Stuart and I went on a day trip to Cambridge. Apparently, so did every child under 15 in Italy. Geez. It was packed! I felt like they had invaded the city. Apart from that, we really enjoyed our day out. Cambridge is compact and easy to walk. We had nice weather which also helped.

I made him take a photo of me with the "holy grail"
of postboxes: the Victoria Regina one!

King's College green (I think)

We went to see the Cathedral at King's College. It was gorgeous. Sadly, after they took our 5£ (each!) it closed about 20 minutes later giving us hardly any time to really see it.

17th century grave stones

Henry VIII. Sort of why it's called King's College...

Exterior stone work

The world's largest example of a fan ceiling

Sadly photos can never do the stained-glass windows full justice.

"Henricus Rex"- aka King Henry!

Extensive grounds behind the college and cathedral

Standing on a bridge over the river Cam. Those folks are
punting behind us. Due to the gorgeous weather (especially
for England!) everyone and their mother was out.

The main street in Cambridge- and 90% of all Italy...

Punting! We got lucky and were in the "private" section facing the back of the boat. The other groups had to share their space. :) This was our rower/punter or whatever he was called. Everyone said we should do this, and I honestly thought it was just riding in a boat. It's not. The whole experience was wonderful. Seeing the city from the river was amazing. The buildings take on a different look from the boat. I would definitely do it again.

A hen do (bachelorette party) passing by

I believe that's the oldest bridge there ahead of us...

This bridge had a funny name due to it being the passage for
students going to their final exams or something. Apparently it was
quite stressful!

Old Norman building

More views of the city

A very strange clock outside one of the shops. If you notice, it's a cricket
on top of the dial. It "moves" by pushing the dial around. Very, very
odd.. and a bit disturbing.

I went to the Dulwich Portrait Gallery just south of London. It is supposedly the oldest portrait gallery in England (maybe UK). It is small, but very nice. It has quite a few masterpieces (Van Dyck and the like) among some other works that are also wonderful!

The entry

We were allowed to take photos inside (yea!). The building
design adds a lot to the presentation of the works I think.

An old clock that was still keeping time. It banged out the
hours and everything.

Portrait of a Woman by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Mrs Elizabeth Moody by Thomas Gainsborough

Elizabeth and Mary Linley by Thomas Gainsborough

The Judde Memorial- Artist unknown

Those are just a few of the works I really liked! Thought I'd share them.

Went out to visit Liz at her weekend home in Windsor. Had a wonderful time. Luckily the weather was nice, as well. Sadly, they still made me pay the (quite hefty) entry fee to the castle. Windsor is a short train trip (about 40 minutes) from London. Well worth the visit. We were not allowed to photograph inside the castle or cathedral, so my photos are mainly outside shots for this reason. I broke down and bought the book....

Partial view of the castle. It is HUGE and pretty difficult
to show in photos. In fact, it's the largest and longest
continually occupied castle in the world!

The oldest part of the castle- the Norman tower which was built
on the site of the original wooden tower. Sadly, this part cannot be visited.

Entrance

The moat of the castle. It's been used as a garden, complete
with a small waterfall (hard to see in this photo, but it's there!)

Another view of the grounds

This is the part where the Queen (et al) live when they are visiting
the castle. This changed about 150 years ago during Queen Victoria's
reign. This area isn't visited either.

Everyone taking photos. It was packed with tourists this day!

Norman archway

Some of Liz's henchmen, uh guards, marching somewhere!

Crest/symbol of the current monarchy

An odd tudor-style section where people associated with
the castle live.

The exterior of St. George's Chapel

After a long day's trip around the castle...

Lookie what I found finally! A Queen Victoria era post box!!

The Last Supper. It was hidden inside a small church near the castle.

Interior detail inside Windsor Parish Church of St John the Baptist

Queen Victoria watching over Windsor. Not sure why her
back is turned to the castle, though.

Having gone to Oxford College of Emory University for undergraduate studies, I've wanted to go to the real Oxford for a long time. Finally, I was on my way.

The fun first part of every train journey is standing in the main hall
staring at the big board waiting to find out your train's platform.

First thing I went to see was the Oxford Castle. Yeah, I didn't know
there was a castle in Oxford, either! It was really interesting,
though. It was a former prison for most of its life
(sort of like the Tower of London). In fact, it only shut down as a prison
in the mid 90s!

A view of the buildings below from one of the castle towers

Looking towards Oxford

Moi

Part of the old prison ward

One of the cells in the prison. It's been set up as it would have been
for a "priviledged" prisoner. These were wealthy folks who actually
paid "rent" for their cells. In fact, even the lowest prisoners paid
room and board of some sort!

My profile shots! Heh. I look quite smug about being in prison!

The courtyard of one of the colleges

Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant! It was goooooooood!

Labelled as the oldest building in Oxford

Façade of Merton college. Oxford University is made up of several
colleges spread throughout the city. They are somewhat independent
among themselves, but graduates still sit exams according to Oxford's
schedule and receive degrees from Oxford University itself.

Lawn of Merton College, the oldest of the Oxford colleges.

This dolphin symbol was all over most of the buildings. This one is on the
pulpit in the church on campus. It represents the man who basically
owned the college and gave a lot of money to have it built! He wanted to
make sure he wasn't forgotten.

The college library which dates back about 700 years. I took a tour
with a graduate student volunteer (I was the only one who
came along so it was a private tour!). That is the only way to gain entrance
to the library. It was amazing! The smell of the books was intoxicating
(yes, I'm a complete nerd!!)

Some of the books available- Histoire de France

Letter from Queen Elizabeth I. Yep. The real Queen Elizabeth (think
beginning of 1600s!!!)

The Radcliffe Camera. It's not open to visit, but is
an interesting building to see nonetheless.

The Bridge of Sighs- it's meant to be a copy of the one in Venice.

This is the pub I ended up at while waiting for my train. It
dates back to the mid 1600s.

Here's the cool interior. The four guys on the left there are all opthomologists
who were in town for a convention. They skipped the last session to come to the
pub. We had a good time chatting! Got some good recommendations of places to
visit next time I come to the UK, too (namely York).

Here I am sitting under the fish and chips sign