A Journey's End

Hello once again!

Today, the St. Scholastica group ended its excursion to Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon and returned to London! A bit of a later checkout time at our Stratford hotel meant we were able to sleep in if we desired; however, everyone in my room was awake much earlier than we had set our alarms for. I think our bodies may have adjusted to early mornings!

Shortly after breakfast and check out, we bused ten minutes to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, a historical site near Stratford-upon-Avon. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, this cottage was the family home of William Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway; it has no apparent connections with the Princess Diaries star who bears the same name.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

The cottage is surrounded by a magnificent garden which boasted many perfect picture spots. Naturally, we took many a photo of the flowers, structures, and wildlife nearby, while trying to get at least one decent group photo.

So many colorful flowers and wood work, plus an appearance by
Mortimer the slug, who raced his way across the pathway under our vigilant eyes. 

I think we managed one! 

 

We were also able to tour the inside of the cottage and caught glimpses of the lives of the Hathaway family through the thirteen generations that inhabited the cottage starting with Anne’s grandfather! The family began living in tight quarters, but were able to expand the cottage through the generations, eventually ending up with enough space to support three families as tenants toward the end of the Hathaway’s tenure on the property.

While Anne lived there, the family was in possession of two beds, a symbol of their elevated status and wealth at the time. It was also interesting to see and read about different pieces of furniture that were of particular importance in the courtship of William and Anne as found in stories told during tours by the last generations of Hathaway’s living at the cottage property.

The Hathaway Bed, given to the family by
Shakespeare's granddaughter, Elizabeth Barnard.

The fire place in the middle room, complete with a bench
(to the right) said to be the place where
Anne and William chatted during their courtship. 

After the tour and a quick lunch stop at the café next door, we boarded our coach and departed for London. Two hours later, our bus driver Richard had safely delivered us to the doorstep of our home-away-from-home, the Jesmond Hotel.

Our afternoon was spent recuperating from our journeys, but our day was not over yet. With the evening, a few groups of Scholastica students ventured to the West End to see the musicals Wicked or Les Mis. After our whirlwind journeys from Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon through the Land of Oz and the French Revolution, we hang our hats and are gladly off to our dreams as we await another day in London!

Anne Hathaway Cottage and Les Miserables

     Today we started off with a tour of the childhood home of Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon. Much to my dismay, it was not the home of the talented actress, but rather of William Shakespeare's wife. The house has been lived in by the Hathaway family since the 16th century. It was the house where Anne grew up in, and then left to be with Shakespeare. On ground level there was a kitchen, laundry, and parlor. Upstairs they had the bedrooms set up to reflect the many generations that had lived in the house. However, the house was only a tiny portion of the property. The rest was taken over by a huge garden. There were beautiful sections of neatly trimmed hedges, others with lavender and colorful flowers. It was truly as wonderful experience to walk through.

Later that night when we returned to London, some of us went to see the play Les Miserables. The play is set in 19th century France, post revolution. Many are sick and poor, and have to do what they can to survive. The play centers on a thief who is released from prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his nephew. Years after this, he learns from his ways and takes care of and raises a young girl under the wish of her dying mother. All of this takes place under the rebellion of schoolboys who want to fight for a better future for the people of France. Having seen the movie already, I had an idea of what I was walking into. I was not however prepared for the heartfelt emotion casted by the actors, as their singing was top notch and professional. Even the two young kids carried their weight amongst the older actors. Overall it is one of my favorite plays I  have seen so far.

The End of An Excursion

Wednesday marked the last day of our little excursion outside of London. We spent it viewing Anne Hathaway’s cottage and gardens. Anne Hathaway was married to William Shakespeare. The cottage was the home that she grew up in, meaning Shakespeare never lived there. But they did visit after they were married. 

The gardens offered much to see and explore, including a giant jenga game that a few of us set up and played until our tour was called.

We explored the cottage, read the information available, and then wandered the grounds. A few of us traipsed through the forest just a little ways away from the cottage. I’m not really a fan of forests and such, too many bugs for my liking, but it was a pretty walk. They also had cute signs every so often, teaching us about hedgehogs. 

  

After a quick stroll through the gift shop, we ate lunch at an adorable café across the road before boarding our coach bus once more. The ride was a leisurely two hours. Most students slept, but a few of us played games on phones to keep us occupied.

After we returned to London, the time was our own. My friends and I decided to see if we could snag tickets to see Wicked later that evening, so we took the tube to Leicester Square and checked out the discount ticket booth. To our delight, they did have some inexpensive tickets available, so we bought them for the 7:30 pm showing. That left us with three hours to spend and we went to Camden Market. I bought an oil painting (I’ve been collecting them from each country I go to where I can find them) and we ate a quick dinner from the food stalls there. It was a great market, I love the energy at those places.

The time passed quickly and we made our way to the theatre. Now, on a complete side note, I am a huge Hamilton fan. For anyone who is unaware, Hamilton is a musical about one of the US’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. A theatre nearby the Wicked theatre is going to have Hamilton there in November and is currently under construction. The coverings on the building have the characters’ silhouettes. It was spectacular. 

Then we saw Wicked. I was enthralled. I’d never seen it before. The voices of the cast, with the stage and everything was amazing. One of my favorite performances (yes, I do say that often. But I do mean it at the time I say it, so it counts).

The Goddess of Bath

Today I payed my respects to the Pagan/Roman Goddess Sulis Minerva. Sulis Minerva is the Goddess of the thermal-spring in Bath. After seeing the spring myself, it's no wonder people long ago sensed the presence of something magical. Pictured above is the great bath that was filled and heated by a natural thermal spring. The spring rises from the ground and bubbles, as if it's boiling. Steam and the scent of minerals rise up as well. When the Romans built the baths, they rerouted some of this water to run through several rooms before meeting up with the River Avon. With the exception of some out-dated lead pipes, their original stone architecture is still working today. This was visible all over the baths as we took our tour. I was most interested in hearing all of the recovered items when they excavated the baths and spring. Most notable were the offerings and curse requests. Offerings typically included carved plates and, not surprisingly, coins. On the other hand, people also would make carvings with names and accusations of people they believed needed to be cursed. Overwhelmingly, these were for what we would see as rather small thefts such as a cape or gloves. These days, they ask you to throw coins into one of the baths rather than the deep Spring. I tossed a coin and made a wish to the Goddess Sulis. I also had the opportunity to drink water from the spring but not until it was thoroughly cleaned! Overall, it was a really beautiful and magical location.

High Church

Today, my fellow cohort and I visited a significant church in Stratford-upon-Avon, England; the Holy Trinity Church. Here at this church, William Shakespeare is buried with his wife, among other important family members. Emotionally moving moments like these remind me why I appreciate not knowing about certain landmarks such at this. Throughout this trip, the greatest moments for me have been when I personally didn't know about what I going to see that day. Funny enough, I'm sure the professors accompanying this trip state what we are going to do before we do it; my mind wanders in different places accidentally and fails to hear these plans. Luckily though, I encounter beautiful places like this church will a fresh ignorant air. In this same church, there is a memoriam to William Hunt, one of the founding members of the pre-raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a well-known painter that dedicated his life to capturing the real spirit of nature in his art. I wonder if he himself is buried there. This morning began in Bath, England at the Hilton, and we had a full continental breakfast. Then most of my morning was spent at the Roman Baths, in Bath. Then, while on the bus ride to Stratford-upon-Avon, I slept and mentally planned out my novel. So needless to say, the things I saw today were immense inspirations for what I want in my novel. For the end of the day, me and my friends has McDonalds and saw a play, "Antony and Cleopatra". 

Roman Baths and Shakespeare's Birthplace

We started the day in Bath with a tour of the Roman Bath in town. The bath was built on a naturally occurring hot spring that still flows, and we got to end our tour by trying a taste of the mineral-heavy water.

Gherkin enjoying the bath

In Roman times, the bath facility doubled as a religious sanctuary, with temples and altars built to Roman gods on site. The bathing process also consisted of alternating between warm and cold pools. We got to see the ruins of the different pools, although not all of the Roman baths have been completely excavated.

After the tour, we had some time to explore Bath and get some lunch.  The city is absolutely beautiful, and I would love to go back for a longer time. 

    

Finally, we boarded the bus and headed to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. We saw the site on which his birth home stood and his gravesite. We finished the day watching his play "Antony and Cleopatra". This production was a lot more classic Shakespeare than the last Shakespeare production we saw at the Globe. It was also a tragedy instead of a comedy. It maybe wasn't my favorite play ever, but it was still really cool to see a Shakespeare play in the town where he was born. 

Excitement and Sweat

Hey everybody, today was a day that was packed full! We started out our morning at 7:45 am on the coach bus heading to Stonehenge. After a lovely two hour nap we made it there and began our learning for the day. We did a roughly 45 minute audio guide tour which explained not only about the stones themselves but also the barrows and ditch around the site. It's hard to comprehend that 5000 years ago people dragged the stones that weigh 25 tons on average to this sacred site. I was excited to get in and walk among the stones but soon found out that only a few number of people are allowed to do that anymore, the British Heritage Society had to close it off in the 1970's because they realized if millions of people were trampling around the site every day it would weaken the ground around the stones and become a huge safety hazard and potentially bring the whole site crashing down. You can actually see on one of the pillars where the whole crashing down thing became a legitimate concern, there was a large concrete block place in one of the pillars to help support the structure. After a fun filled morning at Stonehenge we hopped on the bus again and drove to Bath. We did a short walking tour around the city, saw the Abbey, and were able to walk into the Assembly rooms. Not too shabby of a place for a wedding reception or party! After this we had dinner at Sally Lunns, which is the oldest house in Bath. The food was absolutely amazing, I might be a little biased but I think the salmon was the best!
After dinner is when the real fun (except not fun at all) began. Nine of us squished ourselves into an elevator and after the elevator lifted itself a foot off of the ground it clanged back down and stopped moving. We hit the open door button a few times and when that didn't work we called for help. It immediately got way too hot in the elevator and the glass began to steam up. After a tense 15 minutes the front desk informed us it would be at least 30 minutes until the engineer came. Thankfully 55 minutes after the ordeal began they managed to get us out before anyone actually passed out.

Excursion Day!

Hello!

This morning started out much earlier than usual. I started my day at 6:30am. Got dressed, ate breakfast and packed last minute things into my backpack because today we departed for our two day excursion. We were headed to Bath and Stratford-Upon-Avon. On our way to Bath, we stopped at Stonehenge which was about a two hour ride (we took a coach bus). Almost everyone one the bus took a nap (it was much needed). 

Whenever I hear people talking about Stonehenge I always hear that it's just rocks in the middle of huge green fields. They were right, it really is just rocks surrounded by fields and fields of grass!

But these rocks have a story behind them. Stonehenge is an ancient temple aligned on the movements of the sun. These stones were brought in 4,500 years ago by prehistoric people. The heaviest of the stones stood at 13 ft high and weighed about 25 tons!

After finishing our tour at Stonehenge we all had lunch at the visitor center on site. 

Once we all ate, we departed for bath! It was about an hour long ride from Stonehenge. I once again had fallen asleep, and had woken up to rain outside my window once we arrived.

We got settled into our hotel rooms and went for a walking tour followed by dinner at Sally Lunn's. The food was delicious! I had salmon on a Sally bun and a meringue and berry dessert topped with a scoop of ice cream.

Once dinner was over, we headed back to the hotel. This is where things got interesting. Nine of us got into the elevator and just as the doors closed, the elevator got maybe a foot off the ground and fell back down! A few of us screamed until we realized we were stuck! We were trapped in the elevator for about 40 minutes before the maintenance man opened the doors. 

While in there, it was getting so hot the walls were filled with condensation. We were able to play hangman.

But, we made it out alive! Some were very shaken up including myself, but we're all safe! 

And hey, at least we can all say we've been stuck in an elevator now!

The Final Stretch

After two weeks in London, everyone seems to finally be comfortable in the city for the most part. We know where to go to get cheap food and we can actually get around using the underground fairly competently. So, it only seemed logical that we leave London for a few days and get our comfort zones. This morning at 8:00 we departed on a coach bus for Bath, taking a short pit stop at
Stonehenge.


I've seen pictures of Stonehenge in my history books since I can remember actually reading my history books. It's the type of history that most people hear or learn about, but not everyone is able to actually see and experience. I feel very blessed to have come so close to such an impressive and significant historical site. Of course, we weren't able to actually touch or walk directly next to the massive stones that make up Stonehenge due to concerns for the preservation of the monument. Nevertheless it was a beautiful sight to behold.

Stonehenge was constructed over a large period of time; archeologists date the construction from approximately 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The stones have since endured some damage from thousands of years of weather as well as human destruction. Back when the monument was first constructed, many people believed that the rocks used to form Stonehenge possessed healing powers so they would chip off chunks of the rock for themselves. Luckily, the largest stones weigh in at a whopping 25 tons and stand at least 13 ft high so a few chips didn't do too much damage.


As one of the most famous landmarks in the UK, I'm glad we ventured out of London to experience such a magnificent place. After walking around the entirety of Stonehenge and enjoying a delicious lunch at the visitor center we continued our journey to Bath. Our first stop once we arrived was our hotel where we were able to check in and hang out for a bit before exploring the city. Around 4:00 we began a walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding our hotel. We were able to see a number of places that English author Jane Austen lived during her time in the city of Bath (approximately 5 years). She wrote two novels during that time - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. 2017 actually marks 200 years since the death of Austen, so it seemed fitting to be here learning about a small portion of her history. We were able to tour the Assembly Rooms, a place where Austen and people of her station might have come during the 1800's to dance and socialize. My favorite room in the entire building was the ballroom, a massive space. I could picture hundreds of people in the candle-lit room dancing and having a wonderful night. If only our generation could have such elegant gatherings...

After making our way to the location of the Roman Baths and the actual assembly rooms that Austen would have most likely attended, we had a short bit of free time to explore the area. A group of us found an amazing patisserie full of delicious treats from France. The colorful macarons seemed to be calling out my name so a friend and I went halvsies on a pack of them. We couldn't eat too many right away, though, because or last stop of the day was dinner at Sally Lunn's as a group. Sally Lunn's is best known for being one of the oldest eating houses in Bath, established in 1680. The atmosphere there was very quaint and the food was absolutely delicious. All in all, Bath has been treating me pretty well so far. Can't wait to explore a bit more tomorrow morning before we continue on our expedition!

 

London Weekend

This weekend was relaxing and wonderful. Saturday Alex, Tayler, and I went to Kew Gardens, which is also known as the Royal Botanical Gardens. This is a huge park (300 acres) which has the largest and most diverse collection of plants in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous. We literally spent the entire day in nature. Because we were outside all day, we ended up a little bit sunburnt, but it was still an amazing experience. We even got to see some trees that are native to Northern Minnesota, so for a brief amount of time, it felt like we were back home walking in the woods.

Here is a picture of Alex talking to some trees!

Today (Sunday) we decided to go to back to Trafalgar Square. We stopped in there for a little while in our first week here, but we did not get to go to any of the galleries around there, so that is what we decided to do today. We went to both the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. Both are filled with works of art that are both magnificent and super old.

After the galleries we stopped by Buckingham Palace. There was actually a wellness festival being hosted in Green Park, and a marathon taking place down The Mall, which is the road that leads up to the palace, so we got to get really close. It was not quite the same as seeing the Changing of the Guards, which I have not gotten to watch, but it was still pretty exciting!

A Break From the Heat

So I suppose one of the nice things about being assigned Sundays to do my blog post is that it does force me to get out and do something instead of resting all day. I must admit, I genuinely feel exhausted every night after walking around London all day.

Today I did take it a little easier than normal. I allowed myself to sleep in since I got home really late after visiting a friend in Bedford yesterday. By the time I got up the group I normally hang out with had gone to the Natural History Museum, and I didn't feel up to another experience with Sunday museum busyness.

After leafing through the London Top 10 book I settled on Regents Park and after wandering down to the dining room I collected Rayne as a park buddy with the promise of a bench to journal at. Both Rayne and myself had read about Regents Park in Mrs. Dalloway and upon arriving at the park we both could easily envision the characters wandering around the park. It was so beautiful!

While at the park I was treated to my first view of a real poppy, many different kinds of birds, and gorgeous rose gardens. The park was filled with people having picnics, playing lawn games, and enjoying the slightly cooler day. It felt like I was no longer in the heart of London but instead in a park out in the countryside. It was a really nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Rayne and I both enjoyed just sitting by the lake and watching the ducks, geese, and swans swim around.

The Magic of Museums

Here we are, the final week in London. I have to say I'm both excited and bittersweet to be here. I'm ready to go home, but also ready to go on a few final adventures. I'll be sad to leave London, but this trip has been so wonderful I know I'll be thinking about it for years to come.

One of my favorite things that I've done here is go to all the museums. I'm a big fan of museums and learning all about the things in them. One of my dream jobs would be to work as a museum curator so it's interesting to see how all of the objects are put together to create the exhibits in each museum.

This morning I went with DyAnna and Rachel to the Museum of Natural History.

It was chock full of information: from a room full of large mammals...

To rooms filled with dinosaurs...

To a really cool escalator, that took us through a globe...

To early human skeletons...

(The one on the left was the first adult Neanderthal skull ever to be discovered!)

To casts from people and animals that died in Pompeii...

(Also fun fact: the Japanese used to think that earthquakes were caused by a giant catfish that was hidden in the mud).

To birds...

And bugs...

It was a museum full of objects that spanned across time and the globe. We spent over two hours there and we barely scratched the surface of all the information contained there.

After this we went souvenir shopping and then to a lovely park that was near our hotel.

Now it's time to gear up for one final week of adventures before we finally head back to the states.