June 14: From Isle of Wight to L.A. in one 32-hour day We had to get up very early using the portable alarm clock we got at Muji.We walked down the Esplanade, up the hill and through Shanklin for the last time to catch the Southern Vectis bus at 0630 am at the Somerfield.We rode through Shanklin and Sandown and then through Ryde where we saw a humorously named restaurant, Wimpy’s.We had earlier seen a restaurant in Shanklin called David’s Fish and Chips and a restaurant in Ryde called Ian’s so you could argue that my brother and I have businesses on the Isle of Wight.
We got off at the Ryde bus station and walked the quarter-mile long pier to catch the Wightlink ferry.Again, the ferry was full of festival attendees, this time returning.After disembarking from the ferry, we got some flapjacks for breakfast at a little shop, Pumpkin near the bus station and then caught the National Express bus back to Heathrow airport.
We arrived at Heathrow and got in line to check baggage.We were able to carry all our bags on except for our largest bag.From there we found the VAT refund counter and my wife turned in the VAT refund form she had filled out at HMV days earlier.It was the only purchase worth getting the VAT refund.They told her they would send her the refund in about six weeks.
We went through security and then entered a large shopping area.There were large duty free shops, eateries both cheap and expensive, and many other shops. There were even branches of Harrods.My wife got some Thorntons toffee at the Chocolate Box and a Union Jack mousemat at Glorious Britain.What we call mouse pads the English call Mousemats. We got some sandwiches for lunch at Caffe Italia.
We left the shopping our to find our departure gate.It was very long walk because Heathrow Terminal 2 has so many departure gates, about 55.We arrived waited at the gate.When the time came we boarded the plane that was an Airbus plane and was smaller than the Boeing 747 we took to get to London.It had the screens but there weren’t as many choices for movies and TV shows and also you couldn’t just start the movies whenever you wanted.You could only watch what they showed on the channels.There were radio stations but no CD jukeboxes as there were on the flight to London.I watched the 2-hour Christmas episode of The Office and besides that there wasn’t much else good on.They also had the skymap feature.They again served us dinner and later a breakfast-like meal.Periodically they came by serving tea and orange juice or water.For one drink I had some Virgin-brand lemonade.I learned that the English call drinks like Sprite and Seven-up “lemonade”.At one of the supermarkets on the Isle of Wight, my wife had seen a beverage we would call lemonade called “cloudy lemonade”.The flight attendants also served “Ice Lollies”: popsicles made out of frozen orange juice.
The plane took off an hour late because the crew needed to fill the plane’s water tanks.They again gave us gift bags that this time included sox and a notepad along with a siesta mask, pen, toothbrush, and toothpaste.The gifts also came in bigger plastic bags.
We arrived at LAX, picked up our checked bag at the baggage claim and then went through customs.We had to go through one at a time and all we did really was turn in the customs forms they gave us on the plane.They asked my wife about the chocolates she had gotten at some of the gift shops but otherwise we went through smoothly.I exchanged the rest of my English currency and we returned home via the Van Nuys Flyaway bus and my car.It felt strange to drive after having traveled in England on nearly all modes of transportation other than cars.
Epilogue
The trip was definitely a success.We did everything we planned to do and more and all our transportation plans went smoothly for the most part.I took lots of pictures and the x-ray bag protected my film.The pictures all came out great; even the owner of the photo shop where I had them developed said so.The success of our trip showed us how planning ahead makes a trip run more smoothly and makes it more enjoyable.We’ll let you know when we’re going on another adventure.
This was the last day of the festival.We got up and, before breakfast, I tracked down the proprietor, Kevin Thornton, in the kitchen to pay for our stay.I wanted to pay early because I knew we would be leaving the hotel very early the next morning and wouldn’t have time to formally check out.While there we talked about how we were enjoying the festival and I talked to some people I though might be his parents.After hearing my American accent they said, “You sound like you’ve come a long way.”I mentioned we had visited London and Bath and they said they were originally from the area south of Bath.
We had another English breakfast and then went out behind the hotel to catch the lift.We had to buy tickets to take the lift and it did save us time getting to the Shanklin Somerfield.We bought a round trip or return ticket as the English call it even though the lift closed at 10:00 PM.We caught the Southern Vectis bus to Newport and again sat on the top level.
Once we arrived in Newport we walked to that camera shop we had seen the day before.They told us that they didn’t develop film on Sundays.I bought a lead-lined bag to protect my film from the x-rays.We went to the Safeway to get some bottled water and then looked for a place to eat lunch.We looked at a couple of pubs but most were very crowded and the food didn’t seem like anything special.We tried that coffee shop we had seen the day before but it was closed.We finally found an eatery near the church called Brothers that served all kinds of food including pasties and fish and chips.My wife had a vegetable pasty and I had a fishburger.During lunch we overheard people saying that the group The Libertines would not be performing at the festival that day due to one of their members being in rehab.We heard a rumor that Supergrass would replace them but this turned out to be false and they would instead move the group that was to follow the Libertines, the Charlatans, up and after them broadcast the Euro 2004 football (soccer) game.
After lunch we walked to the festival.On the way there I bought a cap to wear and protect my head from the sun.It was a white cap with a red stripe and the three-lion insignia for England.There were selling them because England was playing its first game in the Euro 2004 football (soccer) tournament against France that evening.When we arrived at the festival, it was warm and sunny as it had been every day and we took out the umbrella my wife had brought to use it as a shade.At one point someone jokingly asked us if it was going to rain.
The next act up when we arrived was Suzanne Vega, the only American artist performing at the festival.She included The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes in her set.She ended her set with her most famous songs, Luka, and Tom’s Diner on which she had the audience sing part of the melody.Following Suzanne Vega was the new group, the Delays.
There were many people wearing white and red and some wearing crazy hats, wigs, and face paint in support of England in the Euro 2004 football tournament.There were also people holding up flags for England and other flags.We saw a purple flag with the three lions and another that was made up of several different European flags.There were also flags from other European countries and we even saw an American flag.That person had to be brave.
The next act was Snow Patrol, an Irish group whose CD, the Final Straw, my wife had lent me and I enjoyed.They sounded great, playing several songs from that CD including their single, Run, that was probably one of the best performances at the festival.The audience and myself were thrilled to sing along.They were very humble saying how this was the largest audience they had ever played for.They gave the best performance of the festival in my opinion.
After Snow Patrol I went to get dinner at the vegetarian place.I had the traditional veggie burger and my wife had the Mexican veggie burger.We split a cookie from the doughnut and cookie place for dessert.
Next up were the Charlatans who sounded good even though they didn’t play any songs of theirs that I had heard before.At one point in the set a member of the Libertines came out to say a few words.The lead singer of the Charlatans announced that England was up 1-0 in the Euro 2004 football game against France and the crowd cheered loudly.
We left after the Charlatans’ last song skipping the Euro 2004 football coverage and David Bowie.It turned out the England lost that match 2-1 with France scoring in the latter half of the game and David Beckham missing a free kick.We returned to Shanklin but weren’t able to take the lift back because it was closed.We walked down the hill has we usually had done.We saw that the lift wasn’t open early enough for us to take it the next day.Once we returned to our hotel we packed up everything in preparation for our journey home the next day.
We got up, got ready and went down to the restaurant at the Esplanade Hotel, Thornton’s Restaurant, to have our English breakfast included with our room.The breakfast was good and very filling.It consisted of sausages, a fried egg, beans, bacon, fried tomatoes, and fried mushrooms.There were other people eating breakfast who we could tell were here for the festival.They played Virgin Radio over the PA system and it was playing Stereophonics.
We left straight from breakfast to the Shanklin Somerfield to catch the Southern Vectis bus to Newport.The bus wasn’t as crowded as the day before and we sat on the top level.We could see much more than on the lower level and it being daytime we could see much of the countryside and farms.One building we saw had a humorous name, Spithead, indicated by a sign.Rather than get off uphill from Seaclose Park, we got off at the Newport bus station and there we bought a Southern Vectis bus schedule.We walked around the town of Newport a bit and found a camera shop called Jessop where I thought I could have many of my pictures developed the next day.By having them developed before we got on the plane, I wouldn’t have to worry about the x-ray machine harming the film.
We walked from Newport towards the festival and walked past the entrance to the stand that was selling Minghella ice cream.My wife got an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip flavored ice cream.I wanted to get some sorbet, but they didn’t have any, unfortunately.I had a hot dog for lunch from the stand next to the Minghella stand.
We walked to the entrance and entered the Festival.Security just checked to see if we had our wristbands on and if they were in decent condition.It looked like they were giving new wristbands to people whose wristbands were damaged.On stage there was a guy playing mellow songs on his acoustic guitar.I’m not sure if he was one of the official acts.We walked around a bit looking at all the different places to get food and there were many.They sold Indian food, Middle-Eastern food, seafood, vegetarian healthy foods, baguettes, doughnuts and cookies, even Mexican food.
We went back to the stage and saw a bit of the Leah Wood Group set.Next on was Proud Mary who were OK. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were up next.Being an older group that dated back to the 1970’s they were a crowd favorite.The lead singer, Steve Harley talked about going to the Isle of Wight festival in the late 1960’s as a spectator camping near the festival.Between acts the jumbotrons showed advertisements and videos including the Cure’s Lovecats video.
Next up were a band we were looking forward to: British Sea Power.They played several songs from their CD The Decline of British Sea Power with which I was familiar.One of their members wore a WWI style American army helmet and they decorated the stage with plastic birds such as an owl and a crane.One guy was the lead singer for most of the songs, though for one song, a guitarist sang lead.Things got crazy during one of the last songs of their set when presumably a band member or crewmember came on stage wearing this large brown bear costume and wreaked havoc on stage getting into a scuffle with the member with the helmet who jumped onto his back.
After British Sea Power we took a break from watching the concert and took a ride on the Ferris wheel.It gave us a great view of the crowded stage where the group Electric Soft Parade was playing and the festival grounds.We could also see more of Seaclose Park and the River Medina.We exited the Ferris wheel and had dinner.I had a lamb gyro sandwich from the Middle-Eastern place and my wife had a shrimp sandwich from the seafood place.
We returned to watching the main stage and saw The Stands whose lead singer reminded me of Bob Dylan with his big curly hair and harmonica around his neck.Following them was Jet the rock band from Australia who are played frequently on KROQ in L.A.We had actually heard them live before at the KROQ Inland Invasion in September 2003.They played their famous song, Are You Gonna be My Girl, and many others.I head from someone talking on the bus that Jet originally weren’t coming but Pete Townsend of The Who likes them so much he convinced them to come.
After Jet came one of the bands that my wife was most looking forward to: The Manic Street Preachers.They didn’t play any of the songs I had heard by them but they still sounded good.My wife has seen them live a few times before and got to hear some songs that she hadn’t heard live from them before.One of those songs was originally a duet with a female singer.Overall, my wife felt they seemed more like the supporting act that they were that night than a headliner.
We again skipped the evening’s headliner, The Who and left after the Manics’ set ended.Before going back to the bus station we walked around Newport looking at possible places to eat lunch the next day.My wife was looking for a place that served pasties that are like meat-filled empanadas.We saw a few pubs and one coffee shop that served pasties but we weren’t sure what would be open the next day, Sunday.We walked back to the Newport bus station and while waiting for the bus we could hear The Who playing their song Behind Blue Eyes.We rode the bus back to the Shanklin Somerfield and walked back to the Esplanade Hotel.
That evening while looking at a postcard I bought to send I realized that the tower behind our hotel was actually an elevator or lift as the English call it that would take us up to the top of the cliff and allow us to bypass walking up the hill.
We got up, ate breakfast, and checked out of Aston’s Apartments.We walked with our luggage to the Tube station and took the Picadilly line back to Heathrow.We were worried that it would be rush hour on the Tube and we packed everything into just two suitcases.It turned out not to be rush hour making going much smoother.
We arrived at Heathrow and walked from the Tube station there to the central bus station.We had wanted to take the 9:45 National Express bus to Portsmouth but when we tried to buy a ticket we found it that bus was sold out so we bought tickets for the 11:45 bus.Our ticket also included the ferry ticket from Portsmouth to Ryde on the Isle of Wight.So I actually got get a “Ticket to Ryde” that sounds the same as the Beatles song. When the 9:45 bus came it looked full and it looked like they were even kicking some standbys off after letting them on when they thought ticketed passengers wouldn’t show.We didn’t even try to got on it. While waiting for our bus we had lunch at a fast food eatery near the bus terminal.I had roast chicken and my wife had steak and kidney pie.
The bus ride to Portsmouth was fairly uneventful.The bus stopped in a couple of other places and the driver told us when we got to Portsmouth.We unloaded and walked to the ferry terminal.There we caught the Wightlink ferry to Ryde.The ferry was very crowded with others who looked like they were going to the festival.Many of them were already drinking in the terminal and on the ferry.We found seats inside and the ferry ride took only 15 minutes.
After we disembarked from the Wightlink ferry we had to walk the long quarter-mile pier to the Southern Vectis bus station.Southern Vectis is the company that runs the buses on the Isle of Wight.They go within the towns and between the towns and are mostly double-decker buses.We bought a map at the bus station and caught the bus that would take us to the Shanklin Somerfield stop, the stop closest to our hotel on the Shanklin Esplanade, the street along the beach in Shanklin.The bus ride took about 45 minutes to get to Shanklin.When we get there we found out that Somerfield is the name of a supermarket that’s right near the stop.We followed our map and walked back to our hotel.
The walk to our hotel didn’t take too long but required walking down hill to the Esplanade.Our hotel was located in the most beautiful place I’d seen on the trip.It was right across the street from the beach.Also along the Esplanade were other hotels, places with games such as miniature golf and arcade games, and right next to our hotel was a Minghella ice cream shop.The family of the movie director, Anthony Minghella makes ice cream.From the Esplanade were beautiful views of the water and the cliffs along the coast of the Isle of Wight.We checked into our hotel, the Esplanade Hotel, and met Kevin Thornton who I had talked to on the phone when I made reservations.He led us to our room that was upstairs and had been set up for three people to sleep.It was bigger than the one at Aston’s Apartments and nicer with a better shower and much more closet space.We unpacked a bit and then headed back out to catch the Southern Vectis bus to the Isle of Wight Festival.
When we got back to the bus stop at the Shanklin Somerfield it was very crowded with people going to the Festival.I had thought we needed to take bus number 3B to the festival but we soon figured out that bus 2 was the one we wanted.A bus 2 came but it filled up and we had to wait for the next one.Another came and we got seats on the bottom level.The bus went through the countryside in the interior of Isle of Wight to Newport and there weren’t really any towns on the way though there were a few houses and farms.The concert took place at Seaclose Park in Newport.The bus stopped at the Newport bus station but the driver told us we were going to stop somewhere close to the festival so we stayed on.It turned out that the bus went all the way up to the town of Cowes and then back to Newport stopping just a bit closer.Staying on the bus really didn’t save any time and it probably would have been quicker to get off at Newport bus station and walk.
We got off at Seaclose Park and walked down the hill towards the entrance to the festival.Along the way we noticed a small stand selling Minghella ice cream.As we got closer it got more and more crowded and by the time we got near the entrance it was very crowded and the crowd was very slowly being let into the festival.We approached the entrance and we could hear the rock group Super Furry Animals playing on the speakers.We ended up missing them, but at least we got to hear part of their set.When we finally got to the entrance they took our tickets and put these orange plastic wristbands on our wrists.It looked like it would be very difficult to remove them and we just ended up wearing them for all three days of the festival.On this first day of the festival I didn’t bring my camera because I wasn’t sure if they were allowed.But after we got there I saw many people with cameras and figured I could bring the disposable camera the next day.
Upon entering the festival I bought an official program so we would know the definite schedule of the acts. It turned out they also had handed out small free programs and someone gave one of these to my wife when they saw us copying down the schedule from my official program.We saw the Ferris wheel and the bungee pod or whatever you call the ride where two bungee cords are attached to suspended pod.We decided to have dinner before Groove Armada came on.For dinner we had sausage and bacon baguette sandwiches.
We found a place and decided to sit on the yellow plastic rain poncho that my wife had bought for rain.The Isle of Wight (IOW) Festival had only one stage with a large jumbotron on either side.There was also a jumbotron near the entrance.
Groove Armada play electronic dance music that the program said could be equally described as “funk, chilled, groove, freakout, psychedelic hip-hop”.The two principal members add singers and other musicians for the live acts.They had a woman singing of the songs.The only song I recognized was the last of their set, Superstlyin’ with a man rapping.That sounded great along with the rest of the set.
After Groove Armada left we decided to head back rather than stay for the headliner, Stereophonics because they didn’t interest us and we were tired from the trip to IOW.We walked to where the bus dropped us off north of the entrance.The stop was near the campgrounds where many of the festival-goers stayed in either tents or RV’s.There were many buses but none that looked like they were going to Shanklin.We asked one of bus drivers and he suggested we walk back to the Newport bus station and catch the 2 back to Shanklin.The walk was long because we did quite a bit of backtracking.As we walked by the festival grounds we could hear the Stereophonics playing.After some navigating with our map we found the Newport bus station and caught the number 2 bus back to Shankin Somerfield.On the way back we noticed there weren’t very many streetlights it sometimes felt we were riding through darkness.From the Somerfield we walked back to the Esplanade.
After eating breakfast in the morning we took the Tube from our apartment to the nearby South Kensington station and walked from there to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).The V&A is a huge museum that houses one of the world’s largest collections of applied arts.It has everything from paintings to sculptures to textiles to furniture.We knew we couldn’t see the whole thing in one morning so once we got our maps we planned which exhibits we wanted to see.Right in the lobby there’s a massive blue, white, and yellow glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly, the world-famous glass sculptor from Tacoma, Washington.We were able to find all the exhibits we wanted to see but frequently got lost and caught glimpses of other exhibits on the way.First we went to the Gamble Room and Morris rooms: large rooms with grand wall decorations, fireplaces and columns.Next we looked at the fashion exhibit that had fashions from all over the world and from many different time periods.The beginning of the exhibit featured cloths by the designer Missoni and the rest consisted of various international fashions.Unfortunately much of this exhibit was closed for renovation but it was interesting to see fashions such as the huge silk robes worn by men in 19th century Asia.Next we went to the exhibit of musical instruments from the last 300 years.There were many variations of pianos and harpsichords and also an oversized recorder along with different guitars and horns.We went to the modern art and design section of the V&A where they had exhibited everything from toys to magazine pages to appliances from 1900 to present.My dad would probably be interested in the display of radios.We walked through their gallery of silver and the gallery of tapestries to get to the exhibit showing sets of furniture from just about every decade from 1900 to present.Some looked nice, some ugly, and some strange such as an insulated plastic box used as a bed with breathing Tube.The last exhibit we saw was all their textiles dating back centuries and from all over the world.We had lunch at the café at the V&A.I just had a chicken wrap and my wife had a tomato, mozzarella, and greens sandwich and chili lime crisps.For dessert we had these little rich oat cakes the English call flapjacks.
From the V&A in South Kensington we took the Tube to Oxford street to do some shopping.The first place we went to was Topshop/Topman a large fashion store with reasonable prices.Topshop consisted of two floors with women’s clothing and Topman was one floor of men’s clothing.Everything looked hip with music videos playing on large TV’s throughout the store.My wife got me a sports shirt for work and got herself a brown top.This store was the first place she picked up forms for tax-free shopping.
We went across the street from Topshop/Topman to Muji, a Japanese store with its only international branches in England.It sells cloths, gadgets and various useful interesting things.My wife got me an aluminum business card case and a portable alarm clock and got herself a hand-crank paper shredder, a letter opener, and some cloths.
We then walked down to the large English record store, HMV.We went through their selection and got several CD’s that would be unavailable to get back home.Their main floor is rock/pop/rap/dance CD’s.Downstairs they have other genres such as classical, jazz, and world.Upstairs they have DVD’s and videos.They also sell books on the main floor.I also got some books including a guitar chord book.When I looked into filling out forms for tax-free shopping, I learned that they do not charge tax for buying books and the three CD’s I got didn’t generate much tax so it wasn’t worth filling out the form to get a refund.My wife’s purchase would yield a decent refund and she filled out the forms.
We left HMV and took the Tube to the Queensway station and from there walked to Khan’s to have some of London’s famous Indian food.That place was cranking and the prices were reasonable.I had chicken curry and we shared rice and Naan bread.Everything was very good and service was fast despite it being crowded there.
When we got back to our apartment we packed up everything since we would leave London the following day.
After breakfast we took the Tube to Paddington Station to catch a National Rail train to the town of Bath.We bought train tickets but then, after we boarded, our train was cancelled due to a security alert at Swindon Station, one of the stations along the way.We were able to get on another train that left about an hour later and after riding for an hour and a half we arrived in Bath at around 1 pm.We got some baguettes for lunch at the food place in the train station, Upper Crust, and ate near the bath fountain.Every building was made of the yellowish limestone the locals called “Bath stone” and all the buildings looked historic.We followed the hand-drawn map from the borrowed Rick Steves guidebook and found our way to the Pump Room.The Pump Room is a restaurant/tea room where you can get a cup of the mineral water from Bath.The warm spring water in Bath has been used for both bathing and drinking, though I hear it doesn’t taste very good.We didn’t go in the Pump Room’s main room but we did see the Roman bath they have inside.
We walked outside the Pump Room near the Medieval church of Bath Abbey to meet up with our walking tour.Community volunteers in Bath put on free 2-hour walking tours at 10:30 am and 2:00 pm daily in the summer.We read about these tours in the Rick Steves guidebook.She asked everyone in the group where they were from and we said we were from Canada to be safe.Others in the group were from England, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.Our guide first showed us the writing on the north side of the Pump Room building that roughly translated to “Our Water is Best” and this message wasn’t viewed favorable by one of the Pubs that used to be its neighbor.We walked by the new Thermae Bath Spa building that is still under construction.Currently none of Bath’s water is used for bathing but that will change when the spa opens.It’s opening has been delayed, though, due to technical problems, something to do with the painting I heard.Most of Bath’s building as we saw them were built in the 18th century when Bath was a spa and resort for the wealthy.We went to the St. John’s Hospital courtyard and noticed the marker on the outside walls put there by to 18th-19th century fire insurance companies.These companies ran the fire departments and would only take care of fires on buildings with markers for their company.Bath was originally a Roman city and then was a Medieval city and finally an 18th century city.We walked to where the only remaining portion of the Medieval Wall that surrounded the city still stood.Nearby was the Royal Mineral Water Hospital where a 19th century doctor determined a recipe for medicinal biscuits.Our guide passed around one of these biscuits that are sold at Bath gift shops.On an otherwise nondescript building they had written the Magna Carta in English on one of the walls.There’s an interesting line about widows not being required to marry again by their families and therefore allowed to keep their inheritances.We passed a window in which you could see an authentic 18th Century powder room where men would leave their wigs and powder them to keep them white.We walked by the small houses where the carriage haulers lived and walked a gravel walk mentioned in one of Jane Austen’s books. We walked through an intersection with three interesting street names.The story is that John Wood (either Jr. or Sr. I’m not sure) was making a lot of noise and the people shouted back, “Quiet, John Wood!”The streets are named Quiet Street, John Street, and Wood Street.
A highlight of the walking tour was viewing the buildings designed by John Wood Jr. and John Wood Sr. in the 18th century.We first went to the Royal Crescent designed by Jr. that’s shaped like the outline of half an ellipse.Within the half-ellipse outline are the drive and the lawn that are bordered in front by a “ha-ha”, a wall that tapers into the ground.The center apartment is clearly marked with the double columns and the arch window.Most of the Crescent consists of a luxury hotel and some very expensive flats.The painter Thomas Gainsborough once had an apartment there.Gainsborough is a connection to my hometown, L.A., because his famous paintings Blue Boy and Pinkie are kept at the Huntington Library in San Marino near Pasadena.The Three Tenors had a concert on the grounds of the Royal Crescent last year to celebrate the opening of Thermae Bath Spa even though the spa didn’t open then and still hasn’t opened.
Next we viewed the building designed by John Wood Sr.: a circular building called The Circus.It’s not a continuous circle as it’s driveway runs through the inside.Wood Sr. put Doric columns on the bottom level, Ionic columns on the next level, and Corinthian columns on the top level.There are also statues of acorns on the roof.They have something to do with the original founding of Bath by the Romans.The Roman farmers fed the acorns to pigs.Both pigs and humans suffered from this skin disease but the pigs got over it.One of the farmers tried rolling around in the mud with the pigs and he was also cured.It turned out the mud contained the mineral water from the springs and baths were created from them.My recall of the story might not be completely correct.After learning this we walked to the outside of the Circus and saw the front door to the flat formerly belonging to the inventor of plastiscene.
Near the Circus we visited the Assembly Rooms used since the 18th century for various forms of public entertainment.Inside the rooms are some very impressive glass chandeliers and paintings by Gainsborough of important people from Bath’s history.We observed on the inside where there were fireplaces and chimneys but on the outside they put window on the outside of the chimneys just to preserve the architectural symmetry.The same building as the assembly rooms also houses the Museum of Costume that we didn’t get to see, unfortunately.
The last major sight on our tour before returning to the Pump Room was the Pulteney bridge and the river Avon.The Pulteney bridge was designed in the same style as the Ponte Vecchio in Italy: lined with shops on both sides.Its south side is more picturesque and the bridge was used as a set for filming the upcoming movie Vanity Fair.The river Avon is not the same as the river in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s hometown.Avon means “river” in the ancient local language and there are several rivers in England with that name.We observed the Medieval arch and entrance to the river bank which lies below the street level.
We returned to the square between the Pump Room and Bath Abbey and observed the Abbey, one of the oldest churches in England as it dates back to Medieval times.It has relief sculptures of ladders on its tower with angels climbing them.On the right and left sides of the front door are St. Peter and St. Paul respectively.St. Peter has a much smaller head because his original head was hacked off by Oliver Cromwell’s men in the 17th century.Later, the people carved a new head out of what was left of his beard but their difference in head size is clearly apparent.Another relief sculpture on the side of the Abbey consists of images to remind people the name of the bishop who built the latest version of the Abbey in the 15th century.There’s a bishop’s hat for “Bishop”, an olive tree for “Oliver”, and a crown for “King” all equaling Bishop Oliver King.I guess some of our clergy never had humility.The Abbey was our last stop on the tour that we fully enjoyed and I believe was one of the best parts of our trip.
After the tour we went to the Roman Baths museum right next to the Pump Room.We picked up audio tours and looked at many artifacts from the Roman bath and temple complex that once stood in the very spot.There were some ancient sculptures, altars, pieces of old buildings, and rooms and baths used by the Romans.We joined up with a museum employee giving a tour and saw the remains of ancient dressing rooms, hot and cool pools, and remains of the roof that once covered the bath.The bath water is still warm and its colored green due to algae in it.In Roman times, the bath had a roof covering it preventing the algae from growing.We went to the museum shop to buy some gifts (called pasalubong by Filipinos) and postcards for family and friends.
For dinner in Bath we wanted to have fish and chips.We tried to find a fish and chips place mentioned in the Rick Steves guidebook as being near the train station but we couldn’t find it.In its place we went to a fish and chips place farther away which happened to be in the same chain as the first place.I had plaice and my wife had skinless cod.It tasted great and they had the malt vinegar for our chips (fries).After dinner we caught the National Rail train back to Paddington station in London and took the Tube back to our apartment.
After breakfast we took the Tube early to Waterloo station on the south bank of the Thames.We got directions from someone at the station and walked to the British Airways London Eye, the 500-foot tall Ferris wheel built at the millennium.We arrived before it was open and had bought tickets in advance online.The line was unexpectedly very short and we got into the second capsule boarded of the day.The Eye moves constantly all day and gives spectacular views of London.We saw great views to the northwest of the steeple of St. Martin-in-the-fields and Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square, to the west of Buckingham Palace, to the south of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and to the East of the Thames, Waterloo Station and the Royal Festival Hall.The capsules seem like they can hold 20-30 people, but there were only 8 of us allowing plenty of room to see all sides.
We disembarked from the London Eye and walked to nearby Waterloo Pier to get tickets for a Thames cruise on a City Cruises boat.There are actually several different boats that cruise the Thames.We bought tickets to cruise to Greenwich.The tour guide was very funny as he poked fun at the buildings we saw and he seemed to be one of those that wasn’t into modern art as he wasn’t impressed with the Tate Modern.The buildings we saw included Charing Cross station that supposedly looks like a locomotive train engine; the Egyptian Obelisk, Cleopatra’s Needle, the oldest structure in London; Royal Festival Hall; OXO Building;the historic all-boys school with statues of Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare and David Beckham (that name mentioned as a joke, I believe); the Tate Modern; the Millennium Bridge; the replica of Shakespeare’s globe theater, replica of Sir Francis Drake’s ship, the Golden Hind; the nondescript London Bridge; the Tower of London; the Tower Bridge, under which we passed; the glass dome of London City Hall; the WWII warship HMS Belfast; the pointed glass dome of the Swiss Re building (the international insurance company for which my former boss now works, though he’s in the Calabasa office and not in London) which the locals call the “Gherkin” which means pickle because it slightly resembles one; the old warehouses on the East Thames now converted to overpriced condos; and finally the built-up trendy London area, Canary Wharf.
Our cruise arrived in Greenwich about an hour after leaving Waterloo Pier.As we approached we could see the tall masts of the Cutty Sark and the Old Royal Observatory in the distance with it’s time ball lowered.After disembarking we walked past the dry-docked Cutty Sark into the town of Greenwich.We got some sunscreen at a Boots pharmacy to protect against the unexpected sunny weather.Then we went to lunch at Goddard’s Pie House to try some authentic English meat pies.I had the steak and kidney pie while my wife had the cheese and onion pie and the rhubarb crumble for dessert (not the Beebobareebob kind from Prairie Home Companion, but probably just as good).The food was very good and reasonably priced.After lunch we walked towards the Observatory in the middle of Greenwich Park.We planned to see the time ball rise at 12:55 pm and drop at exactly 1:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time as it does every day.In the 19th century sailors would use the ball to set their ships’ clocks.We found a good place to view in a shady outdoor hall near the Maritime Museum.We saw it rise and drop and it did so slowly similar to the ball dropping at New York’s Time Square for New Years.
We walked back to the Cutty Sark and self-toured that 19th century tea clipper.Its name means “Little Shirt” in the ancient Celtic language and it comes from a Robert Burns poem about the protagonist being chased by witches wearing little shirts.The Cutty Sark is a very large ship with at least two levels below deck, the lower one housing a collection of statues from the bows of different ships.It was interesting to learn the history of the ship and see its crew and officer quarters above decks.
We returned to Greenwich Park and hiked up to the Old Royal Observatory.On the hike we had great views of Greenwich Park, Greenwich Naval College, the Millennium Dome, and the buildings of the Canary Wharf area of London across the river.We got to the top and saw where they had the Prime Meridian line marked on the ground.We took pictures of us with one foot in each hemisphere (east and west) though it was very crowded with other tourists taking pictures.Next we walked around inside the observatory viewing all the antique astronomical equipment and especially the exhibit on the determination of Longitude in the 18th century.We saw the large refracting telescopes and a modern clock that used lasers to keep time more accurately.
In the late afternoon we walked to the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) station near the Cutty Sark and took the rail to Canary Wharf where we caught the Tube back to South Kensington.Our Travelcard covered the DLR in addition to the Tube.We noticed one of the DLR stops had a cute name, Mudchute.On the way home we stopped by Harrods and visited their extensive food halls where you can buy take-out food of just about any kind.Our original plan had been to eat at the Green Man Pub in Harrods, but that place seemed very pricey.So we just got some take-out food at the food halls.I had a croissant sandwich and my wife had some Indian food.We took the Tube back to our apartment and ate dinner there.After dinner I went shopping for some bottled water and found a market even better than Harts: Waitrose just next door to the Gloucester Road Tube station.
June 7: Church Music and Modern Art Monday morning after breakfast we rode the Tube to Charing Cross station and exited into Trafalgar Square, the square in the middle of London with a column, statue, and lion sculptures dedicated to Lord Nelson.The lions were bigger than they appear in pictures and you can clearly see the dog paws they have because the sculptor didn’t know exactly how lions looked.The weather was warm and sunny and since it was nine in the morning the square wasn’t very crowded.We walked around the square taking a few pictures and then walked to St. Martin-in-the-Fields (SMITF) church near the northeast corner of the square.SMITF is an 18th century church famous for its music program and programs to help the homeless.We self-toured the inside of the church with its various memorials and pews designated for royalty.We went downstairs to the gift shop that had a brass rubbing exhibit.Brass rubbing is where customers can take historic relief sculptures, cover them with paper and rub their image onto the paper with crayons.We didn’t give that a go but we looked at many of the sculptures.We also saw the Café in the Crypt that wasn’t yet serving lunch but the food looked good.
Since we had some time before lunch, we decided to walk around some of the famous buildings in the area.We walked to the Westminister Clock Tower (A.K.A. Big Ben), the Houses of Parliament, and the electrified statue of Winston Churchill (electrified to keep the pigeons off).We walked by Westminister Abbey and through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace (reportedly called “Buck House” by the locals).When we arrived they were having the daily Changing of the Guard with all the English soldiers in red uniforms and tall black helmets marching down the street playing music.The leader was walking a large dog also wearing a red coat.There were many tourists there and we didn’t stay for the entire ceremony but we did see more soldiers with gold helmets ride up on horses.We left Buck House by walking down the promenade, a street lined with the Union Jack flags to the Admiralty Arch.From there it was a quick street crossing to return to Trafalgar Square.
We returned to the Crypt Café at St. Martin-in-the-Fields (SMITF) and had lunch.The sausage and corn fritter entrée I had tasted great as did the apple fritter for dessert.My wife had the bean and mushroom stew entrée.While walking around in the church basement I noticed a community room full of Chinese people.They were eating noodles and talking loudly in their native language.SMITF has services in Chinese.We went upstairs to the church to attend a free concert of church organ music, part of SMITF’s famous music program.The church has a very large organ in the back and the concert was fairly crowded with both tourists and locals.The organists played pieces by Bach, Nicolas De Grigny, William Walond and Charles Widor.My favorites were the Bach Prelude and Fugue at the beginning and the Widor Toccata in F at the end.
After the concert we took the Tube to Backfriars station.We walked to and crossed the Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge across the Thames built in 1999-2000.From it were views of St. Paul’s Cathedral to the north, Tower Bridge to the east, and to the south, the replica of Shakespeare’s globe theater, and the Tate Modern art museum, our destination.Housed in a former power station and set up in 2000, it’s the largest modern art museum in the world.It’s free to the public, though they charge admission for special exhibitions.We saw a special exhibition: paintings by the 20th century American painter Edward Hopper.His most famous painting is the late night diner scene in Nighthawks that was on display there along with many other paintings including a couple from the personal collection of Steve Martin.After the exhibition we saw the rest of the art on display at the museum which included works by Dali and Matisse and also these small circular rooms with the walls lit up with changing colored light.In all it’s an interesting and extensive collection, though those not interested in modern art such as one of our future tour guides might question the artistic justification of some works.We shopped by the large gift shop and left just as the museum closed for the day.
From the Tate Modern we took the Tube to the Covent Garden street market area where we had planned to have fish and chips and the Rock and Sole Plaice restaurant.After we arrived we decided instead to have baked potatoes or jacket potatoes at Ponti’s.My wife had the chicken curry potato and I had the potato with chicken, bacon, and avocado.It tasted great and the large potato tasted as good as the filling.It was a lot of food, though. We returned to our apartment in South Kensington after dinner.
The first two days were mostly spent flying from LAX to London Heathrow for 11 hours on Virgin Atlantic and losing eight hours in the time change.The flight went fine despite its duration.We flew on a Boeing 747.They served pretty good food for an airline and they easily accommodated my non-dairy preferences.There were TV screens in the back of the seats and they gave us headphones to watch movies, TV shows, and listen to CD’s and radio stations.We could also track our flight to London with the skymap feature that showed us where our plane was on its course.When we boarded we received these gift bags with a siesta mask, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a pen, our earphones, and some other things.They served us breakfast in addition to dinner and also came around at intervals to give us juice, water, or tea.
We landed at Heathrow on time (11:45 AM, June 6) and after getting our one checked bag and having our passports stamped we found the place to redeem our Visitor Travelcard vouchers.This Travelcard would give us a ticket to the Tube (also called the Underground, London’s subway, though for them “subway” means pedestrian underpass) for seven days and all zones.My wife purchased the vouchers at a travel agency, Flight Centre, before we left on our trip.We caught the Picadilly line of the Tube that took us to Gloucester Road station in South Kensington, the station closest to our hotel.After some navigating and getting used to the cars driving on different sides of the street than in the U.S. we found our hotel, Aston’s Budget Studios that is actually part of a building comprised of studio apartments.We checked in and were given a larger studio than we planned.Our studio was on street level and despite it being reportedly larger, the bathroom was very small.
After unpacking we took to the Tube to the Hyde Park Corner station.From there we walked north along the eastern edge of Hyde park.The initial cloudy weather had cleared up and it was getting warm.The weather would remain fairly warm and sunny for the entire trip, except for the afternoon in Bath when it rained a bit.Along the east end there was this beautiful path lined with trees, part of it for bikes/rollerblades and part of it for walkers.We arrived at the northeast corner and saw the people gathered at Speakers’ Corner.Every Sunday on Speakers’ Corner people are allowed to just get up on their soapboxes (both literally and figuratively) and speak about whatever they wanted.Most of the speakers we saw seemed to be religious evangelists, though I noticed some people in one audience holding Iraqi flags.
From Hyde Park we walked towards Oxford Street taking advantage of the English “subways” or pedestrian underpasses that were very extensive.Signs kept us from getting too lost.We walked down Oxford Street to Selfridges department store.My plan was to get some breakfast food there so I could have breakfast at our apartment while in London.We found the food hall but first needed to find the ATM.In the process of searching for the ATM we saw much of the store, a rival of Harrods.All the ATM’s in Selfridges were out of order so we purchased the food with credit card and the left the store to have dinner.
After finding an ATM on a street corner we had dinner at Pret a Manger a popular healthy sandwich chain in England.They served sandwiches, salads, and baguettes: sandwiches made with small French bread loaves that seemed to be a popular fast food in England.After dinner we returned to our apartment.We found an ATM and small grocer, Harts, close to our apartment and I got some more breakfast food there.
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