Parlaiment We woke up late this morning. Breakfast was to begin at 8 and we were to be leaving with the students at 9 and we learned that the buzzer on our alarm is not loud enough to wake us up. We made it down for a quick breakfast and headed off for a tour of Buckingham Palace. We took our time going through it and were the last ones to finish. You can set your own pace and it took us an hour and a half. The state rooms were gorgeous and we really enjoyed all of the art collections. Both mine and Trey’s favorite room was the music room and we were surprised to see there was only a baby grand piano. The audio tour was disappointing. There wasn’t a lot of history in it. It mostly directed you through the rooms and called your attention to the details. Unfortunately you could not take pictures inside the palace so I have none to share. As you exit the palace you find yourself looking out onto the beautiful gardens. Prince Charles has said if he survives his mother and becomes King, he will open the gardens to the public and move the permanent residence of the monarch to Windsor. There was a café so we got a bottle of water and sat outside to enjoy the only sunny part of the day. (It was “spitting” – quoting a child I heard coming out of the tube the rest of the day.) We walked leisurely through the rest of the gardens and found our way home for the first time on our own.
We made it home around 12:00 and had a lunch/rest break until 2. Trey and I caught up on email and ate some of the food leftover from lunch yesterday. We met with the students and headed to Parliament. This tour is a must see if you are at all interested in European history or government. We had a great tour guide and the tour was cram packed with history with a straightforward picture of London’s democracy. One interesting thing we learned was that the word “commons” from the house of commons comes does not come from the idea that the people are common but from the from the French word “communauté” which stand for “community.”
We headed back to our house and stopped at a pub with the students on the way home. Trey had Fish and Chips and I had a “jacket” (baked potato) with cheese and a salad. (We drank water and Pepsi for those of you who are wondering.) We then walked back to the house and met with our neighbor, Roger. He is Oxford educated and taught there for a number of years. He now teaches English as a second language and has a passion for London and students. He meets with the students every semester and offers his wide breadth of knowledge of the city to those who wish to glean from it. He has won a special place in Trey’s heart by promising to arrange a private tour of Westminster and St. Paul’s libraries. They are not open to the public but he has had some of the monks in his classes who are willing to let him in. He talked about the sites to see and knew the answer to every question from where to sit when visiting the boys choir in Westminster to the best way to get in the front row at the Globe theater to where does J.K. Rowling live. The only question that stumped him, and we shot questions at him for two hours, was when a student asked where they could find a karaoke bar. After he left, we went over some housekeeping issues with Dr. Brammer and Kathy, I had a banana because a potato is just not enough for dinner when it doesn’t have some barbeque pork on it and now Trey is unpacking. (Oh the sacrifices I am making to keep you updated.) I can’t believe I have kept up until almost 11:00 and that I can’t make it another couple of hours to give my Mom a call on Skype but I MUST go to bed! Have a lovely evening to my loved ones in CST.
We made it home around 12:00 and had a lunch/rest break until 2. Trey and I caught up on email and ate some of the food leftover from lunch yesterday. We met with the students and headed to Parliament. This tour is a must see if you are at all interested in European history or government. We had a great tour guide and the tour was cram packed with history with a straightforward picture of London’s democracy. One interesting thing we learned was that the word “commons” from the house of commons comes does not come from the idea that the people are common but from the from the French word “communauté” which stand for “community.”
We headed back to our house and stopped at a pub with the students on the way home. Trey had Fish and Chips and I had a “jacket” (baked potato) with cheese and a salad. (We drank water and Pepsi for those of you who are wondering.) We then walked back to the house and met with our neighbor, Roger. He is Oxford educated and taught there for a number of years. He now teaches English as a second language and has a passion for London and students. He meets with the students every semester and offers his wide breadth of knowledge of the city to those who wish to glean from it. He has won a special place in Trey’s heart by promising to arrange a private tour of Westminster and St. Paul’s libraries. They are not open to the public but he has had some of the monks in his classes who are willing to let him in. He talked about the sites to see and knew the answer to every question from where to sit when visiting the boys choir in Westminster to the best way to get in the front row at the Globe theater to where does J.K. Rowling live. The only question that stumped him, and we shot questions at him for two hours, was when a student asked where they could find a karaoke bar. After he left, we went over some housekeeping issues with Dr. Brammer and Kathy, I had a banana because a potato is just not enough for dinner when it doesn’t have some barbeque pork on it and now Trey is unpacking. (Oh the sacrifices I am making to keep you updated.) I can’t believe I have kept up until almost 11:00 and that I can’t make it another couple of hours to give my Mom a call on Skype but I MUST go to bed! Have a lovely evening to my loved ones in CST.
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