Senior Class Trip: London England -- Canterbury

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.

Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the twelfth century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late fourteenth century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

Senior Class Trip: London England -- Hampton Gardens (Hampton Court)

June 12 was spent in Hampton Gardens. What an amazingly beautiful place!

Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, in the historic county of Middlesex; it has not been inhabited by the British Royal Familysince the 18th century. The palace is located 11.7 miles (18.8 kilometres) south west of Charing Cross and upstream of central London on the River Thames. It was originally built for CardinalThomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to the King, who enlarged it.

The following century, King William III's massive rebuilding and expansion project intended to rivalVersailles was begun. Work halted in 1694, leaving the palace in two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. While the palace's styles are an accident of fate, a unity exists due to the use of pink bricks and a symmetrical, albeit vague, balancing of successive low wings.

Along with St. James's Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many owned by King Henry VIII.

Today, the palace is open to the public, and a major tourist attraction. It is cared for by an independent charity, Historic Royal Palaces, which receives no funding from the Government or the Crown.^[3]

Apart from the Palace itself and its gardens, other points of interest for visitors include the celebrated maze, the historic real tennis court (see below) and the huge grape vine, claimed to be the largest in the world.

Senior Class Trip: London England -- British Museum

We got to go to the British Museum! 

The British Museum is a museum in London dedicated to human history and culture.Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Here are some pictures of just some of the stuff we saw there.

Oldest mummy

Outside of the British Museum

The Reading Room in the British Museum

With the Rosetta Stone

Frieze from Parthenon

Hieroglyphic Tomb

Hieroglyphics

More hieroglyphics

Mummies

Mummies

Oldest mummy

Parthenon sculptures

Parthenon sculptures

Reading room

Reading room

Reading room outside

Scultpure

Statue

Statues

Stone drawing of lion

Tomb

Egyptian statue

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone