The End

Tuesday was Tom's birthday, so we decided to go out and celebrate with him and Lynlee. We went to dinner at a place called Old Orleans. They talked Barbara and I into trying ribs for the first time, which were quite good, I must admit. After dinner, they were going to see a movie, unfortunately Barbara and I still had to finish our papers, so we couldn't go with them. Later on, we met up with them again for cake and games.

The following day we headed into London early for our going away dinner. During the day we finished our souvenir shopping before meeting up with the rest of the group for our river cruise. It wasn't a cruise though. Instead, it was more like taking a train to dinner, except on a boat of course. We got off the boat in Greenwich, which is "home" of the Prime Meridian. Dinner was at a Mediterranean place, where we had shish-kebabs. After dinner we walked around Greenwich a little bit, but we all had stuff to do to prepare for going home, so we didn't stay long.

The next few days were sort of a blur. Between finishing our papers, packing to go home, and saying our final goodbyes, they went pretty quickly.

Saturday was our last day in England. We left for the airport at 6am. We checked in and got through security...and then had two hours to wait until our flight left. They served lunch on the plane, which I would recommend never eating. I also slept for about 5 hours, which made the flight go by pretty quickly. Once in Detroit, we had to go through security and recheck our bags. After going through security I read my watch wrong and thought we only had 15 minutes to get to our flight, but we really had an hour and 15 minutes. Anyway, the flight to Grand Rapids was uneventful (and quick). The problems started once we got to baggage claim in Grand Rapids. Since our flight was full, not all of the luggage made the flight. Guess who's didn't? That's right, one of my bags was still in Detroit and the next plane wasn't coming for another four hours. Anyway, they delivered it to me later that night, so no worries.

We hope you all enjoyed following along with our adventures! We can't wait to see you all again.

-Justin

Castle And Cake

Sunday started out as a mess, but ended up wonderfully.  We met Allie (another girl from our group) at the train station.  Even though we were early, the train times had changed last minute, and we would have to wait 30 minutes to catch the next one.  We grabbed a quick lunch and went to get on our next train.  After five minutes of sitting on the train, and reading the ?? that said where the train was actually headed, we realized that the train we were on was not the one the boards had told us, so we quickly got off.  We finally reached the station where we were supposed to switch trains, and got on the connecting train.  Luckily, everyone from London was having problems with transportation as well, so we all arrived late, but at the same time.

We headed to Windsor Castle.  It is gorgeous, and the largest inhabited castle in the world.  The first room we saw held the queen’s dollhouse.  This was never built for playing with, and was the most intricate thing I have ever seen.  It was filled with pieces from artists all over the country, and had working electricity and plumbing! It was definitely every little girl’s dream, but with how many millions of pounds it cost, I don’t think I would let anyone play with it either.

From there we saw some art from the royal collection and had an audio tour of many rooms in the castle.  Everything was gorgeous and ornate, although, I don’t know if I would want massive portraits staring at me in every room of my home…maybe that’s why they put all the paintings in rooms that are usually used for show and not actual living. 

After the castle we headed out to explore Windsor a bit, but it was rainy and cold, so we soon headed back.  Since it’s our last Sunday here, we stopped in town for a traditional Sunday roast with Tom and Lynlee.  We were literally the only people in the restaurant…which was weird, but also nice since we were served quickly, and it was delicious.  We all wanted dessert, so we went to another pub and got a yummy chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and hot chocolate (:  It was a delicious way to end our day.

Now all we’ve been doing is working on our papers, which isn’t as fun.  But Wednesday is our farewell dinner so we’ll get a nice break from writing!

-Barbara

Turkey & Quidditch

Thursday (Thanksgiving) saw us heading into London with hopes that we would be returning full of Turkey.  Since we got such an early start and wouldn't be getting back until late, since dinner wasn't scheduled to begin until 6:30, we didn't plan a busy day.  We decided to go to a few of the Christmas markets in order to do some souvenir shopping.  We started in Covent Garden and while I won't say what we purchased, I will say they are pretty sweet.  We also saw an inflatable shop that was set-up, which was interesting to say the least.

Another one of the markets was located on the Thames, across from Parliament.  Most of the shops sold food though and since we were looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner, it was mostly a bust.  We also found a book sale under a bridge as well as a skate-park full of graffiti (pictures to follow).

As 6:30 rolled around, we were still waiting for our coordinator and a third of our group.  Not to worry though, because we had a private room at an Italian restaurant for our meal.  I know what you're thinking, because I was thinking it too, "no Italian restaurant is going to serve Turkey; you're going to end up eating pasta."  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Apparently Maria knows the owners of the restaurant, and they prepared the meal especially for us.  The first course consisted of: bread, fried mozzarella, calamari, and a platter of meat (for the bread).  The fried mozzarella was easily my favorite dish thus far.  It was so much more than a mozzarella stick.  Instead, it was a fried chunk of mozzarella the size of my fist...delicious.  Next came pumpkin soup, which I'm told was alright, but didn't really taste like pumpkin.   

Then came the main course...the turkey!  Platters of very large baked potatoes were also served brought out.  The turkey was easily one of the best turkeys I have ever had (though not better than yours Grandma).  It was very tender and seemed to melt in your mouth.  Much, much better than I was expecting.

After eating as much turkey as we could, dessert was brought out.  Pumpkin pie and small, bite-sized brownies.  I passed on the pie (which everyone said was good) and ate a couple brownies instead, which were also quite good.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable meal and I think I started the holidays off right....by adding a few pounds.

We laid  low until Sunday when we took a trip up to Oxford.  For those of you who don't know, some scenes in Harry Potter were filmed at Christchurch College in Oxford.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of not doing all of this traveling in October when the weather was still nice.  Instead, we waited until the end of November where it rains multiple times a day, is very windy, and is just cold in general.

Anyway, we got off the train and since the tours of the college weren't going just yet, decided to check out a covered market that was nearby.  Other than a bakery that had some awesome cakes displayed it was kind of uninteresting.  We still had some time to kill, so we wandered through the city looking at the sites, ducking into the occasional store to warm up.

We were one of the first in line for the self-guided tour of Christchurch, hoping to beat the crowds; we were only partially successful.   The first part of the tour takes you through the cloister, which served as the location for some of the scenes in the Harry Potter films.  This turned out to be the high point for some on the tour.  I personally enjoyed the architecture in the cathedral, as well as the dining hall.  When you think about what was accomplished before the invention of 'modern' construction equipment, it's truly remarkable.

We had originally planned on heading to Carfax Tower, which is all that remains of the 13th century St. Martin's Church, after the tour, but due to the weather, we decided to skip it.  We headed back towards the train station, stopping at a pub a couple of blocks away for dinner before heading back to Reading.

-Justin

UPDATE: Pictures can be found on my facebook here.

-Barbara

We Will Rock You

Monday was great…I skipped class (: But let’s just say that I probably learned more on our trip than I would have in a stuffy classroom.

Justin and I went in to London early in the morning. We went to Madame Tussauds. The wax figures there are incredibility lifelike. We wandered around and took pictures with a lot of them. Unlike most places, you can take pictures, and you can take them right up next to, and even touching the figures. We “met” actors, singers, royalty, sports stars, politicians, and even a few cartoon characters. We went through an exhibit on how these figures are made, and it was crazy. If they make a wax figure of you, they send their “people” to wherever you are, and take over 200 measurements and a lot of photographs. All of the figures are made in London, and then shipped to whichever Madame Tussauds they will be displayed at (there are several, a few in the US, a few in Europe, and a couple in Asia). After all of the displays, we went into a section that was supposed to be scary. They had some actors in elaborate makeup, and you walked through a dark series of short hallways while they jumped out at you and just generally acted creepy. But, even I didn’t really get scared, which is saying something. Haha. After the “scary” section, we went on a little taxi ride that took us through a history of London…and I almost got ran over. That part was pretty cool, there were scenes and a recording played a guide for us as we rode along in our little car that was made to look like a London taxi. All in all, I would definitely recommend it; it was a lot of fun.

After we grabbed some lunch and headed to Harrods. It is one of the biggest department stores in the world, occupying over 1 million sq ft with 330 departments. We kept getting lost, wandering through department after department, and circling back around without even knowing it. The whole place was decked out for the 70th anniversary of the Wizard Of Oz, so everything was decorated in sparking green for the Emerald City. There are some ridiculous things at Harrods, we got to see how “the other half” lives. There were dog beds for £400 and over! They were also selling fossils that were over 150 million years old, for decoration. My favorite section was the furniture. Some of it was so gorgeous, and some of it was just ridiculous. You could spend weeks in there and not get bored.

When we left we wandered around for a while, just looking at everything. We went into several bookstores just to browse. We grabbed dinner and headed to meet the group. We met them in front of Dominion Theatre, and went in for our show. We saw We Will Rock You, a musical based on the songs of Queen. Our seats were second row, so we could see everything very well. Part of the stage came up, and could swing around, and it went right over our heads. I had a headache after though, because it was so loud. But it was definitely worth it.

After the show we headed back to school, because it was already pretty late. Today was a super disappointment. We had been planning to go in to London right after I got out of class to see Zac Efron when he came in for the premiere of Me And Orson Welles. However, after I got out of class, it was raining and the wind was so strong that there is no way you could use an umbrella, and I’m pretty certain I heard thunder. So now we’re stuck here, and I am one very sad girl.

Pictures on my facebook, here

-Barbara

A Pilgrimage of our Own

This past weekend saw us up bright and early as we had to be in London by 8:15 in order to catch the coach to the coast.  Our first stop was in the city of Canterbury.  Canterbury is home to the Church of England and the setting for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  When we arrived, we went on a short walking tour of the city, ending near the center of town at the Huguenot weavers' house.  Along the way, we made a quick detour to see a building erected by the Greyfriars.  This was the only Greyfriar's building in Canterbury to survive the Reformation.  The building only survived because it is part of a bridge, at the time the only bridge, that spans the River Stour.  King Henry's soldiers deemed the building too important to raze.

Afterward, we were given about an hour to explore the city before meeting back up to go on a boat tour.  The tour was a 40 minute tour on the River Stour.  First, let me explain that the River Stour, or as some call it, the Great Stour River, is only a couple of feet deep.  Anyway, we were in a flat-bottomed, row boat.  One of the sites we saw on the tour was a dunking chair, used in medieval times to "teach" nagging wives a lesson.  I inquired about current pricing, but sadly, we had to leave before we settled on a price. 

Our next destination was in Dover, just 18 miles from France.  Our first stop in Dover was at the beach.  On a clear day you would be able to see the French coast, unfortunately, there was heavy fog the day we were there.  This is the second beach we've seen in England, both made of up stones rather than sand.  It's an odd feeling walking across a beach full of rocks, but if you like to keep your shoes on, I suppose it's for the best. 

We weren't at the beach too long as we still had to make it up the White Cliffs to Dover Castle.  The castle was in the middle of the fog and, being Halloween, gave a great atmosphere for our tour.  Following the Halloween theme, we went on a ghost tour of the castle.  It turned out to be a really corny attempt at scaring people, a goal that it utterly failed to accomplish, and I have no idea what was actually true. 

While we were on the ghost tour, the fog started to lift a bit and we were able to see the city of Dover from the top of the cliffs.  It truly was a great site, but I wish we would have been able to see the castle from the beach.  We still couldn't see France, but from what I was told, from the top of the cliffs, you can see all the way to Paris on a clear day.

After the ghost tour, we headed into the cliffs themselves.  Tunnels were dug into the cliffs during the Napoleonic Wars in order to garrison troops.  These tunnels were later used during World War II as a command center for Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and the part of the French Army off the beaches at Dunkirk and later, to prepare the defenses of the coastline against possible German invasion.  The tunnels were also used to plan and coordinate Operation Neptune, the assault phase of Operation Overlord.  The tunnels were pretty impressive and weren't nearly as cramped as I expected them to be.  In fact, they were quite spacious.  It's also pretty amazing that the Germans had no idea the tunnels existed.  Especially considering how close to France they are.

We then had a two and a half hour trip back to London, followed by a 15 minute tube ride, and finally, a 30 minute train ride back to London.  It was quite a bit to do in one day and all of us were sufficiently wiped out by the time we got home.

Trivia time, it's the fifth of November, anyone know what that means?

-Justin

UPDATE: Pictures here!

Cross the King, Lose Your Head

Saturday we met up with Tom and Lynlee and, in the rain, walked to the train station early in the morning and headed into London. We visited St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was gorgeous. There’s a balcony that you can walk up to that circles around so you can see most of it from above. If you continue up the narrow, winding stone steps you can come out onto a viewing ledge. When you’re up there, it seems like you can see forever, it’s London from a completely different point of view. Continue to the top on a series of winding metal staircases and, 528 steps later, you arrive at almost the very top of the Cathedral. It was very windy that day, and if it weren’t for the railings, I would have thought we were going to be blown off of the top. The view from here is breathtaking; you can literally see all of London if you walk the whole circumference (which we did). You can see the Millennium Bridge, which was the bridge that the Death Eaters destroyed in HP and the Half Blood Prince. There are also a couple buildings much farther away that almost looked like they could be the Eiffel Tower (although we know they weren’t, it was crazy to feel like we could see that far).

Once back down all the stairs, we walked around a little more inside. On the back end of the main alter, there is a giant book (encased in glass) with all of the names of the Americans who died in WWII are written in. When you venture downstairs, there are the tombs of a few different people, including the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson. There are also numerous memorials to many different people and countries.

After St. Pauls, we headed across the street to a pizza parlor for lunch. Then it was off for some ice cream and a stroll in the park before meeting the rest of the group at the Tower of London.

We met up with the rest of the group and our tour guide at the tube stop, and our tour began. The guide first took us to a park (where we had already been through) that was not only the site of some memorials for those who died in WWII ships, but also the site of some beheadings. This was the site of the scaffold where over 125 people were beheaded, including Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Darcy. From there we journeyed to the Tower of London. Inside the tower, 8 ravens find their home. These are still here because Charles II heard a myth that if they left, the king went with them. Since his father had already been murdered, he made an order that they should never leave. Ravens (like lobsters, Ainslee ;) ) mate for life.

We heard the story of King Henry VIII, who had 6 wives. He divorced two of them, beheaded 2 of them, one of them died, and one lucky one survived him. We saw the memorial on the site of the scaffold where Queen Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and many others were beheaded. Those that were executed inside the tower were the ones with enough power or favor to have a private beheading. The tower had been the site of not only a royal residence, but a prison as well.

Next, we got to see the crown jewels. Outside of the door to the jewels, there is one of the stereotypical guards (also known as a beef-eater). Unfortunately, he is blocked by a short metal fence, so you can’t actually get pictures with him. The crown jewels were incredible. There was an entire set of completely gold dishes, cups and serving items that they used to use for a banquet after coronation. Once you get to the crowns themselves, though, they put you on a moving sidewalk, so you can’t stand too long and admire. I definitely saw some things I’d like to have in my jewelry box (:

After we were done at the tower, our tour guide took us on a walking tour of places where Jack the Ripper murdered his victims. At each spot, he’d stop and tell us one more piece of the story. As it was already growing dark, and we were not in the best part of London, I was definitely creeped out a bit. He ended the tour by telling us various suspects and saying that the story was never actually solved…comforting, good thing it’s so far in the past he has to be dead now. After that we headed back to school to rest up for the next day.

Yesterday, we headed into London again, but this time just to catch a train out with the rest of the group. We took an hour and a half train ride to Brighton, on the coast. This proved to be some good reading time, and I got one of my entire books done, which is good seeing as I have about 100 more to read.

Once in Brighton, we headed off to see the Royal Pavilion. This was a palace built by George IV when he was Prince, in order to escape from the watchful eye of his father. The palace was designed by John Nash, and is entirely in Indian and Chinese style, even thought neither man had ever been there. The dining hall was the most impressive room, which is how George IV wanted it to be. The chandelier is held in the claws of a dragon, and dragons and snakes seem to be a theme throughout some of the rooms. There are even a few bronze palm leaves at the top, making the ones painted on the ceiling seem like they are all actually sticking out from the ceiling. The kitchen is enormous, and employed many new (at the time) inventions to make cooking easier and faster.

The other room that is worth talking about is the music room. It is massive, with an organ and large floor that would have been good for dancing or holding large parties. The ceiling is covered with gold gilded shells, and the rest of the room is much embellished as well. This room, some say has bad luck because of the decoration focusing on dragons and snakes. First, an arsonist set fire to the room, and it took years and years to re-build and decorate. Then, soon after the re-gilding of the shells was finished, a large stone ball from the outside decoration fell through the roof in a hurricane. The room had to be re-done after this as well.

After the Palace, we walked to Brighton Pier on the English Channel. It was incredibly windy, and the waves sent up lots of spray as they broke on the shore. I could taste and smell the salt. The beach is not made of sand, it is completely stone, which sounds almost more painful to me than how hot the sand gets in the summer. The pier is like a constant fair, with carnival/fair food, little roller coaster rides and carnival games. There is an arcade which we went into and played a few games. They don’t use tokens though, they just use regular coins. Had it been nicer, we may have stayed a little longer, but it was getting very cold because of the wind and how late it was getting, so we headed back to the town to find some food. Because of the late hour (6pm, so late) most places were closed, so we had to just grab some apples and cookies from a shop at the train station before we headed back. Two train rides, a tube ride, a walk, and a few hours later, we ended up back home in Reading. Now it’s back to classes until next weekend.

-Barbara

UPDATE: Pictures are on my facebook, here.

The Plague!!

Well I think I've sweated the readers more than an Arizona sweatbox, so time for another update.

I had my first week of classes this week and all went well.  I have a lecture of three to four hundred people Monday afternoon, not the biggest class I've ever been in, but still a pretty good amount.  I had the next couple of days off, I have a seminar for my Accounting class that meets Tuesday, but that only meets four times throughout the term.  Thursday was supposed to be the last day of my school week, but when I got to my Greek Religion lecture that morning, I found out that the class meets Friday afternoon as well.  Also, for all those who say that university in England is easier than back in the States, the only reason we have so few classes is because we're here for just one term.  Had we came for the whole year we would be taking at least twice the classes and all of our exams would be taken in the summer.  Even for classes that were only held during the Autumn term.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to take the coach to Stratford-upon-Avon.  This little town was the birthplace of Shakespeare.  Disappointingly, we only had two hours to spend there.  We walked through Shakespeare's house and then had a little time to wander around.  The street that the house was on was filled with a mixture of souvenir shops, restaurants, chocolate shops, and a few other shops.  I could have spent a few more hours exploring the town (I didn't even get a chance to make it to the river), but we only were there for a short time before heading to Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle dates back to the Norman Invasion in 1066 and is one of the best preserved castles in all of England.  Upon entering the castle, we saw displays of armor and weapons that would have been used by defenders of the castle, as well as some of the drawing rooms, a bedroom, and a dressing room used by the inhabitants of the castle.  After which we climbed The Mound, the oldest part of the castle, which treated us to some amazing views of the surrounding area.  We were able to see the village of Worcester, nearly 30 miles away.  They also had a sword stuck in a stone, ala King Arthur.  Unfortunately, I am not the chosen one, as the sword is still securely in the stone despite my best efforts.

After our adventure on The Mound, we went on a tour of the castle's dungeons.  They have a really cool walking tour that's set up to scare, gross out, and/or amuse you.  In order to add a sense of realism, human 'actors' were used alongside wax figures.  First, they attempted to convey to us the terror the plague brought upon 14th century Britain.  In one of the rooms, they conducted an 'autopsy' on a plague victim.  As they pulled out his "bits," as they were called, water was flung on us.  Causing some of the members of our group to recoil in fear.

After that we headed further into the dungeons until we entered a torture chamber.  After locking one of the group into a human birdcage and another in a chair, we were shown the uses for many of the different implements.  Those who survived the torture chamber next headed into a medieval courtroom to await our judgment.  One member of our group was found guilty of being a witch and was sentenced to return to America.  As a further punishment, we were sent into a labyrinth from which "we would not return."  Well we did make our way out, except we walked right into an execution chamber.  Another of our group was chosen to be the condemned.  The executioner had lousy aim however, as he lost just an ear, rather than his head.  The crowd also got sprayed with another blast of water.  After the botched execution, we were sent to a place "full of pain, humiliation, and suffering...our daily lives."

Let me just take a moment now to say that while the tour certainly attempted to spook you, it was much more a 'jumpy' type of horror rather than a true sense of terror.  Other than one or two cheesy parts, I was very happy I chose to see this part of the castle.  On the other hand, I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed to be an American in my life.  The group that went into the dungeons consisted of a Canadian, a couple Irishmen, two or three English, and 15 from ISA.  Obviously our group would be the loudest when something jumped out of the shadows.  However, we had a couple people who thought it was necessary to shout profanities each and every time.  During the two instances where we got wet, a couple of other members of our group thought it was necessary to go on about how, "This better not stain," and, "Not in my hair."  In other words, we were extremely crass and disrespectful.  Granted it was only five or six members of our group, but those five drowned out the other 15 people on the tour.  After the tour was over, I almost wanted to apologize to those who weren't from ISA for having to endure us.  Now I understand why the English think of Americans as rude.

Anyway, after the tour of the dungeons, we climbed to the top of the tower.  The doors were very narrow and incredibly short.  The stairs were also very narrow and windy.  The treads (the part your step on) were also much smaller than most, you definitely wanted to hang onto the banister.  The top of the tower offered an even better view of the surrounding area than The Mound.  After exiting the tower, we had to head for home.  As with Stratford, I would have enjoyed a couple more hours to explore the castle.  There was at least one exhibit inside the castle I hadn't seen, as well as the gardens, and The Haunted Hallows.  Unfortunately, the driver of the coach had to be back in London by a certain time (similar to the US, the drivers can only be on the road for so long) and we had to cut the tour(s) short.

Nevertheless, I had a good time and am looking forward to next weekend when we go to The Tower of London on Saturday and then to the coast on Sunday to see Brighton.

-Justin

UPDATE: Pics on up on my facebook here

-Barbara