Amongst the Writers and Actors

    It feels so good to be back in London town. The weather here was so nice today, and I love the whole feeling of this city. Rome was nice in it’s own way, but this is definitely my city. It also felt good to get back into the swing of things here. I’ve grown accustomed to the dynamics here that I have with my two roommates and our large group. That being said, this wasn’t the most typical sort of day. Usually we have classes Monday mornings but today we all met up at the Tower of London instead. Brett bought a big group pass to the tower so we all met up at 10:00 to head in to see the grounds. It was fun to see everyone from the program again. It’s funny, because it had only really been a week since we had seen each other, but when you are so used to seeing one another almost every day, it’s odd going for a period of time without talking with anyone. I had a great conversation with George’s wife Leslie. She is so nice and has been acting like the Mom of the group. We have some great people on this trip!

    When we were all admitted into the Tower grounds we were given free reign of the place. I split off with Dallin, Ben, Sarah, and Tracy and we beelined for the Royal Jewels. The line can get pretty nasty for those and we wanted to make sure we could get those taken care of right away! I’d seen the jewels once before, but when I was here the previous time many of them had been removed for unknown reasons. Today we managed to beat the lines and make our way through pretty quickly and all the jewels were accounted for this time! It’s pretty insane to see how decked out some of the items in the collection are. They are covered in diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and all sorts of shiny things. The exhibit also included a video of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. It was a fun exhibit to go through, and something i recommend to all those people who like shiny things. 

Outside view of the Tower

Good morning London! I love you!

Also, Tower Bridge, another favorite

Royal Jewels are hidden away in there

Excited

    The Tower of London is an interesting place to visit and it has quite a few different things to see. There’s the Royal Jewels, the Armory, a small war museum, old torture chambers, an exhibit about the Royal Family Zoo that used to be in the tower, and an assortment of other places to see. I mostly just love the feeling of the tower and that once you get past the main walls, it’s like you’ve been cut off from the rest of London and have a small space where it almost feels like we’ve stepped into the past. Except for the hordes of tourists with cameras. I’m always mildly fascinated by the ravens of the Tower. The belief is that there must be six ravens in the tower of London at all times, though there are sometimes some in reserve. The ravens are said to protect the Crown and there is actually a superstition that says, "If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it”. No pressure on the little guys. Today four of the ravens were in their cages while two of them were wandering the grounds. Their wings are clipped so they can’t fly, and they are definitely not afraid of humans. They got really close and I loved them! They even have names (Hardey, Thor, Odin, Gwyllum, Cedric, Hugine and Munin). I wanted them to be my friends, but they were more interested in finding some food. 

My old friend Keeper the Dragon

Interactive displays are our favorite. 

Have I mentioned that I love Tower Bridge?

Exploring the grounds

Things went downhill when they locked me up. :(

Do you think I could get a pet raven?

    After exploring the tower of London my little group recruited Chelsea and we went to a restaurant located on Fleet Street called Ye Olde Chesire Cheese. It’s an incredibly old building that was built in 1667 that has actually played host to many famous authors throughout the years. Some that stood out to me were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens. It’s so fascinating because there are several different rooms in the pub/restaraunt and each of them have a different menu that serves food that sort of reflects the authors or certain time periods that were associated with that space. We were led into one of the “larger rooms”. By large they meant that it had about five tables inside. I started geeking out when I saw a plaque indicating the seat that Charles Dickens would always sit at when he frequented the pub. My group didn’t get to sit at that table, but I still went over and sat down for just a moment anyways. Charles and I are pals now. The whole atmosphere of the place was quite fun as it was a very old building. The wood on the floors and walls was very warped, and our seats were tiny benches that were definitely old as well. The rooms were lit by candles and the floors were covered with wood and cheese shavings. The food was not very expensive but was incredibly good and our service was top notch as well. I always feel that the waiters could be much better here in London, but I was quite impressed by our nice waitress. I think that since this is such a tourist attraction they must be used to the needs of peculiar Americans. 

    After our delicious lunch I went back to the flats to take a nap. It feels like no matter how much I sleep these days I am just exhausted! We cram so much into each day. It’s so tiring, but I really would not have it any other way. It was a very brief nap and once I woke up I was ready to jump right back into things.

Another view of the city

Offices of Law on Fleet Street 

This is where Charles Dickens liked to sit 

I was excited 

A quick look at the delicious food

   I threw me off when I realized I did not see any plays last week, unlike the other weeks where we saw many. We remedied that tonight by going to see the play, Blithe Spirit. It was an incredible production, and the highlight was that the play featured Angela Lansbury! The play tells the story of a couple that invite a psychic over for a seance. During the seance the man’s dead ex-wife is summoned and her spirit then begins to haunt their home. It’s actually a very funny play despite the sort of macabre subject matter and content. Angel Lansbury played the psychic and she was incredibly fun! The moment her character came on stage the audience erupted with applause. I was so enamored with her the entire time. She wasn’t on stage the whole time, but her character was pretty heavily featured. I just smiled the whole time she was there. I think we were all completely starstruck by her. The production was great and the whole cast really was great. The main character, Charles, is actually played by another person that some might recognize. His name is Charles Edwards and he plays Edith’s love interest, Michael Gregson, in Downton Abbey. He was also quite excellent and I was quite surprised when he initially came on stage as well. I thought, “I know that man! How do I know that man!? Oh wait! It’s that man!” The play was very well done by all of the cast and when the show was over and Dame Lansbury came out for bows the whole audience stood on their feet and applauded. She smiled and was so adorable. It’s so incredible that at the age of 88 she is still acting and doing it so well. Her character, Madam Arcati, was quite peculiar and sauntered all over the stage and she handled it perfectly. I feel so fortunate that I got to see her perform, and in such a fun production.

The leading man of the show, as seen in Downton Abbey. 

 A view of the Theatre