London and Harry Potter

Our first trip to England, in February, began in London with all the famous sights.

Abbey Road. This is quite a popular tourist site now. We had to wait our turn to get this picture.

The Globe, which we saw from a boat tour along the Thames.

The skyline.

The EYE of London. This is a huge Ferris Wheel built for New Year's 2000.


We spent a lot of time in the Underground, minding the gap and enjoying the buskers.

The Tower of London was and still is a royal residence as well as a prison and former site for executions. Now it is a very popular tourist site. The tour guides (The Beefeaters) seem to relish in the teling of the grizzly, bloody history of the place.



The Tower Bridge. Eveyone thinks this issLondon Bridge, but London Bridge is really rather boring.

We didn't really mean to end up at The Royal Courts of Justice, just in time for the McCartney divorce proceddings, but it was across the street from the Twinnings Tea shop. The press was waiting, and they were not very happy about it (the waiting).


The Rosetta Stone in the London Museum. This museum ws renovated for 2000, and it really nice.


Big Ben and Parliment.



Buckingham Palace late in the afteroon.


Kensington Palace and Gardens on a very lovely morning.



Westminster Abbey. E went in. It is amazing that this place survied WWII. The guides commented that the windows were all blown out and only some have been replaced. It is still under repair.

Harry Potter!

And then we went looking for Harry Potter sites.

First stop, of course, Kings Cross Station. They set up this display just for us! NOT


Now a proper muggle shop, this was the enterence to the Leaky Caudron.


Gringott's Bank, now the Australia House.

The Cloisers in Durham Cathedral where Harry walked with Hedwig.

Harry first learned about Quidditch here.

The hallways were used as part of Hogwarts.



The room called the Chapeter House was McGonagall's classroom.

This shot is from from the bell tower. It was stunning and very, very high.



Alnwick Castle in Alnmouth was used as the exterior for Hogwarts.


It was a misty day and it really felt like England should.
This interior courtyard was used for the broomstick lesson with Madam Hootch, and the gargoyles caught Neville's cloak to break his fall.
We caught the sunset on the main facade of the Cathedral. It was beautiful.


The dining hall at Oxford was the inspiration for the Great Hall.


This is the staircase where Harry first enters the Great Hall and first faces off with Malfoy.

The Cloisters in Gloucester were used in the Chamber of Secrets where the basilisk roamed.

This doorway was altered to be the entrance to Griffyndor House.

The quidditch players also met here. And we think this is where Siruis left on Buckbeak the hippogriff.

We also vsited the Beatrix Potter (no relation) shop in Gloucster. The archway appeas in her illustrations in The Tailor of Gloucester,the only story based on a real person.

Note: Clicking on these pictures is busted for some reason. You can see all these pictures in higher resolution at a different web site.

Skiing!

We all went skiing in the French village of le Grand-Bornand. It was fantastic and the scenery was spectacular.
E and I had a lesson for ‘debutantes’ (beginners) and Sterling glided off on his merry way, checking in with us occasionally. He had learned to ski on his week long ski trip with his school. E and I spent an appropriate amount of time on our bottoms, but the snow was fresh and soft, and let us glide like butter-cream frosting. We stayed on the first 3 beginner hills and that was very appropriate.


Our instructor said this was the prettiest day in a long time. It was stunning.

Look closely for the squiggles on the slopes - they are ski tracks!

There were lots of lifts, from this one on the beginner hill to huge ones straight up the mountain, beyond the tree lines.

We had lunch at one of the chalets and then the weather turned colder. We all had a really good time and I am ecstatic that we all came home in tact. We just want to try everything, at least once!

Berlin

January 10, 2008

Alex and I had a fantastic time in Berlin. partly because Alex knows the language and the transportation system, hugely because of spending this special together. We saw the sights and met his friends. He is a joy.

Alex took me to a concert at the Berlin Philharmoniker, a stage on which he played during his exchange year, as an invited youth participant under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle.
It is very clear that Berlin and German history are foremost in the minds of the people as individuals and as a society. The Jewish museum was prominently featured, and the architecture evoked as much emotion as the exhibits. It zig zags visitors through vast and unnatural open spaces, using light and dark, voids, echoes, and artifacts to wind through the past 3 centuries of Jewish history.

The Holocaust memorial was similar in that the art evoked emotion with out a specific interpretation or explaination. It is a very difficult and disorienting place to be with the stones off balance, coming in waves. It was a grey, icy day, which made it even more evocative.

Brandenburg gates a focal point of the city, and symbolized the Cold War as it was disected by the wall. Presidents John F. Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton all made speaches at the Brandenburg Gates on freedom.

Just as stricking was Check Point Charlie, the only crossing point for westerners into East Berlin. Easterners could not leave, nor look through.

Incredibly, ther Berlin was wall constructed during one night, August 13, 1961 to surprise residents of East Berlin to stem their flight. This marked the closing of the borders.

There are remnants of the wall everywhere – be it the actual wall, information boards, stones embedded into the streets to mark where the wall was, or green spaces where the wall was, with paths marking the location of wall itself with trees and plants landscaped around it.

Alex’s host mom, Marianne, is terrific – she and I got along wonderfully. We had tea at her house and dinner out with her husband, Norbert.