It's almost over...

Well folks, my time here in jolly old England is almost over.  On Sunday I will board a plane to head back home to Indiana.  (And of course as I am writing this I can hear Jim Nabors sing Back Home Again in Indiana!)

 I remember when I first got here how crazy I thought I was for doing this and how long 6 months seemed.  However, these last 6 months have just flown by!  And I can honestly say that I am thrilled that I did this.  I won't lie to you and say it was the easiest thing that I have ever done, but it was well worth it.  I have made some really great friends while I have been here and will miss them terribly.  They made this experience all the more worth while. 

I have also enjoyed sharing this experience with all of you.  I still have more to write about.  I did a lot of traveling in the last several weeks that I haven't had a lot of time to write about it.  So, I hope you keep coming back to read about the things I have done here in England.  And after that who knows what I will write about!

But for now I have to pack!  I can't figure out how I have accumulated so much stuff in the last 6 months.  I am coming home with more than twice the amount that I came with!  And if I'm honest with myself, I plan on doing a bit more shopping before I leave...I can't leave England without a proper pair of wellies!

But before I go, I thought I would add a couple of photos!  Everytime I took the train into London, I used the King's Cross station.  And everytime I was there I looked for Platform 9 3/4 and I never was able to find it.  Over St. Patrick's Day weekend they opened up a new section of King's Cross Station, which is beautiful by the way.  I now know why I couldn't find it...it was in the new part.  Although I will say this about it...it's nowhere near platforms 9 and 10! 


Oh and I finally remembered to get my picture taken inside the map.  If you remember in my first blog about London I mentioned that I am a rather big Friends fan.  It wasn't until my second to last trip to London that I remembered to do it.  I didn't have as cool of a map that Joey did with the pop up landmarks, but I figured this still did the trick!

Lovely Day for a Guinness

When my sister, Holly decided to come out and visit me for a week, I decided that I would take the week off as well so we travel around together.  Our first stop was Dublin!  We got there on Saturday evening.  We really weren't able to do much more than grab a bit to eat that night, but we did make our plans for the next morning. 

First on our list of things to do was to visit the Guinness Storehouse.  Who doesn't like starting their day off drinking a Guinness?!  Our hotel was on the other side of Dublin, so we caught the tram and headed towards the Storehouse.

The tram doesn't drop you off in front of the Storehouse, you had to walk a little ways to get to the entrance.  Actually, it's almost like a maze trying to find the entrance!  It has been in the higher 40's, lower 50's temperature wise here for awhile.  However, Holly had left 70 degree weather and found it extremely cold.  She was practically racing to get inside.  I didn't find it all that cold, but then again I didn't just leave 70 degree weather.  And to be fair to Holly, we were in the shade the whole time we were walking there, so that didn't help much.  I'm just glad she remembered to bring gloves!

We finally found the entrance and got our tickets.  Guinness is a self guided tour.  I believe there is an audio guide if you want to listen to the history, but we opted not to do that. One of the first things you see once you start the tour is a water fall.  They show you all the elements that go into making a Guinness throughout the first part of the tour.  Once through this part of the tour, they offer a small sampling of Guinness for you to taste.  At first I was a little thrown off because I thought we were suppose to get a full pint, but that doesn't come until the every end of the tour.

The part that I was most looking forward to was the advertising section.  I have always enjoyed the way Guinness has made their ads and posters.

"Lovely day for a Guinness",  "My Goodness My Guinness" & "There's nothing like a Guinness".  Simple, to the point and it has great artwork to go with it.  Even if you don't like Guinness,the ads stick with you.

The best part about the whole tour is without a doubt The Gravity Bar at the top of the Storehouse.  It has by far the BEST views of Dublin.

 

Not only are the views AMAZING, but as part of the tour, as I stated earlier, you get a pint of Guinness.  I have never really liked Guinness, I generally like lighter beers.  I was told that if it was a bit strong for me I could put some blackcurrant flavoring in it.  However, I didn't need to.  I really enjoyed it!  I must say, nothing is better drinking a Guinness while looking out over the city of Dublin.  And we were really lucky, it was a bright sunny day! I'm interested in trying a Guinness back in the States as I hear it doesn't taste the same...that it's much better here in Dublin.  I see some tastings in my future!

Dublin - St. Patricks Day

What could be cooler than being in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day?!  Nothing that I can think of!

My Aunt Jo and cousins Courtney and Tyler were over visiting for the week leading up to March 17 for spring break.  Since they were already going to be over here, Tyler wanted to go to Dublin for that weekend.  The rest of us thought that sounded like a good idea.

We landed in Dublin on the 16th and headed to the hotel.  We were actually staying in a town outside of Dublin called Leixlip.  We were a little concerned that it wasn't within walking distance of Dublin, but it turned out quite nicely.  It was an easy bus ride there.  And the best thing for us, their bar is open 24 hours!  So when we got there which was a bit late, we all had a few drinks.  I, of course, had a Guinness and Smithwicks ale...when in Ireland!  We stayed up to ring St. Patricks day in properly.

Later that morning we got up and caught the bus into Dublin.  After stopping off to have breakfast and do a bit of shopping before it got too crazy, we headed over to the parade route.  The one thing we forgot to do before we left was to find out what time the parade started.  We ended up waiting about 2 hours for it to start.  While none of us were overly thrilled with waiting that long, we knew we had too.  How could you not see at least part of the parade?!

While we were waiting we met a couple from the Chicago area that were there on their honeymoon.  It was nice to have to some friendly people around to talk to. Not that other people weren't friendly, but the closer it got to the start of the parade, the crazier people got.  People kept trying to get in front of us after we had been standing there longer than them.  At that point in time we were NOT going to give up our spots!

While holding onto our spots, the parade finally started.  However, this wasn't what I was expecting the parade to be like.  I was thinking it would be Irish in theme with shamrocks and leprechauns...you know, St. Patrick's day stuff.  Instead, the best way to describe it is to say it's like a Tim Burton film...very odd, yet kind of cool.

They also had a lot of things we Americans are use to having in parades...marching bands.  What I didn't realize, but wasn't surprised by, was that they were American high school marching bands.  I can only imagine how cool it was for those students to be there!  Although I must say that I'm glad I wasn't a chaperone for the them! 

We didn't stay for the whole parade, as we wanted to check out some things around Dublin before all the crowds got there.  I think the several rows of people behind us were glad to get a closer view!  What we did see was very cool and I'm glad that we got to see some of it. 

This was my second trip to Dublin and I love it just as much as I did the first time.  I know I haven't written about it yet, and I will.  I just wanted to write about the parade as close to St. Pattys day as I could. 

I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!  I know we sure did!

Stonehenge

One of the must see places that was on my list while I am here in England was Stonehenge.  And I have now been there twice.  Once while my parents were here and once while my sister was here. 

When I went with my parents, it was part of a long weekend that started with us going to Hever Castle.  I made sure we got fairly close the day before so we only had to drive about 45 minutes before we got there.  When we woke up that morning it was a pretty sunny day. Unfortunately it didn't stay that way.

I had always heard that Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere...and it really is.  You start off driving over a hill and once you are at the top of it, Stonehenge just appears a little ways off in the distance.  I was thinking that we were going to have to take some back roads to get to it, but it is off a main road.

Once we had parked and got out the the car, we could tell that the temperature had drop and I was glad that I had my winter coat with me!  We made our way over to the entrance, paid and picked up our audio tour when the rain started.  And it was a cold rain at that!  As I said to my parents...welcome to England!

We stuck it out anyways and listened to the audio tour.  Lucky for us it wasn't pouring, so that made it easier to stick it out.  It was pretty interesting to listen to the history.  I won't get into all of it here as I know there are hundreds of websites that offer up way more information than I could.  But if you do make it here, I highly recommend the audio.  It is free to use with your price of admission.

The second time I went, the weather was MUCH better!  (In fact, all the pictures that are on here are from the second trip, except for the picture of my parents bundled up!) This time I went with my sister Holly and we just decided to make a day trip out of it.  We went on a Tuesday, so it wasn't very busy when we got there.  This time though, instead of having only a 45 minute drive, it was about a four and half hour drive.  Stonehenge is on the other side of London from where I live.  I know it seems crazy to drive that far one way just to see a bunch of rocks in a field, but it is consider one of the wonders of the world, so why not!

Holly isn't as interested in history as I am, so this time we didn't listen to the audio guide.  We just walked around and took a lot of photos.  You can't get close enough to touch the rocks, (well, you can if you are on TV!) but you can get pretty close to them.  Much closer than I thought you would be able to.

I am thrilled that I got the chance to see this wonder of the world in person!  And it didn't disappoint.  It was pretty impressive. Although, no disrespect to my parents, but I enjoyed it a lot more when I went with my sister.  Although that is only because it was a gorgeous day! 

Hever Castle

I had my first vistors from the good ol' U.S. of A.!  My parent were able to come out to see me and visit England for the first time.  Since they were here I decided that we needed to take a road trip and visit some of the places that were on my list of things to do here in England that can't be reached by train.  And lets face it, road trips are a lot more fun when there is someone with you!

The first place we went to was Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.  Over the last few years I have been reading a lot about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.  So I knew I had to visit here.  To be perfectly honest with you, I got into the Tudor history by first watching The Tudors on Showtime.  And as a side note, I think Henry VIII would have had a few more wives if he looked like Jonathan Rhys Meyers!

The oldest part of Hever Castle dates back to 1270.  It grew over the 15th and 16th century and eventually came to be owned by the Boleyn family.  Anne spent her early childhood here and is the most famous inhabitant of the castle.  But she isn't the only famous inhabitant of the castle.  After Anne lost her head, the castle came under Henry VIII  possession.  He bestowed it to Anne of Cleves, his 4th wife, as part of the settlement of their annulment.  As the years went on, the castle was owned by several different families and fell into disrepair.  In 1903, American William Waldorf Astor purchased and restored it, using it as a family home.  Astor not only restored the castle, but he also bulit the "Tudor Villiage" and created the gardens and lake.

In what seems to be a big trend here in England, I wasn't able to take pictures inside the castle.  You also weren't able to tour the Tudor Villiage as it is only private events.  There is a lot of history of Anne and Henry VIII, as well as his other 5 wives throughout the castle.  There is a large collection of Tudors paintings as well.  The picture of Anne is probably my favorite.  There was also quite a bit of family pictures and history of the Astor family the further in you got.

There is a Yew maze just outside of the castle that was planted in 1904.  We actually made our way through it to find the center and our way out.  There really wasn't anything speaical in the middle, it was just nice to say we did it.

The gardens were amazing, even this time of the year.  I can only imgaine how beautiful it is in the spring and summer when all the flowers are bloom.  There are several different gardens that you can walk through and around.  There is also about an hour long walk that you can take around the lake.  We opted not to do that as it was a bit muddy and was starting to get late.  Here are just a couple photos of the gardens and the lake.



There is a really chess set made out of bushes on display outside of the castle.  I really can't explain it any better than the sign in front of it did, so I am just going to quote it here for you.

"The Tudor Chess Set -- The Topiary Chess Set is formed from Golden Yew and is based on the style of chess pieces used in the time of King Henry VIII.  It was planted in 1905 for William Waldorf Astor.  Standing in front of the chess set is an armillary sphere sundial dating from 1710. This astronomical instrument was used to measure the altitude of the sun, moon and stars, from which it was possible to estimate both time and latitude."

I always wonder if you guys ever think that I actually go to these places, since I usually don't include any pictures of myself on here.  But I promise, I do go to all these places!  I usually don't have anyone with me to take my picture.  But since my parents were with me, I was able to get a picture of me and one of my parents as well!



Lincoln Castle

The other weekend I headed up north a little ways to visit Lincoln Castle.

I was able to take a guided tour while I was here.  Tour guide was great.  She was very friendly and full of interesting facts about the castle.  If you do ever get the chance to visit Lincoln Castle, I highly recommend the tour.

In the East Gate entry way is an ornate oriel window.  This window is not orginally built into the gate.  It was once part of Sutton manison.  In 1849, Sutton manison was pulled down, but the oriel window was saved.  It was sold and then presented to the county magistrates in the hopes that it would be preserved in the castle.



The castle was constructed by William the Conquerer on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress.  It was used as a prison and law court into modern times.  In fact, the Crown Courts continues to meet here.  Unfornately you are not allow to tour the Crown Court.  That is unless you commit a crime, and they don't recommend that you do that!

To the right of the main entrance is Cobb Hall.  This use to serve three purposes, defense, imprisonment and public exectuion.  When the tour guide was telling us about Cobb Hall, she used those of us in the group to help tell her story.  I was the one she chose to excuted.  I was to be hanged, which was rare for a woman to be hanged.  For a woman to be hanged she would have been found guilty of killing her husband.  There were only a few women hanged here, maybe 3 or 4 at the most. 

Hangings were a major event back then.  People would travel for hours to see them.  They were held at the top of the tour on the outside wall.  Once, a woman hung herself before she was to be excuted so she wouldn't suffer the humilation of being hung in public.   When the people found out there was to be no hanging, they rioted.  After that happened, prisoners who were to be excuted always had two guards with them at all times to prevent them from taking their own lives.

Today you use Cobb Hall to access the Wall Walks.  You can walk all the way around the walls and see some amazing views of Lincoln.

The prison chapel is very unquie.  It is the only one left in the world like it.  Is was designed for the "seperate system."  The sperate system was designed so that the prisoners would have no contact with each other.

The chapel was designed to enclose each prisoner individually so that the preacher could see everyone, but they could only see him.  The seats were slanted so that they couldn't sit properly.  This was to encourage them to stay awake and pay attention.  However, those prisoners who were to be excuted had a bench in the back row.  Their souls were considered to far gone to save, so they didn't care if they fell asleep.

One of four surviving orginal copies of the Magna Carta, sealed by King John is on exhibit here.  The exhibit is nice, but to be honest I went through it rather quickly until I got to the Magna Carta.  I was the only one in the exhibit at the time and I wasn't 100% sure I was allowed to be there.  But once I got to the Magna Carta there were other people there, so I knew I was ok.  I wasn't allowed to take any photos of the Magna Carta, but it was pretty cool to see.

There is also a bust of King George III, also known as "The King Who Lost America."  The bust use to be part of a 15 foot statue of the monarch that was on top of a pillar on the south side of Lincoln.  It was taken down during World War Two because the RAF feared the structure could be hazard to low-flying aircaft.  The tour guide told us that they had built the airfield in the statues path, so it probably wasn't the best laid out plans.  They still have all the pieces of the statue and are in talks of putting it back together.  At one point they had it all laid out within the grounds of the castle.  The tour guide said that it was still in great shape, considering how old it is.  However the plans have been put on hold for now due to lack of funds.  I did take the opporitunity to tell him thanks for losing America though.

They are doing a lot of work to improve the castle.  They even hope to make it free to enter in the future.  All of the improvements is going to make this an even more interactive place to visit, and I hope that I will be able to come back and see it when they are done.  But I have a feeling that the improvements are going to take several years to get done.  But don't let that stop you from visiting now.  It is a great place to visit and the veiws are breath taking.  Oh, plus there is a great shopping area just outside the castle walls!  So, get in a little history and then have some fun shopping!

Soccer...I Mean Football

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend I thought it would be appropriate for me to blog about my first soccer game here in the UK.  Or rather, my first football game.  Now I could get into the fact that the rest of the world calls soccer football and are annoyed that we call it soccer, but I won't.  Although I do find it interesting that the NFL is thinking about holding a Super Bowl in London.  I wonder how that will go over if it does happen.

I didn't have to travel very far for my first match.  King's Lynn has their own team.  They are the King's Lynn Town Football Club...or the Linnets. 

The Linnets are in the United Counties League Premier Division.  That basically means they are several leagues below the Premier League which is where everyone wants to end up.  The cool thing about the football system here is that the teams move around from the different leagues depending on how they do each season.  So, in theory the Linnets could one day be playing against the big boys in the Premier League. 

The stadium is adjacent to the park which makes it really easy to get to.  It is a small stadium, but nice.  It is set up in a way that you are very close to the pitch, or field.  Which makes it all the more easier for the crowd to taunt the players.

On this day the Linnets were going up against Spalding.  Going into this match the Linnets were ranked number 1 in their league. (As far I can tell, they still are which is pretty cool.) 

I have been to a lot of sporting events in my life and every one of them has started with the playing of the National Anthem.  That didn't happen here.  They introduce the teams and that was it.  Apparently that's not something they do here, at any level.  Oh...and as a side note, the drink of choice at the match was tea.  Don't know if I will ever get use to that, although I do like it!

I have been trying to get into football before I ever came over here, but wasn't having much luck.  In fact, I think I really annoyed my friend James with all my questions and arguing with him over some of the rules that I don't agree with.  But being at this match certainly helped.  While I still don't agree with all of those silly rules, it was a fun match.  It is much easier to understand a game when you are watching it live and not on TV.  The Linnets won 3 to 2!  While that sounds like a low scoring game, for football it's actually a pretty high scoring game. 

I can't wait to head into London to see the a bigger team play...and experience those crazy football fans you always hear about!