Final Days in London

I have been home now for almost a week. The first couple of days were hard because of the time difference but it became better over time. I am glad to be home even though the temperature here roughly is about 107 degrees everyday. I really miss London and the feeling of the big city and hopefully in the future I can visit again.


On my last weekend I spent Saturday hanging with my brother and his girlfriend. We went to Portobello Road which is a street that is completely lined with stores. Some stores are just tents in the street that are selling their products. There is a variety of items to buy food, clothing, antiques, and jewelry. All the buildings along the street that people live in are painted the colors of the rainbow. Some houses are light blue, green, pink, and yellow. The street becomes very crowded and cars try their best to drive through the crowd of people. This street is always open but if you want to go there while all the store are there then you must visit on a Friday or Saturday any other day and it is just a normal street. So if you plan on spending time there I suggest going early in the morning before many people show up. After we headed back to the flat to grab our tennis rackets and my brother and I headed out to play tennis at the same place we had played previously. We played tennis for an hour and then headed home for dinner. We went to bed early that night because of my flight in the morning.


My next day was spent fly through the air with a lay over in Atlanta. My flights were not bad at all. I could not sleep though so by the time I was home I had been up for about 24 hours and then finally went to bed.


I really miss London and the feeling of the big city, but hopefully in the future I can visit again. My time there was greatly appreciated. Not many kids my age get to experience the things I have just from my little bit of time in London. The city is filled with so many different cultures and things to see that it is impossible to not grow as a person by just being in that environment. London has so much history and learning is easy in a place like that because you learn something new from every street, museum, market, transportation, or park that you see. I am thankful that my family allowed me this opportunity and I hope they can see some of my experiences through my blog.


My blog may become a blog about my senior year in high school and the events that take place throughout the year. I hope that you have enjoyed my blog about London and have learned some facts about London as well. Write me a post to let me know what you thought over all of my blog and keep checking in for more updates.

Since I have only a few days left in city I decided that it would be nice to see the city from somewhere high. I decided that today I would go to the Tower Bridge and climb up the many stairs to the top. Then once there I walked across the top to the other side. The long walkway has glass on both sides so the city is beautiful and can be seen for miles. Today luckily it was sunny so I could see as far out as I could see.

Along the sides of the glass they had rectangular display tables that had time lines of the bridge, fish you might find in the river, birds often seen in the area, famous people who have visited there, the history of the bridge and finally crazy things that have happened on the bridge. For example two planes have flown through the Tower Bridge over the cars driving below. Another was a double decker bus was on the edge of the bridge as it began to raise to let a ship through, but the bus could not stop so the bus had to jump over the open water and barely landed on the ledge across from them.

After I had been through both towers and I was ready to go I walked towards London Bridge to go to Borough Market. This market is only open on Fridays and Saturdays. There are a variety of things that you can buy, but all of them are edible things. They had stands set up with sighs of what they were selling like olives, cheese, meat, smoothies, sweets, and breads. I walked around this little market of about twenty stands and the crowd was packed through the open spaces between the stands. Free samples are given to people passing by and I tried many of them. They were all very good and the prices are really cheap in this market too. I bought 200 grams of different kinds of Turkish delight for only 2.80 GBPs. I am going to save those for my ride back to the states.

I really enjoyed my day and I look forward to tomorrow. Check in to see what I do and write me a post.

I spent most of my day on the tube today. My dad and his wife had their flight home today. Before we headed to the airport we visited Baker Street which displays an Elvis, Beatles, Sherlock Holmes, and The History of Rock Museums. We only went into the Beatles Museum which was a very small one roomed shop where you could buy shirts, pins, original albums, and other little trinkets.


Then we headed back to the flat to grab their language and we headed to the airport. After they went towards security I went to my brother’s girlfriend’s work. I was meeting both my brother and his girlfriend there so we could all leave for the musical Chicago.


The theater was painted blue with box seats on either side. Our seats were in the upper balcony and we could see the stage perfectly. The musical was amazing and had great singers and dancers. I would not suggest this musical for younger audiences because of the sensuality of the musical.


Today was great and I enjoyed my night at the theater. Check in tomorrow and send me a post.

Leeds Castle and Dover

I had another adventure today. My dad his wife and I ventured to Leeds Castle and Dover. The castle was amazing. I have never seen a castle before and the mote around it was impressive. Many ducks and swans were around, even a couple black swans. The entrance to the castle had an iron gate that could be lowered or raised. The stones were ancient looking with rugged and discolored edges. As you enter you walk across a bridge over the mote and enter into a circle that goes all the way around the castle. We entered through the wine cellar and continued up the stairs into a hall way that displayed pictures of the royalty that have owned the castles since 1119. There were ropes that had certain rooms closed off. The ropes led to one of the towers which had windows that you could look out to see the mote and the hills surrounding the castle. The last owner of the house was Lady Olivia Baillie in 1926. She refurbished most of the rooms to her fondness but even though the interior was a little more modern it was still a great experience. One of my favorite rooms was the dining room with a large table that expanded through the entire room and it was filled with crystal table settings.

After we had seen everything that we wanted to we drove to Dover. We headed towards the White Cliffs of Dover which looks out over the English Channel. On a good day you can see all the way across to France. Today was very sunny and warm but there was a bit of fog over the water so we could only see a rough outline of France. It was beautiful and the water was gorgeous with the white caps crashing against one another. We took pictures of the Dover Castle but we did not go and see it, instead we walked down to the beach. The beach is different than from where I am from. Instead of sand they have what looks like a bunch of river rock. It is not very comfortable to walk on barefoot but it is very pretty to take a chair out there and look out onto the water. This was probably one of my favorite places I have been so far and I suggest that if you want to take a day trip somewhere you should definitely go to Dover.

This day was completely packed with things to see and experience but it was amazing and I am glad to be able to do it. Check out my blog tomorrow and send me a post.

Today I got to leave the city. I ventured out to Bath and Stonehenge. Bath was my first destination and the car ride was about an hour or so. My dad, his wife and I rented a car and made sure we received one with a GPS system because without it we would have never found our way out of London. A little tip is to definitely get a GPS system I think it would be impossible to find your way around without one.

Bath was beautiful and the buildings were very old and made of aged stones. We stopped and visited the Roman Baths and I found that fascinating. The architecture is older than anything I have seen before. The springs from down below heats up the water and flows between six pools. There is a museum that you can walk through that goes through all the rooms and shows stones that have been found with carvings of gods and tombstones.

We then traveled to Stonehenge which is about an hour from Bath. We paid to go and see the magnificent structures, but it was not too much money. They had it roped off so this way the stones would not be touched or defaced. It was incredible to see and it is something that everyone knows of but not everyone gets a chance to actually see it.

My day was filled with amazing things to see and I am glad I had the opportunity to see them. Check in tomorrow and send me a message.

Today I went to the London War Museum (a.k.a Britain At War Experience) and the Imperial War Museum. Both of these museums were very emotional and an experience for everyone to see.

The London War Museum shows what it was like to live in London during WWII. The entrance takes you into what a tube station would look like with bunk beds and book cases with books against the walls. A video was on the far wall explaining the war and what was happening above ground. When you leave there are hallways that show rooms where people were interpreting codes over phones. Women were wearing uniforms if they were helping with the war; with the men off fighting the women would put out fires and help with the bombing shrapnel. There was a section that showed children and how unhappy they looked. My favorite part of the museum was the very end. A door led into the streets during an air raid. They had bodies displayed as if they had been hit by a bomb and showed people stealing the artifacts on the ground. The air was foggy and it smelled like stagnant water; it was well done and you really felt like you were there.

The Imperial War Museum was an eye opening experience. I only had time to visit two of the exhibits there but they were very sad. First I went to the Holocaust exhibit and that was very sad. I will not explain the things that were there because some of it would be too graphic for children. I will say though that it brought tears to my eyes and people were crying as you exited the exhibit. I then proceeded to The Children of The War exhibit and this was also very sad. Many children were shipped off to the country during the war so they would be out of danger. The parents had to stay behind though and this was very traumatizing. There were letters from children begging their parents to come get them and how they were living terribly. One girl reported to her parents that where she was they had a cage for animals and in the mornings they would take the animals out and place them in it with a bottle of water and a loaf of bread. The exhibit also showed how they lived before and how a typical house looked. You got to walk through the rooms and go up the stairs to other floors.

My experiences today will stay with me for the rest of my life and I suggest that if visiting that you take some time to go and see these two places. They change you forever. Check in tomorrow and send me a post.

Cabinet War Rooms and Number Ten Downing Street

Today I visited the Cabinet War Rooms today near Big Ben and West Minster Abby. There is a cost to get in and then you walk down a staircase to the rooms below. Free audioguides are given to visitors and then you proceed to the right. There are rooms were meetings were held with Winston Churchill and the mapping room that had walls filled with maps and the paths that bombings were taking place. Many hallways lead to bedrooms, a museum of Winston Churchill, and meeting room that contain where he did his broadcasts on the radio and a telephone room for important messages.


Afterwards I went by Number Ten Downing Street. This is equivalent to the White House in Washington D.C. There was a line to get into the street but we decided that we would just walk by and take a picture of it instead. My day was really fun and the weather was a little cloudy but bearable. Check in tomorrow to hear about my day and send me a post. Sorry that there is not a picture my chip for my camera was left at home today.