London Calling
We’ve been hearing the cries from the masses for another blog post, so here it is: Wendy and Zeke’s adventures in London!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we had scheduled a trip down to London so Wendy could visit a few special art exhibitions and we could also spend some quality time in the Big Smoke (which is London’s “city nickname,” apparently - how sad is that? New York is the city that never sleeps, Paris is the city of lights, London is… the big smoke. lame.) Anyhoo, after hopping on a train at the crack of dawn, we got to London and started the trip off by visiting Harrod’s, an absolutely enormous department store that has just about anything you could imagine there. We walked around their toy shop, the souvenir area, and of course had to visit the CANDY STORE!
(Actually, those are giant fake stuffed lollipops they had everywhere - but their candy store really was pretty awesome though.) Harrod’s also had a special celebration going on, as it is the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz, and they had a giant yellow brick road going through a bunch of the stores, crazy designer versions of Dorothy’s red shoes, and of course the outlandish window displays that feature glammed-up versions of all the characters (for better or for worse… you decide)
I (Zeke) was super excited when we happened to stumble upon an actual Street Fighter II arcade machine in one of the stores!!! And for those who happen to be wondering, yeah, I’ve still got it. With Vega, I’ll take anyone, anytime, anyplace.
After hopping in to an awesome Italian place for lunch (see the food-related slideshow below for more details), we spent the rest of the day seeing some amazing art: the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square has everything from Boticelli to Van Gogh, and after seeing lots of the work there we went to visit their special exhibition, The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600-1700. Since the focus of art at that time was hyperrealism and sometimes very graphic depictions of things like the crucifixion, the art was pretty intense, but it was really fascinating to see the lengths people went to to add detail: tears made of tiny jewels and glass, eyelashes made of human hair.
By the time we left the museum, it had been dark for some time (although that’s not saying too much in a country where the sun sets around 4:30) and it was time to call it a night.
The next morning, we took the Tube to the Notting Hill area and walked up and down the markets on Portobello Road, stopping for a quick snack of some absolutely awesome Nutella Crepes while we stood on a corner listening to one of the pubs blare American music.
Notting Hill Crepes from Zeke Smith on Vimeo.
Next we visited a special exhibit by one of Wendy’s favorite contemporary artists, Sophie Calle, entitled “Take Care of Yourself.” After having her lover break up with her via an extremely vague email and signing his note with the final line “take care of yourself,” Calle launched a project asking more than 100 other women to interpret the email through the lens of their chosen profession. She had a grammarian pick the note apart, an opera singer give a vocal response, the message encoded by a forensic detective, and reinterpreted in an incredible variety of other ways.
(note from Zeke: although this was one of the more enjoyable and interesting exhibits I’ve ever attended with Wendy, I constantly felt like I was being judged by other women in the room who were probably thinking “ooooh, you jerk, I bet you’ve broken up with someone in an email just like this. i want to roundhouse kick you in the face RIGHT NOW.” I think there were some gallery attendees that had man issues of their own they needed to work out. and i was a little scared.)
After another international evening of meals (Malaysian food for dinner, Lebanese for coffee and dessert) we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. The next day, we woke up and met up with my sister Leslie and her husband Mark, who were coming to London on business but arrived a few days early so they could see us and we could all spend Thanksgiving together. After spending our first evening together at a super awesome German Christmas market (see slideshow below), we spent the next day walking around various areas of London, as we happened to stumble across a cathedral named St. Marks at one point…
…on our way to Abbey Road!!!
(note: here’s the original for reference)
We then wandered over to Buckingham Palace (see the slideshows below) and walked down a couple of blocks to try and finding Downing Street where the Prime Minister lives, since Wendy’s mom’s maiden name is Downing. One thing about Downing women, they think old men are irresistably cute, as evidenced by this elderly police officer who helped tell us how to get there…
and Wendy finally found it! (though there were huge gates and lots of armed guards separating you from the street, so hopefully most of you can still read the sign)
Then we skipped over to the Churchill Museum, which was where the man himself and his cabinet spent much of WWII underground.
Shhhhh….
It was definitely a first-rate history lesson and very inspiring and all, but our favourite part might just have been trying on all the WWII-era hats in the costume area.
Aw, Winston, come on man, you know Wendy and I are both 26…
All in all, we had an awesome time in London with Mark and Leslie, as further evidenced by all the photo slideshows below. However, the party wasn’t over - it was time to load up on a train back to Manchester and show this country how Thanksgiving is done! Come back tomorrow for more adventures from Manchester and a holiday feast to remember. As always, thanks for reading!
