Sights to See

Since the last time I’ve posted I've been various places. From a day trip to the country, seeing some musicals, museums and a weekend trip to Dublin, I've been staying busy.

Each week I have a lecture class on Tuesday evenings that has a guest lecturer who discusses different areas of British life and culture. The following Wednesday we go on a fieldtrip of sorts to somewhere either in London or the surrounding countryside that related to the previous evening’s lecture. As the pictures I’ve sent revealed, the second trip we took was to Stonehenge and Bath. It was about a 2 hour drive to Stonehenge and then another hour on to Bath. According to our tour guide we were driving cross country – a three hour drive is not what I would usually refer to as cross country, I have to constantly remind myself how size of the country.

The weather was perfect for taking pictures in the morning at Stonehenge, located on the Salisbury’s plains in Wiltshire. I knew we were going to look at this monumental circle of rocks, but was not ready for the enormity of it all. The 5,000 year old human made structure with boulders weighing up to 50 tons was less than 15 feet away – wow. The mystery of the rationale and motivation behind creating the structure was probably the most appealing feature. Why would individuals over 5,000 years ago, drag these massive rocks from all over the country and beyond to this one spot and then arrange them in such a fashion? Anyway, it was a sight to see.

From there we went on to the city of Bath. Nestled into and between seven rolling hills, Bath was a small, quaint city. It was a great change of pace from the busy London streets. The Roman Baths were neat and a little smelly. They gave everyone their own cellular phone of sorts; they looked similar to the first black, bagged car phones that were as big as a shoe. This was nice because you could walk at your own leisure through the baths listening to the British guide in your ear, muting him as you wanted. After the Baths, we walked along the river and up into the city a bit, checking out the local shops. We sat next to an elderly couple at the pub where we ate lunch. They told us they came into town every Wednesday for fish n’chips. They have lived in Bath their entire lives and were interested to hear about us. I think they were the first people I have met while abroad who did not ask me about Obama.

That evening we went to see Les Miserables at the Queens Theatre. It was absolutely fabulous. The music, the story, the acting was phenomenal. We were able to get cheap tickets in the dress circle on the first balcony, they were perfect. Just last night we went for a walk and wandered from Piccadilly to Covent Garden to Trafalgar Square and all over the West End. We ended up going and seeing Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It was on a whim, and was very enjoyable. At points it was hard to understand the lyrics and sometimes they were singing all at once and you couldn’t decipher one actor’s lines from the next. I’m still glad I saw it, either way.

Today I went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. It was phenomenal. It contained portraits that she has taken from 1990-2005. The images included a variety of portraits from Brad Pitt to President Bush and Queen Elizabeth to her personal photographs of her family and friends. If I had to choose one word to describe her work it would be "real". All of the images were so raw, no touch ups, no hiding. A lot of her work was a photo documentary of her best friend Susan who battled cancer for many years. It was a wonderful exhibit that I was so glad I had to opportunity to view.

Details on the Dublin trip to come! Missing everyone, love to all!