London - Last Few Days

[aimeekitty]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the 30th ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 30th was our 7th wedding anniversary. We went to Bath!

...
but it was FREEZING.
I mean REALLY REALLY COLD for us thin-blooded californians.


the Roman baths were really interesting, though. I wasn't expecting so much about ancient Rome! Mitch and I thought it was pretty amusing that what people threw as "prayers" into the pools (on pieces of metal, so they survived...) were almost always curses. And always about something very petty, like "Silas stole my cow. A curse upon him and all his family! May death rain down upon him!"
"Bob stole my toga, mortal damage unto him."






This one was one of the icebaths inbetween getting in a hotbath. (they don't let you use any of the Roman baths anymore.)


Well, so then we wanted to take this walking tour. But we had about 40 minutes till then. I tried getting a pasty.
The pasty was cold.
Aimee = Cold and ANGRY.
I decided that I was going to die a horrible death at Bath.
Mitch suggested we go in the big church, (Bath Abbey. Apparently the first king of England was crowned here and lots of other V. IMPT things.
It was warm inside!


The church was gorgeous, actually. It was really nice to just sit and be quiet for a while.
I lit a candle for my family.


Then we went on the COLDEST WALKING TOUR EVER.
Despite that though, the guy was a real hoot. I highly recommend the city walking tour if you ever go. He was a fount of knowledge and was really amusing to boot.
We learned things like "plucking a rose" (a lady needs to use the loo) and "taking my ease" (a gentleman needs to use the loo). Also learned about "hanging loos above". We also learned about some non-toilet humor things, too. (Like Jane Austen)
We made it to the Royal Crescent in an hour, by then, even our witty guide's commentary could not persuade me to continue the tour. So we stopped here and had V. Fancy Teatm at the Royal Crescent Hotel... which was staffed by slightly snooty French folk. :) It was good, but I've had better tea in LA. (gasp!) However, definitely worth it to see inside one of the houses just a bit and to warm up.


I completely ran out of camera battery at this point. ha ha...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~New Year's Eve, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we mostly took it easy. We went to Kensington Palace. I enjoyed seeing the Debutante exhibit (since I love that time period of dresses) and seeing the in progress embroidery and 18th century gowns... gorgeous! No pictures allowed of course, though.
We also went to Harrod's and bought lots of goodies to eat for New Year's Eve.
On the way home, we saw a cute Italian place and ate an early dinner there before retiring to our hotel.

Mostly we ate cheese and chocolate while watching random British TV till the fireworks started. :)

Randomly, I learned that Tic Tac Toe is called "Knots and Crosses".

Very nice day, actually!

Here's some more random food products:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NEW YEARS DAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We just took it easy. We were hoping to pop by the Churchill Museum (well mainly, Mitch was...) but due to the parade, it was hard to get to, so we just kinda decided to lark about.










Randomly, we went by Her Majesty's Theatre again (where we'd seen Phantom) so we got a couple daytime photos. What a gorgeous theatre.




We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe
Then, since we had extra time, we went by 221b Baker Street, because I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fangirl.


That night was HAMLET at the Novello Theatre (also totally gorgeous)
I really REALLY REALLY enjoyed it. Tennant's understudy was pretty fabulous and really the entire cast was spellbinding. (Patrick Stewart was seriously scary.) If there are some good Shakespeare productions in LA sometime in the next couple years, I'd like to go. It's been a while!






I don't really do this (ie fangirl actors...) but... I really think Patrick Stewart is AWE-SOME. So I waited at the stagedoor to see if he'd sign my program book. I was third in line behind these really nice German girls. I was actually surprised that they were both (a) really clever/amusing/notscaryfangirls and (b) they were nice to me the newb American. They told me how they came there, what plays they'd liked, etc.
Bennett, Tennants understudy for Hamlet, came out pretty quickly and was really nice to all the people waiting to talk to him. And then Patrick Stewart came out. What a lovely lovely man! He was a perfect gentleman, even though you know he must tire of it. I briefly thanked him and got my program signed. :)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jan 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I went shopping with True Mee, Alcuin and her new London friend! Mitch hit up the Churchill Museum and the Queen's Gallery. (He didn't want to go shopping.)
True Mee and Alcuin RULE. True Mee's friend was really nice, too. We had a fun time exploring.

We went to have a pastry in Chinatown, first.
I have to say, I'm kinda surprised Chinatown isn't bigger!


Note that the strawberries are scared.


Then we randomly shopped around Regent Street, Carnaby Road (?) and various other places.

here's some random outfits I liked in H&M. Yes, yes, we have those here, but they have different stuff there!

We also went shopping in Zara, Irregular Choice, All Saints and lots of other stuff I forget. I loved that so many London girls would wear cute one piece short dresses with chunky boots and opaque tights. I liked the more casual messy hair many girls wore, too. Also liked the use of a lot of velveteen, cords and wools. You just don't see that in LA! I think it's warm and charming looking, if somewhat impractical for here.

I wanted to check out some vintage stores, still want a shiny obnoxious military coat... wanted to browse Primark, more Punkyfish, Anna Lou of London and Johnny Loves Rosie jewelry, but I just didn't have time! Maybe some other time!

While talking about shopping...
here's a few things I picked up. ^_^
The skirt on the upper left here is black velveteen. I love the full cut of it.
The London and Queen shirts are entirely silly and have sequins.

If only I could find a full-sequin Union Jack shirt! :D (do you know where I can get one??)

The teal boots at the bottom here,... True Mee and I bought matching shoes! really just because neither of us could resist the rococo over-the-top charm of them. They have little swans on the side. I could not believe they had them in my size! Now let's see if I can be brave enough to coordinate something to wear with them. These shoes are like way cooler than me. LOL.


Then I met back up with Mitch and we went to SPAMALOT.
Have to say I didn't really care for it, even though I love Quest For the Holy Grail. Like REALLY LOVE IT. Did not love the musical though. :|
Afterwards, we practically ran over to Punjab for some guaranteed yummy Indian food and called it a night.


On the 3rd, we slowly headed for the airport. Here's mitch:


We seemed to be chasing the sun as we flew home. I couldn't sleep at all, so I watched some pretty horrible movies...
but I caught this photo:


Overall? London was lovely. I'd only been to Japan before, so obviously it was easier to travel here due to the language.
I was impressed by how many of the buildings (and not just "sites") were really beautiful and well... LARGE. It's kinda like NY but on a much grander scale. (and older of course.) I think it's interesting, too, how there are so many different time periods represented. I still really love Japan though (as a place to visit.)

It did make me, in a way, appreciate LA and my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, more... both have really great qualities to them. Like in LA you can really get a lot of awesome stuff and there are a lot of great plays and events. And Charleston is really just a truely gorgeous city. I hope I get to go home and visit again this spring.