The group!!

Final Day in London

A tiny piece of the Chelsea Flower Show

Big Ben and Parliament Building

Our trip is coming to a quick end. The last two days in London have absolutely flown by and now, for most, its time to pack our bags and head home bright and early tomorrow morning. I think most of us are ready to be home, or at least state side, where we can take some comfort in familiarity and perhaps enjoy not living our of a suitcase.

The last two days in London have been amazing. This is my third time here and I have to say it never gets old! We all split up these last two days and no two groups did the exact same thing at the same time, but I do think we all managed to see most all of the same things. Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, and the Tower Bridge were all places everyone saw. They were all absolutely spectacular! A bunch of us, if not most all of us, are planning to venture out one last time after our family dinner tonight to go take some evening/night pictures of Ben and Parliament as one last hoorah before we all part ways tomorrow! Besides hitting up the big tourist places, we wandered the streets doing some last minute souvenir shopping - even stopped in Harrods which was completely overwhelming. Never have I seen so much stuff and variety in one store! It was insanely cool!

Last night, a little over half the group went down to the theater district and saw Wicked or Billy Jean. By the amount I heard about it when they all got back it sounded like both shows were phenomenal. While they were at the show a smaller group of us had tickets for the Chelsea Flower Show. It was spectacular. I don't think I will ever again see such a display of plants in my life. It was completely overwhelming between all the colors, smells, and people! Garry told me this morning that yesterday alone there were 30,000 visitors to the CFS! 30,000!!! There were flowers and plants there from every corner of the world and in every color imaginable! Even the booths set up displaying garden sculptures and lawn furniture had some extraordinary pieces!

This whole trip has been nothing but amazing! I think trips like these are not only a great learning experience but are also an amazing opportunity to travel with your peers to places that are sometimes off the beaten path and offer the chance to engage yourself in an unfamiliar culture. And I think and hope I speak for everyone when I say that this trip has opened our eyes to the world that exists beyond our doors. It has been the experience of a life time!! I would definitely like to thank Garry for all his hard work in getting this trip together. He and Bill have both done an amazing job guiding us along this adventure and we are most appreciative!

Finally made it to London!!!

Andy, Bin, and Jimmy at the Roman Baths.

Sarah enjoying a pint of Fruli's strawberry beer. It was really good, kind'a tasted like a fruit-roll-up.

Alex and Matt at Stonehenge.

David and his "love interest" at Hampton Court Palace (turned out they weren't meant to be).

Flowers at Kew Garden.

We made it to London! Sorry for the lack of blogging the last few days but internet has been hard to come by. In order to keep this at a decent length I'll start with what we did yesterday during our free day in Bath. To start Bath is probably one of the prettiest towns we have visited in my opinion. It had that old feel charm while still being a very happening and modern place! The first thing most everyone did when we arrived was head to the Roman Baths for a tour inside. They were incredible! The Romans have got to be some of the most ingenious people to ever walk the planet. The systems they came up with to move the water, heat to room, and even cool the rooms was really interesting and their methods, while improved upon, are still used today! When we finished our tour of the baths you can sample some of the water from the spring that feeds it. So we tried it, it had a very high mineral concentration that was less than pleasant to say the least.

From there we really just wandered around town. We stopped to get lunch at this little "hole in the wall" place that was super cheat and deliciously good. With happy stomachs the group I was with headed to The Circus and Royal Crescent. Both are famous architecture pieces that house very wealthy and well to do people. Nicholas Cage is actually said to own one of the flats. We continued exploring the town before finally heading back to the hotel for a little afternoon nap. For dinner most all of us went to a little Thai restaurant around the corner from the hotel before heading to... you guessed it... a pub. It was a rather relaxing and enjoyable day in the beautiful town of Bath!

This morning we had an early start to our day! First stop- Stonehenge! It was really cool (wouldn't have minded the sun coming out but hey)!! I can't even imagine how such a thing was constructed thousands of years ago when they didn't have any of the technological advances that we do now, I think that it part of the fascination! That and nobody is really sure what Stonehenge was used for since it appears to serve many purposes- calendar, religious beliefs, a sign of power, etc.

After a quick visit there we headed to Hampton Court which was where the Royal family lived before Buckingham Palace. It had quite the set of formal gardens, which were not to my taste in the slightest. The thing I found most entertaining was when David tried to make friends with one of the swans living on the grounds. They seemed to have gotten a pretty good friendship started, especially when David offered some bread. However, I think the swan finally decided that their friendship wasn't meant to be when David tried to hug him and he responded by nearly squirting David's foot with a nice little present. It was pretty entertaining!

The last garden of our trip was to Kew Gardens. It was beautiful and had a wide collection of garden elements, some not so native to England, like the 163ft Pagoda (a Japanese influence). They had a really interesting glass house that held all sorts of tropical plants for all different places. There was also a butterfly house, a lilly garden, a tree top walk which was really cool neat both as an experiential experience and as an architectural/sculptural piece. After a few hours of hanging out at Kew we finally headed into London! Our hotel is right down the street from Hyde Park and around the corner from the subway station so we can go explore the city the next two days!

better late than never...

So I wrote this a few days ago intending for it to get posted but could get internet. I figured I would go ahead and post it anyway...

May 24
Today was a great day of garden touring! We had great weather and 2 beautiful gardens that were each spectacular. The first place we stopped was Hidcote Manor Garden. It was an expansive garden that combined various private areas with semi private to very open areas. Had there been less people there (as where a lot) the private areas would have been great for getting lost for a little R & R. The more open areas attracted the guys as they were instantly draw in to the croquet set that was sitting out for anyone to enjoy. I think Jimmy played 4 or 5 games before finally deciding to check out the rest of the garden!
The plants at Hidcote were gorgeous! There was a huge variety of plants and even a couple specimens that I had not seen at any other the other gardens. The private areas were arranged in the same organic/natural fashion that we have seen over and over. The more manicured areas were done such that they created 'rooms' within the garden. It was really neat to move through the different spaces as they changed shape, color, and even texture- this was accomplished through the use of different ground covers, plants, and use of statuary. We also experienced our first Haha wall- its a wall that uses a bit of an optical illusion where from a far it looks like the land is continuous but once you get up close you see there is actually a bit of a ditch before the ground slopes back up and is meant to keep livestock penned in. The reason it is called a Haha wall, as I was told, is because if you weren't paying attention you would fall into the ditch and everyone else would have a good laugh.
The second garden we went to was Blenheim Palace. The Palace was extrordinary! It was the birth place of Winston Churchill so as we toured through the palace we got a history of Churchill's life and got to see the room he was born in, letters he had written to his father, and even the place he proposed to his wife, Clementine. It was really neat and the palace, as you can imagine was beautifully decorated. The gardens of the palace we equally as incredible as there were beautifully decorated courtyards and large expansive lawns. We causally made our way around the grounds taking it all in!
From Blenheim we headed to Oxford for the night. Unlike every other hotel we have stayed at, The Oxford Hotel is on the outskirts of town so about half of us for went the usual going out and instead walked about 15 minutes down the road to a little town that had 2 restaurants. After a satisfying dinner, Jimmy, Bin, and Andy decided to take the bus into Oxford to meet up with the rest of the group while Beth, Liz, Payton, Taylor, Carrie, and myself started walking back to the hotel. Along the way we were walking past this giant pasture with cows and horses that was actually open to the public to walk through and enjoy. After sitting on the pasture fence for a while just enjoying the scenery and company we decided to venture into the field for a little walk. It was so cool!!! We were just walking along the path, passing by cows who were a few meters away grazing, they would glance up at us as we passed then go right back to eating! Eventually, we turned around and headed back to the hotel, stopping at BP to get some snacks for the night and next few days. Then the six of us came back to the hotel and had a girls night in mine and Beth's room!

Shakespeare...

House and gardens of Biddulph.

One of the various monuments at Stowe.

Carrie, Alex, Beth, Sara, and Stephanie enjoying some Stratford nightlife!

Shakespeare's birth place.

Sorry no post yesterday, but our hotel does not have free wi-fi so I had to wait till today to find some free wi-fi.

Yesterday we left Chester and headed to Biddulph Gardens. We had a guided tour of the garden and were told that the garden was set up to create little micro-climates for different themes; there were Italian, Egyptian, Chinese, and American gardens. Each had plants and statuary that was representative of that area, so the Egypt garden had Sphinx statues at the entrance and then you went into what was meant to represent a tomb. There was also a geology museum that we got to go in which had been created by the original owners of the house and it showed the geological creation of the earth. There were various fossils and rocks that showed the progression of species over time. It was really neat!

From there we had a 3 hour bus ride to the Gardens of Stowe. We got there a little late so we didn't have as much time as we originally planned and as a result our visit was a little rushed. What we did see of Stowe was really interesting! It is definitely a place you can spend several hours roaming around, stopping here and there to sit and enjoy the scenery. Throughout the garden we found various monuments- there was a ancient temple, a temple of British Worthies which had the busts of people like Issac Newton, William Shakespeare, and Queen Elizabeth, among many others. There was also a giant sheep pasture that you could wander through so a bunch of us hung out with the sheep for a bit! I think the thing that added to the charm of Stowe, at least for me, was the time of day in which we were there- we were there from about 4 to 5.30 so the sun gave everything that nice golden glow that enriched all the colors and made it very enjoyable. Plus we had great weather! We were able to break out the shorts and t-shirts! From Stowe we headed to our hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon (home of Shakespeare). We went out to dinner before taking in some of the nightlife, which is much different than Ireland. They don't seem to be as fond of us Americans as the Irish were. Their idea of going out is also different from the Irish. Here it seems much more like it is in America, to go out all dressed up and have fun drinking.

Today we have a free day in Stratford, so after sleeping in a little a group of us went exploring the town. It is extremely touristy. Everyone is here to see the birthplace and grave of Shakespeare, along with the theater and everything else Shakespeare here. We toured around the town stopping in a few of the shops before going to lunch at Mc Donald's so we could us their wi-fi. I think the plan now is to go back to the hotel for a bit- nap, maybe do a little laundry- then go to the park across the street to hang out and work on our journals till our group dinner tonight.

Goodbye Ireland, Hello England!

The town of Chester

Well, we have officially left Ireland and arrived in England. I think I speak for everyone when I say that Ireland was absolutely incredible- the sights, the people, cities, and even the pubs were unforgettable! But, alas, it is time to move on to the second half of our trip (can you believe we have been here a week).

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn, well not really the crack of dawn because it was fully light outside when I got up at 6 this morning, to head to the Dublin port so we could hop a boat across the sea to Holyhead, Wales. The boat we took was the size of a mini cruise ship, much larger than many of us were expecting, which was for the better as a couple people were worried about motion sickness. The cruise to Wales took a little under 3 hours. When we docked we unloaded, got our bags and went through customs- which was really just walking down a hall that separated the incoming passengers from the main lobby area... there was no stamp, no nothing; we were all a bit disappointed to not be getting a stamp in our passports as proof we were here... I guess a million pictures will have to do!

We met up with our new coach driver, loaded the bus and headed out to see Wales! It hasn't looked too much different than Ireland to tell the truth, but I know that will change. Our first and only garden stop of the day was to a rather large garden known as Bodnant Garden. It, like many of the gardens we have seen in Ireland, was a garden attached to a house. The gardens were very extensive with various paths wandering around. You were constantly running into forks in the path and having to decide which way to go. The areas of the garden closest to the house were the most manicured- grassy lawn, orthogonal water features, etc. but as you moved further away from the house it became more and more organic feeling and the paths twisted in turned in more obscure ways. The plantings were also more natural and free to grow as they pleased. It was a really neat progression through the garden that you really didn't notice (I'm just now realizing it as I write this). After spending a good bit of time in the garden and grabbing a bite to eat it was off to Chester. Chester is a really neat city because it is built mostly within an old ancient Roman fortification wall that surrounded the town that use to be here way back in the day! It is also along a river and has a canal of sorts that runs through it and you can walk along. Overall, it is a rather cozy town and of a very good size!

Last Day in Ireland

I'm going to keep this post on the short side as we have to be up at 6am tomorrow so that we can catch our ferry over to Wales! Plus, today was a rather easy and laid back day so there was not a ton of action. We started the day off with a tour of Dublin, Paddy took us around on the bus and pointed out notable buildings and even took us around some of Dublin's more notable parks. After our tour we headed to a couple of Irish cathedrals. They weren't much different than any other cathedral I have seen. The two we visited had a a nave and apse, and all the other usual cathedral architecture styles and building forms. After the cathedrals we stopped at Trinity College to have a look at the Book of Kells.

From there it was a short drive to the home and garden of Helen Dillion. She is essentially the Martha Stewart of Ireland, minus the jail time and such. This might just be one of my favorite gardens! The back garden is beautifully done with a plethora of colors and textures as all sorts of different plants are introduced. The garden also featured a very prominent water feature the created a strong central axis through the garden that created a pleasant sense of balance in an otherwise rather natural seeming garden. Once we finished our wandering the gardens we were invited into her home (she sadly was not home, she had travelled to England for the Chelsea Flower Show so her husband took care of us) for tea and cookies. After a delightful afternoon snack we called it a day and headed back to the hotel for a free afternoon and evening. When we arrived back at the hotel most of us crashed for a bit while others went out to do some last bits of Irish shopping. Then, as usual we headed out in groups for dinner before all meeting up to go out to the pubs one last time in Ireland!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Bill and Hannah entering the back section of Helen Dillion's garden.

Just a few of the flowers on display in the garden.

Beth, Michael, Carrie, and Bin hanging out in the front garden at Helen Dillion's home and garden.