Spring Break Part Two: London, England
Alright, so Scotland was my favorite part of spring break,
but it wasn’t the only place that I went. I spent the other 6 days in and
around London. About an hour outside of
London is a beautiful and quiet little town called Henley-on-Thames, which is
where I stayed with my cousin. We had
never actually met before and the last time she saw my parents was at their
wedding 27 years ago, so it was really great of her to open her house to me! I
really had a great time staying with her and I think we really hit it off,
which is always great!
I went through this train station
every time I was in London
Day One: Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Horse Guards
Museum, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. I know, it was a lot. Thankfully it was all relatively close
together, but it was still a lot of walking and wandering around looking at a
map which some lovely person had given me (I later discovered it was a biker’s
map and didn’t actually show all the streets, but I managed).
I started with Buckingham Palace. I got slightly lost trying to find the
palace, despite the nice and convenient signs that are placed around London
pointing you towards the tourist spots. Thanks
to this slight misdirection, I just barely missed the Changing of the Guard,
which was very disappointing, but whatever.
There were a ton of people around the square, which kind of surprised
me, although very few of them were American.
The palace itself was kind of plain to me, but the gates and the
fountain were very cool. Unfortunately,
you can only tour the palace during the summer since the queen is in residence
the rest of the year, so I didn’t get to go in.
However, I did get to go to the gift shop, which was amazing. I know, how can a gift shop be that great,
but it really was! For one, it was enormous and full of candies, linens, toys,
and other shiny things. For another, it
was color coded which really spoke to my inner OCD. I spent quite a bit of time in that gift shop
before finally moving on with my few purchases.
Buckingham Palace
Victoria Memorial Fountain
THE GIFT SHOP!
Next stop was St. James Park and the Horse Guards
Museum. St. James Park runs from Buckingham
Palace to the Horse Guards Parade. It
was actually a beautiful little park filled with people having picnics, kids
running in the grass, and ducks quacking in the pond. Honestly, it was really great to be in an
open grassy area since those are relatively rare here in Italy. Hearing the birds and smelling the flowers
(even with the allergies) was so amazing.
I spent quite a bit of time just wandering along the paths, stopping to
get a small lunch at a stand in the park.
I saw some ducks and swans, competing with the ever-present seagulls
that seemed to be everywhere in the UK.
It was a nice quiet spot of my day.
I walked to the Horse Guard Parade ground, which is where the museum was. There isn’t much to say about the museum, but
I did get some pictures of a couple of the mounted guards, which was fun.
Afterwards, I headed towards the river to see Big Ben and
the London Eye. I found Big Ben first,
which was a really cool to see. I spent
quite a bit of time wandering around the area taking pictures of the clock
tower, but I never actually went inside Westminster Abbey. I didn’t actually ride the London Eye either,
since it was both expensive and a very long wait. But hey, I can still say I saw them! I didn’t want to waste my money on something
that I wasn’t excited to do. I didn’t
need to ride the London eye or tour Westminster Abbey just because I was
there. It was enough to just see them
for me!
Day Two: My second day in the London area wasn’t until I got
back from Scotland on the following Thursday.
I had taken an overnight bus from Edinburgh to London Victoria, which go
in at 6am. I spent a bit of time in a
Starbucks near the coach station trying to decide what to do with my day. Did I want to lug my backpack around London,
try to find a place to check it, or simply go back to Henley and take an easy day? I chose the last option and I am very glad I did. I got back to Henley, took a shower and a
nice long nap. I hadn’t set an alarm or anything,
so thankfully a call from dad woke me up or I might have slept all day! After talking to dad for a little while, I got
up and headed into the Henley town center in search of some food. I finally found a nice little pub where I ordered
some delicious mac and cheese and just sat and enjoyed myself for a little
while. I eventually walked back to the
house and spent some time doing some class work since I had a test the
Wednesday that I got back (horrible timing really). After a little studying, I decided to watch
some ENGLISH television that I didn’t have to watch on Netflix, which was
really nice. (I also watched Once Upon a
Time on Netflix while I was there, because they had the recent episodes;
terrible idea, in retrospect.) We had
chicken pot pie and a salad for dinner.
The UK actually have a place called Cook, which is a frozen food grocery
store that is actually really good!
Nothing like Lean Cuisine!
Day Three: Kings
Cross and Platform 9 ¾, British Library, British Museum, Tower of London with a
Yeoman Warder tour, and 221B Baker Street.
Another very busy day in London! I just couldn’t go to London and not do
at least something that appealed to my nerd side. Thankfully, Kings Cross is free and very easy
to find! The station itself is
beautiful, with an intricate lattice-work looking ceiling. It’s also surprisingly clean. Not to mention, HARRY POTTER! Yes, I waited
in line for 45 minutes to get my picture taken. No, I definitely did not regret it. They really have it down to a science
too. They know which poses work best and
they drop the scarf at just the right moment to look like the wind is blowing
it. No fans, no wires, just a guy
holding it up and then snapping it as the picture is taken! I also paid the £15 to buy the professional
photos and it was 100% worth it. I
considered buying something in the shop, but I could get any of the things I was
interested in off of the internet for a fraction of the cost. I didn’t need something just because I was at
Kings Cross.
Kings Cross
It's a picture of a picture,
so it's a little blurry
Anyway, I left the station and headed to the British
Library. It’s kind of the British
version of the Library of Congress. It’s
a really beautiful, modern building, although they do scan you and look through
your bags when you enter. I kind of
wandered around a little bit, but you have to have a reading card to really
enter any of the rooms other than the exhibition. The exhibition room was really cool
though. They have so many different
documents in the room, all on displays that you can just walk up to. No one yells at you for standing in front of
a document for too long or for leaning over/touching the glass case (this is
what they do for the US Constitution, FYI).
I got to see notes from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks, Shakespeare’s
handwritten plays, original Beatles lyrics, very old and beautiful religious
texts, and the Magna Carta. It was an
unbelievable experience, especially since they just have it all out on display
for the public. These works are so unique
and so beautiful and you have to just sit and enjoy them. The Americans definitely need to take a page
from the British book when it comes to this.
It’s hard to really experience the constitution when people are staring
at you and telling you to get a move on.
Next stop, the British Museum. I tried following the signs to get to the
museum, as they hadn’t led me astray at this point, but I definitely got a
little lost finding the museum. In my
defense, the signs along this walk were very far apart and you start to wonder
if you maybe missed a sign and possibly a turn.
And then I came to a spot where I had to turn left or right but I hadn’t
seen a sign for a little while. I chose
right, which was wrong, and had to backtrack before I finally found the museum. The museum itself is MASSIVE. I could have spent hours, even days going
through the entire museum. However,
there were a ton of school kids there, which was not the most enjoyable
experience. I went to the Egyptian exhibit
to see the mummies and the Japanese exhibit before I left. I tried to find the Rosetta Stone, which you
would think would be easy, but I never actually found it. In retrospect, that’s probably what all the
screaming kids were crowded around, but I wasn’t willing to wade into a crowd
of munchkins.
Three stops down and it wasn’t barely after 1 o’clock! I hopped on the metro and headed to the Tower
of London next. I bought my ticket,
after explaining to the nice lady that yes, my student visa does actually prove
that I’m a student, despite her insistence that it did not. Since it was now after 2pm, I decided to grab
some lunch from one of the fish and chips places nearby, which was not my greatest
decision on this trip. For future
references, don’t buy food from a place called Ted’s fish and chips. It’s not worth it. Anyway, I waited at the entrance to the Tower
for the Yeoman Warder tour, which is a tour lead by one of the Royal Guards who
is stationed at the Tower. His name was
Clive and he was a very entertaining guide.
He walked us through the history of the Tower, including the various
people who had been executed on the nearby hill as well as the royals who had
been executed within the tower grounds.
It was definitely an interesting history to learn! After the tour, I saw: the Crown jewels,
which were gorgeous; the torture chamber, which was chilling; and the royal
armory, which massive and just plain cool.
I could not take pictures of any of the jewels, which was disappointing,
but it was a very beautiful exhibition to see.
If you ever go to London, you definitely need to go to the Tower!
Meet Clive
The site where the royals were beheaded,
including Anne Boleyn
One of the many coats
of armor in the armory
After I finally left the Tower, the sun was starting to go
down, but I still had a little time to kill before I hopped my train back to
Henley. I knew Madame Tussads was near
the train station, but I also knew it was expensive just to see some celebrity
wax figures. However, 221B Baker Street
was also just around the corner and it was free to take pictures! And I got to appeal to my nerd side again! I took pictures outside the door before
walking through the gift shop. There was
a museum too, but I didn’t want to pay and I was perfectly happy in the gift
shop! It was a great end to the day in London!
I hopped on the train back to Henley and got back just before Lisa got
off work. After she got home, we went to
a local Mexican food restaurant which was delicious. The Italians just can’t figure out how to
make Mexican right, although they try very hard. I finally got to have some tacos that were
actually a little spicy, which I have definitely been missing. The Italians don’t seem to like spicy food
either…
221B Baker Street!
Overall, I really loved my entire spring break. I met some great people, including my
cousin. It was really great to have some
time to myself, away from the other students.
Don’t get me wrong, the people I’m in Italy with are great, but we’ve
been together pretty much every day for two months now. I was in desperate need of some me time where
I did what I wanted when I wanted. And
it was really nice to not have to worry about what other people were wanting to
do or if they were having a good time or if they were still with the
group. It was a nice break from routine
and I learned that travelling alone is actually a lot of fun! Who knew!
