Looks like I'm getting back in the blogging-swing of things again. My second post within the span of week!
Continuing on with the catch-up theme, this blog will cover my weekend trip to London with my boyfriend Mike. He came to visit me for two weeks starting March 16th. I had two essays due within those weeks so the days in between Carbisdale Castle weekend and London weekend were dedicated to essays. Yippee.
Anyways, we had booked dirt cheap flights from Glasgow to London on the Friday morning. These flights were so cheap because it left Glasgow at 6:50am. The airport is 45 minutes away from my flat and we had to be there an hour early. Of course, at this time of morning, the train isn't running to the airport yet, nor are any city buses. So we had to catch a 4:30am bus. Brutal. We landed in London at around 9am and took a train to Liverpool Street Station where we met my Uncle Chris. We were staying at his place this weekend (thanks!) and he offered to take our backpacks and keep them in his office for the day. We took him up on this offer and then it was off shopping! Mainly for Mike. I didn't really have any room to bring back anything with me in my backpack (the airline that we flew has a strict cabin baggage policy that, if broken, you would get charged 35 pounds). We hit up TopMan, Esprit, H&M, American Apparel...you name it. After shopping our brains out, we went to Buckingham Palace and Green Park.
Green Park
In front of Buckingham Palace
Fun with statues
More fun with statues
The guards with the black furry hats and red coats weren't on duty. But this guy has a real gun! That's when we gave up on our plan to storm the palace.
I think the shopping bags add a nice touch.
This gate had all of the Canadian coats of arms on it. See below.
Not this picture. This was just fun.
We tried to figure them out but we're probably not right...
Nova Scotia?
Quebec?
Pretty certain this is Manitoba (because of the bison)
This is Saskatchewan and Alberta. We knew that much.
One of the maritimes....PEI maybe?
Another one we thought had to be maritime....Newfoundland?
We knew this one too...B.C.
Back through Green Park to the Tube station
You've probably noticed that in all of these picture, rain and greyness have made a guest appearance. It rained every day we were there except for the afternoon on the last day. So most of my pictures are just that - grey and rainy.
After our day, we met my Uncle Chris who took us for a drink in their local neighborhood pub. Then we had Indian food and crashed, since we'd been up since 3am to catch that bus!
We had booked a tour to Stonehenge for the next day's afternoon. In the morning, we explored Oxford Circus and got half-priced tickets to Avenue Q! For those that don't know, Avenue Q is a musical done with puppets and it is HILARIOUS. More on that later.
Oxford Circus was kind of like a mini Time Square
It took us 2 and 1/2 hours to get out to Stonehenge. Most of that was just getting in and out of the city. But we finally arrived!
There were a ton of sheep right next to the stones.
Of course.
This was our lunch/pre-dinner. Cornish pastries on the bus. So good.We got back into London around 7pm or so and the play started at 8:30. We took the Tube back to Oxford cirus, grabbed a a slice of pizza as dinner, and then headed in to see Avenue Q!
I highly recommend seeing this play. It's super funny. Mike even liked it!
After that, we headed back to my uncle's place and crashed. Next morning, we headed into the city early again and went to the London Aquarium, which is right by the London Eye and Big Ben.
London Eye
Big Ben!
The had a glass floor you could stand on above the sharks.
There wasn't any flash photography allowed in the aquarium, so we took a video of the sharks.
After the aquarium, we headed to the Tower of London. This is when the sun came out! We took a tour lead by a Beefeater. It was a great tour and our guide really focused on the military defense structure of the tower, which Mike loved (me...meh). He did tell us about all the beheadings though, so that was cool.
This is where they would do private beheadings - like those of Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard (both wives of Henry VIII).
More guards with real guns. All of the guards are part of the army and were in between tours in the middle east.
The tower had displays of armor, swords and other military things.
After the tower, we walked across the Tower Bridge. This is where the blue skies really came out.
There was a battleship right by the Tower Bridge and of course we had to go on it.
Panoramic picture of the ship
They had these creepy mannequins all of the ship. They scared me every time.
Gigantic anchor.The next morning, we took a 9am flight out of London into Glasgow and caught the train back to my flat. It was a great trip. I loved London when I was here in 2006 and I still love it.
Next post: Edinburgh again! This time, a visit to Holyrood Palace!
Very cool, Erin. Nice to see you into the groove on the blog - now, about those essays?
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