Sunday 23 September 2007

Steaking out Salisbury and Stonehenge

Friday was my first trip out of London since I arrived, and it was a combination of a visit to the infamous Stonehenge and the nearby city of Salisbury.

Since I’m not eating red meat here I didn’t bother to check whether or not Salisbury has a steak named after it. Instead, we spent some time in a Cathedral and old church. More architecture, just in case you weren’t bored by all the pictures of buildings from last week’s “Open House London” tour. First, though, was our trip to Stonehenge.

Getting out of the city on our minibus was a fabulously fresh experience. There was already one school trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury, but it was full before I had a chance to sign up. That meant I went on this trip, and it also meant that this trip was not very crowded. Between the open fields on either side of the bus taking the place of five story buildings and the open seats on the bus taking the place of sullen-looking passengers on the tube, it was a great change of pace.

Stonehenge itself was a nice set of rocks that have been standing on a windy hill for thousands of years. The oldest feature, the ditch around it, was dug something like 5,000 years ago. The juvenile stones, by contrast, range between 4,500 and 3,500 years old, if my memory serves.

I’ve heard rumors that Stonehenge is always cloudy and windy, and my visit doesn’t offer any evidence to the contrary. There was a gray curtain of clouds blowing overhead, and the temperature was at least 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) colder than it was in London. The sun didn’t peek through the clouds, it peeked through thinner layers of clouds, offering lighter shades of gray. Someone on the bus said Stonehenge was a lot like the pictured Scotland, and they were right.

After we walked around the rocks, which are most impressive when you consider their historic context, it was time to board the bus and head to Salisbury.

The weather didn’t warm up much, although the wind stopped, and the clouds didn’t break either. Salisbury is notable most for its enormous and old cathedral, which was finished in the mid-1200’s. It’s right next to the river, and there is only a four-foot foundation of stones above the water table. They also added the cathedral’s gargantuan steeple years after the rest of the building was finished, when it was decided the original design was not impressive enough.

So you have a Cathedral sitting on just four feet of gravel and a sky-scraping steeple that was not part of the original architecture. See a chance for disaster? If you stand in the middle of the church and look up the pillars that support the steeple, you can see where they started to bow as the steeple started to tip. Some emergency bracings were put in place, and they managed to stabilize the steeple. They still have to monitor the wind speed though, in case it tries to blow over on them.

The inside of the cathedral is just as massive as the outside. They also did restorations that removed the “compartmentalized” fashion that marks most old cathedrals. That means you can stare down the whole length of the cathedral, and I liked this place a lot more than Westminster Abbey. Somehow, the abbey seemed claustrophobic, but Salisbury Cathedral feels like you could play a baseball game in it and still have space for a church service.

We had a tour guide who showed us a few interesting things such as the oldest working mechanical clock in England (and maybe Europe, though they have to way to prove it) and spots around the cathedral where bored carvers put pagan symbols such as the “Green Men” of fertility in the woodwork.

The end of the cathedral tour was probably the best part, because we got to see an extremely important document. There are only four original copies of the Magna Carta in existence today, and one of them happens to be housed in the Salisbury Cathedral. That one is apparently also the one in the best shape.

Right now you can get quite close to it – the document is essentially taped right under a piece of glass and I’m sure the janitorial staff had to wipe my nose prints from the glass that night. It’s also in pretty good shape for being about 800 years old. In fact, it would be quite legible if not for the fact that it’s written in Latin. Even so, it’s quite a way to top off the tour of that massive building.

Before we went in Salisbury Cathedral, we walked through the town and also toured St. Thomas Church. St. Thomas is almost as old as the Cathedral, and it has a majestic painting of the end of the world, with the Saints rising from their graves and the devil taking the condemned. Apparantly it was whitewashed during restorations, before it was rediscovered during later restorations. That seems to be a theme in English churches, as it’s happened to every place of religious significance I’ve visited so far: Westminster Abbey, Salisbury Cathedral and St. Thomas.

That’s about it. The drive back was uneventful except for the fact that we were reintroduced to London traffic in a 40-minute crawl back to Faraday House. Our bus bumped a cab, whose driver then got out and yelled at our driver. That was interesting, but there was no damage to either vehicle and all it really resulted in was another cab behind us getting angry and laying on his horn for awhile.

I’m not sure what made me enjoy the trip more: the fact that we got out of crowded London and stood in a field for awhile, or the fact that we saw some big historical sights.
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Monday 17 September 2007

A Packed Weekend



My troubles with BT continue, so you get another megapost. Actually, saying that I have troubles with BT is like saying I have troubles with SU football coach Greg Robinson. Despite my every effort to the contrary, I doubt he even knows I exist. Regardless, I wrote these posts over a couple of days, but they are all separated by the proper dates. Enjoy!

9/14/07

Today was the school tour of the Tower of London. At least, that’s what I thought it was when I signed up for it. After I got there, it turned out that it was a tour of the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey!

Now, admission into the Tower of London alone is quite expensive, and I was saving a pretty penny by letting Syracuse University London pick up my tab. But admission to Westminster Abbey has also been known to drain the wallet. So it was almost like I hit the jackpot when I found out I was getting twice the fun for the same refundable £5 deposit.

Norman Reuter, who typically runs an architecture course at SUL, was our tour guide. He’s taking the semester off from teaching, but he sure has thrown himself into his continued involvement at the school. Our group met at 10:30 a.m. at the Tower Hill Tube stop, and we didn’t finish up until around 4:30 in the afternoon. We did spend some time waiting for students who showed up late and we had a break in the middle of the tour, but there was still a lot of information to take in over a relatively short time.

The Tower of London

The Tower of London is not as tall or as compact as you might expect from popular perception. Although we didn’t go to the highest points, it seems to sit a great deal lower then you’d expect. This is in part because the grass around the outer wall is eight feet higher than the water level of the moat used to be. It is also because the tower was built when buildings were a lot shorter – five or six stories meant a lot more hundreds of years ago.

Even so, the tower is quite impressive. It’s a hodgepodge of different fortifications and towers built at different times over several hundred years. At the center is the large cube that is the “White Tower.” Interestingly enough, the entrance to the White Tower is on the second story and has only been accessible through a wooden staircase. That is so you can burn the staircase to further fortify your position if need be. At the bottom, the stone walls are something like 14 feet thick.

Another interesting thing about the Tower of London in general is that something like 200 people still live there. The Governor of the Tower of London is a position of prestige, and prisoners were held in the same tower that makes up the back part of his house. The last prisoner to be held in the Tower of London was Adolph Hitler’s secretary during World War II. He was held there throughout the war until he faced trial for war crimes.

A final interesting fact about the tower: Ravens are kept there by royal decree. It has to do with a great fire that burned the West End of London but spared the east and the Tower of London. Ravens, flew into the tower to avoid the fire, and the King (I honestly don’t remember which one) declared that ravens should always be in the tower, the thought being that as long as ravens were there a member of the royal family would still be in power.

Finally, what we saw of the Bloody Tower was pretty disappointing. They had one example of a torture rack and two other torture devices, but we didn’t find any elaborate walk through the infamously named tower.

We also saw the Crown Jewels, since they keep them in the Tower of London. It might have just been the way the splashed light on the jewels, but they sparkled more than any gems I’ve seen. They were quite nice, though I’d imagine they were quite heavy to wear at your coronation.

Overall, the tower was fun, and I’m glad I saw it. (Especially considering I only had to pay Tube fare.) It still didn’t live up to it’s portrayal in the infamous Goosebumps book, “A night in Terror Tower.”

Westminster Abbey

After we saw the Crown Jewels that kings or queens wear during coronations, we got to see the place where they kings or queens get coroneted.

First we got an hour to eat lunch. I managed to find a little shot selling fish & chips with a can of soda for just £2.50! Five bucks might seem like a lot for fish & chips, but by London standards, that is like getting a three-course meal for free. Even better, the food was pretty good. I expected the fish to be dry and the chips to be cold, but both were hot and juicy. The only real complaint I had was that the mayonnaise was a bit sweet, but I just added a little more vinegar to fix the problem.

One lunch was finished, we popped onto the tube and into Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately we were only allowed to use cameras in the cloisters and not the inside of the abbey.

This is where we started to hear a lot about architecture from our guide. I won’t go into all the details, but we did see a majestic room called the “Chapter House” which is where the House of Commons was born.

Inside the actual abbey, we saw the burial sites of many illustrious people. Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, several kings and queens, Isaac Newton and, perhaps most interestingly, Charles Darwin were buried there.

They abbey was quite impressive, although the attendants, who wear red cloaks over their suits, were a bit gruff. I didn’t have to deal with them personally, but they seemed to be a bit condescending and sometimes downright rude. I guess you can do that when you have a limitless number of tourists paying to see your Abbey.

Arching ceilings, beautiful decorations, a cross-shaped design: you know the drill with cathedrals and abbeys. I would share more with you, but you really need to see pictures of the interior to understand how nice it is. Use Google to find some, since the attendants and their red cloaks looked ready to smash my camera if I took it out of my pocket.

All of this translates into a very tiring day. Tomorrow I plan to show up at the “Open House” tour of Parliament in hope that someone who signed up won’t show up and I can take their spot. I’ll let you know how that goes.

9/15/07
Open House London

Early to bed and early to rise might make a man healthy and wise, but it is also a fact of life on Stourcliffe Street on Saturday. Apparently Saturday is rubbish day here, because this is the second week in a row I’ve been jostled awake by the sound of crashing and the burning clutch of a garbage truck.

That was alright by me, though, because I had to head over to Russell Square to meet yesterday’s guide, Norman Reuters, in hopes that I could tag along on the “open house” tour. As you no doubt know from your careful reading of yesterday’s writing, this was an architectural tour that was advertised as including a walk through the houses of Parliament – something that you can’t always do.

Long story short, I did get to go on the tour, but the Houses of Parliament weren’t open until Sunday. Deb and I plan to try to get in tomorrow. In the mean time, we got to go around London with a well-informed (and entertaining) guide on London’s Open House weekend – a weekend when buildings of high profile open their doors to the public.

We started off with a few places that I won’t bother describing. I have some pictures of the more interesting ones, so head over to my photo album to check those out. The highlights include a quite impressive sculpture and the fifth-most prestigious university in England.

After about an hour’s tour, we tried to take the #24 bus from the University of London to Parliament. The only trouble was that the #24 bus didn’t come, didn’t come, and didn’t come. Eventually we got on another bus with the intention of changing buses at Trafalgar Square. As we drove off on the bendy bus, we saw the double-decker #24 bus pull in behind us.

This was distressing for a few reasons. First, I haven’t been on a double-decker yet, and I would rather like to ride one. Second, we waited a long time for the bus, and now we were going to have to pay double the fare to take two buses where before we could have only taken one.

Alas, neither of these problems ended up being a real thorn in my side. The bus driver got on the loudspeaker and told the packed bus that there were severe delays due to heavy traffic from the open house events, so we would probably do better to walk. This is after we paid £1 for a ride of about 4 blocks.

Well, we got off and walked anyway. A girl convinced Mr. Reuters that we should just walk, and that proved to be both a blessing and a curse. That man moves. We all had a good deal of trouble keeping up with him, but we did get to see a few sights that weren’t advertised on the tour, including the market at Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House. I’d actually seen most of the sights before, but our guide gave me some new insights into their history and architectural foundation.

Then we walked by Downing Street, where security didn’t allow us to get anywhere near Number 10 and popped into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is the equivalent of the U.S. Department of State. After walking through there, I want to be a diplomat. “Lavish” and “posh” don’t even begin to describe that building.

We also managed to sneak to a window where we caught a glimpse of Number 10. Mr. Reuters tipped us off that we could see if through a certain window. The only problem was that there was a large display and strategically placed table blocking people from the window. We went by it anyway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Prime Minister’s residence. Margaret Thatcher had, after all, just been there for tea with Gordon Brown this week! Just as we started looking at it, one of the attendants ushered us off, claiming there were snipers that wouldn’t like it if we started rustling the curtains. I have a feeling they told our guide that, too, but he told us to go have a look for ourselves.

Eventually we reached parliament to find it closed. This crushing blow was alleviated slightly by the fact that we were able to get in to the Portcullis House, where many members of Parliament have their offices. It’s quite a depressing black metal structure from the outside, but it is also very modern and nice inside. Sadly, we couldn’t take pictures inside for security reasons, so you’ll just have to ask me if you want to hear more about what it was like.

After that it was time to take the Tube over to the Lloyds Insurance building. It seems Lloyd’s grows so fast these days that they needed four new buildings in a span of 100 years, so they commissioned their architect to give them some flexibility for their new building, which was completed in 1986. It is fifteen floors, but Lloyds only uses four. They lease out the remaining floors right now, but plan to just move upwards as their needs expand. If the necessity arises, the building has also been designed so that they can actually build more floors on top.

The style of the building itself is very interesting. From the outside, it reminded me of a skeleton and muscles – just the important parts of the buildings. All the elevators were visible outside, as were the staircases. It was quite interesting. I would definitely recommend looking at the pictures of this one.

The tour finished up in St. Stephen’s Walbrook church, which was rebuilt in the late 1600s after the Great London Fire. It reminds me a lot of Howard Roarke’s church in The Fountainhead, although the parts that reminded me of that weren’t originally part of the design. Pews circle the altar, which is a piece of modern art created by an agnostic sculptor. There is no stained glass, so light comes in and makes the whole church seem very bright and welcoming. The design of the church is square, but it has a large dome, and the pillars supporting the dome make the shape of a cross on the floor plan.

Out guide explained that these design elements all mean something. The dome represents heaven, the square earth, and the cross, of course, represents Christianity. Pretty fancy, really.

All this added up to a pretty tiring day. It looks like we’ll be headed to the Thames Festival tomorrow, making for what should be a busy day. Tonight is for grocery shopping and sleep.

9/16/07
Parliament and the Thames Festival

There were two more exiting activities this weekend: Parliament’s open house and a visit to the Thames Festival, which is held at the end of summer. If you’ve stuck with the rest of this weekend’s blog post, you’ve got to be tired by now, so I’ll make this bit quick.

Since we were turned away from the doors of Parliament yesterday after learning that it was open Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday afternoon, Deb and I decided to hike right back down there and enjoy a free glimpse at the famous building.

And we did get in. There was quite a line, but it moved quickly, and after a trip through a metal detector and a pat-down from a security guard, we were walking into the oldest part of Parliament.

They didn’t actually open the chambers of the House of Lords or House of Commons, but the good people running the show were quick to inform us that for £12 we could come back during the next two weeks and get a guided tour that included those areas. That’s almost tempting, but I’m pretty sure we’ll have to be satisfied with the free tour of Westminster Hall, which is the oldest part of the building.

The literature says it is over 900 years old, and although it’s pretty dark and empty, it’s still impressive. Huge doesn’t even begin to describe the place, and there is no doubt that it’s old.

We also got to visit the Parliament gift shop, which had such exciting items as House of Commons or House of Lords key chains for £4.15 and House of Lords Scotch for £28. And while I was tempted to put down £3 for House of Commons Orange Marmalade with Champaign, I decided to save my money in order to try the food at the Thames Festival.

It was a good move. The festival was filled with lots of craft vendors and even more performers begging for a little change. There were singers, mimes, a girl who rolled glass orbs around on her arms, and even break dancers. A lot of people would stand or sit stone still and pretend to be statues or motionless machines. Whenever someone put a coin in their cap or tin receptacle, they would perform for a few minutes, as if they were a machine. There were at least 15 people who did this.

The festival stretched along the south bank of the Thames and was quite crowded. We had to wait awhile for food, but eventually secured some. I picked up a coconut with the top loped off to drink, and had some Creole fish patties to eat. I had never seen fish patties in the states, so I didn’t feel as if I was sticking to my American culture by eating them. Besides, they were delicious and relatively cheap.

A bit later we moved to the north bank to watch the parade, which was about 2 hours long and mostly filled with dancers, and then we took in the fireworks. They shot them off from boats in the Thames, and it was quite an impressive display.

And that concluded a packed weekend. I’m glad I can go to class tomorrow to get some rest. I don’t know, I might need it. Next Friday is the Stonehenge trip.
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Monday 10 September 2007

Catching Up

A combination of jet lag, a lack of an easily accessible internet connection, the need find housing and a dose of homework has prevented me from starting my planned travel blog until now. That means that there is a lot of ground to cover. Rather than go into the detail which will no doubt be a trademark of later blog entries, I will dedicate a paragraph or so to the high points of the trip in order to catch up quickly.

If you want to hear about the flight, head over to ricksfoodcritique.blogspot.com and read the entry about the food on the plane. That covers all the important parts of soaring above the Atlantic.

Below are the last two weeks in a nutshell.

August 28
Arrival and the Eye


We touched down in Heathrow after a relatively uneventful flight. My legs were screaming at me and I was ready to get off the plane right away, but whoever was manning the spot of air traffic controller had other ideas. The cramp in my quad and sharp pain in my knee were just going to have to get worse while we sat and waited to depart for over 30 minutes. Just before we were allowed to stand up, our captain informed us that they had some trouble attaching the tunnel to the side of the plane. Fortunately they managed to get it straightened out before we had take a page out of disaster movies and use the inflatable “emergency slide” to evacuate.

I said a few quick prayers for the eventual return of blood flow to my legs while limping to customs and the luggage pickup. Thankfully we got to do some more waiting at these two spots. I hadn’t had enough yet.

Next it was time for our Syracuse guides to direct us to the truck that was taking our luggage and the coach busses. Deb and I missed the cut off for the first coach bus and had to wait for the second – keeping with the theme of the trip.

Once we got on the bus, it was a bit of a ride into London. I would guess how long it was, but I really have no idea. Someone in charge was talking over the bus’s public address system and pointing out all the sights and history we were passing, but I couldn’t stay awake. The fact that I had not slept caught up to me right after we passed Madam Toussaud’s Wax Museum. I woke up just as we were pulling in to the hotel. I would grow to curse that sleep, because it had be completely disoriented for the rest of the day. I didn’t know North from South, and to be honest I’m still not sure where Heathrow is in relation to the city.

The hotel room was the smallest I have ever seen. The two beds were facing opposite directions in opposite corners, and if they had been a foot closer their feet would have touched. The bathroom was equally small, with the exception of the bathtub where I soon took the best shower of my life. I didn’t even realize how terrible I felt until that shower cleansed me and made me feel better.

We didn’t have any structured time for about 90 minutes after I was done my shower, and I wanted nothing more than to take a nap. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize what was going to be a wonderful night’s sleep, and I didn’t want to delay getting on London time. I had no idea what time it was anyway, so I made the smart decision to try to find Faraday House, where Syracuse University London is located.

Armed with a map and no firm knowledge of my surroundings, I managed to find Faraday House about 45 minutes later. That’s 45 minutes later when the walk should take a total of five minutes. But I managed to not get lost and not get hit by any cars, which is a real victory.

Later that night SU sent us down to the “London Eye” or the Millennium Wheel. It is one of the biggest Ferris Wheels in the world, or something like that. Again, I was too tired to remember the information they told us. The cars were huge, and the view was incredible. Our car didn’t even have to be at the top before we could see the sprawl of London stretching out for what seemed like miles. Hopefully, I’ll have the photos posted on a photo blog soon.

Bedtime that night was absolutely divine.

August 30
Flat Finding

By our third day in London it was time to find a more permanent residence than the one Imperial Hotels was providing. The University gave us a list of recommended Landlords and it was time to dial our cell phones and start looking at flats.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Some overzealous groups had found flats they day before, when we were doing silly things like getting our cell phones to work, figuring out how to navigate the city and attending the Beard Team USA rally in Trafalgar Square. (Wait until I get the pictures from that posted!) Add their tendency to snatch up living space to the fact that we had five people looking for residence – an odd number – and we were in a difficult position.

The morning wielded nothing and I was getting a bit frustrated at lunchtime. Fortunately, Lady Luck did not completely abandon us.

We were scheduled to meet a landlord at the HSBC on Edgeware Road to look at a flat. We met a landlord at the HSBC on Edgeware Road and he showed us the flat he was offering. It was quite nice, and we were beginning to talk about prices and terms of lease.

Then, the landlord we were scheduled to meet called us, and the group that was scheduled to meet the landlord to who we were talking called him.

Essentially we ended up stealing another group of SU student’s landlord and leasing the flat he meant to show them. It’s affordable, it is close to the Tube Stop and Hyde Park, and we are close to Oxford Street and the incomparable Edgeware Road. Apparently it has the highest population of Lebanese-born individuals living in London. It makes for a street of great smelling food and interesting sights. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.

September 2
Greenwich


The day before classes start is the perfect day for a university-sponsored bus tour of London and free time in Greenwich. Actually, any day is a perfect day for a university-sponsored bus tour of London and free time in Greenwich.

I got some great pictures from the bus tour and gained a better understanding of London’s layout. The Mayor’s office, Tower Bridge, the financial district, the surprisingly disappointing London Bridge and the Tower of London were all on the bus’s route.

Greenwich though was lots of fun. We took a walking tunnel under the Thames and came up near the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum.

The Royal Observatory was noteworthy in particular. That’s where the Prime Meridian is based, and there were lots of people lined up to stand on either side of a silver strip that marked the famous line in front of the observatory.

Ironically, you could stand on either side of the meridian over the same silver line inside the observatory, and without waiting in line. I didn’t bother to stand in line or take my picture on either side of the Meridian, but it was still fun to be there. Now I feel like more of a world traveler – I’ve been in the Western Hemisphere.