my weekend in london
Hey everyone! I'm sure you all missed my long e-mails the past few days, but I
just got back from London last night, so I haven't had e-mail or anything to
use. I've done so much since I last wrote, I don't even know where to begin. I
guess I'll be pretty brief, because you don't all want to hear tons of details
about everything that I've been doing. Last Thursday we had a trip to Bath in
the afternoon, so we saw the Roman Baths and such. It was a really pretty area,
but we didn't really have much to do there. We left for London on Friday
morning, and from then on we were busy non-stop. I'll just do a very quick
rundown instead of going into detail about this entire last week.
As a group we went to Parliament and then Jane, Lyndy, and I split off and were
on our own for the rest of the weekend. First we went on one of the double
decker bus tours-The Original Tour. We stayed on that for about 2 1/2 hours and
got to see a lot and hear funny stories and such. Then we walked around
Leicester Square a little and ate dinner...at Pizza Hut (What can I say? It was
cheap).
The hotel we chose ended up being really great. We were so lucky that we found
such a great Bed & Breakfast for such a good price online and everything. It
was in a really cute area, the people were really nice, it was clean and
pretty, we had our own bathroom, and we could eat a big breakfast. It was great.
We woke up early on Saturday and ate a huge breakfast (we decided to fill up on
our free breakfasts and skip lunches to save money). Then our first stop was
St. Paul's Cathedral. We were even able to get a student discount and another
20% off from a booklet I found. It was really beautiful there, and we even
climbed the 400 some stairs to the galleries on top where we had a great view
of London.
We tried going to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace after that,
but it turned out that there was some parade instead that day. We got to walk
through Green Park though, and then we went to Leicester Square to get tickets.
We got tickets at the half-price ticket booth in the square. We went to a few
souvenir shops and such along the way, and then we went to the Shakespeare
Globe Theatre and bought tickets to see a show the next night.
The next place we went was St. James Palace, where Prince Charles lives. We got
a picture with the guard there too. And then we went back to Buckingham Palace
since it was less crowded and we could get some pictures there then.
After that we took a walk through Hyde Park, with all the pretty flowers and
everything, and found the Alber Memorial (Queen Victoria's husband), and saw
Kensington Palace (where Princess Diana lived). By that time we had to rush to
the area where our show was and eat dinner really quickly. We found a place
that had good pizza for only £3, so we took it. And then we went to the Theatre
Royal to see Anything Goes. It was great!! We all really liked it. Lyndy and
Jane had both been in that show in high school, and I'd seen it a couple
times, but none of us had seen it done professionally before. So...that was
pretty much our Saturday.
On Sunday, we woke up early and ate a lot for breakfast again and then headed
to the Tower of London. We were really good about getting to places early so
that we wouldn't have to wait in lines. We were always there before the place
first opened. At the Tower of London, we got a tour from a funny Beefeater and
we walked around on our own for a long time too. I'm not going to go into
detail about all of that now, but we stayed there for almost 4 hours. Then we
went and saw the Royal Mews-the horses and carriages and everything that are
used to carry royalty. We got a guided tour of that and it was actually really
interesting. We were able to buy fast passes for the London Dungeon, which let
us pass by a 2 hour line and go straight into it. It was pretty cool, but they
had this boat part advertised as some huge thing, and it was really short and
not much at all. Oh well. It was still pretty cool. We were just amazed that we
were able to fit all of these things into the day-we thought we'd have to cut
something out.
We grabbed a really quick dinner on the go (I had a bagel), and then we walked
to the Globe Theatre where we saw Romeo & Juliet. It was cool because we stood
in the yard area (which was really cheap), and the theatre is built exactly how
it was in his time. It kinda hurt to stand the whole time after walking around
all day, but it was still really good. When we were done we were all really
craving ice cream, so we ended up actually finding a Burger King and getting
milkshakes. Haha!
On Monday we had to take all of our stuff with us when we left in the morning,
because we were checking out right away. It was a pain to carry all of our
stuff around, but at least we only had backpacks. The first thing we went to
was Madame Tuseau's wax museum. Once again we got there at the beginning, so we
beat a lot of the long lines and crowds. It was a lot more expensive than we
expected, but we decided to go anyway. And we were all glad that we did. It
didn't take us as long as we thought it would for that amount of money, but all
of the wax people were amazing. there was a live part that you could go
through, but it was too freaky for us after having seen a bunch of fake people
to have real people jump out at you when you think they're fake-none of us are
really big into haunted houses.
Since we got out early, we had some time to walk around, go to souvenir shops,
and get an ice cream cone that it seemed like everyone had in London, before we
went to the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards was really
crowded, but it was cool enough. It took a long time and I had no idea what was
happening most of the time, but oh well.
Our last big stop was at Westminster Abby where we had to wait in a fairly long
line, but it wasn't too bad. After we got through that, we went back to
Leicester Square to pick up a few more souvenirs, and then we found our way to
our coach back to Bristol.
Okay, so maybe that wasn't as brief as I said it would be-but it's still
cutting a lot of details out. Anyway, that's the gist of my weekend in London.
I leave for Paris in a few days already, and I've had so many problems with
figuring out how to get there that making it there in itself will be a huge
accomplishment. Oy!
Anyway, overall, London was great. I was amazed that we were able to do so
much. The three of us did everything on our own, and we got tons done. We were
especially amazed when we came back and talked to other people from our group-
and none of them even went into anything. They said they went on a bus tour,
took a nap in the park, and hated their hostel. That made me even more glad
that I was with Lyndy and Jane.
Well, I think I've rambled long enough for now. I hope all of your summers/end
of the years are going well. I'll write again after Paris if not before then.
Bye for now!
-Sarah
just got back from London last night, so I haven't had e-mail or anything to
use. I've done so much since I last wrote, I don't even know where to begin. I
guess I'll be pretty brief, because you don't all want to hear tons of details
about everything that I've been doing. Last Thursday we had a trip to Bath in
the afternoon, so we saw the Roman Baths and such. It was a really pretty area,
but we didn't really have much to do there. We left for London on Friday
morning, and from then on we were busy non-stop. I'll just do a very quick
rundown instead of going into detail about this entire last week.
As a group we went to Parliament and then Jane, Lyndy, and I split off and were
on our own for the rest of the weekend. First we went on one of the double
decker bus tours-The Original Tour. We stayed on that for about 2 1/2 hours and
got to see a lot and hear funny stories and such. Then we walked around
Leicester Square a little and ate dinner...at Pizza Hut (What can I say? It was
cheap).
The hotel we chose ended up being really great. We were so lucky that we found
such a great Bed & Breakfast for such a good price online and everything. It
was in a really cute area, the people were really nice, it was clean and
pretty, we had our own bathroom, and we could eat a big breakfast. It was great.
We woke up early on Saturday and ate a huge breakfast (we decided to fill up on
our free breakfasts and skip lunches to save money). Then our first stop was
St. Paul's Cathedral. We were even able to get a student discount and another
20% off from a booklet I found. It was really beautiful there, and we even
climbed the 400 some stairs to the galleries on top where we had a great view
of London.
We tried going to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace after that,
but it turned out that there was some parade instead that day. We got to walk
through Green Park though, and then we went to Leicester Square to get tickets.
We got tickets at the half-price ticket booth in the square. We went to a few
souvenir shops and such along the way, and then we went to the Shakespeare
Globe Theatre and bought tickets to see a show the next night.
The next place we went was St. James Palace, where Prince Charles lives. We got
a picture with the guard there too. And then we went back to Buckingham Palace
since it was less crowded and we could get some pictures there then.
After that we took a walk through Hyde Park, with all the pretty flowers and
everything, and found the Alber Memorial (Queen Victoria's husband), and saw
Kensington Palace (where Princess Diana lived). By that time we had to rush to
the area where our show was and eat dinner really quickly. We found a place
that had good pizza for only £3, so we took it. And then we went to the Theatre
Royal to see Anything Goes. It was great!! We all really liked it. Lyndy and
Jane had both been in that show in high school, and I'd seen it a couple
times, but none of us had seen it done professionally before. So...that was
pretty much our Saturday.
On Sunday, we woke up early and ate a lot for breakfast again and then headed
to the Tower of London. We were really good about getting to places early so
that we wouldn't have to wait in lines. We were always there before the place
first opened. At the Tower of London, we got a tour from a funny Beefeater and
we walked around on our own for a long time too. I'm not going to go into
detail about all of that now, but we stayed there for almost 4 hours. Then we
went and saw the Royal Mews-the horses and carriages and everything that are
used to carry royalty. We got a guided tour of that and it was actually really
interesting. We were able to buy fast passes for the London Dungeon, which let
us pass by a 2 hour line and go straight into it. It was pretty cool, but they
had this boat part advertised as some huge thing, and it was really short and
not much at all. Oh well. It was still pretty cool. We were just amazed that we
were able to fit all of these things into the day-we thought we'd have to cut
something out.
We grabbed a really quick dinner on the go (I had a bagel), and then we walked
to the Globe Theatre where we saw Romeo & Juliet. It was cool because we stood
in the yard area (which was really cheap), and the theatre is built exactly how
it was in his time. It kinda hurt to stand the whole time after walking around
all day, but it was still really good. When we were done we were all really
craving ice cream, so we ended up actually finding a Burger King and getting
milkshakes. Haha!
On Monday we had to take all of our stuff with us when we left in the morning,
because we were checking out right away. It was a pain to carry all of our
stuff around, but at least we only had backpacks. The first thing we went to
was Madame Tuseau's wax museum. Once again we got there at the beginning, so we
beat a lot of the long lines and crowds. It was a lot more expensive than we
expected, but we decided to go anyway. And we were all glad that we did. It
didn't take us as long as we thought it would for that amount of money, but all
of the wax people were amazing. there was a live part that you could go
through, but it was too freaky for us after having seen a bunch of fake people
to have real people jump out at you when you think they're fake-none of us are
really big into haunted houses.
Since we got out early, we had some time to walk around, go to souvenir shops,
and get an ice cream cone that it seemed like everyone had in London, before we
went to the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards was really
crowded, but it was cool enough. It took a long time and I had no idea what was
happening most of the time, but oh well.
Our last big stop was at Westminster Abby where we had to wait in a fairly long
line, but it wasn't too bad. After we got through that, we went back to
Leicester Square to pick up a few more souvenirs, and then we found our way to
our coach back to Bristol.
Okay, so maybe that wasn't as brief as I said it would be-but it's still
cutting a lot of details out. Anyway, that's the gist of my weekend in London.
I leave for Paris in a few days already, and I've had so many problems with
figuring out how to get there that making it there in itself will be a huge
accomplishment. Oy!
Anyway, overall, London was great. I was amazed that we were able to do so
much. The three of us did everything on our own, and we got tons done. We were
especially amazed when we came back and talked to other people from our group-
and none of them even went into anything. They said they went on a bus tour,
took a nap in the park, and hated their hostel. That made me even more glad
that I was with Lyndy and Jane.
Well, I think I've rambled long enough for now. I hope all of your summers/end
of the years are going well. I'll write again after Paris if not before then.
Bye for now!
-Sarah