First things first: how much longer are the Timberwolves going to allow Kevin McHale to single-handedly destroy everything good about basketball? Honestly, how can someone be that bad at their job and still get paid over a million dollars a year? I'm still in a state of shock.
Back to business. Our day in Florence was an interesting one. We got into town around 2 and were again hit with a wall of oppressive heat. Sweating profusely, we found our hostel and settled in. by now, we're used to stripping down to our boxers whenever we get into our room in order to keep cool.
After cooling off for a few minutes, we hit the road and tried to see as many sight as we could. First, we visited the Leonardo da Vinci museum. He was actually a straight up genius, arguably the smartest man alive. Some of the designs he came up with were reconstructed in the museum and showed off how they actually worked, it was really cool.
From there we headed for the famous Uffizi Galleries and checked out all the sketches, paintings and sculptures. There is a whole lot of really good art in this world and we've seen a lot of it on this trip.
Now too late to see the David, we were walking back to our room when a guy stopped us on the street and began extolling the virtues of his club and the party it was having that evening. He told us that it was going to be packed with Americans and that Terror Squad would be there.
For those keeping score at home, Terror Squad is a group of hip-hop artists that rolls with Fat Joe, another famous rapper. This piqued our interest and we decided to check out the party after watching Russia-Spain.
We got to the club about 15 minutes before the action started but once things got rolling we had a great time. Not only was Terror Squad there (we've got the pictures to prove it) but they bought us a round of drinks, which was awesome. After much dancing, we headed back home and fell asleep.
The train to Rome was not bad at all, although finding our apartment was a bit of a struggle, especially in the ever-present heat. When we finally found it, it ended up being quite satisfactory, with a little kitchen that we stocked with food and plenty of space to unwind. The only issue was no AC.
The next day we went on our Vatican tour, which was very cool. Difficult to believe that the Vatican is its own country and the amount of wealth centralized in that square mile. The Basilica was awesome from the outside and even better on the inside, while the plaza outside was yet another tribute to Bernini's genius.
We went home, rested, cooked a nice spaghetti dinner and watched Polish TV for awhile before nodding off to sleep. Yesterday we went on our walking tour of ancient Rome. After watching Gladiator a week ago, seeing the ancient city in its ruined glory was very cool. I got chills when we went to the site where Julius Caesar's remains were kept during Roman times. It was like standing in his presence, very cool.The Collosseum was just as impressive, especially now that they've rebuilt part of it to look like it did back in the day. All in all, a very fun day.
Last night we tuned in to the European final, Spain-Germany. It was an interesting situation, because Jonah and I were cheering for Spain, while Stephen was cheering for Germany. The first 20 minutes provided thrills both ways before Torres' goal in the 33rd minute got me and Jonah off our feet. It was a well-played game from both sides all the way to the 1-0 finish.
Today we're going to be visiting the Pantheon at night to get a different perspective on the whole thing. We weren't allowed to enter the Pantheon yesterday because of a mass service being held but it was impressive nonetheless.
Miss everyone, we'll all be home pretty soon
-Charl
Monday 30 June 2008
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Switzerland, Pt. 2/Venice
Quick note: the post we lost in Paris due to computer issues has been recovered and posted as "Paris, Pt. 2". It contains the rest of our Paris experience in much greater detail and stylish writing, so please, check that out.
We spent our last day in Lausanne cleaning up the house and doing a little bit of last-minute laundry before we went into town for the afternoon. After a bit of nifty train-riding, we headed for the beach.
We got there and realized that not too many people actually swim in the lake because they built a giant pool right next to it (I don't follow the logic either, but whatever). We ponied up the dough to get into the complex and bought a little ball to throw around before we stretched out on the grass.
Stephen was a little sunburned (in the sense that he looked like he was wearing a red shirt), so he stayed in the shade while Jonah and I explored the pool a bit. After watching Jonah throw a double flip off the diving board and attempting and completing the age-old jump-off-the-board-like-an-80-year-old-man myself, we tossed the ball around for awhile before we were informed that the ball was too hard to be thrown in the pool and that we might hurt somebody. Abashed, we took our ball back to the field and played catch some more.
After some sun, we headed back to the house and made a delicious pasta dinner and talked on the patio for an hour or so before watching Gladiator on the projector. Nothing like a little killing in the Coliseum to usher in Italy.
Falling asleep that night was almost impossible to the absolutely unbearable heat. We slept a combined 12 hours of sleep before waking up bright and early to board the train.
The train ride itself was actually not too bad, save the guy who was listening to music very loudly on his laptop and the guy who either hadn't bathed in a week or had just forgotten to apply some deoderant that morning sitting right next to us. Whichever it was, everytime he moved I felt like I was being punched in the face. Talk about pungent.
Once we arrived in Venice, we went to book our tickets and were promptly met by possibly the rudest ticket agent of all-time. We asked what time the trains were running on Thursday morning and he just started yelling. In my opinion, he's an incompetent jerk who shouldn't keep his job but hey, I'm not bitter or anything :)
Crisis over, we found our hotel, which is very nice, particularly because of the AC. Venice is like a sauna right now, it is difficult to move in this heat. Yesterday we wandered around in the streets before checking out St. Mark's and sitting by the Rialto and watching the boats.
This morning we visited Murano and almost died of heat, but got to see some cool glass-blowing in the process. After a little siesta we wandered some more. Tonight we're going to watch the Germany-Turkey game somewhere after we eat.
Miss everyone,
-Charl
We spent our last day in Lausanne cleaning up the house and doing a little bit of last-minute laundry before we went into town for the afternoon. After a bit of nifty train-riding, we headed for the beach.
We got there and realized that not too many people actually swim in the lake because they built a giant pool right next to it (I don't follow the logic either, but whatever). We ponied up the dough to get into the complex and bought a little ball to throw around before we stretched out on the grass.
Stephen was a little sunburned (in the sense that he looked like he was wearing a red shirt), so he stayed in the shade while Jonah and I explored the pool a bit. After watching Jonah throw a double flip off the diving board and attempting and completing the age-old jump-off-the-board-like-an-80-year-old-man myself, we tossed the ball around for awhile before we were informed that the ball was too hard to be thrown in the pool and that we might hurt somebody. Abashed, we took our ball back to the field and played catch some more.
After some sun, we headed back to the house and made a delicious pasta dinner and talked on the patio for an hour or so before watching Gladiator on the projector. Nothing like a little killing in the Coliseum to usher in Italy.
Falling asleep that night was almost impossible to the absolutely unbearable heat. We slept a combined 12 hours of sleep before waking up bright and early to board the train.
The train ride itself was actually not too bad, save the guy who was listening to music very loudly on his laptop and the guy who either hadn't bathed in a week or had just forgotten to apply some deoderant that morning sitting right next to us. Whichever it was, everytime he moved I felt like I was being punched in the face. Talk about pungent.
Once we arrived in Venice, we went to book our tickets and were promptly met by possibly the rudest ticket agent of all-time. We asked what time the trains were running on Thursday morning and he just started yelling. In my opinion, he's an incompetent jerk who shouldn't keep his job but hey, I'm not bitter or anything :)
Crisis over, we found our hotel, which is very nice, particularly because of the AC. Venice is like a sauna right now, it is difficult to move in this heat. Yesterday we wandered around in the streets before checking out St. Mark's and sitting by the Rialto and watching the boats.
This morning we visited Murano and almost died of heat, but got to see some cool glass-blowing in the process. After a little siesta we wandered some more. Tonight we're going to watch the Germany-Turkey game somewhere after we eat.
Miss everyone,
-Charl
Tuesday 24 June 2008
Switzerland (actually)
After a nice train ride in which we talked to a pair of really cool Australian girls, we arrived in Lausanne, bought provisions for the weekend and made our way over to the house. Our taxi driver spoke more Spanish than English, but Jonah and I miraculously were able to put some of our education to use and got us there.
Once we were in, our jaws dropped. The house was crazy. It had a pool, a sauna, an amazing kitchen, great beds, a projector to watch movies, pretty much everything we could want. We went for a swim, fired up some pizzas, watched Ratatouille and saw the Netherlands get rolled by Russia.
After some great sleep, our day consisted of: lounging by the pool, jumping into the pool to cool off, grilling steak kebabs and going into town to watch the Italy-Spain game in a giant tent they set up. It was packed with Spanish and Italian fans. We were cheering for the Spaniards to come through and when they prevailed in the shootout, we were right there cheering with the Spanish fans.
After walking back towards the train station, we saw a massive group of Spanish fans walking up a hill and decided to follow them. When we reached the top, we saw a giant group of Spanish supporters celebrating. We decided to pretend we were Spanish and joined in the jumping around, shouting Olè and dancing to the giant drums they had set up. It was waaaay too much fun, and they didn't even realize we weren't Spanish.
Running out of time, post more later.
-Charl
-Charl
Friday 20 June 2008
Paris, Pt. 2
Short post for right now because our new hostel's computers are iffy at best, I've already had a long post erased by bad technology.
Anyways, Paris has been an absolute whirlwind. Honestly, we're all pretty ready to be moving to Switzerland, we're in dire need of a little break. Bring on the shining waters of Lake Geneva.
Talking about that, our travel plans have changed a little bit. We were originally supposed to leave for Lausanne on Sunday morning but the only trains available on Sunday are 1st-class trains.
That presents a problem because our Eurail passes are 2nd-class only. Luckily, we were able to get tickets on a train tomorrow in the afternoon, so we'll just get to Switzerland a little early. It's kind of a bummer because the whole reason we extended our time in Paris was to see the Fete de la Musique tomorrow, but like I said, we've been going full throttle for three day, a break is necessary.
Anyways, after visiting the Musee d'Orsay, we went out for dinner and afterwards took a walk down the Seine towards the Notre Dame. This is when our night got a little interesting. We arrived to an absolute crush of people from the Netherlands visiting Paris for the day. Their soccer team doing as well as they are, they were in a highly celebratory mood. After watching them play soccer with some French guys and checking out some fire dancers a bit further on, we caught the eye of a couple of the Dutch girls. We had a nice little chat ; )
After that, we went to an Irish pub and listened to this fantastic musician for about an hour until a large group of American college girls walked in. Being the friendly gents that we are, we talked to them for awhile and generally had a good time.
The next day was our Louvre day, so after a nice sandwich from a street vendor, we made our way to the monstrous art museum. That place is so massive it's mind-boggling. We walked around for 4 hours, checking out the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and all the other masterpieces along the way. After our trek through the halls of the Louvre, we need a little nap to recuperate.
After our nap and a great dinner (doner kebap from a street vendor, some of the best food you could ever have), we headed over to the Eiffel Tower when it got dark to see it light up. Again, absolute mayhem. The fields around the Eiffel were overflowing with people and when it did light up the crowd went wild. We navigated through the throng of people drumming, dancing and partying and hit one of the hottest clubs in Paris, Le Mix.
It was International Night at Le Mix, so anyone with an international I.D. was spared the €15 entry fee, which was fine by us. The club itself was crazy. Over 2000 people, all on the dance floor with the music being pumped by live DJ's from all over the world. Needless to say, we had a good time. We met some cool girls (including 4 models) and danced for a couple of hours before walking home.
Now, there we were, just walking and minding our own business, when all of a sudden a car came screeching to halt so fast you could smell the burned rubber from the tires. Three cops jumped out and came running towards us. We were slightly confused at this point, but none of us were too worried because we knew we had done nothing wrong.
They pushed us up against the wall, patted us down and checked our pockets, asking us if we had drugs. Apparently, three guys on cocaine had been walking around vandalizing motorcycles in the area. Suddenly, one of them put his radio up to his ear and said, "We found them". They let us go and said good night. Ironically, we saw the three guys being arrested a block further down the road.
After such an interesting night, we all slept like logs and managed to oversleep a little bit. We managed to check out by 11 and were off to book tickets and check into our hostel. All that went relatively smoothly and after dropping our bags off in our room, we set out onto the streets of Paris to do a bit of wandering. On our way we watched a group of old men playing bocce ball. They were really intense about it, it was pretty funny.
Anyways, Paris has been an absolute whirlwind. Honestly, we're all pretty ready to be moving to Switzerland, we're in dire need of a little break. Bring on the shining waters of Lake Geneva.
Talking about that, our travel plans have changed a little bit. We were originally supposed to leave for Lausanne on Sunday morning but the only trains available on Sunday are 1st-class trains.
That presents a problem because our Eurail passes are 2nd-class only. Luckily, we were able to get tickets on a train tomorrow in the afternoon, so we'll just get to Switzerland a little early. It's kind of a bummer because the whole reason we extended our time in Paris was to see the Fete de la Musique tomorrow, but like I said, we've been going full throttle for three day, a break is necessary.
Anyways, after visiting the Musee d'Orsay, we went out for dinner and afterwards took a walk down the Seine towards the Notre Dame. This is when our night got a little interesting. We arrived to an absolute crush of people from the Netherlands visiting Paris for the day. Their soccer team doing as well as they are, they were in a highly celebratory mood. After watching them play soccer with some French guys and checking out some fire dancers a bit further on, we caught the eye of a couple of the Dutch girls. We had a nice little chat ; )
After that, we went to an Irish pub and listened to this fantastic musician for about an hour until a large group of American college girls walked in. Being the friendly gents that we are, we talked to them for awhile and generally had a good time.
The next day was our Louvre day, so after a nice sandwich from a street vendor, we made our way to the monstrous art museum. That place is so massive it's mind-boggling. We walked around for 4 hours, checking out the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and all the other masterpieces along the way. After our trek through the halls of the Louvre, we need a little nap to recuperate.
After our nap and a great dinner (doner kebap from a street vendor, some of the best food you could ever have), we headed over to the Eiffel Tower when it got dark to see it light up. Again, absolute mayhem. The fields around the Eiffel were overflowing with people and when it did light up the crowd went wild. We navigated through the throng of people drumming, dancing and partying and hit one of the hottest clubs in Paris, Le Mix.
It was International Night at Le Mix, so anyone with an international I.D. was spared the €15 entry fee, which was fine by us. The club itself was crazy. Over 2000 people, all on the dance floor with the music being pumped by live DJ's from all over the world. Needless to say, we had a good time. We met some cool girls (including 4 models) and danced for a couple of hours before walking home.
Now, there we were, just walking and minding our own business, when all of a sudden a car came screeching to halt so fast you could smell the burned rubber from the tires. Three cops jumped out and came running towards us. We were slightly confused at this point, but none of us were too worried because we knew we had done nothing wrong.
They pushed us up against the wall, patted us down and checked our pockets, asking us if we had drugs. Apparently, three guys on cocaine had been walking around vandalizing motorcycles in the area. Suddenly, one of them put his radio up to his ear and said, "We found them". They let us go and said good night. Ironically, we saw the three guys being arrested a block further down the road.
After such an interesting night, we all slept like logs and managed to oversleep a little bit. We managed to check out by 11 and were off to book tickets and check into our hostel. All that went relatively smoothly and after dropping our bags off in our room, we set out onto the streets of Paris to do a bit of wandering. On our way we watched a group of old men playing bocce ball. They were really intense about it, it was pretty funny.
From there, we took a gigantic walk that spanned what felt like all of Paris and ate dinner. As the sun began to set, we decided to go to Montmarte and visit the Sacre-Coeur. The amount of stairs was breathtaking, literally, but once we reached the top we were treated to one of the best views in Paris. We enjoyed the view and some more fire dancers before heading back and calling it a night. The Paris chapter was finished.
-Charl
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Brittany/Paris
Hello everyone, sorry for the delay in posting, it's been a bit of a struggle finding internet.
On Sunday we took the Chunnel train from London to Paris and met up with Maxime and his dad at Gare du Nord. We drove with them for the 6 hours out to Brittany, the western part of France.
When we arrived, we were met by the Rouffy's gorgeous home and treated like family. Max took us to all his old stomping grounds. It's really a beautiful part of France. The first thing you notice is the quiet. There are almost no cars and it's so peaceful. That plus no light pollution make the stargazing fantastic.
After a good night's sleep, Max took us to La Torche, one of France's most famous surfing beaches. After clambering up and down the rocks and meeting a few of Max's surfer friends, we pulled on some wetsuits and tried our hand at surfing and bodyboarding in the frigid water.
Surprisingly, bodyboarding is the harder of the two. Both Jonah and I were able to ride a few waves by the end of the afternoon and Stephen was on his way before hypothermia nearly killed us all. That and the massive jellyfish herd floating around that threatened to zap us to death.
That night, Max's mom made us some authentic crepes, Brittany's specialty. Honestly, it doesn't get any better than that. Ham and cheese with some egg...absolutely unbelievable. Max tried to make us some dessert crepes, with mixed results, but all in all it was a great dinner.
The next day, we made our way to "The End of the Earth", the most western point of France. The big outcropping of jagged rock jutting out into the ocean kept us busy for a couple of hours as Stephen snapped over 300 photos and Jonah freeclimbed some of the rock faces.
After that, we had lunch at a French McDonald's because Maxime swore it was better than the U.S. version. He was right, much less greasy and really good potato wedge things. From there, we went to the train station and boarded our train for Paris.
After the 6 hour train ride, we got to the Montparnasse station and realized we had overlooked one key detail by stopping in France: none of us speak any French whatsoever. We walked around the station for about half and hour trying to figure where to go until we finally bought some metro tickets and found our way to the hotel.
We're staying at the Hotel Eugenie in the Latin Quarter, just south of the Seine and just north of Le Sorbonne, the big university. In other words, it couldn't be in a better spot (thank you, Deb and Bernie). Our hotel is surrounded by awesome restaurants, bars and shopping and is in a really lively part of town.
We had dinner near our hotel, walked around the banks of the Seine for a bit and then met some awesome people in a few of the pubs. First night in Paris, successful.
We woke up early this morning to go on a walking tour (thank you, Bert and Paula) that took us to the Eiffel Tower, L'Ecole Militaire, L'Invalides, the Champs d'Elysee (including the Arc du Triomphe), the Jardins de Tuileries, the Louvre and the Notre Dame. Quite the morning, I assure you. It was a really long walk but Paris truly is amazing, it can't really be described.
After a little nap to recharge our batteries, we checked out the Musee d'Orsay. The museum is famous for its collection of Impressionist painters, including Van Gogh, Monet and Manet. It was really cool seeing all their paintings up close, each brings something unique to the table that even people like myself who don't know anything about art can appreciate. Those plus all the other artists and cool sculptures and it was a very good time.
That's all we have for right now, although the next few days promise to be full of memorable places and events, so we'll try to keep this as up-to-date as possible. Also, Stephen is struggling a bit to get photos up (there's no shortage, he's taken 1,400+) so we'll see how that goes. Miss everyone a lot.
-Charl
On Sunday we took the Chunnel train from London to Paris and met up with Maxime and his dad at Gare du Nord. We drove with them for the 6 hours out to Brittany, the western part of France.
When we arrived, we were met by the Rouffy's gorgeous home and treated like family. Max took us to all his old stomping grounds. It's really a beautiful part of France. The first thing you notice is the quiet. There are almost no cars and it's so peaceful. That plus no light pollution make the stargazing fantastic.
After a good night's sleep, Max took us to La Torche, one of France's most famous surfing beaches. After clambering up and down the rocks and meeting a few of Max's surfer friends, we pulled on some wetsuits and tried our hand at surfing and bodyboarding in the frigid water.
Surprisingly, bodyboarding is the harder of the two. Both Jonah and I were able to ride a few waves by the end of the afternoon and Stephen was on his way before hypothermia nearly killed us all. That and the massive jellyfish herd floating around that threatened to zap us to death.
That night, Max's mom made us some authentic crepes, Brittany's specialty. Honestly, it doesn't get any better than that. Ham and cheese with some egg...absolutely unbelievable. Max tried to make us some dessert crepes, with mixed results, but all in all it was a great dinner.
The next day, we made our way to "The End of the Earth", the most western point of France. The big outcropping of jagged rock jutting out into the ocean kept us busy for a couple of hours as Stephen snapped over 300 photos and Jonah freeclimbed some of the rock faces.
After that, we had lunch at a French McDonald's because Maxime swore it was better than the U.S. version. He was right, much less greasy and really good potato wedge things. From there, we went to the train station and boarded our train for Paris.
After the 6 hour train ride, we got to the Montparnasse station and realized we had overlooked one key detail by stopping in France: none of us speak any French whatsoever. We walked around the station for about half and hour trying to figure where to go until we finally bought some metro tickets and found our way to the hotel.
We're staying at the Hotel Eugenie in the Latin Quarter, just south of the Seine and just north of Le Sorbonne, the big university. In other words, it couldn't be in a better spot (thank you, Deb and Bernie). Our hotel is surrounded by awesome restaurants, bars and shopping and is in a really lively part of town.
We had dinner near our hotel, walked around the banks of the Seine for a bit and then met some awesome people in a few of the pubs. First night in Paris, successful.
We woke up early this morning to go on a walking tour (thank you, Bert and Paula) that took us to the Eiffel Tower, L'Ecole Militaire, L'Invalides, the Champs d'Elysee (including the Arc du Triomphe), the Jardins de Tuileries, the Louvre and the Notre Dame. Quite the morning, I assure you. It was a really long walk but Paris truly is amazing, it can't really be described.
After a little nap to recharge our batteries, we checked out the Musee d'Orsay. The museum is famous for its collection of Impressionist painters, including Van Gogh, Monet and Manet. It was really cool seeing all their paintings up close, each brings something unique to the table that even people like myself who don't know anything about art can appreciate. Those plus all the other artists and cool sculptures and it was a very good time.
That's all we have for right now, although the next few days promise to be full of memorable places and events, so we'll try to keep this as up-to-date as possible. Also, Stephen is struggling a bit to get photos up (there's no shortage, he's taken 1,400+) so we'll see how that goes. Miss everyone a lot.
-Charl
Sunday 15 June 2008
Day Four
I only have minutes before we must leave for France, so I'm afraid this post will be rather brief.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. Again.
We woke up early with the hopes of squeezing more out of last day in London than we had before and were out of the house by 10 (an adimirable feat for three eighteen year old gents).
After taking the tube to Westminster, we made our way towards the Cabinet War Museums. It should have been a nice ten minute walk from the station but there was a parade for the Queen's Official Birthday. Now, this wouldn't have been such a problem if I weren't traveling with two gents who strongly dislike asking for directions. As I am traveling with two such sirs, we ended up taking an hour and a half detour around Buckingham Palace.
The museum was really cool though and afterwards we headed off to the Imperial War Museum which was also really nice. The only downside is we couldn't afford to see the Ian Flemming exhibition -not that we're already broke but that we didn't want to draw out more pounds and then not spend them.
After the War Museum we were all exhausted and returned home for a little R&R before Addie took us out to the Ivy for dinner. I had a Caesar Salad and Gnocci (which was fabulous!) and drank red wine. Charl had the Caesar as well and a scrumptous looking steak. Jonah of course went with the Bang Bang Chicken (spicy chicken with peanut sauce) and the steak as well. The bottle of wine Addie ordered was a 1996 from Château Palmer. I recommend it.
Well, now must run. France calls. We will continue to update as frequently as possible.
-Stephen
Yesterday was a lot of fun. Again.
We woke up early with the hopes of squeezing more out of last day in London than we had before and were out of the house by 10 (an adimirable feat for three eighteen year old gents).
After taking the tube to Westminster, we made our way towards the Cabinet War Museums. It should have been a nice ten minute walk from the station but there was a parade for the Queen's Official Birthday. Now, this wouldn't have been such a problem if I weren't traveling with two gents who strongly dislike asking for directions. As I am traveling with two such sirs, we ended up taking an hour and a half detour around Buckingham Palace.
The museum was really cool though and afterwards we headed off to the Imperial War Museum which was also really nice. The only downside is we couldn't afford to see the Ian Flemming exhibition -not that we're already broke but that we didn't want to draw out more pounds and then not spend them.
After the War Museum we were all exhausted and returned home for a little R&R before Addie took us out to the Ivy for dinner. I had a Caesar Salad and Gnocci (which was fabulous!) and drank red wine. Charl had the Caesar as well and a scrumptous looking steak. Jonah of course went with the Bang Bang Chicken (spicy chicken with peanut sauce) and the steak as well. The bottle of wine Addie ordered was a 1996 from Château Palmer. I recommend it.
Well, now must run. France calls. We will continue to update as frequently as possible.
-Stephen
Friday 13 June 2008
London, Day III
After a slow start to the morning (woke up a bit late, ate our usual toast and OJ), we set out from Addie's flat sporting our new soccer gear, Jonah in his Barca jersey, Stephen in his England warm-up and me in my #4 Gerrard.
We bought another one-day pass on the Tube and headed for the Tower Hill stop to see one of London's oldest and most impressive sights: the Tower of London. After getting there, taking the requisite pictures and buying our tickets (yes, student discount!), we entered and latched onto the back of a tour group.
We followed them for a little bit, but it was hard to hear the yeoman so we decided to go it on our own. We checked out the site of Anne Boleyn's beheading and took pictures of the absolutely massive ravens before going to see the Crown Jewels.
It's a bit of walk to get to the Crown Jewels, with a room full of royal seals and a video of the coronation of the Queen coming before, but the Jewels themselves are spectacular. The sheer volume of precious metals and gems is astounding, especially when you remember that most were acquired while Britain was an empire and thus practically stole all of them. We liked the jeweled sword and the giant solid gold punch bowl in particular.
From there we moved to the Royal Armory, which is one of four museums in the UK that displays the armor of the Brits through the years. We got to see the suits of armor that the kings and their horses used to wear. The monarchs of old were surprisingly small, Jonah and I are each much bigger and Stephen approaches the threshold of giant.
After laughing at Henry VIII's rather....interesting suit of armor, we walked to the Bloody Tower and read about the conpiracy of the two boy-princes, allegedly murdered by their uncle, Richard III, so that he could claim the throne. No doubt Sherlock could've solved the mystery.
Last but not least, we went into the Torture Chambers and saw all the vile devices that could definitely still work in a place like Guantanamo. The three most common options were the rack, which stretched you out, hanging by your hands for up to 6 hours, or the scavender's daughter, a fiendish device that pushes your shins against your thighs and your thighs against your chest and then holds you in that position. Personally, I'd go for the rack, I'm claustrophobic and impatient, so the other two would be worse.
The Tower Bridge was in sight, so we decided to take a walk across and take some pictures. Stomachs rumbling and cash running low, we ducked into a gastropub and had an awesome lunch, the fish and chips were divine.
Stomachs full and cash running really low, we had a bit of dilemma. We needed to find a bank, a suitable pub and London Bridge, all before the Italy-Romania match started in 20 minutes. After a rather hostile misfire on a pub, we found a suitable cash machine (note to selves: most cash machines don't take American cards. Find banks.).
With a little more cash flow, we found the Barrowboy and the Banker, a fantastic pub right at the edge of London Bridge. We found a table, ordered drinks and watched a rousing match that resulted in a 1-1 draw.
Tired and well-versed in England's shady history, we made the trek home and made some dinner. For tomorrow, we've promised to wake up early and attempt to see the Imperial War Museums and Covent Garden. Hopefully it's a nice day.
-Charl
P.S. The Netherlands look absolutely unstoppable. They are scoring with style and winning with flair. Who can possibly stop them at this point? A Portugal-Netherlands final would be incredible.
We followed them for a little bit, but it was hard to hear the yeoman so we decided to go it on our own. We checked out the site of Anne Boleyn's beheading and took pictures of the absolutely massive ravens before going to see the Crown Jewels.
It's a bit of walk to get to the Crown Jewels, with a room full of royal seals and a video of the coronation of the Queen coming before, but the Jewels themselves are spectacular. The sheer volume of precious metals and gems is astounding, especially when you remember that most were acquired while Britain was an empire and thus practically stole all of them. We liked the jeweled sword and the giant solid gold punch bowl in particular.
From there we moved to the Royal Armory, which is one of four museums in the UK that displays the armor of the Brits through the years. We got to see the suits of armor that the kings and their horses used to wear. The monarchs of old were surprisingly small, Jonah and I are each much bigger and Stephen approaches the threshold of giant.
After laughing at Henry VIII's rather....interesting suit of armor, we walked to the Bloody Tower and read about the conpiracy of the two boy-princes, allegedly murdered by their uncle, Richard III, so that he could claim the throne. No doubt Sherlock could've solved the mystery.
Last but not least, we went into the Torture Chambers and saw all the vile devices that could definitely still work in a place like Guantanamo. The three most common options were the rack, which stretched you out, hanging by your hands for up to 6 hours, or the scavender's daughter, a fiendish device that pushes your shins against your thighs and your thighs against your chest and then holds you in that position. Personally, I'd go for the rack, I'm claustrophobic and impatient, so the other two would be worse.
The Tower Bridge was in sight, so we decided to take a walk across and take some pictures. Stomachs rumbling and cash running low, we ducked into a gastropub and had an awesome lunch, the fish and chips were divine.
Stomachs full and cash running really low, we had a bit of dilemma. We needed to find a bank, a suitable pub and London Bridge, all before the Italy-Romania match started in 20 minutes. After a rather hostile misfire on a pub, we found a suitable cash machine (note to selves: most cash machines don't take American cards. Find banks.).
With a little more cash flow, we found the Barrowboy and the Banker, a fantastic pub right at the edge of London Bridge. We found a table, ordered drinks and watched a rousing match that resulted in a 1-1 draw.
Tired and well-versed in England's shady history, we made the trek home and made some dinner. For tomorrow, we've promised to wake up early and attempt to see the Imperial War Museums and Covent Garden. Hopefully it's a nice day.
-Charl
P.S. The Netherlands look absolutely unstoppable. They are scoring with style and winning with flair. Who can possibly stop them at this point? A Portugal-Netherlands final would be incredible.
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