Wednesday 7/28: London

Not too much to say about today… we had presentations and then a couple of us went to the London Zoo. It was all right, but the giraffes and monkeys were really cool! One of the monkeys even came out of the cage and was just hanging out with us in the hall!Tonight we are having one last group dinner. Tomorrow morning I have my thesis presentation at 7, and then we are going to see Wimbledon at 10. After that I come back, finish backing, and check out to go to the airport to head to Rome, Italy! We are spending 3 days there and also going to Cortona, Florence and Venice! I will probably not have Internet… so you probably will not hear from me! I will be back in London very late Aug. 5^th and then I fly back to the U.S. Aug. 7^th. This trip has gone by waaay too fast!

Tuesday 7/27: London

We started our thesis presentations today. Four people present each morning, and I got the unlucky draw of going at 7am on the last day, but oh well, I guess more time to prepare! I have put so much work into my project, I am sooo ready to be done.

We met back up as a group at 10am and then went to see Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. It was swarming with tourists though, making it not as much fun. Then we walked through Kensington Gardens up to the Palace to eat at the Orangery. We were going to order tea (which I STILL haven’t done) but the food looked better so I got the soup of the day and a cheese scone instead. I was a little disappointed in the palace and garden because I heard that they are really pretty, but I didn’t find it that great.Afterwards we went on a river cruise and then at night went and saw the play “39 Steps”. It was funny, but not as good as “Charlie’s Aunt”, which we saw in Manchester. The area we were in was really neat and makes me wish we were able to see other parts of the city more. When I get back from Italy and have one last day in London, I am definitely going to see Notting Hill, Kensington, and walk through Hyde Park as well as ride the London Eye. After the play, Clinton and I went to see Big Ben and Parliament at night, because we heard it was a must-see.

Monday 7/26: Dublin to London

We got up at 5am this morning (Very early because this whole weekend we slept in… my first time to do so all summer) and headed to the airport to go back to London. Of course when we got to the airport we had to shuffle luggage around from bag to bag to lighten everyone’s weight limit.

When we got back to London, we checked back into our dorm rooms and then took the tube to West Minster where we saw West Minster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. After looking around for a while we went and listened to a presentation by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, which is similar to our Associated General Contractors. I have to say that it was the most interesting presentation we have listened to yet. They kept it short and sweet and didn’t ramble on for hours, which I think helped. We then went and toured the Winston Churchill Museum. It would have been cool, but I am “Museumed out.“

For dinner, we all went to a Thai restaurant, and I can now officially say that I do not like Thai food. But I did at least try everything… it just wasn’t my favorite. We got more food if we shared a special with two people, so I shared with Clinton. It turned out good for him, because he got to pretty much eat for two. While walking home we stopped to get ice cream, so I got a large and that was my dinner :-)

Dublin

First time I have internet in over a week, so here it goes...

We arrived in Dublin late Thursday night. We flew on RyanAir, and boy it was an experience. You are not assigned seats, and you have to wait by a screen until your gate is displayed about 40 minutes before departure. When the gate is displayed, everyone rushes to the gate to get in line to get a better seat. We were lucky and were one of the first in line. A few guys had luckily already flown RyanAir earlier, so they gave us the low down on how it all works. They also informed us that you have to print off your boarding pass before you get there, because if you do not, they will charge you 15 pounds. That would have been really easy and we would have done it when we bought our tickets, but you can only print them off from 15 days before the flight and up to 48 hours before the flight. Your checked bag can only be 15kg, and you one carry-on (you have to put everything in that one carry-on, purses and everything) can only be 10kg. The charge for over 10kg is 40 pounds. The charge for being over you checked bag depends on how much you are over. We were able to escape all these charges though since we were informed by our friends….but then again our plan ticket only cost 18 pounds, so they have to get you somewhere! We did have to pay 20 pounds to check the first bag, so it cost more to check our bag then it did our ticket!

Then when we got our flat… it was in the middle of Dublin’s ghetto! We had gotten an email earlier in the week saying we were “upgraded” to a luxury apartment…they forgot to mention the location change. The cab driver said in all 15 years he had been driving people from the airport, he had never once taken anyone there. He also told us to not walk around and definitely do not carry our purses. We slept there the first night and then called the reality agent first thing in the morning saying we wanted out. So we got a 100% full refund and moved to a nicer part to town into the Holiday Inn. So I guess it is good we got a free night out it??

So after we got done moving into the Holiday Inn, we walked around the city of Dublin, which I decided was by far my favorite place I have been. Irish people are so nice, and the pub experience is a whole new world. How they are depicted on TV is not misleading… it is real.

Saturday we walked around some more, went on one of the red sightseeing buses and visited both the Jameson Distillery and the Guinness Storehouse. Of course I tired an Irish coffee, but seeing as I don’t like whiskey, I also did not like the Irish coffee. We all went to dinner as a big group and then hung out and listened to Irish music in pubs the rest of the night. Clinton and I also randomly ran into Bob Riley on the street in the middle of Dublin early that morning and talked to him for a bit!

Random Story: Of course there are homeless people everywhere on the streets, which is very sad, but I never give them money because I do not want them to spend it on drugs and alcohol...I have heard too many stories. I always said I would give them food instead. But we were walking along and I saw a crippled girl, about our age, begging for money. This is the first person that got to me… I felt really bad for her. I wanted to give her money but we were walking to fast to have time…. And it is a good thing! While walking down a pedestrian street later that night, I looked to my left at a little “Jut-in” at the street where a door was….and we saw her standing up perfectly straight and sticking a needle into her arm! I was shocked…she put on such a good show earlier! So I just stared and said kind of loud (accidently) “hey it’s the crippled girl from earlier, and she is not crippled… she is doing drugs!” Everyone turned to look and she definitely saw us. When we walked back by later, the overhead door was pulled down so she could have privacy, but not all the way so you could still see her feet. Good thing I didn’t give her money!

On Sunday, Clinton, Jeff, Beau and I took a day tour to Wicklow, which is the county/countryside right outside of Dublin, and of course it was beautiful. There is not one thing about Ireland I do not like. We were able to see the beautiful countryside…and I know I have talked about the countryside being pretty in other places such as France, England and Scotland… but Ireland’s countryside blows them all out of the water! We were able to see some film locations of “P.S. I Love you,” “Leap Year,” and “Braveheart.” We also actually saw Sean Penn filming his new movie called “Camelot.”

Day 23-25 Manchester

Day 23 - On Tuesday we went to the Thinklab at Salford University outside of Manchester. The construction school there, as with everywhere else in the U.K., is referred to as the School of Built Environment, and Salford University is well known for the school. That night, we went to Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre to see the comedy “Charlie’s Aunt.” It was absolutely hilarious, even all the boys were laughing hard. It would take a while to tell about the synopsis...but check it out on google. The theatre itself was really cool but hard to explain…I’ll post a picture soon.

Day 24 - On Wednesday we visited the Media City project being built by Bovis Lend Lease. It is a large project being built in Salford by the BBC. It was cool to see and hear about the controversy of the BBC moving north, but it was not too exciting. We didn’t even get to walk on site…After that, we went and worked on thesis for the rest of the night.

Day 25: TURNED IN MY THESIS :-) I stayed up till about 12 Wednesday night just putting finishing touches on my thesis, and after copying and pasting documents realized the links did not copy. So I worked on the bus on the way out to the wildlife refuge project we visited (not too exciting either) and on the way back to re-update the links. I got it done, though, and turned it in at 5:30pm then headed to the airport where I am now waiting to board my plane to Dublin!!!!!! So I am sitting in the Manchester airport waiting on my flight and decided to take out my computer and update my blog. It is really hard to do, though, because I have worked so hard on thesis and this was supposed to be my fun weekend after I turned it in. I didn’t have internet all week and I was really busy completing and putting the finishing touches on my thesis, so I was not able to focus on the blog that much. I went ahead and wrote Monday’s in a word document on Monday night, so that is day 22. The rest are combined below because it was a really uneventful week with a lot of schoolwork, so there really isn’t that much to tell.

It is crazy to think we have been here for four weeks. It does not feel like it at all. I am glad Mallory, Clinton and I decided to stay an extra week and go to Italy, because I would be really sad if I had to leave next week. I really hope we get to do what we want to do our last week in London. This will probably be the only time I am in London and want to do a few other things besides go visit more companies, jobsites and museums!

As I said earlier, I turned in my thesis today, now all I have left is to make a flash presentation for my presentation next week!

Day 22: Manchester to Ireland

This morning we got on the train to go from Edinburgh to Manchester, and the train ride was gorgeous. I brought my computer to work on the train but found myself continually looking outside. .

When we arrived in Manchester, we checked in at our dorms and then headed to the Manchester United stadium for a tour. I was really excited for this because it is the one thing I wanted to do in Manchester, and it was first on our list. It was kind of surreal being at the stadium, one that I have watched so many games at from my T.V. at home, on another continent. We got to go into the stands, walk around the stadium, hang out in the players lounge where they get ready for games and hang out afterwards, and we even got to go into the locker room where I got a picture next to Rooney’s locker.

For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant where I got my first Indian food experience, and it definitely did not disappoint. I was skeptic at first, and besides the food being a little spicy, it was great. I am so full I can hardly move now.

Day 21: Hike south of Edinburgh - Burwick-upon-Tweedy

Today we headed south of Edinburgh to go on another coastal walk. We looked up lots of hikes online last night and even contemplated going north to the highlands, but we loved our first coastal walk in Weymouth so much, we decided to head back somewhere on the coast. Plus the coast here is unlike anywhere in the U.S., so I will probably not be able to see anything like it again, and if I do, it won’t be for a long, long time. This time we started in Eyemouth and ended at St. Abby’s Head. Clinton and I took the train from Edinburgh to Burwick-upon-Tweedy, where my parents picked us up and drove us to Eyemouth for the start of the hike. It was a very cool hike and I am glad we did it, but I don’t think anything can compare to the hike we did in Weymouth.

This hike had lots of cliffs, which were awesome, but what I loved most about it was the countryside along the coast. I felt like I was in a movie… It is exactly what I think of when I think of Scotland or England. We even got lucky and it did not rain on us once (It has rained literally every other day). We are now headed back and I am going to work on thesis the rest of the night!

Day 20: Edinburgh

Not to interesting day... very fun night!

I woke up today and worked for the first half of the day on thesis. Around 1:30, I headed out to get lunch with my family and then go shopping with my mom for the rest of the day. Around 3:30, we stopped somewhere to get scones and tea...however, I am not a big tea drinker...so I got a latte instead.

Scotland’s weather is crazy. It is always cold and wet. Even when the sun comes out, it only stays for about 10 minutes. Today before I left, I looked out the window to check the weather and s

aw it was sunny, so I just threw my rain jacket in my purse to be safe since it rains probably every 20 minutes. However, when I stepped out the door 1 minute later, it was raining and cold.

At night, about 15 of us went on a haunted tour of Edinburgh’s underground. It started at 11 that night, and the first part consisted of walking a bit around Edinburgh, close to the Royal Mile, and getting a little bit of history about the city. The way they used to live was very gross. A few facts we learned were…

1. People would literally just through their waste out onto the street.

2. They were big into torturing people. We got to see, read and learn about all the different torturing methods (not my favorite part).

3. Edinburgh is where they had the most witch trials, and the most people died from being accused of being a witch here. If you were accused a witch, there was no way out… you were going to die. One of the witch trials consisted of first nailing the accused woman to a chair and then dunking her head first in the bay (Which was so filled with waste that a person could walk across). If she floated, then it must have been the devil holding her up… so they burned her (and her family) at the stake. If she sank and drowned, she was innocent. But now also dead….

We then went into the underground into old storage vaults that are supposed to be haunted. I thought it was really cool to see, and it really wasn’t that scary until the last vault when they turned all the lights out. Someone ended up popping out of the dark…we hadn’t been scared yet, so we weren’t expecting it. They had separated the guys and girls to different parts of the room, and I think when he popped out I almost knocked Mallory down trying to cling onto her.

At the end, we came out into the most haunted pub in Edinburgh (Because it was built into some of the vaults).

Day 19: Edinburgh

Today was our first day off here, and it was spent working on thesis… :-)

I woke up at about 8:30 and worked for a couple hours before heading into town to walk around. We were looking for an outdoor store and hoping the trip would only take about an hour, however, we accidently pasted it and walked way farther…causing about a 4-hour trip into town. It was fun walking around though. The whole city is very cool…very mid-evilish. Not a bad place to be lost in. We even ended up in a garden below the Edinburgh Castle, and that is the coolest view I have seen of it so far.

But that about sums up my day… thesis and a walk around Edinburgh. One plus is that while we were out, I got a Starbucks mug that says Edinburgh on it. I have gotten one from every major city we have been to so far, except Brussels.

For lunch we went to Pret-A-Manger, which I LOVE. Their food is so good. That is definitely one store/restaurant the U.S. needs to invest in. If we had a Marks and Spencer’s and a Pret-A-Manger at home, I would spend all my money buying food there. Although Europe has no good candy (even their skittles are gross), it has much better take-away (to-go) options than we do.

Day 18: Edinburgh

We started the day by visiting the office of the company in charge of constructing Edinburgh’s new tram system. We listened to a presentation from the project director and then headed out to the site to see a part of the project. The project is very much opposed by the general public. The project director who spoke to us mentioned this many times and also how the media was always waiting for them to mess up. We actually mentioned to someone on the bus later that day we had been visiting the site, and immediately they had a sour reaction… I believe their response was “oh, that mess.” Something while on the site that jumped out was that there were no trucks. In the U.S., almost every single vehicle on a construction site is a truck, but here there was only one out of 30.

Next we headed to a town on the river for lunch. Me, Nick and Clinton ate at a local restaurant called “picnic” and it has by far been the best food experience yet. Both the food and service were excellent. It was a very small place, but very crowed…always a good sign. The 3 workers were very friendly and everything was a very good price. I got a sausage roll, some odd flavor chips... sweet chili and pepper flavored (very good!), a latte and a huge piece of amazing banana bread/cake for dessert…all for 5 pound 50. I would make the trip all the way back out there just for another meal!

After eating, a couple of us climbed up to King Arthurs seat, which was also a lot of fun. It rained some of the way, but that just cooled us off. When you got to the top you could see all of Edinburgh. There were absolutely gorgeous views. I hope I have time to make it to the top again.

We have already been in Edinburgh for half a week and I feel if Scotland is so pretty but I haven’t been able to see a lot of it. I wish we had more time here, and I wish I didn’t have to worry about thesis. I would be having a lot more fun if I wasn’t thinking about it all the time! The good thing, though, is that it is due in a week and I will be able to relax…and hopefully all my hard work will pay off!

Day 17: Edinburgh

Today we visited a college here in Edinburgh where we were given a tour of the campus and then listened to two presentations. The first one was about the college and was pretty interesting to listen too, but the second presentation was given by a Scottish PhD student, who I could not understand at all, so I really couldn’t follow what he was saying.

After we went and got lunch. Most people went to a restaurant, but I picked up a burger, fries, and soda from Marks and Spenser’s for only 5 pounds and then did a little shopping. I really wish we had one of these stores in the U.S…. I absolutely love it. It has amazing food. I am not sure why I chose the burger to eat… I shouldn’t let prices sway me on food there!

We then headed to the Scotch Whisky Experience where we learned how scotch whiskey is made, which parts of Scotland different types are made from, got to smell the scents of different types, along with a few more things. We even got sample some. I do not like Scotch, but I still tried it…and then gave the rest to Mallory :) It was still a lot of fun, though, to go through the tour.

Afterwards, it was back to the apartments to work on thesis, where I started stressing again…Yayyyy. Still no way I am going to finish.

Random note: Everyone here says “hiya” instead of hey. Also, we started talking to a local Scottish man (They are very hard to understand) and told him we were from Alabama, and he started laughing and talking with a very southern redneck accent, then proceeded to tell us Forest Gump was his favorite movie. I quickly assured him all of Alabama was not like and was like “yeaaa, sure”. Awesome.

Day 16: The Open at St. Andrews

Today we took the train from Edinburgh to Saint Andrews to go to the Open’s practice round. I am not a big golf fan, but it was still a lot of fun. The only two names I knew going into it were Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, but came out knowing a lot more. We got there at about 8:30, and then walked the course backwards to make sure that we saw everyone. Tiger was one of the first people we saw, and he was not that friendly. What made it really cool was that since it was the practice round, there was not a large crowd, and we able to get to see all of the players up close. I even got Phil Mickelson to sign the cup I bought at the merchandise store.

We stayed there until about 2 and then headed up to Saint Andrews Cathedral. What I liked about it was that it was just the ruins… they have not tried to re-build, renovate and commercialize it. It is still in its original state. You could even see where the huge columns used to be. Afterwards, walked along the coast, picked up dinner/lunch and headed back to Edinburgh where we worked on our thesis the rest of the night.

Day 15: Edinburgh

We left London this moving on the train to come to Edinburgh for the next week. It was a 4 ½ train ride, but it was a pretty nice train, so I didn’t think it was that bad. I actually thought this train was a little nicer than the Eurostar trains, but not everyone agreed with me.

Our apartments are not far from the train station and just a few blocks off the Royal Mile. Instead of having our own room and bathroom here, we are staying in actual apartments, so to each one there are four bedrooms, one kitchen/living room and one bathroom. Although the rooms are a little bigger, it was nicer having our own bathrooms in London.

Edinburgh is very pretty and unique. It is completely opposite of London. It is a lot calmer with a lot less tourists. When we first got here, and after getting situated at the apartment, we walked down the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. It was cool to see, but I don’t like how they commercialize it so much. There also were not nearly as many tourist as there were at the London Tower, but then again, I also don’t think it was as cool as the London tower.

After the castle we went and ate at an Italian restaurant, which I was really excited about. We have eaten at so many pubs, I am not sure I can handle much more pub food. We were originally going to a pub, but they could not accommodate the amount of people we had so we had to find a different place….which lead us to Italian. Everyone loved their meals though, so it was a good decision.

Day 14: Weymouth to London

After having breakfast this morning, we headed to the Jurassic Coast to find fossils in the rocks. There were cliffs here, but there not nearly as big or pretty as the ones yesterday. The cliffs are eroding rapidly, and there are lots of fossils that can be found in them. It was fun to go see another beach, but the fossil finding got old fast. Clinton and Bobby found some good ones, but that was about it.

My dad drove us to the beach, and that was an experience in itself. Driving on the left side of the road is a lot harder than it sounds. The roads are also very narrow, and the drivers here are a lot more aggressive and drive much faster. Also, once you get outside of London, there really are no stop sights. They have “round-a-bouts” instead. Of course I didn’t like them as much, but that is because I am not used to them and sometimes it is hard to get into them. From my understanding, the person in the round-a-bout has the right of way so you just have to get in while you can. Once you enter it, there are different exits (Usually 4) that you can exit from.

When we got back, we packed our stuff and headed via train back to London to watch the world cup final. We watched it at a pub not far from our dorm. What made it even better was that over half the people there watching it were a bunch of students from Spain. It was definitely a cultural experience getting to watch it there since they are much more into futbol than American’s. I got the winning goal on film…they go crazy, but unfortunately, it is too large to load onto here.

Day 13: Weymouth Hike

I am really glad we are staying in a bed and breakfast this weekend to get the experience, since the rest of the time we are in dorms. Today we woke up and went to get our breakfast at 8:30, which we had with pressed coffee. I know you are supposed to have tea while in England, but I am still addicted to coffee.

Afterwards, we headed off to our hike. We started at Lulworth Cove and then hiked 12 miles along the coast back to Weymouth. There really are no words to explain the amazing views, so I put up a lot of pictures. The hills/mountains/cliffs we had to climb were very large, long and steep. I have been hiking in Colorado every summer, and these were by far harder than that. I think it was because there were so many of them, and the steep parts were very long.

After the first climb, we arrived at Durdle Door where we decided to go swimming. The water was FREEZING! Regardless, we got in to swim under it and take a picture. It wasn’t as bad if you kept moving. I would have stayed in longer, because after a couple of minutes our bodies went numb, but it was very hard to breathe in the cold water. When we first got there around 9:30, there were not too many people there, but soon people were pouring in by the loads to get to the beach and see Durdle Door (In the picture below).

Next was the hard part... all of the steep climbs. It was worth it though. The views were breathtaking, some of the coolest I have ever seen. I felt as if I were in a movie scene.

After we made it through the cliffs, we walked more through the countryside, but still to where you could see the coastline and white cliffs.

The hike was an absolute blast, probably my favorite thing I have done since being here. At the end of the hike, we randomly found 3 guys, Logan, Corey and Robert, from our class on the path. We walked back into town and ate dinner at a pub while watching the world cup match between Uruguay and Germany for third place. Unfortunately, Germany won. The food at this place was good… Mallory and I split the chicken penne pasta plate, and then Bobby and I spilt the biggest dessert I have ever seen, called the Tuck Shop Sunday. It was a huge ice cream sunday with Brownie, fudge, rolos, wafers and much more in one of the large margarita bowls you would get from a Mexican restaurant and a brownie ice cream cake.

Day 12: Weymouth

We headed to Weymouth (located on England’s southwest coast) this morning via train. We took the Piccadilly train line from Kings Cross, and then changed trains at Leicester Station to the Northern Line, which we took to the Waterloo station. From there, we hoped on the National Train and were beach bound! I tried to work on thesis on the train, but the amount of work we have to do in such little time just stresses me out, so I can’t really concentrate as a result of being stressed…. Great cycle, huh.

We came to meet my parent’s but got here before them, so we had a little time to walk around and explore the town. When we first saw the coastline, we had a “wow” moment. The white cliffs and clear blue water were an amazing site, nothing like I have ever seen before… It kind of looked like a cove that would be on Pirates of the Caribbean. However, we were in the strip, tacky part of the beach, so the beach wasn’t that great. We got some food and ice cream and just sat by the beach and rested for about 30 minutes before walking through some shops in the town.

When my parent’s arrived, we took a cab to meet them at the Bed and Breakfast. I was disappointed to see that they “upgraded” from a Mercedes rental car to a Volvo, doesn’t seem like an upgrade to me! I was excited about getting to ride around in the Mercedes :) We are staying in a cute little Bed and Breakfast not far from town called the Trelawney Hotel. I have already put in my breakfast order for scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and tomatoes.

Once we were settled, we walked back into town along a footpath from our hotel that had great views…made me very excited for our hike tomorrow. The town itself is very cool. It used to be a fishing town, but I read somewhere that now a lot of its income is from tourism. However, I didn’t see any tourists. It seemed like all locals to me. We then drove down to Chisel beach, which is a beach of gravel and rocks, not sand. It is very different. It looks like sand from far away, but when you get up close, you realize the beach is made of rocks.

Day 11: July 8th

Not much to talk about today… It was finally a day off for everyone to catch up on some thesis work. We had a meeting at nine, its purpose being to get everyone up, and then had the rest of the day off. I really don’t think we are going to finish…we have way too much to do. I had lunch with my parents… a free meal is always a good thing J. Headed to the coast tomorrow….

Day Eight & Nine

There is not much to say about these two days, so I grouped them together to make for a little longer post. Monday, we headed back from Paris to London. Paris was fun, though I am not sure I will ever go back, but only because there are still many other places I want to see. The Eiffel Tower was beautiful, the old streets had much character, and the river was charming, The Parisian’s culture is completely different from ours…. they have to pay to use the bathroom, they do not have as good of hygiene as we do, there were naked advertisements all through our the city, and guys and girls share a bathroom (weird). The weekend was a blast, something I will never forget… AU REVIOR Paris!

When we got back, we headed to the imperial war museum… it was interesting, but I was worrying about thesis the whole time, so did not get much chance to enjoy it.

Tuesday, we met in the morning and headed to the British museum. Mallory and I did not stay for long and headed back to the dorms to work on thesis, and that is what we did for the rest of the day!

On an additional note, I was going to start making a list of all the differences in the U.K. and the U.S, but I have just decided to post them on here instead.

1. 1. In the United States, we place orders as “to-go” when we want to take it somewhere. The British refer to it as “Take-away.”
2. 2. They eat no ice here! You have to ask for ice to be put in your drink, and then when you do, you only get like 2 pieces! I am a big ice eater, so I am not very fond of this.
3. 3. Sodas are expensive. In the U.S., you can get a can for less than a dollar. Here it is at the very least 2 pounds, which is 3 dollars.
4. 4. They do not give free re-fills on your drinks. You have to buy a whole new one.
5. 5. They are stingy with ketchup. They only give you one pack, and then act annoyed when you ask for more (and this is when you don’t have to pay for it!)

Day Ten: Salisbury, Stonehenge & Bath

We started off a little earlier today since we were headed for three places: Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and bath. We took a bus with a guide to all of them. Our first destination was Salisbury Cathedral, located in Salisbury England, which is famous for having the tallest church spire in the U.K. We had a our tour guide with us, so it was nice to learn about its history and was a cool place to see, but we have already seen Saint Paul’s Cathedral and Notre Dame, and this one didn’t compare to either.

We then headed to Stonehenge. It was definitely very cool, and also such a marvel to how they got those stones there. It is still a mystery today what it was actually used for. While it was neat to see, there were way too many tourists there (as are most places we go). I am glad we went, but if you are pressed for time, I am not sure I would recommend driving all the way out there to see it.

The last place we went was Bath, where wetoured the Roman Baths for most of the time, and then walked around the town for the remaining time. This has by far been my favorite place. The town is beautiful. I could have spent a lot more time there! A lot of the places we see, I can just “check off my list”, knowing I will never come back, but this is definitely a place I would come back to.

Day seven - Brussels & Tour De France

We left early this morning for Brussels, Belgium to watch the Tour de France. The races started in Rotterdam earlier that day and fnished in Brussels. Instead of taking Eurostar, we took Thalyus. Mallory and Dane made their reservations before ours… it was their idea to go… they just came to dinner saying they were leaving for Belgium the next day! So when Clinton and I booked ours the night before at 12am, the prices had dropped and I was able to get us comfort 1 seats (first class), and now I never want to go back to coach. We had huge red seats with all the food and drinks we wanted. For breakfast I had yogurt and a chocolate croissant roll with coffee. On the way back, they had the BEST dessert with the meal. I forgot to ask what it was, but it was almost like a light pudding with brown cinnamon-sugar on it and semi-dried fruit on top. I also got my pick of wine with the dinner. The ride alone made my whole day! I am now writing this post on the train back to England, with regular coach seats, and it is just not the same!

When we got to Brussels, we went straight out to the park where the riders would be finishing. We had 6 hours till they got there, we just wanted to go check it out before we did anything else… and good thing we did. It was at this awesome park with a large monument called the atomium, I had never heard of it, but it was pretty cool. There were lots of people setting up to tailgate, so we walked around the park and town to see where they would be finishing. We found the finish line and just decided to stay there all day and save our awesome spots. It was a good thing we did, because 30min-hour later, all the good spots were taken and we would not have been up front, first row to see Lance Armstong!

I was excited about seeing the Tour de France, but wasn’t sure exactly how cool it be since we would only see them fly by for a second…. but it was sooo worth it, and I now I want to go back to see another section of the race. I am sure it helped we were at the finish line, though. They were handing out free stuff all day and playing music, so we never once got bored sitting there.

When the riders got there, it was crazy. It all happened so fast; even I got a rush of adrenaline. We were front row, so we were standing on the barricade trying to get as good of view as possible. When the riders went by, the motorcycle that drives by them to film them flew by us too, and almost hit all four of us who were leaning over the barricade. There were three bad wrecks at the end, and one was right in front of us. I filmed the whole thing and even got the biker, who was mad he got caug

ht in it, throw his bike.

Mallory bought a huge American flag, and when I was in the bathroom, Lance Armstrong’s staff came over and took a picture of them! I was so mad I wasn’t there! My anger was also in part to that I had to pay to use the bathroom. We have had to pay to use the bathroom everywhere we have gone in Europe besides the U.K., which is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Something is wrong with the way they think over here. I just can’t comprehend why someone has to pay to use the restroom. It is beyond me, and I was not polite about paying either. One bathroom I snuck in earlier that day, but I was unable to sneak in later.

Mallory got an awesome picture of Lance riding by. It looks like he is looking right at us, or the huge American flag… but it might have had something to do with the one biker who had lost his bike walking on the side of the road to get it… but we choose to believe the former.

After, we went to grab dinner before we left Belgium. We walked into a restaurant to sit down when the waiter politely informed us that it would be better for our safety if we were to sit outside. I wasn’t exactly scared in Belgium, but I never felt comfortable either, and this really didn’t help. When we got back to Paris (after our nice first class ride) we ran to try to get to the Eiffel Tower before it closed so we could go to the top. Unfortunately, the very top was closed and we could only go half way up, but it still worth it. Even from that height, you could see all of Paris.

Day 6: Paris

Today was a slow day. We slept in because we got no sleep. This is because we had to sleep with our windows opened since it was so hot. But it was SOOO loud, and still hot, so it was hard to sleep. Then we headed off to go shopping! We shopped for a couple hours, hung out outside the Louvre, walked down Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. We then went and ate at a real French restaurant in the Latin Quarter called La Petit Chatelet right by the river and Notre Dame… it was pricey, but the atmosphere alone was worth it

Then we bought train tickets to go to Brussels tomorrow to watch the Tour de France… pretty pumped! Tomorrow we were going to go to the Louvre Museum and Versailles, but we have been to so many museums. Monuments and tourist places…and as Dane said… “If I want to see the Mona Lisa, I can google it!”

Day Five: Paris

We have arrived in Paris! We got here at about 9:45 in the morning…. And this morning was quite an ordeal. We were planning to leave our place in London at 4:30, but Mallory slept through her alarm and us banging on her door (From 4:10-4:45), even though we woke up literally everyone else on the hall. I ended up kicking her door over and over while Dane and Clinton were banging on it and yelling at her! She luckily woke up at 4:45, threw her stuff in bags and we ran to the station. The Eurostar was very cool… they even had a café on the train, felt very Harry Potterish. When we got to Paris, Mallory really had to use the restroom, so we found the closest one…. but you had to pay to use the bathroom!!!!!!!! And since we had just arrived, we hadn’t gotten to an ATM yet, so she was out of luck for the minute!

After figuring out the subway, we found a breakfast café, where we had a delicious breakfast. Definitely tops the food in London. I got a waffle and jam (They don’t call it that, but I forget what they do call it…). We walked around for a while, fell asleep in a park, sa

w the Eiffel tower from a distance and toured the Notre Dam. For lunch, we went to a cute little café and then ate by the river.

We took a break for a while down in our room and then headed off to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at sunset (aka 10pm) and it was stunning. I feel like the Eiffel Tower is always hyped up, and know I know why. … It is HUGE! There really are no words for it.