London with the Parentals

Bright and early the morning after I got back to York from Ireland, I jumped on a train to meet my parents at King's Cross in London! It was quite nice to see them in person after two and a half months! We spent four days in London, and then joined up on a six day tour of the UK (which is ironic, due to my dislike of tourist groups of this very nature, but it was the only way to get to all the places we wanted to go in the time allowed).

Westminster Abbey

Day One: Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. We got three-day London passes, which ended up saving us some money in the long run! It was amazing to finally get to see the interior of the Abbey, where so many famous historical figures are buried, and the various different types of art and architecture. And not to mention it's where the Royal Wedding happened :-) You get a digital guide which has audio and video to tell you about different parts of the Abbey as you walk around. After we finished there, my dad and I went to the Churchill War Rooms. I'd been before, the first time I went to London, but after writing three extensive papers on the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, I definitely appreciated it more this time around :-)

Myself in front of the Houses of Parliament 

Outside of the Churchill War Rooms

Day Two: Harry Potter Studio Tour, which deserves a post of its own.

The White Tower in the Tower of London

Day Three: Another early start to go to the Tower of London before there were massive crowds of tourists about- although the weather was so nasty, I'm not sure how many people actually made it out and about. My favourite part of snowy weather in England: people use umbrellas in the snow! Why isn't this socially acceptable in America? It's so effective. We saw the crown jewels first, then went into the exhibit in the White Tower, which wasn't as exciting as I remember it being six years ago haha. Our next stop was across the Thames, the Britain at War Experience, all about WWII, but it was closed! Like no longer in the building closed. So we went to Southwark Cathedral, which was a lovely cathedral. It has a window panel dedicated to Shakespeare with scenes from his plays, and John Quincy Adams and John Harvard were baptised there! We had lunch in the refectory, and then walked along the Thames towards Millenium Bridge, passing Shakespeare's Globe and the Golden Hilde, and stopped at the Tate Modern, which was a bit disappointing since all their Dalis weren't on display. But the cubist room was great :-)

The smallest and largest suits of armour!

Home of the Crown Jewels

Where Anne Boleyn was executed, there's now a fancy memorial to the executioners block.

Southwark Cathedral

The Golden Hilde

Walking across Millenium Bridge to St Paul's! You can get a sense of the disgusting weather.

After the Tate, we went inside St Paul's Cathedral, which was AMAZING. I have some odd fixation on the cathedral, culminating in writing a paper on it during the London Blitz, and finally being able to go inside and see it for myself was wonderful! They even had some special segments of the audio tour about St Pauls' during the Blitz, so that was pretty cool. Our final visit for the day was the last tour of Shakespeare's Globe for the day, which was fantastic! Our guide was Welsh and we're pretty sure he's one of the actors from the Globe, but we learned a lot more than what your normal tour would tell you about the theatre, he focused more on the history of theatre and the societal context Shakespeare was working in (I've toured the Globe before and there was another tour going through that we could hear, so I know he was far more interesting than usual :-p). So it was overall an amazing day of seeing a lot of my favourite things in London!

St Paul's aka my fave thing ever

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Inside the Globe during our tour! The stage was set for a student production of Romeo and Juliet set in the modern East End, it was pretty interesting

Inside the Cathedral

Day Four: We headed to Ely to go to the Palm Sunday service in their cathedral. It was gross and snowing so they didn't do a procession with a real donkey outside, but they brought the donkey inside instead! The cathedral was really, really cool as an art historian, because it was this crazy conglomeration of architectural and decorative styles over time. I hadn't been to an Anglican service yet, so that was a bit of an adjustment, lots of standing haha. After church we had lunch in the Almonry restaurant, which is part of the Cathedral and was very lovely and atmospheric in a medieval basement!

Super cool dome!

A wintry Palm Sunday

Our next stop was Cambridge, which is on the same train route as Ely from London. We saw King's College and went directly to the Chapel since it was so cold and snowy out. It was especially lovely inside because an orchestra was rehearsing. We also went by St John's College because my mum's friend went there and it has a cool gate thing. We stopped in some shops along the way as well, and one of them was perfectly lovely and served tea and cupcakes to everyone because it was seriously disgusting outside- you have no idea how much difference a cup of tea can have when you're freezing to your bones! And I got a Keep Calm and Study On shirt to motivate me through I.S. next year :-p

Inside King's College Chapel, with bonus orchestra

Entrance to King's College 

Entrance to St John's College

Overall I really enjoyed my whirlwind few days in London and the surrounding area, although I was already exhausted from my trip to Ireland and there was another week of adventures to be had! Look forward to more posts soon about the Harry Potter Studio Tour and my UK Extravaganza Tour with the parentals.