Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Anyone interested in what I did while in the UK can follow my adventures here (I posted the trip reports on the actual days):

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7
• Day 8
• Day 9

Aside from nearly missing my flight, not much interesting happened here. I arrived at Gatwick a bit later than I had hoped, about 1 hour and 45 minutes before my flight. The line to check in at US Airways was quite long, but I met a guy in the line who was on the same flight and we chatted while we waited for about 45 minutes to check in (time until flight leaves – 1 hour). The real problem occurred in security. I have a proclivity for picking the wrong lines. I some how managed to get in line behind a family – mother, daughter, and two sons – that appeared to have no idea how to travel through security. The mother took about 5 minutes to go through on her own; she had to remove more and more jewelry each time she walked through the metal detector. The sons – both teenagers – had to do the same thing. One son tried to carry an iPod through the metal detector! Then the daughter, not learning from her mother, had to go through multiple times as well, each time removing more jewelry. Arghh!! By the time I made it through security I had less than 30 minutes before my flight was to leave. I checked the departures list and next to my flight it said “flight closing”. To add to my anxiety, there were no clearly visible signs indicating which terminals were where. I finally found a sign and, luckily, my terminal wasn’t too far away, but I ended up running to it anyway (yep, I was one of those crazy people running through the airport). I was one of the last people on the flight, but I made it.

The flight was relatively uneventful. I finished the book I took with me then had time to watch two movies: State of Play and Pelham 123. Customs in Charlotte took forever, but my final flight back to Tampa was uneventful and I was finally reunited with Debi and Toren, both of whom I had missed terribly while I was away.

While my homecoming was exciting, what awaited was less so – basically a 72 hour marathon grading session (interrupted by a dryer malfunction). But I made it. England trip log complete.

This was our last day of touring around London.  As we had visited all of the major attractions that we really wanted to see in the previous days, we opted for two less visited attractions.  We started off the day with a visit to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.  For those who don’t know, this is the location around which our timekeeping system is based (i.e., Greenwich Mean Time).  It is also the prime meridian (line of longitude).  The site includes several museums and an observatory.  The museums are nice as they explain the importance of keeping time (for global navigation) and the development of the instruments and astronomical charts required to keep time and determine longitude at sea (latitude is easier).  The observatory is well-placed as it sits on a hill overlooking the Thames.  On one of the spires of the observatory is a red ball that drops every day at 1:00pm.  This allowed ships leaving London to set their clocks so they would know the exact time.

We snapped a few pictures while there:

me at Longitude 0

Here’s the view from the observatory:

view of the Thames from the observatory

It actually started to snow on us while we were at the observatory.

From here we headed to the Imperial War Museum, which includes really great exhibits on WWI and WWII.  It was fascinating to read about the wars from a British perspective, as I have only ever read about them from a U.S. perspective.  The devastation suffered by the UK during WWII under the bombardment by Germany was really stunning.  There was a special side exhibit on children in the war.  Thousands of children were sent out of London and other big cities during the war to live with families in the countryside as it was safer there.  I also found my favorite picture of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in this museum (we saw hundreds of these in the National Gallery):

Jesus and Mary with gas masks

As was the case with most of the museums we visited, we simply ran out of time here and didn’t see everything, but we saw quite a bit of the museum (this one is also free).  We left a bit before closing as we had plans for the evening – an English Premier League football match!  Having played soccer my whole life, one of my dreams has always been to attend a football match in Europe where the fans really get in to the game with chants and cheers.  I’ve been to a couple NFL games, to NBA and MLB games and I’ve never seen anything like I did here.  But before I describe the game I have to describe the ordeal to get tickets.

Premier League tickets are hot commodities and they sell out quickly.  However, they only list tickets about 2 weeks in advance of the game itself, so you really have to be paying attention to the sales to get a ticket.  I signed up for email notices from the ticket website to make sure I was notified when the tickets went on sale.  As soon as I received the email notifying me that tickets for the 16th of December were on sale I hurried to the website to see what was available.  There were several matches that day, but only a couple in London.  The obvious choice was the Chelsea vs. Portsmouth match.  Chelsea is the top team in the league at the moment; Portsmouth is literally the very bottom team.  Unlike games here in the U.S., in the UK you can’t just buy a ticket.  Because of hostilities between fans (which became very understandable during the game) you have to buy tickets for a specific team.  You can either buy tickets for Portsmouth or tickets for Chelsea, but rarely are there just “general admission” tickets.  Why?  Because the fans are literally sectioned off from each other.  To insure that people purchasing the tickets are really fans of that team (and not just someone trying to get into the opposing fans’ area) you have to become a member of the team’s football club.  When I got the email, Chelsea tickets were no longer available, but Portsmouth tickets were (apparently their fans didn’t want to travel to see their last place team play Chelsea).  I tried buying tickets directly, but the site insisted that I provide a Portsmouth Football Club ID, so I had to join the Portsmouth Football Club (luckily it was free).  I then purchased tickets for Steve and I.

When we arrived at the stadium, it quickly became apparent that they don’t joke about security here.  The Portsmouth fans had a completely separate entrance that was lined by police and security officers – there were probably 40 or 50 officers guarding the entrance.  When we headed towards our seats, we then noticed two things: (1) no one else was sitting down yet and (2) the Portsmouth section was literally cordoned off.  Portsmouth fans were situated in a corner of the Stamford Bridge stadium and on both sides there was a barrier of three seats that was covered and unavailable for people to sit in.  Additionally, both sides were lined with security officers.  You can see them in this panoramic shot I took – they are all wearing the yellow vests:

panorama of the stadium

We later realized why no one was sitting down before the game started – they were all down below the stands getting drinks.  Apparently you can’t bring alcoholic drinks up into the stands, so before the game and during half-time, everyone heads below to get liquored up.

We took a couple additional photos:

Steve and I at the game

And this last one that shows how serious they take football in the UK:

The sign says "Chelsea our religion"

I was already duly impressed with what we had seen, but then the game started and so did the chants.  Wow!  Steve and I couldn’t believe what we were hearing.  Given the accents, we didn’t know for sure what all of the chants were, but I have since looked some of them up.  The most common one was this one:

Play up pompey
Pompey play up

We really couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it makes sense now. You can hear some of the chants here.

That first chant is relatively benign, but they got so much more… um, interesting. It quickly became apparent why the security is so important – the chants aren’t always directed toward the players; they are often directed toward the fans of the other team:

Hello hello we are the portsmouth boys
Hello hello we are the portsmouth boys
And if you are a scummer fan surrender or you’ll die

This still one of the more benign chants.  Frank Lampard, one of Chelsea’s well-known players, took a corner kick in front of Portsmouth and joked with the Portsmouth fans, who quickly responded with:

Lampard is a wanker
Lampard is a wanker

Then we heard some of the more vicious chants, like this one:

If you all hate scummers,
All hate scummers,
All hate scummers clap your hands.
If you really f*&king hate them clap your hands,
If you really f*&king hate them clap your hands,
If you really f*&king hate them,
Really f*&king hate them,
Really f*&king hate them clap your hands.

That was just one of the many. They also went after the wife of one of the famous Chelsea players. Ashley Cole is married to Cheryl Tweedy Cole, a well-known musician in the UK, and they said some pretty nasty things about her (which I really shouldn’t repeat on here). Anyway, you can see more of the chants here.

As I noted at the outset, Portsmouth is dead last in the tables right now.  So it wasn’t a surprise when Chelsea scored first.  But Portsmouth actually scored to even up the game and you’d think everyone in the Portsmouth section had just wone a billion pounds – they went crazy.  The guy sitting next to me hugged me and the guy next to him gave me a high five.  Since we were sitting with Portsmouth we had to cheer, and it was pretty easy to get caught up in the excitement, so Steve and I both cheered like wild men!  It was actually pretty fun.  Portsmouth eventually conceded a penalty kick and lost 2 to 1, but it was a great game.

Steve said at the end of the game that he’d never forget this experience.  I concur – it was one of the most memorable experiences of the trip.

We were surprised at how many things we had been able to fit in at this point.  If you’ve been reading these posts chronologically, you’ll know that we skipped two attractions for various reasons.  This was our make up day.  We started out with a visit to Abbey Road, the recording studio made famous by The Beatles for their album they recorded here.  There isn’t much to see there, but we stopped by anyway:

Abbey Road studio

From Abbey Road we returned to Westminster Abbey.  Westminster Abbey is a working Church of England Church and the location of British coronation ceremonies (and has been for centuries).  Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to take photos inside (though I snuck a couple again).  Our primary interest in visiting the Abbey was to make another pilgrimage of sorts – to the grave of Charles Darwin.  Steve and I are both ardent evolutionists, so we had to pay homage.  In honor of our visit, Steve wore his Project Steve shirt to the Abbey:

Project Steve visits Westminster Abbey

The Abbey is a functioning church, but it’s also kind of creepy.  I really don’t understand the bizarre obsession of people to be buried inside churches.  I don’t really mean to be mean about this, but it almost seems as though the idea is to change the object of veneration from some supernatural entity to those entombed inside the building.  I didn’t actually get creeped out by the fact that I was walking around inside a building that literally has thousands of dead people scattered throughout the walls and floor, but it does seem kind of bizarre to me  (if any readers have any thoughts on this, I’m interested in what you think).  Anyway, access to Westminster Abbey costs a pretty penny as well – about $20.00, but it does include an audio tour that is pretty good.  Easily the most amazing part of the building is the sheer size.  As soon as you walk in and see the soaring ceiling you can’t help but be impressed.  As I couldn’t take pictures here, I stole some from other people who did.  Here’s a shot of the main altar that shows the height of the ceiling:

the main altar

Surrounding the main altar are a number of smaller chapels, most of which are filled with dead people – er, rather, monuments and gravemarkers to dead people that include the dead people inside; so, yeah, dead people.  A number of monarchs of England are buried here, though monarchs post George II are no longer buried here but in some other church.  The architecture, even of the tombs, is pretty remarkable.  The tour takes close to 2 hours if you listen closely to everything.  It winds its way around the church, but also out into several other areas where those who run the church live.  There is also a museum, though quite small, that is part of the tour.  I did snap a picture in the museum as it included a wax model of my famous ancestor, Lord Nelson (who is buried in a different chapel in London):

wax model of Lord Nelson

We knew about two famous people who are buried at the Abbey, Newton and Darwin, but were surprised to also learn that George Frideric Handel is as well, as is Winston Churchhill.  Here’s a picture of Darwin’s grave (stolen from someone else on the internet):

Darwin's grave marker

He is buried close to Newton and several other famed scientists.  Despite the creepiness of the thousands of bodies around the place, it is a site to see – and of course we had to pay homage to Darwin.

From Westminster Abbey we headed back to Trafalgar Square were we had lunch in The Crypt, which is a cafe in the former crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields church.  We then went to the National Portrait Gallery, which is right across the street from The Crypt.  The Portrait Gallery includes paintings of many famous Britons, from the aristocracy to scientists, like Darwin, Huxley, and Newton.  Probably the best part about the gallery for me was the pretty good history given of the aristocracy as you saw their paintings.  I learned a lot about past Kings and Queens as a result.  We didn’t stay too long at the National Portrait Gallery (about 2 hours) as I had arranged to meet one of the conference organizers at the British Library to discuss some research projects.

We met my colleague and talked shop for a while over tea (okay, we didn’t really drink tea, but we called it “tea”).  Afterward we went downstairs to see some of the famous manuscripts and documents the library has, including: 2 of the 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta, Gutenberg Bibles, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, some samples of Shakespeare’s writing, Leonardo DaVinci’s notebooks, original song lyrics by The Beatles on various scraps of paper, and thousands of other famous documents, including a wide variety of religious books and manuscripts.  My colleague, who goes to the British Library at least once a month, didn’t actually know where the room with the collections was and had never seen any of the stuff inside.  So, she accompanied us to see the Magna Carta before she had to run to a different meeting.  Intriguingly, we spent a couple hours checking out all the documents and saw just one or two other people the whole time.  It’s pretty amazing to think that these treasures aren’t widely visited.

After the British Library we headed back to Hammersmith, stopped for dinner at another pub, and called it a night.

I drug Steve out to do a little more Sociology-related fieldwork during this day in London – we made the obligatory pilgrimage to the burial place of Karl Marx, Toren’s namesake, at Highgate Cemetery.  Unknown to me before we arrived, there are a number of other famous people buried in the cemetery, including: Douglas Adams and George Eliot.  I already knew Herbert Spencer was buried there, so that wasn’t a surprise, but Douglas Adams – awesome!  The only drawbacks to the cemetery: (1) it costs money to get in 3 pounds) and (2) to find out where different people are buried you need a guide, which costs a pound as well.  For any future visitors, I created a map of the famous people buried in Highgate Cemetery using Google maps.  You can see where they are without purchasing the guide.  We took pictures, of course:

Douglas Adams's tombstone

Steve by Douglas Adams

The cemetery itself is very cool.  It’s basically like a forest as it is mostly left to itself with the exception of the paths, as you can see in this photo:

cool cemetery

The key attraction, of course, is Karl Marx’s monument.  Apparently he was originally buried in a nondescript location, but the surge of visitors as he became more and more famous necessitated moving him to this more accessible location.  He is buried with his daughter and a few additional people.  Here’s the monument:

Toren's namesake - Karl Marx

Not 30 feet from Marx’s monument is that of another famous early sociologist, Herbert Spencer:

Herbert Spencer's grave marker

This next photo shows their relative placements:

Marx's monument is to the right; Herbert Spencer's is to the left

While it would be overstating the case to say I’m very familiar with George Eliot’s work, I have heard the name (as had Steve). So, we stopped by her grave as well:

gravemarker of George Eliot

As we primarily came to see Marx and Spencer (and saw Douglas Adams as a bonus) we didn’t search down any of the others except Eliot.

From Highgate Cemetery we headed to the British Museum where we literally spent the rest of the day and still didn’t see everything there was to see.  We technically visited every room, but about 1/3 of the museum we simply walked through at turbo speed as there just isn’t enough time in a single day to see everything they have on display there, including the actual Rosetta Stone,a cuneiform tablet recording an ancient flood myth that is believed to be the origin of the flood myth in the Old Testament, dozens of mummies, all sorts of other ancient artifacts, and entire temples.  To illustrate the scope of the museum I took a few pictures.  This first photo is a shot from one end of the very first room of the museum (labeled room 1; out of around 95 rooms):

Room 1 - an amazing museum in its own right

This is just the first room and we spent over an hour here.  The collection is so remarkable in this one room that it could be a museum in its own right.

These next two also illustrate the size of the museum as well.  This one is basically the Parthenon, from Italy.  It’s not the complete Parthenon, of course, or even all that remains of it, but it includes large chunks of it:

the Parthenon room

This last one is a shot of the inner atrium, which kind of serves as a central staging area for the rest of the museum.  I can’t be certain, but it seems as though the museum was originally separate buildings and was eventually covered to make it easier to move between the buildings.  It’s enormous:

the inner atrium of the museum

We stayed until just before closing, then headed to the largest urban shopping mall in Europe, Westfield Mall, to look for presents for Toren (not much luck; the UK is super expensive).  We then had dinner and called it a day.