Pictures

Through a series of unfortunate and somewhat amusing circumstances, we haven't posted in several days. In that time, we've done so many awesome things that one post cannot do it justice.

Fortunately, since pictures are worth a thousand words, I am going to write about a novel's worth of words to describe our experiences.

Here's the executive summary:
- After Edinburgh, we spent a day bombing through northeastern England. We saw the cathedral in Durham (I was very excited about that, as I live on Durham Road) and Yorkminster (the ginormous cathedral in York) and a couple other small stops.
- We then stayed with a guy named Henry who has known John's family for years.
- We went to Stratford-upon-Avon and saw two plays: a matinee of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was the best play I had ever seen up to that point, and an evening showing of Hamlet, which promptly blew away my record of Best Play Ever, set mere hours before. And yes, that was the one with Patrick Stewart in it. He is the best actor ever. Now that I've seen him, I can die happy.
- We went the following morning to Warwick and saw the amazing castle there, including a sweet jousting match.
- Traveled to Bath (where I am as I write this) and saw the Roman Baths. We also took a day trip out to Blenheim Palace. I really wish I had a 2,000 acre estate like they do... sigh...




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1) The military tattoo in Edinburgh. Imagine like 300 bagpipers playing with several hundred standard marching band instruments (all of whom are amazingly good), and you might get about a tenth of how truly awesome it was. Words (even pictures) cannot do it justice.

2) The Durham Cathedral (with Durham University in the foreground). Very pretty cathedral, with an amazing view from the tower.

3) The view from the tower of Durham Cathedral. It can be seen from almost everywhere in town, so conversely, from the top you can see pretty much everywhere. The view was gorgeous, and the sun even came out for a bit.

4) Yorkminster. The most mind-blowing cathedral I have ever seen. Which is kinda funny because just two hours before, Durham Cathedral held that crown. It was a pretty good day. Yorkminster's cross-section (not sure what the name is... you know how cathedrals are shaped like crosses? It was the part of the cross where the arms go) was longer than the main axis of any cathedral I've seen before. I mean really, really huge. And beautiful; inside were probably 8 or 9 side chapels, buried off in little corners of the main area. The Venerable Bede's tomb is here as well.

5) Jousting at Warwick Castle. I took hundreds of pictures of the castle itself of course (one of the best-preserved castles anywhere in England, thanks to some fortuitous decisions during the English civil war), but the jousting was really the highlight for me. It was exhibition jousting, so there were no shattering lances or men flying from the saddles, but the livery and horses were very real and very cool.

6) Us dorking around at a train station while waiting to transfer to another line. I believe this was at Reading ("Take a look/It's in a book/with Reading Railroad"... if you get this, then you're awesome), which is actually pronounced like Redding (the one in Washington). And yes, I do have a beard. I haven't shaved in like 8 days. Man, I hate neck hair...

7) This isn't interesting by itself. It's in a little village called Lacock where the tour van stopped on the way to Stonehenge. However, what makes it awesome is that the area in this photo is being used as part of Hogsmeade in the upcoming Harry Potter movie. Awesome!

8) Stonehenge. 'nuff said.

9) A cool looking, but very weird person. This man has legally changed his name to Arthur Pendragon, and is licensed to carry a sword in public. He's protesting the government treatment of Stonehenge (charging admission, not allowing people to touch/walk under the stones) and lobbying for free and open access of the stones. I think he's a druid, too. Bizarre, but photogenic.

10) Blenheim Palace. One of the coolest palaces anywhere, and it has over 2,000 acres of grounds surrounding it. Think an 18-hole golf course, then quadruple than in size and add trees, a lake, and a statue on a 50-foot column. Plus the palace itself is amazing, with staterooms and museum-quality old stuff and a long library filled with books, which has a freaking pipe organ in it!

11) The grounds at Blenheim Palace. Beautiful.