English History Article - "Oldest remains of English royalty unearthed"

I've always had a soft spot for English History - don't get me started on 12th Century/the Civil War between King Stephen & Empress Matilda (hey, I admit it, I'm an Anglophile ;-), and today a friend of mine posted a link (on facebook) to an interesting article published in the Telegraph.co.uk that relates to English History.

Score! Right up my Alley!

"Oldest remains of English royalty unearthed"
by: Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 6:50AM GMT, 20 Jan 2010.


So I've decided to share the link as well. It's neat, and maybe a few other History Buffs out there will appreciate the info. :)

Becky's Top 100 Photos

Yes, it is official. I have *finally* uploaded all my trip photos to my Flickr account.

Now the only thing I haven't uploaded are the couple of short videos. However, I think even those short videos are too long for Flickr. So we'll see.
=)

But back to the photos -

I've got ALL the photos (except the Fashion Museum photos) included in the "England Tour - May 2008" folder. But then I also have a bunch of seperate folders for different parts of the trip (Bath, Liverpool, Lake District, etc.) and a few folders of some general items ("english countryside & gardens", etc.).

Enjoy!

Becky's TOP 100 photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157605556773276/


-=-Becky
aka - Miss Violet Johnson, Johnson Oak Inn (47 Oak St)
http://www.historicalcitizens.org/

[Flickr] Rebecca Thelin wants you to see something

Becky's Top 100 - England Trip 2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157605556773276 About the set 100 items | 0 views Ok, so it was requested of me that I just pick my top 50 photos from my trip. I obviously wasn't able to pare it down to only 50...but I did managed to pick my top 100! So, here they are! =) Enjoy! A selection of things from the set (By the way, if the set link doesn't work, try copying and pasting it from this email into your browser's address bar.) Flickr is almost certainly the best photo management and sharing application in the world. If you'd like to see what I use it for you can check out my profile page or browse my photostream.

Tuilips in May

DSC02963
Originally uploaded by marcailgaelyn

Just thought that this was a pretty shot I took of some tulips. This is from my trip to England in May. (The flowers are located in a public garden near Derwentwater Lake...in the Lake District, of course).

-=-Becky

Becky among the Ruins near Hadrian's Wall

DSC02914
Originally uploaded by marcailgaelyn

Gretchen took this photo of me sitting admist some ruins of a building along the top of the Hill where Hadrian's Wall is located.

Fashion Museum Photos

DSC02105
Originally uploaded by marcailgaelyn

FYI - I've created a separate set (grouping) of photos that are from the Bath Fashion Museum (Formerly known as the Museum of Costume).

Here's a link to the entire set: http://flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157605344181700/

Enjoy!
=)

Uploading of Pictures has begun!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have begun uploading pictures to my Flickr account!
=)

http://flickr.com/photos/shutterbec/sets/72157605347999095/

I have about 70 photos uploaded so far (and no, I'm not uploading every single photo...I have skipped a few at this point!).

Hopefully I'll upload some more tonight. But I need to go fix myself some dinner now.

Ta!

Current Count of Photos (England Trip)

And the current count of photos taken on my England trip is ....



...1,740 (give or take a few).

Plus about 5 short "movies".


Well, can anyone say they were REALLY surprised? After all, we are talking about *me* here...and I LOVE to take photos. Good thing the pictures are digital!

Hmm...I wonder how many Flickr will let me upload? (At least I have a pro-account, so there's no limit on how many I upload in a session/month, etc.)

As of this morning, I finally have all my photos (and videos) transferred over from the memory sticks to my computer harddrive. Now, I just need to upload them to the web so that everyone else can view them.
=)

And I'm Back!

Just a quick note to say "I'm back!". Got in late yesterday afternoon (although it felt like the early hours of the morning to us) to LAX.

I had a GREAT time the last 2 weeks in England, and I'll be sure to write up some posts to the blog describing what I did. (I did keep a handwritten journal during the trip).

And for those curious as to what Show Gretchen & I actually did see while in London.......it was "Mousetrap"! (It was great! We loved it).
=)

Ok. I have to get back to unpacking, laundry, go grocery shopping, etc. Fortunately I took today off work as well, which allows me to get back into the swing of normality.

Later!
-=-Becky

Its almost time!

So, how exciting is this?

 

This time tomorrow I'll be at LAX waiting to board my plane to England. (Plane takes off around 3:40pm).

My mind is definitely in a whirl, trying to concentrate on work yet it keeps going back to the things I still need to do to get ready for my trip.

=)

-=-Becky

New Poll - Which show to see?

So, I was talking yesterday with Chris (from Trico) about my upcoming London trip and she asked if I was going to see a show while in London. I hadn't really thought about it much, truthfully. But why not? There's always cheap tickets being sold (for like half off) on the day of a show (there's a certain Kiosk that sells them for all the shows in one of the squares).

It would certainly be fun to take in a theater show while in London. =) Something different, to say the least.

Anyways, I thought that for fun I'd put up a poll to see what people's recomendations are for what London show Gretchen & I should see. (Of course, once we're there, we'll have to see what we can get a ticket for...but that's a minor issue!).
=)

-=-Becky

Weather Forecast - My Trip (England)

Just went on to Weather.com to check the weather forecast for my trip. (And then I also checked BBC Weather )

Here's the scoop:


May 13
Departing Airport: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Hi: 68°F / Lo: 59°F
Partly Cloudy

May 14
Arriving Airport: Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Hi: 70°F / Lo: 51°F
Partly Cloudy / Precip:20%


Forecast for Trip :

BATH
May 14 - Wednesday
Mostly Sunny; Hi 69°/ Lo 51°
Precip. 20%

May 15 - Thursday
Partly Cloudy; Hi 67° / Lo 51°
Precip. 10%

SHREWSBURY
May 16 - Friday
Partly Cloudy; Hi 64°/ Lo 48°
Precip. 10%

LIVERPOOL
May 16 - Friday
Partly Cloudy; Hi 64°/ Lo 49°
Precip. 10%

May 17 - Saturday
Mostly Cloudy; Hi 61° / Lo 49°
Precip. 20%


...and that's as far as I can get with most online weather forecasts. (approx 10 days out).

But I was able to get an average for LHR for our flight back (and for LAX too).
=)


May 27th - Tuesday

Departing Airport: Heathrow Airport (LHR)
AVERAGES: Hi: 63°F / Lo: 45°F

Arriving Airport: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
AVERAGES: Hi: 70°F / Lo: 58°F


-=-Becky

Free AudioGuide(s) for London

So, this morning (before work) I remembered a website that my mom had told me about: Sound Guides (www.sound-guides.com)

Sound Guides provides FREE audioguides (for adults & kids) that one can download and listen to on an mp3 player or iPod. And fortunately for us, one of those free audioguides is for London! Cool!

Hence, this morning, I quickly registered (free) with the site/company so I could have access to those London audioguides and proceeded to download them.

And success! All 15 or so related guides to the London area are now downloaded and imported into my iTunes.
=)
(I'll update my iPod before I go, obviously).

Another thing I found was in the iTunes Store. In the "Podcast" section there was a Free Audioguide to "The Roman Baths" in England. (i.e. the Roman Baths in Bath, England). So I downloaded a bunch of episodes (since they are Free, afterall), but I don't think I got them all. I'll have to go double check the names I did download against the list in the iTunes podcast section later tonight.


-=-Becky

current price of gas/petrol in UK

So, I was curious as to what the current price of gas (petrol) is in the UK.

 

I found this site, which seems to be updated frequently, and give some good info.

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/petrol-prices/recent-petrol-prices.html

It lists the prices in Pence Per Liter (p/l).

 

(There are 100 pence to a British Pound Sterling)

 

 

Currently, it looks like the London area is averaging 108p (or £1, 8p) to 109p.

 

And 1 Liter is 0.2642 Gallons

http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm

 

Which means, that for 1 Gallon of Gas, it's basically  £4 or $8 (US)!

-=-Becky

England Trip Details Update (Car Rental)

so, I just called the Car Rental (Budget) location to confirm my reservation and let them know that:

 

a) I will have an additional driver (since its stipulated in the Terms & Conditions that you must call the location and inform them ahead of time), and

 

b) That my flight has changed since I originally made the reservation. (It *was* United Airlines, but now I'm flying British Airways).

 

Interesting converstaion, I must say. They wanted my drivers liscense & passport info (understandable) and I was easily able to provide that for them on the phone. However, they also wanted the additional driver's info (Gretchen's), but I didn't have that with me. Not a problem, they said. Just call us when you land and give us the info, we'll charge your credit card (on file) with the car rental price, and then drive the car over to your terminal (as a courtesy, no extra charge) so that you can pick it up right away once you collect your luggage!

 

How cool is that?

=)

 

Now, the only thing I forgot to ask is if I can change the return by deadline for the car. I had originally asked for noon, but now I'm thinking it might be nice to have a bit more leeway in our drive back time if we pushed back the noon deadline.

 

Also, the guy I talked to said that they *do* have automatic transmissions in addition to manuals. He wanted to know if (1) I needed to upgrade to a larger size car, or if the 'intermediate' that I reserved was still ok, and (2) if I wanted the automatic transmission instead of the manual transmission. I said I'd keep the intermediate size and the manual transmission...but I was semi tempted (I'll tell you) to take the automatic transmission option. I'm *almost* tempted to call back and see if there's a price difference...and how much it is...to go with the automatic. But Hey, I've been practicing my driving in a stick-shift car, and I'm a LOT more comfortable driving it around here in CA than I was when I first started. (Steep hills still scare me, but that's probably since there are not a ton of those around here to practice on =). So now I just have to get used to the idea of driving on the 'wrong' side of the road (the left), sitting on the right side of the car as the diver (so shifting with be with my left hand), and review the international driving signs (since they use those in England).

 

And that's my update for now on my car rental for the trip.

=)

-=-Becky

1 Week Till England!!

Ok. I just HAD to make sure I posted today (even though its kinda late right now), since after all...I'm just *one week away* from leaving for England! Wow! A week from today I'll be on a plane headed to the UK!

It's SO exciting to think about!

And yes, I'm still a bit nervous about the thought of driving over there (especially since I read Sara's last post or so about their experiences and tips they were given). But, overall...I'm still quite excited that my trip is almost here!!!
=)

-=-Becky

Countdown to England Trip in progress

Well, Sara & Jeremiah left yesterday afternoon (May 2nd) for England, and soon enough I'll be leaving for my own tour of England with Gretchen. The excitement is definitely starting to set in.
=)
We're down to just 10 more days until we leave! Yes, that's right, 10 days! Wow!
(We leave on Tuesday, May 13th from LAX around mid afternoon).
Looking back, it seems that the time has just flown by since we first started talking about this trip about 2 yrs ago.

Lately, I've been busy making sure I've got lots of the little details taken care of...like making sure my prescriptions are all up to date (including eyewear) and that I have a copy of my prescriptions with me for traveling. (Hence my recent eye exam and visits to the pharmacy, etc.)

Plus I'm really jazzed that I get to borrow my folks' new Garmin Nuvi 270 (a Satellite Navigation system). I already tried it out here, and it worked pretty well. (Unfortunately here in CA I can't use the suction cup attachment to have it on the windshield, but oh well.) I used it for my drive to work one morning, and it almost gave me exactly the same route that I normally take to work. One little drawback with this system is that I can use it to pre-plan out a route. I have to actually be driving the route for it to give me the turn-by-turn directions, or else I can just have it on while I drive and it shows my car on a map (no directions given since I haven't programed in a destination). But overall, this is a nifty little device that is sure to come in handy. (It already has North America & Europe maps).

Part of me is nervous, since while this will be my 2nd trip out of country, it will also be my first without any 'grownups'. ( You know what I mean. =) It's just me and a friend my own age this time. And its going to be a LOT longer than my last trip to England...and we're renting a car so we can drive around and really get a chance to see a bit of the Island. (Well, as much as our time restrictions allow, anyways.)

I am definitely excited by our Itinerary. I'm SO looking forward to 'seeing the sites'.


Here's our itinerary:
5/14 (Wed) - arrive in England. Get Rental Car & Drive driving from LHR to Beckington (a town outside of Bath) where we'll stay the night.
5/15 (Thurs) - explore Bath.
5/16 (Fri) - Drive to Liverpool, but will stop at Shrewsburry for a few hours (after all, the Cadfael series is based out of that town!).

5/17 (Sat) - explore Liverpool (and surrounding area?). Most likely do a Beatles tour (like the "Magical Mystery Tour".)
5/18 (Sun) - drive to Lake District (stay in B&B in Keswick)
5/19 (Mon) - explore Keswick & surrounding area, meet up with Sara & Jeremiah

5/20 (Tues) - explore Lake District (& or go to a coastal town) or day trip to Scotland

5/21 (Wed) - explore Lake District (& or go to a coastal town) or day trip to Scotland

5/22 (Thur) - check out of B&B, stop in "Yorkshire Dales" to explore, and continue on to York. While in York, walk around town, see the sites, and take Tea. Staying in Tadcaster (outside of York).
5/23 (Friday) - Turn in rental car at LHR, arrive London
5/24 (Saturday) - London
5/25 (Sunday) - London
5/26 (Monday) - London
5/27 (Monday) - check out of lodgings, take a shuttle to LHR, & fly back to the States (to LAX).

Well, that's our trip in a nutshell (or at least what we're planning on doing/seeing).
=)

-=-Becky

p.s. - also super excited that I get to borrow my Dad's camera for the trip. It's an awesome digital camera (a Sony SureShot) and it takes great pictures. Expect to see a bunch from my trip! =)

Tower of London and the V&A

The Continuing Adventure in England 2007
3/19/2007

On Monday we decided to try and get in both the Tower of London and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). Realistically, though, visiting the Tower is really a full day activity.

The day started off a bit cold and cloudy, but it was still quite nice.

Here's Glennys standing in front of the main entrance to the Tower of London. You can that it's a chilly day (mostly overcast with a brisk wind most of the day).

And here's a shot of me on the drawbridge:

(I wasn't really posing for this one as she took it before I realized what she was doing =)

One of my favorite photos (especially to use as a Desktop/Wallpaper image at work!) - Traitor's Gate:


This is the Water Gate that was used to bring Traitors into the Tower. Yes, I said Water Gate. In days past, this area would be filled with water, and the only way to enter was to come in by boat. The moat that lead to this gate (and filled this area) was drained in the 1840s.

Anyways, we picked up the audio tour and skipped the Beefeater tour (since we had such a good experience with the last audio tour...with Windsor...we thought we'd try it again). Next time I'm there I do want to do the Beefeater tour, though. Soon we were walking around, following the directions given by the audio tour. Unfortunately, one of the areas was closed for reconstruction/rehab work, but we got to see most of the areas of interest while there, including the Bloody Tower, The Scaffold Site, the White Tower, and the Crown Jewels (held inside the Barracks). We grabbed a bite of lunch from the cafe (?) on site (for a very pretty penny, let me tell you!), and then we finished our tour by checking out the famous Ravens and some cannons that were made by a John Fuller. (We of course had to check those out due to a name connection).

Then, we made our way over to the V&A...and wandered there for a while. I was REALLY hoping to see a costuming/fashion exhibit. But I couldn't find it for the longest time. I did find a lovely section with beautiful cameos and another with fabric/textile samples, and some wonderfully intricate carved wooden items. (Oh, and there were some lovely and pretty ornate snuff boxes on display too). Finally, we found the exhibit I was looking for...but discovered that the reason I had difficulty finding it in the first place was due to the fact that it was closed! (They were renovating that section!) I was so disappointed, let me tell you!. And by this time both of us were exhausted from our day so far, so we decided to just head home and relax. (Probably a good call, too!)

Later that evening we went out for a walk along Bayswater Rd just to explore and see what was around us. While we were out we stopped at a nicer place for dinner, which I can't recall right now. We shopped a bit more for souvenirs and then ended up walking home as it was getting pretty late (and we were flying out in the morning). We stopped to pick up a few breakfast type items in a little shop for the morning, and then went back to our room to pack up and get some sleep.

Windsor Castle

The Continuing Adventure in England 2007
3/18/2007

On Sunday, we decided to do a day-trip out of London and headed for Windsor. It was amazing, really! A gorgeous day and perfect for sight-seers such as ourselves.

We boarded a morning train from Paddington Station and were off on a new journey! (A friendly man at the ticket counter figured out the best ticket purchase for us when we told him we were tourists and wanted to go to Windsor...he also gave us some free info including a 2 for 1 admission coupon/advert for the Tower of London). We changed trains at Slough and eventually arrived in Windsor town. We walked to the Castle and were soon joining the queue at the front entrance.

Glennys & I both took A TON of photos from this day, so go check my Flickr site for the rest.
=)




Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures inside the semi-state rooms, but that was definitely one of the highlights of the tour (seeing inside those rooms). I did pick up some postcards with shots of many of those rooms as a souvenir...just so I could attempt to show others what the rooms were like (if nothing else).

Afterwards, we headed over to the pub across the way, The Horse and Groom, to grab a bit of lunch. Glennys got the Fish and Chips while I got the Beef Ale Pie. It was absolutely Fabulous! (Yummy!!!)


Then we stopped in a few of the local shops to browse (and pick up a few souvenirs) and then headed back home.

For dinner, we headed back to our local pub, the Duke of Kent. This time we were in for a surprise as it was packed! Apparently Sunday night is the place to be there. Someone was playing the piano and a bunch of people (presumably locals) were singing along. Most of the repertoire consisted of well known show-tunes, so I sand along when I could (from our table down the way). For dinner that night I got a shepherd's pie. Tasty!

When we had finished with dinner, we returned to our lodgings for the night. But as it wasn't quite bedtime just yet, we watched a bit of the Tele (TV) before turning in for the night.
=)

Glennys' Birthday - Part 2

The Continuing Adventure in England 2007
3/17/2007 - Part 2

After I got back from my walk in the Park, I took a nap! (I was all tired out. Partly from Jet Lag, I'm sure!) Then Glennys & I gave up waiting on the credit card that hadn't showed and decided we better get out and see something while we still could as it was already afternoon. So we headed out and hopped on the tube to Trafalgar Square. We had heard that there was supposed to be some St. Patrick's Day celebrations there, but unfortunately for us it looks like they were already over and were in process of cleaning up. There were still a lot of people around (as evidenced by our photos). But we made the best of it and took photos of each other standing on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery in front of a hanging banner (down the way) that proclaimed it was St. Patrick's Day.

This shot is from the steps of the National Gallery, looking south across the Square. Center of the shot is Nelson's Column (with his statute atop).

After our picture posing, we decided to head indoors and check out the famous paintings inside the National Portrait Gallery. It was amazing seeing all those paintings (and we only got to see a portion, since the building was so large and we didn't plan on spending more than a couple of hours there). Finally, we got hungry enough to leave the building and search out a suitable place to get some dinner while exploring the nearby area.

Obviously, our first plan was to find a pub and grab some dinner. Unfortunately, it being St. Patrick's Day and all, we had to quickly nix that idea as ever pub we wandered past was full to the brim with locals (and tourists). Eventually, our wanderings took us to Soho Square (and its lovely garden/park). Just as we entered the Square, we noticed that a church off to one side of the square was calling parishioners to a special Saturday evening (6:00pm) service for St. Patrick's day. The church was appropriately named St. Patrick's Church. (The church is Roman Catholic Parish Church, and according to Wikipedia, it has some extensive Catacombs underneath! Wow!) Glennys asked if I would mind if we delayed our search for food to attend the Mass, and I said of course not! So, we attended Mass, and Glennys afterwards told me that it was the perfect way to end her birthday.

As all the parishioners were filing out after the service we lingered just a bit to take a few photos (which are on my Flickr site).

By now, it was quite dark and we decided we should just head back to our place and look for some food closer to 'home', so we made our way to the nearest tube station, Tottenham Court Rd. Fortunately for us, this station happened to be on the Central/Red line - which was perfect for us as that's what we needed to get to our stop at Marble Arch Station. As the Tottenham Court Rd Station had such interesting tile mosaics, we decided to pause briefly and take a few photos. The Mosaic patterned walls were done by Eduardo Paolozzi in 1984 (you can see his signature and date in this photo!).

And here's a self portrait shot of the two of us

Eventually, we were back in our 'neighborhood' and decided to try an "Ask" restaurant, which had a bit of an Italian flair. Afterwards, we headed across the way to our local pub (The Duke of Kent) to get a pint of Guinness. (How else should you end St. Patrick's Day while in London, really?)
=)