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Tower Bridge
Jenna and I in front of Tower Bridge Had an early wake up call for Friday so we could shower and go pick up our passes to see all the London sites. Jenna, Tyler, and I went around for the two days we had the pass. On Friday we started at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was so much more interesting than I expected. We ended up staying half the morning there. The architecture was so extravagant and there were so many beautiful views. We started the climb up the cathedral and got to the whispering level and got to walk around the interior of the dome of the cathedral. We met the goofiest man, but he was all about telling versus the information and teaching us the whisper trick. We all sat at different points of the circle and whispered to the wall and it travelled around. I was able to pull out my British accent and whisper around for entertainment to others. Continuing the climb we made it to the first outdoor platform around the dome. There were some great views of the areas surrounding St. Paul’s Cathedral. We finished the 564 step climb to the top level of the outdoor dome. Here I was able to have
vies of the entire city. I could see Tower Bridge, Big Ben and the area of our flats. After climbing back down all the steps I 1) felt relief from not being so high and 2) we were then off to our next destination. Our next stop as London Passers was the London Bridge where they have the “London Bridge Experience.” Well to say the least this was an experience. The second half was essentially a haunted house. Just a bit of my favorite things all thrown together: people jumping out at me, dark caves and figures attacking. Some say FUN! But I say get me out! Though, it was a fun experience and a story to tell. At one point we got to an ‘unknown’ and the girl leading our group stopped to say “I don’t know where to go or what to do, so can’t an American go first?” Always entertainment. By the end our train had gone from 13 to 4. So at least I can say I survived and finished the experience. We then walked down the Thames to the Tower Bridge. Here we were able to climb up the side posts and walk across the
bride in a skyscraper to the other side. We wandered around the control room as well to see how it works for the bridge to go up. This led us to the Tower of London. You could spend days wandering around this. We had to put on our supersonic speed to get through in an hour and a half. My favorite part was the crown jewels room - SURPRISE, surprise! The jewels they hold in thee are quite extravagant, probably valuing up to over billions. I’m thinking pretty soon I’ll have my own collection - in my dreams. There was also an area with all the collections of full body armor and defense mechanisms from hundreds of years ago. We had to rush home so Jenna and I could change and meet up with the rest of the gang to go see the Dirty Dancing performance. It was absolutely amazing. “I had the time of my life…” It was our friend’s, Elizabeth, birthday so after the show we went to a little Italian place and had appetizers and drinks. There was a large group of girls so it was fun. Saturday brought a new day and new adventures. We started
Tower of London
The guard at the Jewel House off the day by walking around Regent’s Park. There was a run for breast cancer around the park. There were thousands participating so there were just seas of pink all around the park. We had to find out our way because we were just a little lost so at points we just joined in the 5K. Luckily my favorite color is pink so I conveniently had in on - so I almost could have pulled off being part of the run. We found our way to the zoo and got to see all the animals. It was such a beautiful weekend that it was just so nice to be hanging outside. The zoo had some good exhibits, but it was more fun just wandering around the zoo and being outside. My favorite animal there was the zebra. From the zoo we began the trek out to Wimbledon. It takes about an hour and a half to make it there. So we had plenty of down time. The tube stop we were supposed to get off at was closed so we had to figure out buses and walking to get there. By this point we were all feeling like tube experts
London
Working across Tower Bridge - Mind the Gap! We made it to Wimbledon just in time for our tour to begin. I had the same tour guide as I did the last time I was there! Such a different tour though. I’m so glad I went back again because I got to see Center Court and this tour was all about the Championship so I learned all about that. All the grass is growing and ready to go for the championships. We were able to sit in the stadium right off the grass on court 18 to see what it was like. I would love to be able to get into a match and be that up close and personal with the players. The tour ended at 4:45 and the café closed at 5, so we had to hustle to get to the café so we could get our strawberries and crème. YUM! There were just enough bowls left that we could each get one - good thing we beat out the rest of the tour! They were just delicious. Now I just need to get back during the championships and eat them on the hill. After we filled up on our afternoon snack
St. Paul's Cathedral
Outside the Jewel House we started to make the trek back into the city. We found that with our London Pass we were able to get a free five pounds off at a souvenir shop, so we decided to stop by there on our way home. I was able to find a soccer jersey for the big game on Monday evening. Prepped and ready to go for Monday we ventured out to see what kind of food we could find for dinner. We ended up eating at a restaurant called All Bar One. I still have yet to figure out the name of the restaurant, but it was delicious. They had a mix of all types of intricate, different foods. I had a chicken dish that was very tasty. After dinner we headed back to the flat and were all exhausted from the day. So we took it easy and hung around the flats and got ready for our big day on Sunday. Sunday morning we got up and got ready to head over to Brighton. Brighton is a city on the coast of the English Channel. Somehow when we got to the station to buy our tickets we scored an amazing deal. The
London Bridge
having fun in the tower guy told me he was going to give me a two for one deal. It was Emily, Jenna, Tyler and I who went, and the guy ended up giving us a buy-one-get-three-free essentially. So we were all very happy that was our destination and that it was very cheap. The town is crazy. The second you get off the train we found a “beach town.” Everyone was so laid back and wandering around with no cares. As we worked our way down to the pier we found a neat, little fish and chips shop. It was right on the water so we were able to enjoy the view while we ate our food. So many eclectic people were walking around the strip of beach. It was not the typical sand beach, but a beach with pebbles. After lunch we worked our way to the Royal Pavilion which is the main attraction of Brighton. It is a “Taj-Mahal” influenced style building. It seemed very out of place in the middle of the city. But it was an extravagant building and very beautiful on the inside. After walking around the groups of the Royal Pavilion we made our way back to the
Tower of London
back inside the cathedral beach to lie down for a little while. The pebbles were actually much more comfortable than I expected. We caught a few sun rays before venturing back to the train station. Once we got back to the flats we all got cleaned up, ate and got ready for the big day of starting work with our competitive teams.
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