I Crossed the Ocean...

…for a heart of gold.  Well I did cross the ocean about a month ago and there was a lot of gold.

Friday Courtney and I went to Buckingham Palace. 

The Gardens at Buckingham Palace!

We started off the day by touring the Queen’s Gallery.  The temporary exhibit was the anatomical drawings done by Leonardo da Vinci.  Yeah, that one guy that painted a little diddy known as the Mona Lisa.  While the fact that these drawings were done by my man LDV, they weren’t really my thing.  Cue speedy exit.

We then went on to the piece de resistance, Buckingham Palace!  We were able to tour the staterooms, since my future grandmother, the Queen, is at her vacation home in Scotland.  The staterooms are similar to the ones at Windsor, are used for entertaining guests to the palace.  All of the rooms were fabulous and decorated in various colors and of course gold, but my very favorite was the Music Room.  It definitely wasn’t the biggest, but it was just so darn charming! 

According to my beloved audio guide, the Music Room is where the Queen and the Duke’s three oldest children, Charles, Anne, and Andrew were baptized, as well as, more excitingly, Wills! Typically though, the room is used for private concerts.  My very favorite feature was the ceiling which was domed and had the three symbols of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland repeated on the diagonals.  The English Rose, the Scottish Thistle, and the Irish Shamrock were not only adorable, but really well thought out! John Nash, what a little genius.  Not sure why Wales wasn’t represented.  But then again, I’m not really too clear on the whole United Kingdom vs. Great Britain thing either. 

The Music Room, the darker lines are my favorite part of the ceiling!

We also saw a special exhibit called, Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration.  I wasn’t expecting to be impressed, but I loved seeing some of the crowns and other jewels that royalty have worn!  My favorite jewels were the seven on display made from the Cullinan Diamond.  The Cullinan Diamond was discovered in South Africa in 1905 and is the largest diamond ever mined.  Over time, it was split into nine separate diamonds, with two becoming a part of the crown jewels.  This exhibit is the first time the remaining seven jewels have ever been housed together in public.

The back of Buckingham Palace!
The center, domed part is where the Music Room is located.

Our “Royal Day Out” tickets also included admission to the Royal Mews, where they keep the carriages and cars, but Courtney and I were exhausted, so we skipped that.  But not to worry, we had our tickets converted into one-year passes, so we will return!

We ended the day by going to Bodean’s BBQ.  I had discovered this place online when I was searching for somewhere to watch the Cardinals game in London.  And boy, am I glad I found it.  The pulled pork was delicious.  Even better, was our dessert of Apple Cobbler.  Easily the best thing I have had in London.  Bodean’s may just become our LaFiesta Tuesday replacement!

The only downside was that the Cardinals lost.  To the Cubs.  Oh well, you can’t win everything!

We Didn't Start the Fire...

…but it was always burning, since the world’s been turning.  Well the fire was in 1992, so one year old me all the way over in America definitely didn’t start it. 

Sunday Courtney and I took a quick train ride 20 minutes outside of London to Windsor.  Windsor Castle is the Queen’s very favorite weekend home.  I wish my favorite weekend home had 1000 rooms.  Or that I had a favorite weekend home.  Or a weekend home at all. 

Me and my bestie Kate.

When we arrived in Windsor, we looked through quite a few shops on a quaint little street.  We then headed to lunch.  Which turned into a two hour affair.  This whole European custom of not brining the bill until you ask for it is getting pretty old.  We waited over an hour because our waiter seemed to disappear right about the time we were ready to leave.  How convenient.

After lunch we headed to the main attraction of Windsor, its namesake, the Castle! There was an extremely long line to get in.  Way to kick us when we’re down.  Courtney and I passed the time with our favorite game.  Hilarious as always.

Windsor Castle!

St. George's Chapel, which was closed since it was a Sunday
and churches need to do churchy things on Sundays.

After buying our tickets, security checkpoints, and numerous photo ops we finally began our tour!  I of course had an audio guide which I listened to faithfully while Courtney walked at breakneck speed through every exhibit.  

The first thing we saw was Queen Mary’s Dollhouse.  It was very impressive.  It was made as a replica of Windsor Castle and apparently has running water.  Not sure why that’s  necessary.  Oh royalty, the things you waste money on.  

Queen Mary's Doll House.
I can claim this as my own because it looks about as good as a picture I'd take.
But really thanks Google Images and some poor person
who was probably thrown out of Windsor Castle for taking this less than spectacular photo.  

We then moved on to the Drawings Gallery.  This contained 60 pictures in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the throne.  I loved all of the photos, but my very favorite was one taken by Ian Jones of the Queen passing by Prince William at the Sovereign’s Parade. 

Just adorable.
Sorry I'm not sorry, Ian Jones for stealing your picture from  Google Images.

Finally, we finished our tour by passing through the State Apartments.  These rooms are used by guests of the Castle as well as by the Queen for various functions.  My favorite room was the Waterloo Chamber.  My entire house back in good ol’ Rochester could fit inside this room.   But even more impressive were the portraits. All of the portraits in this room were of foreign dignitaries, yet they were all painted by the very same man.  I learned this though the super awesome audio tour.   I also learned about how the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 destroyed many of the State Apartments.  In one of the rooms, the floor was charred, so to fix it each board was removed and flipped over and replaced.  Fun facts. 

The Waterloo Chamber, empty when I saw it!
But no photography, ever.

Before heading back to school, we stopped in a few more shops.   Courtney and I had both seen a store called Cath Kidston a few times in the city.  We both thought it looked super cute, so we decided to venture in.  Great choice.  It’s the UK version of Vera Bradley.  I was loving it.  We finished off the day with some Apple Pie ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s before catching an early train back to London!

One Step at a Time...

…there’s no need to rush.  Well, there were a lot of steps and we sure as hell weren’t in any hurry!

Yesterday Courtney and I went on our very first trip out of London, to Dover, England! 

We left from London on a bus at 7:30 am.  Not sure who picked that time.  Oh wait, that was me.  After a million stops in what I can only assume was London and a quick stop in Canterbury, we finally made it to Dover by about 10.  We immediately went in search of food.  Typical.  We had some breakfast at a café.  There was some creepy overcooked ham-bacon involved.  Moving on.  We took a cab up the huge hill to the castle. Great choice. 

Dover Castle!

Dover Castle was built in the 12^th century and is the largest castle in England.  Translation: the one with the most stairs.  Courtney and I walked around the outskirts of the grounds and then took a tour of the tunnels.  We saw a World War II hospital in said tunnels.  It was really cool!  We finished up with a climb up 87123 stairs to the top of the castle’s tower.  We were dying.  It was worth it.     

Pathway around the Castle

The Tower

Stairs on Stairs on Stairs

View from the top!

 We then attempted to take a taxi back down to town.  Key word: attempted.  I called the taxi service not once but three times.  After a lot of confusion and a lot of time wasted, the taxi finally showed up.  The man was snippy.  Less than enjoyable.  At least he took us to the right place.

We arrived at the marina with about an hour before our tour of the White Cliffs was supposed to start.  We were hungry and went on a food mission.  Mission, not accomplished.  Our only options were a swanky seafood restaurant and a raw seafood stand that the swanky restaurant probably bought their overpriced fish from.  Settled for some Cadbury chocolate that I had brought in my giant bag. 

We ended the day with a tour in the Dover Rover.  Our own personal bus.  Richard drove us all over the cliffs and showed us some of the remaining structures from WWII.  There was a giant trench and a place where guns would be stored in case of invasion.  But the best part was when Courtney fell up the hill in between those two sights. 

area where the guns would have been

Trench

Our final stop of the tour was the White Cliffs!  They were spectacular.  I only wish we could have had more time to walk along them.  Oh well, there’s always Ireland!

The White Cliffs!

As Richard pulled back into the town center Courtney was excitedly pointing to the left of the bus and I was excitedly pointing to the right.  I was looking at a restaurant called the Ellie Café and Courtney was looking at a KFC.  You can guess which one we ate at.  KFC, all Amurrica, all the time.

Walking on Sunshine...

…and don’t it feel good.  Well, it was sunny and I was walking. A lot.

This past week I went on two field trips with my classes.  On Tuesday my Art and Architecture class went to Westminster Abbey and today, Thursday, my Social History class went to the Museum of London!

Tuesday my friend Kelly and I made the journey to Westminster together.  We were early, so she showed me around a little bit and then we met up with our class and our professor, David Brady.  I had been forewarned that this man walked quickly.  Quick doesn’t even cut it.  He walks at my flat out running pace.  I understand that I have short legs and can’t take strides as long as others, but even the tallest people in the class were struggling to keep up.  This wasn’t so much of a problem in the Abbey, but when we left, oh baby. 

Westminster Abbey is positively breathtaking.  I couldn’t take any pictures inside, but it is definitely a sight to see.  One girl in my class ignored this “no photography” rule and was strongly reprimanded by one of the Harry Potter cloak wearing workers.  It was only slightly amusing.  Anyways, we toured the cloisters, which were nice, but the actual church was magnificent!  I, being American, and thus obsessed with royalty, pretended I was at Kate and Will’s wedding.  I noted where everyone would have sat, walked, etc.  I was loving it!  Since the point of this class is architecture, and the most notable architectural points of the abbey seem to be the ceiling, my eyes spent a good portion of the time looking upward.  Hello, neck pain.  As we practically sprinted through the abbey, I did get to see a few of the people buried there.  I saw Issac Newton and Queen Elizabeth I.  Two out of 3000. A return trip and 15 pounds will have to be sacrificed to see the rest.   

Westminster Abbey's main entrance!

Pretty architecture!

Once we made our speedy exit, we headed straight over to Banqueting House which is the only remaining part of the Palace of Whitehall.  Again with the theme, the ceiling was really the only interesting part.  There were giant extremely well-preserved paintings that covered the whole thing.

Banqueting House ceiling

We left there almost immediately and continued our run/walk around the city looking at buildings and things like Horse Guard’s Parade.  At the end of the trip, David Brady told us that if we had walked faster we could have seen plenty more things.  Seriously, dude? We were practically running from building to building.  Dreadful.

Horse Guard's Parade, used to be the headquarters of the British Army

Headquarter's of the British Navy

Today went much better.  My Social History of London class went to the Museum of London.  How creative!  We focused on the Roman era in London and had an object handling session.  Got to touch some really old pottery and stuff.  It was pretty cool. 

After class was over, I decided to explore the city a little on my own.  I walked by St. Paul’s Cathedral, down by the Thames , and somehow two miles later ended up in Covent Gardens.   Actually, 2.1 miles, I google mapped it.  I had ice cream for dinner and watched some street performers before heading home to good old Regent’s!

My only picture from my walk.
The Queen during her Silver Jubilee on the side of the Seacontainers House.
Supposedly the largest picture of the royal family there has ever been!

Saturday in the Park...

…I think it was the 4^th of July.  Well it was actually Sunday in the park(s) and it was the 9^th of September.

It’s hard to believe, but I actually do have to study and do homework here in London! So yesterday I decided to stick around campus and accomplish some things. 

It was around 80 degrees outside yesterday, super-hot for London! I took full advantage of it, and ventured out into Regent’s Park.  My end goal was Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, but I wandered around a bit before I eventually made it there. 

On the way to the Rose Garden!

Pretty!

Waterfall :)

The Rose Garden has around 12,000 roses in it, and these were a few of my favorites!

There were so many people in the park that I was struggling to find a good place to sit.  I finally did, on a perfect little bench under a trellis.

My view for the afternoon!

I pulled out my book and spent almost three hours soaking up the sun and finishing up my homework!  Afterwards, I went back inside and crossed nearly everything off my to-do list and then decided to go to dinner.

I met up with Courtney and we went to Pizza Express.  It was delicious!  Then we decided to walk to find this gelato place that I had read about in one of my travel books.  On the way, we stumbled upon the gorgeous Kensington Gardens right next to Hyde Park! The Gardens were beautiful, but I was more excited about seeing the Palace.

Statue of Queen Victoria in front of Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace is the former home of Princess Diana, Prince Charles, as well as Harry and Wills.  We had completely forgotten this fact until we saw all of the flowers, posters, and pictures on the gate in remembrance of Lady Di.  It was awesome to see the devotion people have to her. 

We strolled through the Gardens until they closed.  We then walked around for an hour trying to find the gelato place.  Gave up and settled on an ice cream shop, which turned out to be the gelato place’s replacement.  Made the long trek home in the dark successfully!

The Wheels on the Bus...

…go round and round.  Well, I’m pretty sure that song is about a school bus, but it applies to tour buses too!

On Friday Courtney and I bought passes for The Original Tour, a hop-on hop-off bus tour of London! We figured since we had each been here for about a week or so, it was about time we saw all the main attractions of the city. 

Before we got on the bus, we went to eat at Garfunkel’s.  I was so excited to see that they had lemonade on the menu! Prepare to be disappointed.  It was sparkling lemonade that tasted a lot like Sprite.  That was just an indication of how the meal was going to go.  We went with what we thought was a safe bet, hamburgers, but they failed us.  The hamburgers here have proven time and time again to be really gross.  So, no more hamburgers until December 24^th.  Chips, aka, French fries, are another matter.  London definitely knows how to make chips.  I can’t get enough of those things. 

After the less than successful lunch outing, we started our tour.  It took us around Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, Parliament, and Tower Bridge!

We stayed on the bus for the entire loop and by the time we made it back to Trafalgar Square, we were exhausted and ready to head home. 

         

           Trafalgar Square

Big Ben, obsessed.

London Eye

Tower Bridge with the Paralympic Logo!

          

             St. Paul's Cathedral

Classic London Pic :)

Saturday, we got up bright and early and headed straight to Buckingham Palace.  In August and September, while the Queen is on vacation in Scotland, the Palace is open to the public for tours! The tours start at 9:30 and when we got there at 9:45, they were already sold out for the day.  We were disappointed, but we will just have to head back another day before the month is over! We decided to skip out on waiting for the Changing of the Guard because it was super crowded and we wouldn’t be able to see anything.  Also, something for another day.  Luckily, we have four months here!

Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace

Courtney and I in front of the Palace!

After a few pictures, we left the Palace and wandered through Green Park and had some lunch at Pret A Manger.  There are literally hundreds of these Panera type places, around London. The only downside is you have to pay extra to stay and eat in the restaurant instead of getting food to-go.

We then hopped on another Original Tour bus, since the tickets are good for 24 hours.  We rode the bus over towards Parliament and hopped off and started walking.  We walked around for hours and hours pretty much just wandering around the entire city.   

Somehow, we ended up in this adorable area called Covent Gardens.  We walked through some shops and bought a few things, but mostly just looked.  So far, this is my very favorite place in London!  Here’s to many more favorites and a great weekend in London!

Me, in my favorite London Locale :)

Adorable!

Reunited...

…and it feels so good.  Well we are reunited and I’m so pleased!

Yesterday I finally got to see Courtney! She has been here since Monday, but we both finally had some free time so that we could meet up.  I was really worried about how we were going to find each other without a way to contact the other person, but it was surprisingly easy.  I took the tube and 30 minutes and one train change later I was at the Notting Hill Gate stop.  Problem being, there were four exits from the station.  I guessed. Well I was wrong. Twice.  Eventually, I saw Courtney across the street! I was so excited.  We ran some errands, finally got our phones, and then went to dinner!

Courtney's new home :)

We decided that we needed to be British and do as the British do, and go to a pub. We chose one called The Champion.  It was adorable.  We both ordered pints of Peroni and fish and chips.  The fish and chips were really good! The Peroni was really gross. We can cross that one off the list.

Me and the Peroni. Never need to see that again!

After dinner, I headed back to Regent’s for the Freshers Week tent party.  It was, in fact, not inside of a tent.  We had to sit outside in the freezing cold, but it was still fun!

Other than that, it has just been me, in London, getting used to my classes and the time change!