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| That's it. Right there. The epic walk. |
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| Back at 27 Palace Court |
On our second day in London we woke up at 7am and headed straight out the door. (Well, we got dressed first. We were excited but not senseless-excited.)
The first goal of the day was to officially complete my
TRIUMPHAL RETURN and walk to the BYU London Center, where I had lived for a term back in 2004.
So, since it was just one mile away from our hostel and the walk went straight through Kensington Gardens, we set off as the sun rose to walk through a place that I loved so much when I lived there.
The fog was rising off Round Pond, the
sunrise made the Price Albert Monument look so beautiful, and we walked by Kensington Palace and the Orangery. We saw the swans and the crazy crazy joggers.
It was actually...kind of surreal to be back. But also awesome!
At that point, we looked at our map and thought, "Well now, Westminster Abbey isn't
that far away, and most of the walk is through parks. Who
needs a tube pass?"
So we walked. We walked through Hyde Park, past the Wellington Arch, alongside Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, and finally we arrived at Parliament Square and Whitehall.
Which, I suppose, is
the place to see some tourist attractions--so many, all so close together...
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This is me being like, "PAUL! Horses! Carriage! Be
in the picture!" |
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My quiet morning rest on the steps
at Buckingham Palace. Notice that
the flag is up in the middle--the Queen is home. |
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| Well, we had to get one of these pictures... |
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Entrance to Westminster Abbey.
So beautiful. So historic! |
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| Facade of Westminster Abbey |
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Houses of Parliament--my favorite building
in London, still. |
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| The Horse Guards! |
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| Trafalgar Square at Sunset |
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| Trafalgar Square lions. |
Well, by the time we got to Trafalgar Square and had walked through the gigantic National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, it was pretty late in the day. So, we thought, "We've made it this far without a tube pass! Let's walk to the British Museum!"
So we walked some more and made it to Bloomsbury. Where we saw...
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| The Rosetta Stone! |
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The Elgin Marbles!
(The sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens) |
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| Ancient Assyrian Sculpture! |
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| Mummies! |
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| Pharaoh's Tombs |
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| Viking Helments |
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| Roman Emperors |
And many, many, many other amazing things. The British Museum is one of the most awe-inspiring (and overwhelming) places on the planet.
And then, it was 9pm, our knees and feet were killing us, but
we had made it this far and we decided to try and walk back home. Through the West End, through Piccadilly Circus, past Green Park, through South Kensington, and back home to our beds.
11.2 miles of walking in between the sites, untold miles walked inside all the Abbeys, Parliaments, and Museums we saw. It was epic. Our epic journey through London.
You're a girl after my sister's heart. She did the BYU London program in 2010. She gave us lots of suggestions for our trip, but the main one was, "Walk everywhere!" And we did walk a lot, but not as much as you guys.
ReplyDeleteWow. That really IS epic. If I had attempted such a thing, I would've been extremely cross at the end of the day. It's awesome that you did it, though.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, you're my favorite travel narrator. I want you to chronicle all of our vacations.
ReplyDeleteHow do you and Paul get any work done with all the traveling? Totally jealous.
ReplyDeleteSara: I didn't learn the walking trick until my last day in London on study abroad and I vowed to myself that if I ever came back I'd walk and walk and walk. But, man, your knees hurt after mile 7.
ReplyDeleteBeth: I was practically crawling by the final quarter mile. Seriously.
Ben: Do you think I could monetize that?
Hans: Long weekends--and Europeans get so much more vacation time. It's awesome.