**EDIT**--So I did finish, so this is the longest post ever. So I suggest you click the link over there >>>>
that says "Oxford Days 11-14"
so that it will only display today's blog and not the other days. And then after my next update do the same, because you don't want to have to load this post every time from here on out.
First off was my birthday Thursday night. That was fun. We went to KA and just hung out for a while, and Ralph drove in from Bristol for our birthday's (Hillary's was the 11th) so that was cool, and we pretty much just hung out and someone bought me van food. Then we went back to Brittany's room because hers is the entire top floor of stairwell 6 so everyone can fit up there, and just hung out some more, and it was all lots of fun.
Friday morning we got up and went to London for the day, as a sort of continuance of our birthday's as well. We got breakfast at the cafeteria and then hopped on a train. Most of us had Britrail passes, but the others just had to get tickets, but they were only 10 pounds to London. It was also the first train ride we'd ever been on for most of us, so that was kind of exciting, but we didn't all get to sit together unfortunately.
Some of us were more excited than others.
But an hour later we were there, Paddinton Station in London.
We were scared to ask someone else to take our picture and then steal our camera, so there aren't many pictures with the whole group. Here's about half:
Then we bought Tube tickets and got over to the Tower of London. Most of us that hadn't been there were under the impression that it would actually be a tower. Yea we'll climb up, climb down, couple hours, no problem. Wrong. It is not a tower, it's its own little town with about 20 different towers. Horrible name for it.
The whole group, except John Thomas who pulled the short straw and had to take the picture.
But then we paid like 14 pounds to go in, so we had to make sure we saw every square inch of that thing for 14 pounds. So we were in there a looonnggg time.
View of the Tower Bridge from the Tower of London
We went in some of the towers and they had em set up like they would have been back in the day.
And we saw where Henry VI died.
There's also this weird legend about ravens in the Tower of London. Apparently there was a giant whose name meant raven, and as he died he asked for his head to be buried in the Tower and said that the strength of raven would defend it. So that developed into a superstition that if there are ravens in the Tower grounds, it will never fall. So they still keep them there just in case.
We then made a quick stop in the gift shop.
And then got back to touring and went through the various Tower armories, my favorite part of the Tower for certain.
Yes, those columns are covered in pistols.
The armor room had lots of very weird, very fake horses, which I didn't understand the point of. There were also these weird, disembodied faces that were supposed to represent the kings of England I think.
This was giant armor apparently. 6 feet 9 inches. There was dwarf armor right next to it at 3 feet and some odd inches, but I couldn't get a picture of it since about a 200 person tour group decided that was their favorite spot right about then.
Yes, that is a gun barrel made into a shield. A gun shield. So cool.
A huge jousting spear. It was seriously like 30 feet long. I don't know how it would be possible to use that thing.
The chapel.
More gun shields.
A miniature of the "Tower."
The torture room, filled with torture devices.
Some more modern buildings.
And the Royal Navy memorial.
Where they beheaded anyone of royalty that needed to be behead, like Anne Boleyn.
Crazy raven.
We couldn't understand what language these girls were speaking, but they were definitely playing a prank on the girl in red haha.
More steps up more towers.
A mortar.
And cannons.
Guards outside the crown jewels. We got to see them change. Apparently the two leaving have to leave through where the entire crowd is standing, so they kind of just stood there waiting on us to move. So the whole crowd parts all Red Sea like, but there's this like 10 year old girl standing at the very front that didn't realize what was going on, so she just kept standing there looking up at them, all alone. It was pretty hilarious.
We did get to go in and see the Crown Jewels, and that was pretty awesome. Security was hardcore though, so no pictures. They even put us on a conveyor belt to go past the main jewels so we wouldn't stand there for hours looking at the same ones. There was a 590 karat diamond though that was pretty mind blowing.
Then we took the Tube over to Parlament and Big Ben. Big Ben was way huger than I expected. I was like, eh, big over here doesn't mean the same thing as in America. But Big Ben was freakin' mind blowing.
And Westminster Abbey around the corner.
St. James Park, which we walked through to get to Buckingham Palace.
So tired.
Buckingham Palace
An awesome bagpipe player in the Tube station.
Random church.
The train ride back...so tired.
The end of Friday. We were so tired. So of course we went to Bath the next day. Genius.
The Abbey.
Cool violin players in the courtyard.
Sally Lunn's house, the oldest house in Bath. We bought a huge bun there.
The Crescent. A huge half circle buildings.
Then I bought a guitar in bath. Yes, I did. It was 45 pounds. I was very happy about that. But then I had to carry it around all day, and it looked like a small child's coffin in the box. More on that later.
Then we went inside the Roman baths themselves, and they gave us cool phone thingies to hear an audio tour from.
The Circle Pool.
Where the water comes from.
After the tour of the Baths we went to the pump room and got to drink some of the water that they would have drunk for it's healing powers back in the day. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted in my life, but it was still pretty cool. Like living out history.
Then we took a train to Salsbury to try to see Stonehenge. We ate our buns from Sally Lunn's house on the way there. They were huge.
We also saw the Westbury White Horse on the way to Salsbury. That was pretty awesome, because we didn't even know it would be there, we just saw it while looking out the window.
Then we got to Salsbury and the last bus had left for Stonehenge 20 minutes earlier. So that kind of sucked. Unfortunately this country is still in the dark ages and no one has a web site, so we had no idea when the buses ran to Stonehenge, so there was really nothing we could do about it. But we still got to see the horse, so that was nice, and thanks to our Britrail Pass we didn't actually waste any money going to Salsbury, just about an hour of riding. Plus we had to eat our buns anyway, so we would have been sitting eating in Bath most of that time anyway. So it was disappointing, but not tragic. And we should be able to make it back there still if we end up staying with Ralph in his apartment in Bristol, which is like 15 minutes from Bath.
And finally, here's the awesome guitar I bought in Bath. It's definitely cheap, but I only paid 45 pounds for it. I looked it up on the internet too, and the cheapest I saw there was 70 pounds, so I got a pretty good deal. It plays really really well, although it doesn't have the greatest tone. But I haven't been able to borrow Jacob's tuner yet, so it's only in tune with itself, and isn't really in any key, so that is certainly one thing making it sound a little off. So we'll see once I get it properly in standard tuning. But hopefully I'll be able to sell it back somewhere, or if I decide I like it, get someone else to take one of my carry-ons and me take that as a carry-on on the way back. Or maybe even get it as checked luggage from someone else that only brought 1 suit case, although I don't have a case for it, just the cardboard box it came in.
Oh, and I named it Cherry Co Co, because it's cheap.
And with that, I'm done. Took me literally all day today to blog this, so I hope you all like it! Must have if you actually read this far I suppose.
The whole group, except John Thomas who pulled the short straw and had to take the picture.
But then we paid like 14 pounds to go in, so we had to make sure we saw every square inch of that thing for 14 pounds. So we were in there a looonnggg time.
View of the Tower Bridge from the Tower of London
We went in some of the towers and they had em set up like they would have been back in the day.
And we saw where Henry VI died.
There's also this weird legend about ravens in the Tower of London. Apparently there was a giant whose name meant raven, and as he died he asked for his head to be buried in the Tower and said that the strength of raven would defend it. So that developed into a superstition that if there are ravens in the Tower grounds, it will never fall. So they still keep them there just in case.
We then made a quick stop in the gift shop.
And then got back to touring and went through the various Tower armories, my favorite part of the Tower for certain.
Yes, those columns are covered in pistols.
The armor room had lots of very weird, very fake horses, which I didn't understand the point of. There were also these weird, disembodied faces that were supposed to represent the kings of England I think.
This was giant armor apparently. 6 feet 9 inches. There was dwarf armor right next to it at 3 feet and some odd inches, but I couldn't get a picture of it since about a 200 person tour group decided that was their favorite spot right about then.
Yes, that is a gun barrel made into a shield. A gun shield. So cool.
A huge jousting spear. It was seriously like 30 feet long. I don't know how it would be possible to use that thing.
The chapel.
More gun shields.
A miniature of the "Tower."
The torture room, filled with torture devices.
Some more modern buildings.
And the Royal Navy memorial.
Where they beheaded anyone of royalty that needed to be behead, like Anne Boleyn.
Crazy raven.
We couldn't understand what language these girls were speaking, but they were definitely playing a prank on the girl in red haha.
More steps up more towers.
A mortar.
And cannons.
Guards outside the crown jewels. We got to see them change. Apparently the two leaving have to leave through where the entire crowd is standing, so they kind of just stood there waiting on us to move. So the whole crowd parts all Red Sea like, but there's this like 10 year old girl standing at the very front that didn't realize what was going on, so she just kept standing there looking up at them, all alone. It was pretty hilarious.
We did get to go in and see the Crown Jewels, and that was pretty awesome. Security was hardcore though, so no pictures. They even put us on a conveyor belt to go past the main jewels so we wouldn't stand there for hours looking at the same ones. There was a 590 karat diamond though that was pretty mind blowing.
Then we took the Tube over to Parlament and Big Ben. Big Ben was way huger than I expected. I was like, eh, big over here doesn't mean the same thing as in America. But Big Ben was freakin' mind blowing.
And Westminster Abbey around the corner.
St. James Park, which we walked through to get to Buckingham Palace.
So tired.
Buckingham Palace
An awesome bagpipe player in the Tube station.
Random church.
The train ride back...so tired.
The end of Friday. We were so tired. So of course we went to Bath the next day. Genius.
The Abbey.
Cool violin players in the courtyard.
Sally Lunn's house, the oldest house in Bath. We bought a huge bun there.
The Crescent. A huge half circle buildings.
Then I bought a guitar in bath. Yes, I did. It was 45 pounds. I was very happy about that. But then I had to carry it around all day, and it looked like a small child's coffin in the box. More on that later.
Then we went inside the Roman baths themselves, and they gave us cool phone thingies to hear an audio tour from.
The Circle Pool.
Where the water comes from.
After the tour of the Baths we went to the pump room and got to drink some of the water that they would have drunk for it's healing powers back in the day. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted in my life, but it was still pretty cool. Like living out history.
Then we took a train to Salsbury to try to see Stonehenge. We ate our buns from Sally Lunn's house on the way there. They were huge.
We also saw the Westbury White Horse on the way to Salsbury. That was pretty awesome, because we didn't even know it would be there, we just saw it while looking out the window.
Then we got to Salsbury and the last bus had left for Stonehenge 20 minutes earlier. So that kind of sucked. Unfortunately this country is still in the dark ages and no one has a web site, so we had no idea when the buses ran to Stonehenge, so there was really nothing we could do about it. But we still got to see the horse, so that was nice, and thanks to our Britrail Pass we didn't actually waste any money going to Salsbury, just about an hour of riding. Plus we had to eat our buns anyway, so we would have been sitting eating in Bath most of that time anyway. So it was disappointing, but not tragic. And we should be able to make it back there still if we end up staying with Ralph in his apartment in Bristol, which is like 15 minutes from Bath.And finally, here's the awesome guitar I bought in Bath. It's definitely cheap, but I only paid 45 pounds for it. I looked it up on the internet too, and the cheapest I saw there was 70 pounds, so I got a pretty good deal. It plays really really well, although it doesn't have the greatest tone. But I haven't been able to borrow Jacob's tuner yet, so it's only in tune with itself, and isn't really in any key, so that is certainly one thing making it sound a little off. So we'll see once I get it properly in standard tuning. But hopefully I'll be able to sell it back somewhere, or if I decide I like it, get someone else to take one of my carry-ons and me take that as a carry-on on the way back. Or maybe even get it as checked luggage from someone else that only brought 1 suit case, although I don't have a case for it, just the cardboard box it came in.
Oh, and I named it Cherry Co Co, because it's cheap.
And with that, I'm done. Took me literally all day today to blog this, so I hope you all like it! Must have if you actually read this far I suppose.
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