The Last Week in England...

So, the last week we spent in England we were in Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's hometown) and making day trips to cities fairly near by. We went to Cardiff, Wales one day. Our train got stuck for over an hour and then it was pouring down rain when we got to Cardiff. We went to Cardiff Castle and toured the inside of it that was remodeled by a super rich guy in the mid-1800's who wanted to live in a castle 6 weeks out of the year. The inside was seriously crazy amazing! 24 karat gold paint on all the ceilings; 10 different types of granite on the walls; jewels in the walls for eyes on statues; precious stones as fireplace inlays... it was crazy! The rest of the castle grounds were built in the 1000's. We climbed up into the tower and prayed we wouldn't slip since it was pouring and the thousand year old stone was kind of slippery! What fascinated me is that Welsh is actually on all the signs underneath all the English and at the train station they made all announcements in both languages and yet all the people we met spoke English.

Another day we went to Bath- home of the Roman baths built around natural hot and cold springs of water. You get to tour underneath the existing pools and see what the Roman temple looked like and see all sorts of artifacts like jewelry, coffins, coins, written out curses. The baths aren't used anymore but they make for a fun thing to go see! Bath is also home to a museum about fashion where you get to try on corsets and hoop skirts! I'm really, really glad we don't have to wear those anymore-- sure, they're flattering and they squish all your fat so it can't be seem but man! are they uncomfortable and heavy! We also saw the Jane Austin house but just looked at the gift shop! I've never seen so many gleeful women looking at Colin Firth aka Mr Darcy before!

Another day we went to Oxford and toured the Blenheim Palace (where Winston Churchill was accidentally born). His parents were at the palace for a dance and she went into labor in the cloakroom. The Palace is the English version of Versailles and it is amazing-- gold ceilings, fancy dishes, giant library that seriously looks like the one in the Beast's house in "Beauty and the Beast".The grounds were my favorite part-- on a river with lots of fountains and flowers and other flora!

The last 3 days we spent in London where we went to Dover and saw the famous White Cliffs and we toured the Dover Castle. This castle was really cool because it has "secret underground wartime tunnels" that were used in WWII. It's strange to see anti-aircraft guns on a wall built in the 1000s. It was a really clear day so we could actually see the outline of Calais, France :) We spent a couple of hours on the "beach" (which was really pretty in spite of the fact that there is NO sand, just pebbles of varying sizes).

We also went to Westminster Abbey. Basically, it's a cathedral like most of the others we saw but it is the fanciest cemetery I have ever seen! Lots of kings and queens and poets and writers and musicians with fancy tombs and plaques and memorials.

Our last night in London we went to "Les Miserables"! INCREDIBLE!!! So fun!!I do have to admit though that my sister's high school production was really, really good for a high school in comparison to the "real" thing.