Pictures: London (Again)

Entering the Tower...typical English day with dark, dark, rain clouds.

Crowd of people on the Beefeater tour. I was hoping a Monday morning wouldn't be crowded, but I guess the middle of May is prime vacation time.

Bloody Tower...how apt.

The White Tower, central part where the royalty used to live ages ago.

Trying to get a view of Tower Bridge from inside. Didn't work out so well. Although, I did get a better one but the rest of the picture was completely dark.

Beefeater! So much fun!

The Jewel House. Where all those fabulous diamonds are kept.

More White Tower. With some crazy blue sky.

Line of kings. I guess wooden horses, etc were built and lined up with the armor of the kings after they died? Something like that.

Royal chapel in the tower.

King Henry VIII's armo(u)r. He was a fatty.

Memorial to all those who lost their heads.

More tower green.

Le rack!

Some other, supremely comfortable looking, torture device.

Leaving the tower. The grass used to be a moat. I bet the moat was easier to take care of than all that manicured lawn.

Adios, Tower of London, you've been great.

Oh wait, that wasn't the last picture. Here we are before descending into the tube station. Ew, it was dark and cold. Goodbye for real, this time.

First pictures of Big Ben/Parliament/London Eye since the first time in Januaray. Unsurprisingly, nothing has changed.

There was a special exhibit on the fashion of The Supremes at the V&A...I didn't go in, but these dresses were outside the exhibit and were super snazzy.

A dress made for Princess Diana. Why it's a good idea to be a princess- dresses get made for you that are just dripping in pearls.

Statue in Harrods. Look at it's creepy eyes!

Memorial to Diana and Dodi...I think it's weird.

Lipstick smudged glass (even weirder) and engagement ring.

Strolling through Hyde Park.

Darkness in the park. Oh sunshine, why do you hate London?

Picadilly Circus. I just liked the sign pointing me in all sorts of fun directions.

One More Time

Well on Monday it was not rainy for the first time in a little while and although it was still not super sunny or warm I decided to head up to London for the day. As much as I adore the people I've been up in L-town with to this point, it was really nice to do what I wanted, at my own pace. Sometimes being by yourself is refreshing.

It was a day of uber-tourism. I got on the train at 8:53 (the first train I could get on without having to pay 20 quid. It's cheaper if the train gets in after 10:00- off peak hours) and got into Victoria at 10:15. That train station feels really familiar now and it makes me happy...in fact, as I was walking to the tube station, I just had to smile to myself because I was glad to be in town. I hopped on the tube and went on to the Tower of London, getting there at about 10:30, standing in line for while to get my ticket (tourists! bah!) and got into the attraction soon thereafter. The next Beefeater tour was starting soon after I got in so I waited around for that. I think the Beefeaters are some of the best tour guides ever. And from what the guy said, not only are they entertaining and witty but they also have to have an impressive background to even be considered for the job. They have to have at least 22 years of military service, reach a certain rank and have outstanding recommendations. So not just your normal tour guide. The tour was interesting and gave a concise history of the tower as well as point out the major points to see. He also informed us that May 19th was the anniversary of Anne Boleyn being executed on Tower Green, which, while there was no fanfare to commemorate this event, was still pretty cool. After the tour, I obviously had to go to the crown jewels. Mom, I have found what I want my 21st birthday present to be. I think one of the crowns will suffice. Or maybe that sceptre with the 530 karat diamond in it. You know, whatever. They were very impressive and now I see why one would want to be queen. It was also fun to stand on the moving sidewalk and slowly glide past all the cases. Cuts down on congestion, I suppose. I also enjoyed the coronation robe, all the silver and the massive gold wine cistern. After the jewel house I went to White Tower which used to house the royals, knights and had a dungeon in it and is now various exhibits about arms and warfare. Kind of interesting but after seeing the jewels, its a little anticlimactic. And the torture exhibit in another tower was also a let down, small and not enough devices.

After being in the tower for about 2.5 hours, at 1 I got back on the tube and headed west to Westminster. I had debated about going to the Abbey because of the massive amounts of churches I've seen in my travels but decided I would be disappointed in myself if I didn't go. And I'm glad I went. The history behind the place is unfathomable, considering its been used for royal coronations, weddings, funerals, etc since the 14th century. And there are so many dead there! I think if I had to pick one location to raise the dead from, it would probably be here. Well...maybe not. All the kings would probably start killing each other to determine who would have power. Perhaps I would just raise Poet's Corner. I also was particularly moved by the Unknown Soldier's tomb and memorial. I think its kind of nice that its there and the inscription is beautiful. Also it's the only tomb in the Abbey that it is forbidden to walk on, which is especially kind.

I got out of Westminster around 3 and back on the tube (love, love, love public transportation) to the Victoria & Albert musuem. Now I knew that the jewellery exhibit was closed for another 5 days or so, but I really wanted to see the fashion exhibit so I thought jewellery be damned and went anyway. Plus after seeing the crown jewels, I don't know how impressive the collection would be. The fashion was fun like I thought it would be, albeit a little on the small side. I think it could have been bigger. Afterwards I wandered around (Rick Steves said the museum has 12 miles of corridors so obviously there would be no way for me to see it all) and ended up in the stained glass/religious artifact (basically tracing the evolution of Christianity through its possessions) section which went nicely into the silver collection. Turn right and BAM huge hall of silver. The eyes go all wonky after looking at so much silver. After that I looked into the small photography exhibit and wandered around until I found the exit for the tunnel connected to the tube station.

After the V&A, I did a myriad of small things just to cap off the London day. I went into Harrod's which was massive but kind of creepy because of the memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi (her fiance who died with her that night in Paris). There's this kind of scary looking Egyptian statue with eerie eyes and these large photographs of the couple above this fountain. And then sitting on the fountain was this pyramid which had the wine glass that Diana drank from the night she died (still with lipstick smudges) and her engagement ring. It was all just kind of weird . Then I went down to the food halls which were not weird but AMAZING before leaving. Being close to Hyde Park, I wandered through there for a little while (I wish it had been sunnier and warmer, then it would have been amazing) got on the tube to look at Picadilly Circus. From Picadilly I started to walk through Soho but saw all the "xxx girl" shops and decided that I didn't really want to deal with that at the moment and changed directions, heading towards Leceister Square just to see some of the big fancy theatres and the English tkts booth. After LS it was getting pretty late, so I took one last tube ride to Victoria and hopped on the 7:06 train to Brighton.

So yeah, another wonderful day in London. I have a feeling it might have been my last day there because I've sort of run out of time (I'm leaving with my sister in a week!) so I wanted to try to see a lot. And I did. The sad thing about London is that I would need probably a couple solid weeks of being there to really accomplish everything. But we've had a good run and I know I'll be back to see the things that I've missed.

In other news, I finally got my hair cut today! Caitlin found this salon in Brighton which has a training school downstairs so they cut your hair for uber cheap. I was a little unsure at first but Caitlin got hers cut a couple weeks ago and it looked fine so I decided to do it. The girl was really nice and was almost done with the training program so she knew what she was doing. And now my hair is about 4 inches shorter, a million pounds lighter and looks much better. Huzzah!

Pictures: Stratford-upon-Avon

Approaching Anne Hathaway's cottage.

And there it is, in all of its adorble splendor.

Leafy hut thing. Why not?

Some of the gardens.

Jester statue in the actual town of Stratford.

House where Shakespeare was born. The second window from the left on the upper floor is the that he was born in.

Foundations of the house where WS died. The guy who bought it after he died got really sick of people knocking on his door asking to see the house, tore it down.

WS's school. Still in use.

Down to the church where he is buried.

Cute little boats for rent on the Avon.

The front of the Swan Theatre. Even though the back burnt down (I think) and was replaced, the front is the original that was used in Shakespeare's time.

Delightfully touristy.

Stratford-upon-Avon

The early part of this week has been wonderful. Beautiful, warm, sunny weather, and a ridiculous lack of work that would prevent me from enjoying life. Of course this all had to change the day before our day trip when the storm clouds rolled in, the heavens opened up and the temperature dropped like 10 degrees C.

I really wish it had been sunny and warm when we were in Stratford. It was cute and I love Shakespeare so it had all the potential for a great trip but because the weather was awful, it just put a damper on everything.

The bus ride to Stratford was 3.5 hours, way too long, and the heat was on to the point where we were all dying. Already a poor start to the day. We first stopped in Anne Hathaway's cottage, which was adorable and the garden's were beautiful, but it was a small little house and had a small little tour in it so that only took like 20 minutes. And since it was cold and rainy, we didn't want to go play in the gardens so the remaining 20 minutes or so at the cottage was spent in the giftshop. We then made our way to the actual town of Stratford. It was exactly how you would think a Shakespearean town would look. Once we got there, we split into two groups and went on a walking tour. The tour was interesting, we saw where Shakespeare was born, where he went to school, where he died, where he's buried, the houses that his daughters owned, etc, so that was pretty cool. Although during the tour of Anne Hathaway's house and the walking tour, the guides kept telling us how all these idioms of the English language originated and while it was amusing and interesting the first couple of times, after while it kind of got to the point where I could care less how "curfew" originated. The tour was over at about 2 and we got lunch until about 3. The coach wasn't leaving until 5 so we had two hours to kill. We didn't really feel like paying what would probably be some ridiculous overpriced admission fee to go see the room where Shakespeare was born and it wasn't nice enough to go sit by the river Avon or play in the parks so we spent a lot of time wandering through shops. Although, we did find a bunch of really cool antique shops and markets that were delightful to wander in. We tried on a lot of hats or feathery hair combs. We finally went back to the coach at about 4:45 and got on and suffered through a, this time, freezing, 3 hour bus ride home.

I know this post sounds like not a lot of fun and it was interesting to see all the Shakespeare stuff but I think I would have had a much better time if the weather had been cooperating. It's a little silly how easily weather can affect your mood, but so it goes.

In other news, congratulations to my sister for graduating from college!

Pictures: Canterbury and Leeds Castle

Ale house in Canterbury. Had no significance, and I don't really know why I took this picture, but I like the name of the pub. Oh English pubs, how I love thee.

Apparently people in Canterbury don't know how to use levels either. That's a pretty shoddy construction job.

Cute little streets of the town.

Oh you know, just a hotel that Charles Dickens wrote about. Nothing big at all.

The entrance to the cathedral courtyard, notice the Starbucks right next door. Nice.

Grand, old cathedral!

Large. Impressive. Typical for a European church.

Required shot down the nave.

Compass rose in front of the altar. It symbolized something but the meaning has left my memory at this current point in time.

Stained glass, another favorite of mine.

Further back in the church. There were like two or three different sections that all had their own altars.

Candle where the shrine to and body of Thomas Becket was before wanker Henry VIII ordered it destroyed.

I'm Henry IV, I am. Famous dead people!

Swords of Martyrdom! In the martyrdom chapel dedicated to Senor Becket.

Like Cher, he needs no last name.

Last picture before the descent into the crypt.

Coming out of the darkness into the cute little courtyard.

Cathedral again.

My next life: lazy ginger cat who lives at Canterbury Cathedral. She has the life.

There was this herb and flower garden out in the courtyard and all the flowers had labels. Thanks Canterbury, for planting a weed and then telling me what it is.

Caitlin and Jon playing outside in the sun.

The cat and Steve sitting outside in the sun.

Requisite little canal running through cute little English town.

Caitlin, myself, and Jon on the bridge over the water.

Punting!

Leaving Canterbury and on to Leeds Castle! It has a moat! Fabulous!

What Henry imported into the castle. I think the 700 eels and the 1 dolphin is a little excessive

Another shot of the Castle, hanging out on the island in the middle of the moat.

Recreation of the queen's receiving bed. She didn't actually sleep here but would rather receive guests in this room and wanted them to be impressed. I would have slept here.

Eleanor of Castile brought the idea of bathing to the English people after spending time in Spain. Greatest gift ever given, I think.

More modern part of the castle, Lady Bastile's shoes!

Oldest equestrian statue in all of Britain. Because I know you couldn't live without that information.

Leaving the castle. With some weird woman looking at me and messing up my picture. I suppose I could crop it out, but I would rather be indignant.

Another castle shot. It was so pretty and the weather was sooooo nice.

Caitlin and I outside the castle.

Jon and Steve trying to be as cute as us. They fail.

Off the island and making our way to the maze.

Getting ready to go in! How exciting!

Steve pops up from the other side of the hedge.

Which way to go? Who knows.

From the top of the mound in the center.

We're champion maze solvers.

Down in the grotto where the creepy stone face drips water.

Walking through the tunnel with all the trippy lights.

Caitlin is all blue.

Out of the tunnel. Obviously every good castle needs a vineyard.

The end! Next week: Stratford-upon-Avon.