If you are in London, and if you love to read, then Oxford NEEDS to be a priority visit for you. It's only an hour train ride from Paddington Station, and it was filled with so many literary sites, I could hardly take it all in. Just trust me on this one, folks, and put it on your bucket list. Now.
C.S. Lewis/J.R.R. Tolkien
So we woke up bright and early to catch our train to Oxford, and our first stop was at the Eagle and Child Pub. The Inklings, a writing group that included none other than C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, met at the pub regularly to talk and read each other their manuscripts. It was in this pub that C.S. Lewis distributed his manuscript for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They had photos, paintings, and memorabilia from Lewis and Tolkien all around the pub. I got a very British meal of fish and chips, and we had wonderful time sitting and chatting. Just a few things to consider: it doesn't open until 12:00 noon, and it's a little pricey. But the plates were huge and well worth the price, in my opinion.
The Rabbit Room, where The Inklings would hold their meetings.
So excited to eat my fish and chips.
J.K. Rowling
Next, we went on a tour of Christ Church, which has various places where they filmed HARRY POTTER! So I was a little excited to see it. Just a bit.
Our photography focus of the day was to use a unique setting on our camera. This shot was taken with the "vivid colors" setting.
*Side note: You'll have to forgive my not-so-great pictures for this portion of the trip. I was so excited about the location I was in, I was not focused on my pictures at all. I was just randomly taking pictures while thinking to myself, "Harry Potter was here! Ron Weasley was here! Neville Longbottom was here!" And so forth. Luckily there were some other people that snagged some good ones. But you won't get to see them in this post. Sorry.*
On the way to the dining hall, we walked down this hall:
Don't recognize it? Here, let me help you out with these few edits:
Watch out, Pixar. This girl has got some computer animation skills.
These are the very halls they used in the Harry Potter films! I totally geeked out. I felt like I was strolling down the hall at Hogwarts, and that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be just around the corner.
The courtyard in Harry Potter where Draco gets turned into a ferret. Why didn't I take more pictures of this, or actually get the courtyard in this picture? I don't know.
Alright, let's go on to the next scene. Do you recognize this one?
You got it! This staircase was used for various scenes including when Harry first arrives and Hogwarts, and the flashback scene with Tom Riddle.
Oh my gosh, it's Hogwarts!
Voldemort touched this lamppost. It's basically a horcrux.
Then we moved on to the next setting. See if you can figure this one out:
This was was a little trickier, because they didn't actually film here, but it was used as inspiration for the Great Hall. It was magnificent, and I was very jealous of the students that get to eat there on a regular basis.
Doesn't Dumbledore look right at home?
Okay, so the last Harry Potter-related place we visited was the Bodleian Library. The ground floor was absolutely stunning. Can you figure out where they used this room in the films?
Here is one of them:
They used this room in the fourth movie when learning how to dance for the Yule Ball. They also used this room at the Hospital Wing, although they changed a lot of it with computer effects.
Dumbledore walked through THESE DOORS.
I told you I was just a little bit excited.
We went upstairs next where we weren't allowed to take pictures. The upstairs was used for filming in the first movie, when Harry goes to the restricted section. Fun fact: when Harry pulls one of the books from the shelf, it starts screaming. These books are also in what you could call the restricted section, and would make an alarm go off if you pulled a book from the shelf. Magic!
Philip Pullman
After all of that Harry Potter stuff, we ran down to the Botanical Gardens. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman takes place partially at Oxford, and the ending scene of the trilogy takes place in these very gardens. We followed the description in the book to find the bench they sit on at the end, and with the help of the garden worker, were able to find it!
Took a picture of a sunflower for my mom. They were absolutely beautiful.
And here's the bench! It was tucked away in the far corner of the garden, facing towards the beautiful flowers in the garden.
After we found the bench, we laid on the grass for a little while, but decided we needed to get up before we fell asleep.
Lewis Carroll
After we left the garden, we headed toward Alice's shop. Christ Church was the setting for part of Alice in Wonderland. Carroll also attended Oxford and met Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland at Christ Church. Her father became the Dean of Christ Church, and Carroll became friends with his family. There were various shout-outs to Carroll, including his portrait and a stained glass window with Alice Liddell and characters from the books, and a cute little shop with Alice in Wonderland memorabilia. We were lucky enough to get to the shop before it closed. It had teacups, jewelry, posters, bookmarks, and a bunch of other cute souvenirs to take home.
After Alice's shop, we were pooped, so we headed back to the train just to sleep on the way home and get super confused about how to use our underground tickets to get back to our flat. But we made it, no fear.
See you tomorrow when we get to take a tour of the BBC!
Well, hello my lovely readers. I have officially been in London for a week now, and it has been amazing! I can't believe I have only two weeks left. I have fallen in love with London, and not just for its delicious doughnuts. I love the people and the culture, and of course, the accents.
Anywho, enough with the love fest. Let's get on with today's events in London. We started off the day at the Museum of London, which I had actually never heard of before, but I was really impressed with what it had to offer.
It was all about London, of course, and was organized in chronological order. It includes exhibits depicting life in the London area from 450,000 BC to present day. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of prehistoric time, but I was really interested in the medieval section, which discussed the Black Plague and the Great Fire of 1666. (So I like the morbid stuff, give me a break.) It was also very enlightening, because I am by no means a scholar of European History, and this museum laid it out in a nice, visual way that helped me to understand this country's great history in a whole new way.
Mosaic = Awesome
A tablet from the original London Bridge
The costume Pauline Chase wore when she played Peter Pan at the West End in 1911.
If you're in London, I highly recommend this museum, especially near the beginning of your trip, because it will really help you to appreciate London for all its worth. Plus, a Sherlock Holmes exhibit is opening in October, so I might just have to figure out a way to travel back here to check that out.
Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. We had a picnic on the grass outside of the cathedral, and were serenaded with some talented guitar music courtesy of the City of London Festival. They have put guitars around London in upturned rowboats, and people are free to play them regardless of their skill. Luckily, the guy that was playing while we were eating was super talented, playing "American Pie" with only 5 strings on the guitar. It was lovely.
We had a guided tour scheduled, but when we went inside to find our tour guide, it turned out that they forgot to put us in their book. So this kind elderly lady gave up her lunch break to give us a whirlwind tour before the London Symphony Orchestra started practicing and we wouldn't be able to hear her talk any more. We learned some fascinating facts about St. Paul's Cathedral, and our tour guide was so adorable I could hardly stand it. For all of you book nerds, and more specifically, Harry Potter nerds, we visited Dean's Staircase. Dean's Staircase is a floating staircase, which means the stairs are resting on each other, rather than a central pillar. It makes for a stunning effect. It's in the third, fourth, and eighth Harry Potter films, including this scene:
Don't mind the subtitles.
She also took us to the American Memorial Chapel, which contains a Roll of Honour with names of more than 28,000 Americans who gave their lives during WWII. They had stained glass in the apse, with symbols for each of the fifty states, and I easily found the beehive that symbolizes Utah. It was great to see a little bit of my home here in London.
View from the almost top.
I spy with my little eye a bridge that was in Harry Potter. ...And the Globe Theater.
Today's photography focus was architecture. Here's my attempt at framing.
View from the very, very top.
After St. Paul's, we attempted to get a library card, but the nice librarian with a great beard told us we have to live here for at least 3 months to get one. So we just ventured home and ate some Oreos.
I completed my day with climbing up and down our apartment stairs (61 stairs, and steep ones at that) three more times to do some laundry. Oh, and I bought a ticket to see Richard Armitage in the flesh next week. So that's just a little bit exciting.
Tomorrow we are off to Oxford, where I am excited to experience a bunch of bookish adventures. See you then!
Today was another day full of literary adventure. But first, we start with some good old Rock and Roll.
We began our day by visiting Abbey Road, made famous by The Beatles, of course. It was pretty cool to see such an iconic place in person, but I'm sure all of the people driving by were not so impressed with the tourists walking back and forth, swinging their arms about. But we did it anyway, because how can you go to Abbey Road and not recreate the picture?
Caution: this post doesn't actually have the picture of me crossing the road. Another person has it on their camera, and it will be updated shortly.
Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles recorded almost all of their albums from 1962 to 1970.
My view as I was crossing the famous zebra crosswalk.
We also passed by the Lord's Cricket Ground on our tour today. Did you know that there is an upcoming International match that will last 5 days? Those are some dedicated athletes.
We also headed to Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, which is featured in the book 101 Dalmatians. Pongo and Missis (Perdita in the movie) live on the outskirts of Regents Park. They meet in Queen Mary's Rose Garden in Regent's Park, and they run to Primrose Hill after they discover their puppies had gone missing. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any dalmatians on our walk today. Primrose Hill is also known for it's famous residents, including John Cleese, Morrissey, Sylvia Plath, Alan Rickman, and W.B. Yeats.
We passed the zoo on the way to the hill. Hello giraffes!
View from the top of the hill.
After we had a nice picnic lunch on the hill, we headed toward Camden Lock Market, which is a large outdoor market with tons of merchandise to buy and tons of delicious smelling food to eat. It's also full of pick-pockets, so make sure to watch your bag if you visit.
Today's photography focus was using our macro setting on our camera. I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.
We took a break from walking and the sun to make some dinner. My flatmate and I made a very traditional English meal of canned soup and stale bread.
"Please sir, I don't want some more..." - Sarah, after eating our dinner.
We thought it would get us in the mood for our next adventure, which was a walking tour of Oliver Twist. We downloaded a podcast and map from this website, and began our tour around London. It was really cool, because it took us to places we wouldn't have passed by before. And just a tip if you plan on doing this: The first 6 stops are great. They tell you why each spot is significant, read excerpts of the book for you, and even play music and sound effects in the background. But when you get to stop 7, all of a sudden it's talking about stop 9, and everything gets confusing. We learned this the hard way.
Stop 1: The former agricultural hall site where Oliver made his entry into London.
The map with awesome illustrations, but less than awesome actual map skills.
Stop #2: The Harlequin, where plays were put on that influenced Dickens' writing. Dickens' friend, Joe Grimaldi, is remembered inside for being the creator of clowning.
Stop #3: Spa Green Park, where a Quaker workhouse used to stand nearby.
Stop #4: Spa Fields - This used to be Clerkenwell House of Detention, and the underground chambers are still beneath this playground. Creeeepy.
Sharing headphones like best friends do.
Stop #5: Mount Pleasant, where a prison stood that used tactics such as the Silent Treatment (prisoners were not allowed to speak to each other) and the Treadmill Treatment (prisoners had to walk on a treadmill-like machine for 8 hours a day, equivalent to hiking a mountain each day).
Stop #6: The Coach and Horses, where Hockley-in-the-Hole existed in Oliver's day.
Stop #7, but really Stop #9: The Hat and Tun, the site of the Garden Magistrates Court, presided by A.S. Laing, on whom Dickens based Mr. Fang.
Stop #9, but really Stop #7: The One Tun, site of Fagin's headquarters, and right next to the original Three Cripples Pub.
We stopped in this pub to get a drink (mine being Diet Coke, of course) and met Dave, the adorable old man who works there, and he shared with us little tidbits about the pub.
Stop #8: The Old Sessions House, a law court that is the setting of The Artful Dodger and Oliver in a pick-pocketing incident.
After we discovered the map and podcast where not in sync with each other, we wandered around and around, asking countless locals to guide us in the right direction (thankfully all of them were kind and courteous) and eventually made it back to the underground and home in time to work on our homework for the rest of the night. See all of you wonderful readers tomorrow!
.jpg)
