Wifi Struggles (again)

Again I am late with my update, and again it is due to misbehaving wifi. We returned home from London Friday night only to find that our wifi and internet is down. Time Warner Cable, being the astoundingly incapable company that it is, can't get anyone out to fix the internet until Wednesday. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that we went through the same exact thing at the beginning of the year AND that it took them a week to fix our cable at the beginning of this month. Also, I'm sick and all I want to do is lie in bed with Netflix, which has cruelly been taken from me in my great time of need. But I digress. As my wise father said, you could beat your head bloody against a wall trying to get TWC to do something sensible, but all you'd get is a bloody head. So now I am sitting at Foster's market with a cuppa and putting off my homework by writing in this fine blog.

Let's see. I believe I need to catch up from Thursday. First thing we went to a police box located just a few blocks from our flat. For those of you who know me and my love of Doctor Who, you will understand why we made this pilgrimage to a somewhat tatty blue box on a street corner. For those of you who don't...go educate yourself and watch some of the Doctor. It's all on Netflix.

Then we went to visit the Tower of London, which was probably my favorite spot in London. I am quite intrigued by medieval history, so this Tower right up my alley. Our Yeoman Warder guide had quite a time picking fun at the American tourists, as well as pointing out some more of the grisly aspects of the Tower's history. After hearing some of the stories of the decapitations, it is no longer so hard to see how George R.R. Martin comes up with things like the Red Wedding. In the Yeoman Warder's defense he did offer us a choice between stories of decapitations and stories of kittens and unicorns (only later did he tell us he was glad we chose decapitations because his only story of kittens and unicorns involved a unicorn impaling a kitten...good old British humor at its best). We saw the crown jewels (jeez louise talk about big and shiny) and the armory, and basically just wandered around this huge old castle/fortress in the middle of London.

For those of you who don't know (because I didn't know), a Yeoman Warder is a ceremonial guardian of the Tower of London. In principle, they are responsible for looking after any prisoners that may be in the Tower and for looking after the Crown Jewels. In reality, they act as tour guides and tourist attractions, something which they do very well and with a great sense of humour. All warders are retired from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth Realms and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service under their belts. They must also have a dry British sense of humour (I made that last fact up but it seemed pretty accurate as far as I could tell).

The Crown Jewels are kept in this building

 We eventually exited the Tower, had a lunch of Fish and Chips (it was our last full day and we had to make it as British as possible), and made our way to the Natural History Museum. The building itself was enough to keep me entertained, let alone all of the things it held inside.

 To finish up our last full day, we took an evening stroll around Big Ben and the Eye. It was fun to people watch and just watch the city. Our feet were really tired by that time anyways, so we were perfectly content to sit about like creepers and watch and listen to the bustling city.

We finished up the night at a lovely Asian restaurant called the Hare and Tortoise, where I had my first vegetables of the week. Spring Rolls, Avocado Salads, Avocado and Asparagus "sushi" - I was very excited to see vegetables again. Chips are delicious, as are veggie burgers, but I missed my rabbit food (as my loving brother tends to call it). Dessert consisted of a mixture of Green Tea and Raspberry Mochi. It was delicious.

All in all, a very successful trip. Here are some things I learned:
1) Rubbish bins are impossible to find in large train/tube stations. Apparently this is because of the bombing that happened a while ago.
2) If you accidentally call the money "Euro" instead of "Pounds", you get some pretty nasty looks.
3) British runners like to wear backpacks whilst running...still haven't figured out why...
4) I still get called Taylor Swift, even when not in America. Even when the person calling me Taylor Swift barely speaks English.
5) For being toted as so much more health-conscious than America, EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER SMOKES. My lungs wanted to go back to America and I'm pretty sure they were thinking about leaving without me.
6) It's impossible to be a subtle tourist, especially when you have a map and giant camera out at all times.

There's no wifi at Hogwarts

I wish that the reason for my lack of updates was that I was at the Hogwarts castle. From the pictures I'm posting, it may even seem plausible. Alas, it is not so. But our flat is a close second, even though it did not have wifi the first night we were there (Monday night). Thus the reason for no post on Monday. When we got into London on Monday, we first visit King's Cross. This was mostly (okay entirely) due to the fact that we wanted to visit Platform 9 and three-quarters. We had a hard time finding it at first, until we found a queue of people. There was a very enthusiastic overseer who tried her very best to make everyone jump and pose whilst pushing the car to take a picture. Ginny and I passed on the jumping, but we did get our pictures taken with the cart.

 After Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, we braved the tube system again and successfully found our little flat on Warwick Road. It was quite nice, except, as I mentioned, the internet was bum. So we had to wait around for the fix-it guys to come. They said they couldn't fix it and had to come back the next day to replace it. Thus the lack of updates. By that time, it was already later in the evening so we decided to go out and explore the neighborhood and look for some dinner. After much deliberation, we finally wound up at a local pub. The food was good and we were full and tired, so back to the flat for some tele and then bed.
Yesterday was an incredibly packed day. We started out the day at the London Eye. Despite my dislike of heights, the Eye was quite a bit of fun, especially since it provided excellent photographic opportunities. It was a pretty classic cloudy and windy London morning. One of my fellow Eye passengers remarked that it was too bad it wasn't sunny. I said that then it wouldn't look like proper London. So now I have some proper London photos.

 After the eye we went on foot to explore the surrounding area. We first stopped at Westminster Abbey, originally intending to go inside. Once we saw the admission price, however, we settled for an exterior visit.

 Next up on our list was Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. The National Gallery is pretty amazing, not just because of the art it hosts, but because it is free to the public. We were able to see Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Monet, and many more.

 After the National Gallery, we went to one of the many nerd holy sites in London - 221B Baker Street. Again, we were planning on going into the Sherlock Museum, but price and lines deterred us and we were quite satisfied to take photos from the outside and browse the Sherlock Holmes shop next door.

 After Baker Street, we went to a nearby park (I forget the name), where we found a variety of ducks and dogs. We even encountered some baby ducks!

Part of this park was called Primrose Hill, which offered an excellent view of the city. It turned out to be a pretty mild, sunny day.

 By the time we climbed to the top of Primrose Hill and rested for a while, we had to head back to the flat because we had bought tickets to War Horse (since we were told numerous times that seeing a show was a must). It was a pretty amazing show, and the puppets used for the horses were incredible. Whoever made the puppets must have spent several lifetimes studying horse anatomy because the movements were incredibly natural and believable. By the time the show was over, it was nearly 10 and we didn't find dinner until 11. We ended up eating at the restaurant next door and then promptly crashing. I thought about blogging, but then I fell asleep.

Today's big event was visiting the WB Harry Potter studios. It cost an arm and a leg to get out there on the public transit system, but it was completely worth it. It's hard not be jealous of the people who actually got to work at this place. I took over 200 photos while there...it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. The amount of detail they put into the props and costumes was incredible. Did you know that one of the gents who played Hagrid was a 6'10" ex-rugby player? And since he was still too short to be half-giant size, they made an animatronic head to sit on top of his. It is uncannily life-like. Another fact - you know those thousands of wants in Ollivanders? Each of those was hand-inscribed by members of the team.

Potions Dungeon

Dumbledore's Office

Buckbeak

Hogwarts Model

We ended up back at Trafalgar square so we could make our way to Buckingham Palace. It was a beautiful day for walking through the Mall and around the Palace. We even got to see the changing of the guard. The one thing that confused me was that these particular guards were wearing gray instead of red...we overheard some people say that it was because the guards weren't British. I don't know what that means

Storm the Castle!

As promised, I went to Warwick Castle today and took a great many photos. Warwick was about a 1.5 hour drive from where we are staying in Derby. After spending this 1.5 hours on the wrong side of the road, we arrived in one piece only to find that the parking lot was full. It was a beautiful 60º F day, so the place was quite popular. But the grounds were so huge that it didn't really seem crowded at all. We spent most of the day wandering about the castle and the grounds. The only show we saw was one about birds of prey, which was pretty cool.
I could spend a whole bunch of time typing up a blow-by-blow of the castle, but that'd be much less interesting than me just posting the photos, so I'll do that instead.

I'm a thief with an unusually large head that wouldn't fit properly

Sheep from across the way! Couldn't resist...

Bald Eagle from the bird show. The bald eagle actually came form Canada two or so decades ago. It was rescued from a forest fire by a Canadian park ranger.

Funny story about the bald eagle: they thought that she was a he until she laid an egg about 4 years ago

This is an eagle of some sort, from Egypt. I forget what its proper name is, but I think I'd call it the Toucan Eagle because of that huge beak.