Royalty: They're Just Like US

1) They build private villages in order to escape the pressures of their jobs.



2) They allow more than 400,000 guests to visit their homes each summer.

Buckingham Palace

3) Their homes have 775 rooms: including 19 State rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms.

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Today was our last day of activities in London. Most of our group of nineteen students leaves tomorrow. I'm so excited that my 18-year-old daughter is flying from Washington tomorrow. We're going to spend two days in London, two in Paris, and then relax at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland before heading home in time for my commencement and the start of her first year of college.

We wrapped up our visit with a tour of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the palace, but you've all seen the highlight (in my opinion) on the television: Kate Middleton's wedding dress is on display in the Ball Room of Buckingham Palace. And it's gorgeous, though not as pretty on a mannequin as it was on her. I particularly liked the giant photos of the "fine British craftsmanship" of the dress. One thing that struck me as funny was the audio tour's pronunciation of applique'. Apparently the British say "a PLEE kay" while I've always said "APP li kay." A replica of the wedding cake was also on display.

While we relaxed in Green Park prior to lunch, our instructor gave out awards. I received the "Person with the Most Permanent Souvenir of London" award. The award was an "I <3 London" keychain, which, ironically, I'm likely to someday misplace.

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The multimedia project on Marie Antoinette's Hamlet is my fifth major assignment for my classes. We've already 1) written a paper and enhanced it with a Web 2.0 component, 2) made a podcast, 3) filmed a digital video, and 4) created a digital story. This assignment was multimedia: use at least two forms of media to highlight a topic. I had planned to do something on Beatrix Potter, but I was so enchanted/dismayed by the French queen's Disney-like village that I just had to do that.

Resources used to make the Glogster project:

Byrne, A (Composer). (2010). The Counterfeiters. On Duff: Music for toy piano [Medium of recording: Audio Download]

Coppola, S (Director). (2006). Marie Antoinette [Web]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn3tu3ZxCj

The queen's hamlet. (n.d.). Chateau de Versailles. Retrieved August 3, 2011 from http://en.chateauversailles.fr/index.php?option=com_cdvfiche&idfp=F7881CA5-9E99-29D7-1BD1-A7E76244CCB9

Steves, R. (Producer). France: paris audio walking tours by rick steves [Audio Podcast]. Rick Steves' Europe: Tours, Trip Planning, Travel Guides and Information. Retrieved from http://www.ricksteves.com/news/travelnews/0602/france_downloads.htm

National Treasures

Like the Library of Congress (where I interned waaaay back in 1990), the British Library is both a research library and the official national depository. Everything printed (or published to the internet) in Britain is archived here. The library receives as many as 8,000 new items every day--every newpaper, book, comic, stamp, postcard, and dirty magazine.

We had a tour of the Treasures room, which exhibited such famous works as a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, and some of the earliest published Shakespeare. No photos were allowed in the Library, but they have a great website where many of the treasures can be viewed online. (More here: Austen, Blake, Lewis Carrol's original Alice manuscript, Handel's Messiah, and about 30,000 other things.)

We also registered for reader cards and many of us requested materials in the reading rooms. The British Library is not a lending library; everything has to be used on site and with fairly strict rules. For example, no pens, highlighters or cameras could be taken in the reading rooms. My next big project will be about Beatrix Potter, so I reserved a biography and a guide to an exhibit of her work. My British Library card is good for a year, but it seems unlikely that I'll ever use it again.

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I stopped by King's Cross Station this morning.

Do you know where I was going?

That's right. I tried to catch the Hogwarts Express.

"Behind the magic."

 Like much of London, King's Cross is undergoing major renovations. The Olympics opens exactly one year from yesterday and everyone here is hyper-aware of the "eyes of the world" being focused on their city. At one point, not long ago, the Platform 9 3/4 photo opportunity was actually in a quiet corner of the station. Now it is in a tiny alcove off the street. It was still busy.

The BIG Photo Post

Big Church
Yesterday we toured Westminster Abbey with a guide. I love exploring places on my own, but having a private tour guide is the bomb. Britain's Blue Badge Guides are the best, most knowledgeable guides I've ever seen. There is A LOT of history here, and these guys really know their dates and events. They also know funny, interesting stories and aren't afraid to make jokes at the expense of their (and our) political leadership.

The last time I was at Westminster Abbey, in 1989, I dropped my passport and I spent many hours running around London trying to track it down. It had been turned in to the police, but I had to go to the US Embassy to retrieve it. No such mishaps this time around.

You are not allowed to take photos inside the church, so these shots are from outside or in the cloisters.

 

Heading to the group tour entrance.

 

The Cloister Garden

 

The ten statues above the entrance are 21st Century saints. 

Fifth from the left: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Big Wheel

After lunch in Trafalgar Square we headed across the Millennium Bridge to the London Eye. Don't call it a Ferris wheel, though, apparently this is an "observation wheel." The Eye opened in 2000, and was, at the time, the tallest observation wheel in the world.

I love Ferris wheels, so this was one of the things I most wanted to do in London. (I'm sort of hoping my daughter will want to ride when she comes to visit in a couple of weeks, so I can do it again.)

The London Eye takes thirty minutes to make a full revolution and rarely is halted. However, just after we got on, it paused briefly for some decorations and then a wedding party boarded the capsule after ours.

Just as we reached the apex, 

the couple getting married were pronounced man and wife.

 

The Houses of Parliament, with the clock tower that houses Big Ben.

 

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Big Build

Today we headed to East London to the main site of next year's Olympic Games. The Games open on July 27, 2012, so there is a huge push to get everything done. This phase of the Olympic preparations is termed The Big Build. Shawn, the same Blue Badge Guide we had on Sunday, was obviously very proud of how things were shaping up for the Games.

The site of the Olympic Park is a former "industrial wasteland," (his quote) so an incredible amount of clean-up and demolition had to be done before London's Olympic team could start building facilities. One of the hallmarks of this Olympics is sustainability, both in terms of the materials used in the construction and the legacy the Games will leave behind.

 

The Olympic Site is still a construction zone, with heavy security.

 

The Olympic Stadium will seat 80,000 people.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit, currently under 

construction, will be a 377 ft. observation tower.