Wednesday July 7, 2010

The pub we stopped at.

The Harvard Chapel at Southwark Cathedral

Bob our Cathedral tour guide

Southwark Cathedral

Tower Bridge from London Bridge

Market in Harry Potter

Outside of Llyods of London

Tea Set from Museum of London (isn't it amazing it is still around)

Shoes from a display at Museum of London

Pleasure Gardens exhibit, they clothing was breathtaking

I met my International Business class at Surbiton station at 9:30 am. We took the train into Waterloo station. We got onto the underground there to the Bank of England. The building is a little daunting. There are no windows on the outside until what looked like the 3rd floor. It was interesting to see how they mint all the money. It is all so colorful compared to the US. The bank had also collected all different kind of things. The man who wrote 'The Wind in the Willows" worked at the bank and they had a first edition copy of the book. It was so neat to see this because I remember reading it at my grandparents house. I also got to pick up a real gold bar! It weighted 25 or 28 lb.! They let you try to pick it up in a case with one hand. I was able to pick it up but it was very heavy.

We walked through the financial district to a Pret A Manger to stop for coffee and a snack. Well I had a snack and got a sandwich because I was starving. At the Museum of London we skipped most of the archeological things to Medieval London and the Fire of London. A huge amount of London actually burned in the fire. The museum also had tons of artifacts from all the different decades after the Great Fire of London. There was an exhibit on the pleasure gardens and all the wealth present in London at the time. There were clothing that was beautiful with all the elaborate hats that went with each dress. There was also a life size street scape designed that even had a lamp post. There was a glass maker, toy store, tailer, pub, bank, post office, general store, hat store and pawn store. They all had store fronts. We were at the museum for about 2 hours. I took alot of pictures but since you can't use the flash some are pretty blurry. We walked over to the monument to the victims of the Great Fire.

After we walked past Lloyds of London an international insurance firm. The building was designed with all the lifts (elevators) and plumbing outside of the building to maximize space. It is very modern compared to all the stone buildings surrounding it. We walked through a market place with a glass roof that was featured in Harry Potter!

We walked over London Bridge to the Southwark Cathedral. We met Bob our tour guide. The cathedral has ties to Harvard University and Nelson Mandela came to the opening of the addition of the church. It also only received minor damage in WWII compared to buildings surrounding it. It is located right in the River Thames near the docks.

We went to the Anchor an old pub with a deck and had a drink with my professor after our long day of walking all over the place. It was so nice to sit for a bit. After we walked along the river past the Tate Modern, the Wobbly Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral on the other river bank to Waterloo station. It took what felt like an hour to get to the station due to construction. We finally got onto the train back to Surbiton on platform 10 and with in 5 minutes they announced a change in the platform. We had to run to a new platform just as I had gotten up to look for the nearest 'loo'. By the time I got back to my room it was 7:30 pm. What a day!

I made chicken and baked potatos in the oven. It tasted so good. I watched some tv on my computer while laying on my bed resting my aching feet.