Another action-packed day in London! We took the Underground again, which I really enjoyed. Riding trains is so fun! We walked through Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square (Holy HUGE freaking Australia display at the Odeon), and ended up in Trafalgar Square where I caught sight of the National Gallery! We took a walk along the River Thames where I saw the London Eye in much better focus. This was where the New Year’s Eve fireworks display would be in the evening so much of the area was being prepped for a huge crowd. We decided paying £27 for a ride on the Eye was too outlandish to indulge in, so we admired it from a distance and thought a lot about Doctor Who. We took tons of photos of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. (It was impossible not to hear Chevy Chase in my head saying “Hey kids, Big Ben! Parliament!” In fact, he really would not shut up. I also kept seeing the HP sauce label.) Side note, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament sounds like a terrible band name.

We had lunch at Wagamama, a delicious and efficient Japanese chain restaurant. The chicken curry was amazing! Then on to National Gallery. I was astounded by the fact that these famous works were just there on the walls. Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks was not there, but there was a pencil study in its place. Despite that, I still found myself deeply affected by being in its presence. Also absent was van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding which has impressed me since the first time I saw it in art history class. Saw Monet, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Renoir, Constable, Turner, Cézanne, Vermeer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, and Vincent’s Sunflowers. So much amazing, incredible art. The highlight ended up being Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, which people of my generation will recognize as being defiled by the Crash Test Dummies on the cover of God Shuffled His Feet. (I absolutely hate the fact that I cannot divorce myself from this association, though admittedly I did own the album and enjoy it in its time.) It is so much larger, grander, and more vibrant than any photograph can deliver.

We had a delightful pub dinner, then went to Selfridges to get some booze to celebrate the new year in style–in our Almost Classy hotel room! We watched the Big Fat Quiz of the Year on tv followed by the London Eye fireworks, which we could hear echoing outside our window! Welcome 2009!

We spent the day shopping on Oxford Street. We walked until our feet were so sore we could barely stand anymore. In the early afternoon we took a break and had some drinks at a pub, then continued on to the theatre district where fate decided how we would spend our evening. There in front of us, on the side of the Gielgud Theatre, was Bill Bailey’s face. Both Jules and I are huge fans of the guy, especially for his role as Manny in Black Books as well as his previous stand up work, and as such our eyes lit up! Being that we were both slightly buzzed at this point from our recent trip to the pub, I decided it was a good idea to go inside and ask if there were any tickets left for the evening’s show, despite the multiple signs around saying SOLD OUT. I asked the man at the ticket counter if there were any tickets left and he said there was one pair left. SQUEE! We bought them after a short discussion over price, then rushed back to the hotel via the Underground, which I found to be a quick and easy ride, unlike Seattle’s terrible bus system. We dropped our purchases off, freshened ourselves up, then rode back into town to have dinner at the Indian restaurant across from the pub we’d spent time in earlier. The chicken tikka masala was probably the best curry I’ve ever tasted (now I understand why it’s world famous.) Then we headed over to the theatre, where we waited in a giant mob in the lobby before being allowed inside. We then discovered that not only had we gotten the last pair of tickets, but they were the best seats in the house. Seriously. Smack in the middle of the first balcony, we could see the stage perfectly. Thus commenced two hours of musical comedy and topical hilarity during which I felt like we were having the best honeymoon EVER. I could not have asked for a better gift from the fates.

By the way, his DVD Tinselworm is a very similar production to the version we saw. He had added some new material and refined bits of the act, but it is essentially the same. Highly recommended. (Though you may as well treat yourself and get the collector’s edition of his stand up comedy since it’s not too much more expensive.)

On this morning we bid farewell to Simon and family as we took the train from Newbury (near Oxford) to London. The trip was mostly pleasant, and not too terribly expensive. We arrived at Paddington Station (of the famed Bear) which was only a few blocks away from our hotel. We got a taste of London street “design” as we turned right at a corner on my suggestion and ended up in an area where we couldn’t turn left where we wanted to. The hotel was on a street perpendicular to the main road that runs along Hyde Park, but the street curved around in such a way that it was only accessible from one end. After about 15 minutes of backtracking, we finally found the place. We were a bit early in checking in but the people running the hotel got our room ready for us while we had some coffee and relaxed in the lobby. The hotel was what I like to call Almost Classy. It was obviously quite old and still held onto that character, albeit in too many ways. At least it had a shower that wasn’t a power shower! I had spent a week taking baths so any shower was a welcome treat. We had a nice view out the window.

We went across the street to Kensington Gardens, which is a massive green plot next to Hyde Park, a beautiful, lush un-city-like area at the edge of the downtown area. It took about 15 minutes to walk the width of the park going in a straight line, so that should give you an idea of scale! At the very edge is the Albert Memorial, which is ridiculously ornate. The depiction of America in lands he ruled over is rather amusing. After a lot of walking we found a Pret a Manger for lunch, and came across the Natural History Museum, where Jules and I got to see a blue whale skeleton amongst tons of other awesome things! The building itself was Quite Interesting.

We then walked to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum where I was astonished to discover that in addition to having free admission, they allowed you to walk amongst the artwork and take photos at your own leisure! I found myself standing beneath the work of famous artists such as Bernini, Rodin, and Eric Gill, the famous typeface designer! There was way too much to take in at once, so we looked at clothing design, sculpture, and painting, then called it a night. By the time we left, Kensington Park was closed (there are no lamps to light the paths in the dark, can you believe it?) so we had to walk around it, down the road that divides it from Hyde Park. I caught my first glimpse of the London Eye although it didn’t look nearly that blurry to me.

We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant below our hotel. We were the first to arrive and the door from the outside wouldn’t open for us, so they had to let us in! They didn’t serve beer and their wine was ridiculously overpriced so we just ate our dinner, charged it to the room, and then went back upstairs. I had a much needed shower and managed to slip getting out of the tub due to a stupid swinging half-door (seriously, wtf) and ended up with a massive bruise on the inside of my left thigh which ended up looking worse than it felt after the initial period of intense pain. We watched a bit of British television, which was nice, but we became quite uncomfortable when we realized we couldn’t turn the heat down past 21° C (~70° F). Luckily one of the windows opened so we were able to sleep comfortably, although the sheets were very rough with a thread count of perhaps 75 thick strands. Looking up towards the ceiling we noticed the chandelier had 3/5 working light bulbs. Almost classy.

The last thing we did with Simon before taking off for London was to visit the city of Bath. As one might imagine, the main attraction of the town is the Roman Baths, which were a public bathing site which utilizes natural geothermic heat to keep the water perpetually hot. The waters were said to have medicinal value so it was regarded as a miracle from the gods. The tour included an audio guide, as most do these days, but this one was in the guise of a humongous telephone, which made everyone holding it look like a complete moron. Here is Jules looking less moronic, but more online-dating-profile-like. I was amused by the audio clips of Bill Bryson describing different sections of the building and pools, especially those which were less than complimentary. Apparently he’s not a fan of Roman sculpture, especially of their women. Additionally, as expected, wherever there is a pool of water, people will inevitably throw change into it.

After the tour we met up with Simon and ate lunch from Pret a Manger, the ubiquitous UK grab n’ go deli chain, which I immediately fell in love with. Like the previous day, it was absolutely freezing outside so it was a sort of misery having that lunch outdoors. Still, it saved us from having to pay VAT on the food, since it was considered unprepared. (what?) The Bath Abbey was also impressive but we didn’t actually go inside. We bought some fudge and prepared for a thorough tour by Simon.

We learned that Bath was the origin of the Georgian architectural style which was pioneered by John Wood, the Elder which was focused on the idea of having many residences in one building with a common facade facing a park or courtyard. (This way even middle class people could feel like they were living in a grand palace.) The buildings were built at ground level but the street level was raised up one story, which is why there are stairs down to a lower level in so many places. The circus is so grand it is impossible to photograph in a single shot. It is 3 curved buildings facing an oval courtyard, the same dimensions as Stonehenge. I didn’t take a photo of it, but the front facade was just that, as the design of the houses inside and behind were of the owner’s choosing. A short distance away is the Royal Crescent, which looks very similar. This photo shows the discrepancies between the perfect harmony of the facade and the chaos of the back side. Again, I couldn’t get the whole thing in one shot, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries before I could back up and try again.

This day was my chance to be the ultimate tourist! It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this opportunity, and I definitely did my best to make the most of it! The day was CUH-HUH-HOOOOOLD. I cannot even describe how uncomfortable it was outside. The Wiltshire Plain where Stonehenge is located is open on all sides (as you might imagine) so there was nothing to block the wind. It felt like being back in the Midwest in the dead of winter, but without the mounds of snow.

The thing I found most unexpected about Stonehenge was just how incredibly HUGE the stones are. Everyone has some idea of the scale of the stones, and that they are very heavy, and all of this…however, until you are actually there to see them towering above you, it just doesn’t sink in. They are so, so, so big. Seriously, just compare the tourists in this photo to the size of the stones. Of course, as Stonehenge is England’s most visited tourist location, it is really, really touristy. There were hundreds of people around despite the ridiculous temperature (which according to Simon’s car thermometer might have hit 3°C?)

I didn’t feel anything “mystical” about the place while I was there, though I’m not sure I really expected to. It was mind-blowingly impressive due to its scientific ingenuity and the logistics of it actually being there, since the stones had been moved from a location hundreds of miles away, but I didn’t feel like there was a higher power calling to me. Perhaps if I had been allowed inside the circle it would have felt different, but unfortunately the whole area is roped off. Simon said I could probably leap over the rope and run over and touch a stone before security got to me, but I decided it wasn’t worth it because I had a lot to see before the end of the trip and I didn’t wish to be prematurely deported.

After making it once around the circumference of the circle, we decided to head out since it was so unbearably cold. I was literally taking a photo, then returning my hands to my pockets as swiftly as I could, then repeating all the way around. I could barely feel them anymore at the end. On the way in and out of the place you run into the gift shop, so we quickly headed that direction to get a reprieve from the cold. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea though, and the place was so crowded I could barely move. I grabbed a few things for Mom (since she is quite enamored with the place) and a discounted calendar for myself, and paid with the mounds of coins I had amassed by paying with notes. One thing I must confess is that I had a difficult time adjusting to the idea that the listed price is what you pay. VAT (value-added tax) is always included in the listed price so you don’t have to do any funky percentage calculations to find your total price. Strangely, though, VAT had been reduced recently so many of the items in shops were actually less than the list price! In any case, instead of paying the exact amount in change, I had been just handing the cashiers notes larger than the actual amount and taking change. I had £14 in change to pay for the items–ouch. Needless to say I felt lighter as I left the shop.

Next we headed to Old Sarum, an Iron Age hill fort. Simon told us the tale of how he had taken a group of his students there on a tour and their double-decker bus had run off the side of the narrow bridge over the humongous ditch on the outer wall and they had been stranded there for 6 hours in the pouring rain. Because this bridge was the only way in or out, all the people inside were also stranded. Good times. There wasn’t much left to look at since time had taken its toll, but what was left was enough to tell a rather interesting tale of how the fort must have been. I seem to remember him mentioning that it was so heavily defended due to its placement that it was never attacked. Additionally, it was abandoned when they ran out of space in the interior for people to live and function. The most interesting bit of trivia about this place is related to the cathedral. The original structure was created from wood and only days after its consecration was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground. The replacement structure was built from stone, as can still be seen by the remains of the floorplan.

Next, we headed to Salisbury Cathedral, which unlike Winchester Cathedral is all made from a single architectural style. Upon entering we paid for a guided tower tour which would happen a bit later in the afternoon. We had lunch in the cafe which is located below the windowed roof in this photo taken from above. The view was absolutely spectacular. I spilled sparkling water everywhere and ended up with curry from my Coronation chicken sandwich all over my coat. Felt quite klutzy. Inside the church we were greeted by their stunning new font which is presumably used for baptisms and not typographic design. We had a peek at the cloister and were privy to a beautiful view of the spire, which is the tallest in the UK. On our way back towards the main part of the church, we passed this incredible sign and Simon asked if we wanted to go see the Magna Carta before we joined up with the tower tour. (Salisbury Cathedral has one of the four surviving original copies of the document.) Uh, yes please! That was one of the most surreal questions I’ve ever been asked. Unfortunately for security reasons we were not allowed to take photographs inside the Chapter House (the room where it is held) but take my word for it–it is magnificent to see!

We met up with our tour near the oldest working medieval clock in the world. (The italicized bit must be imagined spoken by Jeremy Clarkson.) Our guide was absolutely amazing. Simon commented that after having taken the tour on 7 separate occasions, this one was the best, so I felt happy about that! We got to see the interior structure of the roof and spire, which amazingly is totally utilitarian and unfinished and does not even slightly resemble the majesty below in the main hall of the church. It looks more like an old barn than an Anglican cathedral! The tour guide showed off a replica of the pulley system that was used to raise the pre-cut blocks of stone up to the base of the spire. The entire thing was built from the inside, until the opening got too narrow to work through! The pulley was so perfectly weighted he could move the entire thing using just a finger with next to no effort. In the main part of the church there was evidence of the stencil system they employed to make sure the stone blocks were the correct dimensions. (It’s a bit tough to see in the photo but there are shapes chiseled into the stone.) The view from above was stunning, and the cross shape of the church was very evident. There was even ancient graffiti!

While we were in the spire, the most amazing thing happened. The bells went off a couple of times to announce the time as usual, but as we were heading down, they started ringing continuously. There’s no way to adequately describe the sensation of being inside the spire as this was happening, other than to say it feels like your whole body is ringing! It lasted about 5 minutes, and I managed to get it on video, but I haven’t uploaded it yet, sorry! The sound continued to vibrate on the air for about a minute after the bells had stopped ringing. Those are some serious sound waves!

What an amazing, unforgettable day!

The day after Christmas, Simon took us to see Winchester Cathedral. This was my first cathedral visit so it was incredibly impressive, and interesting because it had been built on several architectural styles. It was incredible to see how they had (or hadn’t!) integrated the multiple styles. This was the location of Jane Austen’s grave, as she spent the last months of her life in the town to be near her doctor. The original grave marker was fairly non-descript, and did not even mention her being an author, so they gave her a more elaborate marker in later years. The cathedral was nearly lost when the crypt became flooded and the foundation began to fall away, and the entire structure was saved due to a single diver who went down every day over the course of 7 years and packed the lower level with thousands of bags of concrete. The sculpture of the diver created to commemorate his hard work ended up being the wrong person. (oops) I also found a carving of Jay Leno. On the way home Simon bought us a selection of English beers, all of which we drank at room temperature.

One of the most lovely days of all our time in England was Christmas Day. Since Jules’ family is spread out throughout the world it is very rare for everyone to be in the same place at the same time. Simon commented it had been 13 years since he’d been able to say “Happy Christmas” to Jules in person. (I suppose I’ve been quite lucky since I got to see everyone together not so long ago at the wedding, so the distance/time didn’t seem so massive to me.) This was my first non-American Christmas celebration, and I can’t exactly say I got the full English hospitality as the house contained 9 Australians (not all pictured) and one American! The appetizers were interesting, and I found myself surprised that I enjoyed the prosciutto wrapped prunes, as depicted above. There was more food than could be consumed, served throughout the entire day. Simon and Coral’s daughter Natasha is just at the age where she is very interested in presents, so to keep her behavior in check they spaced out her gift opening over the course of the day. It worked for the most part, but she had a lot of presents to open so she ended up a bit crabby by the end of the evening. She handled all the excitement pretty well for a child of 3, though.

I gave my mom a call on Skype and was able to wish her Merry Christmas for less than $2. Jules called Ivan on Skype later on and talked to him via webcam. He had an application running that superimposed various creatures over his face as he talked, such as an alien, dinosaur, and shark, which completely delighted Natasha. I’m sure she could have sat there with him all day asking him to change into a different character. It was rather hilarious. I got my first exposure to Christmas crackers, demonstrated here by Coral’s brothers, which are these cardboard tubes with a lame joke, cheap Chinese-manufactured toy, and paper crown inside. Two people yank on an end and one person comes away with the “prize.” That explained the table of people of all ages wearing paper crowns I had seen a few days previous which had confused me at the time.

After feasting, we all took a walk in the woods nearby Simon’s house. They explained to me it was rare to find wooded areas in populated areas of England since most of the trees had been cut down to make way for farmland ages ago. It was muddy but quite lovely. When we returned Simon treated us to a performance of “Summertime” on his electric cello, which was magnificent. He did an off-the-cuff duet with Coral’s brother Darren, who played a song he’d never heard just by reading the music and going with the flow. I was impressed, but Jules told me it wasn’t a big deal since their whole family lives and breathes music. STILL… I remain impressed!

I am so happy to have become part of another family who so obviously loves each other and cherishes their time together.

This was our last day in the student housing in Oxford before heading back to Penwood for Christmas family activities. In the morning Jules and I went out shopping for the last of the Christmas gifts. I was feeling tired but he convinced me we should do a bit more walking since we wouldn’t have another chance to see the city. That was when we remembered that Alice’s Shop was just down the street from where we were standing. The shop was very small and extremely touristy but I still bought a “Drink Me” mug. I am definitely a sucker for Alice in Wonderland. After that we had lunch at a cafe next door called Cafe Loco where they had an Alice canvas mural across the back wall and extremely tasty food.

We then headed back to the student housing where Simon met up with us. We piled all our things into his car and headed out towards Uffington so we could see the famed Uffington White Horse and Dragon Hill. Like many others, I am extremely fascinated by these very old, massive displays of human creativity and ingenuity. The white horse is a drawing carved into the side of a hill, exposing the white chalk below. It is only fully visible from above, which means when it was created they had no real point of reference, making the entire feat quite extraordinary. The walk up the hill was quite demanding, and amusingly we took a shortcut through a pasture with grazing sheep. We met up with an exuberant Australian tourist who asked Simon to take a photo of him in front of the horse, and who we saw again on the way down, rushing towards a taxi. After looking at the Dragon Hill (where St. George is said to have slayed the dragon; there is a bald spot of earth where no grass will grow, where it is said the dragon’s blood had fallen.)

Simon mentioned there was an ancient burial ground nearby, so he drove us up a deserted, windy road which ended in a muddy gravel trail, at the end of which was Wayland’s Smithy long barrow. There are tons of these old grave sites around this area, but this one is the oldest they’ve found. It really wasn’t much to look at from the outside but it was interesting to note that they had built a false entrance into the front to fool looters. And, as usual, by 3PM as we headed home, it was already getting dark.

To quote Jules, the above photo depicts “the best mobile phone shop I’ve ever seen.” (On Oxford’s High Street, which we passed countless times every day walking around the city.)

Since we were on our own and had only two days left to find presents for all of Jules’ family, including my sister-in-law’s brothers whom I had never met, we had our work cut out for us. We took a walk through University Parks, which is a big beautiful park about two blocks from our student housing. It was lovely to see ducks and swans swimming and playing in the pond. Jules told me the swans were property of the queen. Several friendly joggers said good morning to us. We walked around the University campus a bit, and my ankles kept twisting on the cobblestones. My legs were starting to get sore from all the walking!

We managed to rustle up some gifts for nearly everyone! We had lunch at a grab n’ go deli called “EAT” which I quite enjoyed. They charge you VAT if you decide to eat the food there, but not if you take it outside and eat on a public bench. Strange. Jules and I stopped by Sainsbury’s (grocery store) and got some chicken kiev and garlic bread for dinner. I filled up on San Pellegrino. We watched Pitch Black, which I had never seen. Exhaustedly fall asleep.

Mum, Dad, Jules and I walked into downtown Oxford again and met up with Simon at his office. Simon works for the university as a counselor for an American semester abroad program and a significant portion of his job is taking students on tours of the surrounding area, so he is very knowledgeable about the best places to visit. He gave us an overview of places to see in the Cotswolds, and with some literature in hand we headed out to Burford. We had a proper afternoon tea–Jules had scones with jam and clotted cream! I had a BLT and discovered the bacon was almost the consistency of ham, which seemed consistent for the rest of the trip. The Cotswolds are very notable for the color of their buildings, which are all made from honey-colored stone from the local quarry. Everything looks very uniform, which seems pretty rare.

We visited Burford Church and thus began my utter fascination with the extremely old graveyards. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the tombstones, even after Jules tried to convince me that they were extremely common–that every church in the area had a similar looking burial ground. It was still amazing to me since I have never seen anything that old! They all looked so beautiful, eroded away over time and overgrown with moss and grasses. This was also the first place I was able to see a perfect demonstration of how inconsistently the English language used to be written. Along one wall of the church were several tombs of members of a family called Sylvester. Each tomb had the word “deceased” written differently. In chronological order: Desessid, Deseased, Deceased, Deseased. Sometimes the words were spelled three different ways on the same tomb, even people’s last names. So strange. Additionally, I started seeing evidence that the people carving the inscriptions hadn’t planned out ahead of time how long the lines were going to be or even sketched out beforehand what they would say, as there are plenty of places where letters were tacked on above or below the incomplete line. That photo is certainly not the best example of what I saw, but you can see “Resurrection” does not fit on a single line. The stacked YE was very common to denote “the” so I certainly wouldn’t consider that a mistake, but many of these grave markers looked really poorly designed. I guess they weren’t so concerned with their typographic design back then.

After the church, we set out to see a DMV. Yes, go ahead and laugh…I did. Until Simon told us a DMV in England is a Deserted Medieval Village, abandoned after the plague wiped out most of the inhabitants, which sounds slightly worse than the Department of Motor Vehicles. We had trouble finding it until a priest in a station wagon stopped and said all that is left is the church. So it’s not so much a village as just a church. A church with another awesome old graveyard. A church that is still in use by the locals!

Following that, we went to see the ruined Minster Lovell church and manor ruins. Turns out the place is probably always open. It was pretty impossible not to take an amazing photo wherever I turned. It seems the manor was abandoned after the owners could no longer afford its upkeep, like many massive structures everywhere in England. The structure must have been glorious when it was all standing as it is breathtaking even in its ruined state.

Pretty exhausted when we got home. Mum & Dad headed back to Simon’s place in Penwood, giving Jules and I free reign of the student housing.