This past Saturday a couple of my friends and I took one of the ‘suggested’ day trips to Ulm. Ulm is known for its high church tower. If you can picture this, high church tower = a lot of stairs = tired at the top. I agreed to doing this. I don’t know why. I was all set for relaxing my first actual weekend in Reutlingen where I wasn’t expected to do anything. Instead, I signed up for this trip. Which this surprised me, because I had already said that after I climbed the tower in Cologne, I would not be climbing anymore towers. Apparently, I lied to myself.

To get there, we have a pass called the Naldo pass that works for the buses and trains in the Naldo system. Since we found the directions on how to get to Ulm on the Naldo website, we assumed that it was in the Naldo network. Apparently, not. One stop before we actually had to get off, the conductor informed us that we needed to get off and buy the correct ticket. We did this and then had to wait ONE HOUR before the next train that would take us 15 minutes to the next stop.

When we arrived in Ulm, the first stop was obviously the tower. It didn’t take that long to climb because part of the tower was closed off, though it was still tiring. We did get pretty close to the top, though. The view from the top was a little blocked off because there was construction happening on that tower.

After the tower, we got ice cream to help soothe the nerves of some of the people in our group who were afraid of heights. I was not going to complain. The ice cream here in Europe is better, in my opinion, than in America. It is just creamier, probably because it’s gelato, but it’s good.

Afterward, we went to the bread museum. We thought that the museum would be more like a factory, in that they would give us free samples of different breads. No. It was the history of bread. You can understand how exciting this museum was for us :/ The coolest part of this museum was grinding grain. Yippee.

The day went well, all in all. We got home safely, though we were all exhausted.

Our first official day in London we started the day off by going to the Tower of London. It was spectacular. We took one of the free tours offered and learned some of the history of the Tower. Most of the history had to do with illegally killing people, but besides that it was great! 😉 At the Tower, we got to see the crown jewels. Sadly, we could not take any pictures but the crowns were amazing.

After the Tower we went to Westminster Abbey. It was huge! And a lot of dead bodies are buried there, such as Elizabeth I’s and her half-sister Mary. There is an audio tour that is part of your admission, which really helps to tell about the history of the Abbey. Most have heard of the Abbey, but not many know why it is important to people. Most recently, it was the venue for the wedding between Kate Middleton and William. It was also where Elizabeth II was crowned queen. In fact, on the audio tour I learned that most royals are baptized, crowned, and buried in the Abbey.

After the Abbey we decided to go check out Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. This doesn’t seem to be the place most would think of going when they visit London, but I’m really glad that I went. Taking the tour, I learned about the amount of detail that went into the making of the Globe to ensure that it was made exactly the way it was built in Shakespeare’s time. They covered everything, to even the same type of tree being used and the animal hair used in the clay that was used to make the walls. Something that was not planned to be a part of the tour was the wedding party that came in. I guess they just really like the Globe that much that they wanted to take their wedding pictures inside of it.

The next day in London we did mainly quick little things that wouldn’t take up as much time, since we were flying back to Reutlingen that day. First, we went to Baker Street because of Sherlock Holmes. There was even a statue of him. Afterward, we went to King’s Cross to check out Platform 93/4. It was really cool there. There was even a Harry Potter store next to the ‘platform’ that was set up somewhat like one of the stores in the movies. They even had wands and chocolate frogs!

We also got to see the Wellington Arch, which was actually by accident because our goal was to go and see Buckingham Palace, which we did get to do. After Buckingham we went to go get lunch. The place we ate at was so cool! It was called Yo!Sushi and it had a conveyor belt that brought the food around. The best part would have had to have been the faucets that were at the table. One was for still water and the other for sparkling. And they had FREE refills!!!! That is almost unheard of in Europe so it was a hot commodity while we were there. We probably each had at least five glasses of water, if not more. It was a good day all around.

Upon arrival in London, it took us a total of three hours to find our hostel. Afterward I was soooo exhausted that I fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later and we decided that we wanted to go see a musical that night. The musical we decided on going to see was “Spamalot.” Now this was not my first choice for a musical, but I’m so glad that we went. We got amazing seats, so amazing that I believe when the man told us where we would be sitting if we bought the tickets, I immediately said “We’ll take them,” without even thinking about it. I am glad I decided to go, seeing as this was my first musical and all, it was a fantastic one to choose! I know, I know. It’s surprising I haven’t gone to other musicals yet, but at least I started with one that I deem A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

During the musical I was laughing so hard because of the jokes that were being made and the way they portrayed the movie onto the stage. It was so cool, because the cast only had like twelve people in it, and so some people played multiple parts. I personally like smaller casts so this was enjoyable for me. It also didn’t hurt that the actors had accents which made the musical seem a little more authentic to the whole Monty Python theme. Some of the parts were different from the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” movie, but I think it made it that much funnier because we didn’t exactly know what to expect.

There were times when events or people from the present would be put into the musical. I believe Susan Boyle was mentioned. There were some parts that I didn’t understand just because it had to do with words that the English use that we don’t. After the musical it was pretty late, so we didn’t really do anything else afterward. I did feel accomplished, though, because I was not expecting on really doing anything, and instead we went to go see a musical that I really thoroughly enjoyed. If you’re ever in London, check out “Spamalot!”

Our first full day in Edinburgh was awesome! The hostel that we were staying at gives free walking tours everyday at eleven, so we decided to go on it. After traveling a while, you realize you should do all of the things that are free because a) they are fun and b) they’re FREE! This tour was not a normal tour, at least for us anyways. This tour was very laid back. We weren’t struggling to keep up with the tour guide and we had all the time in the world to do things (kinda). On this tour we went to the same cemetery that my friends and I had gone to the night before when we went on that grave tour. We learned some of the same stuff, but we also learned a little bit about J.K. Rowling.

J.K. Rowling is known for having sat at a cafe near the cemetery while writing her first Harry Potter book. From some gravestones in the cemetery, she got the names McGonagall and Tom Riddle (he who must not be named!). Also, there’s a school named Harriet’s next to the cemetery where she got the idea of Hogwart’s from. It even looks castle like!

There were also so many pubs in Edinburgh, all named after people that had done something in the town. I don’t remember the name of one, but I do remember the story behind it. Apparently, this woman’s husband died and she started having a thing for another guy in the town. After she got pregnant, she was hung for adultery. On the way to the cemetery, the people traveling with the casket heard a knocking come from inside. The woman didn’t die! Because you could not be tried for the same thing she was allowed to walk. She got her own pub and gave the other prisoners who were to be hung their last whiskey (it’s a big deal in Edinburgh).

We went to the castle after the tour. This castle was HUGE! I’ve been to many castles—you, know studying in Germany and all—but this one was different. It was like one of the castles that we had learned about in social studies (yeah, like sixth grade). The castle was actually a building in the middle of this massive structure. The rest of it was like a church and land. When the castle was built, they were self sufficient because of the land they had. They grew their own crops and had farm animals, so starving them out would have been a no-go. It was basically a tiny community inside of the castle.

At the castle I got to see the crown jewels! Sadly, I could not take any pictures of them. I also got to see the sandstone. This may not sound exciting, but apparently this is the sandstone that the English kings and queens get coronated on. In the past the stone was taken from Scotland by the English. As an affront to the Scottish, the stone was put in the coronation chair in England so that the kings would be sitting on it. Queen Elizabeth II gave it back to Scotland, but if there’s a coronation the stone needs to travel back to England for the coronation.