Another great park in my area is Belvoirpark. I don't know anything about it except that it is a beautifully landscaped area with a dedicated iris garden. In March and April, I went to this park several times to see if the irises had bloomed, but they had not. Then I forgot to go check this park for a while and when I was there last Wednesday, it looks like the irises had already bloomed. Some were still around, but you could see some were wilting from the hot sun. I took some pictures of the park and some varieties of irises, so enjoy.
My new favorite place to go in Zürich is Rieterpark. One of my friends introduced me to this park in our neighborhood and I've been in love ever since. Reiterpark is a 17-acre park in the Enge district that is right next to the community center I showed you last time I posted about our neighborhood. Part of Enge sits on a large hill and this park takes up most of the top of that hill, running north-south.
On Wednesday, after some much-needed rainy days, the sun was out so I headed over to Rieterpark. On the way, I passed by the vineyard and took a picture. I'm mad at myself though because for the past week there have been cute sheep there eating the weeds in the fields in front of the vineyard. I saw them one day when I didn't have my camera, so I just took a video from my phone. It's not great quality, but you can see them. I also was trying to record the cute sound the bells around their necks were making. The sound those bells make is like a quintessential Swiss sound, so I loved it. But alas, the phone didn't pick it up very well. Turn your volume up high to hear it. You can also hear two Swiss ladies gabbing next to me. For those who know German, you can tell how much Swiss German sounds nothing like High German.
The vineyard and the field after the sheep mowed it down
Reiterpark is just a few minutes walk from that vineyard. The park has some interesting history behind it that I will explain. From what I can gather from English and German websites, the land used to be owned by silk merchant Otto Wessendonck, who built a large villa on the estate. You can see the villa in the pictures below. The villa is now part of the Rietberg Museum, which features art from cultures outside of Europe. If you remember from one of my previous posts, the community center right next to this park was where Richard Wagner wrote one of his famous operas. That house was actually built by his patron, Otto Wessendonck. Though maybe Wessendonck should have thought twice before housing another man on his property because some historians believe Wessendonck's wife and Wagner had an affair while Wagner lived there.
In the 1940s, the city bought the land and the villa, and soon after it was turned into a public space. I love this park because I think the villa is gorgeous and the grounds were well-designed and meticulously maintained. Also, I have found that this more of a family park, whereas the arboretum is the hangout spot for twenty-somethings who want to get attention in their bathing suits. So when I want to read and generally have some peace and quiet, this is where I go. Darren and I once had a picnic dinner here, too.
Villa Wessendonck (now Rietberg Museum) and some of the surrounding grounds
Looking north at part of Rietberg Museum
Statue in front of the estate
Beautifully designed ceilings, columns, and statues
One of the panels of the first floor ceiling
Flowers are still blooming!
The southern part of Rieterpark
Another fantastic thing about this park is that it has a small view of the Alps! Since it had been raining a lot before this day, the sky wasn't hazy, so the Alps were in full view. I wish I would have made it out sooner than late afternoon because I think the storm clouds wouldn't have been there, but I still like these pictures.
Looking south, maybe southeast, to the Alps
SO BEAUTIFUL
Now if you look west from the park you can see Üetliberg (pronounce "Ute-lee-berg"), which is a small mountain (berg means mountain) that separates the valley that Zürich sits in from another small valley where some suburbs are. A lot of our friends from church live on the other side of this mountain since housing is a bit cheaper over there. The scenery over there is also really beautiful. Üetliberg is a popular place to visit and, of course, the Swiss have built a tram that goes to the top. There is a restaurant up there, too.
Looking from Rieterpark to Üetliberg, a small mountain next to Zürich
I visited one other park this day, but I will save that for the next post!
Tuesday was our last day in London and we finally got typical London weather. We woke up to a cloudy and cold morning, so we got to use our jackets. Our first stop was across the street to the Tower of London. The best decision we made on this trip was to stay an extra day beyond the holiday weekend because there was no line to get into the Tower of London, unlike all the long lines we saw on previous days.
The name "Tower of London" is a bit deceiving to those who have never seen it before. The complex isn't just one tower, but is a whole castle with many buildings and walls that were built or added to by various sovereigns over the many years. My guess is the name comes from the original structure built by William the Conquerer in the 11th century, which is called the White Tower. Before visiting the White Tower though, we took a 45-minute guided tour that told us the basic history and some of the infamous stories associated with the castle. As some of you might know, the castle was not only a fortress, and an armory, but was also home to a prison, torture chamber, and execution site. There is so much fascinating history behind the Tower of London, but I will have to just give brief descriptions here in the interest of time.
Our tour guide
Prisoners were brought into the castle from the Thames by boat here
The tower above the archway, called the Bloody Tower, is where two princes were murdered
A memorial on Tower Green where two of Henry VIII's wives were beheaded, including Ann Boleyn
Though the tour only talked about a few parts of the castle, we still enjoyed it. One other interesting fact we learned on the tour was that the last prisoner to be held in the Tower of London was Rudolf Hess in 1941. He was a prominent member of the Nazi party who was held there until he was tried at Nuremberg and was sentenced to life in prison.
After the tour, we headed over to the Jewel House where the British crown jewels are kept. Sorry, we couldn't take any pictures inside. Most of the crown jewels we see today were made in 1661 for the coronation of Charles II because the previous ones were destroyed by Parliament during the Civil War (1649-1660). Despite being 400 years old, they are still beautiful and actually worthy of the term priceless. For example, the Sceptre with the Cross, which was made in 1660, was redesigned in 1910 with a 530-carat diamond! It is the biggest cut diamond in the world.
Guards outside of the Jewel Tower, don't worry they have more security than just these old cannons
The Jewel Tower
After that, we visited the White Tower, which houses historical artifacts from the Tower of London and talks about the original uses of some of the tower, which is the oldest surviving building on the grounds.
White Tower
One of King Henry VIII's set of armor
The largest and smallest sets of armor ever made
The gigantic scary ravens they keep at the tower because of superstition
Houses inside the castle walls where people who take care of the grounds actually live
CBS was filming the Early Show at Tower of London for the Royal Wedding
Me outside of the Tower of London
Darren outside the Tower of London
There really is a lot to do at the Tower of London and you could spend a lot of time there, but we eventually had to move on so we could fit in some other things before we left. We got a quick lunch of fish and chips and sandwiches and ate them outside as the clouds were clearing off. We then headed over to Westminster Abbey once again to take the official audio-guided tour inside. There were still a lot of tourists there, but they were also setting up for the Royal Wedding. All the workers were out polishing and cleaning everything, while A/V guys were setting up TV screens and cameras at every angle. It was a fun addition to the excitement of being at Westminster Abbey.
I've already talked some about Westminster Abbey in a previous post, so I won't go into a lot of detail here. But on the tour we were able to see the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I, her sister Queen Mary, and her brother Kind Edward VI, among other sovereigns. We also saw the tombs of Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer, Isaac Newton, and Charles Dickens.
The courtyard in Westminster Abbey
Our final stop in London was St. Paul's Cathedral. Some of you might remember that this is where Princes Charles and Diana were married. Usually, royal weddings take place at Westminster, but I think I read that the couple had such a long guest list, they needed the extra space at St. Paul's to fit everyone in. St. Paul's is definitely a huge cathedral. At 360 ft. high, the dome is the second biggest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome. Both towers that you can see in the picture below were designed to have clock, but I guess they only put a clock in one of them.
After that, we got a quick dinner at a burrito place so I could have my fill of burritos before returning to the tortilla-less land of Switzerland. We had to fly out of Heathrow and we had a good laugh that the train ride from our hotel to Heathrow was as long as was our plane flight from London to Zurich: about 90 minutes. So that was our epic and fantastic five-and-half-day trip to London! It definitely lived up to my high expectations!
On Monday, we went to Windsor Castle! There are so many great places to visit outside of London, so I was very happy we were able to fit one in. Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It is located in the town of Windsor, which is just 30 minutes west of London. The queen and her husband spend many of their weekends here.
Unfortunately, Monday ended up being the day of a lot of mishaps, which we (or maybe just I) had to brush off in order to enjoy the day. Let's face it, sometimes things just aren't perfect! The mishaps began with me not correctly calculating how long it would actually take us to get to Windsor, so we arrived later than I had hoped, meaning we had less time to spend there. I was trying to see the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle, but since we arrived late and the line to get in the castle was long, I knew we had missed it. Luckily, we did end up seeing the guard process out of the castle, so we at least got to see something. They had a marching band, followed by the guards marching.
The royal guard band
The guards marching, I bet they are hot in those hats
After that we walked around the grounds of Windsor Castle and listened to the audio guide that came with our entrance fee. The audio guide explained that if the Royal Standard is flying from the Round Tower, then the Queen is in residence. As you can see from the picture below, the Royal Standard was flying so the Queen was there while we were there, but we never saw her.
Hanging out with Queen
The original structure of Windsor Castle was first built in 1066 by William the Conquerer and has subsequently been added to or renovated over time. It was built to be an impenetrable fortress, with very thick, high walls all around it. It became a royal residence in 1100 and has continued to be a residence today, making it the longest occupied castle in the world.
All lamposts are adorned with a crown
Beautiful Wisteria growing everywhere
The once smelly moat has been turned into beautiful gardens
This castle is also very large, taking up about 5 acres, with more than five hundred people who live and work there. This also makes it the largest inhabited castle in the world. The picture below shows part of the State Apartments, which is where the Queen resides.
The State Apartments, taken from a closed gate
The funny thing about the castle today is that it is in the landing pattern of Heathrow Airport. So every few minutes or so you would hear an airplane go by. The planes can be quite loud, so I wonder what the Queen thinks about that. It also seems like a security concern to have planes flying over where the Queen lives, but oh well.
Planes frequently fly over Windsor Castle, kind of a funny juxtaposition of old and new
One of the buildings you can tour on the castle grounds is St. George's Chapel, so we walked over to see that first. The chapel is the place of worship for Windsor Castle. You can attend the Sunday services even if you are not a resident of the castle. The chapel is named after the patron saint of England, St. George. Besides Westminster Abbey, this is another favorite location for the royals for weddings and burials. Chances are if the king or queen is not buried at Westminster Abbey, he or she is buried at St. George's Chapel. The famous King Henry VIII is buried here with his favorite wife, Jane Seymour. There is also a small memorial chapel where Queen Elizabeth's father (King George VI), mother, and sister are buried.
The entrance to St. George's Chapel on the left
St. George's Chapel
We were also able to tour some of the State Apartment rooms, but obviously not where the Queen's private residence is. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, though. There was actually a devastating fire in 1992, so it was interesting to see how they had tried to restore parts of the castle to it's original form. After touring the rooms, we left Windsor Castle to get some lunch and souvenirs in the cute town of Windsor.
Beautiful roses blooming at Windsor Castle
A guard at the exit to Windsor Castle
The exit
The cute town of Windsor
All the tourists enjoying the sunshine in downtown Windsor
We didn't have much time to get lunch since we still wanted to fit in another museum in London before the end of the day. As we were walking around trying to decide on a place to eat, Right then, a pigeon pooped on me. The combination of being hungry and having poop in my hair and clothes made me pretty upset. Darren helped me to try and wipe it off and I was able to get most of it off in a bathroom after we had a quick lunch. But we didn't really have time to go back to the hotel, so I wore poop clothes the rest of the day.
Imperial War Museum
We took the train back to London and went to the Imperial War Museum. Darren really enjoyed this museum and probably could have spent the whole day there. Even with my poop clothes, I still managed to enjoy it, too. I didn't know much about the tanks and guns, but the World War II exhibit was fascinating. It was really interesting to see how the war greatly affected the lives of regular British citizens. They really sacrificed a lot.
The largest gun shell (?) from a German rail gun (?)
A World War II tank
The living quarters aboard a submarine, Darren and I wouldn't really fit
After the museum, we needed to find something to eat and I didn't have anything planned. So that was stressful trying to find a place we liked at 6:30 pm on a holiday that wasn't full. But we eventually found something and I had bangers and mash. It was good, but it was a lot of sausage, even for me. After that, we headed back to the hotel and I immediately changed out of my poop clothes and I felt better.
