Dover and a Surprise Trip to Canterbury

This past Sunday, I went on a day trip to what I thought was going to be the White Cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle. Boy, was I in for a surprise. This was a trip that BU offered through it's "social programme," and all I wanted to do since even before I arrived in London was take a trip to see the Dover White Cliffs. I basically begged Melissa to buy a ticket and was very excited to find out that most of my friends had decided to come along for the day as well.

The first surprise came when we boarded the bus and the tour guide handed out an itinerary and started speaking on bus's loud speaker. She told us that there had been a change in the plans, and we were now going to spend the morning in Canterbury, then go to Dover in the afternoon rather than Dover first then Canterbury. The change of plans threw us all off, solely because we were completely unaware that we were going to spend time in Canterbury in the first place!

So off we headed to Canterbury, which was actually a very pleasant surprise as the town was made up of cobblestone streets and very old, adorable buildings and shops along with a cute little river! See below. 

 

  

  

  

I've been really enjoying taking small day trips out of the city to the other towns around England because they have all been so beautiful! Canterbury was so old and quaint and cute, it was definitely a good surprise that we ended up there. We also got to go in the ChristChurch in the town, which was of course gorgeous. It bewilders me that something that intricate and detailed could be built in 1072 with the amount of technology (or lack thereof) they had. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to take pictures inside the cathedral so that is in my mind and my mind only. All I can say was that it was breathtakingly beautiful, like most of the buildlings in England.  

So my excitement continued to build all day long and finally, off we went to go to the cliffs. We first had to walk through an underground museum in the underground tunnels used during WWII as bases and hospitals before we arrived at the look out point to see the cliffs. The tunnel museum was pretty interesting, though. The tunnel system is very extensive and really helped the troops to plan certain attacks and was also very useful in housing and healing wounded soldiers. However, all I wanted to do was see the cliffs and walking through tunnels for 60 minutes was not making me happy. Finally, we were released from our tour and we were left on our own to find the supposed "look out" from which we could view the cliffs. 

After wandering around for about 20 minutes, we asked someone where a good place to see the cliffs from was. He kindly informed us that we were standing ON the white cliffs, and probably wouldn't be able to SEE them unless we went down to the bottom where the road was. Or across the channel to France. Which was really convenient, because the only reason we had come on the trip was to VIEW the white cliffs not walk around IN THE TUNNELS BUILT INSIDE OF THEM. Luckily, we found the "viewing area" and got these views of the cliffs:

 

We also only got a chance to walk AROUND the castle grounds rather than a chance to go INSIDE the castle. Fortunately (again), we had beautiful views to defer our negative energy from being blatantly lied to by our school.

 The castle that we were never able to go in because we ran out of time

 

View from ON TOP OF the White Cliffs

 

Another view standing ON TOP OF the cliffs

 Myself, Melissa and Ellie all happy because we thought we were going to see the beautiful White Cliffs of Dover

So that's the last time I pay $30 to go on a trip organized by BU. Until March 14, when I go to Stonehenge for a day trip. That one would be hard to mess up. I mean, they are big rocks piled on top of each other. Maybe they'll let us stand on those too!

Harry Potter Tour Part II!

So on Saturday, the second sunny day in London in a row, Melissa and I finally headed out to see the Harry Potter sites in and around the city of London. We started out and headed all the way to Leadenhall Market, which is where they shot a scene with Harry and Hagrid right before they enter Diagon Alley. Unfortunately, we couldn't walk through Leadenhall Market because someone was shooting a movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Not really, but wishful thinking) so we just took pictures right outside of it. 

 

  

It doesn't look very recognizable, but when you watch the first movie, Harry and Hagrid definitely walk through the market before they go into the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. Next, we went to the Millenium Bridge, which is the bridge that the Death Eaters destroyed in the Half-Blood Prince (the sixth movie). 

 

 

 

Next up - Gringotts. After walking along the Thames for about 10 minutes, we arrived at The Australia House, which either was used in the filming or was the inspiration behind the bank, Gringotts. It definitely looks like the building in the movie, just before a few special effects that made the bank three stories with crooked pillars. 

 

We then made the long trek to King's Cross Station, where the Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9 and 3/4. We first saw St. Pancras, the train station whose exterior was used in the movie as though it was King's Cross. Then we went inside and took pictures at the tourist's Platform 9 and 3/4, but also saw where they actually filmed the scene on platform 4. 

 

St. Pancras

 

Platform 9 3/4

 

Inside of King's Cross

The day wouldn't have been complete without a viewing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Except in London it's called the Philosopher's Stone. After seeing all the filming sites in Oxford and then in London, we just had to see them again for ourselves in the movie. I must admit, I wasn't blown away by any of the sites in London and I was a little disappointed. But once we turned the movie on and saw that we had stood on the same stairs that the characters did in Oxford and saw the places that we had walked through that day, we finally grasped how cool it was to be at those sites. It also gave us another excuse to watch Harry Potter One, our fave.