Sunday, September 21, 2014

St. Hilda's and the River Cherwell

This week I went punting with my dear friends Aya and Anne-Marie!  Anne-Marie was part of St. Hilda's College at Oxford University when she did her Bachelor's Degree, so as an alumna she she had access to the College's punts!  We took out a punt for a couple hours on the River Cherwell in Oxford and drifted past the beautiful scenery from St. Hilda's and through Christ Church Meadows.  We stopped at one lovely spot in the river and had a little picnic in the punt as well!  It was so peaceful and lovely!  There were hardly any tourists or other students out at all, so we had the whole river almost to ourselves!  Afterwards Anne-Marie gave us a little tour of the gardens in St. Hilda's, it's not every day you get to see the inside of a College!  (in fact, practically never does one who is not part of the University ever get to see inside a College....)

Here are the pictures of the lovely day!!






















Sunday, September 14, 2014

Some things I did in York

York was a really neat city.  I think it's an especially great place for someone to go if they've never been to England before because you can really see what a city looked like way back in the day.  York loves to talk about and display how it has been a part of history for over 2000 years, so there were things to see from the Roman Empire, to the age of the Vikings, the Medieval period, the Victorian age, the Georgian age, etc.  The city was full of a bunch of little museums and I got to go through quite a few of them.  My favorite things to do were just walking around the city and the tour of the Chocolate Factory.  I also went to Castle Howard, which is a little bit outside York, and while I wasn't too impressed by the house, I adored the gardens!  Here are a few pics from my time in York!

York Minster

At the Viking Museum

A Georgian House

A Victorian Room

Watching a master in the Chocolate Factory


Real Yorkshire Pudding!

Castle Howard Grounds

A Montana Bar in England?

A sword from a very long time ago...

A helmet from a long time ago...

Japanese Bullet Train!























Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard

Castle Howard Grounds

Castle Howard Grounds





Queen Victoria's personal train car

King Edward's personal train car

King Edward's personal train car

King Edward's personal train car

Royal Train from Queen Victoria's time

What coach class used to look like