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Published: October 4th 2007
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On Saturday my RHUL friends and I took our first trip into London! It's pretty convienent to get into the city from our school, but the campus itself is out in the countryside although it's associated with the University of London. The train station is about a mile away from the college so it's a pretty easy walk or there's a shuttle that goes there. We left bright and early Saturday morning to walk to the train station and get a train before 9 AM. (It wasn't exactly bright and sunny...you never know what the weather will do here!) The train got us into Waterloo Station by 9:30. After taking some touristy pictures we met up with Sarah's friend who is going to school at University College London and knows the city quite well.
Our first stop was to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The Gallery is free and had some beautiful and interesting paintings. My friend Erin is an art history major so she plans on going back quite often to study the paintings. After the museum, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the steps of the Gallery overlooking Trafalgar Square. Eatting on the steps was a
great place to people watch and see the scenery, but I wasn't a fan of the pigeons that like to make friends with people who happen to drop food at their feet. As we were eatting the sun began peeking through the clouds. You never know what the weather will do in England. It could be sunny and warm one minute and rainy and cold the next! Some of the best advice I've gotten from my flatmates is to always carry an umbrella - you never know when you will need it. The past few days have been rainy and dreary all day. Usually there are intervals of clouds and sun. Today (knock on wood!) is a beautiful fall day but it could start raining any minute!
After our lunch, we decided to take a tour on a double decker bus. It's a very touristy thing to do, but we wanted to see all of the hot tourist spots on our first day so we can figure out what we want to spend more time on and explore more. The bus was a great way to see the city. We were able to get on and off as often
as we wanted to see different areas of London. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. Although you can only do tours in the summer, of course we had to take pictures and try to catch a glimpse of some royalty. Unfortunately, there were no signs of the princes but we did get some other nice pictures.
After that, we rode by Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Westminster closes early on Saturdays but we planned to go back another day to tour it. I would love to see a tour of Parliament, but they only do that during the summer also. We rode around on the bus checking out the sites from the top of the bus. A few interesting things I learned: Big Ben actually refers to the bell, not the clock tower itself. The clock tower is St. Stephen's tower, but everyone calls it Big Ben! Also, the US Embassy is the only embassy in the world not owned by the US. The land it is built on is owned by a Duke who refuses to give it up unless we give back his land. The US doesn't like the idea of giving up North Carolina, so the Duke
St. Paul
This is where Mary Poppins sang "Feed the Birds"...though I don't recommend feeding the pigeons! continues to own our embassy.
Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral, where I had never been before. The cathedral is beautiful and there was actually a wedding going on when we were there. (Apparently you have to know someone pretty important to hold your ceremony there, but I'll see if I can find some connections) After St. Paul's we went to Embankment Pier to try to take a boat ride that went with our bus ticket, but due to mechanical problems the 6PM boat wasn't leaving. That was ok though, because next weekend we'll be going on two boat tours. On Saturday, Muhlenberg is hosting a luncheon cruise and ride on the London Eye for Muhlenberg students studying in London as well as Alumni. Then on Sunday we are going with Royal Holloway to the Tower of London which we think also includes a boat ride.
After our unsuccessful attempt at the boat ride, we decided to get our first fish and chips in London. We went to a pub in Covent Garden, a quaint section of London. The fish and chips were delicious and after eatting, we walked around Covent Garden a bit. Then we headed
back on the train to Egham and got home around 9PM. It was a great (but tiring!) day. My friends went back again on Sunday but I was going to try to get a lot of things done around here (which didn't really happen). However, we all went back Wednesday to see some more sights.
I had class until 1 on Wednesday and my friends wanted to go earlier so they'd have more time. They wanted to go to the National Gallery, which I didn't need to go back to, so I took the train into London to meet them after my class. I walked to meet them in Trafalgar Square and it was a beautiful day for a walk along the Thames! My flatmates told me that after a few years here, they get tired of seeing Big Ben from the Jubilee Bridge, but I can't imagine ever tiring of seeing it. After I met them, we did a tour of Westminster Abbey, which was beautiful. All of the tombs are so elaborate and interesting. My favorite is always seeing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier "They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward
God and toward his House", as his inscription said. The unknown soldier is the most recent body to actually be buried in the abbey, though there have been more recent ashes.
Yesterday I also had my first "tube" experience! I have been on it before when I went with Aunt Pat & Uncle Steven, but this time it was just me and my friends navigating! It's definitely a confusing system but it's convienent. I bought an Oyster Card, which gives you discounts on the tube rides rather than paying 4 pounds per ride (which is pretty pricey) and you just keep a tab on the card. We took the tube to Oxford Circus (right next to Picadilly) and did some shopping, and then took the tube back to Waterloo. It's so exciting to be able to hop onto a train and get into London in under an hour. I hope to be taking many more trips there because there is still so much to explore! My friends and I made up a list of places we would like to travel to while in Europe. Three months is such a short amount of time to do extensive traveling in, but
we'll see what we can do. This weekend, we're traveling to Scotland! My friend's friend is studying in Edinburgh so she is going to show us around. It will be my first hostel experience (which should be quite interesting). I'm sure Scotland is beautiful and I'm not sure if I would ever have decided to go there on my own, but studying in the UK offers the perfect opportunity to visit. I'll write all about it when I return Sunday!
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