I've been in London for almost a week now and it's been incredibly busy. There's so much to see and do and it can be overwhelming at times. Again, I'm glad I'm able to stay with Wesley and get the local experience while still doing some of the touristy things.
Wesley and his cousin Liz met me at the train station on Monday. After dropping my stuff off at the apartment, we headed out to do some major sight seeing. We saw places like the London Eye, The Tower Bridge, the Palace of Westminster/Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and Westminster Abbey. Most of these places we just viewed from the outside, but it was still really breathtaking to see them in real life after seeing them in pictures or on a television show for years. By the evening we were all exhausted, so we grabbed a bite to eat and a drink near the apartment before turning in for the night.
Fun fact, Wesley lives right next to Portobello Road, which is where they filmed many of the outside scenes in the movie "Notting Hill." How cool is that!
Tuesday the 18th we spend the better part of the day at the Tower of London. Some of you may be familiar with this because it's where the crown jewels are kept (and yes I saw them!!). It's also a castle dating back to the 1000s. A number of famous people are buried there. A number of famous people were also executed there, namely Anne Boleyn. It sits on the Thames River so it made for a good point of defense. Upon arrival we had a guided tour from a particularly hilarious British solider, otherwise known as Beefeater. He was an equal opportunity harasser and made sure to poke fun every single nationality - but if you ask me he seemed to make the most fun of Americans and the French. Considering the vast history of the place, he also kept it light yet and interesting yet informative. At one point during the day I was separated from Wes and Liz, so I sat down with my phone to connect to wifi and text Wes. As I was sitting there, a young guy approached me and asked in a very thick French accent and said, "Excuse me, you are so beautiful, can I take a picture with you?" It was sufficiently awkward. When we finally left the Tower of London, we strolled across the Tower Bridge onto the other side of the river. We had dinner and some drinks at one of the oldest pubs in London, which also sat on the Thames, and then walked past the Globe Theater (Shakespeare) and St. Paul's.
Wednesday was a rest day for me. Wes and Liz ended up going to the castle where they film Downton Abbey. They thought their guided tour of the Harry Potter Studios was Wednesday, but didn't realize until they arrived at the bus station that it wasn't until Thursday. Seeing that I don't watch Downton Abbey and that it would have taken too long for me to meet them to head to the castle, they went without me and I happily had a quiet day at the apartment. When they got back we headed to Chinatown for dinner and then to a pub called O'Neill's. A cover band started playing at 10pm. One of their first songs was Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. My previous experiences with the English and US Geography led to the discovery that most of them have no idea where or what anything is, including that New York is a state as well as a city or that Los Angeles isn't an entire state in itself. I bet if I asked most of them if they knew where/what Alabama is that they wouldn't have had any idea. I sang my heart out anyways.
Thursday was the day Wes and Liz were actually supposed to go to the Harry Potter Studies. I had a slow start to my day and eventually made my way to the British Museum. It took me nearly two hours just to get through half of the top floor and by then I had to leave to meet Wesley and Liz. Once we were reunited, we headed to a huge mall for dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant. After dinner we spent some time walking around the mall before heading back to the apartment.
Friday was definitely my favorite day since I arrived in England. The three of us went to Dover, about an hour and a half train ride from London and known for it's famous White Cliffs. They're made mostly of chalk with streaks of black flint. It's also the point where England is closest to continental Europe, consequently offering a view of France. We walked from the train station to the visitors center at the beginning of the cliffs and stopped there for lunch. From there we began our walk along the edge of the cliffs, which reach 350 feet at their highest. There's a light house at the end of the trail, but none of us were interested in walking all the way out to it. At the end of the day when we reemerged at the visitors center, we had already walked 9 miles. I much prefer nature scenes to cityscapes, so this was perfect. The cliffs were simply stunning. By the time we finished our little hike and got back to the city center it was nearly 5:30 and our train was to leave at 7. We decided to grab a drink at a pub since there wasn't time to go do anything else. We got back to Wesley's flat close to 9:30, showered, and headed to a pub close by for a drink.
Yesterday (August 22) we went to Hampton Court Palace. This quite large and very diverse palace was most famously inhabited by Henry VIII beginning in 1529, though it was first built in 1515. It was later added to, redesigned, and some parts demolished by later kings and queens. Some other famous residents include George III and James I (known for the King James Version of the Bible), among many others. It's celebrating its 500 year anniversary this year - at 4:15pm the fountain in one of the courtyards begins spewing water instead of wine. I really enjoyed all the expansive gardens. I think my most favorite part was being in the kitchens and seeing how much work and how many people were needed to feed Henry VII's court of 600 people. There was also the world's longest grape vine in the gardens, planted in 1769 with the longest vine measuring an astonishing 120 feet long. Since the grounds were so extensive, we were there for a solid 4 hours. That evening we had dinner in Wes's neighborhood. We walked around to see some of the famous shots from the movie "Notting Hill" before heading home.
Liz left this morning. I slept in while Wes took her to the airport. After some lunch, I made my way back to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. Since it seemed like half of London was also at the museum, I left and decided to walk back to the flat (4 miles straight back). I ended up walking past the Kensington Gardens and Palace. I didn't get a good look of the actual palace, but it was still neat to see parts of it. If you didn't know, Kensington Palace is the royal family's residence. Tonight is just going to be a lazy night in. We both need some time to relax after such a busy week.
Wesley and I booked tickets to Cardiff for Wednesday. We're going to be there for just about 7 hours. I'm really excited to see yet another part of the UK. By the time I leave I'll have visited Birmingham, Warwick, Oxford, London, Dover, and Carfiff (Wales). Not too shabby!
Pictures will be up as soon as I actually have time to go through all of them.
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