London – Graz: Dec 31 (New Year's Eve!)

After seeing the V & A museum on Friday night, C and I headed back to the hostel where we picked up our bags. We then caught the Tube to a shuttle bus station, where we took a bus to the Stansted airport. It was about midnight and we were SO tired…and we had a bit of trouble finding the bus station and figuring out how to get our tickets. But fortunately, it worked out great in the end. We slept a bit on the bus, arriving at Stansted at 2am. Then we found a quiet corner to camp out until about 5:30am, when we went through security and caught our Ryan Air flight.

The flight was a little under two hours, but it flew by as we took turns nodding in our seats. On the plane, I actually saw a friend of mine who studies in Graz! She lives in London, and went home for the Christmas break. Small world…J

We got in to the Graz airport around 10 in the morning, and split the taxi fare between two other people who were going into the city. It was really neat to finally be able to show C my apartment building! And when we opened the door, guess who was there to greet us? My wonderful roommate, who had bought new groceries!! ;-) It was great to see Tiny again after our separate adventures. C and I took a nap shortly pretty soon after (we figured we had around 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours… ;-).

And later in the evening, more friends arrived to celebrate New Year’s with us! E and P were there, as well as A & M from Finland. A’s boyfriend was visiting too, so we had lots of people in our apartment. We started with appetizers and a variety of drinks. C got to try Almdudler, my favourite Austrian drink. It’s like a ginger ale, but much sweeter. P brought goulash, which he promised to serve as a midnight snack. (It was delicious!!! By the way, we wouldn’t mind sampling it again…:-D)

Tiny and  L (A's boyfriend).

A & L

Foooooood!!! ;-)

Graz friends around the table...as always. ;-)

In Graz, people can set off their own fireworks, so colourful explosions began to go off around 7pm and didn’t stop until after midnight. But the best part were the city fireworks, which were shot off from the Schlossberg (the hill in the middle of the city). They were fantastic!!! P found a radio station that was playing the Strauss “Blue Danube Waltz” (a New Year’s tradition), and he and E waltzed around our kitchen. J

If you’d like to see a VIDEO of the fireworks in Graz, Tiny took some footage, with the waltz playing in the background. (Maybe I can steal her clip and post it on MY blog…J) Anyway, here is the link to her post. And check out her blog for another take on what life in Graz is like!

http://tinyandteddyseetheworld.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-post-of-new-year.html

London: Dec 30 (Museums, Dickens, Westminster)

Friday morning, we had a more leisurely breakfast and checked out of our hostel. Amazingly, they let us leave our large bags there until the evening, so that we didn’t have to lug everything around. J Although we both wanted to go inside the Tower of London, it was a bit expensive, far from our hostel, and most likely had a formidable line. ;-) So we decided to explore some less-known sights.

Our first stop was the Royal College of Music. The College owns a collection of instruments which they open up to the public through a small museum. However, despite looking up their hours online, they weren’t open! A small, helpful sign indicated that the real entrance was on the east side, but no amount of doorbell ringing brought anyone out.

M and the Royal College of Music.

Next stop: Hunterian museum. Zoology and medicine. (Our tour book indicated that it was less frequently visited, so we were pretty keen to check it out. J) We took the Tube and walked through some lovely streets, but guess what? It was also closed!!!

We decided that we’d give the Charles Dickens museum a shot before heading to Trafalgar Square. It was just a station away… And here, finally, we had some luck. Not only was it open, but it wasn’t busy!! The house in which Charles Dickens lived from 1837 to 1839 was turned into a museum and opened in 1925. Two of his daughters were born there and he wrote both Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby during the two-year period. Many of Dickens’ household items have been preserved and are on display in the various rooms, much in the same way that Dickens might have arranged them. We saw a short video of his life, and then got to look at original manuscripts, portraits, and his writing desk in his study, overlooking the back garden. Besides being able to read snippets of his books in his own hand, one of the best parts was looking out the back windows at the old chimneys and gardens and imagining what it would have been like living here over 150 years ago…

Front of the Dickens Museum.

Original manuscript.

Garden behind the house.

C and a map of London.

Chimneys behind the Dickens' Museum.

At about 2pm, we were pretty hungry, so we headed back to St. Martin’s for another meal in the Crypt Café (can you tell that we really liked it there? ;-). It was close to Westminster Abbey, because we planned on attending Evensong there at 5pm. It’s a service where much of the text is sung, usually by the boys’ choir, though today an adult choir was substituting. We were ushered right to the back of the church, usually reserved for dignitaries. The music was so beautiful!!! It was interesting to attend an Anglican service, since there are some modifications to the prayers. I would pick up on one that I knew, reciting without the help of the paper, but then get discombobulated when the words changed slightly. ;-) I really enjoyed it. However, at the end, we were ushered out of the abbey pretty quickly. They had to shut the abbey at 6pm SHARP, apparently. We have to close, move towards the doors… (C, did they say please?) We were a bit annoyed with such an abrupt dismissal. If you’re there for a service, shouldn’t you be able to have time to reflect? But I guess they don’t want people attending for the sole purpose of sight-seeing, and if you want to see the whole abbey, you should pay for a tour…sigh. But we did see Isaac Newton’s tomb on the way out…:-D

Food in the Crypt Cafe.

Night shot, Westminster (wish I had a tripod!)

Westminster Abbey.

Back to St. Martins for – guess what? Brass rubbings!!! You could take an embossed brass tablet from the wall, cover it with paper, and use a crayon to rub the pattern on to your paper…just like colouring in kindergarten!! C and I had so much fun. We got a whole end of a table to ourselves. Probably looked pretty funny – two university students intensely concentrating on their medieval crayon drawings. It was a great way to relax a bit from the crowded Underground and the busyness of getting from one place to another.

C starting on one of his brass rubbings.

My finished product.

M working on Celtic knotwork. :-)

Our last stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum. We went in with about 2 hours to see some exhibits, which meant that we just focused on a couple rooms. We saw some very ornamented armour, lots of statues, medieval stained glass panes, popes’ robes from the 1400s…a really fascinating collection of things. Some exhibits allowed you to guess how certain object were intended to be used, which was pretty interesting when we compared our guesses with their real purposes. Our feet were pretty sore, so towards the end we found a drawing station for kids. The exercise was to learn how to draw profiles with some Roman artwork, but I drew C’s profile instead. C, you are now immortalized in the V & A...at least until they get rid of that sketchbook. ;-) 

Knife with music notes engraved!
(May have been used for cutting bread while the family sang songs of thanksgiving.) 

Quick sketch of C.

London: Dec 29 (Bus Tour, Wax Museum, Concert!)

Very early morning wakeup call on the 29^th. The phone rang at 6am, and we stumbled out the door shortly after 7. (Too early to take advantage of the free breakfast tea served at the hostel.) But it was worth it, because we got to see London from the top of an open double-decker bus! First we drove past some of London’s highlights: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben... We then were dropped off at the Tower of London, from where we rode a ferry down the Thames. Our tour guide was really excellent – as the sights passed by, he’d tell us interesting anecdotes and stories. Later in the day, we got to see the changing of the guard at St. James’ Palace, and walked to Buckingham Palace to see the cavalry ride through. It was very exciting to be standing in such iconic places, seeing the famous views through my own eyes…J

Westminster Abbey from the bus.

Buckingham Palace, with our tour guide.

C in front of our bus.

The changing of the guard, St. James' Palace.

The tour bus dropped us off at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Although we had “Priority Entrance”, we still stood in line for about 45 minutes before we could enter. I had never been to one of the wax museums, so it was pretty incredible to see how life-like the figures are. We were surprised, though, that there were no barriers between the wax figures and the visitors. You could walk right up to a figure, shake its hand, give it a hug…or strangle it, in the case of Justin Bieber. ;-) We also saw replicas of the death masks of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, which the real-life Madame Tussaud was required to model at the height of the French Revolution.

M with Audrey Hepburn.

C with Sir Issac Newton.

Look out, Justin Bieber! ;-)

The Crypt Cafe, St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

After the wax museum, we stopped by the Sherlock Holmes gift shop (the museum had another line stretching out the door) before heading over to St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. We had tickets to see a London chamber ensemble perform in the church that evening, playing all 6 Bach Brandenburg concertos! I was so excited. We discovered that there was a wonderful café in the crypt beneath the church – kind of like a buffet, where you could choose from a wide variety of delicious food. Very relaxing atmosphere after the bustle of the museum crowds. The concert was really lovely. I was so excited to hear the violas playing Brandenburg #6 – it really made my evening. :-D

London: Dec 27-28 (Natural History Museum)

Tuesday was my last day with J, K, and P (my brother, his wife, and their baby girl). It was so wonderful to stay with them in beautiful Bavaria near the Bodensee. We had time to catch up and spend a relaxing holiday together. They were wonderful hosts and made me feel very much at home over Christmas. Thank you again!!! :-D

On Tuesday afternoon, I caught a Ryan Air flight to London, where I met my boyfriend C from Canada. It was fantastic to see him again!!! ;-) It took us a bit longer than we thought to get to our hostel in central London, mainly because our modes of transportation were a bit late, but on the whole, it was a pretty smooth arrival for first-time London visitors.

We stayed at a lovely hostel right near Hyde Park in the South Kensington area. Very beautiful. The first thing we did on Wednesday morning was take a walk through the park. The weather was warm, and the sun even peeked out for a good half of the morning! There were lots of birds in the Serpentine lake, including quite a number of swans.

M in front of the Peter Pan statue.

Swans!

M & C, while Prince Albert looks on. ;-)

C taking a walk in Kensington Park.

On our way past the Peter Pan statue and the imposing gold figure of Prince Albert, we headed to the NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM!!! (If you haven’t already guessed, we both had been looking forward to this museum…a LOT. ;-) As we got closer, we saw a line…that stretched down the street and around the corner! Fortunately the museum is free, so it wasn’t long before we entered the main hall. It is amazing! The ceiling arches up like a cathedral, ornamented with stained glass and replicas of original botanical sketches. Darwin surveys the scene majestically from his throne on the opposite end. A giant diplodocus dinosaur dominates the centre of the hall. I got a few shots of C lost in wonder, his jaw ALMOST hanging open…;-)

 

Squid.

M and Darwin.

After spending almost the entire day inspecting rocks, fossils, stuffed animals, and curious specimens in glass jars (including one large squid preserved in alcohol), we headed over to Harrods to take a look at the iconic store. We waded from room to room between hundreds of busy shoppers, while Gucci and Prada labels winked at us from the nearby displays. One “discounted price” was a designer handbag for 600 pounds (instead of 1000). ;-) However, the food rooms were really cool – one buffet area had tables with food from around the world, and it all smelled delicious. (Sorry, I had to make a comment for the food blog. ;-)

Harrods.

National Geographic store.

On our way back, we caught the bus…after searching for about 20 minutes for the bus stop. Worked out ok in the end, and in the process, we stumbled across the National Geographic store! After finding a place to eat late in the evening, we were both VERY ready for bed.  

Christmas Holidays! (Some Pictures...:-)

It has been a VERY LONG TIME since I last blogged.

My New Year's resolution is to blog more. So here's a shot at keeping more up-to-date. (Fingers crossed! ;-)

I had (and am still having) the most wonderful Christmas break ever!!! I got to visit my brother J for a week around Christmas, and afterwards, flew to London to meet my boyfriend C from Canada. We spent a few days exploring London, but are now in Graz.

I will post in more detail about each day of the trip, but here are some photos for you to peruse...:-)

P, K, and J...in a cafe!

Aunt M and P!

A Canadian in Hyde Park....

M & C at the Natural History Museum!!!! (We were only slightly awestruck...:-D)

Westminster Abbey from the tour bus.

Buckingham Palace and our wonderful tour guide.

C & double decker tour bus.

At Madame Tussauds' wax museum.

C & Newton.

Entering the Dickens museum.

English treat in the Crypt Cafe (St. Martin-in-the-Fields!)

In the entrance hall of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Admont Monastery

Vienna!!! Part II