Drinking the Water

Of course if you visit Bath, you have to drink the mineral water for its medicinal value. It's a tradition that goes back hundreds of years (kind of like drinking the water at Wall Drug). The water was warm (duh it comes from a hot spring) and tasted kind of metallic. Not the most pleasant water I've ever drank. I have no clue if it benefitted my health. No miraculous healing occurred- I had a cut on my hand before I drank and its still there. How disappointing. 

Below is the beautiful fountain that the Victorians were drinking from. 

Here is the one I drank from. Sometimes modern = ugly. 

Bath Time! (Haha...)

The other part of my tour that I was excited for was Bath. The entire city of Bath is a World Heritage Site, and it is very famous for its Roman Baths. During Victorian England it was a popular retreat for the infirm. Doctors would recommend that they move to Bath for a time for the benefit of its medicinal waters. The Roman Baths are built over a hot spring and they have been thought to have healing powers for thousands of years. Bath also had another "Season" after the London season where people threw lavish parties and tried to get their daughters married off to rich men. When you arrived in Bath during the Victorian period you would visit the Pump Room first thing and sign your name in the book.  People would come to the pump room to drink the water each day and to check the book to see which of their acquaintances had arrived. Another reason why people visit Bath is Jane Austen. Jane lived here for five years (but she did not write any of her novels here). Bath is the setting for a few of her novels, most notably Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. The Jane Austen Centre is located here. I went to the Jane Austen Centre, of course, but it was closed for renovations until the 30th!! I was so sad I nearly teared up.  The entire city is gorgeous! Since the whole city is a World Heritage Site, home and business owners need special permission from the Heritage Council to modify the outside of their buildings. Obviously this permission is hard to obtain. But that is why Bath is so beautiful!

One good thing about it being so cold was that it made the water in the large bath steam! I got some beautiful pictures. 

Here is me in front of the large bath. That is Bath Abbey in the background. It was so cold that I wanted to jump in... Think I would have got in trouble? Two hours here was not enough. I want to come back and spend a day or two here!!

Stonehenge!!

The real reason I booked the tour was to see Stonehenge!! It was an amazing time to visit- it had been cloudy all day, but when we pulled up to the site the sun came out for about half an hour. It was so bright that shadows were being cast from the stones- it made for some great pictures!

Of course I had to take some shots of me in front of the stones. Honestly there isn't much to do at the site beyond taking pictures and looking at the gift shop. They have an audio tour, but it only has ten stops. I thought surely a World Heritage Site would have a small museum... but no. Still, I can now say that I've been to Stonehenge, and I got some cool pictures. That was totally worth the cost of the tour.

Windsor Castle... Zzzzz.....

The title says it all Windsor Castle was included in a tour that I booked, and it was a snore! This is a 900 room castle that the Queen uses most weekends, but only five rooms and the chapel were open to the public. Plus photography is only allowed outside. The only mildly interesting thing was seeing Henry the VIII's tomb. I could have done with skipping Windsor, but hey it was included with the other two places I wanted to see. 

The West End!

After the museums I went to the West End to see a show. I was so excited to find out that they were playing Kiss Me, Kate while I was here. It is one of my top 5 favorite musicals. It was so good! The costumes, choreography, vocals, and staging were all amazing! The stage was pretty small but they made clever use of it. They would pull a huge cloth out of a box and attach the corners to pulley's from the ceiling- then when the cloth was raised it would be the next room or scene. It was cool! The only thing I didn't like was the song "From This Moment On". In the stage version Lilli and her fiance sing it, while in the film version Bianca, her new husband and her two old suitors sing it. The scene from the film is rather famous because Bob Fosse choreographed it at the beginning of his career. Bob Fosse was cast as Hortensio, and was not the choreographer for the film. However, he managed to convince the choreographer to let him do one scene. The scene now has a cult following among Fosse fans. Nothing can compare to it. Other than that, I LOVED the show. At the end when the cast made their curtain calls, the entire audience started clapping to the beat of the music that was playing. It was so much fun! I may need to see another musical before I leave... Lion King maybe? No picture were allowed in the theatre, but here is the scene that I was talking about from the 1953 film version. Enjoy.

Sir John Soane Museum and the British Museum

Today I went to two museums. The first was the Sir John Soane museum. He was an architect in Victorian England, and an avid collector of antiquities. When he died he petitioned parliament to have his house turned into a museum. His son was a bit of an ass, and he wanted to make sure he didn't inherit the house or his collections... I wish I had been allowed to take pictures in there. The museum was very quirky- bits of statues and other antiquities are crammed everywhere!! It was fun to explore- apparently they do a candlelight tour on the first Tuesday of every month. That would have been delightfully creepy! The coolest thing he had was the Sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I. It is an enormous engraved limestone sarcophagus from Egypt. Seriously- enourmous. Five of me could fit comfortably in there. Apparently the man who discovered it offered it to the British Museum for 2000 pounds. When they refused, Sir John Soane bought it. It is still considered to be one of the greatest finds in Egyptian archaeology. I bet the Egyptian museum is kicking themselves for missing out on that!

Next I visited the British Museum. They have one of the best Egyptian antiquities collections in the world- maybe better than Egypt itself, sadly. 

I saw the Rosetta stone! The Rosetta stone is what allowed archaeologists to decode hieroglyphics. It only took them 25 years... The stele has the same proclamation inscribed on it in three languages- hieroglyphics, demotic, and greek. Since archaeologists could already read greek, and maybe demotic too (?), they could puzzle out what the hieroglyphics said. It is one of the greatest archaeological finds ever. 

Power fist!

The British Museum has an entire Greek temple in it. An entire temple!

Gorgeous mural from an Egyptian tomb.

The world's largest scarab sculpture. 

Cat mummies

On the left is a baboon mummy and two baby alligator mummies.

Bonjour from Paris!

So far I think I've been real honest on here, and I'm going to try and keep it that way. So when I write that I almost didn't go to Paris, don't judge. I had booked my tickets on the Eurostar to Paris several weeks before my trip, but the night before I went I started to have some doubts. I studied Spanish for seven plus years, and that wasn't going to help me much in France. I know maybe 10-15 phrases in French. So I was mainly freaking out about getting around. I planned Paris as a day trip because I was only really interested in seeing the Louvre. The plan was to hop on the Eurostar at 8:30, be in Paris by 11:30, and to return to London at 8pm. I nearly talked myself out of it because I was nervous about finding my way from the train station to the Louvre, and I wasn't sure if  I would be able to see what I wanted to see there in just six hours. If you know me you know that I have a worrywart personality. I worry about everything and tend to let the anxiety get the best of me at times. Part of the point of this trip was to put myself out of my comfort zone- and Paris was definitely out of my comfort zone. I managed to rise above the anxiety though and get on the train. I'm glad that I did. I feel like Mississippi is a cultural wasteland sometimes. My soul needs art- whether its theatre, art, dance or music. So it was absolute bliss to soak in the atmosphere of the Louvre. Around every corner was a new masterpiece patiently waiting for me to discover it. It was incredible to spend the day surrounded by some of the world's best art. My favorites are below.

This is the Winged Victory of Samothrace. She graces the top of one of the main staircases in the Louvre. I couldn't quite put my finger on what about her moved me. The artist managed to make her clothes cling to her like they were wet- it was incredible. I think the statue is made all the more powerful by her missing head and limbs. She seems to rise victorious over her hardships. She looks like she is about to leap into the air and leave all her troubles behind. It's no wonder she is one of the most popular artworks in the museum. 

Of course I had to put the Mona Lisa on here. She is in a glass case because four crazy ass people have attacked her in the last 100 years. The glass definitely made it hard to get a good picture. One crazy person has to ruin it for everyone... She isn't as small as people say. I've heard people say the portrait is 8x10 size- no way. Maybe 12x24. It's still a great deal smaller than some of the other paintings, but it's large enough to appreciate. Apparently the average person spend 15 seconds in front of her. I didn't realize that she was painted on a poplar board. She was removed from her frame at some point and the wood warped :( Now She is in a tension frame that protects against further warping. Did you know that the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 and went missing for two years? A Louvre employee stole her. He thought she belonged in Italy and tried to sell her to the Italian government. 

 This is "Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss". It's always been one of my favorite sculptures because the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche is my favorite myth. The sculpture is magnificent from all angles. Notice how Psyche's torso seems lighter than her lower body. It is almost like she is in the process of coming back to life- half alive, half dead. The shapes of their bodies make the sculpture very dynamic. The passion on their faces is so moving. The sculpture was carved from two blocks of marble. One made up their bodies, the other made Cupid's wings. Apparently if the light hits them, Cupid's wings are semi-transluscent. Cool!

I loved the Venus de Milo. I've always wanted to see her- She's the ideal of feminine beauty. She made me kind of sad though. So many women today have her body shape and feel like they are fat. Ladies, why can't you see that she's rocking those curves?! I wish that women everywhere could look at her and realize that there is more than one beautiful body type. I can dream, right? 

Of course a horse sculpture had to make my list of favorites :) This is one of the Marly Horses. The sculpture's intent was to convey man's struggle with nature. Horses are one of the hardest animals to realistically portray, and the sculptor nailed it. The proportions of the stallion are perfect. I love the rearing pose with the flowing mane. Gorgeous! You almost want him to break away from the man and gallop off into the distance. 

I loved this one because it reminded me of the Hunger Games... Can't you imagine Katniss as the angel in the middle? I totally see it. 

I'm glad I went to Paris. I think I'm learning to combat my anxiety here. Usually I look at the big picture and panic. I am finally beginning to understand the phrase "take things a day at a time". If I break the day down I don't have time to worry about anything but the next step. It's funny how people can give you advice over and over but you have to come to the realization yourself for it to mean anything. Hopefully I can apply this when I get home. I have to stop looking at my thesis as a 150 page monster that I have to slay, and instead think of it one page at a time... :)