London Day 4 - Sherlock!

One of the places Kristin and I agreed to not miss on our trip was the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Although we are not Sherlock aficionados, we have each read some of his stories and enjoyed them. (My sister, however, is a true Sherlock devotee, and had suggested this museum to us.)

Here it is:

221B Baker Street!

A beautiful fireplace in one of the rooms

Kristin and me as Holmes and Watson

In the gift shop - Sherlock memorabilia, including among other things, a Sherlock chess set, books, and these darling Sherlock teddy bears

Just because they are so cute - a close up!

London Day 4 - Morning

On Saturday morning we went for our tour of the Shakespeare Globe theater. This was especially exciting for Kristin, who had spent three years in a wonderful homeschool Shakespeare class, saw many, many Shakespeare plays in Chicago and Milwaukee, and loves his works.

The Globe from the outside

A view looking down onto the stage

One of the roof peaks

Another view of the stage, showing the area where the "Groundlings" would stand. You can just barely see Elizabeth in the foreground. The Groundlings were the peasants of Shakespeare's time, who could not afford seats, so stood to watch the play. Kristin and I would do this as well on Monday night, when we were scheduled to see As You Like It.

After this we toured backstage, saw lots of costume and set exhibits, and swordplay practice. We also got to see the costumers dress up Courtney as Ophelia. She looked awesome. After this tour we were looking even more forward to the play the following Monday night.

London Day 3 - Afternoon

In the afternoon on Friday, we went to the Tower of London. We were tempted to take a nap beforehand, but one of our fellow travellers cautioned against it - we might never want to get up until very late! So we went ahead to do some more sightseeing, and were glad of it.

Kristin and I had read a book about The Tower prior to our journey, so had a frame of reference to draw on which made it much more interesting. Here are Scenes From The Tower:

Castle bedroom - how lovely!

Kristin by the guard

Tower raven - we got thisclose


Kristin tries her hand at archery




Kristin and me - goofing off in very heavy helmets!

London Trip Day 3 - Our First Day In London - Morning

We arrived in London very early in the morning (their time). We had much difficulty trying to sleep on the plane. Kristin didn't even bother trying. We found out after we landed the the seats have these little drop-down thingys on the seat back so you can lean your head on them to sleep. Oh well. British Airways is a very accomodating airline. We loved their service.

We boarded our "coach" (don't you dare call it a bus!) with Nigel (Nigel - can you get a more English name?!). He was wonderful, a former policeman and now a totally fun guide. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The Classic Double-Decker Bus

Prince Albert Memorial


Buckingham Palace with Amy in the Foreground


Buckingham Fountain, with some of the others on our tour

Kristin took these shots of British phone booths. She found them charming, plus they reminded us both of the police box in the Doctor Who series (with David Tennant - we just love the episodes with him as the Doctor, but alas, did not run into him in London!):

London Trip Day One and Two - Stopover in New York

We arrived in New York on a Wednesday, having flown from O'Hare airport in Chicago that morning. We were travelling with Amy, who was to share a hotel room with us before we all travelled the next day to England.

We met up with Kelly and Sarah for a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant. Lots of talk of fashions, sewing and movies. It was so nice to get to know friends from the sewing forum, especially since Kelly was not going to London with us (She is a native New Yorker who acted as our hostess and guide in our stopover in New York). Then we walked around Times Square.

Kelly and me in Times Square

The next day we went fabric shopping at Mood Fabrics. On the way, we saw this interesting sculpture:

I felt positively Lilliputian! Like I was ready to sew buttons on Gulliver's vest!

After our shopping trip (Mood Fabrics has tons of black and white striped linen for those searching for fabric for a Titanic Boarding Suit. I would have bought some, but already have a stash of black and white stripe Boarding Suit fabrics in boxes in my basement, waiting in vain to be made up), we went to Central Park. How lovely, in all the noise and cacophony that is New York City, to find this oasis of beauty.

Kristin and me, standing on a bridge in Central Park

(Note: I have more photos, but am waiting for approval of the ladies pictured before posting them.)

London!

Kristin and I have returned from our trip to London with the 2009 Sense & Sensibility Costume Tour. We are a bit jet-lagged and both of us are still on London time - going to bed very early, waking at the crack o' dawn. I will be posting our photos in chronological order during the next few days (can't do it all at once, too overwhelming!). So keep watching over the next few days to see the photos of our fabulous trip!

The Harvest Is Beautiful

Dark purple beets, two tiny tomatoes in a child's red wagon!