London Round 2 - The British Museum

After all official school business was done, we had one day in London to see the sights. We started out at the National Gallery, flew through the National Portrait Gallery, had fish and chips at a pub, did the British museum in the afternoon, and then walked around past the Buckingham palace. The only place we were allowed to take pictures was the British Museum, which is basically a collection of all of the pilfered items from across the British Empire. I think I'll make a separate post for our evening picture taking, since this one is getting long already. The outside pictures are taken just outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The rest are of the British Museum. Can you name any of the famous objects?



Seeing this Native American outfit, Nathan said, "Look! They got Plucker's clothes!" Plucker was my paternal grandfather, also know as my "Indian Grandpa."

These masks pre-date the Roman Empire.

This is the oldest sculpture of two lovers. It's several thousand years old.

When I first saw this mask, I thought my dad would love it. It turns out it was used in demonic worship. Oops.

The Rosetta Stone, which cracked the hieroglyphics code.

All stolen from the Greek Parthenon...

Nathan was excited to find some Chinese jade swords, just like the one his Uncle Edgar has. They looked like letter openers to me. :)

Inside the museum...

Outside the museum...

Leicester

Okay, the next stop was Leicester (pronounced Lester) to meet with another professor. From Durham we drove down a few hours to our hotel. We asked the front desk how to get to the university, and the attendant pulled out a map and a highlighter and told us about a "good and safe" walk there. That raised a red flag. Anyway, Leicester reminds me of... Detroit. Just nothing to write home about. It's very industrial and doesn't have those funny English people tut-tutting about riding a bicycle on the pavement. The best part of this city was definitely the professor we met there. He was brilliant, personable, family-oriented (He told us about his teacher wife and three kids) and an openly evangelical Christian. He was much younger than I was expecting him to be (40), especially after listening to Nathan tell me about all of his books and accomplishments. After we left, Nathan and I did some math, and it turns out that the guy published his PhD at Cambridge at 22. Holy smarts!

I forget what this thing is called, but it's basically a moving elevator with no doors. You just kind of have to jump on and off when it gets to your floor. Coming from such a litigious society, I couldn't help but think of all the lawsuits waiting to happen with one of those in an American building.

Leaving the university we chanced upon some trees and a park. Here's Nathan's best Asian tourist pose.

This is a war memorial. We noticed that the English don't believe in power washing anything.

Nathan said to take this picture of "the house we're going to flip." In his dreams.

A Few Funny Signs

And a happy birthday to my sister, Kristen!

Road Trip to Durham

After Oxford, we road tripped up to Durham. On our way, we kept seeing signs for "THE NORTH," which gave me the giggles for some reason. Of course, the opposite signs pointed toward "THE SOUTH." It made me feel like we were back in the South vs. North culture of the US South.

Here we are at a rest stop enjoying Burger King. I don't even want to know how much it cost in US dollars.

Amid the gorgeous English countryside, complete with pastures of sheep were... nuclear power plants?! We saw a handful of them on our five hour drive.

In Durham, we ventured out in the cold around sunset. In front of the 12th century cathedral is a very old cemetery.

You can barely see Nathan in this photo, but it really shows the proportion of the cathedral. No pictures were allowed inside, so you'll have to use your imagination. :)

More cemetery pictures.

I was so cold I put on both of my hats. :)

Overall, Durham was my favorite spot as far as beauty is concerned. It's a small college town of about 50,000, complete with cobblestone streets and a river through the main part of town. The professor there was very kind as well, and we also got to tour a school for girls, where a friend of a friend is the headmistress. We'll see about where God leads!

Happy Birthday June Bug!

Happy 1st birthday to my Junie Bug.

Oxford Peeps

Here is the oldest pub in Oxford, the place where Bill Clinton allegedly smoked but did not inhale. Casey, Mandy, Jack, Nathan and I scored a warm spot by the fire on the back patio.

I love Jack's lips! He almost always had them pursed like this...

Taylor University people may recognize our student body president from 2001-2002, Andrew Fennig. With him is his wife, Kristen, and their daughter, Lucy Kate. We saw them at Casey and Mandy's church. I was so thrilled to get one up on Allison, who sees Taylor people everywhere.

Not satisfied with just one TU grad, I found Chris Jones in the lobby, who graduated in 2004. Both Chris and Andrew are studying at Oxford (Mandy and Kristen are making silly faces in the background). While I don't think anything will top Allison's chance meeting with Drs. Russelow-Winquist and Winquist at the Grand Canyon, I think this one's at least in the running.

Go Trojans!

Oxford

While Nathan and I aren't thinking of moving to Oxford, Nathan had some friends there that he wanted to visit. Since several lines on the Tube were closed in London for construction, we walked to the bus stop and caught a ride to the Paddington train station. While we waited for the bus, and older English woman waited with us. All of a sudden, two younger people (a guy and a girl in their late teens or early twenties) sailed by us on their bicycles. This Englishwoman called out after them, "You know the rules! You're not supposed to ride on the pavement!" The girl called back, "So sorry madam!" Nathan and I just laughed. That definitely would never have happened in the ATL. If you see Nathan, ask him to impersonate the elderly Englishwoman. It's awesome!

We made it to Oxford in about an hour by train, and walked to the car rental place. A young Englishman and a German (?) sales person at Europecar were hashing out the details about insurance on the rental. I think there was some misunderstanding, so the Englishman just blurted, "Say some Oxford bus prangs into me. Am I covered?" I thought that was funny too. Nathan and I took to writing these funny little sayings in my journal. We got the rental car and the precious GPS (a definite marriage saver) and maneuvered our way to our B&B.

Wait! That's the wrong side for the steering wheel to be on!

Nathan likes to read his Guiness Book of World Records, and he recognized this sign as being one of the amazing feats he read about. The first person to run a mile under four minutes did so on the track on the other side of this fence.

Some old looking Oxford buildings...

Radcliffe Camera

I can't remember the name of this college, but it was pretty!

All Souls College

Christ Church College, where our friend Casey is getting his PhD

The Harry Potter-esque dining hall. I think they actually filmed the movie here.

Portraits in the dining hall.

Kristi, this is for you. X marks the spot where Ridley and Latimer were martyred for the faith. The other dude with Nathan is Casey.

Here is the memorial for Ridley and Latimer. I couldn't tell which statue was who, so I'm saying this one is Latimer.

Lewis, Tolkien, et al hangout, the Eagle and Child pub.

London Round 1

After our afternoon walk around London, we needed some grub! We popped into a pub, but it was really crowded and the first sign we saw said, "Beware! Thieves about! Do not give money to anyone except the person delivering your food." I just couldn't do it, so instead we stopped in a grocery store to get some dinner. Little did we know that the Whole Foods mecca was right off of our Tube station. It was three stories high, with restaurants and cafeteria style dining on the top floor. Holy smokes!

Here we are about to eat the best burritos ever.

AND they had Italian gelato, made in house. Boy, do I look beat tired or what? We'd been up for about 36 hours at this point.

Back at the hotel, I couldn't figure out how to wash my hands without either burning them or freezing them because the hot water and cold water ran out of two different taps. Nathan and I resorted to turning them both on and whipping our hands back and forth as fast as we could to make it even. :)

Here's our first hotel room. Nathan was busy flossing.

Here's the outside of our first hotel. It was just one skinny part of this row of establishments. We were on the tippy top floor.