A LOT has happened this last week and I am very excited to share it all with you! To make it easier on all of us, I'm breaking the week up into separate blogs instead of just having one colossal blog post. This first post is about my mom & Mikhaila arriving into London on Sunday and the adventures we had that day and on Monday.
Mom & Mikhaila got in early Sunday Morning (around 7:30am London time or 2:30am EST). I met them at the airport that morning and brought them back to my homestay so they could drop off their bags and freshin up after their over-night flight. After introducing them to my host family and cleaning up, I took them around the college campus and introduced them to the Twickenham area! Kevin came and met us up in Twickenham and we had lunch at one of the local Pubs, The George.
After lunch, we headed into Central London so that they could get a "sneak preview" of what they had in store for Monday. I showed them Trafalgar Square (where the National Gallery is), St. Martin in the Field Church, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey. and a few other things that were in the area. It was extremely crowded since it was Easter Sunday, but it made it all the more amusing! There was some sort of Easter festival going on in the square where people dressed up as bunnies and roller bladed around town.
We then boarded the train back to my homestay where Kevin made us some yummy Easter Dinner! (which I showed also add ended up being more difficult then we would have thought because in London almost all stores are closed down and many restaurants have early closing times, so Kevin had to go 2 towns over in order to find an open grocery store!)
After dinner, I helped Mom & Mikhaila with their bags and got them checked in at the hotel.
We got up early Monday morning and made a (stressful) trip down to Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace is currently the home of Prince Charles and Kate - or better known as Katherine here. Princess Diana also lived here! The Palace has a portion that is open to the public that walks through the history of some of the past Kings & Queens that have lived here. A large portion of the Palace is dedicated to the history of Queen Victoria and King Albert's family. It also goes through the life of Queen Anne and other monarchies as well!
After spending most of the morning in the Palace, we grabbed some lunch and jumped onto a Hop on-Hop off Bus tour of London. The Tour covered almost every inch of the city and also included an audio guide that pointed out neat facts about where we were as well as some history behind the buildings. The Map below shows the route we took around the city and highlights some of the things we saw - we took the blue route!
Some of the things we saw included: Buckingham Palace,Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral Trafalgar Square, Towers of London, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, and Oxford Streets. With the tour being a hop on-hop off bus, we got to get off at any of the stops we liked and then get back on whenever we were ready to continue with the tour. One of the places we got off at was the gigantic Harrods' Department store! Big doesn't even begin to describe this place! It was 6 stories high, included everything from 5* restaurants to organic food supplies to designer clothes. All together, the tour took several hours to complete and included hundreds and hundreds of photos!
The Southbank and London Eye
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben
Piccadilly Circus
After touring the city for hours we headed back to Twickenham and ate at another local pub, Spoons (odd names, I know) and headed back so we could begin packing for our next adventure to Brussels, Belgium!
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