I have some major
ketchup catch-up to do. I promised a post about London and then I fell off the grid - sorry about that! (That was my profuse apology, mom). If you were wondering when the 'study' part of 'study abroad' came in, that's what has been going on the past few weeks, and my 'excuse' for not posting recently. But that's for another post. Right now it's London time!
I went to London early in November. It was my last trip with my aunt before she headed back to the states. This was the only time we ever had trouble finding each other at the airport, but after a little bit of waiting (and maybe just a little panicking on both our parts) we finally found each other and were able to head off to our lovely hotel near the London Bridge.
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| The street our hotel was on - you can see the tower of London down there at the end (it was smaller than I would thought). |
We both decided that since we were so tired from traveling, we would take it easy on Saturday. So we slept in a bit and then headed out to the Portobello Market, which is in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London. It's a fairly well-known street market (if you've seen the movie 'Notting Hill' with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, this is the neighborhood the movie was set in). It was very neat, lots of people and shops both inside and outside. We met a nice woman at a stall selling teapots and tea cups, who had a really neat English cockney accent.
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| View of the hopping Portobello Market on a Saturday afternoon |
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| A store in the Notting Hill neighborhood - sewing machines eeeverywhere! |
We spent a couple hours wandering around the market. I can see why it is famous, they really do have neat stuff there. Then we headed off to St. Martin in the Fields to have tea at the Cafe in the Crypt (only a little creepy) and see a concert.
On our way there we ran into a singing tube station worker. He asked us if we needed help while we were looking at the map in the station and then asked where we were from. We then got treated to several full verses of 'Chicago' (Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...). It was quite impressive actually, and a bit strange...but mostly impressive. He had a decent voice as well.
On a side-note, I was quite impressed with the tube system. I don't we ever waited for more than two minutes for a train. That is really something when you are from Chicago and used to dealing with the 'L' Hear that CTA? It can be done!
At St. Martin in the Fields we had some tea (interrupted by the most orderly false fire alarm I've ever experienced).
Then we heard a lovely concert that consisted of several pieces, the highlight being Mozart's Requiem. It was a candlelight concert, which was apparently a big deal, as it was one of the main advertising points for the concert: 'Mozart Requiem by candlelight.'
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| St. Martin in the Fields (before the lights were dimmed - because even though it was a candlelight concert, they didn't actually turn the lights all the way off, somewhat strangely I thought). |
The next morning we headed off into the countryside on a tour of several really cool places. First up was Warwick Castle, one of the most well-preserved castles in England. We really lucked out as the weather was absolutely gorgeous:
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| Off we go into the country! |
We had a really fun tour guide who my aunt had also had for another tour she had taken earlier in the week. He was very funny, if you know Eddie Izzard, think that type of intellectual history humor. If you don't know Eddie Izzard, for shame! Go discover him immediately! Seriously. Did you do it? Okay I'll wait...
...
Good, now we can get on with business.
So anyway, our first stop was Warwick castle. Parts of it were a little chintzy/touristy, but if you avoided those parts, it was an excellent castle:
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| THIS is a real castle. |
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| The Mound. Excellent view from up there. |
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| Inside the castle |
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| View of the rest of the castle from about halfway up the Mound. |
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| View of the castle's ramparts from the top of the Mound |
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| View from the Mound looking out. So much pretty. |
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| There I am at the top of the Mound. |
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| Window inside the castle. Beautiful stained-glass. |
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| Artsy picture looking out the window. I'm sure those window smudges say something profound about history/the state of the world. |
We spent quite a while sitting by the river that runs alongside the castle:
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| I was being a creeper and took a picture of my aunt while she was sitting by the river |
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| But then I went and joined her, and we actually got a picture TOGETHER! What a novel idea. |
Next we headed off to Stratford-upon-Avon, which for those of you not up on your Shakespeare, is where he was born (and also where he was buried). It's a very cute town, heavy on the tourists of course, but not in a bad way. We got to go see Shakespeare's birthplace, a milestone for any English major I think.
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| ThisismestandinginfrontofShakepeare'shouse! (It was so exciting it all had to be one word). |
Seriously though, it was a very cool experience.
We then headed off to Oxford. Along the way we drove through part of the Cotswolds (very beautiful, lots of sheep). One of the things I learned is that apparently it is coming back into style to have a thatched roof. It's partially a status thing, they are quite expensive and they take a long time to make. They don't look how I would have imagined them though: The image I had in my head was something like this:
This is what the ones in the Cotswolds really look like:
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| The one on the left is the thatched roof, the one on the right is not. |
When we got into Oxford, we headed to Christ Church College, one of the 38 colleges that makes up Oxford University. There are a couple of cool things about this College, beyond the fact that it is part of Oxford University. First off, it was where Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) came up with and wrote
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass. He was a math tutor at Christ Church College and used to tell stories to the Dean of the College's daughters (one of whom was named Alice). The character of the white rabbit was apparently modeled on the Dean (who was perpetually running late). In the Dining Hall there is a stained glass window that has portraits of characters from the books and also of the original Alice and Charles Dodgson:
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| It's a bit hard to make out in this photo I took, but if you look carefully, in the upper left hand window you can see Alice at the bottom, under the circle that is a picture of Charles Dodgson. The other circle on upper window furthest to the right is the Dean's daughter Alice. |
Speaking of the Dining Hall, one of the other cool things about Christ Church College is that many of the scenes from the first two Harry Potter films were filmed here - including the Dining Hall for the Great Hall! Harry Potter freak out moment!
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| The Dining Hall (aka the Great Hall) |
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| Looking the other way |
On a side-note this Dining Hall is in use as well, it is actually where the students of Christ Church College eat their meals. Jealous.
The rest of the college was impressive as well, although you can't see the whole thing as some parts are restricted to students. But another fun thing to see was the Tom Quadrangle, which was just very pretty:
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| Tom Quadrangle |
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| Standing in front of the Tom Quad |
After wandering around Oxford a little bit more we headed back into London, and back to our hotel. The next morning we got up nice and early and parted ways for the last time as I headed back to Aberdeen and my aunt headed home to the states. I had a fantastic time traveling around with her, I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to travel so much in such a short amount of time. I know I'll remember these trips forever.
But, you say, 'this was a month ago, what on earth have you been doing since then?' Well I'll tell you...but in the next post. :)
