Europe-Austria

It's been a while since I posted so this one will be a little longer. After England, we drove to Austria. It was beautiful!!!! Our first day, we went to Innsbruck to walk around but it was raining so we went back to our apartment and chilled. When it stopped raining, Elizabeth, Nathan, Jonathan, and I went on a bike ride. That night we went to an Austrian restaurant. We tried to order tap water but the waitress didn't understand us and brought sparkling water :) Needless to say, we quickly learned how to ask for tap water in German (Leitungs Wasser). The next day, we went to Salzburg, famous for being Mozart's birthplace and residence for many years, as well as being the setting for the classic movie The Sound of Music. On our third day, we went to the Dachau prison camp. It was the first prison camp in Germany and served as a model for the others. It wasn't necessarily a "fun" day, but it was interesting to learn about it and see the place. On our fourth day in Austria we went to the Bieberwier Sommerrodelbahn (a luge and no it's not connected to Justin Bieber) and Neuschwanstein Castle. The luge was awesome and we all enjoyed it....that is until Jonathan (speed demon that he is) decided to push the lever (that controls the speed) all the way forward and not brake at all. Somewhere about a fourth of the way down he flipped going around a turn and got nicely banged up. He managed to make it the rest of the way down but he had multiple scrapes from the cement. Neuschwanstein Castle was really nice too. It's the castle that inspired the Disney castle. After Neuschwanstein, we went to eat dinner. The place was supposed to be a German restaurant but it turned out to be Italian. The food was great though (and the owner was super nice). Our final day in Austria we were planning to go to the Romantic Road in Germany, but it was too far, so we chilled at our apartment and watched Hogan's Heroes. I think Austria has been my favorite so far because it was so beautiful, the people were so friendly, and the pace was slightly more relaxed.

A fountain in Salzburg

Our bike ride around the lake

An old fort in Salzburg

The cemetary that inspired the one in which the Von Trapps hid in The Sound of Music

The sign on the gate into Dachau-Translation: Work makes free.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Part of the luge track!

Europe-London Day 2

Friday was our last day in England. We went to the Tower of London first. It was a really interesting place. It’s where many people were held prisoner, tortured, and executed (including two of Henry the VIIIs wives: Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Howard.) It also houses the crown jewels which are stunningly beautiful. Once again, we couldn’t take pictures inside the jewel house, so I can’t show them to you. L After the tower of London (and lunch), we went on a cruise down the Thames (pronounced Timms) River. It was very windy, but also very nice to sit and listen while a guy explained what some of the buildings were as we passed them. Our final stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral for Evensong. We got to sit in the Quire stalls very close to where the choir (men and boys) was singing. I loved hearing the choir after being in choir for so many years myself. There was one soprano solo, and the boy’s voice just soared over the other voices. How I wish I could sing like that :) Surprise, surprise, we couldn’t take pictures inside St. Paul’s either. Since pictures take much longer to upload on the blog, from now on I'll probably post an album on facebook in addition to my blog post. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.258788100888899.42478.100002731340786&type=3

The Tower of London

A suit of armor in the Tower of London

The London Eye

St Paul's Cathedral

Europe-London Day 1

On Thursday we got up early (5:45 a.m.), packed, and left for London. We were trying to get to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard but we didn’t make it. We did, however, stop by later and we saw two guards get relieved. Our first stop in London was Westminster Abbey. (Well we actually stopped to take pictures of Big Ben [Elizabeth Tower] and the houses of Parliament first.) It was a lot larger than I was expecting and very impressive. We couldn’t take pictures inside but it was all very grand. We mostly saw little chapels inside the Abbey with people buried in them. After Westminster, we headed to Trafalgar square which was dominated by a towering pedestal with a statue of Admiral Lord Nelson (or someone like that) on top. After snapping some photos (including one of the countdown to the Olympics opening ceremony) we went inside the National Gallery of Art. We saw lots of pictures including ones by Renoir, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. I thought it was neat to actually see the pictures instead of just hearing about the famous artists. Finally, we ended at Buckingham Palace. It was a very tiring day as we were on our feet basically from 5:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m. so we were glad to get back to our hotel. Once again, there are so many great pictures (and it’s easier to explain with pictures) so I posted an album on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.257858770981832.42327.100002731340786&type=3


Big Ben-Also known as Elizabeth Tower


                              Westminster Abbey


                       The world travelers :)


                    And again


                          Olympic countdown


       Trafalgar square with Admiral Lord Nelson


                           The kids at Trafalgar


                           Gates at Buckingham Palace


                                        Buckingham Palace

Europe-Oxford and Windsor Castle

I haven’t had internet the last few days so I’m catching up on my blogging. Wednesday we went to Oxford and took a guided tour that went to a lot of spots that J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their friends frequented. We saw one of both authors’ houses and we went to the Eagle and Child, a tavern where the “Inklings” group (Lewis, Tolkien and several others) met every Tuesday (see picture below). We also saw a lot of the colleges that make up Oxford University (I didn’t know it wasn’t just one college). After Oxford, we went to Windsor Castle which was very imposing. Windsor Castle is the Queen’s residence. It was kind of odd to see the castle smack dab in the middle of the city, with traffic and restaurants surrounding it. The pictures can’t really show you how huge it is. It was really cool. We saw St. George’s Chapel (which was beautiful) and then we went through the state rooms. We couldn’t take pictures of either of these two places sadly L I think it will be more interesting to look at pictures as I explain some things so I posted an album on facebook with commentaries on most of the pictures. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.257836200984089.42316.100002731340786&type=1

Read the plaque

The room they met in (you can barely see the plaque on the lefthand side)

One of the houses that C.S. Lewis lived in

Windsor Castle

And again

Europe: Blenheim Palace and Stow-in-the-Wold

On Tuesday we went to Blenheim Palace, home of the Duke of Marlborough, and Stow-in-the-Wold, a town in the Cotswolds. At Blenheim we walked around and saw an exhibit on Winston Churchill (related to the first Duke of Marlborough) and then we saw the State rooms. After that, we walked around the gardens which were very nice. Stow-in-the-Wold had some cool little buildings (and some really old ones) and we went to a cheap restaurant to eat fish and chips (fries). We were going to go punting but we decided to go home and get some extra rest.

Blenheim Palace (part of it any way)

 

Part of the garden

Another view of Blenheim and part of the garden





Capability Brown, a famous landscape gardener, had this lake dug during a 10 year landscaping project







The Cascade hides the dam built to make the lakes

Of course I had to take a picture of the duck and duckling

Superman's changing room at Stow-in-the-wold

Notice the date when this was built

This is a picture of the old hotel

This door is believed to have inspired Tolkein's door into Moria

I love flowers...what else can I say :)

Europe Day 4: Dartmoor

Yesterday we drove all around Dartmoor. It's a really pretty moor region with quaint little villages and very, very, very narrow one way roads. We had lots of fun winding around hoping no cars would meet up with us. We only had to back up a few times so people could pass. We went to Scorhill to hike on the moor and see a stone circle like Stonehenge (only much smaller). It was different then anything else I'd seen. There were cows roaming around and it felt like I'd been transported to the 18th century. I've posted some pictures below but there were so many great ones that I decided to post an album on facebook. Click the link for more pictures. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.255584534542589.41870.100002731340786&type=3.



Family on the moor



The moor

This is the stone circle we hiked to. It makes you realize how big Stonehenge is.



We think these trees were planted as a wind break for the farm that you can't see in this picture

I believe this is part of Hound tor (tors are big rock formations caused by weathering)

Europe: Day 3- Bath

We went to Bath today! I'm not going to say much about it except that it was very beautiful and very cool! We also had tea at the Jane Austen Museum! We were going to try to see the actual museum but we got up too late and spent too much time exploring the Roman baths. Below are some pictures of the city, the Roman baths, and the tea house.

Downtown Bath

Bath Abbey



Roman Baths

The "Sacred" Bath

Random Chamber inside the main bath

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Main Chamber in the Roman Baths

These are the original steps (there are only three here)

The Tea House at the Jane Austen Center:

Of course there was a picture of Mr. Darcy!

Right inside the door

They're actually lumps of sugar!!!

And finally the actual tea!! It was delicious!