An uncharacteristic mid-semester and unexpected historic journey took us to London and Wales in September for a Strategy Conference during the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral. We had been planning to attend the conference since April, as Jason was presenting a paper. I planned to tag along to help do some research and planning for a student trip next May with the University. What we didn’t expect was to be joined by millions of mourners, state dignitaries, foreign leaders, and being unable to do much of the research we hoped to as many locations were closed to the public. All that said, we were completely floored by HOW WELL the entire city of London managed the entire affair from transportation to crowd control. Bravo.
Traveling to London – Days 1 and 2
We flew out of Springfield on Thursday and into London on Friday, leaving plenty of time for Jason to check in to his conference and then venture out on our own for the day. We took the new Heathrow Express train to Paddington station from the airport. This was a pricier option compared to the Underground (what the Britts call their subway), but we were testing the best way to get from the airport with students. We took the Underground on the way back to the airport and it was extremely crowded with bags. Plus, that was just two of us, we will have between 20-30 others with us next time with a backpack and carry-on bag each – it’s too much hassle to try to cram everyone on. We vote Express. We stayed at the Hilton Paddington, right on top of the train station for this trip for easy access to transportation and to check out all the train lines for our students. I wouldn’t call it the best Hilton we’ve ever stayed at, but it was convenient, so it did the job. We will probably be looking at hotels above King’s Cross Station for our trip back since that is where we will come into the city from Scotland.
Since many of the sites we were planning to visit in the city were closed for the weekend and the Queen’s funeral, we decided to take a train trip a bit outside of the city to Hampton Court. We had not prepared for this at all, so that meant a trip to the ticket desk at the train station to figure out the best way to get there. A very helpful man found us the best route from Paddington Station via Waterloo Station on the Underground and then to Hampton Court on the train. We thought it was the slowest train ever but that was probably because we hadn’t slept in 24 hours at this point. The key to a trip to Europe is to stay awake that first day to reset your body clock to local time, so we always try to keep busy. Sometimes it’s rather painful, like the time we did a hop-on hop-off bus tour in Dublin that didn’t give you many opportunities to hop off. It became a nap bus. Luckily, this train had Wi-Fi, so we were able to catch up on some emails and keep our brains busy while we rode.
Hampton Court – Still Day 2
To Hampton Court! Does anyone other than me know about Hampton Court? I had to fill Jason in quite a bit, but he eventually got into it and we spent ALL day there totally nerding out. Ok, I was nerding out, he was dragging along behind in desperate need of a nap but we did find him some coffee and a tour headset to keep his hands and mind busy.
Hampton Court is the “pleasure palace” of King Henry Tudor VIII – the one with all the wives. He confiscated this picture-perfect palace on the banks of the Thames from Cardinal Wolsey, his Lord Chancellor, in the 16th century. Wolsey had started with what was a country house and spent a magnificent sum of money to transform it into a palace where he could host the King and monarchs from around the world. He did so well with this transformation that King Henry VIII took it for himself. It was/is enormous and filled with all the modern thrills of the time – a theatre, hunting grounds, expansive gardens, a great hall, tennis court, truly anything imaginable, and an absolutely gorgeous chapel (that you’re not allowed to photograph). There were state and private apartments for the King and his Queen (whoever that was at the time), expansive accommodations for courtiers, and under it all, a vast network of servants and supply chain making it all run flawlessly. Never mind the grandeur, I think the staff and servant areas are a work of genius. Everything ran like clockwork, there were two lavish meals with 40+ dinner options each day that fed hundreds of people. And this court was so rich that the main item on the menu was always some form of meat – unheard of outside of this palace in the 16th century. The rest of the country was quite poor and ate whatever they could find.
Some fun facts:
- In 1603 William Shakespeare’s King’s Men performed Hamlet and Macbeth for James I in the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
- In 1604 the conference that resulted in the publication of the King James Bible in 1611 was held at Hampton Court.
- King Charles I housed much of his astonishing art collection at the palace and found himself staring at all this art when he was imprisoned in the palace in 1647 after his defeat in the Civil War. He escaped, was captured, and executed by Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians in 1649. Cromwell then made the palace his home in the mid-1600s to save it from destruction. I think it’s funny how such a staunch Puritan was living in a palace – contradiction much?
Unfortunately (but maybe, fortunately) ¾ of this palace was torn down in the 18th century and replaced with its baroque addition by King William and Queen Mary. You can see the evidence of this very clearly from the outside. The Tudor portion of Hampton Court is more ornate, closed off, and the brick is much darker. The baroque addition is simple with symmetrical facades, light-colored stone, offers lots of light through many windows, and looks very welcoming. In the addition, you could drive up to the door and enter the palace. In contrast, the Tudor portion must first be entered via a large gate to the courtyard, almost being swallowed up by the palace before being granted entrance to the buildings. William and Mary were also responsible for the creation of the great fountain garden and the privy garden. Both are still absolutely spectacular today.
The final addition to Hampton Court was made by King George I in 1714-1729 when he added rooms for his son King George II. He also added a new kitchen. This Hanoverian king would spend his summers in Hanover and leave the rule of England to his son, who was the last monarch to live at Hampton Court. By 1737 George II no longer wanted to live there, and so it was turned into lavish apartments for those who had been in service to the monarch. This continued until the 1960s when new apartments were no longer granted, but there are still a couple of elderly residents at Hampton Court today. In 1838 Queen Victoria opened Hampton Court to the public (much to the private residents’ disappointment) and it has since been a way for the commoner to peer into the lives of Kings and Queens. Trust me, we did our fair share. They were closing the gates behind us as we finally made our way out, back down the drive and back to the train. Bye Hampton Court, I’ll miss you. We wandered back to the hotel completely exhausted and totally head bobbing on the train. We found some food at the hotel restaurant and called it a day.
You’re welcome for the history lesson. Back to it.
The Tower of London – Day 3
The following day we managed to sneak in a visit to the Tower of London after Jason spent the morning in conference sessions. This was a highly recommended to-do when we asked for advice on must-sees in London. I would like to thank you all for your recommendation, and while it was a spectacle to behold, it wasn’t our favorite. I’m sure you know the stories of the “bloody tower:” its many executions, prisoners, the place where two boys disappeared, and the protector of the city. But, do you know it was once a zoo, a royal residence, was surrounded by water, currently holds England’s crown jewels, and its guards, the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters), have been guarding the Tower since Tudor times and were the guards you saw surrounding the Queen’s casket in Parliamentary Hall at her funeral? We met one, he told us about the procedure to guard the casket – 20 minutes on, change of guard, 20 minutes off, for 6 hours. Many voluntarily pulled double and triple shifts to guard the Queen’s casket all through the night. My body hurts just thinking about it.
The familiar White Tower at the center of it all has been transformed into a museum. An informative one at that but I was disappointed that much of the original function had been covered up by the museum aspect and modern accommodations. It’s hard to imagine it as a well-stocked armory, great hall, and prison when you are faced with computer screens and boarded-up alcoves. Fantastic photo op from the ramparts outside though. We didn’t stay very long.
While everyone was occupied by the changing of the guard (which was rather sparse because they were busy guarding the Queen’s casket as thousands of mourners filed by down the road in Parliamentary Hall) we ran to the front of the line to see the crown jewels. These are located in the Jewel House behind the White Tower. The building itself is actually one large vault; you’ll walk through an imposing door as you enter the main collection area. Unfortunately, during our visit, some of these were missing as the Orb, Scepter, and the Imperial State Crown were on display atop the Queen’s casket, but we did get to see hundreds of years’ worth of jewels, crowns, jewelry, and serving dishes collected by various monarchs. The amount of treasure in that room is astounding, though controversial, as it’s compiled of things taken from all over the world, most from territories currently or formerly controlled by the British Crown. If ever you wanted to appreciate the excesses of royal possessions, this would be the place to visit.
My favorite part of the entire complex was the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. It is a simple but gorgeous chapel within the tower walls. Here are buried some rather famous prisoners executed at the Tower – Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Lord Guilford Dudley, and Sir Thomas More. All victims of King Henry VIII’s wrath. Can you tell I know a few things about the Tudors? Haha.
We wandered every other building we were allowed, visited the shops, walked the ramparts, toured the once grand royal apartments, and found coins in the mint from the reign of King George III – coins in use during the American Revolution, which in relation to everything else there, is very recent. Once again, we wandered out the gate as they were closing for the day and walked along the River Thames for some photos of Tower Bridge. The traffic jam happening over that bridge – no thank you!
And then, we did the unthinkable. We got back on the Underground and as it made its stop at Westminster Hall we thought, why not, and got off. Oh my. We walked up the stairs with suspiciously few people and as we broke the surface, were met by a sea of people heading in the opposite direction from where we had intended to go. As we soon discovered, they had closed the station, so it was little wonder there were so few people. We managed to find a corner, get our bearings, and decided to follow them. We weren’t getting any closer the Westminster this time. It turns out, the cousins’ vigil was about to take place, so security around the area had tightened, forcing everyone away. The cousins had just been outside thanking everyone for coming – we just missed them! As Midwesterners do, we struck up a conversation with one of the officers asking about their hats while we were trying to figure out which direction to go. Jason had noticed there were different hats among the officers (male and female officers have different styles of hats) and asked why. She had no idea! Haha! The officer had heard talk of a redesign, so everyone will eventually have the same gender-neutral version, but the new design has yet to be revealed. And now, I will be watching for that to see if it happens. Looking at you Scotland Yard. We continued to follow the flow of traffic to the next Underground station where we were able to get back on and head back to the hotel. I will say, for the number of people we suddenly encountered, it was very orderly.
We went for a wander to find some dinner after that. We walked into Zizzi, an Italian restaurant, fully expecting that I would only be able to eat spaghetti and tomatoes or something non-dairy along those lines. I just have to say, when you’re met at the door of a restaurant and the first thing they ask you (after how you are and how many in your party) is if there are any food allergies, I’m impressed. That’s all it takes. I feel seen and safe. This happened at EVERY restaurant we stepped in on this trip and I never got sick. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was soooo afraid to travel again after the food poisoning debacle in Spain. And yes, I did find something other than spaghetti. Win!
Exploring Hyde Park – Day 4
The next day was Sunday. Jason attended a few conference sessions in the morning, so I ate breakfast by myself, so awkward, then went back to the room to do some sink laundry while I waited for him to get done. Then in London Sunday fashion, we decided to take a walk in Hyde Park in the afternoon. The closer to the southern portion of the park we walked, the busier it got. We’re still not entirely sure why, but I think everyone was being redirected from laying flowers at Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park. Since we were so close to the grounds of the Palace, we decided to go against the crowd and see if we could get close enough to snap a shot of it. Negative. Sunday was the day all the foreign leaders were gathering for a reception at Buckingham Palace prior to the Queen’s funeral, so security was tight and you couldn’t get close to the grounds. No wonder there were helicopters. Next time.
We hopped on the Underground at Hyde Park Corner Station and took it out to the University of London to do some scouting for another program Jason has in the works. It’s a lovely, quiet area with a nice park, grocery, and restaurants and just so happens to be right next to the British Museum. Nerd alert. I will happily accompany him on this trip as well. We didn’t go to the museum but now that I know where it is, I’ll be back! Starving and tired from walking all afternoon, we hopped the Underground again, changed trains at Kings Cross, and popped up right in front of our hotel at Paddington. We dropped our bags off quickly, then wandered into the pub across the street for burgers. We tried to call it an early night because Jason’s presentation was the next day and I had intended to work all day. Well…
Working while abroad…and a Royal Funeral – Day 5
Jason did leave early for the conference and was there most of the day. His discussion went well, and I think he got lots of good ideas to expand upon. You’ll have to ask him about the particulars. All he really told me was that there was an awkward 2 minutes of silence throughout the country that they participated in and weren’t sure where to look. I grabbed breakfast alone again (still awkward – why do I feel like I’m being stared at?) and proceeded to park myself in front of the TV to watch the Queen’s funeral – ALL. DAY. At one point I moved to crack the window for some fresh air and realized I could hear the cannons being fired in Hyde Park. I really truly thought I would get some work done but I was just captivated by the music, the pageantry, and the history of it all. So well done. Say what you will about the British, this they know how to do. I almost convinced myself to walk back down to Hyde Park again to see the funeral procession but decided this was a moment for Brits, not Americans, so I stayed put. Jason eventually came back with a newspaper explaining the proceedings of the entire day – this is the only thing we brought home from this entire trip…and a bookmark from Hampton Court. It will be fun to pull out again in years to come.
Our options for dinner this evening were pretty slim. Many places were closed in honor of the Queen’s funeral, but we did find a great little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. Amazing food! We had to roll ourselves back up the hill afterward. This is where I have to thank our friend at home for introducing us to the Indian culture and their amazing food. I’m hooked! Jason is becoming quite the Instapot Indian cook. I eat. Haha!
Back to the Airport – Day 6
This was our last night in the city. In the morning we took the very crowded Underground back to Heathrow to pick up our rental car for adventure time. It turns out, there were no trains out of Paddington for 2 days due to some mysterious damage to the electrical lines. We learned later this left a lot of people coming in for the Queen’s funeral on Monday stranded and all the extra trains they had planned to run from Paddington left, empty. Luckily there was still the Underground, which took about an hour to reach the airport. We could have also taken a taxi but that would have probably taken even longer and cost a fortune. Off the Underground, we found the shuttle for Hertz at the airport and were whisked away to our car – our first experience with a hybrid.
Until next time…
