First Weekend in London

Hi All!

My last entry was short and sweet. This one will hopefully be a bit more in depth. My travel buddy and I arrived just in time for the weekend trip with our program all paid for. So the entire group loaded onto a bus early Friday morning and was off to Bleinheim Palace. It was a beautiful place. The most astonishing thing was the fact that the duke paid to have a artificial landscape put in so that it would be perfectly beautiful forever. I have to say it was. I was only disappointed to learn the Palace was built with money made off of slaves. But I guess it was the way of the world back in those days… Shoot even today we have “slaves”.

Our next stop was Stratford-Upon-Avon the birthplace/death place of Shakespeare. How cool/sad is that? Our tour guide was fantastic. She had bits of jokes and seemed really passionate about here home town. I love tour guides that don’t bore you to death. She was telling us how people no longer have thatch roofs anymore because birds, cat, and dogs would go into the ceiling an snuggle up for warmth. Well when it was about to rain of course the cats and dogs wouldn’t want to get wet so they would all jump down and that’s how the phrase raining cats and dogs came about. (drum noise) I thought that was cute of her. She even gave us a list of American sayings. While there it was only fitting that we saw the Scottish play, you know Macbeth (shhhh!) While in Stratford we stayed in a B&B with an awesome inn keeper. The Salamander is the one I recommend if you want a funny and entertaining Frenchman as your host.

Also on our weekend we traveled through the countryside to Bourton-on the-Water. Now the best thing to do there is shop or visit the maze/puzzle for a small price. It was one of the highlights, the maze. You had to find clues and things. You could also visit the bird museum or car museum for a very different price.

We finished up our weekend in Oxford. Home of the intellectual and some place where Harry Potter was filmed. Everyone set off for those sights and I went the other way to Oxford Universities campus. Quickly left when I saw science and math signs and went to the University park. Spied a tennis game and a cute pond in the on again off again rain. Then found the museum of Natural Science. I really liked it there. Warning: Don’t call it a bathroom or restroom! It is a toilet or more polite Ladies/Gentlemen’s room. There was another free museum in Oxford that I didn’t make it too, but I heart was decent. My artist friend said it was a lot of replicas unfortunately.

So, that was my first weekend. Thanks for reading/watching!
Next time I’ll discuss the Markets and museums here. 

Cheers!