I arrived in London on August 3rd at around 7 a.m. and surprisingly was not jet lagged. My mother (or Mum, as I called her on this trip) felt fine as well and had no need to rest to catch up on sleep. We were lucky enough to get to our hotel safely and into our room by 9 a.m., which is a rarity while traveling. After a short break, we were off to our first stop at Buckingham Palace. We had to book tickets in advance as it was only going to be open for a short period of time, due to the Olympics (which I'll get to in detail latter, along with the English culture). Suffice to say, Buckingham Palace was magnificent. I sadly was not able to take pictures on the inside, but was able to take pictures from the inside and will provide some insight to the palace.
Buckingham Palace is where the royal family lives in England and is enclosed within the city of London. Before we actually went inside, we were fortunate enough to see the changing of the guards. It occurs practically everyday at 11:30, when the new guards take over. What made not only this event, but the whole trip special, was the fact that London was hosting the Olympic games. Not only were regular tourists present, but also those who were heading off to see some of the Olympic festivities. As you can tell by the pics, there was a huge crowd of people. Posted below are pics and a video capturing the event.
After the changing of the guard, my Mom and I took our tour of Buckingham Palace. Suffice to say, it was fantastic and gigantic. Each of the rooms were elegantly decorated, with beautiful furnishings and a detailed explanation of every little object. The Palace dates back centuries where the Royal Family has housed many popular figures there, such as Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Prince William and Harry, and of course the Queen, Elizabeth II. One of the more interesting bits of it was that it was bombed during World War II. The King and Queen did not leave and one part of the palace was entirely destroyed. They were lucky not to be blown up. The yard in the palace was the site of many bombings and during the war one could see where bombs had landed. It was a fascinating experience and made me wish I lived in a place like that.
The last photo uploaded was of the fence surrounding the entire palace. Some parts of it were as high as twenty feet, but what my Mom and I found fascinating and terrifying at the same time was the rows of barbed wire and spikes sticking out of the top.
Before we left Buckingham Palace, we traveled to Trafalgar Square. My Mom had missed taking photos of this spot a long time ago and we had the opportunity to be there. It was erected in honor of Queen Victoria and was the site of many races for the Olympics.
We continued to explore a lot of London afterwards, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and observed one of the newest landmarks, the Eye, a new Ferris wheel. Each box can hold up to twenty -five people. While we wanted to get on, the line was huge, and had Disney World waiting times. We decided to view it from a distance instead.
For our first day being in London, my Mom and I traveled to a lot of sites and got a lot accomplished. One last tidbit before I finish this first day. As we were walking back, we noticed London was filled with statues of its most famous kings, queens, and public servants. We then noticed the King George III was placed under a tree in a not very special part of the city, away from the other statues.
The next day, Mom and I traveled to Saint Paul's Cathedral and a few other historic landmarks. Saint Paul's Cathedral has been the sight of many ceremonies and events in England's history, including the funeral for Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the 9/11 Service. (To clarify, many events are held at both Saint Paul's and Westminster. It depends on where the people would like the event to take place in London). The cathedral was gigantic and beautiful on the inside, but again, I was not able to take any pictures from within it. I was able to take pictures from outside the cathedral and we came across a wedding the day we visited.
One of the things we were able to do there was explore the outer and lower areas of the cathedral. The crypt contained many saints and had memorials for those who died in previous conflicts for the United Kingdom. We found out we could climb to the top of the cathedral and see the London landscape. We decided we had to see all that London had to offer and we climbed 528 steps to the top. The view was amazing and we took many pictures. One of the buildings present is the Shard, which at the moment, is the tallest building in Europe. I also have included shots of the Millennium Bridge, the Globe Theater, and Tower Bridge. The last picture is of the dome to Saint Paul's Cathedral.
From there, we crossed the Millennium Bridge over to the Globe Theater. We were hoping to take a tour, but we're too late. We tried to get tickets to a show, but no such luck either. I will be back in London during my stay at Oxford and it is my plan to see a show (preferably Henry V) while I am there. At this point, we traveled to Tower Bridge. It is one of the most recognized landmarks not only in London, but throughout the world. It was constructed in the late 1800's because the other bridges, like London Bridge, were becoming too crowded with pedestrians, horses, and carriages. Two architects worked on the design and completion of the bridge, which allowed the road to fold up for ships to pass through. We were able to explore the top half of it and explore the engine rooms. We saw other famous bridges and observed the history of constructing the bridge. The bridges also hung the Olympic rings, in honor of the games. This was the final stop on our second day in England. (We also took a humorous photo of a car that was cycled by its occupiers that formed a bar from which everyone was drinking from. This would not be found in the United States).
The last free day we had in London was spent on our first day of the tour, saw the Women's Marathon for the Olympics, and visited the Natural History Museum. The tour was brief, as we saw Prince Albert's statue and hall, the U.S. Embassy, and many of the landmarks discussed in this entry. We stopped again at Westminster Abbey and I took more shots of the square and of the statues in the area.
After the tour, we headed back to the hotel and decided to watch a little bit of the Olympics. On our tour, we noticed that parts of London were either gated off and or being prepared for an event. The event was the Women's Marathon, happening in our backyard. I persuaded my Mom that this was the chance to see an event at the Olympics. We rushed down to Buckingham Palace, which was the site of the start and finish of the race. We got lost a few times, but we finally made it to Trafalgar's Square just in time for the finish. We had a pretty good spot of seeing the runners and the square. But as soon as we got our spot, it began to pour! I placed my hand with my camera under someone's umbrella and took the following shots and video:
We arrived at the Natural History Museum to see one of my favorite things: dinosaurs. As a kid, I was fascinated by dinosaurs and every museum that has an exhibit on one I try and get to. The museum from the outside was fantastic in architecture and design and the exhibit did not disappoint. They even included a fully animatronic T-Rex for people to see. The exhibit was uniquely done in that the first part was suspended over by bridge that you crossed to observe some of the dinosaur skeletons hanging from the ceiling (good use of space). We traveled through the descriptions of each period, how they may have died, habits of each, and their relevance in culture. We explored the rest of the museum which included a statue of Charles Darwin, a bird exhibit, and a stone collection. We left the museum a found a wall that was hit by shrapnel by the war and strolled through Hyde Park, which was a great and relaxing way to cap off the day. After that, our final free day was over.
There's something else I wanted to discuss in this blog entry before I wrapped things up. I had to read a book for my course called Watching the English by Kate Fox. In my opinion, she made the English seem like they were suffering from a "social disease" that made them awkward around people, not outgoing enough, and rather introverted. What I did not expect, nor do I think she did either, was the effect of the London Games. Watching the Olympics in the UK was an awesome experience (BBC had much better coverage than NBC) and the excitement from everyone was contagious. Everyone was cheering, people were excited and happy, people were outgoing during the events and outside on the streets, in stores, everywhere! This was exact opposite in my opinion of how her book made the English appear to be. It will be interesting to see if this effect lasts long after the Olympics are over (their economy is not doing well either) and whether this feeling will pass.
That's all for now. I plan to make a short entry soon about Oxford and a few smaller entries about my tour. Oxford is fantastic and I start classes in a few days. I can't wait to update everyone like this again and I hope everyone is well in the states. Until next time, True Believers (or mates in the UK), Excelsior! Cheers!
P.S. The post boxes in the UK are much different than found in the U.S. What makes this one special is that it is painted gold for the Olympics. I think I heard somewhere that for every gold one, they would paint a mail box, or that for every town that had an athlete that won a gold, they would paint it. Either way, pretty cool stuff.
"Little by little, one travels far" - J.R.R. Tolkien
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