London

So I'll probably never have time to actually write a proper blog post about my time in London, but I figured I'd go ahead and put up the pictures so that you can all see them!

This is the British Museum, full of all kinds of artifacts and art objects - the most famous being the Rosetta Stone.

TOP: The British Museum; BOTTOM LEFT: first Western chessboard; BOTTOM RIGHT: a replica of the Rosetta Stone, the original of which is in the museum but was covered by a swarm of people

This is the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, where many prisoners throughout the years have been held and executed, although I never wound up going inside. The red poppies outside are part of an art installation commemorating the centenary of the start of World War I. The idea is to ultimately have as many plastic poppies as British citizens who were killed during the war.

The Tower Bridge (TOP) and the Tower of London

The Borough Market in the city center, with all kinds of fresh and prepared food. I bought a delicious savory pie - but without the meat!

Borough Market

This is St. Paul's cathedral. We happened to arrive during an evensong performance, which the choir sings every night. Hearing such beautiful music in such an impressive space (it's the largest cathedral in Europe) was a truly moving experience.

St. Paul's cathedral

This is the Tate Modern Art Museum, which used to be a factory but was converted and is now super popular.

Tate Modern from the Millennium Bridge

This is a view of the Millennium Bridge from the Tate, looking across the Thames at St. Paul's cathedral on the other side.

Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's across the Thames

This is the replica of the original Globe Theater where Shakespeare worked and where most of his plays were performed. The original burned down many years ago, but this one was recreated as accurately as possible. The central part of the theater is open-air and the tickets are only 5£ to stand on the lawn, so we went to see a performance of Comedy of Errors. However, it started raining while we were there and so we just decided to leave in the middle of the play. You couldn't even hear part of the time because there were airplanes flying fairly regularly overhead.

Replica of Shakespeare's Globe

This is Trafalgar Square, obviously one of the most famous public squares in London. It commemorates a battle which the British naval fleet won against the Spanish at the southern port town of Trafalgar.

Trafalgar Square

We got to see the end part of the famous "changing of the guard" ceremony, which happens with full pomp and circumstance almost every day of the year.

Changing of the Guard

This is Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace

This is the clock tower of the Parliament buildings. "Big Ben" is actually not the name of the tower, but rather of the bell which is inside.

Big Ben

This is Westminster Abbey, which I unfortunately did not have time to visit inside (there was just too much to see!).

Westminster Abbey

The London Eye, which I refused to pay for.

London Eye

We took a river boat to Greenwich, a part of London best known for being the point of reference for the Prime Meridian and the world's time zones, which are of course all measure against GMT - Greenwich Mean Time. I also found an amazing used book store with tons of classics and well-known works all for only 1£!

Hampton Court Palace

One of my favorite parts of the trip were the two day trips we took to small towns outside of London. One of these was to see Hampton Court Palace, a huge, sprawling Tudor Palace built by the infamous Henry VIII for one of his right-hand men. The palace, especially the royal chapel, was beautiful, as were the grounds. I loved the garden and strolling under the lane of trees in the golden light of sunset - it felt like my life was a BBC Miniseries or a Jane Austen novel.

Hampton Court Palace

I felt like my life was a BBC Miniseries walking through this lane of trees

The Thames River by Hampton Court

St. Albans

The other trip we took was to a small town called St. Albans, which is a little medieval town north of London in the county of Hertfordshire, with a lovely old cathedral and lots of quaint buildings on narrow streets. Throughout the trip, I was really enjoying the onset of fall, which is not exactly as evocative and demarcated in Madrid as in North Carolina. One of the best parts of the trip was having "cream tea," where you get your own pot of tea, accompanied by scones with clotted cream and jam, on the lovely porch of a teahouse surrounded by trees, in the midst of the crisp autumn air with the cathedral just behind us. It was the quintessence of picturesqueness and coziness, and satisfied my craving for the autumnal experience I'm not receiving in Madrid.

St. Albans cathedral

Quaint scenes in St. Albans