Righto, well, there is so much to report about our fabulous European adventure. Our travels began in merry old England - London to be precise. I flew in by myself because Matt had already been there for a week and a half for work. This all worked out swimmingly, as he was flown over in business class on the company's dime (how nice for Matt!). He mostly worked while he was there, but he did find time to do some fun things too: he went to the Tower of London, stood at the Prime Meridian, went to a Fleetwood Mac concert (I was so jealous!), and even played golf with a coworker.
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I took the red-eye and arrived early on July 2nd after sleeping about 0.5 hours (I did not get to ride in business class and I don't sleep well on planes, even with sleeping pills and little sleep the night before leaving.). When I got to London, after sleeping for about an hour, I ventured out into the city to do my own exploring. I started at St. Paul's cathedral.
I toured the cathedral and climbed the hundreds of stairs up to the top of the dome to get a 360-degree view of the city. While I was there, there was a "heat-wave" going on - weather in the 90s and it was sunny, quite rare for England, but quite typical summer weather for me. It was beautiful.
The rest of the afternoon, I was walking around and seeing what I could see - Trafalgar Square, Twinings Tea Shop, 221B Baker Street, Covent Garden area, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, St. James Park. This was the day I walked something like 12 miles. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of that day.
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The next day, I got up and headed out again to do more tourist-ing. I started at the Tower of London. I enjoyed seeing and learning about the formidable and historic grounds for imprisonment over the years. One of the most interesting, and funny, parts was the exhibit on the royal menagerie. They kept a polar bear on a leash so it could swim in the Thames; they had a room of free-roaming monkeys (until one of them killed a little boy...no one guessed that this might have happened?!?); they had an elephant and several lions and lots more that seems completely unsafe in downtown London. Londoners would come to see the animals on their weekends - and get this - would bring cats and dogs to feed the animals. Oh my. John Wesley even came as a visitor at one point and played music to the lions.
(Sir Walter Raleigh's quarters while he was a guest. His wife and family came to live with him here while he was in prison...that's dedication, I suppose.)
As you can see, it was another beautiful day, so I continued on to other parts of the city after this: across the Tower Bridge to Borough Market (awesome!) for lunch. I got a steak and cheese pie and some cherries and sat on the Thames to eat and enjoy.
Then, I went to the Churchill War Rooms museum. I cannot say enough good things about this museum - it was wonderful! We got to go see all the bunker rooms under the city where Churchill and staff directed the war from. Everything was left pretty much the way it was when the war was over. They did a masterful job in showing the operations of everything. Plus, there was a large portion devoted to the life of Winston Churchill, whom I did not know very much about. What a fascinating man! I loved this museum. If you're going to London, you should check it out!
After the war rooms, I had to check off some other musts-when-in-London: Big Ben, Westminster (didn't go in this time), and, of course, Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station!
I rounded out the day with fish and chips and a pint. Yum!
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For 1.5 days, I packed a lot in. I love London. It feels like the older brother to New York City. The people are classy, fashionable, a little more reserved, and very culturally savvy people. There are always more things to see and do and I hope to go back again and again!
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