It’s almost difficult to believe I’ve already been in London a full seven days. It feels like we’ve been all over the city, when in reality, we’ve barely scratched the surface. We had beautiful weather on Monday for our four mile walk on the River Thames – Clear, blue skies, with temperatures in the low 40’s. I managed to get to the meeting point about 30 minutes early to walk around the area to get a feel for where we’d be walking, and managed to snap one of several photos to come of Tower Bridge (We met directly on Tower Bridge, facing West towards London Bridge).
Our walk took us along the South side of the Thames, from the London Tower to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and over the Millennium Bridge (Seen in the beginning of the sixth Harry Potter installment), where we crossed to the North side of the Thames and proceeded. On the North side of the Thames, we passed the London Eye, The Globe Theater, and eventually crossed over the Westminster Bridge (Some scenes in 28 Days Later), where we found ourselves at Parliament.
Tuesday was a bit more laid back in terms of group tours. I took the Bakerloo line from Kilburn all the way to it’s final stop at Elephant and Castle where I located the music venue, The Ministry of Sound, where some good acts will be later this weekend. Hopping back on Bakerloo, I took the underground back up to Queen’s Park, the last stop before I have to transfer to elevated trains, which my travel Oyster card does not cover. I wandered around (unintentionally) Queen’s Park for about 30-45 minutes before making my way back to Kilburn and the flats. The afternoon was an afternoon well-spent while exploring. Tuesday evening had us at the New London Theater to see the performance of War Horse, which was stunning.
On Wednesday, the 18th, the group took the underground/DLR to Greenwich, which was really fascinating. The “downtown” district there is nowhere near as tourist-oriented as, say, Piccadilly or Covent Gardens, but it was nonetheless enjoyable to walk around. I found a small record store in Greenwich where I was able to pick some excellent music and was clued in on where the hip record stores are located around the city. The one aspect of Greenwich that I found the most interesting was the Royal Observatory, the location of the Prime Meridian as well as the four original clocks developed by John Harrison used to tell time at sea. It’s located up on this massive hill that overlooks the rest of London, the Thames, and Greenwich. I’ll definitely try to get back to Greenwich when I’m able.
Tomorrow and Friday will be pretty standard. We start our Theater 100 course tomorrow, and will continue with our British Life & Culture class as well. It’s getting to be that time where I need to begin doing some research regarding my independent study, because I’ve been pushing that back for the past few days. The sooner I get my first paper for that out of the way, the better. I hope to get another chance to write once the weekend is over.
We listen to the radio. It's better than the stereo. 