The Snells: London Here We Came!

This past weekend was spent exploring all there is to see in London! Em and I flew to London on Thursday morning. Once we got to our hotel, we grabbed some quick lunch and headed in to the city. We walked a large loop seeing tons of neat sights! We first saw St. Paul's Cathedral. It had already closed so we didn't get a chance to go inside. Then, we walked over the London Bridge and headed towards Tower Bridge. We passed by the Tower of London and headed to the central part of London to meet our cousin Erik. We took Erik out to dinner and then he had to go study for his last exam. Em and I decided to go see some more sights before we headed back to our apartment. So, we started at Piccadilly Circus, headed to Trafalgar Square, and then walked by 10 Downing Street. On our way to 10 Downing Street we passed a building that was being guarded by two British guards. They even asked us if we wanted to come in to the gates they were guarding! We declined, but we did get our pictures taken with them! They were really funny! We continued our journey and walked by Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. They were beautiful at night! We just couldn't believe how ornate everything was!

Friday, we woke up early and headed in to the city for a full day of sights! We started by going in to Westminster Abbey and walked around there for a bit. It was quite incredible to see the names of people who were buried there. Pretty unbelievable! We headed up to Buckingham Palace in time so we could see the changing of the guard. I didn't quite understand the whole process. It was a bunch of guards marching around and stomping their feet all to switch out two people. Although it didn't make sense, it was pretty neat to see. After Buckingham Palace, we headed out to tour Kensington Palace, which is where Princess Diana lived with Will and Harry. The Palace was under renovation, which meant that they basically just made up this crazy exhibit about princesses to cover up the renovations. It was quite odd. After our the palace, Em and I had tea and a pastry at the Orangery. It was so cute and British! We then met up with Erik and went to the Churchill War Rooms. This is where Churchill and his top military men met during World War II. It is underground, beneath a normal looking building. It was really interesting to see the living quarters and how they communicated with the outside world during the war. After the war rooms, we went out for some traditional British food....which held up to its reputation of being "yuck."

Saturday was another busy day! Emily had to leave to go back to the states so she could start her real job. It was so much fun having her with us for the first week! I enjoyed every minute! So, we said goodbye to Em and then Ryan and I headed out. We met up with Erik in the morning and then we all went to St. Paul's Cathedral. On our way, we took a slight detour to visit the oldest church in London. It was built in the year 1123. It was interesting, because there were several tombs in the floor of the church. This was the first time I had ever seen this and I would come to find out that this was a very common tradition. This was done in Westminster Abbey as well. There are no words to describe the beauty of this church. It was unbelievably ornate! We spent a couple hours here, listening to the audio guide and exploring the various parts. We were able to walk to the top of the dome and get some pretty cool views of London. We also went down in to the crypt where they had the tombs of several people. After our tour of St. Paul's, we headed over to the Parliament building and got a tour of that building. Again, it was so ornate! It was really fun to learn about how the British run their government. After our tour of Parliament, we walked by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus so Ryan could see them all!

Sunday was a rainy and cold day...very London - ish. We started by exploring the Tower of London. We got to see a lot of armor and swords dating back to kings from hundreds of years ago, including King Henry VIII. After we saw the armor, which was Ryan's favorite, we went to see the crown jewels, my favorite. Very fitting. The crown jewels were unbelievable. I couldn't believe the size of the jewels in some of the crowns. The largest diamond was one of the jewels...it was big! After the Tower, we headed to the British Museum...which worked out well to get out of the rain and cold! We got to see the Rosetta Stone which allowed the Egyptian symbols to be translated and understood. It was pretty cool. After exploring the museum and seeing lots of stuff, which I can't really remember, we ate some dinner and headed back to our hotel On our way back we made stops at Wellington Arch and the huge department store Harrods. After a long day, we headed back to our hotel.

Monday greeted us with sun! We started off our day going to Westminster Abbey. This time around, I got an audio guide and learned a whole lot of history about the Abbey. We saw where Newton, Darwin, Stokes, Faraday, Maxwell, were buried, along with many other scientists and mathematicians. We also saw the tombs of many kings and queens from England. It was quite beautiful walking around the Abbey. After our tour there, we walked by Buckingham Palace so Ryan could see that and then we headed to the airport to head back "home." After a 5 day weekend, I was ready to go back to Berlin. We had a blast in London and it was sure fun to see so much! Enjoy the pictures below!!!