The Brave Little Illustrator Goes to Europe PART 8

It's been a couple of days, but I've finally been able to get back on the internet - so here's the update:

Stonehenge! We left Tuesday morning from Bath to go see England's oldest monument and the weather couldn't be better. 

You'll notice some dweeby workers in front of the monument. In order to celebrate the upcoming Olympics, Stonehenge was setting up some kind of fire-themed show for later that night. It's only gonna happen this one time and we just happened to show up the day they were setting it up...

After Stonehenge, we went to Stourhead, a massive garden in the countryside. Incredibly beautiful and features this bridge that is supposed to be in a scene in some Keira Knightly movie that is a big deal with girls...

Wednesday, we went to this palace: the house of the Duke of Marlborough, also coincidentally the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

The gardens there were fantastic as well

After the Duke's house, we made a stop in Oxford, which apart from being some kind of prestigious college in the UK really wasn't too interesting otherwise.

Took a break to make out with some horses.

Thursday we went to Stratford upon Avon, and if you're not really sure why that place is important, just take a looksy at the small print in the photo. Yep, that's Shakespeare's grave.

The birds there were huge and creepy. Have you ever stood right in front of a swan and watched it uncoil its neck as it searched you over for food? It's freaking creepy. I held out a cookie to it and it didn't just try to eat it, it tried to devour my hand. Birds are weird.

We were really lucky in Stratford - there was a shop that sold crystal wands. I picked three of them up and could feel their power flowing through my fingertips. I tried to capture this moment with a photograph, but it just doesn't do it justice. There were spellcasting books there too and I really wanted to buffer my witching knowledge, but they were too expensive. That's how you can tell they're legit.

There was a pretty awesome monument to Shakespeare there, so I had to get a picture with it.

Yesterday we visited the Duke of Devonshire's house, but I'm not including photos of that because it's not that exciting. After a lengthy bus ride, we got to the Lake District and this was the view we have from our hostel room:

The Brave Little Illustrator Goes to Europe PART 7

Goodbye London, hello Bath. We left London this morning and traveled by train to a city called Bath, named for the Roman hot springs here (which are really pricey to use). It's been fun in the city, but it's nice to get out of the cramped, crowded atmosphere and out to a more rural and medieval-looking city. It's actually really gorgeous here. Here are some of the views from today:

And here's to catch you up on everything I couldn't cram into the last 3 weeks of London:

At the Tower of London

 

A dragon made entirely of weapons and armor inside the Tower of London armory.

By the Thames River

In front of St. Paul's cathedral

On top of St. Paul's

Back on the ground by St. Paul's

At Hampton Court Palace, home of Henry VIII

Singin in the rain style in the gardens outside of the Hampton

At the Courtauld collection visiting with my man Van Gogh 

In front of the British Museum

The Victoria & Alberts Museum

And looking through a freak show of medical oddities including this - a literal cut-out of a human face.
Good-bye London!