So it was finally the end of Block 1...YAY! I had taken my Dutch Art History final, and I think it went really well! A few days later I had to give a presentation on a poem that I had chosen and then analyzed. I chose to give my presentation on a poem by Langston Hughes called "Mother to Son." Here it is:
The presentation went well, and then I was OFF TO LONDON!!!
Tuesday, Oct. 20th:
After my presentation I jetted off to the train station to catch a train to the Brussels Airport. It works out really well, because there is a train station in the basement of the airport, so that makes it really easy to get to a big airport from our tiny little town of Maastricht. I got all checked in and checked my bags....I packed up an ENTIRE huge suitcase for my mom to bring back, since we are traveling around after, so everyone should feel bad for me cause I have no clothes now!!! Anywho, the flight was really easy and I arrived at London Heathrow around 9:45pm and jumped for joy when I saw my mama!! We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and strolled on over to our very own London flat!
What a LITTLE flat it was! It was adorable and ONLY meant for two people. You walked into what was quite a large living room for this mouse size house, and are met with a bright pink chair and couch, lots of random decorations (including dutch ceramic tiles, chinese statues, abstract art, etc.) and two huge book cases FILLED with books (about 15 on hitler!). But wait, don't go too far, or you'll miss the door to the kitchen, what really looks like a closet door, is really the kitchen door. But don't go into the kitchen with anyone else, because there is no room, and if you want to get to the fridge (mini fridge, that is) you have to close the door! So it is quite cozy to say the least!!! Going through the eclectic living room, you stumble upon the bedroom (oooo...ahhhh) and a tiny little bed, meant for two??? Smaller than a full, but slightly larger than a twin is where me and my dear (snoring) mother spent our lovely nights! In the bathroom, you go into a Greek setting, but to turn the light on you must pull a cord that hangs from the ceiling practically to the floor with a big duster on the bottom (or so it seemed). You would have thought you could get the servants with that thing, but no, all you got was the light. So that is all, you have been through the flat! It's quite exciting and was quite the experience, always fun with a bottle of wine and my mommy!!!
Wednesday, Oct. 21st:
There is no resting when it comes to adventurers Mom and Betsy, we were up at 6am and enjoyed a nice crumpet....SO DELICIOUS! They are much more sweet than english muffins so you want to eat about 12 of them in one sitting! Unfortunately we didn't have time for 12 crumpets, so we settled with one and then were off! We walked down the side of Hyde Park all the way down to Victoria Coach Station, where out tour bus was to pick us up. Yes, you read correctly, we signed up willingly to do one of those silly tours that when you see, you point and laugh...we were those people!!
We loaded onto the Evans Evans tour bus and were off with Norma, our tour guide and about 30 of our new best friends. Our first stop was Windsor Castle. When we got off the bus, all my mom and I hoped for was for our tour guide not to have one of those embarrassing umbrellas that they hold up and you follow around the umbrella like a herd. Low and behold when we all got off the bus, good ol' Norma whipped out an umbrella! O BOY!!! So we followed like a herd! Although Norma was a small woman, she could walk with the best of them, she was OFF with her umbrella, and we were left in the dust!
The nice thing about our tour was that we were allowed to do a self guided tour with our audio guides. Mom and I were off to see the changing of the guards, and I think we had more fun with that than the rest of the castle. We spent about 20 minutes creating our own commentary about the guards and pretended to be them talking to each other...it was grand! We then went to the Royal Apartments and walked around, saw the bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, and even the Doll collection (a bit creepy). Before leaving the castle, we stopped at St. Georges chapel and walked around in it. It was a beautiful chapel and is the chapel of the Order of the Garter. At one end of the chapel there are all of the knights flags and if the knight is still alive then it shows his sword and it is half drawn, meaning that he is ready to go to battle at any time.
After the castle, we loaded back on the bus and were off to Stonehenge! Along the drive to the site, there were loads and loads of sheep and beautiful scenery. Once we got to Stonehenge, it was breathtaking! However, I thought that the stones and the circle would be much bigger than they were. They were obviously HUGE, but for some reason I thought they would be a little bigger. Unfortunately we only got to spend a short amount of time here, but we were able to get lots of pictures and take in the beauty of the place.
Back on the bus and off to Bath. I wasn't looking forward to this part of the day very much, but it turned out to be a great town. We went to the Roman Baths in the town and had a great tour. There were many different rooms were the Romans and people from the town would come to find relaxation. There were healing rooms, lounging pools, saunas, and much more. Throughout the city all the houses and buildings are made from "Bath stone" which is a white, chalky looking stone. An interesting fact that we learned abut some of the houses was that often they would brick up their windows, because in the olden days they had to pay taxes due to how many windows one had. To avoid taxes, they would brick up the windows, and there are many of these left around the town that can be seen.
When we arrived back to London, mom and I found a great little Italian restaurant for dinner, where we had an interesting meal! She had what looked like a large pile of dog poop! I think it was supposed to be sausage but it was coiled up in a not so appealing way! However this coiled up poop tasted really good! I, on the other hand, had chicken that was covered in bread crumbs, but I think it was more a giant chicken McNugget!!
Thursday, Oct. 22nd:
Once again, we DON'T like to sleep in! We were up at 4 in the morning today!! YEEHAW! Another crumpet in us and we were off to the train station to catch our train to Edinburgh. Thank goodness that Norma told us that we needed to leave around 5:00 to get to the train station, cause we got there at 5:15 and BARELY made out 7am train!!! We got to know the Knights Cross station VERY well that morning and did some quality people watching! We got on the train and settled in for our five hour train ride!
Once we got off the train we were met with none other than a bagpipe player out on the street! It was great, I knew at that very moment that I was in Scotland! We hoped onto the sightseeing bus and got to see the entire city on bus! We saw all sorts of things and learned lots about the history of the city. When we got to the Edinburgh Castle we got off the bus and went on a little adventure. It is a huge castle and up on top of a hill, so it oversees the entire city. It was beautiful to look out onto the city, especially since it is fall and all the leaves are changing colors, there were greens, yellows, reds, and oranges....beautiful. One of my favorite things at the castle was the Scottish National War Memorial. It is filled with beautiful quotes to the soldiers that had given their lives as well as other decorations and things to commemorate them. It made me realize how much they appreciate their people and what they do for their country, much more than the US. The other really amazing thing that we saw at the castle were the Scottish Crown Jewels. The exhibit was beautifully done and I learned a lot about the history of the jewels and all the hardships that were faced by the people of Scotland.
After the castle, mom and I had a wonderful pub lunch where we almost had haggis (traditional scottish dish - filled with all sorts of yummy things like pig intestines!), but we passed and stuck with sandwiches. We hoped back on the sightseeing bus and finished the tour around the city, then got off and headed for the National Gallery. It wasn't a very large museum, but they had some Dutch paintings, which was fun to see since I had just taken a Dutch art history class and there were some of the works I had recently studied. After taking in the sites of a nearby park, we headed back to the train station and got back on the train and were back to London in 5 hours.
It was really fun to go to Edinburgh not just to see another country, but also because thats where my mom studied abroad. It was really special to see where she had studied while I am currently studying abroad!!
Friday, Oct. 23rd:
Finally, we got a nice treat and were able to sleep in after two BUSY days of being tourists! We decided we should get our lazy bones out of the flat and off on another adventure. We headed out to Leicester Square and had a great lunch. It was a lovely day and we were able to sit outside in the sun and do more fabulous people watching...there are all types of people in London. We bought tickets for Stomp to see later that night! YAY! Then we were off to the National Gallery. Thanks to Rick Steves we got a great tour of the museum and were able to see all the important pieces. Again it was great to have my background of Art History from high school as well as from the Dutch class. After our time in the museum we were a little hungry and thought that snack was due. The cafe in the museum had afternoon tea that sounded like a perfect little snack, and that it was! It was more than a snack, more like a meal! Tea, tea sandwiches, a scone, and some sweeeeets! It was delicious and naturally we ate it ALL!!! With a full belly, we had a few hours to kill before we were to see Stomp. We were in our jeans and sperrys though...not such theatre attire!! While we went over to Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Parliament we were worried about how we would stick out like sore thumbs in the theatre but decided there wasn't much time to go back and change! It was fun to see the London Eye and Parliament all lit up!
We got on the tube and went to the theatre and as soon as we got there we decided that we were dressed PERFECTLY!! Everyone was wearing jeans and no one was dressed up in usual theatre dress!! To calm our nerves and the jitters we had from our clothes we got a beer at a pub right up the street before the performance. The performance was AMAZING! It was extremely high energy and really loud and in your face FUN! The performers used everything like brooms, sand, pots, even INCLUDING the kitchen sink! It was great!!! The audience was all really involved in it as well, clapping and snapping, REALLY FUN!
Saturday, Oct. 24th:
Last big day in London! We went over to the British Museum for another fun day and guided tour by Rick Steves. Right when we were going to go into the Museum we spotted a couple that we had seen the day before at the National Gallery in London and they had taken our pictures and vice versa. So, naturally we took their picture in front of the Museum and they took ours!!!! The museum was filled with Egyptian art, Greek art, Japanese, and much more. We had a great time in the museum and learned many things.
We hoped back on the tube and went over to St. Pauls Cathedral. It is magnificent on the outside and even more so on the inside. We took a few minutes to admire the beauty of the church and all that it had to offer. I could only imagine how beautiful Princess Diana's wedding was in such a wonderful setting. Mom and I managed to climb the 500 some odd stairs to get to the Whispering Gallery in the dome. It is the second level of the dome, and from here you can look down and get a great birds eye view of the cathedral. The neat part about the Whispering Gallery was the fact that if you are on one side of it and you whisper into the wall, the person on the other side can hear you loud and clear!! It was a bit eary because at times you would hear someone talking...almost like that voice in your head, but really it was the people across from you!! The other amazing part about the church was the American Memorial Chapel. This memorial commemorates those Americans based in Britain during WWII. It was decorated beautifully and there is a book that was under glass that has all the names of the Americans that gave their lives. There is a pair of white gloves in the case as well, and the page gets turned daily by someone wearing the gloves. It was quite spectacular.
After St. Paul's Cathedral, we headed to Paddington Station, where we had left our bags and were off to our hotel that was closer to the airport to make travel easier on Sunday. We had a GREAT dinner and shared lots of stories and giggles for our final meal in London together.
Just remember: whatever happens in London STAYS in London!!!
Sunday, Oct. 25th:
Back to Maastricht. The time in London w/my mama went by MUCH too quickly. We had a great time, but I could not believe that it was over and back to the real world of classes and such!!!
