3 January 2014 (Friday)
The weather was quite bad today, so we searched for indoor activities. We settled on revisiting the British Museum. We’ve been there a number of times, but still haven’t seen all of it (not even close) and admission is free. It really is a remarkable museum, especially their Ancient Egypt section. Although a word of caution: show up in the morning. After lunch, you’ll face a very long line just to enter the building. We have near-allergic reactions to lines; if we have to wait more than about 10 minutes, we don’t bother. If the wait to get into a building is that long, the massive crowds inside will ruin the experience. Combat viewing stinks. This is why we’ve been to Paris twice and yet still have not been inside the Louvre.
Anyway, we trucked through the British Museum pretty quickly today. Isabella and I have both been suffering insomnia and as a result, sleeping in too long, so we got a late start. We showed up at the museum around 11:30 a.m. and walked right in, but 30 minutes later the crowds had started to arrive. We quickly got claustrophobicized out. (That’s a word we made up years ago: as in, “It’s way too crowded in here and I can’t breathe, I’m claustrophobicized. I have to get out of here NOW.”) I suggest anyone wishing to really explore this museum to show up right when they open at 10:00 a.m. It’s worth it, and our experience has been that people in London typically don’t get early starts. An early bird can have the city to himself for a couple hours.
That thing in front of me that looks like a giant playing card is actually an ancient Persian tombstone made of hand painted ceramic.
Holden studying up on Persian artifacts.
Chased out of the British Museum by crowds of people, we headed over to the Household Cavalry Museum. This is the home of the House Guards – England’s most elite cavalry unit, that goes back to the mid 1600s. These guys hit their zenith at the Battle of Waterloo, but suffered quite a bit at Ypres. Now, they are largely ornamental, but do have some units serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. The kids enjoyed dressing up and seeing some of the actual horses.
Traditionally, serving in the Household Cavalry was an honor reserved only for the aristocracy. One was expected to lead a certain lifestyle; for example, one had to own at least two horses, supply one’s own uniforms, and a bunch of other rich-guy stuff I can’t remember. The pay for these positions was purposely very low, such that nobody would be able to meet the requirements without a substantial source of private income. The bottom line was that these guys were body guards for the King or Queen and the royals didn’t want riff-raff hanging around. Nowadays they recruit from all over the country and take guys who prove up to the task even if they aren’t aristocrats. (Although I think coming from the “right” family still gives a person a leg up.)
Example of the ceremonial uniforms. It takes a soldier more than 10 hours to polish everything (including his horse and “horse furniture” — the saddle, etc.) and then a ranking Officer comes in to inspect. The soldier who earns the highest marks gets to ride in the front of the procession, and the poor guy who earns last place gets his horse taken away and has to walk behind everyone else on foot.
One of the Royal Musician uniforms. This has been largely unchanged since the mid-1600s. (I can’t remember the exact year.) All that gold is actual gold thread/wire woven into a filigree-type netting.
One of the cool areas, they had small replica uniforms available for kids to try on.
Even so, a bit too big for Josie. Those helmets are custom fitted to each soldier: even a little too loose and they flop backwards, and even a smidge too tight and they cause massive headaches.
Teenage Isabella; glued to her phone.
Another musicians uniform.
Various helmets and swords.
The entrances are still guarded; two foot guards and two mounted guards. This guy looked about the same age as Isabella … such a young guy!
On the way home, we witnessed a bum fight in one of the tube stations. It freaked me right the heck out. One guy was playing guitar for money and the other guy … well, I have no idea what his problem was. We heard them shouting at each other when we entered the tunnel, and by the time we rounded the corner and could see them, their confrontation had devolved into screaming “Fuck you!” at each other. Those tunnels magnify sound, which is one of the reason musicians go down there to play. “Fuck you!” was echoing off the walls at full volume.
I was scared it was about to get physical and couldn’t decide if it was better to race past them or turn around and find a different tube station. Adam just barreled through, though, so I didn’t have much choice but to grab Holden and Josie and make a run for it.
When they were safely behind us, all three kids burst out at the same time with “OMG, did you hear the bad word? Did you hear it? Mama, did you hear what they were saying? Those bums said a naughty word!” They were scandalized! Stumbling into bad words always seems to tickle the kids. They giggled about that for hours. I was just relieved it was over and nobody got hurt.
January 4, 2014 (Saturday)
We resolved to get up early today and walk over to the Sherlock Holmes Museum right at 9:30 a.m. when they open their doors. We’ve been meaning to do this since we got here, but the line is always so long every time we walk by that we say, “We’ll just show up tomorrow right when they open” and then don’t wake up in time. So, today was the day. With some effort, we got there at 9:30 on the dot.
Aaaand still had to wait in line. This is a popular place.
Sherlock Holmes’s residence was, of course, fictional. What they’ve done is turn an actual Victorian-era lodging house into an amazingly accurate rendition of what Sherlock’s home would have looked like had it been real. They scoured through every story Arthur Conan Doyle wrote and meticulously recreated it, even up to the number of steps from the street into Sherlock’s rooms (17 steps, in case you’re interested, and yes, I counted them.) The result is an accurate look at what a Victorian gentlemen’s lodging house was like in real life.
Adam did the best he could with photos, but the light was very low and they didn’t allow flash.
Guard in front of the door.
Sherlock’s bedroom in foreground, looking into the study (the next room)
The study, overlooking Baker Street
Another shot of Sherlock’s bedroom. His bed is in the lower left corner — very small bed.
An area in Sherlock’s study where people can dress up and pose by the fire.
Hats, pipes, and magnifying glass … what else does one need?
Watson’s bedroom. He was rocking his own private toilet/bedpan thingy. It had a lid you could close and everything.
Mrs. Hudson’s room. She was the landlord.
More Mrs. Hudson’s room.
The ONLY toilet and sink with running water in the entire house. (The kitchen was presumably where the ticket office now is.) There wasn’t a shower or bathtub in the place. We have absolutely no idea how they bathed. And even this little bathroom was all by itself on the 4th floor attic room, and had the look of something that was added on. I think in the original boarding house this would have just been attic storage space they repurposed when indoor plumbing came along.
This place also had a phenomenal gift shop. Gift shops are usually pretty lame and full of overpriced junk, but this one had some really cool stuff. Josie bought a pair of working handcuffs for £5 and Holden found a policeman’s whistle for £3. They had magnifying glasses (good ones), tea sets, hats, pipes, walking sticks, leather-bound copies of Arthur Conan Doyle’s complete works, and other assorted items from the Sherlock stories like copies of his Stradivarius violin and severed thumbs.
With Sherlock being our theme for the day, we took a 20 minute walk over to Euston (next neighborhood over from Marylebone) to see the filming location that represents Sherlock and Watson’s house in the current BBC series. (They couldn’t use the real 221 Baker Street because it’s the museum.)
That black door right next to Speedy’s is Sherlock’s door. The real address is 187 North Gower Street, but for filming they replace the address numbers with 221B. Speedy’s Sandwich Shop is also featured in the series. I was a little bit star-struck: Benedict Cumberbatch stood right here! He’s touched this doorknob!
Here I am pointing at the door. Many women had planted lipstick-kiss prints all over it. I did not, because that’s kind of gross.
The kids, who have not seen the show, saying, “Why are we standing out here in the street staring at a door?”
The kids having deep discussions about Pokemon while waiting for the train.
Another location featured in the BBC Sherlock series is London’s Chinatown. It’s right off Piccadilly Circus. We’d gone through there a few days ago (I bought some really good tea) but hadn’t realized it was also a filming location. We had to go back to Piccadilly Circus in order to visit a hat shop Adam wanted to see, so we took a small detour back through Chinatown to find Fung Shui Inn. Neither of us can remember seeing this spot in the show and we want to watch the whole series again from the beginning. I think this was a location in Season 1 episode 1. Anyway, we found it.
Entering Chinatown.
Shop selling roasted ducks (with head still on, eyeballs still in) and squid.
That red building behind the kids is Fung Shui Inn. It’s a restaurant. This is another case of them having no idea why they are standing in front of something for a photo op besides “Mama said so.”
Our Sherlock tour is now over. On to other things, like running into this Beretta gun store. It was very, very fancy. Adam and Isabella went in to look at a Silver Pigeon shotgun (the kind of gun they’ve been using for Isabella’s skeet shooting lessons) while I stayed outside with Holden and Josie. These aren’t the kind of stores we’re comfortable barging into with three kids in tow and an obvious inability to purchase anything they sell.
Beretta Gun Store
A little further along is The Ritz Hotel. It’s one of the fanciest hotels in the entire world. We pressed our noses up against the windows to look at their jewelry, but didn’t go inside.
Adam’s write-up:
We shopped all afternoon, but didn’t buy a thing, which made me happy. In truth, it was Brenda who had to put the brakes on me. We stopped in at a fantastic Beretta building – 4 stories full of shotguns and related merchandise. We walked down Jermyn Street, right next to Savile Row, and looked into the windows of the fancy clothiers. We also stopped at Lock & Co, famous haberdashery in the same location since 1676. I tried a couple of hats on and Brenda told me that I looked either (a: gay or b: trying too hard) so we left without the hat.
We then walked back toward our flat, stopping in at Grey’s Antique Centre that Brenda had discovered in a previous visit. That place has some amazing antiques, but everything is far more expensive than you would guess and certainly more than you’re willing to spend.
Then… back to home for wine time. Everyone was tired, footsore and had to go potty. That’s the sign it’s time to return. Weather was wet and dark today, we managed to avoid two rainstorms while eating indoors, but definitely did a lot of puddle-jumping all over London.
MayseStomp 