London Trip Continued

Ok so I ended with Saturday night at the globe....

Sunday was the second day trip. This one went to Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.

This was a bigger, and somewhat friendlier group of people on this tour. (The people on Saturday's tour seemed to want to keep to themselves). There was another australian girl on this tour, from Brisbane and she was also a teacher (in London since May working) so we had several things to bond over.

Oxford was great! The town and the university are really one - there is no campus as such, the uni is spread over the town, so the town is the university (if you know what I mean. :P) With different colleges that the students stay in depending on their subjects and interests. The uni system is different to other unis. you don't have lectures here, you just have a personal tutor who you give your assignments to and go to some tutorials, but much of it is self directed learning. And you don't do a general arts degree or different electives etc. If you are studying history you just do history and nothing else for the whole 3 years. This means that when Oxford students graduate they automatically receive a Masters 3 years later without having to do anymore study since their Degree was so specific.

It's all very pretty sandstone buildings and cobbled streets. And not many cars - bicycles everywhere.

A peek into a college:

This trip wasn't so rushed so had a little while to walk around here (and buy an Oxford University jumper) before heading towards Stratford-Upon-Avon. On the way we drove throught the cotswolds which is an area of cottages - many of them still with thatched roofs. These are protected, meaning if you have a thatched roof you can't tile it, and if you have a tiled roof and decide to change to thatch you can't change it back. And people pay a lot of money for these cottages, even though you will eventually need to rethatch at a cost of 40,000 pounds ($100,000), and insurance is expensive due to fire risk. But they are pretty! :p The one in the photo below, we were told, was worth about 500,000 pounds (thats over 1 million dollars!!!)

Then we drove on to Stratford and Shakespeare's birthplace. Tourist infested, but well preserved and interesting to see for a Shakespeare buff like me (though this conversion is probably a new development - I always admired the plays but the more I learn and study the plays, the more I have come to think they are brilliant!!).

Then we went on to Warwick castle, which is a really well preserved medieval castle (one of the castle's built by William the Conqueror after he invaded in 1066 - never used and pretty much obsolete from the time it was built like all the fortifications William built, but perhaps his fortifications were the reason England wasn't invaded again and taken over so easily like William himself did.) It had a dungeon and everything! This was great to see. They had waxwork displays depicted both medieval life, and the life of the Earl of Warwick and his family who lived in the castle later. These were freakily realistic looking, and if you put your face up close to the fugures face you were sure at any moment they would move and you would realise you had been staring at a real person. We decided that we would have to go back one day dressed in medieval costume and sit in the display until some unsuspecting tourist came along and then spook them.

This photo was taken from the top of the tower (seen below). The walk up there was up a narrow winding and claustrophobic set of stairs, that for someone afraid of heights generated nightmares of a never ending spiral!) And there were grates at the top which looked straight down to the ground. However, not that long ago heights like this would have induced a sweaty, heart pounding panic but what I felt here was very mild, just a slight and entirely bearable discomfort. I've noticed my fear of heights since arriving here (in recent years escalating to a real irrational phobia) has abated. Which makes me think that it probably is a psychological, self-confidence related thing. Anyway, back to the photos:

That night I went back to the hostel, and even though I was invited out by two Italian guys in my dorm, I decided I couldn't do anything but go to sleep. I had thought about walking to see westminster abbey and trafalgar square at night, but apart from the fact that i didn't really want to walk at night alone, I was too exhausted and decided I would go in the morning before my bus back to Leeds.

So I went to Westminster Abbey on Monday morning. (Photos of the outside below, not of the inside since that wasn't allowed and it would have felt a little irreverant to be snapping pictures of the tombs of all these kings and queens and great people anyway.) I never knew how many people there were buried in that place!! It was beautiful and at the same time a little creepy to know that every few steps, there was someone buried under your feet. Or more than one - one of the graves was something like 20 monks who died from the Black Death.

I also saw Big Ben and heard it chime, walked past Downing Street - heavily gated and guarded - and then walked to Trafalgar square. The fountains weren't running, but the very tall Nelson's column and the Lion statues were fairly impressive.

Big Ben and the London Eye (which I have still to go on) in the background.):

Then it was time to go back and get my bags and catch the bus. I was in a panicked rush and one point as I thought I was going to be late for my bus. I ended up getting there on time but the bus was delayed for 35 minutes anyway. By the time I got back to Leeds I was so exhausted I felt like I would either snap or cry if anyone so much as looked at me funny. Total culture and history overload.

But I'm still glad I went. And there's still more of London to see, so I'm definitely going to go back. Hopefully with others next time though.

I;ve been buying, as souvenirs, charms for my charm bracelet. In Amsterdam airport I bought a little clog (even though I guess technically I haven't really visited Holland yet - but it reminds me of Bjorn now too). From bath I got a little bath, a crown from windsor, a bus from London, and a little shakespeare's house from Stratford-Upon-Avon. Soon my bracelet will be full if I keep up at this rate.

And thanks everyone for all your Aussie food suggestions. I found an online Australian product shop based in the UK. I haven't got the time to do anything involved before Saturday so I jsut bought some Tim-Tams and some Coopers Beer (which has the added personal touch of being from SA, not just Aus.) But I've bought other stuff too, and a Kath and Kim DVD, so I think I'll have an Australian party and do more meals and stuff later on when I have the time to do things properly.

Thats all from me for now.

Hope you aren't all melting over there in the heat. I'm not freezing yet but looks like it won't be long before I do :P

Also, the limit of photos I can upload here means that I can only put a few photos up, so if you want to see more go to http://picasaweb.google.com/a1120631/LondonTrip.