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Published: August 17th 2008
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Day 6: London Super Sightseeing
So we decided we had to do all of the touristy things because the students arrived the next day and we wouldn’t be able to do a lot of them once they were there. We had a bit of a late start because we decided to sleep in. We began our journey on foot and walked passed St. James Park which was beautiful and ended up a Buckingham Palace. It was a beautiful building, although not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more castle like- but instead it was a big white building. Beautiful gardens around and of course the guards that stand outside. You could go in and take a tour of some of the state rooms and dining rooms but we decided to try and see as much as we could which meant that we couldn’t go inside everything. We continued our walk and we went past Big Ben and Parliament, which are awesome looking structures. I think a lot of the architecture in Europe reminds me of sand castles as a kid. The kind of castle where you mix sand with water and drip it- that’s what
I think a lot of the gothic architecture reminds me of. Anyways, after Big Ben we found ourselves at Westminster Abbey- again another amazing structure. This we decided to go in. There are a lot of famous people buried there- Chaucer, Mary Queen of Scotts, Queen Victoria, Charles, a bunch of the Henry’s and more. Unfortunately you couldn’t take pictures inside but it was really beautiful. They give you a headset and you can listen to info about what you are seeing. It’s funny because all this history of Mary and the Henry’s I used to know and parts of it came back to me so it was cool to see. Then our next stop was going to be the Tower of London which was pretty far away from where we were. We walked over to the river to catch a tube and of course the tube line we needed was under repair and so we couldn’t take it. We met a nice man who told us which bus to take but it the bus stop didn’t seem to be where he thought it was so we walked across the river on a bridge and ended up seeing the Globe-
that was really exciting! We went in the lobby and looked around but didn’t do a tour or anything since we will be doing that with the students. We took some pictures and continued to walk. All day it rained off and on. And the rain in London is weird- kind of like spitting- it’s light which is nice but it always seemed gloomy and rainy. The smartest thing we packed were two nylon waterproof jackets! They are not the most attractive things- but they were warm and kept us dry. As we walked to the Tower of London we noticed the difference in architecture. Paris was very quaint and old. London had really old buildings next to a really modern building. We went through a very modern section and stopped for a coke! We needed a pick me up from all of the walking. Finally we made it to the Tower Bridge- what a cool bridge! We walked across it to go into the Tower of London! A Castle! Finally I saw my first castle! It was soooo cool to see. By the time we made it to the box office it was 4:30 and the tower closes at
5:30 so the guy told us not to go in because we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything. So all walking that and we didn’t get to go inside. We sat down and just looked at it for while and reviewed our schedule for the rest of the week and planned a time to come back so we could go inside. After a break we decided to catch a bus and go to Kennsington. Well…. The bus took FOREVER because of the traffic. We were on the bus for about an hour and 20 minutes of it was spent going one block- through Picadelly Circus (our favorite place) we decided to get off the bus at the circus and headed straight for the tube to go back to the hotel. After a rest we decided we did want to go to Kennsington- to see it- and have dinner there. Adam wanted to take me to Harrods (which I didn’t know) but it is the worlds largest department store so when we got off the tube we walked towards it but it was closed. Another thing about London we learned- unlike Paris where everything is open late in London everything
shuts down early. The stores close- the bars close at 11 or midnight and then the clubs open- so if you want to be out at night you have to find a club. Anyway- we saw Harrods from the outside- it wasn’t even lit up so the picture is pretty dark. We hopped back on the tube for one more stop to where we thought there was going to be action but… no… it was dark and not too many people around. We found an Argentine restaurant and decided to give it a try. Quite different. But not too bad. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to sleep and to prepare for the arrival of the students.
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