On Saturday morning, the H and I got up at 5 AM in order to catch our 7:43 AM train to London. It has been at least 6 years since I last took the Eurostar and things have changed - there are now 2 immigration checkpoints and 2 security checkpoints to go through at the Gare du Nord. And yes, it was quite embarrassing, when at the second checkpoint, the guards decided they needed to go through our suitcase - and proceeded to take out all the clothes that I had carefully packed, rendering me into a state of annoyance ("Argh! Be careful with the suit and the shirt! I like, JUST ironed it!") Luckily, I had packed all of our underwear into Ziploc baggies, so it wasn't very obvious when the guard pulled those out in front of a zillion people.
Anyway, the H was an excellent sport this weekend as I pretty much took him on a forced tour of Tudor England sites. We started with Westminster Abbey (with a hefty 10 pound entrance fee!) where I visited the tomb of Elizabeth I. I was SO excited about it that I made the H go all the way around Westminster Abbey a second time so I could visit her tomb again. "Oh my gosh!" I gushed to the H. "Elizabeth I is like, my all-time favorite queen EVER!" We also saw Mary Stuart's (Queen of Scots) tomb, which was infinitely less exciting as I think she is my least favorite Tudor. There were also the tombs of Henry Carey and Catherine Knollys, cousins of Queen Elizabeth (and the children of her aunt, Mary Boleyn). Also very exciting was seeing the tomb of Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's fourth wife, although her tomb was infinitely less grand than the other Tudors.
Then we went to the Tower of London, which I had visited before, but it is something I never tire of seeing. We started off at the White Tower, which is where all the armor and weapons are kept. The best part ever was seeing Henry VIII's armor, which had many people laughing:
And here is a full-frontal view (this was a photo that they have in the Tower for the weapons exhibition):
The codpiece is actually quite impressive in person, which had many people, including the H, exclaiming things like, "Good God! He certainly thought highly of himself!"
Of course, I also made sure to stop by Traitor's Gate, where Elizabeth I passed through when she was imprisoned in the Tower by her half-sister, Mary I.
Sunday was the wedding, which was EXCELLENT! It started in the afternoon with the ceremony at the synagogue. The bride and groom had rented double decker buses which took us to the reception. There was even a caricaturist and a magician! The dinner was excellent - I was in heaven as I had a gluten-free, dairy-free meal (The groom has Celiac disease the bride is lactose intolerant). Here was my gluten free entrée: avocado with asparagus:
The rest of the non-food-allergy guests had a poached egg with salmon and asparagus and a Hollandaise sauce:
Dessert was a pavlova, which I regretted not being able to have, as it looked so delicious (I was served some yummy rice crackers with a fresh fruit salad and olives).:
After all of that, there was a buffet of (gluten free) Asian food, with Vietnamese spring rolls, samosas, chicken satay, etc, plus a huge dessert table with ice cream, cakes, cookies, fruit, etc. The cake was chocolate (and was apparently delicious), whereas I was able to partake in the lovely gluten-free cake, shaped in the form of a Blackberry:
Finally, there was this really cool chocolate tower thingy that rotated, where you took a piece of pastry and dipped it in chocolate:
H and I headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 1 AM...only to have to wake up at 5 AM for our 7:30 train back to Paris. (As you can imagine, yesterday was pretty rough going; the H rather regretted not having taken yesterday off from work).
All in all, it was a perfect weekend, with a perfect wedding and being able to visit the Tudor sites. In fact, it was so perfect that I am rather grumpy about being back in Paris, but the one good thing is that it's not as cold here as it was in London.
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