Westminster and St. Paul's!

On Monday morning, we met with Dr. Sawyers for our first class meeting and as usual, he bombarded us with information and gave us a whole list of things to do. Not quite ready to get into productivity mode, Sandy and I took the tube to Westminster and it is a sight to behold when you pop out of the station and poof! There’s Big Ben! We explored the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament Square before walking up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square (National Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Fields). We treated ourselves to a sit-down lunch at Garfunkel’s on Strand and then crossed the Thames on Waterloo Bridge and walked along the Queen’s Walk past Royal Festival Hall (under construction!) and the Aquarium before crossing back on Westminster Bridge. The afternoon is a little fuzzy, I know we found Lloyd’s of London, the Swiss Re Headquarters, and the Tower of London (but will have to take the tour some other day). Somehow we stumbled upon Hawksmoor’s Christ Church and the Spitalfields Market while lost and looking for the way to get home – the London A-Z street map was definitely a good investment because the streets here are a confusing maze, to say the least. This was another 10 mile day on our feet! (The picture above is looking at the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral from the next street over.)

I slept late on Tuesday and spent the day by myself walking through Kensington Gardens and along Kensington High Street. Then I took the tube to Victoria Station and went looking for Buckingham Palace. Tuesday was another sunny day (we’ve been so lucky!) so I spent some time sitting around the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of the Palace commiserating with some of the other tourists. Walked across Green Park, which is really quite lovely, up to Piccadilly Street to the Ritz, and Old Bond Street. I love how I keep stumbling upon these things I’ve seen pictures of or read about in books – I’ll turn my head and there’s Burlington Arcade or the Royal Academy. As the sun was starting to set, I took the tube home to meet Jolie to go to St. Paul’s for nightly evensong at 5:00. This is the best way to see the Cathedral because not only do you get to be inside the building for free, you get to sit in the choir and listen to the acoustics for an hour! The Gentlemen of the Cathedral choir was wonderful and the service (a series of lessons, psalms, a hymn and an anthem) lasted about an hour. It’s a gorgeous, awe-inspiring building with a reverb time of close to 7 seconds -- I can say now that I have sung at St. Paul’s. Taking the tube home afterwards was very crowded; Notting Hill Gate station is where we make the change to the Circle Line and it is frequently a bit like a stampede getting on and off the train.

We finally got heat in the hostel but now it’s too hot and we can’t turn it down so I guess we just can’t win. We’re learning to do the “American Shuffle” back and forth between the cold and hot water faucets since they’re separate although I still get a chuckle out of watching people cursing and trying to wash dishes under the scalding hot water that comes out. And there is so much food in our little refrigerator in the studio room that half of it falls out every time we open the door so it has become a juggling game to try to catch it all before it falls to the floor. I’m still eating a lot of Tesco sandwiches (yummy and cheap!) and yes mom, I’m getting plenty of fruit. Today I’m hoping to find a place to do laundry – I’m sure that will be an adventure, too. We are going to a lecture about Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas tonight at the Architecture Association in Bedford Square. The pedometer currently reads 31.09 miles walked since last Friday. More to come!