Cousin Emily comes to town

We've been missing our family a great deal during our conquest of Europe, and so it has been a blessing to share this past week with our dear cousin Emily, who hopped the Channel from uni in France to visit us. She bunked on the spare single bed in our room, and was treated to breakfast in bed every morning with a hot water bottle. Only thing we neglected were mints on the pillows. Seriously considering opening a B&B after this.

Em arrived on Sunday night, just in time to see my show at the Palladium. Our first full day together began with a considerable lie-in on Monday morning; as Emily reassured us, "It's okay, I'm on vacation." We made our way down to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square, stopping by a discount booth in Leicester Square to pick up tickets for a West End show - which fortuitously ended up being Wicked on Halloween! After made the lengthy trek from Trafalgar to the high street shopping area - stopping to see the wonder of Hamley's Toy Store - and introduced Em to the trippy experience of shopping at Primark. We managed to drag her away just before it closed.

Tuesday began our serious sight-seeing, and what better way to begin than with The Tower of London. Brianne and I actually purchased a Royal Palace membership this time out, meaning we can visit the Tower and four other palaces for free as many times as we want for a whole year!

It's a real shame that you can only be a Yeoman Warder ("Beefeater" Tower guide) after being the British armed forces for 23 years, because Brianne is the ultimate guide for the Tower. We actually had a mother shushing her children so as to hear B tell the history of the stronghold. We inspected every inch of the the Tower, took part in a demo of medieval siege engines, then made our way to the picturesque Tower Bridge for nighttime snapshots.

As we love to do when we have guests in town, B and I treated Emily to dinner at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, and she sat in Charles Dickens' seat noshing fish 'n' chips. We made our way back to the Tower afterwards for The Ceremony of the Keys, considered the oldest continuous military tradition in the world, in which the Yeoman Warders ceremoniously lock up the Tower for the night. Free to the public, but limited in numbers, so B had to write ahead to the Tower for tickets. Unfortunately, the night decided first to rain on us and then send hail and snow, chilling us to the bone! Wonderful to experience the Ceremony, nonetheless.

Wednesday took us out of town to Warwick Castle, a site B and I have been meaning to see for some time. It's a very Robin Hood-esque castle, exactly the type I love. We climbed the ramparts, took in a falconry display, enjoyed the waxwork scenes of castle life, and braved the chills of the interactive "Ghosts Alive" experience in the aptly named Ghost Tower (actually reputed to be haunted by a former lord.)
Below is a clip of a Singing Plague Victim. Kudos on playing a vintage instrument, but does her warbling remind of a certain sister-in-law of mine?

Thursday took us out to Hampton Court Palace, a very grand place with labyrinthine halls and expansive grounds. We made our way through it's fabled hedge maze in record time. We also saw a demonstration of regal Tudor clothing. Every guide we came across assured us that the palace is brimming with ghosts. None could swear to seeing one, but felt presences, unexplained sounds, and eery temperature changes were widely reputed and vouched for.

We decided to take it easy on Friday, and went on a glorious stroll through some of the parks which London maintain so well. The autumn sun in Green Park was wonderful.We found the Canada Monument, something B and I had not been able to locate previously. It is a large slanted waterfall-style fountain with intricate maple leaves worked into the motif, commemorating companionship and joint service in war.We joined the throng at Buckingham Palace, watching the guards move around (no official Changing, though) and took in the Victoria Monument.After cutting through St. James Park and enjoying the company of ducks and squirrels that are surprisingly accustomed to the humans around them, we managed to track down a pair of honest-to-goodness big-hatted guards outside St. James Palace. They looked just as serious and implacable as one could imagine, despite being very baby-faced youngsters.We allowed Emily a longing look at the wing of the palace where their Hignesses William and Harry reside (they weren't in, sadly), we trundled along to the Horse Guard palace. Very interesting helmets, and just as immovable as their brothers in arms.At Emily's request, we tried to hit all of the iconic London sights today, seeing Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey (just the outside) and the London Eye, before swinging back up and around to Covent Garden.We finished off our Halloween with a night at the theatre, taking in a performance of Wicked. We were right at the back of the upper balcony, and it was still a pretty good view. Brianne and I actually ran into a fellow stage-combatant from Toronto at intermission while buying ice cream! The show was spectacular as always, though I admit that I'm so used to hearing American accents with the lyrics that proper RP sounded a bit jarring.

Saturday morning saw the ladies brave the drizzle to take in Portobello Road market and a bit of the British Museum while I stayed home to work on my script for the show I'm doing at Christmas (more on that another time.) Upon returning, we lounged in the warmth of home before heading of to a home-made dinner treated to us by our pal Ed. We spent the evening playing board games (Emily whipped us soundly) and watching a scary movie to commemorate Halloween, followed by a cartoon to take the edge off.

Our final day with Emily took us out to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich where we straddled the Prime Meridian, the heart of global timekeeping. We poked around a food and doodad market on the way back to the heart of town where we caught the beginning of Evensong mass at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was our first time making inside the cathedral, and it is beyond awe-inspiring. The choir really added to the experience. We will have to return for a more thorough tour. We made one last stop at Primark (Emily was suitably restrained) and then made it home for dinner out our favourite local Thai place and leisurely packing. We were up at 5 the next morning to take Emily to St. Pancras train station for a misty-eyed farewell. It was an incredible week of new experiences, one of our best of the trip to date.