Like I said, the fam arrived in London and I met them at Liverpool Street Station. It was a very warm day so we just wandered around the city seeing some of the sights. We started off at the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge before crossing over the bridge to walk along the South Bank. We needed to dodge groups of students which is extremely frustrating and is something I must deal with all the time in Ox. We walked along the South Bank to Borough Market, one of my favorite place in London, and got some lunch there. My mom and sister were not very hungry so they went with a croissant and brownie (clearly healthy options were not considered) while my dad and I went for a sandwich. I had one of game (supposedly boar and veal) cooked with apricots and red wine whereas my dad had lamb cooked with coriander and something else that I can't remember. They were quite delicious. From Borough Market we continues to the Globe Theatre. Youval and I commented on the fact that the Globe is a tetradecagon and then realized we are total nerds. Not because of the fact that know what the proper term for a 14 sided figure is, not the fact that we know that the Globe has 14 sides, but the fact that we learned this information from Doctor Who. Yes, feel free to point and laugh.
After the Globe we crossed the Thames on the Millenium footbridge and went up to St Paul's cathedral. From there we decided we didn't want to walk any more so we rode on the top of a double-decker (and melted while onboard because of how hot it was) to Trafalgar Square. There we went into the National Gallery and saw the Impressionist paintings, mine and my mom's favorite. Again Youval and I Doctor Who geeked out with the Van Gogh paintings because of his lovely guest appearance this past season. From Trafalgar we walked through the Admiralty Arch and down the Mall to Buckingham Palace then around and into St James Park. We sat and relaxed in the shade there, Youval sneaking a little nap, and enjoyed the lovely breeze. From there we walked to Parliament Square which was covered in a tent city protesting something involving war or something or other. Don't know exactly what but it sort of killed the atmosphere a bit.
We then got on the Tube and rode to Picadilly Circus, got out and looked at it, then got back on the Tube to Covent Garden. After wandering around the market a bit we got some 99 Flake, the fam's first introduction to it (not the best but its never bad so it was good) and then we got back on the EXTREMELY CROWDED tube to go back to Liverpool Street Station. We left my parents there and grabbed our suitcases, heading off to Queens Theatre to see Les Miserables!!!!!!!!!
Our reasons for Les Mis were twofold. First of all, it is my ALL TIME FAVORITE musical and is in its 25th year on the West End and I would see it many many many many times if the opportunity arose. Secondly, Nick Jonas was playing Marius and while I am not really a Jonas Brothers fan, I was quite curious as to how he would perform. As always, the show was AMAZING. There is no better adjective for it than "epic" and it didn't disappoint. Nick was quite good, way way way better than the girl playing Cosette, which was a slight disappointment, but he was a pleasant surprise. From the theatre we headed to Paddington and then home to Ox. It was a long long day but a good one.
The next morning we headed off to Cardiff. While most people wouldn't choose to go to Cardiff on a trip to England, we are not most people. Again, we went to Cardiff for one reason and one reason only: Doctor Who. Doctor Who is filmed in Cardiff (as is the spinoff Torchwood) and there is a large "Doctor Who Up Close" exhibition there with tons of props and exhibits from the show. Because we needed to do something touristy we went to Caerphilly Castle, the largest in Wales and one of the largest in Great Britain. The castle was recently refurbished and it is really a great place to go to see what British castles used to be like. There was a wedding being set up and so Youval added "getting married in a castle" to her list of things to do in her life.
After Caerphilly we headed back to Cardiff and went down to the Bay for some Doctor Who. The exhibition is SUPER COOL and, according to Youval, was "the coolest thing ever." We spent quite a while in the gift shop and Youval decided to get an 11th Doctor and Amy poster for her dorm room. Her roommate is going to think she is some crazy person who likes stupid tv shows and is marginally obsessed with an English football club. We were tempted to buy the lifesize cardboard cutout of the Doctor or Captain Jack, and were very tempted to buy the lifesize inflatable Dalek, but we restrained ourselves.
While we were walking around the bay pointing out various places that are featured in the show (like the Millenium Centre or the Rift) we were walking towards a restaurant that they eat in in the Boomtown episode and I was going to point out the entrance to Torchwood (I'm sorry if this means nothing to you. Fell free to skip ahead past the next picture). Before I could point out the entrance, however, it was very clear where the entrance was because it was COVERED with cards and flowers and photos and posters. A bit of background: one year ago Torchwood ran a 5 part mini-series called Children of the Earth. In this mini-series, the beloved character of Ianto Jones, a fan favorite who also happened to be dating the show's main character, was killed. This prompted a fan run petition to the writer of the show to "Brink back Ianto Jones". Acting as if the character were real, people went to the Torchwood entrance and left tributes to Ianto as they would have to an actual person who dies. A FULL YEAR LATER, these are STILL THERE and some of them are new. People are STILL LEAVING TRIBUTES TO A FICTIONAL CHARACTER. This made me feel a lot better about my level of obsession with Doctor Who and made me realize that in comparison, I really do have a life.
From Cardiff we went down to Exeter in the hopes of heading across the Dartmoor the next morning. We went to the bus station to catch the bus across the Moor and waited. And waited. And waited with the crowd of people that had gathered to wait for the 82 Transmoor Link. That never came. So we were pretty disappointed that we didn't get to see the moor. So we decided to head back to Ox, through Reading, and check out the Museum of Reading which has a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry (from William the Conquerers Battle of Hastings 1066, as Youval's Mrs Millers automatic response was). It was pretty cool and we basically took enough pictures of it to recreate the tapestry.
We then went back to Ox, wandered around a little, drank smoothies in the Exeter Fellows Garden which looking at Radcliffe Square, then escaped from the heat back to my house. We hung around the house waiting for the World Cup final (WOOHOO) and then watched the match with Ian, Alex, Neal, Hila, Kim, and Si. We were STOKED that Spain won, even though Fernando got hurt, but we're going to look on the bright side and say that maybe now people won't want to buy him and he'll stay at Liverpool and recover from the injury and score tons and tons of goals for us. Also, we were VERY happy that Villa and Sjneider didn't score because it means that Muller won the Golden Boot! All in all a great result (even though I'm pretty sure Xabi Alonso will have a boot imprint on his chest the rest of his life).This morning we got on a train to the one and only Liverpool! So exciting! We didn't get seats for the first leg of the trip which was annoying and uncomfortable but it went quickly and soon enough we were in Liverpool. We dropped our bags at the hostel and went exploring. We tried to go to the Liverpool Cathedral but there was a graduation ceremony for John Moores University there so we couldn't go in.
We went down to the docks and explored the Albert Dock. We saw the Tate Liverpool and some statues that will soon be in the Museum of Liverpool once it is completed. We ate our lunch on a bench looking across the Mersey and fought with the pigeons that were circling trying to steal out food. We then went to the Merseyside Maritime Museum and Slavery Museum. We looked at some really cool exhibits including one that talked about the shipwrecks of the Titanic, the Lusitania, and the Empress of Ireland, all which happened between 1912 and 1915 and had direct ties to Liverpool. Also in the museum was a great exhibit about the War of the Atlantic in WWII and a cool interactive exhibit about the Customs and Revenue service. We managed to catch a smuggling ship in the cool video game thing they had. We were really proud of ourselves...We then went to Liverpool One, a huge new shopping centre right on the river. They have an LFC store and Youval wanted a jacket so it was, again, an exercise in self control. She got a really cool red jacket that will serve well as a raincoat next year in Denver and I managed to not spend anything and control myself admirably.... The new jerseys are growing on me, if anyone is curious.
From the museum we wandered a little more, checking out some other buildings along the river and seeing a cool exhibit on the "Lambananas", these statues that look like lambs with bananas for tails that are all around Liverpool. I prefer the name "Bananalamba" but I don't get to name these things.
We then ate dinner at Cafe Sports England, the restaurant owned by Jamie Carragher. The inside was decorated with tons of pictures of sports in Liverpool, including Liverpool FC, Everton FC, and other sports as well. The atmosphere was family friendly and had lots of character, and while were were really tempted to order Penne Carragher, it had mayonnaise in the pasta sauce so we decided against it. The food was really good and it looked like an amazing place to go watch sports and eat food. Too bad Jamie didn't show up....
After dinner we wandered a little more, checking out the Cavern Club where the Beatles were discovered and then performed. There is a lot of Beatles stuff in and around Liverpool but it seems that, for the most part, people are just trying to cash in on the Beatles and the love that people have for them.
We then headed back to the hostel and got into our room. We are SUPER SUPER excited about going to Anfield tomorrow, even though we can only do the stadium mini-tour. Tomorrow afternoon we say goodbye (for now, but I'll be back) to Liverpool and head off to Newcastle. More to come in a few days!!
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