The blog with no name

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Day 9 - Wednesday, Aug 27th

Pack up luggage.

10:00am Check out of hotel (dorm room at LSE)

Walk to Paul's with heavy luggage and wait until time to go to train station.

2:00pm Catch train to Paris through Chunnel

Day 8 - Tuesday, Aug 26th

Did Laundry with no lights on in the basement.

Recover from all the walking yesterday and every day before that.

Ride tube to Westminster.

Audio tour of Westminster.

Saw where Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, other various kings, queens, etc . . . were all buried.

Go to LSE to try and buy a train ticket online.

Return to hotel to relax.

Nighttime walk up the Thames, ate dinner at Wagamama, continued walking up River to London Eye and then rode bus back home.

Day 7 - Monday, August 24th

Rode tube to Paddington Station to catch high speed train (125 mph) to Chippenham.

Waited for bus for over an hour before walking into town to the main bus depot. No busses, bank holiday.

Caught taxi to Lacock.

Visited Lacock Abbey - Home of Henry Fox Talbot.

Visited the Henry Fox Talbot Museum.

Walked around Abbey and saw "the window"

For my non photographer friends: My lady readers, the village of Lacock is where the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed. For my Harry Potter friends, parts of two films were filmed in the abbey.

Waited for bus in Lacock, no bus.

Walked on footpath through English countryside back to Chippenham - 6 miles. Ugh.

Rode train back into London.

Day 6 - Sunday, Aug 24th

Walk to London Bridge.

Ride tube to Columbia Flower Market.

Walk to Brick Lane.

Ride bus to canal near Victoria Park.

Walk up canal along Victoria Park and saw canal boats go through locks.

Ride tube from Bethnal Green

Ride bus under Thames to North Greenwich and saw Paul's project site near Millenium Dome.

Walk out to see Thames Barrier.

Eat Sunday dinner in a pub.

Ride bus to Greenwich.

Walk up hill to observatory and see camera obscura and birth place of the Prime Meridian.

Ride bus back into town to school to try and buy a ticket.

Day 5 - Saturday, Aug 23rd

Walk to Paul's

Ride tube to Kew Gardens.

Spend the day at Kew.

Ride tube into town.

Go shopping on Oxford Street. (insane number of people - seriously, insane)

Friday, August 22, 2008

Day 4 - Aug 22nd

Visit Design Museum

Visit Borough Market for Lunch

Return to Tate Modern to visit photography exhibit "Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography"

Walk down Thames River to London Eye, Westmisnster and Big Ben.

Walk to LSE

Ate at Pizza Express (agian).

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Day 3 - Aug 21st

Breakfast: Banini (Nutella and banana panini)

Walk to Leicester Square to purchase theatre tickets

Visit Victoria and Albert Museum (nice photography exhibit)
Visit Natural History Museum

Attend 7:30pm performance of Phantom of the Opera

Day 2 - Aug 20th

Ate first "full english breakfast"

Visited Tate Modern, St. Paul's Cathedral, Millenium Bridge, London School of Economics, Harrod's

Dinner: Döner kebab

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Day 1 - Aug 19th

Arrive Heathrow/London: 12:30pm (5:30am MST)

Tube into London and then walk around town (Covent Garden, Trafalger Square, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, St. James Park)

Visited The Photographer's Gallery.

Day 0 - Aug 18th

6:30 am shuttle.

Flight from SLC to Minn/St. Paul: 2:05pm

Flight Minneapollis/St. Paul to London: 9:45pm

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Buongiorno!

As some of you may know by now, there has been a lot going on for me lately. Specifically I will be teaching adjunct for Montana State University starting fall semester.

As a part of the position I will be traveling to Italy for 2 months fall semester. I and another professor will be instructing a group of 10 photography students. We will be staying in a villa in the Umbria province near the city of Perugia.

Taking advantage of a free flight, I have decided to go over two weeks early to tour a bit before I need to be in Italy for classes. I leave Aug 18th for London. As you might imagine it has been pretty busy lately as I have been getting ready to leave in two days.

I plan on keeping a blog about the trip and will provide a link here once I started. If anybody needs to get ahold of me while I am out of the country, email will be the best option.

Below is a photo of where we will be staying for the two months. From what I understand the family that owns the villa also owns a chocolate factory. We will be making day trips and four overnight trips to various sites around the country during our stay. And since my weekends are free I will also probably travel to other parts of Europe on my own.

I want you to all keep in mind, this is a job and it will be work. I don't know why but when I tell people that they just laugh.

I look forward to sharing my stories and photos with all of you while I am there. Take Care.

Arrivederci