the last days in Scotland: Glasgow and Edinburgh

After Joe left last Thursday, I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep and editing photos from all my travels.  I also spent some time with my flatmates, since all of us were finally back in Glasgow at the same time.

On Tuesday, I went with Jacquie and Andrea to Edinburgh.  Edinburgh is quite the lovely city!  We began our visit by wandering down to the cafe where J. K. Rowling wrote parts of the first two Harry Potter books:  The Elephant House!

Exciting!  And their cappuccinos weren't bad either.  No wonder J. K. Rowling frequented the place.

After lunch, we wandered down the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.  It looked nice, but castles with car parks in front of them disappoint me.  It takes away from the castle-ness of the castle.

After taking in the outside of the castle, we wandered back down the Royal Mile and found the Edinburgh Writer's Museum.  One thing I really love about Scotland's museums is that they tend to be free.  It's wonderful.

The Writer's Museum is housed in a really cool old mansion from 1622.  It featured permanent exhibitions on Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, as well as a temporary exhibition on philosopher David Hume.

The exhibitions were quite lovely!  Visiting Writer's Museums always makes me want to buy a ton of books and spend all my time reading.

After the Writer's Museum, we wandered down the Royal Mile and past the Scottish Parliament.  It is in the strangest building, where Old Town meets New Town.

It looked, as Andrea said, more like a modern art building than a government building.  Strange indeed.

Anyway, we decided to climb one of the hills near Holyrood Park--part of the Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat.

We didn't really follow the regular path up the hill.  Instead we followed what was probably water's path down the hill.  It was quite the fun adventure though!  I felt kind of like I was part of The Lord of the Rings--on an adventure to destroy the ring!

We had quite a fun time on top the hill, enjoying the lovely views of Edinburgh, the sea, and other hills.

As the afternoon came to a close, we made our way back through Edinburgh along the Royal Mile.  Edinburgh really is a wonderfully lovely city.  I think if I were to move to Scotland, I could see myself living in Edinburgh more-so than Glasgow.  It's just more of a literary city.

As my final days in Glasgow passed by, I spent most of my time with my flatmates and packing for my trip home.  On Friday, my last day in Glasgow, I went for a final Glasgow walk along the River Clyde to the armadillo shaped building--the Scottish Conference Center.  My flatmates and I also had a final flatmate dinner and pub night.

I leave early on June 4 (Glasgow time) and return to Fosston late on June 4.  I will miss Glasgow and my new friends quite a lot.  It's been quite an adventure this semester.  Study abroad has been an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Scotland: Glasgow, Inverness and Stirling

Glasgow
May 19

On Thursday, Joe and I flew from London back to Glasgow.  Since I needed to do laundry, grocery shop and study for my exam the next day, we kept to the flat for the night.

May 20

After my morning exam, we did some Glasgow sightseeing.  We walked from my flat in the city centre to Glasgow Green, a park by the River Clyde, and visited the People's Palace and Winter Gardens.

Glasgow Green was beautiful and so was the exterior of the People's Palace.  In front of the palace, there was a Victoria Fountain that reminded me a lot of the Victoria Fountain in front of Buckingham Palace.  Clearly, Victoria loved to have fountains made in her honor.

However, the inside of the People's Palace was disappointing.  There was an interesting section on tenement housing in Glasgow, but overall the museum felt like it was really random and targeted towards children.  The Winter Gardens were also strange.  Somehow palm trees in a Glasgow Winter Garden make sense?

On our way through Glasgow Green to the subway, the clockwork orange, we spent some time along the River Clyde.  Strangely, it is a much cleaner river than the Thames.

We took the clockwork orange to the Kelvingrove Museum.  Along the way, I finally got my reading A Clockwork Orange on the clockwork orange picture.

We went through the Kelvingrove Museum, which is really massive, pretty quickly.  Some of the exhibits, like the one of armor and weaponry, are really cool, while the rooms filled with painting after painting really lose my interest.

After we finished at the Kelvingrove and walked through the West End, we took the clockwork orange back to the city centre.  We went to the Lighthouse and up the spiral staircase to get the near 360 degree views of Glasgow.

After the Lighthouse, we spent some time in George Square.  I did not realize until then that the super tall statue in the center of the square is not of George, as I had assumed, but Sir Walter Scott.  Why exactly it is called George Square, I do not know.

On the way back to my flat, we stopped at Tinderbox for some of the best coffee in Glasgow.  We had dinner in my flat and then went out to a few Scottish pubs--The Scotia, The Piper and The Ark.

May 21

It turned out to be quite a rainy day on Saturday.  Since we knew it was going to be rainier as the day went on, we decided to get the interviews for Joe's Joe Goes... pieces before doing any sightseeing stuff.  We spent most of the morning and half the afternoon on Buchanan and Sauchiehall Streets.

We took a break to get lunch at the Willow Tea Rooms, which I had been meaning to go to for months.  The tea was delicious!  We had Scottish Breakfast Blend.  And, Joe got to try haggis.

After we finished filming, we went to St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art, my favorite museum in Glasgow.  From there, we went to the nearby Glasgow Cathedral, another favorite Glasgow spot of mine.

Inverness

We went back to my flat for dinner and to pack up to take the evening train to Inverness.  When we arrived at 11:30 p.m., to my surprise, my flatmate Andrea was staying in the same hostel as us!  Crazy!

May 22


Our day started pretty early and with some disappointment.  It turns out the bus service is infrequent between Inverness and Loch Ness on Sundays.  The information lady said that the bus schedule we found that did list bus services started "tomorrow."  Lame.

So, we were forced to take a Jacobite tour of Loch Ness, which included the bus to/from the loch, a 30 minute boat tour of the loch, and two hours at Urquhart Castle.  And, we ended up on the same tour as Andrea.

Loch Ness is huge!  As a result of its size, I think, it is really wavy.  We sat up on deck for a while, but it got a little too rainy and cold to stay up there for long, so we spent most of the boat tour looking through the windows below deck.

My favorite part was probably the castle.  It was pretty much ruins, with a few rooms and a tour still intact.  The setting is probably my favorite setting of all Scottish Castles--both in the highlands and on a loch.  How much more Scottish can it get?

The interior of the castle wasn't quite as awesome as Dirleton Castle because there wasn't as much of it.  But, overall, the castle was pretty awesome.

After the tour was over and we were back in Inverness, we still had three hours until our train left for Glasgow.  Joe and I went to a pub for lunch and then walked around Inverness for a while.  We walked along the River Ness and saw Inverness Castle, and then roamed around Inverness for a while.

Glasgow
May 23


Our first stop on Monday was the Necropolis, one of the coolest places in Glasgow.  We walked up the hill and around the various graves of the Necropolis for a while.

Stirling


After the Necropolis, we took a train to Stirling to see Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.  It was a super rainy, windy and overall cold day.

Stirling was a lovely town, though.  We walked to the Old Town district where we found Stirling Castle.  Since we were just in Urquhart Castle the day before, we decided to just walk around the outside and grounds of Stirling Castle.  However, it was hard to find a good view of the castle.

We ended up going on a bit of a hike behind Stirling Castle in a woodsy area.  After following the path for a while, we decided to take it down to a field that doubles as a public footpath to see if the view was better from there.

It was, but the view of the castle was not all that impressive.

We decided that while we were down in the field, we might as well try to find a field of sheep.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any fields like those in Hatton that doubled as footpaths.  By the time we were back to our Stirling Castle path, it was starting to get pretty rainy.

So, we walked to the Wallace Monument.  It was a kind of long walk, and the rain sure didn't help.  When we made it to the Monument, we found out that the viewing platform was closed due to the severe winds.  But, we could still see the other three floors.

We decided to hike rather than take the shuttle to the top of the hill.  It was a bit of a hike, but the trees sheltered us from the rain pretty well.  It was pretty windy when we reached the top of the hill.  There were some pretty awesome views of Stirling from the top of the hill.

The inside of the Wallace Monument was pretty cool.  They had a floor about William Wallace's life, including his sword, a floor about other heroes of Scotland, and a floor about building the Monument.  It was really interesting.

The staircase going up the Monument was another one of those stone spiral staircases.  There were also window slits along the way up, and the wind definitely got worse the further we went up.

When we came down and were about to leave the Monument, the wind had really picked up.  It was nearly blowing me away and was almost pushing Joe a few steps, too.  Since the wind strengthened, we decided to take the shuttle down the hill.

The walk back to the train station was pretty miserable because it was pretty rainy.  When we got to the station, we got on a train to Glasgow pretty quickly.  However, we were only five minutes away from Stirling when a tree fell onto the track, stalling us for an hour, when they told us that they were suspending all train services and taking us back to Stirling.

We ended up getting a refund and waiting for nearly an hour for a very packed bus to Glasgow.

Glasgow

After we finally got back to Glasgow and made dinner, we went to The Ark for what we thought was Joe's last night.

May 24

However, when we woke up the next day, it turns out that the Iceland volcano that erupted over the weekend had an ash cloud hovering over Scotland, cancelling all flights to and from.  After going to O2 where the manager kindly let us use their phone after my O2 cell ran out of minutes, Joe got a place on a new flight on Thursday.

Since Joe now had some more time in Glasgow, we decided to visit Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow. 

Later on in the day, we went to the Barony Bar in the Union, where we hung out for a while.

May 25

Since I had an exam the next day, I spent part of Wednesday studying.

After I finished studying, Joe and I went for a walk around Merchant City/City Centre.  We also visited the Gallery of Modern Art.  Unfortunately, we caught it at a bad time.  Two-thirds of the museum was closed for (un)installment of exhibits.

That night, we went to a pub I hadn't visited before called Blackfriars.

May 26

Joe left in the morning.  I had my exam in the afternoon and spent most of the rest of the day enjoying being done with school work for the semester.

lustrous London

London
Day One (May 17)


After a very early flight from Dublin, we arrived in London before noon.  We checked into our hostel and grabbed much needed coffee from Costa on our way to a whirlwind walking by many of London's sights.

We first headed along the River Thames towards the Millennium Bridge.  Near the bridge, we viewed St. Paul's Cathedral and Shakespeare's Globe.  Since Joe and I had both been before, we didn't really go in anywhere.  It was just nice to be walking in lovely London once again.

After the Globe, we continued our walk towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  From here, we took the Tube up to King's Cross station so that Joe could see Platform 9 3/4.

We headed to the Charles Dickens Museum after King's Cross, because Joe hadn't been yet.  Unfortunately, it was closed for the week for refurbishment.  Lame.  Since our plans were no more, we decided to go to Hyde Park to see Speakers' Corner instead.

Near the corner, we found the most ridiculous statue ever.  It looked like gummy bears and was labeled as "Jelly Baby Family."  Ridiculous.

We walked around Hyde Park a bit, but found Speakers' Corner to be not exactly booming.  Probably because it was late afternoon on a Tuesday.  

After Hyde Park, we took the Tube to Chelsea, the neighborhood of London where Joe studied abroad when he was in college.  It was a pretty wealthy neighborhood.  We headed back to the hostel after we had our fill of walking around.

Day Two (May 18)

We began our second day in London by going to Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.  Pictures of aforementioned landmark works much better on a cloudy day than on a sunny day, like the one the last time I was in London.

We headed across the Thames and went by Westminster Abbey.  The line was much shorter than it was the week after the Royal Wedding.  It may also have been because it was while most tourists were at the changing of the guard.

Buckingham Palace was our next stop.  We happened to catch the beginning of the crowd-herding for the changing of the guard while we were there.  

We took the Tube to Soho after Buckingham Palace.  Soho is essentially the theatre district of London.  I don't think I have seen that many theatres in one place...ever.  Soho was interesting, but not quite so good for Joe Goes... interviews.  I did, however, find a pub called The Round Table!

Instead, we ended up going to Covent Garden, a shopping district filled with street performers.  We got all of the interviews that Joe wanted pretty quickly.

On the way back to our hostel area, part of the Tube was down, so it was kind of annoying.  After we got back to the hostel, we headed to the Westminster area again to go to a few pubs.

delightful Dublin

Dublin
Day One (May 14)


We arrived in Dublin in the late afternoon.  After checking into our hostel, we walked around the Temple Bar area for a while.  Somehow, we ended up getting dinner in an American-themed restaurant:  Thunder Road.  The Irish pubs were all pretty busy since it was Saturday night

After dinner, we went to a few pubs, including the famous Temple Bar.  Though it was Saturday night, we were pretty tired from our flight/travel, so we headed back to the hostel pretty early.

Day Two (May 15)


We spent a very Irish morning for our first day of sightseeing in Dublin.  Our first destination was the Guinness Storehouse.  On a cloudy Sunday in May, the Storehouse is far less busy than on March 18, the day after St. Patrick's.  There wasn't even a line!

The self-guided tour was exactly as I remembered it from March.  We went through the various stages and got our samples of Guinness Draught, like I did before.  However, Ashley, Anna and I must have skipped a few floors when we were here, because Joe and I also went through the advertising section.  Apparently, nothing says Guinness like a toucan.

At the pour your own pint section, the lady was much more helpful than the guys at the little stand was in March.  We enjoyed our free pints and made a quick stop at the Galaxy Bar for the 360 degree views of Dublin.

Our next stop was the Jameson Distillery.  The tour here was guided.  The distillery in Dublin is no longer in use, so it was set up to look like it would have when it was in use.  One of my favorite parts of the Jameson tour was how they did samples.  Unlike the Famous Grouse/Glenturret Distillery, the samples here were genuine drinks rather than plastic shot cups.  You also were given the option of straight whiskey or whiskey with mixer.

We headed to Temple Bar area after the distillery, where we grabbed a quick lunch before we began filming for Joe's Joe Goes... piece.  It turned out to be more difficult here than in Amsterdam to get interviews.  It also began raining, so we only got half of the filming done.

That night, we went to a few pubs in the Temple Bar area again.  In one, we met some Englishmen on a stag night (bachelor's party) who recognized Joe from Beauty and the Geek six years ago.  Crazy!

Day Three (May 16)


Our last day in Dublin began with finishing sightseeing, the first stop being Christchurch Cathedral.  We decided not to go inside, but walked around the exterior of the cathedral.

Instead, when we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, we went inside.  We also spent some time in St. Patrick's Green--the park behind the cathedral.

After we went to the cathedral, we attempted to go to Dublin Castle.  However, it appeared to be closed off and there were a number of policemen around.  It turns out that it was closed off because the Queen (of the UK) was going to be arriving in Dublin the next day.

As we discovered throughout the day, it's a pretty controversial issue in Dublin, since a monarch hasn't visited since before Elizabeth was alive.

Since Dublin Castle wasn't open, we decided to walk around by Trinity College--which turned out to be a better area to interview people for Joe Goes... 

After we finished filming, we decided to head to the Writer's Museum.  However, as we headed up O'Connell Street, we were stopped by police who questioned us and searched our bags.  Security for the Queen's visit was quite the big deal.  But, they let us through and we made it to the museum.

For dinner, we went to the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head, est. 1198.  We went to Temple Bar area after dinner for a final pint before turning in.

Amsterdam

After only a day back in Glasgow, I returned to London (Stansted), where I met Joe and we stayed the night before catching a flight to Amsterdam.


Amsterdam
Day One (May 12)


After a very early but short flight and much longer bus ride, Joe and I arrived in Amsterdam.  We dropped our stuff off at our hostel in the museum district and went to grab lunch at a pub in the Leidesplein area.

We attempted to find St. Nikolaas Boat Tours, which were supposedly free, but it was not where it said it would be.  Since it was possible we just got the address wrong, we went back to the hostel in Museumsplein to double-check the address.

This time we marked it on the map.  When we returned to Leidesplein, the boat tour place was not where it said it would be.  We came to the conclusion that it doesn't exist.  Frustrated that we wasted hours trying to find it, we decided to walk back towards Centraal Station and visit the Sexmuseum.

The Sexmuseum was an entertaining little museum.  In addition to paintings, photographs and sculptures, there were the interactive elements of mannequins coming out of the walls.

After we went through the Sexmuseum, we walked around much of Amsterdam's area near Centraal Station. Which was basically a bunch of Coffeeshops, canals and bikes.

We decided to conclude our day of walking around by visiting the Red Light District.

The Red Light District was an interesting place to visit.  We walked along all of the streets and saw the sex shops and infamous girls (or as they should be called 40-year-old women) in the windows.  After walking through the district, we stopped at a few bars.

On the way out of the district, Joe was yelled at by one of the women in the windows for having his video camera with him (and attempting to accidentally get a shot).  Later, Google told us that it could have been worse--one of the pimps could have thrown the camera into the canal.

Day Two (May 13)


We had considered going to the Keukenhof flower garden an hour or two out of Amsterdam on our second day, but were advised by the tourism centre that it was not good at this point in the year.  Instead, we went to Bloemenmarket (flower market) on our way to the Anne Frank House.

There was a long line at the Anne Frank house, so we decided not to go inside.  Instead, we ventured to the Pancake Bakery, a traditional Dutch pancake restaurant.  Dutch pancakes are odd.  Pancakes are treated like a pizza or tortilla and filled with cheeses, veggies, and meat.  It tasted fine, but a little unusual.

After pancakes, we returned to the Centraal Station area where we walked around for a bit before heading to the Dam area, where Joe did his interviews for his Joe Goes... piece.

The Dam area was filled with a number of street performers.  After we finished shooting Joe's stuff, we decided to walk around the Red Light District again, without any incidents of the night before since we dropped off Joe's camera.  We had a few beers before going back to the hostel.

The next day, we just got coffee before catching the bus to the airport for our flight to Dublin.

scenic Stratford-upon-Avon and old Oxford

Stratford-upon-Avon


The day after I left London, I took a day trip from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare.  Part of the rail service happened to be down that morning, so I had to take a bus to Leamington Spa where I was supposed to transfer to a train to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Well, the signs said Platform 4.  Platform 4 said the Stratford-upon-Avon train was there.  I got on the train...and waited a half hour.  Around this point, I made friends with three Canadians--Kate, Rob, and Stuart--who were also trying to get to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Turns out, the Stratford-upon-Avon train mysteriously disappeared and we were on a train headed to Birmingham.  we got off at Hatton, where it looked on the route map like we could get a connection to Stratford-upon-Avon.  And, we could.  In an hour and a half.

My new friends and I set off to see what Hatton had to offer.  Hatton pretty much only had fields of sheep that were labelled as public footpaths.  So, we spent our waiting time wandering through the fields of sheep.

After our time with sheep, we did end up on the correct train and arrived at Stratford-upon-Avon.  I ended up spending the day with the Canadians seeing the various Shakespeare houses.

Our first stop was Shakespeare's Birthplace, self-explanatory.  The interior of the house was restored to what it would have been like when Shakespeare was born/lived there.  One of the workers said that one of the floors is believed to have been put in by Shakespeare's father.

The next stop on our Shakespeare house tour was Nash House/New Place.  This house, well the one that was intact, actually belonged to Shakespeare's neighbor.  Shakespeare's house is currently being excavated.  In fact, there was a dig for Shakespeare ongoing event.  Unfortunately, it was over for the day by the time we arrived.

Our final Shakespeare house was Hall's Croft, the house where Shakespeare's eldest daughter and her husband (the town doctor) lived.  It is also where Shakespeare died.  This house was similarly restored to what it would have been like when Shakespeare was alive.  Like all the Shakespeare houses, it had a beautiful backyard/garden area.

Our last Shakespeare-related stop of the day was to be Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare's grave is.  However, they closed the doors about a minute before we got there, so we didn't get to see it.

Before catching the train back, we decided to walk along the Avon for a while, and ended up taking a chain ferry across.  The Avon River--and Stratford--are really beautiful.

On the way back to Oxford, we were able to take the train the entire way.  And, the trains actually went where they initially said they were going to go.

Once we returned to Oxford, we decided to grab dinner in the pub where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis frequented with The Inklings for years--The Eagle and Child.

They had many Tolkien and Lewis things throughout the pub--photographs, quotes, etc.  My favorite was a The Lord of the Rings quote by Merry and Pippin.

It was an overall fun day with some lovely people from Canada.  And, of course, we got pints.

Oxford


The day after visiting Shakespearean sites, I explored Oxford.  I began my very nerdy day by attempting to walk to J. R. R. Tolkien's grave in Wolvercote Cemetery.  It was a much longer walk than I anticipated.  I ended up getting what turned out to be 3/4 of the way there before getting discouraged and turning back.

Having walked about five or six miles by the time I was back in the Oxford center, I was pretty tired.  My next stop was Christchurch College of Oxford--the setting that not only inspired Harry Potter, but it was filmed partially in Christchurch College.

The biggest Harry Potter connection was the Dining Hall of Christchurch College.  It looked very much like the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

After getting my fill of the Harry Potter-esque scenery, I went to Carfax Tower to get a view of Oxford.

I still had a few hours before my train, so I decided to get on a bus and actually make it to Wolvercote Cemetery to see Tolkien's grave.  It was inscribed 'Luthien' under Edith's name and 'Beren' under J. R. R.'s name.  The Lord of the Rings fans left memorabilia on the grave, included a 'one ring' pin.

After visiting Wolvercote Cemetery, it was time to catch my train to London and flight back to Glasgow.

I spent the next day in Glasgow getting ready to go back to London to meet Joe.

lovely London

Day 1 (May 3)


Ashley, Anna and my trip to London began mid-afternoon with a short flight from Glasgow to Stansted (and then a longer bus ride into London).  By the time we arrived in London, it was more-so evening than day time, so we stuck to the hostel for the night.

Day 2 (May 4)

Our first day really seeing London was a pretty busy day.  After getting an early start, we took the Tube (or Underground) to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.  We arrived pretty early, but by the start of the ceremony, the palace gates were pretty crowded with tourists pushing their way to the front in an attempt to get a good view of the ceremony.

The gates that keep the public away from the palace are set rather far away, so we did not get very close to the guards.

The ceremony was a little long, but entertaining.  The guards marched in and did the strangest little shuffle while they lined up.  I tried to find it on YouTube, but no luck.  There also was a great deal of marching band music throughout the hour-long ceremony.

Once the changing of the guard ended, we spent a little bit of time by the Victoria Fountain in front of the palace before proceeding on to our next destination for the day.

Our next stop was Westminster Abbey, where we got to wait in quite a long line.  Once we got inside the Abbey, the workers were pretty adept at getting tourists to move quickly through each space, especially the small rooms with the graves of Elizabeth I and Mary I.

My favorite part of the Abbey was Poet's Corner, which is the resting spot of literary greats such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Dickens.  It also had memorials to other favorite writers of mine, most particularly William Shakespeare and the Brontes.  Literary happiness, indeed.

After wandering through the remaining halls and gardens of the Abbey, we decided to head across the River Thames to get a shot of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  Unfortunately, the sun conspired against us, and the iconic buildings turned shadow-esque due to the sunlight.  Boo sun!

Alas! 

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament completed our sightseeing for the day. 

Day 3 (May 5)

Our second day of sightseeing in London was spent mostly at the Tower of London.  Tower is a misleading name for what is really the first royal palace established in London, dating back to 1066.  It is huge!  And filled with a multitude of museums of old towers/sections to explore.

We ended up joining a Yeomen (free) tour of the Tower, which took us to key points such as Traitor's Gate and the chapel.  Once the tour concluded, we took in the sites of the Crown Jewels, Beauchamp Tower (where prisoners were kept), Bloody Tower (where the two princes were killed), and Wakefield Tower (where the torture devices were kept).  

By the time we saw all of these parts of the Tower, it was mid-afternoon.  And, by the time we reached Shakespeare's Globe (which we had intended to do), we discovered that tours of the Globe end at 12 noon every day.  

Day 4 (May 6)

This was quite possibly my favorite day in London--because it was almost entirely literary!  It began with quite possibly literature's greatest man, William Shakespeare.  Our day commenced with a tour of Shakespeare's Globe and a look at the Globe's Exhibition.  

The tour was quite good and informative.  It was led by a woman who reminded me of one of my Beloit professors.  One thing that I didn't know about the Globe is that it was a project started by American Sam Wanamaker, whose daughter Zoe Wanamaker played Madam Hooch in Harry Potter.  Double-literary glee!  

I also didn't realize how small the Globe is for holding 900 people sitting and 600 standing.  Crazy!  

The exhibition was also pretty cool.  It included a history of the Globe theater (and it's multiple burning downs) and exhibitions of props and costumes from various performances at the Globe since it opened in 1997.  Lovely.

After finishing up at the Globe, we proceeded over Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.  Millenium Bridge was also a wonderful moment of literariness.  It is the bridge destroyed by the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  

When we arrived at St Paul's Cathedral, we didn't want to pay 13 GBP to go in, especially since we were pretty cathedral-ed out by this point.  Instead, we appreciated the outside and saw most of the inside from the area where you purchase tickets to go past the ropes.  Close enough, when you've already seen about a dozen cathedrals in Europe.

Once we had our fill of St Paul's, we took the Underground up to King's Cross station to go through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts.  :)  

After our visit to Hogwarts, Ashley and Anna went back to the hostel and I went to the Charles Dickens Museum/House.  It was a lovely experience.  The other visitors were a bunch of middle-aged English ladies on an afternoon out.  The House had a video all about Dickens' life and a number of items that belonged to either him or his family.

While Dickens lived in the house, he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.  Naturally, I had to purchase one of the books.  Since I already own Oliver Twist, I purchased Nicholas Nickleby in the house in which it was written.  Happy day!

Day 5 (May 7)

The last day of our visit to London began with a visit to Abbey Road, the famous crosswalk on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album.  There were about a dozen tourists attempting to get the famous Beatles shot between traffic.  I'm sure that London drivers who have to go on Abbey Road HATE tourists.

After Ashley and I got our crosswalk pictures, we went to see Abbey Road Studios.  It was pretty small and looked more like a house than a recording studio--aside from the fact that the outside gate was covered with graffiti about the Beatles.

After Abbey Road, we headed to Buckingham Palace to meet Jacquie and her fiance Dan for lunch.  After lunch, we parted ways.  Ashley and Anna headed to the airport to catch their flight to Glasgow and I headed to the train station to catch my train to Oxford.  By the time I got to Oxford, I was too exhausted by three poor nights of sleep in the loud hostel in London to do anything but go to bed.