Lake District

Lake District is a region of mountains and lakes in northwest England. It has 15 lakes and a lot of beautiful water falls. There are many old ruin castles and churches dotting the country side. It was established as a National Park in 1949 and has approximately 12 million visitors a year. Beatrix Potter, who wrote Peter Rabbit, lived in the Lake District. This is where she wrote her books. On Friday I went horse backriding through the English country side. My horses name was Berno. I bet Liz before we went that my horse would be the smallest one and it was...lol. We rode for an hour and 1/2. We got to trot and gallop which was fun to do but my butt was sore. For most of the ride it was sunny out but then it started to hail out of know where…but that is English weather for you. Saturday we went mountain hiking for about 3 hours then we went kayaking for a couple of hours. Only one person fell in the water...no it wasn't me. We first hiked up the side of one mountain, which was exhausting. It also didn't help that we did it in the rain; luckily they had warned us that it might rain and told us to bring water proof clothing. I did except for my shoes, all I had was tennis shoes and they and my feet where wet by the end of the hike. It wasn't only the rain that made my shoes wet but also the streams we had to through. Most had rocks we could walk on but they were slippery and more than one of us fell and put a foot in the water...ops. After hiking up one mountain we then crossed to another one walked to a lake that was up in the mountains. It was beautiful!! You couldn't see the other side of the lake because it was so foggy up there. Kayaking was fun but my hands got cold even though I had gloves on. I had gotten then in Berlin for 1.95 euro on sale and thought they were water proof...they weren't. So my hands were wet and cold but I still had fun kayaking around the lake and playing bumper kayaks. :) That night we went into town and bought spaghetti and garlic bread and cooked our own food. It was fun because there were so many Harlaxton people cooking food because none of us have had home cooked food in months and the food at Harlaxton is not exactly the best.
Sunday we stopped at a few different places to take pictures and then just went back to Harlaxton. We were going to try and see another stone circle like Stonehenge but the roads were unsafe for coach buses…oh well, maybe next time.

Berlin

Berlin was like going back in history. To this day every where you look you can still see reminders of the past, a past that is only 17 years old. The Berlin wall still stands in some places for tourist to look at and as a reminder of the past. Only now instead of the wall being a fence to keep people in, the wall has its own fence around it to protect it. The one thing you will not find in Berlin is a reminder of Nazis or Hitler. Hitler’s bunker where he killed himself is now just a grassy area where people let there dogs do their business with apartments around it. They are ashamed of there past. It’s hard to believe that in my life time the Berlin wall existed. We met this lady who was in her late 30’s who at the age of 15 ran with her father through the woods that separated East Germany from West Germany so they could be free.
They do have some beautiful opera houses, churches and the one gate that still stands. The opera house and the gate are one of the few things that where not bombed during WWII. Most everything else has recently been rebuilt to look like it would have before the war. If you were to look at the skyline of Berlin you would see tons of cranes rebuilding parts of the city still!!
We went into the Reichstag and up into the glass dome on top. From here you get a great view of the city. You can also look down upon the government offices. This was done to represent that the people are above the government and that they run it.
Kristi and I went to an Orchestra one night. It was really good! We had wanted to go to an opera but we were told it started at 7:30 but actually it started at 7pm. We also went to the Olympic stadium. It is Kristi’s life goal to visit all of them…good luck to her!!!

Stonehenge, Bath and Oxford

We first went to Oxford and visited Oxford University. The University has many colleges and in part of the University scenes from the Harry Potter movies were shot!!! It was Oxfords University’s Christ Church where the Harry Potter scenes where shot. The great hall in Harry Potter was done to look like the Great Hall at Oxford. We also went to The Child and Eagle Pub where J.R.R Tolkin and C.S. Lewis would go and talk about their books and write some of them there. In the Pub they have a signed letter from them hanging up. Oxford is also where some of Alice in Wonderland was set.
























We spent Friday and Saturday night in Bath. We stayed at a bed and breakfast that was cute. The Romans built baths in Bath during the 1st century and made it in to a retirement city for retired soldiers. We were able to drink water that was taken from the Baths (yes and purified). It tasted ok. The Baths were really cool to see and know that Romans built and used it in the 300’s. Later Bath was built up by Great Britain for a place of Leisure for her citizens. The Royal Crescent is in Bath where affluent people of the 17th century lived. Bath also had Jane Austen Museum where I got the complete works written by her. She wrote Persuasion and Northanger in Bath. Bath also has a Abbey that was begun to be built in 1499 by Bishop King. One night (we thought this was kind of funny and weird) we act at a café called Boston Tea Party. We also heard some good Jazz music in a local Pub.

On Saturday we went to Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey. Wells is a sleepy little town with a cute market on Saturdays. It also has a Cathedral that is 800 years old!! The front of the Cathedral has 365 medieval statues of knights, kings and saints (no I didn’t sit and count them all!). Inside are really pretty scissor arches and a medieval clock that still works. Christ was supposed to have visited Glastonbury Abbey and it is said that Joseph returned to Glastonbury with the Holy Grail and that it is still there!! The Abbey is in ruins but it was still cool to look at. It is also said that Glastonbury Tor is where the King Arthur was buried.

Stonehenge was amazing!!! Stonehenge is a medieval term meaning 'hanging stones' and was begun in about 2800 BC. It was believed to have been built by sun-worshippers. You can't get very close to Stonehenge, you can only walk around the outside of it at a distance...but it was still cool.