"England and America are two countries separated by the same language."
-George Bernard Shaw
For the second part of Katie's whirlwind trip, we went to London for 6 days. I have always been obsessed with England especially with the royal family. And although it was a nice city, it was not really the fairy tale kingdom I thought it would be when I was younger (aka I didn't meet my prince charming and become a princess). Also those beautiful British accents that you hear on TV and in movies? Yeah no one actually has that accent. Sad I know, sorry if I burst any bubbles.
On our first day in London we visited Kensington Palace, birthplace of Queen Victoria and the future home of William and Kate when they move there this fall.
I don't know if this sign was there for tourists to gawk at or if it really is for royalty only, either way I had to take a photo of me trying to enter.
This is Queen Victoria's wedding dress. The waist was so tiny! I think it would probably fit Mahri, who is 4.
Katie wanted a picture by the fireplace, I am not sure why, but you all know that I go along with whatever Katie wants.
I am quite glad we are passed this fashion statement.
This is the closest I got to Prince William or Kate, pillows with their faces embroidered on them.
You might recall pictures taken shortly after Princess Diana's death taken at this gate. This is where everyone left flowers and notes.
Kensington Palace is surrounded by Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. In these green spaces there are also a lot of ponds and lakes which means swans, ducks, and geese. You can't really read the sign but it's says something to the effect that you have to keep your dog on a leash while around the water because there have been too many murders of water fowl by dogs.
We couldn't possibly go to London and not take the necessary telephone booth picture. We however took this photo on an empty street in the middle of the night, just so we didn't look completely like tourists.
Trafalgar Square:
Why wouldn't England have a statue of Abraham Lincoln?
Westminster Abbey, where Kate and William got married. Also the final resting place for a lot of famous poets, scientists, and royalty.
Buckingham Palace
Apparently Buckingham Palace is protected under the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005. As opposed to the not so serious act of 2004.
They were so kind to tell all the tourists which way to look when crossing the streets.
Big Ben while really cool architecture is not that big. It's probably because I am American so I expect everything to be big, but with a name like BIG Ben I expected skyscraper height.
This is the entrance to the Tower of London. The Tower of London is one thing that did surprise me on size. The name is actually really decieving. The Tower of London is actually not one tower, but a series of towers connecting the outer wall and then numerous buildings within the wall.
The best part of the visit were the actors who were dressed up in the different rooms. In this room there was supposed to be a princess and a prince. The little boy in the photo went up to the princess to ask where the dragon was. It was quite possibly the cutest thing I had ever seen. The princess then taught him how to bow to a princess. The whole room was filled with people watching the encounter. And while I said that the British accent wasn't the pretty accent hear on TV, British children are still adorable with their accents.
I guess I never really thought that England couldn't refer to the America Revolution as a revolution, instead it is referred to as the American War of Independence. It was funny reading about the American rebels who were traitors to their country and who committed treason, oops our bad. I did however ask a native Brit what they are taught in school about our revolution. Apparently it's kind of like our Vietnam War, it's kind of skimmed over but specifics aren't given. Also Britain has fought so many wars that our Revolution is just a small blip on their radar.
For our third day we took a tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. Windsor is a giant castle about 30 minutes outside of London. The Queen usually spends her weekends here. This is also where Victoria went into hiding after Prince Albert died.
After Windsor Castle we headed to Stonehenge!
The funny thing is that there is a military base right next to Stonehenge so the whole drive there and away we saw tank crossing signs, and because of my love for conspiracy theories I definitely see the British Military having a secret vault in the middle of Stonehenge that can only be accessed by a secret elevator in the middle of the circle.
After Stonehenge we headed to the city of Bath. Bath used to be the place for high society to hang. Jane Austen lived in this house.
While in Bath we were able to visit the Roman Baths. The Romans crated the baths here around AD 60. This is the only place in England that has natural hot springs.
The natural hot springs pump out 257,364 gallons of water per day. The water is 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit when it reaches the surface.
We also had these super cool audio tours all day.
At the end of the tour we were able to try some of the water since it is supposed to have healing qualities. It was actually really gross. It was metallic tasting and hot.
The next day we were finally able to see Peter!
This is the Prince Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall.
Thankfully the Death Eaters did not actually destroy the Millennium Bridge, it's still there as is the Shakespeare's Globe which is on the other side of the Thames.
And what trip to London could be without a visit to King Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4?
This is the Royal Horse Parade Grounds and where the beach volleyball tournament was held this past summer for the Olympics.
We ended up cheating the system a little and skipped paying the $30 entrance to Westminster Abbey and instead decided to attend one of the Evening Song services. Every night at 5:00 the Abbey has a guest choir come and sing pretty much the entire service. We even saw a really attractive priest so the whole experience was worth it (side note Anglican priests are allowed to marry)
I thought this sign was hilarious because if this was the U.S. they would never tell people not to use the stairs, they would encourage it.
Our last day in London we visited Sherlock Holmes house at 221B Baker Street.
There was a book of letters written to Sherlock Holmes in one room and this one was hilarious.
When Katie and I saw this sign we both burst out laughing. Our father works in construction and I do not think his company would ever worry about improving the image of construction.
While the Rosetta stone is an amazing artifact and helped to translate hieroglyphics, when you see it in real life it is just kind of one of those things you look at and then move on.
If you can't read this sign it says these lintels are protected by an electronic beam. I thought this sign was funny and was pointing at it to show Katie, when I broke the electronic beam and set off the alarm, oops.
Our trip to London was probably one of my most enjoyable trips I have taken. We were there for 6 days so we did everything at a relaxing pace and were able to see everything that we had planned and many more things. Now I just need to get ready for next semester. This coming semester I am actually taking real classes so I will probably have to do some work. Unfortunately I think my trips around Europe are coming to an end. I am still hoping to make it to Vienna, Budapest, and hopefully Russia, but we will see how much money I have. But as sad as it is that I think I only have two trips left I have had the privilege of visiting 7 countries in the past 6 months. I would consider that a successful year studying abroad.
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