Day 23, 24, 25, and 26 - Edinburgh

Early Tuesday morning, we boarded the bus and headed out for a tour of the Scottish Highlands.  The Highlands are known for small villages scattered around the largest mountains in all of the British Isles. Much of our day was spent on the bus traveling, but we did stop every hour or so either to admire the natural scenery or to see one of the many tourist attractions throughout the area.  The look of the highlands is like nothing I have ever seen before.

Some of the Incredibly Green Mountains in the Highlands

It is incredibly green from all of the rain that they get and unfortunately no picture can really do justice to how beautiful the landscapes truly were.

After about 6 hours on the road, we made it to Loch Ness, the largest lake in Scotland when measured by volume, and home to the fabled Loch Ness monster, Nessy.  We stopped at Urquhart Castle, a castle ruin that overlooks Loch Ness.  The view from the castle was stunning, but it was also very cool to walk through the castle ruins.  We didn't spend a ton of time looking at the ruins however because several of us had decided that we wereing going to swim in Loch Ness.  Most of the people there thought we were crazy, which we probably were, but it was a lot of fun.  The water was obviously incredibly cold, but that is what made it fun.

The Group of Us that Swam in Loch Ness

After we finished swimming in the loch, we changed into some dry clothes and then continued our bus trip through the Highlands.  We only made one quick stop, for dinner, on the way back as we had a lot of driving left to do to make it back to Edinburgh.  It was after 9 o'clock by the time we made it back to our dorms, but the trip was well worth it.  In total we did roughly 400 miles of driving over the course of the day, which is about the same as the distance between London and Edinburgh.  

On Wednesday morning, we had an opportunity to sleep in, as we didn't have any required plans in the morning, which was nice following Tuesday's long trek through the countryside.  Once we had gotten up, we went to visit Edinburgh Castle.  I had been to the castle before, but it was definitely worth going again.  As the picture in the previous post shows, the castle is on the top of a giant volcanic rock, officially called Castle Rock, and the view from the top is spectacular.  On a clear day, like the one that we had, you can see all the way to the shore of the Firth of Forth, which leads out to the North Sea.  The castle is also home to the Scottish crown jewels which are spectacular, but I wasn't allowed to take a picture of them so you'll just have to take my word for it.  After we finished at the castle, we had a quick lunch before heading back to where we were staying for some afternoon classes.  Once we had finished with class, we grabbed some dinner before calling it a night.  

The View of the City From Edinburgh Castle

On Thursday, we once again had the morning to ourselves so we used morning to visit Holyrude Palace.  The palace is the Queen's official residence in Scotland, and is actually only about a mile away from Edinburgh Castle. As a result, the street connecting the two is creatively called the Royal Mile.  As the palace is still a working palace, there are many parts that are not open to the public, but it is interesting to look at some of the history of the palace as well as what the life of royalty is really like.  Once we finished at the palace, we once again grabbed a quick lunch before returning to the dorms to get ready for classes in the afternoon.  After class, we got a big group together, including one of our professors, and went back to the Indian restaurant that we had gone to earlier in the week.  The food was so good the first time that we couldn't possibly leave without eating there again and we wanted all of our friends to experience the great food too.  Once again, we were incredibly full after dinner, so we went back to the dorms and called it a night.  

Friday was our last full day in Edinburgh and it was a free day for us to do whatever we wanted.  After sleeping in once again, I headed out to see the National Museum of Scotland.  The museum was ginormous.  I'm pretty sure that you could spend multiple days there and not see everything, but what I saw in the limited time that I was there was amazing.  The museum is home to Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult stem cell, as well as many other great exhibits about everything from the space race to geology to the animals of the world.

Inside the National Museum of Scotland

I ended up leaving the museum when I got hungry and decided that it was time for lunch, but I could have spent several more hours exploring the museum.  For lunch I went to a place called Oink that specializes in pulled pork sandwiches.  They are so specialized that the only thing they sell is pulled pork sandwiches   They basically give you four choices: the amount of meat, the sauce, the filling, and type of bread.  The sandwiches are spectacular and I highly recommend them to anyone who is in Edinburgh.  After lunch I spent some time wandering around the city, trying to make sure that I hadn't missed any major attractions during the trip.  I know that there are things I missed along the way, but overall the week in Edinburgh was a great one.  Eventually my wandering led me back to the dorms where I met up with some friends for dinner.  

Day 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 - London to Edinburgh

Once again, I realize that it has been a while since I made a post, but we have been very busy traveling from London to Edinburgh and we haven't had particularly good internet while we've been traveling.

Early Thursday morning we boarded the bus, departed London, and began our journey towards Edinburgh.  The first stop on our trip was Straford-upon-Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born. It was a very small and quiet town, especially when compared to the hustle and bustle of London that we had become used to over the previous two weeks.  We arrived in Stratford in the early afternoon and had an amazing brunch and afternoon tea.  Then we started exploring the city, which didn't take very long, as it is a tiny city, but it was interesting to see some of the Shakespeare related sites and enjoy the sunny day in the countryside.  That evening we had tickets to see another Shakespeare play that was being performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.  This time we saw the play As You Like It.  The show was good, but we were all very surprised by how modern the production was, especially as compared to the performance in London at the Globe Theater.  After the show, we returned to our hotels and called it a night as we had to get up pretty early again to continue our journey through the country.

On Friday morning, we had a quick breakfast in the hotel before once again boarding the bus.

Dove Cottage

 Our destination for Friday was the Lake District and more specifically Dove Cottage in the city of Grasmere, one of William Wordsworth's homes in the area.  The house was quite small, but the area was incredibly beautiful.  At the house we also met with a Wordsworth historian who manages the library at the house which today is a collection of as many of Wordsworth's drafts and early publications as they can find.  It was amazing to see how much time and thought went into Wordsworth's editing process, he was truly never done with his poems.  After we left the house we had a quick lunch in the nearby town, then re-boarded the bus to head towards our hotel for the evening.

Once again on Saturday morning, we boarded the bus and set off for a long day of traveling.  Our first stop of the day was another of Wordsworth's houses in the area, which was only about ten minutes from Dove Cottage, Rydal Mount.  This house was significantly larger than the previous one, as he moved there to accommodate his growing family.  The landscaping at this house was even more incredible than at Dove Cottage.

My Friends Ashley, Jamie, and I at Rydal Mount

At Rydal Mount there was roughly four-and-a-half acres of gardens that were all incredibly lush and green.  I spent most of our visit just wandering through the gardens and admiring the area.  After we finished at the house, we once again had some lunch in Grasmere before boarding the bus that would finally take us to Edinburgh.  The bus ride was kind of long, but we still managed to arrive in the early evening, which left us some time to get dinner and start exploring the city.  We found a nice place for dinner and then started to wander, but unfortunately most of the shop were already closed as it was getting late, so we returned to our new dorms and decided that we would do more exploring on Sunday.

We didn't have anything official planned for Sunday which meant that we got to sleep in, which was wonderful after several days full of traveling and not getting enough sleep.  After we woke up, we got some breakfast, then headed out to explore our new city.  While Edinburgh is the second largest city in Scotland, it is still incredible small compared to London, which means that we can pretty much walk everywhere.  After wandering around for a while we found a nice place to get some lunch, before setting off to explore more of the city.  Over the course of the day, we were able to pretty much cover the entire city and we saw many of the most famous sites in the city.

Edinburgh Castle

For dinner, we found an amazing Indian restaurant where we had what was probably the best Indian food of the trip.  The food was so good that we are actually planning on going back again before we leave this weekend.  We were incredibly full after dinner so we returned to our dorms and called it a night.  It was very nice to have a relaxing day after so much traveling.

Today was our first scheduled day in the city.  We started out by visiting the Surgeons' Museum which is part of the Royal College of Surgeons here in Edinburgh.  For centuries the college has set the standards for surgeons in the region as well as serving to teach new procedures and new surgeons.  Through the years, the college has also collected numerous specimens and other artifacts that it has assembled into a museum to show how surgery has evolved through the years from the days before sterilization or aesthetics all the way to the present day.  It was particularly interesting to see how much military necessity has fueled the development of the surgery throughout history.  After we had finished with the museum, we had a bus tour of the city, which didn't add a whole lot to our experience as we had already walked the city over the past few days, but it was still interesting to get a different perspective and to hear some more information about what we were seeing.  Once we got off of the bus we got some lunch before returning to our dorms for an afternoon nap.  Feeling refreshed from our afternoon nap, we headed out to get some Chinese food for dinner which was decent, but not the best we have had so far on the trip.  After dinner I did some much needed laundry before calling it a night.  

Day 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17

Saturday was a very relaxing day, which was nice because it meant that I was able to catch up on some of the sleep that I've missed over the past few weeks.  After sleeping in, I headed out for a walk around the area we are staying in and to get some lunch.  It was another beautiful, sunny day so I figured that I might as well spend some time outside while the weather lasts.  After I got back from lunch, I met up with one of my friends and went to tour Parliament.

The building has rebuilt many times since it's original construction in the late 11th century, and it is really interesting to see how various architects have combined new sections of the building with the old ones that still stood.  It is also interesting how rooms and sections have been reconstructed to the exact specifications as before, even though a change was probably necessary.  The House of Commons for example was rebuilt after being bombed in World War II, but instead of making the chamber big enough for all members of the house to sit in, Winston Churchill instructed that the room should be rebuilt to the exact specifications as before.  Now, in order to guarantee themselves a seat in the chamber, members must arrive early and wait inline to claim a seat for the day.  While the bicameral style of government is similar to that of the United States, the procedures are far different.

Parliament, Big Ben, and Elizabeth Tower

The list of differences between Parliament and the United States Congress is quite long, but I thought that two of the most interesting differences were the fact that when a member wants to make a speech, he must declare before hand how long the speech will be, which means that there cannot be any endless filibusters, and secondly that if a bill has been up for debate in the House of Lords for over a year, it is automatically passed.

Sunday was another fairly relaxing day of catching up on sleep, wandering through a local market, cooking dinner, and finishing some homework.

On Monday, we returned to our usual busy schedule.  We started the day in class and then return to Shakespeare's Globe Theater for the actors workshop that we had to cancel last week.  I must admit that, as I am not an actor, I wasn't really looking forward to the workshop, but I was pleasantly surprised and actually really enjoyed it.  We learned a lot about the way that the actors interact and work with each other in an environment where they are performing a different show every night and don't necessarily have the time to rehearse every moment of the show, which is how the theater worked during Shakespeare's time.

The View of London From Across the Themes at Tate Modern 

Once we had finished the workshop, we stopped for a lunch, and then headed over to the Tate Modern Museum.  Over the past several days in class we have had debates about what is actually art and I must say that several of the pieces that are on display in the Tate Modern Museum are definitely not art.  For example, there is one display called Untitled Painting, which is simply as the description says "mirror on canvas."  The artist took a mirror and attached it to a canvas and now it is in a museum.  Why that is considered art is beyond me, but while there were many pieces that I didn't care for there were also several that I really enjoyed.  After we finished the museum, we returned to our dorms and went out for Indian food for dinner.  The food was pretty good, but I wish I had time to get some more Indian food before I left.  After dinner, I finished up some homework and called it a night.

Tuesday was another jam packed day.  Once again we started with classes in the morning.  After class we grabbed a quick lunch then we hopped on the Tube to visit the National Gallery.  The National Gallery is an incredible art museum that houses some of the most famous works of art in the world.  My personal favorites were some of the works by van Gogh and Monet, but there was something there for everyone's taste.  After we finished the National Gallery we made a quick stop at the National Portrait Gallery to see portraits of some of the most famous people in British history.  From the portrait gallery, we returned to our dorms to get ready to see the musical Billy Elliot.

Once we had gotten ready for the show, we stopped for some delicious Chinese food.  We made quite a mess, but it may have been some of the best Chinese food that I have every eaten.  After dinner, we headed over to the theater for our performance.  I had already seen Billy Elliot, but still found the performance to be quite enjoyable and actually much different than the previous performance I saw.  After the show, we made our way back to the dorms and finally reached the end of one of the longest days of our trip thus far.

Today was another relaxing day.  We had a free day, so once again I used it as an opportunity to get

Chihuly Glass Display in the Victoria and Albert Museum

some extra sleep.  Once I woke up, I headed over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is a museum of decorative arts and design.  I didn't spend a ton of time in the museum, but it was an amazing museum.  From the museum, we headed over the the Leicester Square area with the hope of being able to see some of the festivities for the European premier of the new movie Man of Steel.  There was a massive crowd for the premier which meant that unfortunately we were not really able to see most of the actors as they arrived, but we were able to catch a glimpse of some of the stuff they had constructed for the premier.

Our disappointment over not being able to see very much at the premier was short lived however, as we had tickets to see one more show before we left London.  This time we decided to see Jersey Boys, which I was really excited about as I had never seen it before.  The show was phenomenal.  Obviously we knew the music would be great as it is the songs that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons performed, but the rest of the production was just as great.  After the show, we returned to our apartments to pack as we are leaving London tomorrow morning.

It is incredible to think that I have already been away for almost three weeks, but every moment has been spectacular and I guess that time really does fly when you're having fun.  I'll post again once we reach Edinburgh in a few days.

Days 9, 10, 11, and 12

I realize that I haven't been posting particularly regularly, but we've been incredibly busy and tired so I haven't had a chance to write.  Life in London continues to be amazing and we are having a tremendous time.

Tuesday morning we started the day by taking the Tube to the former home of the poet John Keats.  Though he only lived in the home for a few years, it was where he did most of his famous writing and it has been restored and turned into a museum to honor him.  The house itself was fairly small but it is in a great part of town called Hampstead and has an amazing garden, so after we finished to tour we sat in the garden and enjoyed the same garden where Keats wrote so much of his poetry.  After we left Keats' house we grabbed a quick lunch and then took a bus to Highgate Cemetery where there are many famous people buried including Karl Marx.  An incredible number of people are buried there and it is interesting to look at the dates on the tombstones.  There are some people who were buried there hundreds of years ago, some that were buried very recently, some that live long and prosperous lives, and some whose lives were cut short after less than a year.  

After the cemetery, we walked up to Parliament Hill.  We're not exactly sure why it's called Parliament Hill given that you can't even still Parliament from the top, but that's unimportant because the view was incredible.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on Tuesday so I don't have any pictures of the view, but I'm considering going back over the weekend to get some because the view was so incredible.  We spent quite a bit of time relaxing on the hill, taking in the view, and enjoying the warm, sunny day.  On the way back from Parliament Hill, we stopped for some afternoon tea at Kenwood House, a tremendous state house in the area, but unfortunately we couldn't go inside the house because it was closed renovations.  From the Kenwood house, we traveled to Shakespeare's Globe Theater.  We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream, which we had already read for one of our classes.  I never thought I would ever enjoy Shakespeare as much as I enjoyed the production.  The theater itself is amazing.  The seats almost completely surround the stage and there is space for people to stand right in front of the stage, which is where we were.  The great part about standing so close is that you really feel like you are involved in the production.  Not only was the theater and the history there incredible, but the cast was truly spectacular.  All of the actors played their roles perfectly and they seemed like they were having such a great time performing.  They could barely contain their own laughter during the comedic parts of the show.  Overall it was one of the best shows that I have ever seen and something that I really recommend to anyone who comes to London.

After the show, we fairly quickly made our way back to the apartments and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.  All in all, Tuesday was one of the busiest days of the trip, but it was incredible.

In comparison to Tuesday, Wednesday was a fairly relaxing day, but it was still a great one.

Dickens' Bookshelf With First Editions of All of His Books

We started off with class in the morning, and then took the Tube to see a brand new Charles Dickens Museum.  Like the Keats Museum, it was in a house that Dickens' live in at one point during his life.  He only lived there for a few years, but it was at a time in his life when he had finally made it as a writer and so it had a lot of significance for him.  Following the Dickens' Museum, we stopped for a quick lunch and then headed over to the Science and Technology Museum.  I didn't see everything in the museum, but most of what I did see was truly incredible.  The museum is home to a huge exhibit on early electricity, with some of the earliest steam engines; an exhibit on space exploration; and many of the most important scientific and technological innovations in history.

The Apollo 10 Spacecraft

 My favorite parts of the museum were the Apollo 10 Spacecraft, which was used as a practice mission for the Apollo 11 moon landing; the original DNA model made by Watson and Crick; and naturally an Apple I, the aptly named first model that Apple ever made.  If time permits, I am going to try to go back to the museum before we leave London to see some of the things that I missed, including J.J. Thompson's original cathode ray tube.  After the museum we returned to the apartments for dinner, and a nice relaxing night.

Me In Front of the Cliffs of Dover

On Thursday morning, we traveled out to Dover to see Dover Castle as well as the cliffs of Dover.  The castle itself was huge and it was incredible to think about how well the castle has survived over the past 800 years given the number of wars and battles it has been involved in.  From the castle, we drove down to the beaches where we got a great view of the Cliffs of Dover and were able to touch the English Channel.  The water in the channel was surprisingly warm, but we didn't do much more than put our feet in.  From Dover, we drove to Canterbury Cathedral which is without a doubt, one of the most spectacular buildings that I have ever seen in my life.  While both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral were spectacular, in my opinion, they were nothing in comparison to Canterbury Cathedral.  Everything from the stained glass windows, to the two magnificent towers, to the memorials in the crypts are truly breathtaking.

Memorial to the D-Day Invasion

 I could include so many pictures of the wonderful things from the cathedral, but given that we visited on June 6th, the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy I wanted to include the memorial commemorating the invasion.  After leaving the cathedral, we got back on our bus and returned to London.  It took us quite a while to get back with rush hour traffic, but once we got back we headed to our favorite Thai restaurant by our apartments.  We haven't even been here for two weeks and yet I've already eaten there three times.  It is the best Thai food that I have ever had.

The New Guard Marching In

Today, we got to sleep in a little bit as we had a free day from the program.  After getting caught up on sleep a little bit, we headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.  While I have seen it before, I felt that it was just one of those things that I should do again.  The procession was not as grand as I remember it being last time, but it was still cool to see some royal pageantry   I also found it kind of ironic that the guard was protected by some London Police as they marched in.  From where we were, we couldn't see the actual change going on inside of the gate, only the soldiers marching in and out.  From the palace, we headed over to the Portobello Market, one of the most famous open air markets in London, to see what they had to offer.  After the market, we were all pretty tired so we went back to the apartments and had a relaxing afternoon and evening.  I'm hoping to get caught up on sleep this weekend, because we have another very busy week ahead of us.  I'll do my best to post more regularly, but with our crazy schedule, there are no guarantees.  

Days 6,7 and 8 - To Manchester, Liverpool, and Back

The Main Stage

This weekend away from my home away from home was truly incredible.  Early Saturday morning some of my friends and I caught a train to Manchester.  Our main reason for visiting Manchester was to see one of our favorite bands, Muse.  I have seen Muse before in Phoenix, but that was nothing compared to the show that they put on here.  The concert was held in an outdoor soccer arena with 80,000 screaming fans and was truly incredible.  Muse is incredible popular here because they are from here and they really went all out for the concert.  There was a fabulous lights display, actors on stage during the songs, giant balloons  and amazing displays in the areas around the stage that can be seen in the picture.  It was probably the best concert I have ever been to.  After the concert, we went back to our hotel on the other side of the city to get some sleep as we were really tired from a day of traveling and the concert.

My Friend Matt and I Before The Concert

On Sunday morning, we got up fairly early once again to catch another train to Liverpool.  Several of us on the trip were tremendous Beatles fans and we figured that since we were going to be so close, we might as well stop and see the place where they grew up and got their start.  Once we got to Liverpool, we proceeded directly to the Beatles museum, which for what it's worth, is the only museum in the world to be completely dedicated to the Beatles.  The museum was truly spectacular and there was a ton of information that I never new about the Beatles, especially about how they got their start and the early evolution of the band.  I never knew for example, that the band was originally called the Quarrymen before they changed their name to the Silver Beatles and then finally just the Beatles.  While I love the Beatles, I obviously didn't live through the height of their popularity so it was really cool to see how much of an impact they had on the world and music.

Once we had finished the Beatles Museum, we stopped for a quick lunch before heading off to see the Tate Liverpool Museum.  Like the other Tate Museums in London, the art was incredibly modern, and while some of it made absolutely no sense to us, some of it was actually quite amazing and interesting.  From the Tate Liverpool Museum  we returned to the train station to wait for our late night train back to London.  By the time we took a bus back to our apartments, it was late and we were all incredibly tired, but the trip was well worth it.

Today, we returned to class, before we headed off to the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare shows are performed, for an acting workshop.  Unfortunately, there was an issue with the scheduling of the

The View From St. Paul's Cathedral

workshop, so it was canceled, which basically left us with the afternoon completely free.  My friends and I decided that since we were so close, we would visit St. Paul's Cathedral.  The architecture of the building is astounding and includes a 356 foot high dome that we were allowed to climb.  There are a total of 528 steps that lead to a balcony on top of the dome.  It took us a while to make it to the top, but once we did, the view was truly spectacular.  Unfortunately, upon making it to the top, we realized that we had left our cameras with one of our friends who didn't want to climb to the top because of a fear of heights, so we had to walk back down to get the camera.  Needless to say, we were incredibly tired after walking up and down twice, but it was more than worth it for the phenomenal views of London.  After completing our journey to the top of the dome, we stopped for some afternoon tea, which I must say is a wonderfully relaxing tradition.

I am incredible tired from what has been a very long few days, but they were spectacular and worth any amount of tiredness.  Hopefully I can catch up on sleep a little bit tonight.  

Day 4-5

Inside the British Museum

On Thursday morning we had class again, then we headed out to see the British Museum.  The British Museum is a museum of human history.  It houses millions of artifacts including the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, ancient Egyptian mummies, and some of the earliest human tools that were found in Tanzania and are believed to be roughly 1.8 million years old.  After the museum, we took the tube back to our apartments and made some dinner then settled in to work on some homework.  

On Friday we had a free day so we actually got the opportunity to catch up on sleep.  The weather for our free day was incredibly.  It was about 70 degrees and sunny, a nice change of pace from the cold, cloudy days we've had recently.  The weather was so nice that we decided to get some lunch and have a picnic in Kensington Gardens.  We stopped at the local Whole Foods and picked up some food then headed out to the gardens.  We were not the only ones who had the idea for a picnic in the park however, but we really felt like true Londoners as we ate and enjoyed the sunshine.  

After lunch we went back to our apartments to finish up an assignment for class then we returned to our new favorite Thai restaurant around the block from the apartments.  The food was incredible once again, which isn't really surprising given that we haven't had a bad meal yet.  

Now I'm off to Manchester and Liverpool for the weekend, so I won't make another post until Monday.  

Day 3 - The First Day of Class

Today was our first day of actual classes.  I am taking two classes here, both of which are taught by ASU professors that will be traveling with us for the entire program.  The first class studies the cultural development of England, Scotland, and Ireland and their relationships with each other through the use of various texts and sites throughout the cities that we will be visiting.  The second class is studying the development and impact of literature and art in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods.  While these classes do not apply to my major, they are the only classes associated with this particular program, as they are obviously easily integrated with the cities we are visiting and I think they will both turn out to be quite interesting.  Both of our classes are held in the mornings, which leaves the afternoons open for us to go on various field trips or to see some of the many sites throughout the city.

Kensington Gardens

Today's afternoon field trip was a tour of the four main parks in London by one of our professors.  We started in Kensington Park which is not very far from where we are living, then proceeded through Hyde Park, Green Park, and finally St. James Park until we once again ended up in Trafalgar Square, in the center of London.  From Trafalgar Square, I took the Tube back to near where we are staying and went to Whole Foods to get ingredients to make our first home cooked meal.  The Whole Foods here in Kensington is a truly incredible place and was unlike any grocery store I had ever been in before.  The store itself covers three floors and carries everything you can imagine and more, there is even a cheese vault on the bottom floor.  After seeing everything that they have, we are really looking forward to the rest of our home cooked meals.  Today's dinner was a vegetable stir-fry accompanied by several different types of fresh fruit and continued our streak of great meals here in London.

Tomorrow we have class again in the morning followed by a tour of the British Museum.