Archive for August, 2006

Smirk, smirk – bye-bye, London!

August 24, 2006

I can’t believe this week has passed on so quickly. Shane’s really enjoyed the class and I’ve gotten a lot of exercise walking around.

Highlights from my portion of the trip:
- Seeing Stonehenge
- Climbing the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral
- Seeing the Globe Theatre from the inside

Highlights from Shane’s portion of the trip:
- Bus tour around town
- Waking up and going to class while I’m still sleeping (normally it’s the reverse)
- Having to pay $100/per person for dinners. Exchange rate sucks!!!

Of course a lot more happened, but seeing as this is a highlights entry, we’ll leave it at that :)

Here are some pics:

Stonehenge

Tower Bridge

Globe Theatre

See more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avalikelava/

Sight seeing for a directionally challenged tourist = weight loss

August 21, 2006

It’s no secret that I get lost getting home back in the US. Armed with three maps (with pictures) London is no different. I don’t know how many miles I walked, but I can promise that at least a third were not intentional. I did the Tower of London tour, walked across the Tower Bridge and then headed to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. From there I walked across Southwalk Bridge to the Mansion House underground station. My feet hurt but I had a great time each minute of it.Here’s what I learned today:
On the practical side…
Buying a London Pass card is totally worth it. I’m ending up seeing things I normally wouldn’t put in my budget to visit
Getting a week long metro pass is also a good plan – not having to worry about tix is so nice.
Hot dogs here don’t taste anything like Hot Dogs back home.

On the edumucational side…
The Globe Theatre on site in London today is actually the third reincarnation of that building.
Unlike “Shakespeare in Love”, Queen Elizabeth never visited a play in that theatre.
The Tower of London, despite is morbid past, used to actually house Royalty…as their actual home…not just “home” while a relative’s usurping the throne.
Only 7 people were actually beheaded in the Tower (and not all executions were public). That’s not to say that more weren’t killed there, just not by losing their heads.
Religious extremists have been around for a very long time
The Tower Bridge is separated via hydraulic engines. Horace Jones had to present his designs to commission several times because they wouldn’t believe his design would work.

Oh – seeing as this is a communal blog, you might be asking what Shane’s been doing while I’m workin’ so hard. He’s exercising his brain muscles by sitting in class at the London Business School. I think I got the better end of this deal.