Hey, everyone! Sorry we haven't blogged in the last couple of days. It's been crazy busy. We figure the best way to do this is to break it up by days, so here goes...
Thursday, June 17
Thursday, June 17
We had the chance to tour some of the surrounding areas of London. We took an all-day bus tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Lacock, and Bath. We had an amazing tour guide named David. He is also a teacher and wrote a special message for all of you in our mini-passport. We will have to share that with you when we all meet again in the fall.
Our first stop on the tour was Windsor Castle. The Queen was there during our tour...still no invite from her to us for tea. :) We had the opportunity to see another changing of the guard and were able to see the guards marching out right past us this time. The castle itself was enormous and very beautiful. It's incredible to think of how long it has been there and of the royalty who have walked those very same grounds.
Our next stop was Stonehenge. Thank you to Brooks, Johnny, Allison, Jack, Katia, Madison, Sesilia, Jakob, and Kimberly for sending us here. I have to admit, I was personally not too jazzed about seeing a bunch of rocks. :) However, I was thoroughly amazed once we arrived there. It was quite incredible.
From Stonehenge we traveled to a little village called Lacock. Scenes from Harry Potter were filmed here. We also ate at The George Inn while there. This place has been there since the early 1300's.
Our tour ended in Bath. Unfortunately the Roman baths were closed, but we did get to walk around and enjoy our first moment of down-time.
Our day began around 7:30 a.m. and we finally made it back to where we were staying by 10:30 p.m. All in all, it was amazing to see such beautiful sights in one day. Friday, June 18
Friday was a pretty gloomy day in regards to the weather. We began the day with an adventure to the London Tower planned by Sydney, Kolin, Tomer, Tung, and Jordan. We went on a short tour with one of the yeoman wards, also known as beefeaters. We learned quite a bit of history about the place. We saw where Anne Bolelyn and Lady Jane Grey had their heads chopped off and went into the church where they are both buried. We walked up into the tower and were shocked at some of the winding staircases and tiny little stairs. Our next stop was to The National Gallery. Quite a few groups wanted us to visit here, so thanks goes to Katty, Will S., Minh Thu, Matthew, Reid, Kevin, Suneal, Sandra, Moises, Jordan M., Mulunesh, Cynthia, and Grayson. We were not allowed to take pictures, but we saw art by Michaelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Picasso, Monet, Manet, Vermeer, Degas, and many more.
We then took the tube to the British Museum. This was at the request of Ariel, Joana, Abrar, and Elizabeth. We saw the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies, ancient Grecian marbles, a helmet dating back to Beowulf. Basically we realized the British have plundered a lot of countries and taken their artifacts. :)
The day ended with the London Eye---probably the most popular pick for an adventure. The following students were interested in seeing pictures of me puking: Ariel, Joana, Abrar, Elizabeth, Jordan M., Mulunesh, Cynthia, Grayson, Suneal, Sandra, Moises, Bria, Reidi, Kayla, and Heidy. Let me go ahead and let you all know that NO ONE got sick on this ride. I was a little nervous, which I'm pretty sure Ms. Garcia enjoyed. :)
Saturday, June 19
Our final hours in London. Remember the picture we showed you of The Beatles making their famous Abbey Road crossing? We recreated that this morning.
We then hailed a taxi and headed to St. Pancras station to drop off our bags before our train ride to Paris. Since we had a couple of hours to kill, we walked over to King's Cross station. Sound familiar to anyone??? Take a look at the picture below and see if this jogs your memory...
We finally boarded the train bound for Paris with Charlie. We realized very soon the language barrier is going to be a challenge for us while here. We begin our Paris adventures bright and early tomorrow morning. We will try to blog as much as possible!
How long was the ride on the London Eye? Was it scarier on the way up or down? Where you able to see quite a distance? Is it true that the Rosetta Stone was discovered by the French but stolen by the British? How many rocks make the Stonehenge formation? What's the population of Lacock? Ryan made up the majority of these questions!!!! We can't wait to hear about your next stop!!!
ReplyDeleteWow Ryan, those are great questions! The London Eye took about 30 minutes from getting on to getting off. I wasn't scared at all, but Ms. Joyce thought that being at the very bottom and looking up was scary and then being at the very top and looking down was scary. I loved every minute of it. We could see quite a bit, however, the day we went it was raining, so we probably didn't see as much as we could have if the day was clear. I don't know if the English stole the Rosetta Stone from the French. It wouldn't surprise me though and of course if that is indeed what happened, they wouldn't advertise it to all of us. I don't know how many stones make up Stonehenge, but I have a brochure and we can count them when I get home. Lacock was tiny. I don't know how many people lived there, but probably no more than 500, and I think that is pushing it. However, there could have a been a more modern part to it that we weren't shown. Maybe you can look that one up and let me know. Can't wait to hear more from you!
ReplyDelete