Winter Wonderland and Volcanoes

Last week Caitlin, Libby, Amy and I spent our first true day in London since September when we went to see the changing of the guard. We have spent a little time wandering around the city before our train left for other places, but it just is not the same.

We had three goals for the day: Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, the Victoria & Albert Museum and a dessert lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

We took the train into London Paddington Station in order to use our last BritRail day. The ride was uneventful until we were walking off the train and Amy realized she did not have her phone. She had been using it on the train so it was not left at the flat accidentally.

We went back to the train, found our coach and looked around the table we had been sitting at, but it was not there. We were afraid to stay on the train much longer for fear that it would start moving, so we got off to look for a booth or something where there might be a "Lost and Found."

Just then, a rail station employee carrying a sweater asked if we had lost something. Amy told him she was missing her phone and that it was blue. The man pulled it out of his pocket, but in order to give it too her she had to prove it was hers. Libby offered to call it and it was a few tense seconds waiting for the call to connect.

That was a very fortuitous end to what could have been a terrible event, especially for Amy who had to deal with her computer breaking earlier in the week. I do not know how much more bad luck she could have taken without a breakdown, one she would be completely entitled to.

We got to Hyde Park by memory and just chose a random path inside the park to follow since there were no signs telling use where exactly the Winter Wonderland was located. Then we saw a ferris wheel in the distance and used that as our destination point.

The first section of the Christmas area was a bunch of carnival rides. There were small roller coasters, fun houses, a carousel and a circular swing ride that took riders up at least 100 feet into the air. There were decorations of toy soldiers, garlands, and strings of lights. There was even an electronic mounted moose head that sang songs in German since the Winter Wonderland was supposedly modeled after the traditional Christmas markets of Germany.

It was strangely deserted since it was about 11am on a Monday and most children were at school. There were a few very young children running around with their parents. It just seemed wrong to be at a carnival without tons of children yelling and getting underfoot.

After the ride section were a bunch of small, log cabin style buildings, each about the size of a shed and decorated with green garland and lights. They sold Christmas ornaments, candles, jewelry, scarves, hats, and much more. There were also tons of food stalls, many more than I think was necessary, especially since most sold the same basic things. The most common foods were crepes, burgers, bratwurst, mulled wine, beer, waffles, and churros. A few stalls were dedicated solely to selling mountains of sweets like candy floss, truffles, fudge, and gummy snacks.

We made a full loop of the park before we decided to head out the Winter Wonderland's main entrance which was actually on the complete opposite side from where we entered. We paused to look at a map of Hyde Park to orient ourselves (the Park covers 350 acres) and take some time taking pictures of the Serpentine River and its many types of waterfowl. Some people were feeding the birds so there were bunches of them ranging from ducks to swans to pigeons waddling around on the sidewalk.

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Exiting Hyde Park, we followed Libby's defective Google maps directions down a bunch of residential streets trying to get to the Victoria & Albert Museum. We found it eventually, though there had to have been a more direct route to get there.

The Victoria & Albert Museum, founded in 1852, is huge, covering 12.5 acres and containing clothing, sculpture, ironwork, furniture, jewelry, paintings, textiles, glass, and other artifacts. I wanted to go to the museum to see its fashion exhibits. The fashion exhibit displayed styles from different eras from the 17th century up to haute couture of modern fashion. It was amazing to see how complex and detailed women's clothing was in the past.

I have done several reports involving women's undergarments, corsets in particular, so I knew what most of them were in the displays. However, there was one undergarment I had never heard of before. This was a piece of fabric stuffed with feathers or something similar, then worn around the upper arm to support large, puffed sleeves.

We spent several hours wandering the museum looking at some paintings, ironwork and jewelry. In those hours we probably only covered a very small portion of the large building. It would be amazing to be able to go on a regular basis and see each of the 145 different galleries.

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Every since Libby learned that there was a Rainforest Cafe in London, she has really wanted to go. I guess there used to be one near her house and she would go there every year for her birthday party. According to my mom, I have been to a Rainforest Cafe in California before, but I do not remember it.

Walking into the building, you are inside of a gift shop with stuffed animals, books, and other trinkets. You have to go to the back of the store and downstairs to get to the restaurant. The eating facility is decorated just like the rainforest. The ceiling is covered in fake foliage extending from fake trees. There are rocks, small ponds, and animatronic animals that move every once in a while. 

We were sat at a table right next to two gorillas. About every ten minutes they would start making gorilla noises and beating their chests. The novelty of the experience wore off after the second round of movements and just became a little irritating.

The food was all really expensive (we were going there for the atmosphere, not the food) so we bought two desserts: Eaton Mess Cheesecake and a Volcano. Yes, we did have dessert for lunch. 

A Volcano is a large bowl of ice cream,  brownie, marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It is served with an actual sparkler, like the ones you get on the Forth of July. I felt it was overpriced, even though it was large, because there was barely any brownie and the strawberry ice cream used tasted like the really cheap kind that is made totally from artificial flavors. 

Photo by Libby

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We ended the day's trip to London with a stop off at Hope and Greenwood Sweet Shop. We all bought a mixture of the shop's homemade hard candies. All four of use got Cherry Bakewell flavor. Amy then got Lemon Meringue, Caitlin and Libby got Birthday Cake, and I got Ginger Beer. 

The young man working there was completely adorable. He had dark hair cut short on the sides and long on the top, and black, thick-framed glasses. We had a good conversation with him about all of the flavors and his personal favorites (He likes Ginger Beer best). He ended up giving us several free samples to take with us to try the flavors (Rose and Lychee, Sunshine Festival, Sugar Plum, and Treacle Tart).

So far I have tried Rose and Lychee, Sunshine Festival, Sugar Plum. Rose and Lychee was pink and tasted like eating pure sugar tinted with rose flavoring. Sunshine Festival was a pale yellow and fizzed a little on the tongue. It was more tropical flavored like mango. Sugar plum was a purplish maroon color and tasted pretty similar to a grape tootsie pop. It had a chocolate center and everything.      

Caves and Italian Food

This past weekend was full of activities with a trip to Cardiff on Friday, Bonfire Night on Saturday, and  then a trip to Chislehurst Caves and London on Sunday.

Amy, Caitlin and I have several days left on our BritRail pass so we looked for day trips that take less than two hours to get to by train. Caitlin suggested Chislehurst Caves, a place she had visited on a previous trip to England. Caves are cool, and a nice change from museums so we agreed. Libby was sick from Bonfire Night so she stayed at the flat to rest.

Chislehurst is a suburb south-east of London. The little bit of the town we saw on the walk to the caves seemed quite and traditional with its brick houses and corner pub. We worried that the caves would be difficult to fin but we had no problems at all. You just walk down the road from the train station, turn right past the pub and then there are giant brown signs pointing the way. It was probably only a seven minute walk from the rail station to the caves.

The tours started on the hour so we had about fifteen minutes to wait around in the lobby which was a combination of wooden pew-like benches and a separate room with a small cafe.

At noon, our tour group, made up of about six parents, six children, and us three, ventured down to the caves entrance which was under the building we were in. Old fashioned oil lanterns were distributed among the adults to light the way. Only a few parts of the caves were fitted with electricity and lights from flashlights, cameras, and other technology would not be good for our eyes inside the caves (therefore I have not photographs from inside the caverns).

The Chislehurst Caves were formed completely by hand as the Druids, Saxons, and Romans mined for chalk. The maze of caverns would measure 22 miles if it could be stretched into a straight line. Over the centuries it has played host to sacrificial ceremonies of the Druids, music concerts, and murders hiding bodies.

During WWII, when London was being bombed by the Germans, 15,000 people used the caves as a bomb shelter. Families would pay a weekly fee and be assigned an "address" which would be painted on the cave wall. There were showers, a hospital and a chapel. People slept on narrow bunk beds, at least three beds high. Every night at 10:30 pm, all lights had to be extinguished because they could be seen through cracks in the ground by the German planes flying above. This would leave thousands of people in absolute darkness until morning. I have no idea what you would do if you needed the toilet in the middle of the night, but the rules worked. Not a single person died from bombings while sheltered inside the caves.

One child was born in the caves in the hospital. The baby girl was christened in the cave's chapel and named Cavena, though she preferred to go by Rose.

In the mid-20th century, musicians discovered the pleasing affects of the cave's echoes and began to hold concerts down in the caverns. David Bowie, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix all played there at one time or another.

Our group looked at the chapel before moving farther into the dark reaches of the cave with only out lanterns as light. We stopped at the alter of the Druids where women and children were sacrificed to the gods. Our group was told by the tour guide to gather in an alcove next to the alter and he would leave us in the dark for several seconds to experience the all consuming blackness. Caitlin was kind enough to hold my hand for this part. I was not frightened, but it is nice to know that you are not alone when you can not see anything.

The guide walked some ways away and began to bang on a metal drummer to show us how well sounds travel in the confined space. The drumming stopped and we waited for him to come back when, "Bang!," he hit the drum one more time incredibly hard. We all startled and jerked then began some nervous chuckles to ease the tension. I was trying to listen for the tour guide's footsteps coming towards us. Everyone screamed as his flashlight came on right before us. I guess he had used the time we were recovering from the loud bang to make his way back to us unheard for the express purpose of scaring us.

Next we moved on to the area that was considered most haunted. Before walking down the narrow corridor to this area, the tour guide said, "Now, before people report seeing a white mist, they usually feel a chill and sometimes the echoes in the cave are dampened. It is impossible to feel a chill because the caves are always at a constant temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit not matter the weather outside."

Right when he said that I felt a chill move down the back of my body until a tingle set up residence in the backs of my calves. Then when we walked through the tunnel to the cavern beyond I thought that the echoes were less pronounced. The tour guide remarked on that too. I decided to focus on looking straight at the tour guide instead of looking around for fear of actually seeing something possibly supernatural in origin.

He told us that the ghost is believed to be that of an 18 year-old woman who was murdered by her husband, a miner in the caves, in the late 1800s. He weighed down her body and dumped it into the pool in the cavern where we stood. Her skeletal remains were not discovered until the 1930s when workers were preparing the pool to be used for irrigation to grow mushrooms in the caves.

The tour ended soon after and we caught the train back into London. We walked around Covent Gardens and admired the Christmas decorations that were already put on. Suspended from the roof over the market were giant red ornaments and shiny disco balls. The varied slightly in size but most had to have been at least six feet in diameter.

We spent a long time wandering around looking for a candy shop that Caitlin had visited on her last trip to England. We were about to give up the search when we found the little shop with its red awning. Amy bought toffee bits to try to replicate the toffee and whipped cream combination we had on our Starbucks samples in Cardiff. Caitlin bought some pear drops and cherry bakewells.

Pear drops look just like gumdrops, but hard. Amy found out that out the hard way when she tried to bite into one. I really did not like those because they tasted too artificial. The cherry bakewells on the other hand were delicious. The hard candies are based on an English tart of the same name made from cream and cherries. They were amazing because they did not have the fake cherry flavoring. The candies tasted just like black cherry ice cream to me. If we ever find ourselves in that part of London again I will be buying some to take home with me.

Our lunch was eaten at Bella Italia, an Italian restaurant where Amy ate with her parents when they were visiting. I had Cannelloni Ricotta which was a rectangular noodle spread with ricotta cheese and spinach and rolled up. The tomato sauce was creamy, orange was delicious. It actually tasted quite similar to the tomato soup served in one of the eating places at my American university.

Before dark we walked down to Piccadilly Circus, just to say we have been there. Some post cards were bought and we popped into the M&M store to look around. As the sun went down we headed back to Oxford, not wanting to be wandering around London in the dark.