London Excursion
This semester our students in Rome have excursions to London and Brussels. Here is Cortny and Brandon's report from their trip to London.
We got into London late on Thursday night and didn't do much, just went back to the Hotel and fell asleep, because we had to get up early the next morning. On Friday we got received an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Hotel, which was much needed because on Friday we went to the business district to tour
some financial institutions (European Bank of Reconstruction, Bloomburg, and ING) and then went out to Westminster to the American embassy, which I swear probably took longer to get into than the White House itself. After we finished up our tours at around 5:30 we went back to the Hotel and ate dinner there, (Fish and Chips, we were in England so I had to try them). After I went out to a local pub with some of the other students and Cortny stayed back at the hotel with some of the other girls. At the pub, it was the day before St. Patrick’s Day and it seemed like they had already started the festivities! It was a lot of fun. No need to say more, you have all been to a pub.
On Saturday, Cortny and I met up with my cousin Claire, and spent the entire day touring London, we started at Buckingham Palace to St. James Park, down to the Kings guards barracks (the name of the square slips my mind). Next we made it over to big market (also a St. Patrick's Day Irish Market) which was pretty neat and full of Life! After the Market we caught a bus down to the Tower Bridge area where we went up to the top and could see all of London, then we walked down along the river to get lunch at a Mediterranean chicken place, it was scrumptious. After lunch, we walked down by Shakespeare's Globe (reconstruction), down past the London Eye, and all the way to Parliament (location of Big Ben) and Westminster Abbey. From here we were all starting to wear down, so we hailed a cab and set off for Piccadilly Circus, which reminds me of Time’s Square. We went to the famous toy store, Hamleys, and then ate dinner at a burger place which came to something like 50 pounds (100 dollars), so I tried to forget about the horrible exchange rate. After dinner Cortny and I said goodbye to my Cousin Claire. After which it was St. Patrick's Day, and I love my heritage so of course we celebrated after dinner.
On Sunday we went to the British Museum and saw all of the Egyptian stuff, unfortunately that was all we had time for, because we had to catch a bus for the airport at 1:30 in the afternoon.
-Brandon
Hey all! Yeah I loved London! It is such as beautiful city. All the people are so different there and the architecture is so cool. You will see the really old buildings such as Big Ben and then you will see all the modern looking buildings all in the same area. Also, London reminded me a lot of home which is also why I liked it. I swear there was a Starbucks on every corner ~ I was in heaven! Also, they have the cream-filled Cadbury eggs (they come out around Easter-time in America) everywhere! Not only did they have them but they also had minis! At McDonalds they were advertising for a Cadbury cream egg McFlurry! I definitely tried it and it was really good! I really enjoyed spending the day with Brandon's cousin Claire on Saturday. She gave us a tour of all the important stuff in London and she did a good job of giving Brandon a hard time! It was a lot of fun! Anyway, I wish I could go back because we decided that just a couple days was not enough time to see and do everything plus I just can’t afford it. Maybe one day in the future when I'm making big bucks.
- Cortny