An email to America.

today:  Windsor Castle. largest in Europe (not that England is Europe). i just can't tell you in a few short sentences, the amount of history associated with this place!?! it has, and is the royal  home outside of Buckingham in London for 900 years running!!! william the conqueror started building it in 1060! (wtf.)  you wouldn't believe it. a storied abbey (of course on site). all the knights, of which there are only 24 at any one point, are knighted at this site. surrounded by walls thick as your little vw. :)

anyway. hour ride on train, out to the countryside. just gorgeous. i hope you have a chance to experience it too someday! i can't imagine the impact your sea travels must have had on you.   i'm soo impressed by your reactions from that experience.

dad, peter, and i had many beers tonight. we pub'd it. little 'bars' allowing you food and drink on the side walk. beer is basement temp, pumped up via large handles the tender pulls forward slowly filling your glass. english blokes bought us a round at a place called the Red Lion. they were 'ok'. had sons in iraq. not happy with us. (US)  interesting convo. peter and i were edgy in a relaxed way. the english are soo polite, even when they don't like you. yada yada yada... good to hear i guess.

peter and i just had sausage dogs in piccadilly circus under the big lights. (think time square), then walked home.

i'm the last to leave tomorrow. mom and dad leave at 8, peter at 10, then me at 12. when gramp left i felt sad. miss him. london feels bigger all of a sudden. amazing what a sense of 'group' can do for you. it's a little like loosing pieces of something, as people leave. oh well. i guess we'll just have to come back again, as a big group!  this has been wonderful. but i can not understand how it went so quickly. seriously. the days are blurs. all we did at our place was get in, talk for a second, sleep, shower, change, and sleep. we are in what must be the nicest part of town too. all of town!  i feel so lucky.

i arrive in dallas around 6:30... i'm going to try not to sleep on the plane so i can get up for work on mon.  call you from dallas.

see attached pics :)  this 1st pic is the 'upper ward' of Windsor Castle. the grounds are broken up into 3 wards. upper, middle, and lower. the rooms behind us are those of the royal quarters and make up litterally very little of this place. the 2nd picture is none other than??? ME!  with Sir Winston offering his unquestioning and full support as a grand background setting. mom took this in a bar called The Horse and Stone, in Windsor at the base of the castle outside the walls... first beer poured in 1468. yeah.  we had fish and chips :)

A few pics on the day...

Fashion in form, the london eye, Parlament, fresh pig.

Where in the world is the Wright family?

London, of course...

Several things have happened in the last few days: We've been and seen what would appear to the laymen's eye as a lot. However, I am being told that that is not the case and according to my mother that, “We have yet to complete much of anything.”

*The pictures are of Buckingham Palace's front door (Welcome Home), the carriage used in every coronation since 400 years ago (the least favorite of the Royal family by the way), and me with Winston and Frank on Old St. Bond Street.

Where we were today: Buckingham Palace

Home, office, and residence of the Queen as well as some of her royal servants. We saw the 19 open state rooms and garden, as well as the Mews (stables) and carriage collection. I just can’t describe the seen within these walls. It is by far the most decadent, posh, perfect place I’ve ever seen or been to. There is a standard set for everything in this world. A certain level or bar that followers either rival or try to compete with. There is no competing with the Palace. Its collection of art, the architectural design features, the carpets, silk hangings, jewelry, silverware, furniture, wood workings, landscaping, flooring, marble, gold and silver finishes, or anything else in this place can not be matched or recreated. It may sound like I’m campaigning for the Palace to win some sort of an award. I am not. Awards do not exist for this. The Arabs, Italians, Russians, and Americans can all try to compete but we are striving for something unobtainalbe, chasing the bar that has been long since set. The bar stops at the highest known point on the scale England. EVERYTHING is done to perfection with comfort, tradition, and skill in mind. Sure there are other places that boast individual greats, like tall buildings, a famous painting... but none that have so much of it in one small and confined space. London is full of endless and impossibly special things. They're around every corner, down every block.

Key Facts I’ve picked up this week so far:

• There are 496 rooms in Buckingham Palace. 240 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. That's about 828,000 square feet if anyone is counting.
• The largest diamond in the world was found in Africa at over 3,000 carats. The diamond was cut into 9 smaller cuts. The largest is 540 carats and is kept in the Kings Sceptre. The Scepter is held by the king until his death. The diamond is known as #1 and called The African Star. #2 and #3 are in the form of a pendant and broach for the Queen. #5 and #6 are found on the Crown of India and a sword. And I can’t remember where the rest are kept but you get the point. I think she keeps them in her mattress.
• The Queen of England is actually Queen to England and 15 other countries as well. A few include Canada, Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand.
• There are over 3,300 people buried at Westminster Abbey. People like Charles Dickens, Chopin, Darwin, Chaucer, Blake, Milton, Kilping, Newton... I could go on and on. I did find it odd that every time I looked down at the ground I was walking over someone far more important to history than I'll ever be.
• London has a current population of 14 Million people, 8 million downtown alone, with 300 recognized languages spoken.
• The reason why you never here much about the Queens husband is because he's not the King. He's the Duke of Edinburgh who married her before her coronation in 1952. She's one of the longest reigning monarchs in the kingdom's history.
• The Romans founded Londoninium about two thousand years ago. The original settlement is a place now known simply as City, and is home to the financial district. You can still see remnants of the old town wall that wrapped the city. It's crumbling and faded but still has kept it's stature. You can see how thick and strong it must have been at one point.
• Part of the royal guardsmen are known as Yeoman. You probably know them as Beefeaters. They’re the funny looking guys in red uniform coats and top hats. They guard the Tower of London, where the Royal Jewels are kept. They're called Beefeaters as it is believed that they were once paid in rations of beef for their services. To serve as a Beefeater you must have 22 years of royal military service with an exemplary record.
• London's hi and low average temps are 73 in Aug. and 46 in Jan.
• There are parks here, everywhere. For 2 quid (4 dollars) you can rent a green and white striped cloth chair and people watch for about 4 hours. They look comfy.
• All the women are skinny here. I have no idea how that's possible considering the amount of food I've eaten this week and the fact that England is known for its sausage, pork, duck, and beef.
• Tights and ballerina shoes are IN. London is by far the most nicely dressed city I've ever traveled to. The women actually cover themselves, there are no tattoos, and the men where suits with polished shoes. At least the ones who aren't tourists like us do.
• London overtook NYC this past year as the leading financial transaction capital of the world. It's handles 60% of Europes GDP and about 900 billion dollars a day. There are 320,000 people working in the financial district to handle all of this.


Thought for the day:

The Brits take great pains to get things done correctly. Simple things like presentation, to more detailed things like tailoring. Watching and listening them speak at a pub, on the sidewalk, or in the park is like listening to a scholar exercise the English language. It’s occurred to me that these people truly enjoy the actual art of communication. If you have the opportunity, speak to a Brit and listen to the way they take their time conveying what it is they would like to say and what words they very correctly choose to make their point. The taxi drivers do it, the waiters do it, and the art dealers in our district do it too.

Second thought of the day:

I drank a Youngs and had fish and chips at a place called Hoops and Grapes yesterday. It’s the last remaining wooden framed structure in the ‘City’ from the fire in 1666. The building leans 18 inches to the right and looks funny. I thought it was a cool place. Even cooler that Peter and I sat at the very same table where Charles Dickens got drunk at many times and stumbled home.

The Heart of England.

In 1940 England was at the edge of something she had never experienced. Something that for centuries she had fiercely protected without hesitation and in some cases with brutal force. She had handed it to other armies, nations, empires, navies, and countries. Her nearly 1,700 year old proud history lay in most serious jeopardy, she faced defeat. As the bombs fell, her Majesty Queen Mary was being pushed to the brink. Hitler’s 3rd Reich had systematically annihilated what lay in its path having destroyed the last remaining country to separate her from its fury, France. With Roosevelt and America uncommitted, and all allies gone, a battered and bloodied England stood alone.

Her capital city lay in ruins, her people huddled beneath ground in make shift bomb shelters, her children had been sent north where the protection of the open countryside offer some sort of protection from German unguided V2 rockets. 19 miles of water is all that separated her from absolute destruction.

At the final moment, when hope had been nearly lost, a royal proclamation was sent from Buckingham Palace to all remaining and available outlets in England. The Queen would speak in defiance as she protected her country from utter evil. Her message was short and to the point. She said, "The children will not go without me, I will not go without the king, and the king will not go for any reason what so ever."

There are points in time when one decision changes everything. Those decisions usually change history. In this case a Queens decision changed the fate of a nation, its peoples future, and the future of who would control the world.

This is her strength. This is her history. This is the heart England.

Footnote: Defeat stings. The lion in the picture above was cast from melted guns taken from captured French ships after their defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar.

If NYC is filet', London is Caviar.

After taking the Gatwick Express into town from the airport we took a two hour bus ride and toured the ENTIRE city. The tour was aboslutely spendid. Unfortunately, after ZERO sleep on the plane I didn't retain ANY of what our tour guide had to say. Fortunately, I've got pictures. I'll share them with you :)

I was spent, I came back, I rode a bus, I ate steak, I'm spent (again). But London is fabulous and her energy is saving both Peter and I as I write this. We had dinner at Worleys in Picadilly. Excellent! We're just back from two pubs, one of which was called Tom Squibbs. Founded in 1760, famous for his bare knuckle fight debut. The fight lasted 76 rounds!!!! We drank Guiness, which we both agreed was the best we'd ever had.

The simple answer to how the trip is going so far is, Perfect. London is overwhelmingly old. History beyond history. Classy in an almost expectational way. The fashion on the street is most noticeable but subtle. People glance at you, nod, and go on with their business. Perhaps most interesting are the 'Squares'. They're everywhere. William Wallace was beheaded in one, Churchill gave his victory speech at another, Diana died under another... There's too much to take in.

More to come.

En Route.

Home Sweet Home

Our quarters for the week. Ryder Street Chambers is a Victorian building built in the 1890s. Furnished and comfortable, we'll call these apartments home for the next 8 days. They are situated in the exclusive St. James's area - the centre of the fine art world and within walking distance to London's finest shops, theatres and restaurants.