took a river cruise up to the Tower of London. There we were regaled by stories of death and torture by the Beefeater tourguides, saw the crown jewels, and armor of Henry VIII. I could have spent all day there, but we wanted to try and fit in as much as possible. We got to the British Museum only about a 1/2 hour before they closed, just enough time to see the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian art, and Korean ceramics. Since they were closing we had time to find Abbey Road where Tom tried his best to walk where the Beatles walked. Unfortunatley, it was dark and a very busy street so we couldn't get the full picture imitation. I was feeling a little tired and starving so we went to a little diner called Munchkins, I wasn't expecting much but they had the best veggie burger I think I've ever had! After all this running around I was glad we had tickets to sit down and see We Will Rock You. A musical written by the remaining members of Queen. The show was silly, the music was great. After about the 4th encore I was thinking "alright already" when Queen suddenly came on stage. It turns out the night before they had won an Olivier award and came to thank the audience. Pretty lucky night to be there!
walking down to the river
the whole city seemed to be under construction getting ready for the Olympics next year
For our first full day in London we woke up and had a delish breakfast at our hotel (included), they had the regular continental spread, but also European cheeses, spiced Morroccan fruits and some other extras. Afterwards, we headed over to Camden Market to do some shopping. We ended up just browsing around, didn't buy anything. In typical Budzak fashion we always are waiting to find something better and rarely buy souvenirs. I would loved to have more spending money to browse all the vintage clothes racks we saw. After a while of wandering we stopped in at the End of the World pub for a rest. Then headed to Picadilly Circus to get on a double-decker bus tour. I had found a coupon online for the "Original Tour," it had a 24 hour hop-on hop-off tour which included a river cruise. It was nice to drive around for a while looking at the outside of Buckingham Palace and having someone point out all the sights. We jumped off around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament. After a little while there we headed over to the London Eye. I was a little scared as ferris wheels always make me nervous. But this was much bigger than I had expected! Each pod fit maybe 20 people who could walk around. It moved very slowly around so no herky-jerky stops like on a traditional ferris wheel. The view was nice, I want to rent one for my birthday party someday if I'm ever rich and in London :). Afterwards we tried to hit the Tower of London, but it was too late so we decided to save it for the next day and went back to the hotel for a quick nap. The quick nap turned into a long nap on accident (stupid cell phone alarm) and we had room service for dinner . . . the jet lag had gotten us a little.
Check out the scooter chairs at Camden Market!
Busy shoppers
Not our feet, but there were a few of these booths, you pay to have little fish nibble on your feet? very strange . . .
Double decker bus! a little empty on top since it was so chilly
Tom and Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell, not the clock)
Westminster Abbey, where Prince William will be married pretty soon
Since I want to write down everything that happened on my trip I think I'll post each day separately. We set out at noon on Friday 03/11 to fly Air Canada to London's Heathrow Airport. I highly recommend Air Canada! They were so nice, free food and only $50 to upgrade to the emergency row seats (extra leg room for Tom and I since we're so tall). When we finally checked in to the Mint Hotel it was probably like 5am Arizona time, we were beat. We slept a few hours and then headed out to the Tate Modern Art Museum (free and open until 10pm, London's museums totally beat the U.S.'s for that). We saw original Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, just to name a few. Then we walked along the river to The Anchor, a pub where we had some fish & chips with mushy peas. It was definitely all it's cracked up to be. We didn't last much longer that night, still a little jet-lagged we took the tube back to the hotel and watched some English stand-up comedy before going to sleep.
The Mint Hotel was super modern (think Ikea design) and super nice.
Taking the tube from the airport to our hotel, only 7 pounds for a day pass, pretty good deal! I look a little crazed, but its because I couldn't really sleep on the flight.
This Lichtenstein was even better in person.
At the Tate Modern, we REALLY liked this piece, but I can't remember the artist's name :(
The museum walls had an awesome wall with artist's signatures in a timeline.
The Millenium Bridge at night, very chilly but very pretty.
The Anchor pub-recommended by Frommers and now by Lissa & Tom :)
