Weekday afternoon- Downtown London

sure isn't Chesham !!!!!

Coach Trip pt. Tres- STONEHENGE

The last part of our coach trip was STONEHENGE! It was super cool and we got to see it as the sun was setting. Most of the time there is a huge cord ring around the stones about 10 feet away. On our tour we actually got to bypass the cord and go right up to the stones. They asked us not to touch them though. The history of Stonehenge is pretty interesting, but I guess lack thereof is more accurate. The fact is that nobody really knows why the stones are there, how long they have been there, or where they really came from. Aliens?? They are just really big and really heavy and really old. Unless you are a druid and the solstice days are religious holidays for you, you don’t usually get to get as close to the stones as we did. There is also this security gate and an underground tunnel that you have to pay to go through to even get on the other side of the highway to see Stonehenge up close. A security guard is posted 24 hours a day right at the rocks to make sure nobody does… well I’m not really sure what people would do if they could, vandalize, bonfires,BBQ’s??, I don’t know but there is a guard there none the less to keep them from doing it. All in all it was a wonderful day and we had a great time.

Greatest weekend Ever!!

I had the most wonderful weekend. 85 degrees, sunshine and just happiness. I don't know if its because I've never really had the luxury of doing whatever I wanted, for as long as I wanted, whenever I wanted, but I haven't really every been a big hang out outside type person. If I was playing softball or camping or something it was okay, but I loved being outside this weekend. I spent tons of time just laying on a blanket in the park down the street from the house or hanging out by the river in Town. Everyone else had the same idea and its like life just slows down. Every place there was grass or shade people were hanging out, napping, and having picnics with wine. (yeah you can drink in the open here.) The yard in front of Westminster Abbey, parks, the water front and everywhere with a bench or shade was full of people, including me, just hanging out. I loved it, it was so peaceful and wonderful and all the ducks had babies running around it was awesome! Here are some happy pictures.

1. Westminster Abbey.
2. Parliament
3. Weird ducks and the babies in St. James Park.
4. More ducks in St. James Park
5. View from my blanket in the park.
6. Babies in the Chesham Park.

Coach Trip pt. Dos- Oxford University

After Windsor we headed to Oxford to visit the university. Unfortunately we didn’t spend a whole lot of time there or get to go on much of a tour inside. From the outside it is huge, amazing, and do my dismay only costs about 15,000 GBP to attend. That’s 15,000 GBP or $21,600 for all 4 years not just one. The school itself apparently is the 3rd oldest surviving school in the world and has been around since 1167. When we got there Oxford had just won the annual rowing, yes rowing, competition with Cambridge and there was all this chalk graffiti on the dorms about it. The tour guide said it was there thing to write accomplishments on the dorm walls. I love books and was really disappointed about not being able to go into one of the oldest Libraries, libraries that were opened in the 1600’s and has over 8 million books. I know it’s sort of lame, but one of the coolest things was I got to see the Harry Potter Stairs; the ones where all the kids show up on their first day. The huge HP dining room is also supposed to be based on the dining room at Oxford, but it was just one more thing we didn’t get to see. Bummer. Here is what we did see …

1. The stairs.
2. The ceiling above. Really pretty.
3. Court yard of the Christ Church College
4. Radcliffe Camera. Holds the English, History, and Theology collections of the University’s Bodleian Library.
5. Graffiti wall of the dorms.

Random Thoughts...

Is it just me or do the police over here look ridiculous??



They don't even cary guns!

Epic'est of Fails

SO YESTERDAY I SAW THE FREAKIN QUEEN OF ENGLAND!!!!

...This is the picture I got...



I got off of the Tube thinking I would tour Westminster Abbey, saw a bunch of people lined up, asked, and found out the Queen would be coming out soon in her car. So I waited for 45 min, played with my camera and called my sister. Finally out comes THE QUEEN and I had zoomed in to close. If I had pushed the button a split second later or just slightly zoomed out she would have been in the picture! She is literally just behind where my picture stops to the left. Saddest part… my camera and cell phone both have video. I could have just taped the whole thing. RETARDED.

Coach Trip pt. UNO- Windsor Caslte

Amber and I went on our own little version of Coach Trip not too long ago. Unfortunately we didn’t get to kick people off at the end of every stop, but we had a fun time pretending that we could. It was a really,really,really long day that started with an 1.5 hour train ride into the city, a 9 hour tour including 1 hour detour back to London, and another 1.5 hour train ride back into Chesham. We saw Windsor Castle, went to Oxford University, and ended the day at Stonehenge. Pretty. Amazing. Stuff.

Windsor Castle- This was the first part of our tour. Imagine driving down the freeway on your way to Salem from Portland. Not a big deal, right? Then imagine as Salem comes into view … a Big ass Castle, where the Queen of your country lives, right in the middle of the city. That is pretty much Windsor and the initial view was pretty incredible. Windsor Castle is where the Queen apparently spends most of her time. The Castle is like 900 yrs old and has been the home of William the Conqueror, Henry VII, and Queen Elizabeth I,just to name a famous few. I know most of you who aren’t History Obsessed Nerd Freaks like I am and this may not be as mind numbingly exciting as it was for me, but I felt like a kid in a candy store.

My favorite part was St. Georges Chapel. It was so beautiful and contained so much history that I almost peed my pants, lol. It took everything for Amber to pull me out of there and make me look at other stuff. Including being the Queens private Chapel, it is also the home to the bodies of Henry VIII, one of his wives Jane Seymour, the current Queens parents, and Napoleon’s son!

Inside the Castle was almost as Amazing. It is so hard to imagine being Prince William or Harry. Getting to play in these halls and grow up around this Castle so full of history and know that it would someday be yours. CRAZY. When you first walk in there is this masive grand staircase with a statue of a hourse with and armored rider. The walls are covered in swords and other weapons and are lined with statues also in full metal armor. The craptastic part of this tour was that we couldn’t take pictures inside of any of the buildings so I have hyperlinked some of the words to the web so you can kinda see what we saw.

1. St. Georges Chapel on the Left, Castle on the right. This is all inside the castle walls.
2. View of inner court yard
3. Back in the day when armies tried to invade the Castle this is where the guards would stand and shoot arrows.
4. Same as 3
5. This is a picture of the mote around the big round column of the castle. They turned it into a really nice garden.
6. Same as 5
7. One of the inside state rooms of Windsor (not my pic). I suggest googling Images of the inside. Pretty neat.
8. Changing of the Guard. This Castle has guards like Buckingham. Apparently they are all actual military servicemen many who have seen combat.
9. A view from outside the Castle wall. The city of Windsor.
10. Same as 9