London

May 8-10, 2011- We arrived at London Stansted Airport at midnight on May 8 and had no idea how or where we were going to sleep.  We weren’t quite sure if we were allowed to sleep in the airport but we decided to try our chances anyways.  Matt and I found a little corner cubby to sleep in which was located right next to the bathroom.  

Where I slept first and third night in London

I actually slept ok that night considering the ground was rock hard and super cold and it seemed like the whole airport had to go to the bathroom at the same time the whole night turning on the blow dryers which were just as loud as a freight train.  But after that rough start, we began our adventure in London.  We totally got ripped off while converting our Euros to British Pounds but what can you do?  I still couldn’t get over the British accent.  I don’t understand why I thought it was so cool because I have heard the accent many times before, maybe it was just the fact that I was in England and still could not believe it.  I don’t know.  We then jumped on a bus and headed for downtown London.

After the nearly two hour trip, we made it to London and began walking around.  We didn’t really know what to do in London because we did absolutely no research or preparation at all for this trip but we started walking to Buckingham Palace.  

Buckingham Palace

We took some pictures of the guards with the big furry hats and continued on.  As we walked, we suddenly heard some music.  After a while the noise got louder and we realized it was actually bagpipes playing.  We followed the music and arrived at the Guard’s Museum.  

Bagpipe Guards

A group of Royal guards were playing their bagpipes and drums playing the stereotypical bagpipe songs which were really cool.  We continued our walking tour of London and made our way to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

There we met up with Tyler and Dan at noon and started walking along the river.  We passed sights such as the London Eye, Globe Theatre, London Bridge, and Tower Bridge.  

London Eye

Shakespear's Globe Theater

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

We walked across Tower Bridge and saw the Tower of London which looked more like a small castle than it did a tower.  

Tower of London

After this we decided to take the tube back to our hostel which was located in Arsenal, the eastern part of London.  The hostel was actually located above an English pub which was pretty cool.  The point of heading to the hostel was to drop our bags and change our clothes because we weren’t going to go to the Sunday evening service at Westminster Abbey.  

Westminster Abbey

This was a really cool experience because it normally costs 15 Pounds to get in unless you are attending a service to worship, which is of course free.  The church itself was huge on the inside.  Many of you may remember seeing the inside of the church if you watched the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton which took place in the same place only a week earlier.  After the service we went downtown to explore more and got some old fashioned English fish and chips which was the end to our night.

The second day in London was quite relaxed.  We had seen all of the major sights with just a few more locations we wanted to visit.  One of these was the British Museum which was free!  The museum had a lot of information about world history and also had a really cool exhibit about clocks.  

British Museum

After the museum, Tyler, Matt, and I decided to head over to Wimbledon to see the tennis courts.  We unfortunately could not see the courts without paying for a tour.  

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

We were only allowed into the gift shop.  After that disappointment we walked around the whole building looks for an opportunity to get a good view of the courts but with no luck.  We began heading back to London and met up with Dan in Hyde Park.  We took a nice stroll through the park enjoying the weather and also climbing trees.  

Awesome climbing tree

Later that night we went to Abbey Road and did the classic Beatles album cover walk across the road with the four of us.  Afterwards we made our way to Baker Street to see where Sherlock Holmes “lives.”  

221B Baker Street

Seeing that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, he never really lived on Baker Street but we found 221B Baker Street anyways.  This was the last thing we did before heading back to London Stansted Airport.  Once at the airport I made my way back to my spot from a couple days before and attempted to sleep.  That was one of the worst nights of sleep in my life.  But overall the trip to London was awesome!  In my opinion, London is the coolest city I have ever been to and would suggest everyone to visit.