London & UK

Joey:

We arrived in London early in the afternoon on Monday, December 19th. By the time we got settled into our hotel and headed out for our first views of the city, it was 4:00 pm. Dusk had settled on the city.

Our location was awesome. Saint Paul’s Cathedral was practically right outside of our hotel. We walked first to Trafalgar Square, where historic events that will forever be a part of human history occurred–events such as the VE Day celebrations, the Bloody Sunday protests, and the premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. While we were there, we ran across what must have been some kind of school choir. They were singing carols to a crowd of several hundred onlookers. Really cool.

Next, we meandered over to Big Ben, the iconic London clock. It was, as we suspected, a very large clock tower.

Stephanie:

Along the way, we stumbled across all kinds of amazing architecture with beautiful lighting, a skating rink outside the Courtauld Institute of Art and Somerset House, multiple telephone booths, and all around amazingness.

Oh, and we of course had dinner the first night in an English Pub. Steak & Ale pie, I believe it was. Yum!

Then we walked back to the hotel along the Thames River, which was gorgeous.

It was a really amazing introduction to London as a city. We got to see a bunch of “iconic London” right up front, so we knew… hey, we’re here. In London. Blimey!

I know I’ve a tendency to overuse this word when it comes to our various travel adventures, but I’m telling you… it was magical.

On this vacation, we were determined to make it part vacation and part adventure. That is to say, we wanted some relaxing moments, as well as to see a new and exciting city. So, there was no planning things out weeks in advance. There was no rushing to get ready. There was just a lot of seat-of-your-pants decision-making and going with the flow.

That being said, once we were up and ready to go, day two began with the British Museum. Sometime around noon. But there is a ton to see in the British Museum, and our little brains could only take so much knowledge in one day.

Other than seeing the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island Statue that I watched a documentary on once (apparently there’s a campaign to return it to Easter Island with the others), and Gebelein Man (a mummy from 3500 BC), the rest of it has somewhat blurred in my memory. I do remember that it was all amazing and cool, however. So the general feeling of the place will forever remain “amazing and cool” in my mind. And to see the Rosetta Stone… priceless.

We were also determined to see some theater while we were in town, and we began that night with Mamma Mia. The seats were amazing and rather cheap, and it was a great show which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Joey:

We spent our third day in the UK at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour of the Making of Harry Potter. At first, we didn’t think we were going to get to go. Like Stephanie said, we were playing each day by the seat of our pants, without any prior-planning or schedule. But as it turns out, you need to get tickets for Harry Potter several weeks in advance, otherwise you run the risk of them selling out. Which is what happened to us. Luckily, two became available the day prior. Probably some hapless family had a terrible misfortune and, in their terrible sorrow and grief, had their tickets refunded.

Boy, did we have a good time!

The tour guides said it takes two to three hours to get through the entire tour. But we spent the entire day there. After watching a quick introduction from Dan, Rupert, and Emma, the doors swung open, and we found ourselves in the great hall of Hogwarts. Amazeballs is the only word to describe it.

We wandered through the different sets and saw numerous costumes, behind the scenes stories, and the Weasley kitchen, potion’s class, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryfffindor common room and sleeping area, and so much more.

About halfway through the indoor part, you can stop and get your picture taken for a couple different posters and a green-screen video that they convert into a short clip of you flying on a broom through some of the iconic landscapes of JK Rowling’s wizarding world. We put on some wizarding robes and gave it all a shot, but they basically wanted our first-born child in exchange for the posters and videos. We settled on one poster, which only cost us my spleen.

After a tour of the Hogwarts Express, we ran into the cafeteria, which is conveniently located right where you get hungry during your tour. We ordered a couple hamburgers and butter beers, which tasted suspiciously like extremely watered-down cream soda.

Outside, we found Harry’s home on 4 Privet drive, the Knight Bus, the wooden covered bridge that leads to Hogwarts, and so much more.

We saw concept art and some of the animatronics used in the movies, like the full-size hippogriff, Buckbeak. One thing I didn’t realize was that, in many of the scenes involving Hagrid, his head and face were actually an animatronic costume. The get-up was worn by some dude who was much bigger than Robbie Coltrane, the guy who played Hagrid, to maintain the illusion of Hagrid’s massive size. Next time you watch the movies, see if you can spot it. It’s fairly obviously if you know to look for it.

At the end of the tour was the scale model of Hogwarts castle. It was perhaps the most–here I’ll borrow a phrase from Stephanie–magical part of the entire experience. The pictures don’t do it justice. The model was simply massive, breathtaking, and incredibly detailed.

Stephanie:

I actually liked the Butterbeer™. But then, I’ve also always liked cream soda.

It was really cool for me to get to see some of the concept art behind it all, given that I’d love to help create concept art for a world like Harry Potter one day. And that castle was–Joey is right–magical. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into making that.

I love our wanted poster, by the way. Even my knit scarf (which was mine and not Harry Potter colors at all) looks like it belongs. And we look so scary and evil, in a silly way.

On the way home, we stopped off at King’s Cross station and saw Platform 9 3/4, as well.

The next day, we visited the Tower of London & Tower Bridge (better known to most Americans as London Bridge).

I’d read that you definitely need to catch the free tour at the Tower of London, from the Yeoman Warders (or also affectionally called “beefeaters” — follow the link if you want to find out why). So we did. And we are SO glad we did.

It was, hands down, the funniest tour we’ve ever taken.

Then after the tour, we walked around on our own and took a look at the Crown Jewels, the White Tower, the Bloody Tower, and where Anne Boleyn was beheaded.  So much history to this place!

Unfortunately, it gets dark crazy early in London this time of year, and they started closing things up around about 4:30. So we rushed through the last few areas and walked out to check out the Tower Bridge at night.

Joey:

On the fifth day of our London vacation, we visited the Natural History Museum. The architecture of the exterior of the building was amazing. As natural history museums go, it was a museum of natural history. That is to say, it was interesting and enjoyable, but there wasn’t anything that stood out and made me say, “Well, thank goodness we came here and saw this!”

They had a section about earth’s history, geography, and natural disasters; a section on birds, bugs, reptiles, and minerals; a section with dinosaurs, fish, human biology, mammals, and marine life; and a quick tour of their Darwin Center, where they’re cataloging millions of different species of flora and fauna.

Natural history museums usually cater to kids, and this one was no different. Even still, as lovers of natural history, we had a good time. Can’t wait until we can bring our young ones to places like this so we can instill the same passion in them!

Probably the coolest and most memorable thing we saw at the Natural History Museum was a life-size tyrannosaurus rex that moved its stubby little arms and roared.

On the way home, we stopped off at Harrods, a luxury department store established in 1824. This place was frickin’ huge! On the ground floor, they had plenty of jewelry, purses, and of course sweets and confections of an endless variety. We explored a few floors and some of the designer brands. Stephanie found a cashmere shawl she liked for $1,500. I found a reasonably priced cardigan, so I asked the salesman where I might try it on. the conversation went something like this:

Me: “Excuse me, where can I try this on?”

Salesman: “I’m sorry, sir, that’s a woman’s cardigan.”

Me, without missing a beat: “Excuse me, where can my wife try this on?”

We all had a good chuckle over that one. I’m just glad he said something rather than let me stroll out of there in women’s clothing…

Stephanie:

I’m not. I’d have paid good money to see you walking around in women’s clothing that I knew was women’s clothing and that you didn’t. Good money.

But alas. Moving on to Christmas Eve…

There wasn’t a whole lot of museums and such open, so we just visited Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland. It was part carnival, part Christmas Market. We bought each other a few small gifts to give to each other on Christmas, rode a ride or two, and called it a day.

On Christmas Day–and this is the only day of the whole vacation that we’d kind of planned out–we did a Harry Potter Walking Tour. One of those ones that you can find for free online.

It brings you to all the various places that are in the Harry Potter films that were filmed off-set in the city of London. Right about now you’re thinking we must just adore Harry Potter. Well, sure, we actually feel quite warm about Harry Potter and his wizarding world. Admittedly, Joey has a certain fondness for any well-created written word and I love a good story as well as the next gal. Okay, we also may have looked online and found out that we’re both Ravenclaw. And maybe I know my patronus, thanks to Facebook quizzes. Also, we both own wands that were hand picked for us at the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios. Hmm. Maybe we do adore Harry Potter!

Regardless, there’s not much to do in a place like London on Christmas Day. Everything’s closed! So, it was between this Harry Potter walking tour and a Jack the Ripper walking tour. And it was Christmas. So Jack the Ripper wasn’t going to be exactly capturing the magical ambiance of Christmas the way we’d have liked. So Harry Potter won out.

We had a lot of fun, and it brought us past all kinds of iconic places. Like the Odeon theatre and Trafalgar Square (again – there’s no such thing as getting “too much” of Trafalgar Square) and the Sherlock Holmes pub.

After our vacation was over and we returned home to Italy, we rewatched the films, since we hadn’t seen them pretty much since they’d come out. And we got to say “we were there!” and “we were just there!” and “we saw that!” over and over as we did. It was swell!

The next day was Boxing Day, which we’d heard of but never really observed. And by observed, I mean dealt with everything being closed for one day further than usual. So we just took half a day off and then went to visit the London Eye in the evening.

We got there at the exact perfect time, turns out. As we were rising in our car, the sun set over Big Ben and the buildings of parliament. It was spectacular.

It would’ve been even more spectacular if the people in the car had shared the view with us a bit more, but that’s alright. I squeezed in for a few good photos.

You can see more of all of this in the video at the bottom, by the way, including stuff I’m not posting pictures but that we’re talking about, like the animatronic T-rex at the Natural History Museum, etc. So be sure to scroll down at the end!

Next up… Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard! It was something we felt like we had to go by and at least try to see, even though I knew it was going to be crazy crowded and that we wouldn’t be able to see anything without having stood outside for hours to get a good spot, which we weren’t willing to do. So, we basically saw the parade into and out of the palace, but that was fine with us.

The rest of the day was spent in the Churchill War Rooms, which were absolutely awesome. One of my favorite stops in London.

Joey:

It was really cool to walked the hallowed halls from which Winston Churchill orchestrated World War II. It’s basically an underground basement complex that they took over for the British Command Center.

We got to see where Churchill, his cabinet members, and the members of his staff worked, lived, and slept. It was pretty amazing to be walking the corridors, looking in each of the rooms, and thinking about what it must have been like to be in those exact same spots during the war.

There was also a huge museum devoted to Churchill’s life. His childhood, his political career, his time as Prime Minister, and his life afterward. We spent hours in there. It was magical.

Afterward, we saw everything else there was to see–namely sleeping quarters, secretaries’ offices, a map room and operations center, and of course the gift shop.

On the tenth day of our vacation, we toured Westminster Abbey, a massive gothic-style church and the site of royal coronations of kings and queens dating back to the Jurassic era.

In addition to memorials to the various monarchs, numerous historical figures were buried  in the Abbey as well. We saw the final resting place of people like Charles Darwin (yes, the father of the Theory of Evolution is buried in one of England’s most famous churches) and Isaac Newton.

They even had a Poets’ Corner, where Geoffrey Chaucer (considered to be the father of English literature), Charles Dickens (famously wrote the story about Scrooge McDuck being visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future), Rudyard Kipling (wrote that animated Disney movie, The Jungle Book), Jane Austen (whose writing led to the movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Lewis Carroll (also a cartoonist for Disney), C.S. Lewis (made his fame with the movie The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as the video game of the same name), Shakespeare (loved Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo+Juliette) … now that I think about it, not sure why this was called the Poets’ Corner instead of the Directors’ Corner or Film Buff’s Corner or something more suitable.

On the eleventh day of our vacation, we got tickets to go with a tour group to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and the Roman Baths. The tickets included a bus ride and lunch, and we got to explore each stop at our leisure, which was great.

First, Windsor Castle. The view from outside was simply magical. Once inside, the first thing we stumbled upon was Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, which is the mother of all doll houses. This thing is huge. And it has working plumbing, lights, and everything. Turn on the faucet and wash your tiny dishes to your heart’s content.

We got a walkthrough of many of the rooms in the castle. Bedrooms, dining rooms, massive foyers with statues and armaments, meeting rooms. Simply magical!

Windsor Castle is also the favored residence of England’s current Queen, Elizabeth II. Thankfully, she was not in residence during our tour. I imagine it would be quite awkward to round the corner and find her curled up in bed.

As we departed, we stumbled upon a changing of the guard. Quite fortuitous, as the Queen’s Guard only do this once a week at Windsor Castle. After it was over, Stephanie and I got a selfie with each of us standing on either side of the guard. When we were done, I said, “Thank you for your service.” And he promptly switched from right-shoulder to left-shoulder arms. I like to think this was his way of saying, “you’re welcome,” since they aren’t supposed to talk, make any extraneous movements, or show any emotion.

Stephanie:

So, Windsor Castle was a nice bonus to our day, but the real reason for this trip (for me, anyway) was to see Stonehenge. It’s been on my bucket list pretty much since I was born.

Joey:

Yes, I too remember squalling for my mother’s teat and Stonehenge as a babe.

Stephanie:

Indeed. The trip to Stonehenge was great, and it was nice to get to see some of the English countryside that was outside of the great city of London. We drove through several small towns and even got to see some thatched roofs, which are apparently outlawed in the city due to the large part they played in spreading the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Now, I know that Joey has been overusing the word “magical” in his very silly way quite a bit this post, and I sincerely apologize that you’ve had to listen to it. However, it’s not going to stop me from using it to describe Stonehenge. So prepare yourself.

Stonehenge was amazing. Mysterious. Powerful. And, yes–

Joey:

MAGICAL!

Stephanie:

Magical.

I was expecting it to be, and it did not disappoint. I knew it would be amazing to stand there and look upon these stones that to this day nobody is completely sure about what they were for or precisely how they got there. Stones that were already ancient when the togas were all the rage in fashion.

Joey:

I know what they were for.

Stephanie:

Oh yes?

Joey:

Yes. It was an ancient team-building exercise. Like “trust falls.” Only instead of trust falls, they stacked really big rocks in a circle.

Stephanie:

Yes, dear.

Anyway. We had to leave a bit before sunset, but we got to see some pretty amazing silhouettes of the stones from the sun setting behind them before we left.

Interestingly enough, we met up with some friends there who were also visiting London. These friends seem to have some kind of mind meld with us, because we met up with them before on a vacation to Busch Gardens in Virginia. Just randomly. Turned out their vacation in London crossed paths with ours, so we met up with them briefly at Stonehenge and then again later in our trip, which we will tell you about later.

Joseph:

Yes. Later. The anticipation of our adventures cuts like a knife.

Stephanie:

Our last stop on this most amazing of days was Bath. The city itself was absolutely gorgeous, with almost all the buildings in the town being made from the stone for which the city is named – Bath Stone. It was a beautiful golden color.

We visited the Roman Baths, as well. We got a good view of them from above, then made our way down to the baths through the museum. By the time we hit the water level, the sun had set and all these lanterns were lit. The blue sky above contrasted with the oranges from the fires of the lanterns… and the steam rose slowly from the bath waters, which were warmer than the cool air… it was truly a sight to behold.

I knew Stonehenge was gonna be amazing, and I figured the Roman baths would be pretty, but the degree to which they were pretty absolutely blew me away.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Our tour guide had been going on and on about Cornish pasties and how we should get one in the town, but the store was closing when we got there and was all out. We had to have some chocolate brioche and cappuccinos instead. Alas.

Then we walked around the town a bit before having to head back. There was a musician playing in the square overlooking the Roman baths and Bath Abbey, which dominates the city skyline with some dazzling architecture. With the music playing and the beautiful lighting, it was really …. stunning. I’ll say stunning. But you know which word I really mean.

The next day, we decided to take a train out to Bletchley Park. We’d mentioned it as a possibility, and the more I thought about it, the more excited I got about it.

This was another historical day where it was just kinda like “I can’t believe I’m walking the same paths that the codebreakers of WWII walked”… much like walking the hallways of Churchill’s War Rooms. It was almost unfathomable to have read about these places and seen movies and documentaries about them and then to be there.

Bletchley was originally a mansion that was purchased specifically for Top Secret use in the war. It had a lake and lots of acreage for them to use, including the mansion itself, which was repurposed into some offices for some of the ranking officers there.

We also got to see the huts where codebreakers like Alan Turing helped to effectively decrease the length of the war by at least 2 years and saved an estimated 14 million lives. They’d rebuilt a Bombe machine (Turing’s invention) for us to see, as well. Pretty amazing stuff.

Joey:

The morning of our last day in town (a tear trickles from my eye at the thought), we swung by Saint Paul’s Cathedral. But they wanted something like twenty pounds each just to get in and look around. We’d already got an eyeful of church at Westminster Abbey, so we snapped some pictures from the entryway and were chased off by the guards.

Next, we went to see Book of Mormon with those friends Stephanie mentioned earlier, who just happened to be holidaying in London at the same time as us. Stephanie and I got seats in the fourth row, which were quite pricey, and all the distinguished ladies and gentlemen in our vicinity wondered what a pair of uncouth and barbarous heathens were doing in their midst.

The play was hilarious. Typical Trey Parker and Matt Stone. If you are easily offended, I don’t recommend seeing it. Me, I loved it, and I know Stephanie did too. As a matter of fact, she is currently listening to the soundtrack for Book of Mormon next to me right now. And holding a doll in the air. Strange. Anyway.

Stephanie:

It’s not a doll. It’s… an artist figurine. And I was studying it. But, yeah, okay… it’s probably still weird.

Joey:

After the play, we all went out to dinner. Afterward, our friends had tickets to the VIP section of the fireworks, so we went our separate ways, and Stephanie and I went to slum it on Blackfriars Bridge.

Stephanie:

Where there was a decent amount of room when we got out there about 20 minutes till midnight, but by the time Big Ben chimed in the new year, there were thousands of people squished onto it. And this wasn’t even the best of the bridges to be able to see the fireworks from.

But we had our spot, and it was good enough for us. There were people cheering and dancing around us, which was something I’d never personally experienced on a bridge before.

We watched the fireworks, which were quite impressive (I loved the ones that shot out circularly from the London Eye itself… pretty awesome!), and then made our way back to our hotel room. We had some Port (because every truly good New Year is brought about with a good Port wine, unbeknownst to all those out there that give it the ol’ college try with champagne) and watched the millions of people milling about the streets making their way to… wherever they were going. They were streaming past our hotel for at least an hour after the fireworks ended.

But we couldn’t stay up partying all night long, because we had a flight out the next day. It was an amazing vacation, and we were both sorry to see it come to a close.

I’ll never forget it. For us, the saying will (at least for now) have to be “We’ll always have London.”