Last Call from London

Welcome to my fifteenth and final edition of "News from London." It's hard to believe that I have been here for a whole semester! It's even harder to believe that I have followed through on my promise to keep this blog going the whole time! Nevertheless, on Tuesday, I will be giving final exams in my classes and then on Friday, after a couple of days of farewell events and Christmas parties, I will be heading home.

I thought I'd use this last post to share a few random pictures and to mention some of the places that I've enjoyed, but which never made it into the blog. Also, I'll list the things that I will miss most about living in London, and the things that I am most looking forward to at home. Finally, there are a few people I need to thank.

I'll start with a few pictures of London icons that you might have been expecting to see before now.

Westminster Palace (Parliament) on a rare sunny day. I took this picture early in the semester from the south bank of the Thames.

Westminster Abbey. I didn't go inside on this trip because I spent a lot of time there on a previous visit to London.

I included a picture of Angela in front of Tower Bridge in an earlier post, but the bridge itself was shrouded in mist. Here's a clearer picture I took before the Olympic Games decorations were removed.

I was planning to include pictures of Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, two more London icons that never made it into the blog, but looking back through my pictures I wasn't able to find any worth posting here. I'm always reluctant to take pictures that include lots of random strangers and those are two places where you are never alone.

Something that I have spent a lot of time doing, but haven't written much about is visiting museums. There are so many museums in London that it is impossible for the average tourist to get to them all in a one or two week trip. Fortunately, I've had a whole semester and I can honestly say that I have been to all the major ones. Here are my favorites.

My Favorite London Museums

1. The British Museum. The British Museum makes you think that no other place should even be allowed to call themselves a museum.

2. The Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is sometimes overlooked by tourists because of its close proximity to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, but in my opinion it is the best of the three.

3. The Tate Modern. Housed in a converted power station, this museum is worth a visit even if you are skeptical of modern art.

4. The Museum of London. Not as high profile as the top three, but if you are interested in the 2,000-year history of London, this is where you'll find it. In addition to the main location, there is an excellent Museum of London-Docklands at Canary Wharf.

5. The Churchill War Rooms. A great museum housed in the bunker used by Winston Churchill's cabinet during World War II. It's run by the Imperial War Museum, also worth a visit, but currently undergoing a major renovation.

If you're wondering why I didn't mention the National Gallery, a world-class art museum, it's probably only because I did not go there on this trip. I did spend an entire afternoon there on a previous trip, though, and I highly recommend it as well as the nearby National Portrait Gallery.

Okay, time for a few more pictures. Here are a few with a pop culture theme.

Here are some CAPA students crossing Abbey Road in a poor attempt to re-create the cover of the Beatles album with the same name.

Fans are allowed, even encouraged, to write on the wall in front of the Abbey Road studios. They paint over it every six months.

221B Baker Street, the residence of Sherlock Holmes.

I was only able to find one 1950s-style police call box similar to Doctor Who's TARDIS. It's on Earl's Court Road, just outside the tube station. 

If you're only in London for a week or two, there is plenty to do without ever leaving the central part of the city, but when you're here longer, you get the urge to venture out a little farther. Here are my top five places in greater London.

My Favorite Places Outside Central London

1. Hampton Court Palace, in Surrey, just to the southwest of London. I wrote about this in one of my earlier posts. There's 500 years of history here, with an emphasis on Henry VIII and William and Mary.

2. Windsor Castle, in Windsor, just to the west of London. It dates back to the 11th century, but it is still regularly used by the Royal Family.

3. Kew Botanical Gardens, in Kew, west London. The grounds are beautiful, but I most enjoyed the green houses, or orangeries.

4. The East End of London. Traditionally the working class part of London, there have been a lot of changes in recent years. Canary Wharf, Olympic Park, and older neighborhoods like Limehouse and Stratford are worth the trip from central London.

5. Hampstead Heath, in Hampstead, north London. Hampstead Heath is a beautiful park (more wild than you might expect from the English, who like to control nature) with great views overlooking the city.

One of the orangeries at Kew Botanical Gardens.

A view of London looking south from Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath.

Here are a couple more random shots back in central London.

If you've been saving up for that special umbrella, here's where you want to go!

Do these phone boxes looks familiar? They looked familiar to me, too. It took me a minute to realize that they are the ones in the background picture on this page. I originally chose it from a bunch of stock photos when I was setting up my blog back home.

Things I'll Miss About Living in London

1. Running in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. With a week to go, I've logged about 130 miles of running in London. All of them have been in central London's largest park, which is about 1/2 mile from my building.

2. Public Transportation. Mostly the London Underground (the Tube), occasionally a bus, and trains whenever I leave the city; all combined with a lot of walking. With the exception of a taxi that Angela and I took in Northumberland, I have not been in an automobile in four months.

3. The Churchill Arms. I would love to have a great local pub like this in Carthage or Joplin.

4. World-class historic sites and museums. It's great to be able to chose from so many on a free afternoon.

5. Lamb. This probably isn't really number five, but Vincent House serves lamb a lot and it's not something I usually eat at home.

Things I'm Looking Forward to at Home

These are in addition to being with Angela and living in my own house, compared to which these things are trivial.

1. NFL Football. It has been tough for me to be away from home during football season, especially with the Colts doing so well. I found a pub that shows some games and I can listen to the Colts' radio broadcast, but I am anxious to sit on my own couch, at a normal time of day, and watch football in HD.

2. 3G. I've been using an old Motorola Razor with a UK SIM card since I've been here. I have my iPhone with me, but international data roaming costs a fortune and free public WiFi is unreliable. I don't talk on the phone much, but I'll be glad to be connected again.

3. Ice. If you've travelled abroad you know what I mean. You can't get a glass full of ice here. Even a few cubes can be difficult. It sounds like a small thing, but after a while you miss it.

4. Putting my camera away. I've taken over 1,000 pictures here and I'm glad to have done so, but I'm getting pretty tired of carrying that thing around all the time.

5. My bed. I have no real complaints about my time here, but since I need a number five, I will admit that my mattress is pretty uncomfortable.

I'll definitely miss having access to public transportation. The Notting Hill Gate tube station was the beginning and end of many memorable days here.

I'll miss Vincent House, too. Especially not having to cook or clean! 

Being away from home, having small classes, and doing a lot of field study has given me the opportunity to get to know my students better than I normally would. I hope this experience has been as valuable for them as my study abroad experience was for me. If I had not spent a semester in the Netherlands when I was a junior at Purdue, I doubt I would be in London today.

Some of my students with a piece of the Berlin Wall outside the Imperial War Museum. I hope this experience has changed their lives.

A few of my students in Oxford on our last outing of the semester.

Speaking of change, this has to be my favorite UK road sign. I imagine being pulled over and having a police officer wag his finger at me and say "Spend more time with your family!"

I want to close by thanking Missouri Southern for giving me the opportunity to spend the semester in London. It has been an experience that will definitely enhance my teaching in the future. I also want to thank Angela for being so supportive. I could not have done this without her. (And we're both thankful for Skype!) Finally, I want to thank my regular readers. It means a lot to me that so many of you followed me throughout the semester.

I hope that you have enjoyed "News from London." I have had a great time writing it. I'm going to keep the blog active because I may use it to share pictures from a few trips I have coming up. So stay tuned for "News from Rome" in March, "News from the Grand Canyon" in May, and potentially "News from India" next Christmas!

Until then,
Cheers!

My Favorite Pubs

It's hard to believe that my time in London is almost over. One week from tomorrow I'll be on my way home!

As I said last week, the topic of my favorite pubs is one that I've been "researching" all semester! I've put it off until now because I wanted to leave the door open to the possibility of discovering a new pub that would make the list. Now that I only have a week to go, that seems unlikely. I may revisit a few of the ones here, though! (Perhaps this is a good time to say that the opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent the views of Missouri Southern State University.)

Some of you know that I am a home brewer. I picked up this hobby because of the appreciation that I have for good beer, and my desire to better understand what goes into it. Judging by the explosion of  craft breweries and brew pubs in the United States over the last ten years, a lot of people share my appreciation for good beer.

Most Americans, when they think about beer-producing countries, think of Germany. For my tastes, however, the UK makes the best beer. (With all due respect to Ireland. Guinness is an amazing beer!) The biggest difference is that German beers are usually lagers and British beers are usually ales. I won't get technical about the differences between the two (it involves the type of yeast and the temperature at which it is active) but I will say that I think ale produces a wider variety of full-bodied beers than lager. The UK, in my opinion, is also the best place to drink beer. That is because they serve it properly.

Americans who order a beer in a British pub sometimes complain that it is flat and warm. There is something to that. Good British ale is served from a cask. A cask is different from a keg in that it is not pressurized with CO2. That's why it has to be hand pumped. Since it is not artificially carbonated, it does taste "flat" if you're used to drinking heavily carbonated beers. Also, the casks aren't kept as cold as kegs. It's not "room temperature," like you sometimes hear people say. It's cellar temperature, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can get past these two things, however, you may find that the absence of carbonation and chill allows the flavor of these beers to come through. You will also know that the beer you are drinking is fresh. The CO2 in kegs acts allows it to be stored longer, while casks need to be finished off right away. (Unfortunately, this means casks can't be shipped to the US.)

Most lists make you wait until the end before revealing their number one, but I'm going to start with what has become my favorite London pub. The Churchill Arms in Kensington.

The Churchill Arms on Kensington High Street, London. As you can see, the owner loves flowers! The flags were part of the Olympic Games celebration. 

The Churchill Arms is not the closest pub to my building, but it has become my "local." There are several reasons why I am willing to walk past two or three other pubs to get to the Churchill Arms. The first is that it has a great atmosphere. There are no televisions or loud music, it's just a nice, comfortable place to sit and have a pint. The second is that the people are very friendly, even to an American in a place that doesn't attract a lot of tourists. Third, the place is filled with Churchill memorabilia, which appeals to my historical interests. Finally, they are a Fuller's pub, so they serve Fuller's ESB, my favorite beer in the world! They had Fuller's ESB from a keg at Pizza by Stout in Joplin, Missouri. Sadly, we lost Pizza by Stout to the 2011 tornado, may it rest in peace. (An added bonus to the Churchill Arms, and probably the only thing about it that isn't traditional, is that they have a restaurant that serves Thai food.)

Local pubs in the UK serve a purpose that bars in the US haven't really served since before prohibition. The point isn't to get drunk. The point is to have a place that you can go in the afternoon or evening, have a pint and maybe a bite to eat, and catch up with your friends, who you know will also be there. It really is a vital part of the culture here. There's no stigma attached to it. It's also perfectly acceptable to go to a pub by yourself, which has been great for me, since I'm on my own.

Like many bars in the US before prohibition, many pubs here are owned by breweries. That's why certain pubs serve certain beers, although they will often have one or two "guest ales" as well. There are also some "free houses" which serve whatever beers they choose. I have seen a few American beers as guest ales in London pubs, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale most frequently. I mentioned above that Fuller's ESB is my favorite. Back in October I had a chance to visit the Fuller's brewery in Chiswick, a neighborhood in southwest London (pronounced Chiz-ik). In addition to ESB, their most famous beers are London Pride, a nice golden ale, and London Porter, a very dark and full-bodied porter.

The shipping warehouse at Fuller's brewery.

My favorite beer. As you can see, it has a pretty high alcohol content, so you have to go easy.

Here I am in the tasting room at the Fuller's brewery. I have to say, they were very generous with samples after the tour!

I'll move on now to some of my favorite pubs in London. You don't have to look for pubs in London, they are everywhere. Because there are so many, you need some way of choosing which ones to go to. The way I do that is by finding pubs that are historic. For me, there are few things cooler than ordering a pint in a pub that has been around for hundreds of years!  If you've been reading my blog you know that I have spent a lot of time exploring neighborhoods in London. Before going out for the day, I do a little research and find the oldest pub in the neighborhood. Then I stop in for a beer and sometimes lunch. Pubs are a great place to have lunch when you are alone, and the food is often very good. In choosing my favorites, I picked ones that were historic and met all the other criteria I mentioned above: good atmosphere, friendly people, and good beer.

Here my top five (not counting the Churchill Arms) in no particular order.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, located in a narrow ally off Fleet Street. A lot of places use "Ye Olde" without deserving it, but this place was built in 1667, just after the great fire. The building has a small footprint, but there are two basement levels with tables in lots of interesting nooks and corners. They have Samuel Smith's Best Bitter on cask here, an excellent beer.

The Princess Louise on High Holborn Street. This has to be the most beautiful pub in London. Very Victorian, a sign out front says "Established 1872--Redecorated 1891." Surprisingly, you can get a pint here for £2.90, making it one of the cheapest beers in London. (I'm always too self-conscious to take pictures inside pubs, so I stole this one off the internet.)

The Jerusalem Tavern on Britton Street started as a coffee house in the 18th century. It is the opposite of the Princess Louise. Its interior is about as stark as you can get. It is the only pub in London that serves beers from the St. Peter's brewery in Suffolk. That alone makes it worth the trip. It also has good food at lunchtime. I recommend the brie and cranberry on freshly baked bread.

The Grapes is an 18th century pub on Narrow Street in Limehouse, in London's East End. The pub has a small back deck that is directly over the River Thames. In fact, on the day I was there, the tide was unusually high and the deck was under water.

The George Inn in Southwark. The only galleried coaching inn left in London. They serve Speckled Hen, an ale familiar to some discriminating American beer drinkers.

No list is complete without a few honorable mentions.

The Dog and Duck, a tiny Victorian pub in Soho with a great selection of cask ales.
The French House, also in Soho, was a meeting place for the French Resistance during WW II.
The Hereford Arms, in South Kensington near CAPA, was a favorite of Americans during the War.
The Three Famous Kings, in West Kensington, is the only pub I have found that shows NFL football.

One other place gets honorable mention, but I hesitate to call it a pub, it's more of a beer bar. BrewDog in Camden Town serves the amazing craft beers of BrewDog Brewery in Aberdeen, Scotland. They keg and bottle, no casks.

I tried a few more of these high-alcohol content beers than I should have. I loved the Libertine Black Ale, the 5 a.m. Saint, and the Punk IPA.

In earlier posts I have mentioned my favorite pubs and beers encountered in my travels outside of London. I'll review those here and add one new one.

The Twice-Brewed Inn, in Once Brewed, a very small town near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.
The White Heart, in Edinburgh, which serves Bellhaven 80 Shilling Scottish Ale, an amazing beer.
The Fiddler, in Drumnadrochit, near Loch Ness. Great food, I made an exception and ordered Scotch whisky here instead of beer.

In my recent blog about my trip to Cardiff, Wales, I mentioned that I had found the best pub there, but did not elaborate. So, here it is.

The Goat Major on High Street in Cardiff. They serve beers brewed by Brains, a Cardiff brewery. Brains dark is the best mild dark beer I've ever had. Plus it's fun to say "A pint of Brains, please."

Well, I had a lot of fun putting this together. Hopefully you don't think I haven't done anything but sit in pubs and drink while I've been here! Please check back next week for my last installment of "News from London." I'll be listing some of my other favorite things from my semester in the UK, as well as posting some of my favorite pictures that never made it into the blog.

I always close by saying "Cheers!" but this week it seems especially appropriate.

Cheers!