Day 1: En route to London, Day 2: The City on the Thames

I'm finally sitting down to post about my Christmas trip to England and France! It took forever to get back on track with teaching, the mounds of laundry, 3 family birthdays and all the books I wanted to read! I have quite a bit of detail from each day because my lovely aunt made each of us a journal, and the wonderful pictures are courtesy of Colin and my parents. Here it goes!

December 13, 2011 Feast of St. Lucy

The earth is all before me. ~ Wordsworth

Somehow we all made it out the door on time, despite mom and dad packing until the last minute! We met Colin at the airport doors and everything went pretty smoothly from there to Dallas, and then on to London. Colin and I managed to switch seats with an English man and his son. Colin got the window seat, since he had never been to Europe before.


I watched Cowboys and Aliens during the flight, which turned out to be a pretty lame choice. Horrible southern accents and um...aliens. The plane food was really good, although I think it was the same menu they had on the flight to Rome four years ago. Planes are horribly uncomfortable, but I was able to sleep for a few hours, probably with my mouth hanging open like a fish. For breakfast Colin and I got juice, while we heard the Englishman behind us order tea. Colin spouted off this gem:

Juice is the drink of a citizen. Tea is the drink of a subject.

When we got closer to our destination, the view was really cool:

A little different from the square, orderly fields of the USA.

December 14, 2011 Feast of San Juan de la Cruz

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning...

~Wordsworth

The plane circled London a few times, which gave us a great view of the city hugging the river, with St. Paul's dome rising up. We had to wait in the Underground station with our heaps of luggage while Dad bought the Oyster cards, but then we were off to Russell Square. I find the London trains to be a lot nicer than any city's I've encountered. Paris, Rome, NYC? All plastic and metal. London's tube trains had cushiony seats and were relatively clean. The 50 minute ride was partially outside, so we saw rows and stacks of red brick apartments all covered in clay chimneys and dust and pigeon droppings. It fit precisely with my image of 19th century London, except that the fog was missing. In fact, only one day that we spent in London was rainy!

At Russell Square, the options for exiting the station were 3 elevators, or 175 stair steps. Not wanting to heave the luggage up that far, we had to squeeze ourselves and our bags into the lifts. I noticed that there was a special exit for suitcases, then turned around to see the rest of the family trying to shove them through the turnstiles!

We left the red and gold painted station and passed through the small park of Russell Square with the sun shining. We left our suitcases with the landlords of our flat until it was ready, and headed south into Westminster. Our flat was about a block away from the British Museum, an imposing neo-Classical building with dirty ionic columns like old bones. Our walk took us past bookstores, dozens of pubs with their colorful signs hanging into the street, and apartment buildings with intricate architecture.

Since it was about 10 am local time, most of us were fading fast. We were not sure how English coffee compared to what we were used to, so we decided Starbucks was a safe bet. (Other than an occasional Starbucks, we did abide by Aunt Janet's rule of no chain restaurants.) After that everyone (except James) was much more awake, and we headed into Trafalgar Square.

Nelson's Column

I don't know how far north anyone has been in the wintertime, but honestly.... it was noon, and that is as high as the sun got all day. Anyway, it was great to see the fountains throwing their rainbows into the wind, the large Christmas tree, and the crowds of kids playing by the large lions and heading into the National Gallery.

Way bigger than the lions around Columbus' column in Barcelona!

We had our first view of Big Ben from Trafalgar Square, so we continued on toward it. On the way we saw the Horse Guards standing at attention, except for one large black horse stamping in impatience, presumably ready for his dinner.

The Houses of Parliament were incredibly beautiful, and I had not anticipated how much Big Ben would shine gold (Probably because in movies it's always cloudy in London.) We heard it chime the quarter hour as we walked towards the Thames. The neo-Gothic style was so cool, and not something you see very often. With the buildings in such good repair it was hard to tell if they had been built yesterday or if they were from a thousand years ago. I enjoyed seeing the statues of Richard the Lionheart, Churchill and Abraham Lincoln surrounding the buildings.

Close by was Westminster Abbey, which I thought was really beautiful. There were so many other buildings around it, however, that to me it felt overshadowed. You could just see hints of the stained glass inside.

Holding our scarves to our faces against the wind, we crossed Westminster Bridge, admiring the statue of a triumphant Boudicca, the sun on Parliament, the wide river, and the swirling London Eye. The water was dark with huge waves along the bridge, but the sky was blindingly bright.

We headed back to our flat, and Mom and Dad got some unpleasant news. The flat they had worked so hard to pick out was being renovated, so we had to take one on the third floor. It was akin to carrying giant suitcases up to the third floor in Rome, but without the August heat. The flats could be described as spacious, but labyrinthine. Whoever made up the fire codes in London decided that there needed to be a swinging, un-prop-openable door in front of each section of the flat. So the progression to get from the room Claire and I were staying in to the kitchen was something like this: Door, hallway. Door, entryway. Door, hallway. Door, kitchen. Then there was a stairs up to the next story, where all the boys were staying. It made for some comical searches whenever we were trying to find one another.

We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant not far from the flat, and went to sleep early, exhausted but excited.