This blog post is by far the most overdue! I give you my sincerest apologies, but school got the better of me and I had no time to write sooner.
Back in May, I planned a trip to England with Gia, one of my Saint Mary's friends. We had an easy and short flight over to London where we promptly exchanged our euros for pounds and caught a bus into the city. The bus company had an excellent sense of humor and displayed it with a large sign on the sides of their buses proclaiming, "Even Ryanair passengers welcome!" Gia and I died
laughing!
Our bus dropped us off right across from the Sherlock Holmes Museum so of course we had to investigate. The museum was a bit out of our price range but we did snoop around the gift shop which felt like a shrine to all things Sherlock. There were detective hats, pipes, souvenirs, canes, and more! There also had a collection of teapots including some shaped like toilets, baths, and sinks!
After poking around the gift shop we unfolded our map and set off to hostel. We were deceived into thinking we didn't have a long way to walk, so we didn't get on the Tube immediately. This quickly proved to be a mistake as it began to downpour. We made it to the hostel eventually and after drying off and resting our feet for a little bit, we headed back out and made our way to the famous department store Harrods. It had everything! There were food, pets, furs, toys, sports equipment, jewelry, makeup, shoes, and accessories. Gia and I even found bulletproof clothing! My favorite area was of course the toys. They had giant stuffed animals, intricate doll houses, Legos, remote-control helicopters, and William and Kate Barbies. I also enjoyed petting the ermine fur coat (though I'm not sure that saleswomen appreciated that I did so). As fun as it was to look at everything for sale, I loved just looking at the different rooms too. Each one had a different theme. There were mosaics of hunting parties, chandeliers of grapes, and escalators inspired by ancient Egypt. I've never had so much fun shopping and not buying anything in my life! When Harrods closed, Gia and I headed back to the hostel and got some sleep to prepare for our next day
We started off the morning by stopping at a grocery store to get some food for the day and then hopped on the Tube to go to Buckingham Palace. We arrived just in time to get a good view of the changing of the guard. Those tall, fuzzy hats must really slow the guards down because after watching for 30 minutes they still weren't finished. Gia and I decided that we'd seen enough, so we took a stroll through St. James's Park where we saw some strange birds and got a lovely view of the London Eye. This only inspired us to see it up close so we got back on the Tube again. Standing by the London Eye we saw a beautiful view of Big Ben and the House of Parliament. We crossed the River Thames and saw Westminster Abbey as well.
 |
| Tower Bridge |
With all of these historical monuments impressing their greatness on our memories, we felt motivated to visit one more famous site: the London Bridge. I must confess, there are few times when I can remember being more disappointed. The London Bridge is a simple road crossing the River Thames. It has no distinguishing features whatsoever. I don't think anyone would really mind all that much if it fell down. Although it does allow you a great view of the Tower Bridge. It is very probable that the London Bridge has become an incredibly nasty and spiteful bridge over the years as it gazes at the glorious, beloved Tower Bridge and repeatedly realizes that it is only famous for collapsing. Poor, ugly thing.
After being disappointed by the lack of grandeur possessed by the London Bridge, Gia and I decided to check out the site of the upcoming (now past) 2012 Olympics. Of course we couldn't tour the grounds themselves since they were still under construction, but we did find another way to sneak a peek. There is a huge, extremely fancy mall right next to the Olympic stadium and John Lewis, one of the department stores, offered a viewing room to tourists. Gia and I headed up to the top floor and walked to the very end of the mall where three large, floor-to-ceiling windows displayed the stadium, the water polo arena, the aquatic center, and the orbit (whatever that is!). The room wasn't too full when we were there, but I can just imagine how packed it was during the Olympics.
Gia and I next set off on a bit of a goose chase. We wanted to find Abbey Road where the Beatles took their famous album cover photo. Thinking that we were savvy travelers, we decided not to ask for directions but just consult our map. Eureka! Clearly marked was a Tube stop called Abbey Road. I remembered another friend who had been to London telling me that Abbey Road was a couple blocks away from the Tube station, so when we arrived in a run-down neighborhood, I wasn't too concerned. We found Abbey Road easily enough, but it looked nothing like the picture. There were no pretty houses, green trees, and white cross walk. There were only sidewalks and sketchy apartment buildings. Gia and I quickly realized that there must be another Abbey Road and we got back on the next train out of there. Our search would just have to continue.
We got off the Tube at Trafalgar Square and entered the National Gallery. It was closing in ten minutes, so we were only able to look in a few rooms, but we liked what we saw and promised ourselves to come back tomorrow. When we walked outside, Gia and I were consulting our map when we were approached by a group of school children asking us for help in a competition they were having with their classmates. Apparently to pass the time, their teacher had created a scavenger hunt for them and they had to ask people outside the gallery different questions and be the first ones back with the correct answer. Their current mission was to learn how to say "I love you" in a different language but it couldn't be English, Spanish, German, Italian, or French. Gia and I admitted that we didn't know any other languages besides Spanish and the kids were about to turn and find someone else to ask when I remembered something. "Wait!" I shouted. And then I showed them how to say "I love you" in American Sign Language which my nieces had taught me once upon a time. They quickly ran back to their teacher and Gia and I could see that they were the first ones there. We saw the teach hesitate for a moment as they held up their hands saying "I love you," but then he nodded his head yes and smiled. They had won!
Gia and I felt victorious as well as we headed towards the West End where all of the theaters were located. We had gotten tickets to see the most fabulous of all the London musicals:
Les Miserables!!! We got settled into our seats and no sooner had the introductory music started then I died of happiness. Someone must have brought me back from the dead because the next thing I know I'm watching Jean Valjean stealing from the bishop. The entire musical was spectacular! The cast was perfect and the set genius! The singing and music are still playing in my head!
Les Miserables is one of my favorite books, so seeing the musical was a dream come true!
I was in a happy daze when we left the theater, but somehow my feet followed Gia as we entered the M&M store. One of the workers proudly informed us that they had three floors! They also had an impressive wall of M&M dispensers of every color imaginable. We had fun looking around at all of the M&M themed double-decker buses and other London icons. We couldn't handle the chocolate temptation for too long so we headed back out and walked over to Piccadilly Circus which had giant, lit-up billboards making it look like a miniature Times Square. We watched for a little bit as some street artists performed before finally calling it a night.
Our last full day in London was wonderfully sunny (in fact, we had beautiful weather the whole weekend except for that first rain shower). Gia and I walked a couple blocks and had breakfast in Hyde Park. Then we spent most of the rest of the morning walking around and seeing the swans, Kensington Palace, and the Peter Pan statue. My favorite part was the beautiful garden around Kensington Palace. The flowers were in blooming and filling the garden with bright colors. We also solved the mystery of the mysterious Abbey Road while we were there. We happened to pass a man who had a t-shirt with the picture of the Beatles on Abbey Road, so on a lark, I stopped him and asked him if he knew where it was. He didn't, but he had a smart phone and quickly looked up the Tube stop we would need to get off on to see it. We thanked him and decided that we would make that our next trip.
When we had seen all we could of Hyde Park, we hopped on the Tube and finally arrived at the real Abbey Road. Gia and I, along with about five other tourists, took turns stopping traffic as we crossed the walk and tried to capture the perfect photo. Our pictures didn't turn out exactly like the Beatles but we were happy with them and I think the passing cars were happy that could finally pass freely. We also took a look at Abbey Road Studios and added our names to the list of many fans who had signed the white walls surrounding the property.
Afterwards, we headed over to see the Tower of London and while we didn't go inside, we were rather impressed by the how massive it was. Gia and I made our way back to the National Gallery where we spent a couple hours looking at all the different paintings. I was especially excited to see some works by J.M.W. Turner. My English professor had incorporated Turner's paintings into some of his lectures on British literature and I loved seeing them in person rather than on a slide show. The gallery put on a free concert too that Gia and I enjoyed a lot.
By the time we left the National Gallery, it had gotten pretty dark so Gia and I took the Tube to Kings Cross Station to visit Platform Nine and Three Quarters. We had a little trouble finding it but once we spotted it, we wasted no time in grabbing our luggage carts and running through the magic wall to the Hogwarts Express. Unfortunately we had just missed it so we decided to head over to Mayfair, an area filled with beautiful homes and shops, and walk around. On our walk, we just happened to stumble upon the American embassy. We were a bit turned around so we walked up to the fence and asked for directions from the heavily armed, mustachioed, and extremely friendly guard marching on the opposite side. He helped point us in the right direction and our tired feet carried us back to the hostel where we slept soundly in preparation for our last day in London.
We started our last day much like the one before and breakfasted in Hyde Park. We cut through the park and past the Prince Albert Memorial before walking a few more blocks to the National History Museum. Unfortunately we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore but the different animals, fossils, volcanoes, and other exhibits were interesting to see.
We had to catch the bus back to the airport but we arrived a little early for it, so we stopped in a Beatles themed store to kill some time. Our flight back was pretty smooth except that for the first time during my entire year of traveling, Ryanair landed late. I was actually a little sad not to hear the jubilant trumpets they always play when they land early. Still, it was a pretty fun weekend and one of my friends from frisbee even picked us up from the airport so we were saved from the Dublin bus system. I was happy to be home!
No comments:
Post a Comment