Today was so awesome. We decided that it was the first “official” day because we finally were able to go and see the big sites that make London, London. My flatmates Becky and Meg and I started the day off fairly early because we decided the night before that we wanted to go to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum before we met to go on a city tour.
We thought that both of these places would be good to visit because they were the closest sites to the CAPA Center. When we got off of the tube, it was obvious that we were in the French part of town. We saw the French school and consulate on the way to the museums. We knew that we got to the Natural History Museum when we saw it.
It was incredible. The sheer size of the museum was impressive. It took up several blocks, but the architecture was so intricate and interesting. And there was a bonus; both museums are free!
The first hall in the Natural History Museum was huge. Inside was a grand staircase and stain glass and then the bones of a dinosaur. We started to wander, not having much direction, but eventually, we found our selves in the green zone. This zone was dedicated to the Earth. It talked about pollution, natural disasters and other stuff like that. The really awesome part of the museum was a part where there was an escalator that went through the Earth and there were constellations and other planets along the wall and leading to the escalator there were statues that represented different parts of the Earth.
We realized after that this part was the Science Museum. We then moved to the V&A. This museum had something for everyone. The way it was set up was pretty confusing, but the building was just as huge as the Natural History Museum. On the outside walls though, there were holes that were made from the Blitz. They left the holes there to commemorate what happened during World War Two.
As I said before, it was kind of confusing navigating all of the wings, but there was art and textiles from 300 AD to modern times. It was very extensive to say the least.
We realized that we only had a little time to spare before we had to meet up with the rest of the group for the city tour, so we headed out to the CAPA Center. Along the way, we stopped at an amazing French bakery. Lets just say that I plan to go back!
But the city tour was truly awesome. We saw the Natural History and V&A Museum again, but we saw the statue dedicated to Prince Albert and found out that the reason that South Kensington and that area is the way that it is, is because of Prince Albert. He wanted people to have the ability to get education from classical music that they could listen to for free and be able to have access to things that privilege people take advantage of.
After that, we drove into the actual City of London. The City of London is just over one square mile and the other city is the City of Westminster. The entire city of London (including Westminster) there is 32 boroughs. New York is 1 city and has only 5 boroughs. Just saying.
But anyway, as we made our way into the real city of London, we drove by Harrods, the most famous department store in the nation, and in my humble opinion, the world. We also drove by a hotel that if you got a certain room, it was £4,000 a night but you got your own Roles-Royce and a personal butler. We also saw the Ritz Hotel and I’m definitely going to be getting tea there… but you have to have a reservation. We saw where the BBC is and the Australia House which is what Gringotts Bank is based off of in Harry Potter.
From there we went to St. Pauls Cathedral. It cost to get inside the actual Cathedral, but we learned about how the architect fooled the new Anglican Church leaders into letting him do the building with a huge dome. He got King Charles II signature on some design that also stated that the design could be changed if it wasn’t going to work structurally.
We then moved to the South Bank where everyone makes their money (they spend it in the North Bank area). We saw the Tower of London and the London Tower Bridge along with the London Eye (huge Farris wheel) and Parliament. Of course, this means that we saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. On the lawn near the church, there was a huge protest going on that was anti-capitalism, so we saw some action to say the least.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the guards of Buckingham Palace or really any part of the Palace on the tour. It’s pretty difficult to get into the area where it’s at with a huge bus, but it was still cool to see a guard and parts of the Palace.
At the end of the tour, we found out that our guide was going to show us around Stonehenge and Bath on Friday. He was really great, so I’m very excited to go on the trip with everyone!
Tomorrow is going to be my interview at the Associated Press. I hope that it goes well, so keep your fingers crossed!
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