Friday April 15th
After resting up for 2 days after the crazy week with my mom, it was already time to head out on our 11 day Spring Break adventure. Now for this trip, I was officially adopted by the Wehling family as I basically crashed their family vacation. What’s the plan? 2 ½ days in Lond, 1 in Venice, 2 ½ in Florence, 2 in Sorrento, and 2 in Rome. This was certainly a marathon, not a sprint.
Friday morning started very early. I went to bed around 1:30 and was up by 4:30 to catch our 7 AM train to London. Mr and Mrs Wehling met us at our apartment and we headed our for the trainstation, Paris Nord. We were taking the eurostar through the chunnel, an underground tunnel that literally goes under the English Channel, to get to London. It took about 2 hours to get to London. I was absolutely exhausted so naturally, I slept the whole way. From what I’ve heard though, when asked to describe what the chunnel is like, it’s dark, so I really wasn’t missing anything. We got into St. Pancreas Station which is connected to King’s Cross Station. If you can’t guess our very first stop in London, then you are clearly not a Harry Potter fan. We bought our 2-day tube (metro) tickets and immediately headed to platform 9 ¾ to see the entrance to the Hogwarts Express.
After that quick stop, we hopped on the tube and headed to our hotel to drop off our luggage. The Westland Hotel felt very European but our room was huge at the same time and the concierge was very helpful. We dropped off our luggage and we got ready for day 1 of sightseeing.
We popped in Café Diana for a quick bite and were back on the tube towards Westminster Abbey. The tube takes an incredibly long time compared to the Paris metro but we made it there eventually. When we left the station, we were just across the street from “Big Ben” and the Parliament Building. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the giant clock tower and it was very pretty actually. The Parliament building was much bigger than I realized from certain angles so it was actually very impressive.
We snapped a few pictures and then made our way over to Westminster Abbey. After paying the steep fee of 13 pounds, I entered and got an English audioguide. Overall, I really liked Westminster Abbey but I found a few things about it rather strange. For example, it was once a Catholic Abbey but isn’t anymore even though they follow the same practices, just not the Pope. It was also weird that it was a giant indoor graveyard; hundreds of royalty, and a few artists, writers, and musicians, were all buried in the floor or in the many tombs lining the walls and smaller chapels. I did like though that a lot of history took place here, such as many royal weddings, coronations, and funerals. For example, Princess Di’s funeral was here and the upcoming Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Wellington will happen here on April 29th. But my favorite part was the Lady Chapel in the back just because it was beautiful with stained glass windows and rose window carvings all over the ceiling.
We left the Abbey and all needed a little pick-me-up to keep our energy flowing through the afternoon. Next stop – Ben’s Cookies. Triple chocolate and Double chocolate with nuts for me please! They were incredible, hot out of the oven. So after eating a cookie, it was time for a little more Harry Potter. We took the tube a few times and made it to the Real Diagon Alley where it was filmed in the Leadenhall Market, the film Entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, and also the real Diagon Alley that inspired the location called Cecil Court. It was a bunch of fun spots to stop and take pictures imagining we were really Hogwarts students.
After our HP sightseeing, we went to Harrods, the very expensive, lavish, department store. The ceilings were exquisist and you don’t have to go to buy anything but its worth a trip to check out the building. They literally have everything from exotic foods, to fancy clothes, to toys, to pet supplies, and even actual pets! I bought an umbrella for my sister Liz because she requested it. It’s huge and won’t even fit in our huge checked-bag! Let’s just say she better appreciate what I went through to get her that umbrella J
Dinner time! And what do you get for dinner in England? Fish and Chips at a pub of course! We all got the same thing and it was delicious with a pint of cold beer to wash it down. After a long day, we were all ready to relax, eat, and head back to the hotel for bed.
Saturday April 16th
Saturday started bright and early with taking turns showeringand then eating a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and grapefruit in the hotel. Then it was back to the tube and off to Buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the place was mobbed. We couldn’t see any of the real switching but we saw many soldiers march in and out and ride in and out on horseback too. There was also a band that played musi and since the whole thing is for tourists anyway, they even played the Indiana Jones and Darth Vadar theme songs. It was still neat regardless.
From there we walked to the starting point of our free walking tour at the Wellington Arch. We then followed an Irishman around all day who knew a whole bunch of facts about England and London. It really was a great tour and we got a lot of fun facts out of it like Buckinham Palace has been broken into many times, including by campers and a drunken Irish homeless man who wanted a bed to sleep on.
When the tour ended, we figured it was a goood time for an early dinner so we headed for a pub and I got a steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes, green beans, and carrots, all smothered in gravy. It was delic! Of course, since I’m traveling with Wehlings we need to finish on a sweet note so we headed to hummingbird’s bakery, famous for cupcakes, and buy 2 chocolate with vanilla frosting and 2 red velvet with cream cheese frosting. We split them all and ate up.
Then we finally go to my favorite part of our London trip: Lion King. The show was outstanding: the costumes were colorful, the set was intriquite, and the actors and actrices were wonderful. They all moved like animals and you got so engrossed in the show while watching that you forgot they were human and felt like you were either watching the Disney movie or real animals on stage. The female Rafiki was my favorite by far. What a voice! And she was an incredible actress on top of it. Overall, the show was amazing and I would even pay to see it again.
Sunday April 17th
With the same start to the morning as Saturday, we got up, showered, ate, and headed out for our last half day in London. The part that made Sunday most interesting was that the London marathon was taking place all over the city. So when we got to the Tower of London, we were met by huge crowds cheering on the runners. No matter, we weaseled through and walked around the outside of the tower and then we too walked across Tower Bridge and cheered on the runners. For awhile after that, we walked along the Thames River, saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater and then crossed back over on Millennium Bridge. Our last stop was St. Paul’s cathedral, sandwiches, and then the journey to Venice. This consisted of a tube ride to London Bridge Station, a train to Gatwick airport, flight to Venice, Bus to the Grand Canal, and boat ride to our hotel. By then, it was 12:30 in the morning and we were ready for bed before our day in Venice.
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