London Weekend

It has been a beautiful weekend. The weather a bracing 40 degrees, not so cold that you couldn’t walk around but cold enough to wear gloves and your scarf and be grateful for them. Chizz and I decided we wanted to go see the huge Christmas tree in Trafalgar square and we nominated Snake to accompany us. Kiki had already set off shopping with a friend. We wanted to go when it was close to dark so we would be able to enjoy the lights so we left at 3:00 p.m.! We took the bus downtown. The bus route travels through Oxford Street, the main shopping area in London. The sidewalks were just jammed full of Christmas shoppers. As much as I love shopping, I don’t think I would have enjoyed having to elbow my way through that crowd. Down Regent Street, less crowed but still pretty full and we got off the bus at Trafalgar Square. The tree is right in the middle of the square in front of the National Gallery. A little bit of trivia about the tree. It has been a gift every year from the Norwegian people to the English people as a thank you for saving their bacon, so to speak, in World War II. Each year someone from the royal family in Norway comes and lights the tree. The tree is about 25 meters tall which approximately 80 feet. However, it is nice to know that the City of London has the same problems as we do with our Christmas tree. I read a few days ago in the paper a story about when the tree arrived at the square. They had set up the crane and were lowering the tree into the stand when they found out the trunk was too big for the stand!
So they had to shave down the trunk – twice – so it would fit. We lucked out because they had a small band and choral group singing Christmas carols in front of the tree. It was lovely, all the people standing on the stairs of the National Gallery singing Christmas carols. Just Snake’s cup of tea. Right.

The next morning we decided to head over to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. Speaker’s Corner is a section of Hyde Park where on Sunday morning anyone that cares to can spout off about any topic they want for as long as they want. Sometimes they will draw a crowd and the audience will participate by yelling out comments to the speaker or contrary points of view. The speaker will generally engage back. Usually the speaker brings a step stool or ladder so they can see above the crowd. We went 3 ½ years ago when we were first here with the kids. That was right in the height of the Iraq war and the speakers were very political and very, very, anti-american. I can still remember how surprised the kids were to hear someone speak so vehemently against the U.S. I prepared the kids that they might hear a lot of the same again. Not really. Most of the speakers today were religious fanatics in one way or another. It’s true. Some of them hold up signs while they are talking. One sign we saw today, “To follow Jesus, you must reject God”. Then there was the man who proclaimed in his sign he was a “Christian atheist”. It wasn’t really as much fun as it has been in the past but I think that is the beauty of Speaker’s Corner – on any given Sunday, there can be any different mix of speakers. Sometimes it is fascinating, sometimes not.

But there was something else pretty interesting at Speaker’s Corner. Actually someone. Chizz sidles over to me and says “look at that tall guy over there, he looks familiar”. “Isn’t that Rick Steves?” For those of you that don’t know him, Rick Steves is a travel guy who has travel shows on public television and the Travel Channel. He also has a very successful line of guidebooks. When we were planning our move here, we watched his program every week to get in the mood! I wasn’t so sure, so we followed him from speaker to speaker to get a better look. I prefer the word ‘follow’; Kiki used the word ‘stalk’. Yes, that was him alright. He was very interested in the speakers and went from group to group listening and even took a few pictures with his digital camera. He laughed quite a bit at some of the give and take between the speakers and the crowd. I don’t think anyone else recognized him or if they did, you couldn’t tell. When we got home, I checked his website for a picture and I am definitely sure that was him. Especially since I saw on the website, he is leading a tour of London starting this afternoon. That’s what I love about the internet, it makes it easier to stal- I mean follow people. Based on the tour itinerary posted on the website we might just “run into” Rick again, say on Saturday at the British Museum. Stalk, follow, stalk, follow, who’s to say?