A Day in London

The front gates of Buckingham Palace, and behind that is the balcony where I think Will and Kate had their public kiss.

After three months in the UK, the day finally came when I got to visit London. I bought overnight tickets on a coach (bus) and at nine o'clock on Monday night, my friend and I headed out from Stirling. It was a nine hour drive from Stirling to London, and I could not fall asleep. I got about an hour of sleep, but that was apparently just enough to serve as a power nap, and I was wide awake for the rest of the trip. We got to London at six in the morning, so most of the shops were still closed. I bought a map for a pound so we could find our way around London and then we headed to Buckingham Palace.

A walk through the park!

It was too early for the Palace to be open to the public, but it was an amazing sight. It's so historically rich and it's such a beautiful building, so I was really happy just to be able to see it from the gates. We took some pictures and then headed for a walk through the park across the street. It was really cool being able to walk through a really nice park in the middle of a city as big as London. After walking through the park for a while, we headed toward Westminster Abbey since it was so close by. When we emerged into the square, I couldn't believe it. Within a few hundred feet of each other, and all within eyeshot, were the London Eye, Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. I couldn't believe it!

A side view of Westminster Abbey...I never did a picture of the truly iconic front of the building.

Big Ben and the London Eye.

It was still too early to get inside any of the buildings, so my friend and I got pictures of the outsides of the buildings and headed toward Piccadilly Circus. My friend is a huge Sherlock fan. I've seen a few episodes myself, and I enjoyed them, but I'm not a huge fan. We stopped at Trafalgar Square, took some more picture there, and then headed for Piccadilly Circus. When we got there, there was a Ripley's Believe it or Not, lots of tourist shops, a few musical theaters, and a billboard similar to the ones in Times Square. We took some more pictures, almost got breakfast at Cinnabon (they were closed!), and headed back toward Trafalgar Square. We ended up getting breakfast at a UK chain store called 'Pret A Manger.' I got a hot chocolate and a buttered roll with bacon, which apparently is a good British breakfast.

We ate in Traflagar Square, then decided to walk along the River Thames before heading up to London Euston to catch the train out to Watford Junction to see the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour...for which I was beyond excited. It took a while to get to Euston, and I kept losing my sense of direction and getting really confused. We ended up finding Euston around 11. (We'd only been in London for close to five hours and already we'd seen so much!!). We bought our tickets and made it to the platform just in time to catch the train. It was almost an hour ride to Watford Junction, and I kept dozing off, only to snap awake seconds later. I should also add that the train was taking most of the way to the Harry Potter tour and the train left from platform 9. It's not quite platform 9 and 3/4, but I was still happy about the coincidence.

Trafalgar Square! There a museum at the far side of the square, the lion statue on the right is on of four that surrounds a tall pillar. In the middle is the olympic countdown, and to the left of that is one of the fountains in the square.

The light-up billboards at Piccadilly Circus.

When we got to Watford Junction, I wanted something with a lot of sugar or caffeine that would wake me up for the tour. Instead, my friend and I decided to wait until we got to the tour to get any drinks or snacks. Just outside Watford Junction was the double decker shuttle bus that would take us from the train station to the studio tour. I paid my two pounds for the return (round-trip) ticket and my friend and I took seats on the top level of the bus. I couldn't wait to get to the tour!! My heart was pounding from excitement. It was just a fifteen-twenty minute bus ride from the train station to the studio tour, where I could finally see all the magic of the Harry Potter sets. (More on that to come soon!!)

This picture's from the Mullany's Bus website--they're the ones that run the shuttle between the train station and the tour. But that's the bus that takes you to the tour, and behind it is the tour itself!

A tout a l'heure!