Yesterday was our third (and last) British Studies field trip, this time to London. The four coaches taking our college to London were supposed to depart at 8 a.m. Two of them did. One waited a while before leaving. While we were left waiting for an hour before the last bus (which had broken down on the way here) got to Harlaxton to pick us up. It turned out to be a double-decker bus, at which point I pulled out more motion sickness medicine to take and offer my friends. We weren't able to sit in the bottom, so we got as close to the front as we could at the top, which made it a lot better! It actually wasn't too bad on the almost 3 hour drive down there.
Our bus (as well as one other) went to St. Paul's Cathedral for the first half of the field trip. I shot off the bus with about half of the other people and went to find a toilet, but it took so long that by the time I got back up there and was about to go looking for Taylor, who was leading my group around, Bujak stopped me and told me to go with that group down there! So I went around the cathedral with Welsh's group instead. St. Paul's is the first truly Anglican cathedral built in England (because all the others were originally Catholic from before the Reformation). It was built after the Great Fire in London in 1666 destroyed the original St. Paul's by Christopher Wren. We started out in the crypt, which had lots of memorials to different people, including Montgomery, Slim, and Wren. The two main tombs down there are Arthur, Duke of Wellington's (he was the one who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo) and Horatio Nelson (who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar). They are both massive! Wellington's actually had to be lowered through the ceiling in order to be installed. Interesting story about Nelson's: it was originally made for Cardinal Wolsey, but when he fell from grace and King Henry VIII confiscated all of his property and Wolsey died on the way to prison, he wasn't buried in it. Instead it went into storage until they decided that Nelson would be buried in it. The matching candelabras are upstairs on either side of the high alter. The cathedral itself is gorgeous! The Victorians added beautiful mosaics on the ceiling (they were in Wren's original design, but the London Elders or whatever wouldn't let him put them in). And you can see the entire way up the dome, which is really cool. In the cathedral, there are more memorials to a lot of people, including big ones to Wellington and Nelson. There is also a memorial to the fire brigade that was in charge of putting out the fires that were started by the German's incendiary bombs during the Blitz in WWII. They are responsible for helping St. Paul's escape nearly unscathed, and St. Paul's became an emblem of hope for the people since the Germans couldn't seem to destroy it (even when they do hit it [a bomb fell on the high alter, but it didn't explode, making the impact decidedly less] ). Behind the high alter, at the back of the cathedral, is a big memorial to the American soldiers that served in the Second World War, from the British People. It's a really nice memorial and has a book with all the American soldiers who died in Europe, and, significantly, those who died on the crossing to go fight due to German U-boats. Also important, this memorial was built entirely from donations from the British People, not the Government, so it really is a sincere thank-you for all they did. At the end of the tour, we had the opportunity to go up into the dome, which I took full advantage of. The first stop is the Whispering Gallery, which looks down into the cathedral, and is really cool to see everything from that view. The next stop is outside, which offers some great views of London (even when rainy). I got an awesome picture of the Millennium Bridge from here (yes, the one from the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). Apparently there was a third stop, but I couldn't find the stairs, someone told me about it on the bus on the way home. After making it back down all those spiral stairs, and with legs shaking, I met up with Kathryn, Annie Rose, Jon, and Matt and off we went into the rain to try to find the nearest underground station.
The five of us had decided that, instead of going to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery, our time would better be spent by going to the Churchill War Rooms (yes, I started this because I didn't get to go to them last weekend =) ). And the War Rooms were awesome! Everything was set up (largely behind glass) as it would have been when Churchill was fighting WWII out of it. There were even creepy mannequins that we half expected to start moving in many of the rooms. They had some awesome original papers hanging up and maps with all these pins in them showing where everyone was. It was really cool to see. I could totally see Scrimegour having rooms like these to fight the war against the Death Eaters and Voldy (you know, if he hadn't tragically died before an underground government military movement could be launched). I took a ton of pictures in there. I wish I could've spent a bit more time in the war rooms, and we somehow managed to skip the little museum that was in there as well. But it was still fun and interesting!
After that, we were all hungry, so we set off in search as a McDonald's (don't judge, we were really hungry and craving fries!). We ended up walking nearly to Trafalgar Square before we found one, but it was so good and we were so happy that it was totally worth walking by a protest for Libya for it! After that, Annie Rose was still hungry (because she can't eat meat on Fridays, it being Lent and all) so we stopped at a little convenience store so she could get a sandwich. While she's getting a sandwich, the rest of us find the Krispy Kreme's in there and each get one! I got a Kookie and Kreme one (chocolate doughnut with white icing and cookie crumbs on top) which was absolutely amazing and I'm pretty sure we don't have it at home! We were all in heaven they were so good!
Since we were already there, we walked across the street to Trafalgar Square and took some pictures and looked around. Kathryn had us all make a wish and throw a penny into the fountain. Then Annie Rose decided to try out her waterproof digital camera in the fountain. It worked! That was really cool. In the square, they have an awesome countdown to the 2012 Olympic and Paraolympic Games. They also have a really random massive ship in a bottle, which is actually really cool. After spending some time here, we had to head back to St. Paul's so that Kathryn could meet up with Jessica, since they're staying the night in London. Once we got there, I met up with Hope and we went to Pizza Express for dinner. We split a really good garlic bread and cheese pizza. Then we got back on the bus and talked until it was time for the bus to leave at 7 and take us back to the manor. On the way back, the coach driver took us by the Olympic Village, which looks like it's going to be so cool! I want to make it back here so badly for that!
Next week I have a long weekend in Paris, so be looking out for that! I can't believe that there's only 4 or 5 weeks of the semester left!
No comments:
Post a Comment