Hello everyone! Well I have some new adventures to share with everyone. On Friday, April 1st we got to see what our second British Professor, Michael Fosdal, had to offer as he took us to the streets of London himself. Michael is a tremendous professor to say the least. I wasn't originally enrolled in his class, but after sitting in one session I was hooked. His ceaseless wit and sheer knowledge of London's history and contemporary facts make him and his class an experience I wish everyone would experience. That said, I'm doing my best to capture the "essence" that is Michael.
I know it's been a while since my last post, and this one is several weeks behind. That's because when I went to write this blog I realized I had lost my notebook with all of my notes from this walk. What's more I accidentally deleted every picture from my blog so I had to repair that and then mope around aimlessly trying to will myself to blog again. But I'm here and it's on now. So unfortunately I don't have all the spiffy one-liners that makes Mike such a lovable teddy-bear but I do have a decently good memory so I'll try to make the best of this with what I've got left in my head.
We started our day off meeting in Trafalgar Square under this statue of the Lord Admiral Nelson who was responsible for a major naval victory that likely won England the Napoleonic War, once again defeating the French at proving they really are "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" (Mike's words not mine)
This is our class standing in front of one of the two lions guarding Nelson's Column. And that distinguished fellow is Mike, probably laughing at something funny.
Mike walked us through London and explained a bit of the back story to many of the statues in London. If I've learned one thing about Londoners, it's that they LOVE statues and monuments. Anyone would be immediately struck by the sheer number of them, and they'd only have to walk up and read the plaque to know what the statue stands for. But there are many things about London I would have overlooked--and this statue is a great example.
30,000 people were killed during the war, and statues like these still bear the marks of the damage done to London at the time.
Mike walked us next to what was at one point the German Embassy. Dr. Leopold Von Hoesch, German ambassador from 1932-6 had a dog named Giro. During the war Hoesch was known as an English sympathizer and anti-Naziist. When his dog, Giro, died, Hoesch had this tombstone put outside of the building to commemorate the deceased german shepherd. The inscription read, Giro: ein treuer Begleiter! (Giro: a true companion!)The Duke of York
Ah the Duke of York Stairs, and the Duke of York Column. Unfortunately the only thing I can remember is this:
Oh, the Grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men,
He marched up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
(I memorized that as Mike was singing it. I just looked up the rest of it. Here it is:
And when they were up they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
and when they were only halfway up,
they were neither up nor down.
A rhyme which only proves that the English are, in fact, completely crazy and don't make any sense.
So we kept walking, (remember I'm telling this from memory and googling occasionally) and we stop under this statue, which at first glance looks like a pegasus, but what we eventually realized was an angel standing in front of a regular horse. I was disappointed at this news.But lo and behold! While we were waiting we came across this lone soldier standing on the street corner by his lonesome. One girl volunteered to go ask him what he was doing, then two more joined her, and then I came running after a few second after that. He was surprisingly nice. His answer was, "I'm waiting for my regiment." And he really was.
A few minutes later they were there! The Regiment was on its way to the Parade Grounds to relieve another regiment on duty there.
These are the Queen's Guard. Mike gave as some information about them. I was surprised to learn that they are actually soldiers serving a term of nine months before rotating back into active service.
We walked with Mike back to the Parade Grounds where White Palace once stood but burnt down. Mike pointed out this inconspicuous building, which, surprisingly enough, is where the Prime Minister of England spends most of his time. This building is a reflection of the English and their understanding/view of who the Prime Minister is. To them, the PM is merely the head of government, not the head of state, like the Queen. The PM isn't the leader of their country, the heroic figurehead of a nation the way we view our president. He's just sort of...well, "Just a byproduct of some scummy politicians' maneauvers."When we caught up to the Queen's Guard we found this scene before use.
The two regiments were staring one another down. The ones in Red, If my memory serves my well, are the Household Cavalry Regiment, there to relieve the Blues and Royals, the ones, fittingly, dressed in Blue.
Mike explained that historically, England has always maintained a fairly small military (only about 20,000 enlisted soldiers at any one time. "The Air Force no one really worries about because they're way up there," pointing vaguely to the sky, "And the Navy is always sailing off bombing something." Jokes aside these guys did look pretty impressive, especially once I realized they were actual trained soldiers.
These guys really are nice. A lot of them are in their teens. They're real soldiers. Say, Hi, Chani!
Mike absolutely hates this monument and I think I have to agree completely. It looks like a coatrack. What it is, is a monument to the women of WWII, symbolizing the many jobs that women undertook while their male counterparts were on the front lines. Some of the words I remember Mike using are, Awful, dreadful, ghastly, stupid, horrendous... the list went on. He also told us the key to an "A" in his class lies in a few sticks of dynamite--and then he stared at the back at the monument for a moment.
While we were glancing at the monument, Mike pointed out this solid concrete railway that split the sidewalk and the street. These were installed as a precaution against terrorist attacks on the public buildings to the right. It's purpose is to prevent suicide bombers from jumping the curb with a truck full of explosives and driving them into the building.
We agreed with Mike that the railway was done with a surprising amount of taste. But it still didn't make up for the coatrack in the street.
Here we are observing the rare Silver-back Mike in his natural habitat. Notice the ease with which he handles the primitive tool of his species, the pipe. See the way he glances knowingly, confidently around him. He practically oozes self-assurance. Silver-backs, after all, fear nothing.
Oh! He spotted us! What we did here was throw a large clump of tobacco on the ground between him and us and made soothing sounds, like "Boyo" and "Jolly good, chap, that's the ticket..." while we backed away slowly.
There was a moment of panic when the crew and I thought we were done for, but the Mike's English nostrils eventually won out as he sniffed the fresh tobaccor on the ground. He plopped the lot in his pipe and commenced his lighting ritual, until...SUCCESS!
The Great Silver-back Mike took the bait, and the threat was sent up in smoke :)
Ah, the thrills of the London wilderness.
Next, Mike walked us over to the Queen's Steps. When they were built, the Thames was much wider and came up to the actual steps so that walking down them would led to water. The Thames was also much more polluted. Falling in the heavily polluted water and swallowing any would usually mean death to the person.London Eye
Next we walked right up the Thames and, once again, saw the London Eye staring us down from its perch across the river. I love seeing that thing, I really do feel like London's watching me.
We stopped beneath another set of monuments dedicated those fallen in service to the Royal Air Force. These three shots are all different angles of the same monument.
The Battle of Britain
And finally we came and rested here at this site, where Churchill's famous quote reads, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few, referring to the brave and daring pilots of the Royal Air Force in WWII who miraculously fought off the Luftwaffe and put an end to the German Blitzkrieg. This was a pivotal point during the war, a battle that ground the seemingly unstoppable Nazi tide to a halt, and showed the world that Hitler's advances could, in fact, be stopped.
During the war, the Germans envisioned a massive land assault, but in order to undertake this advance they needed to control the air above England. So, the Luftwaffe was sent to annihilate the Royal Air Force. The Battle of Britain was the massive air battle that took place. The English put up a tremendous fight and denied the Germans time after time until Hittler changed strategies and began to systematically bomb London.
Here we see Mike directing his steely gaze at one of our crew.
There's me to the left, and to the right, if you look closely you can see a man blowing a kiss to the woman working by his side. What struck all of us was the realness of this monument. Everyone agreed it did a tremendous job showing the humanity, hardship, toil, fear, and bravery of the England's people.
That marked the end of our tour with Mike, and a fine one it was at that. Afterwards, some of the guys and I wandered over to a park. We had a tremendous push-up duel, (I lost, but I had just done push-ups the previous night so it wasn't fair)And then we walked off into the sunset!
Hope you guys liked the blog! Sorry it's taken me so long to post one up, but I promise there's more to come shortly! Love everyone back home! Keep me in your prayers and I'll be home safely before you know it. Until next time!
