Day Three of London, Amsterdam, Paris (part 2)

Saturday

After the National Gallery, we decided to walk north to the British Museum. Google Maps had it just under a mile. Unfortunately, after close to three hours of walking (hour and a half before the Gallery and another equal portion in the Gallery), it was a longer walk than we intended. Along the way, we passed through the theater district, full of flashing signs pushing upcoming plays. It was a fun, relaxing walk, though taxing for us (due to not being used to walking so much).

The British Museum

When we arrived at the Museum, there was another protest going on, one we had read about the night before, but there was no delay getting in. The size of the Museum is not to be trifled with. It's not the Louvre, but what is? But it is a massive building spanning thousands of years of human history. While the North American and Central American collections were a little thin (maybe because the British did less conquering in those areas?), the Greek and Roman collections were top notch. Of particular note was the room housing the collection brought from the Parthenon. Staggering.

The opening of the collection, The Enlightenment, was a massive, single-room gallery, lined with two story bookcases with glass fronts, featuring ancient books, stuff animals, artifacts, and busts. The amount on display was enough to lead me, a veteran museum goer, to just gloss over the whole thing. While I may have missed out on the particulars of the collection, the overall experience inspired me to think again about the men and women of the movement who took education and research to a new level, embracing knowledge from all fields. It was powerful in the effect, though I may have missed some of the specifics.

Lola and I discussed it after and she was struck with a similar feeling and her approach to the entire experience on this trip. "It was so much. Rather than photographing every item I see, I want to try and drink in the experience and come away with a richer experience." I mentioned my own past experience of trying to take a picture of every piece of art and information board. It led to nothing but a bunch of photo files that I deleted, I had no connection to them. So this trip, we're trying to limit our cataloging and focus on experiencing.

The only big miss from the British Museum was Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." The Museum owns one of the original prints but pulls it from display for long periods to help preserve the work. As you may have guessed, it was not on display during our visit. We had actually made a special trip to the 5th floor (though we were both fatigued at that point) to see if it was there. So we looked at some samurai armor and headed back down and out of the Museum. Total time there was around 2 hours, maybe a little longer. Day one to put two large museums might have been a mistake.

After leaving the British Museum, it was just after 2p. Too early to go to back to the apartment, too late to fit in something big, and either way we were both lagging on energy. We had also not eaten since breakfast and wouldn't until much later. I could tell Lola was worn out, but I also knew we were only here for four days, so I decided we'd head to The Tower of London. I didn't know much about the site, but also knew I didn't want to scratch it from the list.

We hopped on the Holborn underground and headed to Bank station. From there it was another half a mile. I cringed, thinking Lola might want to kill me, adding that much walking when we were already worn out, but she didn't say a negative word (she was probably just thinking them). We turned a corner and we could see the Tower peeking through the high rise buildings of the bustling downtown.

Massive. Everything was massive.

The Tower of London is an absolute must-see. I was blown away by the entire experience. When we arrived, we scanned in with our passes and the guy at the check in warned us that "you need 3 hours" and it would close in an hour and 45 minutes. While he might be right to see everything, I felt we got a full experience and exited as they were locking up.

When we got into the structure, we took the tour of the Crown Jewels, though no photography or cell phone use was allowed, so we have no proof. Take our word for it! The entire lead up to the reveal told the story of the items, showed videos of the Queen getting coronated, basically built you up to be impressed. The final room had swords and crowns galore, some going as far back as the 1600s. It was impressive. The final row of crowns were flanked by moving escalator-type walkways to keep the crowd moving around the central objects. It was pretty ingenious actually.

Where multiple ex-wives of Henry the 8th were beheaded.

Once out, Lola sat down on a bench and I volunteered to head into the White Tower (the armory) on my own. Thank god I did, the number of stairs would have led to my own beheading! The armory itself was again, absolutely stunning, armor from hundreds of years is on display, with full suits from specific kings, including Henry the 8th's massive codpiece. Along with the King's armor, there were horse armor on horse mannequins. Other rooms of the building had cannons, rifles, pistols, and a host of uniforms to see. It had at least four stories worth of items from the hundreds of years the castle has been in operation. The top story had a kid-themed approach, so I bailed pretty quickly on that.

As I exited the building, I noticed Lola wasn't on the bench I had left her on, so I started texting furiously. She didn't respond. I had a momentary freak out, but figured I was overreacting and waited for her to respond. Then she texted me back. She had gotten some ice cream, regardless of the cold weather, and hadn't seen my messages. She shared her ice cream with me, so all was well. We went into an exhibit that showed the graffiti carved into the walls by famous prisoners, then took a quick trip into Sir Walter Raleigh's holding cell. Above that, in the same building (called the Bloody Tower), there is a room that held two princes who are assumed to have been murdered by their uncle, Richard III, so he could take the throne. There was a presentation projected on the wall that was very well done and interesting. Lola had never heard the story and was super into it. I'm a history dork and was also VERY into it.

Sir Walter Raleigh's Study while imprisoned.

When we exited, we were headed to the exit and spotted a large raven. We got .a little obsessed taking pictures of it. Lola told me they feed them and keep them there on the grounds and have for hundreds of years. It was a BIG bird. We discovered a raven gift shop on the way out and bought some items, because how awesome is that?

After leaving the Tower we were pretty exhausted. The ice cream had helped but it was time to go to the apartment. On the way we popped into several churches. It's a passion of mine and Lola is letting me go crazy on it on this trip. We stopped at All Hallows by the Tower (supposedly the oldest church in London) and Saint Margaret Pattens Church of England. Both were impressive but simple. We spotted another, but we were both tired. We headed into the underground and headed back to Fulham.

Once home, we decided to go get a bite and headed to Fishers, a fish and chips place, just around the corner. The host had recommended it and wow, she was not wrong. Delicious food, great service, very authentic experience. We did get some stares from some older women eating there, we assume because our tattoos, but they left eventually and we ate just fine, thank you very much.

This evening, as I was writing this, Lola got ahold of Billie on Facetime, so we got to chat. She was raving about some sunglasses that made her look like Elsa and an LOL doll (her favorite recently). It was nice to see her so happy, but it made us miss her pretty badly. Eventually, I got out of the room so I wouldn't bring the mood down. I want her to be happy, no matter what.

- Dan