Sloooowly catching up on blog posts! More about that “time-when-I-dropped-everything-and-ran-away-across-the-pond-for-six-days”! I’m not going to bore you with photos of the changing of the guard ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace – I’m sure you’ve seen photos of the London guards before. And I couldn’t take photos inside many of the museums I visited. (The National Portrait Gallery, The Tate Modern, The British Museum…) But if you’re ever in London, you have to go to The British Library! I’m a total literature/history/music geek, so I spent a few hours drooling over Jane Austin’s writing desk, the original copy of Handel’s “Messiah”, Beatles lyrics scribbled on scrap paper, and The Magna Carta, to name a few. It’s absolutely incredible to be surrounded by such history.
We also took in a view of the city on the London Eye.
And saw some really entertaining street performers.
And ate some ice cream. 🙂 Melissa and I never saw a shell-like ice cream “cone”.
And we visited Westminster Abbey. Photography is prohibited in most areas of the abbey, so I can’t share too much of my visit. But the abbey is stunning, and much larger than what I imagined. I had no idea that behind the alter we’ve all seen on television, there’s a huge section where kings and queens are entombed. Again, the history geek in me completely freaked out! Kings, queens, writers like Tennyson and Charles Dickens, and scientist Issac Newton are buried in the abbey.
And then – please don’t be too jealous 😉 – we spent a day at Harry Potter Studios London. It’s not an amusement park – it’s the actual sound stages that the movie was filmed on. And it totally honors all the people who worked behind the scenes to make the magic happen for all of us, which makes this television director very happy. 🙂 The amount of detail that went into every single aspect of the film series is astounding. I think I photographed every inch of the place!
Eventually, it was time to return to reality. I’ve been wanting to visit London since high school, and now it’s finally checked off my list. I have no idea where my next travel adventure will take me, but it will probably be somewhere here at home. A cab driver laughed at me about visiting London before seeing the Grand Canyon… She has a very good point. 🙂