Ashley, Anna and my trip to London began mid-afternoon with a short flight from Glasgow to Stansted (and then a longer bus ride into London). By the time we arrived in London, it was more-so evening than day time, so we stuck to the hostel for the night.
Day 2 (May 4)
Our first day really seeing London was a pretty busy day. After getting an early start, we took the Tube (or Underground) to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. We arrived pretty early, but by the start of the ceremony, the palace gates were pretty crowded with tourists pushing their way to the front in an attempt to get a good view of the ceremony.
The gates that keep the public away from the palace are set rather far away, so we did not get very close to the guards.
The ceremony was a little long, but entertaining. The guards marched in and did the strangest little shuffle while they lined up. I tried to find it on YouTube, but no luck. There also was a great deal of marching band music throughout the hour-long ceremony.
Once the changing of the guard ended, we spent a little bit of time by the Victoria Fountain in front of the palace before proceeding on to our next destination for the day.
Our next stop was Westminster Abbey, where we got to wait in quite a long line. Once we got inside the Abbey, the workers were pretty adept at getting tourists to move quickly through each space, especially the small rooms with the graves of Elizabeth I and Mary I.
My favorite part of the Abbey was Poet's Corner, which is the resting spot of literary greats such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Dickens. It also had memorials to other favorite writers of mine, most particularly William Shakespeare and the Brontes. Literary happiness, indeed.
After wandering through the remaining halls and gardens of the Abbey, we decided to head across the River Thames to get a shot of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately, the sun conspired against us, and the iconic buildings turned shadow-esque due to the sunlight. Boo sun!
Alas!
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament completed our sightseeing for the day.
Day 3 (May 5)
Our second day of sightseeing in London was spent mostly at the Tower of London. Tower is a misleading name for what is really the first royal palace established in London, dating back to 1066. It is huge! And filled with a multitude of museums of old towers/sections to explore.
We ended up joining a Yeomen (free) tour of the Tower, which took us to key points such as Traitor's Gate and the chapel. Once the tour concluded, we took in the sites of the Crown Jewels, Beauchamp Tower (where prisoners were kept), Bloody Tower (where the two princes were killed), and Wakefield Tower (where the torture devices were kept).
By the time we saw all of these parts of the Tower, it was mid-afternoon. And, by the time we reached Shakespeare's Globe (which we had intended to do), we discovered that tours of the Globe end at 12 noon every day.
Day 4 (May 6)
This was quite possibly my favorite day in London--because it was almost entirely literary! It began with quite possibly literature's greatest man, William Shakespeare. Our day commenced with a tour of Shakespeare's Globe and a look at the Globe's Exhibition.
The tour was quite good and informative. It was led by a woman who reminded me of one of my Beloit professors. One thing that I didn't know about the Globe is that it was a project started by American Sam Wanamaker, whose daughter Zoe Wanamaker played Madam Hooch in Harry Potter. Double-literary glee!
I also didn't realize how small the Globe is for holding 900 people sitting and 600 standing. Crazy!
The exhibition was also pretty cool. It included a history of the Globe theater (and it's multiple burning downs) and exhibitions of props and costumes from various performances at the Globe since it opened in 1997. Lovely.
After finishing up at the Globe, we proceeded over Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral. Millenium Bridge was also a wonderful moment of literariness. It is the bridge destroyed by the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
When we arrived at St Paul's Cathedral, we didn't want to pay 13 GBP to go in, especially since we were pretty cathedral-ed out by this point. Instead, we appreciated the outside and saw most of the inside from the area where you purchase tickets to go past the ropes. Close enough, when you've already seen about a dozen cathedrals in Europe.
Once we had our fill of St Paul's, we took the Underground up to King's Cross station to go through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts. :)
After our visit to Hogwarts, Ashley and Anna went back to the hostel and I went to the Charles Dickens Museum/House. It was a lovely experience. The other visitors were a bunch of middle-aged English ladies on an afternoon out. The House had a video all about Dickens' life and a number of items that belonged to either him or his family.
While Dickens lived in the house, he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. Naturally, I had to purchase one of the books. Since I already own Oliver Twist, I purchased Nicholas Nickleby in the house in which it was written. Happy day!
Day 5 (May 7)
The last day of our visit to London began with a visit to Abbey Road, the famous crosswalk on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album. There were about a dozen tourists attempting to get the famous Beatles shot between traffic. I'm sure that London drivers who have to go on Abbey Road HATE tourists.
After Ashley and I got our crosswalk pictures, we went to see Abbey Road Studios. It was pretty small and looked more like a house than a recording studio--aside from the fact that the outside gate was covered with graffiti about the Beatles.
After Abbey Road, we headed to Buckingham Palace to meet Jacquie and her fiance Dan for lunch. After lunch, we parted ways. Ashley and Anna headed to the airport to catch their flight to Glasgow and I headed to the train station to catch my train to Oxford. By the time I got to Oxford, I was too exhausted by three poor nights of sleep in the loud hostel in London to do anything but go to bed.
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