Mom's Visit #2

The first weekend Mom was here, we took a quick trip down to Newcastle to see my cousin Julie and her husband Andreas. I had stayed with them for Thanksgiving but it was the first time Mom was able to see their new place in England! On Sunday we took a trip to Alnwick Castle (which had an amazing falconry presentation), the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. It was a really awesome castle although we were mildly disappointed because the website promoted it as a Harry Potter castle but it turns out only a small scene from the first book was filmed there.

Andreas, Julie, and me

Whitley Bay

 

Alnwick Castle

 

 

 

 

Newcastle

Mom's Visit #1

So my mom visited for 10 days and left last Sunday. My dad was supposed to come too but he lost his passport and wasn't able to make it :( Of course we later found out there is an office in Washington, DC where you can get a passport if your flight is within the next six hours but we didn't know that then. Luckily Dad was able to get credit for his flight but unfortunately that means I won't see him until I go home! I was really looking forward to it too! This has made me rethink when I'll be returning home and I'm going to push it up a few weeks. Right now I'm entertaining July 20th but will confirm in a few weeks. I also really don't want to miss the opportunity at a great job that I might be too late for if I don't go back until the end of August!

It really was great seeing my mom! We spent a lot of time hanging around, chatting, and just enjoying being together. We didn't do much around Edinburgh but we did go check out the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith. Here are some pictures of that.

 Dining room still used for corporate functions.

Sitting room for after dinner.

 

The Queen's bedroom made specifically to her liking. It even had a convenient door to the Duke's room!

Stay tuned for more pictures of our little vacation!

The Little Town of Ely

The last connection with my Easter visit to Cambridge was the town of Ely, home of the amazing, magnificent, breathtaking, glorious Ely Cathedral. I'm sure many of you have seen the genius that is The King's Speech. Because the coronation scenes couldn't be filmed in Westminster Abbey, it was done here!

The cathedral from afar

Baby pony and mama enjoying a pretty nice view

Such a massive cathedral for such a small town

Of course, some glorious architecture

Throne from The King's Speech

The Lady's Chapel

A Day in London

Over Easter, we also went to London for the day since it's only a 45 minute train ride from Cambridge. One of the biggest problems I have when I go somewhere is remembering to take photographs of myself. Usually it's just all buildings/places and sometimes the people I'm with. Mags made sure to solve that problem and took lots of pictures of me in front of all the important attractions. Thanks Mags!

Guarding the apartments of Princes William, Harry, and Charles

 Taking the necessary telephone booth photo

With the London Eye and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Again with Big Ben and Parliament and outside Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards

 

 Beside Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus

 We found a sign for Scotland Yard and the Globe Theatre

We had a great time! Yes, we got sunburn, our feet were killing us, and we were exhausted but it was amazing to see all the different sights of London in one afternoon. We didn't go inside anything but that will have to be reserved for next time! Because it was Easter weekend it was SUPER crowded. Mags' mom said there are normally 500,000 tourists in London but Good Friday had about 600,000 extra. We could barely move in some places, especially along Westminster Abbey/Big Ben/Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. But I think it was worth it.

Cambridge

Over Easter, I had the opportunity to go home with my friend Mags and stay with her family. It was such a great long weekend! Mags lives right outside of Cambridge so we spent a day walking around the town viewing all the different colleges (I had no idea how the University of Cambridge worked - it's made up of about thirty different colleges all fairly separate but still under the university umbrella). Cambridge was SO beautiful! It really made me wish I had gone there for school but in my mind I always thought I'd never be able to get into a school like that. We went on a punting tour along the River Cam and here is a very small selection of some of the amazing photographs I took. There was so much breathtaking architecture that I took over 150!

In front of King's College

 A descendant of the apple tree that inspired Newton

 The Bridge of Sighs