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.