Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Day 2

Hey everyone!  Yesterday was pretty busy, so I didn't really feel like typing up an entry.  Unfortunately, the internet at our hotel doesn't allow me to upload pictures or video, so I will be doing mostly text entries until I find an internet cafe.  Hopefully I can get those up in the next few days, and if not they'll be on Facebook eventually...

Anyway, yesterday we landed at Heathrow Airport in London at about 11 o'clock local time after a 7 hour flight.  We visited Windsor right after we landed so we could go sightseeing and exchange our money.  I didn't see much of the town, but me and a few friends decided to check out Windsor Castle.  The castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and is known as one of the Queen's vacation homes.  Because it's still in use we weren't able to enter most of the interiors, but we were allowed to wander the grounds as we pleased.  The only building of note I got to enter firsthand was St. George's Chapel, and it is by far one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  The chapel is home to several tombs, many of which contain the remains of past kings and queens.  Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos of the chapels interior, but I doubt photos would capture the grandness of the building.

Today was entirely dedicated to sightseeing, as we took a tour bus to Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Warwick Castle.  Oxford is well known as a University, and it's also used as the film site for many films such as the Harry Potter series.  Most of the building are ancient and I could tell the Harry Potter films took their inspiration from them.  Stratford-Upon-Avon is the town Shakespeare was born in, and while I didn't have the opportunity to see very much of it we were able to tour the house Shakespeare was born in.  Afterwords we had lunch and made our way to Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle is not as big as Windsor castle, but the entire castle is open to the public so I was able to climb the ramparts and towers.  The highest tower is up a flight of about 530 stairs, and the view up there was spectacular.  For a tourist attraction it was a fun place to spend a couple hours in. 

Unfortunately most of my sightseeing is done.  Tomorrow we put all that behind us and begin to do what we came across the ocean to do, work.  Not that I'm complaining, from what I understand we will visit places not open to the general public to attend some lectures that's intended to build my understanding of the criminal justice system in the UK.  This means less fun, but I hope mist of it will be interesting to read. 

See you then!

-Pat

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