Day Three: A Tasting of the Many Fruits of London's Cultural Stew (It's late and I can't think of another title.)

Today's pics are somewhat limited as far as variety of students is concerned. Today we had a free day in London (no scheduled activities), so the chaperones got together and decided to offer a couple of different options for the students. Mr. Jacob and his wife wanted to take students to the Tower of London; Mrs. Garrity and Mr. Lovell wanted to take students shopping at Harrod's; and I wanted to take students to the British Museum. Nobody really wanted to go see mummies and the Rosetta Stone (heathens...), so I joined the Tower of London group. All the pics of today's post are from that trip.

We got to the Tower of London and promptly got a lesson in medieval siege warfare from a soldier and a peasant woman. Later on, seniors Kyle Casey and Gus Talarico got to try their hand at defending the Tower of London; they manned a perrier, a human-powered trebuchet. The video shows Kyle and Gus (with two students from Florida State) launching a urine-filled horse's bladder (actually a pink water balloon) farther than any team ever.

Later in the day all three groups met at Trafalgar Square to regroup. Mr. Jacob and his wife took students to shop in Camden Town; Mrs. Garrity took students on the London Eye; Mr. Lovell took students back to Covent Garden; and I took students back to the hotel to rest up for that night's Jack-the-Ripper Walk. The rather scary-looking fellow in the bottom picture is Sean, our guide for the walk; I can say without overstatement that Sean was one of the most fun, engaging and knowledgable tour guides I have ever met. He spun tales of gore and mystery while entertaining the students with jokes and personal attention. It was a great deal of fun exploring the back alleys of London at night and a great way to wrap-up our last day in London.

Students that didn't go on the walking tour had the option of attending a performance of the musical Blood Brothers, a long-running West End show.

All in all, a great day in London and tomorrow we hit the road for our own pilgrimage to Canterbury. I'll try to get a hand on some pictures of the other day trips from Bill, Linda and Runeko.

Best,

Paul