People Waiting to see the Place Guards arrive
A police horse keeping an eye on the crowd
The Band marching towards the gates
The Gates at Buckingham Palace
The Band walking past us
On of the soldiers
A close up of part of the band
Entering the gates
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Changing of the Guards
If you are in london for a bit of time it probably worth going to see the Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, expect it to be very crowded and to be stuck in the crowd for a long time...
People Waiting to see the Place Guards arrive
A police horse keeping an eye on the crowd
The Band marching towards the gates
The Gates at Buckingham Palace
The Band walking past us
On of the soldiers
A close up of part of the band
Entering the gates
People Waiting to see the Place Guards arrive
A police horse keeping an eye on the crowd
The Band marching towards the gates
The Gates at Buckingham Palace
The Band walking past us
On of the soldiers
A close up of part of the band
Entering the gates
Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye
Westminster Abbey
Me Carrying "Big Ben"
The London Eye, the worlds largest ferris wheel. Apparently it only make 16,000 british pounds an hour! I haven't been on it yet, but it is on the todo list.
This chalk drawing was apparently 6 weeks work! It isn't actually drawn on the side walk, it is a black sheet of paper taped down. Amazing detail though...
A Tame Squrriel in St James Park London
Monday, August 28, 2006
Bury St Edmond
The most interesting part of Bury St Edmond is the abbey complex. According to the dictionary an abbey is a complex that contains or once contained a convent or monastry.
A plaque with some information about they Abbey
One of the two Abbey Gates, which would have once controlled access to the Abbey
A view of the main church building at the abbey. This was once dwarfed by a larger building which not is little more than a bunch of ruins.
A view of the church's spire, which was a suprising recent addition added in year 2000, just in time to usher in the new millenium.
A 3d model of what the orignal abbey complex would have looked like. Having seen this I understand much better the concept of an abbey as portrayed in books such as redwall. The complex has large protective walls (almost like a castle) and many buildings supplying all different services.
(note: there is a large spire missing from the model).
Some ruins from the orignal abbey complex.
A plaque with some information about they Abbey
One of the two Abbey Gates, which would have once controlled access to the Abbey
A view of the main church building at the abbey. This was once dwarfed by a larger building which not is little more than a bunch of ruins.
A view of the church's spire, which was a suprising recent addition added in year 2000, just in time to usher in the new millenium.
A 3d model of what the orignal abbey complex would have looked like. Having seen this I understand much better the concept of an abbey as portrayed in books such as redwall. The complex has large protective walls (almost like a castle) and many buildings supplying all different services.
(note: there is a large spire missing from the model).
Some ruins from the orignal abbey complex.
Lavenham
Lavenham is a very small town. It seems like it is almost entirely contained within 2 streets.It's main claim to fame seems to be a very nice looking church with a large tower at one end. Apparently the tower was built in memory of a rich parishioner who died (Using his money of course).
It also seems to have a bunch of "crooked houses" built in the style of the one on the left. This is actually the old hall, rather than a house...
One paticular house was called the crooked house and millions of people stood around photographing it. I didn't take a photo on principle because it really wasn't any more crooked than a bunch of other houses on the same street...
Stain Glass window inside Lavenham Church
The Church at Lavenham
The Church at Lavenham again
Colchester
Colchester is an interesting place, apparently the first city in England. It was founded by the romans as their english capital. It has a rich history including being the location of a big seige when the local Anglosaxons decided romans had gone a little too far. Boudica Queen of the Iceni led the revolt, she and her army sacked Colchester and left little of the roman ruins for us to enjoy today. As well as the castle, an ancient roman wall, and an interesting looking tower thing (Not quite sure where that fits in the history) there are some other attractions which I didn't get to see such as colchester zoo and a clock museum. To find out more about colchester have a look at http://www.visitcolchester.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchester
A manicured garden commemorating 200 years of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Apparently it was written here in Colchester in 1806!
Our little party in front of a Statue in Colchester.
My Brother in law, Sister, neice and Me in front of Colchester Castle which was built on the ruins of an ancient roman temple.
A tomb stone for a roman solder (inside Colchester Castle)
Colchester, Lavenham and Bury St Edmonds
This weekend we drove to Colchester (Englands first city and home of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star") and then on to Lavenham and Bury St Edmonds (neither of which I had heard of before) it was a nice drive and enabled me to see some small english country towns and the general english country side. For me the most interesting of the places was colchester even if there aren't many roman ruins left and it has become a bit of a "party town". I'll try to post some information and photos about these places soon. In the mean time you can look at them using google maps...
Bury St Edmonds
Abby Ruins (Bury St Edmonds)
Friday, August 25, 2006
Flying Brunskills
My family has been nicknamed "the flying Brunskills" for as long as I can remember. The name is actually quite descriptive, as we do tend to do things suddenly out of the blue and we also tend to decide to do something the do it imediately. Why wait once you have decided? Examples include my Father leaving a promising law career and moving to Australia to study the bible, then again later leaving a secure job as a pastor in new zealand for the freezing cold Canada before returning to new zealand as an unpaid missionary! So interms of crazy things to do, this is really pretty minor, but less than two weeks ago my work told me they were sending me to San Francisco for the BEA World Conference in September. I decided that since I am in need of a holiday, and it wouldn't cost me too much more to travel from San Francisco to London and back I should do it. I am now sitting my sisters house in london having travelled halfway around the world. During my trip I'll be posting photos and possibly some comentary (depends how much time I get on my computer) on this blog.
As long as I have enough space, I'll probably be uploading the photo's to picasaweb as well.
As long as I have enough space, I'll probably be uploading the photo's to picasaweb as well.
Golden Gate Bridge (I think) I've always wanted to take a photo of it :)
It turns out this isn't actually the Golden Gate bridge (which is pretty obvious seeing as this isn't a suspension bridge). I think this is the "bay bridge".
I did get a photograph of the Golden Gate though, but from the ground rather than in the air.
It turns out this isn't actually the Golden Gate bridge (which is pretty obvious seeing as this isn't a suspension bridge). I think this is the "bay bridge".
I did get a photograph of the Golden Gate though, but from the ground rather than in the air.
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