Mucking About at Stonehenge (Literally)

     For a nation with such a huge history, England is quite a small country; geographically speaking, England is comparable to New England.  Today was a day trip to Salisbury which is southwest of London, almost to Bath.  Once we fought our way out of London traffic it took us two hours to get there.  A fairly quick trip for going over half way across the country.  The town of Salisbury is what I’d call quaint, with really lovely countryside and houses.  Because of the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral (which houses the best preserved Magna Carta exemplar) and the proximity of Stonehenge it does attract many tourists, though not as many as Oxford, as far as I could see.  The Cathedral, first of all, is the best example of gothic architecture in the country.  It is a truly impressive building.

   Our guide, Patrick, took us around and we learned some fascinating bits of history attached to the town and church.  For example, the flag (or “colours”) that was carried at the fore of the English soldiers who burned down the White House during the War of 1812 is at this cathedral.  It is rather worse for wear, though.

It's the one on the left that you can see through.

  After a bit of lunch around the town we were off to Stonehenge.  I’ve been before, but last time I didn’t have Patrick.  Patrick started our tour by marching us away from the ancient stone structure into a field of sheep.  We had to mind our step carefully due to the sheep’s leavings; this is where the "mucking" from the post title comes in.  From this direction we not only had a tremendous view but learned about how the ancient people who constructed Stonehenge would have approached this ceremonial ground and then we took the same trail they would have 4,000 years ago.  What an experience!  Plus, the lambs were darling.

   Stonehenge really is a fascinating place, all the more so because despite the amount of research and archaeological work that has gone into this site, we still have very vague ideas about not only the why of Stonehenge, but also the when!

  Our photo assignment for the day was the trickiest yet: a story in five pictures.  As we all learned, this takes some planning, but the results can be quite fun.  I chose to look at the entire day, from leaving in the morning- all excited, to the cathedral, to taking a peek at a famous singer's house, to Stonehenge, and ending with everyone’s exhausted faces at the end of the day.  Thanks to the lovely weather and Patrick’s great guiding, this may have been my favorite trip so far!

How Not to Travel in London, Or, Digital Video Project

   My time in London is moving very quickly, too quickly for my liking, but that means assignments are coming due.  Here is one that my group (Kristen and Chelsea) and I had a lot of fun making.  Not only will you get a good laugh, but you might learn something about getting around London.  Enjoy!

Afternoon Tea

   For many years I was firm in my dislike of tea.  Just hot water with just enough taste to make you realize it’s bland.  Unfortunately, I think I was basing this on one bad tea experience.  Slowly I came to assent to a cup of black tea with just the right amount of milk and sugar.  This was mostly because of a trip to Spain where I had the perfect cup of English Breakfast Tea.  Odd, I know.  Eventually I came to favor green tea as well, and now I willingly admit to being a tea-drinker.  I tell you this rather insipid chronicle because after today I am an enthusiastic proponent of the English tradition of afternoon tea.  Today we traveled through Kensington Gardens, toured Kensington Palace, and then had an English Orangery Afternoon Tea.

   This included tea (of course) as well as finger sandwiches, scones, cakes, and fruit tartlets.  The tea, first of all, was nothing like the kind of tea I’ve had before.  This isn’t tea from a bag but actual tea leaves steeped in our own teapot.  Some of us may have committed a faux pas and started pouring our tea before the waiters handed out the strainers.  Americans!  But it was still delicious.  And the finger foods were very dainty and scrumptious.  Beyond the taste, presentation is a vital part of this lovely tradition.

  Not only do the plate trees make for a nice arrangement, but they save a lot of space.  We each had our own and with everyone having their own teapots, as well, the table was already a bit crowded.  Overall, this experience is one of my favorites so far.  Afternoon tea is an experience steeped in tradition, and delicious to boot.  Cheers!

Transported

   This weekend has been fairly quiet for me.  We had two days off in a row and Saturday was devoted to homework; though I did take a break that night to treat myself to some gelato.

   Today held a bit more excitement as I walked to Covent Garden and visited the London Transport Museum.  This is a really fun museum where visitors can explore the history of transportation in London.  In order to reach the beginning of the exhibit you take an elevator back in time!  Check it out.

 

   It was very interesting to see how transportation has evolved over 200 years.  I was especially struck by what a large role horses played before engines.  It seems obvious, but it’s something I've never really thought of before.  From hackneys to the omnibus, London really was run on horse power.  I learned that by 1900 London’s public transport relied on more than 50,000 horses.  These horses all had to be cared for: housed, groomed, fed, doctored, etc.  Apparently it was a common sight to see a horse collapse in its harness in the middle of the street.  And can you imagine the “exhaust”?  Every day the horses produced more than 1000 tons of dung.  Because of this there were workers, often young boys who lived on the streets, who were paid (very little) to clean the streets behind the many carts and carriages.

  As the population of London exploded, so did the perimeter of the city.  More and more people needed a way to get where they needed to be.  Innovations to solve this problem included the underground (the first in the world) and eventually the motorized busses.  One of the other fascinating things for me were the many ideas people came up with to help the problem of overcrowded transportation.

What do you think?  Would it work?

  Transportation in London is very important, and is ever improving.  The new Crossrail system is currently being constructed and expected to be completed in 2018.  There is always something better around the corner!

And Now, For Something Completely Different

   As many of you know, my older sister Michelle is celebrating a birthday soon.  She'll be getting a proper gift when I get back, but for now I'm dedicating my latest assignment to her in honor of her love of food.  Enjoy!

Better Never than Late

   Here's what I love about London: everything is on time.  When we arrived at Paddington Station to catch our train to Oxford yesterday we were warned not to wander too far before the train left because when the schedule says an 8:22AM departure you can be certain that the train is moving out of the station at 8:22AM.  This prompt service goes for the underground and busses, as well. Just this morning I was standing outside of the Palace Theatre Box Office, waiting to get "day of" tickets for "Singin' in the Rain," and the doors were unlocked right on time, exactly at 10AM.  The efficiency of the system in London is especially noticeable because while I walk most places, I depend on the public transportation system.  For our day trips we need to get to our destinations easily and efficiently in order to have plenty of time to spend there, or to arrive in time for a scheduled tour.  So far we haven't been let down!

And now please enjoy this little memento from Paddington Station!

[Post title quote from George Bernard Shaw.]

A Day in Oxford

   I’ve talked about how much I love the omnipresence of history in London.  Now let’s talk about the living history of Oxford!  Many of the places we see as visitors to London we go to with the goal of seeing—please excuse my ineloquence—something old.  They are destinations with the purpose of teaching and showing historic events and places.  Basically this means those of us with maps in our back pockets and cameras around our necks shuffle past artifacts that are housed behind glass while reading plaques or listening to tour guides.  While I’m reluctant to play this part, I do enjoy the trips we’re taking in this class and find the artifacts and facts behind them fascinating.  But Oxford is a working piece of history. 

The ceiling of the room directly beneath the Bodleian Library

  Today we went to the city of Oxford and toured several amazing places.  First, the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.  This is, of course, of particular interest to me and everyone in the group because we are all in the process of getting our Masters in Library and Information Science.  The Bodleian Library dates from 1602 (though it assimilated an earlier form of the library) and the building it is housed in dates back to the early 12^th century.  The buildings of Oxford University are impressive in themselves, the story of how this early library came about is amazing to learn, but my favorite part was that it is a working library.  You have to have certain permissions to enter and use the books, of course, but as we were being taken on a tour (no pictures allowed, unfortunately) students and scholars were using the reading rooms and going in and out.  Can you imagine being such a part of that history?!

  [I apologize for the excessive use of exclamation points in the following section;

it was a pretty exciting place.]

   Then we were off to the Story Museum.  Oh my goodness.  This is an absolutely brilliant project which does mostly visits to schools to promote literacy and oral storytelling traditions, and they have plans for their unfinished museum which are fantastic.  Right now the museum is partly done, but there are a couple exhibits that are roughly done and they are absolutely amazing.

   In the first you follow the tale of the creation of the “Storyloom” which was a machine that ran off of children’s imagination.  The made up story was clever, silly, delightful, and claimed that the Storyloom is responsible for the creation of the Alice in Wonderland series.  Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) went to school at Christ Church and lived in Oxford when he wrote his famous tales.  Other famous authors from Oxford are J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Philip Pullman (who our guide casually mentioned she was friends with!!!).  Anyway, back to the Story Museum.  After going through the delightfully decorated story path and reading the tale you could draw pictures or write about what inspired you to write (I added “What if . . .?” to the wall).  What fun to be a part of this place for future visitors to see!  The next exhibit showed the artwork of artists around the world depicting scenes from Alice in Wonderland.  And at the end of this was a "tea room" with . . . well it really can’t be appreciated with just words.  Take a look!

There is mulch on the floor, and a hat attached to each seat!

Fun, right?  Check out the FSU Multimedia 2012 Facebook page for a group shot of the class sitting down to tea.  This was really a wonderful place, and my goal is to someday visit again when it is finished.  The best part was that this wasn’t just a place where you slowly walked around and admired things on display (which I enjoyed doing today, too, at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology), but it’s a center of imaginative learning and interactive fun!

   Finally, we made our way to Christ Church.  Now, I know “church” is part of the name but this is actually a school.  This is so because (as we learned today) the church was the educational system in medieval times. Young men were sent to be educated by the clergy, and many of the churches (especially in Oxford) eventually turned into what we today call universities.  This also means that there are fantastically designed cathedrals within the schools.

Some of you Harry Potter fans might recognize the name Christ Church as the filming location for some of the scenes from the movies.  For example, the great hall.

    Incredibly huge and impressive.  But, again, this is an active university.  Many, many tourists go through here daily, but the great hall is sometimes closed because  it is in use by the students who eat their meals there.  This kind of connection with hundreds of years of tradition astonishes me.  Can you imagine eating, walking, learning, living in an institution that was founded in the 1500s?!  Clearly this made an impact on me, and I love Oxford for the example it sets of living in history.

And here's an example to show that the center of London has its moments, too.