ogre's, summer solstice, and Wimbledon, oh my!

"Shrek was well good, daddy"  That's what we overheard the little girl in a princess crown say, and she was right!!! Our proper Sunday roast was well good, too!  Meg's English friend spent her entire day cooking a whole chicken, veggies, potatoes, yorkshire pudding, gravy, fatty deliciousness! Not quite as big as a Thanksgiving Dinner, but certainly more than anything I'd like to cook on a hung-over Sunday.  We spent the evening eating and drinking and chatting around the table in an adorable little English row home, my favorite kind, painted a plain color with a brightly colored front door! :)

Monday I did a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.  Stonehenge was gearing up for a big day, since the Summer Solstice was taking place on Tuesday.  Thousands of people would be showing up for a huge festival.  2 years ago the solstice fell over a weekend and 30,000 people came to Stonehenge for this event.  If I had planned it better, I would have stayed overnight for it, too, but we got out of there before too many people arrived.  It was neat to see especially so close to the summer solstice, which is when the sun lines up perfectly with the stones.  The Roman bath's were neat too, but I really like the city better than the actual baths.  All the buildings in the city are made of local limestone and the consistency of the building materials makes it quite beautiful.  The rain didn't start until it was almost time to go, so the day was quite nice.  It was also nice seeing the country side on the way home.  We rode through Pennsylvania.  It consisted of 21 homes, a bed and breakfast, and a gas station.  Since my bus home dropped me off at King's Cross, I stopped by platform 9 3/4 so that Ed could get a pic.  It was a bit disappointing compared to the last time I went, since the station is under construction.  No doubt it's a MUST for HP fans, but I hope the sticker of fake bricks is temporary and they open the old one again soon.

Yesterday was a busy day to say the least!! I was up and out the door again with Meg, but I was on my own with public transportation for the day.  I rode out to Greenwich, which was adorable!!  I was there before everything opened, but it was great to walk around the town and the park, they had great views and it was a really nice day.  Greenwich keeps the official time and is home to the Prime Meridian, so I checked those out and the museum once everything opened.  A trip on the tube and a train ride later, I was in Brighton Beach.  Brighton is very busy with a long pier, rides, arcades, etc.  It reminded me some of OCMD, Meg says it reminds her of Coney Island, you get the picture.  The most interesting part about it though, is that instead of sand, the shore is made up of stones.  After Brighton, another train and tube ride (With switches and everything-I'm getting really good at this) I met back up with Meg, and we were off to Wimbeldon for day 2 of the 125th Championships.  The queue to get in was estimate 1-1.5 hours...!!!  We went for it.  It was moving the whole time at a good rate, it was just THAT long.  We made it in in just under an hour.  The grounds are BEAUTIFUL.  We only got grounds tickets, but we were able to sweet talk our way into one of the bigger courts.  We had strawberries and cream with wine for dinner and saw a good match.  We then wandered out and sat in the grass to watch another match on a big screen that they had set up.  While we were there, I saw some guy with a Phillies shirt on and went over and talked to him, but he was from Africa and had no idea who the Phils really were.  Oh well, it was funny still.  As it was the longest day of the year, and England is quite north, it still wasn't completely dark at 10!  Crazy!

Meg and I enjoying strawberries and cream, a Wimbledon must.

At Wimbledon on the grassy hill.  

(Yes it really is cold enough to wear jeans and sweaters, even during the day.)

Today's plans include museums and Kings of Leon in Hyde Park.  Zac Brown Band is one of their opening acts, so I'm excited about that!  The concert's outside, so keep your fingers crossed for no rain! Tomorrow, I'll be getting everything wrapped up and an early night, since I have such an early flight on Friday morning.  Marnie's already on her way to Turkey!!