the lake district and other adventures

 We took our first road trip these last four days and it was wonderful.  Early Wednesday morning we got up early and headed up towards Ambleside in the Lake District with a stop in Manchester to see the Manchester City Art Gallery and Manchester Town Hall.  It was really great to learn about Manchester's history and especially the history behind the town hall. We even got to see several rooms that are normally closed because we happened to be there when no one was having meetings.  The tour guide was also careful to point out some alleys within the town hall courtyards that were used for filming the most recent Sherlock Holmes film.  

When we finally made it to Ambleside we had to get dinner.  Luckily some friends and I found a delicious pub called "The White Lion" that was so good, we went there the next night for dinner.  I had my first fish and chips of this trip and it was wonderful, really well done.  While in the Lake District we got to stay in adorable Bed and Breakfasts.  Ours was called Lakes Lodge and it was the perfect location for exploring the town.
The next morning we headed out to explore the area a bit and first went to Brantwood, former home of John Ruskin, a famous art critic during the Victorian era.  His home is situated on hundreds of acres so of course they are several walking paths as well as a dock out onto the lake. It was beautiful and I loved it.  Our second home of the day was Wordsworth's but it was closed and so we ended up walking around the grounds a bit but it wasn't nearly as amazing as Ruskin's.  Our final stop of the day was Castelrigg, a stone formation similar to Stonehenge but not as big nor well preserved.

The next morning we headed off towards Liverpool, stopping in Preston to get a church history tour from a local.  It was really interesting though the headsets weren't working very well so that plus the blustery weather made it difficult to enjoy.  There is some great church history there.

In Liverpool we first stopped at the Walker Art Gallery where we some more Pre-Raphaelite art (seemingly the whole point of the trip) as well as a range of interesting other exhibits.  One of which was about Barack Obama and his campaign and later inauguration.  It was a novel idea and while I didn't agree with everything the artist said, it was well done.

Next up, The Beatles Story!  This was ridiculously fun and very personalized.  You could learn as much (or as little) as you wanted about their backgrounds, the formation of the band and their subsequent success.  We had some great fun taking photographs and posing with the exhibits.  I had a blast, especially with them playing Beatles music throughout the experience.

Sorry this is such a long post, but I'm almost done!  Our last day we stopped in Port Sunlight at the Lade Lever Gallery.  Port Sunlight was a model village, started by the Lever brothers to house and take care of their factory workers.  It was unheard of at that time and many saw it as a huge risk, but it paid off and they became even wealthier.  The museum was cool (though I don't remember much).  From there we went to Birmingham to their city galleries.  The highlight was definitely a Government Art Exhibit which included works of art from different government agencies and embassies around the world.  This is the first time its been collected all together and it was really awesome.

P.S. We went to our first musical, "Kiss Me, Kate" and it was wonderful. I loved it! It was hilarious and so well done. [a link to the poster in case anyone is interested]  I am so excited for the rest of the six musicals that we will see this semester!