Rural Wales

This beach was .5 miles from my B&B for the night, down a wicked hill. I drove down and spent a couple of hours there until I got caught in a storm. It was so beautiful!

These dogs and I walked next to each other for a while. I love this shot of this one flying.

I climbed the rocks for a good picture, and stayed up there until the tide made me leave.

The castle King Henry III was born in. I learned a lot about British history here which I'll need for next year!

It's a good thing this is so small with all the times I've had to turn around in the middle of the street. Walsh drivers are insane on these tiny roads!

Beautiful falls at the top of the train I took that I posted about on Facebook.

This is three bridges on top of each other. I have no idea why, but they kept putting them up through history!

I climbed these stairs today at Henley Castle. There were 142 up in this tower and 68 up in the other one. Ouch!

The view was worth it!

These holes in the wall are where they would put beehives. Each hole will hold one, and this is the largest of these walls in the UK.

Imagine this, in a super think Welsh accent "if you go a wee bit up past the horses you'll find a tiny waterfall". Ok, I say, let's go see it. Holy smokes, this isn't a little waterfall! This is amazingly beautiful.

It just kept going!

 

Doctor Who

Woohoo!

Exterminate!

I was hugging the Tardis

The first Doctor's interior

My Doctor

 

Cardiff

The castle walls. The castle dominates the city. I liked Cardiff. It is pretty small, and just about everything was walkable, and the people were super nice everywhere I went.

The trebuchet works, and they shoot it off a couple of times a year.

The owner of the castle opened up these inner corridors during WWII to use as bomb shelters. The city was bombed pretty heavily, and the people would have to stay here overnight sometimes. They played speeches, music, and air raid sounds as you walk through, it was creepy and horrifying to think of being there during an actual raid.

First of a few shots of Doctor Who filming spots. This was in the one where the Doctor is trapped and needs to reveal secrets before he can get out.

This is the Tardis library where Clara hides in Journey to the Center of the Tardis, and where she finds out his name.

"The Tower of London", where Moriarty stole the Crown Jewels.

Spiral staircases freak me out for some reason. These were especially freaky, super narrow, steep, and irregular.

Why would you not take a picture of a fake sheep wearing a beret?

 

Harry Potter take two

The nighttime interior of the Knight Bus.

The Potter House. I saw the real one in England last time I was here out near Stonehenge.

She was actually puking in the bucket.

This is the model they would use for big shots, and when they wanted to show the whole castle. It looks amazing on camera.

See?

I have no idea why that last post didn't work so I'm trying again. Sorry!  

The entrance. You'll notice no one is in front of me...I got to the front again, and was on the first bus there. :)

I tried to get a picture of me with the cupboard but the woman couldn't work my camera. This will have to do. Those are movie worn glasses!

Rocking the Ravenclaw. :) The Great Hall is "film ready" which means it looks great on camera and they could come back and film right away.

My favorite character, I model myself after her.

The hallway at the Leaky Cauldron. This is a special effect to make it longer on film, it's a miniature.

 

History!

According to the caption from the National Portrait Museum, King George III had an "obstinate attitude towards the colonies" which lead to the American Revolution. I kind of love how restrained that is compared to how he's described in the US and I'm going to steal it if I ever teach about him. :)

I loved this portrait of the two Princes. It just shows their personalities and felt much freer than most of the portraits of royalty. There was a beautiful one of Princess Diana that I didn't get a picture of, just after the engagement to Charles was announced, and it had some of the same feeling.

Planes from various wars. This is the Imperial War Museum, and it was a very interesting museum. Seeing wars I've studied so much from a different perspective is always interesting.

When you see a shrapnel shell cut open like this, it drives it home as to how much damage they would do. It isn't the initial concussion that gets you, it's the explosion after.

British humor in the midst of war? Is British humor not much more than gallows humor or is that only during specific times when things are all terrible anyway?

The smallest surviving ship from the rescue at Dunkirk. I always try to impress on the kids how dangerous that was for the rescuers because of the size of the ships they were in, and this will help get the point across.

I always see marching bands and break dancers. Here's the band for this trip! This was the changing of the horse guard. I was very very tired, walking home because I couldn't find the tube station, and went through a park. Then I saw lots of people gathering and found out it was the changing of the horse guard. Using my super long lens I was able to get some decent shots before I started freezing and had to leave. Seriously, it feels like Colorado winter here and it's summer.

I don't know why but I just loved this police dog. He was just chillin', sniffing, and having a good time while working.

 

Lots of Art

The fountains in Trafalgar Square with the museum behind.

I love the faces on the Trafalgar Lions. They are just staring at us all!

The Fighting Temeraire. A beautifully sad painting showing the ship being taken in to be broken apart. The sunset was amazing...the next shot is a closeup.

I loved how the paint was built up. The painting was 3D because of it.

For my Mom. :)

I painted a version of this as a kid and sold it. I've loved it ever since. It's one of my favorite paintings in the world, and seeing it in Amy and the Doctor didn't hurt.

Love love love.

Royalty then...

And royalty now. What a difference in posing!