Notre Dame

I loved visiting the Louvre, The Pompidiu Center, the Orsay, Rodin Museum, Ivalides, Eiffel Tower, Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame and Pere Lachaise Cemetery. The food was great (even if I've forever maimed myself on baguette), especially the pastries but I would gladly never have to ride the Metro again, be accosted by insane French poets, smell stale urine for 4 days straight or pay 7 Euro ($10) for a diet Coke again in my life! This evening when I arrived back in the UK I took a deep breath of clean English air and grinned from ear to ear! I love you England!!!

Here's my favorite picture from the trip, it's the Rose Window at Notre Dame. If you want to see all the pictures I took, check me out on Photobucket. Here's the link: http://s1112.photobucket.com/home/Moxeyjc/index

Tower of London

Went to the Tower of London this morning. Very interesting. I just noticed that I took about 20 pictures of windows...it's a minor obsession I guess.
1. Our small group.
2. Church in the White Tower. 3. Stairway and a window in the White Tower. 4. Henry VIII's jousting armor. 5. Horse statues from the line of Kings.

Winchester

Today Courtney, Sabrina, Rachel and I went to Winchester. I was kind of nervous about it because it was my idea and no one had ever even heard of the town. I found out about it in a book I found laying around our flat. Winchester was the capital of England for along time, the Cathedral is really huge, which is kind of odd for such a small town. It wasn't always so small. Anyway, there are 12 Kings buried at Winchester Cathedral as well as Jane Austen (which if I am honest is really why I wanted to go in the first place). The oldest private school in GB is also in Winchester as well as the ruins of an old castle and a very fun shopping district. We had a blast today...I'm so glad my idea to go to Winchester was a success! (King Arthur's round table is also in Winchester but we didn't get a chance to see it...bummer!)

Tate Modern

Some of you may know that I'm not a huge Modern Art fan. I just don't get it to be honest, which is why I'm taking the class I'm taking this semester. I figure if I take a class and someone (aka: Courtney) can explain the whole artistic meaning of a spoon laying on a table to me, then maybe I'll learn to appreciate it.

There are a few artists I like, but over all, it's a big huge, "Huh?". Yep. So here's some pics of stuff I liked at the Tate Modern today.

National Gallery and the West End

Went to the National Gallery yesterday, which was really exciting. We couldn't take pictures inside so I don't really have anything to show you. I finally got to see a few paintings in real life that I really wanted to see. I say Constables, The Hay Wain, a bunch of Turner's and Renoir's and Dega's plus Caravaggio's, The Supper at Emmas, which was beautiful and amazing.

I never really liked Caravaggio's work until I started taking art history classes, now I'm a total fan. His use of light and shadow is so beautiful.

After our time at the National Gallery I went to the West End to get a ticket to see Billy Elliot that evening. Wicked was on right across the street so I walked over there to see how much tickets were and ended up going to the matinee. So yesterday I went to two plays and they were both really good, although I liked Billy Elliot the best.

At Wicked I sat next to some people from Utah, how crazy is that? One of the girls in the group is friends with one of the girls on the same study abroad as myself! Small, small world. Then at Billy Elliot I spoke with the nice couple sitting next to me. They were locals and we had a lot of fun chatting and they explained the slang to me. So over all, I had a lot of fun yesterday.

Today it looks like laundry, grocery shopping and a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum right down the road. Might have some pictures of that later today.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We went to St. Paul's Cathedral today. It's a truly beautiful place and very peaceful, even when it's full of people. We couldn't take pictures inside but I did get a couple before I saw the no photography sign.

Canterbury

Sabrina, Courtney and I went to Canterbury today. It was pretty fun. Sabrina got her nose pierced, a life long dream, and I bought some presents for some people back home. We went to the Cathedral which was very nice and not creepy at all. There was a service going on at the time with the choir singing through most of our visit. It was rather pretty. I recorded a portion so that you could hear what we did today.

First Trip Out of London

We left London at 7am yesterday and drove to Salisbury where we stayed the night at a cute little B&B. On our way to Salisbury we first stopped at Stonehenge, which is right off the road, you can see it as you drive up to it, which is pretty amazing. There's only so many ways to take a photo of a block of stone, but it was an amazing site.

We learned in class that Stonehenge was basically a cemetery, a place where ancient people may have worshiped a sun god of some sort, because the ring of stones can also be used as a calender. Outside of the immediate site of Stonehenge there are fairly recent excavations of a city. We didn't get to see the site, but basically the idea is that Stonehenge was for the dead and the city was for the living.

Our next stop was Stourhead Estate. Some people weren't very excited about this stop, but it was the highlight of the trip for me. Remember the scene in "Pride and Prejudice" with Kira Knightly where Mr. Darcy proposes to Jane? Well, that is called the 'Temple of Apollo' and is located in the gardens of the estate. The entire time I was walking through the gardens I kept thinking, "Mom and Sarah, Emily and La would love this"! It's absolutely stunningly beautiful and one day (soonish) we need to see it all together. Sometimes photographs just can't do the subject justice. Not only was it beautiful to look at but it smelled wonderful with all of the flowers in bloom.

We stopped at Old Sarum which is an old Medieval ruin outside of Salisbury. It was the least exciting stop of the trip, but a beautiful location high up on a hill looking down over Salisbury.

Next we drove into Salisbury where were toured the Cathedral. It was a very beautiful building that is nearly 1000 years old but to be honest I didn't feel very comfortable in there. It was weird...I don't know how to explain it. When we went to Bath today I couldn't make myself go into the Cathedral there because of the memory of the unpleasant feeling I had in Salisbury.

Today we went to Bath as I mentioned. First I toured the Bath House and the old Roman ruins, then I admired the Cathedral from the outside, then I walked up the the Jane Austen museum and toured there. That was pretty fun, you know what a fan I am of Jane. I'm sure we would have been friends back in the day! *grin*

Now we're back in our flat in London with brand new clean sheets on our beds and planning our trip to Canterbury (another Cathedral...I'll force myself to go it) and Dover. I'll post on that one tomorrow night.

PS: I've put a few photo's on here but I'm really limited, so I'm downloading all of my pictures onto Photobucket now. Here's the link if you want to see all the pictures http://s1112.photobucket.com/albums/k495/Moxeyjc/London%20Summer/
If it doesn't work please let me know.

The Imperial War Museum, Tower Bridge, etc. etc.

Guess what? As of today I've been in London 1 week. It sure feels like I've been here a lot longer. After all the things we've already seen and done it seems like a lot more time should have gone by.

Today I ate a Summer Berry Crepe for lunch, went to the Imperial War Museum and walked a very long way along the Thames, over Tower Bridge and past the Tower of London then went on a Ghost Walk through the West Bank. All in all it was a fun day, but I've got three new blisters to welcome the the party. Sigh... Oh well, at least they won't be lonely, the triplets will keep them company. I have dubbed the new ones, Larry, Mo and Curly.

I don't know if anyone is reading this...so please let me know if you are. Thanks.

So, here's some pics.