Remember Remember the Fifth of November

       So this blog post is not really about Guy Fawkes day. At least not entirely. It's about this weekend, but Guy Fawkes felt like a nice place to start. On 5th November, 1605, Guy Fawkes and his buddies tried to blow up Parliament and King James I and failed. Guy Fawkes was the last man ever to be drawn and quartered, and the rest of England basically took it as an excuse for fireworks. Every year on Gundpowder Treason Day (Guy Fawkes Day) and into the weekend, everyone burns effigies, leads protests and stages fireworks to celebrate the day that Parliament was not blown up. It's a bit like Fourth of July. See V for Vendetta for further details.
       This year, Guy Fawkes was on a Thursday, which is my busy class day. In the afternoon, the medieval society took a trip to Temple Church, just down the street, which is the famous home of medieval effigies of members of the Knights Templar. It was heavily bombed in WWII, so very little of the original church survives. The effigies are cool, though, and include Sir William Marshal, the 1st Earl of Pembroke, who was an upstart from being the youngest son of somebody to advisor  to the king. His memoirs provide interesting insight into tournaments and medieval politics and spirituality in England.

Once darkness fell, the Duchy crew wanted to get into some Guy Fawkes trouble with the rest of London. Rumor had it that there would be fireworks on the embankment at 8, which meant, of course, that it made perfect for us all to tromp down to Trafalger, towards Buckingham Palace and then over the Parliament before reaching embankment at 8:45 or so. Well it turns out there were no fireworks anyway. There were, apparently, protests (with a burned car!) , but we didn't see any of them--only an odd stillness, like the city was holding its breath waiting for trouble. There were also guards blocking off the Admiralty Arch for a few minutes.

 Guards at Admiralty Arch

 Big Ben from Trafalgar Square

Crowds assembled outside Parliament

So: Guy Fawkes Day. Not really the big moment of the weekend, as it turned out. But only because most of the fireworks were actually held on Saturday. More on that later. 

       Friday was special because I got to have dinner over at Sally's house in Kentish town! For loyal readers of this particular blog, Sally is a fairly familiar face. She was the Dean of European Studies and a personal hero of mine. She inspired me to go to the Courtauld in the first place, and was John Lowden's first PhD student. She's been so welcoming and helpful since my arrival in London, but this was the first time I got to go over and have dinner with her and her family because of the hectic nature of European Studies, which concluded last week. So on Friday, with Ben's Cookies in hand, I took the Northern line up to Kentish town to eat with Sally, Andy, and their ten year old son, William.  It was absolutely lovely! We laughed and talked and I kept them up all night (it was 11:53 when I left, i"m sure they were exhausted and thinking 'good grief, let's never have her again!)

 An Indian-ish dish with Prawns followed by Plum ice cream! 

      I did some work in the library on Saturday afternoon and then embarked on an adventure with Sean and the Kristins (and later on, Sam)  over to Marylebone to visit Daunt's bookshop. It was gorgeous inside and I found ten books I wanted and didn't buy any of them because, oh, look how responsible I am. They had a wonderful children's section, but the real draw is THIS huge travel section, arranged by country:

(My eyes are awkwardly half closed in this one so don't look too close)

     Just down the street from Daunt's was Tommi's Burger Joint, which is in the running with Patty&Bun (where we went for Kristin's birthday) for the best burger in London. For 10, 90 you could get a burger, fries and a drink--this kind of combo is unheard of in London. The atmosphere was casual and fun and a bit like Huey's midtown! 

Tommi's Burger Joint

vs. 

Patty & Bun

YOU DECIDE

After dinner, we took the ambitious, camino-style walk up to Primrose Hill, the highest point in the city just by Regent's Park, for a good view of the Guy Fawkes fireworks happening all over London. It was beautiful up there, and we did see a number of fireworks as well as running into some other friends. Then a walk through Camden on the way home. 

On Sunday, Kristin and I went shopping Oxford Circus! So all in all....

A truly explosive weekend! Happy Guy Fawkes Day!