Today we are on our way to London. We had a brisk walk to catch the tube. Another Oxford group that is at Wycliffe at the same time as our group ended up boarding the tube at a later stop so the tube was quickly packed!
When we arrived in London Simon took us on a fast paced see all you can see tour of London. We must have walked what felt like a gazillion miles plus 311 steps to climb this monument I will show you below. I thought I was going to die while climbing up the steps because they never seemed to end! Then I knew I died when I got to the top and I realized that I was scared of heights... but luckily I came back to life to be able to finish the tour.
I also rode the underground tube for the first time. It helped me I think conquer my irrational fear of escalators because we had to ride on the escalators in order to get don to the tube. Actually now that I reflect back on it I don't think it helped my fear at all. I still really do not like escalators! I hope we don't have to encounter too many of them after this...
We ended the tour with evening song in St. Paul's Cathedral. After that we had dinner. Dusty I specifically chose Chipotles just for you! It is the only one in all of Europe and I know it is your favorite restaurant, so instead of having dinner at the other fantastic restaurants I ate at a Mexican fast food place.
At about 9:00 pm we finally made it back to the coach. All of us were so exhausted but very glad that we went on the trip.
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| US Embassy |
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| FDR |
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| Statue of an eagle |
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| This was an amazing water fountain! |
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| A small parish church. |
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| What is that doing here??? |
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| Water Fountain that was made in the 18th century. |
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| Had to take this picture for Carol Zettel... I found a giraffe in England! |
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| Some of the historic homes around London. |
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| These blue plates signify special historic homes and who had lived there... |
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| When we came around the corner there were two security guards with huge guns standing in front of the movie theater. It turns out that they were actually just ducking under there to get out of the rain. They were standing guard for the embassy across the street. |
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| Royal Gate |
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| Hyde Park |
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| Buckingham Palace...Yeah that's right! |
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| We headed there for the changing of the guard. |
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| The Guard |
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| A really cool park near by. |
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| Beautiful isn't it??? |
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| They have pelicans!! |
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| Big Ben which is actually St. Stephens tower and the bell inside is called big ben. |
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| Parliament's House |
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| A picture of what the monument would look like brought to my attention by David. |
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| 10 Downing St. where the Prime Minister lives. |
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| This horses are amazing for just standing there while everyone crowds around them. |
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| A hero of the town (I forgot his name...) |
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| The guy playing bagpipes made it hard to listen to Simon but I thought it was well worth it! |
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| First time on the underground tube! |
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| This is the monument we climbed there are 311 steps, its is over 200 feet high. |
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| The monument is for the fire of London that happened in 1635 I believe... |
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| And now for the view! |
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| Don't look down... |
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| In London chocolate and sweets are sometimes called puddings... |
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| Shhh.... A secret garden! |
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| The tower of London (insert ominous music here) |
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| Not sure what this was... |
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| Simon was enjoying telling us about how people were tortured in the Tower of London. I hope he doesn't get any ideas... |
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| St. Olaves Church |
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| Amazing architecture |
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| Covered shopping center |
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| Here s one of the buildings in the financial district.
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| St. Paul's Abbey |
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| Unfortunately I will only be able to show you the outside of the church because no photography is allowed inside. |
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| The Globe Theater |
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| The tower bridge |
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| Chipotles just for Dusty! |
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| Lancaster Market |
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| When we got back they had a fireworks show for us! |
