Great Britain

Waverley Abbey
London Borough Market
British Museum

Cheese Monger
China Town
Golden Hinde

Thames Birds
Windsor Castle

We took a trip to London on the train to visit the Borough Market, the British Museum, a Cheese Monger, China Town and the Golden Hinde. We also have some pictures of Windsor Castle on a nice day and the Thames River birds in Windsor. We have a Windsor residents card allowing us to visit the Windsor castle whenever we want for free. We also get other discounts around town with the card.

Waverley Abbey: These are the ruins Waverley Abby, the first Cistercian (a member of a contemplative monastic order founded by reformist Benedictines in France in 1098) house in England. Founded in the 12^th century. The abbey is about a 45 minute drive from Windsor.

Borough Market in London: This is a huge outdoor market open on the weekends in London. It's an easy train ride in for us, then a quick subway hop to the London Bridge area where the market is located. There are many different vendors selling olives, meat, fish, cheese, bread and other items. You can taste samples before you buy.

The British Museum: We stopped in for an hour or so to kill some time. We want to go back when we have more time to explore more of the museum. The museum is free to enter with exception to special exhibits. These are the actual stones from the Parthenon in Athens Greece. We are not sure about the large temple.

The Rosetta Stone: The Rosetta Stone is located in the British Museum. It was discovered in 1799, by which time all knowledge of the ancient Egyptian language and writing had been lost for over 1000 years. The stone’s three inscriptions (hieroglyphic, demotic script and Greek) allowed scholars to use the known Greek version to unlock the mysteries of the ancient Hieroglyphs.

The Discus Thrower: This sculptor is also located in the British Museum and shows an ancient Roman marble copy of Myron's original bronze statue which was lost in antiquity. Four marble copies made by the Romans can be seen in museums today. This marble statue was found at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli around 1790 and purchased by Charles Townley, a British collector of Greek antiquities who thought he was getting an original Greek marble. The statue was headless when found. When a head was later found the statue was incorrectly restored with the head pointed down, but it should be pointing back facing the discus.

Cheese Monger (a person who sells cheese): This is Neal's Yard Dairy by the Borough Market in London. The cheese is so good. It's like night and day comparing their cheese to the ones you buy in a typical store. We sampled several different kinds and bought small slices of the ones we really liked.

China Town: The decorations are left over from the previous weeks Chinese New Year. We went there to hopefully find Japanese Sushi Rice as we have not been able to find it in the stores around town. We were able to find some, but in very small quantities.

Golden Hinde: This is a replica of the original ship that sailed around the world from 1577-1580. The ship is a museum which we walked through to see what it was like to live on a ship.