London in the summer

London in the summer is an interesting place. Firstly, summer is a relative term. We had one week of really nice weather in June, and apparently that's about it. It's been chilly and raining since we got back from Switzerland (as of today---3 weeks!). There have been a few days of sun, but there are never complete days, and so you end up getting rained on at some point either way. Still, with so many things to do, it's hard to not love London, despite itself.

These are some things we did that made us love London...

We watched the newest art installation at the 4th plinth. For 100 days, people get to climb onto the top of a plinth (the place made to hold an equestrian statue, but it never did) and perform for 60 minutes. They've all had to apply beforehand, and apparently alot of them did. When we passed by there was a man talking (but we couldn't hear him so it looked like he was talking to himself) and playing the trumpet rather haphazardly. Interesting.

We visited the Winston Chuchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms. They are located underground in the space used for the secret war rooms during WWII. The entire museum was wonderful, but the coolest thing was seeing the war rooms. The Map Room is exactly as it was left. When the war finished, they turned out the lights, and walked out; the room wasn't opened again until the 70s...and they even found things like sugar rations in desk drawers.

We took a day out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where Mat found a way to get posh.

Beautiful!

The first stop in Stratford was William Shakespeare's Birthplace. He was born in this house, was raised in this house, and lived there for a short time after being married.

This is Shakespeare's first folio. It's the very first "complete works of Shakespeare". Amazing!

The house was large and the garden was pretty, but the performance of scenes from Hamlet was one of the highlights. Get thee to a nunnery!

We visited the birthplace of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. It was where he 'wooed' her. And we know what kind of 'wooing' was going on. The 26 year old Anne, found herself pregnant out of wedlock--and the father was 18 year old William Shakespeare! The scandal! Needless to say, they married, and the happy couple moved to William's Birthplace. She still outlived him by 10 years.

We saw Shakespeare's grave in Holy Trinity Church. His wife and daughter were also burried there.

The church also has his birth and death registration. He died on his birthday. Strange.

The sign marks the school of King Edward VI. It is assumed that this is where Shakespeare went to school. His father was a glove maker, so he would have been relatively well off.

We played dress up

and found all that is left of Shakespeare's final home.

Upon returning to Stratford from London, Shakespeare was a very wealthy man, and also very famous. He was well known throughout all of England and particularly in his hometown of Stratford. He returned, and purchased the most expensive house in town, where he lived the rest of his life, with a giant plot of land, a huge mulberry tree, animals and grazing rights on both sides of the river Avon. He was simply loaded. Well some time after this death, his last home was purchased by a wealthy couple. The couple were Puritans and despised the theatre and Shakespeare. The man of the house sent constant letter of complaint because of the people who would come to look at his house. The town loved the hom and were proud of Shakespeare, so all of the man's requests were dismissed. In retaliation, he cut down Shakespeare's Mulberry tree. The town went mad, and threw bricks at his house. Needless to say, this was not a good relationship. The worst part of the story is that the man of the house had enough money, and alot of hatred, and simply decided to tear the house down....and he did. Apparently he ran from the town and was never seen again.

We also took the perfect picture to show London weather. The sky is black, and it has just poured rain, but there is still a tiny little portion of sun (atleast for the moment). How crazy.

On Slavi's last night in London, we went out for Turkish

and hung out at a Blues bar. Tiny and cramped, but great music!

But the highlight of our first summer in London was being able to have a Royal Day Out at Buckingham Palace. Since Buckingham is a working palace, it is only open to public visits when the Queen is not there...and that is the months of August and September. The palace opened on the 26th, so we got our tickets and spent the day (literally 5 hours) looking at all things royal.

Aerial view. The palace is massive! We were able to see the Queen's collection, which had an exhibit on French porcelain. We also viewed the State Rooms (gorgeous drawing rooms, and a fabulous ballroom--even a secret passageway). We also got to see the Royal Mews (where all of the carriages, horses and cars are kept). Also the only place where you can take pictures.

The wedding carriage. This is the carriage used to drive brides to their wedding; the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana.

This sleigh was given to the Queen by Canada and is used every year to bring in Santa Claus for the children of the workers and servants who live at the Palace and the Mews. It was made in Montreal.

The Golden State Carriage. Used for State occassions, such as the Jubilee.

All in all, a great July. Fingers crossed for a great August to follow!!!

Back in London

After our great trip to Switzerland, we've returned to London. School doesn't finish until July 21st, so I'll be doing some teaching. Mat will be hanging out and helping to plan the next trip (to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries???).

Eventhough there is work, if you didn't play alittle in London it would be a waste of time, so we spent Saturday visiting one of the sights of London, Hampton Court. This palace is best know as the palace of King Henry 8th, but it's also had a few other inhabitants, like Elizabeth I.

My kind of wine cellar

Henry's Great Hall

Henry's throne

Hampton Court grounds

We've moved into a room in north London


We live near a wonderful park called Hampstead Heath. Mat planed a picnic/bbq for us. We bought the disposable bbq then found out you can't use it in the park. So we did of course, but we just hoped no one would notice.

But then the smoke started...and it became very hard not to notice what we were doing. Luckily, by the time the man came to tell us we were not allowed to bbq, we had already begun eating our burgers. On my birthday (ewww 26), we went for a long walk into Camden Town where we were going to see Harry Potter. We walked past (going in costs $36 each) the zoo on the way and saw a giraffe hanging out.

They are Mat's favourite animal, so he was pretty happy about it.

I also got a great card from my sister.

and a wonderful present from Mat. He bought me beautiful earrings. I was really impressed with his other present. I've discovered that I love dark chocolate and mint chocolate, but that finding dark, mint chocolate is very difficult. He bought me some chocolate and some mints and worked out a way for me to mint it on my own, in what he calls the 'minting chamber'. Wonderful!!!!!

On Saturday we went to Kew and wandered around the river. We found the original Meridian line.

then Saturday night, we went to a pub with Slavi to celebrate my birthday. I had a lot of fun...

and apparently a lot to drink. All in all, a good few weeks back in London.

School finishes on Tuesday, then we're free for the summer. We still don't know what to do after then, but we'll figure it out.

Switzerland: Almost as Beautiful as Canada

SWITZERLAND

Known for chocolate, the Alps, cheese, banking and being neutral, Switzerland, outside of these things was a general mystery for us. We just spent 9 days travelling the country, and now we're convinced that next to home, it is the most beautiful place in the world (or atleast of what we've seen of the world). Because it's such a small country, we were able to stay in one city and travel to the others each day. We flew into Geneva, spent 2 days roaming, then found our way to Basel (in the North) and settled in a room in an apartment (yay for having a kitchen) and began exploring.

Interesting things about Switzerland:

• They speak German, French, English, Italian (some of them) and Romanesch (which is spoken by a very small amount of the population)
• Their train system is incredible (not that expensive and very efficient)
• The Swiss are quite efficient in everything. From tying up boats, to shoe store organization. Things get done, and they get done well.
• Swiss banking is really as important as the sterotype leads one to believe. The Parliament building in Bern is actually surrouded by four banks.
• Food is expensive. The currency is the Swiss Franc, but it's par with the US dollar (and since the Canadian dollar is lower than that, all the prices you see in Francs, are even higher in Canadian dollars). Big Mac meal: $13 US, 2 sausages from a grocery store: $5 US. We've even seen 2 pieces of lunch meat sold for $5 US. Needless to say, we've eaten a lot of meals in. And when out, mostly just bread and cheese---Who would have thought that London is actually quite cheap??
• Chocolate is plentiful...and wonderful! Each grocery store has a massive section that sells only chocolate. Big/small, light/dark, any way you want it in between...it's there. And the Swiss eat it. We've seen atleast 3 separate people, in 3 separate cities, buy over 30 bars of chocolate---EACH. Don't know what they do with it, but it IS good enough that they might not want to share.

GENEVA

Geneva lays in the French speaking area of Switzerland and is within walking distance of the French border. Home to the Reformation in Switzerland, the founding city of the Red Cross and now the home to CERN and the United Nations. We spent 2 days there. This is what we saw.

We spent our first night in a hotel near the Geneva side of the airport (there is a Swiss and French side. I told you they were close). The next night, we crossed the border and slept in France (just an extra 2 minutes on the bus.)

The fountain in Lake Geneva

The floral clock

We both just finished reading Angels and Demons so we were quite excited to visit CERN (the European Centre for Nuclear Research)

They have a massive particle accelerator

We also visited the Museum for the Red Cross and Red Crescent, founded by a Swiss man named Henry Dunant.

This is the first Red Cross banner ever made. It is blood stained and ragged, but it is still there.

We discovered Swiss chocolate

So Scott, we think we found a good Christmas present for Kelly...it's just a little bigger than the normal Toblerone.

BERN

The entire old town of Bern (most of the city) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main street burnt down twice in the 1400s, but since being rebuilt in brick, has remained the same. Most of the original cultural aspects have remained as well. It's strange because it's like stepping back in time, but it's also very clearly a modern city. We absolutely loved it!! And it wins for the prettiest city in Europe (thus far)!
See for yourself.

The view of the Parliament Building from river level

This building was hollowed out from the old city walls. Notice how tall and thick they are (in comparison to the person).

The river Aare

The clock tower, tells the time, the day, month, phase of the moon and the zodiac. It also shows the position of the Earth around the sun.

Einstein lived in Bern and completed a fair amount of work towards his Theory of Relativity here. We visited his house.

The view of Bern from the Rose Garden above and across the river from the old town.

Just one of the hundreds of drinking fountains that line the streets of Bern (only those in the old town are this elaborate). The bear is the symbol of the city.

This fountain is known as Speaker's Corner, since there is a place for a person to stand above the fountain to shout their demands, and a few benches for others to sit and listen.

The building for the city council. The stairway on the left is for the virtues, the one of the right, the sins. The door below is for the politicians to enter through, since they're never sure which stairway to take.

A statue outside a town building that shows the guild present in the building (this one is a carpenter).

The old cellars (formerly used to store wine) are now restuarants and shops. The stairway is steep, but the room below is massive (I guess they drank alot of wine!)

INTERLAKEN: the Lake locked city
Place in the centre of Switzerland in the Bernese Oberland, Interlaken is known for adventure sports. You can do just about anything if you have enough money, since there are 2 gorgeous lakes and an entire mountain range (the Jura mountains). We weren't up for the adventure, or the money, so we went to Grindelwald to get a closer look of these mountains.

The view from the main road in Interlaken

someone landing in Interlaken

GRINDELWALD

The view from the main street in Grindelwald

random mountain cows on our path

We found a sad fate for Canadian horses...they're being exported as horse steak to feed the Swiss (and probably most of central Europe, who have a thing for horse). Poor thing. Atleast he costs a pretty penny.

LUCERNE

Like most cities in Switzerland, Lucerne is surrounded by mountains, has a lake in that separates the 2 halves of the city, and is simply adorable.

Chapel Bridge

Charred wooden paintings from the Chapel Bridge fire, now located on the newly built bridge.

rich seats

poor seats

the Illuminati eye...its an Angels and Demons thing.

'seasons tickets' as Mat says. These are family plaques to act as reservation cards.

the cemetery in front. Notice the 4 foot wall....full of people

called 'the saddest piece of stone', the Lucerne lion is in memory of the massacred Swiss guards, killed during French Revolution while protecting the king.

It loos just as sad in chocolate

VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN

Vadus is the capital of the country of Liechtenstein. The entire country is about 25 km from north to south, and 6 km east to west. Needless to say, Vaduz didn't have much in the way of things to do, but we did check it out for a few hours.

We climbed the hill to see the house of the royal family and found the most massive snail we'd ever seen!

and got a great view of the city below

the castle and official residence of the royal family

ZURICH
The capital of Switzerland. Large, cultured, but not so much to do. We mostly strolled around the city in the rain, but it had its moments.

funniest 'don't do' sign ever!!!

We met a mammoth at the National History Museum, which was sadly, the worst museum in Switzerland.

Nothing there and even less written in English

We ended up bypassing the other Zurich museums and spending some relaxing time in a Chinese garden (donated by the Chinese city of Kunming as a thank you for helping to create a sewage system and ways to clean drinking water). It was a great way to end a great trip.

While we stayed in Basel, we didn't actually take any pictures of it. It was a lovely place to live though. We rented a room that looked onto the Rhine River. It's a fast moving river, and cold, but there was nothing better than starting our day with a dip (and a float) down the river. The city itself was pretty vibrant, but it didn't have alot in the way of tourism, which explains why most guide books just pass it by...I wouldn't.

Switzerland was amazing. 10 days was more than enough, and when we boarded the plane back to London we both felt more than happy saying that we had 'seen' Switzerland...but I know that there is always a lot more to see.