"Landing in London": The Gentry's Do London...

On the London Eye

Finally the big day arrived! My parents arrived Saturday July 2nd. I was so happy to finally have them in London with me. I knew exactly where I wanted to take them for their first day, and that was an area called Covent Gardens. I have blogged about this area before, but it is the French Quarter of London. Such a cool area, with shops, street performers, and restaurants & they really enjoyed it. Their second day in London consisted of what I was looking forward to the most, The London Eye. It is a huge Farris Wheel that over looks all of London. It is about a 30 minute ride around & you can see anything from Big Ben, to West Minister Abbey from up above.

Princess Di's Memorial

Well the plans of going to Paris kinda changed, so we ended up staying in London the entire time which was COMPLETELY fine with me! I enjoyed getting to be my parents little personal tour guide around the city. On Monday I took them to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives during the week & resides out at Windsor Castle on the weekends…rough life. Everyday at 11:30 in front of The Palace, they have a daily event called “Changing of The Guards.” This is a daily ritual that consists of a marching band, police on horses, guards in red suits, it’s a much bigger ordeal than just two other guards coming out to take the place of the old ones. It is about an hour event or longer and they do it every single day! The day followed by walking through Hyde Park, a very well known park with bikes, horses, a lake with paddle-boats, all sorts of fun things! This is where Princess Diana’s Memorial is located. It was such a cool area and thing to experience.

Roman Bath's

Wednesday was a wonderful day spent in Bath England, Salisbury, and Stonehenge. All 3 are absolutely amazing areas. Bath England is where the Romans used to live & take their daily baths. The stones of the walls, and baths still exist to this day. The baths are no longer in use but there is still water in them, which is unreal. We got to sit by the water and sit exactly where the Romans used to sit! Salisbury is an area not too far from bath that has one of the most beautiful churches in the center of the city. It was built thousands of years ago, it took around 30 years to build, and current a renovation is being done on it and it has taken over 50 years due to the lack of knowledge on how to renovate such an old building. Our last stop was Stonehenge, my personal favorite. It is in the middle of nowhere and you literally look around and all you see are farms and rolling hills, Thousands and thousands of years ago these stones were randomly placed in the middle of what used to be a forest of just trees. How the stones were put there or who placed them there…we will never know. But these stones are HUGE, and SO heavy, how in the world they were able to stack them on top of each other back that long ago without the machinery we have today, is unreal. Something that may never get solved…

Harry Potter Premiere- Red carpet event

Thursday was just a laid back day of exploring London. I took my parents to an area called Oxford Circus, it is the prime location for shopping! We walked around their for a bit, but were anxious to make it to Trafalgar Square where The Harry Potter red carpet event was going to happen later on that day! Thousands of people showed up for this, it was unbelievable. Due to the fact it’s the last Harry movie, I understand why. We got some great pictures and got to see a good amount of the characters! People had been camping out for nearly a week just to get a good spot on the red carpet. I like Harry Potter but not enough to camp out for 6 or 7 days! That is a true fan right there.

White Chapel-
The area where all of Jack The Ripper's
killings took place...

My last and final day in London was probably one of the best! We went to a market called Portobello Market, which is a road full of venders and antiques. My parents really enjoyed this area, we continued walking up towards Notting Hill. Which was an absolutely amazing area with beautiful homes, the area where the movie Notting Hill was filmed! The night followed by one of the greatest tours I have ever been on. The Jack The Ripper Tour. A serial killer back in the 1800’s who brutally murdered 5 homeless prostitutes within a few months span. For what reason we will never know, but he had some kind of motive. The tour took us around all of the spots where the murders occurred…spooky! Back then there was not enough technology to track him with dna or any sort…so he got away. One day the murders just ended, to this day no one has a clue who it was, or what the story behind “Jack The Ripper” truly was.

My final week with my parents was absolutely amazing, and a great way to end my Summer in London. I had the greatest time the past 9 or so weeks over in England. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had, I learned so much and after this trip I would love to continue traveling to other areas of the world. There is so much to see its unbelievable and so much history behind each place. Having the opportunity to experience London England, Whales England, Geneva Switzerland, Paris France, Bath, & Salisbury England it was all unreal. I will never forget the experiences and memories made at each of these places.

Until next time…HELLO AMERICA! Boy have I missed you!