Up at the O2

“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”  - Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-82 

                Today we had planned to use our Historic Royal Palaces membership cards again and visit Hampton Court Palace. Unfortunately, when we woke up we got our first look at that famous English weather: overcast and rainy. Obviously, it is still possible to visit Hampton Court on a day like today (the palace itself is all indoors) but did we really want to spend ninety minutes on a train there and back and walk through rainy gardens? Not really. And it’s not like we can’t go again literally next weekend (which is currently the plan). So we decided to stay closer to London and Sarah got to sleep some more.

                Once we got going we headed to the O2 (www.o2.co.uk) in North Greenwich. It’s primarily known for being a concert arena but it actually has a lot of restaurants and other things in it. Our first stop was the British Music Experience (www.britishmusicexperience.com) which is literally an interactive museum about British music. There is an overwhelming amount of information in it and if you try to see/do/read everything your head will probably explode. You learn early on to just focus on things you really like. For me, that’s the stuff on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Joy Division (and One Direction…). There are different rooms organized by decade. Inside them are different costumes, memorabilia and even instruments belonging to various music acts from England. There are usually interviews or live recordings in each decade, along with different news clippings of important events from each year. This is where you have to pick and choose, because some years have twenty-five clippings to see. In the center of the museum are things like maps of England showing different artists hometowns, and a dance machine. Somehow Sarah and I did not go in the dance machine. In another room they have lots of instruments you can play on. If you know how to play, that’s cool. If you’ve always wanted to give the drums a go, they have monitors you watch that teach you how to play popular songs – at Beginner, Intermediate, and Master levels.

                After we finished at the museum (and ran away from their ‘special’ Taylor Swift exhibit) we went to Wasabi for lunch. It’s a cool sushi place at the O2 where the food comes by you on conveyer belts and the plate colors determine the cost. I had some delicious crab rolls, some avocado rolls and ordered some chicken satay. It was a very nice lunch. There wasn’t much else to do so we went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier and then headed back to the flat. When we left the theater and re-entered the O2 to leave, the peaceful setting we had left had been transformed into thousands of people lined up for the restaurants. Like I mentioned, it’s a concert arena and some guy named Gary Barlow was performing. I guess he is or was a judge on The X-Factor and also used to be a member of Take That (if you’re not English you probably don’t know who they are but they are like the most popular thing ever in England. It’s actually scary.) We got out of there as fast as humanly possible. Note to selves: if we ever see a concert at the O2 (looking at you, Ed Sheeran in October), do not eat before the concert.