London Bridge Is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down

Andy and I were ready to see more of London on Saturday morning. Our hostel accommodations were great- I didn't have to wait in line for the shower or bathroom and they served us free breakfast with cereal, toast, juice, coffee, or English tea (of course!). Our first mission was to make sure that we had a ticket to the bus shuttle that would take us back to the airport on Sunday. That mission was easily completed!

Now, it was time to sightsee. Our first stop: Buckingham Palace. As my cousin, Craig, who actually studied at Oxford through an exchange program with St. Bonaventure University, suggested, we took the Tube mostly everywhere. The closest stop to the Queen's house is St. James park, a beautiful, beautiful park where lots of people were enjoying the outdoors, eating picnics, or just walking their dogs. In the park, there's lots of little ponds and gardens and green grass and tons of colorful flowers. Even though autumn was just starting in England, everything was still green and blooming. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very close to the palace and we didn't witness the Changing of the Guard, but it was still pretty cool to know that this huge palace was where the kings and queens of England lived. The Queen was at home, so we were unable to take a tour.

Our next stop was Winston Churchill's War Room Cabinets, which was really interesting. Even though I'm not a history buff, I really enjoyed this museum. This was actually where Winston Churchill's office was housed during World War II. It was in a basement to protect the leaders from German air raids. Churchill and his wife along with other Cabinet members had furnished bedrooms, but rarely slept in the War Rooms. They had a fully functioning kitchen in the basement and there were different rooms for secretaries, meetings, and even a telephone room where Churchill frequently called U.S. President Roosevelt.

Third stop: Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We didn't go inside any of these places, just took pictures outside. Also, on the way to our third stop, I couldn't resist getting my picture inside a telephone booth. The Westminster Abbey was undergoing restoration or something, so we couldn't go inside, and it cost too much money to see the Parliament. The exterior of the Parliament was so different from the Senate and House buildings in DC that I was used to this summer. The architecture is amazing and beautiful on these Gothic style buildings. We crossed the River Thames just as a cycling race was going on and took some awesome pictures of the view of London from yet another bridge, can't remember the name of that one. After a hot dog and Fanta from a street food vendor, we bought our tickets to the London Eye, the famous ferris wheel in London. It has an amazing view of the city and there was a 4D show before we rode to the top of the ride. I can't even describe the view- it was so breathtaking! The ride took 20 minutes total and we waited in line for about 20 minutes, so not too bad, I guess. From the London Eye, we took several small detours until we decided to walk along the river to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. Walking along the river gave us more beautiful views of London. The exhibits at the art museum were kind of interesting, but nothing really stood out in my mind. Next door was the Globe Theatre, but they had a performance that night, so they couldn't give us a tour. We decided we would return the next morning for a tour because I loved studying Shakespeare in high school.

From there, we crossed the Millennium Footbridge, which was a pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge over the River Thames that opened in the year 2000. On the other side of the bridge is St. Paul's Cathedral. Before we went to the church, we decided to eat some fish and chips. It was an average meal, nothing special, but I knew I couldn't visit London without eating the meal. We didn't go inside St. Paul's, just walked around it and took lots of pictures, then decided to go to Trafalgar Square. It is a beautiful square and reminded me of my favorite piazza in Rome, Piazza Navona. It has lots of fountains and the National Art Gallery is located on one side of the square. That night, there was a life-size chess game taking place in the square. Just our luck, it started to rain as soon as we arrived. It was just drizzling at first, but then it started to POUR! Here was my first rain in London and we retreated to the Tube and traveled back to our hostel. We enjoyed a couple drinks at the pub right below our hostel, where we got a 10% discount. :)

On Sunday, we woke up and ate another free breakfast at the hostel. We checked out of the hostel but were able to leave our bags in a locked luggage room. We took a bus right down the street to the Globe Theatre for an official tour of Shakespeare's theatre. Unfortunately, I was surprised to find out that the Globe Theatre standing today is not where the original theatre stood, but I guess you have to work with what you have. It was another interesting tour and the theatre was a little chilly because- you guessed it!- it's an outdoor theatre just like it would have been in the times of Shakespeare.

After waking up to Shakespeare, we took a bus to the Tower Bridge, the most famous bridge in London. Once I post the pictures, you will all recognize the bridge. I had the opportunity to walk at the top of the bridge for one last view of the city. The Tower Bridge is still an actual working draw bridge that can stop the automobile traffic and allow large ships to pass while the bridge is drawn. I can't remember what year it happened, but a red double-decker public transportation bus hadn't stopped before the draw bridge started separating and so it had to jump the gap over the water! Everyone survived (there were no serious injuries) and now it is an infamous depiction in souvenirs.

Stops we missed in London: the British Museum, Abbey Road, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square. I will have to come back. I'm thinking at tour of the UK may be in the plans, which also includes Ireland and Scotland.

The flight from London back to Rome wasn't that bad. I had a window seat again and slept most of the airplane ride. We decided to take a shuttle bus directly from the airport to a bus stop in center of Rome- so we cut out the train step, but it still felt like it took forever to reach our apartment in Rome. Luckily, I didn't buy too much in London, so my backpack wasn't too much of a burden on the 1 1/2 journey from the Ciampino airport in Rome to my apartment.