The Natural History Museum was one of the first buildings that we saw, there was a line wrapped around the side of the building just waiting to get in. What really drew my attention to it was the outdoor skating rink connected to it. Definitely on my to-do list now! Sorry, but it probably beats Steinberg back in STL. I’ll let you know. We passed Hyde Park, The Lanesborough (Michael Jackson’s choice of hotel), and even the most expensive property in the world. The top four apartments are for sale. Guess what the going price is? 100 million pounds per apartment (no I didn’t accidently add an extra zero… but just a point of interest, that is equal to about 180 million dollars for one apartment). Two of them have sold already.
There are too many things to name that we passed, so I will just list the places that we stopped and looked around at.
There are too many things to name that we passed, so I will just list the places that we stopped and looked around at.
I don’t remember what our first stop was, but it was a Cathedral that was 365 feet tall, a foot for every day of the year. I wasn’t really paying attention because I was really cold and it was raining.
Our second stop was very exciting because it was something I had been waiting to see. We got out and learned about the history of the London Bridge. Back in the day there were about 20 boats a day passing through the bridge, so the middle would have to come up. There is actually a walkway over the bridge so that the pedestrians didn’t have to wait for the gates to come back down so that they could pass. Our tour guide told us that prostitutes could often be found with their clients on that walkway. Gross! They are also in the process of repainting the bridge so that it looks nice and fresh for the 2012 Olympics that are being held in London. I am so jealous of anyone that gets to study abroad in London when the Olympics are here!! Maybe I’ll have to come back and visit? I think so. There was also a ship that was in the Thames River that was built at the same shipyard as the Titanic was (and has obviously held up a bit better, considering it has made it through many battles).
We didn’t stop for the London Eye, but when we passed it I decided that I definitely want to go on it during sunset sometime this semester. Looks like I’ll have to wait for a day that isn’t foggy…Our third stop was Westminster Abbey which was massive and breathtaking. Honestly I had no idea that it was going to be that big and the architecture was incredible.
I wanted to take a picture of a really unique looking tree outside of the Abbey because it was wrapped in ivy, and when I did so, there was a group of students that were about 5 years old that all shouted “CHEESE!” when I took the picture of the tree, because they thought I was taking a picture of them. It was really funny and kind of awkward because I felt like a creep if they thought I was taking a picture of them.
After we left Westminster Abbey was when the bus ride became the adventure for the day. We were driving down a narrow road and all of a sudden we heard a smash and the bus came to an immediate stop. Since I was in the second to last row, I couldn’t see what the commotion was going on up front, but we knew that we had hit something. After about ten minutes of chaos, the tour guide got on the microphone and tried to explain to us what happened without actually stating explicitly what happened. All I know is that we hit something, or even possibly someone, and that there is a strong possibility that we left the scene of an accident.
Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. I had envisioned it to be set back on so many acres of land in some sort of mystical forest, but I was definitely wrong. It was right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everything else. But I do know that it was guarded by some of the prettiest ironwork I have ever seen!
Since our flat is only a short walk from Buckingham Palace, we walked home from there. We grabbed dinner at a yummy pub called The Anderson and then I just hopped in bed to get rested up for a night out on the town. Cheers!
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