Day Eight: Punch and Persuasion!

Sunday morning was a little bit wierd without any church starting until 5 pm! (The broadcast time of the 1st Sunday General Conference session).  So we got dressed in Sunday clothes and headed off to see any monuments that didn't require someone to be working on the Sabbath to take our entrance fee! Trafalgar Square was first on our list! And apparently we can't resist stopping to take a picture in front of the Tower of London EVERY day.

After some initial confusions, we managed to board one of the double-decker buses and sat in the front row on the top for a scenic bus ride through London.
 On the way to Trafalgar Square we got some great views of St. Paul's Cathedral, which we are planning on touring when we have our London Pass. Although the first picture of me in front of the Nelson Column at Trafalgar Square looks new age and funky, Richard just had the camera crooked, and that's what happpened when I straightened it.

Add caption

 The Nelson column is a huge monument that dominates most of Trafalgar square. Which is not, incidentally, a square. (SO disappointing). It sits near the front, or 'mouth' of the square/plaza and the back side of the plaza is comprised of the National Portrait Gallery. The Nelson column is a tall plinth with a statue of Admiral Nelson, the hero of the Napoleonic wars, on the top of it.  There are four of the Royal British lions surrounding the column.  At the base of the column, one on each side, are four different friezes, commemorating one of Nelson's key victories that turned the tide in the war.  When people mention the 'Trafalgar monument' this is what they are usually referring to. Also wierdly, and incredibly grossly, it stank undeniably of urine.  At first I looked around for a homeless person nearby, but finally had to conclude that the smell was coming from the monument itself. Closer inspection revealed that, indeed, it had been peed all over, little dried rivulets running down from the base of the plinth over the edges to the plaza below. (Alas, a discovery that came after I had hiked up my skirt and scrambled up the side on hands and knees to get the best picture. Richard thought it might be some type of political expression (as Trafalgar square is the prime locations for political rallies and demonstrations), but my opinion is that it's just stupid hooligans somehow managing to communicate enough outside of cave-speak to popularize the 'let's go pee on the statue' concept. What I DO NOT understand is why the British government doesn't come out every morning and give it a good hosing off!

The picture I paid too high a price for.

The four different sides/friezes on the Nelson Column

 

You may notice that Richard looks a bit like a missionary in all of these pictures...especially carrying our shoulder bag (which, come to think of it, actually IS a mission relic of mine, lol). Well, to our surprise and my never-ending hilarity, the publicity-hating Richard was singled out by a street performer (sitting in a little doggy house) with a hearty yell 'Hey, are you a Mormon!?' We fast became the center of attention, and it took Richard a good five minutes to extricate himself. lol.

Statue of King George IV w/fountain, between the Nelson Column and the National Portrait Gallery

A really cool replica of Nelson's ship, the Victory, also in Trafalgar Squar

King Georgy IV again, with St. Martin in the Fields, a famous old chapel which stands adjacent to Trafalgar Square, in the background.  Today it is well-known for the excellence of it's musical offerings.

 After taking ALOT of pictures at Trafalgar Square, we decided to walk to Covent Garden, a few blocks away.  Anyone who has ever ready any book about London will understand why Covent Garden was pretty high on my list of things to see. It is completely surreal to be standing in the actual places about which you've read so much!

Today, Covent Garden is famous for it's stores and street performers.This was one of the street performers we stopped to watch, leading up to his final trick. The interesting thing is that street performers here have A LOT of lead-up before they actually do anything interesting. In Chicago and Boston, the two other cities in which I have seen numerous street performers, they get with the action almost immediately, otherwise they will lose the audience. Here in London-town it appears that the good-natured Brits and bored tourists are willing to stand around for 20 minutes clapping in rhythm and listening to crappy boombox music while the 'performer' winds them up over and over again for their 'one big trick.'

 

And here it is-the big finale that took 20 minutes to arrive!

So, I thought it was cool. Richard not so much.  But then, maybe he was just cranky from standing in the sun 30 minutes to see them get to it. (If you thought watching the 3 minute video was excruciating!) We wandered a little further into Covent Garden, and what did we happen to chance across?

A Punch and Judy Show!!!!

I have read so much about these beloved puppet shows that date back through almost 250 years of English history-without much variation in plot or theme! From Wikipedia:

'The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte. The figure of Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, which was anglicised to Punchinello...The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in May 9, 1662, which is traditionally reckoned as Punch's UK birthday. The diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of the Punch character in Covent Garden in London.'

Needless to say, I was INCREDIBLY excited to run into one at Covent Garden no less! And plopped myself right down in the midst of the English schoolchildren. I first read about these shows when I was 12 years old, and have been DYING to see one ever since. (Richard was a bit mystified when I suddenly started flipping out). It was even funnier than anticipated (and every bit as violent!) and altogether impossible to describe in words. Which is why I took video, which is posted below. Lol.

The next two clips are where I gave up on acting like an adult and just went and sat on the blankets with the rest of the kids who were having a blast! Hence, the video is much better. The next clip picks up where the last one left off, Judy has handed Punch the baby with admonition to 'hold it nicely' and for the audience to call her loudly if the baby cries.

Oh, so violent, so wrong, and yet SOOOO funny! Perhaps I found it so hysterical because it is still being performed exactly the way it originated, hundreds of years later, the same plot lines, the same jokes, the same characters, etc. etc. Here's the last clip I recorded before the camera died.

 After Covent Garden, we headed back to Hyde Park to complete our checklist from last week-see someone actually speaking at Speaker's Corner. This location holds a special place in LDS history, as it from Speaker's Corner that some of the very first Mormon missionaries first preached the gospel in England, meeting with great success, and numerous converts who immigrated to the United States, forming a significant part of those who built the Kirtland, Nauvoo and Salt Lake temples, and immigrated west with the saints.

Arriving at Speaker's corner on this Sunday afternoon, it was a completely different place from the placid park we had strolled through days before. The place was jammed with people of all ages, cultures and ethnicities. Instead of one 'speaker,' there were dozens! I expected Speaker's Corner to be just one person standing on a box...instead it was a veritable melee of folks up on boxes, stools, bins, etc...expounding on their topic of choice. Religion was the dominant theme, but there were politics and just plain crazy mixed in as well!

 It's not all religions being preached at Hyde Park...Socialism is the enlightened government of the future (according to this guy, anyway) lol.

Who says the US Bible Belt has a monopoly on hellfire and brimstone preachin'! The Brits can get on the action too!

Come one, come all...you don't even have to have a stool to participate in the Speaker's Corner melee in Hyde Park on Sundays! 

Most of the people on platforms at Speaker's Corner seemed like regular people who happened to be extremely passionate about a subject, and not in the least shy about preachin' it. But then there are the REALLY strange ones...

 It was unclear if this heated debate was impromptu, or spurred off another speaker's commentary (as I don't speak arabic, lol) but it was highly entertaining regardless. 

After Speaker's corner we headed home to start Conference, but it was a very full, very interesting day once again!

Lessons Learned:

1. If it smells like urine-it is urine. Don’t touch.
2. Trafalgar Square is NOT a square.
3. We are not smart enough to figure out that metal statues roasting in the sun for several hours should not be touched and/or ridden...and we have the burns to prove it.
4. Punch and Judy shows are HILARIOUS!
5. Hang on tightly while climbing the windy steps to the top of a double decker bus…or have your husband behind you to break your fall.