Waterfalls almost coming from clouds.

When we first started planing to go to Norway, on of the major things we'd hope to see was waterfalls coming out of the cloud. As it turned out, we saw plenty of waterfalls but none coming from the clouds which turned out to be a good thing because the weather was as close to perfect as possible. This was the cherry on top of one of the best trips I've taken since being in Europe.




First off, chips on a chicken sandwich, bravo Norway, bravo.



Oslo S. The train station where we began and ended our circle route trip. I don't have that many pictures of Oslo because I had a final in the morning before I left and didn't get in till about 10pm.



One of the few picture I took was the one and only Jack Bower Pinball machine. Saving the world one silver ball at a time.



On day two of our trip we started off with the most scenic train ride in Europe. It was hard to get some good shots as we were on a train with no observation car but we saw some beautiful views. The train tracks tunnel through mountains and it was pretty crazy to go into a tunnel viewing a nice spring day and come out in a blizzard.



We did stop at a couple towns along the way. But we pasted some houses in the middle of the wilderness with no road leading to or from the house and the next sign of civilization being miles away. Makes you wonder how often the inhabitants left home.



Our train ended in Bergen, the second largest city in Norway next to Oslo. Since it was a holiday, there was no staff at our hostel. We had to swipe in with our credit card and leave the keys in a box when we left.



Here is me with the three guys I traveled with. Bergen is a very hilly city that reminds me of Pittsburgh. We took a cable car up to the top of a hill over looking the city. Here's some pics of beautiful Bergen.







If you haven't heard of the game Monopoly Deal, I suggest you look into it pronto. We discovered the game at the local Tessco(grocery store) one night when we had nothing to do and got addicted to it. This ledge is one of the less extreme places we played on the trip.



These trolls where all over Norway. This guy was a popular one as we saw him back in Oslo as well. According to legend, they live in the mountains and only come out at night.



Here is the hill that we scaled via cable car. I'll continue my trip in the next blog with our fjord cruise.

Eton College, not really a college.

What we normal people call highschool, U.K. people call college. Eton college is one of the most presigous colleges or prep schools in England. One of its most famous former students (in my opinion) is Edward Michael Grylls aka Bear Grylls. There were also a bunch of politcians who went there too.



Eton college was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. We got to sit in the first class room used by the college. It is still used today for some language classes.



A couple hundred year old graffiti.



After Eton College we walked back across the Themes on our way to Windsor. The Castle was not easy to get into as we had to go through airport style security since its a public building.



Here is entering the castle.



There are many gardens through out the castle. It was interesting to see that some of them had palm like trees.



Here is the queens private residence. We were not allowed in there.



Here is St. Georges Chapel. Check out the clock, I'm not sure how it works.



Leading up to St. Georges are the royal steps where the Bride and Groom exit after a royal wedding.



Of course it wouldn't be Windsor with out the stationed guard. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted at Windsor because we were not allowed to take pictures inside the buildings, which were the coolest parts. There were a bunch of English weaponry, suits of armor and other English things inside the halls including the worlds largest doll house.

My trip ended as I left the castle and headed back to the train station. I did get a good haha at the train station as I past this bar and grill.

Windsor, Eton and Redcoats

I'm pretty proud of myself for kicking out a couple of these blogs in a couple days. For this blog I will be writing about my trip to Windsor Castle, the largest castle in the U.K., in mid April. I have now been to the two biggest castle in the U.K. since I visited Caerphilly in Wales.



Windsor is only a few miles outside of London so we took a train to the town. Here is the rail station.



Windsor isn't as much a castle as it is a palace. I don't know how many battles have been fought at Windsor but it is the place for the royal family to retreat to and has been for hundred of years. That is why the railway that leads to Windsor is one of the oldest in the world as it was used to transport the royalty. Here is one of the original royal engines that had a speed of around 40 mph.



Like most castles in Europe, the town is buildt around the castle which always seems strange how there can be a castle on one side of the street and shops on the other.



Here is one of the main gates where we exited the castle.

The problem with doing these blogs weeks after I see the things is I forget what I saw. The following are some pictures that should have some witty comments following them but I forgot what they where of.











One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the changing of the guard.



There are five different types of guards from all the different nations in the U.K. Each guard has a different amount of stripes on their shoulder to indicate their contra.



The guards travel make their way through the town from the barracks which is about a mile away from the castle.



Here is the private entrance to the castle where the queen enters.



(turn around from above picture)

Here are some of the grounds of Windsor. If you can see that statue in the distance, you are looking at about a 3 mile walk to reach it.



Standing alone, this may seem like a strange sign...



...until you look across the street and see a pub.

I will end this post for right now since I am hungry. Part two will include the trip to Eton College and inside the Castle.

Do I need my sunglasses in Brighton?

My trip to Brighton was one of the better excursions that I went on. The city is know for it's rebellious roots in the 1960's and 70's. Prior to that it was a seaside retreat for royalty when it was fashionable to be plunged into the English Channel by your servants. But more on that later. This is the first trip were I ditched the cell phone pics and used my brand new HP 10 mega pixel camera. Let's see if you can tell the difference.



Right when we exited the train station we could see the Channel at the end of the street. The clouds scared us but we were lucky enough to escape the rain. It could have been worse for mid March.



We saw a lot of hipster stores on our walking tour. If I knew more about guitars I could say more.



I'm pretty sure you wear these shoes but I could be wrong.



Brighton became well known when Prince Regent built the Royal Pavilion in 1783 in order to have an affair with a women who lived in Brighton. The Palace was decorated in an India and Chinese style which makes it look quite out of place. Inside there were a huge number of statues and other jewels brought from the east. Pictures were not allowed inside the palace and since I didn't want to get my new camera taken away, click here for more info.



The famous Brighton Pier. While it does lack a Ferris wheel, I'd say it just out duals Navy Pier. There are several large arcades on the pier and a good size roller coaster. Unfortunately, we could not ride it because of the weather.



Here is me on the pier. That burnt wooden structure in the background is the old Brighton pier which burned down a bunch of years ago. Again since I am feeling alittle lazy today, I present the wiki page.



Walking along the coast, we got some good views of the pier and how big it is...



...while enjoying some of the local establishments.



Alas, the sun sets on our day in Brighton. I would like to visit it when the weather is a bit warmer as Brighton is definitely a beach town. Hopefully I will be able to return before I return to the States.

Brag: It only took me a day to get through Oxford

We took our trip to Oxford on Febuary 20th. In case your datically challenged, that's a really long time ago. Needless to say, I don't remember much. While doing a little brush up research I found this quote that I thought I would share with you.

A lot of girls annoy me who go to university - one girl told me she was going to Oxford because it was something to do between leaving school and getting married. And I've got to pay for that being an income tax payer.
-Jeffrey Bernard (obscure British journalist)

It annoyed me to listen to one of our tour guides complain about her daughters Oxford tuition rate rising to 3500ish pounds when DePaul cost 10 times that.



Oxford is not like a traditional University in the States. It is made up of 38 different colleges (one of them seen above) and students apply to the individual college. There is a lot disagreement over which college is the oldest but Univestiy College is the forerunners which claims to be established in 1249. The newest college, Kellogg College, was established in 1990.



Here is the spot were three people were burned at the stake for heresy. I don't really want to paraphrase the wiki page so you can read about it here. The lingerie store was built later.



If you know what Oxfam is this picture will impress you. If you are like me and had no idea that they were a famous charity organization that was started in Oxford at this very location, then you will probably be unaffected and slightly mad that you had to read through this blurb.



No idea what Steampunk was but it ended soon after I left. The museum behind the sign was pretty neat. It contained a bunch on astrological tools that had been collected over the past few hundred years by the University.



Blackwell's is the biggest Oxford bookstore were most students get there books. I used its facilities and was not very impressed (by the facilities not the store).



These busts of famous philosophers were all around one of the colleges. This is the one of weirder looking ones.



This bridge connecting two college building was styled after the bridges in Venice. Having been to Venice since taking this picture, I can say that is pretty accurate.



We also visted the Oxford market which was pretty cool. There were a bunch of butcher shops with various meats hanging in the window.



Here is a window display form a toy shop in the market. They obviously remember the American revolution differently over here.



Does this staircase look familiar to you?



How bout this door?





Or this [Great] hall.

Perhaps imagine Daniel Ratcliff running around in a wizard hat. Oxford aka Hogwarts was one of the major fliming locations for the Harry Potter movies.

The answers from the quiz above were staircase to the Great Hall, Infirmary and the Great Hall which definitely looks a lot larger in the movies. The ceiling is also much different.





At the end of our visit we walked through a central courtyard (quad) of one of the colleges. This guy made sure only students were allowed to walk on the grass.



Oxford was a decent trip. A lot of the history was really interesting but on of my favorite parts was seeing this little guy in the gift shop. Yes that's an actual college and no, their mascot is not the bears.