Blogging
As you may have noticed, there was a significant break in our postings over the last couple months. This wasn't at all due to a lack of activity, but really the opposite - we were travelling so much and so busy with work that we didn't have time to blog. Now that we've been spending some more time at home, we've been able to catch up a bit, which is why we've posted about 12 times in February.
Seeing Some Shows
Jenna did some research and found out that several of the West End theatres sell "day of" tickets that are great seats for very cheap. We were able to get some good and cheap tickets to both Wicked and Billy Elliot. The seats are in the front couple of rows, which is officially "restricted view" because they are so close to the stage that you can't quite see the actors' feet. Not a problem for us, especially since the tickets were the same price as the nose-bleeds and we mostly go to hear the amazing music! Only negative point is that you have to show up to the theatre pretty early in the morning to stand in line, which was not the best way to spend a Saturday morning, but well worth it.
Wicked was great as always. This was Jenna's fourth time and my third (second time in London for both of us). It is by far her favorite musical, and I don't hate it, so it works out great for us to see. It was interesting from the front row. It felt like the actors were singing to us!! It was a little weird, though, when the smoke from the stage wafted its way down into our faces. It became an experience of not only sight and sound, but also smell!!!
Billy Elliot was actually a little disappointing. We've had this show on our list since we came here, and I think we'd either built it up, or it was just really bad. For one, we weren't too impressed with the story. Neither of us had seen the movie or anything, so we were going in blind, and we thought the thing was just so-so. We were also put off by the language, which was really bad. LOTS of cursing. Not that we have a problem with a few here and there, but it seemed excessive and unnecessary, especially considering the number proportion of the cast that were children. Lastly, we thought the music was just "okay." It was all mostly good, but none of it was really spectacular. It wasn't a problem of the singers, who were great, but I think just the songs themselves weren't that good. The one thing that was impressive was the dancing, especially out of the 12 year old kid star, who was impressive in his acting talents as well. So anyway, we were glad we went, but extra glad that the tickets were cheap!
Jenna did also go see the Grease musical recently with Anne. She loved it, I loved the fact that I didn't have to go! Apparently it was very much like the movie, other than a few new songs and some differences in the order. She did say it really brought her back to her jr. high school days when she went to her best friend Erin Hilligus' house and they would watch the show and sing along.
Afternoon Tea
I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be called "high tea" or just "afternoon tea" or if it is something else all together, but whatever it is we did it.
All of the fancy hotels in town have dining rooms that serve this big fancy tea in the afternoons. It is a several hour event that involves eating finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, little desserts, and of course your choice of different teas. They charge a pretty penny for this, but from what everyone we talked to said, it is a must-do experience.
Jenna did also go see the Grease musical recently with Anne. She loved it, I loved the fact that I didn't have to go! Apparently it was very much like the movie, other than a few new songs and some differences in the order. She did say it really brought her back to her jr. high school days when she went to her best friend Erin Hilligus' house and they would watch the show and sing along.Afternoon Tea
I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be called "high tea" or just "afternoon tea" or if it is something else all together, but whatever it is we did it.
All of the fancy hotels in town have dining rooms that serve this big fancy tea in the afternoons. It is a several hour event that involves eating finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, little desserts, and of course your choice of different teas. They charge a pretty penny for this, but from what everyone we talked to said, it is a must-do experience.
We've been wanting to do this for months, and finally decided to just go ahead and do it. We really wanted to go to the Ritz, but they were literally booked up every weekend for 3 months, so we passed on that. Eric and Anne decided that they wanted to go as well, so we decided to go together, and they ended up finding a place with an opening - the Lanesborough Hotel. This is just outside Hyde Park and is one of the most prestigious hotels in London, and has been the choice of multiple celebrities, politicians, and even royalty. This of course means that it is also very expensive - with rooms costing up to $13,000 per night (that come with a private butler), it is supposedly the most expensive hotel in London. Luckily, the price of their tea package was about the same as all of the other fancy places in town. We had a really fun time. The tea sommolier (who even knew that existed?) helped us choose the perfect tea pairings for the various courses of our small meal. 
The food and tea were both incredible. We've started drinking more tea since we came over here, and this was definitely the best we've had. We tried blacks and greens and even whites from around the world, and they were all spectacular. We ended up sitting there for over 2 hours just chatting and nibbling on food and drinking away. It was really probably one of the best experiences that we've had here, and we were so glad we did it! 
Another Tourist Day
On one of our free Saturdays, we decided to finally take the time ot go to the last couple of museums we hadn't seen yet - the Old Operating Theatre and the Tate Britain.
The Tate Britian is a museum full of painting from the British masters. It was relatively small but had some good stuff. We wished we would have come here before going to some of the other museums, though, because it was a little unimpressive when compared to the likes of the National Gallery and others. There were some really great works there (nothing "famous"), but since they've limited themselves to British artists only, it seemed like they had put up quite a few average pieces just to fill the walls. It was definitely worth the trip, but we didn't spend a lot of time here, and were glad that like most London museums and galleries it was free.
The other stop for the day was the Old Operating Theatre. This is hidden away inside the roof of a church that used to be connected to a hospital, and is the oldest operating theatre in Europe, being built in the 1820s. And if you don't know what this thing is, think a small room with an operating table and a standing room behind, made for watching surgery. This picture should help clarify:
Being a nurse who works in the recovery room, this was high on Jenna's list. There was a small museum outside the actual operating room that showed some of the medical instruments and things from the time, which were really interesting. Aneasthesia wasn't discovered until later, so many of the surgeries that took place here were probably very painful. And can you imagine being cut open on that little wooden table with 50 people standing around watching? The most interesting thing was the box of sawdust under the table. This caught the excess blood and kept it off the floor as much as possible. Actually, it was a false floor - sitting six inches above the real flooring. This area was also completely filled with sawdust - they didn't want blood to seep through the floor and start dripping down into the church below!!
Valentine's Day in the City
Jenna and I celebrated Valentine's Day pretty casually on the Friday before, with a nice Italian dinner and a great chick flick. Sunday, the actual day, we spent on an extended date in the city. We started out with a lighter version of tea at the Orangerie. This used to be the greenhouse of Kensington Palace (read on for more info), but is now a small cafe. Our friends Nick and Nathalie had gone here on their visit and highly recommended it. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the Lanesborough, but it was also fairly affordable and still pretty delicious, so overall well worth it.
After tea we headed across the gardens into Kensington Palace. This was the British Royal Palace before Buckingham was built, and is located in one of the corners of Hyde Park. It was 50% museum and 50% old palace apartments. The apartments were just so-so, about like what we've seen elsewhere. 
The museum was interesting, though, especially to Jenna. About half of is was a permanent exhibition related to Princess Diana, who had lived here from the time she got married to Prince Charles until her death. They had a bunch of old dresses on display and it talked mainly about her contribution to fashion.
The other half was, I think, temporary, and was devoted to "the last debutantes". If you're like me and don't know what a debutante is, they were the young women of high society, and their debutante year was basically their "coming out" year where they were announced as being of age and available, starting their life as ladies. During "the season" they would go to countless balls, dinners, and other activities to get their name and face out there and rub shoulders with the elite. You could get away cheaper, but a girl that attended every event and went all out could spend up to $200,000 (in today's money) in the season. They had a bunch of things about being a "deb" like how to curtsey and table manners, etc. They also had some of the dresses worn in the last season (the practice was officially stopped after 1958). It was interesting to learn about this different way of living. Apparently some families would go into enormous debt, mortgage the house, sell the family jewels, etc in order to get their daughters out there. I guess if it meant she married a prince or duke or something it might be worth it, but pretty crazy.
We left the palace and went over to St Paul's Cathedral for their evening Eucharist service. Jenna had overslept so we missed church, and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to visit this church. It was really cool, and we were so glad we went. The service was very liturgical - lots of responsive readings, stand up, sit down, etc, but it was so different than what we're used to. They started by lighting incense which filled the cavernous church and smelled great. It was also really cool to just hear a service in this huge church, with all the echoes and everything. We visit all these cathedrals where you aren't supposed to talk above a whisper, but here we got to hear what it is really supposed to sound like. It was really a great experience!!
Another Tourist DayOn one of our free Saturdays, we decided to finally take the time ot go to the last couple of museums we hadn't seen yet - the Old Operating Theatre and the Tate Britain.
The Tate Britian is a museum full of painting from the British masters. It was relatively small but had some good stuff. We wished we would have come here before going to some of the other museums, though, because it was a little unimpressive when compared to the likes of the National Gallery and others. There were some really great works there (nothing "famous"), but since they've limited themselves to British artists only, it seemed like they had put up quite a few average pieces just to fill the walls. It was definitely worth the trip, but we didn't spend a lot of time here, and were glad that like most London museums and galleries it was free.
The other stop for the day was the Old Operating Theatre. This is hidden away inside the roof of a church that used to be connected to a hospital, and is the oldest operating theatre in Europe, being built in the 1820s. And if you don't know what this thing is, think a small room with an operating table and a standing room behind, made for watching surgery. This picture should help clarify:
Being a nurse who works in the recovery room, this was high on Jenna's list. There was a small museum outside the actual operating room that showed some of the medical instruments and things from the time, which were really interesting. Aneasthesia wasn't discovered until later, so many of the surgeries that took place here were probably very painful. And can you imagine being cut open on that little wooden table with 50 people standing around watching? The most interesting thing was the box of sawdust under the table. This caught the excess blood and kept it off the floor as much as possible. Actually, it was a false floor - sitting six inches above the real flooring. This area was also completely filled with sawdust - they didn't want blood to seep through the floor and start dripping down into the church below!!Valentine's Day in the CityJenna and I celebrated Valentine's Day pretty casually on the Friday before, with a nice Italian dinner and a great chick flick. Sunday, the actual day, we spent on an extended date in the city. We started out with a lighter version of tea at the Orangerie. This used to be the greenhouse of Kensington Palace (read on for more info), but is now a small cafe. Our friends Nick and Nathalie had gone here on their visit and highly recommended it. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the Lanesborough, but it was also fairly affordable and still pretty delicious, so overall well worth it.
After tea we headed across the gardens into Kensington Palace. This was the British Royal Palace before Buckingham was built, and is located in one of the corners of Hyde Park. It was 50% museum and 50% old palace apartments. The apartments were just so-so, about like what we've seen elsewhere. The museum was interesting, though, especially to Jenna. About half of is was a permanent exhibition related to Princess Diana, who had lived here from the time she got married to Prince Charles until her death. They had a bunch of old dresses on display and it talked mainly about her contribution to fashion.The other half was, I think, temporary, and was devoted to "the last debutantes". If you're like me and don't know what a debutante is, they were the young women of high society, and their debutante year was basically their "coming out" year where they were announced as being of age and available, starting their life as ladies. During "the season" they would go to countless balls, dinners, and other activities to get their name and face out there and rub shoulders with the elite. You could get away cheaper, but a girl that attended every event and went all out could spend up to $200,000 (in today's money) in the season. They had a bunch of things about being a "deb" like how to curtsey and table manners, etc. They also had some of the dresses worn in the last season (the practice was officially stopped after 1958). It was interesting to learn about this different way of living. Apparently some families would go into enormous debt, mortgage the house, sell the family jewels, etc in order to get their daughters out there. I guess if it meant she married a prince or duke or something it might be worth it, but pretty crazy.We left the palace and went over to St Paul's Cathedral for their evening Eucharist service. Jenna had overslept so we missed church, and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to visit this church. It was really cool, and we were so glad we went. The service was very liturgical - lots of responsive readings, stand up, sit down, etc, but it was so different than what we're used to. They started by lighting incense which filled the cavernous church and smelled great. It was also really cool to just hear a service in this huge church, with all the echoes and everything. We visit all these cathedrals where you aren't supposed to talk above a whisper, but here we got to hear what it is really supposed to sound like. It was really a great experience!!
1 comment:
We just went to London and were shocked at the prices to see the churches - Westminster and St. Pauls. Glad you were able to swing worship - thats the way to do it. Also I had the Ritz tea in college and didn't realize what we were in for pricewise. We almost swallowed our tea cakes when we saw the bill. But still an amazing experience and worth it in the long run. Glad to know about Billy Elliot since it was sorta on my list.
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