Days 43 & 44 London/Wales 7 x 7 Special

7 x7 Special London/Wales Trip        November 5, 2012 Day 43 & 44

1. Best/favorite Places

a. I loved visiting the Tower of London because I learned about all of the places I visited which was super cool. I also loved it because a Beefeater told me I was a very clever young lady because we had a whole conversation about Henry VIII

b. Buckingham Palace was definitely one of my favorite places to visit as well because it was so beautiful and so amazing. The Queen wasn’t in the day we visited however; we got to see the famous changing of the guard’s ceremony!

c. I thought that Madame Tussauds Wax Museum was very fun and it was so cool to meet all these famous people. I met the Royal Family, Obama, Michael Jackson, and so many more celebrities and famous people.

d. Ripley’s Believe it or not was like the coolest yet strangest place on earth. We saw a life size car made out of yarn that actually operated! We saw a picture of Mr. Bean made out of dung! Beatles made out of gum. A lipstick portrait of Kate Middleton made out of kissing the canvas with lipstick on and sooo much more odd stuff like that!

e. My favorite place to visit in Cardiff was Cardiff Castle which was originally built in 1006! It is a golden medieval palace now that the Scottish family the Marquees’ of Bute, (yes they all had the same name, weird right!) transformed in 1800.

f. For fun, my favorite place to visit was the Making of Harry Potter where the movies were actually filmed. We went in to the REAL Great hall and saw all of the REAL props of all eight movies. We also got to ride on a broomstick through the streets of London all the way to Hogwarts!

g. I liked visiting the London eye and Westminster Abbey London looks so beautiful from the eye and the Abbey is amazingly beautiful! I got to stand where the Queen sits when she comes to the Abbey. AMAZING RIGHT!

2. Coolest People

a. Haladd Powell: Pronounced Halath Powell. She is the triplet’s old neighbor and she is Welsh. She goes to an all Welsh school and they are punished if they speak any English. Her family speaks all Welsh in their house.

b. Sanatt Powell: Pronounced Shunedd Powell. She is the sister of Haladd. She of course is also Welsh. Shunedd is 12.

c. Andy the Beefeater. Andy was our tour guide at the Tower of London. He was the one that called me very clever. He showed us traitors gate which Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Howard came through before they got executed. Mel Gibson also came through traitor’s gate in the movie Braveheart.

d. Olivia the tour guide at Kensington palace: Olivia gave us a VIP tour of Queen Victoria’s bedroom because we had a long conversation with her.

e. Benjamin the Verger at Westminster Abbey. Benjamin was the one that showed me where the Queen sits and he allowed me to stand where the choir stood during the Wedding of Kate and William last year.

f. Rebecca another tour guide at Kensington Palace: She told us ghost stories and a story about a nanny for some princes and that she killed all of them and then was executed in a chair that Olivia sat in. She said she still haunts the palace and is known as the black Cloud lady. She was seen by Elizabeth apparently. It got all of us really scared.

g. Shakespeare: At the history diner, our waiter was named Shakespeare. He was SUPER cool because he gave our orders in lyrical form. I loved his line, “To have macaroni, or to not have macaroni, that is the question!”

3. Things I learned

a. That Prince Edward V and the Duke of York disappeared in the Bloody tower in the Tower of London.

b. That Shakespeare was buried in Stratford

c. That the Great fire of London in 1666 burned down a lot of Historic places including Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

d. I saw tombs in the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff that date back to the War of Roses time. I thought that was really cool 

e. I learned that the movie theaters in England are only called cinemas and movies are called films, candy is only called sweets

f. I learned that Longfellow had a bust and monument at Westminster Abbey. I thought that this was cool because Longfellow went to Bowdoin College and lived in Portland on Congress St.

g. Cardiff Castle was built by William the Conqueror

4. Interesting Facts

a. We drove by on a double Decker bus 10 Downing Street where Winston Churchill lived.

b. I learned that if the Union Jack flag is flying on top of Buckingham palace, then the queen is not there, if the Royal flag is flying, then she is there.

c. Cardiff is the Capital of Wales, Cardiff is where the girls and Auntie Paul and Uncle Kim live.

d. The longest town name in the world is in Wales the town is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

e. In the Welsh alphabet there are double dd’s double ff’s double vv’s and double ll’s

f. Nelson’s Column is located in Trafalgar Square London; it is dedicated to Captain Nelson who died in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 in the Napoleonic War. The column was one of the most expensive monuments in London costing £407,000!

g. I saw and touched Cleopatra’s needle on the edge of the river Thames. It was given to the British by the Egyptians in the 19^th century

5. Historic Sites Visited

a. Tower of London, most famous for its executions and the very famous hall of Crown jewels 

b. Westminster Abbey, where many Kings and Queen and many other famous British historic people were buried. It is also where William and Kate had their wedding last year.

c. Buckingham palace, the castle where all royals have lived since 1761. The day we were there the Queen wasn’t in

d. Marble Arch, located in Hyde Park, Executions were held here for citizens that were not close to the King or Queen. More than 1500 heads were cut off at marble arch.

e. Kensington Palace, this is where Queen Victoria lived while she ruled and Princess Diana lived before she and Charles got divorced

f. Cardiff Castle, A castle originally built in 1006, The castle is more important know because of the bombing of World War II, you can see the craters from bombs in the castle walls.

g. Llandavv Cathedral, 1500 year old and still standing cathedral, we were there when an orchestra was practicing and there beautiful music echoed throughout the room.

6. 7 favorite Pictures

Buckingham Palace

Harry Potter movie studio tour

With King Henry VIII

The Royals

Beatles in gum

Guard

Harry Potter movie props

7. Culture

a. The food in England and Wales is not that different from the U.S, I know it sounds strange but there are more Italian restraunts and American restraints in London and Wales then there is British restraunts. One time for lunch, Emma and I went to a pub and ordered fish and chips which is a very popular traditional British meal however, they were kind of greasy and they were really big. I really liked the bangers and mash Auntie Kim made though!

b. Most English people’s daily lives are very proper. It seems like they’re always on time, everything they do has a specific time. Everything is very clean and very organized.

c. It seemed to me that the people in London are more “interesting” then the people we usually see in the Unites States. I found all the colors of people’s hair in the rainbow twice… now that tells you something!

d. It seems like for television, the British people enjoy comedy shows like, Monty Python and Mr. Bean as well as dramas like Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs

e. I could tell that the British people were very proud of having Adele. In most of the taxi’s restraints and elevators, they were playing her music.

f. I think that the Welsh culture is very different from English, Welsh culture seems to be a lot of farming and spending time outdoors, I noticed that Wales had a LOT of sheep!

g. As England is famous for, they had a lot of tea, I learned that dinner time there is called tea time instead!