Day 1: Thursday, 4 April was purely a travel day - all day on a bus, wheeee.
Day 2: Friday, 5 April
Being the nerds we are, the first thing Sarah and I did in London was go to the British museum. We spent a good four hours in this giant museum, and we still didn't see everything. It was amazing to be surrounded by so much history. We saw the Rosetta Stone, and parts of sculptures from the Parthenon. I really enjoyed the Egypt exhibit as well.
The Rosetta Stone
After we left the British Museum, we walked to Oxford Circle and Picadilly Circle, and decided to wander around Hamley's - a giant toy store. And, since we are apparently five years old, we stumbled upon a Build-a-Bear store inside Hamley's and fell in love with one of the bears.... I had never done a Build-a-Bear, so we decided that it was happening. Meet Sarah's Sherlock, and my Watson:
They have little "I <3 Great Britain" patches over their hearts, and they are perfect.
After falling in love and creating our bears, we somehow managed to find ourselves in St. James' Park, where we found the Royal Guard Parade building. We continued to wander, and accidentally stumbled upon Downing Street - the official residence of the Prime Minister! We knew it was in the area, but it was completely on accident that we ended up there. There were (obviously) guards and a giant fence blocking the way, but it was still really cool. From there, we were about a five minute walk from Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster. We took a lot of photos, and we were still around when it got dark outside - so we got to see Big Ben all lit up! It was beautiful. We crossed Westminster Bridge, and then headed back to our hotel for the night.
Parliament and Big Ben
Today was just a great day in terms of luck - the weather was good, and we kept finding ourselves at important places without really truly intending to get there. It was a great start to our London adventure.
Day 3: Saturday, 6 April
On Saturday, we took the tube down to Baker Street! For those of you who aren't familiar with the importance of that street, 221b Baker Street is the legendary dwelling of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels/short stories. I love mysteries, and the story of Sherlock Holmes has always fascinated me. I love both the Robert Downy Jr./Jude Law movies, and the BBC TV series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and I've recently started reading the stories. It was really cool to see the inside of 221b Baker Street. My favorite part was probably Watson's room.
After geeking out in 221b, we took the tube to St. Paul's Underground station, and then wandered around until we found St. Bartholomew's Hospital. St. Bart's Hospital was another Sherlock landmark - from the BBC series. It's a touchy landmark however, seeing as it is the site of Sherlock's alleged suicide. Outside of St. Bart's is a red phone box, covered with little notes to Sherlock - many contain messages such as "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" and "Moriarty is real" - basically, notes from people who watch the series. Sarah and I wrote our own little notes, and found a way to add them to the others. I'd been dreaming of trying to find this phone box every since I heard about it months ago, so this was really cool for me.
"I'm alive!" (and hi Sarah) and my note to Sherlock.
St. Bart's Hospital with the telephone box on the left
After St. Bart's, we switched gears from Sherlock to Harry Potter and went to King's Cross Station to see the official Platform 9 3/4. It was basically everything I've ever wanted. We took photos, and then went into the store - which I basically had to be dragged out of, with Sarah reminding me that we'd be at the Harry Potter Studios on Monday.
We ended the night with our third obsession - Doctor Who! There was a new episode on, and this was the first episode Sarah or I had EVER seen on live television, so it was pretty exciting for us. I skyped with Mommy dearest for a little, and Sarah and I watched hilarious British reality TV while pretending to work on our final essays for one of our classes.
Day 4 - Sunday, 7 April
When we set out on Sunday morning, we had a list of like three places we wanted to hit, and then we were just going to wander. We started by trying to find Crystal Palace - where we were told there were DINOSAURS. Unfortunately, the Underground/train lines did not want to cooperate with us and we lost like two hours attempting to get there. We then gave up and moved on to go to Earl's Court to see what used to be an actual Police Box - and was referenced on the latest episode of Doctor Who :) So, I present to you, TARDIS #5:
We were kind of just like standing there (I may have been stroking the TARDIS....), when a woman passed by and offered to take a photo for us - "Whovians gotta stick together!" she said, and we heartily agreed. I love nice people.
After saying goodbye to the blue box, we headed back into central London, and walked around Hyde Park for quite some time. After we snacked on some ice cream, we decided to go to Buckingham Palace. We had decided that we didn't need to see the changing of the guards, since I had seen it last summer when I was in London with my Oxford study abroad, and Sarah would see it this summer with her Oxford study abroad. Since we avoided that tourist insanity, it wasn't all that crowded when we went, which was great. We took lots of pictures and then played my favorite traveling game - Spot the Americans - to see who to ask to take our photo for us.
(we won the game)
When we had gotten our fill of Buckingham Palace, we walked back to Parliament and Big Ben, and then walked along the River Thames. We had a really nice dinner at a place called Giraffe - it was delicious. After Giraffe, we went back to the hotel and I skyped Papasito for a while, and then Sarah and I started to watch What A Girl Wants before we decided we were exhausted, and passed out instead.
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