Feels like Home

It was a bit strange playing tour guide in my own town, but I enjoyed it. For the first time since they started charging admission I visited the cathedral and was pleasantly surprised by the changes they've made. There was also a wonderful display of pictures from Afghanistan in the 70's that was touching and frustrating. I'm very happy to report that in my absence, they removed the scaffolding from the ruins, and now they look great. Well, they're still ruins.
And how could I take anyone to Coventry and not go to the transport museum? I constantly underestimate the size of the place, and it too has changed a bit since my last visit. I'm proud at its Coventry-centric displays and they've added some stuff to show how the car industry impacted the city. Still, needs more ambulances.
Then, of course we got real ale and had dinner with some friends before heading back to London. He even got to experience an early morning fire alarm. I know he was both honored and excited about that.

In London we rode the eye. I fully endorse this very touristy thing to do. It's fun and exciting and I quite liked feeling like I was in a tourist machine. They are very clever, filing people through the queue, and into another. We had our picture taken in front of a green screen and then were shuffled into a theatre for our '4-D' experience. This consisted of a 3-D motivational video about how awesome London is and they turned on the smoke machine and blew some bubbles around us which pushed it into the 4th dimension. From there, we had an opportunity to purchase the picture of us in front of a green screen, which was now replaced by a picture of the inside of an Eye car. We hadn't even been on the thing!
But don't worry, there was yet another opportunity to buy an overpriced picture of ourselves. Well, it was probably a picture of our backs or with moronic looks on our faces which they snapped as the car was coming in for a landing. Does anyone pay attention for that picture? I'm sure no one does, but overeager tourists plunk down £15 for it anyway. All cynical feelings aside, riding the eye is fun and terrifying and a great experience. I could do without the theatrics driving up the ticket price, but it's still worth it.

The next day we visited the Natural History museum, learning about dinosaurs and enjoying their display of taxidermied animals. It is impressive. We stopped in the V&A and though I felt I had seen a lot there, we found plenty that I hadn't, including a strange collection of plaster casts (no not from arms and legs). They have plaster casts of many famous things including Trajan's column (which seems much bigger in a room) Gibherti's gates of paradise, and the David. They also have casts of tombs, pulpits, and other random things from European churches. Some of the originals have been lost over the years, so these casts serve quite a purpose.

A visit to Camden market is always a welcome outing for me, so off we went for colorful people, intriguing smells, and delicious international foods. We had a nice afternoon there and even saw some bits of the London Zoo from Regent's canal. I think we were both feeling a little sad as the trip wound down, but we did our best.