“Why, ” said the Dodo, “the best way to explain it is to do it.” – Lewis Carroll
I have a deep love of British museum placards, they often go for funny. Once, in the North, my family went to a museum about Roman Britain along Hadrian’s Wall. There was a skull on showcase there that once belonged to a Celt who had been decapitated by the Roman garrison. The placard read something to the effect “remains of one of the revolting northern tribes.” To this day I haven’t figured out if that was meant to be a political or personal description.
“At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.”
~ Paul Freund
This was our day to be Very Serious, kittens, since it was sort of the point of the whole trip. We spent almost the whole day in Covent Garden with only a few meanderings into Soho.
Getting dressed for the occasion.The director offers a few words of last minute advice.Done.
I’m unbelievably proud of that guy. He worked incredibly hard, and it wasn’t a fun nine months, but it paid off.
“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I
On our third day in London (my true love gave to me..) we spent most of the day in Southwark before taking in a museum and celebrating our anniversary a couple weeks late with dinner and another show.
We did Borough Market, which everyone really should check out if they get the chance. It can be a bit touristy, but the quality of goods sold there (to say nothing of the ambiance) is worth it. You’ll get produce that most places don’t stock (such as cilantro and plain black beans, necessities in the Small Dog household), plus any number of artisan goods.
For me, the breakfast of champions.J. required a bit more……alright, a lot more. Yes, that is an entirely separate sandwich.
Borough Market really can be summed up best in pictures so here’s a few more for you to drool over, minions:
Hungry yet? So were we. We grabbed some quick bites and wandered through Southwark along the Thames, past shops, and generally enjoyed ourselves before heading off to the Imperial War Museum and wandering through Lambeth.
This is another freebie, but again, I encourage donations. The front hall of the museum is a wanna-be soldier’s dream, stuffed with aircraft, artillery, and transports from the major wars of this century. There are all sorts of rotating exhibits, we took in one that chronicled a single family’s experience with WWII and the blitz, and another about MI5 and MI6 and other secret operatives from the 20th century. Great stuff!
We rounded off the night with an anniversary dinner at Kopapa in Covent Garden, which is definitely worth a look in if your around for a show. They have a great pre-theatre menu, but their normal menu is incredibly good. It’s a small plates restaurant, so you order several dishes and tuck in. Psst! Order the Crema Catalana for desert!
For our show we saw The 39 Steps, an comedic adaptation of Hitchcock’s film where 130 speaking roles are performed by only four actors. Check out the trailer on the site to get a taste of how they managed to pull this off, because it’s absolutely brilliant! Simple but hilarious special effects, classic British stiff upper lip, puns and allusions to other Hitchcock works, and even a cameo by Hitchcock (wouldn’t you like to know how they manage that!), this is a definite must see. Hysterically funny!
The show was at the Criterion Theatre, right on Piccadilly Circus itself and just steps away from the tube station. It was built in the 1870 and is an underground theatre, which during its construction was problematic as theatres of the day were lit by gas and let off toxic fumes. Luckily electricity showed up in the 1880s.
“I smell of rain, the ocean, and crêpes with lemon.” – Les chansons d’amour (2007)
Just around the corner from the South Kensington tube station on Exhibition Road is a tiny little gem of a restaurant, the Kensington Crêperie.
As you may have guessed the specialize in crêpes, and all of them are delicious. They also have specialty drinks (may I personally recommend the mint lemonade?) and in house made ice creams.
Most of the seating is outdoors, and lucky for us the weather was lovely.
The crêpes can be made with different flours, there are sweet and savory crêpes than work for every meal, and the ingredients are always fresh.
J., who needs to be fed every couple of hours, had already snagged his second or third meal of the day, and only needed a slight treat to get him through One Man Two Guvnors, so he had a Crêpes Suzette. I was famished and got a Tartiflette Galette, stuffed with potatoes, bacon, cheeses, and a cream, onion, and white wine sauce. Hearty and delicious!
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner is served!
The Crêperie is open seven days a week, minus the major winter holidays, and often will stay open until midnight if people are still lining up to buy. The prices are very reasonable (between £3 and £9) and the portions are plenty big enough. The savory crêpes usually contain at least four food groups, so don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just a place for a light brunch, you can get a lovely meal here and bask in the general splendor of one of London’s priciest and prettiest areas.
The Natural History Museum, the V&A, Kensington High Street (with fabulous shopping), Kensington Palace, the Royal Albert Hall, and Hyde Park are all just a stroll away, and you’re only a few tube stops from most of the major sites in London. So, no excuses darlings.
“The most wonderful thing in life is to be delirious and the most wonderful kind of delirium is being in love. In the morning mist, hazy and amorous, London was delirious. London squinted as it floated along, milky pink, without caring where it was going.” ― Yevgeny Zamyatin, Islanders And, The Fisher Of Men
We made it out of bed in surprisingly good time and hotfooted it down to Houghton Street to pick up our tickets for the graduation ceremony. And then, by damn it was time to shop!
We shopped around Leicester Square (more on that later) and Piccadilly, and bought tickets to the shows we wanted to see. Because if you’re in London, darlings you must see some shows. Minions failing to do so will be sacked.
We went to the Natural History Museum in Kensington, just down the road from the Victoria and Albert Museum which we decided to skip since we’ve both been there. The Smithosonian in D.C. is, I think, superior to the NHM but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stuffed with interesting things. Some really fantastic fossils in particular!
Currently the main exhibit is Animal Inside Out, which is like the Bodies exhibit that made the tours a few years ago. Animals are put through a plastination process to show the various functions of the body. It’s weird enough without being gruesome to keep kids interested, and plenty fascinating for everyone else. Its not a free exhibit, but since the rest of the museum is, it’s well worth checking out. Photos not allowed, alas!
Credit where credit is due, though. The exterior beats the Smithsonian into the ground. This is only one wing.This fossil was discovered by Lyme Regis by Mary Anning, an early fossil hunter who (despite being female in Victorian England) contributed much of the founding work of paleontology. Her work was also key to Darwin and other evolutionary theorists.*
After the museum, I took J. to one of my favorite eateries in Kensington, but you’ll have to wait to hear more about that later. The suspense, kittens!
Our repast devoured we collected our shopping finds and made our way to the West End to see One Man Two Guvnors at the Royal Haymarket Theatre. This comedy first came to our attention last Autumn when we were getting J. settled for school because the lead role was played by James Corden (who might be J.’s favorite guest star on Dr. Who ever). Sadly he’s no longer in the role, but Owain Arthur was fantastic!
Most London theatres are magnificent, Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian illusions. They always seem unbelievably small when you first walk into them, the stairs are dangerously narrow, the wooden seats are crammed in tight with no leg room at all… all of which you instantly forget the moment the curtain rises.
It was uproariously funny, a classic British sort of comedy mixed coerced audience participation, continual breaking of the fourth wall in hilarious ways, a live band, and screaming laughter all around. See it if you get the chance, our sides hurt coming out of the theatre!
The Haymarket Theatre is the third oldest theatre still operating in London, and has been around since 1720, though the current building and location date from the 1820s. It’s also responsible for introducing the matinee performance. Making tickets cheaper since 1873!
There are lots of ticketing sales booths, particularly around Leicester Square, but they aren’t always the best places to get tickets. Often the theatres offer student discounts, and like I said matinee tickets are a fabulous way to see a show for less (and to leave your evenings free for other shows, dining, or general goofing off). There are also a plethora of websites that do pop up deals (here’s a good one). Bottom line, to see a show in London, do your research. Know what you’re interested in seeing and shop around in person (seriously, take the time to compare prices at the theatres, sales booths, etc.) and online.
“I know all about you. You’re the people waiting on the shoreline with the warm towels and the hot chocolate after the woman swims the English Channel.” – Gwen Moore
Just across the street from the Inns of Court on Fleet Street is a small, unassuming coffee and tea shop that you must visit if you get the chance. Modern though it is, it’s like most London shops in that while the innards have changed, the space allocated to them is straight out of the Middle Ages – tiny. Good things, as our mottos goes, come in small packages, ducklings.
Scrumptious eats.
You can buy proper tea here, loose leaf and brewed, and they have lots of their own combinations to choose from as well as a few private tea companies’ offerings.
Drink Me.
The real treat though is the hot chocolate. European hot chocolate is a totally different animal than the processed, sugar heavy packeted stuff you get in the States. It’s usually made with real chocolate pieces to start, melted into milk and cream. In Belgium I never had a pot of chocolate that I didn’t have sweeten myself with real sugar, and most prefer a minimum thereof. You can find plenty of sugary, processed brews if that’s what gets you through the day, but everyone should have real hot chocolate at some point. And if you can have it in London, so much the better! At Get Coffee, you can choose your degree of cocoa saturation. J. and I chose the 72% dark chocolate. And it was magnificent.
Seriously. If you’re in town, try it. You’ll thank me later.
“I don’t know what London’s coming to — the higher the buildings the lower the morals.” ― Noël Coward, Collected Sketches and Lyrics
This week the Small Dog team brings you tales of travel, tips for tourists, personal recommendations, show reviews, and lots of pictures of food from our sojourn in London. Today, our first day in town:
We arrived in the morning and determined to stay up all day, all the better to get on a new sleep cycle, my dear. Luckily, J. lived just off the Piccadilly Line, which conveniently runs all the way to Heathrow airport, so when we arrived we just hopped on the tube. After dropping everything off at his place, we jumped back on and headed into central London.
And I managed to take pictures, kittens! No one is more surprised than me (although looking through them I’m realizing how many more I should have taken). I’ll never be a photographer.
Our first stop was the Soane Museum which is mere minutes away from LSE and is just one of the hundreds of small, less well known museums in the city. The entire thing is the private collection of Sir John Soane – one of those glorious Englishmen who stockpiled things that interested him! Pictures were prohibited, alas, but if you’re ever in town, go and see it. It’s completely free (but I encourage you to donate any spare change in your pockets to it’s maintenance, as it survives entirely on such charity and government grants), and they only let in small parties at a time.
The whole thing is a magnificent hodgepodge of antiquities: busts, chunks of Grecian reliefs, medieval figurines, the pure alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, Hogarth’s original Rake’s Progress paintings, and (most hilariously of all), a mausoleum to his wife’s dog with the inscription, “Alas, poor Fanny!”
A print from 1864 showing the sarcophagus room surrounded by other antiquities, all of which are still in the exact same arrangement today. Minus the people in the funny clothes (although it must be said that some tourists are upholding tradition on that account…)*
Our next stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral since J. had never been there. There’s been a church on this site for over a thousand years, and this is only the latest incarnation. Courtesy of Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire, it’s massive. At J.’s insistence, we climbed to the top of thing (heavily jet lagged, please recall), going up more stairs and through narrow passages than I could count. If you’re up to the physical challenge, it’s well worth the views – both of the surrounding city, and to the cathedral floor several hundred feet below. J. smacked his head on a few low Restorationist ceilings, clearly not meant for six foot tourists, but other than that, no casualties.
He insisted on documenting me, sans makeup and heavily jetlagged. Jerk.
The views are incredible. You can take in all the major tourist traps in one go if you walk all the way around the top of the dome:
The Houses of Parliament and the London Eye…The Tower of London and Tower Bridge…and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
After climbing the heights, we sunk to the depths and went through the crypts, which are equally interesting for any history nerd. Both Wellington and Nelson are buried there, as well as many other great British figures.
St. Paul’s isn’t free if you’re doing the tourist bit: it’s £15 for an adult and £5 for a child (although if any of you are going to be in town for the summer, the Olympics seem to be causing a rate lowering!), but it’s well worth the money. You get an audio/video guide with lots of information on the art, history, construction, and cool stories about the cathedral’s past. It’s got Queen Victoria, surviving the London Blitz, and up through Charles and Di’s marriage, if that’s your cup of tea. There are frequent guest performances from choirs that perform during the tourist hours free of charge, one was there when we were visiting, so we plunked down in some seats and enjoyed the show.
If you’d like to go for free, they don’t charge admission for worship services and you can enjoy Evensong for free as well, but you won’t get to wander around the church or see the sights when it’s functioning in its ecclesiastical capacities. Which is as it should be, quite frankly.
After that, thoroughly exhausted, we stumbled home and collapsed into a single person bed – which made sleeping a ridiculous complicated affair, but hey, we like cuddling.
*The sarcophagus of Seti I at Sir John Soane’s Museum, Illustrated London News, 1864 (obtained from Wikipedia).
** All other photos are my own
“So what are you doing next Friday night?” “What have you got in mind?” “We could try hitting each other with cars,” she suggested cheerfully. – Josephine Angelini, Starcrossed
Just making it through the end of the week, minions, and then it’s off to London next Monday to get J. wrapped up in robes and officially done with grad school! We’ll try to keep up with updates and pictures, but frankly you know how good the Small Dog clan is at that. I can’t wait to be back in the city!
It makes me this happy!
In the meantime, well-beloved kittens, here are some links. Let me know what you’ve been up to this summer! Has it been crazy like ours, or something more mellow and serene, sitting on porches and drinking iced tea?
Huh. I snack in my free time, but you know. Whatever. Show off.
Joanna Goddard, the fabulous blogger over at A Cup of Jo, and a former writer for Glamour magazine (among other publications) has done another work/life balance series about modern working women and motherhood. There’s some good perspectives there, go check it out.
You may have heard a bit about that damned elusive (Pimpernel!) Higgs Boson/God Particle this week, here’s a short documentary about the search for it.
I like to think I’d last a couple days, but deep in my heart, I know that dropped into the desert I’m a goner. Unlike this gentleman.
Here is a fabulous podcast that traces a creative lineage from Dickens to Geico. Don’t believe me? Check it out.
Alright, can we all just agree that these are great?
I am a good bad influence friend, ducklings, and I found you another place to spend money. Lots of things are cute in this shop but I particularly love the Alice in Wonderland themed racks and hanger-hooks and currently covet them exceedingly. And I’d be lying if the Napoleon key rack didn’t call to something deep and primal in my soul.
On the momentous day of July 4th, 1776 George Washington did what?
The weekly sheep. I’m fairly positive your brain just shorted out with cuteness.
“Henry, I’m tired.” “Sleep then.” – The Lion in Winter
I can’t talk about Saturday, kittens. Let’s just say the travel gods are fickle and leave it at that.
J. and I spent yesterday, our anniversary, in and out of fogs. Up late packing, up early to the airport left us in quite a state. We both fell into unplanned naps throughout the afternoon, watched some movies, and I taught J. how to play Rummy and he trounced me at it. Romantic? Not particularly. We’re delaying our celebration until we’re in London in a week.
Sidenote: a week! Life needs to slow down, I’m tired!
Also, the weather gods seem to be in a mood. We need to throw a virgin into a volcano or something.
Small Dog Syndrome 