Mary Jane and Anna in Europe

Given our extremely busy time here in London so far, we've had trouble setting aside the time to actually blog about our adventures. I mean, when you have the chance to sit in quaint little English pubs listening to really bad Sting songs over and over, or taking 20 minutes to cross from one side of the street to the other because British city engineers have constructed crosswalks not longer than two feet that connect to purposeless pieces of concrete located in the middle of the street, you can certainly understand why internet cafes are not our first choice of entertainment. Who knew that crossing streets could be such an adventure? In London, it doesn't appear to be possible anywhere to cross the street in a straight line - instead, you walk a few feet into a street onto an island of concrete. Rather than continue ahead in the same fashion, you then walk the length of the concrete and cross from there. An iron fence surrounds all other parts of the slab of concrete, lest you decide to cross where you should not. In particularly busy areas, you repeat this same exercise about fifteen times before you get to the other side of the street you are trying to reach. Distances here look deceptively close - surely you can make it to that pub across the street before it closes at midnight; after all, it's only 10:00pm right now. After looking at all of the crosswalks that you must pass through before reaching that pub, you are smart to just turn around and head home.

When we have actually chanced to reach a pub in time to eat, we've noticed an oddity that seems to be typical everywhere. From the outside, you see a traditional-looking English pub, complete with dark, rich wood, lovely hanging flower baskets, and a distinct looking coat-of-arms painted on a sign. Walking inside, you expect the atmosphere indoors to be much the same. And of course, it is. . .with one blaring exception. The music of choice almost everywhere is American pop music, and this holds true particularly for pubs. It's a comical absurdity - does it not strike any of the people working here that there is somewhat of an incongruity between hundreds of years of tradition and bad Sting songs on repeat? (This did happen to us in Canterbury - can't remember the song title but it played the entire time we were there!) I suppose there is something that must be said about living in the times we are in and realizing that people are trying to make a living here just like anywhere else, but somehow, it does seem like something is being lost. . .

Besides spending our time in pubs and crossing streets, Anna and I really are having a fabulous time. We walked through the National Gallery here in London just before taking high tea at The Orangery at Kensington Palace (The Queen mum is not in town just now, or I'm sure we could have arranged for tea with her - isn't that like the papal audience?). I was fairly impressed by the collection at the National Gallery; they have some very famous pieces of artwork housed there. I thought we were going to have to wait for the Louvre for that sort of thing. Unfortunately, I was not quite as impressed with the high tea. This is an instance of being unfairly spoiled by the American version - I was taken to tea for my birthday two years ago by two lovely friends, and I have to say, you get a lot more food and tea in America than you do here. However, sitting outside on a cool blustery day in London, drinking hot tea and looking out over Kensington Gardens really makes up for a lack of food. . . We saw "The Merchant of Venice" on Tuesday during the day - what an amazing thing! It's the perfect thing to do in London; I really felt like I was there during Shakespeare's day. We stood in the yard area (basically cheap seats because you're not sitting), and it is probably the best place to be. You're right there next to the stage; you can reach out and touch the actors. There is so much energy and excitement in a live performance, and even a person who isn't much of a Shakespeare fan (thank you, public school education) can truly enjoy the experience. Recommended to everyone who comes to London. Canterbury was a lovely old town we visited on Wednesday, the Cathedral is a very powerful place to visit. I think we both liked Oxford better, however. It felt less touristy and much more like a place where people actually lived. Everywhere we turned in Oxford, I wanted to take a picture. It's all very charming and picturesque (as you will hopefully see when we find a place that let's us download pictures. . .). We are heading off to Bath tomorrow and then on to Penzance and Cornwall on Monday. Will post again soon.