Andrew Eckert

For the first time in nearly five days, I awoke to the pleasant sounds of silence in the morning. There was no rain, and as I gazed upward, I saw scarcely a single cloud in a broad blue sky. There was no trace of the roommates that had made Oxford such a smelly place that is the consequence of placing so many men into a single room. There was no club blaring music at every possible hour of the night, which made the passage of time run at a much faster pace. Breakfast was simple and light, requiring little work and even less thought. At the leisurely hour of 8:30, we meandered from the London Lodge into the metropolis' sprawling underground that sucked us rapidly down the road to the area of the Cathedral of St. Paul.
A church has stood on those grounds for 1400 years. And though two were destroyed, including a magnificent Gothic glory from the 12th century renaissance, the area was filled with a sense of wonder that connected us to those people, standing alone in an England divided, prepared to construct a timeless memorial to god and to their own grandeur. The present structure was constructed by the famed architect Christopher Wren, and lives on as a testament to his brilliance, and to the universality of his ideas, that echo through buildings such as the American capitol and elsewhere around the world. The interior was filled with monuments to every major British conflict of the past 260 years. The men who defeated Napoleon, defended the Crimea, toppled the Kaiser and battled Hitler all had a place, with the two greatest monuments reserved for Britain's greatest modern warriors: Nelson and Wellington.
Still there was not enough time to look, much less see everything in the impressive church. Thus we moved on to the museum of the city of London, which told the city's story from the Roman foundations until the great fire of 1666. The main focus was on the medieval period, of which precious little remains. Because the city is so full of life it is natural that the older parts that are decaying should disappear, as have most traces of an age that many now summarily dismiss as dark.
Our final destination for the day was the infamous tower, whose history can be summarized in a few great stories that never lose their edge in spite of their age. Mostly they involve Henry the eighth, but my favorites are those that swirl around his father Henry the seventh. Though many blame Richard III for the murder of Edward V, I see Henry as the clear candidate. No one may ever know the truth.
My problem today has been simple: not enough time. Though there were many unique images, there was a constant shortage of time to peacefully sit and draw. Still, perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Caitlin Olmstead

Well.... We are finally in London!!! A week and a half of England's "smaller" cities and we are in the biggest of them all! The journey here was full of trains and close calls with slamming subway doors, but we made it to the beautiful London Lodges Hotel. After a nice afternoon at the British Museum and then a peaceful night, we were up and ready to explore what London had to offer!
First up on our day in the city was St. Paul's Cathedral. Redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren after multiple fires in London, it is now the famous domed cathedral known to many. A couple of us brave souls climbed the 528 spiral and narrow steps up to the top of the dome, to the Golden Gallery. Here, we could see all of London spread out before us. There were old buildings mixed with new, history mixed with the future. It was amazing to see, and definitely worth the walk!!
We then made our way to the Museum of London and saw England as it was in pre-historic times, surrounded by marshes and hippos; to London as it was after the Great Fire in 1666. It was so interesting to see the changes made, especially having just seen it from the top of a cathedral!
But then we made our way to my favorite place of all, the Tower of London. As someone who has always been absorbed in the history of the Tudor family in England, going here was like a little kid going to Disneyland. There was the suit and armor of Henry VIII, the site where he beheaded two of his six wives. There were torture chambers, prison cells, hospitals. Crown Jewels and moats. Anything and everything you could have hoped for in a fortress. Henry VIII has always been a person of legend to me, someone to be learned about from afar. I mean, how many men these days are most remembered for how many wives they had?? But to walk the paths that he would have walked, where so many people of history had walked, it's a dream come true.
It's only been a day, and London has already amazed me. I am sure there is more out there to discover and see, but for now, I am one happy traveller.