London!

The trip started off right away with an exciting moment: my first passport stamp of the semester!!! Although I’ve traveled to lots of different countries, London was the first country outside of the continental EU and the only time I’ve had to go through customs.  After going through customs, I met up with my friend Alexis at the airport and we had our first experience navigating the tube to get back to our hostel. Although the English language is apparent in each country I have traveled, it was nice to be able to understand what everyone around us was saying and to be able to read all of the signs. When we finally reached our stop and were able to get out of the crowded, stuffy subway, we were shocked to see that it was completely dark outside. It was barely 5 pm! We found our way to the hostel, which was a more dangerous walk than expected because at each crosswalk we forgot to look the opposite way for oncoming traffic and had to jump back on the curb many times to avoid cars coming in the seemingly wrong direction. We quickly noticed that at each crosswalk on the ground it either says "look right" or "look left". Luckily, made it to the hostel safely and met up with the rest of our friends (3 other girls from Richmond). We headed out to explore the area and I immediately saw all of the London ‘stereotypes’. The streets were lined with red phone booths, charming taxis and the red double decker transport buses! I was also shocked to see so many Christmas decorations. It was only the first week of November… And I thought America was aggressively early in getting into the Christmas spirit! We decided to eat at a pub to try some authentic English food and filled up on fish and chips and cider. Again, we were all so relived to finally understand the menu and be assured that there was no language barrier between the waiter and we knew exactly what food we were getting. (It’s always questionable as to what you are really going to get when you order in other countries.) Although we were stuffed after dinner, we were so excited to see a Whole Foods that we had to go in and see if they had all of the American food that we were missing. We were immediately greeted by stacks of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies- something that I now realize is a strictly American treat. We got cookies and hot chocolate and continued to explore the area and enjoy all of the holiday decorations.

The next morning we set out for a packed day of sightseeing. We first walked through Hyde Park where we saw the Kensington Palace which is an official residence of the British Royal family and is where Princess Diana lived and where William and Kate now live. We did not have time to tour the inside, but we walked through all of the gardens which were really pretty with the changing leaves. We continued through the park all the way to the Buckingham Palace which was really pretty and looked just like it did on TV during the Royal Wedding, but it was so crowded with tourists. We didn’t get a chance to see the changing of the guards, but we could see the many guards in their elaborate uniforms that stood outside of the doors.

Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace! 

From Buckingham Palace we could see the London Eye and we headed in that direction. Before reaching the Eye, we came across Westminster Abbey which was much bigger than I expected. We were there on Veterans Day weekend and outside of the church there were hundreds of monuments full of fake red poppy flowers which are the flower that represents remembering the veterans in England. All throughout the city for the rest of the weekend, we saw many people with little paper poppy flowers pinned to their jackets. 

Veterans Memorial 

Westminster Abbey

Due to veterans ceremonies we were not allowed to go inside Westminster Abbey so we went over to see Big Ben! Big Ben is attached to the parliament buildings and line the river where the bridge crosses over to the London Eye. I was so amazed by how expansive the parliament buildings are and can definitely see why Big Ben is such an icon for London. After taking lots of pictures on our way across the bridge, we went on the London Eye. It moved very slowly- you could barely feel that it was moving, but it gave us more great views of the city, especially of Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. 

View from the top of the London Eye!

After the London Eye we headed to the Piccadily Circus area, which is an area with many big monuments and shops, and had lunch. After lunch we took the tube to the London Tower and London Bridge. We were really excited to go in the London Tower because we had heard that it was one of the sights we definitely had to see because it is where all of the Crown Jewels are on display. However, we got to the ticket office five minutes after the ticket sales had closed for the day and were not able to go in. We tried to talk to the guards and convince them to let us in but had no luck. Fortunately, we had time the next morning to plan to come back and we were able to see the London Bridge just as it was lighting up which was so pretty. 

After lots of pictures under the London Bridge, we took to tube back towards the city center and stopped at the St. Paul’s Cathedral and walked towards covenant square. We walked through this huge shopping square which looked like a mini times square with lots of lights and big stores and of course, crowds of tourists. By the time we reached convenant square we were all so tired of walking and quickly found a place to have dinner. We ended up staying at the restaurant for a few hours and headed back to the hostel- all so amazed by how much sightseeing we were able to pack into one day.

The next morning we found a pancake restaurant and had huge Dutch pancakes for breakfast. It was a Dutch restaurant and almost made me feel like I was back in Amsterdam! We made our second attempt to see the Tower of London and made it in plenty of time to see it all. I thought that the Tower was just a small enclosed tower that held the Crown Jewels, so I was shocked to see that it was much bigger than that. The Tower of London is actually a large castle that has been used for many different purposes, most famously as the site of torture and executions that were ordered by Queen Elizabeth I. Similar to visiting the Palace of Versailles in Paris, everything that I had learned in AP European History started to come back to me. We first went to see the display of the Crown Jewels which was really interesting because it is amazing how well preserved all of the jewels were. I really like seeing all of the pictures of the Kings and Queens wearing layers and layers of the jewels and I can’t ever imagine wearing any of it! After the jewels we went through one of the towers and saw all of the armor that was used for the various battles that England was involved in. We then went through the torture chamber which was pretty eerie but also interesting. We walked through a few more of the exhibits and decided that we had had enough history for one trip! We took more pictures of the London Bridge (my favorite thing I saw in the city), and then I had to head to the airport. I was disappointed that I never got to see Harrods, the huge department store, but I was so impressed that I got to see as much as I did in just a day and a half.

View from inside of the Tower of London

Overall, I really loved the city and it kind of gave me a little taste of America with all of the American food and shops!