Goodbye London

Its been a while...we are busy rushing around trying to finish up doing the things on our bucket list! In less than 48 hours I will be on a plane flying back home...I can't believe it. Kensington has become a home to all of us. I have become friends with so many great people and fortunately we all go to the same school so we won't be parting forever! We have already planned our tea party reunions.

In the last week or so we visited Harrods (famous department store), John Keat's House, British Museum, Imperial War Museum, and Highgate Cemetery. We also saw Wicked and had tea at The Waldorf Hilton! My most favorite thing, however, was when we took a short trip to Bath for the weekend.

12 of us girls went to tea at The Waldorf Hilton.

In front of the British Museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone and the large statue of Ramesses II.

The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court surrounding the Reading Room in the British Museum.

When we went to Bath we spent a couple hours at the Thermae Bath Spa. It was so relaxing and much needed! There was a roof top spa looking over the Roman Baths and whole city, four steam rooms each with a different scent, and a lazy river. After the spa, we enjoyed a dinner at Sally Lunn's House. In the picture you can see the cinnamon buns. They are famous for these buns. The recipe for the bun originated in Bath in 1680 with the arrival of a Huguenot immigrant named Solange Luyon. The bun became a popular delicacy in Georgian England. It can be enjoyed with either sweet or savory accompaniments. My beef medallion dinner came on a bun. The next day we just went shopping and had tea in the Pump Room.

Highgate Cemetery (c.1839). We actually went here for a group project for class and it ended up being really cool. It was covered in trees, shrubs, ivy, and wild flowers. We even saw Karl Marx's grave!

Cal Poly Summer 2010.

The best adventure of my life!

Windsor Castle

Yesterday my friends and I went to Windsor Castle. We had to take the train to the town of Eton, but it was only £6 round trip! We spent most of the morning at Windsor Castle and then ate and shopped in the surrounding town during the afternoon.

The first glimpse of the castle! It is the largest inhabited castle in the world and Queen Elizabeth II spends many of her weekends here. Unfortunately, we did not see her!

Inside the walls of the castle. It was huge!

Edward III tower behind the beautiful gardens.

We watched the changing of the guards. I enjoyed it much more than the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace because we could actually see! The marching band even played popular modern day songs, such as the James Bond theme song.

The soldiers.

I found a kitty! Perhaps its the royal kitty...Queen Elizabeth III!

It is kind of hard to see, but in the upper left corner of the picture is St. George's Chapel, which is where many of the queens and kings are buried.

Some pretty clouds I noticed while waiting in line to see Queen Mary's dollhouse.

The Upper Ward courtyard.

Afton, Christine, Sienna, Diana, Brita, and I at lunch at the Drury House. We enjoyed the Club Special, which included finger sandwiches and tea.

The Drury House is Windsor's Oldest Restaurant built in the reign of King Charles I. It was originally built to house the staff from Windsor Castle, but it later became the home of Charles II favorite mistress. To accommodate their secret love affairs, a tunnel was built between the Drury House and the castle. The tunnels are still in existence today, but they have been partially closed off.

Day Trip to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon

Yesterday my class took a day trip to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a lot of driving and waiting (for missing people) for only a few hours in each city, but I am still glad we got the chance to go! It was about an hour to Oxford and then another hour to Stratford-upon-Avon. As we left our house in Kensington, our tour guide pointed out to the area (right down the street) where J.K. Rowling has a residence! I might just have to start reading all the Harry Potter books when I get home...

The circular building on the right is the Sheldonian Theatre, which was built in 1664 for the university.

Museum of the History of Science, one of the first museums open to the general public. Inside is a blackboard that Albert Einstein used in 1931 during his lectures while visiting Oxford.

A little bit of countryside in Oxford.

Christ Church Cathedral

This twelfth century church is the only church in the world to be both a cathedral and a college chapel.

Does this look familiar...?

Its the Dining Hall where scenes for the Harry Potter movies were shot!

It was built in 1529 and has many connections with Lewis Carroll's book, Alice in Wonderland.

Inside the Cathedral.

Behind us is an area called Tom Quad. The name Tom Quad comes from the seven-ton bell, Great Tom, which hangs in the Tom Tower. Every night Tom strikes 101 times, at five past nine. The original college had 101 students and they all had to be inside the walls by 9 pm Oxford time, which was 5 minutes later than Greenwich Mean Time.

Standing in the rain in front of the Hathaway family cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Anne Hathaway married William Shakespeare in 1582.

It is very difficult to get pictures without tourists in them...

Shakespeare's birthplace!

Another view of Shakespeare's house.

We escaped the rain and enjoyed some Cream Tea, which is just tea taken with scones, clotted cream, and jam.

Exploring Southwark

On Thursday our theatre professor took us on a walk through Southwark, a district of south London, which used to be the center of pilgrimage. We saw the original site of the globe theatre but I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures because it was pouring rain! This is the first time it has really rained since I arrived 4 weeks ago.

Standing in the rain outside Borough Market.

Borough Market sells a large variety of food from all over the world. It replaced the market that originally adjoined the end of the London Bridge that claimed to exist since Roman times.

Borough Market

A flower shop selling some pretty flowers

Cross Bones Graveyard.

In medieval times, this was an unconsecrated graveyard for prostitutes, or "Winchester Geese." By the 18th century, it had become a paupers' burial ground, which closed in 1853.

Southwark Cathedral.

This is where Thomas Becket preached before departing for Canterbury in 1170. It is also where John Harvard, benefactor of Harvard College, was baptized.

The ruins of the Great Hall.

These are the only remains of the palace of the powerful Bishops of Winchester. It was one of the largest and most important buildings in medieval London.

The Tate Modern.

Here in this old power station are the galleries of international modern art.

Inside. Its not one of the prettiest buildings in London...

Something I recognized - Andy Warhol!

The rain finally cleared up by the evening!

Day Trip to Stonehenge and Bath

On Saturday we escaped from the city and ventured into the country side! Twelve of us booked a day trip tour with International Friends to visit Stonehenge and Bath. The bus ride was about 6 hours round trip, so it was a long day but totally worth it!

We were not in London anymore. It was nice to get out of the crowded, busy streets of London.

Stonehenge!

This monument evolved between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. It is aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, but its exact purpose is still unknown.

Brita, Me, Afton, Diana, Christine, and Sienna!

It is hard to get the perspective of how big the rocks are but they were huge!

Part of the Roman Baths! In the upper left corner you can see a guy on a balcony...that is part of the Thermae Bath Spa - a contemporary design of the New Royal Bath. It was developed for the Millennium and is Britain's only natural thermal spa. Two weeks from now, 8 girls and I will enjoy a 2 hour spa session here to end our wonderful time in England!

Some gardens in the city of Bath.

Pulteney Bridge, one of only four bridges lined with shops in the world!

Lions on parade in Bath!

A chandelier in one of Bath's famous Assembly Rooms. The chandeliers in the Assembly Rooms are Bath's most expensive possessions...each one is 3 million pounds! Jane Austen lived in Bath for a couple years and mentions the Assembly Rooms in her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

The Royal Crescent.

Bath Abbey (church on left) and the Roman Baths (building on the right). The Abbey Church is an Anglican parish church that was founded in the 1600s.

The Roman Bath! The baths were originally built in Britain during Roman occupation in about 60 A.D. The spring that fills these baths is the only hot water spring in all of the UK!

In the Pump Room drinking a glass of water from the same warm spring that fills the Roman Baths. In the background, you can see the pump. The Pump Room served as a place for the upper class to drink the water from the spring. They believed that the spring was sacred and could heal the sick since it has so many minerals.

Sally Lunn's (c.1482)

It is the oldest house in bath and is home of the world famous Sally Lunn Bun. We plan on eating here when we come back in two weeks!