Sorry bout that

Sorry for the delay in the rest of my London updates. I do work-study in the library and work 4-hour shifts from 7-11. I worked last night, then I had a little bit of homework to do. When I got around to blogging, I was so tired.

A little anecdote before I get on the ball:

They had warned us that there would be a fire drill sometime in the next two weeks. Well, at 7 this morning, it happened. I sleep in earplugs because where I stay, the walls are made of paper. I hear this noise through my earplugs and think "Man, my roommate's alarm clock is loud!". Well, about when I realize that it is definitely not an alarm clock, my roommate hits me and goes "Fire alarm!". I roll reluctantly out of bed, shimmy down the ladder (top bunker!), grab a sweater and flip flops, and stumble outside. I am NOT a morning person in any sense of the aspect, and I still had 30 minutes until my alarm clock went off. I was not happy. When we get outside, all of us from the carriage house realize that we have to walk to the yard in front of the manor. It's a solid 10 minute walk. People are in various states of sleep undress, one poor girl is in a towel. Needless to say, no one loved it. Better yet! They told us we were 2 minutes too slow in getting everyone out of all buildings, so we have to do it again sometime in the next two weeks. Oh geez.

Okay! London, Day 2. Saturday.

I wake up fairly early (7:30) to shower and dress. My friend Kaitlin and I venture downstairs to eat the provided continental breakfast. After we negotiate the multiple "breakfast rooms" of our hotel, we find the continental breakfast line. Breakfast consisted of rolls, toast, Rice Crispies, or corn flakes. Definitely had rice crispies with sugar sprinkled on. We found one of our friends in the chaos of breakfast and get ready to head out. We walked to the 2nd closest tube stop, since the one right across from our hotel was closed on the weekend for updates. It was a good 3 block walk (and London blocks are kind of large), but it was so wonderful. Apparently, no one in London gets up early, so the streets were very dead. But it was so nice to walk about the streets of London with no crowds or honking cars! We hop on the Underground and ride to Westminster, where all the big "sights" of London are located. We get off the tube, walk the stairs up to ground level, and BOOM. There is Big Ben!

Seriously. That's what it looks like. Talk about breathtaking! Well, right behind Big Ben are the Houses of Parliament. Those are beautiful too. Here's Oliver Cromwell, standing guard.
And the Parliament buildings are beautiful. I mean, I've seen the White House and the Capitol building, and they are nice. But really. These are gorgeous. They don't look like government buildings at all.
We were waiting for some friends to meet up with us at the Westminster stop, so while we were waiting, we walked around Westminster Abbey. Also a beautiful, awesome building.
And this is sort of the "cornerstone" of the building. I loved the inscription:
Well, by the time everyone met up, it was time to head to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guards. We hopped back on the tube and walked through St. James Park to get there. A bridge over a pond allowed us to get some great pictures.
Buckingham Palace.
The Eye! (Note: we did not do the Eye. Not only is it around 22 GBP, the line is freaking forever.)
We also found some funny-looking birds in the park. They kept us amused for awhile!
We get to Buckingham Palace, take pictures, and camp out to watch the ceremony. There were TONS of people there. We were packed in like sardines.
All those little splotches right in front of the palace are people! It started raining, and so we all pulled on hoods and rain gear. Yours truly didn't have a rain coat nor an umbrella, but the young woman next to me was nice enough to share an umbrella.

Regarding the actual ceremony: it was crap. I mean, the only thing we saw was a brass band and the new guard enter, then some leave. It was very overrated. The weather might have put a damper on things. It was windy, pouring, and cold. So promptly left the palace area, found a coffee stand, and I had an espresso that made everything seem better.

We hit the Underground and make our way back to Westminster. This time, we pay the 9 GBP to go into the Abbey. The audio tour alone is worth the price of admission. We spent at least 3 hours inside, wandering around. There are TONS of historical figures buried there. Did you know that Elizabeth I and "Bloody" Mary are buried on top of each other? Their inscriptions talk about their divisive faith choices, but in death, it is all washed away. Other people I recall are Henry V, Lawrence Olivier (that surprised me), and COUNTLESS literary figures that I can't even remember them all. It was SO cool. Unfortunately, the Abbey doesn't allow pictures to be taken inside, so all I have is my memories. But, right as we sat down to pray a little at the end of our tour, the choir started warming up for the Evensong service. I got to hear the Westminster Abbey Choir sing INSIDE the Abbey. It was beyond beautiful. Not gonna lie, I definitely teared up. The Abbey was definitely the highlight of my trip this time.

We again get back on the tube to go walk around Trafalgar Square and see the sites down there.
There are lions all over Britian!

We then went to Leister Square to find some grub. We ate at a little Italian place called Bella Italiana. It was not too pricey with great food. I had penne pasta with cherry tomatoes, basil, and goat cheese. Delicious!

After dinner, everyone kind of went their separate ways. A girl named Safire and I ended up just people-watching in Leister Square, then got Haagen-Daz ice cream. We then took the Underground to the shopping district and walked through Harrods! It was so nice, but so pricey! I couldn't believe it. And we didn't even go through all the clothes! We loitered in the purses, stationary, and of course, the food courts. But I managed to not buy anything. After Harrods, we got on the Underground, got off kind of early, and wandered back to the hotel. It was wonderful just to walk around London.

We went to bed fairly early on Saturday, most of us being very tired and footsore. But, not until we watched all of King Kong in our hotel room. It was good bonding time.

Sunday!
We ate breakfast with fairly little incident, us knowing where we were going and everything. We quickly packed, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the coaches. The coaches departed and we headed to Hampton Court. Hampton Court was the palace built by Cardinal Woseley but taken by Henry VIII wanted it. He lived there with Catherine Howard. It was even the place he condemned her to death, and her ghost supposedly haunts the hallway where she pleaded for her life. Also, William of Orange and Mary built on, with Christopher Wren building their apartments. As did King George II. And we toured all of the apartments of these people! Again, the audio guide was amazing. It was rainy and gross that day, so we walked in the gardens a little, but no one really wanted to be outside. Pictures:
It wraps around a lot of the "lot" and doesn't look that big. But go inside, and I promise - you will get lost.
The primary gate

The entrance to Henry VIII's apartments.
The primary window to Henry's Great Hall.

The chapel at Hampton is gorgeous. None of the pews or anything are original, but the ceiling is! It was wonderful.

After we had a quick lunch at a little sandwich shop in the village around the Palace, we loaded the coaches again for a three hour drive back to the manor. We almost didn't make it! Grantham and Harlaxton had a lot of bad storms and rain, and the Harlaxton village roads were flooded. One cop was not going to let us through, but he found a backroad for us to take that took us right to the manor driveway. What a close call!


Well, now I feel quite accomplished. There you are. The entire story for my weekend. This week, we have class on Friday (a rare occurance) because we have a field trip next Wednesday to Lincoln. So it's a shorter weekend. We are planning on going into Grantham on Saturday to pick up some necessities (like a raincoat...). Aside from that, who knows what's going to happen!

I may blog tomorrow or Friday night just to give a general update for the week.
Have a wonderful week!