Chilly London / China meets Leicester Square

With a curriculum free Saturday, the class explored London outdoors as the weather grew a little colder. Brenden explored the high-priced realm of Berkeley Square on foot, where many Bentleys and Jaguars were seen. A larger group including Yvonne, Claire, Jill, Allison, Josh (and others?)visited the busy Saturday markets at Portobello Road, and some continued on in the chilly afternoon to discover sweeping views from Notting Hill. As noted earlier, we have several students on the road making side-trips, including excursions to Dublin, Cardiff (Wales), Berlin, York, and a little-town-south-of-London-where-grandmother-awaits.

Ruth decided that she simply must visit Cambridge, and walked to King's Cross station where she took a fast train there and arrived in 45-minutes, scouting out our hotel (we will be in Cambridge about 8 days from now), as well as old haunts from earlier trips. Ruth, Kelsey, and I have been having on-going conversations about the eccentric manner of Richard III at the Apollo....

Some, it must be said, simply slept in, or took naps, or worked on their journal projects, which are due about every other day on our trip.

Dinner was fun--twelve of us went out to Leicester Square, a regular haunt of ours now, and explored Chinatown, where dozens of restaurants welcome hungry visitors and display their roasted duck and bbq pork specialties in the windows. We ate at a very good place at Gerrard's Corner on Wardour Street.  Amber secured "a table for twelve, please" for all of us, and we ate duck with orange sauce, chicken fried rice, sliced pork with veggies, various noodle dishes, and a very good hot-and-sour-soup, among other delicacies.

Plans are underway to attend church in the morning; we have many options to choose from, but Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's are leading choices.

Here are some photos of the students on the course, not all are from today but a few pics I just had to feature on the blog and haven't had the chance yet!

The Greek Park tube stop on the Underground:

Brandon and Luke test the readiness of guards at Whitehall:

Bonnie and Brandon watch the sun come out at the Tower of London:

Randall and Thomas with a very serious Beefeater in the Tower of London:

Jill and Allison in front of Tower Bridge.  Yes-- this is a real photo!

Josh capturing London with Big Ben in the background...

Randall poses with his man Hercules at the British Museum...

Alex's lunch after a long morning inspecting antiquities. Who says that college students only eat pizza?

This griffon / dragon is on Fleet Street in the middle of the road marking the border between Westminster and London City:

Everyone says "hello" to their families back home!!

Mike H.