Foggy London Town

To put it simply: London was fantastic! I spent 3 days in London with my mother and we had a whirlwind adventure. Our first night there we took the Tube (the London subway) to Westminster to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. To make things even better there was a full moon cascading just over the left shoulder of Big Ben (speaking of Big Ben- Go STEELERS!). As we started walking around, the bells started tolling from the great clock tower- it was magical in the crisp night air and I felt like I was in 'foggy London town of old'.

We made our way down the length of Parliament and heard a lone bag piper playing at Westminster Abbey. His eerie song made the night ever more magical. As we walked, we headed towards south bank and the London Eye (the giant Ferris wheel). It was lit up gloriously- a pale blue/purple ring of fire in the dark night sky. It was pretty chilly and we were feeling the cold in our bones- so my mom and I decided to try to find a pub to warm up in. We ended up traveling back to Oxford Street and finding Sir Christopher’s Place (which is a really cute/quaint alleyway full of boutiques and cozy restaurants) We went to the restaurant that the concierge recommended- Paradiso Restorante Olivelli established 1934.


Jetlag hit us hard that night and we slept in until 12:30 the next day! But we started off our day with a trip to the Marble Arch where a protest against the war in Gaza was being held. We hopped on the tube and headed out towards St. Paul’s Cathedral. The view upon entering the main body of the church was spectacular! The walls heading towards the altar were splashed with colorful mosaics in rich colors like burgundy, royal blue, and forest green. The mosaics sparkled and glimmered in the cool lights because they were embedded with thousands of gold flecks. The dome was humongous! It was decorated/painted in a black and white Greek-antiquity-like scene. I sat down in the semi circle of chairs that was set up directly under the dome and just took the moment in. I felt like I could really enjoy the splendor of this church after having taken Art history!

Then I headed back out, reluctant to leave this beautiful place. I met up with my mom and we headed back over to Westminster to go to Westminster Abbey and hear the Evensong Choir service in the Abbey. We sat on the left hand arm of the church as the service went on. It was beautiful. The all men’s choirs was phenomenal. The men wore white robes with red over robes. I read in the info pamphlet that Westminster Abbey has a college dedicated only to becoming professional choristers. No wonder the choir was so good. Around us were hundreds of tombs for past kings, influential politicians and scientists, and war admirals. The tombs ranged in style reflecting the age of the church. It was almost chaotic in its diversity and reminded me of the clusters of sculptures I would see in the Parthenon etc. After the service we headed out down the center of the nave through the area where the choir sang under the glow of red lamps. My mom wanted to donate some money to the church and I noticed that we were standing in front of Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb! So cool- I had a DaVinci code moment!

Then we took the tube to Harrods for our 5:00 reservation of afternoon tea. We headed up to the 4th floor, passed through the Pet Palace department and found the Georgian Room. The Georgian room was pleasant. They had a piano player there and the walls were washed in a soft pale pink. The ceiling was beautiful too and had these cool star shaped lights. After we had tea we headed out into the store for a bit of a shopping spree!

The next day we ventured to the British Museum where I had some major academic moments: mostly related to art history. The museum is AMAZING! I think if a museum were ever tailored to my interests- this would definitely be the museum. The ancient history was breath taking- I was nearly having a heart attack when I walked through the ancient Assyrian and Egyptian exhibits! I GOT TO SEE THE Rosetta stone! So exciting!


Then we went over to the National Gallery where I saw so many amazing paintings but the ones that stuck out in my mind were: da Vinci’s cartoon of "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist" and Piero della Francesca's "The Baptism of Christ." Both pieces were MUCH larger than I thought they would be, which just added to the awe factor. I was sad because they were doing restoration work on da Vinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks" but hopefully I can pop up to London another time to see it.


Then it was off to Oxford!