Off to Cardiff

I shared a cab to Paddington Station with a flatmate, and took the train to Cardiff.  Yes, this is the station of storybook bear fame and I have been through there once before at an ungodly time in the morning on the way to Paris.  That time I saw the bear statue briefly and found it disappointing. 

The public transportation system here is extensive and while we used the tube (subway, underground) a lot during our stay in London, as well as the bus system, I am unfamiliar with the trains and the other forms of transportation I will need to use during the rest of my trip.  Learning curve!  I booked my Paddington to Cardiff ticket the night before via computer, and also reserved a hotel in Cardiff that is RIGHT NEXT TO the train station which is also the bus station.  Any friends familiar with my geographical impairment will understand why this is important for me.  (My flatmate Martha whom we nicknamed the "Human GPS" is now back home in Florida, but she needn't worry about having to come find me as she did a few times in past weeks.)  The first thing I found out when I arrived at Paddington was that you have some leeway with certain tickets.  I had to retrieve my ticket from a machine, and I noticed that it could be used at various other times yesterday morning.  Because I had arrived early, I was able to take a train a half hour earlier than I had planned.  (This was good, because all the trains were delayed en route, and I got in about the time I would have if I had taken the later train!)  The next thing I found out was that you do not find out what platform your train departs from until sometimes moments before you need to board.  People stand and watch a board and finally your train's sign indicates a platform.  (An elderly woman shared with me that she got a tip-off from a staff member about her train's platform because it is too hard for her to maneuver there in time.)  I had some heavy luggage and was anxious to board in time to stick my large bag in the small holding area because I could not lift it nor did I think it would fit in the overhead space.  I therefore memorized the location of all the platforms before I resumed my sign watching, and was successful in doing this.  The scenery from the train was not overly interesting, but I did notice that Reading, England has a huge Oracle facility.  (Yes, the tech company that some of our friends work for at home, although there is also apparently a huge mall in Reading by that name but I don't know if there is any relation.)

 



Here is a view from my hotel room, 10th floor, and you can actually see the tracks I came in on.  I feel good about being so close to the place I will return from on Monday morning to get my Heathrow flight Monday night.  (Hmmm...I can see it but can I remember how to get to it?)   Speaking of technology in the above paragraph brings me to the horror of not being able to connect to the hotel's free wi fi last night.  My iPhone connected without any problem, but my laptop absolutely would not.  The Welsh are very friendly and the service desk people sent someone up to help, then sent their expert up later, but none of this could get me connected.  Today it works!  I am posting quickly because I want to visit Cardiff Castle which is right up the street.  I walked past it last night.

 

My dragon seems to enjoy the view, and as you can see he is learning Welsh from the dictionary I bought in Oxford.  I have only heard a few people speaking it, but it is on all official signs.  Everyone speaks English, and I have met a few people who moved here from London. 

I am going to charge the computer without signing out because I am terrified of losing my connection.  I also noticed when I was able to connect to their site that they are running an extra discount this week.  That will be a plus.  Off to the castle....

Last Day in London

I intensely dislike packing, and I'm going to have to start.  Tomorrow morning our study group is going in all directions.  Most are heading back to various parts of the U.S., and a few of us are staying a bit longer.  My dragon and I are headed to Cardiff.  I'm so excited about seeing the land of some of my ancestors.  It will be hard to part from people I've lived with for only three weeks, because we have gotten to know each other so well.  Because we all work in some aspects of the Information Science field, I feel certain some of us will see each other again in a professional capacity.  I also know that I will keep in contact with those I have grown especially close to.

Today we went to Buckingham Palace!  Each of us was given an audio device and it was seriously the best audio tour I have taken.  It was perfectly synched and you could press different numbered buttons if you wanted to hear more about a certain topic.  Different people spoke on the tape including the Queen's husband (!) thanking us for visiting.  Notice in my picture that the flag is flying, indicating the Queen was at home today.

The palace was splendid, and each room was explained in detail.  Some of these rooms are still used by the Royal Family.  The Queen's 1953 coronation was covered in detail.  My favorite part was a movie where you could see the young Queen tap her 2 and 4-year-old children on the shoulders when they made faces, covered their eyes, etc. during the official photography session.  All the while she continued to smile without seeming to look down.  It was a true mom moment.

Speaking of moms, I took this photo for mine as she would love the gorgeous window boxes in London.  They are all over the place, and I spotted these while walking from the palace to the Hard Rock Café for our final luncheon.

 

 





As always we had a photo focus, and today's was capturing movement by photographing a vehicle.  London is the hardest city to cross the street safely in of any place I have ever been, but would you believe today it was hard to find a speeding vehicle?  It seemed that everywhere we looked in the area of the palace people appeared to be driving, well, almost normally!  I did manage to capture a bit of motion with this car below, but I actually felt safe walking around in that area.  Bad photo op though.
I prefer safe.  Hey, you can sort of see his wheels moving....

I will leave you with a picture of a small part of the Queen's gardens.  She has gorgeous gardens.  When next you hear from me I will be in Wales, where my dragon hopes to find his name.

Mixing It Up With FSU Study Abroad Programs--Group Video Project

Watson, the game is afoot!

We had a free day and I was able to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum!  Some of you know that I have been a Doyle fan since grade school.  My uncle bought me The Complete Sherlock Holmes and I was hooked.  I have been collecting Doyle for years, and the opportunity to do things like this is a real plus during my time in London.  The museum is of course located at 221b Baker Street.  Obviously Holmes has lots of fans worldwide.  The queues (lines) were long and people were speaking many languages.  Fortunately my flatmate and I went early and did not have to wait long.

 

The house is of the period, with fireplaces and meticulous attention to detail that Holmes aficionados would notice.  There were some hokey figurines and some things that could have been done better, but overall I really enjoyed my visit.  This was one of the few places on my trip that I have bought several things to take home!  I felt as thought Holmes and Watson might walk in at any moment. 

Last night I had the opportunity to return to the British Museum for another visit.  Yes, it is open every Friday night and it is less than a five minute walk from my flat!  There is a special exhibit right now about Pompeii and Herculaneum.  This is the first time that most of these artifacts have been shown outside of Italy.  While admittance to the British museum is free (!!!) there is of course a charge for an exhibition of this nature.  Would you believe I got a discount with my student i.d.?   How many people do you know who in one trip could receive an AARP discount on British Airways and a student discount around Europe? 

 

The exhibit was well done, with a film in the beginning interspersing scenes from these ancient towns and mural portraits of the occupants with scenes of modern day Italians engaged in the same jobs and activities.  It brought a truly human element to what we were about to see. 

 

 



Because the towns were buried for so long, we have a chance to glimpse a civilization that would have been torn down or built over as happened elsewhere.  The murals from Pompeii are indescribably beautiful.  The jewelry of the people, their tableware, even their mechanisms for running water are on display.  The exhibit was set up as a series of rooms in a house.  It was tastefully done, with none of the ashen molds of the victims' bodies that we've all seen pictures of.  There was one of a guard dog, who was found at his post in a doorway.  Seeing him made me sad.  There is still much of Pompeii left to excavate. 

 

At Herculaneum, which was a smaller town, most things were incinerated.  There was some furniture which survived as charred.  It is other worldly to see a graceful garden bench, looking like charcoal, displayed in a garden room with the teal bird and flower mosaic walls from Pompeii.  I spent a long time in this exhibit.

 

Tomorrow is our last formal program day, and then our group will be dispersing. We will go to Buckingham Palace tomorrow and then have lunch at the Hard Rock Café.







Mrs. Ullrich's Trip to the United Kingdom

This is a Web 2.0 timeline tool that was demonstrated by classmates.  I thought it would be a fun teaching tool for talking to students about my summer learning experience.  I will continue to update it until I return.  When classes end Monday I am going to Wales for a week.  My mascot is a Welsh dragon, as yet unnamed.  (I bought a Welsh dictionary in the bookstore at Oxford!)  The mascot will narrate the Wales experiences. 

This tool, called Timetoast, could be used with upper-elementary students in book groups.  It would particularly lend itself to historical fiction, but would also be useful in organizing a student's thoughts about what happened when in a text.  I could also see this being used in the classroom for social studies topics.  I have gotten some great ideas this summer that I am looking forward to using with students next fall.

Night on the Thames

Tonight we took a ride on the London Eye.  Our entire class fit inside one capsule on this gigantic Ferris wheel, and there was still plenty of room to walk around.  When at the top, you can see for 25 miles.  It was fun.

Afterwards we strolled up the Thames, where lots of street performers were doing all kinds of interesting things.  A classmate pointed out a statue that was really a person.  I never would have guessed.  Later we saw another one.  Our destination was the Globe Theatre.  This is the third incarnation of the building, and it opened in 1997.  The theatre is a meticulous recreation of the 1599 theatre, which burned, and its 1614 replacement which was demolished in 1644,  When you are in it, it is easy to feel like you are back in Shakespeare's time.  We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I have seen the play before, but this was somehow different.  The mainly British audience really enjoys Shakespeare and were laughing and totally engaged in the play.  The people who stand in an area next to the stage and under the open roof are called "groundlings." 

After the play, we practiced night photography from the Millennium Bridge.  My camera has a night setting, and we also used little tripods to keep our cameras still during the slower shutter speed.  Can you see St. Paul's Cathedral?

Check back tomorrow to hear about my visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum!

A Visit to Highgate Cemetery - My Digital Story

Our photo challenge today was to create a story in 5 pictures.  In case you cannot intuit the meaning of the following I will give you a few hints.

Clearly the woman in the first photo is a spy or someone trying to remain anonymous. (She bears a striking resemblance to a colleague, but that is of no consequence.)  Where is she going?  The other photos give you clues and in the end, well....I give you the answer just in case it has been a few years since you read any of Dahl's books.  The Dahl Centre is brimming with creativity and encourages it in both children and adults.  So no need to remain anonymous, mysterious lady in green.

I had a less than creative day, having to miss our group's visit to the Harry Potter Studios.  It started late yesterday when I discovered when London's commuter rush occurs.  I was taking the tube (translation: subway) on an exceedingly hot day and was underground waiting for my connecting train when the sign showed it was "held."  I was told this generally means a malfunction or that something happened on the train.  My friend and I waited as the platform got fuller and fuller with people coming off other trains, and it got hotter and hotter. (One also has an uncomfortable feeling about being too close to the edge of the platform with so many people pressing behind.) 

The train finally arrived and all of us crushed into it.  It was incredibly hot and when we finally arrived at our destination station the platform air felt cool by comparison.  (This area of Europe has been experiencing an uncharacteristic heat wave which seems to be breaking today.)  After walking back to my flat I was dehydrated and had the beginnings of a heat headache which would not respond to pain relievers.

Anyway, to see reports of the amazing visit to the Harry Potter Studios, see my colleagues' blogs as listed on the group Facebook page.  I had an adventure of my own today, spending several hours removing malicious traces of a program from an Eastern European country from my laptop.  Thoughts of the money removed from my checking account during a previous visit to that area, where the sophisticated skills of those who perpetrate internet theft are unequaled, finally drove me to make an appointment with the IT Administrator here.  He helped tremendously, making a number of changes, and I now feel safe.

 



I have also been told by the mystery woman that the IT gentleman doesn't just handle these sorts of issues, but takes the hardware portion of his job seriously also.  He was the only person she could find who had a Phillips head screwdriver and he fixed the clasp on her purse!

High tea at the Orangery!  Scones and finger sandwiches and little tarts with tea after touring Kensington Palace. Our photo focus today was water, and I liked the fountains surrounded by flowers and foliage.

My favorite part of the palace tour was the section about Queen Victoria's life, and particularly her devotion to Albert.  She always wore mourning dress after his death.  The exhibit featured photos and memorabilia from Victoria's youth through her Golden Jubilee.  There were numerous letters in her handwriting and quotes from her on the walls.  It was an informative and touching exhibit.

Another interesting display was the dresses worn by Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and Princess Diana in the decades of the 1950s through the 1980s.  Each dress was displayed next to a photo of it being worn and a caption describing the occasion. 

London has a series of Royal Parks, as I have mentioned before, and today I visited Kensington Gardens.  There was another water-related site which is the Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. I expected a more traditional fountain, but what I found was an unusual sort of river of water, with bunches of little spurts keeping children cool as they played on this hot day.  I somehow think Diana would have liked that.

Kensington Gardens has a forever child in the form of the Peter Pan statue.  It was commissioned and given by Peter's creator, J.M.Barrie, in 1912.  Kensington Gardens is where Peter lived with the fairies after he ran away from home.  You can see them around him in the statue.

 

 

 

Monday in London

The visit to Westminster Abbey this morning is another highlight of my visit to London.  We had an extremely knowledgeable tour guide who covered many details of British history.  I never wanted it to end!  We saw the graves and memorials of numerous famous people, including Elizabeth I and lots of authors.  It was somehow touching to see that Elizabeth is buried with her sister Mary who briefly had her imprisoned in the Tower of London.  I found myself wishing that I remembered more Latin so I could read all the inscriptions.  Westminster is of course the place where coronations and state funerals are held. 

Our photo assignment of the day was to stitch photos together to create a panorama if our cameras did not have that setting.  My digital camera is quite simple and I rarely take photos at all, so all of these assignments have been good for me and this one was challenging to say the least.  If you look closely at the result of my practice (the photos were taken looking across the street from Westminster Abbey) you may see some buildings and people that look like clones of each other.  There is only one London Eye (giant ferris wheel) in this one though so I am improving!  Did I mention that our group will be riding on the Eye one night later this week?

 

 

London has beautiful parks and we picnicked in one as we often do.  I have noticed people doing this on their lunch hours and it is satisfying to see so many natural areas maintained and used in a city this size. 

 

 

 

 





After lunch we went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery which are close to each other.  These museums, like many others in London, offer free admission.  I enjoyed the National Gallery, but after visiting the two art museums in Paris so recently I was soon ready to move on to the Portrait Gallery.  This museum is fascinating.  The portraits are organized chronologically, and I saw for the first time the faces of people I have only read about.  Additionally the official portraits of British leaders and royalty are featured.  Kate's was right inside the door. (How exciting to be here on the day her baby was born.)  As the exhibits move into the present time, the variations in style of art increase.  I enjoyed seeing these all together rather than separated by style as they are in traditional art museums.  It was a different way to experience art. 

 

On the way back to our flat, a few of us dropped by Harrods.  You probably know about this huge department store in Knightsbridge, founded in 1834.  It is beautiful, with an Egyptian themed central escalator, and covers an entire city block.  I can't think of anything you could not find there.  In addition to all the departments a traditional department store would have, there is a food area that has a meat market, fish market, and produce area, as well as places to sit down and eat various types of foods.  There are restaurants and cafes throughout, and exemplary service from employees who are all dressed in black and white. 

 

My parents have brought me gifts from this store before, so I was "good" and only window shopped.  One of my friends bought some great gifts for her family at home.  Harrods is owned by the father of the man Diana was dating when the two of them were involved in the fatal car accident.  I took this picture of the memorial to them which occupies a central spot in Harrods.

 

 

 

Weekend in Paris

 

 

 

Who knew the Eurostar was so comfortable and could get from London to Paris so fast?  Not this librarian, but I loved the experience (all but the part of leaving our flat at 4:30 am) of having breakfast on the train and lunch in a park in Paris.  In between we visited the Louvre!  I knew it was huge, but that is an understatement. We only had time to see a small portion of the museum, but I saw masterpieces I never thought I would have an opportunity to view in person.

After ordering lunch in a bakery that sold sandwiches, trying to recall French words I once knew and doing a lot of pointing, we ate in a park near the Eiffel Tower.  This icon is well guarded and our backpacks were searched before we were allowed to take the elevator to the second viewing level. 

The view was amazing.

 

 

 

 



 

We saw Notre Dame Cathedral, took a boat ride on the Seine, and enjoyed dinner in a French bistro.  That was just the first day!  Here is a collage I made of my name using details from the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

 

I learned that Paris is composed of twenty neighborhoods, and that each one has its own shops, restaurants, etc. so that the people that live there essentially are part of a neighborhood village.  The second day my friends and I started exploring some of these neighborhoods.  We met at a café for breakfast and then visited the Musee d'Orsay on the left bank.  This museum has an incredible art collection including many Impressionist works - a favorite of mine.  I was lucky in that one of my librarian friends majored in art history and she was a fantastic learning resource as we strolled through the Orsay. 

 

We attempted to visit the catacombs, but the wait was more than two hours in the blazing sun.  (France and the UK are experiencing a heat wave right now.)  Since I have visited Kiev's Caves of the Winds with the mummified monks, I decided to pass on this experience.  Exploring the neighborhoods was fun, and the Parisians were friendly.  Dinner at an outdoor café was a special treat. 

 

For our last day in Paris we visited Versailles.  The Tour de France was coming through there, so we waded through media and crowds.  Louis XIV's estate is so large it was difficult to walk it in 90+ degree heat, but we saw most of the palace, Marie Antoinette's house, and the gardens with many fountains. 

 

 

 

We returned to London on the Eurostar.  I changed the time back on my watch, but didn't notice the time on my phone did not change as it should have done automatically.  I use it as an alarm, so I got up a whole hour early this morning! 

 

The Tower of London!  For so many years I have read about this place and finally got to see it.  One of my roommates and I were lucky enough to get in on a tour given by one of the Beefeaters.  These Yeoman Warders live inside the Tower walls with their families, and are extremely knowledgeable about the history of the site.  Ours also had a great sense of humor! 

I thought I knew a lot about British history, but this gentleman certainly filled in some gaps.  The tour ended inside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula where several of Henry VIII's executed wives (including Ann Boleyn) are buried.  There is a plaque on the wall listing all the people who are buried there and it reads like a Who's Who of people who fell out of favor and lost their heads. 

There are many moods inside these historic walls.  We saw the Crown Jewels first to avoid the lines, and that was quite an experience.  I had to buy a book about them.  In fact I bought another book about the history of the Tower.  It is actually a complex of towers, the most famous of which is what we now call the Bloody Tower.  I reddened the window frame so you can see where a doomed prisoner might watch someone else being carted off to be executed.  The yeoman told us as many as 2,000 people would turn out to watch a beheading.  One had to be in special favor with the ruler to be granted the privilege of a private execution.

 

The Queen's Guard is present at the Tower as well as a couple of other palaces.  The last time I saw one of them was in Ottawa as a child and my sister tried valiantly to get him to move or laugh.  We thought we saw his mouth twitch.

 

 

 

We ended the afternoon at the Borough Market.  I walked over London Bridge into this huge marketplace full of every sort of food stall.  There was lots of fresh produce and all kinds of interesting products to buy.  We are leaving for Paris early in the morning, so I just browsed.  Can't wait to ride on the Eurostar.

 

 

Imagine going to the town where Roald Dahl lived for 35 years!  Today our study group walked through this picturesque English village and visited the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.  The museum is particularly engaging as it follows Dahl's life and has interactive exhibits in each portion.  The first room is based on his first autobiography Boy, with letters he wrote his mother from school,  family photos, notes about pranks, and references and manipulatives related to his books throughout.  Children examining the exhibits were enthralled.  I took a photo of candy wrappers he saved when the company asked the boys at his school to taste test their products.  The seeds of Charlie were sown.

 

Other rooms contained the actual writing hut Dahl used in his back yard, materials for children to create books and artwork, and a replica of the hut's interior so visitors can sit his chair and be photographed.  The doors to one of the rooms look like a giant Wonka bar!

The village itself was charming, with old cottages and lots of beautiful gardens and climbing roses.  We visited Dahl's grave, next to an old church, right up the hill. 

 

We were asked to look for small details today and take a picture of one.  I liked this finial on a fence post.  It seemed ironic to me, as most of the houses in the village were old, or were built to look like they were.  This abode must have been especially so!

 

 

We ended the perfect Roald Dahl day by attending Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical at the Drury Lane Theatre which is opulent and historic.  The musical was fantastic, with a superb cast and lots of special effects.

 



What a dream...the Bodleian Library, Blackwell's Book Shop and more, all in one day!  Our study group went to Oxford, and the Inspector Lewis show will never look the same to me again.  I could easily stay in this town for a long time.  Can you imagine going to school or working here?

There is no way to describe being inside the Bodleian library.  One of the oldest and most famous libraries in Europe, it was re-founded in this building in 1602.  Its beginnings, however, date back to the 14th century.  Not every librarian gets to take a look at this place!

 







No photographs are permitted inside, but the feel is nearly medieval and everything is vintage,  We were encouraged to play with unique (to us) settings on our cameras and I made this shot sepia to reflect the vintage feel of this town.

The library is having a special exhibit of Magical Books, mainly comprised of children's fantasy works by Oxford alumnae like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman.  I saw original maps drawn by Lewis and Tolkien of their magical lands, and notes in their handwriting.  Additionally there were some much older works on alchemy.  After the library visit we ate lunch at the Eagle and Child, the pub frequented by Lewis and Tolkien when they both taught at Oxford.  The food was great and I had a lemonade mixed with rosewater. 

 



 

After lunch we were off to Christ Church, one of the colleges of Oxford.  How would you like to go to school here?

 



 

Some of the scenes from the Harry Potter films were shot here.  This is the dining room you saw in Hogwarts, and students still eat their meals in this room!



 

Before returning to London by train, I spent some time in Blackwell's Book Shop.  Any librarian knows about the UK's most famous and oldest (1879) academic bookseller.  The Oxford location is the flagship store.  I bought a Welsh dictionary and spent some time chatting with the clerk who happened to be an American student from Virginia.  He is completing his PhD at Oxford.  Envy, envy.  As I left for the station I looked longingly at the antiquarian section in the rear.  A classmate described the three men sitting at desks there as looking like intimidating guardians, but I kept thinking about how much I could have learned from them.  One of my favorite jobs ever was working for an antiquarian bookseller.  Stop back tomorrow to find out what happens at Roald Dahl's house... 



















Today started with a boat ride on Regent's Canal.  We were looking for contrasts and I certainly saw some, particularly in this rundown houseboat with the expensive home seen behind it. 

Most of the boats are in much better condition, and our professor explained that there is a whole community of people who live in these floating homes on the canal.  After passing through a long dark tunnel and letting some passengers off at the London Zoo, we arrived at Camden Market. 
The market is a colorful, busy place with every kind of product and food stall you can imaginable.  The location is historic, having once housed stables used when horses pulled the canal boats. 

I broke the handle on my purse soon after arriving in London and was browsing the stalls for a replacement.  A vendor was demonstrating the versatility of a leather bag he had made and I managed to bargain down the price by offering cash.  Meanwhile my shopping companions had moved on and then noticed I was missing.  One of my flatmates (who we tease about being a human GPS due to her uncanny ability to find her way around a city she has never visited before) returned to save me.  I did buy the purse, and the craftsman gave me the name of his YouTube video that shows him making the bags.  He said his friend had filmed him and shyly added that it has tango music from his native country.

London is a vibrant multicultural city and the people are quite friendly.  I rarely feel the size of the city.  There are many more trees and natural areas like parks than one sees in a large American city. Many parks have small cafes.  While street crossing can be dangerous, other aspects of large cities such as crowded sidewalks are not as noticeable.  I was walking back to campus alone from the British Library the other day and became lost.  As I found my way back I asked three different people for directions and all were gracious and happy to help.  Another librarian and I were browsing in an art gallery recently and the saleswoman commented that she had lived in America for a year and liked it a lot.  She shared her dream of going to Florida. 

 

London is truly a city of neighborhoods, and so far I like it a lot.  I can tell it would take many visits to get really familiar with this city, but I already feel more comfortable than I thought I would at this point.  I am anxious to share details of my visit to the Highgate Cemetery but that will do so later.  We are leaving early in the morning for Oxford, where the Bodleian Library and Blackwell's Bookshop await!