This blog entry is the tale of my first day in London. Of getting lost and finding my way. But mostly it's the tale of a learning experience. I'd say everyone who attended the trip was guaranteed to learn at least a little something.
Things I have learned:
1) You can never plan too much.
2) PLAN to throw half of your plans out the window.
3) Spontaneity is fun.
4) Communication is key.
5) Make the most of your mistakes.
I'll be honest, I didn't do much planning for this trip, I let the school do the travel booking, and left our schedule to Megan, Brittany, David, Tori, and McKenzie. You could say I just went along for the ride. They planned out a wonderful schedule for Friday and Saturday including all the major tourist attractions.
The school sponsored trips to different museums and attractions. While McKenzie and I went to the Tower of London, the rest of our group went to see the British Library. After the Tower of London I split from McKenzie and joined another group of girls from Harlaxton. We took the tube to Westminster Abbey and came out RIGHT IN FRONT OF the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It was a splendid surprise!
After walking around the Houses of Parliament and past Westminster Abbey, we made our way towards Buckingham palace.
Houses of Parliament
More about Harrods to come on my next post.
Best Picture EVER.
Westminster Abbey
Buckingham Palace
After seeing Buckingham Palace, I met back up with Mckenzie and we headed to Trafalgar Square. We even got to pass some lovely London cityscapes on the way there. :)
The main thing we did at Trafalgar square was go to the National Gallery. But of course McKenzie needed a picture by the big blue chicken first (The locals call it a cockerel.)
It's interesting how everything connects. For example, prior to this blog post, I had no clue what the meaning of the Blue Cockerel was. But in my Gender Women Studies class we were talking about being curious and how too often we accept not knowing what something means because that is the easy way out. Gaining knowledge can be time consuming, sometimes even difficult. But in today's world all you have to do is Google it. So that's what I did. The artist, Katharina Fritsch, who designed the sculpture, says it is "a feminist sculpture, since it is I who am doing something active here – I, a woman, am depicting something male. Historically it has always been the other way around. Now we are changing the roles. And a lot of men are enjoying that."
I found it interesting that my London trip connected directly to one of my classes here at Harlaxton. It's crazy what sorts of things make the world go round!
The National Gallery was amazing. They had so many incredible artists including some of my favorites: Monet, Van Gogh, and Manet, as well as a few I discovered there: Canaletto and Pissarro. We actually thought we weren't allowed to take pictures so sadly I have no pictures to show you from here. :(
After seeing just a fraction of the National Gallery, Mckenzie and I had to leave to meet Megan, Brittany, David and Tori to pick up our tickets for the London Eye. The London Eye was by far my favorite thing we did the entire weekend. Our arrival was times perfectly, just before the swarm of people who also schedule their "ride" for 7:30. We had a very short wait before we were able to get into the bubble- like passenger capsules we would go up in. The London Eye is a giant Ferris Wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames. Fun fact I just learned, the passenger capsules represent the thirty-two principal subdivisions of the administrative area of Greater London.
Sir Richard Rogers wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project:
A view of the London Eye from a nearby bridge.
Close up of the passenger capsule next to us.
Passenger Capsule.
Passenger Capsule.
Look at how cute they are. :)
Yay group pictures on the London Eye!
More pictures of the London Eye. Just not from on the Eye.
The London Eye was by far the best money I spent on this trip. The views from within only get better as you go up. London is beautiful and I loved being able to look out and get a different perspective of all the places I had been earlier in the day. I'd highly recommend this experience to any first time Londoners.
After our sad exit from the London Eye (we didn't want to leave) we found the perfect place for pictures with Big Ben and took advantage of it.
You don't realize how much fun you had on a trip until you can't fit into a single blog post! Look for my next post on the many adventures of Saturday September 6th: London Trip Day Two.
"Life is too deep for words,
so don't try to describe it.
Just live it."
-C.S. Lewis
A fantastic '1st day in London' blog! Even though we have heard your accounts first hand, it is great to see it all written down and to hear your opinions about our wonderful capital city. We love it too!
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