London

Fellow followers:

I want to apologize for the lack of blog posts lately! With homework and exploring I have been so busy that the blog took the back burner to everything else.

This past weekend I took a wonderful trip to London! It was such a beautiful sight and the history was awesome! We visited the Tower of London, London Bridge, Big Ben, the parliament buildings, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, The National Gallery, and The Museum of Natural History.  Getting to all of these places via the London Tube was an interesting experience.  The Tube consisted of what felt like millions of stairs and escalators that never ended! Needless to say this caused foot pain in both me and my fellow travelers! 

When Amanda and I first arrived in London we met up with Nate, who had already been in London for a day, and tried to find the hostel.  Even though we were back in our native language, we were so confused by the maps and roads that it took us two hours to find the hostel!  We took a short nap since we woke up at 4am to fly to London and then were on our way! The first day we mainly walked around looking at sights.  First up was Big Ben and then it was followed by Parliament and Westminster Abbey from the outside.  Then, we made our way to the National Gallery and saw the great works of Ruebens and Van Gogh among other artists.  This was a great break from being outside in the sun and gave us a chance to see some absolutely amazing art work!  After this, we decided to head over to river to see all the monuments lit up at night.  It was amazing to see Big Ben lit up! 

The second day, we all toured the Tower of London and learned the history of the castle.  We also got to see the Crown Jewels exhibit of all of the jewels of the royal families throughout the years and then got to see an exhibit named Fit for a King which showed us all the types of armor that knights wore. Then, Amanda and I headed to Westminster Abbey to take a tour.  Nate did this the day before so he did his own thing while we were there.  I really wish I could have taken photos so that I could show you all how absolutely wonderful it was on the inside.  It was breathtakingly stunning and there was so much history there! I never knew that great writers and artists were buried here, such as Shakespeare and Bach. The ornateness of the pillars and the ceilings were so pretty I could only just stand and stare in awe of the beauty.  We then moved on to the London Eye where we took a 30 minute ride on the huge ferris wheel like machine.  I got amazing panoramic photos of the monuments below and enjoyed the relaxing ride.  

The last day, Amanda and I headed for Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  I was kind of disappointed with the changing of the guard just because there were hundreds of thousands of people there to see it and we couldn't see anything.  We could hear the band and catch a glimpse of the guards every now and then but only from a camera raised above everyone else's heads.  We also couldn't tour the Palace due to construction while the Queen is gone.  We then headed over to a shopping area and got to visit the famous Harrod's department store.  It was full of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Jimmy Choo and so many other brands I couldn't even afford to try on! So we left there and shopped the much cheaper yet stores. Due to tired feet we actually took a break and went to see a movie while in London.  We saw Robin Hood and enjoyed every minute of it! It was a much needed break for our feet.

We then stayed at a hotel by the airport overnight and were up bright and early at 4am again to catch our flight home on Monday morning.  

The trip was an amazing opportunity and I am very grateful for being able to go! I can now say that I've "minded the gap" and had a pint in London!