London Calling! Part One

October 27, 2009

Background story: One day I give my mother a call to see how she was doing. We talked small talk then she asked me what I wanted for my birthday for it was coming up. I didn’t really know what I wanted, but she gave me the idea of taking a trip somewhere and she would pay for the flight ticket. Excited, I gave it some thought and I decided I would go to London for my birthday, never have visited the city before and also I had a friend studying up there that I could visit and stay with. Mathieu during that time would be out in Bordeaux for a job training for 2 weeks that I thought I could meet up with him the weekend I got back from London. Once all the planning was in order, I booked my flight ticket to London, my train ticket to Bordeaux and readied myself for one of the most fun filled birthdays of all time!

Monday , the trip was long but went fine. My friend Katy met me at the train station, for I had to take a train from the airport to London, and we headed to her place to settle for the evening. I admired her skills in maneuvering through the metro with ease. To me it looked like a madhouse wherever I went. Once at her dorm, we went out for food then back home and passed out for the evening.

Tuesday morning we woke up nice and early and grabbed our Starbucks coffee and headed to the metro to start our sight seeing excursion. We took the underground to Parliament, and when we stepped onto the street corner, towering above me chiming the 10 o’clock time, was Big Ben. Like a 5 year old I hopped around taking pictures and squeaking “It’s Parliament! It’s Big Ben! Oh my God I’m in London!” We ambled over a bridge that spanned the Thames as I was a shutter bug of everything around me. The Eye of London, the world’s largest ferris wheel, towered over the river and further down the winding waters there was London skyline that took my breath away.

We walked around a bit, then we headed back to Parliament to meet a friend of Katy’s for lunch who worked for a member of Parliament. Once we did the meet and greet, we headed inside. I was so excited to catch a glimpse of the inside of Parliament. We made it through a winding line of well dressed men and women and got ID tags with our pictures on it to go inside. Once handled by gruff looking security guards and walking through metal detectors, we were inside the gates. We made it through the main entrance, but I was ordered to not have my camera, which slightly annoyed me.

We walked through an array of corridors and hallways and made it to the center of Parliament where to our right was the House of Lords and to the left was the House of Commons. In awe, the three of us did a tour of all the inside of the building, we even saw where the queen would sit to give royal orders. I found it interesting for the chair was threadbare and the velvet above the throne seemed to be rotting away. We even caught the first ten minutes of a house meeting. Unfortunately it was in lawyer language, so I could only understand so much without my head hurting.

Once we made the grand tour, we took our lunch in the cafeteria and ate outside on the balcony looking over the Thames. After our lunch, we made our way upstairs to meet the member of Parliament Katy’s friend worked for. He was a kind, plump, Scotsman with a booming voice and a hearty laugh. He was wonderful to chat with and as he broke off into stories all I could do was smile at musical sound of his accent. After a few snapshorts with the “MP” we said our goodbyes and continued our outside adventure to discover other parts of London.

Just across the street from Parliament was Westminster Abby. After meandering around Westminster, we headed back across the Thames and resumed our riverside exploration. We walked by the National Theatre, some impressive sand sculptures, the modern art museum, and the Globe Theatre right on the riverfront. Almost directly across the Globe we could see Saint Paul’s Cathedral, so we took Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Thames, to look upon the large church.

The church was enormous. Once again, I was not allowed to capture photos of the enterior of the church, but the decoration is not as elaborate as many churches I have visited in France or in Italy. Though it was decorated in rich white and tan marble, it did not have as many paintings along the ceilings and walls. It was so beautiful, and so huge!

The sun started to sink behind the large buildings around 4:30 pm, which greatly surprised me. As it got darker and are feet started to bark for rest, we made It to the nearest metro station and headed back to her dorm and goofed off for the rest of the evening.