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Published: December 29th 2008
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A Photo Must
If you go to London you have to take your photo in a phone booth So I went to school the 2 days while Steve and Julie where in Paris and got some stuff finished up before heading off to London. My flight going to London had a layover in Paris but only for like 2 hours. I got to the airport a little more than 2 hours early which was really lucky since I got to the counter and the woman said my flight was cancelled. She then told me that I was in luck and another flight was leaving in 30 minutes and I should be fine. So I quickly went to my gate and boarded the plane. I got into Paris and waited an extra hour since I arrived earlier being on the earlier flight. I was supposed to get into London 2 hours before my friends and I had the hotel information. In London I went towards the Underground subway and bought a ticket to the closest stop near our hotel. The ride should have only taken 1 hour but with my luck it ended up taking 2 hours. I got out of the Underground Station and thought I could find the hotel easy but since London doesn’t think they need street
Tower of London
Pretty cool Fort that has seen many years and lots of repairs signs I walked around for 40 minutes before just getting a taxi and telling them to take me straight to the hotel. I got to the hotel and found that my friends beat me there by 15 minutes.
The next morning we started our sightseeing of London. We first went to the Tower of London. It is a really old fort or castle. I was supposed to be the place that they kept Queen Elizabeth I prisoner. Also right near there is the London Bridge. We walked along the river for a while looking at the London Bridge and decided we would head towards St. Paul’s Cathedral. We got there and found out unlike Germany you have to pay to tour the Churches in London. It was a pretty cool church and had a really interesting crypt with many famous military heroes buried there. It also gave you some really cool views of the city after climbing the tower. We then headed towards the House of Parliament and Big Ben. Big Ben was another one of those sights that makes you feel like you have seen Europe. We finished the day by seeing a little bit of West Minster Abbey.
Tower Bridge
Really amazing structure on the river. The next day was Julie’s birthday and she really wanted to see Buckingham Palace and the change of the guards. We headed there first thing in the morning. I had no idea that the changing of the guards was a huge parade and not just a couple of people marching and changing places. It was pretty cool to see and the guards even played Christmas songs. After that we decided it would be fun to see a museum in London. We headed to the British museum that houses lots of Egyptian artifacts and the Rosetta Stone. We then went to the London Eye once it got dark. The London Eye is this huge Ferris wheel that gives you great views of the city and we thought seeing it at night would be pretty cool. We had a great dinner at a Sherlock Holmes themed restaurant and headed back to the hotel since we both had early flights. I said goodbye to my friends and boarded my plane to Amsterdam then Dusseldorf. Of course in Amsterdam I almost missed my connection but luckily I was one of the last people on the flight.
I had made plans that weekend to meet
a friend in Heidelberg, Germany. So that meant once I got off my plane I had 2 hours before my train left. I just hung around since it wasn’t enough time to go home. I got on my train and arrived in Heidelberg at around 6pm. We spent the night going to the Christmas Markets in Heidelberg before going back to the hostel. The next morning we did our sightseeing around town. They have a pretty cool castle that is on a mountain overlooking the city. We toured around the castle for a while and then headed towards a couple old bridges in the old city. Heidelberg has one of the oldest Universities in Germany. It was founded in 1362 and we even saw an old University prison that was used for students when they broke the rules.
I had to leave early on Sunday since I was going to a special church service with my host family that the kids would be acting out the nativity scene. Overall it was a super busy week traveling and I was glad to be home and relax before Christmas.
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