London

I left my apartment at 4:30 pm Siena time. A train, plane, bus, and cab ride later—for a combined total of 10 hours of travel-- I arrived at my final destination of LONDON, ENGLAND! It was 2:30am and I was completely exhausted, but I made it. I was there. My first European excursion successfully executed!

Josh was waiting for me when I arrived at the steps of 16 Bedford Place, his “flat” right by Russell Square. He shares his apartment with 4 other students also enrolled in Syracuse University’s study abroad program. Unfortunately they were all sleeping/traveling and therefore I didn’t get to meet them. Anyway, we caught a few hours of sleep and woke up early the next morning to start our first full day of sightseeing.

The weather the first day was beautiful, fall weather! It was sunny and crisp outside, a bit uncharacteristic for London. We began our day taking London’s underground system, the Tube, to Buckingham Palace to try and catch a glimpse of the changing of the guards. Unfortunately, they weren’t performing for the public that day, but we did see some fancy guys on horses trot past.

Instead, we walked to the Thames River towards Tower Bridge—the famous bridge that many mistakenly call “London Bridge”. The views of the city from the bridge were spectacular. We made our way across the bridge to the Tower of London on the opposite side. We explored the Tower for a few hours checking out the White Tower museum, arsenal, armory, torture museum and the crown jewels.

After our visit to the tower we walked a long way down the opposite side of the Thames to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the more modern Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian’s bridge. We crossed the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern Art Museum. Now I know I said after my visit to the MAMbo in Bologna that I will never understand modern art, but I have this new mission (one that even I don’t quite comprehend) to visit modern art museums each country I visit. However, while the MAMbo was a pleasant surprise, the Tate Modern was a huge disappointment. The website advertised collections of Warhol, Lichtenstein, Matisse and Picasso! But the museum in reality featured only one or two pieces by each artist. The rest was just weird. For the size of the museum (seven huge floors) there was little to see. At least we didn’t have to pay an entrance fee.

After the museum we caught sights of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater and went off to explore the neighborhood of Covent Garden. Here we discovered an outdoor market and shopping area that was packed with people sitting at cafes, watching street performers, and listening to live music.

At the end of the day we went out to dinner at a Thai food restaurant—a nice departure from all the pasta and pizza I have been eating—and went to sleep early.

On day two we woke up early again and walked to Parliament. In addition to Parliament we saw Big Ben and went inside Westminster Abbey. Inside Westminster we saw the tombs of many famous Kings and Queens as well as the Poets’ Corner where writers like D.H. Lawrence, Lewis Carol, Robert Browning, and Chaucer are buried. We also got to see the Isaac Newton sculpture that was featured in the DaVinci Code. The cathedral was beautiful, the courtyard very Harry Potteresque.

After our trip to Westminster we had lunch at a great London Pub, the Bag O’ Nails. We feasted on delicious fish and chips (Josh’s first) while watching London defeat Australia in a nail-biting quarterfinal match of the Rugby World Cup.

After lunch we walked back to the apartment where I took a nap. Afterwards, Josh made me dinner and we went out later that evening to a Blues Bar to hear some great live blues music. This tiny hole in the wall is the only full-time blues club in all of London. Josh is a huge music fan and comes here often. We had a pint and stayed for hours listening to a great band. It was a fantastic evening!

The next day was a travel day. I left around 11:30 London time to catch my 3:30 flight. I was sad to go but I had a wonderful weekend. London was even better the second time around. Unlike my last visit, it wasn’t crowded allowing us to take our time at each place we visited. We walked all of the major neighborhoods, taking in the sights. It was a great trip.