Day 1: Elise and I took a Ryanair flight to London. We got
to stay in Jeri and Kristen’s flat, which was really nice! We got there at 2 in
the morning, and slept very soundly in their huge bunk beds.
Day 2: We had decided to do one of the hop on, hop off bus
tours of London on the double decker buses. We were also still in the process
of figuring out London’s underground system. They have all the different
colored station lines, but the thing is that sometimes the lines themselves
branch off to different stops, even though it’s still the same line. Thank god
Elise figured it out, and how to read their maps.
Our first stop on the bus was St. Paul’s Cathedral. I have
to admit it was kind of a letdown as the first stop, just looking at it from
the outside. I’m sure the inside was beautiful, but we didn’t want to pay the
12ish pounds to go in.
We went back on the bus and got our first glimpse of the
London Bridge, and got to go over it!
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| I had "London Bridge" by Fergie stuck in my head for a bit |
Also passed by the Tower of London, which still had some of
the red (ceramic?) poppies up as part of the tribute to the First World War.
That was really cool to see.
Our first view of the Big Ben and the London Eye!
I thought the Parliament Building and Big Ben were both
gorgeous. The amount of detail is crazy. Right across the street is also
Westminster Abbey. Everything is so big in person!
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| Westminster |
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| So Big Ben is actually the name of the bell, and the tower is the Elizabeth Tower |
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| So many selfies with Big Ben. |
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| Such a tourist |
We walked around Oxford Street, which is the big shopping
street, as well as Regent’s. They were starting to light their Christmas
lights, which was really cool among all the bustling people-so many people.
Hamley’s is a 6 or 7 floor toy store. That was packed too,
and employees were everywhere demonstrating their new toys.
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| Lego guards killing it |
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| The Royal Family in legos |
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| Hello Hamley |
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| 3 story M&M store |
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| They have English bulldogs, Big Ben, the flag, and the crown on them! Elise got them custom made |
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| Beatles M & Ms! |
We wandered around some more and got dinner in Chinatown,
which was a good rest for my feet, and also the best Asian food I’ve had since
I’ve been here, which actually isn’t saying much, but it is something.
Next was Trafalgar Square. Some cool statues, but the main
draw was the National Gallery. It’s an impressive art museum PLUS it’s free! We
didn’t know how many famous paintings were there. It was nice we have around
the same taste in art, and we enjoyed the Monet and Van Gogh!
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| The green in the distance is Big Ben! |
-Just writing this out, I’m so impressed with how much we
did that day! And there’s still more!-
Then it was back on the underground to go to Buckingham
Palace, where the Queen lives! It was pretty quiet at night, and even though
there wasn’t any cool royal guards, we enjoyed the peacefulness of it.
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| Hullo queen, let us crazies in! |
That was close to Hyde Park, so we decided to go to Winter
Wonderland, the huge Christmas market and basically Christmas carnival. There
were tons of rides, and food, and Christmas market stalls!
We finally called it a day, and struggled through the crowds
to the subway to Camden, and knocked out.
Day 2: Windsor, Stonehenge, Oxford
Today was the coach tour! Started with navigating the
underground as usual- we were getting better at it. First we went to Windsor
Castle, also where the queen lives. Our tour was randomly a bilingual tour, so
the guide said everything in Spanish and English. I practiced listening and
understanding Spanish for Barcelona.
Windsor Castle is located in a cute town called Windsor. You couldn't take pictures of the inside of the state apartments, so here's what it is like outside. The inside was pretty cool; there was one of the queen's dollhouses, all the sets of dishes they have, as well as the apartments themselves.
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| I was chasing the guards with my camera |
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| St. George's Chapel |
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| Not my pic, but there's a sense of what it was like! |
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| Some people were taking selfies with him, but I was too intimidated |
Stonehenge, like I’ve told some people, is so unreal and
surreal to see in person. I think it was my favorite part of the tour. The gift
shop is a dangerous place, I wanted to get so many prints and postcards…
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| Eek! This picture probably best shows how cool it is. |
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| See the arches where they had the infirmary?
We tried to go to Harrod's the famous department store, but didn't get there in time to actually go in. I was definitely still satisfied with looking at the store front window displays. They were amazing.
  
Day 3: Elise and I actually let ourselves sleep in for a bit.
Travelling is exhausting. We were going to try to go to Tower of London, but we
decided to just do something close by, like exploring this market right by us.
Jeri and Kristen live in the Camden area, which goes over a river with locks to
move boats across. Every day they have a pretty famous market with food stalls,
arts and crafts, vintage items, and clothes. I really enjoyed the area, and the
stalls were endless. It was raining pretty hard, so that was interesting with a
broken umbrella and wet feet, but I’m so glad we explored one specific area of
London!
Then we headed back to the room to grab our stuff, and get to the tube, to get the shuttle to the airport. We thought we were running late, but so was the shuttle. We learned that souvenir shops are very dangerous places for us- there was a big one in the airport terminal. In my defense, I got gifts for other people too!
And as a final note, I found I love the bustle of big cities- but to visit, not all the time! I loved the feel of London, and using the Tube, and just all the sights. When we were coming back from Winter Wonderland after it had just closed with everyone else who was just there, squished in the Tube like that, I imagined doing this during a commute every day and didn't like that thought. But it's an amazing place to visit and I know there's still a lot left to see!
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