Friday we went down to Brighton. Being by the sea was awesome and sunny, but not warm. The wind was pretty brutal, but the sea air was good for me I'm sure. Afterall, that is why
aristocrats went to Brighton; it supposedly improved their health. Anyway, we visited the Royal Pavilion which was built for King George IV who was Prince Regent at the time and better known as Prinny. It is an amazing building and gets bonus points for the shock factor of seeing a very Indian style building in England. However, the inside is all decorated after the Chinese with bamboo painted on the walls and dragon chandeliers. It's beautiful, but apparently not enough for Queen Victoria who hated it and sold it and used the money to build Osbourne House. After the tour, we wandered around looking at all the cute shops and going in some of them (for fudge and cupcakes of course). Then we went back down to the sea. It was super windy as you can see by my hair and Lauren's. I'd definitely like to go back there when it is warmer.Yesterday we took a boat down the Thames to Greenwich. We had absolutely clear blue skies which was awesome. Greenwich is very water based so most of the museums and buildings there are somehow associated with fishing or the navy and so on. And of course, this is where the Prime 
Merdian was established so that there could be acurate time kept all around the world, especially at sea. Since there was so much sea trade through Greenwich, it was chosen to be the official timekeeper and Prime Merdian, although France kept Paris as their Prime Merdian until the 1970s. How French of them. So we climbed to the Royal Observatory and took the mandatory straddling the Prime Meridian tourist picture. And since it was a clear day, we had the most amazing view. Then Maggie and I went to the Queen's House, which was the first Palladian style building built by Inigo Jones. It was orginally started as a gift for the wife of James I, but she died suddenly and it wasn't completed until Charles I came to the throne and gave it to his wife. How do I know all this? I happen to be doing a presentation for my History of London class about architecture. Anyway, there was a small art gallery there which was mostly of ships and sea battles. We also went to the Greenwich Market which was full of really cool stuff including cupcakes. We've made it our mission to sample as many cupcakes as possible on our trip. We've decided this is a very fine mission.
Finally, this very busy weekend concluded with a football match: Fulham vs. Birmingham City. Fulham was the home team but we were sitting in the Neutral/Away section which was behind one of the goals. It was a really good match with Birmingham City scoring first very quickly, although it was actually an own goal when Fulham accidently headed it into their o
wn goal. Each team had many opportunities to score, but Fulham didn't tie it until the second half. Then everything got a lot faster and a lot rougher until Fulham got fouled just outside the box and scored off the kick. This happened in the 90th minute, so Birmingham City only had the stoppage time to tie it again, but they couldn't. The fans were awesome and there were a lot of chants and yelling at the players and the referees, but since the home team won in a dramatic finish, nothing got too out of hand. I really liked it despite the fact it was a little cold, and I'd happily go to another game.
Merdian was established so that there could be acurate time kept all around the world, especially at sea. Since there was so much sea trade through Greenwich, it was chosen to be the official timekeeper and Prime Merdian, although France kept Paris as their Prime Merdian until the 1970s. How French of them. So we climbed to the Royal Observatory and took the mandatory straddling the Prime Meridian tourist picture. And since it was a clear day, we had the most amazing view. Then Maggie and I went to the Queen's House, which was the first Palladian style building built by Inigo Jones. It was orginally started as a gift for the wife of James I, but she died suddenly and it wasn't completed until Charles I came to the throne and gave it to his wife. How do I know all this? I happen to be doing a presentation for my History of London class about architecture. Anyway, there was a small art gallery there which was mostly of ships and sea battles. We also went to the Greenwich Market which was full of really cool stuff including cupcakes. We've made it our mission to sample as many cupcakes as possible on our trip. We've decided this is a very fine mission.Finally, this very busy weekend concluded with a football match: Fulham vs. Birmingham City. Fulham was the home team but we were sitting in the Neutral/Away section which was behind one of the goals. It was a really good match with Birmingham City scoring first very quickly, although it was actually an own goal when Fulham accidently headed it into their o
wn goal. Each team had many opportunities to score, but Fulham didn't tie it until the second half. Then everything got a lot faster and a lot rougher until Fulham got fouled just outside the box and scored off the kick. This happened in the 90th minute, so Birmingham City only had the stoppage time to tie it again, but they couldn't. The fans were awesome and there were a lot of chants and yelling at the players and the referees, but since the home team won in a dramatic finish, nothing got too out of hand. I really liked it despite the fact it was a little cold, and I'd happily go to another game.Lauren and I are off to Madrid on Thursday with4 other people in our group, so it may be quiet for awhile unless we manage to find an internet cafe where we can give an update. Ciao for now!
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