Paris: Part 2

Still on day two…the next stop was the Louvre! I had one of those “oh my gosh! I’m in Paris!” moments as we walked into the courtyard of the Louvre and I saw the glass pyramid rising out of the center. The museum was amazing but very overwhelming; I got to see a lot of great paintings but I barely scratched the surface. I heard that if you spent 30 seconds on every painting and sculpture in the museum for 24 hours a day, it would take three months to see them all. In other words, the two hours I spent there didn’t result in me seeing any significant percentage of the collection, but I still loved it! Our last activity of the day was a nighttime boat tour of the Seine! It was beautiful! The city looks so different at night. On our last day we went to the Musee d’Orsay which is in an old train station! This is one of the coolest museums I have ever visited just because of the building! I could have spent a lot more time there but we had to make it to the Arc de Triumph! We climbed to the top to get another great view of the city and all the crazy drivers around the Arc de Triumph. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I just sat on top for a while and enjoyed myself. Finally, we made a quick trip to the Opera House, grabbed another delicious pastry, and headed for the bus station.

Paris: Part 1

Upon arriving in Paris, the first thing we did was bolt for the Eifel Tower and we took the elevator all the way to the top! Talk about a great view! We spent a good hour and half just looking around and familiarizing ourselves with the city while we could see it all. Next, we walked the Champ Elysees and found our first baguettes and crepes, both of which were phenomenal. Day two started with a trip out to Versailles. I had been looking forward to this since before we even got here, and it lived up to all my expectations. It was absolutely huge and had some amazing painting in the galleries inside. I knew it was suppose to be ornate, but I had no idea just how ornate it was going to be; every wall and ceiling was covered with paintings, mirrors, gold, or fancy wallpaper. The gardens were just as amazing. I can’t even imagine anyone living there! I could have fit my whole house probably three times just in the Hall of Mirrors. After exploring as much of Versailles as we could, we took off for Notre-Dame. We sat inside for a while, climbed the tower, visited the bell, and learned how to identify a real gargoyle! This was probably one of my favorite things of the whole trip!

Church History: Herefordshire

We met up with Peter again and completed our second installment of Church History in England. First, we stopped at Benbow Farm. This is where Wilfred Woodruff came when he arrived in the area and where he baptized many of the United Brethren that converted after his teachings. It was also here that the constable and two clerks came to stop him from preaching, but instead found themselves desiring to be baptized as well. The Benbow's played a very large financial role in the church as well by donating money that assisted 40 families across the America as well as helped print new copies of the Book of Mormon. We also hiked to the top of Beacon Hill which overlooks Ledbury and the surrounding areas. We reached the top just before the sun started to set and we had a wonderful view over the valley as Peter read Wilfred Woodruff's own words taken from his diary. It was a wonderful experience to sit where this great apostle sat while listening to the words inspired by the scene I was seeing before me. Finally, we visited Gadfield Elm Chapel which is the longest working chapel in our church. It was fascinating to see the hand of God at work in the church being able to acquire this land at an auction. It was almost miraculous how perfectly it worked out!

Edinburgh Part 2

Edinburgh Castle was our next stop! After witnessing the firing of the 1:00 cannon, we toured the rest of the castle including the oldest chapel in Edinburgh, the Royal Hall, the Crown Jewels, and the dungeons. We even made friends with one of the security guards who listed off a good 100 famous people from Scotland or things invented by the Scottish (i.e. Penicillin) just to prove that Scotland isn't known only for its beer and bagpipes. He certainly exceeded! We also stopped at the National Gallery where we were able to recognize works by Gainsborough, Van Dyck, Reubens, Constable, and Van Gogh thanks to our most recent Humanities test! Next was a climb up Calton Hill to see the various Roman-style building and ruins (we even created our own Wanderer Above the Sea Fog scene), and finally, we headed to New Town to count the pubs on Rose Street. We were told that there were 27 when in reality, there are only 17. Not that 17 isn't enough... :) What a trip!!

Edinburgh Part 1

These four days in Edinburgh were probably some of the best four days since being in Europe! Edinburgh is one of the coolest cities I have ever been to, and the BEST part was that no matter where you were, you could always hear bagpipes. Always. After arriving at 8:00 am after an overnight coach ride, the first thing we did (besides our 1 hour nap) was climb Arthur's Seat. Talk about a view! We could see what certainly looked like all of Scotland and the North Sea, and luckily the day was clear. On the way up we found some old church ruins that required a brief detour of course! After that, we wandered up the first half of the Royal Mile and saw all the shops and pubs. Included in this walk was a stop at the Edinburgh museum that walked us through the history of Edinburgh and how it got to be where it was today. It also showed the various levels of connection Scotland shared with England throughout the years. All in all it was very educational and fun! The second day there we wandered down to the coast and the shipping yard in search of a lighthouse. Although we only saw one in the distance, it was cool to wander around on the waterfront and in the Royal Yacht Brittania.

Bath and the Roman Bath House

This place was straight out of my imagination complete with humid spa rooms, grand columns, surviving Roman sculptures, and ancient drains leading out to the river. I could easily imagine an impressive group of soldiers and scholars gathered for healing, relaxation, and social interaction! The town of Bath itself was amazing! It was larger than I thought but still had the wonderful cobblestone roads and beautiful parks. I'm living there some day. I even picked out the street of my future house as we drove away on the Coach.

Stonehenge and Stourhead

Stonehenge greatly exceeded my expectations! I kept hearing that it was smaller than people expected and not to get my hopes up. With these thoughts running through my head, I was greatly surprised and happy with what I saw! As we walked around, we were challenged to think of some of the possible ways in which the stones got there and to what purpose. Thousands ideas ran through my head, some crazier than others, but I came to the conclusion that I like the mystery behind it. The mystery makes it even more appealing.
Stourhead was absolutely beautiful. I was rather upset, along with about 40 other girls, that the "Darcy Proposal building" was closed for construction, but I quickly got over that as I looked out over the beautiful lake! This site competed with Fountains Abbey for the most beautiful places I've been in England. The manicured gardens looked so natural and in place. I especially loved the changing color of all the trees!

Stratford-upon-Avon

Saturday we ventured out to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. The actual town was really neat! It had cobblestone streets, ample pasty shops, the cutest little public library, and an awesome statue resembling our friend Touchstone from As You Like It. Just outside of town, we visited the farm of Mary Arden. Besides the thrill of milking a fake cow, I learned about a traditional meal that Mary Arden may have had while she lived there. Next, we visited to home of Anne Hathaway who was William Shakespeare's wife. I learned that the two families, the Ardens and Shakespeares, knew eachother prior to this marriage and the men of the family actually worked closely with one another. Finally, we entered the town and visited William's birthplace. The introductory video was great because it showed the expanse of Shakespeare's genius and made me realize just how much of my vocabulary i owe to him! In our free time, I walked around by the river and ended up avoiding a little rain by getting some hot chocolate in the Dirty Duck (classic pub name). To end the trip, we saw a great performance of A Winter's Tale!

Les Miserables

My parents were here visiting this weekend and it was so much fun being their tour guide around London! The highlight of our adventures was definitely a night out at Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. This show was the best production I have EVER seen! I went in expecting it to be great, yet I was still blown away! A cast of 25 performed the most powerful and touching musical, mostly through their amazing singing and dynamic stage presence. The male lead covered the highest and lowest notes in the musical theatre community as well as played a character ranging from 20-something years old to 80-something years old. Talk about versatile! Even the set was cool! The round stage turned throughout almsot the entire production, which allowed quick changes between scenes and a really good sense of passing time. I wanted to see it again the minute it was over, and I'm pretty sure that my conversations only consisted of "wow" for about three hours after the performance.

Church History Tour

Our last two days up North, we hit Preston and Liverpool to follow the early missionaries and members as they converted and emigrated to America. In Preston we visited the Wilfred St. house that the missionaries lived in as well as the River Ribble where two men had a foot race to see who would be baptized first! I have never really studied the history of the church here in England before so I didn't realize the importance of the members here in the early days of the church. In those days, there were more members in England than in Utah and the whole pioneer trail! The apostles that came here sacrificed so much to do this work.
In Liverpool, we stood on the docks where so many converts started their long journey to the Utah Valley. It was a great experience to stand there by the statue on Albert Docks and sing "Come, Come ye Saints" as a big group. These two days really opened my eyes to the extent of work and miracles that happened here in the early days of the church.

Fountains Abbey

This is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. We walked into this long valley (a flowing river included) and there in the middle were the ruins of the Abbey. I didn't know such majestic scenery existed. This Abbey was originally created by some monks that fled to escape the corruption of the church, and was later destroyed by King Henry VIII as part of the destruction of the Monasteries, so there was a lot of significant history involved with the Abbey. It was amazing to walk around and picture monks walking through those arched corridors and hallways. There was so much height involved in the architecture! I got dizzy just looking up to the top of the tower. This along with the pointed arches gave the Abbey a very High Gothic feel. Too bad we don't build things like this anymore.

Southall

Southall was a very eye opening experience for me. I absolutely loved the Sikh temple and the people there. They were so nice and willing to share about their culture. I was surprised to learn how similar our religion is to theirs! They were such a humble people and showed such reverence to their scripture. The Hindu people were also very open to share about their religion, but unfortunately, I didn't get as much time to talk to them. Their temples were very ornate and bursting with beautiful bright colors. Southall itself seemed like a whole different world and I didn't even feel like I was still in England! It was a very different culture and it was such a neat experienced to be fully emersed in it. To top it all off, we ended the day with some delicious Indian food!

Canterbury

Canterbury was AWESOME! It was so cool to finally be on the scene of all the great things we've been learning about, such as the murder of Thomas Beckett and the signing of the disillusionment of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. The cathedral was also a visual presentation of the changing of architecture with its Roman round arches, Gothic pointed arches, and the vertical height from the Renaissance time. Many of the stained glass windows and stone statues were destroyed by the Puritans who were against such forms of art in cathedrals, but those that remain or are rebuilt are stunning!

Castle of Dover and the White Cliffs

City Walk

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of St. Paul's cathedral because I couldn't upload them but it was amazing! It was rather ironic to be standing on the steps of an ancient cathedral and be looking right at a Starbucks window across the street. It goes to show the inevitable change that comes with time. Regardless, I was amazed with the side and grandeur of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and it humored me to notice that the crowd of pigeons rivaled that of tourists.

Moving through Cheapside it seemed that the older market places were slowly growing into buildings with more height and steel. As we turned one corner, the Swiss Reinsurance Tower loomed above us. Just a block before we had happened upon St. Michael’s Church, a beautiful treasure tucked behind a coffee shop and other buildings. Going from stained glass windows to steel towers was a very abrupt change, but made for a very intriguing walk.

Finally, we made our way down to the Thames were we took the liberty of using our cameras for a while before we continued to The Monument. Two Pounds and 311 stairs later, we were standing on top of The Monument overlooking all the streets we had just walked along. It was great for getting perspective of where we had traveled in the last few hours.