England: Week 1

So, you've probably all heard by now that we arrived in England safe and sound on July 3. We've just been having so much fun and doing so much that I have not uploaded anything to the blog. Slacker, I know. In any case, here are some highlights from the first week in England (which is still behind because we're now finishing up week 2, but oh well!).

We flew out of Kansas City on the 2nd (thanks for the ride, Julia!) and arrived at O'Hare airport in Chicago for a layover. It was honestly the most fun I've ever had in an airport. Granted, that's not saying a lot... but still! We had plenty to look at, we were serenaded by a band, and we ate at Macaroni Grill. Fun times.

We even got to see some sights, such as a replica Lincoln Memorial.


This is Jeremy and "Flat Ralphie" looking at all the planes at busy O'hare. "Flat Ralphie" is part of a 3rd grade project that Jeremy's Aunt Marcy does with her students each year out in Palco - the students all send a flat version of themselves to visit someone, and Ralphie this year is coming with us. Last time he left Palco, he went to South Dakota.

We also killed some time watching a World Cup soccer match. It was a little surreal to watch a game in the middle of an airport terminal with a bunch of other random soccer fans. This was the Uruguay vs. Ghana game. By the way, we are standing in the hallway because the sports bar was closed - not very smart business practice, O'Hare!

After a long but uneventful flight from O'Hare to London Heathrow, we got through customs and entered the UK at approximately 7:00 am local time on July 3. We decided that we would just stay up and fight the jet lag, so after checking in, we decided to get out and see some sights.

This is the memorial to the Battle of Britain on the Thames. The pictures don't do it justice; it's very cool.

We then went to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. This was on our list of things we'd liked to have seen last year but simply ran out of time. The Cabinet War Rooms are very very cool. Basically, Churchill and his cabinet of advisors met in a basement of a government building to run Britain's World War II operations. Then when the war was over, the guys working there tidied up, turned out the lights, and left things the same. Years later, a museum was opened to show us where all this history was made. The Churchill Museum is connected to this and tells all about Winston's life. It was pretty educational but there really wasn't anything that was worth taking pictures of. Below are some shots from the CWR.

Jeremy would make a good prime minister, no?

The map displaying the battle lines

After we explored the CWR, we grabbed some lunch from Pret A Manger (best fast food of all time) and went to eat it at the park. On the way there, we ran into this guy:

He was part of the Queen's Honor Guard. Basically these guys sit on horses all day to guard the Queen's horses. This was particularly cool because you can get close enough to them that the horses could (theoretically) bite or kick you.

And just because this is blog-worthy, I took a picture of the parade - just like last year, we had a parade in England over the Independence holiday. And just like last year, it was a gay pride parade. I didn't get a shot of the double decker bus decked out in pink, so this shot will have to do.

We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit - actually two hotels, which was quite a fiasco. The first hotel lost their a/c, and when I pushed the issue to ask when they'd fix it, they just gave me a refund. About 5 seconds after I gloated over my victory, I realized this meant no place to stay. Oops. Luckily, we were able to get a room right away at the Premier Inn just around the corner. They had great customer service and really helped us out in a pinch! Once we got that settled, we freshened up and then headed out to the South Bank to find a Wagamama for dinner.

We also found some random dinosaur art, so especially for Natalie, here is Uncle Jeremy with some pterosaurs:

As we walked back, we happened to catch some great lighting for Parliament photos. This was the best one but I took several.

The next day, we took in the Tower Bridge and the Monument. The Tube stop for the Tower Bridge stops right at the Tower of London, so we had to get a picture of Jeremy with his favorite attraction from last year. That's Tower Bridge in the background.

Inside the bridge there was an exhibit detailing how it was built. For fans of the recent Sherlock Holmes film - they didn't get it right.

A lovely view, isn't it?

Me at the Tower Bridge

Medallion in the concrete

Me with the Tower Bridge

After the Tower Bridge, we visited the Monument. The Monument was a Christopher Wren work - come on, you didn't really think we'd make it through a London weekend without both a Churchill and a Wren reference, did you? It was built in honor of those who lost their lives in the Great Fire of 1666. The neat thing about it was that you can climb up to the top.

The requisite picture of ourselves

Some of you may remember that Jeremy has a specific fear of heights when it comes to old European buildings with few safeguards. The Monument was such a place, so I was really proud of him for getting to the top and even hanging out for a bit. When we returned to the bottom, we each got a certificate stating we'd completed the climb. I think I might have to frame this near his Ph.D. diploma!

After two eventful days, it was time to make our way to our "summer home" at Trinity Hall. I've often told people that East Anglia (where Cambridge is located) resembles Kansas, and here is the proof:

The River Cam, simply because it's beautiful:

King's College, again, just because it's pretty. We went to hear Evensong here on Wednesday and it was AMAZING.

We got a smaller room this year, but that's ok, because here is our view.

On the back wall at Trinity Hall

One fun activity we've done this year is climb up the Castle Mound. There was a castle in Cambridge back around the time of William the Conqueror (1066, for those counting). It has since been ruined and the stone hauled away for the colleges, but the mound is still there. It is a lot bigger than it looks in these pictures.

Jeremy and the King. What a view!

We also took in some World Cup soccer. The semifinal game between the Netherlands and Uruguay was a hot ticket. We went to see it at "Cambridge's biggest sports pub" aka The Avery. It was jam-packed but we still had a great time!

I hope you enjoyed the highlights from our first week. More blog posts to come soon, including our trip to Portugal!