London Day 4

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Hi Everybody!
Today marks the fourth day in London. When I read in book that time expands when you travel I didn't really believe it, but it sure seems like I have been here more than 4 days.
Yesterday I went on a bus tour that I signed up for at the visitors center. It cost 39 pounds which I thought was a good deal. I wanted to see Stonehenge. The tour I picked was for Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath. I found out when I showed up on the bus why it was so cheap. None of the admission prices were included in the price of the tour. So it cost an extra 20 pounds. I am very glad I went, but I would have been even more glad if it had only cost 39 pounds. 😉
So I went to Bath and saw the Roman baths. Unfortunately right before I went in the battery died on my camera. Which I kick myself for not charging the night before. Not that I would have been able to anyway because someone stole my UK converter the day before. I guess I should be grateful they left my laptop.
So I saw the roman baths, but I have only two pictures of it.
The cathedral at Salisbury is delightful. Absolutely gorgeous. The tower weighs 6,500 tons. If you look close you can see the stone supports starting to buckle underneath. My battery recovered a bit on the hour bus trip so I have a few good photos of the cathedral. Unfortunately I only have one picture of myself in front of Stonehenge (the whole reason I payed for the tour in the first place!) and this picture I took of myself and I look crazy! But I can't delete it because its the only one there is!
I bought a lot of post cards to compensate for the pictures, and I got to see one of the original Magna Carta. There are only 4 in existence. I wanted to see the British Library copy on wendsday, but it is being worked on, so I missed it. The desire to see it is kind of odd, because its written in Latin and I can't read it. Maybe its being in the presence of all that history.
It seems like most of the buildings here are older than the United states is. It makes me feel like we are cultural infants.
So, Yesterday I blew the rest of my budget for the week. So today I had 10 pounds to entertain myself. I went to Portobello Market. It was HUGE about 50 blocks of stalls of everything from toothpaste to antique books. I spent 5 of my 10 pounds on a silver key necklace.
Then I took the underground to St. Pauls church. I couldn't afford the entrance fee, but I got great pictures of the outside! I wonder how churches can justify charging entrance fees?
Anyway, I then walked to the Globe Theater to buy tickets for tonight's performance of As you Like It.
They were sold out of the 5 pound seats. All that was left was a seat for 32 pounds.
😞 sadness
So I went next door and took a free tour of the Tate Modern, it was very interesting since I have zero appreciation of modern art. What makes a 20 foot rope strewn around the floor, art? The tour guide said that the artist is critiquing the sense of art as a one dimentional contruction on the wall. My personal favorite was the room full of Neon pink cows. A close second was a real 10 foot tall uprooted palm tree lying across the floor.
What I really wanted to see was the Pre-Raphaelites, but I learned that they are held at the Tate Britain, which is an hour walk from the Tate Modern. So I took a walk along the South Bank. I walked past the London Eye and I got great pictures of Big Ben from across the river.
I also stumbled head on into a book fair! I stopped to take a picture and then poof! Books!
Tables and Tables!
I found a copy of Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd. It was reccommended by yesterday's tour guide as great novel about the creation of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. It only cost 50 pence and it has 1400 pages, so I thought it was a good buy.
By the time I got to Tate Britain it was 5:10 and they close at 6:00 (and they started kicking us out at 5:45) But thats okay because I found the painting I wanted to see. Ophelia by John Everett Millais. I spent a couple hours at the bookstore reading and then I came back to the hostel. The underground that goes to my hostel wasn't running so I had to walk another half hour out of my way to get to the bus stop, and then 40 minutes on the bus. Stupid Underground strike.

So total expenses for London trip:
Cash withdrawl: 100 pounds
Stonehenge trip: 59 pounds
Oyster card: 20 pounds
Groceries: 15 pounds
Total: 195 pounds ~ 321 dollars

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Photos

Bath bridge
Bridge near Roman baths

Bath Abbey
Abbey that is attached to the Roman Baths.

Roman Bath
Entrance to the roman baths. Right before my camera died for the first time.

House
House with a thatched roof. Called "Hatted and booted."

Outside of Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral from the outside.

Three saints
Facade of Salisbury Cathedral. The figure on the left is missing pieces because it was vandalized by Cromwell's troops.

Stonehenge
Hideous picture of myself in front of Stonehenge. Do I really look like that?

St. Paul's
Front of St. Paul's including the statue of Elizabeth that stands in front of it.

St. Paul's
View of St. Paul's from Millennium Bridge.

Westminster
View of Big Ben from across the Thames.

Comments

[ellen]

awesome
That is all so awesome. From the states, it feels like you've been gone more than four days too! The Lord bless you and keep you! Can't wait to see what's next!

[Andrea]

Yay!
Hey girl! Great photos! You do NOT look crazy in front of Stone Henge! Don't you just love the deception involved with those tours?? I'm glad you got to go though! What an experience :)

[Andrea and Phil]

one more thing...
Phil had an idea for you... you should sign up for a SmugMug (http://www.smugmug.com/) account, which is basically a way for you to upload your photos to their online memory storage. Their storage is unlimited, so you can upload as many photos as you want and they will always be accessible. It would be good to do in case your laptop or camera do get stolen or something. Then, you would at least still have all your photos. Just a suggestion!