London

I have delayed writing post about London itself for quite a while now, as there was so much that loved in London, I don’t really know where to start. London is probably one of the best cities I have ever visited, and is very high-up on my list of favorite places. Its charm is manifold, but in short, London offers the following appeal. It’s huge. It’s a city of well over seven million people, very densely packed into one place. Not only that, it is extremely diverse. It is a place where people of the most disparate backgrounds live and work together. According to one survey, over 300 different languages are spoken by its inhabitants, whose religious professions range from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, and atheist, as well as a fair number of others. As many as 15% of Londoners were born outside of the UK, making it a place where you can encounter almost any variety of person. On top of this, the city is almost 2,000 years old, and the reminders of its history are everywhere. In architecture alone, you can see Norman buildings, Gothic buildings, Renaissance buildings, Georgian and Victorian buildings, as well as fantastically modern buildings. In short, it was fantastic, and it very much satisfied the anglophile inside me.

Here are some photos of all the amazing things I saw. I took the embarrassingly large quantity of 500 photos of London alone, so I had a hard time narrowing it down to these few. If you are ever curious to see the rest, feel free to ask me next time you see me. Or better yet, visit London if you can, because it is fantastic.

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben and the London Eye

Inside the reconstructed Globe Theater of Shakespeare

Along Fleet Street

St. Paul's Cathedral as seen from the Millennium Bridge

Trafalgar Square

St James's Park

Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace Gates

A War Memorial

London Bridge

Tower of London

Piccadilly Circus at night

Platform Nine-and-three-quarters, at King's Cross Station

"The Gherkin"

The Sherlock Holmes Museum, at 221b Baker Street

And finally the once home of our friend Friedrich Engels

Oxford

On my last full day in England, I decided to visit the city of Oxford, which is best known for its University. It is one of the oldest universities in the world, known to have existed in some form in the year 1096 CE. It is made up of 38 Colleges, each with its own history, cathedral/chapel, and residential and dining halls. Some of the more famous include Christ Church, Corpus Christi, and Magdalen. It is an amazing complex of incredible buildings and history.

The town itself is also very old, and was first occupied in Saxon times. It has many old buildings not associated with the university, as well as great museums and other cultural attractions. I had a great time visiting Oxford, and I am very jealous of my friends who have studied there, if for no other reason that it is extremely beautiful, and has so much history.

Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Bath

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has created a list of some of the most spectacular and significant places and buildings, known as World Heritage Sites. I have made it my goal in life to see as many of them as I can. While in England, I got the chance to see four of them. I took a tour to the southwestern English countryside to see Stonehenge, and the City of Bath.

Our first stop was the Stonehenge Monument, which was built is several stages between 3,100 BCE and 1,930 BCE. It is one of the most recognizable Neolithic stone constructions, as well as one of the most controversial. Everyone has their own idea about what Stonehenge was, and who built it. All that being said, it was totally worth a visit, no matter how touristy it may be. I loved seeing the stones, it was very special.

Next we visited the Cathedral of Salisbury, which was built between 1220-1320 CE. It is an amazing church, which is currently being restored. It contains the oldest working clock in the world. It also houses one of the five remaining copies of the Magna Carta.

Finally, we got to the City of Bath, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It houses a natural hot spring, the waters of which have been thought to be magical and curative since before the Romans. The Romans built what is essentially a sauna there, as well as a temple. Then, in the Victorian Era, it became a resort town for the Royal Court. The nobility flocked to Bath to ‘Take the Waters’ in hopes of healing any number of ailments. Today you can still take the waters for 50p, which was an interesting experience. It is strangely warm, salty, and sulfurous. I think the best that can be said is that I didn’t get sick from it. It is a great city, full of Georgian and Victorian architecture, as well as an impressive church of its own. It was a great day outside of London, and a wonderful chance to see some of the English countryside, which is beautiful when covered in snow.

Taking the Waters

The River Avon

"There’s No Place Like London"

I have officially started my second short holiday of the winter season, this time in London, England. I was in Berlin, Germany last week with my parents, and I will be posting photos from that trip just as soon as I am back in Denmark. For now, I would like to keep you all filled in on my trip here in England. I will try to write as often as I can, but if I don’t, I will post everything at the end of the trip, next Friday.

This is the first time since august since I have been in a country where the ‘official’ language is English. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, and now that I am here, I still don’t. In fact, I’ve heard very little of the ‘Queen’s English’ since I got here. Sure, all of the signs are in English first, but still multiculturalism is all around me. When I arrived, I waited in the customs line with a group of Mandarin-speaking Chinese tourists. On the train, I was next to a group of Turks. I went out to what I thought was an Italian café for dinner, only to find the television was playing Croatian News and it is frequented by Frenchmen and Russians (or other Slavic-speakers, I wasn’t exactly sure). It is absolutely incredible how many different languages you hear here in London, and this has only been the first few hours.

I have also learned that you have to look the other way when crossing the street, as they drive on the left side of the road here. Somehow I forgot that in all the confusion of arriving in a city of over seven million people (more than ALL of Denmark). Thankfully however, in my neighborhood, instructions to look left or right are painted on the sidewalks, so I was saved from making any mistakes.

I’ll keep this blog short at I am planning on getting an early start to my sightseeing tomorrow morning. I will be sure to fill you all in on my adventures here just as soon as I can. Thankfully, I have wireless at my hotel, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Until then…Cheers!