Wednesday, 21 November 2007

It's like a little Adelaide convention and everyone's invited!

So after the glorious day of rest, it was back into the sightseeing extravaganza!

Monday found me meeting up with Tish and Deanna for an Adelaide reunion. It was very emotional We trundled off to the British Museum, where I was stoked to find the Rosetta Stone! The actual Rosetta Stone! Awesome fun times in history right there. We then looked at the 'Elgin Marbles', statues from the Acropolis in Greece that are the subject of nasty discourse between the English and Greek governments. Personally, I subscribe to the theory that they should be returned to the Greeks and the English argument is threadbare at best. Still, it's interesting reading the little plaques where the museum tries to justify its possession of the marbles.

We then worked our way through the rest of the museum, seeing the Roman artifacts (so super cool), the bog person, a body that has been preserved by bog mud (it was not so super cool... who would have have thought I would be so squemish?) and "hands on" exhibits, where a staff member has all sorts of goodies from the collection for you to play with. I couldn't fight my way through all the seven year olds, so I left that one alone.

Next up was lunch and then off to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre... not that it actually is the Globe Theatre. It's a reconstruction a few streets away from the original site, as the original Globe burnt down sometime in the early 1600s. We booked in for the tour of the site and got to go in to the area, which was very interesting. Did you know that in the 16th century all plays were held during the day? This is because, dadadaDA! There was no electricity. Well, der. :) Anyway, it was great and the only regret is that we didn't get to see a play there... the season had just ended! After the tour, Tish was suffering from a cold so we parted ways and I went to Tower Hill, hoping that maybe I could get the Tower of London out of the way. Heh. It was 5pm when I got there, so no Tower for me! However, I did see part of London's City Wall, and walked around the Tower, then over Tower Bridge. Awesome! Of course, my camera started to run out of batteries, so I found a Boots at Picadilly Circus, took some photos there and then it was home time and left over pasta time! Yum!

The next day it was time to put Vanessa's crafty plan into action... Apparently, instead of staying in places and paying money for accomodation, I could utilise a little something called a "train" (don't know if you've heard of it) and go on Day Trips! Most of the places I wanted to visit were about an hour from London - damn England and it's tininess! Anyhoo, went along to Liverpool Street Station to catch the Cambridge Express (not really... it was just the train to Cambridge. But I like my name for it better!) While I was waiting for the train, Tish rang me with details of the musical Deanna and she were going to see that night. I was maybe going to go along, but when I heard the price, I decided I didn't need to see the Lion King all that much. We organised to meet on Thursday before they flew out of London, however, so that was cool! And then it was on the train!

I got into Cambridge City Centre after catching the bus from the train station and my wordy, it's a pretty little town! And it actually is quite a small town, with all the colleges clustered together and a nice little market in the middle. The first thing that struck me was all the people on bikes. They were everywhere! And quite mad with it... you had to dodge out of the way sometimes. The whole town was pretty much pedestrianised, which was nice, and it really was quite lovely. Lots of trees and parks and the River Cam winding through it all. Had some afternoon tea at a little nana place (the wait staff were wearing black and white uniforms!) and then it was back to London. Cambridge was kinda boring, for me at least. I reckon if you went with someone, it would be fun trying not to fall into the River Cam from your punt, but as I was a big loner, no punting joy for me.

Made my way back to London and went to Baker Street! Hah! For those not in the know, when I was born, Baker Street was playing on the radio. Anyway, I thought it was good! Next up, had a quick squizz at the shop of the Sherlock Holmes Museum and decided I could live without experiencing it. It'll be tough, but I'll survive. From there, I went to Buckingham Palace, but it was quite dark by then. Still, got a photo of the palace all lit up at night. I thought I'd try and see another stage show that night, but a) it was too much and b) I'd just missed out and it was too late. So, consoled myself with Burger King for dinner (don't really know how that is supposed to console me!) and then back to Vanessa's!

okay, will break these posts up so you're not reading and reading for days and days and days... aren't I nice?? Next up, Oxford!

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