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!

Man Bieau P'tit Jèrri

Jersey is a channel island near France that has a unique political identity.  It is a crown dependency (protected by the United Kingdom) but has the power of self-determination.  It has a population of about 90,000 and is about 9 long and 5 miles wide.  It is about 14 miles from France so on a clear day you can see the coast of France and a lot of their architecture is french. 

Emily and I visited Jersey recently to visit a friend (Kit) who is a local musician and is working to help save the native language, Jèrriais.  

After arrival we went with Kit to The Crab Shack and got fresh seafood. 

 

The meal was lots of work, but when on an island, you have to get fresh seafood.

 After a relaxing night we went out on our own to Mont Orgueil Castle.  It was built over 600 years ago and has defended Jersey from the French ever since. It has lots of nice history, and everywhere you turned there was another passage way with something new to explore.  We also really liked how they integrated art into the castle from local artists in order to help you better interact and learn on your visit (see the knight for example).

The castle and the beach

Inside the lower ward

 

Some art in the castle

A little dress up for us older kids

After the castle we walked along the coast to get a geocache and then Kit took us on a driving tour to various historical sites in search of dolmen, neolithic grave sites. We spent most of the afternoon outside in the sun and searched (sometimes in vain) for these sites labeled on our map.  This wondering around the island, however, showed us sights many people don't get to see.  We walked along the north east coast and saw the dramatic cliffs and ancient battlements.  

 The Dolmen, with some semi-modern changes to how it sat for hundreds of years

Our second day we were off to the north west of the island to explore the beaches, bunkers, and ruins.  The Nazis controlled Jersey from 1940-1945 and Hitler was very proud that he controlled part of the UK.  So much so that he was not ready to give it up without a fight.  He set out to make the island a fortress.  Over 40 Nazi bunkers and fortifications still exist on the island, with miles of tunnel and other ruined battlements.  The most impressive is near an ancient castle and the spot of our hike.  We set of on a quest to find a geocache that ended up taking us 2 hours to find and in the end, the gps was out of batteries but we managed to make the final find and sign the log.  (See pictures below)

 

Our adventure began with an impromptu tour via construction workers

 

The castle ruins

 

The Nazi ruins, such an impressive bunker.  It has 5 floors.

 

In the middle left of the shot you can see another bunker, they were everywhere!

 Signing the log of the Geocache

We spent our evening eating fish and chips in "town" (what the locals call St. Helier) and took the bus home as Kit was going to a political rally.  Once again, taking public transport outside of London makes you appreciate how frequent and convenient public transportation is in London (as we waited 40 minutes for the next bus going our direction!) 

Our final full day in Jersey found us in the Jersey War Tunnels (built by the Nazis to hold ammunition and later turned into a war hospital).  It was a great vision into the past, a look at occupied Jersey.  Kit talked about how his father and other locals were around for the occupation.  It was some of the only British soil taken over by the Nazis.

The rain was coming down for our final day so we drove around the island in search of things to do inside.  The afternoon found a bit of sun so we decided to search for more historic sites.  We found a nice old Dolmen that was unlike any other on the island.  However, on our trip back to the car, the wind and rain picked up and we got hit by mother nature.  

 

This was said to be 6,000 years old!

We spend our final evening downtown listening to the band Kit is in, Badlabeques.  They are a band of local musicians that sings in the local language of Jerriais.  Kit is doing a similar masters degree as me (MA in Ethnomusicology), he is trying to revitalize the language in Jersey using music and Ethnomusicology.  You can check out their music at www.badlabeques.net (you can download their Christmas album for free).  

 

The Band (Kit in the middle playing Guitar).  

The accordion player in the left of the screen is actually a local politician who gave us a little history on the politics of the island.

Stay tuned for the next installment, the visit of the Stover Sr. family.

Brandon

A Beautiful Weekend

At Holland Park

The weather this weekend in London was absolutely lovely!  With bright sunny skies and a high of 68F (20C), it was a great weekend to be outside.  And that's just what Brandon and I did.  We ventured out to the west side of London to the Notting Hill area. We explored the charming Holland Park, which has a giant chess board, Japanese garden and Ice Cream shoppe.  We even packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed lunch on a park bench.

Waterfall in the Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

Giant Chess

Rose Garden

Following our jaunt through the park we stumbled across an American Food Store.  They had all the items we've been craving this whole year, that you cannot find in the UK.  Items such as: Chex Mix, Velveeta cheese, Kraft mac and cheese, and Ranch dressing.  So we walked out with a nice variety of food to remind us of home!

We also had a special surprise earlier this week.  My friend, Megan, whom I know from college, and her husband Chad visited London this week and we got to have dinner with them one night, before they headed off to Paris!  As you can see, it was quite a bit cooler that evening (my hair being crazy in the wind), but here are Megan and I in Trafalgar Square.  I hope they had a great trip and it was so lovely to see them.

Friends reunited in Trafalgar Square!

Boy, I sure wish more friends would come visit us!  We are great tour guides!!!

Wishing you all a lovely spring!

Romance in France*

*So the title of this post was a bit trickier than the other two, because very little rhymes with "Paris."  But since we traveled to France with three couples, I thought this title would still work!

Anyway, our last stop on the trip around Europe was in Paris, France.  This is a city I have been anxiously waiting to visit for a very long time!! I took French classes in high school and have collected Eiffel Tower and Paris themed decorations since college.  So, needless to say, I was really looking forward to this part of the trip.

La Famille à La Tour Eiffel

Highlights of Paris:
The Eiffel Tower - Obviously, this is a must-see in Paris.  Many people have actually told me that the tower is ugly in person.  However, I thought it was absolutely beautiful!  It is much more intricate than I expected when you see it up close.  We were able to take an elevator ride to the top of the tower, but only after waiting in line for over an hour.  But it was so worth it, just check out the pics...
 

Intricate designs on the Tower

The Family at the second level of the tower, with views of Paris

The large building in the top right corner is the Sacré Cœur

View of the Arc de Triompe from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Conversations in French - As I mentioned earlier, I took a bit of French lessons in high school and I spent the past year reviewing my skills using the Rosetta Stone program.  However, I am nowhere near being able to speak fluently, I just know enough to get by.  I actually managed to have a decent conversation with a man sitting near us at a cafe one day.  He saw us looking at the menu slightly confused (this place only had a French menu) and made a suggestion that we try the "Filet de Boeuf avec pommes de terre" which I understood to mean "Filet of Beef with potatoes"  So then he started just talking to me in French!  He was kind enough to speak slowly and only use simple words, so I was able to have a small conversation with him!

Flirty Frenchmen - So, everyone says "Oh, the French are so rude!" and while we ran across a few rude people...the majority of the people we came in contact with were soo nice!  They graciously spoke English with us and were very helpful.  Some were even very humorous, like the man who helped us at the tourist info booth, who was extremely flirtatious with me!

The Louvre - Of course, we had to go to the most famous museum in the world!  Although, it was full of people and, just like the Eiffel Tower, we had to wait in a long line to even get inside.  The wait was worth it, though because we got to see famous works of art such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Code of Hammurabi.  Just beware if you ever visit...it is a giant museum and impossible to do in only one day!

Outside the Louvre

The craziness that is the Mona Lisa room

Other adventures included: the Musee D'Orsay (which I actually preferred over the Louvre - just as many beautiful works of arts and way less people!) the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Élysées, where we ran into a New Years Parade!  We also saw the tomb of Napoleon and the armory museum.  And we walked through Notre Dame and climbed to the top of the dome in the Sacré Cœur.  Phew, it was a busy few days!

Musee D'Orsay which is converted train station

Arc de Triomphe

View from the Dome of the Sacré Cœur

The Sacré Cœur

Tomb of Napoleon

Notre Dame

Another unexpected highlight of our trip to Paris was running into an old high school friend, Kelli, who was in Paris with her new fiance!  I have not seen her since 2005 when we graduated.  Such a nice surprise to realize how small the world can be and run into people you know in a foreign country! 

Friend from high school - Kelli

Au revoir et à bientôt!