Week 4 in London

Let me try and recap the last week…

On Thursday Sara and I went to The Tower of London. So much history there it is crazy! We did the Yeoman Tour, saw the Crown Jewels, went through the museum of amour and weapons, and went in some of the individual towers. My Dad would have loved hearing all the stories and seeing all the weapons and stuff.

There is so much to learn about and look at, so you could spend all day there! I cannot believe people still live in the Tower—it is like they are all just stuck in time!

Friday we went on a day trip to Bath. Bath was beautiful! No wonder so many rich, royal, and famous people holiday there. The architecture is all is Georgian, and built from a honey-colored limestone.

We went to Bath Abbey, “The Circus”, and the Royal Crescent. Then we ate lunch at a little outdoor café because the weather was perfect! After lunch we got to tour the Roman Bath museum. It was really cool to learn about and see all the ancient artifacts and architecture that date back to 60-70 AD. Crazy!

After the tour we went to the Pump Room and had scones and afternoon tea. I loved it! I could get used to that daily tradition. We even tried the water from the spring. It was HOT, and tasted disgusting. I was hoping it would cure all my problems… Then we had to get back on the train to London.

We got home and met our friends that were visiting from UC at their hotel. We decided to go out in Soho, which was a lot of fun. We went to O’Neill’s, which is a great place to have a drink. The weather was unusually warm for London, so we were enjoying being able to wear a dress and not have to bring our jackets! We called it quits pretty early because most of the group was severely jet-lagged.

The next day we met them at their hotel in the morning. We decided to do a bike tour of London because it could not have been a more perfect day! It was high 70s and sunny, for once.

The four-hour bike tour took us to through all the Royal Parks (Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James Park) to see The House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westmister Abbey, Big Ben, Kensington Palace, Albert Memorial, Trafalger Square, Princess Diana Memorial, and many other landmarks. It was the perfect thing to do on a Saturday, and a great way for our visitors (and us) to get a tour of the city. They have these Fat Tire Bike Tours in other European cities, so we think we are going to try one in Barcelona when we go.

After the tour we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral for Evensong. It is so beautiful and HUGE inside. It is the second largest church (by volume) in the world. My friend Lance and I randomly got in this line, and luckily we got to sit up by the choir. There wasn’t enough room for the rest of the group though. The choir sounded amazing, but it was nearly impossible to understand what they were saying or to follow them. It was a great experience though, and a perfect way to see and experience the Church.

After St. Paul’s we met a bunch of friends at this Italian restaurant that was SO YUMMY! It made us really excited to go to Italy this weekend. Later in the evening we had a bunch of friends over to our flat to just drink and hang out. It was great to have visitors, and sad to say goodbye to them. I will see them at school in a few weeks though.

Class was cancelled for Monday, so I spent most of the day doing homework and catching up. We went out a met a friend at a pub Monday, which was really low key, but fun.

Tuesday we (Emily, Carol, Sara, and I) got up to wander around Notting Hill, get lunch, and explore Portobello Market, one of London’s most famous markets. We had a lot of fun! Notting Hill was a really cute area, and we found great deals at the Market. We even found Hugh Grant’s bookshop from the movie…and I bought a book on Barcelona there.

Wednesday, today, we had class, like normal, and now I am preparing to leave for Italy in the morning. We are leaving at 4am (ugh), to fly to Venice. From Venice we are taking a train to Florence. We are spending Thursday and Friday (Caroline’s birthday) in Florence, and then going back to Venice mid-Saturday. Then we are flying back home late Sunday night! I cannot wait…