Home... here kitty kitty kitty...

Spent over 12 hours in airports and on airplanes. Would totally do the non-stop to London again, and I had the pleasure of meeting some awesome Brits on their way to enjoy parts of Canada. Met family at the airport, had a some what edible meal, and am now being pointedly ignored by the cats. Life is good. At least it will be once the building turns on the water again and I can get two weeks of laundry done. London funk is not needed. Sleep is a must.

Y'all stay safe now you hear!

Imma take a cat nap.

Last day blues, and packing. Lots and lots of packing...

Today I had lamb for the first time, and I tried Bangers and Mash. Both were interesting in their own way and I am not so sure I would eat either again. But hey, experiences. I spent most of the day wandering around Leicester Square and packing everything. My day starts at 2 am tomorrow morning, and hopefully ends in a flight that takes me back home. I wot lie to you, I always hate the night before a flight. I am anxious something, anything, will go wrong and I will be up shits creek without a paddle. Ah well.

And they are predicting thunderstorms in the morning too. Lovely.

Well seeing as how this was a  day of packing I thought I would show you some more of my favorite photos.

The inside of the National Gallery.

My window in the Hotel with the sun shining in.

One of the scroll details at the Iron Works wing of the V & A.

And Finally...

Another funeral painting from Roman occupied Egypt. I love how they even add the whiskers of the mustache that will never be full.

Here is hoping everything goes off without a hitch. Until next time.

Fountain full of Lions

Today was meant to be a Tate Modern Extravaganza.... and it was. But I spontaneously decided to include the National Gallery in it as well. My feet still hurt, it was so awesome.

The lion head from the monument in Trafalgar Square. People climb all over them, so one must be quick if you want person free picture.

That is the national gallery in the back there behind the lion. This is the Tate Modern gallery.

The Tate Modern used to be a power plant, it was built soon after World War II had finished. It reminds me of the architectural style of Metropolis. Its an interesting building that is oddly suited for the displays inside.

The inside of the building. I could not take many pictures inside of the Tate Modern, as they did not allow for flash photography and my camera is married to the damn flash (I have tried everything I can think of to turn the flash off, and it will still flash). But I was able to sneak these ones in.

It hung from the ceiling, and was made of a net vinyl mesh. Can not remember the artist's name though. Was honestly one of my favorite displays.

One of Picasso's paintings. There were so many different displays in many different forms of media, including many video displays. The one where a Frenchman was insistent on dissecting seahorses kind of freaked me out (it starts off like a nature film, then when he starts talking about how the male gives birth he decides to show you the pouch from the inside). There things I did not get, but it did get thinking about art as whole. I think that is whole point of something like the Tate Modern.

I was able to book it over to the National Portrait Gallery, sadly no photography allowed, but I was lucky enough to be able to see some amazing pieces by Degas, and Van Gogh. They had Sunflowers by Van Gogh, one of my favorite paintings. You could see the brush strokes  he used. It nearly brought me to tears. They also had an extensive Renaissance gallery that included a Da Vinci cartoon. It is more art than can be taken in in a life time.

It is a blessing to have been able to lay eyes upon works of art I have only ever seen books, or to think of art in a completely new way. As much as I am ready to go home, I am going to miss this city.

Until Next time...

Another Off day... Plague cough will not go away.

Plague just sounds cooler then cold all right...

I slept through most of the day today, so not much to talk about or show. But I do have pictures from my second visit to the V & A. Here are some of my favorites.

The main courtyard of the museum.

Some paintings.

And this next one I know sh-who-feeds-the-cats will enjoy...

Original designs for armour. Pretty neat eh?

Yeah, I really have got nothing clever to say today other then sleeping during London downpours is awesome, and the new people staying next to me slam the door way tooo hard alll the freaking time. I do apologise. hopefully something more inspiring and fun tomorrow.

Until next time.

Off Day... caught the Plague I have

All right its not the plague... but the cold has gotten to that extremely annoying "I'm going to make you hack like you have lung cancer" part of it. And as I want to be able to fly back home, I have opted for taking it easy today and getting enough rest. You know not running around creating Debauchery and Mayhem like the ruddy heathen I am. Oh poo. So today is another pictures without context day! YAY!

View through a stained glass window of the Rive Thames from one of the towers at the Tower of London. I think it was the Salt Tower, but I am not so sure.

More shots of the courtyard from the Tower of London, and a peek-a-boo of the Tower Bridge through the trees.

A picture of the trees through the arch I was hiding under when it started raining cats and dogs around 2:30 pm. I had just finished the wall walk when the sky opened up and let loose her wet bounty, like she had been threatening too all day. Everyone who lived in London whipped out an umbrella, and many tourists where left with no way to keep dry. Many had come wearing only light jackets. I always carried an umbrella in my purse (hence why I rarely carried my sketchbook. Between batteries, travel guide, maps, book for restaurants and sunglasses there was very little room for anything else.) I learned from the time I got caught in a down pour in New York, that a small umbrella is essential to travel with. Especially when in a coastal city or on an island. Cause as a friend of mine put it "Rain in London!? That never happens!"

I was able to umbrella two Australian girls over to shelter. They were grateful to have something over their heads, as they were only wearing light coats and were soaked. They were hilarious people, kept saying how they missed the sun. Considering most of my pictures of London have been on overcast days, I can understand the sentiment. To me the rain was a blessing. It allowed me to sit down for a bit and have a little zen moment of my own. I spent most of the time waiting for the rain to lessen under the arch I mentioned earlier. Listening to an Italian family talk (Italian is a lively and beautiful language by the by), and reading from the novel I carried with me everywhere. It was exactly what I needed.

Making my way home in the rain was quite fun. Since I knew there was no point in trying to avoid puddles, entire sections of the cobble stone pavement were nothing but puddle, I could discreetly splash to my girly heart's content. Which I did, with relish. Kept getting looks for some odd reason...

London is sober, cold, wet city, and I love it. Some of the best experiences of my life have been here, and I am thankful I was able to live them.

I would like to conclude this entry with one of my favorite stories that the tour guide on Sunday told us about the Tower of London. He said "This is one of the most haunted places in all of England, they say many ghosts walk these halls." Bag pipes start playing in the distance, and he makes a point of looking at his watch "In fact there is an experience you can have here right now. They say at three o'clock every day they a set ghostly bag pipes start playing..." The bagpipes get louder "But I have never heard them. If anyone in the group hears this ghostly bag piping please let me know."

Until next time.

Wet shoes, Awed Voices, and Chicken Wire Animals

Today was the day I visited the Tower of London. Yeah I could have gone to Hampton Court or the Kew, but lets be honest, the Castle used as a prison, with all of its ghosts and ghoulies, was far more interesting. Oh, and it had the Crown Jewels. And Beef Eaters... Anyway, I did as the tour guide had suggested on Sunday, and came to the Tower of London early. Which is excellent advice for anyone wanting to visit any attraction in London. Come early, and bring a book. Though truth be told, the cues in London maybe some of the longest I have ever encountered, they are also some of the fastest moving and most entertaining. The Crown Jewels, its all on extremely long line up, you just don't notice it due to the displays they have you file through, and they ask that certain things (such as photos and video cameras) be turned off. I know they need things not in the public domain to not be photographed, but I also believe its done for areas of high concentration of tourists in order to keep things moving. The best part is you hardly notice it at all.

But enough of that, lets start the day off with a few pictures of the castle. You leave the Tube station to get this view of the Tower.

Pretty cool, eh? Well I have to admit I thought it was cool too, not as cool as this...

Which is modern ruins on top of a Roman wall, you can tell by the red spacers! A crumbling wall! Awesome huh?

No?

All right then, feast yer eyes on this baby!

MORE RUINS! This time of a ruined watch tower! Oh the things you get to see (when you don't have to pay for them). What? Still not cool enough for going to the Tower of London?! Fine! Take a gander over at this....

See  that! That's a man in a very funny hat! I am kidding, this is Beef Eater, one of the Yeoman guard that lives in the castle, and whose job it is to guard the crown jewels. He was a very nice guy, and though I think he was thankful someone was asking to take his picture for once. I also thought this was pretty cool, in a kind of weird, dark sort of way.

That is Traitors Gate, the gate that prisoners would have to pass through before being lead to their respective cells. Its like seeing a viper with its teeth removed, it was once scary and foreboding, but has kind of lost its bite. The pond around the gate is now used by tourists to fling coins into, and the money is used to charity.

They also had sculptures of the various animals that had once been kept at the tower up until the 1830's I think, when they finally figured out that having free roaming animals and allowing people to pet the paws of animals might not be such a good idea. Seriously, it took several deaths from lions, tigers and bears before someone thought maybe not letting people "pet their paws" was a good idea. But I digress, you could find them all over the Castle.

Here are the lions at the ruined Lions Tower near the entrance. It was torn down once some one realized that the animals would be better suited to the London Zoo and that maybe visitors would be far more safe. I wish I was making that part up. Apparently at one point you could bring a live dog or cat to feed to the animals, which is kind of interesting. But a big feature of the whole display was to emphasize that many of the animals were gifts to the monarch from far away lands, and despite the best of intentions of the care takers, people did not know how to properly and safely care for the creatures. So while I am poking fun at the fact people were surprised when a lion attacked some one, it is understandable. These were creatures very few people had ever seen, and many were at a loss as too their true natures.

There was also a display on torture and torture devices. Along the wall you can enter different towers and see the different carvings they had made in the tower. Carvings like these.

Next after the wall walk, you get to check out (some) of the White Tower.

Inside was the Armory and it had lots of displays of Henry VIII's armor (which was huge), and weapons from different eras.

Best part though was this dude.

Random Hot Guy in uniform. He was not even working there! He was visiting the place. Ah yes my day, she is complete!

Until next time faithful readers.

Creepy crawly, grave pickers tongue remover

 I decided to do something unbearably cheesy toady, and went to an attraction known as the London Dungeons. As I was not able to take any pictures, it does mean that there are no pictures sadly. So I will give you some shots of London I did earlier in my trip. These ones are of the sun setting outside my hotel room.

The London Dungeons was hilarious. It was like a gigantic upscale carnival spook house. The actors wore gory paints, and acted very spooky. The crypt keeper walked around with a gigantic stick knocking on the floor. It was funny, cause the actors did not break out of character at all, and when a clueless patron (a blonde woman I had been behind of in line, she liked to threaten her bratty kids and swear at her husband) would not move she stood behind her chatting away nonsensically and banging her stick louder until she moved. Did not break character in the slightest. We were lead through the best mirror maze I have ever seen, allowing most of the group to psyche themselves out. One girl kept hitting her friend and saying "I hate you so much right now Jess!" the entire time. It was a good build up.

We met a body collector, and learned about the Great Fire of London. Where shuffled through burnt out buildings to a Sinister Surgeons table. The Surgeon spoke not a word, but gestured horrendously for us to get in place. She then grabbed the most squeamish person she could find to strap into a chair next to her, and we watched as an autopsy was performed (not on the person strapped in the chair, to the body strapped on the gurney next to her). She then performed "surgery" on the poor strapped in person (who was glaring furiously at their companions, methinks some one is getting smacked fore this).

Then we where shuffled off to the court and torture chambers. There were two Australians in the group, and I have to say, the more Australians I meet the more I want to see this country. I have never met an Australian without a wicked sense of humour. The Torture master seemed to sense this and grabbed the gentleman to sit strapped into his chair while he talked about torture devices.

"All right if this lot can guess what this device is for, I'll torture you. If they can't, then I'll torture you some more!" threatened the Torture Master as he danced around with what looked like a large set of thick iron pliers. "NOW! Can anyone tell me what this device is for?!"

Little boy in the group "Its for picking up sausages in front of them, then dropping them so they can't eat them."

Torture Master (laughs) "Out done by an 8 year old."

 The Torture Master was quite funny as he showed us ways of hanging people from hooks, and even danced around with a device for cutting off people's willies. "Its dull! So its more like 1...2....3 times a lady... if you know what I mean"

Then we were to be tried for our crimes against "God and Country!" in the high court. The other Australian, who also had a gorgeous sense of humour, was promptly accused of witchcraft and put up in the dock for it. The Torture Master exclaimed "She danced nekkid and hereby did move lustfully calling out the name "oh, Beelzebub" and calling upon her familiar! That man with the beard over there!" He pointed to the same poor man he had strapped into a chair earlier.

Judge "Ooh. Not a really good Familiar is it? You! Witch, how long have you been practicing witchcraft?!"

Australian woman "THREE YEARS YOUR HONOUR!"

Judge "Three years?! And this was the best you could do? My Dear, I am disappointed! SENTENCED TO DEATH!"


Torture Master "Well she is from Australia."

Judge "Oh? A repeat offender! SENTENCED TO DEATH!"

Best part came when a they put a girl in the docket and asked her to state her name and where she is from.

"Anna from Birmingham"

Judge "BIRMINGHAM! OH GUILTY GUILTY ALL OF THEM TAKE THEM AWAY. SENTENCED TO DEATH!"

We went on a boat ride next, as we were all condemned traitors now, they really should have a written warning about Birmingham cooties, and we went on a ride. I was by myself so I had to wait a bit before I could be seated, and I ended up at the front of the boat with the cutest little girl I have ever seen. She looked up at me and giggled as she said "I sold my sister! Mummy is in the back of the boat, she is really scared!"

Me "Don't worry, we will scream the loudest for everyone!"

Oh my she was hilarious! I can't say too much of what happens next as chances are I will give too much away about the ride. But it was a blast and as cheesy as I thought it was going to be. I love it incorporated Sweeney Todd (my favorite part of the experience), Jack the Ripper and seances afore we were all "hanged" at the end. I am glad I took the day off from museums and historical sights to enjoy a little bit of fun. Before I go though, I have on last picture for you all.

This is the picture of the Lion on the side of one of the bridges spanning over the River Thames (don't know the name of it, its not Tower Bridge or London Bridge though, and honestly there are like 50 bridges over the River Thames). It was right before the London Eye, and honestly this is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. Until next time!