London and Punting

Outside Westminister Abbey
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Hi...it is the middle of my three day weekend.  We didn't have class on Friday, so I decided to take another trip into London.  There were so many things I just got to pass by but didn't get to thoroughly explore  last weekend.  After arriving in London, I got an underground pass and rode to Westminster Abbey.  The church was remarkable; I learned about its history through an audio guide which was provided upon entry.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside of the church; however, I did get a few pictures outside.

By the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square
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Also, one of the girls I traveled with told us about a new pastime called geocaching.  According to the website it is "a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world...the basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online...There are 625,750 active geocaches around the world".  We found a geocache right by the South Gate Lion at the House of Parliament.  If you are interested, you can sign up to play at geocaching.com.

We ran into every tree on the side of the river, we couldn't seem to go straight.

Running into trees while punting
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We did run into a slight problem because the police closed Westminister bridge which was our connection to the Westminister Underground and House of Parliament.  Luckily, the problem was resolved within 20 min and we were able to continue on with our day.

After this detour, I headed over to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  We walked through and spent extra time with some of their highlighted paintings that they suggested.  These included Venus and Mars by Botticelli, The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci, 'The Ambassadors' by Holbein, The Entombment by Michelangelo, Bathers a Lo Grenouillere by Monet and Sunflowers by Van Gogh.  All the paintings were wonderful.

We then hopped on the underground again to go to Shakespeare's The Globe theater.  Unfortunately, we were unable to tour the theater because of a matinee performance.  So we then headed to look for some souvenirs.  After doing a little shopping, I decided to head home for the day.

Then on Saturday, I went to Magdalene College which offers punting.  Punting is a type of boating, where you have a flat boat and a long pole to propel yourself through the water.  It is very difficult.  We ran into every tree on the side of the river, we couldn't seem to go straight.  We kept going around in circles and sometimes we were punting backwards.  Needless to say, I had a lot of fun, but I needed a nap after that experience.