Overseas Adventures...: London Visit

Our wonderful parents gave us some travel money for Christmas and so we decided to visit London. Neither of us had been there before, so we decided a four day trip would be great! We boarded a coach on the 27th at 6:30 in the morning and arrived in London at 9:30am. Here is the Cliff Notes version of our trip plus some pictures at the end:

On the first day we rode the tour bus around the city before lunch to see all the sights. I think it is about a two hour tour and there is a live guide who points out the majority of things that there are to see in London. So we bundled up and sat up top next to the tour guide and took lots of photos. We pretty much saw it all; Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Downing Street, the Globe, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and the list goes on. It was awesome! After lunch we spent a few hours in the National Gallery and we did the Top 30 audio tour. There are so many paintings there, you could spend days just in the National Gallery alone. We ended the evening with dinner at London's Hard Rock Cafe and bought some playing cards there as a souvenir. We collect playing cards from all the places we visit.

Day two began with a river cruise on the River Thames and it was a sunny, beautiful morning. We boarded the boat by the Tower of London and cruised up to Big Ben and back. It was fun to see the city from a different view point and we had front row seats in the boat! After lunch we walked the Tower Bridge and accidentally ran into some friends whom we met for dinner that night. So random and fun. Then we checked out Picadilly Circus and went to see Platform 9 and 3/4 at the King's Cross tube station. Then we went on a walking tour about Jack the Ripper. The guide was interesting and we learned a lot about Jack the Ripper and the murders of the late 1800s in London. We had dinner that night with Dina, Louise, and Ashley at Nando's and it was delicious.

On day three the rain began and it did not stop the rest of the trip. But that's London for you. We started the day off at the Tower of London and did the whole audio tour thing again. It was pretty interesting and we got to see the Crown Jewels which were incredible! After lunch we went to the Natural History Museum. We waited in the queue for an hour just to get inside the museum and it was so very crowded. The museum was pretty cool and there was more to see than we had time for, but we hope to go back sometime. We had dinner that night and then met up with our friend Krista at a pub who was visiting a friend in London.

On the last day we headed over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard and got there about an hour early to get a good spot. After about half and hour we were told that the changing of the guard was cancelled, so we were pretty bummed about that. We definitely want to see that at some point in the future. So instead got lunch and went shopping on Oxford Street. There are more shops and people there than I have ever seen in my life, it was crazy. We got a few things and souvenirs and had a good end to our trip.

We definitely want to go back and see a few more museums and maybe a play or the Globe. There is so much to do in London! We had an awesome trip, but it felt good to get home. :)