Winter Wonderland

Nov. 25

Winter Wonderland

 

Tonight a couple of us went to Winter Wonderland. It was awesome. It reminds me of the Ex, but winter themed. There are food vendors, gift shops, and rides.

 

 

The food was great. There were lots of treats. I had chocolate covered marshmallows, and strawberries.

 

 

I didn't go on any rides, but the lights on them were pretty.

 

 

There was tons of décor. Such as a Christmas tree.

 

 

And lots of penguins.

 

 

And of course, there was a Santa's village.



 

 

Even the squirrel from the Ice Age series made an appearance, to sell Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

 

 

My favourite part was the ice castle. There was a building with really incredible ice sculptures. It was -8, which was a little chilly for what we were wearing, but it made it that outside was really warm afterwards.

 

 

There were also a number of bars, with bands, we went into one, which had a great band, and we danced and sung to their covers of well known songs. Although we got stuck on the English drinking songs, but everyone else seemed to know them pretty well, despite what state of the song they were in.

 

It was a great night out. 









 



Time for a break

Nov. 21-23

 

The last couple weeks have been crazy with essays, assignments, presentations, and class. Which I guess is fair, seeing as I am here for school...

 

But it was time for a relaxing weekend in which I didn't have to worry about anything or anybody, but myself. Which is why I went on a Yoga retreat.

 

It was in East Sussex, about an hour and a half outside of London. It was in on a farm, so we were literally in the middle of nowhere, as it was an hour and a half walk to the nearest town. 

 

In two days, I did six hours of yoga, which I am really proud of, as I haven't done yoga since mid-August, and I was only doing an hour a week then.

 

We went for walks in farmland.

 

 

 

Where we ran into large pigs!

 

 

 

Before getting into town, where there was a cute little restaurant and traditional English style church.

 

 

 

It was a really great weekend, and much needed. 









The ending of an incredible art and memorial piece

Nov. 20

 

You may remember me talking about the poppy installation at the Tower of London, if you don't, go back and read my post 'Tower of London.' After Remembrance Day, AKA Armistice Day, the de-installation of the poppies began. Today, I helped in the effort of removing these incredible art pieces.

 

Team de-installing poppies 

 

 

There are three teams of 200 working for three hours each day. There are only a couple of days of dis-installing left, but there are still tons of poppies.

 

 

 

The dis-installing of poppies is a lot more work then would have been expected. The poppies needed to be taken out of the ground and disassembled. There were two washers under, and two bolts on top of the poppy to keep it in place. A lot of the bolts had rusted, which made them difficult to take off. The pieces then had to be sorted, and the poppies had to be boxed.

 

 



But it was fun, and I got to do it with a friend, which made it easier. We also got to take pictures!

 

 

 

The poppies are really incredibly done, and are an important representation of the great sacrifice of World War One.

 

For my Great Great Grandfather, John. Thank you for your sacrifice.



 

It means so much to me to be able to have been part of such a great project. 

The city of Love

Nov. 10

 

Today I went to Paris! My day started ridiculously early. I was at the train station for 5:30am. I took the Eurostar train, which is the high speed train that goes from London to Paris (and other destinations). Once arriving in Paris we started at Notre Dame.

 

 

 

After the Notre Dame, we went to the Eiffel Tower, where we spent a good portion of the day.

 

 

 



Going up the Eiffle Tower gave great views of the city.

 

 

 

We went to the very top of the Tower, which is a little scary.

 

 

 

 

At night the Eiffle Tower lights up.

 

 

And every hour, it sparkles for five minutes. After the Eiffle Tower we went on a cruse on the River Siene.

 

 

 

The cruise took us past many of the major attractions in Paris.

 



 

Before getting back on the Train we stopped by the Louvre.

 

 

And checked out the triangle entrance.

 



 We did not have time to go through the Louvre before we had to get back for our train.

It was a long, but great day!!





 

Kensington Palace

Nov. 3

 

Today I went to Kensington Palace.

 Kensington Palace has four different routes in it. The Queen's State apartments, the King's State Apartments, Victoria Revealed and Modern Royals - Fashion Rules.

The first room you walk into has couches, so that you can read the quotes on the celling and look at the pictures of royals.

Quotes

 

Prince William, Kate, and George

Princess Diana

I loved the quotes on the celling. The different colours and the many royals that they are taken from are incredible. As you go throughout the Palace there are tons of quotes everywhere.

I love quotes, so for me this was so amazing. Queen Victoria was the focus of the path, Victoria Revealed, as she grew up in Kensington Palace, and continued living there after she became Queen at the age of 18. We saw the room she grew up in.

And a room that showed videos of her Diamond Jubilee.

 

 

 

There was also a number of family trees around. Which also is right up my ally, as I am extremely interested in genealogy. 

 

 

 

And of course the royal family crest.

 

 

 

Fashion Rules was a really interesting exhibition. The royals get to wear amazing dresses.

 







I find the royals really interesting, and seeing when they have lived and their stuff is exciting for me, so I had a great time.

 



Wembley Stadium

Oct. 29

 

Today I got a behind the scenes tour of Wembley Stadium.

 

Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is used for a number of events, but mostly for soccer (or football, as it's called here). I'm actually not a soccer fan. I much prefer football and hockey, or actually pretty much any sport other than soccer. But I still had a great day!

We got to check out the media room. Which happened still be set up for the NFL (National Football League), from when they played here the weekend before. A couple times a year the NFL will play here.

Media room seats

Media room hot seat

 

 We got to check out the away locker room. They actually have four locker rooms (2 guest, 2 home). Normally only two are used, but when the NFL comes the big guys need more space, the extra two rooms (which are adjoined) are used. There are jerseys from different teams that get hung in the locker rooms, for tours.

 

 We got to go through the same doors onto the field that the players go through during the game.

 

 

We then got to take pictures with a trophy, I don't remember which one, but we weren't allowed to take our own pictures, and I didn't get one. We talked for a while after, about facts and such about the stadium. All I remember was something about toilets. They hold the record for the most toilets in a stadium. It's over 2000!

 

It was cool to get to see parts of the stadium that most people don't get to. Plus it counted as class, and let's be honest, it's not a bad class. 

The top of the world

Oct. 27

 

Today I went to the center of the world. Well the center in terms of longitude. A part of the Prime Meridian is in Greenwich, London.

The line that indicated the middle of the world.

 

At night there is a green laser in the sky that shows where the line is. The Prime Meridian is where the time is at 0. Every other time zone is compared to the Prime Meridian.

 

 

 

Normally when crossing back and forth, if your phone was set to automatically change, the time would keep changing. But because we are currently in Daylight Saving Time, the time is the same.

 

The line is at the top of the hill, which gives great views of the city.

 

 


 After I went over the Emirates air line. Emirates is an airline, and they have built an air line across the Thames Rives.
 

Emirates Air Line

 
 

The car we rode in

 It allowed for amazing views of the east end of the city.
 

 

 

 

In the evening I went to a concert. The concert was a collaboration between the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa. They started the concert by playing O'Canada, which was really amazing. One of the pieces was the UK premiere of A Ballad of Canada, which is a song commemorating Canada's role in World War I. It was a number of Canadian war poems, put to music, most notably In Flanders Field by John Mccrae, who was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario. The National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa's tour of the UK is sponsored by The Prince's Trust. The Prince's Trust is a charity that was founded, and continues to be largely influenced by HRH the Prince of Wales. Because of the impact this concert has on his charity, Charles attended the event.

 

Sorry about it being blurry, but Prince Charles is 4th from the left

  It was awesome to be at the same event as the heir to the throne.