Here is a photo journal of things we have been doing in London!
On the River Thames! Tower Bridge is behind us. It's not that old- they just built it to look that way, and the famed 'London Bridge' is not falling down, it's just not as picturesque as this one.
Tilbury Fort is right around the corner from where we are staying in Essex, so we took a few hours and went exploring. It's right on the Thames, and was one of London's first defenses to protect the city from invaders entering via the river. Some of the Culloden prisoners were held in this fort after the Highland uprising in the 1700's. We were lucky enough to visit Culloden while we were in Scotland. Jeff had fun at the Fort playing with the big guns. Instead of pointing them out toward the river to aid in the Fort's defenses, I found all of the barrels pointed at me while I was taking photos...
Back closer to London, we walked through Olympic Park, site of the 2012 Games. The following pictures document what happens when you haven't gone to a Crossfit box in over 2 months:
We're not going to talk about how many trys that took. We got to see the pool, the outside of the stadium (which was closed because the West Ham football team was moving in), the handball courts, BMX track and the Velodrome (biking). London has some impressive plans to build the park up and make it a successful business park featuring high end housing and a college campus. With so many Olympic cities with abandoned stadiums, it's nice to see that the area will still thrive after the Olympics!
Afternoon tea was on my English bucket list, and we waited until our last week here to experience it. I'm so glad we got to meet up with our friend Sarah, who is currently studying in London. She took us for a spectacular walk around Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and to a great place called the Ivy for tea! Jeff was a good sport and ate all of his fu fu sandwiches.
In the British Museum in London (FREE!!!!) they have many artifacts from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone. We got to see many of the sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens that were brought to the UK by an English explorer. Supposedly Greece is still a little bitter about the fact that their property is in London. We will see the rest of the Acropolis in a few months!
Buckingham Palace (Queen's main residence) and the changing of the guard, Windsor Palace (Queen's weekend residence outside of town), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Kings Cross Station (home of Platform 9 and 3/4).
-Cara