For our last day in England, our schedule consisted of a London street art tour in the A.M. The tour lasted approximately 2-2.5 hours, and occupied our entire morning. During the tour, we walked around a small portion of the city of London viewing rather distinct and unusual art work that covered buildings and walls, light posts, road signs, restaurants, etc. The media used by the artists consisted of a wide variety of art materials, some of which were quite unique and non-traditional, such as the sticker art work; yes, some of the art work was represented by a mere sticker. Other art media used to cover the city and streets included spray paint, ink, news papers, and plain old paint. Once the lengthy tour ended and our dogs and tummies began to bark, our tour guide kindly directed us to a good old fashioned, completely American themed restaurant- a burger joint.
By the time we had our fill of familiar food and drink, it was time to move on to our next sight-seeing destination for the afternoon, the London Tower! Once our herd of Auburn students "minded the gap" and boarded the tube (underground train), with our group leaving very little room for other passengers on the train, we sped along to our historic destination and next adventure. After we got off the tube, we took a short stroll down a lovely, busy part of London that appeared to be the business district, turned a corner and saw the large and beautiful London Tower beckoning us to enter her historic and people filled, high-towered walls. What a sight indeed! Once we entered the tall fortress, we broke into buddy pairs to divide and conquer as much as we could in our 3 hour time frame. So much history is held within this beautiful, man-made creation: the Crown Jewels, the execution and beheading area in the court yard (which was represented by too lovely of a monument, in my opinion), the Royal Armories in the White Tower, the Torture Tower, and more. We had quite a day! Once our allotted time for the London Tower was up, our fearless leaders gave us permission to tour other places such as Winchester Cathedral, Big Ben, etc. as long as we stayed in groups.
And so, wonderful public horticulture readers, that concludes our trip and tour of the beautiful country of England, and a few of her nearby countries! Sunday morning arrived, as usual after Saturday, and we boarded our taxi-van to the airport. We bade our ancestral country farewell, hoping to return again someday, and boarded the plane that would fly us back across "the pond" to our mother country. Once we touched down in that sweet southern state named after one of England's kings, whom I met in Hampton Court, I could have kissed the Georgia clay! England was wonderful, and a once-in-a-lifetime trip filled with memories and people I hope to never forget, but there is nothing like coming home and absolutely nothing like coming home to the U. S. A.! I missed the sweet tea belt more than I knew, and I immediately called my family once I was granted cell phone service again.
Keep checking back for new blogs from new faces and events, dear readers! Our new class of students will have much to share once they begin posting about their time as a public hort student and later, when they embark on their week-long trip to the annual American Public Gardens Association (APGA) meeting mid-June held in Denver, CO.
Until next time, friends!
-Hilary
From L-R: Hanna Pettus
Kira Chaloupka
Savannah Duke
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