London Here We Come!

After spending over a week traveling and exploring the areas around Oxford, we spent our last two days in London. Friday morning a group of us woke early to catch the train to London. After an hour train ride we finally arrived in London and bustled onto the tube to Westminster Abbey – my first tube ride ever, very exciting! When we walked up the stairs out of the station I turned around to find Big Ben towering in front of me. Big Ben resides on the corner of Parliament, which was probably my favorite building of the whole trip. The grandness and intricacy of the medieval architecture here in Britain has absolutely astounded me. When you walk into the Canterbury Cathedral or Bath Abbey you are staggered by its beauty. The Parliament building definitely exceeded my expectations as well. Not until we walked onto the bridge to take pictures could we see how massive the structure really was.

After taking pictures of Big Ben we walked over to Westminster Abbey, which was also spectacularly beautiful. Here the group decided to split. Dr. Swicegood, Becky, Alyse, Kimberly and Kelly wanted to explore the inside of the Abbey, while Matt Watts, Hilary, Jessie, Will Prosser, Hayes, Matt Low and myself walked on to see Buckingham Palace. I was quite disappointed not to see the infamous guards with the funny hats standing at the gate, but we still got some interesting pictures. If you want to know what I mean by “interesting” you’ll have to ask the boys. We then took a lovely stroll through the park on our way to the British Museum. The British Museum absolutely amazed me! The enormous museum housed artifacts from almost every time period and from every continent. My two favorite exhibits included the Rosetta Stone and mummified Cleopatra. We only had a couple of hours to explore, so we were only able to get a glimpse of the museum’s treasures. We had to leave London fairly early that day to catch the train back to Oxford in time for the farewell dinner IES hosted for the class. After a pleasant dinner at St. Clare’s we made our way back to Logan House with full tummies and heavy eyelids. That night I packed my things and soon went to bed because the bus was scheduled to pick us up at 7:30 the next morning. Saturday was another busy day in London. After dropping our luggage off at the hotel, Matt Low, Jessie, Leland and I took the tube to the London Eye. For those of you who don’t know, the London Eye is very much like a gigantic ferris wheel, but instead of having small cars, the London Eye carries passengers around in large glass pods. There were about fifteen people in our pod, but there was plenty of room to maneuver. The London Eye gave us a spectacular view of London. I don’t think I realized before how huge London actually is! After our thirty minute ride around the London Eye we met some others at the London Bridge. All I could think of while crossing the bridge was the children’s rhyme, “London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…” I couldn’t help thinking to myself, I sure hope the London Bridge doesn’t decide to fall down while I’m standing on it! The London Bridge itself is not that exciting, but standing on it provides an excellent view of the London Tower Bridge, which is quite beautiful.We then took the tube to Camden Town where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Camden Town was an interesting experience. The streets were lined with booths and tents of merchandise, mostly clothes, hats, and the occasional body piercing shop - we didn’t feel the need to explore those any further.

Saturday night was perhaps my favorite evening of the trip. Hilary and Matt Watts had spent most of the morning searching for tickets to the musical Wicked, which was extremely generous of them! The tickets were a little expensive, but completely worth it! As Hayes has already described, the show was amazing. The set was dazzling, and the music inspiring. Every time Elphaba sang I got goosebumps! I found the storyline very intriguing as well. All four of us (Hilary, Matt Watts, Matt Low and myself) enjoyed the show immensely and I would recommend it to anyone interested in musicals!

Sunday morning we awoke quite early to make our way to the airport. The bus picked us up around 7:00 AM and took us to Gatwick Airport. The airport was enormous and quite crowded. We didn’t have any trouble getting through security except when Hilary and I both set off the metal detectors. I have no idea how we managed to set them off, but we did, and the consequence – frisking. That’s right folks, Hilary and I were fully frisked by a strange British woman. I’m not going to lie, I felt a little bit violated, but at least it makes for an interesting story! Following the frisking we sat around in the airport until our flight left at 11:40AM. After almost nine hours in flight, we finally arrived back in the States. Traveling to England gave me an unforgettable experience, but I am very glad to be home!