The British Museum contains some pretty cool stuff. And it better, considering that it opened in 1798 (I think). It holds the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, ancient statues of Ramses, and several other cool items. I'm beginning to get a little museum-ed out, but I still found this one to be pretty cool.
The Rosetta Stone...I'm still surprised I was able to manage getting this pic because there were swarms of Asian tourists around the stone.
Cleopatra's mummy
Me outside of the British Museum
That night, the people I was with decided to buy tickets for Agatha Christie's Moustrap play. That didn't seem very appealing to me, so I decided to check the theater around the corner for tickets to the musical Once. Boy, was this a great decision. It was totally my kind of musical--a modern love story with folk/ indie music and lots of creativity. The actors were so talented and each wore a several different hats for the play. I was mainly impressed with their talent--each one was not only an excellent actor/ actress, but they were flawless with the instruments that they played and their voices were beautiful. And I wasn't bothered at all to be by myself because I loved every minute of the play. It turns out that there were three other people from our group in the theater, but I had no idea that they had bought tickets or that they were there the whole time! My only complaint was the swearing--way too much of that for my liking in this play. Putting that aside though, I loved the rest of the musical.
The next day was Friday and we left London for a weekend trip to Hastings and Canterbury. We got to see the site of the Battle of Hastings which was pretty amazing. Shortly after the battle, they built an abbey called Battle Abbey on the location of the battle. The rich history of the area is wonderful and kind of hard to take in completely. But I loved it.
The field where the battle took place.
Battle Abbey
That night we spent the night in Canterbury. There's not much to this little town except that the large cathedral there brought many pilgrims to the city hundreds of years ago...thus where we get Chaucer's story Canterbury Tales. It is a fun little town. I think there must be some sort of early settler with the last name of Holm or Holmes or Holman because I saw several street signs and other signs with my name on it. I wasn't able to find out much on why that is, but it was still cool to see. My favorite part (by far) of our weekend trip was seeing Canterbury Cathedral. It put every castle we've been to thus far to shame. It is huge, ornate, and ancient. And there was a choir & orchestra practicing while we were there which made it even more spectacular. I could have spent hours there without getting bored. After we finished at the cathedral, we walked around the town for a bit. I got a cuteeeee little dress at a little boutique outside of the cathedral for my new little niece Holly. Here are some pictures from Canterbury:
Too lazy to walk over to the real Holm Oak Close...so this will have to do.
Cute mini telephone booth in our hostel
The cathedral was so big that there was no way I could get a full frame of it
Ornate ceilings!
Choir practice.
The everlasting burning candle.
I'm suddenly in love with stained glass.
My favorite hymn
Wow! We learn so much with every post. I'm so excited about everything you are learning and seeing. James says they researched Holly's name and it is derived from "Holm," and that it relates to a tree-- the holly tree that we see at Christmas would seem to be the most obvious, but this is from Wikipedia: "Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak or Holly Oak is a large evergreen oak native to the Mediterranean region. It takes its name from holm, an ancient name for holly. . . .It was first introduced to the United Kingdom in the 16th century. The first trees to be planted from acorns in the United Kingdom are still to be found growing within the stately grounds of Mamhead Park, Devon. They are uncommonly fine examples and several of these trees are 3 m (10 ft) in circumference, at 1 m (3 ft) from the ground; and one of them measures 4 m (13 ft 6 in) in circumference." One of those might be the Holly Oak on your sign.
ReplyDeleteYou will see "Holm"--which means island in Scandinavia-- and many other Scandinavian place-names in the UK because of the Battle of Hastings--when the Normans (north-men" from Scandinavia) invaded and after the victory, joined up with the English. You can read a good explanation of place names at: http://viking.no/e/england/danelaw/epl-danelaw.htm
(Of course that is simplifying the issue-- there were many Viking invasions besides the Battle of Hastings.) James says Murdock means "man of the North." OK -- that's your history lesson tied up with family allusions.