Cambridge, England

I will be very honest, I was only in Cambridge for an hour after a work meeting so I really didn't get time for proper tourism or to absorb the local history.

As such I am simply throwing some photos in at random, with no real explanations, these are all just beautiful things I saw on my brief walk to get a coffee before heading back to my hotel.

Most famously this is the home of Cambridge University, and the whole town does have an excellent student vibe to it, as well as a very village atmosphere... its a really welcoming combination to be honest.

  

Of all of the places I visited in the UK this was the only one I could see myself ever really living long term.

Pink Floyd were from Cambridge....

As was Olivia Newton-John.....

People have been living in the area for the last 3,500 years at least, this information has nothing to do with the photograph above it... I am not implying that Jesus lived here during his O.E, but he does have bis own Lane here...

Next Blogs: Stonehenge, Bournemouth Beach, Toyohashi, Paris!
(Quality control be damned! I need to get current!)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge - Cambridge Wikipedia page

Sherlock Holmes Museum, London, England

'Having gathered these facts, Watson, I smoked several pipes over them, trying to separate those which were crucial from others which were merely incidental.'
- Sherlock Holmes, in 'The Crooked Man'

Hours: Open every day of the year (except Christmas Day) from 9.30am - 6pm
Admission:  Adult £6 Child £4 (under 16yrs)

While visiting London during a work trip I was fortunate enough to find myself with some spare time, and since my offices there were located in Baker St I thought it was a good time to take a stroll to the offices of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

As you will know if you read my post about Edinburgh, I have been a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for quite some time, and more specifically a fan of Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes has long since been held as the standard for a detective who employed science, logic and reasoning to almost any crime.  He is one of the oldest examples of a true forensic detective, and of course he was entirely fictional.

Arthur Conan Doyle drew on several people who he worked closely with during his time at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, the notable Dr Bell who I mentioned in my previous entry, as well as Sir Henry Littlejohn who was a police surgeon in Edinburgh before becoming a lecturer on Forensic Medicine and Public Health.  These men were really at the cutting edge of their fields and were fantastic inspirations since they demonstrated what could be learned with just a small amount of observation, understanding and science.

What appealed most about Sherlock Holmes was that for all of his astonishing intellect and ability, he was also a drug addict (cocaine, and occasional morphine, administered intravenously), his apartment was quite disorderly with papers and mysterious items strewn about which nobody was ever allowed to touch.
All of this was a great concern to Dr Watson, his friend, colleague and the narrator of most Holmes stories.

So here I was in London, and able to go for a walk through a house designed to be similar to that which was described in the stories.  In reality 221B Baker St did not even exist when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the original stories... and if you follow the reference links at the bottom to the Wikipedia article about it, there have been some fairly large debates about the address itself.

However, the museum was really quite fantastic... it is filled with various props from the stories, wax figurines of some of the more interesting cases, and the various rooms of the apartment kept in much the same way you would expect them to be.

All in all it felt rather respectful, and I thought it was well worth the price of admission.  Next door there is a small gift shop which sells various books and other merchandise (yes you can get a deerstalker hat, a magnifying glass and a pipe)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes - Sherlock Holmes, in vastly more detail than you need
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/221B_Baker_Street - The address, and why people fight over it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_Museum - The Sherlock Holmes Museum

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license.

London, England

I must confess I have been entirely lazy in updating the blog, so the next several posts actually occurred a few months ago now, and therefore are going to be somewhat lacking in detail.
However, I will do my best to recall what I can about each location, and at least somewhat describe what each place was like.

So in late January I was sent to the United Kingdom for my job, and since I have friends in London it made sense to arrive with a weekend at the beginning of the trip so that I could spend some time with them.  After a fairly large night out with the girls, my good friend Marie decided she would play tour guide around London, the following photos are the highlights of that stroll.

Firstly we got the tube to South Bank since that is a really good starting point for a loop of each iconic landmark.

With a nice view of the River Thames, and some great markets available, South Bank is a really easy beginning to the day, so we stroll through the various food stalls at the market and then decide to head to St Paul's Cathedral via Blackfriars Bridge.

Looking surprisingly sober and cheerful, but still I require a railing for support, and if you notice... we got incredibly lucky and there was sun in London!

Just a cute scene of the Thames washing up in South Bank before we headed over the Blackfriars Bridge..

I didn't remember to actually take any photos of the bridge itself, so the sign will have to suffice!

And here we finally made it to St Paul's Cathedral...the site of the cathedral has a fairly rich history, some people claiming that in AD 604 it was in fact a pagan temple to the goddess Diana, which was then destroyed and replaced by a smaller chapel, which was in turn destroyed during a fire in 962.
This was replaced by another cathedral, in which the bones of Ethelred the Unready (a particularly unlucky English king) were laid to rest, but sadly this next cathedral also burned down in 1087... not to give up easily, work begun immediately on yet another cathedral known as "Old St Paul's" which took 200 years to complete...it was completed in 1314... can you guess what happened to it?
To top the previous cathedrals this one was struck by lightning in 1561 which destroyed the spire... and then it was completely destroyed by... you guessed it... fire! The Great Fire of London in 1666 completely gutted the cathedral again.

In 1669 the task was given to Sir Christopher Wren to design a new cathedral, he drew from various architectural styles including Greek, Gothic and Renaissance and ultimately the cathedral as it stands today was completed on the 2nd December 1697.

Having finished at the cathedral we then walked over the Millennium Bridge, and we stopped past the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare's plays, and rather an interesting place.
The building as it stands today is actually a reconstructed building which stands near to the site of the original (200m away). The original Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613.
Once we had poked around the Globe we continued on our way, stopped for a spot of lunch at a nearby pub Founders which was really affordable and delicious, and then returned to South Bank.

This is a rather large Ferris Wheel, called the London Eye, it is 135 meters tall and offers some excellent views of most of the nearby landmarks. It opened to the public on the 9th of March 2000.
There is really not a lot else to say about it, if you like Ferris Wheels, enjoy this one!

Attached to Westminster Palace, Big Ben is one of the worlds most recognizable clocks I am sure, it has been destroyed in countless movies, and slapped on so many postcards and souvenirs it is really rather scary given that at the end of the day... it is a clock.

The tower was originally completed in 1858, it was designed by Augustus Pugin, who very shortly afterwards went mad and then died.
It is designed in the Gothic Revival style, and stands 96 meters tall.
The original bell weighed 16.3 tonnes, and the bell was dedicated to Sir Benjamin Hall (which could be why it was nicknamed Big Ben)

Onwards! Next we walked to Buckingham Palace, sadly there was no changing of the guards while we visited, so we settled for a few quick photos.

This is the Admiralty Arch which will lead us on to our next destination nicely

After this we walked to Trafalgar Square, another fairly recognizable area in film and television, but also quite the meeting spot for many people.  It tends to be crowded with people, street performers, and is within easy walking distance to most other interesting sights.

Here is Nelson's Column, this monument was erected in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  The lions at the base of it are pretty neat.

And with that, we leapt on a tube, and returned home for some much needed sleep!

Next blogs: The Sherlock Holmes Museum, London - Cambridge, Stonehenge and Bournemouth (three for the price of one!) - Toyohashi, Japan - Paris/Versailles, France.... which will finally bring us up to date.



References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Arch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson's_Column
http://www.foundersarms.co.uk

*REVISED* to include the name of the pub, and to share its URL

Edinburgh, Scotland

Okay I confess I am writing this post a full three months after it happened, so my memories may be a little bit hazy at this point.  Especially given that I was visiting Edinburgh for their famous Hogmanay Street Party... and there was tequila... a lot of tequila.

Edinburgh is a beautiful city, it contains all of the classic elements people associate with Scotland, and the United Kingdom in general... cobblestone streets which look phenomenal after the rain which is fairly common.  A castle perched atop a hill overlooking the city.  And a million winding alleys and closes throughout... A close is basically just a tiny alley in case you wonder.

This time around I am only going to post a few photos, but I am going to include a few friends took via Instagram etc as well, just to give this post a bit more community feeling since it was most definitely a joint venture trip... we had the most amazing new years ever.

First of my guest shots, the awesome cobbled streets after a spot of rain, it truly is a beautiful town.

A Ferris wheel setup for the Hogmanay Festival, looking pretty at dusk.

Awesome cute whiskey bar/cafe, made really awesome eggs benedict (my favourite breakfast ever)

Yet another castle... this one is cool mostly for location, its all about location in a castle... this one is perched on a hill and has canon emplacements... that is total street cred in a castle.

Serious gentleman of some note...

Next are a few shots from along the Literary Tour, which was also fantastic, a local author and guide will take you to some of the notable sites around Edinburgh and tell you of its rich literary history.

Interestingly in Edinburgh many of these sites are not marked in any way, they do not tend to place plaques on things of significance or signpost them in any way.  This man is amazing and well worth checking out if you are a literary enthusiast.  (link at the bottom of the post to his site)

The pub where Inspector Rebus from the Ian Rankin novels drinks...

This is where the lecture halls Joseph Bell taught at are located in the University of Edinburgh's medical school...

He was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, and all round amazing guy. A good example of his skills is this story of how he taught his students to be perceptive. (taken from "The Original of Sherlock Holmes" by Dr. Harold Emery Jones)

"This, gentlemen" announced Professor Bell, "contains a very potent drug. To the taste it is intensely bitter. It is most offensive to the sense of smell. But I want you to test it by smell and taste; and, as I don’t ask anything of my students which I wouldn't be willing to do myself, I will taste it before passing it round"

Here he dipped his finger in the liquid, and placed it in his mouth. 

The tumbler was passed round. 

With wry and sour faces the students followed the Professor’s lead. One after another tasted the liquid; varied and amusing were the grimaces made. 

The tumbler, having gone the round, was returned to the Professor. 

"Gentlemen", said he, with a laugh, "I am deeply grieved to find that not one of you has developed this power of perception, which I so often speak about; for if you watched me closely, you would have found that, while I placed my forefinger in the medicine, it was the middle finger which found its way into my mouth"

ONWARDS! a little bit more walking and we were at a pub which used to be called Rutherfords, which is where many excellent writers drank, including Robert Louis Stevenson, it was renamed to The Hispaniola after the ship in Treasure Island

Arthur Conan Doyle lived at this house once upon a time, he was the man responsible for Sherlock Holmes, and general legendary author.

And in something of a rarity on this blog... a photo of people! including myself! 

These beautiful ladies were the team who made this the best New Years I have ever had.  As for the creature on the left, he is most excellent company in shenanigans and noise making.

References:

http://www.edinburghbookloverstour.com/ - The Literary Tour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle - Arthur Conan Doyle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bell - Joseph Bell