With my internet being so poor lately, the blog I was writing was lost to cyberspace, so now I will try to rewrite what I meant to post yesterday.
On Friday, two of my friends and I went to Prêt-à-Portea at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. It comes from the phrase prêt-à-port, meaning ready-to-wear. It was described as “a fashionista’s tea”, and that is exactly what it was. All of the pastries were modeled after the clothes at London Fashion Week, and were almost too adorable to eat. I enjoyed tea for the first time in my life, but I am disappointed by the fact that it is probably impossible to find pear-caramel tea anywhere else. After tea, we went and explored Harrods, a massive upscale department store. I was again, disappointed, that everything is way out of my price range. I do plan on going back to have gelato from the food halls though.
Yesterday was the first of the events through my university’s social program, a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Although I had already been to Stonehenge seven years ago, it was nice to experience it as an adult. It took about 45 minutes to circle the park, while listening to an audio tour giving us background about the monument. The audio tour listed many possibilities as to what the purpose of Stonehenge is, including everything from a burial ground, to a landing site for UFOs. Our tour guide for the day encouraged us to “use our imaginations” to decipher the purpose of Stonehenge. To me, the most logical explanation seems to be that it was created as a monument through which to view the summer solstice. Look at this picture to understand what I mean, or read up on it here.
After walking through Stonehenge, we made our way over to the ancient city of Bath. This city was the inspiration for two Jane Austen novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. After visiting Bath, I am interested in reading both in order to see how she portrayed the city. When we arrived, we were given an hour for lunch, and then met up with our tour guide who showed us around the main monuments in the city. Architecturally, circles and triangles play an important role, as they are considered to be the two “perfect” shapes. After touring the city, we walked through the ancient Roman bath house in the center of town, which as partially been converted into a museum in order to showcase its artifacts. Although I didn’t find the audio tour to be all that interesting or informative this time around, the bath house was certainly beautiful. Upon leaving the bath house, I walked through the Bath Abbey, which had beautiful stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings. After spending four hours in Bath, we headed back to London.
I am working on updating pictures, with my incredibly slow internet, but you can find the link to my album from this weekend here.
Prêt-à-Portea and Stonehenge & Bath
Friday, October 10, 2008
Posted by Rachel at 3:06 PM
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2 comments:
I miss you and excited about all the things your doing. Lets see more pictures of you.
Love
Dad
Ditto Neil on the photos.
Pastries ... I would kill for a cookie.
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