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London in Retrospect – Part 4

Posted by on March 31, 2006

Thursday morning, we woke up and went downstairs for the daily fry-up. After breakfast, we gathered together with the other two groups that were traveling with us. There was one group from Missouri that was made up entirely of senior girls and their chaperones. The other group consisted of five teachers traveling without students. They were from Hawaii, and they had decided to go ahead with the trip when their students all backed out.

After we had all had breakfast, we left the Travelodge and went to Kings Cross. We caught the tube and made our way to the Tower of London. This was a slightly longer tube ride than we had taken before, but it was no big deal. Eventually, we got on the right tube and arrived at the Tower.

We spent at least a couple of hours wandering around the grounds of the Tower. The highlight was probably when we saw the Crown Jewels. These were simply breathtaking. Another high point was touring the displays from the Royal Armouries that are housed in the White Tower. Seeing the armour, the guns, the swords, etc, was pretty impressive. I couldn’t help thinking that the armour would actually be somewhat prohibitive in fighting. I suppose that is the trade-off for protection. There was one suit of armour that was somewhat amusing as it had an extremely exagerated cod-piece. Either the owner of this suit was extremely gifted, or he was trying to intimidate his enemies.

We ate lunch at a small place right near the Tower that was rather underwhelming. After lunch, we took our group and made for Piccadilly Circus. The students wanted to shop, and Beth and I had a couple of shops we wanted to find. She was determined to find a shop that carried her brand of china, and I was still looking for a Penhaligon’s. Plus, I wanted to go by the Apple store to buy some new earbuds. (I had destroyed mine somewhere over the Atlantic. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom, and when I sat back down, I screwed up the part that was plugged into the armrest.)

The students managed to find a couple of different shops they were interested in, but Beth and I struck out. Penhaligon’s was avoiding me, even though I knew there was one in the area. Beth managed to find a china store, but they no longer carried her brand. We walked back up towards our meeting point, stopping off at the Apple store to pick up some ear buds. That store alone is a huge testimony to how much money Apple is making these days. There we were, in the middle of a high rent district of London, and the single most impressive thing about the Apple store is its use of empty space. Other stores might be fighting to squeeze as many products into as small an area as possible, but the Apple store is vastly huge.

After shopping, our whole group met back up, and we then met Dalia and the others for dinner. She took us to Wagamama, a Japanese noodle restaurant in Soho. The ramen soup I had was actually pretty good, but eating it with a huge wooden ladle was a bit of a challenge. Not being a fan of Oriental food, I wasn’t really all that fond of the cabbage dumplings that I was served as an appetizer. In fact, I believe I described them as being like bits of “crusty arse,” thus demonstrating my use of British slang.

I met David, the head of EF’s London office at dinner that night. He is a super nice guy, and I am sure he does very well. As he was sitting with Dalia enjoying dinner, I sent one of my students over to improve his own knowledge of British slang. With a completely straight face, Ryan asked Dalia what the word bollocks meant, but she just told him she didn’t know.

After dinner, we made our way to Her Majesty’s Theatre where we were going to see Phantom of the Opera. On the way, we passed a very exclusive bakery that had some incredible cakes in the window. Of course Beth, the home ec teacher, wanted to take pictures of the cakes, so we stopped to do so. By the time we had finished, we had no idea what had happened to the rest of the group. We started down the street, and turned where we thought that the rest of the group had turned… but we were wrong. After only one block, we stopped and asked an employee of Tesco, the ubiquitous grocery store in London. He had no idea, so I stepped outside and had a brilliant idea. Cab drivers in London have to pass a grueling test that is incredibly comprehensive about London, landmarks, etc… so I stopped a cab driver and asked him. He pointed us in the right direction, and we got to the theatre just in time to get to our seats before the lights went down.

Phantom of the Opera was phenomenal, but I must admit, I didn’t like it as much as I felt like I should. I felt like I should have LOVED it, but I merely liked it. Now, Stomp was different. I LOVED Stomp. I think I enjoyed Phantom more than the man who was snoring behind me, though.

After the show, we made our way back to Kings Cross and then to the Travelodge. I promised bedchecks, and then sent everyone to their rooms before heading to my own.

2 Responses to London in Retrospect – Part 4

  1. jojo

    hey just wanted to say that i’m soo excited about my trip to europe! you keep talking about london and it makes me that much more excited about my trip! see ya tomorrow!
    luvs!

  2. Aubri Casey

    Could not agree more about Phantom of the Opera. The kids were so excited to see it and all I could think was, didn’t I just see this, only on a big screen with better talent and way cooler scenery? I felt guilty and uncultured for not enjoying the theater experience more, but I’m sorry, STOMP ruled! To each their own, right.

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