Where the History Comes From...

Below are my top 11 street signs in Britain - 10 of them have pictures, and one doesn't. Explanation follows in each caption. The Working-Men's Conservative Club of Caernarfon, Wales. In the US, "working men" and "conservative" have come to often be on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Cary thought his dad would get a kick out of this. The Welsh are so modest. This isn't absolutely the best gift shop in Wales - just probably the best gift shop in Wales. And this wasn't the only sign like this that we saw. I was also tickled by the Wonderllandudno part - obviously this was taken in Llandudno (where Alice in Wonderland was rumored to be partially created). The British version of Dollar Tree - Poundland! St. Sampson's Centre for the Over 60s, York. All Saints Pavement, York. I think the name had something to do with what was once the only pavement in town or something like that. Bile Beans - mmmMMM! We googled these and Wikipedia told us ...

After reading through my reflections, I thought I should update them and say that I really had a spectacular time. My reflection on the British society is what I felt, but I don't mean to imply that I didn't absolutely love the trip. The people and island were absolutely wonderful. I really could feel just how in touch they were. If there is one thing I think the Britons have that I wish we did, it is involvement and knowledge about their history and their government. They were definitely plugged in. As you know if you have read the blog, I had a great time being among so much history. It was hard to comprehend just how old things were - and the fact that it had been in continuous use - very cool. Travel is a wonderful thing, and I am glad that Emily and I are both committed to going and being in other cultures and learning from them. I learned a lot about myself by being immersed in another culture. One of the things I learned is that, though there are things I would ...

I just wanted to amend what I said about the Church of England in my last post. We definitely did see lots of people who really cared what was going on in their church, and wanted the church to be accessible to everyone. My frustration was with people like the Archbishop of Canterbury, and I think that has something to do with my experience as an Anglican in the US. I don't feel like the Archbishop tries very hard to relate to Episcopalians/Anglicans worldwide, and as the head of the Anglican Communion, I think he should. So probably my feelings about the Church of England come from that, and not so much the people we actually met. I just wanted to put that out there after thinking about what I wrote, because we met several people who were really concerned about their churches and the parishioners in them, and I would hate for them to read this and think we thought they didn't care. This was definitely not the case. -Emily

So my reflections on our trip will be pretty different from Cary's, I think. I just read his post and while I did notice the greater involvement of the British government in people's everyday lives, my noticing was more like, "Hmm, that's interesting. Oh look, an old building!" That's one of the cool parts of traveling with another person, particularly your spouse - they point out things you might never give a second thought to. Cary was really good at doing that on our trip, and at being "in the moment," remembering that we were in Britain when all I could think about was being cold or tired or hungry. I don't really have an overall impression of Britain this time around - it's hard to summarize a whole country, especially a country that is made up of four countries (i.e. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). When I came back from my first trip to England at age 18, I had a very romantic view of the country - I thought everything ...

Just a quick note to say that we are home in Gainesville. My mom picked us up at the Orlando airport on Tuesday afternoon, we spent a couple of days with my family in Palm Bay (where we also collected George, our cat), and then came home this afternoon. We went over to Jamey and Beth's (Cary's brother and sister-in-law) to thank them for watching our house, pick up our keys, deliver souvenirs, and share photos of the trip - lots of fun! We also went to Target (ah, how I missed thee) and bought a Mr. Coffee, which we will use to make tea. Cary is making us a pot right now - yay! It is very good to be home, and we can't wait to see all our friends, as well as the rest of Cary's family next week in Live Oak. We will be updating again in the next few days with our overall impressions of Britain, as well as my Top 10 lists of place names and street signs/advertisements, both of which the British have a real knack for. Right now though, we are going to drink our tea, watch an...

Here he is - Big Ben himself. Big Ben is actually the bell inside the tower. The World War II Women's Memorial. It was in the middle of Parliament Street, so you can't stand right next to it. It is amazing to me that they have this, while we've only recently gotten ANY WWII Memorial at all! I enjoyed the symbolism of this one. Emily outside of Westminster Abbey (no pictures allowed inside). Emily outside the Noel Coward Theater where Avenue Q is playing. The famous tube sign. We've really enjoyed using the Tube. We know that many say buses are better and that you can see the city, but we found the Tube very easy to manage. In the end we used the District, Circle, Piccadilly, Northern, Victoria, and Bakerloo lines. We were going to use the Jubliee line yesterday, but it was closed. I think that Bakerloo, Jubilee, and Piccadilly are my favorite names! It was also interesting to see all the different stations. You could definitely tell which ones were first and...

Buckingham Palace Me outside the British Library, freezing to death in my skirt and sandals Churchill's bedroom/office in the Cabinet War Rooms That's Parliament and Big Ben from the London Eye Cary and Parliament Another busy day, another great day. We started off this morning by sleeping in a little bit, then walking down Buckingham Palace Road to (you guessed it) Buckingham Palace - only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We couldn't go in - you can only do that in August and September - but we were sufficiently impressed with the sheer size of the palace, as well as how far back the grounds go - we passed them on our way to Hyde Park Corner tube station when we were going to church. We went to the 11:30 service at Holy Trinity Brompton, home of the Alpha Course (and about halfway in between the Victoria and Albert Museum and Harrods). We really enjoyed the service there. It was obvious to us that God is moving there, and it was really great to be in a church like th...

Outside the Palace, where Spamalot is playing In the lounge waiting for the theater to open In Leicester Square, pointing at the Odeon (where Mamma Mia is set to premiere) Outside the British Museum Giant Egyptian head Sir John Soane's Cary at Piccadilly Circus Today was a really fun day! We started by getting on the tube to Leicester Square to buy tickets for a West End show at the tkts half-price ticket booth. The booth opens at 10:00, and when we got there at 9:45, there was already a huge line! It moved pretty quickly though, and by 10:30 we had tickets to Spamalot, which is a musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The show wasn't until the evening though, so we had lots of time to do some sight-seeing during the day. We looked around Leicester Square a little bit first. This is where movies premiere when they premiere in London, so it was neat to see the Odeon (huuuuge movie theater) gearing up for the premiere of Mamma Mia next week. From Leicester Square we wa...

Emily is pointing to the Golden Gallery at the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. It is hard to believe we were all the way up there! A picture through a "peep hole" right before we got to the Golden Gallery. The white rectangle on the brown surface at the top is the altar (about 10 feet long). If you enlarge it, you can see tiny people down there. Happy Fourth George (Cornwallis) - also at St. Paul's. Looking across the River Thames (from the top of St. Paul's). You can see the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern (Art Museum) Emily reading under a tree in Hyde Park Here we are outside the V&A. Here is our TINY bedroom. I'm literally in the hall, and Emily's right hand is about 3 inches from the other wall that you can't see. We do have a matching TINY bathroom in the room. Emily enjoying our scrumptious meal at Jenny Lo's Teahouse. Our homage to all the Japanese (and other Asian) tourists. They do the peace sign in all their pictures. Emil...

After our anniversary dinner at Loch Fyne This chest was given by Henry VII to finish the chapel - it held £5000 in cash. King's College Chapel, as seen from the River Cam On the punting tour, in front of Cambridge's Bridge of Sighs With Emma, Nick, Anne, and Nathan Ladd (click to enlarge) Today was our second day in Cambridge, and may I just say that I am so excited to be here again. I have such good memories of the time I spent here six years ago, so it's been great to walk around and look at the places I visited then. I wish we could have had more time here, but I'm glad to even have had two days to relive such a memorable time in my life - and to visit some things I didn't get to see last time. Hence the title of this entry - new-stalgia. We started off the day with a healthy breakfast. This might not seem like a big deal, but the food you get at B&Bs, while delicious, is more of the fried and expansive variety. I think this is the reason that I have staye...

Cary in the Dragon House garden Blenheim Palace and gardens The Eagle and Child - Tolkien and Lewis's favorite pub Lamb! (Watch out for the poo!) St. James Church, Chipping Campden We are now in Cambridge, and back to hoofin' it. We left Chipping Campden this m0rning and made it to Cambridge (through some very strange AA Route Finder directions) to the home of Nick and Ann Ladd. We had a really nice lunch and then dropped off the car at Europcar with no hitches - yea! It was a fun experience to drive in England, but all the same, I'm glad to be back to walking and taking trains. After dropping off the car, we walked into the City Center which is not very far from the Ladd's home. We made our way down to Newnham College where Emily lived during her three week study exchange program six years ago. She was very excited to see all the things that she remembered - she was an excellent tour guide. We also found Nadia's - the little shop where she had lunch most days w...

Today we visited the two most pomp and circumstance-ful sites I think we've seen on this trip so far. The first was Blenheim Palace, home of the Duke of Marlborough (relative of Winston Churchill). The second was Oxford. We didn't really know what we wanted to do when we woke up this morning. We've found as we've gone along that our sight-seeing plans get looser every day. In York we had lots of activities scheduled. Now we're just kind of going with the flow. We have a really Cotswoldy walk planned for most of the day tomorrow, so we decided today was a good day for a field trip. We're only about 30 miles from Oxford here in Chipping Campden, and Blenheim Palace is right outside of Oxford, so we hopped in the car and drove ourselves to the Palace about 99% stress freely. Let me just say, and pardon my language: damn ! Blenheim Palace is easily the most wealthy-looking residence I have ever seen, including the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where the Quee...

View from our bedroom Another view from our bedroom- spectacular! View from our bathroom Just a few shots from our B&B, the Dragon House.