Bank Holiday! Monday 28 May 2007!

Yesterday was a bank holiday in the UK, so we didn't have class and decided to spend the day going to various places in London (like we've been doing all weekend!). First we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. The inside is really beautiful! It's decorated in the baroque style (I think) and it's not as overwhelming as Gothic architecture, but there was a lot of ornate ceiling paintings and mosaics, which were amazing! We couldn't take pictures inside, but I have some postcards I can show when I get back!

After St. Paul's we went to King's Cross station where Platform 9 3/4 is (from the Harry Potter books and movies)...I'll have a set of pictures that I'll explain about that later!

From King's Cross station we went to the British Library, but first Wendy and I got hot drinks, a hot chocolate and chai tea respectively. Well, I was walking outside and it was raining, so I got out my umbrella and opened it one handed since I was still holding my chai tea. That went fine and then we continued walking to the library. While crossing the street, the wind picked up and my hair was bl0wing everywhere and then my umbrella turned inside out and THEN the lid of my chai tea flew off and chai went EVERYWHERE! It was probably a riot watching me with chai and hair flying everywhere and carrying my inside out umbrella! Anyway, it was fine, I still had 2/3 - 3/4 of my cup (no lid, but then it cooled faster!) and I let the wind blow my umbrella back to normal.

Okay, now onto the British Library. They had an exhibit about the "treasures" of the British Library, which included: Beatles manuscripts (handwritten lyrics to Yesterday and Ticket to Ride, etc); handwritten music by Chopin, Mozart, Bach, Britten, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and some others; an original copy of the Magna Carta (really difficult to see what it was); and there were lots of other neat artifacts too.

We went back to the flat for dinner around 5 and then went to a really cute cinema in Notting Hill around 7/7:30 to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3! The theater only had 2 screens (unlike Hollywood's 12 or 14!) and it was so cool!

Okay, here are some pictures for you all to enjoy :)

St. Paul's from the side

We went up probably 300 stairs (in a VERY narrow spiral staircase...I got kind of dizzy!) to get up here and have this view of the city (and in this case, one of the towers on St. Paul's)

Here was a church and garden I thought were pretty

St. Paul's from the front (there's the tower that was in the picture above on the right)

The tourist photo stop for Platform 9 3/4 (it's actually just a wall NEAR Platforms 9 and 10)

On the left is Platform 10, on the right is Platform 9...9 3/4 would fall on the tracks somewhere...oops!

This is a wall in between Platforms 4 and 5...maybe not the exact wall used in the film, but closer than going between Platforms 9 and 10!

A bench in the British Library...pretty cool, huh?


The theater where we saw Pirates of the Caribbean...sorry it's so dark, but movie theaters usually are ;)

26 and 27 May 2007...A Busy Saturday and Sunday!

The past two days have been tiresome. Yesterday (Saturday) started our day by going to Westminster Abbey, followed by walking to Buckingham Palace (we couldn't go in, but we took pictures of the outside), we went to the Royal Mews (stables), and then ended our day at the Banqueting House. We got back to the flats and were lazy the rest of the night (we were going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, but it's going to be cheaper tomorrow or Tuesday...not to mention, less crowded).

Then today (Sunday) we went to the London Eye, which is this HUGE ferris wheel and you go into a little room (for lack of a better word) that has glass walls and you go in the ferris wheel for 20-30 minutes and can take pictures. It was pretty cool, but it would have been nicer if it wasn't raining! After that, we went to the Imperial War Museum, and they had a really touching exhibit about the Holocaust. After the museum, we decided to come back and relax since we have a busy day tomorrow too!

I feel bad that we've been spending so much time in the flats at night instead of going and exploring London, but when you go all day long you have to rest some time! Tonight I'm going to cook some pasta and attempt to make sauce (we'll see how that goes!). Also, I'm going to try and reread Midsummer Night's Dream because we're supposed to have it read for Tuesday, but it shouldn't be too bad since I've read it and seen it. I also need to get a start on Twelfth Night at some point, but I don't know if I'll get a chance tomorrow because we're planning to go to St. Paul's Cathedral, King's Cross Station (we're finding Platform 9 3/4!!), and probably one or two other places, and then tomorrow night we're going to Notting Hill where there's a cinema (actually the one Hugh Grant takes Julia Roberts to in Notting Hill) that is really pretty and has cheaper student tickets on Mondays and we can see Pirates!

Anyway, it's tiresome being here (it feels like longer than a week!), but I love it here! It was your more typical London weather today (cold and rainy), but we made sure we had a plan that involved Museums and such for today! Well, I guess I'll start loading some photos so I can get to reading soon!

This is what we saw when we came out of the tube station at Westminster...I couldn't help but take some pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament!

It's so pretty!

Here's Westminster Abbey


And here is some more of Westminster Abbey (resting place of many King Henrys, Queen Elizabeth I, and A LOT of other people too!)

This is the front of Westminster Abbey (I think)...it's where our tour ended.


The Royal Marching Band...or at least that's what I've decided to call them :)

Buckingham Palace and the statue of Queen Victoria (who moved the monarch's residence to Buckingham Palace)

A Royal Horse (Jamestown is his name, I believe)

The queen's car...not too shabby!

The carriage that Queen Elizabeth II rode to her coronation in...it was built (well, commissioned) by King George III in 1760.

This is the Banqueting House...it was built by Kind James (don't know the number) and King Charles I was executed (beheaded...ouch) here (well, on a window platform outside that's not there anymore) for dissolving Parliament for about 11 years. Royalty and important people ate here and saw fine art events here too.

The coolest thing about the Banqueting House is the ceiling which is entirely artwork by Reubens. It's really beautiful!

Here's the London Eye...it's pretty big!

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from inside the London Eye


Big Ben and Westminster Abbey from inside the London Eye.

The Imperial War Museum


Pretty flowers that I just had to take a picture of!

Kensington Palace and surrounding area

Today (Friday) Wendy and Amber and I started our tour of London for the three day weekend (there's a bank holiday on Monday). Today we went nearby to Kensington Palace (it was really beautiful and interesting) and then to a little garden/fountain nearby. Tomorrow we are hopefully going to Westminster Abbey, Banqueting Hall (something like that), Royal Mews, and the National Gallery. It's going to be quite a busy weekend!

Here's Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived (as well as a lot of other royalty...I walked on stairs that KINGS walked on...SO cool!)

Some flowers outside the palace (there are no pictures of the inside because we weren't allowed to take pictures)

The Orangery, which used to be the stables, but is a cafe now.

A fountain/garden across from the Orangery.

The fountains and garden again!

Fun with Phone Booths!

Wendy, Amber, and I decided to do the very touristy thing and take pictures inside the London phone booths (these are only common in tourist areas, regular phone booths are more modern looking).


Here is a phone booth...soon to be victim to our tourist ways!


I'm chatting it up on the phone.


Up close shot of the conversation

Now time to get out of this heat-retaining box!


I think this must be an evil phone booth...I don't know why it's black.

From the Streets of London

This is a side street (called a mew, I believe) that just looks incredibly cute!


Another mew

This is a basement flat (almost every set of flats has one)...I thought this one was really nice decorated :)

The streets tell you what way oncoming traffic is coming from so you don't get hit...it's VERY helpful

Here I am walking to my class down one of the residential streets in the neighborhood

Walking around Hyde Park and Harrod's

On Wednesday, I met Amber and Wendy after class and we walked over to Hyde Park and then to Harrod's. Hyde Park is GORGEOUS! I'll try not to put up TOO many pictures though (I took a lot).

Here's some of Hyde Park and the Serpentine River. It's very green here...I like it a lot :)

I loved the stark contrast of the orange flower against all the cool colored flowers.

This is the statue of Peter Pan in Hyde Park. I have pictures of it close up, but I didn't feel like you needed 7 pictures of the same statue (it takes a long time to load as it is!)


The Italian Fountains and a swan (they're so pretty!)
The Italian Fountains again...

The Serpentine River and a statue...I thought it looked cool

This swan came up SO close to me!


The Princess Diana memorial fountain - it's very cool...a giant circular fountain that everyone can put their feet and hang out.

The fountain if I looked to my left.

Harrods...the biggest department store I've ever seen...it's MASSIVE!! (It even has a sushi bar inside!)