Classin it Up... Internationally

I was set loose in the UK (mostly London) for a month in 2013. I like to read a lot, think about stuff and things, and explore. This blog is a personal one, dedicated to the traveling I did in and around London during July for my summer class.

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A couple more photos from the bay, a couple bad-wolves hidden around Cardiff, and a few photos from Eddie's American Diner, where they filmed the scene from The Impossible Astronaut where they were supposed to be in mid-west America.

The owner was there, and he could tell we were fans. We got milkshakes and he made sure we sat in the same booth that they filmed in, which just so happened to be number 11. Apparently it was 11 before they filmed there, so I suspect they chose that booth pretty specifically for the filming. The milkshakes were delicious, the atmosphere was fun, and it was a riot figuring out who should sit where. I took the side of the booth where River and Rory sat, and my friends sat in Amy and Eleven's spots opposite me. I think we all got our favorite spots, so it was good.

The final picture is the entrance to a bar called Bar Cwtch, which means "cuddle", and their slogan is every drink comes with a cuddle. But I did not get any cuddles so I think they were lying. I did get to have dinner and drinks inside a Welsh TARDIS though, so I was happy.

Cardiff was a blast, we visited and found a lot of Doctor Who filming sites, ran into a girl who was in the same hostel as we were in Grasmere when I was in the lakes district with Dannie, and I picked up a Welsh phrase book; so far I can only remember how to say "Cheers!" but it was great fun getting some basic Welsh pronunciation from the lady I bought it from. I would love to go back.

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From the top: Dalek and Cybermen attack the TARDIS; Lego Dalek which was next to Bessie (the yellow car); two photos of Ianto Jones shrine, and one of the pier leading up to the entrance to Torchwood; Torchwood tower covered in weird strawberries; and a better shot of the Wales Millennium Centre.

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From the top: and extremely signed copy of the script from The End of Time, part 2 (break my heart why dontcha); set design models from various episodes, including the medical room from Torchwood and the Doctor's closet on the TARDIS; set design model from Doomsday; concept design drawings for the TARDIS and Gallifrey; stunt-double wigs; photos that I'm pretty sure were for continuity but could also have been them being silly; design for Cassandra and the Sycorax, and then Eleven's portrait from the beginning of The Impossible Astronaut.  

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From the top: The TARDIS keys through the ages; the Doctor's device from the episode The Idiot's Lantern; the Cybermen and their converter; the Silence and their creepy console; the many faces of the Dalek; the Doctor's cot (I was so close I could've touched it but then they might have thrown me out so I did not); Nefertiti's outfit from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (I love that episode); Clara's costume and props from The Snowmen; Matt Smith's outfit and props from the same; a picture of the Weeping Angel and its cherubs from The Angels Take Manhattan - I don't know why I ever did that to myself because I never want to actually look at this picture because it freaks me out so much.

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From the top: More Doctor Who Experience! Inside the experience! Myself outside the 11th Doctor's TARDIS, I'm much more excited than I appear in the picture, though that might've been because the wax mannequin of Matt Smith was directly to my left (you can see his shoulder in the photo) and wax dummies freak me out for some reason.

Then, there's the TARDIS console from the Fifth Doctor's era (I think it stuck around for some of the doctor's after him as well, but I haven't watched so many of their episodes so I don't remember).

The next three area all from the interior of Nine and Ten's TARDIS, and it may not look like much, but it'll always be my favorite TARDIS.

Then there's an outfit from Sarah Jane, Amy and little Amy; outfits from Martha, Captain Jack, and Rose.

The last two are from this wall that was just covered in all kinds of fascinating concept design for the series, these two pictures are concepts for the TARDIS interior.

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From the top: River Song's props; wall art of the Cybermen and the Time War; the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth Doctor's outfits (all original except for Nine, which is a replica, boo); Idris' outfit and her junk TARDIS console; Gallifreyan outfits through time; and a detail of River Song's Byzantium dress. Because I love her.

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Get ready, because I'm about to put up about 70 pictures from the day I spent in Cardiff

So they'll be coming in a few different posts, first the overview.

We arrived in Cardiff, where I didn't get a very good picture of the Wales Millenium Center and found out that the Torchwood tower is smaller than I thought it was, and also currently covered in stickers of Strawberries because there was some kind of fair happening at the time.

We walked by Cardiff Bay, and an interesting statue,

on the way to the Doctor Who Experience.

Where I saw River's journal, gun and pumps!

In the experience (which is kind of like an interactive museum/ride/story) I flew the TARDIS, fought the Dalek's, and ran like a baby from the Weeping Angels, and eventually set the Doctor free from the Pandorica.

I couldn't take pictures inside the Experience, but there are many more from the attached museum, so pictures from that will be in their own photo set.

There was a TARDIS just outside of the experience, which looks like it had a hard time landing:

We did a lot of wandering around the city as well, where we found lots of Doctor Who/Torchwood sites, and eventually headed back to London (which I really wanted to call home right there).

This is the little station where we waited for the train.

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Hello! I saw that a King Arthur blog reported your travel set from Stonehenge and other spots :) I am a fan of the myth as well and am traveling to England in September! The photo you had of the round table, where was that taken?! I'd love to see that! Any advice on spots to check out? I've read all of your England posts and love them (as well as the pictures!) - just stopping by your ask to say hello and ask a few questions :)

Hi! I'm glad you've enjoyed my posts, it was such a blast being over there! The round table is in Winchester, a town south of London, in the Great Hall (if you're interested in Jane Austen, I think her house is not too far from Winchester as well). I didn't get to see a lot of arthurian-related things other than the round table and hiking up Arthur's seat (which is mostly related through an old Welsh ballad). I've done a bunch of reading up on it since then and although there's no really hard evidence for it, a lot of the historical contenders for King Arthur are Welsh, one theory is that the myth built up around the Bretons (or Welsh) trying to hold off the invading Saxons. So there should be many sites there. I found this website: http://www.arthuriana.org/gazetteer.htm which lists a bunch - though mostly their connection to the myth is conjecture. That's ok with me.

Some of my favorites are the idea that Glastonbury may be where Avalon originated, though there's another contender for that along the Hadrian wall, now called Burgh-by-Sands. There was a fort there called Aballava/Avalana and along the wall there are apparently many "dedications" (I don't know if that means statues or engravings or what) to the goddess of lakes and water.

The two contenders for the site of the Battle of Camlann are interesting too: Castlesteads and Birdoswold are also forts along Hadrian's wall. I didn't get to these places, but they're just some of the places that I would love to some day. Sorry I've rambled on a bit now, I hope this helps your trip and that you have a fantastic time! You should totally post about it too!

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On the 23rd, I went to see Love's Labour's Lost at the Old Red Lion Theatre pub (which was amazing! It's a black box, above a pub!)

And the next day after class we all went out to the Old Bank restaurant, which is in the space between Sweeney Todd's barber shop, and Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. The table was distinctly split between the people who loudly declared they would have nothing to do with the pies from the place, and the people who gleefully ordered the reddest meat pie on the menu. I was the latter. It was delicious.

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The royal baby - George Alexander Louis - was born the day we got back into London, and I went out with a few friends to see what there was to see. There was less celebrating than I had expected, but the London Eye was lit up (for the next few days as well) in red white and blue in celebration.

While we were out, we got caught in a downpour, a magnificent thunderstorm which was the first time it had really rained for me during the whole trip in the UK. I'm not complaining the sun and heat was lovely, but it felt like a real authentic English trip once I got caught out in the rain.

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After the day of kayaking, we missed the last bus back up to Grasmere. So we walked the approximately 6 miles back to our hostel, and found some lovely sights along the way.

More sheep, of course, and cows.

The Badger Bar was right along the road, and it is actually built partly over that rock you see next to it. In the restroom, one of the walls is that rock. 

We refueled with desert while there, it was peanut butter and something creme brulee, though I can't remember what else was in it. It was delicious, though - and exactly what was needed to be able to finish up the walk after a day of kayaking as well.

The two pictures of the white cottage is Wordworth's Dove Cottage, and the last is of our hostel, tucked away in the mountain, which was such a welcome sight.

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Yes, the clotted cream container gets its very own photo because I wanted to remember exactly what I had had that morning. Because clotted cream is like spreading heaven on scone.

We went kayaking in Ambleside, on Lake Windermere that day. In the second from last photo, the white building on the left is where we had lunch. The last photo is of bridge house, aptly named, and it was built precisely there in order to avoid land taxes.

I unconsciously dressed to match its doors, which tells me that I should be living there.

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We thought we’d found the top (the first and second photos) when a couple other hikers told us that actually the tallest part was the top of the rock in the third picture.

So we climbed it. It was a bit tricky, but so worth it. I didn’t bring my camera all the way up to the top, but believe me, the view was breathtaking.

When we came down the mountain, there were of course more sheep, and we found the sweetest little vegetarian restaurant at the bottom of the path.

The last picture is from the lake where we went swimming. The peak in the middle is the one we hiked that day, it was an eight mile round trip hike, not including the detour where we got lost, ended up nearly in the next town, were given directions that sent us through a sheep fold, and finally found the path up the mountain.

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Hiking up Helm Crag, with sheep friends, batman, and the Ponds.

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Grasmere in the lakes district.

We walked all around the hills and town, made many sheep friends, saw Wordworth's family grave, and generally had a wonderful time.

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From my brief stay in Glasgow - I think it's the University of Glasgow in the background of the first one but I might be wrong, I just thought it was a pretty scene.

The next two are from the Necropolis, which was an amazing and epic graveyard, the monuments in it were elaborate and gigantic.

Obligatory picture of my dinner, which was black pudding and mash with chicken in some kind of glaze, I wish I could remember what it was because it was delicious.

Then there's the courtyard at University of Glasgow, followed by the lion and the unicorn protecting an entrance into the university. The lion and the unicorn are the oldest still standing portion of the university.

The last photo - well, apparently it's a thing in Glasgow to "cone" statues. This was the second one I saw during my stay, and it was just to perfect to pass up a picture.

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More photos from the hike up Arthur's Seat. Mostly the way up and the landscape, the young boy was playing the bagpipes as we made our descent - it was so extremely Scottish, it was amazing. We found some old ruins on our way down, and I attempted to climb them.