Final Entry for London

Dana, Meghan, Drew and Naiara enjoy our final night at a club called The Rocket.

We came back Saturday, and although there was ice and snow all over Iowa, our connections to Des Moines were unaffected and we returned just about on time. The travel gods were definitely with us!

And so we bring Simpson's Semester in London to a close. I am happy to be back home, but I miss London already. It is such an exciting place, and a wonderful city to explore.

I know there have been many people checking the blog from time to time, and that has made me very happy, and encouraged! Maintaining a blog is fun, but also quite a bit of work. Drop me an email when you have a few moments. I would love to hear from you.

I will leave you with a quote from Dr. Samuel Johnson:

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Cheers to you all!

Jimmy

Last Day - We're Coming Home

Our last full day in London turned cool and very wet. We will miss London terribly, but are anxious to come home. We hear that Iowa might be providing us with some weather excitement tomorrow! Please be careful driving to Des Moines, especially those of you coming from long distances. There's no point in rushing -- you will hear many, many, many stories!

See you soon,

Jim

Another theatre entry

As I mentioned yesterday, the big theatres in London are clustered around Leicester Square (what is known as the West End). They have the big shows with titles you probably have heard of. My sister and I saw Swimming with Sharks, starring Christian Slater, and enjoyed it a lot.

This is where Spamalot is playing (you can see the theatre is quite large from the outside).


But don't get stuck thinking you should only go to the BIG shows. I find the big shows don't really capture my attention much -- personal preference I guess and they tend to be crowded with tourists who ALL want to go to big shows. I really enjoy contemporary dance performances (there are a lot of excellent ones, some of which have political angles to them). Also, there are countless theatres spread throughout the city in what is known as Off-West End. There are even smaller theatre venues known as Fringe theatres. These will typically be very small theatres with maybe 100 seats or less, often above pubs. Many will let you buy a drink in the pub and bring it into the theatre with you. What I love about these small places is that they delve into very creative areas that might take you out of your comfort zone.

If you want to find out more about a play or performance, you should read a review of it in Timeout, a must-have weekly magazine which tells you everything going on in London.

I was just walking around town the other day and spotted this venue, although I'm not sure if it would be considered Fringe or Off-West End. I have no idea what it's about, but I bet it is a winner! Look for gems like these as they are precious.


It was a wonderfully sunny afternoon, so I took this from near the Somerset House. Ice rinks are popping up all over this city, although the temperatures are well above freezing during the day.


Cheers,

Jim

Theatre tips in London

Of course, when you visit London you will want to go to a few shows. For the traditional fare (i.e. Les Miserables, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, etc.), you will probably go to one of the theatres near Leicester (pronounced "Lester") Square.

So how do you get tickets? You can always purchase them ahead of time online directly through the theatre's web site or at the theatre (most will accept credit cards issued in the United States). The advantage of this is that you know what you're getting and can plan the rest of your day around it. The disadvantage is that you pay quite a bit extra, and since most of the time you will go to the theatre with someone else, this extra amount is doubled!

What I like to do is buy tickets at discounted prices on the day of the show. Is this a bit dangerous? Why, yes, but the students have convinced me I need to be more dangerous!

Here's a tip: try to plan your trips to the theatre between Monday and Thursday evenings. There is greater demand for tickets on the weekend for sure, but during the week, it's a buyer's market.

There is only one place to go for day-of-show discount tickets, and that's at the tkts building on the south side of Leicester Square (see picture). The building opens at 10 in the morning and only sells tickets for theatre productions THAT DAY. There are many purveyors of "Half-price tickets" or "The Official Discount Ticket Booth" near Leicester Square. Skip them because they will either charge you more than the prices at tkts, make you wait a long time for your tickets, or not give you the best seats available.

If you really want to tempt fate, you can go to the theatre where you want to see your show an hour before performance and buy your tickets then. This is risky since they may be sold out, or only have the really bad seats (or outrageously expensive front area seats). They tend to give students nice discounts on these last minute seats, but since I'm not a student I don't get as much of a discount. Oh, one interesting tidbit is that they want to encourage people in all situations to enjoy theatre, so they offer discounted tickets to unemployed people as well as students (you have to show your unemployment card).

Cheers, Jim

London Miscellanea

You never run out of things to do or discover in London. When you visit, don't just go to museums.

Last night, I stumbled across a wonderful little store called La Fromagerie at 2-4 Moxon Street. When we find mold, we kill it. When the French find mold, they make cheese out of it. The quality and selection overwhelmed me (and I've been to countless cheese shops in Europe). There is also a gourmet grocery area attached to it, and a wonderful little patisserie. The prices are high, but the quality is as well.

Or why not go to a concert? Many churches in London offer evening concerts. This is St. James Church and they played Mozart's Requiem. After the concert, a Dutch couple knowing very little English was lost and we helped them find the Westminster tube station.

I'm Mr. Market Man, and I like the Greenwich Market. It's smaller than many of the others, but it has a nice variety of interesting items and food. Also, Greenwich is a fun town very close to London, and is in Zone 2, if you have a pass for Zones 1 and 2, you can go there using the DLR (short for Docklands Light Railway). It's a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of central London.

This is from Old Spitalfields Market. I know this gets rave reviews, and I enjoyed going there, but I wasn't WOWED. There were some interesting items, but the prices were quite elevated, and there was a lot that is sold at other markets.

Again, around every corner something new appears. This is outside the Natural History Museum, where an outdoor ice rink has been installed. People were having a wonderful time.

The same rink at night.

Cheers, Jim

Mind the gap, please.

Tonight I attended an interdenominational service at Southwark Cathedral for World AIDS day, which is 1 December. In an earlier posting I mentioned that the students visited folks at the London Ecumenical AIDS Trust (LEAT) to learn more about HIV/AIDS issues. The director of LEAT, Steve Penrose, let me know about tonight's service. I'm glad I went as it was very uplifting and a great chance to talk with people.

On my way home, I realized I haven't really described how you travel around London. Cabs are very expensive and when traffic is heavy can be slower than other options, so try to shy away from these whenever possible. The bus network in London is quite extensive, and I enjoy using the bus when I can because although I do enjoy the speed of using the underground, sometimes I want to see some daylight when I travel.

The main way people get around is with the London Underground, also known as the Tube. It's pretty straightforward to use and the price isn't bad. For a one-week unlimited ride pass, it's about 23 pounds for central London (zones 1 and 2 on both the Tube and buses) (that's about $50, which is very inexpensive for the transportation you can get). My monthly pass costs 90 pounds. The Tube runs from around 6 a.m. until around midnight.

The Tube is used VERY, VERY heavily. At peak periods, trains will come every 2-3 minutes and it's a vast sea of humanity at each station. Many of the stations have a combination of stairs and escalators. My mum has bad knees and I wouldn't even consider her taking the Tube. It's just too much chaos for a slower person to handle.

You'll frequently hear a recorded message saying, "Mind the gap." Many of the stations are curved, so spaces form between the edge of a train and the edge of the platform (try to imagine a straight car with a curved platform and you should get the idea). Sometimes the gaps are a few inches. When I got onto a Central Line train at Bank, the gap was about a foot and a half! It's quite dangerous, but the cost to realign the stations is probably very large and it's cheaper just to tell people to pay attention to the "gap" between the platform edge and the train. Remember, some of these stations have been around for a LONG time.

I should also add that at some stations the train edge will be a few inches above the platform, at others a few inches below, creating an obvious tripping hazard. But hey, just mind that gap!

I have to admit that the inside of many tube stations shocked me at first. Many of the stations have advertisements for whatever you can think of -- theatre shows, home buying, breast augmentation, rock concerts, museum exhibitions, teeth whitening, etc. It's common for these ads to be defaced over time.

Further down by the trains, advertisements are held up, literally, by black duct tape!

At the Holborn station, they don't bother to hide wires and cables. There is chicken wire to hold things up all over the walls and ceiling above the escalators. They don't allow pictures in tube stations, but trust me on this one. The Tube is an amazing system, but there's a lot of tape and wire holding it together!

Ciao,

Jim

One of my favorite places in London

There are so many wonderful things to see and do here. The last few days I have gone back to one of my favorite places, the British Museum.

The British Museum (http://www.britishmuseum.org) is enticing, captivating, frustrating, humbling, and enjoyable beyond belief. The museum specializes in historic artifacts from around the world, the most famous being the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon marbles (called Elgin Marbles here, although the Greeks claim they were "stolen" by Lord Elgin).

My usual trips to the museum have usually focused on the Greek and Egyptian sections and a quick run through the Roman area, while ignoring much of the rest. What a huge mistake! The British Museum has a wonderful African collection, outstanding Islamic and Asian rooms, a much more extensive Egyptian collection than I ever knew, and a strong collection of work from ancient civilizations from the Americas.

Yesterday, I decided to look through the Americas exhibit and discovered a wonderful selection of artifacts from the Aztecs, Mayans, and other civilisations in Mexico. There were Aztec masks made out of turquoise mosaics that absolutely blew me away! Now I REALLY want to go to Mexico to see more! (I should add this is one aspect about traveling. You go one place, and then find other places you'll want to visit!)

So why is the British museum "frustrating and humbling"? There are two reasons. First, the place is so big, it's impossible to absorb one-tenth of what you see in a single visit. Second, I love learning about ancient civilizations, but the British Museum reminds me of how little I know about ancient history.

So when you're in London, promise me you'll go to the British Museum at least twice!

I can also recommend a great place for coffee that isn't Starbucks (which are like the plague around here.) Head to a place called Sfizio (www.sfizio.co.uk) at 35 Theobald's Way. It is a chain of 1 store! Their cannoli are terrific -- light ricotta filled with crunchy outer shells, and their sfogliatelle are as good as I've had in Rome. The coffee is top drawer, as you would expect. As with most Italian coffee places, the thought of getting coffee to go in a paper cup is something they don't like. Expect to have your coffee at the cafe in a demitasse. Sit down, enjoy, and relax!

Cheers,

Jim