London (Part 3)

They had tons and tons of really cool stuff, street bands and antiques and handmade jewelry and stuff from all over the world, even adorable mod/60s dresses and stuff that I totally almost bought but then got yelled at by the guy.  But it was fun.  Angela treated us to the second most delicious cupcakes I've ever had in my life, after Susanna's of course, from this place:

From the market, we went to a place called something like Wagamama or something and had really good Asian.  It was kind of pan-Asian, sort of like a Pei Wei.  Then to Angela's to chill for a bit, then we went to see Young Victoria with Emily Blunt at this cool little theater, which turned out to be great because over the next few days we saw tons of stuff about Victoria and Albert and I have to be honest, I didn't know a ton about them before the movie.  So that kind fo helped with a lot of historical context, etc.  And it was a good movie.  We talked about how it sort of lacked a lot of narrative tension, not a lot of conflict in it, but it was kind of nice to see a British monarchy movie that wasn't totally depressing and dark and about horrible selfish ambitious exploitative people, a la Other Boleyn Girl or The Duchess.  Then we went back to the Chadwicks' and made quesadillas and salsa and guac:
And then maybe we watched The Devil Wears Prada, after eating dinner at like 11.  Because you can't have just one Emily Blunt. 

Sunday we got up and went to Angela's church, where she works as one of their video producer people.  It was really cool and kind of similar to a lot of ones over here.  I think I expected it to be more different, but not really.  Main difference: it was in this super old fancy cathedral.  But other than that, pretty modern, a lot of the same songs and stuff that we do.  The sermon was on service and was really good.  People were super nice and I saw approximately 97 pairs of boots that I would absolutely buy in a heartbeat.  Seriously people, London is like the City of Amazing Boots. 

We had lunch at Angela's and sort of just hung out for most of the afternoon (Dane and I, after breaking our necks trying to see everything in Edinburgh [City of Ridiculous Amounts of Stairs/Hills] in 4 days, and looking forward to doing the same thing in London, were up for a true, restful Sabbath.)  Nick got home and we went and had dinner at their little local pub, like a block from their flat, which was adorable and homey and so refreshingly not touristy at all.  It was quiz night.  I had a few (read: one, but kind of fast) and accidentally sort of yelled out the answer to a particularly American question, being all proud that I'd know it.  It was embarrassing.  Then we played Scrabble, I won once and Angela won once.  A tie-breaking final round will have to wait 'til they move back stateside. 

Here's my Sunday roast, and us and our lovely hosts:

From there, that night, we found our way to the Royal Eagle near Paddington Station and Hyde Park, where we'd stay for 2 nights.  It was...  a hotel.  With... a bed.  And running water.  That kept us off the street.  For that, I suppose, it was worth the money.  It was also teense and kind of musty and had a horrible, no, I mean HORRIBLE smell coming from the bathroom.  Not sure what it was, not particularly sewage-y or mold-y or dead-thing-y, just weird and gross and on all the towels.  It worked for a couple nights, but I can't say I was sad to leave.

Monday we walked through Hyde Park and to Buckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guards.  It was all so posh and military and precise, until the marching band pulled out their music stands and made a little semi-circle and played a show tune medley for the gathered crowd.  Which, even though the gay American couple in front of us was cracking up and seemed maybe a bit disillusioned, I thought it was really fun and showed some personality.  Some pics:
From there we saw Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, (those pictures are better than any I got) (and you've probably all seen what they look like) and then we went to meet Angela for lunch, and to see where she works, which is this church with like 200 full-time staff members.  It was really cool.  From there we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is not actually about Victoria and Albert at all, but was built under their reign.  It was interesting and free and you could take pictures, so we liked it. 
From there we made our way to Leicester Square to see about getting tickets for a musical.  We saw the Odeon where all the big London movie premiers are, which might not interest some people but I loved it.  You always see pictures of it in movie news.  We got tickets for Billy Elliot the musical and walked around, and then went to Piccadilly Circus, which was absolutely nothign like I remembered from when I went when I was 10.  I had this sort of like relief carving thing of it way back then that I hung on to for years, and it was a lot bigger and more crowded and less fun than I remember.  But oh well. 

Ok a couple of those are from in front of the National Gallery, which I LOVED, especially the impressionism.  There was an exhibit of J.M.W. Turner in Dallas for months, and I kept hearing about it on NPR and totally tuning it out, and I'm kicking myself because they had like 3 of his paintings there and I absolutely loved them.  We also saw a bunch of the super famous coasters-and-t-shirts Monets, and a bunch of other really cool stuff.  We were making our way chronologically and got kicked out (it closed) before we got much farther than impressionism though. 

From there, we grabbed dinner on the run and made our way to the Victoria Palace Theatre for the musical.  Aside from our "view obstruction", which we were told was absolutely no big deal and only mattered if you were like less than 5' tall (which was actually a giant brass bar straight through our line of vision), it was really great.  It's one of my absolute all-time favorite movies, and it took a bit to get past a few huge differences.  One of the absolute best parts of the movie is the T. Rex soundtrack (with a little Clash thrown in), which I listen to all the time and kind of missed.  That and the Julie Walters character I thought was totally miscast, but I probably would have with anybody but Julie Walters.  I looooved the '80s British political comedy, I think my favorite song was one called "Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher", and the like 12-yr-old Billy was amazing.

This one is a bit wordier, isn't it.  I didn't take as many pictures in London so I just have to tell everything.

These are a bit out of order, but the Odeon and the Victoria Palace Theatre: Tuesday we went back to Westminster Abbey because it had been closed the day before for some event.  We then (after the whole trip) found out it costs like 12 pounds to get in, meaning like over $30 for both of us, and settled on a commemorative book instead.  Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and sang Mary Poppins songs, of course.  Here's it and a cool-looking fence with dead things and a statue that I really liked that's right next to it:
Long tube rides with no other passengers = fun with cameras.  I think this was actually before St. Paul's but I'm not sure.

We also hit the Museum of London, which was like 100x fancier than the Museum of Edinburgh but not proportionately more interesting.  Just more high-budget, for sure.  It had exhibits and recreations of stuff from prehistoric times up through I think like the 17th century.  The more modern stuff was being renovated.  It was also hosting some elementary school field trip thing, and we learned that their accents make out-of-control British kids cuter than out-of-control American kids, but only for like 5 minutes.  Then they're about the same. 

Lunch at Pizza Express, which was not very express at all but actually kind of fancy and expensive.  I had bruscetta. From there to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge:


And from there, to pick up our bags, and to Paddington Station:

And to Henley-on-Thames!