Day two: The Queen, The Prime Minister and The Wicked Witch of the West

September 16, 2011

Jet lag is kicking my butt! I only got about four hours of sleep last night. I woke up at 11:30 PM still feeling exhausted but with the sensation that someone had stapled my eyelids open. After a few hours of laying there staring up at the ceiling I gathered my journal, book and computer and crept into the bathroom so I didn’t wake mom and deb up. I put down the toilet cover, straddled it, and made myself a work space on the backside. It worked pretty well! I am thinking I could patent the idea of a hotel toilet/posh workspace complete with USB hookup and an ethernet jack. It could totally work!

Needless to say I have been like the walking dead today. I hope to confront jet lag tonight, stare him down, and expel him from my life! "Expelliarmus!"

This morning we had an appointment at the Queens residence, Buckingham Palace. As many times as I have been to England I have never actually gone inside. The state rooms are only open six weeks out of the year while the Queen is on her summer holiday. Most of my guide books describe the tour as over-priced and over-rated, but we truly enjoyed it! It was expensive, but worth it! What would it be like to live in such splendor every day of your life! That is the dream isn’t? That is why we all look at the monarchy with stars in our eyes. One can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be one of them!

Our next stop was at the Cabinet War Rooms. These underground tunnels were the headquarter of the British military and Winston Churchill during World War II. They are fascinating. I picked up one slim book called, "A War Brides Guide to America." I flipped it open and saw this passage, "American manners are different from our own and may not always be to your liking. Americans do not tend to say "thank you" as often as the British nor do they begin a query with "I beg your pardon." I kept the laughter inside! Those rude Americans. Where did they learn their manners?

After the cabinet rooms we walked up the street for another look at Big Ben. We did not take any pictures of ourselves yesterday quite simply for the fact we looked like we had been up all night and were in need of a good cleaning. We got a few good pictures from the bridge over the river Tames before we were herded off by the police conducting a "police action." He mentioned something about terrorism. We were just happy to get our photos!

By this time I felt like my bones had turned to Jello and the same person who had stapled my eyelids open were now endeavoring to nail them shut. It was close to 3:30 and we headed back to our hotel. I fell onto my miniature bed (can’t even roll over with out falling to the floor) and promptly fell asleep. Two seconds later mom gave me a small heart attack by startling me awake. What felt like a few seconds actually turned out to be a few hours and it was time to get up and moving again! I was in such a deep sleep that after a few tries at shaking me awake mom pulled out my ear plugs and shouted in my ear! (Well, ok, maybe not shouted, but that is how it seemed at the time!)

Ok. . . here comes a rather embarrassing but funny story:

You all know what a "planner" I am. I obsessively over-plan and over-compensate on everything! So, before we left on this trip I printed out map-quest maps and direction to most of the places we were planning on going to. Tonight we were more then excited to go see the musical "Wicked." At home when I looked up the map I was thrilled to see how close it was to our hotel. It looked to be only a few minutes away! I told my mom and deb there was no reason to leave too early. The show started at 7:30 PM and with my trusty map in hand we started out at 7:00 PM. We started walking. . . and walking. . . and walking! We followed the map and I started to worry as I watched my watch tick the minutes away. Eventually we found ourselves standing in front of Buckingham Palace. It was 7:25 and there was no theater in sight! I looked down the street, saw a taxi heading our direction and haled him down. He gave us a funny look when I told him were we needed to be, he drove us the few block to the theater and we made it just in time! As we got settled into our seats we cursed map-quest and their blasted map that had obviously lead us astray! And then I saw it. My own handwriting glaring up at me from the page, "Hotel to Buckingham Palace." I had grabbed the wrong map!!! Grrrrrr. . . but,that is not the end of this embarrassing tale. After the show ended we stepped out onto the street wondering how we were going to find our way back in the dark when we saw the lights of Victoria station glowing at us from across the street. All we needed to do to get back was to literally walk through the station, out the side door, and up the street a couple of blocks. It took us less then five minutes. If we had been paying attention we probably would have seen the theater at some point during our travels today. Oh well. Deb has indicated that she will now double check all my maps before taking a step to our next destination!

"Wicked" was incredible by the way. The songs are still ringing in my ears and are begging to be let loose from my tongue! But no one really wants to hear that!