Posted on May 13, 2009 - by sarahsamudre

England Trip Thus Far

So I’ve been here for five days so far, and having (as usual) a wonderful time. This is my third trip to London, and being as third time is the charm, Vasant and I have skirted jet lag COMPLETELY on this trip. Although, that may have something to do with the fact that we don’t have a regular sleep schedule anyway.

Our first day in town we went to the British Musuem (my fifth time there- I can’t get enough of musuems).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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I love the Persian art the British Musuem has. Most of these pieces come from Persepolis.

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Necklaces for British chieftains.

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Two fantastic headpieces from the Roman Britain Era.

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Death mask found at Sutton Hoo.

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This is one of my favorite pieces. It’s a clock- when it was operational, it was designed to move across the dining table on the hour, firing little cannons, with music, and parading figures around its gilded deck.

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Ancient Persian door fittings, guarded by Persian Sphinxs

Those are just a few of the pieces I really liked. From there we took Mom out to tea at Fortum & Masons (waste of money unless you’re paying for the experience alone, and even then I’d say go elsewhere). And if you ever want to have the best tea on the face of the Earth, for my money, got the White Heather Tea Room in Victoria, Canada. Best. Scones. In. Universe.

The next day we did Oxford and Blenheim Palace, where we saw some scenes from 20th Century Fox’s Gulliver’s Travels (Jack Black, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt were on set). I took a couple pictures of the costumes, but didn’t take any of the actors, because I felt really weird doing that. I did accidentally get Emily Blunt in the distant background of one photo, but I feel weird posting it. So my cousin Kevin, who doubts until he sees photos, will have to wait until I get back to see someone famous. But here are some set shots:

The scene we saw them shooting involved Emily Blunt and Jason Segel “looking up” at Jack Black’s Giant Sized Gulliver. Emily Blunt was screaming and there was smoke, and again, I felt really weird being there, like I needed to leave unless I was there to work. It just felt kind of odd looking at something I want to do professionally without being there for a reason. SOooooooOooo… I left and those are all the photos I’ll post!

We went into Blenheim’s gardens after the insanely boring (always boring) tour of Winston Churchill’s birth room and personal effects. I love the library however. The one room that is the most fascinating in the whole of the palace and you can only look at the spines of the books from behind metal lattice work. TORTUROUS.

This insanely weird statue fascinates me. I photograph it every time I visit. The feminine head looks so wistful, and slightly sad, atop her beastly body.

Her twin, however, just looks perturbed.

Just in case you’re wondering if this place looks familiar, it does. It’s used in dozens of movies, one of my favorites being Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet.

The next day we went out to Herstmonceaux Castle and Battle Abbey in Kent. Battle is one of my favorite spots in the UK, purely because I’m such a history geek. Herstmenceaux was “meh” for that reason. Pretty structure and gardens, but no huge historical significance. Speaking of which, we went to the National Archives (where Emily did her internship) and saw the Domesday book and a bit of the Magna Carta earlier that day. They had a map of the Roanoke Colony and underneath said the colony failed after 10 months “due to lack of provisions”. That’s all it said on the placard. Isn’t that like saying Amelia Earhart disappeared due to lack of fuel in her plane? Very weird that they’d just say it failed due to lack of provisions. One of history’s big mysteries and that’s all the say. Wonder why the historical slant. A BIG slant.

Anyway, Herstmonceaux Castle. Best part about it was a mother duck with her chicks chasing us all down, whining like a puppy (I didn’t know ducks did that) for our food. Mom gave the duck a cracker, but that wasn’t enough. It wanted Vasant’s latte.

So that’s our trip so far. Today Vasant and I went over to Notting Hill to find a Paul’s Boulangerie for breakfast (< Coffee rant> only reliable coffee chain in London- if you’re from Seattle and are a coffee junkie, avoid London Starbucks. Total crap. If you’re from any other part of the states though, you may not notice. < /end coffee elitist rant> )

Tomorrow Emily graduates, we’ll take Dad to the White Tower and Somerset House, and then Friday is York! Saturday and Sunday- I forget what we’re doing, but we return to the States on Monday. And Tuesday I’ve got a linguistics midterm, oh joy of joys.

Hope the pictures upload well.