July 21, 2010

Ely, London and Trinity

Last week for our field trip we spend the morning and afternoon in Ely (pronounced ee-lee). We toured a beautiful cathedral and then spent time wandering around the cute little town. The surrounding area was beautiful! Everything was wonderfully green and fresh looking... about the complete opposite of the desert!

On Friday some friends and I took a day trip to London. Our first stop was the Tower of London. This was my second trip there, but this time I was able to see some of the rooms I had missed my first time around. Then we spent some time wandering through the British Museum. That place is absolutely ginormous! It's amazing just how many exhibits they have. I have a feeling we could have spent the entire day in there and it still would not have been enough time! We then made a trip over to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we climbed up to the dome. (You're not supposed to take pictures, but I was able to sneak a few) I think this is one of the most beautiful buildings in London. I was able to sit in the middle of the Cathedral, admiring the beauty while listening to the organ. It was so peaceful and relaxing! After having dinner at a little pub on the water, we went to the Globe to see another play! This time we saw Henry IV, Part 2, another play we read in class. It was so wonderful to get to see another performance at the Globe! I feel thoroughly and wonderfully spoiled :)

Today my art history class took a mini field trip down the street to Trinity college. The college is beautiful! Not to mention has an incredible history. The point of the field trip was to look at old bestiaries, but I was more interested in the other manuscripts they had out. We saw notes from Lord Byron talking about his time at Trinity. I saw notes and poems from Lord Tennyson. They had Sir Isaac Newton's notebook, walking stick, and even a lock of his hair! My two favorites were Shakespeare's original folio of all his plays, and the original copy of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh! We then walked through the courtyards and saw where Newton calculated the speed of sound and where they filmed the race scene in Chariots of Fire. We also saw a distant relative of the apple tree that Newton sat under when the apple fell on his head. All in all, it was a very good day!

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