Dickinson College Humanities Program in Norwich

Upon leaving the hotel at 8:30 sharp we went to the Goodge Tube stop and took the tube to Embankment. We then walked down to the boat launch were we were to get on the boat. Prof. Qualls then led a discussion about the Thames and its importance in the development and history of London.
The “Embankment” reminded me of home. Being from Pittsburgh I have a lot of experience with rivers. Before this trip I did not realize why rivers were channeled by large cement walls.
We then went onto the boat and started the journey down the Thames. During the boat ride I took MANY pictures that I have finally finished uploading onto facebook.
When we exited the boat in Greenwich we started the long and exhausting trip to the observatory. At the top of the hill we saw an amazing parametric view of the city. We then took pictures on the Prime Meridian. I am having a really hard grasping the fact that I was standing on the Prime Meridian mostly because I am having a hard time realizing that I have left America. Having never been on a plane before this experience, went I think of the miles I have traveled I am in complete and utter disbelief.
After that we quickly walked through the clock museum, stopping to look at what the time was at home on the globe and placing our finger tips on over our homes.
After that we went to the planetarium show. The presenter was absolutely hilarious!! He started the presentation by instructing us to go home and look at the sky from our “garden”. He then started talking about what the stars look like from the London perspective. This made me wounder what constellations I would be able to see from my backyard.
Today I learned that I know nothing about my home. Every time I learn something knew about London I wonder about home. I have probably learned more in the past two days in London than I have spending all my life in Pittsburgh.

We started off our first adventure in London by taking a boat ride down the Thames River.  It was the first time I really felt like I was IN LONDON. Seeing the London Eye and Big Ben from a distance, really set me into reality.  As we rode down the river it was fascinating to see the old architecture and homes along the river.  Upon arriving in Greenwich we walked through the park and arrived at the Prime Meridian. After straddling the line so I was in two hemispheres at once, and wandering around the museums we decided to take advantage of the planetarium.  After more walking around Greenwich and having lunch (which despite my picky eating habits was surprisingly delicious), I went with a small group to the Queens House.

To me the most impressive thing about the Queens House was the size and the architecture. Wandering from room to room I couldn’t even focus on the paintings that covered the walls, I was shocked by the beauty of the crown molding and wainscoting.  And it continued from room to room to room. As we left Greenwich we walked through the tunnel that went under the Thames and took the railroad to the Tube and took the Tube home.

I felt that the boat ride down the Thames was a good introduction to London seeing some of the major sight-seeing sites, I’m looking forward to seeing more though. I enjoyed hearing about the area of Greenwich, but what I’m especially looking forward to is seeing some modern art, dance, and plays. I know it’s coming, and I know I need to seek it out and I can’t wait!

This morning we took a combination water and walking tour. We took an enjoyable voyage down the Thames that provided a number of opportunities for photos. After disembarking in Greenwich we climbed the hill to the Meridian Line and enjoyed the two museums found at the top of the hill. The first provided insight on the difficulties sailors faced before ships could accurately keep time. The second had an illuminating show in the planetarium. I was struck by the importance that we place upon time in our society and how our every action is dictated by what time it is. After visiting the Meridian Line and Observatory we commenced with a walking tour of the area that included a walk down the Thames and a visit to the Greenwich University.

After our walking tour and lunch Kim, Alli, Sarah, and myself stayed in the area to explore the Greenich Market and the local churches. The Greenwich Market was a a fabolous mix of booths and stores. Some were typical flee market booths and others sold organic teas, jewelry, framed photographs, and ethnic cuisine. The market was U-shaped with permanent stores on the three sides making up a courtyard that was filled with rows of booths. After leaving the market we crossed under the Thames to catch the DLR and were distracted by the park directly across the street from the station. My original impression of the park was a playground to the side for children and then a wide open field bordered by a walking path, however less than halfway around the path was the entrance to another side of Millard Park. After entering we found that this side of the park was home to a stable and various animal enclosures. We found sheep, horses, cows, llamas, and one lone pig who was very friendly with Kim. The area was mostly hilly fields and in the background you could see the London skyline, underlining the fact that we were still within London.

Our day started at the Goodge Street tube stop (no, that is not a bodily orafice).  We took the northern line south three stops to Charing Cross, and jumped lines to the Bakerloo for four stops, and we had arrived at Elephant and Castle in the borough of Southwark.  We had been warned that it was a questionable area.  The reality was far more shocking.  Immediately upon exiting the tube, we were approached by a man with a bloody face (no, not that kind of bloody, but a gruesomely literal BLOODY face) asking repeatedly for help.  After evading what seemed like a potential mugging (considering that the “victim” didn’t ask the nearby policeman for help) we set off through Elephant and Castle.

A walk through the painfully modern local University ensued.  Being a college area there were many take-out and ethnic restaurants.  In fact, the area seemed to be predominately lower class, dominated by Afro-Caribbean immigrants.  Their culture was further depicted by the murals painted in the subway tunnels (which are walking tunnels, not tubes).  We continued our walk into nearby Lambeth, where we found a large obelisk dedicated to King George.  Though hesitant to approach and take pictures of the monument as there were several tramps hanging about, we eventually overcame our apprehension.  On nearing the structure we were immediately greeted by the bare bum of a homeless man, having just unloaded on said monument.  Luckily, he didn’t make it into any of our pictures, though the memory will be burned into our traumatized memories forever.

After this troubling experience we decided that if we didn’t find anything nice within a block, we were returning to central London.  Fortunately we stumbled upon a beautiful Tibetan Peace Garden, ironically adjacent to the Imperial War Museum.  The center was dominated by a large metal Mandala design.  However, the main attraction was off to the side.  A pillar quoating the XIV Dalai Lama in four languages (Tibetan, English, Chinese, and Hindi) read as follows:

“We human beings are passing through a crucial period in our development.  Conflict and mistrust have plagued the past century which has brought immeasurable human suffering and environmental destruction.  It is in the interest of all of us on this planet that we make a joint effort to turn the next century into an era of peace and harmony.  May this Peace Garden become a monument to the courage of the Tibetan people and their commitment to peace.  May it remain as a symbol to remind us that human survival depends on living in harmony and on always choosing the path of non-violence in resolving our differences.” -May 13, 1999

Considering its location in a diverse community it is especially prominent.   The message conveyed by the garden gives hope to the minorities who experience discrimination, not just in London, but throughout the world. 

Leaving the gorgeous garden and its Ice Age Tree Path (we’re not sure either), we entered the Imperial War Museum.  Located in the building that once housed Bethlem Hospital, it is now a wide open space filled with various instruments of destruction.  We chose to explore the morbid and depressing Holocaust Exhibit, which was appropriately desplayed in an age restricted corridor.  Though tastefully done it left us feeling rather sad.  We left.  Returning to the tube station in an attempt to figure out why the stop got its name, we asked a security person whose response was “That’s just its name”.  The only clue was a pub located next to the station called The Elephant and Castle.  The area was, in fact, named FOR said pub, but admittedly we didn’t know this at the time.  We did however make up a highly amusing story to explain the name that we had only ever heard of in Harry Potter.  Ask us about it later. 

Our return was made on the number 68 bus to Russell Square, and we continued on foot to our hotel, where we collapsed in heaps of exhaustion on our beds and had to be pried off our beds with a shoe horn in time for discussion.    Unfortunately, our designated camera had forgotten its memory card reader in its laptop case, so our pictures are currently marooned on said camera.  They’ll come up sometime on Monday or Tuesday.

One word to describe the environment that we explored: DIVERSE. When we got on the Piccadilly line at the Euston station and made a change over to the Victoria at King’s Cross St. Pancras to head towards Finsbury Park Station, little did we expect to encounter a place filled with people (who appeared to be) from various diverse backgrounds. It was a busy street, and as we walked by the shops and street vendors we observed how everyone interacted with each other and the environment. Every shop was unique in what was sold and in their atmospheres. We were impressed to see such a large variety of shops together on the same street and Flow was blown away by the fact that platanos were being sold on the street! There were also residential areas along with the interesting meeting ground of shops, restaurants and homes. In our exploring of the area, we found the Capital Ring. This is a trail that runs through parts of the city and besides the sounds of passing cars, seemed to be a trail in the country. Our return trip was an experience. We ended up riding around on the buses for a few hours. This allowed us to see the city from a different viewpoint than being on the ground walking or underground riding the tube. It took four buses to find our way back. Three of these buses were headed in the opposite direction of the hotel…not helpful. Yet it ended up being a good experience for our first day. We didn’t end up completely lost and found a part of London that we did not expect to find when we set out on our first adventure!

     The boat ride was a really great way to see London, today. It was incredible to see how much the Thames has stayed the same over the years  (in that it is still a major waterway for transportation purposes) as well as how much it has changed (in that it is, luckily for us,  no longer a cesspool of human and industrial wastes). The museums at the Royal Observatory were fascinating. I really thought a lot about the concept of time and what it means to our culture. That watches used to be a symbol of wealth and status, I think, is particularly poignant. The wealthy are, in essence, the ones who own time in that they own time of their employees, and therefore, to an extent, the employees themselves. Greenwich is an absolutely beautiful area and I plan on going back. I particularly enjoyed wandering around the market; I’m now especially excited for our East Street Market assignment tomorrow.

Our stop was Notting Hill Gate, a posh residential area in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.The neighborhood seemed affordable and busy enough on first glance, but a turn onto a side street revealed nothing but lovely and large flats in a quiet neighborhood where everyone seemed to be at work.
As it is not a business district, shopping appears to be the main daytime activity in the Notting Hill/Kensington area. Shoppers, who seemed to be from other parts of London rather than tourists or locals, strolled by high-end boutiques and a few open air vendors on Portobello Road. On a Saturday, Portobello road would be packed for the local market.

Notably, there are no statues or monuments per se in Notting Hill. However, a plaque on Portobello Road indicates that George Orwell lived in a house there at an unspecified time in his life. This led us to wonder how different the neighborhood might have been when he was there, as he was not wealthy and actually spent time early in his career writing about the desperately poor in London and elsewhere.

Today ended up being a long day of walking after our boat ride down the Thames. It was a beautiful day for both walking around the city and being out on the river. The boat ride, for me at least, was a nice introduction to some of the more touristy sites I relate to London in my mind. I particularly enjoyed the fact that it was a perfect spot to appreciate the bridges of London and the architecture along the Thames. Greenwich was a wonderful experience, especially since I have wanted to visit there since I was about eight years old. The museums concerning the clocks and observatory were wonderful. I especially liked the layout of the clock museum and how it presented the problem of telling time at sea and how they finally developed the solution for it. And the planetarium was very good. The presenter had a wonderful sense of humor, while still being very informative.
After lunch, I went to the market with Mara, Sarah and Alli. It was a very diverse market with numerous stalls and items for sale. We ended up spending a few pounds on henna tattoos. After this we walked to St. Alfege’s Church and even though we couldn’t go inside the church it was worthwhile to see the architecture and look at the old gravestones. From here we decided to make our way under the Thames and find a rail station to come back to the hotel. Well, we found a park, Millard Park, by the station and thought that it was a good idea to go into the park and investigate. Well, we ended up finding a farm. There were loads of animals there: pigs, cows, goats, sheep, chickens and horses. I especially appreciated the equestrian center we found with the farm. I knew that there are numerous stables and equestrian centers throughout the countryside, but I wasn’t expecting to find one in Greenwich. After walking through the farm, we decided to make our way back to the hotel on the train from the Mudchute Station. Overall it was a long day of walking and exploring, that lead us to find many different aspects of London and how this city is unpredictable.

We began our trip by hopping on the tube at the Goodge Street Station. We took the Central Line to the Oxford Circus interchange and then took the Bakerloo Line north directly to Marylebone Station, which is a railway stop as well as a tube stop. Marylebone Station, in the governing authority of Westminster, is named after a nearby church, St. Mary’s, which was built on the shore of a small creek, or “bourne,” hence the name Marylebone. The ride was a relatively quick one, lasting only five or ten minutes.
Upon exiting the tube (in which one follows “Way Out” signs rather than “Exit” signs), we came into Marylebone Station, which looks rather like an indoor shopping mall, though it is open to the air. There were many vendors and kiosks, including a vendor with a beautiful variety of flowers.
We began to explore Marylebone Street, which has some beautiful buildings. Both of us being artists (though not art majors), we tended to observe the surrounding from a micro-vantage point, rather than macro, taking snapshots of small architectural details, interesting lines and color compositions, etc. In a more general sense, there was a nice mix of residential and commercial areas; a number of what appeared to be flats as well as chain- and fast-food restaurants and a lot of shopping.
The area was diverse ethnically as well. We saw people of all races and religions, including several darker-skinned women in full burkas. There were many South-Asian, Middle-Eastern South-American businesses, too.
We hopped on a bus and started to head home, then realized that we had not yet found a monument, so be got off the bus at the next stop and found the Westminster Council House.
The monuments we found were all plaques and engraved stones in the side of the Westminster Council House. The Westminster Council House is responsible for administering birth, death, marriage and citizenship certificates. The building was opened by Prince Albert on 27. March. 1920 and a stone was laid by the Princess 8.July.1914. Another plaque was posted on the building which was in recognition of residents of Westminster who fought in World War II. This plaque was dedicated by Alan Bradley for the 50th anniversary of Victory Over Japan day on 16. August. 1995.
We then got back on a bus, promptly got lost, and then decided to take the tube instead, as that’s what we both felt more comfortable with. And got lost again. About 2 blocks away from the hotel.
Despite getting lost several times, the experience boosted our confidence with navigating the tube system and we were even able to help others (including a confused woman from Utah) find the stops they were looking for. Overall, we had a great time and learned a lot!

To get to High Street Kensington, we took the Underground (fondly referred to as the Tube) on the Central Line from the Tottenham Court Road station west to Notting Hill Gate where we switched to the Circle District Line to get to our desired High Street Kensington destination. This jaunt was approximately thirty minutes in duration and was made confusing by the indecisiveness of directional walking. Does one stay to the left or to the right when walking through crowds? Apparently no one knows! The locals like to stick to the left but when one finds oneself in more tourist filled locations the rules are discarded completely.

We came out of the station to find a busy street full of shops of all sorts and bustling with people. To get our bearings a bit, we ducked into an alley way that led to a quaint garden and church. Thinking this was where we had to go, we spent time looking around the cemetery, school, park, etc around there. Europe at its finest. You couldn’t even hear the busy street literally right on the other side of the buildings. This was an area in the middle of London that had a true small town feel to it. When we reflected on why we were sent to that area, we realized that we were looking at something that had nothing to do with the name Kensington at all. So, we pulled out our London A-Z maps and discovered that if we continued to walk a block or so we would arrive at Kensington Palace and Gardens. Righto. Still, this microcosm, we think, is representative of London itself. You find this encompassing environment but if you take a step back you find that that very environment is composed of smaller factions that are just as enveloping as the larger one.

Now onto the Kensington we were supposed to find! The station seems to be in place to allow for the public to have access to the gardens. The governing body appears to be Kensington. Never have I seen a prettier place full of not only plants and beautiful vegetation but also just people enjoying themselves in a most relaxed and respectful fashion. People from every race and age were present including the wealthy and those sleeping on benches but we saw mostly young people out enjoying a beautiful day in the garden.
We strolled around what could have been an entire park but truly was only a small fraction of the area. Some of the many sights we saw included Kensington Palace, William the II’s Palace (now a busy tea shop), a statue of Victoria R., and George Frederick Watt’s statue of Physical Motion. Attracted to a shiny, gold something in the distance, we headed to what we later found to be the Albert Memorial across from the Royal Albert Hall. This beacon was truly breathtaking! Prince Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria. A social activist and a financier of the arts and sciences, the hall and this statue are dedicated to his memory as well as Victorian achievement. Perched around a sitting Albert are representations of Africa, America, Europe and Asia, all of which were in some way connected to British imperialism. Above him rest figures of farming, engineering, manufacturing, and commerce. Then at the top of the memorial stand virtuous angels. The monument as a whole is also an acknowledgement of the many artisans that Albert had worked fiercely to promote. Prince Albert not only purchased the land of South Kensington as a means to create an educational and cultural institution, but he also worked to have the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. Both these events may have led him to be memorialized at Kensington Garden. People memorialized King Albert by sitting around the base of his statue smoking (a commercial endeavor indeed!). Mostly middle class people were around the statue and on the street; that is, those who had time to spend on a Thursday afternoon lounging around a statue and park. Tourists were around the more famous locations in the garden but as you ventured further away from statues and palaces, the local people used the gardens for their function as a recreational park.

As we were on Kensington Street, we thought the best way to return to the Arran House would be to either take the Tube or a bus. Confused by which side of the street we had to be on to take the bus, we opted for the former. Taking a different route this time, we took the Circle District line to Glouchester where we transferred onto the Piccadilly Line and went up to Leicester Square. From there we went up the North Line to Nottingham Court Road where we proceeded by foot to the Arran House. We might mention, we were a might bit late. The Central Line proved to have top marks in efficiency that day.