5/31/11 double decker delight

Alrighty first of all as amazing as today was I wish I could have been there for my lil bros 16th today! We did the whole tube/train combo again to Oxford then finally rode a double decker bus to our destination!!!! We arrived at Blenheim Palace got a tour, ate (had this yummy gooey chocolate muffin), wandered in the gardens, then wandered Oxford and the shops. Once we got home went to the London Hard Rock Cafe, and went to the vault which is like a mini music museum in the basement of the gift shop. It was cool, saw: elvis' coat, the harpsichord the Beatles used to record All You Need Is Love and another song, Gene Simmons guitar, one of Madonnas crazy outfits and much more stuff. Then just back to the flat to chill. Oh and I may or may not have sat on a hobos bed in a tunnel under the road :) Tomorrow will be so spectacular but im gonna keep what im seeing a secret until I blog haha

Steph and I were sooooo excited to be on the double decker today, good experience besides a lil mishap concerning a crazy british woman but thats a story for a different time.

This is the Blenheim Palace, well just a very small part of it. Another Palace that is currently occuppied and no pics in the tour were allowed so sorry.

By the gate to enter palace grounds

One of the few rooms you could photograph in the palace. The ceiling work throughout was fantastic.

One of the past duchesses did this artwork. The duchess before her was 6 foot and had a long neck just like me haha but it was a sad story because she was from NY really wealthy and engaged but it was arranged for her to marry the Duke. He was poor and wanted her money and her mother wanted her to have the grand title.

Just at the wonderful gardens :)

This guy had the weirdest white mohawk hahaha idk know if thats even what i should call it

Chair at the palace's cafe, dont ask why i felt the urge to take a pic of it.

Just part of a statue that I thought looked neat.

Steph, Dani, and I in the rose garden.

The peaceful cascades. Cascade is such a lovely word, I think americans should use it for more than just to name a flavor of gatorade or powerade...which ever it is hahaha

My reflection in the pond...not doin a peace sign btw its v for victory like Winston Churchill used to do and he was born in one of the rooms I saw in the palace today

This was the only flower like this that I saw on all of the massive grounds, and I plucked it. shh dont tell.

Us girls climbing trees in the Secret Garden.

Hahaha ya um me bein a total creeper in the Secret Garden

Blenheim Palace coat of arms?? Im not sure, just liked the pic

Cool entrance to a restaurant wall in Oxford.

5/30/11 Jolly Good Day

Today we went to Burghley House which required taking the tube, the train, then we had a lil bus for our group. This cute old british man gave us a wonderful tour and kept sayin jolly good the whole time :) The house was amazing and had extravagant ceilings, furniture, and carvings but we weren't allowed to take pictures so once again you will just have to trust me on this one. In the restaurant there I had a chocolate croissant and scone with cream and jam....delish! Then we took pics of the garden of surprises, and sculpture garden, both amazing. After that we headed to Stamford a nearby town with lots of lil shops. Parts of Pride and Prejudice were filmed at both places we went today. Then we headed home and because it was "spitting rain" as they say, my flatmate Stacy and I got hot chocolate and half price baggette sandwiches. After awhile we went to the grocery store then chilled with people in our group at the flats. All in all today was just wonderful, and cant wait to share tomorrow with you all.

at the Kings Cross train station we found the fake platform 9 and 3/4 off Harry Potter because the real one is where they are doing some construction and only a plain brick wall is there right now.

This is Burghley House and some of the family lives is parts of it still today so the sections you can tour is only about 15 of the couple hundred of rooms they have.

Treat/lunch time. Quite yummy indeed.

By one of the ponds outside. it was lightly raining and the drops made for beautiful pictures.

A detail on the house... I guess its a cross between a lion and a leaf haha idk i just thought it looked cool.

In the Garden of Surprises. It really did have surprises and water would start and stop trickling down or shooting up in some spots randomly.

Ok so I might have a new obsession with rust, it is just so pretty.

Exploring in the sculpture gardens!

One of my favorite sculptures there :)

Gorgeous grafitti I found in Stamford, got way excited when I spotted it and started rinning towards it.

Possibly the most adorable door I have seen thus far :)

Cute spire type sculpture on the way into Stamford.

Oh and the other day I forgot to tell you all how Stacy and I were walking to Hyde Park when a stranger stopped us to ask how to get to the nearest tube station. We knew the name and told him how to get there. We were so proud of ourselves for knowing our way around and lookin like the type of people you would ask for directions haha

good night for now,

Maddie the Londoneer

5/29/11 a lovely jaunt in the park

Ello there :) Sunday was great because it was freeday...aka catch up on sleep and go easy on my sore legs. I woke up and ate breakfast with my icey milk because our fridge wont stop freezing my milk, then got ready for church which was pretty close to our flats. It was cool to go to since it was their stake conference today. They had it broadcasted from slc and elder tom perry and pres. monson spoke as well as two other. After church it was time to eat and serious nappage! It was a gorgeous day today, not a spot of rain, so I went to Hyde Park. When there I did some sketching and looked around. Afterwards made dinner and went to get cash. Tomorrow we start early so I figured going to bed before midnight would be smart :)


So I totally forgot to show the view from my bedroom window. I love looking at the rooftops and finding cute lil random gardens on the houses.

This is in our tiny kitchen, some of the girls were sketching in here this afternoon.

sign next to the fire extinguisher.... hahahahaha I dont know why but I think its so funny that it says chubb fire on it. What is a chubb fire? I would like to know

My lady bug I walked around with for awhile today! I named him/her Lilian. The lady bugs here dont pee on you or fly away like the American ones haha

The Church I went to today, pretty cool and a nice change from the churches we have.

A close up of the gate I sketched today.

The Albert Memorial, and Albert Hall that are both in Hyde Park.

Just chillin by a big ole pond with ducks and swans. They had alot of those chairs all around the pond, and people riding bikes everywhere, I thought the scene just screamed sunday afternoon. It was so pretty and relaxing.

5/28/11 Lost in London and the Gherkin!

ok so i suck at blogging and cant get the type to go in the right place so read the part at the bottom first and it will probably make more sense :)

At the entrance of the V&A. All hand blown glass piece and i love it, not to mention its my favorite colors

This is the ceiling of the womans bathroom at V&A pretty neat stuff

An art piece made of smashed instruments all hanging from the ceiling by wire

Saw this random old wall on my way walking somewhere

Will the real london bridge please stand up?! So learned that this is the real london bridge but there is another prettier one people recognize as the london bride

To the left is the fake london bridge, and to the right is the eye of london building

A really weird yet funny piece at the Tate Modern.

Also at the Tate Modern, me trying to get to the orange mesh stairs hanging from the ceiling

Dinner at nando's a cool yummy portugese place

My delicious spicy chicken burger and rice

St Paul's cathedral, it was closed so we took pics of the outside

The Gherkin building which is shaped and sorta looks like a cucumber, and thats why they gave it its name. We took forever wandering trying to find this building because down on the street we were by it was had to spot it with so many buildings in the way.

Today was such a long day my goodness! So started by going to the V&A museum which was very cool, lunch, saw some sites, went to Tate Modern Museum, had dinner, saw St Pauls, got lost, saw the Gherkin building, got found, then headed back to our areaish. After that we went to a place called Covent Garden and watch a crazy comdeian/street performer ride a way tall unicyle...they probably have an official name but you get the point, and he only wore lil pink boxer briefs haha then he juggled a fake knife, a ball, and a chain running at full speed. We took a visit to this awesome ice cream place, painted all black inside, the workers wore mock police outfits and sometimes they have breast milk ice cream in fall and spring...creepy i know! We then listened to street performers and finally made it home.

Thats all for now, i promise to improve my blogging skills!

5/27/11 Hampton Court and such :)

Wow! So its late and has been a very long day, but still amazing. Started out by seeing some shops, a cute market place, the inspiration for diagon ally in harry potter, explored Hampton Court, eating and shopping, and roaming around. Oh and I'm still working on the getting over my sickness thing.
We had tons of fun goofing around taking shots of the group by telephone booths.

This is a view of Hampton Court from the back gardens.

There was a maze and we asked a group of brits to take our picture when we made it to the middle.

Okay so favorite thing about today is my slight obsession about the many awesome chimneys on Hampton Court.

This is me trying to get a an angry brit to share his wine...didnt work out so well haha

Gotta love old decorative ceilings....aint she a beaut! The most amaxing ceiling was in the chapel but no pictures or talking was allowed in there so you will just have to trust my judgement.

Linner at this cool place called Zizzi's. Yummy pizza with chicken, pepperoni, sausage, rosemary, jalepeno, and the essential crust sauce and cheese...not to mention a way nice waitress Petra. Oh and had a scoop of rich chocolate gelato :)

So tomorrow is museum day! Hopefully I get some good solid sleep