Castles and Libraries

So, yesterday was the group excursion to Dover Castle. The morning dawned beautifully, with sunshine coming in my window. But by the time we left shortly before noon, it was looking more like rain. We made it to the train station with only a few drizzles, but right after we got on the bus (the train was down between Canterbury and Dover, so they had a replacement bus running) it decided to start pouring. I got to sit on the top of a double decker bus! First thing on my list done yesterday. Also, the bus went by the cliffs, so I got some good pictures of the whit cliffs of Dover! Second thing on my list done yesterday. Luckily, the rain stopped by the time we got to Dover and had settled down to 25 mph winds.

We went into the secret wartime tunnels where the heads of the military planned during the beginning of WWII. The castle had had tunnels there from the time of Henry II, but they were expanded during WWII. When we got out, the wind was cold and blowing hard enough that I was worried about being blown off the cliff. So we headed inside the little shop for some hot chocolate and I got a scone, which was the third thing on my list that I did yesterday.

Then the anthro class headed up to the old Roman lighthouse, and after a brief history lesson, we were free to explore. I stuck around with Sam and Ariel, and after heading into the gift shop to warm up for a minute, we headed into the castle. They had it set up as a 'working' castle, so you could look into the kitchen and there were a bunch of people arguing. They were pretty funny. They also had a king. Who, when shown on a  (12th century) map where Texas was, asked the McGee's if they lived in hell. I told them they should have said, well, for part of the year.

We made it to the top of the castle and the view was great. But you couldn't look over the battlements because the wind was blowing straight up. I took a picture for Ariel of her hair flying straight up behind her. We then went back to the gift shop to get our souvenirs, then decided to head back to the train station because it looked like it was going to rain soon. Well, we made it to the gate just as it started pouring and raining sideways. So we hung out in the gate until it lightened up, then made it to the train station without any mishaps, other than getting splashed by a few cars.

Today I met Eileen in London and we went to the British Library. The Library was pretty cool. They had some amazing works there, several original Shakespeares, a Canterbury Tales, a copy of the Magna Carta (which I'm still not impressed with), a Gutenberg Bible and a  1400's King Jame's Bible. They had a lot of beautiful books, but also some music. They had an original of 'The Wedding March' and a piece of Handel's 'Messiah'. It was cool looking at those and being able to hum them.

They also had a science fiction exhibit going on. They had copies of some of the first science fiction books ever written, apparently by the ancient Greeks! They even had a Tardis (I don't know, ask a Doctor Who fan) as well as a 'draw your own alien' station.

We headed back to Canterbury, where we walked all the way across town, twice. The first time to get Eileen (and her stuff) to the hostel and the second time to find dinner. We stopped at a fish and chips place, where I had chicken (so sue me, I don't like fish, I did have a bite of Eileen's though.) and we talked about getting a pint (well, Eileen getting a pint. Me maybe getting a sprite) but decided we have to be up early tomorrow. So now I'm washing clothes downstairs and then I'm headed to bed. I have to be at the train station at 5:30, so it'll be an early start to the day.

P.S. the thing I'm using for the slideshow is being annoying, so I'm just going to put stuff on facebook from now. Their will still be a pretty slideshow, but no new pictures there. Besides, the caption on my Facebook pictures are so much more entertaining.

Stonehenge!

Well, after 12 hours of sleep I'm finally ready to write this post.

We had dinner last night as a group, and I had lamb and roast potatoes. Both were very good, but it was way too much to eat in one sitting. Then to bed early because...

I was up at 1:45 the next morning to get ready for the bus. We got a knock on our door at 2, loaded the bus (which the Brits call a coach) at 2:15 and were on our way at 2:30. It was cold. All so we could get there an hour before our tour started. But it was okay because we took a mini field trip to the round barrows that you can walk to from the parking lot at Stonehenge. We started walking as the sun came up at 5:15 or so and I got some really cool pictures of the sheep in the field. They were so... sheepy. And sheepish for that matter. Then we had to walk through a cow field to get to the barrows. McGees says that we have cows back home, to which his daughter replies, 'yeah, but these are dairy cows. We only have meat cows.' We were all rather punch drunk at the time and as such, this was a hilarious statement.

The barrows were really cool. Their are a lot of them around Stonehenge. They've found a lot of stuff buried with the people in the barrows and as our guide said, this was kind of the 'Valley of the Kings' for prehistoric Britain. While we were on the barrows, the fog started to lift and we could sort of see Stonehenge in the distance. I got some neat pictures of Stonehenge just peeking out of the fog.

We went to meet our tour guide, and thankfully it had started to warm up as the sun came out. Our tour guide was a nice old lady who had done the tour for the Texas State group for seven years. She took us to various stones and explained what they were and why they were called what they were called. She explained the current theories on what Stonehenge was used for as well as where the stones came from and the various building stages. Then we got to wander around and take pictures. She also gave us some dowsing rods to play with. They were nifty, but I think my hands were too cold for them to work properly. I got a bunch of pictures. The color of the stones is wonderful with the green green grass and the blue sky.

We then got back on the bus to be dropped off at a youth hostel in Salisbury, where we ate breakfast. We then walked to Salisbury Cathedral, which was so beautiful. The church is huge. I don't usually like people in my photos, but I had to have some just for scale. I was on the edge of the green space around the cathedral and I could barely get the front in the picture. The inside is split into a bunch of smaller areas. There are little rooms off the sides of the cathedral and the main center area is split up by the altar in the middle and the columns running down either side. They also have a copy of the Magna Carta, but I honestly don't remember seeing it. They also had a 400 year old King James Bible, turned to the beatitudes. They had a lot of displays about the Magna Carta, but that's not really my area.

Then, to the gift shop! I found a bunch of post cards and a bell for Grandma. :) They also had a couple of Stonehenge post cards, so I got one. Then I hung out with some people for a while while we were figuring out who all was doing what. The group that was going to the museum for anthro was all going to bath, and the people who were going home weren't going to the museum. So I went through the museum (which was alright, but I think I was too tired to properly enjoy, and they didn't have some of the info I was hoping they'd have, though they did have a cool model of sunrise on the summer solstice at Stonehenge) and then went home by myself. I asked the guy at tickets the easiest way to get from Salisbury to Canterbury and he printed me out a timetable with the appropriate trains on it. I was lucky because the next train for London (where I had to change) left three minutes after I got there. Then I got on another train at Waterloo station in London and came home. I actually made it here ahead of the people who left before I went to the museum. They tried to take the high speed train, which necessitated going all the way across London and then waiting an hour for a train.

At that point I uploaded photos, talked to Mom, and went to bed. 12 hours later, I'm feeling more like a human being and I'm going to have to start in on my essay. Fun!