DIS takes LONDON - Part 2

Hi again :) Here commences the second installment of DIS London Escapades!

Wednesday morning, we piled into a bus around 7 am (GROSS!) and headed to...

STONEHENGE!! Apparently it's one of the seven "natural" wonders of the world. We had a pretty great guide who accompanied her explanations and history lessons with a pop-up book!

The tops of the base rocks are filed down to allow the rocks on top to lay flat! It's all perfectly even.

 The drive to Stonehenge was pretty and green!

We're not in London anymore!

After hanging out at Stonehenge for a while, we continued onward toward Bath to see the Roman ruins and explore a different part of England.

Pulteney Bridge! Made of Bath stone, completed in 1773, and some consider it the most beautiful bridge in the world (the picture on its Wikipedia page is more impressive).

After some food and exploring time, we met for our tour of the Roman Baths! The Romans built a temple around Britain's only hot spring (still flows with hot water!) and turned it into a bathing complex. We each had our own personal tour guide - a cell phone-like device that told us about wherever we were looking! We all split off and took our time going through the temple and bathing complex (I had a few minutes of panic time at the end when I thought I was the only one left in the museum and had a dead cell phone!). I thought it was FASCINATING - the ruins are beautifully preserved. Use your imagination and you're pretty much hanging out with the Romans.

The "main bath" - imagine it with a big ol' domed ceiling and you're pretty much in the year 70 AD!

The Sacred Hot Spring - the water is 114.8 degrees F. WOWZA.

Hot spring drainage

Part of the old ceiling's "backbone"

Goofy Romans stuck in the wrong century. They didn't know what America was. I told them, "Oh, you WILL!"

Pillars in the steam room! Each of these stacks emitted heat, creating a lovely warm atmosphere :)

After the baths, we went to a glass blowing demonstration!

The delightful owner and one of the artists.

Alex (our professor) CREATING something!

He made a bird (still RED HOT)!

...I made a glassy blob!

This was GREAT. The owner of the shop was hilarious, and I actually learned a lot about glass blowing! I guess this is really the only way it could be done, but it blew me away (PUN!) that the metal instruments used to blow the glass determine its coloring! Becoming a reasonably good glass blower must take YEARS; there's so much thought and care that goes into it (you also can't be afraid of fire!). It was a lovely way to end the day in Bath, and I even got a cute little piece of aqua glass as a souvenir!

On the way back to London, we stopped at a log cabin-esque restaurant for dinner:

And that wrapped it up! We all crashed on the 2.5 hour bus ride home :)

Thursday morning, we were supposed to meet with Mads Qvortrup, the former Communication adviser for the Blair administration. I guess he had more IMPORTANT things to do or something, because he canceled on us! Instead, we met with the person in charge of gun control! He also worked within the Blair administration, so he told us some funny Tony Blair stories and talked some politics. After lunch, we went to the O2 Bubble (BIG HUGE multipurpose venue in Greenwich - they're already getting ready for the 2012 Olympics!) and attended the BRITISH MUSIC EXPERIENCE. This is like the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, British version. They had a different room for each decade, going from the 1930s all the way up to 2009. It was interactive, which was great; a lot of the rooms had screens allowing you to click any icon of interest and hear a little schpeel about it. This was absolutely one of the highlights of the trip - I could have spent DAYS in there learning about the Beatles, the Spice Girls (the museum has FIVE of their outfits!), Radiohead, and a gazillion others. BUT, we had to make time for...

On my way to Hogwarts! It's my first time, so I'm smiling with EXCITEMENT.

You haven't been to London if you haven't been to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross.

After fooling around here for awhile and taking pictures from every angle possible, I met Sarah for dinner at a pub in Victoria before...

...WE SAW WICKED! And it was FANTASTIC! I had never seen if before, unlike many of the others in my class, so I didn't even know much about the premise prior to the show. It was such a clever alternative to the Wizard of Oz (and I LOVE the Wizard of Oz!); it made me want to both read the book and put the entire soundtrack on my ipod immediately. 

Ready for the WICKEDNESS.

After the performance, it was time to go OUT ON THE TOWN :) We found an ideal three-story bar; the third floor had a great cover band playing and the dancing was out of control! I met some great people, listened to some great music, and had a splendid time dancing with everyone :) It was the best possible night to end the trip.

Approximately four hours of sleep later, we awoke, sloppily packed, and were bussed over to the London Eye. It's pretty much a giant Ferris wheel with large, windowed compartments enabling you to essentially see London in its entirety!

It was a foggy day. I kind of liked that, though - even though we probably didn't see as much, what we DID see looked nice and authentic all blanketed in fog :) That said, we got incredibly lucky with the weather overall! I didn't pull out my umbrella ONCE, and for spending a week in England, that is pretty darned good.

And, that about wraps it up! We left directly from the Eye to the airport, and knew the study tour was over once we heard the flight attendants making announcements in good old Danish :) 

I REALLY loved this study tour. DIS took wonderful care of us; I thought it was a perfect mix of tourist sight seeing and academic and cultural visits. Much of what we visited I certainly would not have been able to track down myself had I not been a part of an organized program. Classes today were definitely a struggle, though - a week off sets in quickly!

I actually have all kinds of things to tell you about from this weekend that have been postponed due to the necessity of getting the London blogs out there, so check back soon :) Cheers!