English Adventures

On the first day in London we walked to the London Eye which is the largest Ferris wheel in Europe and is located along the Thames River. About 300 people were waiting in line to ride the Eye, and the waiting time was about an hour. Everyone’s feet hurt after a day of walking, and standing still made it worse. After an hour groups of twenty people hurried into the air conditioned pods of the London Eye. The wheel moved very slowly so it gave people a chance to take pictures. After the short amount of time spent on the London Eye we returned to our hotel because everyone was tired after a busy day.

            
The next morning a bus was waiting outside of the hotel for us to ride into town. There was a quick stop at St. Paul’s Cathedral where our guide explained that the Cathedral was 365 feet tall and that it was where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. Our group did not go into the Cathedral because the price per person was equivalent to that of a museum. A short walk led us to Tower Bridge which is located over the river Thames. Tower Bridge was built over 100 years ago and the bridge was raised up to allow larger ships to cross underneath it. Currently the river is not in use for cargo transportation as much as it was before, so the bridge is rarely raised. However, while we were there we were lucky enough to witness the lifting of the bridge which was amazing.

            
Our bus crossed over Tower Bridge, made its way past Westminster Abbey, and eventually arrived at Buckingham Palace. Surrounding the palace were thousands of people. While there, the guard was scheduled to change. Our group gathered near the entrance of the barracks and waited for the red coated soldiers to come marching. The road was blocked to restrict any cars from passing through, and a band accompanied the soldiers.

            
Later that night was the Jack the Ripper tour. I was excited because I need to write a paper on Jack the Ripper for school, so I was hoping to learn more about what had happened. Unfortunately my guide was not very good at telling stories due to his lack of emotion, however our teacher Ms. Rozman came to the rescue. The locations of the murder victims were no longer darkened alleys. They were replaced by stores or apartments so the rain was the only attribute to the mysteriousness. Before the tour started it began to rain, and it did not let up until we were on our way back to the hotel. I did not know I had an umbrella on me so I was soaked by the time the tour was over.

The following day was a two hour bus ride to the Roman Baths and Stonehenge. The Baths smelled like copper and murky water but the architecture and the thought that the Romans would construct an area for people to bathe 2,000 years ago is phenomenal. Stonehenge was exactly how I expected it, and it was cool that I had got to see a monument that I had previously seen in picture and movies.