Canterbury and the London Temple

Canterbury Cathedral.  This is us making our own sort of pilgrimage out of it...

Inside the Cathedral... It was beautiful!

Us in front of the London Temple.  It wasn't actually in London and we had to take the tube, a train, and a taxi to get there - it took about 2 hours to get there, but it was so worth it!  They were so sweet and we were the only ones doing baptisms... they had their own private devotional with us and everything.  It was great!

Dover

Dover Castle.  They actually fortified it during WWII in preparation for the expected invasion of England.

Me and Henry VIII.  He's so charming... no wonder they all fell for him :)

Kristin and me blackberry picking.  It's what we do best together...  Except that these were really really pokey, no fun...

Dover Beach!  The white cliffs of Dover are behind us as well as Dover Castle on the hill... It was stunning!

Us looking off at France...

France! (WAY off in the distance...)

Close-up of the cliffs... I didn't expect so many boats and docks as there were, but what do I know?  They were beautiful!

Parliament, trees, and Abbey Road

Megan, Erin, Malory, Cami and me in Westminster Hall in Parliament.  I would show you more pictures, because it was absolutely beautiful inside... but this is the only place we were allowed to take pictures...  We went into the House of Commons and House of Lords as well, it was great!

This massive tree was in Hyde Park and was it absolutely impossible NOT to climb it (so yes, that is me at the top!)  It was crazy because it looked like an upside down tree or something... best climbing tree ever!

David, Rachel and me at the top!

We found Abbey Road!!!

Cliche picture... except that it is all wrong :(  Oh well, we tried...

Abbey Road in the POURING rain...  And I love British taxis so much as well... why can't America have classy cabs?

Happy (anticlimactic) Birthday, Harry Potter! (July 31)

Don't EVER believe that you will get ANYTHING even remotely related to pumpkin at Pumpkin Cafe - it won't happen...  Sad day, we wanted to eat pumpkin pasties on Harry Potter's Birthday (we would have even been happy with pumpkin pie)... but alas, we found out that pumpkin pasties don't even exist... J.K. Rowling sometimes lies.

Hottest day ever!  Hot + humidity + tube = REALLY hot!

Where they filmed Diagon Alley...

Hever Castle

Hever Castle - the home of the Boleyn's (Anne Boleyn - one of Henry V's beheaded wives).  It looked like such a mini castle - but it was actually huge inside and completely beautiful.  Most of the inside was renovated in the early 1900's, but it was redone with some of the most beautiful woodwork I have ever seen.  It was stunning inside.

The grounds to Hever castle were HUGE!  And beautiful!  There were hedges everywhere and lots of them were in the shapes of birds and snails and bunnies... it was really amazing to see.  In this picture, we found our own little nook surrounded on all sides by a hedge - most romantic place EVER...

Don't worry, there was a massive lake on their land...

Bridge we walked across to get to Hever castle...

Our hike in the Lake District up the mountain (ahem... hill)

The shot of Lake Windermere from the mountain/hill.  It was absolutely stunning if the picture doesn't do it justice.

Me and Lake Windermere...

Don't worry mom, I wasn't TOO close to the edge...

Sheep are everywhere. And I just really wanted a picture with one :)

The Lake District... I felt like Lizzy Bennet just a little bit...

This is Lake Windermere.  William Wordsworth was always talking about how inspiring this lake was to him - and indeed it was.  We stayed in a hostel just on the shores of the lake.  Wow.

Amazing right?

Edinburgh, day 2

This is King Arthur's seat.  We did an early-morning hike here where we talked about the early church history in Scotland.  Our professor, Dr. Holland (Elder Holland's son) went on his mission to Scotland so he knew quite a bit of information.  I guess that Arthur's seat was dedicated by Orson Hyde when he came to Scotland.  It was beautiful...

On top of Arthur's seat.

Eating Yorkshire pudding.  OK, this was absolutely delicious!  It was a kind of pastry, mashed potatoes, sausages, and gravy.  Whoever said the UK had bad food was lying.  Yum...

First day in Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh castle.  Don't worry, it is smack in the middle of the city.  There are tons of normal buildings and then an ancient castle right there... amazing...

Our search for the best chippy was complete!  These were hands-down the best fish and chips I have ever eaten... mmm...

This is the Elephant Cafe where JK Rowling supposedly wrote the first Harry Potter on napkins.  It really topped off a great day.  I was in the mood for Apple pie, of all things, and they had a delicious slice waiting just for me... plus, I love Harry Potter.

This is me writing my own Harry Potter amazingness on a napkin.  We thought the napkins were going to be cool in some way, but no... they were plain old napkins... lame.

Hadrien's wall

On our way to Scotland we stopped at Hadrien's wall (specifically Housestead's Fort) - the ancient Roman wall that was meant to keep the crazy Celtics out...

On the wall.

Durham... on the way to Scotland...

This is Sir Walter Scott's house/mansion/castle.  It was so much fun to stop here after hours and hours of the coach ride.  I couldn't believe how much the Scottish people love Sir Walter Scott - there were monuments everywhere in Edinburgh.

This is the inner courtyard of the castle in Durham where we stayed the night.  Not kidding, we actually stayed in a CASTLE!  It was amazing until the fire alarm went off at 5 in the morning and we had to crawl out of our beds to "escape".  Then Erin wouldn't let me put my sweatshirt or shoes on (even though she had hers on) because "we were going to die"... I don't know why I listened to her :)

Front gate of the castle.

Drinking water at the local pub...

Oxford...

So this was such an amazing town!  It was so quaint and old and just great.  It was only about a 45 minute train ride from London - so it wasn't bad at all.  These pictures were all taken at Christchurch College...  Also, we went to the chapel that was in there and this crazy man took us on a tour.  At least, I thought he was going to be crazy because his hair was flying everywhere... but then he took us on this really great tour and showed us all around and told us stories about the chapel and everything.  And just because he liked us, he took us out a secret door (not really too secret) to a courtyard and told us about how Lewis Carroll wrote the Alice in Wonderland book there and showed us the tree that Carroll imagined the Cheshire Cat to sit it... It was really cool and I ended up really liking that crazy old man...

The Cheshire Cat tree - England really does have some amazing trees...

In the courtyard...

Outside Christchurch College - LOVE the ivy!

Erin and I in the "great hall" where all the Harry Potter movies are filmed...

Erin told me that this is soooo Harry Potter - I can't really remember myself, but I'll take her word for it...