Camp school-day 2, part 1

That Sunday morning I woke up in this teeny tiny room on the lower bunk.

I had knights and dragons on the wall.

I could just barely squeeze by the dresser to the window.

There was no room to do much of anything.

Hence I spent most evenings on my friend Inari's nice big bed.

*grin*

View out of my window.

We didn't have a long drive to get to our destination of the day.

It was a beautiful sunny day at Blenheim Palace.

Lovely front gate.

My pictures here are somewhat lacking in people as this was a school trip and just one of those kids is mine to share ;)

I never knew you could cut yew (marjakuusi) like this!

I'm getting ideas...

The private Italian garden.

This was one of my favorite places.

You could spend days in here, finding a new nook to admire with every step.

Anyone know what this plant is?

Oh, the glorious riot of color!

The estate is magnificent.

Those trees..

We emerged on the back side of the house.

Photos of the house, falconry and jousting to come.

Camp school trip 2014- day 1

 On May 3rd I was at the airport at 6am.

Not quite awake, but ready to head out for a ridiculously full scheduled week of camp school fun with Niina's class.

 Our destination: England.

We headed directly to London from the airport and drove a tourist tour on our own bus.

I like snapping photos from a bus. 

I loved all the airplanes leaving tracks in the sky.

The Tower Bridge in silhouette.

 The Shard.

And cute kids.

Complete strangers.

Once we got to the bridge ourselves, it was opened for a boat to go through.

I've never seen it up before.

We ate our sandwiches at the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park.

Then it was museum time.

The kids had chosen which of the three they wanted to visit: Science Museum, Natural History Museum or the Victoria & Albert Museum.

 

I had two (yes, two..) girls with me at the V&A Museum.

This is the Rotunda Chandelier by Dale Chihuly.

It is striking.

I wanted so badly to get closer to it.

 

I was craving for a cuppa at this point...

 

We went to see the history of fashion.

I do like the 1950's style.

 After walking around and also seeing beautiful jewellery and wrought ironworks, we sat down at the inner court.

First time I've seen a sign at a museum directing me to keep my clothes on...

Well, I sat down, the girls kicked off their shoes and headed into the water.

With their phones in hand.

 

Once rested, we walked around the block to the Natural History Museum to have some ice cream, look at dinosaur bones and catch up with the rest of the troops.

 (very cool museums, and free too!)

Back on the bus, we drove to Abingdon.

The kids and us adults were distributed to our respective host families.

Our hosts were delighted to have adults staying with them for the first time.

Us two ladies were even promised glasses of wine with dinner ;)

I'll show you my room tomorrow.

You'll get a laugh.

It was the grandkids' room...