London. London. London. It is the most amazing city I have ever been to. It is just teeming in history and stories and mysteries. It is such an old city with a rich history. I couldn’t get enough of it. We arrived at King’s Cross Station (ahh!) at 8:30 in the morning. The very first thing we did was see Platform 9 and three quarters. All my Harry Potter fans out there are probably really excited. It is awesome, let me tell you. There is a half of a cart and Hedwig’s cage bolted to a brick wall so it looks like it is halfway through the wall and it is so cool! After that, we hopped on the Tube (the underground railway in London) and headed to our hostel to drop off our stuff for the day. When we got off the station we made our way to the streets and I was so excited because at this point we hadn’t actually SEEN London yet because we went straight underground after getting off the train. So we walk up the stairs and the first thing I see when we enter the streets is.. a McDonald’s. Typical! They’re everywhere. But London was beautiful. And so different! Our hostel was about 2 miles away from the heart of London and so we didn’t see any of the historical stuff but nevertheless, it was still amazing.And did you know that London is actually a combination of a few cities put together? Where all the historical building like Big Ben and Westminster Abbey are; that is the city of Westminster and on the other side is the city of London and that makes up the whole of London. Our hostel was also so cool, we slept on bunk beds that were triple stacked and there were 15 beds in one room. Very different from a regular hotel.
After that comes the fun stuff, we saw Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. My Dad and brother informed me that it is illegal to hug the queen unless she initiates the hug, so they implored me not to create an international incident by hugging her. Unfortunately I did not get the chance to hug the queen because she was not at home when we were there. We went to St. Jame’s Park, and then to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. By far, Big Ben was my absolute favorite thing I have seen. Nothing else comes close. It is truly magnificent. There is no other way to describe it and my pictures don’t do it justice. I strongly recommend for everyone to come to London, if for no other reason than to see Big Ben for yourself. It is so beautiful. Right next to Big Ben is Westminster Abbey which is also very incredible. We also saw the London eye; fourth largest observation wheel in the world! We were the epitome of a tourist when we stopped to take pictures with the iconic red phone booths with Big Ben in the background. We took a Big Bus Tour and I learned so much in the 2 hours we were on the bus. The tour guide was fantastic. The phrase “God Bless You” when someone sneezes came about when the bubonic plague was spreading through London and the final symptom before a person died was sneezing. So when someone would sneeze they said “God Bless You” to literally ask God to have mercy on their soul because very soon they would die. I learned that the oldest monument in the city is Cleopatra’s Needle; it is 3000 years old and it was a gift from the Egyptians. On it’s way over to London, it got lost in the mail… for 80 years! How crazy is that? The list goes on and on. We saw a play in Picadilly Circus and at night, Picadilly Circus resembles Time Square. It was so pretty.
Big Ben 🙂
We ended the weekend going to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The Tower of London was awesome and the Crown Jewels were beautiful. There is a punch bowl in the collection called the Great Punch Bowl and it is made out of pure silver plated in 100% pure gold that weighs a half a ton and can hold 144 bottles of wine. It was massive. At one point, the Tower of London had been a castle, a prison, a fortress, a zoo, a royal home, and now a museum. It was fascinating. One of the most famous parts of the Tower are the 6 ravens that live within the grounds. There is a saying that goes, “If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the crown will fall and Britain with it” Now, the people of England are very superstitious, so to be on the safe side, they’ve clipped the ravens wings and there is a 7th spare raven in case something happens to one of the other six. They are very tame creatures, I even got close enough to one to get my picture with it!
The Raven!
We learned of Anne Boleyn one of the 3 queens who were beheaded at the Tower. We then ended with a Harry Potter Tour of the city to see where they filmed some of the movies. Sorry this is so lengthy, but I couldn’t POSSIBLY fit this in one or 2 paragraphs. It was on of the best weekends of my life, and I hope to return to London soon. Thanks for reading!
With love,
Abby
