Europe 85 Part II

Sunday, September 15th, 1985, 11pm, South Kensington

I was up and out early this morning.  Breakfast here at the college was filling though less than delicious: cereal, poached egg, an undercooked sausage link, baked tomato, toast and coffee. I saw someone with bacon that appeared to be nearly raw. I was told that is the way they like it. Since I have not been here long I really haven’t had a chance to sample real British cooking. None of it sounds appetizing in the least. I ate Indian food which was fine, but it appears that the English don’t know how to cook. I don’t expect the same problem in France though I may have difficulty with the menus.

I took the tube to Tower Hill thinking that I would start East and work my way back toward Kensington. I found the Tower to be interesting. To see what essentially was a castle of sorts with a moat which was drained, and to realize how old parts of it were, impressed me with its durability.  The White Tower was built in 1089 - 900 years ago!

The Tower Bridge (which I believe many Americans think is the London Bridge) is a nice looking bridge, but that is all. What I was most impressed with were the remains of the original Londinium wall built for defense by the Romans around 200 AD. To consider the history that it has seen! Even to look at it and see where it was increased in height during Medieval times and to see that the Roman part was better constructed, fascinated me. I took two tiny pebbles from the mortar of the Roman part. One is obsidian-like and the other appears to be pink feldspar.

From the Tower, I walked along the Thames toward the monument commemorating the great fire of London September 3rd, 4th, & 5th, 1666. Much of old London was destroyed. The monument was built by Sir Christopher Wren who apparently spent considerable time planning and possibly financing many structures here in the city.

I boarded the tube at Monument and got off at Blackfriars and walked to St. Paul’s cathedral. Sir Christopher built this one after the fire also. Very beautiful in its own gaudy way. There was much in the way of gilt, mosaics and paintings. A number of famous people of their time are encrypted right inside the church. I also found it a bit commercialized. From there I walked to the Old Bailey.  Built in the late 1700s, I believe.  I could not really see much.

I proceeded to walk along Fleet Street and then the Strand to Charing Cross. From Charing Cross I walked down to Trafalgar Square on past Whitehall (the executive branch offices with 10 Downing St. nearby) to Westminster.  They were running the Westminster Mile as an international pro-am competition.  I missed the professional events but I did watch an amateur women’s open  that included Alice Bowden a 73 year old. I got a picture of her.

At Westminster I walked partly along the bridge to get a picture of Big Ben (They are cleaning it.) I find the bridges of London very manageable on a human scale. They are made to be walked across, and one could easily climb over the edge. It affords an intimacy with the river that I have never experienced before. A stroll along the Houses of Parliament (ugly dirty buildings), and a pause in a park along the Thames preceded my crossing over to St. Margaret’s and Westminster Abbey. 

 
St. Margaret’s is a small church in comparison to the Abbey, but much more intimate and certainly older. The original built in the 13th century is gone. The “new” church was built in 1520! Delightful and modest.

The Abbey is very dirty from pollution and not really a great thriller from the outside. There was a service going on inside so a tour was out, but I was able to stand inside. The vaulted ceilings with graceful curving arches were beautiful. Ingenious methods were used to assure adequate light. A stroll along the outer areas had me ambling along covered archways where many of the famous are buried. Certainly not a spellbinder but lovely none the less.

A short walk from the Abbey to Buckingham palace was a wasted walk.  The building is plain and ugly. Two bored guards stand outside in their silly outfits. there is a wall that extends around the grounds obscuring the view. I walked to Victoria Station and came back here.

Impressions:

I’ve already discussed the food!
Communications: I bought a Sunday Times as it is the only one that looked like a real newspaper. All the other papers look like hotbeds of yellow journalism. The Times was not very objective either and sensationalized several articles.
TV & Radio: Didn’t see or hear either unfortunately. I would have loved to.
Telephones: they could stand improvement. Many pay phones are out of order or don’t work well.
Language: It is interesting to note the differences between English and American. Accents aside, they use many different words or phrases that I am not used to. “Exit” means egress out of a building but not out of a passage such as the tube. In the tube the signs say “way out.” Perfectly understandable but different. Druggists or drug stores are “Chemists”, trucks are “lorries”, elevators are “lifts’ and apartments are “flats.”
Transportation: The tube is great and gets you where you want to go. Street signs for pedestrian or auto traffic are often on the sides of buildings when they exist at all. A map is essential because many streets aren’t marked. Intersections and road ways real jumble making DC appear very simple.

On a personal note my loneliness comes and goes. I'm yearning for companionship. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in Paris.

One of the disasters I feared came to pass today. Many times during the day, I had a strong urge to crap. I managed to psych myself into controlling it. Unfortunately, after dinner the urge overwhelmed me and I got as far as the door to the WC it all came out in a gush, making a colossal mess in my pants. I was so angry!  I spent the next hour washing my underwear and pants out in the sink.  Right now my pants are wrapped around a study light drying out. Gross. Needless to say I was disgusted with my own body.  I’ve popped 3 lomotils without results and have tried an immodium. Thank god I remembered to pack them! This entry has been interrupted several times to trips to the WC and I still don’t have the hang of flushing it correctly yet!

It is 1am and I should be asleep but I must re-pack and plan for tomorrow’s journey to Paris. [Cigarettes here are expensive. I paid £1.33 for a pack which is $1.86! Jesus at this rate I will have to quit.  I have got to do better with money. I am down to £20 out of the £66 I started with. ($93-->;$28)]