An American in England, Part 1 of 7

Yay for reading week (my first break of the few that I have during the Scottish school year)!

Yesterday (Saturday) I left St. Andrews, Scotland, for the first time since my arrival. I took three trains in succession down to Harpenden, England, to spend this week with the Prosser family.


Sunday

Today began with a lovely barefoot tour of the Prosser family garden. The garden is beautifully filled with a variety of trees, great green grass and a gazebo. After the tour breakfast commenced.

Around 11, Rachel and I hopped on a train for one of the two days that will be spent in central London this week.

London. Before you see the beauty of the town you are first immersed in the beauty of England's country side. Fields stretch out over the horizon to either side of the train. Sheep can be seen grazing and sun lights the world in a delightful shade.

The train arrived in a modern train station with white walls and metal railings. From there you can go anywhere you want in London using the underground. Rachel and I chose to go to Kings Cross first.
I expected Kings Cross to be an old, classic train station like Grand Central. To my surprise, Kings Cross is stuck between two eras. The brick gives it a classic feeling, but the rest of the station is under construction and looks like a contractor's battlefield. In Kings Cross Rachel took me to platform 9 and 3/4. This was disappointing. It was a wall cut out with half of a trolley hanging out of it. Still, I gave in to a tourist's temptation and had Rachel take a picture.

Next, Rachel took me on a tour of St. Pancras station. St. Pancras is a piece of art. The shops are all brick with glass entrances and dividers. The look was creative, pleasing and magnetic; people were flowing to them. The Eurostar, a train the goes from London to Paris (and goes under water), leaves from St. Pancras. Rachel ended the quick tour of St. Pancras by showing me two statues. One of them has a base depicting multiple scenes of resistance and power whilst a man and a woman embrace each other despite it all.

Then we went to the National Portrait Gallery. Out of all the museums I have been to, this one is my new favorite. The museum displays portraits of different people by a variety of artists. The portraits vary from paintings to photographs, sculptures, drawings and collages. Each piece is a unique take on a certain person. One of the portraits is a sculpture coated in the artist's blood (cool!) (each year he re sculpts it and it is constantly kept frozen). Another is a collage of stuffed crows and mice that creates a silhouette of a person when light is shone on it. I bought six postcards from the museum shop; each postcard has a picture of a portrait.

Finally, Rachel took me to lunch in Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar square is a wide open space with a plinth in each corner of it. Three of the statues have always been the same, but one of them changes each year featuring a new artist (this year is a ship in a bottle). In the centre of Trafalgar square there is a giant statue of Nelson (Nelson's column) surrounded by fountains and lion statues. Throughout the square, people walk around and eat lunch, pigeons bob and various street artists perform. On this particular day, protesters appeared with signs protesting the government. Overall, the square is some sweet sauce. Sunny. Open. Populated. Busy.

My day concludes with dinner and a movie. We went to The Stables. Its an old stable turned golf course and restaurant. The food was excellent (fish and chips!) and the waiter/host was kind. Off to watch 'Paper Heart' with Rachel.


Night y'all.