(no subject)
Today, I got off to a start bright and early. Well, not extremely bright and early, coz I wanted to get an off-peak ticket in to London - but still bright and early kinda. Anyway, off-peak means 9;15 at Bedford station, so Neil dropped me off there at a little past that. I jumped on the train, and read a book (the second in the Millennium trilogy) while it took me to London. Oh, and I sent Aquila a text message to let him know that I was on my way in to London, and did he want to meet up?
I got off the train at St Pancras, then got onto the Tube at King's Cross - took myself down to Westminster station. I wanted to go and see Jewel Tower, which is one of the 2 remaining components of the medieval Palace of Westminster (the other part is Westminster Hall, which makes up part of the Houses of Parliament). So I got off the tube - the first thing I saw was the London Eye. Joy of joys. Anyway, wandered up past the Houses of Parliament, then past Westminster Abbey... until I found Jewel Tower! It was cute - though certainly not large. On the ground floor was the gift shop, doubling as ticket purchase location and a cafe. That room was also the only one that still had the original ceiling - the guy working there pointed that out :)
The second floor had a display of the history of the British Parliament. I wouldn't say I learnt a lot from it, but it was a good refresher. In a nice location :) And the third floor had a display of the history of the Tower. It also had some of the original foundations of the Tower - wooden. Odd. They were removed during refurbishment in the 50's or something.
So after that, I started to walk down towards Tate Britain. At that point, I thought I'd better see if Aq had responded... he had! And funnily enough, he was working in Westminster! Anyway, I continued on to the museum, while we figured out whether meeting up would be possible. I really liked the gallery, though was slightly disappointed that one of the exhibits I would have loved to see was in the process of being taken down to be replaced with something else. I survived though - and there was some really awesome art that I saw either way.
In the midst of this, Aq and I decided to meet up for lunch. It was a really gorgeous day today (why is this the first time I've mentioned that???) so we decided to have a sandwich in the park. Me not being a local, we determined that we could meet at Jewel Tower since I knew where that was, lol. So I backtracked to there, and then we wandered through Westminster Abbey until we came to St James' Park. Where we sat and ate and talked and watched the squirrels and birds. And commented many times on the out-of-season gloriousness of the weather.
Eventually, he had to go back to work. Ah, the joys of annual leave ;) He tried to convince me that I should fly over every couple of weeks and bring the weather with me. I refused, point blank :p He claims the English Government would subsidise it, lol. Regardless of that, 24 hours of flying either way means NO. :p
Anyway, so after he left me, I continued to wander - down to Waterloo tube station, pretty much. I'd looked up where a yarn store was near there and wanted to see if I could locate it - yay for potentially finding stuff I can't get in Australia. The choice was HARD... there was some German yarn there that I've been coveting for a long time, because I looooove this pattern (only accessible if you're on ravelry). But as I wasn't purchasing the gazillions of yarn necessary to make that pattern... I went with a pretty Scottish shetland yarn instead :)
From there, I continued on - it was only a short walk to the Globe Theatre. I booked myself in for the tour, which was interesting. I'd love to see a show there, but they've already finished until next Spring or something, so no dice. This time, anyway.
After the tour, I wandered past a pretty Cathedral on my way back to the Tube.
Of course, I got back to St Pancras just a little late - peak period had started, so... I had a look through a bookstore near by, and then grabbed a hot chocolate and connected myself up to the free wifi while I waited for peak to be over!
I'm back in Bedford now - tomorrow, we're planning to explore Bedford :)
I got off the train at St Pancras, then got onto the Tube at King's Cross - took myself down to Westminster station. I wanted to go and see Jewel Tower, which is one of the 2 remaining components of the medieval Palace of Westminster (the other part is Westminster Hall, which makes up part of the Houses of Parliament). So I got off the tube - the first thing I saw was the London Eye. Joy of joys. Anyway, wandered up past the Houses of Parliament, then past Westminster Abbey... until I found Jewel Tower! It was cute - though certainly not large. On the ground floor was the gift shop, doubling as ticket purchase location and a cafe. That room was also the only one that still had the original ceiling - the guy working there pointed that out :)
The second floor had a display of the history of the British Parliament. I wouldn't say I learnt a lot from it, but it was a good refresher. In a nice location :) And the third floor had a display of the history of the Tower. It also had some of the original foundations of the Tower - wooden. Odd. They were removed during refurbishment in the 50's or something.
So after that, I started to walk down towards Tate Britain. At that point, I thought I'd better see if Aq had responded... he had! And funnily enough, he was working in Westminster! Anyway, I continued on to the museum, while we figured out whether meeting up would be possible. I really liked the gallery, though was slightly disappointed that one of the exhibits I would have loved to see was in the process of being taken down to be replaced with something else. I survived though - and there was some really awesome art that I saw either way.
In the midst of this, Aq and I decided to meet up for lunch. It was a really gorgeous day today (why is this the first time I've mentioned that???) so we decided to have a sandwich in the park. Me not being a local, we determined that we could meet at Jewel Tower since I knew where that was, lol. So I backtracked to there, and then we wandered through Westminster Abbey until we came to St James' Park. Where we sat and ate and talked and watched the squirrels and birds. And commented many times on the out-of-season gloriousness of the weather.
Eventually, he had to go back to work. Ah, the joys of annual leave ;) He tried to convince me that I should fly over every couple of weeks and bring the weather with me. I refused, point blank :p He claims the English Government would subsidise it, lol. Regardless of that, 24 hours of flying either way means NO. :p
Anyway, so after he left me, I continued to wander - down to Waterloo tube station, pretty much. I'd looked up where a yarn store was near there and wanted to see if I could locate it - yay for potentially finding stuff I can't get in Australia. The choice was HARD... there was some German yarn there that I've been coveting for a long time, because I looooove this pattern (only accessible if you're on ravelry). But as I wasn't purchasing the gazillions of yarn necessary to make that pattern... I went with a pretty Scottish shetland yarn instead :)
From there, I continued on - it was only a short walk to the Globe Theatre. I booked myself in for the tour, which was interesting. I'd love to see a show there, but they've already finished until next Spring or something, so no dice. This time, anyway.
After the tour, I wandered past a pretty Cathedral on my way back to the Tube.
Of course, I got back to St Pancras just a little late - peak period had started, so... I had a look through a bookstore near by, and then grabbed a hot chocolate and connected myself up to the free wifi while I waited for peak to be over!
I'm back in Bedford now - tomorrow, we're planning to explore Bedford :)