painsthee (is stephanie, scrambled)

We went to England.

It was made of awesome.

In London:

• Walked across Westminster Bridge to South Bank
• British Museum (only made it through the Egyptian stuff)
• pubs, pubs, and more pubs
• ate lots of excellent Indian food
• Doctor Who Experience
• walked past Buckingham Palace
• Green Park
• saw a play at the Criterion (The 39 Steps)
• Tower of London
• Faraday Exhibit at the Royal Institute (nerd alert)
• more pubs
• Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross (double nerd alert)
• Hatchard’s (oldest bookshop in London)
• London Eye (woah, vertigo)
• drinking in hipster bars in Shoreditch
• TEA

In Straford-Upon-Avon:

• pubs
• Shakespeare’s Birthplace
• Nash’s House & New Place
• Mary Arden’s Farm (replica working 16th c farmstead with awesome falconry display)
• Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
• Hall’s Croft (Shakespeare’s daughter Judith’s home after marriage)
• The Windmill (oldest Inn in Stratford)
• Holy Trinity Church & Shakespeare’s grave (I cried)
• Classic English Sunday roast dinner (with Yorkshire Pudding!)

In Bath:

• tour of the Roman Baths (mindbogglingly old)
• tour of Bath Abbey bell tower and clock (awessssome)
• amazingly delicious pasties
• long walk along the Avon
• spa treatment/ massage at the thermal baths there (when in Rome)

General conclusions:

• I love European Eagle Owls.
• Clotted cream is amazing.
• The English are all thin, fashionable, and exceedingly polite.
• The sheer press of history is ineffable.
• Taking the tube and walking are vastly superior forms of transportation than driving absolutely everywhere.