High tea at the Orangery!  Scones and finger sandwiches and little tarts with tea after touring Kensington Palace. Our photo focus today was water, and I liked the fountains surrounded by flowers and foliage.

My favorite part of the palace tour was the section about Queen Victoria's life, and particularly her devotion to Albert.  She always wore mourning dress after his death.  The exhibit featured photos and memorabilia from Victoria's youth through her Golden Jubilee.  There were numerous letters in her handwriting and quotes from her on the walls.  It was an informative and touching exhibit.

Another interesting display was the dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana in the decades of the 1950s through the 1980s.  Each dress was displayed next to a photo of it being worn and a caption describing the occasion. 

London has a series of Royal Parks, as I have mentioned before, and today I visited Kensington Gardens.  There was another water-related site which is the Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. I expected a more traditional fountain, but what I found was an unusual sort of river of water, with bunches of little spurts keeping children cool as they played on this hot day.  I somehow think Diana would have liked that.

Kensington Gardens has a forever child in the form of the Peter Pan statue.  It was commissioned and given by Peter's creator, J.M.Barrie, in 1912.  Kensington Gardens is where Peter lived with the fairies after he ran away from home.  You can see them around him in the statue.

 

 

 

Monday in London

The visit to Westminster Abbey this morning is another highlight of my visit to London.  We had an extremely knowledgeable tour guide who covered many details of British history.  I never wanted it to end!  We saw the graves and memorials of numerous famous people, including Elizabeth I and lots of authors.  It was somehow touching to see that Elizabeth is buried with her sister Mary who briefly had her imprisoned in the Tower of London.  I found myself wishing that I remembered more Latin so I could read all the inscriptions.  Westminster is of course the place where coronations and state funerals are held. 

Our photo assignment of the day was to stitch photos together to create a panorama if our cameras did not have that setting.  My digital camera is quite simple and I rarely take photos at all, so all of these assignments have been good for me and this one was challenging to say the least.  If you look closely at the result of my practice (the photos were taken looking across the street from Westminster Abbey) you may see some buildings and people that look like clones of each other.  There is only one London Eye (giant ferris wheel) in this one though so I am improving!  Did I mention that our group will be riding on the Eye one night later this week?

 

 

London has beautiful parks and we picnicked in one as we often do.  I have noticed people doing this on their lunch hours and it is satisfying to see so many natural areas maintained and used in a city this size. 

 

 

 

 





After lunch we went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery which are close to each other.  These museums, like many others in London, offer free admission.  I enjoyed the National Gallery, but after visiting the two art museums in Paris so recently I was soon ready to move on to the Portrait Gallery.  This museum is fascinating.  The portraits are organized chronologically, and I saw for the first time the faces of people I have only read about.  Additionally the official portraits of British leaders and royalty are featured.  Kate's was right inside the door. (How exciting to be here on the day her baby was born.)  As the exhibits move into the present time, the variations in style of art increase.  I enjoyed seeing these all together rather than separated by style as they are in traditional art museums.  It was a different way to experience art. 

 

On the way back to our flat, a few of us dropped by Harrods.  You probably know about this huge department store in Knightsbridge, founded in 1834.  It is beautiful, with an Egyptian themed central escalator, and covers an entire city block.  I can't think of anything you could not find there.  In addition to all the departments a traditional department store would have, there is a food area that has a meat market, fish market, and produce area, as well as places to sit down and eat various types of foods.  There are restaurants and cafes throughout, and exemplary service from employees who are all dressed in black and white. 

 

My parents have brought me gifts from this store before, so I was "good" and only window shopped.  One of my friends bought some great gifts for her family at home.  Harrods is owned by the father of the man Diana was dating when the two of them were involved in the fatal car accident.  I took this picture of the memorial to them which occupies a central spot in Harrods.

 

 

 

Weekend in Paris

 

 

 

Who knew the Eurostar was so comfortable and could get from London to Paris so fast?  Not this librarian, but I loved the experience (all but the part of leaving our flat at 4:30 am) of having breakfast on the train and lunch in a park in Paris.  In between we visited the Louvre!  I knew it was huge, but that is an understatement. We only had time to see a small portion of the museum, but I saw masterpieces I never thought I would have an opportunity to view in person.

After ordering lunch in a bakery that sold sandwiches, trying to recall French words I once knew and doing a lot of pointing, we ate in a park near the Eiffel Tower.  This icon is well guarded and our backpacks were searched before we were allowed to take the elevator to the second viewing level. 

The view was amazing.

 

 

 

 



 

We saw Notre Dame Cathedral, took a boat ride on the Seine, and enjoyed dinner in a French bistro.  That was just the first day!  Here is a collage I made of my name using details from the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

 

I learned that Paris is composed of twenty neighborhoods, and that each one has its own shops, restaurants, etc. so that the people that live there essentially are part of a neighborhood village.  The second day my friends and I started exploring some of these neighborhoods.  We met at a café for breakfast and then visited the Musee d'Orsay on the left bank.  This museum has an incredible art collection including many Impressionist works - a favorite of mine.  I was lucky in that one of my librarian friends majored in art history and she was a fantastic learning resource as we strolled through the Orsay. 

 

We attempted to visit the catacombs, but the wait was more than two hours in the blazing sun.  (France and the UK are experiencing a heat wave right now.)  Since I have visited Kiev's Caves of the Winds with the mummified monks, I decided to pass on this experience.  Exploring the neighborhoods was fun, and the Parisians were friendly.  Dinner at an outdoor café was a special treat. 

 

For our last day in Paris we visited Versailles.  The Tour de France was coming through there, so we waded through media and crowds.  Louis XIV's estate is so large it was difficult to walk it in 90+ degree heat, but we saw most of the palace, Marie Antoinette's house, and the gardens with many fountains. 

 

 

 

We returned to London on the Eurostar.  I changed the time back on my watch, but didn't notice the time on my phone did not change as it should have done automatically.  I use it as an alarm, so I got up a whole hour early this morning! 

 

The Tower of London!  For so many years I have read about this place and finally got to see it.  One of my roommates and I were lucky enough to get in on a tour given by one of the Beefeaters.  These Yeoman Warders live inside the Tower walls with their families, and are extremely knowledgeable about the history of the site.  Ours also had a great sense of humor! 

I thought I knew a lot about British history, but this gentleman certainly filled in some gaps.  The tour ended inside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula where several of Henry VIII's executed wives (including Ann Boleyn) are buried.  There is a plaque on the wall listing all the people who are buried there and it reads like a Who's Who of people who fell out of favor and lost their heads. 

There are many moods inside these historic walls.  We saw the Crown Jewels first to avoid the lines, and that was quite an experience.  I had to buy a book about them.  In fact I bought another book about the history of the Tower.  It is actually a complex of towers, the most famous of which is what we now call the Bloody Tower.  I reddened the window frame so you can see where a doomed prisoner might watch someone else being carted off to be executed.  The yeoman told us as many as 2,000 people would turn out to watch a beheading.  One had to be in special favor with the ruler to be granted the privilege of a private execution.

 

The Queen's Guard is present at the Tower as well as a couple of other palaces.  The last time I saw one of them was in Ottawa as a child and my sister tried valiantly to get him to move or laugh.  We thought we saw his mouth twitch.

 

 

 

We ended the afternoon at the Borough Market.  I walked over London Bridge into this huge marketplace full of every sort of food stall.  There was lots of fresh produce and all kinds of interesting products to buy.  We are leaving for Paris early in the morning, so I just browsed.  Can't wait to ride on the Eurostar.

 

 

Imagine going to the town where Roald Dahl lived for 35 years!  Today our study group walked through this picturesque English village and visited the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.  The museum is particularly engaging as it follows Dahl's life and has interactive exhibits in each portion.  The first room is based on his first autobiography Boy, with letters he wrote his mother from school,  family photos, notes about pranks, and references and manipulatives related to his books throughout.  Children examining the exhibits were enthralled.  I took a photo of candy wrappers he saved when the company asked the boys at his school to taste test their products.  The seeds of Charlie were sown.

 

Other rooms contained the actual writing hut Dahl used in his back yard, materials for children to create books and artwork, and a replica of the hut's interior so visitors can sit his chair and be photographed.  The doors to one of the rooms look like a giant Wonka bar!

The village itself was charming, with old cottages and lots of beautiful gardens and climbing roses.  We visited Dahl's grave, next to an old church, right up the hill. 

 

We were asked to look for small details today and take a picture of one.  I liked this finial on a fence post.  It seemed ironic to me, as most of the houses in the village were old, or were built to look like they were.  This abode must have been especially so!

 

 

We ended the perfect Roald Dahl day by attending Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical at the Drury Lane Theatre which is opulent and historic.  The musical was fantastic, with a superb cast and lots of special effects.

 



What a dream...the Bodleian Library, Blackwell's Book Shop and more, all in one day!  Our study group went to Oxford, and the Inspector Lewis show will never look the same to me again.  I could easily stay in this town for a long time.  Can you imagine going to school or working here?

There is no way to describe being inside the Bodleian library.  One of the oldest and most famous libraries in Europe, it was re-founded in this building in 1602.  Its beginnings, however, date back to the 14th century.  Not every librarian gets to take a look at this place!

 







No photographs are permitted inside, but the feel is nearly medieval and everything is vintage,  We were encouraged to play with unique (to us) settings on our cameras and I made this shot sepia to reflect the vintage feel of this town.

The library is having a special exhibit of Magical Books, mainly comprised of children's fantasy works by Oxford alumnae like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman.  I saw original maps drawn by Lewis and Tolkien of their magical lands, and notes in their handwriting.  Additionally there were some much older works on alchemy.  After the library visit we ate lunch at the Eagle and Child, the pub frequented by Lewis and Tolkien when they both taught at Oxford.  The food was great and I had a lemonade mixed with rosewater. 

 



 

After lunch we were off to Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford.  How would you like to go to school here?

 



 

Some of the scenes from the Harry Potter films were shot here.  This is the dining room you saw in Hogwarts, and students still eat their meals in this room!



 

Before returning to London by train, I spent some time in Blackwell's Book Shop.  Any librarian knows about the UK's most famous and oldest (1879) academic bookseller.  The Oxford location is the flagship store.  I bought a Welsh dictionary and spent some time chatting with the clerk who happened to be an American student from Virginia.  He is completing his PhD at Oxford.  Envy, envy.  As I left for the station I looked longingly at the antiquarian section in the rear.  A classmate described the three men sitting at desks there as looking like intimidating guardians, but I kept thinking about how much I could have learned from them.  One of my favorite jobs ever was working for an antiquarian bookseller.  Stop back tomorrow to find out what happens at Roald Dahl's house... 



















Today started with a boat ride on Regent's Canal.  We were looking for contrasts and I certainly saw some, particularly in this rundown houseboat with the expensive home seen behind it. 

Most of the boats are in much better condition, and our professor explained that there is a whole community of people who live in these floating homes on the canal.  After passing through a long dark tunnel and letting some passengers off at the London Zoo, we arrived at Camden Market. 
The market is a colorful, busy place with every kind of product and food stall you can imaginable.  The location is historic, having once housed stables used when horses pulled the canal boats. 

I broke the handle on my purse soon after arriving in London and was browsing the stalls for a replacement.  A vendor was demonstrating the versatility of a leather bag he had made and I managed to bargain down the price by offering cash.  Meanwhile my shopping companions had moved on and then noticed I was missing.  One of my flatmates (who we tease about being a human GPS due to her uncanny ability to find her way around a city she has never visited before) returned to save me.  I did buy the purse, and the craftsman gave me the name of his YouTube video that shows him making the bags.  He said his friend had filmed him and shyly added that it has tango music from his native country.

London is a vibrant multicultural city and the people are quite friendly.  I rarely feel the size of the city.  There are many more trees and natural areas like parks than one sees in a large American city. Many parks have small cafes.  While street crossing can be dangerous, other aspects of large cities such as crowded sidewalks are not as noticeable.  I was walking back to campus alone from the British Library the other day and became lost.  As I found my way back I asked three different people for directions and all were gracious and happy to help.  Another librarian and I were browsing in an art gallery recently and the saleswoman commented that she had lived in America for a year and liked it a lot.  She shared her dream of going to Florida. 

 

London is truly a city of neighborhoods, and so far I like it a lot.  I can tell it would take many visits to get really familiar with this city, but I already feel more comfortable than I thought I would at this point.  I am anxious to share details of my visit to the Highgate Cemetery but that will do so later.  We are leaving early in the morning for Oxford, where the Bodleian Library and Blackwell's Bookshop await!