Today we did a tour of the Golden Circle, the main sites in the southwest of Iceland. Getting to the bus terminal was a bit interesting. We were driven by the grandpa of the family from the hotel to some apartments. Then we were picked up by a minibus from the tour company which took us to the main terminal where we boarded a larger tour bus.

I’m going to make this short because I’m behind on writing. Today was a travel day. We went by car from our apartment to Gatwick International Airport. Then we flew to Reykjavík. It was only a 3 hour flight and 1 hour time difference so it wasn’t bad at all.

We had planned to rent a car and drive to our hotel, but mom’s driver’s license expired on the 17th. The man at the car rental office was very nice and gave us tickets on their bus into town (I guess they are both part of the same company). He said that we would take that bus and then a shuttle would take us to our hotel. The bus ride went fine, but when we arrived at the place where we were supposed to get the shuttle, the lady said that they don’t take people to our hotel. We told her that the man at the car rental place had said we could, so she phoned the car rental office. She came back and said that the man was mistaken, but said that since it was their fault they would pay for a taxi. We were very surprised, especially since we hadn’t even asked for anything, the man at the car rental place had given us the tickets just to be nice. A few minutes later, she came back and said “a taxi would take forever to come so this lady will take you herself”. We got our own private 15 passenger van and she took us to our hotel. Her English was very good and we asked her some questions about Iceland, what things she recommends we do tomorrow and the like. We gave her a hefty tip on arrival at our hotel.

Today we went to the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre and then to the science museum, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start with the Globe Theatre.

I’ll start by describing some of the things I learned about the Globe Theatre. The area around the Globe had a long theatrical tradition even before the Globe was built. There were theatres in the area when the original Globe was built according to Shakespeare’s design in 1599 (source of date: Wikipedia). The Globe burned down a few times because of its thatch roof and wooden construction. It lay in ruins for hundreds of years until a reconstruction was made in the late 1900s. The reconstruction used the same materials and construction techniques as the original and is actually the only building in London with a thatched roof.

Today we went to York, our furthest day trip so far. It took two hours by express train (120 mph I think). The other trips we’ve made have been on much slower trains with more stops.

We began by going to a museum on the history of York. The area around York is full of fossils from various small snail-like sea creatures. There were a few rooms dedicated to the dinosaur age with lots of evolution junk that didn’t really have to do with York

We started the day by going to the Royal Air Force Museum. It took a while to get there because we had to get off the underground and walk a little ways and then get on a different line and go for another while. Then we had to walk for about 15–20 minutes to get to the actual museum. The museum consisted of four large buildings with lots of planes. Lots of planes.

Today we went to Warwick (pronounced war-ick). Warwick is the site of a very old medieval castle. Today, the castle grounds are what I’d call a Renaissance Festival mixed with a real castle. There were all sorts of activities that you could do on the grounds, most of the activities were a bit young or costed additional money. The castle became a palace at some point and changed hands many times. We were able to walk through the palace and learn about the various owners. I found it interesting how many of the royalty in Europe were intermarried at the outbreak of WWI, yet it didn’t prevent the war. Talk about a family feud…

Today was another full day in London. We started out by going to Greenwich, the location of the Prime Meridian and the location where Greenwich Mean Time is calculated.

Before going to the observatory, we went to the Cutty Sark museum. The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest clippers in its day. It primarily transported tea from Shanghai to London but also made trips to Australia. The boat is elevated so that you can view the underside of the vessel. It is also elevated to relieve the unnatural pressure on the bottom of the boat which was damaging the ship.

Today we went to Stonehenge. The journey took over two hours. We went by underground to the train station, and took the train to Salisbury. From there we boarded a bus to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. The displays explained some of the archaeological features of the area. Stonehenge is part of a vast complex of mounds, ditches and other (less impressive) structures. The stones of Stonehenge were erected around 2600 BC, about the same time that the Great Pyramid was built. The structure is an engineering wonder for a people who didn’t have the wheel. As the people who built Stonehenge didn’t have a written language, it is unknown exactly what the structure was used for. There are some clues however, for example, the sun is aligned through the stones on the Spring Equinox. It is likely that Stonehenge was a religious-scientific centre where the ancient people of the area worshipped, gave sacrifices to their gods, and observed the heavens.

Today we got up fairly early to go to the Tower of London, the castle around which London was built. We began by going to see the Crown Jewels, the Royal collection of precious metals, gems and other Royal items. Many crowns worn by various royalty and some other things like sceptres are on display. The movies sure don’t exaggerate the brilliance of the crowns worn by royalty, One interesting thing about the things on display in the Crown Jewels exhibit is that they are still used today.

Today we had a late start, about 9:00. We began by riding the underground to Tower Bridge, the drawbridge that everyone thinks is London Bridge. We did the Tower Bridge Experience which took up to the bridge walkways, the ones above the drawbridge opening. The displays talked some about the history and making of the bridge. They had a glass floor where you could look down on all of the people and cars down below. It wasn’t very scary because the glass had little black dots on it at regular intervals.