A Busy Week

A bunch of activities.

I am done with my second week here and I am really drained, but in a good way.  We did so much this week.  I got lots checked off my London to do list, and by seeing Stonehenge I got a big one checked off of the "things to see before you die" list.  In total, through the school and on my own this week I have seen: Stonehenge, the Tower of London, the Roman Baths, the Royal Cresent, seen a play at Shakespears Globe, and taken a tour Buckingham palace.  I am still amazed by how much everything costs though.  It is a good thing that most of these trips were financed through the program.  Stonehenge was nice, if a little underwhelming.  It was a huge deal in my mind but it took about a 1/2 hour to walk around and then there was nothing else to do.  It is pretty sad that they have built a major highway around it and kind of spoiled the mystery of the place.  The city of Bath was really impressive though.  Our group had to battle the rain for a couple of hours but luckily the Roman Bath Museum  let us in early.  It was quite a place. The mixture of Victorian architecture and roman ruins was unlike anthing I had seen before.  It was mind blowing to know that I was walking on the sam stones that had been walked on by actual Romans 2000+ years ago.  The audio tour included commentary from Bill Bryson, my favorite Anglophile and travel author, so that was a personal highlight for me.  After we emerged from the museum the weather had cleared.  I had a chance to check out the inside of Bath Abbey.  I love "suggested" admission fees.  As a poor student it lets me in free with minimal guilt.  I am not a religious person at all, and it is very ironic the number of churches that I have stood in awe of on this trip.  The abbey was huge and breathtaking, even if I don't agree with the reason it was built I can at least admire the results.  We then took a walk around the town and learned some of the history.  We got to see the royal cresent, which was the one place I did not want to leave without a picture of.  After picking up some postcards and buying some olives in chili sauce from a street vendor, it was back on the bus for the 3 1/2 hour ride home.  I am still waiting to fall into a patter here.  This week was so cool but very hectic.  I am glad that this program takes so many outings.  I have enjoyed them all.  Even though I am by no means a theatre buff, I really enjoyed Titus Andronicus at the globe.  I guess what they say is true, travelling really does change you.