Stonehenge and Bath

Saturday was the Stonehenge and Bath trip with our school. It was cool! Rainy and windy but fun! It was cool to see Stonehenge in person, but we really didn't need to spend a whole hour there. We were practically being blown over by the wind so we snapped a few pictures and that was all we could do! I figure I can always just Google it if I need to!

After Stonehenge we went to Bath and I absolutely LOVED it! It was so beautiful! I had no idea it was so big! We first went to the roman bath house and that was cool. We had audio tours which was helpful. After that, we wandered around the city and ate lunch for the remaining 2 hours. It flew by and before we knew it, we were back on the bus with Sean, our obscenely annoying tour guide. He was really nice and he was actually funny, but he honestly wouldn't stop talking! I like hearing about the history of what we're seeing but that was only half of what he was talking about--he'd just point out random people on the street or start talking about cars and we all really just wanted to sleep or zone out on the bus! The Cotswolds are so beautiful and all I wanted to do was stare out the window and listen to Coldplay. The trip was really fun though; I'd highly recommend it to anyone who comes to England.

:)

Jackie

E&E

Emily and Elizabeth, my roommates from Drake, came to visit last week!!! It was SO much fun! They left way too soon and I already miss them. We did a lot of fun stuff though and it was sort of like a second spring break :)

They arrived on Sunday morning and Katy and I picked them up from the airport. They got in fine and everything so it was pretty smooth! After bringing the back to our room--they were going to stay with us until Wednesday, when they'd go to their hostel--we headed out to a Harry Potter tour! It was pretty cool because we got to see places that inspired the books.

The entrance to the Ministry of Magic--dial 6-2-4-4-2 to get in :)

This pub has an entrance to the alleyway on the right side... sound like anything from Harry Potter?? (HINT: The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley)

The inspiration for Diagon Alley

Monday morning Emily, Elizabeth, Katy, and I went to the Dutch Pancake House for breakfast--yummmmm! I got banana and chocolate on mine. Good choice. Anyway, Katy and I were stuck in class all day so they went off on their own and we went to class and ate in the dining hall for dinner. Exciting.

Tuesday, I had class only in the morning, so Emily and Elizabeth went to the V&A Museum until 1 and then I met them for lunch. We met Katy for cupcakes after her afternoon class and then we headed to Hyde Park to show E&E around! I LOVE it there so it was definitely fun.

Kensington Palace

Elizabeth and I

Emily, Elizabeth, and I in front of one of the ponds

For dinner, Katy ate in the dining hall but I just couldn't handle another school meal so I went to Tequila Tex Mex with E&E. It was soooo good!! I'll definitely be back there again.

Wednesday, Katy and I decided to skip our classes :) We went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace which was super cool! We met this old man named Albert who explained the whole ceremony to us, which was nice because we had no clue what was going on. He made sure we could see everything so we got some good pictures.

Buckingham Palace--it was PACKED!

The band--they played "La Vida Loca" and "With A Little Help From My Friends" and some other random songs--it was really funny!

The band from a better angle

Elizabeth and I in front of the Palace

Afterwards, Katy headed to the Remember Me premiere with Emily Boyd (Rob Pattinson starred in the movie so they got to meet him). E&E and I met up with Emily's friend, Pam, who was also spending spring break in London. We went to Regents Park and had lunch which was fun and really pretty!! We had to check into the hostel that day so the three of us headed back to Katy's and my room to get their stuff and then we hopped on the Tube. We arrived at Edgeware Road and were on the lookout for The Green Man. Finally we found it--in the form of a pub! We were immensely confused for about 10 minutes until we ventured inside the pub and found that the hostel was above and check-in was at the pub bar. It was quite the adventure! We laughed pretty hard about the whole situation. After settling in there, we got on the Tube again and went to Leicester Square, where Katy and Emily were. The premiere hadn't started yet, but it was so crowded that E&E and I decided to just wander around because we didn't really care about seeing Rob enough to stand around and wait in massive crowds. We grabbed dinner quick and headed back to meet Katy's and my friend, Alex, for drinks at the pubs nearby (it was St. Patrick's Day, after all). We came back around 11 (pubs close at 11) and pretty much just went to bed.

Thursday we woke up and headed out to the Tower of London. Katy had class so she didn't come, but I went. I'd been there with my Grandma and Dad 6 years ago and loved it so I was super excited to go again. I just love British history and I love learning about royalty and things like that so the Tower is one of my favorite places to go. Plus, the tour guides are hilarious.

Emily and I in front of the Tower

A gift to Queen Anne Boleyn... too bad it was finished after she was executed. Nice.

The White Tower--we made the mistake of venturing inside without knowing what we were getting into. We decided that the one thing we didn't really care about seeing (well, didn't want to see at all) was the armory... so naturally we went inside the White Tower, where the armor is kept. We couldn't escape without going all the way through!

A random guard change (we think)

Elizabeth, Emily, and I in front of the Tower Bridge

After the Tower, we went back to the room, picked up Katy, and headed to Gloucester Arms for dinner. We all got carded when we went in, which I guess is probably good, but then the next time we went up to order (food, not even drinks) we got carded again! And then Eliz got carded a THIRD time. By the same woman. Overkill, don't you think? Anyway, we all ordered fish and chips, and Katy had to wait about a half hour longer than the three of us! They just apparently forgot about her! It was not good. THEN we ordered 3 chocolate fudge cake slices (E&E shared but Katy and, knowing how amazing it is, had our own) and after paying for them, they informed us that there were only 2 slices left, and we can't get our money back after paying. Great. So we got 2 slices of cake and some brownie thing. Katy and I split one piece of cake and the brownie and had half of each. ALSO the cake comes with vanilla ice cream (I know it's only vanilla because I asked for chocolate once and they wouldn't give it to me) but this time it came with strawberry, which I can't stand even the smell of. So I kept that super far away from my cake and semi-enjoyed dessert. Katy left after dessert and E&E and I stayed until about 10:30. They were being pretty rude to us though so we left and just hung out in the room for a little bit. It was a rather bad experience (plus, we've had previous bad experiences there) so I'm not planning on going back. Builder's Arms is close too, so that's going to have to be my new regular pub. Oh well.

The next morning, Friday, we went to Porobello Market in Notting Hill! I was on the lookout for Hugh Grant and the travel bookshop and the blue door but no luck. Maybe next time. The market was super cute!! I loved it! I'm definitely taking my family there when they come! :)

Love the colors

A view of the market

After the market, we ate lunch in a cute little cafe and headed to the British Museum. We didn't stay long... it wasn't that cool. I mean, it was very informative and had lots of artifacts from cultures all over the world... but we just weren't that into it. I'd rather go to the V&A Museum and be surrounded by things instead of stare at them through a glass box. We ate in Covent Garden after the museum, at Pizza Express. After that we went back to the room for a little bit and then went to Alice in Wonderland with Emily and Bess. It was really good and now I really want to read the book! I'm determined to find it in the library somewhere. Anyway, they left after that and I'm so sad!! I already can't wait to see them this summer!

:)

Jackie

Spring Break

Spring break!!! The best part of the spring! J Katy, Bess and I (Emily was touring around London and Paris with her mom for the week) decided to go to Germany, Amsterdam, and Brussels for the week.

Mine, Katy's, and Bess' Backpacks

My friend, Betsy Miller, is teaching and living in Neuss, Germany, near Dusseldorf so we stayed with her from Friday until Monday morning. We flew RyanAir from London Stansted to Dusseldorf Weeze and it was probably the weirdest flight I’ve ever been on! It only cost five pounds so no complaining, but it was bizarre—advertisements were played randomly and there were no assigned seats. Anyway, we got into Dusseldorf around 5:30 and Betsy met us at the stop. We took the train back to Neuss and headed to the grocery store to pick up dinner—tacos! The most natural thing to eat in Germany of course! Her apartment was the CUTEST! It was fully furnished by IKEA and it was wonderful! The only downside was the fact that the heat had been turned off... but with multiple layers and heaps of blankets we kept warm enough!

Our room in Betsy's apartment

Taco night!

Betsy in her taco attire

After the taco experience, her friend, Meg, came over before we headed out for the night. Meg was so cool! She's from Iowa, so we had another American to bond with. We ended up heading to the Skihalle nearby, which is a huge, indoor ski hall, with Meg and their friend, Sven. We didn't go skiing--we went to the bar/massive dance party inside. It was so much fun! I mean, I'm no good at dancing but I love it anyway.

The next day we woke up and had a really yummy breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. MUCH better than our usual school dining hall breakfasts with cardboard-flavored "eggs" and fried beans. We showered and got ready when we were done so we could head to Cologne. Cologne is the next city over from Neuss. Betsy gave us a sweet fountain tour and we got to go to the chocolate museum!!! It was awesome. There were chocolate machines and rooms with random chocolate information and a rainforest room with tropical plants! AND we had the best hot chocolate ever afterwards. We headed back after that and decided to order pizza for dinner. We were planning to go to Betsy's friends' apartment for drinks in Dusseldorf and then head out to bars in Dusseldorf. We met up with Meg and Sven again and some other friends of theirs. Eventually we went into Dusseldorf and met up with Sven's roommate, Dave, and their rugby friends. We met D, who was our age, so that was fun, and Mark, who is from Australia. They were all really awesome and fun to be with. It was definitely a fun night!

Sunday we all slept in and just sort of hung around the house. It was freezing outside so we didn't have a huge desire to wander around. We went into Dusseldorf for German food for dinner, though! I had schnitzel! I usually don't like pork, but it was good. When we got back, we packed up and sadly got ready to go :(

We left Monday morning at 11:00--we took the train!! Well, trains is more accurate--we had a few changes which all went smoothly! We finally arrived in Amsterdam around 3 and took the tram directly to our hotel. It was cool because the tram was above ground so we could see the city on our way. The language is BIZARRE. The hotel lady kept saying, "Okey Dokey!" It was pretty funny. Anyway, Amsterdam is awesome!!! Bikes are everywhere and you definitely have to wait at crosswalks until the lights say to walk because otherwise there's a good chance you'll get hit by a bike, car, or tram. Crazy! It's absolutely beautiful though. The canals are everywhere. I couldn't stop taking pictures and usually I never take out my camera!

We went to the Anne Frank House after we checked into the hotel and it was totally worth the entrance fee. It was very sombering and I learned so much. I didn't know that the family was staying in Anne's father's work building--I guess I always though that they lived with a family. It was definitely a good choice to see the house. We wandered around the streets for a while and found a restaurant for dinner. Bess, Katy, and I each got grilled cheese, tomato soup, and apple pie. HELLO, WE ARE FROM AMERICA. It was really good though! From there, we walked back to the hotel and went to sleep as we were exhausted.

The next day, Tuesday, we woke up and headed out to the Van Gogh museum, conveniently located about 10 minutes away! We walked there and found Vondelpark on the way! Vondelpark is a huge park in the city--so pretty. The museum was really interesting because it had a lot of background information. I didn't know much about Van Gogh before so I loved it. We walked around afterwards and found the I AMsterdam sign/sculpture/whatever and took loads of pictures in front of/in the letters. We hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and wandered some more. We pretty much spent the afternoon wandering through the city or the park. It was a day well spent. For dinner we went to Wok to Walk, recommended by Betsy and Meg. It was really good!! Again, we wandered back, got some ice cream, and went to bed. We had to waked up early the next morning to catch our train to Brussels.

We got to Brussels smoothly and stored our backpacks in lockers for the day. We somehow messed up the directions to the Grand Place and started walking the wrong way, but eventually found our way to the area. It was pretty cold outside so we ran into the first waffle house we saw (since waffles and chocolate were the only reasons I wanted to visit Belgium in the first place). It was pretty good! A chocolate shop was right across the street so we headed there next. We didn't buy much, but we went into PLENTY of chocolate shops around the city so it was just fine. We found Mannekin Pis, a statue of a little boy peeing, and it was dressed up in Tibetan Monk clothes!! Clearly, we were meant to be there that day... first our real monks in Paris, now Mannekin. After that, we really had nothing to do. It was a LONG day of wandering. We couldn't find much to do, mostly because it was so cold that we just wanted to be inside, so we went a cathedral and took a lot of pointless pictures. We ate dinner at 3:30 and sat there until probably 5 when we finally just walked back to the train station. We took the Eurostar back which is always a nice way to travel, and got back to London around 9:30! It was a super fun trip, even if Brussels wasn't well thought out. I'd definitely recommend it. If you want to see more pictures, you can look at my album online here! Enjoy!

:)

Jackie