Oxford

Remember a while back when Queen Mary organized a night cruise on the Thames and I forgot to check that the memory card was in my camera? Well, same thing happened when I went to Oxford last week to see the town and visit Terry. I will try to include pictures from other sources to illustrate what I saw.

The first stop for us upon my arrival was the Eagle & Child pub for lunch. Why this pub, you might ask? Well, it was here that the Inklings meet every week for beer and a discussion. Who are the Inklings? None other than J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, among others.After lunch, we headed over to Blackwell's bookstore, which has the Norrington Room, which is the largest single room selling books with over 10,000 sq. ft., over 3 miles of shelves, and over 160,000 books.

After that we headed over to the Bodleian Library, the main library at Oxford. The tour doesn't go into very much of the library, and to actually be able to use the library is difficult. But the tour did start in this room:Yes, that's the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. But in reality it's the Divinity School at Oxford. The ceiling is a beautiful example of fan vaulting.An interesting fact about this room: the University makes more money from filming in the room than for any other purpose.

Then they take you upstairs to the main part of the library, which also was used in the Harry Potter films, and this time as part of the Hogwarts Library.

While Terry was having her Latin tutorial, I sat in Blackwell's reading, and when she was done, it was time for dinner and catching our trains back to London and Bath.

Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, & Return (Paris, Day 3)

Today was our last day in Paris and we began the day by returning to the Eiffel Tower, this time to actually ascend all the way to the top. Upon arriving you get in one line for a bag check, then the line to get your ticket, then a line to actually get on the lift to the second floor. In all, the wait was close to an hour. The lift to the second floor is actually a two level lift and they really pack you in.


Once you arrive to on the second floor (115 m/377 ft) you have to get off the lift and get in another line for the lift to the very top. But before getting in line a snapped a few pictures:
1) Trocadero2) The rest of the Tower
3) ParisThen we got in line for the lift all the way to the top, which was around half an hour wait. But once arriving at the top, the view was spectacular, but so were the wait times.
After departing the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to Notre Dame, which we got audioguides for, which were not very good.
Then it was time to head back to catch the train back to London. The train station was super-crowded due to the ash cloud grounding flights. All Eurostar trains were booked through Wednesday, but we already had tickets. The lines were really bad as the train was fully booked and I don't think the Eurostar lobby at Gare du Nord was designed to handle that many people at once. In addition, you went through both French and British border control, so that plus security and check-in made the lines move rather slowly.

Versailles & Eiffel Tower (Paris, Day 2)

Today was our second day in Paris and the plan for the day was to go to Versailles, Les Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower. We ended up only doing 2 of those, but our visit to the Eiffel Tower did not involve going up because we go there late.

Our day began with a trip on the RER (Paris' regional rail) out to Versailles. When we got the RER station, there was a train sitting there, so we got on. Only one problem: we forgot to check the destination for the train. Turns out it wasn't the one going to Versailles, so what should have been a 40 minute trip out to Versailles ended up being about 2 hours, 40 minutes. Probably one of the few times I was glad to get off a train.

Once we got to Versailles, we grabbed lunch at the attached cafe before heading into the Palace.The Palace is massive, and there is really no other way to describe it. It was great, although I think it would have been good if they made more mention of its functions after being a palace. As I've done before, here are a few picture highlights:

1) Hall of Mirrors.
2) Gardens
3) Dauphin's Apartments

One thing I did find interesting was in a hall of large paintings depicting important battles in French history, there was a painting of the Battle of Yorktown:

We then headed back into Paris and because of catching the wrong train earlier, we did not get to Les Invalides, but did walk around a bit and went by the Eiffel Tower:We then walked across the Seine to get this picture, and only because we both go to F&M:

Thank God for the Eurostar (Paris Day 1)

This past weekend Terry and I went to Paris, and I'm so glad we didn't fly because then we would not have gone due to a gigantic Icelandic ash cloud. I just hope there are none in a few weeks when I go to Dublin. But for now, Paris.

After getting up dark and early (it was too early to say bright and early), we got on the Eurostar from St. Pancras International in London.Getting to Paris on the Eurostar is just a 2 hour 20 minute journey, reaching a top speed of 186 miles per hour. It is incredibly smooth and when you do reach top speed, you hardly notice it (except where the track parallels the road, where you just zip by cars). The speed is limited in the Chunnel, but only to 99 mph, so you spend about 20 minutes in the Chunnel.

After arriving in Paris and leaving our bags at the hostel, we headed to our first stop of the day, the Arc de Triomphe, the world's largest triumphal arch. It is big, but not that impressive since we couldn't get right up to the base.Then we walked down the Champs-Elysees, which was impressive, but I was expecting it to be just that, so it wasn't all that overwhelming. We also spotted 2 McDonalds on the Champs-Elysees, but ended up having lunch at a little cafe on a side street.Next stop on our walk was the Place de la Concorde, which was a bit more impressive than the Champs Elysees.
We then walked through the Tuileries Gardens on our way to the Louvre.We then arrived at the Louvre, which is massive. We were there for a good 3-4 hours and probably saw less than half of the museum. We mainly saw the Greek & Roman Galleries (Terry's interest), the Mona Lisa (like everyone who comes to the Louvre), and 19th century French paintings (I was looking for paintings by Jaques-Louis David).

I'll post a few highlights here:

1) Front of the building
2) Mona Lisa
3) Venus de Milo
4) Winged Victory of Samothrace
5) Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix
6) Da Vinci Code Location

After the Louvre, it was time to head back to our hostel and formally check in before heading out for dinner at a restaurant a few blocks from the hostel, which was right in the heart of Montmartre:

England vs. America: Round Two

So it's been 2 months since Round 1. Ready for Round 2? So far America is winning 1-0.

Round 2: Transportation
Being a student here has forced me to rely on pubic transit in all forms. Here I will compare my experiences on each in America and England.

Planes

This one is a draw. The experiences I've had so far flying over here, which have been limited to, have always gone well. The only airline I've used while over here is RyanAir, of which I have heard travel horror stories, but this hasn't been my experience.Trains

Far and away this goes to England. The trains run more often here and people use them. To give an example: In 2008-2009, Waterloo Station, London's busiest station handled just short of 88 million passengers. By comparison the entire Amtrak system handled over 27.1 million passengers in 2009. That pretty much says it right there. And London has another 6 stations that handle more passengers than Amtrak does across an entire nation.

If you take those 7 stations (Waterloo, Victoria, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Paddington, & Euston) they handled a combined 356 million people. That’s more than the population of the United States. I could go on and on with statistics to prove my point, but I’ll just leave you with this last one. The number of people handled by all train stations in the U.K. is about one third of the population of the world.

Underground/Subway

This one also is going to England. While disruptions are fairly frequent, and some lines shut down on the weekend for improvement work, overall the system is extremely good. Trains run frequently (I've never waited more than 5-7 minutes), and you can get anywhere easily. And when lines do shut down, replacement bus services run and extra staff are placed at the stations to help you. Also, you can look up planned closures for the next 6 months. But these problems plague all underground (subway in America) systems.

Buses

Again, this one is going to England. The buses run extremely frequently. For example, in Baltimore at rush hour the #11 will run about every 20 minutes. The #25 in London will, at its most infrequent run every 8-12 minutes, and that's in the middle of the night. Which brings up another point in favor of London's Buses: many routes run 24 hours

Overall

I think it's clear that England has won this round. Simply put, people use the public transit options that are available more often, and therefore more services are provided. For buses and the Underground, I've never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus or tube train, and that was when I was coming back from the grocery store and the first 2 buses that came by were too crowded.

America will never reach the level of England, and for one simple reason: we're in love with our cars. And until we embrace public transit like we do our cars, England will always win this one.

Score: U.S.:1, U.K.: 1

I ran away...

...to the circus.
While I am abroad, I made it one of my goals to see a European circus and just last week, I discovered that Zippo's Circus, one of the main English circuses, was playing in the London area. On top of that, the Circus Friends Association was holding a rally on Saturday. I emailed the contact person for the event and later that day got a phone call asking if I was going to attend, and I said yes.

After a somewhat complex journey by bus and rail, I arrived at the circus and was quickly introduced to several of the circus fans. I also met Norman Barrett, MBE, who is the ringmaster for the show, and who had been told I was coming.

The show opened with a good wheel act, in which the guy got quite close to the top of the tent. He also did a very brief bit of jump roping and walked part of it blindfolded.After that was a short pony act, where they just marched two ponies through an obstacle course. This was followed by an enjoyable jar juggling act.This was followed by a cloud swing act that was quite good.The next act was a very good liberty act, in which they did some things very creative things with the horses running across the ring rather than just around the ring.The next act was a hand balancing act, and all the tricks were the usual ones, and the presentation was slow for me. But that was followed by what was perhaps the highlight of the show when Norman Barrett presented his Budgies, or small birds. While small birds don't provide a lot of action like a larger animal can, it was all in Norman Barrett's energetic presentation of the act that made it spectacular.This was followed by a very good juggling act, which, while not doing a high number of objects, the presentation was excellent.This was followed by an acrobat performing in a strange clear plastic ball that was suspended from the top of the tent. Up next was a quick rolla-bolla act.This was followed by a very good balancing act, and while some of the poses were the standard ones, they pair did do some creative stuff.
Then it was time for the finale, which was an excellent high wire act. This time the tricks were good and the presentation was excellent. Highlights of the act was one walker jumping over the other one while he was laying down on the wire. and one walker stood on the other's shoulders while they walked across the wire.That was the end of the show, which overall was very good and would probably be one of the better one-ring shows in America. The major downside of the show was the pacing at times was too slow. To make it a really spectacular show, the pace would need to be livened up, which could be aided by live music, and some better costumes and technical aspects. Even still, it was a very enjoyable show.
After the show, they had a buffet dinner for the fans and show people which was very nice because I got to chat with several fans and show people.

Thorpe Park

This past week we had good weather, so I decided to go to Thorpe Park, one of the amusement parks near London. I plan to go to 3 more parks while I am here.The park was very easy to get to. The journey was just short train ride of just under 40 minutes from Waterloo followed by a 15 minute shuttle bus run by the park.

Upon arriving at the park, I headed straight for the gate since I had a pass for the park. One of the first things you see upon entering the park is a board where they display the current waiting times for all the rides. This is a great idea that I think more American parks should use. These times were fairly accurate, never off by more than 10 minutes.

The first ride of the day was Colossus, a twisted mess of steel with 10 inversions. Yes, you go upside down 10 times on this ride. The wait was about an hour, but it was worth it. The ride was very smooth, although the speed throughout could have been a little higher, especially on the last 5 inversions. There was a hill in the middle of the ride that provided some nice airtime. Overall a good steel coaster, but not great.The next ride was Saw-The Ride. Again, a wait of around an hour. The gimmick of this ride was the drop that curved underneath itself, so it was greater than straight down. A straight drop is at 90 degress, this one was 100 degrees. I had been on a coaster similar to this (Fahrenheit at Hersheypark) before, so I knew what to expect, but the portion before the lift hill was the highlight of the ride. Some close shaves with saws and a surprise inversion with a water spray all in darkness or semi-darkness made for an enjoyable start to the ride, but the rest did not really live up to this.

Then it was time for lunch, which I finally had fish and chips, although I still want to get them from a greasy neighborhood place that serves them wrapped in paper. I think that may be the more authentic experience.

The third ride of the day was the tallest and fastest coaster in the U.K., Stealth. Basically a mini-version of Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, this one topped out at a mere 205 feet and 80 mph. Just barely reaches its maximum angle of 90 degrees. Its American big brother tops out at 456 feet and 128 mph. It was a very short ride. You spend about an hour in the queue for a ride that lasts less that 30 seconds.

Then it was time for Nemesis-Inferno, the park’s inverted coaster. This was perhaps the best inverted coaster I’ve been on. The pacing was great, not too many inversions, didn’t feel too long or too short, lots of flying over pedestrian walkways, and close calls with the scenery or other parts of the ride. I wish I had the time to get more than just one ride, but with an hour wait, I did not have enough time.

Then it was time to tackle the parks to two smaller coasters. The first was Flying Fish, a small powered coaster that’s nothing special. I only rode it to get the coaster credit. Yeah, I’m one of the people who counts the coasters I’ve been on. At the end of the day I would hit 114 coasters.

The next one was X:\ No Way Out, an enclosed coaster whose gimmick was that the entire ride, besides being in the dark, was traversed facing backwards. An enjoyable ride, but nothing too special.

After that I went on Stealth one more time since it had a single rider's line, so my wait was shorter. Then it was time to leave and catch a train back into London.