Monday, Monday

Cassie and I spent all of yesterday in London with Gwyn, a friend from BG who is now teaching in Reading. The 3 of us spent about 3 hours in the Tower, wandered around in search of food, then did the Jack the Ripper London Walk. Quite impressive. Pictures later. I have to pack and get ready to go back into the city. We met a guy from Chicago currently studying in Madrid. We are going to meet him and some friends from his hostel at St. Paul's today. I'm meeting Ophelie at 5! I can't wait!!!

I received an invite to visit a friend for the evening (Jan, whom I met in NY last summer...see the Rutter entry), but it would be about a 35 minute train ride. I'm not sure if I'm going to be up for that tonight or not :/

Gotta pack.

Castles and Manors

We spent most of yesterday afternoon at Tonbridge Castle in Tonbridge, Kent. All that remains of the castle is the gatehouse, but it still kept us busy for over an hour.

Cassie, her brother, her dad, and I walked to Langshott Manor, the manor house of the land that is now their housing development. The manor house is a hotel, now, so one of the workers let us into one of the "four-poster" suites. Both the bed and bathtub were 4-posters.

We're going into London again tomorrow and Tuesday. I'll be meeting up wtih Ophelia Tuesday afternoon and staying with her in Notting Hill Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

London

Cassie and I spent yesterday in London. It was a pretty full day. We left Horley on the 9:45 train, took a bus from Victoria to Piccadilly, then walked to Trafalgar Square. We spent just enough time in the National Gallery to look at only the paintings we wanted to see. There was a college-aged string quartet playing pretty stuff in St. Martins in the Field. The second one sounded like something BG would have been proud of....nasty screechy stuff that sounded vaguely of death, so we left. When we walked out the door, there was a dead baby sculpture at the front entrance. Pretty much as disturbing as the music. Pret was full, so we took our food and ate it on the steps of St. Martins. While sitting there, someone walked by and said, "ASHLEY?" What were the chances of Gwyn walking by while we were sitting there?

Took the tube to St. Paul's, walked inside, left. Walked to Millenium Bridge. Took picture. Walked across to the Globe. Took a tour. Got cold. Walked to Tower Bridge. Became happy. I <3 Tower Bridge. Walked across to Tower of London. Left. Will go back when more time can be had at said Tower.

While passing under London Bridge, some dude in a creepy outfit gave us 25% tickets to "THE UK'S SCARIEST ATTRACTION! THE LONDON BRIDGE EXPERIENCE!!!1!" The queue to the London Dungeons was really long, so we decided to go to the shady place. Said scary dude, "Wayne" told us to tell the ticket chick to let us in for £10 instead of £20. The first part was pretty tame and very kid-oriented. The viking guy was our favorite. He taught Cassie how to poke people's eyes out and I told him all about my killing rampages. The head-defroster dude named Cassie Mary Von Somethinggerman and me "Ugg AAAHH" or something. The Monk decided to just call me Bob. I didn't understand why this happened. Then we got to this room with this little creeper man with pointy eyebrows warning us of the fear which lied ahead. We decided to brave the "scariest place in the UK," thus forcing us to don the bright yellow hardhats and hig-viz vests. It was pretty much like a haunted house that left us wondering where the heck we were. It went on forever....London Bridge isn't that big. Were we under the river? r Under buildings? The world may never know. Oh, and there were heads hanging from the cieling.

We're now going to Tonbridge Castle and eating ham sandwiches.

Strictly Come Smallfield

We went to a party with Cassie's little brother's schoolmates' parents. The theme was Strictly Come Dancing. Her brother and I ended up tying for first! I don't really feel like writing a bunch right now as I'm still tired and am pretty hungry. Here are a couple pictures.
Cassie



SO much better than watching the ball drop in Times Square.