School in Germany: First Days in The Good 'Ol London Town

The Royal Wedding Memrobelia

Saturday April 30: Everything looks so empty with everything packed up and pictures away. The rest of the bags I am keeping stowed away in the house until I get back. Dropped off the bike at Elke’s and she took me out for a Döner and then left for the airport. Why after me being careful, my bag for London is so full? Well at the gate I was told only one bag (as I only had carry-on) as I had my very full purse as well, but I managed to go by without problem. But when I stepped on to the EasyJet plan I had to put on a smile on my face with the British and Irish accent welcoming me. At first I felt hesitant to speak in English. It was also the first time I’ve ever sat in the very very front of a jet, in front of the cockpit, across from the two flight attendants, so I got to talk to talk to them. The flight was an hour with an hour difference (back one) from Germany. I took the train to Richard and Kristin’s which was in the Richmond area, outside main London with the help of their very detailed directions. There was definitely still in the air of The Royal Wedding from the day before, with pictures and souvenirs of the couple and Union Jack flags everywhere. When I arrived, Pollyanna was there (the niece of who I was staying with) although, she is in the middle of her study period so she wouldn’t be doing anything with me (oh, well, she was still a lot of help) She took an hour break so we went and got my first very traditional English meal: Cod fish and chips! I then (only on the occasion on that I was in London) watched Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. It was okay, but it was great to see the typical London streets.

Planning the Day

Sunday May 1: I woke up in good time because I was going on a Beatles walk tour! Even though I wouldn’t have minded to pay a little extra for the tour, I had chosen to the alternative Beatles tour which you didn’t have to reserve (just had to show up outside the station of meeting) and it was cheaper (£6 for students) and it broadcasted a good amount of Beatles places to see. The guide Richard Porter had a strong accent, but I right away decided that this tour definitely had to be the best because he was a die-hard fan and had even had the pleasure of meeting McCartney on occasion while doing his tours. I was the youngest one there of course, but I talked with some people from India, New York, and New Zealand. We walked together as a group (around 16), starting at Tottenham Court Road Underground first to MPL (McCartneyProductions Ltd, not McCartney Paul and Linda), Paul McCarrtney’s London offices. It is one of the largest independent music publishing companies in the world. Next we stopped in a very small walking street at Trident Sound Studios. Its significance to the Beatles is they came here to record Dear Prudence, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Martha My Dear, I Want You (She’ s So Heavy)and Hey Jude. Paul actually wrote Hey Jude during the time of Lennon’s break up with first wife Cynthia, to Julian Lennon (John’s first son) who Paul had spent much time with and more like a father figure. The song was originally going to be titled Hey Jules. It was here where Richard showed us a picture of the original Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds drawing which Julian had drawn and then inspired John to write the song (Does not signify LSD.)Many other artists have recorded there as David Bowie, Queen, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Supertramp and Elton John. Next, we stopped at the toilets in Broadwick Street, which I was not familiar about. Here, John Lennon had appeared in a comedy sketch in ‘Not Only....But Also....’ on November 27^th 1966. In the sketch John is actually seen wearing his famous small round glasses for the first time, which before were only considered ‘granny glasses’, but as you know he had transformed them into the height of fashion (There you go, Beatles influencing fashion). Then we walked to Carnaby Street, which in the ‘60s was the hottest place to be for celebrity fashion and the Mod scene, (aka: Swinging London)where stars as The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones and jimi Hendrix. The song Dedicated Follower of Fashion by the Kinks was actually about someone who shopped here. There is still a beautiful mural on a wall about the SoHo area. It very similar art which one can notice which could have been an inspiration to Sgt. Pepper’s album cover including a club band in front of a crowd looking behind! In this same area we stopped at the Palladium theatre on Argyll Street(opened in 1910). It was here that The Beatles performed on a TV show called Val Parnel’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium and everyone was astonished to see the enormous crowd waiting outside to see their favourite screaming. It is right after that, that the term Beatlemania began (so it is traced to have begun here).Right now The Wizard of Oz musical is playing there. We also passed what used to be Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein’s Offices. Next, we were off to 3 Savile Row, the former ‘Apple’ offices and where The Beatles had done their very last concert; On The Rooftop. We passed Hamleys’ which it the most popular toy store. A huge crowd of people were waiting for the doors to open. This area is also the tailor area which makes cloths for the Royal Family so every shop has code of arms. Well, the Beatles had started Apple Corp. For tax reasons-they were paying 95% tax at the time-hence George Harrison wrote in Taxman, “There is one for you and 19 for me.” 3 Savile Row was also where they had performed their last performance on the rooftop which shocked everyone, after the world had not seem them live for years (as they had given up touring because their fans were too much). As The Beatles had become unpopular with the surrounding posh area as they had attracted many a ‘ rowdy’ crowd as the Hell’s Angels and the Hippies from San Francisco, they had called the police on that day (January 30 1969) to stop the Beatles from playing and to rid of the crowd. Although, the police who had went there knew they could/would not break up their favourite band for the world to see, they just got front row seats to go up and actually see them (as no one else could), and in fact that same policeman has actually been a guard for the Royal Family and was just assisting in the wedding. We walked next to 13 Mason’s yard, St. James, London to what is now the Directors Lodge Club, was at the time called The Scotch which was a ‘Swinging London’ nightclub which was regularly visited (they even had their own specific table with a brass nameplate.) The Scotch also saw the first ever live performance of Jimi Hendrix in London. Right beside it is a gallery which was called at the time The Indica Art Gallery (which was part owned by Paul’s at the time wife Jane Asher’s brother) was where John and Yoko first met. Yoko had an art exhibit there and John was invited to check out the exhibit a day before it was opening. John thought the art was a joke and even when he saw an apple on a post which was priced at £200 he took a bite of the apple. Obviously Yoko was furious. For the last part of the tour we took the underground to St. John’s Wood to see Abby Road Studios and to walk across the zebra crosswalk. Fact: the white wall of Abbey Road studios is painted over about 6 times a year due to the amount of signatures leave. There is also actually a live feed video cam that is sent to their website and then you can view yourself cross (and is even now an App for iphones). The Beatles Abbey Road Album was actually going to be named Everest (after the cigarette brand) and then shoot the cover at Mount Everest but Lennon disagreed to that. For the Abbey Road cover, there had also arisen the question that Paul Is Dead due to certain clues in the picture ( for example: Paul walking barefoot signified he was dead, and George was the gravedigger, Ringo the undertaker and John the preacher, and that Paul was holding his cigarette in the wrong hand and that Beetle license plate signified that Paul would have been 28.) Also during their recording of Across the Universe, they had decided they wanted some female singers in it so they went outside to see if there were some fans still outside. There were and Paul had asked if they could sing, so two fans were there at the right time and got to record with the Beatles. Over the years many famous musicians have recorded there and they still do today! Even movie soundtracks are scored there, such as Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Harry Potter. Richard, our tour guide also has a Beatles Coffee Shop at the Underground.

A striking resemblance between the Soho mural & Sgt. Pepper's cover!

Infront of the Palladium theatre where The Beatles where and where Beatlemania began

3 Savile Row; Apple Studios and Rooftop performane

3 Savile Row

Abbey Road

After, I decided I would go on another walking, this time of Old Westminster. It is the cornerstone, where kings and queens were crowned, where they lived and even buried. The tour met at 2:30 outside the Westminster Underground. The guide was this old but still lively man and throughout the whole tour he was always teasing and making fun of me which was funny (again the definite youngest). We toured around the streets around Westminster Abbey and the Parliament building by the Thames River. We got to hear Big Ben toll 3pm! He discussed figures as Oliver Cromwell, who was an English military and political leader who had at one time overthrown the monarchy and put them into a republican Commonwealth. Westminster Abbey was jammed pack and huge line-ups outside (Royal Wedding) so there was no way I was going to attempt looking inside. But we did look inside the St. Margaret Church right beside. What was most intriguing was on the windows were portraits of King Henry VIII , Catherine of Aragon (1^st wife) and of Queen Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn). We also passed the Jewel Tower which was built in 1366-66 and it is definitely the oldest building in the area. Both Westminster and the parliament buildings are just so enormous and grand! We also passed where T.E. Lawrence (aka: Lawrence of Arabia) had lived.

Westminster

Westminster tour; It's been around the world

St. Margaret Church

Parliament

Once the tour finished, I decided to walk along a bit of Green Park and passed Buckingham Palace and up the Mall (where the Royal couple drove through). I was trying to figure out where to go next and after a bit of walking, stopped at a Pret (a well known chain) to have some lunch. I walked up Piccadily Circus and to Leicester Square which remind me a bit like New York City Broadway due to the fact that it is part of the Theatre district. I stopped into the Cool Britannia store which was a mass two level of London souvenirs. I decided to try out the SoHo Unzipped walking tour starting at 7. We passed the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain in memorial for the Earl of Shaftesbury who had done a huge amount of work in the welfare of children and was a big fan of Florence Nightingale. The Eros (Greek God of Love) Statue which people have mistaken it as Cupid along with the area’s risqué, while it is actually Anteros the Angel of Christian Charity. SoHo, which the name actually originates around King Henry VIII where the area was used as hunting grounds (Soho was the hunting call) has gone through lots of transformations, commonly known as the entertainment district, red-light district and film district. It was once the richest area, had been one of the worst hit with a plague, became the dirtier and place where only immigrants lived in. It was a place in the 17^th and 18^th century where the French Huguenots fled to from persecution from the Catholic Church. From the 1930s to the early 1960s, Soho folklore has said that the pubs of Soho were packed every night with drunken writers, poets and artists, many of whom never stayed sober long enough to become successful. It is a place from inspiration of Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Well anyway, it was a younger crowd (although I was still the youngest)and even though the guide was older, he very much kept our attention since he was very animated and had lots of stories and quizzes. The tour,as the others, are tastes of the areas, which just pass by the sounding area and talk about its history. We passed the Prince Charles Cinema (which I need to go to next time). It’s very unique as it plays a whole range of films; new, international, but also you can go there to watch all the Classics. Also it is the first place to host a sing-along-musical; which is none other than The Sound of Music! (I’ve done that in Toronto). Right now they have that, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Grease. We passed Chinatown, which even still had Royal Wedding decorations up. It was great being able to chat with these older students, some from the States and one from the UK. The tour stopped for a short while at a local pub, The Spice of Life. McMullen is the local beer it serves and I was so excited to hear that it was actually one of Bob Dylan’s favourite places to perform! In the basement they play all sorts of music. Back on our walk, we passed the house where the first television was demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1926. We also passed by Ronnie Scott’s, a jazz bar, which Elle Fitzgerald loved to play there and it was the last place Jimi Hendrix played at! For Charles Dickens buffs, we passed Goldbeaters House. We passed Milroys Whiskey Specialists where some bottles go for £300 and apparently online go for a lot more expensive. We passed the house of William Hazlette who was an English writer remembered for his humanistic essay and literary criticism and was hated by most of England because he was a supporter of French Napoleon. Next we took a short stop at the historic Dog & Duck pub with the George Orwell Room upstairs (he used to drink here). In addition, the guide informed us that Madonna had said that this was her favourite pub with her favourite ale. We passed the Admiral Dunkan which serves to the gay community which actually a tragedy. On April 30 1999 (woah, that was last year) it has damaged from a nail bomb planted by neo-Nazis David Copeland, leaving around 70 injured and 3 dead (including a woman 4 months pregnant). Absolutely terrible. Although on a positive note we passed the site of the 2i’s Coffee Bar which is the Birthplace of British Rock and Roll, opening in 1956-70 (59 Old Compton Street), and soon Soho was the centre of the fledgling rock scene in London. Early rockers played and became introduced there such as Cliff Richard and Tony Sheridan. After that the tour had come to the end. It was great to get a taste of the area which the help of a great guide. I headed back to Jone’s because they were back and they picked me up at the station. WOW 13 hours straight walking.

Ronnie Scotts; where Ella Fitzgerald and Jimi hendrix played

The Site of Rock n Roll

'Eros' Statue

Monday May 2: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. Today I spent all day with the Jones’ and their 4 kids. They’re so adorable. I haven’t seen them in a long while so it was crazy how much they are growing up. We all agreed that we would go to Hampton Court which had been built for Cardinal Wolsey until he unflavored by King Henry VIII which went back into his possession. It was in the next century taken over William III and Mary oh Orange and expanded it wanting it be like Versailles. Although, construction was suddenly halted leaving two distinct architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. Well for this day, the 7 of us toured around the Royal kitchens. It was very interesting because they re-acted of what it was like, cooks cutting up meat and veggies, someone making pies and someone roasting the meat. Then the announcement came on the king was coming back from May’s eve. They made us (the crowed) feel like we were part of the King’s court and the guests (our hosts) at Hampton Court were the Seymore’s and were trying to attraction the King’s to Jane Seymore (Henry’s third wife). We after went through the beautiful Privy Gardens and went through the Maze. We all split into groups. Once out, we chilled on the grass and had an ice cream. William, one of the kids (12) is a walking Encyclopedia; he knows everything! As him a question and he has a full explanation! We were there till late afternoon until we decided that was enough. I had to say by the end the activities we really only focused for the young kids but overall, the castle had tons of interactive activities while walking through the rooms of royalty. In addition, I loved it because I have to say I know quite a bit about Henry VIII. We drove through the Richmond Park which is amazing; I’ve never been in an area like this. It’s really just one big field with some forest but there’s an actual road with traffic through it and on our way there. There were whole herds of deer just casually crossing the road. It was like driving through the African Lion Safari. On the way back they drove passed Pete Townstead’s (The Who) so that I could see :D We had been joking about the scene of the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail so after a lovely home cooked meal of Indian chicken curry, we watched The Grail altogether. Ahh British humour doesn’t get any better than that.