A bit of cultured London

Since Monday, we've had a few busy days. Being tourists, of course we would go to the London Eye. If you aren't familiar with that, it's pretty much a gigantic ferris wheel (135 meters tall!!) rising up above the Thames, giving a full panorama of London. We actually got fairly lucky; it was a clear day, no rain, and the visibility was very good. It definitely showed London in a bit of a different light than what we were used to seeing!

Another place we had the opportunity to see was Westminster Abbey (oh, the joys of a student discount). Think of the most ornate church you've seen. Well, this is at least as ornate, possibly even more so. A massive Gothic structure, Westminster Abbey really is a building deserving of all of the traditions incorporated with it. The only place I've seen that can come close to matching the high altar of Westminster is the chapel at Golgotha in the Holy Sepulcher.

While we were planning for this trip, my mom found a tour service that would take us to various sites in the UK, so on Wednesday we embarked on a bus tour, taking us to Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. Of the three places, Stonehenge was by far the coolest (to me), but the ruined Roman baths at Aquae Sulis (Roman name... the modern name of the place is Bath) were pretty neat too. At the end of our time there, we had the opportunity to taste some of the water that had come from the baths. Oddly enough, it tasted like the water from the drinking fountain at Silver Lake pool...

One great thing about London (maybe the whole UK?) is that admission to museums is FREE! We figured we'd take advantage of that and check out the British Museum. Not surprisingly, with free admission comes huge crowds. There were times when it was difficult to keep yourself from moving BACKWARDS, so dense the crowd was. It was a constant fight to see the exhibits, a fight not really worth undertaking. After seeing the exhibits on Greece, Rome, and Egypt, we ended up leaving. Later that night, however, we took the underground to the Victoria Apollo Theater to see Wicked. Although not my first time seeing it, it was by far the highlight of the day. The performance was superb, and it was pretty interesting to see how the British actresses changed the style ever so slightly from how the Chicago actresses performed it. All in all, a good night.

Yesterday was probably my favorite day in London. We started the day off by travelling via the underground to the Tower of London. Awesome. For a fan of medieval history, this was the perfect place to go. The stories of what happened there were slightly chilling (good), the buildings were very intact (better), and the exhibits they had throughout the site were extraordinarily relevant to their placement and well organized (best).

After the Tower, we headed over to the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament. Because Parliament was not in session, tours of the Houses were being offered(again, yay for a student discount!). We got a fantastic tour guide, and she did a great job at explaining the building, the British government, and the history of Britain. That tour alone may cause me to switch my emphasis to more of a comparative political approach when I return to SJU.

So now we've reached the end of our time in London. If you're one of those lucky people coming over here to study either this semester or next, I'm jealous. But not THAT jealous, because now it's time to go to Ireland! Next time you hear from me will be from the Emerald Isle!

"Westminster Palace" aka Houses of Parliament

Stonehenge, as strange as can be...

Guess.