I arrived safely back in Chicago Wednesday afternoon after an uneventful, nearly 9 hours flying time, trip. The weather was good and the flight was smooth, unlike the trip to the UK, which had some white-knuckle spells. Yesterday, we flew over the southern tip of Greenland. As we approached Greenland, we were able to see the ice floes in the ocean, it was a pretty spectacular sight. The movie selection was pretty poor. I watched The Time Traveler's Wife and after that decided it was more entertaining to watch the map than the other choices.
Today we had to get up early for Jovito's annual visit to the UIC medical center where he is participating in a research study. We were there until around 2PM. After we got home, I decided it was a good day to take it easy and do little to nothing. Tomorrow I hope to begin sorting through and labeling pictures from the trip and finish up my trip journal.
In looking back over the 11 days, I would say that I saw and experienced far more than I could have anticipated. We plunged in immediately after getting off the plane and really didn't stop at all. We were able to do a mix, that included lots of historical sites, a mix of museums, some interesting contemporary sites, train travel that gave us the chance to really see a good part of England, Wales and the southern part of Scotland, some literary sites, the beach along Swansea Bay, a lot of street performers, a mix of religious sites ranging from medieval to Georgian and a play. We experienced a variety of cuisines and spent lots of time walking. I would estimate that the least distance we covered on foot in one day was around 3 miles, the most was probably 7 - 8 miles. I learned an unbelievable amount about the history, culture, industry and people of all three countries.
There was time to get a real feel for what the city of London is like since we spent the most time there. I expected to love the history, but I was surprised at how beautiful a city it is, and how large and how densely populated it is. I was not there long enough to get over my sense of awe at how the contemporary exists surrounded by history. I am sure that with enough time, one gets used to walking by places that have been in existence for hundreds of years or more. I wasn't there for enough time for that to happen to me. I found myself still constantly surprised as I took in views that included a 1,000 year old abbey, skyscrapers, double decker busses and the London Eye, or an abbey from 1,400 AD, Roman Baths from 400 AD, a street performer on a unicycle juggling flaming torches and Ben and Jerry's. Living in Chicago where 150 years old constitutes a hugely historic building prepared me very poorly for walking among this kind of history.
I also got a real sense, especially from the Cabinet War Rooms, of how much more World War II (and World War I for that matter) touched England than it did the US. The bombing was a fact of life in London and other towns and the war touched so many people. The geographic proximity made it so very real.
Every place that we visited is worthy of longer visits, there is so much to see that we were unable to get to. But still, we got at least a taste of each place, and I am so very glad that we made the effort to cram it all in. I wouldn't have missed minute of the trip.
I intend to start to post some pictures over the weekend.
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