My trip to Scotland

Recently, I traveled north and spent some time in Scotland. Scotland is part of the same country as England -- called the United Kingdom -- but it is its own region with a distinct history and culture. I stayed in the Scottish county of Fife, which is just north of the capital, Edinburgh. Fife is home to the University of St Andrews, which is the oldest university in Scotland.

To my friends in Ms. Kelly's class: can you use a map to figure out what sea St Andrews is located on? It's the same sea that touches Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. It's fun to look out at the sea and wonder when I will get to visit the countries on the other side of it! In the meantime, here are some great pictures of me at the harbor and pier in St Andrews.

My trip to Arctic Finland

I just got back from a wonderful trip to the northern part of Finland. Can you use a map to find the spot where Finland, Norway, and Russia meet? That's where I was! That part of Finland is so far north that it is beyond the Arctic Circle.

I went to Arctic Finland to see the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights, also called the Aurora Borealis, is a beautiful display of colored lights that you can see in the night sky only in the northernmost parts of the globe. The lights are caused by tiny charged particles way up in the atmosphere interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. You can't always see them, and at particular times they are brighter. When I went, there were a few clouds in the sky, but I still got a pretty good look. Here's a picture I found on the Internet of what the Northern Lights look like:

My visit to the Sheldonian Theatre

As you know, I have been interested in the works of the architect Christopher Wren ever since my visit to St Paul's Cathedral in London. Wren is best known for St Paul's, but he also designed many other buildings. One of those buildings is right here in Oxford: the Sheldonian Theatre.

Wren started working on the Sheldonian in 1664, two years before the Great Fire of London set the stage for him to design St Paul's. The Sheldonian is part of the University of Oxford. It is used for concerts and, periodically, for graduation ceremonies. Here is a picture of me standing in front of it:

My trip to London, part 3: commercial London

This will be my last post from London for a little while because I am headed off on a new adventure later today, but I'm sure I'll go back to London in the future.

After my walk along the Thames, I went to see the highlights of capitalist London. So far I have focused on taking pictures of myself in front of old buildings, but London is also a very modern city and one of the centers of the global economy.

My trip to London, part 2: an evening walk along the Thames

Here is my second post about my trip to London. After I left St Paul's Cathedral, I went for a long walk along the River Thames. Readers of my blog who know a lot about English geography will know that the Thames is the same river that flows through Oxford. In London, it is crossed by many bridges.

Here is a picture of me on the south side of the Thames looking back at St Paul's Cathedral. Behind me is the Millennium Bridge, a footbridge that was first opened in 2000. (Those of you are Harry Potter fans and enjoyed my pictures of Christ Church dining hall might recognize Millennium Bridge from the opening scenes of the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in which it was torn down)

My trip to London, part 1: St Paul's Cathedral

I recently traveled to London and walked all around the city. I'm going to share my photos from London with you in three parts, starting with a post about St Paul's Cathedral.

St Paul's is the main cathedral in London, right in the center of the city. It was built after the Great Fire of London destroyed the previous cathedral in 1666. The huge new cathedral took until 1708 to finish building. It was designed by a famous architect named Christopher Wren, who had to work very hard to support such a big dome so that it would stand up. The dome is so perfectly round on the inside that two people who stand at exactly the right places on opposite sides of it can hear each other whisper. Wren designed a lot of other great buildings, but St Paul's was his masterpiece. When he died, he was buried in the crypt of the cathedral with the epitaph "If you seek his monument - look around you."

Here are some pictures of me outside the cathedral:

Snow in Oxford

It snowed in Oxford today! I think the snow makes the old stone colleges look even more beautiful. Here are some pictures of me out for a walk in the snow.

--Benny