The adventure started before the wheels even left the tarmac, as my ever lovely procrastination skills had me up late stuffing sweaters into a duffel bag and "cleaning the apt" (unfortunately forgot about the oranges, but had a nice batch of penicillin going when I got back), and awoke the day of our flight literally an hour and a half before we were to take off, jumped on the metro and arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport as the gate should be closing, ran (or more did a pattern of run, walk quickly, run some more) through the terminals to gate 2B, which seemed to be the rough equivalent of a 5k, and arrived to discover our flight was delayed. Thank the heavens for bad weather and a push back of the departure by about 2 hours or I would have never made it.
Finally, after an semi-stressful morning we landed in London, checked into our 21 person dorm room in a hostel near the British Museum (and yes, we have many a tale of the individuals we met there in our triple bunk jungle gym of semi-craziness and along the labrynth path to the basement showers), grabbed a bite, and were off to see "Spring Awakening", a musical that was truly deserving of several rounds of applause (I already bought the CD). A fabulous first day in the English capital.
The next morning we were off to see the sites, from the changing of the guard at Buckingham (shown below) to exploration of the British parliament buildings, snapping pictures of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey along the way. By sheer luck and no planning, we sat in on a debate in the House of Commons where they were discussing housing, admittedly not the most lively topic, but good fun to see the almost taunting manner of banter that when on between the parliment members. Then it was a dinner in Chinatown and a play called "Three Days of Rain" starring James MvAvoy...we all drooled a little bit.
Fuzzy hat men during the changing of the guard (they do an adorable shuffle step in order to be perfectly aligned)
Kitsy, Emily, and Ashley model our lovely security passes for the parliment and Big Ben
oh James, you've captured my heart ;)
Then it was a day to explore the riverbank area of London, we stopped by St. Pauls Cathedral (on Peter's hill ironically enough), the Tate modern museum, and the new Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of Shakespeare's original built in 1599. Next we checked out the Tower of London where many a historical figure wasted away or went away without a head, and the tower bridge (which for the first half hour we firmly believed to be the London Bridge...honest mistake, the London Bridge is not as attractive). After an unsuccesful attempt to find Scotland Yard (apparently there is an old and a new, I should have been tipped off that we were by the new one since everyone we asked for directions wondered if we were in any trouble) we did have a bright spot of amusement with an evensong service at Westminster Abbey with an amazing male choir, after which they honored the birthday of Charled Darwin with a flower laying ceremony at his grave in the church walls. We then walked through a light snowfall to find dinner and do a little karaoke at an Australian establishment.
Tower Bridge
Westminster Abbey
The next day we were off to an adventure outside the city in Oxford. Em's friend showed us around the campuses (there are, I believe, approximately 39 colleges in the Oxford system) and Harry Potter film venues such as Christ Church. Then it was food time, we started with high tea (picture below) followed by a quick shopping run and finally the Great Hall Dinner (caps were necessary, it was that cool). We joined her college for hall dinner, a bit like Harry Potter as well, with long tables in a dimly lit hall with profs in robes at the head table. Unfortunately no magically appearing dishes or general sorcery, but still fabulous. Afterwards we stopped by the Turf Tavern where individuals such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have stopped for a pint, then back on the bus for London.
our group during the 'tour' and high tea (with YUMMY scones)
fields near Christ Church
Our final day in London we enjoyed our last minute must-dos like the British Museum, the hectic and eclectic Portobello market, and Hyde Park before we headed to Kings Cross (where we took pics at platform 9 and 3/4, again Harry Potter is all over this country) for our final leg of the journey up to Scotland.
Crowds at Portobello
Swans and the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park
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