Day 2 - See How They Run- Melinda

  "Very few of us are what we seem."  Agatha Christie 

Upon leaving the hotel on Monday morning, we still stopped at gawked at Buckingham Palace.  Every day we were there the absolute majesty of that structure would make us stop and absorb our surroundings.  But, on to touristy stuff.  Katie and I have looked longingly in a bakery window not far from our hotel, much like one of the street urchins in Oliver Twist.  So, we decided that would be our location for breakfast.  To say it was amazing would put it to shame.  And, at that establishment, I developed a knack for ordering coffee which would come in handy the rest of the week, even when we moved on to Dublin.   

After breakfast, we were able to get in on the beginning of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  It was a weekday and we arrived earlier, so we got a pretty good vantage point.  I grew to admire the pomp and circumstance with which the British people do just about everything, even a "shift change" as a father behind us explained it to his daughter.  We ventured off before the completion of the ceremony since we had seen the ending the day before. 

Our journey on took us through St. James Park, one of London's eight Royal Parks.  Apparently past royalty loved birds because there are several different varieties in the park.  At home, the weather had not permitted many blooming flowers, but the weather did not stop the blooms in St. James Park; it was breathtaking.

On to our first phase of what I like to refer to as our death tour, Westminister Abbey. We seem to have seen a lot of landmarks that included or involved the dead.  It is a fascination. Back to the Abbey.  According to the internet, in addition to serving as a site for royal coronations and burials, Westminster Abbey has famously been the location for 17 royal weddings, including the 2011 marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.  The way the British honor their dead is amazing.  Tombs, crypts, epitaphs, honoring everyone from royals to priests, to gardeners and organ players.  It was awe-inspiring.  But, my favorite part was Poet’s Corner.  It was inspirational to see tombs and memorials to such greats as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Geoffery Chaucer, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare. Not all were buried there; some just had memorials. Katie stood on the tombs of scientists (she teaches science), and I on the tombs of writers.  But, the Abbey provided more than just death; it has held the coronation of royalty and royal weddings.  We were walking in the steps of someone’s walk into history and sometimes fame.

Another landmark in this area was Parliament Square with statues of such greats as Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln (oddly enough), Nelson Mandela, and Suffragist Leader Millicent Fawcett.  Sometimes it was difficult to keep up: there are many monuments and statues peppering the London landscape.  And, of course, the crowning glory of Parliament Square, Big Ben which sets at the end of the Houses of Parliament.

One of the things I really wanted to do while in London was see a play on the West End, which is the seat of their professional theatre, much like Broadway.  Part of the West End is Piccadilly Circus, which is described as “London’s Times Square.”  It is supposedly the heart of the British Empire all surrounding a fountain with a statue of an archer.  It has entertainment, food, neon, and people…. it was almost too much to take in.

But, the excitement of this area dimmed to the excitement of seeing The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie in St. Martin's Theatre. The play has been in that theatre since 1975 but has played on London’s West End since the 1950s.  We were able to see production number 29,061.  It is the longest-running show of any kind in the world.  The building and production were historic, but that doesn’t even compare to the production itself.  It was an Agatha Christie murder mystery, so the plot was phenomenal, the characters credible, and the ending surprising (which we promised the actors during curtain call not to reveal).  Then, the walk back to our temporary home.  It was easy.  We just pointed ourselves in the direction of Buckingham Palace.