I'm a week late posting this as I went to London last friday, but I guess better late than never! It was definitely an experience, and even though it was wildly crowded and deafeningly loud, I highly recommend that if you ever get a chance to visit London, you should!
Joe and I went on this trip solo, so we got to figure out how to navigate the city and underground rails without the help of Helen and Mark... which is how we ended up walking down a long pretty road and happened to walk right up to Buckingham Palace. The conversation was a bit like this:
"Joe... what is that building?"
"What do you think it is?"
"That can't be... OH MY GOSH ARE WE AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE?"
"Looks like it."
It was lots of those moments, just happening upon beautiful places and gardens. We sat in the garden in front of Buckingham Palace for a while to watch the ducks play and rest our feet. The whole city is full of beauty and history at ever corner. I had the best time in London and can't wait to take mom and Tim this December!
We also stumbled upon a gated property guarded by the Queen's Guard, and they did a Changing of the Guard, which was really neat since we were standing right up next to the ropes and got to see it up close.
Also, one of the highlights of the day, I got to eat at my favorite place: CHIPOLTE. It was located conveniently by Trafalgar Square, so we ate there, grabbed Starbucks drinks, and looked around the area. Trafalgar Square was gorgeous and you can see Big Ben and the London Eye peeking over the skyline from there. I must say that I don't understand why there is a statue of a giant blue rooster housed there, but I'm not complaining.
I was really just in shock the whole day and couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was actually there. So many people half-heartedly dream about seeing places like London, loving the idea but never really believing they could ever get there... and I totally had a there's-no-way-that-this-is-real-life moment. It's truly amazing what can happen when you work hard and do whatever it takes to get where you want to be.
One thing that was mildly upsetting is the outrageous entrance fee for Westminster Abbey. But I figured it was worth it (which it was a million times over) but photography was prohibited. REALLY? Since the Abbey is completely self-sustaining and receives no financial support outside of visitors and donations, I guess they need that high entrance fee and for visitors to buy their pictures. I still snapped a few when the employees weren't looking... hehe. But they would be pleased to know that 98% of them turned out blurry since I was taking them so fast and smuggling my camera back in my purse... haha!
After looking around the main bits of London we caught the underground tube down to the Natural History Museum, which was absolutely gorgeous and extremely cool. And free! Doesn't get much better than that. We looked around there until we were too tired and hungry to keep moving and caught the tube back to the Westminster terminal. I like big city life, but at the end of the day nothing pleases me more than returning home and enjoying the peace and quiet of home. Am I getting old?
So, yes, in short, London was amazing. And this weekend we are returning visit Harry Potter World! Words honestly can't describe how excited I am. EEEEEEPPPPPP.
Hope y'all are all doing well and thanks for reading! :)
Bethany
No comments:
Post a Comment