Wednesday, September 20, 2006

This is My Quest

So this weekend will be a momentous event in history. I'm going on a trip in a foreign country, by myself. I'm a little nervous, but it's something that I really want to do. My trip will start on Friday, as I will be leaving from the Grantham train station at about 10am. I'm then travelling to a train station in a town southwest of Birmingham called Kidderminster. I'm going to Kidderminster because it's the closest town to a smaller town called Rushock. What's in Rushock, you ask? Only the grave site of the best drummer from the best rock band in the history of music: John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, we lost Mr. Bonham to a night of heavy drinking, followed by sleeping on his back and then choking on his own vomit in his sleep. A very sad way to go, and just as sad that it caused the end of Led Zeppelin. I wanted to go and pay my respects to this pioneer of rock history. Then the same day I'm going back to the station to catch a train to Oxford. In Oxford on Friday I'm basically just going to my hostel, which I've already booked. I might see a few things at night, I don't know, because I don't really know what's in Oxford other than what I'm going for, which I will see the next day on Saturday. Saturday I am going to see some more historical sites with personal importance. I'm going to see the graves of J.R.R. Tolkien, the writer of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy among other books, and C.S. Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, and many others. They are both buried in Oxford, although in different places. I'm also going to see the pub called the Eagle and Child where Tolkien and Lewis and their other friends would go to hang out. I guess not many people know about it, basically just the fans of these two authors. I'll then see whatever else I find in Oxford, and then at night I'm traveling from Oxford to Salisbury, and staying overnight at a hostel close to Salisbury. Then Sunday morning I'm going to see Stonehenge; maybe if I get myself up early enough I can see Stonehenge at sunrise, although we'll have to see about that. I don't know if there are any other sites to see at Salisbury, so when I'm done there, I will take a 6-hour train ride back to Grantham, and then a short taxi-ride back to the manor. I think it's going to be a really fun trip, and I'll get to see things that have significance to me personally. I'm looking forward to it. Plus, it's an adventure to be had, a trek across England. A quest, for the Holy Grail. Well, probably not the Holy Grail, but I suppose it's still a quest. I will take lots of pictures, and write all about it when I get back.

1 comment:

Olivia said...

Okay, I literally started laughing out loud when I read how Bonham died. Not because that's funny, but because you typed it on here. So then I had to explain why I was laughing to Emily and Liz. They didn't think it was as funny as I did... oh well. ;) You crack me up. I can't wait for them to meet you. Haha. You better not act shy around them! Because I told them you were really hilarious, and I don't want you to make a liar out of me. :)