Space Monkey Cadet Thing Tired

Apr. 6th, 2009 at 09:37 pm

Friday I did the Stonehenge, Windsor and Bath tour with my fam. It was pretty good. Windsor was chilly at first because of the fog, but we looked at lots of stuff inside, like the GIANT dollhouse and all of the cool weapons and fancy rooms. One of them looked a lot like the giant hall at Neuschwanstein. I snuck a photo of Henry the Eighth's armor, since that was pretty cool.

I found myself defending Stonehenge to Gramps a lot- he thought it was a whole lot of fuss over nothing, since nobody really knows the purpose of the stones, and the Egyptians built the pyramids, and those you KNOW the purpose of. I tried to explain that a different type of precision was involved with Stonehenge, and that the Egyptians were just being exorbitant, since the pyramids were just burial mounds, and Stonehenge had some type of everyday use. Some guy got thrown out while we were there for running up to a stone and having his photo taken, that was exciting. Other than that, I really liked the sheep. And the people picnicking on burial mounds.

We wandered down the Putney Bridge in Bath, and did the audio tour of the Roman baths again. I enjoyed the wandering around outside, though, since last time we'd been it was hailing. There were also some cool art installations set up, featuring bunnies, which was an interesting juxtaposition with the quaint old-fashioned town.

On Saturday, we tried to go to Hampton Court Palace, but due to construction it would have been very hard to go there. Instead, we went to Madame Tussaud's since we knew Jan would enjoy that... waiting in line, there were two guys dressed as mimes running around entertaining everyone outside, it was really funny. They would mimic oblivious passerbys' gaits directly behind them and pull pranks on unsuspecting children.

After the wax museum (where we discovered a ride! It was nice to sit) we went to the London Eye. That was really cool- I really liked looking at all the people clustering around street performers below, and you got a really good view of the whole city. It was nice and sunny, which eventually got me quite dehydrated, but we went to Brick Lane shortly after so all was well. Haider, Damien and Kev ended up coming with us, and Haider and Gramps were off talking all rocket sciencey together.

Sunday, we went to the Tower of London. I want the crown jewels. They are shiny. I want them. I think the princes' uncle killed them, since he had the most immediate gain. And he looked funny. We saw more of Henry the Eighth's armor, and some lances, which are effing HUGE!!!!!!!! I could not be a knight. Good thing that's no longer an option.

We ate at Wagamama's, which was pretty delicious. I like the apple and lime juice there. I wasn't feeling well, so I came back to my room and napped whilst the fam went to mass at Westminster Cathedral. I met up with them afterwards at Cookies and Cream, and got the chocolate brownie sundae which was sooo yummy. I brought the fam back to campus and showed them around- I think everyone was so tired that they weren't shocked at the graveyard smackdab in the middle of the academic buildings.

Today, we went to watch the Changing of the Guard. It was a little different this time- the parade came in three sections, which also confused the police officer that we spoke to; the second band that came by had been playing a snazzy, jazzy version of 'When the Saints.' Someone passed out or something across the way, which was sort of exciting.

After the Changing, we walked through St James's Park to the Westminster area and checked out the jewel tower, which was not exciting and did not have jewels in it. It had an excessive amount of spiral stairs however, which my empty stomach protested against a wee bit. I did finally discover how much a bushel and a peck is, though!

We sat in the park next to the Houses of Parliament for an hour, which was pretty nice and chill, and then went in for our tour. We got to go all through- the Queen's Robe room, some big halls, the Lords Chamber, the House of Commons- and their 'no' hallway- and where the old chapel/Commons used to be. I wish we could take pictures in there, because it is so pretty, but alas, we cannot. It was really cool to see things that we learned about in Architecture, though, and hear our tour guide's take on the Barry/Pugin debate (our professor didn't think Pugin was given enough credit, as he's Catholic, and we all know how Catholics are looked upon in Anglican England). I even found the Pugin wastebaskets that our professor liked so much.

When we left Parliament, there was a HUGE protest out on the street (about genocide in Sri Lanka) that had shut down Westminster Tube station, and most of the stuff in the area, so we walked to Trafalgar Square where I gorged in a pub (I had a small breakfast and no lunch, I was HUNGRY and grumpy). I hung out with Mum and Gramps and Jan for a bit in the restaurant at their hotel, and had some apple pie, which was lovely, and am about to go watch a movie with some friends and pass out.