We got up at 10am today. Neither one of us was glad to get out of bed. I’m so tired of being a London tourist! It’s all the walking around and carrying of the godforsaken backpack. Ugh. Yet, we were forced to put aside our desire for laziness and arise for the sights of London waited to be seen.
Still, we were in no hurry, and now that we had acquired the mythical syrup of Aunt Jemima we were finally able to have our French Toast for breakfast! Yum yum! Then we decided we should attempt to fix the broken suitcase. We had purchased some duct tape a few days before, so we lifted the suitcase onto the bed, zipped it up, and... the zipper broke... If I recall correctly that was followed by a stream of expletives on the part of Davin, and a mutual grudging agreement that we would have to buy a new suitcase.
Luckily, just up the street from our apartment is a middle eastern run market which sells all manner of goods at discount prices! So we took the bus to Shepard’s Bush Market to buy a new bag. We found a store selling the right size bags and we perused the selection. Davin was disgusted to see our broken suitcase there among the rest in all its new and modern glory. We finally decided on the cheapest suitcase of the right size. It seems pretty sturdy (it certainly can’t be worse than the broken one at least). We purchased it for 22 Pounds, and brought it back to our apartment. It was about 12pm by now, and we finally headed into the city.
We decided to do a bit of bus touring today since it was out last chance. So we took bus 607 bus to the White City. As magical as that may sound the White City is in fact a Westfield Shopping Center. Next we took the Central line subway in to Holborn station. There we changed to the Picadilly line and rode on station further to Russell Sq. At Russell Sq. we saw elevators next to a flight of stairs with a sign saying there were 173 stairs... We took the elevator.
We then walked the short distance to the Foundling museum. This was a moderately interesting museum. It was about the Foundling hospital that once stood in the same location and was the first real philanthropic establishment created in London. It was founded in the 1700s in an attempt to give abandoned children a chance at life. Apparently around 1000 babies were abandoned to die each year in the city. This was due to rampant poverty, lack of birth control, and other social factors like illegitimacy. Sadly, the hospital only had room for one third of applicants, and for many years children who met the admission requirements (which included certification from the hospital doctor that the child was in good health) could only be accepted based on a lottery. Mothers, who made the difficult choice of leaving their children at the hospital in the hopes of giving them a better life, would draw a ball from a bag. A black ball meant their child’s entry to the hospital was rejected, a red ball indicated their child would be placed on the waiting list, and one of the coveted white balls would ensure their child a place at the hospital. The children were then fostered out to wet nurses for 3 to 6 years and then they returned to live and be schooled at the hospital. Boys were trained to enter military service, and girls were trained for jobs in the domestic sector. The musician and composer Frederich Handel was a major patron of the Founding hospital, and Charles Dickens’ home is nearby and his book Oliver Twist was no doubt influenced by the Foundlings living there.
Visiting the Foundling museum didn’t take very long. By three we were underway again. We grabbed another bus and rode it to Trafalgar Sq. We were headed back to Parliament to see if we could find the building nearby which was supposed to be open for Open House London this weekend. We accidentally stayed on our bus one stop too long, but then we were treated the the exciting adventure of the bus getting cut off by a parade. The bus realized its mistake and decided to reverse course, so it backed down the street to turn around. At this point we let the bus driver know we were still on board and he kindly let us off. The bus was almost cut off by the parade again but it managed to squeak by before the next road was closed.
We then walked towards Parliament while being constantly bombarded by loud drums and military whistles from the parade. We admired the Parliament building, but decided it wasn’t worth dealing with the crowds of people to try to find the one building you could enter today. The regular Parliament tours were closed for the week of our visit. Then we admired the architecture of Westminster Abbey, and then we caught bus 148 which brought us back to the White City.
We strolled around the Westfield Shopping Center. Davin was able to verify that he hates malls in England just as much as in the US, if not more. The place sure was crowded. It was interesting to note that the mall did not have a food court. It only had fairly upscale (for us anyway) restaurants. Also, the map for the mall was digitized and you accessed it through a touch screen menu. That was kind of neat, although also really disgusting and unhygienic (there were greasy finger print marks all over it!). Since we failed to find any cheap food, we walked back to Shepard’s Bush market which turned out to be literally around the corner. Then we took the 207 bus to Tesco Metro and bought sharp cheddar cheese, pickles, soda, and pancakes sold in packs like tortillas!! While checking out, the cashier commented that my signature didn’t EXACTLY match the one on the back of my card and sternly admonished me to be careful. Really?!? What am I going to do? Steal my own credit cards? Worse case scenario they can refuse to sell me their goods. Excuse me if I’m not all that concerned. I suppose they could try calling the cops to have me arrested... that would be an interesting experience. “Maam, you’re under arrest for attempted forgery of your own signature.” What idiocy...
Back at the apartment I made us grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. The pickles we purchased turned out to be way too salty and not crunchy enough. Then Davin took a ridiculously long shower (he thinks he fell asleep), and I mapquested our trip route for the next week. Then I bullet pointed today’s journal entry, packed up all our stuff, and went to bed around 1am.
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