June in Pictures

Howdy!

Sorry Brandon and I have not been doing blog posts lately.  Seems like every free moment we have is spent writing our dissertations.  Thankfully I am now sitting with around 9,000 words (out of the 12,000 required) so I feel comfortable enough to spend a bit of time writing a post for you all!  Brandon is at 10,700 (out of 15,000)

Since we have missed several updates the past week, I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures so you can see what we have been up to the past month.  Because, let's face it, a majority of you probably just scan these posts and look at the pictures anyway, so I'll keep the words to a minimum this time ;)

We visited the Sherlock Holmes museum back in May when the Stover Seniors were in town.  Here is our attempt at being Dr. Watson and the great detective.

Another remnant from May with the Stovers - Enjoying a pint on the stage before seeing the musical "Once"

The following pictures are sights from Kew Gardens - a large botanical garden in South West London.  Brandon and I made the trip out there one bright and sunny day to enjoy a picnic lunch!

The Kew Palm House - a giant green house with plants from all over the world

At Kew Palace - a formal royal residence of King George III

The Japanese garden at Kew

A modern tunnel built to look ancient

In front of the tunnel

On the five story high tree top canopy walk at Kew 

Kayla, a lovely friend of mine from Millikin stopped in London for one day as part of her month long backpacking trip through Europe, here are a few of the things we did that day!

On my way to Hogwarts!

An a visit to the Doctor was a must...

Brandon and I took a day trip to Oxford to visit the city, but mostly to enjoy an afternoon at The Thirsty Meeple - the UK's only board game cafe.  Several from the Goldsmiths tabletop gaming society went as well.  Now Brandon and I are making plans to someday run our own board game cafe...

One of the many colleges in Oxford

One of the college accommodations in Oxford - seriously looks like a castle...

The Radcliffe Camera - a round building which is one of the University of Oxford libraries

Another University of Oxford building

The board game cafe!

Lately, we have enjoyed many cultural offerings in London, including an orchestra concert in a car park, a stage version of Orwell's 1984, and Bizet's The Peal Fishers at the English National Opera.

The view of London from the car park after hearing Sibelius Symphony No. 5

The London Coliseum - home to the English National Opera

We celebrated our fourth anniversary on June 25th by going on an impromptu Thames River Cruise (okay, not really a cruise, more of a river taxi...but it was still awesome!)

View of the Tower Bridge from the Thames Boat Taxi

Most people get the "London Bridge" and "The Tower Bridge" confused, but as you can see here, the London Bridge  is actually quite boring...

Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge from the Thames

And finally, we spent yesterday morning with a friend we met through a geocaching event.  He wanted to climb to the top of St Pauls, since there is a virtual cache up there, so we made it up the 528 to the top of dome and got rewarded with some spectacular views of London!

Almost to the top, here we took a short breather about 3/4 of the way up on a wider outcropping

At the top!

A view of the scary stairs you have to climb in the actual dome

Hope you all had a lovely June!!  July will be taking us to Italy and Greece, before August brings us back to the US, so we still have lots to look forward to this summer!

Escape to Edinburgh

Bagpiper with the city of Edinburgh behind

The Stover Senior family came to visit last week and we got to see many sites in the UK (some again, some for the first time).

They arrived tired and weary of a long flight, but our adventure was just beginning.  We took them on the usual first day round to the British Museum to see the stolen art (none of it is actually from Britain...), to the National Gallery to see the paid for art (at least Britain legitimately owns these works of art!), and treated them to their first British pub (but certainly not their last!)

Following our busy day in London, we boarded a train at King's Cross and took the four hour journey to Edinburgh, Scotland. While there we learned a lot about the city and wanted to share a few interesting facts with you!

Eight things you (probably) did not know about Edinburgh:

1) The town is not flat - steep climbs, lots of steps, and stops to take a breather dominated our trip.  Here are some examples of the Edinburgh landscape:

 2) J.K. Rowling spent some time in Edinburgh with her sister following her divorce.  It was during this time she wrote most of the first Harry Potter book and was known to frequent The Elephant Cafe - which has a wonderful view of the Edinburgh castle.  Perhaps this is where her inspiration for Hogwarts came from!?!

Outside The Elephant House

Enjoying breakfast at The Elephant House

The view of Edinburgh Castle from The Elephant House

3) Speaking of the Edinburgh castle, historically it has been a stronghold for Scotland in many battles for independence.  Ironically, Scotland is currently trying to once again gain independence and will soon be having a referendum vote to become independent of the UK.

B and E at the castle

The Stovers in front of the castle

View of the city from a cannon window

Edinburgh castle is located at the top of a steep hill

4) 'Arthur's Seat,' the highest point in Edinburgh, is located within the Holyrood park - a park of grassy hills situated in the center of town.  It is believed by some that this hill was the site of Camelot, in which King Arthur reigned.  I don't know if that is true, but it does provide spectacular views of the city, as well as the ruins of a 15th Century Abbey.

At the top of Arthur's seat

The Stovers at the top

Ruins of a 15th Century Abbey

5) The Queens Royal Yacht Britannia is docked in Edinburgh and you can tour it!

The Royal Yacht Britannia

On the Yacht

The main dining room, which is still used today for those with enough money to rent it out!

The royal sitting room

6) Scotland has a proud history of distilling whisky, which is where the term Scotch Whisky comes from.  The largest collection of unopened whisky bottles is housed in Edinburgh at the Scotch Whisky experience.  If you visit, you even get a sampling of Scotch whisky, and a demonstration on how it is made.

Jean and Jeff in the Whisky Collection

Sampling Scotch Whisky

The largest collection of unopened whisky bottles in the world

7) Edinburgh has its very own Parthenon, or at least half of one.  In 1823 construction began on what was to be The National Monument of Scotland - dedicated to Scottish soldiers and sailors who died in the Napoleonic wars.  However, by 1829 funds has run out and the building was left unfinished.  It is now known by the locals as "Scotland's Disgrace."

You can see the half finished Parthenon just right of center, behind the dark bell tower 

8) Brandon was lucky enough to celebrate his 29th birthday in Edinburgh, so we treated him by eating at a fancy restaurant, where he received a very special dessert.

Check back soon to hear about our day trip to Bath, England!

The Making of Harry Potter (and other things)

Yesterday, the Stovers made a trek out to to boonies of London...Watford Junction which is in zone 9.  London has 6 zones for the tube/overground/DLR trains.  In the far North West of London, they extend the zones to have a special zone 7, 8, & 9.  In other words, it's a long way away from central London.

Why were we out that far you may ask?  The answer to that comes in just two letters.  WB.  The Warner Brothers studio is located in North West London and they have an exhibition on "The Making of Harry Potter".  They had lots of sets from the movie, costumes, props, and videos explaining the making of the movie.  It was very much like the Dr. Who Experience we went to in October in Cardiff.  We walked through the great hall (without it's famous ceiling), walked down Diagon Alley, took a ride on the night bus through Privet Drive (which looks remarkably like the street we live on!), and drank some butterbeer.  This is only a quarter of the pictures we took that day, but take a look at some of the things we saw...

Welcome to the HP Studios!

Harry's cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley Home

The Great Hall

Dumbledore and Snape

Gryffindor costumes, including Daniel Radcliffe's first set of robes on the far left

The Gryffindor boys bedroom

Gryffindor common room

Dumbledore's office

The chamber of secrets door

Enjoying butterbeer in front of the Hogwarts bridge

Butterbeer and the Knight Bus

Diagon Alley

In front of the Hogwarts model

The Hogwarts model covered in snow

In other news, classes are moving right along (already on Week 4!).  We attended 'American Psycho' a brand new musical at the Almeida Theatre featuring Matt Smith (Yes, former Dr. Who Matt Smith). We waited afterwards for an autograph, but he didn't sign any that night as he was meeting a friend for a drink afterwards... oh well.  At least we picked up a prop business card from the show to keep as a souvenir (found it on the ground!).

American Psycho poster

Matt Smith in the musical (pic taken from the internet, as we were not allowed to take any during the performance)

The Stover Sr. family have come back from their trip to Key West and have booked their tickets to come to London so we are busily planning that trip. They will be coming in May.

In a few weeks we head to Canterbury, stay tuned for an update about our trip!