Advertisement
Published: March 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Wellington Arch
Just outside Hyde Park, not quite to Buckingham Palace... So, at this point I'm in London...We had checked in the hostel the night before and got up early to hit London and see as much as we could possible see in one day! So, quick shower, breakfast, made some sandwiches at breakfast to take with us...Jelly! And we were off!
The first thing we did was walk through Kensington and Hyde Parks. Just walking through those parks was cool. They're very beautiful, they have fountains, paths, statues, flowers, cool trees, ponds, and people all over the place doing all sorts of things....with their dogs, riding horses, feeding ducks, walking, runnings, biking. It was cool. We saw a memorial fountain to Princess Diana of Wales which was really neat...I'll try to put a picture of it up. It's an oval shaped fountain that's built on a small incline...it feeds from the top and the water pour down both sides going over different types of bottoms in the fountains so it bubbles and changes directions within it's bed. Then it runs together into a pool at the bottom. It's neat...there are three foot bridges that go over the water too so you can go into it...that's supposed to represent her "open
Buckingham Palac
Is it possible to go to London and not take a picture of this place?
and accepting nature" or something. Anyway, that was just one example of the cool stuff they had in the parks.
At the end of the parks we went through Hyd Park Corner, a big archway and Wellington Arch...which is a memorial park that has several different memorials in it. Then we trekked down a road to Buckingham Palace. We got ther at about 11:15. Well at 11:30 the changing of the guard ceremony began. It was neat to see, two different squads of the guardmen marched in, accompanied by marching bands-->which of course was the most exciting part to me! And then they stand around for a while, being yelled at by their leaders...a couple of them go marching aroun the perimeter of the palace, whil the rest just stand there and look at each other while the band accompaning the guards that are just going on duty places music. It was neat to see. A guy standing behind me while it was going on made the comment, "This is only slightly more boring than watching marching band." I wanted to to turn around and say, "well then you sir don't know a thing about marching band." But, I
A Horse Guard and I
Outside of the Royal Mounted Guard Building...or something like that. didn't, don't want to start fights with about 40 of Her Majesty's The Queen's best guardsmen right in front of me! lol
So, we left right before the end of the ceremony and headed to Picadilly's Circus. This is a big crazy intersection in London that has just about any store you'd ever want to shop at in it. Well, of course Laura and I hit up the souvernir shop. We bought post cards and stamps and one or two other little things. Well, at that point Laura wanted to try to find Leicester Square, where she had heard you could find tickets to the Shows in London. So we found the square and started inquiring at the several different ticket kiosks about tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera. We got tickets for 31 pounds. We sat down, wrote our postcards in Starbucks, then headed off to find Old Palace Yard, where Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and The London Eye are.
We found it without too much of a problem, except that it started to rain. So, we stepped under an overhang of a building and waited the rain out. Now, I have to explain
Waffles & Ice Cream!
Eating Waffles & Ice Cream under the London Eye...Big Ben is in the Background! something at this point. My roommate is from very close to Seattle, Washington. Where apparently, all it does is rain, so she doesn't mind the rain at all...as a matter of fact, she likes it! So, the whole time she was like, lets's go...and I was like, no! Well, we waited the rain out. lol
After the rain we checked out Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey (where we checked the Mass schedule for Sunday), and then walked across the bridge to see the London Eye. Now, for those of you who don't know, the London Eye is a huge ferris wheel. It has these huge cart things that peopl stand in, they probably each could hold about ten people comfortably. It takes about 45 minutes to ride, and as far as I could tell you only go around once. It is run by BritishAir...yes, that's an airline. It cost 15 pounds for an adult and children under 12 are free. Needless to say, at least I think, Laura and decided that we did not have 15 pounds to blow on a ride, so we skipped participating in that particular attraction. However, upon exiting the area, we did find a
Platform 9 3/4
I almost made it! little stand selling Waffles and Ice Cream! No, for 3.20 pounds...that was worth it! lol So, I had waffles and ice cream for the first time since last being at Beth's house in January under the London Eye, and with Big Ben in the background..I have pictures!! Only problem...they didn't have chocolate ice cream...what's up with that?!
So, after that we had seen/done just about everything we had planned on doing that day, and it was only about 3:30. We knew we should be heading back to the hostel to change and get ready for Phantom at around 5, but that gave us an hour and a half to blow. We had bought all day bus passes early in the day, so we decided to use them to go find King's Cross Train Station. Ok, now all of you who are lovers of good fiction books should have a few gears beginning to turn in your brains. Yes, this should ring a bell...think, think... King's Cross Station...home of Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter's Books! lol Yes, they actually have it marked! I again have pictures! They have a cart there that you can try to push throught
The London Eye
Really Cool to see....it's huge!! the wall to get to the platform. It was well worth the trip to London just to see this, I think! lol There were probably about a half dozen people that had stopped to look or take pictures of it while we were there, I do have to wonder though if they had purposefully sought it out like Laura and I had, or just accidentally wondered across it in their journeys? The world may never know
So, after that we trekked it back to our hostel to change and get ready for our night at the theatre. We hopped a bus to Picadilly Circus, close to Her Majesty's Theatre and were onour way to see The Phantom of the Opera in London. The theatre was gorgeous, and the musical was excellent. Only one problem, I now know why the seats we bought were only 31 pounds when the next listed price was 40 something...We sat directly on either side of a pole, which ran in our line of vision of the stage. But, it was quickly forgotten once the actors were on stage, because it was easy enough to look around. So, I enjoyed the musical a lot and always will be able to say, "I saw the Phantom of the Opera in Her Majesty's Theatre in London!"
Well, on our way to the theatre Laura and I had taken notice of the absolutely gorgeous and huge full moon that night. And as we left the theatre I looked for it again. Well, only about a 1/4 of it was visible! A lunar eclipse! If only I had known there was supposed to be one! Who was supposed to tell me? lol It was cool, especially since I found out that all of my friends and family on the East Coast were able to see it too...so, we were all looking at that same, big, beautiful moon that night together! aw..tear, tear!
So, that was our third day of travelling, we headed back to the hostel and collapsed!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0512s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
Platform 93/4 and Her Majesty's Theater...you are one lucky person!! Your father and I think that you should write for a living!! We laugh and enjoy reading all of your detailed descriptions of everyday happenings. Love you, Sweetie!! Mom PS We were watching the moon and thinking of you, too.