It all started out with a simple English breakfast (complete with English breakfast tea of course...).
After breakfast, we headed for Westminster Abbey. This was definitely my favorite part of the day! Directly after exiting the tube at Westminster, we saw the London eye!
Then, right after turning around, I caught my first glimpse of Big Ben. I felt like Hallie in the Parent Trap when she arrives in London for the first time and is driving through the city....very excited and trying to take it all in!
(Yes, I got photo bombed....the guy even yelled "bomb!" as he walked by....)
As we walked around the Parliament building we quickly approached the Abbey.
Fun fact: the Parliament building and Westminster are built out of the same exact type of stone.
Also, I was able to save 10 pounds on admission to the Abbey because I was still considered a "schoolchild" at 18 years old....hey, I'll take it!
Parliament building....beautiful architecture and ornate lamppost (sorry about the random truck...haha)
Entrance (or, as they say here, "way in") to Westminster.
The iconic towers at Westminster
I loved listening to the audio tour as I walked through the church. I learned a lot about the history of it, like how the first church that was built on this site was built in the 1050s. That's incredible! It was awesome and humbling to see all the tombs of famous people like Isaac Newton and all of the kings and queens and listen to the stories of their lives on the audio tour. I spent a while at C.S. Lewis's memorial, on which an inscription read "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not because I see it but because by it I see everything else." Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors. I also spent a considerable amount of time at George Frederick Handel's grave. There was a huge memorial for him and as I looked at it, his body was buried beneath my feet. It was so incredibly humbling. What an amazing musician. Speaking of musicians, the organ was INCREDIBLE. I wasn't able to go upstairs and look at it up close, but from what I could see, they were awesome. There's actually two of them opposite each other in the balcony! Also, I learned that the Westminster boy choir has their own private school! Anyway, after I finished the guided tour, I wandered through the other rooms and halls. I found Muzio Clementi's grave! (Clementi is an incredible pianist, he wrote many pieces for the piano, mainly for educational purposes. I played his sonatinas growing up, and this upcoming semester I will be learning one of his etudes.)
After finishing up at the Abbey, we walked through St. James's Park down to Buckingham Palace! (By this time, it was pouring, but that's typical here!)
Queen Victoria's memorial
The queen's carriage
For lunch, I went to a French bakery and had a sandwich with goat cheese and lettuce on a sesame baguette. It was quite delicious.
After lunch, we headed to the Natural History Museum! It was HUGE. We spent four and a half hours there and hardly made a dent. It was so cool though!
The outside of the museum. Richard Owens, the man who was influential in the building and opening of the museum, wanted the building to look like a cathedral because he believed that science was for the glory of God.
The skeleton of a giant deer (This one is for you, dad. See it in comparison to the elephant in the background?)
Triceratops skeleton
For dinner, I headed to the shopping district (Covent Gardens/Soho). I had a delicious Italian meal at the Spaghetti House and walked around the shops a little while before heading back to the hotel after a great (and long) day!
(Apparently here it's not T.J. Maxx, but T.K. Maxx....)
