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Law, Underworld, Hampton Court Palace, Germany and New York City

Logged Sunday, 28th September 2003 - Daily - Perma-Link - Comments (0)

After finishing my law essay on Thursday afternoon, we headed up to Leicester Square to catch a movie, but couldn't agree on what to see from the surprisingly limited selection in London's main cinema location. Honestly, they have a better selection at a suburban in Sydney -- for some reason the five screen Odeon "Mini-Plex" didn't sound great. Don't even get me started on the quality of London cinemas again ;)

I ended up seeing Underworld in a semi-decent WB cinema. UW is a Vampires vs. Werewolves movie they hope to turn into a trilogy. I quite liked it, sure as warned the acting was a bit weak, but the story had a reasonable depth and there were a few interesting twists that left you changing who you were supporting a few times as the movie progressed. I'm a bit of a sucker for a vampire flick, and the prospect of a big immortal war sounded good. We then headed into Soho for Chinese, and then home to watch the last two episodes of The Amazing Race 4.

As the *only* reality style tv-game show worth watching, season 4 of the Amazing Race certainly did not disappoint. We were rivetted, particularly during the last four or so episodes. They certainly hammered the final teams giving them some particularly tough tasks. The Amazing Race picked up the Emmy for best reality show this week, so they've been renewed for a fifth season with more seasons likely. I can't wait. The Amazing Race has just the right mix of tension, pace, rules, and tasks to create an excellent excellent show. Remembering also it's a production of the well known producer/director Jerry Bruckheimer, so is exceptionally well polished.

On Friday we took the tube out to Wimbledon and then the train to Hampton to check out Hampton Court Palace. Access to the Palace is excellent, far less restrictive than Buckingham Palace. You're free to wander around many areas of the gardens including the maze, privy garden, and the general grounds. Inside you can access the Tudor Kitchens, King's State Apartments, Queen's Apartments and Georgian Apartments, along with a few other areas. The palace is big, and takes a solid four to five hours to do at a relatively quick pace. As you'd expect, there's a lot of history and artifacts going back over hundreds of years of the family. I think I most impressed by seeing King's and Queen's original four poster beds complete with original matress and satin covers/curtains all setup in their original bedrooms. I'll post the pictures soon.

Getting out of England, we just booked tickets to Hamburg, Germany for the week after my uni exams finish. We're staying with a German friend who's going to show us around Hamburg and then Berlin. We're also heading to New York City the following week to stay with an Aussie friend near Central Park for Thanksgiving.