Stones, Sheep, Splendid Sights

I didn't get a chance to recap yesterday, so I'll start with that! Grant and I woke up early in the morning, to try and go to Westminster Abbey when it opened. Unfortunately we were a little slower to get moving than we'd hoped (and I also had some trouble with the shower curtain rod; I didn't know where else to hang my towel to dry, but it fell down...) and took our time getting into town. We went along the Thames and by Parliament, and took bunches of pictures of Big Ben and stuff. By the time we got to the Abbey itself, we'd have only had an hour or so to look around before we'd have to leave, so we glanced at St. Margaret's Church nearby and took pictures, and then headed down Victoria to find the hotel where we were supposed to meet our tour bus to go to Stonehenge.

It turned out that Victoria is a *very* long street, full of shopping and restaurants and things to see. We made it down to Victoria Station, which is basically a giant mall as well as a Tube and bus station, and had to ask directions to finally find the Grosvenor Victoria Hotel. It's pronounced "GRAHV-ner," apparently; and people say French has too many silent letters! Once we knew where it was, we still had a while before we had to be there to meet the bus. We got some Subway for lunch in the Victoria mall thing, because it was decently inexpensive, then Grant and I split up to wander and do some shopping. I picked up a couple of pretty pashmina scarves and walked back up Victoria to find a little street market we'd passed before. The boots I bought in Tours are already starting to wear out from all the walking we do all the time, so I bought a new pair for when they completely fall apart.

At 12:30, Grant and I met up back at the Grosvenor Hotel. We were waiting for a while, and ended up talking to a couple of women from Connecticut who were also waiting for the tour. Finally the bus showed up, they checked our names and we got on, and we were off! It seemed to take forever to leave London, and then it was about an hour and a half's drive to get to Stonehenge. Grant and I both fell asleep, and it was really cold in the bus, so my nose was numb when we got there.

The first thing they kept pointing out were the barrow mounds that apparently are really common around that area. We saw lots of them before finally entering the site itself. Everyone tells you that Stonehenge is a lot smaller than they expected. Maybe because I've heard that so often, I wasn't actually surprised at all. It was a gorgeous day for photography, and I took countless pictures. I also took lots of general pictures of the English countryside, and the flocks of sheep that were right nearby. The crowds of tourists (of which I was obviously one) kind of ruined any mystery the site might have had, though. Also the audio guide didn't really tell me anything I hadn't heard before. Still, it was an experience just to walk around and see a monument that old and that puzzling, and I'm very glad I went. It also didn't hurt that what must have amounted to several murders of crows apparently lived there, and you could see them occasionally wheeling around and being ominous. On our way out we touched the blue stone and sarsen stone that they set up at the exit; the blue stone is supposed to be warm to the touch no matter the weather. I couldn't really tell too much of a difference, except that the sarsen seemed to leech away my body heat the way sitting on concrete does, and the blue stone didn't at all.

Then, we were back on the bus, and back to London. Grant and I hadn't officially planned anything after the 'henge, but we figured we might as well go around and see some more things, since we could. We went to Trafalgar Square and took pictures, and got some souvenir stuff. I, of course, as a self-respecting Neil Gaiman fan who adores the book "Neverwhere," had to find myself a "Mind the Gap" t-shirt. We also stopped by Piccadilly Circus and took more pictures, and then since we were there we decided to indulge our inner twelve-year-old. We took the Piccadilly Line all the way to Cockfosters at the end, took pictures, and rode back. When we got to King's Cross we realised there was another important sight to find: Platform 9 3/4! So we got off, and went to find it. Unfortunately it's kind of hidden away; they've put up a sign and installed a cart stuck halfway through the wall, but we had to ask one of the employees to point out the way. He was kind of funny; when we asked, he scoffed a little and said "Oh, you don't really want to see that, do you?" We kind of looked at each other, laughing, and said "Yeah!" Maybe you weren't eleven when the books came out, guy, but we were!

After our various photo ops, we finally got back on the Northern Line and came back to Katie and Allan's house. It ended up being almost midnight when we got there, so we paused long enough to check facebook and fell into bed.