London!

So yesterday was the day. I went to London by myself.

I was excited to go and had made the decision to do it, but still felt a little apprehensive yesterday morning about actually being there. Luckily, Carrie and Ian were home when I was getting ready to leave. Ian basically wrote out directions for me to get on the bus and down to the area that I wanted to be. I so appreciated that because without their help, I would've been totally lost.

So I got on the train here in Cambridge and made it to King's Cross in London--a hugely busy place. (I was bummed that it looked a lot different than it does in Harry Potter. Was totally not what I was picturing.) The bus that I needed to get on was right outside the exit and the ride was only about 10 minutes to the Tate Modern.

I think either I'm getting tired of museums or I really just don't care much about modern art, because I walked around pretty pointlessly for the majority of my time there. I found myself giggling and rolling my eyes at the people who were very seriously "considering" the art (head cocked to the side, eyes narrowed, one arm across chest with the other propped under chin) and at the explanations of what each piece is supposed to mean because to me, it all looks cool but actually means very little. It really feels like artists are stretching their creativity sometimes--like, why can't you just make an abstract piece of art because it looks interesting? Why does it always have to mean something?

 

After that I walked across Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral (above). The plan was to go into the cathedral and I waited in the line for quite awhile, only to have my credit card not go through; they were having problems with the machine yesterday. I was okay with it though because we might go there on our tour anyway. I had a wonderful ham and cheese sandwich on a French baguette and fresh pear juice for lunch at a sweet little deli near the cathedral. I then caught another bus down to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London was so amazing; I'm so glad that I went. The history of the place is remarkable to think about and I learned a lot while there. I wish I could explain in better words how awesome it is. There are 20 towers total and members of the monarchy lived there for over 500 years, beginning in the 1080s. There are buildings there that are over 900 years old--it's so crazy to think about! Anyone found guilty of treason against the King/Queen during this time was executed here. We had such a great tour guide too--very animated. You could tell he loves his job.

Next was the Tower Bridge, which is right near the Tower of London. It is HUGE and beautiful. I walked across it and on my way back, something awesome happened! The bridge was being raised for a ship to go through! I wished that I would've been on the side of the river so that I could've actually seen the ship pass under, but it was still cool to see the road lifted in front of me!

 

After all of that, I was pretty tired and caught a bus back to St. Paul's and then caught another at Tate Modern to go back to to King's Cross. Waited about a half hour for the train to Cambridge and made it back "home" safe and sound. Altogether a really fantastic day in London. I'm glad I decided to have the guts to do it and I may have to go back and do the more touristy side of the city. 

Today I've done absolutely nothing of value and it's been pretty great. It's been raining for most of the day, which I think is reason enough to not do anything. I actually have plenty of reading and homework I could be working on, but really all I've done is scour the internet for a free version of the movie The Other Boleyn Girl. I realize is not historically accurate, but I've been wanting to watch it since yesterday and all that I learned about the Tower of London and its history. So watch the movie is what I shall do.