Somerset

Wednesday May 23rd
We hopped on the train bright and early along with a bunch of commuters and headed off to visit some friends of Katie's. Mrs. Glendenning picked us up at the train station and took us to their home. Part of their home was built in the 1400s, another part in the 1500s and the most recent part was from the 1600s. Not quite the same thing as my house which was built in 1911! They were a really sweet older couple and I think quite pleased to have us there and to get to show us around. Once we got settled Mr. Glendenning took us on a country walk. We headed off down the street and then turned off onto what appeared to be someone's field. It was, but the public footpath went right through it and public footpaths cannot be moved without a lot of time, legal stress and money. I'm not quite sure how many different fields we walked through, but we got to see quite a bit of the countryside around there and have it all explained by our very own tour guide. He pointed out housed that were classic 1400 style house, 1500 and so on. We also popped into an old church that was along our way. It was really fun and also really nice to be away from cities. When we got back to the house we sat down to tea which we had quite a bit of while we were there. They have it around 11am then they have it again around 4:30 or 5pm and they offered to put the kettle on again around 10 right before going to bed. I like tea, but that is a bit much. The next day Katie and I went off on a walk by ourself (taking pictures) until after 11am tea. After tea we headed our with Mr. Glendenning again to see the Moors. They are rather hard to take good pictures of. It just looks like flat green plains, but they were very pretty and he enjoyed showing us around. We got the best view when we climbed up Burrow Mump (which basically means hill hill). After that we headed back. Now I did not mention this earlier because I need to go into some detail. but the roads we took to get there and back were not like any normal road (even country roads) in the US. They were hedgerows. Narrow roads (and I do mean narrow! some parts were about 1 1/2 cars wide if that) that had hedges on either side of the road. Tall hedges that you could not see over combined with the narrow road. Add to that very few signs and smaller hedgerows heading off every once in a while and it was quite an experience. These roads were so narrow that at times if we met someone going the opposite direction one or the other would have to back up until they hit a wider spot and let the other car pass. And these roads just went on and on. I'm not quite sure how he found his way back, habit I guess, but eventually we made it back to the house. Just in time for afternoon tea. That evening they took us to a concert to hear some Russian singers. They sang a variety of sacred Russian church music and then ended with some fun folk songs. After the concert we headed back to the house for a late dinner party. And it was late for me, I don't usually eat dinner at 10pm. And here is the part were I talk about the most disgusting thing I ate on my trip. Pate. If you have never tried it... don't! If you like it maybe you should have your head examined! At any rate for those innocent folks like me who don't know what it is I will explain. It is basically meat (supposedly only the best meat at least that is what I was told) ground up into a paste with very little added. Maybe some butter and I don't remember what else they said. At any rate I was given the duck pate to try and did. It was nauseating. I think my bad side took over for a minute. I saw that Katie had some of the chicken pate and was forcing it down as politely as possible and I insisted that she try the duck as well. Bad, bad, bad. But Katie won by in turn insisting that I try the chicken. Did I mention how bad the duck tasted? Well take really bad and multiply it by about 10! I think what made it so very awful was that we had to force every bit of it down without gagging. Oh well, now it is something to laugh about, and I know for future reference to always say that pate is not really my thing.
The next morning we headed off to see Bath and then to spend the night in Cardiff, Wales.

Dover

Tuesday (May 22nd) Katie and I headed off to the train station to make our way down to Dover. It was a beautiful day and it was not a really long trip, but when we got into Dover and asked how to get to our hostel we had not counted on uphill most of the way. We were really hot and tired by the time we got there and then it was to find out that check-in was not until 3pm (another 2 hours). However he let us in and said we could leave our bags inside if we wanted to which we did because in spite of packing light they were really heavy after a while! So armed with our cameras (and a map) from the Info Center we headed off to check out the white cliffs. Like I said earlier it was a beautiful day and so we were able to get the white cliffs with the blue sky and blue water. Stunning. After walking down along the water and out on a dock we headed back to the land and decided to go on the longer hike up along the cliffs. And I do mean along. We were touching them at times. Which by the way I had never realized (or forgot) how chalky they are. If you pick up a piece of the rock and squeeze it it will turn to dust in your hand. We eventually headed back to the hostel to get ready for the next part of our trip the next day. On to Somerset area to stay with a totally british family.

More on London... now that I'm home :)

Well, now that I am home maybe I should post again. :) Somehow I never seemed to get around to finding an internet cafe.

In my last post I was still telling about London. Monday morning we headed off to watch the changing of the guards. I know... cheesy tourist stuff as all the British people were quick to tell us, but it was still lots of fun. We got there early enough to get a spot along the fence, so armed with our digital cameras (with good zooms) we waited. And waited. And waited some more... Eventually the night guards showed up and their band and then shortly later the fresh troops came along with their band. I was able to get some really neat pictures while the band played and they marched around. Then it started to rain, but they kept right on playing. And playing. I had thought it was about 1/2 hr to 45 min process. Wrong! It went for close to an hour and a half. I was kind of tired of taking pictures by the time it was over, but I wasn't to wet since we were so packed against the fence. Even if we had wanted to leave earlier it would have been a lot of work to get through the crowd. We survived though and it was worth it even though it is just a tourist thing.
After we finally got out of there we headed as fast as we could to the Tower of London (I have put two picture of it on here). We ony had about 2 1/2 hrs there, but we managed to see a fair amount of it, including the crown jewels which were properly awe inspiring. At least they were to a poor nobady like me. But in all honesty I have to say that I was thinking about how many starving children the price of all those jewels and gold dishes would feed and I did not really enjoy seeing as much as I thought I would.
Around 3 we rushed off to Hyde Park. We then headed over to The Orangery in Kensington Garden (the orange building in the pictures) for high tea. After all being a tea lover I could hardly be in England and not have high tea! It was really fun. We each got our own little pot of tea and were then started off with cucumber sandwiches arranged very artistically on the plate, then we were given a scone with clotted cream butter and strawberry jam. I can truthfully say that scone was the best I have ever eaten. After that we finished off with a piece of orange cake. It was so fun and we got to pretend to be ladies having out afternoon tea. Nevermind that we were in jeans and windbreakers, but so were other people so it was okay.
Katie and I then had to rush back to the hotel to change quickly and head out to see Le Mis. I honestly did not know much of the storyline before that, but I loved it. It was quite fascinating and the music was beautful. I was also was given a student price ticket for this show as well, even though I told them I was not a student. So because I spent a half the money I had been planning, I enjoyed the show even more.
After it got out around 10pm Katie and I decided instead of heading back to the hotel we would go take some pictures of the Tower and the bridge at night. It is the most fairytale looking bridge at night that I have ever seen. I have included a picture of it here. We finally headed home around midnight to try and get some sleep so we would be ready to head off to Dover in the morning. Which I will post about later.

Catching up with me in Britain

I finally made it into an internet cafe. While I wait for my pictures to download I will write a quick note. Friday afternoon Katie and I braved the underground and went to Trafalager Square. Then she dragged me through the National Gallery (to keep me moving until around 10pm). We did see some amazing art. I have to admit though that once or twice I do believe that I was dozing on my feet.
After we saw everything in the Gallery we walked along down to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Passing the Parliament Building along the way. We took a few pictures (or more then a few) and then crossed the Westminster Bridge, walked along the waterfront to the Jubilee Bridge. We eventually made our way back to the Hotel and had some dinner. I FINALLY got to go to bed and slept straight through like a rock until 9am.
Saturday morning we went to the Portabello Market. Now that is a crowded place on a Saturday morning. There were so many venders and wares and not anywhere near enough time to see it all. I did get a mini lesson on how to draw a celtic design from a neat older man who was selling celtic stamps. Not that I bought one though, they were fairly expensive. After we had had all the crowd we could take we hopped on the subway to go to the British Library. We got to see some pretty amazing things there, and the best part is that it was free. We saw some old illuminated bibles, some papyrus manuscripts, and the Gutenberg Bible. Then we went to the music section and were able to see some original copies of so many composers. Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan and many others.
We then rushed back to the hotel and changed to go to a performance of Wicked. The story of the Wicked Witch of the West from the story of Oz. It was really fun and I was actually given a student price ticket along with Katie and Sonia even though I told them I was not a student. It was a really fun show and the music was great.
Sunday morning we headed off to St. Paul's Cathedral for church. We ended up in seats directly under the dome and just to the right of the choir. There were times when you could hear a pin drop in there. The sound of the choir was magnificent and the cathedral itself was astounding. It was really beautiful and yet I can understand more fully why the puritans were so fanatical about simplicity. After the service we headed to the British Museum. At least we tried to. It was a little more complicated to get to then we had anticipated. We eventually found it and had time to run upstairs, find the Rosetta Stone and run back out again. We made it to Westminster Abbey only about 5 minutes late for the Evensong. Once again we got to see the inside of an amazing cathedral and to hear gorgeous music. After we got out of there katie and I decided to explore Harrod's. Now if you ever want to feel rather poor take a wander through there. There was one handbag that would be around $2000! Amazing that people will pay prices like that. When we decided that we had had enough of it we headed back to the hotel via a walk through Kensington/ Hyde Park.
I am running out of time so I will have to tell about the rest of my time at another time.

London

I made it to London. It was an interesting trip over though. My flight from PDX to Houston was delayed about 1 hr after a shorter delay so I ended up on the next flight to Houston which was scheduled to arrive at 6:15PM and my London flight at 6:45, but we ended up delayed leaving about 15 minutes so I arrived in Houston at 6:30 and RAN across the terminal to my connecting gate. There were two other people though that were running with me. We made the flight, but the whole trip I was praying that my luggage made it as well. I got off the plane and happily walking along talking to the other girl that ran with me and suddenly we realized that we were supposed to be in that line over there. That line was SO long. And I mean LONG! It went down this long hallway. Then we finally got to the end of that hallway, it went down another hallway. Then after that it turned and went down the ramp and then finally into the room we were headed to. Of course then you have all the roped off area. After an hour and a half I finally got through and got to find out if my luggage came through. Praise God it did! I don't quite know how but it did. I have to get ready to go now, so I will write more later.

Only 4 Days!

I am really not very good at posting stuff on these things, but I will try. The main reason for my starting to use this is that I will be leaving for Great Britain in 4 Days! I am so excited (of course, who wouldn't be?). I will be arriving in London on the 17th and meeting my friend Katie. She is currently on her school trip and I will be joining them for the London part of the trip. When all the rest of the class leaves on the 22nd Katie and I will start out on our own. :) That night we will spend in Dover, and beyond that our itinerary is not set in stone. Over the three weeks we are planning on visiting various parts of England, Cardiff Wales and parts of Scotland. Only 4 DAYS!. I will try to update this periodically throughout my trip to keep everyone in touch with whats going on and where I am.