Seeing London’s Sights!!

I have finally been able to be a true London tourist!! Yesterday, after a relaxed day of classes, we had our tour of all the well known London sights! After class, we took the bus over to Trafalgar Square where we saw the National Gallery and a few British government buildings. From there, we took a walk over to see the infamous Big Ben (or really the Elizabeth Tower)! After seeing that landmark so many times throughout my life it was almost surreal when I saw it for real in front of me! I will say though, Big Ben is not as big as it sounds! It did sneak up on me after it was hidden in the trees for most of the walk towards it. Once I saw it though, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it! Being that the tower is attached to it, we also got to see the amazing architecture of the House of Parliament (Palace of Westminster). Afterwards, we headed over to Westminster Abbey, which is the church where the royal weddings take place as well as the resting place of many past monarchs. We later took a walk through St. James park to head over to Buckingham palace!! It turned out to be a beautiful day and so this was such a beautiful day experience, essentially during the summer while the flowers were blooming! While on our walk over, we saw some members of the royal guard on horseback headed towards the palace! Once we got our pictures in front of the palace, we had some free time so a bunch of us grabbed ice cream from a nearby stand and ate on the outside gate of the palace. In the spirit of the surrounding area, I tried my first Cornetto (similar to an American Drumstick ice cream cone) which was delicious! Since it was more of a relaxed day, we headed back to the hotel and I grabbed dinner in Brunswick with a few friends! Since the excursions of yesterday were a little bit unexpected for the day (we had originally had previously plans and they changed due to transportation strikes in London), I don’t have many interesting details about the events of the day, however, I loved everything I saw and I officially feel like I have completed my tourist checklist! 

-xoxo, Eve <3