Great Britain 2011: Day 1

 

Bleary-eyed and groggy I stepped into the All Other Passports line at customs in Heathrow Airport. I had spent the 8-hour flight stretched out luxuriously across two seats, but slept less than I’d like to admit. The customs officer, satisfied with my photo likeness and my purpose – pleasure, waved me through with a solid stamp. The next forty minutes passed slowly without any sign of the driver that was to shuttle me towards the bliss of a nap and shower. After many self-conscious rounds of the arrivals hall, I found a trimly dressed grey haired man holding my tour’s name instead of my own. Bundling me into a minivan, he politely avoided the small talk that I wouldn’t have been able to return anyway in my sleepy state.
“You look exhausted,” he observed.
“Yes, well, I’d like to pretend that I slept on the plane but – ”
“You’d be lying, eh?”

On the drive into London, I asked about a sign that said, “Congestion Fee Ahead.” He explained that London had instituted a fee for driving into the city in hopes of curbing traffic and pollution. From the way he described the political decision as “kowtowing to Europe,” I gathered that he saw England as very separate from the Continent and was quick to criticize his representatives and question their motives – ah, how familiar.

From home, I’d already been experiencing confusion about what to call the place I was going. England seemed out of date and inaccurate, as we were also spending a week in Scotland. Great Britain made sense but wasn’t appearing on any currency of phone number lists. It’s all politics and identity and religion mixed up, as usual. England refers to the mainland, excluding Wales and Scotland. (English are descendants of Anglo-Saxon and Norman tribes.) The island including Wales and Scotland is Great Britain. The United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland as well, or all the Protestants, depending on who you ask. The Republic of Ireland is it’s own political state altogether and generally Catholic. Since 1999, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have had their own parliaments in addition to members in London’s parliament.

After a nap, shower and lunch, Mom, Bre and I took off to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Poking around in the Gallery, we saw a special exhibit of Swiss & Norwegian landscapes, huge royal portraits, and a Zurbarán painting of a monk holding a skull that I recognized from St. Louis Art Museum collection. We walked across the River Thames (“tems”) and along the bank northeast towards the Millennium bridge where we found a gourmet meat pie shop: lamb & mint pie with mushy peas, mashers and gravy. Walking across the Millennium (HP Note: this is the bridge that Voldemort destroys in HP and the Half-Blood Prince film), we were able to look over at the reconstructed Globe Theatre and down river to the Tower Bridge (which has been the location of a river crossing since Roman times). Picking up a few extra pastries for dessert on our way home, we retreated to the hotel in Kensington to recover - a perfect first day in London.