What is a visit to the British Isles without going to London? I had never been to the city before, so I knew that when I was in Great Britain I had to go. I think out of Dublin, Belfast, and Edinburgh, I actually liked London the least. It has a lot of history, along with many cool palaces to see where the British royal family resides, but other than that I didn't feel any particular 'charm.' Unpopular opinion aside, let's get into it!
My hostel in London was near Elephant Park so it was about a 30 minute walk, or a short metro ride, to get to the city center. London is very big, so if visiting, know that you will have to walk a lot or take the metro to go just about anywhere.
The first place that I saw in London was St. Paul's Cathedral. But just before getting there, I ran into Shakespeare's Globe!
The Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which Shakespeare wrote his plays. The original theatre was built in 1599, destroyed by the fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. The current Globe Theatre opened in 1997.
After admiring the realistic reconstructed theatre, I continued to walk over the Millennium bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.
The exterior and the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral
These are the views of St. Paul's Cathedral after climbing 528 steps to the top of the dome.
The Cathedral dedicated to St. Paul has been in London for over 1, 4oo years. The buildings have changed throughout time because of reconstruction, but even so, I saw that St. Paul's remains a busy working Christian community. It is an Anglican cathedral and a place to find peace and encounter the love of God in a fast-paced world.
After visiting St. Paul's Cathedral, I made my way to the London Eye. It's also called the Millennium Wheel and it's a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London.
I also saw the Big Ben, which is the striking clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster.
The Palace of Westminster is right next to the Big Ben. It is the meeting place for the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Just west of the Palace of Westminster is Westminster Abbey, formally the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. It's a large, mainly gothic church that was started by Henry III in 1245. 30 queens and kings are buried here and the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton took place here too.
After the Palace of Westminster, I went to the Buckingham Palace. This is the well-known residence of the Queen Elizabeth II. This is also the place of the changing of the guards ceremony that happens weekly and the recent Platinum Jubilee celebrations that celebrated the queen's 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom.
After the Buckingham Palace, I went to Hyde Park since it is right next to Buckingham Palace.
In Hyde Park you will find the Kensington Palace, which is the home of the young British royals: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
Following the Kensington Gardens, I walked under the tower bridge. When this bridge opened, it was the most sophisticated bascule bridge in the whole world. It is still London's most striking bridge because of its Neo-Gothic architecture and lifting central sections.
After a full day of touring some of London's most visited attractions, I ended my day at Piccadilly Circus. It is a lively area with neon displays, theaters, and a bronze statue located in London's West End. I ate a yummy dish of fish and chips at one of the local restaurants here before going back to my hostel.
The next day, I did a full-day bus tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford University.
Changing of the Guards ceremony at Windsor Castle
The pictures above are of Windsor Castle. No pictures were allowed indoors, but the inside is just as lavish as the outside, I assure you. The Queen lives here more than at Buckingham Palace these days, as Buckingham Palace is referred to as her "office" and the queen is semi-retired now. Of course, she is not renouncing her throne, but she just isn't working as much right now because of her age.
Our bus tour then went to Stonehenge. Not much is near Stonehenge, besides rolling green hills and many sheep. Stonehenge itself is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain that consists of an outer ring of sarsen standing stones. Why was Stonehenge built? The reasons aren't completely clear but two theories are worship and burial grounds. We also saw Stone Age houses here that were rectangular and constructed from timber.
Our last stop on the bus tour was the University of Oxford. It's the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second university in continuous operation. Some individuals you may know who went to Oxford are Emma Watson, Oscar Wilde, Hugh Grant, and King Edward VI of England. I was pretty excited to visit Oxford because my undergraduate institution, the University of Georgia, has a study abroad program here that many of my friends had participated in during college. Oxford's campus is in the town of Oxford, which has many shops, restaurants, and markets.
The next day, I saw a play, Life of Pi, in London's West End District, and then went to Camden town to meet up with my friend Gabby.
After seeing the musical, I walked to Camden town, a hip and fashionable district in London. I met my friend Gabby and we then went to Regent's Park.
On the way to the park, we saw London's Little Venice.
Primrose Hill looks over all of Regent's Park and has panoramic views of the city of London. This is a pretty neat place, and I would definitely recommend coming here if you visit the city. We sat here for a while before getting dinner at a Chinese buffet back in Camden Town.
The next day, I left to go back to France before my next travels. Overall, I thought London was really cool. It is enormous and has plenty of interesting neighborhoods and districts to get lost in, and I really liked it because of that.
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