London: Parks and Palaces, Part One

For my spring break in March, my darling mum flew to meet me in Rome before we spent about a week in London. I took my cousin Lauren to the airport in the morning and picked Mom up at the same time. I was so excited to see her- I couldn't stop smiling the whole way back to Trastevere! We braved the train from Fiumicino airport and then the tram from Trastevere Station before unpacking everything Mom had brought me (which, as you might guess, ended up being a lot and included various articles of clothing, toothpaste, and snacks. Ohhh, the snacks.) and grabbing a quick nap. Once we awoke, we went out into the city for a little walk to see a few sights (including my favorite store- the bookstore La Feltrinelli- and Piazza Navona). The weather was beautiful, and we had a nice time just catching up a little bit.

Mom on Ponte Garibaldi, overlooking the Tiber River. You can see the dome of St. Peter's in the background!

We got dinner at Dar Poeta, a fantastic pizzeria in the heart of Trastevere, where we each got a pizza Margherita (just your typical Italian cheese pizza) and- get this- a NUTELLA CALZONE. It's only the most delicious dessert possible- a calzone stuffed with nutella and topped with about half a pound of powdered sugar. YUM. 


That night we stayed at a cute boutique hotel called "Your Nest in Rome," and we got on the tram and the train early the next morning to get to Fiumicino. We flew Alitalia to Heathrow, where we caught the Heathrow Connect to Paddington Station, which was conveniently located just a few minutes walk from our hotel in London, the Darlington.  It was, in fact, quite darling.

It even had a trouser press. Which in German is a "Hosenbügler." I can't be the only one who loves that word...

We were starving, so we took the advice of a brochure available at the hotel desk and went to a pub called the Victoria for lunch. We each had a half pint of cider (apparently drink of choice runs in the family...) and I had a sort of beef stew with a French name that I can't remember at the moment. It was wonderful! It could have been the fact that I was really hungry, or that I was with my mother, one of my very favorite people in the world, who I hadn't seen for two months, or that I had finally gotten a good night's sleep, but that lunch was fantastic. We then decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and headed out to Hyde Park, where the Britons were also frolicking with joy at the lack of rain.

And we found the Peter Pan statue!

We also went to Kensington Palace, where they're trying some sort of new exhibit focused on seven of the various princesses who have lived there while parts of the palace undergo renovation. It's definitely interesting, but I found it to be a little too different, perhaps. The ten-foot dolls in Queen Victoria's bedroom kind of sums it all up for me. It was, however, cool to see the various rooms open to the public and to have a little extra history about the inhabitants of the palace.


On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at an Indian restaurant, where we had some wonderful curry and, of course, nan. Yum!!! We headed back to the hotel and made an early night of it, as we had big plans for the next day.


The next day was Sunday, so we decided to go to church at the Tower of London. First of all, however, we got breakfast at the hotel- and it was glorious!!! There was a continental buffet with all sorts of cereals, fruits, and pastries, and you could also get a full English breakfast- eggs, sausage, bacon, and grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. I tried everything except for the vegetables, as we all know I tend to avoid them, and it was definitely the best breakfast I've had since January. It's probably my favorite meal of the day, and Italians tend to just go for a caffè and a brioche, which doesn't really satisfy my Denny's cravings, if you get my drift.

Post-breakfast we headed over to the Tower, catching the Tube from Paddington. We had decided to get the London Pass, a prepaid card which allows the holder entrance into quite a few of London's attractions and, possibly best of all, allows you to skip a lot of lines- not that we had very many, especially as it wasn't exactly the peak of tourist season. Anyway, the London Pass got us into the Tower, where we explored the various towers until it was time for Matins. The Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula ("in Chains") is relatively inconspicuous, located just to the side of Tower Green, the execution site within the Tower's walls. It's not usually open to the public, but if you ever get a chance to go in (perhaps by coercing a yeoman warder to let you in), it's definitely worth it. It would probably only take a good 5-10 minutes to see the entire thing, but Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's second wife), Katherine Howard (Henry's fifth wife), and Jane Grey (England's famed Nine Days Queen, who reigned for, surprisingly enough, nine days in the summer of 1553), among others who were executed on the green are buried there, which is enough to draw me in! The service we went to was absolutely beautiful- the chapel's choir sang the matins, and there was a very interesting sermon. Mom and I even avoided falling completely asleep....it got a little difficult to stay awake while the choir sang for about six hours about the sun and the moon and the spring and the fall and the planting and the harvest and just about every other pair of opposites imaginable and how they should praise God, but we managed. Mostly.


Once the service was over, we finished our touring of the Tower. I especially enjoyed the armor exhibit, which I don't think we saw the last time we were there, and the crown jewels- though I think I really just like the video of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation that they play in the waiting areas. There's just something about British pomp and circumstance that draws me in. But really, the jewels themselves are definitely worth seeing! We got lunch, which included potato and leek soup, "chips" (french fries), and a most wonderful cupcake, in the Tower cafe, where we got a discount from the London Pass. We also spent a little time in the gift shop. Of course.

The ravens at the Tower have their wings clipped, as legend has it that if they ever leave, the monarchy will fall.

This monument stands at the execution site on Tower Green. I find it to be a little hokey...but that's just me. Not really a fan of that cushion. Or whatever that is.

Traitor's Gate was the entrance to the Tower from the Thames.

Tower Bridge

After the Tower, we headed over to Westminster Abbey, where we intended to see an organ recital. The sunlight was so beautiful on the Parliament building and the Abbey!

The recital ended up being very nice (it was all Bach), but, seeing as I was still incredibly sleep deprived, I may or may not have spent a fair amount of it with my eyes closed. Not my finest moment, hahaha. The organ was amazing, and it was just unfortunate that the Abbey staff had to be so very strict about emphasizing that we were there just for the concert and not to be sightseeing. I understand, of course, that they must have people trying to sneak around the Abbey all the time (and taking pictures- the horror!) but it kind of took away from the experience. Slightly.

We went back over toward the Tower for dinner- a barbecue restaurant which ended up being incredible. Mom and I split an order of nachos, got a couple of pulled pork sandwiches, and even had a slice of cornbread. It was wonderful! (If you haven't noticed, a fair amount of the awesomeness of this trip was due to the food we ate. I love Italian food, but there's definitely not a whole lot of variety here...so London was amazing!)

After dinner we grabbed some hot chocolate at the Starbucks next to the Tower and then waited for the Ceremony of the Keys to begin. We had heard about the ceremony the last time we were in London (in 2004...) and when we remembered about it in January, we weren't sure we would be able to get tickets. You have to write asking for them, and we were lucky enough to get a couple! The Ceremony of the Keys has taken place at the Tower every single night for at least 700 years and basically consists of the ritual locking-up of the fortress where the monarch once resided and where the crown jewels are still kept. What happens is that a yeoman warder comes to meet the group of invitees, about 50 people. He explains the ritual and lines the group up in front of Traitor's Gate (pictured above) to observe it. The Head Yeoman Warder and a group of four soldiers (three of which are armed- the other carries a lantern) bring the keys to the main doors of the Tower. As they return from locking the two heavy doors, they are confronted by the soldier who has been standing on guard. He yells, "Halt! Who goes there?" The head warder replies, "The Keys." The guard: "Whose keys?" The head warder: "Queen Elizabeth's keys." The guard stands down and replies, "Pass, Queen Elizabeth's keys. Ten-o'-clock, and all's well!" The keys pass and the soldiers assembled in the main area near the White Tower yell, "God save the Queen!" It's really an incredible experience- the feeling that you're witnessing something that has happened just so for hundreds of years is something you really can't shake. The yeoman warders have been marching those keys back and forth in every kind of weather, under every kind of threat against the monarch or the Tower itself, and during all of those years full of history every single night. Needless to say, it's pretty darn cool.