A Look into my Life

Before I get into anything else there have been several changes in the UK over the past week or so. The most import is the dollar to pound ratio. Its now $1.50:£1. Things are becoming affordable! Fall has also moved into the area. The temperature has fallen over the past week (ask Jamie!) and the days are becoming much shorter. The island has also left British Summer Time after last Saturday. For this week we are only 4 hours ahead of Eastern Time. With the time change the evenings end very early. This hit hard today while sitting in class. The sun had set by 4:30pm!! By the time I got back to my tube stop it was dark. Plus I had to go food shopping. What a depressing place! We have been warned that it will begin to get dark as soon as 3:30pm while we are here.

Without further distraction, back to break week! Wednesday was a London day. We went around to all the important attractions in the city. First off was Buckingham Palace. We were there EARLY and were the only tourists in the area. Made for some excellent pictures and stress free enjoyment of the royal residence. Sadly the queen wasn’t at home this morning.

Next we headed to Tower Hill for a walk across Tower Bridge and spent a few hours within Tower of London. Look back for details on the tower. Not much changed since my last entry, other than a much lamer tour guide. Pictures will be posted however!

We swung back to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral. The size still amazes me. We had lunch next to it at a Pizza Express. We then headed to Harrod’s for some shopping. This is a department store spread out into a building that could house a medium size mall. It is owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed. On the bottom floor is a memorial dedicated to Diana and Dodi. 

After that we walked down Oxford Street and picked up a few nick knacks a long the way. Of course stopping by the Apple Store!! We then snagged some dinner and proceeded to relocate our luggage to my flat for storage and preparation for our early departure for Amsterdam. It will take me some time to type that up. Look for it tomorrow since it’s my day off!

Until then, enjoy the snow Western Pennsylvania!!

Oh my what a day! Where to start? I suppose the beginning will do. We awoke today to the gray drizzle that I have found to be the norm for Fall in London. We departed from our hotel in hopes to take in a few sights regardless of the weather. First off was checking out Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Then crossing the street to see the magnificent Westminster Abbey. Its amazing the amount of history and architecture in just those few squares.

At that point time was running a little short, we had a 12pm reservation for a flight on the Eye, so we crossed the Westminster Bridge. Taking pictures of course! And headed up to the Eye. We boarded and were whisked away. Riding this for the second time I was still amazed by the view. There simply isn’t anything like it around. Well, until I climb the Eifel Tower tomorrow!!

After we ‘landed’ we took off towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Then was somewhere I have wanted to go to for quite some time, Greenwich! It’s located just outside of the city. It’s a nice little section and I may revisit it again in the coming weekends. We ascended the large hill to the Royal Observatory and had a photo taken on the Prime Meridian.

After grabbing some grub at a pub we headed back to the hotel and have called it a night. We have to be up around 4am to catch a 6am EuroStar train to Paris. I’ll get pictures up of that when I can. To hold you over though, I have posted today’s pictures. Sorry there aren’t any comments for them. I’ll work on that when I get some free time.

Lets get the important business out of the way right now! It was a landmark day! I saw my first UK spec, right hand drive Explorer! I think I was more excited about that than anything else today.

So onto the towering day. I visited the Tower of London today. It was quite a remarkable sight. I entered just in time for a Yeoman Warder (also called Beef Eaters for an unknown reason) tour. The guy was very knowledgeable and very funny. He wanted to throw a pensioner through traitors gate because she kept talking! After that was a walk through the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately they do not allow photography so no pictures of that. They were however spectacular! They glistened like nothing I have ever seen before.

Next up was the White Tower. This included scenes from the Royal Armouries (note the wall displays in the album) and the armour of Henry VIII (he must of thought he was well endowed). The ravens are kept in the garden within the Tower. It was thought that the kingdom and the fortress would fall if the ravens ever left. I believe they have clipped their wings to prevent them from flying away. 

Next up was Tower Bridge. I didn’t do much more than walk across it. The size of the structure is amazing. I will definitely be revisiting it for more pictures and hopefully going through the Tower Bridge Exhibition. Whatever that is. That may be on tomorrow’s agenda.

The day didn’t start off that great. I hoped to leave early but trying to get a group of people organized and out the door proved otherwise. I then found that there were major planned engineering works on the tube system this week which provided no direct route to Tower Hill. So onto the bus system I went. For a first time I think it went well. Overshot a few bus stops but it wasn’t bad. I did ride on the top of a double decker which provided an odd sensation.

Like I mentioned, I don’t know what’s on tomorrow’s agenda but stay tuned to find out! 

It’s been a very rough and very hard 24 hours. But I’ve managed to pull myself together and put on a strong face, the show must go on. Last evening we were given tickets to see The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre. It was a very slow play, but had its frightening moments. I just can’t really get scared at a play though. The loud noises that they made were more surprising than scary. It was a good first performance for me to see here but I would never recommend it.

This evening I participated on a Jack the Ripper walk through East London. I saw the site where each murder happened. Some streets were just as they were in 1888 and others have developed into modern day structures. Our guide was excellent and gave his guess as to who it was and why it was done. Has to deal with the government and royal family of course and a large cover up. But what isn’t these days? I do wish I would have researched it a little more before before I went but he did and excellent of going through the entire story. So go Google it!

Not much else to report for the next couple days. I hope to tour the Tower of London and check out the London Transport Museum this weekend. I also scheduled a weekend in Scotland for 3-5 October. Should be fun!