Today we traveled to Stonehenge! We woke up to catch the 8:50am train from the Waterloo station to Salisbury, the town nearest to Stonehenge. It was a nice hour and a half long train ride from London. We talked for the first half and journaled for the second, enjoying the comforts of first class 🙂

We arrived in time to catch the next tour bus to Stonehenge and climbed the steps to the second story of the bus for a great view of the town and surrounding country side. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to explore Salisbury, but what we could see reminded us of Canterbury. The bus provided commentary during the ride, pointing out historical landmarks including a few thatch roofed homes. We eventually left the town behind, journeying out into the countryside, full of sheep, cows, a pig farm, and lots and lots of wheat fields. Eventually we started seeing lots of cars and then, over the hill, Stonehenge!

We were dropped off by the bus at the entrance and skipped the long lines for tickets because we had purchased a Heritage pass at Dover Castle which provides us free entrance to all Heritage designated sites in Britain. Yippee!! We got through, were given a pair of audio guides, and headed out to the site. Stonehenge is so much more impressive in person. I had studied the site in my architectural history class in college so it was quite a wonderful experience to be able to stand so close to it. The audio guide provided much speculation as to the exact meaning behind Stonehenge and how it was created; I’m still going with aliens. It was interesting however, to be reminded of the calendar significance of the stone placement. The summer and winter solstices can be determined by the position of the sun in relation to the stones. The people who created Stonehenge could even tell, based on the path of the sun through the stones, which month of the year it was. Surrounding Stonehenge are burial mounds thought to have been part of some elaborate ceremony. The site was really beautiful and the stones so mysterious in their placement, almost as if standing guard.

We finished the tour in about an hour and caught the next bus to our next stop, Old Sarum. Old Sarum is a large earthwork mound dating to before Stonehenge. The site was used over the years as a place of defense by the Normans, Saxons and then subsequent Kings who built a large fortress and castle at the center of the mound. The remains if this structure can still be seen, including a church built on the far side of the mound. We walked among the ruins, reading plaques about specific sections of the fortress. Hardly any of the stones remain as the castle and it’s defenses were dismantled and the stones reused. We caught the bus back to the train station and a train back to Waterloo, arriving in London at around 3pm. One short metro ride, and we were at the Boroughs Market.

We walked among the stalls which were full of all kinds of food. The place wasn’t very crowded, probably due to the large amount if construction taking place in part of the market. We bought lunch/dinner – Ryder bought a pasty and I had an organic salad. We spent about an hour wandering among the stalls, sampling tea, olive oils, jams, salsas, and more. Ryder bought a box if black licorice and I was content with a sampling of dry cider. We took the metro back to our room to get changed for the play. I actually did my hair today and put on some make-up, shocker.

Because we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the show, we arrived early and spent the time enjoying a drink at a pub down the street. Finally it was time and we bustled into our VERY expensive seats to watch one of the best performances of Les Miserables I’ve seen. This was Ryder’s first time EVER seeing the play and he thoroughly enjoyed it!! I spent the walk and metro ride back to our room humming tunes from the show 🙂

Tomorrow we leave London and head for York!

Phew, did we have a busy day today! I was still sore from the 9.5 miles we walked yesterday when I got up this morning. And then we walked 10 miles today!!! Yuck, I’m out of shape! We made a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast with jam, and an apple then headed out for our tour of Buckingham Palace! We took the Tube in and arrived with half an hour before our allotted time at 10am. So, we meandered through the streets of London, grabbed some coffee at a cafe and headed through the public park to the entrance of the palace. After loitering around the palace, waiting for the gates to open, we realized at 9:59am we were probably in the wrong place. After asking for directions, we rushed around the block to the public entrance, got our tickets (yay! We weren’t too late!) and waited in the queue before being ushered through security and into the first State Rooms!

*Disclaimer* – for the Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abby, photos were not allowed to be taken inside, hence the lack of photos for this post! Tried to sneak a few, but they turned out all shabby.

The term ‘State Rooms’ is applied to those rooms that were designed and built as the public rooms of the Palace, in which monarchs receive, reward and entertain guests, including dignitaries. Today the State Rooms are used extensively by The Queen and members of the Royal Family to receive and entertain on State, ceremonial and official occasions. We received free audio guides and made our way through the maze of rooms filled with royal portraits, silk furniture, crystal chandeliers, gilt gold, ornate rugs, and 19th century style architecture. In a few places, we found gifts given to the Queen by foreign diplomats including a carved jade polar bear and Inuit tribesman from Canada. We couldn’t believe how outrageously ornate and expensive everything was. Of course, the State Rooms are meant to impress upon visitors the immense wealth and power of the King or Queen. In one room, the ball room built for Queen Victoria, there were 8 crystal chandeliers 11ft tall and 4ft wide, each weighing half a ton! We were dumped out of the tour into the Royal Gardens. Unfortunately we were only able to skirt the perimeter on our way out of the palace grounds, but what we could see looked beautiful and tranquil. Oh how nice it must be to be royalty.

After our tour, we headed off to the Churchill War Rooms Museum. It was a bit of a walk, but well worth the pain. The museum is housed below ground where Winston Churchill directed the wartime government during World War II. The quarters were all very cramped in the underground bunker and of course very secret. There was a transcontinental phone line used by Churchill to phone Roosevelt and then Truman during the War. It was housed in a small room, marked as a lavatory in the bunker that was constantly “in use.” Because there were no flushing toilets in the bunker, the staff of the Cabinet believed it to be the only working toilet in the whole place reserved especially for the Prime Minister. The importance of the phone was such that even government officials, working night and day in the bunker, did not know of its existence. The museum was a plethora of detailed information regarding the layout of the bunker, use of each room, and the history of Churchill in a smaller museum dedicated specifically to him. We wandered through each exhibit, ending, of course, in a gift shop. We headed off to find lunch, then find the British Museum.

We bought to-go sandwiches at a small cafe with NO eating space, so we walked over the the nearest train station and found some seats. Ryder checked the proximity of the museum to our location and deemed it walkable. We headed off only to discover half a mile later that we walked to the wrong museum (I can see this happening to a lot of people with a museum name like “The British Museum.” How unspecific can you get??). Bummer. We caught a bus (double decker!!) back the way we came and down a few more streets to the actual museum. Admission was free so we went in and toured the highlights of the museum, namely the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon sculptures, an Easter Island head, and Hokusai’s Great Wave painting. Unfortunately, because of the delicate nature of the painting, the Great Wave was not on display, but we were able to see the other famous works. We headed out to Chipotle for dinner after then on to Westminster Abby.

Westminster Abby was a very interesting place as it has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs. Among these monarchs, we found the graves of other prominent people of history including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Rudyard Kipling, and Charles Darwin. It was pretty spectacular to stand at the monuments of these legends and of course I tried to remember what happened in the Da Vinci Code regarding Sir Isaac Newtons tomb. We finished the tour at the Coronation Chair, commissioned by King Edward I to enclose the famous Stone of Scone (Stone of Destiny), which he brought from Scotland to the Abbey in 1296. The Stone of Scone was used in Scotland as the seat for Scottish Kings at their coronations. The symbolism is just too much. Apparently the stone was allowed to be sent back to Scotland in 1996, but will be brought back to London for the next coronation.

After our walk through Westminster Abby we headed home and are now more than ready for a good nights sleep!! Tomorrow its off to Stone Henge!

Hi everybody, let’s recap the last couple of days… On Sunday, the 12th, Keith and a friend took us on an 18 mile bike ride along the coast to Reculver for some breakfast and to see the Reculver Towers. After our sore butts recovered a little we drove to Herne Bay to see Hollie, Keith’s niece, sing a few songs in her band the Interseptors. They put on a great show! Then we headed home to BBQ with Jill & Keith’s neighbors, who were lovely, and watched the Olympic closing ceremony.

On Monday, the 13th, Keith dropped us off at the train station and we rode into London. We met up with our Airbnb host and then holed up in our room to plan what we wanted to do in London and where we could stay in York and Edinburgh. Once we got most of that figured out we ventured around our place to find some grub. Most of the restaurants we saw were closed but we ended up finding a place called Small and Beautiful. My burger tasted fine but Amanda’s risotto tasted a little like dirt 🙁 We finished that night with some Game of Thrones episodes and hit the sack.

Today, the 14th, has been a long day. Our pedometer recorded 9.53 miles of walking today! I wish it could keep track of the time spent standing though. Then you could really get a sense of how many calories we burned today.

Our first tourist attraction was the Tower of London. A collection of 2o towers in two rings of concentric defensive walls and a partially filled in 160 foot wide moat that protects the Crown Jewels, and previously protected kings, queens, prisoners, and more. We did the hour-long Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeater) guided tour and definitely enjoyed it. To be a Yeoman Warder, you have to have served in the military for over 22 years and have a certain list of badges and qualifications. We stood at the spot where Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was executed. Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days’ Queen”, was also beheaded there.

We also learned about the tower’s ravens. There used to be a problem where there were too many ravens in the tower and they interfered with astronomy work. A legend stated that if all the ravens leave the tower, the tower will fall. Clearly, all ravens could not be removed but something needed to be done. Charles II compromised and decided the ravens would be protected by a newly appointed Ravenmaster, but that there would only be six ravens at the tower. From then on, only six ravens are kept in the tower with clipped wings. WWII bombings brought the live raven count from 6 down to 4 so two replacement and two reserve ravens were added.

After browsing around the tower some more, and doing a tour around the tower walls, we unexpectedly found a Guinness World Record poster in the White Tower (the main tower in the center of the fortress). The record was of the tallest suit of armor for a man. The suit measured 6 feet 8 inches tall. Imagine being on the battlefield and having a giant in a shiny suit of armor swinging a sword or mace at your face. No thanks.

Stepping out of the Tower of London you can’t help but see the Tower Bridge and that’s where we decided to go next. Before we went up top, we waited for the bridge to be raised for a boat to come through. We watched a few funky videos on the design and building of the bridge and were able to see the Thames from up high. There was an engine room tour at the end and that was pretty interesting. The massive steam engines aren’t used anymore as the bridge was converted electricity.

Dinner was next. We stopped at The Pommelers Rest and had some tasty food there. Our intention after dinner was to visit the British Museum but we had mixed up the opening and closing times and found that it was closed. Oopsies. I really wanted to make sure we saw Big Ben so I convinced Amanda to walk the 2.5 miles over to Westminster. Well, it would have been only 2.5 miles if we hadn’t gone across the London and Millenium Bridges. Once we realized what Big Ben was attached to Amanda wasn’t too happy that I made her walk almost 3 miles to see something that we had planned on seeing the next day. Tomorrow we’ll be visiting Westminster Abbey later on in the day which is very close to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Well today is the end of our second full day in Margate, England! I have to say, the last three days have been splendid! We’ve been staying with some absolutely wonderful friends of my aunt and uncles who live in Margate, Jill and Keith. Yesterday, we spent the morning visiting some of Keith’s lovely family and seeing the English Channel, while Jill did the makeup for a bride in the next town over. After Jill was finished, we met up and headed off to Canterbury.

We found Canterbury to be quite a lovely old English town. We drove in and parked next to a section of the old wall that had surrounded the original town. It was built by the Romans and kept in repair for hundreds of years, protecting the people from invaders. They had a nice plaque of information that we could read because (thank god) it was in English!! Then we meandered off through the small cobblestone streets to Canterbury Cathedral. This old Cathedral was built in the Gothic style by the Normans over an old Roman style church which can still be seen in the crypt. The best known event in the Cathedral’s history was the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170. Canterbury, always on the medieval pilgrim route to Rome, became an end in itself, as thousands came to worship at Becket’s tomb, especially after his canonization in 1173. We toured the cathedral and visited the place where Thomas Becket was murdered, marked by a crack in the marble where it is said one of the knights swords was wielded against the unarmed man with enough force to hit the marble and crack it. Unfortunately, the actual grave of Thomas Becket was destroyed by King Henry the VIII, though the spot is now marked with a constantly burning candle.

After our tour, we walked down the beautiful creek that runs through the town and took some great photos. Then we headed back into town for a wonderful Italian meal at a restaurant called Ask. We drove back into Margate after and spent the evening watching some Olympics and the movie Blind Date.

Today, Jill and Keith took us into Dover where we toured Dover Castle, the Keys to England. The castle was quite beautiful situated on a bluff over looking the harbor and the white cliffs of Dover. We went through a really fascinating tour of the secret tunnels under the castle that were used during World War II to evacuate the British and French troops trapped on the shore in Dunkirk, surrounded by the Nazis. This event occurred in 1940 when Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay, with no technology and pitiful resources, masterminded the rescue of 338,000 troops from his Naval HQ in the tunnels below the castle. Operation Dynamo, as it was called, could not have been so successful without the personal boats and water craft manned by civilians from Britain, used at their own peril, to help rescue the stranded troops. The tour used original news-reels and recordings, testimonies from veterans and dramatic effects, creating one of the best tours I’ve seen in a long time. We walked through the interior of the castle next, decked out as it would have appeared during the reign of King Henry the II or Medieval era. It was very exciting to be inside my first castle and the views from the roof were quite lovely.

After Dover Castle, we headed down a ways to see the white cliffs. Ryder and I took a hike down to get a good look at them, taking some great photos with Keith’s new DSLR Canon camera he let us borrow. Poor Jill had hurt her foot and decided to rest it at the cafe by the cliffs with Keith while Ryder and I went exploring. After, we visited Jill’s son who owns a large farm about 15 min outside of Margate. They breed miniature donkeys for show on the farm and we got to visit with a few of them. The donkeys were very friendly and really rather cute in my opinion 🙂

We met with Jill’s son at a real English pub, had some beer and cider and then headed back to Margate where we enjoyed a real English dinner of fish and chips. It was very tasty. Poor Ryder went to bed early with a nasty headache. I stayed up and skyped with family, watched men’s diving, and am about ready for bed! Night all!!

Our very friendly hostel night manager in Barcelona, Fran, had told us to do the Paris Catacombs tour (among many other great recommendations). One quick Google Images search later and I was sold. Bones after bones after bones after bones PLUS it was underground. I seem to love anything underground. It was a ‘must visit’ type of thing for me. We started off the morning of the 8th with our daily vanilla macaroon ritual at a bakery down just down the street from our AirBnb rental and then some cappuccinos at a café nearby. There was room to sit outside and we thought it’d be a nice place to sit and journal for a bit, but as we quickly realized, outside seating attracts the smokers. Not surprisingly, smoking in Europe is much more common than in the US and in California in particular and there’s nothing quite like a deep breath full of unwanted cigarette smoke while you’re trying to enjoy a cappuccino. We downed our drinks, went inside to pay, and took the metro to the Catacombs.

As we stepped out of the metro, the line to get into the catacombs didn’t look very long. What we didn’t see was that the line wrapped around the corner of the street and then some. An all too common sight in Paris around this time of the year. Compared to the Louvre or Versailles lines, the length of the Catacombs line seemed like it would be a piece of cake to wait through. There’s a 200 person limit on the catacombs though so the line moved slow. We got in line at about 11:45 am. At half past noon, another English speaker was walking around telling anyone that would listen that we probably wouldn’t get in based on our position in the line. The day before he had stood in line at about the same spot for 3 1/2 hours before getting in and the kicker was that they stop letting people in at 4:00 pm each day. We contemplated heading straight to the Louvre and forgetting about the Catacombs or staying and possibly wasting our time if we weren’t to get in. We decided to push our luck and stay. We met a lovely family from Canada who, just the day before, joined the line too late and were cut off from entering. The line moved quickly for a little while and then it slowed down for quite some time. I went searching for some water and lunch to consume while we waited in line, and ended up finding baguette sandwiches with a bonus of another vanilla macaroon 🙂

We ended up making the cut and were let in at 3:30 or 3:45 pm. We descended 130 steps and walked about 1.5 km before we saw our first bone pile. It was quite amazing to see as many bones as we did, in such huge quantities and in such a short period of time. Starting at the end of the 18th century, 6 million Parisians were buried there, but they weren’t buried as you would normally think a person would be buried. They separated the bones and placed them together according to the type of bone. Most of the bones we saw were large ones, from the legs I believe, and skulls. It was very creepy to see thousands of skulls in half an hour.

We left in a somber mood and trekked to the Louvre to run through a highlight tour with an audio-guide . The Canadian family was leaving the next day so they let us have their Museum Passes which let us skip the lines again, and also let us not have to use the tickets we bought. Amanda told me we’d have to make a trip back to use the tickets as we have two years to use them and I suggested we learn French before so that we can read the placards instead of trying to guess at the meaning.

We took the metro to the Louvre and ate a dinner that was much more expensive than we’d been used to paying (since it was *in* the Louvre). We walked right in with the Museum Pass, and picked up an audio-guide. The audio-guide highlight tour led us through the same area we had checked out two days earlier but this time we were understanding what we were looking at and the significance of it. The tour lead us through the the room that the Salon was held in which we had walked through before but didn’t realized what it was. Amanda was ecstatic to find this out. We’ve now opted to get audio-guides where ever possible as we learn so much more than just walking through and reading signs which may or may not have English translations.

We continued on to learn more things about different painting and statues and then headed home for the night. I was limping and in major pain at this point. I think I messed up my foot somehow while walking on the cobblestone in Versailles and then made it worse with all of walking in the Catacombs and the Louvre. I limped home and Amanda got me all set up with an icepack and some Aleeve (thank you Tawny for making us take the Aleeve) and a bottle of wine. Just kidding, I don’t mix pain killers and alcohol 🙂 I stayed off of it for the rest of the night and woke up feeling great.

The next day, our train to London was scheduled to leave at 9:13am and we needed to checkin at least 30 minutes early as the Eurostar trains require. What I had failed to recognize when calculating how much time we’d need to get to Paris Gare du Nord was that the metro line we needed to use was under construction and we would have to take a bus between two stations. That threw off our timing and we got to the checkin area about 10-15 minutes too late for the 30 minute minimum checkin. We were still there before the train had left, but they wouldn’t let us checkin. I was angry at the thought of possibly wasting $220 in non-refundable non-exchangeable tickets. For some strange stroke of luck, they let us get on the totally uncrowded next train that was leaving an hour later. We killed some time in the lounge reading and boarded the train at 9:53am.

I’m not quite sure how fast the high speed trains go in Europe but what I do know is that it’s a little scary when you pass a train going the other direction in less than a second. It’s almost easier to hear when you pass a train rather than watching it. We arrived in London and took the Tube to the Victoria station and  waited for our next train. Keith picked us up in Margate a couple hours later took us on a quick tour through Margate on the way to their home. It was a little bit nice to be in an area where all the signs are in English and everyone speaks English. I know Amanda is really enjoying the lack of a language barrier.

So we didn’t write a post for yesterday, I’ll do a quick re-cap. Yesterday we planned a lazy day of wandering the Place de Concorde, where the Luxor Obelisk stands, and the Tuileries Garden between the Place de Concorde and the Louvre.

After some time at the Tuileries we ended up at the Louvre to take some photos of the outside – we planned and still plan to visit Wednesday. Two French ladies came up to me as we were taking photos and asked me if I wanted to see the Louvre. I hesitantly said yes and one of the gals handed me two tickets to the Louvre! I said, “Really? How much?” and she said “Free” and walked away. Wow, so we got a free pass into the Louvre.

We wandered the Egyptian section for about an hour then headed off to see the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Mona Lisa! Both were absolutely breathtaking to behold in person!!! Unfortunately we were only able to get within 5 feet of the Mona Lisa – stupid security tape. I was hoping to drool over it… We were able to see some other Leonardo Da Vinci pieces up close. I spent some time analyzing the brush strokes, poor Ryder.

After the Louvre we headed out to a cafe for coffee and a pastry each. Apparently we were in the ritzy part of Paris and this wasthe ONE time we didn’t ask for the price (ok seriously, two cappuccinos and two eclairs anywhere else would total 10 euros MAX). We seriously enjoyed the treats, then got the bill… $42.00 total!! We were FLOORED. New rule, ALWAYS ask to see a menue or for the price.

Ok, back to the present…

We had a late start this morning because we watched Blade Runner way too late last night and boy did we pay for it! After breakfast we hiked up to the metro stop and caught the train to another stop where we transferred to another train straight for the Palace of Versailles. We bought tickets for Versailles yesterday at a FNAC store (France version of Best Buy) and bought our train tickets on the way home last night so we were all set to go (I know, I know, planning ahead… you didn’t think we had it in us!). We arrived at Versailles at around noon.

First impression of Versailles, WAY too many people!! Just walking down the road from the station to the gates of the palace was a nightmare. Remember what I said about paying for it… well the plan was to arrive before it opened today and we really should have stuck to the plan! The line just to enter the Palace snaked all the way around the entrance courtyard and took us two hours to get through (worse than Disneyland, no awesome ride at the end). That and the wait for me (Amanda, the girl) to use the bathroom, forget it! Two stalls and a spot in line 15 deep. Let’s just say that I made it a point to get in line whenever I saw a bathroom, because odds were I would have to go by the time I got through the line!!

Ok, ok, second impression of Versailles, opulent and gorgeous!! Everywhere we looked outside was huge windows, gold filigree, intricate statutes, and obvious wealth. Everywhere we looked inside was masterpiece paintings, gold filigree, four different kinds of marble, crystal, did I mention gold filigree? It was quite a site to behold! I spent most of the time walking through the gigantic rooms imagining myself in a ball gown, huge white wig, and dainty healed shoes. Ryder and I were both stuck dumb by the sheer opulence of the place and the grandeur of the French royalty during that time period. No wonder the 99% revolted … 😉 We did the audio tour of the palace which took about 2 hours squeezing around people to take a look, then we headed out to the gardens.

The gardens of Versailles are breathtaking!! It’s hard to imagine seeing something like that out your bedroom window everyday. We walked 4 miles around the gardens, looking at fountains, sculptures, lots of hedges in geometric shapes, and avoiding the masses. It was fascinating to view the landscape architecture prominent in this period. We enjoyed a nutella and banana crêpe each while strolling around. We finished our tour of the gardens at Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon where the poor thing could escape from the rough responsibilities of court life, puah!

This chàteau for the Queen was “smaller” than Versailles but still just as opulent. We breezed through the rooms then decided it was time to head back to our flat. By this time it was 6:30pm and we were both starved. Walking back to the station, we stopped to do some shopping and Ryder found a McDonalds. We decided out of perverse curiosity to try McNasty in France thinking maybe it will be better? Well, it was an interesting experience that neither of us will repeat again. Ryder ordered a Royal burger with cheese, turned out to be literally a bun, meat, and cheese. I ordered, what I thought was, a chicken salad. Turned out to be nuggets of breaded and fried cheese instead of breaded and fried chicken. All in all, we give the fries a pass. The train ride home went smooth and we got back just in time to catch the Olympic semi-finals for the men’s 800m. Ryder’s track teammate from Cabrillo High School, Duane Soloman, is representing the USA in this race along with another teammate Nick Symmonds… Spoiler Alert… They both qualify for the final race! Don’t forget to watch and support team USA!!!