London/Oxford Trip 2012: Dapper Naps and Druids

Today was an adventurous day as it was our second history excursion. It began, however, AT 8AM after a fun night last night so that took some adjusting. First, we went to Salisbury on a bus where legitimately the entire bus fell asleep within ten minutes for the entire duration of the ride! When we got there, we went to St. Thomas Church (an Anglican [!!!!] church!) that has the oldest medieval painting in all of the UK. The painting had recently been restored because the rest of the church looked like it was in the process of being repainted. There were graves in the church....which I have a hard time with because I feel that I'm risking eternal damnation for stepping on people when I don't mean to! Sorry! Next, we stopped by Salisbury Cathedral which was absolutely enormous and gorgeous. Here, Dr. Ehlers and I had a really great conversation about being Episcopalian because he AND Dr. Dutton are Episcopalian also. I forgot to mention yesterday that he rowed for UVA so we have even more in common. Crazy the amount of personal information you get from people if you just spend a little time with them. After we looked around, we stopped in for brunch at a French place in the center of Salisbury where I got the Eggs Royale---a variation on eggs benedict. I'm really glad that I decided to get the small instead of the large because on the bus back all of us felt a little sick. British people drive like bats out of hell sometimes---it really makes me believe in public transportation. Before we came back to Oxford, however, we went to Sarum (spelling?) which was the first official sign of habitation within England. It is also said to have been William the Conqueror's castle sight so we walked around the ruins and I felt like I was paying homage to my horribly french and sexist ancestor! Next, we had planned on going to Stone Henge but we couldn't end up going because of the summer solstice. Also, we later found out that about 100 people were arrested at Stone Henge for drug possession...oh, Druids. How you make me laugh! We came back to veg out for a little before Cathy, Katie, and I went to Keble College with our friends from Oxford. First of all, their college is GORGEOUS. Second of all, the food was amazing! All of us just hung out in one of our friends rooms and talked for about two hours! I'm so, so exhausted now and I probably should head to sleep because tomorrow, we are thinking about heading to Winchester to see Jane Austen's house! EEP! Love to all :)

E.