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!

Europe: Day 1 (or 2 I suppose)

We left Charlotte at 6:30 p.m. yesterday (June 15) and arrived at Gatwick airport at 2:30 a.m. Charlotte time (7:30 London time.) No one got much sleep on the plane and we're trying to make it 'til 9 or so to hopefully lessen the jet lag. Needless to say, we're all quite tired. However, we are relaxing in our lovely, quaint cottage (which I will post pictures of as soon as my batteries are charged.)

We took things very easy today. After claiming our luggage, we went to pick up our rental car. Of course the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and everything is in a different spot, so we spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out where everything was and dying laughing at dad's confused comments. Dad finally decided he knew enough about the car to drive it so we set off for our cottage with a few little swerves here and there as dad got used to the road. Stonehenge was on the way to our cottage so we stopped there to look at it and take some pictures. Then, we drove on to our cottage, dropped our stuff off, and went to find some lunch. We ended up eating at a very yummy pub called The Mason's Arms. Elizabeth, Nathan, and I ordered two Steak and Ale pies (all alcohol cooked out of course) along with chips (fries) and roasted veggies. It was deeeeelicious! Our last stop was at the Carphone Warehouse in Bath where we got our cell phone. No we're chilling out trying to make until 9 o clock.

At the airport waiting to get our car

My first breakfast in England! (My stomach wasn't feeling great)

Stonehenge

They were having some sort of ceremony in the middle of stonehenge

Our family in front

Our yummy food at the Mason's Arms