Highlights

Soooo, a lot's been happening!  Classes started a couple of weeks ago, and I guess to make up for the two month late start on the semester, my professors are handing out buckets of homework!  Yay!  No, it's actually not too bad.  My music professor just cancelled both his midterms and class last week.  However, the lack of grades makes it terrifying for when we do have a test or something.  Talk about pressure!  Took my first midterm and started my first paper this past week.  Other than that, here's a photo update!

The Tower of London!!  Where Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and SOOO many others were beheaded!  I can't wait to tour it in a couple weeks!

The former Port of London Authority where much of the world sea trade was once controlled.  That's Father Thames on the top!

London Bridge

Look at that cliche tourist

St. Olave's: home of many famous people and one of the few churches that escaped the Great Fire of 1666.

Inside St. Olave's

Grave of Mother Goose!

We went and saw Swan Lake.  A little long, but so beautiful!

The Royal Opera House.

The London Obelisk.  One of a pair- the other is in Central Park.  We learned it's from the city of On, a place Joseph (of the technicolor dream coat) was probably familiar with and where Mary and Joseph may have sought refuge with Jesus.  Cool!

View from the Thames.  Just another rainy day in London town.

Robert Raikes- founder for Sunday Schools.  Being a Sunday School teacher myself, I guess I should say thanks?

Soooooo thirsty!  Europe has no water fountains anywhere!

WICKED!! OH MY GOSH!!  Wish my family were here to see it with me!

Ooooo, this song gave me shivers!

Out of all the musicals I've been to, this, I've got to say, has been my favorite.  "Who can say if I've been changed for the better, but because I knew you, I have been changed for good."

Christ's Church- built by Nicolas Hawksmoor, understudy of the famous Christopher Wren.

Inside Christ's Church.  Very different from the tall, vaulted gothic architecture of the old Catholic cathedrals.

Look familiar?  Still Christ's Church, but it reminded me a lot of the Arc de Triomphe.  Ahhh Paris!

Apparently these windows of Christ's Church are similar to the windows of the Salt Lake Temple.. they kind of just look like windows to me..

Outside the British Museum.  This place is HUGE and houses EVERYTHING.  Apparently England controlled a quarter of the world's lands at one point, so I guess it makes sense.  I plan on coming back at least once a week.  Even then, I doubt I'll make it through everything.

"Me want gum gum.. dum dum"

I have seen the rosetta stone!  How cool is that!

Don't really know why I took a picture of this, but it's really cool!

The Elgin Marbles!  I remember learning about the controversy over these in 2nd grade!  What a surreal experience!  I've got to say, even as a 7 year old, I sided with the Greeks.  Stinkin Brits.. always stealing other people's treasures..

Some more cool loot from the Parthenon, not to be mistaken with the PATHEON we visited in Paris.  This one's from Athens.

Stonehenge!  Not as big or cool (its right next to a highway.  pictures don't show you that, do they?) as one would think.  AND my least favorite BBC movie, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, ends with a horrible scene here.  Add freezing cold pellets of rain and hurricane worthy wind, and you get a not so nice tourist experience.  Well, I got a cool key chain!

Look familiar??

Anyone, anyone?

Bueller, bueller?

YEAH!  This is where Elizabeth Bennet rejects Mr. Darcy's cruel proposal in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Which means.... I'M STANDING WHERE KEIRA KNIGHTLY STOOD!!!!  All you Keira haters out there can just leave this blog because I LOVE HER!!  Now, I'm sure you're all wondering Mr. Darcy is.  Well, I am too.  But I'd take Jude Law as a good substitute!

This is about how I imagine Heaven to be, except maybe a little sunnier.  Surprisingly, the overcast, rainy weather doesn't bug me as much as I thought it would.  At least, not when I'm in gorgeous places like this!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, this place is called Stourhead Gardens.  A MUST SEE if you ever come to England.  The house tour is really fun and interesting as well.

I swear, I'm becoming the biggest cheese on this trip.  Sick.

Look who we found on our rambles through out London- John Smith!  I'll paint with all the colors of the wind with you buddy  :)

Something really cool about all the big, ancient cities we've been to is you can be walking next to one of the world's largest, most important business centers, and right next to it will be these centuries old chapels.  I love it!  How cool to have such a long fascinating history!

The ole Duke of Welly

Saw Singin' in the Rain!  The main girl, Cathy Seldon, tried a little too hard to fake an American/ New York accent, but it was still super funny.  "And I can't stand 'im!"  Haha.

The inside of yet another church, except this time, with a teal roof!  I'm liking Henry's style of churches!

Diagon Alley:  I'm not even kidding you.  We went on this Jack the Ripper tour for Halloween (pretty gruesome, but also quite interesting) and our guide swore that they filmed part of Harry Potter here.  Ahh! can't wait for our tour of the studios in a couple weeks!

Went and visited the white cliffs of Dover today.  Definitely my favorite weekend trip thus far.

Castle/ Fortress at the top of the Dover cliffs.  First built by Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, then reinforced during the Napoleonic Wars, and finally used during WWII for its underground tunnels.  If the Germans had invaded England, they would've done so here.

So, we weren't allowed to take pictures underground, so here's another picture above ground.  What I'm trying to say, though, is we took THE COOLEST tour of the underground caves that took part in operation Dynamo during WWII!  Seriously, one of the coolest things we've done on this trip!  It was completely interactive.  We were lead into these different rooms where we heard radio broadcasts, sirens, officers yelling at us to "look sharp!" and "get a move on!", watched high tech diagrams of WWII strategies on both the Allies side and the Germans, and stood in the middle of battles scenes, complete with air raids, artillery, and more.  Definitely not the somber, respectful experience we had at Omaha beach, but way cool and so interesting!  Dad, you would have LOVED it.  I loved it!!

Above ground, in the castle, there were all these medieval props and decorations we could play with.  So much more fun that taking notes of things behind a glass wall.  I may be twenty now, but I still love playing royalty  :)

Inside the castle

A small little chapel in Dover Castle, once used by Henry II and still used today!  New life goal- I want a castle!

God save the queen!

Totes presh  :)

Cool house we found in Canterbury.  Yep, that's right.  I said CANTERBURY.  Ya know, famous for pilgrimages, St. Thomas, and that one guy who wrote that one story.. oh yeah, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales!  Oh my goodness, we just had a huge midterm on this, but I'll refrain from pouring out my brain guts on the significance of Chaucer's use of the vernacular for the English language on you.  Ask me later  :)

Isn't Canterbury just the cutest little English town??

Turn to your right, and Whoa!  Hey there huge cathedral!

Go through the archway.. WHOA!!  Hey there HUGE cathedral!

We took a guided tour of the Canterbury Cathedral (gotta love those British accents).  This is the nave (sp?) that was built later on in the 15th or 16th century (can't remember exactly).  Notice the gothic, pointed arches.  Unlike rounded, romanesque arches, these points allow the stones to carry much more weight.  I think our guide said the original cathedral dates back all the way to like 1188!

The cloister.  People would sponsor the building or upkeep of the cathedral and get their coat of arms sculpted into the ceiling.

Another view of the cloister.  Reminded me of the one at Mont-Saint-Michele.

Look!  Some Americans sponsored the cathedral, so they added an elephant and an eagle to this pillar!  There's a donkey on the other side, but I thought this was a better angle  :)

And then we walked into this room.  Just some more stained glass, until I saw....

HENRY!!! My favorite man in history!!  Oh it made my day seeing this guy, standing where he stood!! Oh Henry, how I love thee!

The ceiling in this room.  I can't imagine ever being an artist.  This must have taken so much patience!

Where St. Thomas was martyred.  Oh don't worry, this is a story I will spill.  

So Henry II (yes, you may remember him from Dover Castle) met this random guy named Thomas, and they became fast friends.  Well, Henry decided to make him a priest and then an arch bishop so he could have someone pliable in the church.  However, this plan back fired when Henry realized Thomas took his duties more seriously than he expected.  No puppet for this little boy.  

So, like a little boy, Henry threw a fit.  Our guide told us that in his fits, Henry would scream and crawl on the floor, frothing at the mouth.  Spoiled much?  Anyways, some of Henry's knights (four to be exact), hoping to get in Henry's good graces, rode to Canterbury to arrest Arch Bishop Thomas.  But then things got out of hand.  In the middle of a struggle between the four knights and Thomas along with his priests, one of the knights swiped straight through the top of Thomas' head, chopping it clean off.  

As soon as the townspeople heard of this, they came rushing to the cathedral, dipping their fingers in his blood, believing it would heal them of their infirmities.  Since then, thousands have made pilgrimages to Canterbury (Chaucer), seeking some kind of miracle and leaving immense treasures. 

 In fact, so much gold and wealth surrounded the tomb of St. Thomas, that in the 16th century, Henry VIII, having separated from the Catholic church, put St. Thomas' bones on trial for treason, found them guilty, and took all the gold for recompense.  Yep, gotta love him!

Pretty fan stone work in the ceilings

The choir of the cathedral.  They were playing Mozart's requiem we studied in my Music 202 class, and I recognized it!

Our guide told us J.K. Rowling came here and specifically told them she used this structure as inspiration for her golden snitch.  He also told us that more people take pictures than at any other point on the tour.  Haha!

Tomb of the Black Prince.  What a man.

The Black Prince's shield, gloves, shirt thingy, etc.  This stuff is way old!

On our way home, I spotted this gem- a cow in pajamas!  Mom, think Return to Cranford!

Oh, and I also saw Les Miserables for the first time this past week.  It was SOOO good!!  Being late and rainy, I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a really cool t-shirt, and I'll probably go again closer to the end of my trip.  Excited!

Okay, so my favorite song is probably Master of the House (it's just so funny!), but I absolutely LOVE this song!  I guess the message/ scene is pretty depressing, but I just love the different voice parts and the strings!