I Don't Mind the Gap

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson (hat tip to Donna Wroble for the quote)

In London the Yanks were as full a crew as they are likely to be for the remainder of the European tour. Five out of the six major players met in the Clink, and then proceeded to traipse about London with a wanton gaiety. For two days we saw many of the major sites, taking photos galore of such mainstays as Big Ben and Parliament House, Westminster Abbey (though we declined to pay the ridiculous entry fee since they don't allow photography inside), The Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square where Nelson stands towering about the city, the National Gallery (which we did go inside since it was free), The Tower of London (we broke down and paid the extortionist rate to visit, though it was worth it), and much more.


On the first day we all stuck together, saw the sights, ate traditional English food (Chris and I had some fantastic bangers and mash), and rode the tube about town while attempting to "mind the gap please." It is one of my goals in life now to have a house with the tube ladies voice (I call her Linda) that speaks to me everyday and says things like,
"Good Morning, John. Please remember to put on pants before leaving the house."
The Tower was probably the highlight of the day (it's always fun to run about in a castle where so many famous people have been beheaded), though the National Gallery was indeed a fine site (lots of work from my favorite artist J. M. W. Turner.) They have an exhibition on at the Tower right now with all of Henry VIII's armor that was engrossing. The even have a pair of very crude, early firearms that Henry had in his possession.

We ended the first day by eating at a Pizza joint in Soho, which is about the only part of the city still awake past 8pm. They had a pizza on the menu called "The American" which was a peperonia pizza described as the perfect choice for those who "like their flavors strong, and simple." Chris of course had to get it, if only he said to give them feedback on whether they succeeded. Apparently the pizza passed the test.

That night Ashley got in touch with one of her friends who was on business in London at the time and she absconded to go stay in a real hotel room (I don't blame her.) I learned this the next morning when Stephanie woke me and asked me to accompany her across town to fetch the our wayward companion. On the way back I grabbed some fish and chips so I could finally check that off my list of things to do in life.

That afternoon, after we all went to the tourism office to make train reservation at the Rail Europe booth, we separated. Chris and I went to the incredible Imperial War Museum (free) and the girls went to the recreation of the Globe Theatre and then, later, to production of As You Like It somewhere. The museum was grand, dedicated to Britians involvement in the first two World Wars, and all the subsequent conflicts up until present time. We could have spent the entire day there and still not got through everything, but we managed to squeeze most of it in.

After the museum, we took the tube over to Hyde Park and right as we were getting off the train we heard the announcement that the station was closing due to an emergency. As we made our way through, we found out that the place was flooding. Thus we were forced out into the storm that suddenly began while we were underground. Undeterred by rain, strolled over to the park and watched cyclists take spills in the giant puddles that had formed. Then it began to to hail, and that pretty much spelled the end our of day in the park. We walked down Kensington, past Harrods, to the nearest, open station and trained over to Leicester square were we ran smack into the world premier of the new Harry Potter movie. The place was a madhouse, and neither Chris nor I care anything about Harry Potter, so at most seeing the stars was a mild curiosity.

We eventually made it back to the hostel and learned the girls hadn't been back so we ended up hanging out with a Spaniard, two German's (one of whom was born in Kazakhstan) and their giant Polish friend. We were outside on the steps of the Clink when the girls wandered up and told us what they had been up to. After that is was a matter of packing, hugging, and parting ways because Chris and I had to be up early to make our flight out of Gatwick to Madrid. Ashley and Stephanie were leaving the next morning for Paris on Eurostar, and Hetty was bound for Oxford. Our crew was splitting up, and separate adventures awaited.