Nuts and Bolts Symposiums- Destin, FL

This week, I have been attending sessions at Destin Middle School. I've seen presentations by Jack Berckemeyer, Rick Wormeli, Chris Toy, Shannon Vincent, and Sharon Faber. I will be taking back some good ideas for my classroom and team. Of course, there is also time for play! We are staying in condos right on the beach at the SunDestin Resort. I'm in a room on the 8th floor. The beach is beautiful!

My room is just left of the water drop!

Stonehenge Video

Some have asked why we spent five hours on our Stonehenge tour. Well, we saw more than the stones. This video was shown on PBS some time ago and was referenced by our Stonehenge guide. If you're interested, the full video is over an hour, but it covers what is believed about the origins of the monument. 

Cheers!

As we awoke on our last day, we had a lot of packing to do. I was worried about an overweight bag and took a lot of time rearranging items (much to Dave's annoyance), but we eventually came in just 0.4 kg over, and the kind Norwegian Air attendant let it go since we were sharing one checked suitcase between the two of us, but I'm jumping ahead. 

After checking out of The Grosvenor Hotel and storing our bags, we headed to Paddington Station to return our wifi device. I had appreciated such a device when traveling in Japan last year and was happy to have a similar option in London. Unfortunately, data limits on the device made it pretty useless. I received an email on day 3 that we had already surpassed 65% of our data budget, and that was just maps, Facebook, photos, and one Skype call. I had the option to upgrade to unlimited data, but that would nearly double the cost of my rental agreement and it wasn't truly unlimited. In the fine print, it stated that they could still turn off the service for excessive use, whatever they deemed that to be. The device worked great, but in the end, the options in Japan were much more usable and cost-effective, so I wouldn't rent this particular device again. 

After a quick lunch, we visited The British Museum, home to the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.  We focused on the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman exhibits during our waning time. Eventually, it was time to go retrieve luggage and board the Gatwick Express. 

Gatwick is a small airport, and it was crowded. We soon learned that nearly every flight was delayed, presumably due to weather happening elsewhere. After a 2 1/2 hour delay, we were finally on our way to New York. We got to our hotel around 1:30 this morning. I'm on the plane now to Houston, and will presumably continue on to OKC without incident. The puppies will be so excited to see us!

In closing, I'd like to share my general thoughts on the trip as a whole. I appreciate the history that can be seen everywhere you look, and the pomp of the ceremonies is fun to watch. We saw the Queen returning to Buckingham Palace after opening Parliament, and we saw Charles' motorcade leaving Clarence House on a later day. Quite a spectacle, really. It was pretty amazing that people were allowed to line the streets so closely to the route.  Apparently, Prince Harry was in Leicester Square the same night we were, so I'm kinda bummed we missed seeing him out. There was plenty to do, and even after two weeks, we didn't see everything. It was a little frustrating that every major attraction seemed to close at 5:00 or 6:00. Since we weren't really into fine dining options, that left evening entertainment a little limited. It also meant we had to start early each day to get more than one attraction in. Like we had read, London is very expensive. And crowded. Rush hour is no joke, and it goes on for far more than an hour.  Perhaps it would be less "rushed" if everything didn't close at the same time :)  Hotel rooms are indeed smaller than the U.S. standard, and we'll both happily resettle into our room at home which suddenly doesn't seem small at all!  After four days of city life, we found time in Salisbury and then Thornbury to be a quiet respite from the crowded London sidewalks, and we very much enjoyed our tour of the Stonehenge landscape with Pat Shelley. I think I would have been bored if we had just turned up to view the stones as so many people do. It was much better to get the archeological point of view despite the cost. The Rock tour was a different take on London history, and our guide for that was was great, too. I loved touring the castles and abbeys, and the Ceremony of the Keys was really cool.  As far as food is concerned, it's safe to say that I've now had my fill of fish and chips for awhile, and I desperately want some Mexican food!  But I did find a new honey beer that I like called Hiver. 

I'm sure there are details that I'm forgetting, but that's about it. I'm glad we had the opportunity to spend these two weeks together, and I'm also grateful that I have some calm summer days to recuperate!

Windsor

On Thursday, our last full day, Dave and I decided to take a short train ride to Windsor. We had entertained the idea of a day-trip to Paris on this day, but as we got closer to the end of our trip, we knew that wasn't going to happen. Neither of us were too bothered by that. Time, money, and energy levels were winding down, and the excessive amounts of walking was taking a toll on our legs. 

Windsor was a cute community with shops and dining all along the walkway to the castle. We stopped in at the Windsor Museum first and then managed to catch the Change of Guard parade up the high street before making our way to the castle entrance. I was glad to see the military band this day since our Change of Guard day at Buckingham Palace last week was rainy and the band performance had been cancelled.

Windsor Castle is still used regularly as the Queen's favorite residence. She is said to spend most weekends there. The State rooms we were allowed to tour are also regularly featured in broadcast footage you may have seen. Windsor is home to the Order of the Garter, the oldest British order of chivalry, and St. George's Hall is used for major state dinners. It can be set with 162 place settings at one very long table! The original room was destroyed by a fire in 1992, but it and the other damaged rooms have been meticulously restored to their former likenesses. 

(Borrowed photo)

St. George's Chapel is also onsite. It is a beautiful Gothic style building. Architecturally, buttresses were used on the outside of the building to add support to the ceiling so that the interior space would not need as many columns along the nave, keeping the line of sight more open. It was quite bright inside, which surprised me since I usually associate gothic style to darker buildings, like Notre Dame in Paris. The Queen's parents, sister, and grandparents are buried here as well as other notable monarchs such as Henry VIII and Charles I.  Ironically, Henry's grave is a shared grave marked by a simple black slab in the center of the quire, not at all the grand monument one would expect from such a lavish spender. In contrast, Henry's father, Henry VII, built a large, ornate monument and grand chapel room dedicated to his family at Westminster despite being known as the penny-pincher. 

Like other palaces and churches we visited, no photography was allowed inside the buildings. 

We had lunch at a cute pub called Horse and Groom after our tour. The pubs really do have some creative names, my favorite being the The Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered near the Tower of London :)

After returning to London, we decided to have a quiet night in the room. The next day, we would need to repack and start the long journey home. 

The Making of Harry Potter

About 30 minutes outside of London, Warner Bros. built a studio. It was here that all eight Harry Potter movies were filmed. Of course, some portions were filmed on locations throughout the UK, but some key set pieces are still housed here. This was Ground Zero, so to speak. After the books and movies became such a sensation, Warner Bros. decided to store the props rather than destroy them after production ended on Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Now the tour is allowing the public to walk through the sets and view the props. It is truly awesome! I'm so glad we planned to do this. We were at the studios for nearly four hours.  The scale model of Hogwarts is absolutely amazing and the perfect tour finale. Pictures really don't do this justice. 

These are just a few of our photos. Dave's phone died, and he has a ton more we can't get to at the moment. 

Bonus: They serve Butterbeer! And I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the UK version of Book 1 with the original title. 

Hampton Court Palace

We started out early for our journey to Hampton Court on the outskirts of London. The train station was a mess because a tree had fallen across a track on the Gatwick Express line, and routes were being cancelled and diverted. Not good during rush hour! Luckily, we only got a little off schedule. 

Hampton Court Palace was originally owned by Cardinal Wolsey, and it was at first nothing special. Wolsey was a rising star at Henry VIII's court, though, and he used his new wealth to make Hapton Court truly remarkable. Maybe too remarkable. Eventually, Wolsey fell out of favor with Henry (as everyone was bound to do at some point when Henry was involved), and Henry remarked that Wolsey's palace was more splendid than any that Henry owned. Noting the dangerous tone to the comment, Wolsey immediately "gifted" Hampton Court to Henry in an effort to find favor once again. It didn't work. Wolsey was charged with Treason a short time later, but he died of natural causes awaiting trial. 

Hampton Court has seen updates and renovations through the years. There is a clear divide between the Tudor buildings and the Georgian buildings. We were mostly focused on the Tudor period as we toured. We saw the Great Hall, Henry's Presence Chamber and Privy Closet, the Chapel Royal and Royal Pew (including a reproduction of Henry's crown), Henry's kitchens, and the wine cellar. 

The HA (Henry and Anne) decorative initials in the ceiling work that mistakenly didn't get cleared away after Anne's beheading:

And more HA scroll work missed in the Great Hall panelling:

The room where debates/politics were hashed out. 

The wine fountain that flowed freely during celebrations. 

The gallery supposedly haunted by Catherine Howard, Hemry's fifth wife whom he had beheaded for adultery. 

The storage areas for food and the meat grilling room.

Chimneys - a sign of the opulence of this place. Each high-ranking guest room had a fireplace. 

Georgian Wing (William III and Mary II) and Gardens