London, etc.
Feb. 22nd, 2005 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieThis particular weekend in London involved little in the way of rushing around, which was nice. We got in around noon on Sunday and went to see the "haunted" (by the ghost of a jester-turned-monk whose sandal had been stolen, no less) church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, one of the only Romanesque buildings I've been in since I got here. 1123, man.
Despite the fact that it was starting to rain again, we decided that outdoor ice skating, which had been put off at Christmas, was in order. Tiniest rink in the world--which hadn't had an ice make in many hours, if not days--and it did eventually do more than drizzle, but it was a very nice change from museums and art galleries and theatre.
Friday night's performance of Macbeth was atrocious, just like Hamlet. Many of the same actors, too. Completely unimpressed.
Saturday's performance of Big Life (a Caribbean musical based on Love's Labours Lost) was much, much better. Lots of amusing bits and bunches of catchy songs. Good thing, too, after my transportation woes of the morning. Apparently they've stopped selling the weekend travelcards (woe!), so I got myself a day pass for zones 1 and 2, thinking I would just get a return from the theatre (in zone 3). Little did I know I could have just gotten the day travelcard for zones 1-4 and saved myself £4.70... *sigh* Plus, like, half the tube was down that morning. Seriously. Arg. Circle and District lines were down all week, and then the Northern line had something go wrong with it just as I was trying to get on it in the morning. So I did a bunch of changing and ended up at the Tate Britain, where the line for the Turner/Whistler/Monet exhibit was stretching around the corner twenty minutes before it even opened. So, since that wasn't going to happen for me, I decided to head over to the Saatchi gallery, which we had to visit for class. Thinking it was just at the next bridge across the river, I decided to avoid the tube and walk it.
Two bridges and a detour around the entirety of the Houses of Parliament later, I finally got there. WHAT was going on this weekend? I've never seen anything so packed as the areas around Westminster and the London Eye. Never. It was incredible. Same thing the next day with the museums. Augh!
Anyway. Spent Saturday night in the hotel working on my presentation for film class. We'd meant to go to Leeds Castle on Sunday, but seeing that it snowed the night before (well, flurried as I walked back to the hotel from the tube station; it was rather pretty, actually), we decided to put it on hold until warmer weather. I'm thinking of several days bumming around gardens and castles in Kent in June anyway, so I'll see it at some point before I go.
So we spent Sunday in museums. I went to the Science Museum, which was vaguely but not really interesting, and in lieu of donating pounds, I donated my hat, by which I mean I lost it somewhere between the ground and third floors. Still bitter about that, as it was the best hat I've ever owned. And now people can't identify me at a distance without the purple. Waaaah!
Ended up at the Natural History Museum again, where I spent the entire time taking pictures of the architecture and completely ignoring the exhibits. We wanted to leave around 5, but of course we get to Paddington to find that they've canceled our train. Bastards. So we waited around for an hour and a half for the nice slooooow train back to Exeter.
Pictures are in the "London in February" gallery here. Can someone who has more experience with LJ's gallery feature tell me why my pictures upload in something that is not the order I tell them to, and why they won't move around no matter how many times I click the move-around buttons?
And I was going to have a few videos of us skating (courtesy Whitney and Ellen's camera), but technology is conspiring against me today, so perhaps tomorrow. They're fun videos, really. Yousendit just doesn't want to work tonight. *grumbles yet again about no FTP access*
Despite the fact that it was starting to rain again, we decided that outdoor ice skating, which had been put off at Christmas, was in order. Tiniest rink in the world--which hadn't had an ice make in many hours, if not days--and it did eventually do more than drizzle, but it was a very nice change from museums and art galleries and theatre.
Friday night's performance of Macbeth was atrocious, just like Hamlet. Many of the same actors, too. Completely unimpressed.
Saturday's performance of Big Life (a Caribbean musical based on Love's Labours Lost) was much, much better. Lots of amusing bits and bunches of catchy songs. Good thing, too, after my transportation woes of the morning. Apparently they've stopped selling the weekend travelcards (woe!), so I got myself a day pass for zones 1 and 2, thinking I would just get a return from the theatre (in zone 3). Little did I know I could have just gotten the day travelcard for zones 1-4 and saved myself £4.70... *sigh* Plus, like, half the tube was down that morning. Seriously. Arg. Circle and District lines were down all week, and then the Northern line had something go wrong with it just as I was trying to get on it in the morning. So I did a bunch of changing and ended up at the Tate Britain, where the line for the Turner/Whistler/Monet exhibit was stretching around the corner twenty minutes before it even opened. So, since that wasn't going to happen for me, I decided to head over to the Saatchi gallery, which we had to visit for class. Thinking it was just at the next bridge across the river, I decided to avoid the tube and walk it.
Two bridges and a detour around the entirety of the Houses of Parliament later, I finally got there. WHAT was going on this weekend? I've never seen anything so packed as the areas around Westminster and the London Eye. Never. It was incredible. Same thing the next day with the museums. Augh!
Anyway. Spent Saturday night in the hotel working on my presentation for film class. We'd meant to go to Leeds Castle on Sunday, but seeing that it snowed the night before (well, flurried as I walked back to the hotel from the tube station; it was rather pretty, actually), we decided to put it on hold until warmer weather. I'm thinking of several days bumming around gardens and castles in Kent in June anyway, so I'll see it at some point before I go.
So we spent Sunday in museums. I went to the Science Museum, which was vaguely but not really interesting, and in lieu of donating pounds, I donated my hat, by which I mean I lost it somewhere between the ground and third floors. Still bitter about that, as it was the best hat I've ever owned. And now people can't identify me at a distance without the purple. Waaaah!
Ended up at the Natural History Museum again, where I spent the entire time taking pictures of the architecture and completely ignoring the exhibits. We wanted to leave around 5, but of course we get to Paddington to find that they've canceled our train. Bastards. So we waited around for an hour and a half for the nice slooooow train back to Exeter.
Pictures are in the "London in February" gallery here. Can someone who has more experience with LJ's gallery feature tell me why my pictures upload in something that is not the order I tell them to, and why they won't move around no matter how many times I click the move-around buttons?
And I was going to have a few videos of us skating (courtesy Whitney and Ellen's camera), but technology is conspiring against me today, so perhaps tomorrow. They're fun videos, really. Yousendit just doesn't want to work tonight. *grumbles yet again about no FTP access*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
love your pic
Date: 2005-02-22 09:44 pm (UTC)And yes, good to be home, good to be recouping.
~Prez