final hours

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Hi all,

So, its the final day, literally, we fly out at 7pm tonight. So I thought you might all want to know what we've been doing for the last week.

Last time I wrote, we were in Cambridge on our first night. So, the following morning (monday 4th Dec for those of you following at home), we did the usual morning routine, breakfast and headed out to see the sights of Cambridge. We headed straight for Kings College Chapel again, although this time we actually went inside. Its absolutely gorgeous, and we really enjoyed it. It has amazing accoustics, so it would have been awesome to hear them sing there, but it wasn't meant to be. The vaulted ceiling is huge, and the stained glass was beautiful. There is lots on information about the history of the chapel inside and we could have spent a long time in there. Lots of Henry's (English Kings) put money towards it, and the choir is dedicated to Henry VIII. Walked around the college grounds, but it didn't take that long because they aren't very big. For those who don't know, all the colleges in Cambridge and Oxford belong to the Cambridge and Oxford Universities, they aren't individual universities. We then walked to Free School Lane, where the Cavendish Laboratories were (its now a museum I think) and my Grandfather worked there when he was younger, so that was nice to have some family history. We took some photos and were heading for Trinity College when we walked past Next, a clothing store, and saw a gorgeous jacket in the window, totally my colours, so I tried it on. It looked gorgeous, so I ended up getting it! Very excited. We then went past a book store, and ended up buying some books after lunch. We were going to go and read in the Backs, a green area behind some of the colleges, but the weather turned foul, so we headed for a coffee house. Went to the Copper Kettle, which I was at least the 3rd generation of my family to have tea there, so that was another nice piece of family history. The service was awful, and they got our order wrong, but we got there in the end and the tea was nice. We were going to go to the Wren Library at Trinity College, but it closed early in the winter, so left that for the next day. We headed back via the internet cafe, had dinner at the hostel, watched the highlights of the cricket and went to bed.

Tuesday 5th December started off with our usual routine. We had breakfast and then headed out to see the sights. Went to Trinity College, saw the statue of one of the kings (I think its a Henry) outside the gates holding a wooden table leg instead of a sceptre, as some students previously had stolen it, but the Wren library still wasn't open until the afternoon, so we went to the Round Church instead. This was built by the Knights Templar, and essentially is its name, the Round Church. They have a big display about the history of Christianity inside through the ages, so that was really good. Lots of information, including the fact that our week days are actually named after Norse gods : Tiw = Tuesday, Woden = Wednesday, Thor = Thursday, Freya = Friday. So that was interesting! Basically free (its a donation I think) so if your there, totally worth going to. We then grabbed some lunch and headed back to the Wren Library. It was designed or named after (I can't remember which) Christopher Wren, a major British architect, and houses 55,000 manuscripts, including some original copies of Shakespeare plays, Newtons diary, watch and some letters, and a first edition copy of AA Milnes 'Winnie the Pooh' as both he and his son Christopher Robin went to Cambridge University. We then walked back to the Backs, looking for the replica of the Bridge of Sighs, but couldn't find it, so just sort of wandered around, shopped and then headed back to the hostel. My foot has been playing up, so usually by the end of the day I'm limping, of which tuesday was no exception, so we haven't been pushing ourselves as much as we could. Had dinner in the hostel again, watched TV, saw the highlights of the cricket (which we won, on the last day, against all odds and expectations, so that was really exciting. Its also funny because we are in England and the English people lots to us, so we get a bit of flack).

Wednesday we left Cambridge for our final destination before London. Canterbury is towards the south east coast, so we had to catch a train back to London, change London stations on the tube (which took us over an hour as they suspended the line we were waiting for), and then catch another train to Canterbury. We ended up arriving at about 2pm, so headed for the hostel. Its a bit of a hike, but we got there eventually, but discovered that it didn't open until 3pm, so sat outside for 1/2hr reading before we could check in. We checked in, but they only had space in single sex dorms, so we dumped our stuff, and headed into town for a really late lunch. By the time we got our food it was about 4pm, so we ate that and headed back via Aldi where we just got something small for dinner (salad). I wasn't feeling very well at about 7pm, so, thinking I was having a low, we headed down to eat dinner in the kitchen. I ended up not fainting, but being sick (just thought you wanted to know), so dinner wasn't much of a success, but I did feel better. Then one of the staff came in and told us a twin room had opened up and so we moved our stuff downstairs (the room was on the ground floor right across from the TV room, which was great, cos stairs on my foot were making it worse), watched some TV and went to bed.

Thursday we headed into the town centre to see Canterbury Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is MASSIVE! Its certainly one of the biggest churches I have ever seen, and after the last month, I've seen a lot of churches! We did a tour, which went for nearly 2 hours (it was supposed to only go for an hour, but the lady was very long winded), saw the Beckett Shrine and the amazing stained glass windows (unfortunately a lot of them are Victorian, not the originals), but it seriously is absolutely stunning. You can see why its the seat of the churches power. Didn't go down to the crypt because it was closed, although we have seen crypts before, so not really worried. We grabbed some lunch t,hen headed for the West Gate and Museum, housed in the West Gate (freaky I know) where you can try on armour, so got some photos of Phil in armour, very funny, but cool, and walked around in there. It was actually a jail, so that was interesting as well. Then headed for the Canterbury Tales, an Oxford Storyesque version of Chaucers Canterbury Tales. Overpriced, but interesting, but it evened out when the West gate was only 70p each. We then tried to book accommodation in London over the weekend, but because of Christmas shoppers, everywhere was full, so ended up deciding to stay in Canterbury and commute in each day. It was cheaper with our Britrail to do it that way, because we had some extra days to use up. Settled in to watch Love Actually, and then went to bed.

Friday we did our first commute. It was kind of strange to travel on the train without our packs, but much easier to. You can really see why people would live outside London and do the short commute in each day. Caught the 10.20 train in and it takes about 1.5hrs, so we arrived just before 12 noon. We were heading for Lords Cricket ground to do the tour, but one ran at 12noon and the other at 2pm. We weren't going to make the 12noon one, so we went to the Natural History Museum to waste some time. Crawling with tourists and kids, it wasn't that exciting and we didn't really have time to really get into it. Grabbed some lunch and headed to Lords. Arrived just before the tour, wolfed down our lunch and headed on around. We went into the Pavilion, saw the ground from the members stand, went up to the players dressing rooms, walked around the ground to the media centre (which is amazing by the way), saw the 6 foot slope on the ground and went to the gift shop. All very exciting. The Ashes are actually on tour in Australia (of course), but we took a photo with the replica anyway. Headed back to the train station and caught the train back to Canterbury. Arrived at about 7pm, so went to grab some dinner. We ate at this really nice Italian restuarant, and had a bottle of wine, so feeling very relaxed when I went to bed.

Saturday. We headed back into London on the train to go to Greenwich. We actually got really lucky. Catching trains on the weekend can be a bit hit and miss with England, but we got to the station and a train was running late, pulled up to the platform, and because it was so late, they made it an express to London! So no stupid stops every two minutes, and we got there about 11.20am. In my Lonely Planet, it said the ball at the Royal Observatory dropped at 1pm in the summer, and 12 noon in the winter, so we busted our gut to get the train there on time. We got there at 12.05. No big deal, we went in, took some photos of us standing on the Greenwich Meridian line, stradelling the East and West Hemisphere boundary, and then went inside the exhibit in the Observatory. When inside we saw a sign that said the ball dropped at 1pm, but I figured it was just for the summer, so kept walking. Low and behold, at 1pm, the ball did drop, but we were still inside, so we missed it anyway! I couldn't believe it! Oh well, we still saw the original watch made for determining longitude at sea by the British Navy, so that was cool. We grabbed some lunch and then headed to the National Maritime Museum. Both the Observatory and the Museum are free, so thats always nice. We wandered around aimlessly, saw some stuff and then headed for the train. I find (at least with myself), if its free, then I don't tend to try and take as much in, because I don't feel the need to get my moneys worth, not that I'm complaining that its free or anything! Caught the train back to Victoria station, where we got on the train to Canterbury. Walked back via Aldi and picked up some dinner, ate, watched TV and chatted to two girls in the TV room, one from NZ and one from Canada.

Sunday. Got up, had breakfast, packed and headed out to the train station. Scored again with the train, and the Canadian girl from the previous night also caught our train, so traded tips of where to go in England, Australia and Canada. We arrived in London, caught the tube to our hostel, dropped off our bags and headed out for lunch. Grabbed a burger, and came back, went to a park and watched people playing with their dogs, checked into the hostel and headed out to the Portabello Road markets. Unfortunately by the time we got there, everything was pretty much closing down, so we just sort of wandered, then caught the tube back. Updated our diaries, and then went to the TV room, then out for dinner (our last pub meal) then back to the TV room, Forrest Gump was on, so up 'til 11.30pm, then bed.

Monday. Well, haven't done much today. Got up and had breakfast, shower, packed and now sitting here. After this, going to grab some lunch, then to the airport, then flying home for 2 days!

So, hopefully you have all enjoyed reading my escapades, I'm sorry its so long. I haven't really had a chance to update photos, so will try to put them up in the next week or so, hopefully before I have to go back to work. So thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for photos.

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