Day 3

Today we woke up early and went down to the basement for our breakfast before heading out. We had two choices English or Continental. The English Breakfast consisted of a fried egg, rashers, sausage, toast, beans and coffee/tea; while the Continental was comprised of toast, jam, cheese and coffee/tea. There was also a buffet of cereals and juices. Cameron and I had an English Breakfast and Patrick ordered the Continental (which really wasn't that much food for him). I have discovered that I like tea with milk, and coffee with a little bit of milk as well. The coffee here tastes really different from the coffee back home, I'm not sure why. After breakfast we headed out to start our adventures for the day.

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, we rode the Underground to Victoria Station and then walked up to the Palace. We heard yesterday that you needed to be on queue by 11:00 AM to have a good viewing of the 11:30 Changing of the Guard. We got there about 10:15 and were taking pictures of Victoria's Monument, the Palace and other things around there. It is really beautiful and I can see why it is such a popular tourist destination. While we were there, we were able to see some of the Guard march by with their drums and the horses, it was cool! While we were distracted by this, a few news vans and police cars pulled up and were around the Canada Gate and in front of the Victoria Monument. I thought that maybe something cool was going to happen, but we weren't sure that we wanted to hangout for another hour to see a few guys change places (that's how Patrick described it) and I know that we were also anxious to get on to the Tower and other places we wanted to see. So we left, and we found out later that the Queen went to the Palace and gave an award to a man who helped save people when the Underground was bombed here a few years ago. So we missed seeing her. Bummer!

After the Palace, we headed to the Tower of London and purchased the audio tour to walk around with. It is really an amazing place. We were able to go into the room where King Edward II slept! We saw the prayer room that King Henry VI was reportedly killed in. The story was that he was poisoned or died of natural causes, but witnesses reported seeing his blood when his body was put in the casket so he became a sort of martyr to the English. We saw the Crown Jewels, which is in the most secure room in England. Holy cow! They were so beautiful! The diamonds were HUGE! The gown that Queen Elizabeth II wore for her coronation weighs 20 pounds and is made with gold thread. The history in one small place was amazing. Not many people were actually executed in the Tower itself, just famous people like Ann Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and others. (Cameron found a way to remember Henry's 6 wives - which must be the way the British children learn it - divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.) A majority of the people who were executed for treason were actually hung on Tower Hill just outside the Tower because they could build bleacher-like seating for the thousands that would come, and the executions inside the Tower were reserved for a select few onlookers. It's amazing what one could be executed for, it's a good thing justice is a slight bit better today. We decided to cut our visit short because we wanted to head out and do a few other things, and just the small part we were able to see took almost 2 hours.

After the Tower, we took a boat ride on the Thames to the Dali Experience. That was quite the museum. There weren't any of the Dali paintings that we are all familiar with, but it was cool nonetheless. We saw his infamous "Lobster Phone" and the "Mae West Lip Couch" he made. We found out that he was "for snails" and "against spinach," which Cameron particularly thought was hilarious and could agree with him about. One thing I was particularly impressed with was the dresses that some designers like Ferragamo designed based upon his paintings. Cameron really enjoyed the sculptures that were there made of bronze that were based on his paintings. Downstairs from Dali was a small exhibit on Picasso. We were able to see some drawings, pottery and even rugs that Picasso made. Some of the pictures make me think of the pictures that Cameron draws or that kids draw for me at school - anyone can be an artist if they really set their mind to it and want to do it. This left us thirsting for a little more art, so we headed over to the Tate Modern.

One super-cool thing about London is that nearly all of the "public" museums are free. We went into the Tate and were able to see so many fabulous REAL works of art. We saw Dali, Picasso, Monet, Johns, Pollack, Miro, Ernst, Basquiat, Raedecker, Matisse, Kadinsky, Mondrian, Cezanne and Lichtenstein masterpieces to name a few. I had always wanted to see a Jackson Pollack to see what the fuss was all about, my class learned about him last year in Art Masterpiece but I didn't really get it. Seeing a painting of his up close and in real life made me see the beauty in it. I was particularly intrigued by Joan Miro's paintings - the colors were amazing. We learned little things like how Piet Mondrian disliked green and didn't use it or have any of it in his house. The Basquiat painting was "Tobacco vs Red Chief"and was amazing. I really enjoyed this museum and am glad we went. Cameron knew a lot about some of the artists, again, because of Art Masterpiece and from Mrs. Garza in Art Club.

We left the Tate and walked next door to the replica of the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre was actually on the other side of the Thames than where the replica was built. The original theatre burned down during a performance of Henry VIII when a spark from a prop canon ignited the theatre. Around this same time Oliver Cromwell came into power in England, and he was a truly awful man. Although the Globe was rebuilt, it was not put to much use after that because Cromwell was a puritan (amongst other things like enslaver of the Irish) and decided that the country and people would be better off without art and plays, and had all the theatre's closed down - including the Globe. After that, it wasn't of any use to Cromwell or his puritan cronies, so they had it torn down and built tenements there. Such a shame!!!! It seems like the Globe was a wonderful place full of laughter and even of education. I think that sometimes people who are egomaniacal and are in power are afraid of their underlings knowing too much and discovering the truth about them.

All this thinking about art and Shakespeare made us hungry, so we ate at a restaurant called Pizza Express. Sounds like a fast food place, but it wasn't! It was actually pretty fancy. Cameron and I shared a thin crust called "The American," which we thought was pretty funny. Patrick also had "The American," but a thicker crust. It was really good! We've seen them all over town, but weren't sure about them - the name implies fast food, but looking inside they seemed too fancy (wine glasses on tables, low lighting, etc.) All in all it was delicious and I'm glad we went. By the way, "American" is a pepperoni pizza. All the others had all kind of flavors of toppings on them.

We walked back across the Thames on the Millennium Bridge (known to the Londoners as "Wobbly Bridge" because when it was first built it wobbled and shook) to find an Underground station. Cameron and I seem to have better luck finding one on our own than we do when we're with Patrick. We found one and headed back to the hotel to grab jackets, today was windy and a bit overcast. Then we went shopping because Thursday's the late night for stores. Late is really not an accurate descriptor of the time. We only got in about an hour, Patrick did some damage at Zara; Cameron and I found an outfit each at H&M. We'll go back on Saturday to do some real shopping . Tomorrow is going to be another long day, we're headed out to Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury and where the Magna Carta was signed. This should be really interesting. We are really looking forward to it.