Ye Olde Britishe Thanksgvinge

A British Thanksgiving - isn't that a paradox? Well, yes and no. Of course, we can't blame the good British people for choosing not to celebrate their citizens leaving and ultimately founding America. However, thanks to the rather large number of American expats here in London, the Thanksgiving holiday (much like Halloween) is being celebrated more and more.

So - here's our week of Thanksgiving in a (kind of big) nutshell:

We started off on Monday by going to see The Swell Season at the Royal Albert Hall. Wow. What an amazing show. If you don't know these guys, they're the musicians/actors from the film "Once-" a fabulous film, by the way. Here's a picture of them in action. You can really see in this picture how much emotion and energy Glen puts into his performances. If they ever come your way, go see them. They rock!

On Thanksgiving Day, we were lucky enough to attend a special morning service for Americans at St. Paul's cathedral. We sang some traditional hymns, listened to the organist go nuts on the impressive pipe organ, and heard speeches from the US Ambassador, and representatives of various denominations.

It was pretty incredible, and also a bit strange, to sing "America the Beautiful" inside of a British icon. Kind of like climbing the Eiffel Tower and singing "O Canada."

This picture sort of gives an idea of how many people were there.

Being in such a beautiful setting, surrounded by fellow US citizens, made me very grateful to be an American.

For our turkey dinner, we only had a few options, and decided on the Hard Rock Cafe, since they do American food anyways. It was tasty, with unexpectedly good pumpkin pie.

They herded all of us Americans into the basement, which was decorated with red/white/blue balloons and little flags. We sat down and ordered, and then the music video for Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" came on, and I knew we had made a good choice.

And what Thanksgiving could be complete without a visit to Hendrix's Flying V guitar?

Finally, we went back to our flat and spent the evening chatting with friends and family at home.

I didn't realize before this how much I actually love Thanksgiving. It always got overshadowed, for me, by Halloween and Christmas. But a holiday specifically about food and family? Excellent.

We did pretty well on the food aspect, but we did miss spending time with family and friends. Hope all of you had a happy holiday!

Brighton

Last Friday was the final of our "fun-fare" bus trips. We went to Brighton, which is directly south of London on the beach. It was cold, but fun. We walked through the Royal Pavillion, a palace built in the 1800s; ate lunch in the cute market square; went through the local museum; and finished off the day with a trip to the boardwalk.

We liked the Royal Pavillion, which the king built in pseudo-Eastern styles. Our favorite rooms were the music room with the built-in organ and the dining hall with the fire-breathing dragon chandelier, but no photos were allowed inside. The museum is free, and has a strange mix of local history, modern art, and ancient artificats (like a mummy girl).

We stopped for a scone with cream and jam inside the cafe at the palace.



The pier is classic Brighton. It's over 100 years old and lets you "walk" over the water. The rides were all closed because it was the off-season. There was also an "arcade", but it was more like a casino due to its many slot machines. We did stop to get a crepe - there are lots of places to get bad-for-you boardwalk food.

Imagine how crazy this place gets in the middle of summer! I tried to see France, but I guess we weren't quite that close. :)

Cambridge

Friday we took a bus trip up to Cambridge. It was definitely lovely. And Ben said that just to see the "Gothic Gone Wild" fan vaulting on the King's College chapel ceiling was reason enough to go there.

But... I think our sentimental favorite may still be Oxford, which we visited in 2002. Maybe we didn't plan our time well enough, but the day just didn't seem to click. We got to see the church and grounds of the college, which were green and gorgeous. And we walked down streets where bikes and not cars are the preferred mode of transport. But if I could go back in time and plan the day better, I would be sure to:
1. Still go see the ceiling - amazing
2. Spend more time at the Fitzwilliam Museum
3. Find the Bridge of Sighs
4. Check out the Round Norman Church built in the 1100s
5. Not trust anything the tourist board (TI) tells me :)

At 5:30 we bought tickets to go on a "Ghost Walk" that started at 6:00. They told us we were the only people signed up to go, and showed us where to meet up. We scratched our dinner plans and grabbed some grocery store food. We waited for nearly 20 minutes at the appointed place: no ghost tour guide. Maybe that was the trick - it's led by a ghost?

Stuck in the cold with nothing to do for 2 hours, we lamely went to the mall (which the TI office said would be open late for Christmas shopping) so we could at least be indoors.

Mall - open. All the stores - closed. Benches - zero.

We called the TI to get our money back, and they blamed us for "not showing up for" the walk, asking how we could miss a group of 8 people who walked around the building trying to find us. Obviously, we never saw them. So everyone on the ghost walk is a ghost. Scary. Very Dickensian.

There is just one thing that may be able to make up for this cold, kind of boring day: while we were in the church gazing up at the ceiling, I sat on a bench near a door marked "private". Soon I heard familiar lyrics and melodies, and had the overwhelming desire to hold up claw-shaped fists and rigidly dance. The all-men's acappella church choir was doing what sounded like a BYU men's chorus version of... Thriller.

Canterbury Tales

During the winter months (read "off-season"), there are some cheap bus & train fares to other parts of England. We snagged a few for the month of November and on Friday, we took a day trip out to Canterbury, famous for its tales and cathedrals. Here's the cathedral:


We happened to be in the Cathedral when a small choral group that was performing that night came in for a rehearsal and sound check. They were called The Sixteen and they were incredible! And the alto part is sung by men! So I guess there's no hope for me to join. Maybe Ben... we'll work on his range.



Quick history lesson: the archbishop Thomas Beckett was killed right in the church in 1170 by some of the king's men on order of the king. After that, people claimed that miracles were happening, and came here on pilgrimage hoping that they could absorb some of the martyr's vibes. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer are stories that some pilgrims tell each other on their way to this cathedral.

Remembrance to Beckett in the spot he was killed.

The Old Weaver's Guild, built in 1500. Now a restaurant - we ate dinner here.

















Inside the clock tower at the west end of the High Street.
















Entrance to the lovely city park built on the river.












City gate at the east end from the Glory Days (Medieval times). There are big tour buses continually passing through it - you never think they'll clear it, but they do. The city is also encircled by remnants of the city wall.





Overall view of Canterbury - cute, walkable, interesting, good in the off-season without hundreds of tourists. I love old cities!

Do the British celebrate Halloween?

Great question. The answer: sort of. We did see a few people out and about in costumes, but they were mostly going to the pubs for parties; there weren't any kids actually out trick-or-treating. We decided to the grown-up, high-class version and went to the amazing Harrod's mall chocolate room:








Wow. So much chocolate.







Now, Harrod's being Harrod's, our candy amount was small, but the quality was great!







It was a toss-up between these and a solid chocolate pumpkin...we went with the variety option.





Finally - our ward (the Hyde Park Ward) had a Halloween party. It was fun and just like your typical church party in Utah:






Sadly, they did not play "Thriller."

And it's just not Halloween for us unless we watch The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, now enjoying its 50th year. Thank you, youtube.

Happy Halloween!