London
Sarah, Jennifer, and I took a day-trip to London today! The rest of the Study Abroad group stayed in Oxford, except for a small group that went to Bath. Our mission was to see everything there is to see in London, haha...I think we did a pretty impressive job. Sarah is a great trip-planner/researcher/leader...and Jennifer and I would rather just go along with already-made plans, so it worked out well.
We got up early and left for the bus station at 8 am -- everyone was still sleeping so it felt a lot earlier than it actually was! It is about a 20-25 minute walk to the bus station, so we got there around 8:30 am, bought return tickets to London, and caught a bus around 9:00 am. 2 hours later, we arrived in London! It looks so much like Oxford, except the buildings are twice as tall :). We were dropped off at a bus stop, and then we had to figure out where we were....We had to get over our fear of asking for directions really fast, haha.
We really wanted to hit Buckingham Palace first, in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard at 11:00 am. However, it turns out that they do the changing of the guard every other day and we came on an off day! :( So we didn't get to see that, but we did pay to take an audio tour through the palace, which was amazing! Here are some pictures of Buckingham Palace:
Buckingham Palace guard:
Sarah, Me, and Jennifer after our audio tour:
After the tour, we spent awhile in the gift shop, and then we went to a nearby park to eat the lunches we packed before the trip. It was about 1:00 pm, so we decided it was time to hit Big Ben and the whole Westminster area. We bought an all-day subway pass and became experts by the end of the trip :). We also bought tickets for Chicago that night! Here are some of our sight-seeing pictures:
Picadilly Circus:
Big Ben:
The Houses of Parliament:
The London Eye:
Westminster Abbey:
Statues of martyrs on the wall of Westminster Abbey, including Martin Luther King (the fifth statue)! Although the church was built in the 13th century, the statues weren't added until 1992:
The Prime Minister Tony Blair's house! I think his is the red one in the corner:
You've always gotta have a telephone booth picture!
I still can't believe this...but here is a public urinal...in the middle of the streets of London. I actually saw a guy using it....I'm still recovering, haha
I thought this sign was so funny!
For dinner, we ate at the Texas Embassy! This is probably the only Mexican food in the UK, haha. I didn't realize how much I missed it! ...and of course we had to get margaritas :)
After dinner, we walked to Adelphi Theatre and saw Chicago!!! It was amazing! The show lasted until 11:00 pm, so afterwards we headed straight for the bus station. We got into Oxford at 1:00 am and had to walk home past all the pubs -- not a good time to be out. We knew we wouldn't be going to church the next day because we were so exhausted from walking all day! We had a fantastic time in London, and it's amazing nothing went wrong considering it was our first self-planned trip :)
We got up early and left for the bus station at 8 am -- everyone was still sleeping so it felt a lot earlier than it actually was! It is about a 20-25 minute walk to the bus station, so we got there around 8:30 am, bought return tickets to London, and caught a bus around 9:00 am. 2 hours later, we arrived in London! It looks so much like Oxford, except the buildings are twice as tall :). We were dropped off at a bus stop, and then we had to figure out where we were....We had to get over our fear of asking for directions really fast, haha.
We really wanted to hit Buckingham Palace first, in hopes of seeing the changing of the guard at 11:00 am. However, it turns out that they do the changing of the guard every other day and we came on an off day! :( So we didn't get to see that, but we did pay to take an audio tour through the palace, which was amazing! Here are some pictures of Buckingham Palace:
Buckingham Palace guard:
Sarah, Me, and Jennifer after our audio tour:
After the tour, we spent awhile in the gift shop, and then we went to a nearby park to eat the lunches we packed before the trip. It was about 1:00 pm, so we decided it was time to hit Big Ben and the whole Westminster area. We bought an all-day subway pass and became experts by the end of the trip :). We also bought tickets for Chicago that night! Here are some of our sight-seeing pictures:
Picadilly Circus:
Big Ben:
The Houses of Parliament:
The London Eye:
Westminster Abbey:
Statues of martyrs on the wall of Westminster Abbey, including Martin Luther King (the fifth statue)! Although the church was built in the 13th century, the statues weren't added until 1992:
The Prime Minister Tony Blair's house! I think his is the red one in the corner:
You've always gotta have a telephone booth picture!
I still can't believe this...but here is a public urinal...in the middle of the streets of London. I actually saw a guy using it....I'm still recovering, haha
I thought this sign was so funny!
For dinner, we ate at the Texas Embassy! This is probably the only Mexican food in the UK, haha. I didn't realize how much I missed it! ...and of course we had to get margaritas :)
After dinner, we walked to Adelphi Theatre and saw Chicago!!! It was amazing! The show lasted until 11:00 pm, so afterwards we headed straight for the bus station. We got into Oxford at 1:00 am and had to walk home past all the pubs -- not a good time to be out. We knew we wouldn't be going to church the next day because we were so exhausted from walking all day! We had a fantastic time in London, and it's amazing nothing went wrong considering it was our first self-planned trip :)
posted by Lisa @ 10:16 PM
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