Entry 2: July 15, 2008

London is full of interesting things to do. You can never be bored in London—there is just too much to do! Museums are always a good way to spend your time and London has some of the best and most interesting museums in the world.

The Cabinet War Rooms for instance are a good place to visit. Also located in the Cabinet War Rooms is the Churchill Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms were where Churchill was based during the bombing of London in World War II. This is a very interesting place to visit because not only do you learn about the man and his many talents, such as journalism and painting, but you actually get to walk through the underground headquarters where he worked to plan and regroup during the bombing of London. You get to see the room where he met with all of his fellow military leaders and other government heads. The rooms have basically been untouched since they were occupied during World War II. It is a surreal experience to know that Churchill lived and worked there during the early part of the war and still see it as it was when he was there. The Churchill Museum is also an interesting way to spend your time, especially if you love history as much as I do. The museum is set up very well and it takes you through Churchill's life from the time he was born until the time he died in 1965. The museum explains Churchill's career and how he became a great leader during World War II. The Cabinet War Rooms are one of my favorite museums we have been to so far.

Another great museum to visit is the National Gallery. It is a great place to find lots of amazing artwork. If anybody has taken art history with Dr. Mulvaney, this is the museum for you. I found several paintings at this museum that we had gone over in art history and every time I found one I was quite excited. And for those of us that were on the Italy portion of this trip we were excited to see a few Pierro della Francesca works in there, mainly the “Baptism of Christ”. The works of art in this museum are overwhelmingly beautiful and you could spend days in there and be happy at the feast of wonder your eyes are beholding. There are works of art from all sorts of well known names in the National Gallery from Monet, to van Gogh, to da Vinci, to Pierro, to Michelangelo. I was quite excited to see several works by van Gogh, as he is my favorite artist. I wish I had had more time to spend in the National Gallery because I'm sure that there were a lot of amazing works that I missed. Hopefully I will be able to go back before we leave for Scotland.

One other wonderful thing to spend your time doing is going to plays. A few of us just went to a play today called “The Year of Magical Thinking” with Vanessa Redgrave. It was a one woman play. Yes it was only Vanessa Redgrave on stage for a whole hour and forty minutes and it was amazing. She is such an amazing actress and it was amazing to be able to sit so close to the stage. She kept our attention the entire length of the play, which was quite a task since she was the only character on stage. But she was amazing and performed so well. She was so humble when the play was over as well. It was just an amazing experience to see a great actress like Vanessa Redgrave on stage; you don't get chances like this just any time. London is an amazing place to spend four weeks!

Entry 1: July 7, 2008

Oh my goodness we've been so busy here in London. We've been here for a little over a week and I've already seen so much! I arrived in London a few days before everyone else. I came over from Paris with Annelise because her father was coming to show us around. He was here on a business trip. He picked us up at Heathrow because we had taken the tube to that station because it was close to him. From there we went to Salisbury Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. There are a lot of really interesting people buried there. After we left the cathedral he took us to Stonehenge. I was really excited. I've always wanted to see Stonehenge!

The next day he took us to Warwick Castle, which was loads of fun. There was a ghost tour in a tower, the dungeon, the armor room, and even a bird of prey show at the castle. After Warwick Castle we went to Stratford to see where Shakespeare was born. That was a cute little town. Once we left Stratford we went to Annelise's family's house and spent the night there. And all of this was just the first weekend in England.

Other notable sites I've seen are the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Imperial War Museum (the coolest museum EVER), Parliament (even sat in on the House of Lords and the House of Commons), the Tate Modern, Portobello Road Market, a gay pride parade where we met Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf on Lord of the Rings for those of you who don't recognize the name), and the Globe. We've also seen quite a few very good plays, one of which was also viewed by Vanessa Redgrave who we were mere inches away from on the staircase. In short London is a pretty amazing place and there is still a ton of things to see and do. I'm very excited about the next three weeks here. And then I have a week in Scotland to look forward to before we return home.