After I got back from Paris, Colin was already in the midst of visiting! The four broskateers hung out for much of the week; showing Colin around to same various hotspots (i.e. the Spearment Rhino – where Colin was the unfortunate victim of a “opposite of comma”), cooking some delicious meals, and all in all, enjoying each others company.
My brother arrived on Saturday as well, and I was really excited to have him visit! Dan Morris is a worldly traveler, having been to India and China, Israel, and a bike trip across the country. This trip, however, marked his first visit to Europe, and so by definition, his best so far! I took the long tube ride to the airport to pick him up, and we immediately set up on a day full of sitght-seeing and plans. This may have been a little too ambitious considering he hadn’t slept in the past 24-ish hours, but as Walt said in an old Lost episode that Daniel either forgot or didn’t pay attention to: “we had work to do.”
First stop was the Tower of London, a tour that my Dad had raved about. We went with Olga, Mark, and Colin, and began by receiving a free tour from a yeomen guard. He was hilarious, telling us the history of the London Tower (which is kind of like a castle) intersperced with some hilarious jokes. My favorites – “The tower of London was built in this location because of its proximity to the tube stop” and “That house is over there is the most important in the tower. Its haunted. Why is it the most important? Because I live there. Why is it haunted? Because so does my wife.” ZING. Aside from some good knee-slappers, we saw the inner-workings of the tower grounds, the prisoner/traiter gate, the spot where they killed said traitors, and the queen’s jewels and glamour collection. Everyone agreed it was a great tour, and even worth the steep admission price.
From there we met up with Sam and headed to Notting Hill gate, where we walked through the infamous Portobello Road Market. Although we didn’t stop for too long to long at the usual array of trinkets, we did have enough time to get a delicious falafel at the Falafel King. Daniel was starting to look delirious at this point, so we decided (sort of unclearly, apparently) to do one more closeby attraction. Another visit to Abbey Road. This time there were 5 of us (Me, Daniel, Sam, Mark Colin), so we took turns taking pictures with everyone in different positions. I wasn’t the only Ringo this time! We also were drastically more efficient, and laughed as a bunch of JV tourists kept messing up their pictures. Amateurs!
Daniel headed on home to sleep, and the remaining 4 of us made chicken parm and watched Part 1 of Watchmen (I still haven’t seen Part 2). When I awoke in the morning, I realized I had slept for almost 11 hours! Daniel, was still sleeping as well, and he had gone to bed 5 hours before me! Fully refreshed, we set off for another day of London sightseeing – Speakers Corner in Hyde Park and a picnic, the Trafalgar Square St. Patty’s Day Parade, and a tour of Westminster (Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, etc.). For this, we have to share some of the great bro-tastic pictures! For dinner, we went to Brick Lane with Mark and Olga, where we were begged by every Indian restaurant manager to eat at their place. After much deliberation we chose one, and it was delicious!
On Monday, we had an epic adventure day: our trip to the mysterious Stonehenge. Although this is casually explained in the upcoming video, heres how it went down… First, we took the tube to Waterloo, where we caught a 1.5 hour train to Salisbury. Salisbury is a cute English town with lots of green pastures and a pretty cathedral. We were informed of our two options to get to Stonehenge: either pay 14.50 for the Stonehenge tour bus that takes you straight there and back with free admision or pay 5.25 for a bus ticket to Amesbury, walk 2.5 miles each way to get to the rocks, and pay 5.10 to get in. Being the adventure-thirsty Morris boys that we are, we took the latter option, hoping to save 4 pounds and have a nice walk.
We toyed with the idea of biking, so we checked a local bike shop to see if they rented for the day. Ian, the bike shop guy, informed us that they didn’t rent, but there was a place nearby that did. He said he had heard that they were all sold out for the week, but he looked up their exact location for us anyways. Nice guy! I pointed out to Daniel that the next bus to Amesbury left very soon, but he still wanted to give the other bike shop a chance. Sure enough, we missed the bus and the bike shop was empty. Lets just hope the future Doctor makes better decisions in the operating room. Just kidding!
When the next bus finally came, we were fifth in line – behind 4 little old, adorable, English ladies. This meant that we could get the greatest seats on the bus: the two on the top above the driver. We got a great view of the countryside as we drove along the narrow, unbikable path to Amesbury. It was really pretty. At Amesbury, a smaller town than even Salisbury, we talked to Anne, a nice lady who told us which direction we would want to go to get to Stonehenge. As we walked the 2.5 miles, we saw it in the distance and realized that directions wouldn’t be a huge problem. Obviously, this sign was extremely helpful:
Stonehenge was pretty cool as we approached it closer, but we wondered what the deal with an admission was. Like, the rocks were just in a field. Apparently, this is a hot button topic, because a crazy old guy was sitting outside the barrier with protest signs about the English Heritage foundation. We supported the guys wishes (and our own), as we Philly-fanned our way into a crowded bus tour group and walked through without paying. We also got free audio guides and learned about the rock’s mysteries. But after a long and speculative story and past, it really seemed obvious to both of us that the rocks were used as a Sun Calendar. What really makes them cool is that they’ve been there for almost 5000 years (since 2500 BC). We sat on a bench to play chess and took some funny pictures.
Watch the videos!
Once we had squeezed all the possible fun out of a Stonehenge trip, we headed back to Amesbury and ate pumpkin bread at a local bakery. Then we took the bus back to Salisbury and checked out the town a little. Very pretty town squares and cathedral, probably worth more time than we gave it! By dinnertime, we were already headed back to London! At night, I took Daniel to The Fitzrovia, one of the many pubs in my neighborhood. For the first time, I bought him a beer – a Hoegaarden, one of my favorites.
On Tuesday, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards in the morning, and the Imperial War Museum in the afternoon. Both were cool and worth a second visit. In the afternoon I had to actually attend class, so I went to the National Gallery for Art History, and left Daniel to explore it himself as well as the National Portrait Gallery.
For dinner, Daniel and I met up with our cousin, Gillian!!! She was visiting a friend from school in London coincidentally on the same week, so we picked her up from her local tube stop and headed over to COVENT GARDEN for dinner. I used caps for Covent Garden in case Gillian forgot what it was called – she was really adamant about being able to tell her friend she’d been there. The dinner was great, it was nice catching up with Gillian and I think we all had a great time. She surprised us after we ate with the news that my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Robert would be paying for the meal via plastic, and Daniel and I quickly (and graciously) accepted. I only wish I could have known before dinner so I would have bought a more expensive item on the menu (just kidding guys – thanks so much for dinner!). From there I pretended to be lost (sort of) and took Gillian down to the Thames River where she saw Big Ben and Parliament for the first time at night. It was a pretty site and definitely picture-worthy, but sadly for the blog it was taken on Gillian’s camera. Here is one of her and my brother on the tube back to Gillian’s stop:
On Wednesday, Daniel and I had another trip: a visit to the old and beautiful college town, Cambridge. We met with Irina’s friend, Lindsay, who is a Gates Scholar there and showed us around as well as all the Cambridge and Gates perks. We learned about the old traditon of punting, (I thought we should have gone for it!) which is a lot like self-gondolaing. We also helped ourselves to the free Gates Scholars vending machine. Thats right, a vending machine where everything is free! We all got soup(s), hot chocolate, and chilled water. Lindsay also took us to her college, Trinity, and some of the rival colleges like St. Johns and Kings. It was mutual agreement that Trinity was the best, especially since the Wash U quad was modeled entirely off of it. Only senior deans can walk on the grass in Cambridge, and they flaunt their status. We tried not to let it stop us. Shhh!
On Thursday, Daniel had finally caught up with Lost, so we watched the newest episode at Sam’s. I finally had to spend a full day at class, so Daniel went off to find a library to study in. When we met up again at 4, we headed over to Leicster Square with Olga where we happened to run into the UK movie primere of Fast and Furious. Although we didn’t wait for VIn Diesel, we did get to see Paul Walker and the infamous Michelle Rodriguez/Daniel’s favorite Lost character, Ana Lucia! Fun and random.
At night, we went to see Oliver!a fantastic show that was highlighted by the fact that our favorite British actor – Rowan Atkinson, was starring in it. That’s right, Mr. Bean himself! Although the role didn’t necessarily warrant any Bean-like behaviors, Rowan definitely threw some in and it was hilarious to see live. Aside from just Bean, the show itself was fantastic, and Daniel and I both had a great time. After the show we met Sam and Mark for a night cap at The Court.
On Friday, Daniel’s last day, we went to Brough Market for lunch, did the Thames Walk, and saw St. Paul’s cathedral. We basically took it easy, and made a delicious dinner with Olga at her place. We also split some delicious Floris Apple Beers that really taste like Fuji apples.
And that was the trip! It was amzing to hang out with Daniel in London and other parts of England, and we both had a really fun time!
Well thats all folks. Tonight I leave for Berlin and then eastern Europe for 3 weeks! See you all then! Hopefully, I’ll be able to make some updates on the road, but its doubtful. Also, note the last two travel locations on the schedule. I just recently booked tickets to Cinque Terre and Ireland. Bye for now!
it was awesome to see you in london! have a safe and fun trip!
So great to hear stories of the three of you together in Europe.
I wish I was there.
Have fun…and Happy BDay Daniel!
Uncle Bill