Day twenty five in London

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, there wasn't all that much to write about until this weekend...

Today and yesterday were pretty sweet. Yesterday me Jeff, Mike and Stephanie went back to Oxford and visited Christ Church where they filmed all of the Hogwarts scenes from the Harry Potter movies. It was pretty fun minus the hoards of Japanese tourists shuffling along like cattle and standing in everyone’s way. We then ate at this awesome authentic pizzeria where I had a grilled chicken, pesto, red onion and goat cheese pizza which was to die for.

Today Jeff and I took a train to Dover on the southeast coast of England to hike along the white cliffs of Dover. They are these massive bleach white cliffs made of chalk that stretch for hundreds of miles. We got some really good pictures, found a shipwreck, explored inside abandoned military bunkers carved into the side of the cliffs, and hiked along some pretty treacherous trails which made me feel like a kid again. I think mountain climbing might be something I want to pursue in the future.

Check out the pictures!



One of the buildings inside the grounds of Christ Church where they filmed all of the Hogwarts scenes for the Harry Potter movies.




Awesome architecture.




The courtyard where they filmed the broom flying and Quiddich scenes for the Harry Potter movies.




Inside the Cathedral.




The burial site of John Locke. It is an honor for people of high status and importance to be buried in the floor of the church.




Testing my candle light setting on my camera.




Sarcophagus of someone highly important.




The famous room where they filmed all of the Great Hall scenes inside Hogwarts.




Another shot.




Another shot.




You can't see it well but that's the coast of France across the English Channel.




The white cliffs of Dover.




Another shot.




The landscape.




The landscape.




One of the many hiking trails that I really loved.




Another hiking trail, a bit more treacherous.




I love this picture.




It's hard to get the scale, but that's the rocky coast from about 500 feet below the cliff.




Check out the other hikers. It gives you some perspective of how massive these cliffs are.




More landscape.




Shipwreck. Totally own3d.




Haha, Jeff in the entrance to the military bunkers carved into the side of the cliffs.




Inside one of the machine gun turrets I'm assuming.




More bunkers.




Through one of the bullet holes.




The shipwreck below.




More cliffs.


Those are all the pictures I have for now. Bye bye everyone. I miss you all.

<3

Day sixteen in London

So today was a pretty fun day. Me and Jeff were actually supposed to go back to Oxford and then go to Warwick Castle but since it has been raining so much the past couple of days, the train stations that we needed to go to were closed because of flooding. We decided to go to the Tower of London instead.

On the way there we also stopped to take a few pictures of the Globe Theater where Shakespeare presented his famous plays. That was pretty sweet.

The Tower of London was so massive that it was pretty much an all day event. There was just so much to do and see and I made sure to take plenty of pictures.

The only part of the Tower of London I wasn’t able to get pictures of was the crown jewels. It was absolutely mind blowing to look at these crowns covered in diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds the size of my face almost. The vault we had to walk into was also filled with tons of gold and ceremonial relics from the various inaugurations of past kings and Queens.

Here are the pictures from today:



The view overlooking the Thames River.




Random sculpture.




The Millenium Bridge.



Shakespeare's Globe Theater.



St. Paul's Cathedral, the cathedral the US capital is modeled after.




St. Paul's Cathedral.




Cool shot of St. Paul's Cathedral.




The Tower of London.



Cool little stories on the walls inside the Tower of London.



#2




#3




#4




Ouch.




Depiction of the Scavenger's Daughter torture device.




The rack.




Torture device used to hang people by their arms and feet off the ground for days.




One of the several towers inside the Tower of London.




Another tower.




Turkish cannon seized by HMS Her Majesty's Service)




Wardrobe Tower, 12th Century.




Weapons from the arsenal of King Henry VIII.




More weapons from Kind Henry VIII.




Lots of guns.




More guns.




Even more guns.




Models of the horses from various Kings of England.




Suit of armor from one of the kings. People were at least a foot shorter on average back then.




Suit of armor from John the Giant. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest and tallest suit of armor, standing at 6 feet, 9 inches tall. Holy crap.




Another Guinnes world record for the smallest suit of armor standing at 37 inches, from a knight who was a dwarf.




Scary looking weapons. The one with the super long spikes is called a Spanish Morning Star.




Spears.




Mini cannons.




The church inside the Tower of London.




Royal armor for the king's horses.




Royal body armor for the king's horses.




Armor of the Earl of Worchester.



More armor.




Armor for King Charles I. I wish you could see the detail of the armor. It's covered in fine engravings.




Um... wow... armor for King Henry VIII. You can see that he was a little proud of certain parts of his body...




Armor of horse and knight.




Freakishly huge cannon balls.




Freakishly huge cannon that launches freakishly huge cannon balls.




More cannons.




40 foot well inside one of the towers.




A raven.




Another raven.




Another raven.




Raven in mid-flight.




I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside.




The haunted Bloody Tower of London.




The Portcullis.




The Portcullis.




Traitor's Gate.




Bedroom of King Henry III.




Stained glass windows above the altar in King Henry III's bedroom.




Where King Henry III died.




Shot of a huge bridge.


More pictures to come. Bye bye for now. I miss you all.

<3