England

After my trip to Chicago and all the weddings (see below) I flew directly to England on my way to India. I stayed with some of my relatives (my 2nd cousin once removed) in England and had a great time. I spoke with them for the first time about 6 weeks before going to England, and took them up on their offer to stay with them. They were great hosts.


Monday I headed out to Cambridge with Francis. Cambridge was a a beautiful campus. It is arranged a lot different than your standard American University (Oxford is the same way). They have a bunch of little "Colleges" within the University. You actually apply to the college, and spend most of your time with the prof's and students in that college. There are some university-wide lectures, but for the most part you stay within the college. Different colleges are "known" for different things, but there is no "College of Engineering" per-say.


Anyway, here is a picture of "the backs", which is some small fields and a river on the back-side of all the colleges.





You can see all my pictures of Cambridge here.


The next couple of days I hung out in London on my own. I did spend an evening with my 3rd cousin Michael which was a lot of fun. We wandered around a bit downtown and then took the tube out to an English pub out in the more residential part of London that he likes to frequent.


I did most of the tourist stuff in London and really enjoyed the city. I started out in St. James Park and then hit up Westminster Abby (photo below). Both were great. No photos were allowed inside most of the "religious" buildings (which was fine) so I only have photos of the outside.





After Westminster I walked by Parliament and Big Ben (which looks way cooler than Congress in DC in my opinion).





Then I headed up to Trafalgar Square (for the first time) and then headed over to the London Eye (photo below), which is a HUGE ferris wheel on the Thames across from Parliament but decided not to go up because of time constraints. Trafalgar Square was nice -- but I enjoyed it a lot more when I swung by again around 5pm as there were a ton more people there.





I took a boat tour up the Thames to Greenwhich which was one of my favorite things that I did. Here is a photo of the meridian point:





Here is a photo looking down from the hill at the Meridian to the Naval College and across the Thames to the rest of London. Don't get confused -- that is a different ferris wheel than the Eye.





That evening I had dinner with Michael.


The next day I started at the Tower of London, which was okay. The Tower is actually a large fort that has been used for a variety of different purposes of the years. Today it houses the crown jewels. I enjoyed seeing the jewels, as there is a story in Janel's family that one of her ancestors was a lady-in-waiting to the queen and got caught trying on the crown jewels, and was then kicked out of the country. Not sure if it is true :), but it is a fun story! Below if a photo of the outer walls, and the "white-ish" building in the middle is the "white tower" which I think is what the fort is named after.





Next I hit up Tower Bridge, which is commonly mistaken for "London Bridge" which actually was a rather uneventful bridge which now lives in Arizona. I went up Tower Bridge, which was okay. Mostly just fun since now I can say I was in it :P.





After Tower Bridge I headed on over to St. Paul's cathedral which was great. They were practicing for a symphony when I was in there, so I go to enjoy the acoustics for (relatively) cheap :). I also walked to the top which was a good time. I would highly recommend St. Pauls. Below is a photo from the highest lookout level.





After St. Pauls I hit up the British Museum for a few minutes to see the Rosetta Stone. Below is a photo of the central hall at the museum which has a really cool roof.





Next I headed over to the Natural History museum, and then walked through Hyde Park to see Kensington Palace. It was pooring down rain, so I don't have any (good) photos. Then I met Francis and John for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner at this little French restaraunt in Kensington called "Le Circe" that is owned by the company that John runs. It was amazing food and I would highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in London.


The last day I headed out to Stratford-upon-Avon, the town that Shakespeare was born in. Francis and I enjoyed seeing the countryside and scoping out the town. Below is a photo of what for a while was thought to be his wife's childhood house. It turns out it is not, but it was a nice place to visit :).





You can see all my photos of England here.