Mind the Gap...A Week in London

From March 6^th to March 11^th, I was in London for my long study tour. The week was filled with academic visits, cultural tours, sightseeing adventures, and Harry Potter references. I learned how to navigate the tube, ate fish and chips (fries), learned to squeeze my way into a jammed backed tube during rush hour, and of course to mind the gap. To add the the amazing week of activities, the weather was nothing, but perfect and sunny!

March 6^th

In the early hours of the morning, 5:40am to be exact, a group from my housing and I left for the airport. At 6:45am, we had to be at the airport to meet our core course. At 9.35am, we arrived into London to begin the amazing week. After we checked into our hotel, we were off to lunch for the traditional fish and chips. Although, the fish was more like frozen fish sticks. After lunch we headed off the British Museum for a guided tour. Random people attempted to join our tour, but our tour guide continued to say this is a private tour. As a joke for other tours, our group would say this is a private tour. At the museum we saw several exhibits, such as the mummy exhibit. One of the best items we saw was the Rosetta Stone. At one point our group was trying to take a picture of the stone, but some guy was in our way. So my group and I decided to wait, but this guy decided to intently look at the Rosetta Stone as if he was reading it. All of us just laughed and tried to get him out of the way. Eventually he did and we were able to get our picture. After the British Museum, we went back the hotel. The rest of the night, Libby, Becca, Maria, Esther, Dafna and I went out to dinner and a bar.

March 7^th

Today was the first day we experienced the tube during rush hour. The tube during rush can be compared to canned sardines, jammed back. Traveling with a group of 20 doesn’t make traveling easy in general, but trying to smash all of us into the tube was a difficult task, but was accomplished. Our first stop for the day was the Danish Chamber of Commerce in London. Afterwards, we had time for lunch. A group of us went to Harrod’s to explore the shopping, Egyptian escalator, and food market. Once our lunch break was over, our class split into two groups for our next visits. My group went to the Bank of England Museum then Llyods of London. The Bank of England museum was kind of boring so Esther, Tom, Maria, Dafna, Dan and I went down the street to Leadenhall Market, which used to represent the area of London near The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Our academic visit to Lloyd’s of London was interesting. We heard about some of the crazy items insured, such as America Ferrera’s smile for $10 million and Madonna’s singing voice. We also received a tour of the building, which included going in their outside glass elevators to view the top of the city. The archicture of Lloyds is extremely interesting in the fact that the items, such as the heating and cooling and elevators, are outside of the building in order to save space inside. After our academic visit was dinner at the Indian restaurant, Banglore Express. This was the first time I have had Indian food and it was amazing!

After dinner was a trip to the London Eye, the highlight of my evening. Walking to the London Eye was amazing! The walk was magnificent with blue lights adorning the trees and the London Eye glowing blue. The time on the London Eye was even better! For 20 minutes we got to see the city light up on a crystal clear night! After the London Eye, was going out of the night.

March 8^th

Two Words: Biking Tour. One of the best events of the day was our 3 hour Fat Tire Bike Tour. We couldn’t have had a better day to go biking…clear skies and sunny. Along with the amazing weather, we saw so many sights. We saw Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Clarence House(where Prince Charles lives), Trafalgar Square, Parliament (Big Ben), St. James Park and Horse Guards. One word of caution: riding a bike and trying to take one handed pictures may not be the best idea. Several times pedestrians almost got run over or I almost fell off my bike. After our amazing bike tour, we walked for an hour to lunch. Why we walked, who knows since there were tons to tube stations everywhere. When we got to lunch our professor commented on how much all of us were smiling. We told her because we loved the bike tour and didn’t want it to end. Later we split up into small groups for our academic visit. My group and I went to Christie’s Education. 

After, Libby, Esther, Becca, Maria and I went to King’s Cross to go see Platform 9 and ¾ and eat dinner. That night, a majority of our class went out to a club together. Going out together was a lot of fun and a great way for all of us to bond.  This way by far of my favorite days in London.

March 9^th

Our first stop for the day was to Westminster Abbey. When we arrived at Westminster Abbey all of us were under the impression we were going to receive a tour of the church, but wrong we were. Our tour guide told us that Westminster Abbey was closed until 11am because of Ash Wednesday Services. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay until 11am because we had to go to our next visit. Instead, we toured the area around Westminster Abbey. Our next stops for the day were the National Portrait Gallery and lunch at The Smith’s Square Bar and Restaurant. Since we didn’t have any academic visits for the day, we were free to leave the group at 2:30pm. Becca, Libby, Maria, Esther, Dafna, and I left to go explore for the rest of the day on our own. Our exploration took us to Kensington Palace, where we saw the Enchanted Palace Exhibit. The exhibit guided us through the palace, which was gorgeous. Each of the rooms were princess setups. The rest of our day included tea time at the Orangery and shopping on Oxford Street. 

March 10^th

The Imperial War Museum was the first stop of the day. At the museum we saw the different tanks and guns used by the British military, and a Holocaust exhibit. After the museum we had free time so Tom, Dafna, Libby, Becca, Esther, Maria and I went to Notting Hill/ Portobello Road since some scenes from the movie Notting Hill were shot here. The town was so cute. One street had different colored houses painted in pastel colors. Later was our academic visit with Green Baby. After we had some time to relax and get ready, our class went to dinner and to see the musical “We Will Rock You” at the Dominion Theatre. When we got to the theatre, our professor was still at the ticket booth, which was weird since she left dinner early. Apparently the theatre didn’t have our tickets for the show because they booked us for May 10^th. Susanne is a quiet and soft spoken person in general, but Anders told us she made a scene and got us our tickets. The musical was a little weird, but was still good. After, we all went out.

March 11^th

Sadly, our last day in London. The only thing we did for the day was take a trip to Wimbledon!! Our hour long tour included FJ Perry statue (the last British man to win Wimbledon); FJ Perry statue (the last British man to win Wimbledon); the player reception desk. During Wimbledon all players must check in and if they fail to check in they are fined 2,000 pounds; the press room where the players are required to have an interview. If the players don’t show up for an interview they are fined 10,000 pounds. During our time in the press room we got to sit in the chair the players sit in for interviews!!! AWESOME! 

Centre Court which is where the main match happens. When we were there, we got to sit in the original seating which is where the press sits today;Court 18 the location of the longest tennis match in the world between John Isner and Nicolas Nahut, which lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes and required 183 games, Area where the big Screen is placed; Court 1; Southern end of courts. After our tour, we got a presentation from Richard Atkinson, the CFO of Wimbledon and then time in the Wimbledon Lawn Museum. The museum was really interesting. We got to see racquets for the early ages, uniforms from the early ages, the different stages of tennis balls, and uniforms from champions. Although, the best thing we saw was the actual trophies the winners receive!! Going to Wimbledon was amazing! My trip to Wimbledon was a highlight. I can now say that I sat at Centre Court, sat in the player interview seat, saw the trophies of Wimbledon and TOUCHED the grass of a Wimbledon Court. After my time at Wimbledon, I had to rush out at 12:30pm to catch my flight for Edinburgh.

You can find more pictures of my trip here

Or here

This was my second trip to London, the first time being in the summer of 2007 for a day and a half. Having more time in London made me fall more in love with the city. I truly had some highlights of my life during this trip.