Monday, October 23, 2006
Londinium
After working for a bit in London, Kurt arrived so we could start having more fun. We walked around Picadilly and St. James Park. Beautiful afternoon:
We had been to St. James Palace and while there admired the lone guard outside with his beaver hat and odd quick-step march. Well, admired is not quite the right word. Kurt was beside himself with incredulity -- what was the deal with the hat? And why beaver? And what the hell is that marching stamping action? And to top it all off, we noticed he had a serious modern fully automatic HUGE weapon. Just then, a large tour vehicle came by. Not any vehicle, mind you, a DUCK TOUR! Photographic evidence:
A seriously odd combination of events. And for a guy with jetlag, Kurt handled it all pretty well.
Just before the whole ducktour/beaver hat/stamping guard/full automatic weapon, I showed Kurt where the Texas embassy was from the 1840s. You may recall that Texas was its own country at one time. And being its own country it had its own flag-one of the Six Flags Over Texas. Can you name the other 5?* Here is Kurt near the site
I didn't find that plaque/location by myself (or search for it). I learned about it on a walking tour the weekend before Kurt got there. I give full credit to London Walks. Every single time I have been to London, I have been on at least one of their walks, sometimes two. That night I was on a pub tour in the St. James neighborhood and it was a blast. I waited for Kurt's arrival before going on the Jack the Ripper Tour. Fascinating for the crime details but also the history of the time and place -- 1888 City of London. I HIGHLY recommend these tours if you are in London. The guides are brilliant, really know their stuff, give you great stories behind stories and take you places you would never know you could go to, little alley ways and passages that don't look like anything at all. That's where the Texas Embassy spot was, down a narrow dark passageway I would not have given a first look.
The next night we went on the London Eye at sunset. We highly recommend this tourist attraction and even more highly suggest buying tickets online because no one is ever at the online ticket machine so there is one less line to stand in.
*In order (all six) are: Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, Confederate States of America, and The United States of America
We had been to St. James Palace and while there admired the lone guard outside with his beaver hat and odd quick-step march. Well, admired is not quite the right word. Kurt was beside himself with incredulity -- what was the deal with the hat? And why beaver? And what the hell is that marching stamping action? And to top it all off, we noticed he had a serious modern fully automatic HUGE weapon. Just then, a large tour vehicle came by. Not any vehicle, mind you, a DUCK TOUR! Photographic evidence:
A seriously odd combination of events. And for a guy with jetlag, Kurt handled it all pretty well.
Just before the whole ducktour/beaver hat/stamping guard/full automatic weapon, I showed Kurt where the Texas embassy was from the 1840s. You may recall that Texas was its own country at one time. And being its own country it had its own flag-one of the Six Flags Over Texas. Can you name the other 5?* Here is Kurt near the site
I didn't find that plaque/location by myself (or search for it). I learned about it on a walking tour the weekend before Kurt got there. I give full credit to London Walks. Every single time I have been to London, I have been on at least one of their walks, sometimes two. That night I was on a pub tour in the St. James neighborhood and it was a blast. I waited for Kurt's arrival before going on the Jack the Ripper Tour. Fascinating for the crime details but also the history of the time and place -- 1888 City of London. I HIGHLY recommend these tours if you are in London. The guides are brilliant, really know their stuff, give you great stories behind stories and take you places you would never know you could go to, little alley ways and passages that don't look like anything at all. That's where the Texas Embassy spot was, down a narrow dark passageway I would not have given a first look.
The next night we went on the London Eye at sunset. We highly recommend this tourist attraction and even more highly suggest buying tickets online because no one is ever at the online ticket machine so there is one less line to stand in.
*In order (all six) are: Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, Confederate States of America, and The United States of America
Permalink posted by Julia @ 10/23/2006 06:06:00 PM 
