Photo Tours

The past few days have been filled with tours: walking tours, bus tours, the works. On Friday, we took a coach and saw some of the big sites of London, and Saturday we got up early and rolled off to see Warwick Castle and Oxford. Below are some of the pics from the sites, with me explaining each of them. Now, since I was taking pictures with my phone, some of mine didn’t turn out terribly well, so some of the pictures are from other students. I give full credit to Alyssa, Cameron, and David, whose pics I may have borrowed. (Just a quick note: the captions are below the pictures they refer to.)

This is our group with our guide from Friday, Sean (in the purple scarf). Two words: power walker. This guy can book it.

This is Westminster Abbey, of Da Vinci Code infamy (it’s not just me, Sean brought it up, but I have been reading Dan Brown lately). We didn’t get a chance to go in, but it is gorgeous from the outside as well.

Westminster Abbey from another side. Still painfully pretty.

This is St. Margaret’s, which is right next to Westminster Abbey (you may be able to see it in the background of the first picture). We were able to go inside here. This chapel is actually the one Parliament uses for it’s official start of Session prayers and things, and you can see labels on the pews for the different politicians (sorry no pictures).

Inside of St. Margaret’s. This is a stained glass window featuring Queen Elizabeth and her 12 (ahem) boyfriends … The irony of this window is that she outlived every single one of these men. Sean, our guide, called it “stained glass to die for”.

Parliament! Looking all patriotic with the flag and whatnot, not to mention the trademark British sky.

This is a really awesome picture of the clock face on the tower of Big Ben. (Quick Fact: Big Ben is the bell, not the tower). This is not one of my pics; David has an awesome camera, and can therefore take the really artsy shots.

The tower of Big Ben, seen through the London Eye (well, that’s fitting). Emily, another English Teaching Fellow, and I have made a sort of pact: if one of us decides to go up on the wheel, we go together, so if push comes to shove, there will be two quaking acrophobics huddled in the middle of the car. 

This is the oldest wall in London. The base of it (which you can’t see) is actually Roman, and it was built up through the ages. Now, it serves as a piece of the city’s history and a roosting place for the incredibly fat pigeons of London. 

The Tower of London! Final home of treasoners and several English Queens.

Near the Tower of London, Sean, our guide, led us over to this little bricked square by the World War memorial. Of course, we all crowded onto it, to hear what Sean had to say, when he calmly told us that the spot upon which we stood was where treasoners from the Tower of London were executed (Queens got to stay in the grounds). A bit disconcerting, to stand on such bloodsoaked ground, but we all took pictures anyway.

And now, on to Warwick Castle!

Ain’t it purdy?

This is inside the Great Hall at Warwick Castle, adorned for a banquet.

This pic is for the guys. I am actually very happy with it, because, since the pistols were in a glass case, I also caught the reflection of the swords hanging on the wall above them.

Included in the artifacts of Warwick Castle is this Narwhal tusk. The funniest thing about this was the fact that, upon seeing it, a couple of Elon student’s said “Wait, are Narwhal’s real? I thought they were fake animals.” Despite making my day, this comment made me a bit sad about the state of our nation’s youth.

Warwick Castle is a bit Disneyfied, and so they have an attraction called Princess Tower. Of course, every girl on the trip headed their first to satisfy our dreams of being a princess, only to discover that the attraction was for under 12 year olds. Our hearts were broken, but this sign cheered me up a bit.

 This is a tiny hole in the dungeons where they would throw the people who really  got on their nerves. You can’t tell from the picture, but it is only about 1.5’x1.5’.

I did NOT take this picture (remember the London Eye?) but I thought it was a great shot so I borrowed it from Cameron, who was brave enough to climb the tower.


And now, Oxford!

It was a bit crowded. And VERY windy.

This is Christ Church College at Oxford. A few landmarks: you see that big building with the spires in the background right? That is where they filmed the Great Hall scenes for Harry Potter! I will now allow a brief geek-out break. When everyone has collected themselves, notice the bell tower in the upper left hand corner. The bell housed there is Old Tom, and it is tradition that it is rung 101 times at 9:05 to signal the closing of the gates. If you don’t make it in by the last toll, you are locked out, and have to sleep on the lawn; or at least, you used to.

Here are some of the playing grounds at Oxford, no doubt where the practice their famous Rugby. Kevin, I promise to send you your Oxford Rugby shirt soon!

his is a pub by the Thames river, where it runs through Oxford (the Thames, not the pub; as far as I’m aware pubs don’t run).

I saved the best for last. This is the reading room of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The Bodleian is a copyright library, and therefore id offered a copy of every book printed in the English language. Can you say heaven?

This post took FOREVER to write, so don’t expect me to post many more with lots of pictures like this. I may post the occasional snapshot, but it eats up far too much effort and internet time. Toodle-oo! I will post again soon!

Initial Impressions

I know I am a bit late getting up my first blog post, and I apologize. (Blame jet lag, I do.) Since I don’t think I will be able to do a comprehensive story of my first days in London, I will instead provide a list of impressions that have hit me since I left the US.

·         No matter how many seats I have to sprawl on, sleeping on a plane is still uncomfortable. Our flight was way under booked, with the result that there were about 100 empty seats on the plane. Of course, every Elon student instantly claimed 2 or 3 chairs as their own personal property. I chose to take a set of two, because I wanted the window, but despite my extra sprawling room, it was still one of the most uncomfortable sleeps I have ever had. It didn’t help that I was playing an audiobook on my iPod, and every time I would wake up, I would get all confused because the story had kept playing and I had lost track of the plot for 10 chapters.

·         Jokes about crowded London Tube = NOT exaggerating. I have gotten to ride the Tube a couple of times already, and most times it was no more crowded than a normal big city underground. However, at rush hour, it is packed crazy tight. The sardines cliché doesn’t even cover it.

·         I love the pound coin! England has this nifty pound coin that they use instead of £1 notes, and I find them both adorable and useful. It is strange the first time you pay for groceries with coins, but you soon become enamored with the ease of use.

·         I just want normal coffee! I am a bit of a coffee-holic, and I have always lived with a dependable coffee maker. However, our flat does not have a coffee maker, only an electric kettle. This means that I can either buy a coffee pot, or get used to instant coffee. I figured I’d be brave and go for the instant, but this decision left me with the humbling position of standing in the aisle of Tesco’s, looking at all the unfamiliar brand names, trying to determine which was the best coffee for the least cost.

·         Brits Brits everywhere and not a word to understand. Well, I actually can understand most of the accents; I was exaggerating so I could make the reference. I have had great fun listening to all the conversations and recordings and drinking in the lovely accents. I have two especially fun anecdotes to share: 1) In our Health and Safety lecture, the police officer talking to us used a couple bits of rhyming slang, which left us baffled until he explained himself. They were “tea leaves” for “thieves” and “half inched” for “pinched”. 2) When I dialed Vodafone to put £10 on my pay-as-you-go phone, the lady on the recording was extremely cheery. She told me to “not worry if I entered the pin wrong” and “Great job!” after I entered it correctly. Americans, the Brits have got you beat on the whole prerecording thingy, even the lady on the Tube is very polite and actually sounds like a human.

·         Limited internet stresses me out. As an American, I am used to this whole concept of unlimited internet usage, and having a weekly cap on my minutes makes me a bit jittery. I become so worried about how long I am online and how many megabytes I am using, that I end up signing off before I actually do all I meant to do. I suppose I will get better at managing it, but for now it might be my least favorite part of London.

·         The Holmes Homeland.  We had a walking tour of our neighborhood today which ended at Baker Street, and you know what that means: the Holmes fangirl in me went all silly. Our guide quizzed us about who lived on Baker Street (doi) and where he lived. The last question only I and Dr. Delpish knew (really people?) and so now all the group know my intense love of the detective. We actually walked past the museum, which I plan to visit soon. Also, our guide explained that he will actually be leading a Sherlock Holmes walking tour relatively soon, and of course I will be signing up for that the second I can, because I’m hip like that.

·         VINDICATION! Those who know me (or have read my Facebook page) know that one of my favorite authors is Jasper Fforde. However, every time I mention him in America, I get a lot of blank looks. So imagine my joy and surprise when I see an iPad ad in the Tube, demonstrating the bookshelf feature, which proudly displays The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I squealed, got a picture, and thoroughly embarrassed my American friends, but I don’t care, because I have PROOF that Fforde is a popular author, at least in Britain, and that my fascination with him is perfectly normal. And so, I leave y’all today with a mission: find a copy of either The Eyre Affair or The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, and give him a try, I promise he is worth it.