London, England

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Trip Start Aug 31, 2008 Previous
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  London, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, September 6, 2008

We got here on Saturday morning (9/6) and came to our hotel to check in.  After that, we went to get some lunch at a little grocery store and ate at a nice,quiet park near our hotel.  Our hotel is very nice. There is a lot of room to hang out with people outside of the rooms. Then we went on a walking tower with our entire group. It was two hours of walking and we kind of had jet lag, but the tour guide was fabulous. That was the first time I saw Big Ben. I came up from the subway and was just amazed. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful.   The faces are trimmed with gold and the Houses of Parliment that are connected to it have so much detail and so many angels and figures carved into it. Big Ben was definitely one of my favorite things about the city. Near the Clock Tower on the other side of the Thames is The Eye.  It's a big ferris wheel that takes 30 minutes to go around. I wanted to go on it but it cost £15 which is about £30. I hear it's a great view of the city. On Sunday, we went to see the Tower of London which was an old prison and place of execution for famous people. My favorite part of this were the crown jewels. We saw a replica of the Cullinan diamond, which is the worlds largest diamond at overy 1,300 carats. It was so interesting to read about the royalty and their crowns. We also saw the Tower Bridge. It is beautiful and reminded me a lot of the Disney World castle. Then we went to Evensong at St. Paul's cathedral. The singing was beautiful. The young boys in the choir had amazing soprano voices. I was really tired though so I had a hard time staying awake. On Monday, we went to see Westminister Abby and St. Paul's cathedral. Westminister used to be an abby for monks but today it is a cathedral and a museum of memorials and tombs of dead poets, royalty, and scientists. Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, and Elizabeth I were the ones I enjoyed seeing the most. This wasn't my favorite site though. I really enjoyed St. Paul's cathedral. We got a quick tour and then climbed to the top of the dome. It was 540 steps up..a long journey, but a beautiful view of the city. On Tuesday, we went to see the British Museum, the National Gallery, and the British Library. At the British Museum, we saw the Rosetta Stone which is the stone that allowed them to decode hieroglyphics. We also saw many sculptures from the Partheon in Greece. Then at the National Gallery we saw a Love exhibit of paintings that deal with love from the 1500s to modern day. I'm not into much art, so this wasn't very exciting to me. At the British Library, my favorite thing was seeing the original copies of when the Beatles wrote their lyrics. Then on Tuesday night, I went to see Lion King with Daniel and Holly. It was fabulous. This was my favorite part of London by far. I loved the music and the costuming. Wednesday we just got packed up and had some free time before leaving for Vienna.

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London's Heathrow Airport	Bus to Hotel	Streets of London	ACE Hotel
Cameron and Curtis	Autumn, Liz, Emily, and I	Park in London	Emily and Autumn in the park
The Tube	Tube Ticket	BIG BEN!	Me in front of Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament
Me in front of Big Ben	Liz, Emily, and I	Cameron and Curtis by Houses of Parliament	The Eye
Horse's Gate on our walking tour	Gardens on Princess Diana Walkway	Westminster Abbey	Buckingham Palace
Gates near Buckingham Palace	Cupid Statue at Leicester Square	Harrods Department Store	Tower of London
My group with the Tower Bridge	Me at the Tower Bridge	St. Paul's Cathedral	Liz and I half way to the top of St. Paul's
Jordan and I at the top of St. Paul's	Emily and I at the top of St. Paul's	Me at the top of St. Paul's	Me in another telephone booth
Me in a telephone booth	The Lion King

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