London

A few weekend ago, I had the great fortune of traveling to London to spend time with my Uncle Wayne, his friend Rick, and Michael. They had been in London on and off for about a month and a half. If you want to talk about a full travel schedule, that was it. My uncle and Rick had so many places they wanted me to see, and we only had three days to do it!

First, let me say that it was nice to be in a country where English is the native language again. I love being in Germany, but it’s very pleasant to not have to be thinking one step ahead about what you will have to say. Despite all of the walking around, it was a relaxing trip: mentally at least.

The first day, we walked all over London, seeing things like Big Ben, Parliament, the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) line (marks global standard time), Buckingham Palace, a James Bond location tour, Harrods, and much, much more. We started our day on a very foggy London Bridge. It was actually pretty cool!

On our second day, we went to see the Changing of the Guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, there were so many people there that you couldn’t really see anything. A little bit disappointing. A little bit impressive. And a whole lot of ridiculous. We went to lunch with a friend of my uncle. She took us to this great little restaurant in the Chinatown area of London. It was actually a Japanese restaurant, but who’s keeping track. Later in the day, we toured the Tower of London and saw the Tower Bridge (you know, the really famous one?).

It was awesome to see all of the Crown Jewels (the royal family’s jewels) and the history in the Tower of London: artifacts from centuries ago collected from all over the world. All you can say is “wow”.

My last day in London was spent doing very touristy things… but I am a tourist so who cares? We went to London’s Kings Cross Station and saw platform 9 3/4s and the Harry Potter store there (even though I don’t really care for Harry Potter). We visited Sherlock Holmes at his home, 221B Baker Street. We walked across Abbey Road, just like the Beatles did. And to top it all off, we went on the London Eye. If you think about things a tourist would do in London, that about sums it all up. Haha!

It was a really fun trip, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my uncle before he returned to Florida (hopefully to warmer weather). This trip capped four consecutive weekends of travel, and I am still a little bit worn out from it. Traveling is hard work. :)