A Visit to Mr. Dickens, Mr. Shakespeare, and Dr. Johnson

As my train for London pulled out of the station, I rejoiced in the idea that soon I would be in a country where once again, everyone spoke English. In the seats in front of me, three businessmen discussed the meeting they had attended earlier in the day. Somehow, it sounded so much more exciting with their British accents. At the ticket counter for the metro, I marched up to the window without having to form the question in my head first, as I would have done in Paris. My illusions were quickly shattered when the lady behind the glass intitally thought that I wanted to buy a ticket for a town three hours outside the city, rather than the next station over.

When I was younger, I was disappointed that London wasn't the medieval city of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, but now I can see that it has a character of its own. The rows of neat, little brick houses made me feel that I was in Mary Poppins. I half expected Mr. Banks to march out of one as I passed by. The double decker buses are a completely different story. The hurtle down the little narrow streets and make such sharp turns that sitting on the top layer, I get afraid that they'll topple over. It doesn't help that they go on the opposite side of the road, which makes me feel like they're about to crash into the oncoming traffic.

I've found that I enjoy getting to know a city by walking though it, but London is more spread out than Paris and hence not as ideal for strolling around. Still, there are some areas where one can promenade. I started my London adventure by walking along the south bank of the Thames from Embankment, which is a little beyond the Westminster (where the Houses of Parliament are located), to the Tower of London. Along the way, I passed by the Globe Theater and the Golden Hind, the ship Sir Francis Drake sailed on to the Americas. Sadly, there were no tickets available for the play that day. To console myself I went to the National Portrait Gallery.

Most people probably find the National Portrait Gallery a bit dull; however, I think it's one of the more exciting museums. It has paintings of the important people in British history from the last 500 years. I started with the portraits of the Tudor monarchs and three hours later, ended with the famous authors of the turn of the 20th century. They have portraits of all the monarchs, which meant that I got to gaze on both Elizabeth I and Victoria in all their splendor, but they also have all the British people who have done remarkable in the arts, the sciences, and politics. Thus, I also sawy Charles Dickens, Christopher Wren, William Harvey, and Winston Churchill.

The next day, I made a quick visit to the Westminster area to see the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament before meeting up with a friend. We went to the Charles Dickens' Museum, which is in the house where he wrote Oliver Twist. The museum has a large collection of photographs of Dickens and his family. Apparently, he had nine children, most of whom wound up going to Australia or Canada. I imagine that it must have been difficult to have a famous author for a

father. The museum also has a large collection of his novels in their original serial form. Ther

e was even a special exhibit on A Tale of Two Cities, which I found amusing considering I've been doing my best to track it down all over Paris. There were plenty of references to Nicholas Nickleby, including a special section on the research Dickens did at the Yorkshire schools, which brought back memories of the Lowell performance.

We made a brief visit to the British Museum, which included a stop at the section on the Sutton Hoo burial. My English teacher in my junior year of high school made us research this burial of a king. We went on a raid to other English classes and captured other students while chanting Beowulf. I actually recreated this helmut for the occasion and was delighted to see the original.

The afternoon also included a stop at Covent Garden, the place where Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady first meets Eliza. Today, it is filled with little shops selling cutesy items like soap and tea. Apparently, they named a soap after me.

For dinner, I got to go to a pub for the first time. As you can see, we split fish and chips and a cheese pie. Both were rather tasty. The pub, Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, is a historic pub where Dr. Johnson used to go.