The McGill's travel through England!

Alright! Let the massive blogging begin! This is the first of my 6 posts! I will post one blog for each place.  I apologize for the length of these, but since I am also using this blog as a journal of sorts I want to write down as much as I can!

My family arrived in England on Saturday night, but since I was in Dublin I came back bright and early Sunday morning to meet them! That evening we spent the night catching up, and I bought them some of my favorite English goodies including digestives and bueno bars.  

On Monday it was my turn to show them around Leeds! I'll just skim over this, because a lot of the places I took them I've already talked about in my other blog posts.  We went to the Royal Armories, Briggate, Kirkgate Markets, then I showed them my flat and introduced them to my flatmates! After we went up to Headingley Campus to explore and ate dinner at a pub there.  It was fun to watch my dad experiment with driving on the wrong side of the road!

On Tuesday we woke up early to drive out to Blenheim Palace in Woodstock.  It was about a three hour drive away from Leeds but it gave us time to sleep and enjoy British radio.  Blenheim Palace is home to the Duke of Marlborough and was built in the early 18th Century.  It was given as a gift by Queen Anne to the first Duke of Marlborough for his defeat of the French at the battle of Blenheim.  It is said that if that battle had not been won, we may all be speaking French today! The palace has tons of pretty art, family history, family gossip, and gorgeous architecture.  If you are ever doing a road trip I would highly suggest it! My whole family felt as if we could go back to see more! 

The front side of the palace

Oh Emma...

Some of the palace gardens

Palace gardens

We got Jacob a peacoat for his trip over here. He looks like quite the gentlemen if I do say so myself.  

Blenheim Palace

Emma, Jacob, and myself on the South side of Blenheim palace

Sibling love

There were pheasants all over the grounds and my mom found them very interesting; since I am her personal photographer on all family trips I had to take pictures of them.  She wasn't as excited to see them dead on the side of the road later on in the trip.  

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace.  You can see the rest of the McGill's on the left side

The rest of the family on the back side of Blenheim Palace.  The bust you see at the top of the Palace was taken from France by the first Duke of Marlborough as a token of his victory, along with the 2.5 tons of stone that it is standing on.  

You can see the bust a little bit better

Duckie bush!

Palace gardens as the sun was beginning to set

There were sheep EVERYWHERE! My whole family loved seeing all of them

After Blenheim Palace we drove to Chipping Campden, a little town in the Cotswolds where we had dinner at a pub for my birthday.  There was a three course meal which was incredible.  

Appetizer: butterflied Sardines

Served with bread and butter

Main Course: Fish Pie with salmon, cod, and broccoli topped with mashed potatoes

Desert: The BEST strawberry ice cream I have ever had, and chocolate ice cream.  

Me, Emma, and Jacob

In the morning we woke up and had a lovely English breakfast, and then went hiking in the area around Chipping Campden.  It was so pretty and green everywhere.  It was nice to explore a part of England where the houses looked different from one another and there were lots of toadstools and thatched roofs.  

Sheep everwhere!

Walking along the trails

Some of the places we had to climb over the fences using the provided benches

Jacob climbing over

Myself with the trails

Our B&B was called Woodborough and was owned by a lovely couple who made us an incredible traditional english breakfast. It was a lovely house with comfortable beds, nice amenities and great customer service

Woodborough

After exploring the different little towns in the Cotswolds we headed off to Bath for the afternoon! We had a longer drive to Bath and when we arrived we headed straight to the Roman Baths.  They were incredibly interesting and historical with a great audioguide that lead us through the different parts of the Roman Baths.  They even recreated parts of it so that viewers would better understand it.  

The start of our tour. I thought that this bath we were looking down on was the entirety of the Roman Baths, but we were actually taken through to the right and saw much more than this one bath.  

These statues surrounding the Roman Baths were not built until the 1700's but were built to look as if they were built in Roman Times.  They were built to protect the Roman Baths from the elements. 

Some of the original mosaics that covered the grounds of the original Roman Baths

The original steps that led to the Roman Baths.  The Roman Baths used to be a huge event for people.   People would travel from all over the Roman Empire to go to the Baths where there were supposed healing powers 

The museum did a really good job of reconstructing parts of different pieces of the baths.  This was the altar that priests sacrificed sheep on.  

Minerva, the Roman Goddess that the baths were dedicated to.  The Romans believed that she looked over and watched the Baths.

Harry Potter in Latin! Jacob bought the first one as his souvenir since he takes Latin 

Emma loves the Roman Baths

The source of the water that bubbled up from the earth's surface.  This was the 'holiest' part of the temple that the Romans worshipped.  Very few people were able to go into this part of the Baths as they were regarded as the holiest.  This is also the oldest part of the Roman Baths.  

We finally arrived at the bottom part of the Baths! The water was so warm, and even though it was green I thought it would be so nice to go swimming in!

Emma in front of the Baths

Emma touching the water

Emma and Jacob

The three of us at the Baths, enjoying the sunshine

Emma and I in front of the Baths

This was the hottest room of the Roman Baths. There would be tables set up and people would come into here to get massages and lathered in oil.  

add changing room

Myself, Emma, and Jacob

Jacob loves audioguides

Mom & Dad

A large cool bath that people would come into after they were in the hot parts of the bath to cool their body temperatures.  Often times this was where people came to be healed.  Now it is just a wishing pool for coins.  

After wandering around the baths some more we went to high tea in the building right next to the Roman Baths! This was the first official high tea I have been to and it was delicious! There were delicious finger sandwiches, AMAZING scones, and lots of little deserts.  The tea itself was amazing as well. 

Yummy Sandwiches (it was three squished together)

Deserts

Jacob being classy with his tea

Emma loves scones

Since the building we were eating in was attached to the Roman Baths, you could have some of the fresh spring water! We decided to try some....but were disappointed.  It was very warm, and since there are so many minerals in it, it tasted awful.  I took about a sip of mine and could not drink anymore of it.  

My reaction to the water

Jacob was much more fond of it than we were

The Roman Baths at sunset

After we finished high tea we headed to the little village of Potterne where we were staying ( I was very excited because it had the name Potter in it).  I felt bad for my dad because there were lots of one way roads, and lots of blind turns.  After a stressful hour and a half of driving we arrived at our little cottage! It was nice to be in a place where we each had our own room and enough room to spread out and be by ourselves if we wanted.  There was also a nice living room with Television

The backyard

My dad had such a difficult time getting the car out of the tiny driveway! It was definitely not made for big cars!

We woke up early to head to Salisbury where we were going to climb the Cathedral tower.  Now I have always been scared of heights, but when we were in Italy I loved climbing the towers of churches to explore and I always love seeing cities from up high.  However I could not handle this tour.  The guide spent the majority of the guided tour telling us about how old the tower was and how amazing it was that it was still standing.  He showed us the fire damage from the 1700's, talked about how there was no concept of engineering when it was built, and talked about how structurally unsound the church was, because it was based on marshland.  About 10 minutes into the hour and a half tour I was ready to go down to the ground.  This picture above is one of the many staircases we got to climb

Emma climbing another staircase

I'll admit, the view from the top was incredible.

Salisbury Cathedral! We made it up all the way to the beginning of the cone

Salisbury Cloisters, they were never actually used but just for decoration.  They reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter 4 when Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret.

Cloisters

After exploring the little town of Salisbury, having a picnic lunch, and getting some delicious pastries we headed to Stonehenge! We got audio-guides and walked around the stones, but in the end we came to realize the central theme of Stonehenge is "We really don't know how or why these stones are here, but here is our best guess" We took some pictures of the stones and enjoyed the pretty landscape!

Me and Dad

Emma and Jacob being silly

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Of course we had to do a few jumping pictures...

This one is my favorite

Stonehenge

Sun hidden by the clouds at Stonehenge

Artist's rendition of what they believe stonehenge originally looked like

Emma touching one of the stonehenge rocks

Jacob explaining the difference of the rocks to us

After exploring stonehenge we wanted to see the sheep nearby! The gate was open so my mom and I tried to get as close as we could! It was a little hard though because the sheep kept walking away from us.

Mom with the sheep

After stonehenge we were all tired from a full day of wandering; so we picked up some fish and chips and headed back to the cottage.  these were some of the best fish and chips I have had yet, and were even wrapped in butcher paper!

yummmyy!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to head to Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is where the queen stays on most weekends when she is not at Buckingham Palace. It is where most heads of state come to have fancy meals, and if I am remembering correctly William and Kate came here after their wedding.  It was an incredible castle with too much history to even begin going into! It was almost like a miniature town, and there are 150 people that live there all of the time.  We got audioguides and explored the state apartments and St. George's Chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but here are some of the outside

All of the lights had little crowns like this on them

Archers would stand in these and shoot arrows from them.  It allowed for them to shoot out, but they were relatively safe still!

The oldest part of the castle

The Queens initials were all over the castle.  It was either E II R (Elizabeth Reina the second) or E R (Elizabeth Reina which means queen or ruler)

One of the guards!

After touring Windsor castle we headed to Heathrow airport to return the rental car! We got a picture of all of us in front of it.  I think this was one of the happiest moments of the trip for my dad.  We returned the car and took the tube from Heathrow to our apartment in London.  Since we had all of our bags it was pretty difficult to get around the tube so by the time we got to the apartment we all just relaxed for the rest of the night.  

In the morning we woke up early for a full day of sightseeing! First we headed to the Tower of London which used to be home to London's worst criminals, the royals, and is now home to a museum and the crown jewels.  

The Yeoman, the guards who protect the tower of London. They have been working as guards for a very long time.  We took a free guided tour with one of them and they told us the story of the tower of London.  

Emma in front of the Tower

Our Yeoman tourguide

Two of the seven crows at the Tower of London! There is a legend that says if there is not always 6 crows at the tower of London then it will collapse.  So to keep the Tower from collapsing, they keep a spare!

Some old coins

The newer pence coins produced form the shield of England if you put them all together!

Henry the 8th and his disappearing wives.  I thought this was quite funny, 2 of his wives were executed at the Tower of London.  

The siblings and I in front of the Tower Bridge

After the Tower we walked along the South Bank and then went to explore Soho for a little.  This was a really cute courtyard with lots of organic restaurants we found!

I loved the windows!

After Soho we headed to Trafalgar Square!

Trafalgar Square, with Big Ben wayyy in the background

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square with National Portrait Gallery in background.

After wandering around different parts of London we headed back to the apartment, relaxed a bit then went to a resturaunt by the wharf that was right next to our apartment.  We were skeptical of it because it seemed as if it could be an overpriced restaurant with sub-par food, but it was the best meal all of us had in London! 

Jacob and I both got a butter curry with rice and naan-It was DELICIOUS! We both scarfed the whole thing down!

Mom and Dad

Emma eating her chocolate lava cake desert

The next morning we woke up to take the big bus tour around London! We first stopped by Buckingham Palace but there was some sort of fun run going on so we were unable to see the changing of the guards or much of the palace.  We hopped on the bus and enjoyed the live commentary through London.  Since we had done so much wandering and walking the day before it was very nice to sit down, and it was a gorgeous day out.  This picture above is a Harrods double decker bus, I was obsessed with it!

Emma with the Union Jack in the background

Jacob

Big Ben

Emma and I with Big Ben in the background

After the bus tour we saw some of the guard horses walking around! My mom got very excited about seeing them all

Of course we had to stop by Harrods-it was INCREDIBLE! We could have spent a full day in there just wandering around looking at all of the luxurious pieces of clothing, art, food, and home design pieces.  Every room was so elaborately decorated, this room was home to chocolates and sweets

Sorry that this blog post has gotten a little boring by this point-its so long im really summarizing a lot.  This was in a restaurant we went to for dinner on our last night there, I loved the art on the walls!

For desert we went to this place called Snog, which had actual frozen yogurt, and some of the coolest light designs I've seen! It was delicious.  I woke up the next morning and headed back to Leeds and my family spent one more day in London.  London by far had to be my favorite city I have been to in the world.  By the end of the trip I found myself not wanting to go back to Leeds, but wanting to be studying in London instead.  It was one incredible city.

Phew, that was a lot! Now onto my spring break posts!