Farewell to the UK!

It has been an amazing experience in England!  Thank you for following my adventures as I traveled this beautiful and exciting country!  Here are a few last photos... looking forward to sharing my next journey with you! :)

Signing off for now, safe travels!
~Mr.Bear

British Museum

Today we finally made it to the British Museum, and managed to pick a perfectly rainy day to spend indoors.  This museum has an incredibly massive collection of artwork from all over the world... there was no way to see it all in a day!  We spent a lot of time in the huge Library section and also the Asian art section.  The Rosetta Stone is kept there, of course there was a crowd gathered around, but once we got through, it was pretty amazing to see up close.

~Mr. Bear

City of Bath

Last stop on our tour was the City of Bath.  The architecture is absolutely beautiful here and we stopped in a square where we saw Bath Abbey.  Also in this square is an old Roman open-air bath house that uses natural hot spring water.  We were advised not to touch the water, but I did hold my paw over one of the small streams and I could feel the warmth.  The steam coming off the pools made it look like a very relaxing place for a bear to bathe.

 

There was a lovely display of poppies outside Bath Abbey and we also noticed one at Westminster Abbey this weekend.  You see many people wearing poppies on their coat to honor the veterans.  November 11th is the official Remembrance Day, but we saw poppies everywhere the whole month of November.  It is a really beautiful tradition to honor the soldiers who have been lost during their service.

Stonehenge

This circle of mysteriously stacked rocks is a popular tourist attraction.  We spent most of our time just staring at these big rocks and trying to fit all of them in a photo.  The animals hanging around this spot seemed to stare at us like they didn't understand what was the big deal.  There are ravens that perch all over the rocks and make nests in the cracks.  The fields surrounding the stones have herds of sheep that work all day to keep the grass nice and trim.  The thought of these stones just standing there for thousands of years and the nice cloudy day made for a peaceful reflective experience.

Next Stop: City of Bath

Windsor Castle

We took an all day bus tour to fit in all the sights we still had left on our list to visit.  First stop was Windsor Castle where Queen Elizabeth II lives when she is not at Buckingham Palace.  Windsor Castle is the world’s largest and oldest castle. We visited the State Apartments and saw all of the old furnishings that have been used through generations of royalty. We walked through large rooms still used for royal events today and got to see collections of world famous artwork and photographs of the royal family. The gardens outside the castle are beautiful and we also saw St. George’s chapel, where the tombs of numerous kings and queens reside, including Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour. One of our favorite displays was Queen Mary’s Doll House.  The house was as large as the whole room it was housed in and had so many rooms to look at.  The rooms were all completely decorated with furniture, artwork and all the intricate details you would find inside the castle. We could have spent hours looking at all the little details of the house, from the throne room to the outside gardens. Unfortunately, no photography allowed inside. :(

Next stop: Stonehenge

It's a Duck, It's a Bus, It's a Boat!

While we had some extra free time, we checked out some of the train stations we hadn't stopped at before.  We stopped at Notting Hill and then Paddington of course... a classic stop for bears!

We went on a Duck Tour through London on a duck-shaped bus that turns into a boat so it can go along the River Thames.  There was a large pretty bus and then our bus was the old beat-up one called "Mistress Quickly."  The tour guide said it wasn't the prettiest bus in the fleet, but was very reliable. :)

That evening we went to the London Eye and rode in one of the pods that goes around like a Ferris wheel.  What an amazing view!

~Mr. Bear

Tour of Oxford

Today, we went to Oxford.  We had been invited out for a tour by Ed, who was gracious enough to guide us around and show us the sights.  We had a great time!  After a long train ride from London, we met up with Ed at the station.

He decided to take us on a tour of Oxford from the newer parts of town to some of the oldest and made the tour even more interesting by including a mini pub crawl.

First we went through an area of town that had some interesting history to it.  There was a mound where the Normans had built a wooden castle when they first came to England, to help fortify the country.  Sadly the castle is no longer there, but it's still very obvious where it was by the size and shape of the mound.  Directly behind the mound is an old prison.  Apparently it had been moved brick by brick from it's current location.  Even though the prison was several hundred years old, it was still in use until only a few years ago.  Today, they've added a new section onto it and it's being used as a luxury hotel!  Ed told us they've knocked out a wall between adjacent cells and that's what has been made into rooms, complete with bars still on the windows.

After seeing the prison, we continued to the newest section of town, which is the main shopping district.  It's mostly made up of construction from the 1960s, with very little left of real age.

One interesting part of the shopping district was that right in the middle of the street, there's a tile that marks the spot where many prominent religious and political figures were burned at the stake.

On the way toward the rest of our tour, we stopped at the famous Eagle and Child pub.  This is where J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, his brother W.H. Lewis, and Charles Williams, who were collectively know as the "Inklings," used to meet every Thursday to discuss the novels they were writing.

Moving on, we began to explore some of the older parts of town, which included many of the colleges of the famous Oxford University.  There was quite a bit to see, as Oxford consists of 36 individual colleges, started by various import religious figures throughout history.

As we wandered through Oxford's campus we passed through a courtyard where the famous Oxford Library stands.

A quick squeeze through a very tiny alley and we found a hidden gem of a pub, The Turf Tavern, where we had pints of "The Village Idiot" and "Harry Porter."

 

As it was beginning to get dark, we took a stroll along a large rugby field and Ed pointed us to a cathedral they used to film part of the Harry Potter movies.  All the scenes with the large dining hall in Hogwarts was shot here.  Apparently Hogwarts is actually made up of pieces of a lot of castles, churches, and palaces all over the UK. 

 

Our final stop for the evening was a pub called The Bear, which for obvious reasons was my favorite.  This pub had a tradition, sadly stopped in 1992, of cutting off the ends of the ties of the patrons who came in. All the ties had little cards that said the school they came from, who the person was, and when the tie was cut.  It was incredible to see them in their cases, all over the walls and even on the ceiling!

All in all, it was a great day.  Ed was such a great guide - he really loves his city.  He walked us back to the station where we wished him well and got back on the train for our long ride home.

~Mr. Bear