Day 23: London, United Kingdom

June 26, 2013

This morning after breakfast we traveled the hour and forty minutes back to London from Bath. We wanted to spend the night in London to make it easier to get to the airport in the morning. We got to our new hostel around noon and left our bags. Our last item that we wanted to see in London was St. Paul's Cathedral so we immediately headed there.

It is a beautiful cathedral belonging to the Anglican church and was built at the end of the 17th century after the great London fire destroyed the former church. It is very important to English history having many tombs in the Crypt and was also the location of Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding in 1981. It is a beautiful church inside full of mosaics and paintings on the ceiling with a beautiful high altar and organ as well. We also climbed the 528 steps to the top of the cathedral dome for a fantastic view of London. About a third of the way up we were able to see the Whispering Gallery and the view of the nave from the inside portion of the dome. We spent a little over 3 hours in the cathedral and made sure we looked it over from top to bottom (literally from the dome to the crypt) to get our 28 Pounds ($43) worth. I find it really interesting that the most expensive entrance fees are for the cathedral and Westminter Abbey but most of the London museums are free. It was beautiful and I am glad we got to see it today.

The organ (right), the altar (center) and the ceiling above the altar covered in mosaics (top)

The mosaics that covered the ceiling

At the top of St. Paul's Cathedral after 528 steps...with a random person

While going up the steps we both got a little light-headed and realized that we hadn't ate anything since breakfast at 9 (it was now 2) so after we were finished seeing the cathedral, we set out to finish our tour of Europe with some Spaghetti Carbonara. Of course the only time you are intentionally looking for something specific is the time that it is the hardest to find. We walked almost two miles until we finally found an Italian restaurant. We enjoyed carbonara and both had dessert since it is our last meal abroad. It was a lovely Italian restaurant. We were so far down that we weren't far from Trafalgar Square which was also something we didn't get a chance to see yet. It was a large square dominated by two fountains and Nelson's Column in the middle. The column is 169 feet tall and has four giant lions at the base. There are no steps to climb it and the bottom level is about 4 1/2 feet tall. It is a beautiful square full of people enjoying the warm weather (it was a high of 72 today), tourists, and street entertainers.

Clayton with one of the lions at the base of the column. The whole thing is huge!

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

We said goodbye to Trafalgar Square and hopped on the tube (subway) in the direction of our hostel. Our time in Europe has come to a close. We will head to the airport around 8 in the morning. Our plane flies out of Heathrow at 12:15 (London time) and after a stop in Philadelphia, we should land in Cincinnati at 7:36pm EST. It doesn't seem like we are at the end, but at the same time we can tell that we have been travelling for a while. Switzerland, where we started, seems like a faint dream and we are both physically tired. Our favorite part about life in Europe in general is how everything is connected by trains. You can go anywhere by trains. We have often discussed how convenient it would have been to have had a train that ran from Bowling Green to home. It wouldn't have been a big deal to hop on a train and come home for the weekend because we could have slept or studied the whole way there. The thing we miss the most if American food! For one it is so much cheaper, most of our meals over here have cost the equivalent or more than placed like Longhorn or Shogun's Japanese grill and the portions and drinks are not as large. Secondly, people just eat differently in other parts of the world, even in regions in the US. Beef is not nearly as common here which either is our primary or secondary (behind chicken) meat in our diet at home. We are sick of french fries, they are served as the side dish with everything here. We are also dying to have a "normal" American breakfast instead of hard bread, or weird ham and cheeses.

Needless to say we have missed America and all you people there. It has been an amazing trip, but we will be happy to be home tomorrow! For the last time, "Goodnight" from Europe!

Day 22: Bath, England

June 25, 2013

After our full and exciting day yesterday we spent a fairly low-key day in Bath today. We slept in and headed to the Jane Austen center a little before noon. There we were able to see how Bath influenced Jane Austen's writings, specifically of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. We learned more about her life and what Bath society was really like during those times. I read the fiction books and hadn't really given much thought to the fact that Bath society really was like what Austen portrayed with people showing off their wealth, being concerned about dances and finding husbands. It was a simple exhibit, but I enjoyed it (It was obviously my idea, but Clayton didn't hate it).

There was only one sketch of Jane done by her sister and the family had agreed that it didn't look like her.
This picture was done by an artist who was a FBI sketch artist using descriptions and details from Jane's family and friends 

Afterwards, we headed to an area known as the Circle and another area known as Royal Crescent. These areas were built when there were many more people coming to Bath during the 18th century. They were owned by wealthy people and were often just their seasonal home. No. 1 Royal Crescent was once a Georgian home on this famous street, but has now been turned into a museum. We were able to see the home as it would have been in the 18th century. All of the furnishings were from that time period and we were able to see how the people lived and also their servants downstairs. It was interesting, but didn't have as much information in it as we were hoping.

The houses in the Circle

Trees in the middle of the Circle

No. 1 Royal Crescent (the house turned into a museum)

Royal Crescent

We had planned for those two museums to take the day, but they were both smaller and less time consuming than we thought. We moseyed into Victoria Park in front of the Royal Crescent homes and came upon an awesome mini-golf course. It is the most beautiful one I have ever seen! It was also well done with drains, tunnels, and obstacles for the balls. It was a fun course and as usual Clayton won by 3 (I led the whole game until I choked on hole 15).

During mini-golf, my camera jammed up and wouldn't turn off or on and the lens wouldn't collapse. We tried to fix it, but it seems that something is jammed in it preventing the lens from moving. At least we are at the end of the trip I suppose. After mini-golf, it was only 4 so we decided to go on and see the Abbey so we wouldn't have to rush to see it in the morning before our train to London.. It was a beautiful Abbey with a beautiful fan ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows.

The ceiling

Near the Abbey is the Sally Lunn house. It is the oldest house in Bath and was the residence of Sally Lunn, a French refugee, about 300 years ago. Sally Lunn baked large rich bread that became a popular delicacy in Georgian England. Its special taste and lightness mean that it can be eaten with a savory main meal or for a sweet snack or dessert (We had it for both). We were going to just go see the house before going somewhere else to find supper, but it turned out they had a nice deal going on for supper so we had supper at the Sally Lunn house. We had the bread toasted with garlis butter for an appetizer and then we had it served with Milk Jam (a carmal sauce) and Ivy House clotted cream (some sort of buttery, milky thick cream) for dessert. It was delicious both ways!

The outside of the house

The bun (mine with salad, his with soup) toasted with garlic butter

Their food was delicious too. Clayton had grilled lamb and I had grilled chicken.

The bun toasted with Milk Jam and Ivy House Clotted Cream for dessert

Since the town shuts down at 6 pm, there wasn't much to do when we finished our supper around 7pm so we went back to our hostel room for a bit. Around 9 we went down to the bar and had some hot chocolate and watched the end of a cricket match and a whole rugby match. Rugby was interesting to watch. We were about as confused when we ended as we were when we started.
Tomorrow we head back to London in the morning before flying out of Heathrow at 12:15pm on Thursday. Goodnight from Bath, England!

Day 21: Wiltshire County, England

June 24, 2013 (Happy Birthday, Mom!!!)

The location of Wiltshire county in England

Today we rode a coach van on an all day tour of prehistoric sites and villages in Wiltshire County. Wiltshire county is the county east of Bath and is the location of the famous Stonehenge. Our tour began with Stonehenge but also went to Avebury (a bigger and older henge and stone circle site), saw Silbury Hill, two Cherhill White Horses and the two very old villages of Lacock and Castle Combe. It was a very exciting and full day so this will probably be long and full of pictures!

We started off at 8:45 this morning on a coach style van that held 16 tourists and the driver. Our driver, named John, had been doing this on and off for 20 years and was incredibly knowledgeable and funny which are two great qualities in a guide.

Our first stop was Stonehenge which was about 55 minutes away from Bath. It was built in 3 phases starting with the henge (a large bank and ditch), then bluestones and then more stones placed into the shape that we see today. This was built between 4000-5000 years ago! About 1/3-1/2 of the stones is actually below the earth which you cannot see. The stones were transported from 150 miles away (remember there was no wheel yet)! The ditch that was dug had to be dug with only deer antlers as picks and cattle shoulder blades as shovels. To get the stones placed on top of the two standing stones was a work of engineering on the part of the people. They have stood the test of time partially because of the way they are "fastened" together, with the vertical rocks having a stone "peg" and the horizontal top rocks having a notch for it to fit into. There is a lot of astronomy to these rocks as well. They two ends line up with the winter and summer solstice sunrise and sunset. You can even tell what month it is based on the rocks. Probably the most interesting thing about this monument is that no one knows why it was built. It could have been a way to show off their wealth and power or a temple or religious monument. We don't know and probably never will.

                         The "peg" and notch that helps keep the rocks in place

After Stonehenge we headed north to the village of Avebury where another stone circle and henge is located. This one is actually 16 times bigger and almost 1000 years older! It is much less touristy and therefore there is no entrance fee and no gates to restrict you from touching the rocks. It also has a more active history since it was built. It has been destroyed by locals throughout history. In the 14th century the people set about destroying all Pagan temples so they knocked over the stones and buried them. They didn't get them all done seemingly due to the Plague that took precedence in their life. Later in the 17th century, people used them to build the local village buildings. Why pay to have rock hauled in when we can bust these up right here? In the 1920s a budding archaeologist named Keiller decided to resurrect the monument and set about unearthing the buried stones and standing them back up. He also placed concrete markers where the old ones that were now in buildings used to be. His work was seemingly interrupted by the second world war. However, he did find something interesting under one stone: a body! It was the body of a 14th century barber surgeon (Yes, a traveling man who could both cut your hair and perform minor surgeries you needed). It was thought that he was either buried under the stone of crushed by it. His body was supposed to be sent to the Royal College of Surgeons which was bombed in WWII and most of it was destroyed. However, although it was thought to have been destroyed it was found in 1998 in the London natural history museum (How do you just find a medieval body?!). At Avebury these rocks were not beaten into rounded shapes as they were at Stonhenge and therefore have their natural shape. Again, we don't know why these rocks were placed or the henge built (again with deer antlers and cattle shoulder blades). This one has no astrology to it and some seem to think it may have been a fertility worship monument.

The rock the barber surgeon was buried under

This was the very large bank of the henge (only half its original height). Can you spot Clayton on the top?

From the henge bank looking down on the stones

Us between the Gateway stones. You can see how enormous they are!

We also some some other prehistoric sites on our trip out to the stone monuments. On our way we saw Silbury Hill, the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe. It is a 6 level pyramid of chalk (the ground of the area) which is then covered by dirt...yes, they built a pyramid and then covered it in dirt. We don't know why. Maybe they wanted to make a dirt mound and built the pyramid to hold the mound or maybe some other people buried their pyramid? It was built in the prehistoric time (so no real tools) even before Stonehenge or Avebury!

Silbury Hill

The other prehistoric site was 2 Cherhill White Horses. As I said this county is mostly made up of calk while Bath is made up of Limestone. The first white horse (there are 8) was carved into a hillside sometime between 1000-700 B.C. and is called the Uffington White horse located farther east than we were today. We saw two "copies". The Westbury white horse was carved into the chalk hillside 300 years ago trying to mimic the historic white horse who at the time the people thought that the Celtics had carved (they didn't). This horse is actually not chalk anymore. In the 1950s somce of the city council thought it would save them money to concrete over it instead of re-carving it every 10 years or so. Obviously a bad idea, but now it is concrete. The Cherhill white horse was also carved in the 18th century. It had wine bottles as a glass eye but were taken by the 19th century possibly as souvenirs.

Westbury White Horse

Cherhill White Horse (By the way, I learned that the fields of yellow flowers are canola used to make canola oil)

For lunch we ate at a pub in Lacock called The George Inn which was built in 1361! Lacock is a small little village where there has been no major building in 200 years. All of the properties date from the 13th-18th centuries and were thriving places due to the wool industry during this time. It has the staggering population of 120, yes one hundred and twenty. It has been used as a film location for the first two Harry Potter movies and was the town of Meriton in the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. 

Where we ate

After Lacock, we ended our tour by going to the most beautiful village in England (as voted/determined by someone). Castle Combe had only one street with 50 cottages on it. However, these cottages cost 500,000 pounds ($772,000) to 3 million Pounds ($4.6 million) each. This town was the film location of the original Dr. Dolittle in 1967 and most recently Spielberg's Warhorse. 

The church in town

What very expensive cottages look like

The stream at the bottom of the only road of the village

After Castle Combe, we went back through the English countryside to Bath. We got back into Bath about 5:15 and walked along the shops until everything closed at 6. We went back to the hostel for a bit before heading out to find supper. We found a mexican restaurant which is not very common over here so we went in. It was actually in an old church which was interesting in itself. It was nicely decorated and our food was probably a higher quality than back home, but Clayton says he will be happy to get home and eat "real Mexican" (which for him is El Nopal in Carrollton). Tomorrow we plan to do some sightseeing around the city of Bath before heading back to London Wednesday morning. 

Inside the restaurant

Our beautiful food

The outside (doesn't look like a Mexican restaurant)

Most importantly of today, it is my beautiful mother's birthday! She has shown me how to care for people, be a devoted wife and loving mother. I love her dearly!! Sorry I am not home to spend it with you, but know that I think of you everywhere I go. 

Thinking of you at Stonehenge

Thinking of you at Avesbury

Thinking of you in the most beautiful village in England

Day 20: Bath, England

June 23, 2013

Today we said goodbye to the big city of London and headed an hour and forty minutes west into the British countryside to the much smaller town of Bath. Bath is mainly known for two things: it is the location of hot springs where the Romans built Baths and it is the hometown of the famous writer Jane Austen. Although we planned to see both of those, we actually ventured west from London in order to see Stonehenge. This trip (to Europe) has partially been about tying our separate abroad experiences together. So at the beginning of the trip we did the train ride through the Alps that I didn't fit in when I was here last summer, and now at the end of the trip (tomorrow) we are doing Stonehenge which was something Clayton wanted to do, but didn't get a chance to when he was here almost 3 years ago.

Today, most of the day was spent traveling here. We got plenty of sleep last night and then took our time about checking out this morning. We took the noon train to Bath having a picnic of grocery store sandwiches, chips and cheesecake on the way. Once we arrived we checked into our hostel (again one that uses their bar as their reception desk) so we could leave our stuff. It was only 3pm so we decided to knock a sight off of our list: the Roman Baths.
Bathing was part of Romans' daily lives. This wasn't just taking a bath, it was bathing (naked of course) in increasingly hot water by moving from pool to pool, sitting in saunas, being massaged and having dead skin removed then dipping into a cold pool to close the pores. It was quite the ordeal and could take hours everyday. Bath was unusual compared to most baths because it had a natural hotspring. The Romans built their bath around it and since it was hot thought that it had some spiritual power so they also built a temple near it and put their sick in it to be healed. Since the Romans, higher structures have been built around the bath and spring mostly in the Victorian style which is mostly what you see in the pictures.

From the top walkway that has been built around the pool

Pool with the abbey in the background

Cool pool that people have been throwing change in

The mosaic tile floor was built on these piles to allow the floor to be heated.
The Romans bathed naked except for shoes so they didn't bur their feet.

After seeing the Roman baths we roamed around Bath a little while and saw the Pulteney Bridge, first completed in 1774, which crosses the river Avon and is famous in Bath. It is one of only 4 bridges in the world which has shops fully across both sides. On our walk around we also saw a garden along the river and some other pretty Bath scenery.

Bath Abbey

Bath Abbey

Park on the River Avon

Pulteney Bridge and the River

Pulteney Bridge

Park by the River

We went back to the hostel and ate at the bar downstairs where we both had a pretty good burger. We watched the end of a Cricket championship game and part of a soccer game. Cricket is like no sport of combination of sports we have. We haven't figured out all the parts yet, but it is basically only played by England and everyone England used to own (Ireland, India, South Africa etc.). You also see rugby on TV a lot over here, but you never hear about football or basketball at all so our sports news has been very different over here.

We are off to bed for now, but tomorrow we will have an all day tour including Stonehenge. If you would like a sneak peak, you can read about the tour we are taking here.