WDW Vacation Roundup – October 2011

I’ve been meaning to write my trip roundup for the last several months, but other things keep getting in the way (not the least of which was putting my house back together after arriving home from this trip to the aforementioned burglary).  But now that I can reminisce of the awesome trip, here we go: 

The trip began with an adventurous red-eye trip through Dallas to arrive in Orlando on Saturday morning.  Sure, it maximizes the vacation time, but it definitely makes for a challenging day of sleep-deprived travel.  But who cares?!  It’s vacation in The Most Magical Place on Earth™!  [note:  not to be confused with Disneyland, The Happiest Place on Earth™]  One of these years I will make it to the other Orlando-area theme parks, but that wasn’t this trip.  Disney makes it too easy to trap yourself in its own version of the magic with the free Disney’s Magical Express shuttle buses that take you straight from the airport to your WDW resort hotel, and then back again when your trip is over.  Who needs (or would want) to drive? 

This was my 5th trip to WDW, and my 4th trip staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort.  Throughout my trips, I’ve visited many of the other WDW resorts, and still based on both the scenic views and the value for the money (one of the Moderate-level resorts), as well as its nearly central location to the entire WDW property, it’s a perpetual favorite home-base. 

Port Orleans is actually two related resorts, Riverside (the old antebellum South, plantation-style living), and French Quarter (a taste of Bourbon Street and old New Orleans).  An added bonus is the manmade Sassagoula River, which winds its way through the resorts and all the way down to the Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment area. 

Hard to beat the easy boat ride connecting the two.  But you didn’t start reading this to hear me go on about the resort now, did you?  After settling into the room, we headed over and hopped a bus to my favorite of the four WDW parks, Epcot! 

Greeted immediately at the entrance by the monumental Epcot landmark, Spaceship Earth, we made our way into exploring the park.  Lots of activity to be found at Epcot during the fall, as we were there during the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.  What might be compared to a more organized (and only slightly less commercialized) version of the Bite of Seattle, the Food and Wine Festival adds many extra food and cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, as well as additional food “taste” kiosks at the various countries around World Showcase.  In fact they add extra countries that aren’t usually represented by the eleven permanent countries’ pavilions.  For those Food Network fans out there, you may recognize this famous chef especially from his show, Dinner: Impossible, Chef Robert Irvine was signing cookbooks and posing for pictures, with the line all the way around the pavilion.  I did not wait in line, but did snap a couple of grainy iPhone pics of random other people posing for pictures. 

After some adventures and fun in Epcot that day, we eventually made our way later in the evening to catch the Huskies playing Stanford on TV at the ESPN Club on The Boardwalk (an area a encompassing most of the upscale Epcot resorts, and just a short walk from the Epcot park).  If anyone doesn’t remember that debacle of a performance by the Dawgs, I won’t help you relive it.  Suffice it to say, we left at halftime and made our way back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep. 

The second day happened to be my birthday, which I reluctantly acknowledged when we were checking in at the resort the day before, and was given a “It’s my Birthday!” button which I decided to wear ONLY on my birthday.  They actually have quite an array of buttons you can ask for, for whatever occasion you happen to be celebrating.  In addition to the “Happy Birthday” buttons we found “Happy Anniversary”, “Just Married”, “Just Engaged”, “Happily Ever After”, “Family Reunion”, “1st Visit”, or if you can’t manage to make any of those work for you, the generic “I’m Celebrating!” button.  I have to admit, wearing the Happy Birthday button throughout the parks, almost every single cast member said “Happy Birthday” to me, whether I was waiting in line, or just wandering through the park.  I can’t say I’d enjoy that on most days, but once in a while it’s kinda fun. 

The night of my birthday, we had dinner at the Rose and Crown, a restaurant in Epcot’s UK showcase right on the lagoon.  It was a later dinner, and timed so perfectly that while eating dinner it was time for Illuminations, the nighttime firework spectacular at Epcot.  Nothing like prime seating and not having to wade through crowds to see anything. 

Speaking of crowds, there’s definitely something to be said for NOT going in the summer.  Crowds were mercifully minimal throughout most of the week we were there, except for the Saturday we arrived which was slightly heavier than the rest.  Rarely did we have to wait too long for any attraction, except for the most ridiculously popular ones in the parks with fewer big attractions than others (cough, cough, I’m talking to you Toy Story Mania, cough cough). 

Monday included adventures at the Magic Kingdom.  Though that night we had reservations at the Crystal Palace, a restaurant right on Main Street U.S.A., which included my first ever experience of Character Dining.  Let me just tell you, if you have kids this is well worth the price of whatever it happens to be if you don’t have to wait in line to see their favorite characters.  This restaurant featured Winnie the Pooh and his friends, each of which makes his way around to your table to personally greet you throughout your meal.  I really didn’t expect this to be too exciting, especially for a couple of older young guys like ourselves, but we played along, and it actually was pretty fun.  I think the characters appreciated having some people other than kids that they could have fun taking pictures with.  When Pooh came by, he immediately motioned with me to coordinate a priceless picture:

Of course, not to be outdone, I had remembered Andrew mentioning to me that his coworkers often call him Eeyore at work, so it was only appropriate to stage a gloomy picture, that Eeyore was more than happy to oblige: 

Another first for me on this trip was attending one of WDW’s trademark after-hours parties at the Magic Kingdom.  During the fall, those consist of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, on selected nights throughout September and October.  The park closes to the day ticket holders around 7pm, and they flush all of them out of the park while those of us who bought the separate event tickets had our way around the park.  The party featured trick-or-treat stations set up at a half dozen various locations throughout the park, where they would fill your bag with handfuls of tasty morsels (though we’re pretty sure they save the good stuff for the little kids).

I was very impressed how well they deck the park out for the Halloween parties.  The park is vastly transformed into one giant haunted (but not-so-scary) place.  I’ve always been a fan of the HalloweenTime decorations at Disneyland, but these are far more comprehensive.  They have a special “HalloWishes” firework show, and it’s also one of the few times ever that you can find the Seven Dwarfs out posing for pictures: 

Of course, one of the best parts is that there are so many fewer people in the park, you can pretty much walk on to every ride you’d ever want to!  Not a bad deal, and a lot of special stuff you don’t see anywhere else. 

Wednesday we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom park, and caught a great time on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, with plenty of animals out roaming and in great places for pictures. 

The nice thing about WDW is that you don’t have to spend all-day every-day in the theme parks riding rides.  It’s much more than that.  From enjoying fun and uniquely-themed restaurants, to the various shopping and nightlife areas, elaborate mini-golf courses, and just exploring the amazingly-themed resorts, all under the Florida sun, you never run out of things to do (well, you can do even more if you have an endless pocketbook, but that’s another issue). 

Yet another new experience was on Friday, when we went on one of the special guided behind-the-scenes tours  We got to the park at opening and attended the Epcot Future World UnDISCOVERed tour.  There were about a dozen people on the tour, and we given a more detailed history and background information on some of the attractions as well as taken backstage to some of the cast areas to see how Epcot operates and what all it takes to keep it functioning.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in most of those areas, so I’ll leave it to your imagination.  But we visited the ginormous cast costuming department where everyone who works at Epcot goes to check-out their uniform while working in the parks.  We also made it back to the marinas behind the park, where the Epcot area boats are maintained, as well as the firework barges used in Illuminations. 

That night we made our way back over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios park. The park at night looks almost like it could be a city street in downtown Hollywood. 

But besides wanting to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror again, our goal was to see WDW’s version of Fantasmic!  Now, this is WDW’s second-incarnation of Disneyland’s original nighttime show on the Rivers of America.  I had warned Andrew that this was a lousy knockoff, though I constantly read and hear comments made by those Disney World obsessed folks that claim that it’s far better than Disneyland’s version.  Different?  Yes.  But better?  We think not.  Yes, it’s a bigger amphitheater, designed specifically for the WDW version of the show. 

But bigger isn’t necessary better.  They stretched the time to make the whole thing longer, but the problem is that the filler they used turned it into an often incoherent mix of random musical segments.  They Disneyland original has a clearly apparently plot that follows it throughout.  Whatever the issues, it’s enough to make me want to go back to California for the real deal. 

Fortunately the only rain or even remotely questionable weather we had to deal with was on the last day we were there.  The rest of the week was sun, warm, and no humidity, just the way I like it. 

Sadly the trip came to an end.  The only thing that makes the trip more fun is having more friends go along too.  Who knows when the next WDW adventure will be, but maybe there’ll be something new to celebrate?  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I think so. 

Welcome home! We hope you enjoyed our stay…

Normally this would be the obligatory blog post where I extol how awesome my vacation to Disney World was, and all of the awesome things we did, complete with pictures that you love to see.  But that post will have to come another day.  Instead I’ll recap what’s happened since I returned home.  There’s nothing quite like the feeling of coming back home from a fantastic vacation… especially when you come home to find that someone else wanted to enjoy your house while you were away. 

I arrived home on the Saturday night before Halloween.  After picking up my car from my parents’ house and driving home, I arrived in the driveway hoping to climb into my nice warm bed and get some sleep.  As I pulled up, I was somewhat surprised to find that the garage door wouldn’t open.  Odd, but plenty of reasonable explanations why that might have been the case.  So I parked my car on the street and made for the front door.  However, as I looked up from the street into the living room window, I noticed the lights were on.  Just very dim, but on no less.  And the blinds were open.  I was pretty certain neither of these were the case when I left, and at this point I think I subconsciously knew something was very wrong.  At this point, I didn’t even bother reaching for my house keys, but just went straight for the door handle, and found it decidedly unlocked.  As I went in and turned on the lights, my worst expectations were recognized as it was obvious someone else had been there. 

I walked into my office on the first floor, and couldn’t see the carpet because papers were scattered all about every corner of the room.  I cautiously made my way up to the main floor, to find things surprisingly relatively orderly, but also remarkably bare at places.  I honestly wouldn’t have noticed much wrong except that a couple of the kitchen cupboards were open, and a few things open elsewhere.  At this point in partial shock, I just grabbed my phone and called 911.  The dispatcher said she’d send a police officer over to take a report.  Much to my surprise, a Shoreline officer showed up in less than 5 minutes.  He looked around and surveyed the situation.  This was also the first I went up to my bedroom to see what had happened up there.  Again, besides a few drawers that I never use sitting opened, I wouldn’t have noticed much wrong. 

After a bit more investigation, we found the point of entry: the downstairs window.  The perps had used a screwdriver to pry the trim off around the window frame, then jam the screwdriver through to pop the latch on the window.  In hindsight, this is one form of entry that could have been thwarted by ye olde stick in the window.  However, my more cynical opinion is that had I made it harder to slide the window open they would have just broken the glass, which would have been a lot worse for me to have to deal with.

I’m not generally one to live in fear, but I have to admit, I didn’t really get much sleep that night.  I was lucky that I didn’t realize until morning that one of my spare house keys was missing as well.  I was able to secure the window with a stick that made me feel reasonably safe, but it took me several days until I got the locks changed and believed that things were really secure again.  In the meantime, I took the rather insane approach of barricading the front door with a bench before I went to bed, just in case someone wanted to come in the middle of the night.  I also for the first time locked my bedroom door, because well, if it helps you sleep better more power to you.    By the end of the week, my paranoia was gone, and I now feel like it’s back to my own safe and sound house.  All things considered, getting over it that quickly is probably better than most. 

Two weeks following the break-in, I’m still finding things missing.  There’s nothing quite like looking at an empty shelf and thinking “I know there was something there, but what exactly was it?”  The obvious stuff was gone:  several laptops, a bunch of collectible coins, pretty much anything shiny.  It took me a while to realize that some of the more important things were gone, such as my flute and piccolo.  On the whole, not too much that was irreplaceable was taken.  The exceptions were some random souvenirs I had gotten from trips over the years, like from the Vancouver Olympics, and unfortunately all of my pins I had bought or received on the various trips and bowl games over my years in band.  I’ve heard that most thieves make use of what they find for hauling the booty away, namely any sort of bags they find to load up.  I think the most noticeable was the fact that nearly every duffel bag or storage bag in my house was taken, presumably to load up the goods.  But on the more bizarre side, there was a noticeable amount of random food and such taken from the fridge.  Ice cream, cheese, salami, and even peanut butter.  I mean, honestly?  Who takes such things?! 

But without a doubt the strangest thing I never noticed happened the other night when I was going to wash a pan in the sink.  As I’m standing at the sink I immediately reach out for the dish soap, and it isn’t there.  Yes, that’s right, they stole a half empty bottle of Dawn.  I do not at all understand that one.  It makes next to no sense to me whatsoever. 

So I’ve been dealing with the insurance company, sending along lists of what was taken, and then replacing as much of it as I can.  Part of the reason it’s taken so long to get this posted is that I just got a new laptop on Friday.  While in some ways it’s fun shopping to replace all of the things that were taken, I really would much rather just have my stuff back. 

No word as to if they’ll ever catch the people who did it.  My flute was probably the most traceable thing that was taken, as I even had the serial number to track it with, but unless they take it to a pawn shop to try to get rid of it, it’s unlikely they’ll ever get caught.  Maybe someday they’ll get caught for some other crime and they’ll find some of my stuff, but I’m not counting on much.  As it goes, you just have to move on and pick up the pieces.  It’s only things, and things can be replaced. 

But I still want my stuff back…

Infomercial Theory

They say the golden rule for infomercials is:

1)  Convince the audience of a problem they never knew they had.
2)  Provide a solution to the problem that they never knew they had.
3)  Scare them into thinking the problem they never knew they had is worse than they ever thought it could be.
4)  Give them a one-of-a-kind too-good-to-be-true offer that they have to act on right away.
5)  Give them something extra to make the too-good-to-be-true offer EVEN MORE too-good-to-be-true.

I have to admit, I love watching infomercials.  I find them oddly captivating (and usually the acting is absolutely priceless... as in I don't think they paid anything for real actors).

Have you also noticed how there are "regulars" in the infomercial acting world?  I'm like "that's the same old lady who had fell in the tub and needed the suction cup handle to make her safer after washing her feet with these scrubber things that so you don't need to actually touch your own feet, yet also grows her tomatoes upside down, but talks to her grandkids while grandpa listens to the TV using the wireless headphones so as not to disturb her, all the while wearing her Snuggie so she can knit without her arms getting cold!"

But that's not why I write today... I write about the latest trend in the mainstream market that capitalizes on the problem I never knew I had.  The hands free soap pump for home use!

As the commercials point out, "who wants to touch a germy soap pump? EW!"  Now you too can keep your family safe and healthy from harmful germs with the hands free soap pump next to your sink!

Now, I don't doubt that there are germs on the soap pump (well, perhaps I do, but that's another issue)... but what do I do normally when I touch something nasty or germ-ridden?  Wash my hands!  But wait?  That's ALREADY what I'm doing!  What a deal!  So why should I care if the soap pump is germy?  I shouldn't!  That's the point!  It's the perfect problem you never knew you had, coupled with this country's obsession with cleanliness and scaring people into thinking that germs are out to get you!  "I don't want my kids touching that!  Ew!"

I guess there really IS a sucker born every minute...

News, Updates, and D23 Expo

It's been a while since I've made a purely Disney-related update (I know I know, you're going to say it's been a while since I've made ANY update)... but I like this stuff.

This weekend is every Disney fan's dream for new information about upcoming events and happenings.  The D23 Expo will be occurring this weekend in Anaheim, a convention where Disney often releases all of the news and excitement of things they're planning for the upcoming year and beyond.  In conjunction with this, today we have the release of the first set of Pixar themed postage stamps from the USPS.  The Send a Hello series features images from 5 classic Pixar films (Cars, Ratatouille, Toy Story, Up, and Wall-E).  

As much as nobody really sends mail anymore, it's always fun to find an excuse to send things.  The nice feature of these is that they are FOREVER stamps, and won't lose their value if you mail things as infrequently as I do.  I typically use them on postcards, even though they're more postage than you need, because who wouldn't want one of these stamps on a postcard? :)  

In other news, we've heard rumors of Disney's "NextGen" project for years now, but only find out pieces here and there about what it consists of.  One of the latest tech pieces to be discovered is the future plans to use fancy RFID wristbands for resort guests.  

An article over on dizfanatic.com goes over just some of the uses for this technology, including room keys, park tickets, fastpasses, photo pass, and all kinds of other interactive whosawhatsits.  Pretty neat idea, it'll be interesting to see how this works out once they implement it at some point.  

In my own news, I'm looking forward to yet another trip to Disney World this October.  Few people understand my obsession insatiable enjoyment with going to Disney theme parks.  It's not that I always go on vacation there exclusively -- as you know from my blog here I go lots of different places.  But I do like the ultimate carefree not-thinking-about-the-outside-world aspect to going to a Disney theme park.  This trip should also be interesting because I'm going during a different time of year than I have in the past.  I'll be there during the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, an annual month-long event where Epcot becomes a giant food festival, with additional food stands set up all around the World Showcase, presenting foods from the various countries, as well as plenty of other special events and guests.  

Additionally, the Magic Kingdom will be decked out for the Halloween holiday.  I've been to Disneyland during Halloween season several times, and it's always fantastic.  I've always been a big fan of Halloween, so maybe I just enjoy those decorations a bit more than usual.  

That's the news that's fit to print for now.  

Street where the riches of ages are stowed… – Day 14

Portobello Road, Portobello Road,
Street where the riches of ages are stowed.
Anything and everything a chap can unload
Is sold off the barrows in Portobello Road.

I started my last day in London with a walk down to Portobello Road.  For those who have never seen the lesser-known Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, starring Angela Lansbury, this probably won’t mean much to you.  Though I’ve seen this movie way too many times to remember, and can’t get the Portobello Road song out of my head. 

On Saturdays this street turns into a giant street market, selling everything from antiques to new chotchkies, to a more conventional farmers market with produce and other foodie goods.  And of course, the usual unique street performing entertainment. 

After a nice walk down this road and buying nothing, because I found no junk that I never knew I needed, I hopped the tube across town towards St. Paul’s Cathedral, famously in another Disney movie, Mary Poppins, where the old lady fed the birds.  

Along the way, I stumbled upon the Museum of London.  This wasn’t on any of the maps I had, but I stopped in anyway (it’s another free museum, so what did I have to lose?).  It was actually a very interesting museum specifically talking about the history of the city of London, with plenty of interactive things to play with (because just like any kid, I get bored in museums pretty easily if there isn’t stuff for me to play with).  It was a worthwhile diversion.  They should put these on maps. 

Finally continuing down the street, I made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  One small problem I hadn’t accounted for, however, was that on Saturdays it closed to visitors at 1pm.  Apparently Jesus needs his naptime.  Waah waah.  I lose.  Complete failure of planning. 

But what can I do?  I continued on down to Fleet Street, and kept walking around town.  Next thing I knew I was in the West End’s Theatretown, and there were theatres everywhere.  Being Saturday, they all have their matinee shows, and I walked past a theatre showing a new musical that I had seen advertised quite a bit around town this past week, Betty Blue Eyes.

There were still last minute day of show tickets available, and the show started in just 15 minutes, so I plopped down 20 pounds and grabbed a seat in the 3rd row of this beautiful theatre having ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what this musical comedy was about.  It story was set in Britain during the food rationing times of post-WWII, specifically around the time of the royal wedding of then-Princess Elizabeth and Philip.  The plot is entirely centered around key points in British history, which while an entertaining story with good music, would probably have a rough time playing to US audiences on Broadway.  Though I’d have to say it was worth what I paid to see it, and I enjoyed the well done show. 

Following that, I walked my way back across Oxford Street and the shops that still didn’t have anything worth buying.  But walking around the city as much as I have, this is the first time I’ve been in a city where people drive on the “wrong” side of the street.  And it’s confused the hell out of me.  Ultimately, the only thing that has saved me countless times when crossing at crosswalks is the abundant use of instructions to those crossing.

I’d say they put these in solely for tourists, but that would be wrong. I think the locals use them just as much.  The problem is that you never know if the road you’re crossing is a one-way this way, one-way that way, or two-way street, each of which requires you to look a certain direction.  LOOK RIGHT –> and <- LOOK LEFT are the most important words you ever see.  Once you do that, the system works.  Though even after a week in the UK, I can’t for the life of me remember which direction traffic is coming at an unmarked crosswalk.  But the tricky part that I instantly realized is that not only do they DRIVE on the left, trains and subways travel on the left of each other, so at the train platforms you’re expecting the train to come from the other direction.  AND, walking on the street, you tend to walk on the left too, though with so many tourists in town, that quickly becomes a disordered mess.  Walking down the middle or against a wall seems to be the most efficient way to get through things. 

Well, the bags are repacked, ready to head off to the airport in the morning for 14 hours of in-flight relaxation.  Unfortunately, no direct flight home this time, so I have to split the trip in half with a stop at JFK in New York.  It’ll be a long day.  But fortunately the holiday weekend yields a day of recovery on Monday. 

For you avid blog readers who have followed my journey, I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  I’ll try to keep up with some intermittent blogging before my next adventure, but we all know how that goes.  Thanks for the memories.  Please tip your waiter.  Good night. 

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square – Day 13

Day 13, nearly at the end of our journey, but today was a bit more upbeat as I traveled to some of the more royal landmarks in London.

The day began with a stop by the Royal Mews, where all the Queen’s horses are stabled, along with the royal carriages and motorcars.  Of particular interest was an up close look at the Glass Coach which has famously been seen in many royal weddings, notably carrying Princess Diana to the wedding with Charles. 

Following a brief stop at the Queen’s Gallery, which displays selected paintings and other artifacts from the Royal collection, I made my way down the street to Buckingham Palace. 

I hadn’t planned to see the Changing of the Guard, but just happened to walk past at the right time, along with the throngs of people who had lined the plaza to watch.  Almost every reference I read said that the changing is completely overrated and not to waste your time, but since I was there, I joined the party.  It wasn’t so bad. 

OK, so what I really enjoyed was the royal beefeater band.  They were rather good to listen to, and it was nice watching them march out. 

Not a large group, and as usual the clarinets are in the back of the block, but that’s to be expected. :)  They were followed by men with guns, and then a second group of just drums and fifes (or piccolos as the case may be, historical accuracy be damned).  They were fun too, but need a lesson in keeping the piccs in tune.  Seriously. 

Watch the band marching
Watch the drums and piccolos marching 

Continuing on I went to the Churchill War Rooms, which were the underground bunker rooms used by Churchill and the British cabinet members during WWII.  These were surprisingly interesting, and well worth the stop.  This also included the Churchill Museum, which was basically a biographical museum all about the man himself. 

Just next door is 10 Downing Street, home of the current prime minister.  It’s not quite as glamorous as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but it seems to have nearly as many men with guns standing out front.  I could see about this much: 

I was not on the guest list, so I moved on.  I apparently was on the guest list at Westminster Abbey, where I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but got some nice ones from outside worth seeing.

This place was second only to the Tower of London in terms of how many people were touring it.  And since it’s so much smaller relatively, it was next to impossible to get around in there.  But I still saw plenty of old stuff, and dead people crypts.  Classy.

From there, time had escaped me a bit, but I wanted to make my way down to Greenwich, and took a river cruise from Westminster down the river.  Sadly, it took about an hour and a half to get there, and I didn’t make it off the dock until a bit after 4pm.  Hustling up to the places I wanted to get, I had basically the option of going to the National Maritime Museum, or the Royal Observatory up the hill, in the time I had left.  I decided to walk part the museum and head up to the observatory, which I arrived at about 20 past 4pm.  I head on in, and actually viewed some rather impressive displays on timekeeping and how it all developed.  And more importantly, I saw the arbitrary line of no particular significance, except that they had to draw 0° somewhere and these people decided it would be through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich: The Prime Meridian. 

This classy self portrait of me standing halfway in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres was my souvenir of this part of the journey.  Now my ironic gripe of the night:  I was informed when I entered the observatory at around 4:21pm that it closes at 5pm.  Fine, I figured I could see plenty by then.  I make my way through seeing things, and just as I’m heading into the last building, at 4:45pm, the lady tells me that they’re closed, and they kick everyone out of the place.  At 4:45pm.  WHAT THE DEAL?  The sign clearly said “Closes 17.00, Last admission 16.30”.  You would THINK that the place that DEFINES THE TIME FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD could at least get the time right.  C’mon Greenwich. 

Once I got over that, I went into the town of Greenwich, where I found a nice pub and had a tasty hamburger, for a reasonable price, which included a pint for only 50 pence more, so who could argue with that.  On the TV the big match that had England captivated was the Wimbledon semi-final between Britain’s own Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.  The world seemed to stop so everyone could watch this.  Even back in the city up on Oxford Street, an outdoor pub garden was packed with onlookers watching on the TV. 

And finally, on my walks through town I passed by another of the famous town squares, this one immortalized in song, Berkeley Square. 

Though I heard no nightingale singing over the hustle and bustle of a busy city, it still looked like a nice place to mention in a song.  I leave you with that song.

Off with her head! – Day 12

It turned out to be a rather dark and bleak day today, but not weather-wise, only topically.  The adventures started out with a trip to the Tower of London, formerly the Alcatraz of the British Empire, and now probably the most visited tourist attraction. 

This is actually an amazing place, and besides getting to see the Crown Jewels of yet another country, the whole place is VERY well done.  There are plenty of tours of the grounds led by the local Yeoman Warders, aka the Beefeaters.  I caught parts of several, and I actually in hindsight would have just stayed with the guided tour the whole time, it was that well done.  The Beefeater knew everything under the sun, and was highly entertaining.  Though gruesome at times, it was very educational and historical.  A few highlights: 

A display of the Heads of State?  OK, that was not really a highlight, but was worth the cheap laugh. 

This dragon was kinda odd too, but I thought it looked cool.  After a little over two hours in the Tower of London, I moved down the river to the Tower Bridge. 

I did go up inside the tower, which is an attraction in its own right.  But it was pretty lame.  Probably the only lame thing I did today.  I guess nothing’s perfect. 

Once on the other side of the river, I went on recommendation to the Winston Churchill’s Britain at War Experience.  This place wasn’t much on the outside, and looked rather cheesy and half baked in the entrance.  But despite the fact that it was less than technically impressive, it was actually quite captivating.  Its focus was the Blitz on Britain during WWII from the British perspective.  Like any good WWII museum, it had lots of artifacts and stuff, but this one made you feel like you were actually there, not just through pictures.  Well worth it. 

Finally the London Bridge Experience and London Tombs was nearby.  I had no idea about this one, but it was free with my London Pass, and I walked by it.  It turned out to be part history lesson, part interactive live theatre, and part haunted house.  OK, well, the whole thing was haunted house, basically.  The first part led the group through several scenes with live actors in character leading the group on the dark history of the London Bridge.  From there, we “went down into the tombs”, where it basically turned into a gratuitous haunted house, where live actors try to scare the pants off of the guests.  I found the whole concept to be incredibly hokey, but so well done (even rivaling Disney’s standards of theming), that it was actually something I would say not to miss.  And yes, it was scary.  And dark, very very dark. 

The night concluded with taking in a West End show.  I had looked at what was playing around town, and didn’t really find anything in particular that I hadn’t seen but really wanted to, so decided to go to one of my favorite musicals, Wicked.  It’s amazing to see it in a permanent theatre, as I usually only see touring productions that have scaled back and transportable sets.  This was elaborate and altogether a great show.  Though it was a bit odd to hear the musical with British accents, I actually believe that these people enunciated much better than the past two touring productions I’ve seen in Seattle.  I could clearly hear many of the lyrics that I knew but are all too easily slurred and blurred on stage. 

It was also very cool to see one of these old theatres.  At least I assume it was old, it was pretty cool.  One thing that is odd in the British theatre world is the different names for everything.  What we in the US would call the Orchestra Level or Main Floor, they call the Stalls (though I have no idea why).  The balcony, or mezzanine, they call the Dress Circle.  I’m sure there’s ye olde English explanations for these, but I have yet to bother to figure it out.  So it is. 

Tomorrow I think I’ll head to Westminster Abbey, and probably other places around the central part of London.  Or I’ll start wandering.  I gave my feet a bit of a rest today and took the Tube around most places, so maybe tomorrow I’ll be recovered enough.  But first I must sleep.