Monday May 16

Whew! Finally getting a chance to update!!! Okay, let's back up a few days to Monday, May 16!

Today we took a train to Oxford, United Kingdom. Some scenes from one of our favorite movie series (Harry Potter, of course) was filmed in Oxford so that was the main reason for visiting this town. We first went to Christ Church which is Oxford University's largest College and the Cathedral Church for the Anglican Diocese of Oxford. This is a working religious and academic institution...which unfortunately ended up cramping some of our plans. On top of being a location for Harry Potter filming, Christ Church was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (the book was written here as well).

We walked through the cloisters first which were built 1,000 years ago. This is a location of Harry Potter filming (Yay!) We went onto the cathedral which was absolutely stunning. There were numerous stained glass windows and this was one of the few cathedrals that allowed photography so we snapped away! This is a 12th century church and is amongst the oldest buildings in Oxford as well as one of the smallest Anglican cathedrals in England. It is the only church in the world to be both a cathedral and a college chapel. One other interesting note...in the cathedral is a shrine of St. Frideswide. The shrine was smashed on King Henry VIII's orders when he destroyed the monasteries in 1538. Over 350 years later the fragments were found down a well and pieced together. From there we went through the quadrangle and had to wait a bit to finish our visit as the students were still eating breakfast in the Great Hall. Once they were finished we were able to go through the Great Hall which was replicated to create Hogwart's Hall.

After Christ Church we went to the Boldleian Library and Divinity School. Unfortunately, since we had to wait on the students at Christ Church we were unable to take a tour of Duke Humphrey's Library so we had to settle for just visiting the Divinity School which was used as the infirmary in the Harry Potter films.

We headed back to the train station after this and caught an earlier train than expected to the town of Windsor. The main attraction in this town is Windsor Castle, however it is also home to England's most famous public school, Eton College. Unfortunately we did not visit Eton College but we did go to Windsor Castle.

WOW! Windsor Castle was...massive. This castle is the only royal residence to have been in continuous royal use since the days of William the Conqueror, who chose this site to build a timber stockade soon after his conquest of Britain in 1066. It was Edward III in the 1300s who really founded the castle which was restored and added to by Charles II in the 1600s and George IV in the 1820s. This castle occupies 13 acres and is absolutely amazing. The Queen was actually in residence while we were there which was pretty awesome too. One reason we enjoyed this castle so much is because it is still in use today and we were able to tour many of the grand State Apartments filled with precious china, art, tapestries, carvings, armor and weapons.

We also visited Queen Mary's Dolls' House here which is a 12:1 scale, seven-story palace with electricity, running water, and working elevators. It was designed in 1924 and the detail is incredible including the diminutive wine bottles holding real wine.

Also on the grounds is St. George's Chapel, home of the Order of the Garter, the highest chivalric order of the land, founded in 1348 by Edward III. It is here that individuals are knighted and the chapel holds their coat of arms, sword and banner. This beautiful chapel is the burial site for ten sovereigns and has also been used for royal weddings.

After Windsor Castle we headed back to London via train and went shopping at Harrod's department store. Holy moly this is like a one-store mall. No lie. There are 7 floors covering 4.5 acres. It also includes 26 restaurants. This was a store like none other. I can't even put it into words...... From there we went to Oxford Street which is also known for its shopping. We did a bit more shopping here, ate a quick dinner and headed back to the flat for some much needed rest!