England – Day 9

Saturday, July 30

Up and at it nice and early which worked out well because we were in our bus leaving our flats and the other choirs were waiting on the sidewalks with their suitcases. Gavin took care of us. As we pulled out he mentioned that we “didn’t mess about!” He then reminded us that we needed to fasten our seatbelts apart from the white stuffed swan that Sarah Cl. brought aboard. We waved goodbye to the Cathedral and our favorite candy store Hotel Chocolate.

As we traveled to London Gavin again was full of amazing information. Such as London being 620 square miles and 6.9 million people. There are 300 languages spoken in London and Gavin asked how many we thought we would hear. We also learned that the Queen has a dog named Holly which our Holly thought was pretty neat.

We traveled through many areas surrounding London including Westminster, Kensington, Rochester, Dickens. We learned the west end is the famous theatre district and the lower income part of town and has what they call social housing. We also drove through the financial district in which London is one of the three most important ones in the world including New York and Tokyo.

We passed by the MI 6 building that houses the investigative bureau that all the James Bond films were based on. We saw where Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens lived. We walked near Buckingham Palace and Gavin got us there at the perfect time. He took us first to the stable yard at St. James Palace where he knew the new guards would be walking to the palace to replace the guards currently in duty. Princes William and Harry have offices there. They are also working on beach volleyball courts on this property that will be the courts for the Olympics in 2012. We were right at the curb and got an amazing view of the guards leaving the stables. Once they turned in front of us we quickly walked closer to the palace where we saw the royal band pass by and the old guards leaving.

Buckingham Palace, we learned, has 240 bedrooms but only 78 bathrooms. And we worried about sharing bathrooms! The Queen has 12 rooms that are hers and this is the royal working office of the Queen. She wasn’t in because she was attending her granddaughter’s wedding. And yes, we saw the balcony where Prince William and Katherine kissed! Buckingham Palace also has over 50 acres of garden behind it. We also learned that the black plumes on the top of the guard’s hats have a meaning. In war time, different regimes had different colors so a ranking officer could look across the battlefields and find his men. And here we thought they were nice decoration. Gavin said that the red garments they wear have a tag inside that say to treat this garment carefully. Don’t they know they went to battle in these??!!

As we were walking around London it got a little crazy with people. I relate it to Times Square on New Year’s Eve. So many people. I think the kids finally realize why we make them wear the same colored shirt and stay in chaperones groups!! Gavin took us around so many places with so much history I would be up so much later than I already am to tell you all about it. We walked through alleys and streets where he would point out architecture, one street where one side was built in one century and the other side of the street another. We saw open air cellars that were used during the German invasion used for safety during bombing. We saw replicas of Sedan chairs that were used to carry the women from place to home because the streets were not clean from horses. We learned how people were ranked by the number of windows in their home. The more windows meant the more money they had and the more money that had to pay in taxes due to the number of windows.

We learned that the tune Ring Around the Rosie had to do with the black plague. Supposedly they would carry posies because they believed the smell would keep the disease away but as they carried their posies they still would “fall down” or die. The British sing it “tissue tissue they all fall down” meaning they would be using tissues as they are sick. We Americans changed it to ashes and Ali C. shared that she learned it was because once someone died of the black plague their body was burned to ashes so the disease could spread further from the body.

The houses didn’t have electricity and they needed a way to find their home at night because houses weren’t numbered. The windows had different wood carving decoration above the doors in windows and candles would be lit behind that and as people walked the streets, the décor would be illuminated and they would see which home was theirs.

Continuing on our walk we went thru Trafalgar Square which is used for many celebrations such as New Year’s. A celebration was held there to announce the Olympics. They have a digital countdown to the Olympic there which is fun to see. There is a campaign going on in London to nominate a torch bearer for the Olympics. We think we should all nominate Gavin. He jokes that we shouldn’t because he plans to visit Yellowstone Park in the US during the Olympics to get away from the madness!

We were at Picadilly Circus and Covent Gardens as well. We saw St, Martins Cathedral which we found out was having a music of Handel concert this evening and guess who was able to attend? Mr. C. and Mrs. Ator. Obviously they were thrilled.

We saw where Bram Stroker supposedly wrote Dracula, the famous Savoy and Ritz Hotels. Cesear Ritz was the original manager of the Savoy and he learned what he could and started his own chain, the Ritz Carlton. We saw the Australia House that is used in the Harry Potter movies as the Gringolt’s (sp) Bank and the London School of Economics where Mick Jagger is a graduate!

On to St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. We continue to see many architectural gems of Christopher Wren. As we drove we saw a store named Jacobs. Jacob S. really liked that. We drove over London Bridge and glanced at the Tower Bridge which many mistake for the London Bridge. We saw an unusual building of vey modern architecture and found out it was the London headquarters of Swiss Re. How funny. We have a parent on the shadow tour that works for Swiss Re! The people of London call it the pickle because it is shaped like one although they tend to call pickles gherkins here. There is also a building under construction that is to be the tallest in London.

We saw Shakespeare’s Theatre and the story is told that there was another theatre, the Rose Theatre. Each theatre thought they were the best and competed. If you were associated with one you didn’t dare mention or be involved in the other. That, legend is told, is where Shakespeare got his line “a rose by any other named would smell as sweet”!

We drove we crossed the Thames five or six times. One time we stopped on the street by the Thames so we could get good pictures off the bus. It is easier to zig zag across the way we did to see what we saw which was a major amount of things. We learned looking at Big Ben that the minute hand measures about the length of our tour bus. Pretty big! We saw an animal memorial which is to honor the animals that have died during war.

We passed by the Royal Albert Hall which is just stunning. Across the street from it is a massive memorial to Prince Albert. Very huge, stunning and lots of gold. In the middle of all of the tour of London, we checked into our hotel. It is a very nice one and definitely built in a much newer century that the last two places we have stayed! Check in went well. We had the singers rest once we checked in before dinner. Dinner was at the hotel and we shared with another choir that is here. The rooms are wonderful and the beds are extremely comfortable. So nice to end the trip in luxury!

After dinner we took the tube to go out sightseeing since the bus drivers time was used up during the day. The kids did well getting on and off the tube and what a great experience. They realized finally what “ mind the gap” means! They kept seeing the double decker buses and want to ride those. We will see what tomorrow holds.

Off to bed by 10:30pm for another busy day tomorrow.

Again I apologize for these blogs being late. The only free internet is available on four computers in the lobby and there is constantly as line to use them. The times we can get on email is limited. So sorry.

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