A Favorite...

This past weekend ranks up there among my favorite trips. It honestly was such a magical and breathtaking weekend that I would do again and again. Let's go back to Friday night...

Friday night in London usually means one thing...Mexican food and a show...and sure enough that is just what happened. I decided that I wanted to see the musical Legally Blonde, because I love the movie and because it is no longer playing in the states and this was my one chance. So I headed to the theatre early to get tickets, however the only seats left were around $120 and no way was I paying that. The reason it was almost sold out was because it just premiered in London on the 15th of this month. Anyways, I decided I would stick around for the lottery, where I could get my name drawn out of a hat, for the $120 seats for only $20. And guess what...my name was pulled...and I got front row seats!! What a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday was my trip to Belgium and I was just fascinated by this place. After taking a ferry across the channel, we landed in France and then drove to Bruges, Belgium. Because of a late departure from Dover, we unfortunately had only about 2 hours in Bruges but it was totally worth the long travel. The architecture of the buildings was amazing and the canals that ran through the city were so pretty...even in the light drizzle. Even though I haven't been to Venice...I can see why they called this place the 'Venice of the North'. After a 45 minute walking tour, which I didn't really pay that much attention to because I was taking pictures of everything, we had about an hour or so to explore on our own. The girls I was with and I decided that we wanted to go get the traditional Belgium food and drinks. So, we went to a little place in the square and enjoyed chocolate covered waffles and cherry beer. Ha, an interesting combination but a delicious snack. After some souvenir shopping we boarded the bus to head to a local chocolate factory, which we found to be closed when we got there. This was disappointing, but overall I very much enjoyed Belgium.

Sunday was another full adventuresome day. It started with a visit to Bath, and man, was this place just amazing. We had two hours to explore the town and baths, but I actually spent the entire time inside the baths. I found them quite amazing. There was the main bath which still has warm water in it today, and then one other steam pool, the rest were the remains of the baths, temple, walls, etc. To think that Romans once stood here, in the times of Julius Ceasar, just was fascinating. I thought back to my Latin classes in high school, as I remembered reading about these baths. I was not able to go into the Bath Abbey as it was closed on Sundays for services, but the outside of the place was another incredible sight. The next stop of the tour was the mysterious Stonehenge. WOW! Yes, it is a bunch of rocks, piled in a mysterious way, but to be right there, there is something magical about them. I had been looking forward to seeing the real Stonehenge for so long, after making trips to Hunt, Texas to see a replica of Stonehenge. One can just wonder why the rocks were put the way they were, how they were placed that way, and who put them there. It is fun to just imagine, because nothing is known for sure. The final stop of the day was at Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest spire (123 meters) in England. This cathedral also houses one of the four original Magna Carta's. It was interesting to see this, as one of the other originals is at Lincoln Castle (which I have seen before). The cathedral itself, it technically closed on Sundays due to services, however, everyone on the tour split up and pretended to be interested in the service, as we wandered around the interior. Once again, I wonder how cathedrals like this were built. Another spectacular wonder of God.

The entire weekend was absolutely amazing, and one that I will definitely never forget. It was one of the highlights of my time here. Pictures will be posted on my Facebook sometime this week.

Now back to work...