London Trip - Day 2

Like I said yesterday, these posts are excerpts from emails I sent to Henry so they were written as the day happened and will sound that way.

Big Ben! (Or, more accurately, the tower that houses Big Ben, which is the name of the bell.)

Today we went to Westminster Abbey and went on a tour. It was so amazing. There are so many incredibly famous and historical people buried there. I saw the tombs of Henry III, V, VII, and VIII (and probably others) Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, Mary Queen of Scots, Edward VI, and so many more. It was amazing. That building is so cool. Also, Edward Longshanks, Edward the Confessor, and more. We saw the coronation chair that has been used in every coronation since 1050 or something like that. We also saw the oldest door in Britain (that's definitely from 1050 so maybe the chair is from 13something). I touched the door. I don't think I was supposed to. But it was really old. I also took a couple of illicit pictures in the Abbey. I got one of Charles Darwin's grave and Queen Elizabeth's. There's no way I couldn't get one of Elizabeth. There was a really amazing ceiling in the Henry VII chapel that I got a postcard of. The picture doesn't do it justice, but you'll get a good idea anyway.

Westminster Abbey, the side entrance.

Henry V tomb in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin's tomb in Westminster.

Blurry picture of Elizabeth's tomb. Sneaky pictures do not equal clear pictures.

Britain's oldest door - 1050.

Ceiling of the Henry VII chapel in Westminster that I snagged from the Internet.

After that, we watched the changing of the guard. It was really crowded and we didn't get a great view, but I'd seen it the last time I was here so I was ok with it. It was fun to see Buckingham palace and King James palace. Then we went to Trafalgar Square and I had never been there before. That's the one with the big statue of Admiral Lord Nelson and the big lions. My friend Isabel and I climbed up on the lions and got some pictures. For one, I have my hand in the lion's mouth and am making a horrified face, like he's eating my harm. I'm hilarious. It was actually hard to climb up there. They don't have stairs. Probably because they don't want you climbing up there. Oh well. Everyone and their dog was doing it. And how many times do you get to climb on lion statues?

Mauled by a lion in Trafalgar Square.

We had lunch in crypt cafe - under a church where the crypt is (was?), they have a cafe and it was really good food. After lunch, we went to the National Portrait Gallery where all the official portraits hang for lots of people. We went to the Tudor room and saw portraits of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Parr, Mary Tudor, Edward 6, Elizabeth, Dudley (her man friend - virgin queen my ass), Walsingham (her most trusted councilor), Shakespeare, Mary Queen of Scots, etc. That was super awesome. Then we went to the National Gallery, but I wasn't super stoked about that. I just don't know that much about art so none of it meant that much. It did make me think of the Thomas Crown Affair though and I was on the lookout for a man in a bowler hat. I didn't see any. I think I'll have to go back though - I believe they have some really famous pieces of art in there (Monet, Van Gogh) so maybe I'll figure out where those are and go see them. The museums are free so it doesn't matter if you go in for ten minutes, or whatever. So that's cool. Tonight we are going to see our first play, Mies Julie, which is an adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. It is being adapted to take place in modern day South Africa instead of turn of the century Sweden, so I'm really excited to see how that alters the class tensions that are present in the original play.


Current voice - the play was incredible. It was very edgy and something I had never seen on the stage before. The class issues were converted to race issues which can be significantly more volatile. They brought a lot of dance style movement into the play and violence was brought to the forefront. The relationship between the two main characters (there are only 3 characters in this play) was volatile, passionate, and complicated. I remember one of my thoughts during the play was sympathy for the actors who had to act such intense roles on a nightly basis. I can't emphasize enough how intense this play was. It contained violence, (simulated) sex, suicide, and nudity. While it sounds awful, each decision served to emphasize the story and importance of the message in the adaptation. It's a performance that will stay with me forever.