London, England

When we were in high school, we decided to start a Spanish club. The main purpose of our club, besides to learn Spanish, was to travel to Costa Rica. We did a bit of research on international school trips and made our game plan. We would go during the summer, we would have fundraisers to help pay the costs of airfare and lodging, and we would learn a lot just being immersed in the language 24/7. It was to be our first international trip.

As you may have guessed, the school rejected our very well thought out plan and our club was dismantled. It wasn’t until several years later, in March of 2010, that we ever stepped foot on foreign soil. But it wasn’t in Central America. It was across the Atlantic in London, England.

We were both taking International Business our last semester in college and decided to sign up for the London experience. A friend of Courtney’s had gone years before and had a great time, so we thought…why not? We set off on our 10 day adventure with high hopes (and a few anxieties).

What ended up happening was an increased love of travel and desire to see many other places around the world. It’s been 8 years, but the memories (and photos) live on.

In today’s blog, the first of our London series, we’ll talk about some of the sights we visited on our 10-day trip.

There are many sites in London that are easily recognizable. Must sees for most tourists. A few we managed to visit are the London Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and  Westminster Abbey. Obviously the London Bridge and Big Ben are things to look at. I’m not sure you can actually tour Buckingham Palace, but the outside is something to behold. And there are guards that will not smile even if you take pics with them. You can visit the inside of Westminster Abbey, where many royals have tied the knot, but we didn’t have the chance. There was a choice between the Abbey and the Tower of London and the majority chose the Tower. We did get to view the outside though, and it is grand to say the least.

Though we were a bit disappointed at first (since we’d voted for the Abbey), we thought the Tower of London was pretty cool. Looking back, I think we would appreciate it more now than we did then, but we were, at the time, at least impressed with the crown jewels, which are housed here. The heart of the ocean, from Titanic, is not there. (Apparently, I, Courtney, thought it was because I specifically mentioned it in a classic McTravels video. I also asserted that the crown jewels were cool “if they weren’t fake because who knows.”) We also learned that the Beefeaters (aka. Yeoman of the Guard) live in the tower and that there must be six ravens on the property at all times. Why? So the tower will not fall. Read more on the legend here.

Another locale we visited was Windsor Castle, summer home of the royals and the site of the recent royal wedding. Unlike Buckingham Palace, we were able to tour the inside of this castle. They gave you an audio set that provided interesting information in each room. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the castle but we did take some outside. Largely, it was cool because it was a castle and it is strange to think people still live in a castle. (Rumor has it that Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex are going to live there full time.)

If you’ve ever wanted to visit a cathedral where a lot of non-famous people are buried, Salisbury Cathedral is for you. Kidding… sort of. The inside was stunning and like nothing we’d ever seen in the states (not surprisingly). The cathedral did have several different rooms that served as specific individual’s chapels, which was interesting. They also had a written copy of the Magna Carta. There are only very few written copies of it in the world.

As part of our International Business class, we also visited the Bank of England to learn a bit about the workings of their financial system. They offered a somewhat self-guided tour, but we had a tour guide who was really funny. Since this was part of our school experience, we had to watch a video about someone opening a business that wasn’t very intriguing. They also had an authentic gold bar, though it did not belong to them. Not your typical tourist destination, though neither is the next locale.

Next, we toured the Jaguar Factory. We got to walk through the entire plant and see a Jaguar made from beginning to end. They give you a headset that broadcasts the tour guide so that you can hear him over the noise of the machinery. The tour guide told us that the hood of the car was engineered so that WHEN you hit a pedestrian, the pedestrian will just roll up on the hood and probably not die. WHEN. Yes, he said WHEN. Who is driving Jaguars?

Some other stops on our educational tour of London were Financial Times and Coca-Cola. The most interesting thing about either of these places was the woman who talked with us at Coca-Cola. She had a strange mix of an American and British accent that tripped us out. She was an American who had moved to England several years before and apparently picked up some of the dialect.

If you’ve ever taken a world history class, you’ve probably heard of Stonehenge. It is one of the oldest landmarks in England and no one really knows how it got there. It takes a bit of time to get there from London proper, so plan your time accordingly. They do give you an audio headset and it tells you stories, myths, and theories about the origins of Stonehenge. A part of us is glad we saw it, because it is so old and so famous, but it really is just a collection of large rocks. Don’t expect anything more or you will be disappointed.

To be or not to be? That is the question you might ask yourself if you visit Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s Birthplace. They had everything set up to show what it would have looked like back then. We learned a few… interesting facts about Shakespeare. Overall, this was not one of our favorite stops. It would probably be more interesting for literature buffs than it was for us. What was kind of neat was seeing Shakespeare’s grave. Don’t ask why, but we both find the burial sites of historically famous people rather fascinating. We also saw the outside of the Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, where many of his plays were put on way back when. They still have shows here that you can attend.

We traveled up to Oxford one day of the trip and visited Christ Church. For those Potterheads out there, this church was home to the initial Great Hall and the grand staircase from the first Harry Potter films. (Production later moved into a studio.) Lewis Carroll also wrote part of Alice in Wonderland here, so there is a special Alice themed stained glass window as well. The stained glass windows were a real treat and this place is a must go for any HP fan. We went with our two instructors and pretended we were a family to get the family rate… Dr. T said we could pretend to be his grandkids, but we are older than his real kids. You had to be there,  but it was funny.

On a somewhat related note, you will also find King’s Cross Station/Platform 9 3/4 in London. They had a special wall outside the station labeled 9 3/4. It had a luggage cart sticking out of the wall like in the books so that you could pretend, even if just for a moment, that you had in fact gotten your Hogwarts letter and were running headlong into a brick wall made of magic to be ferried off by train to your dream school. Just a note, you do not have to actually go inside the station to find this. In fact, I think they prefer if you don’t.

Since we’re on a nerd roll, we also visited Baker Street to find the statue of Sherlock Holmes. And because, how can you go to London and not find Baker Street?

The first time we ever went to a wax museum was in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We thought it was the coolest thing, though it was smaller and some of the statues did not look like the celebrity they were meant to resemble. But Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum was something else. The museum in London is the original location and it had a ton of wax figures. You could take pictures with all of them and some were interactive. We booked our tickets before we went and that turned out to be a good thing. We went on a Saturday and it was very crowded, but since this was the day that we had the most free time on our trip, we were stuck. However, we still took pictures with every figure in the museum… literally every figure. Even with those who were made into celebs we did not know. If you like wax museums, plan to spend several hours here.

The London Eye is a bit more well known now than when we went. (Although, it was featured in the pilot episode of new Doctor Who.) We loved being able to see the whole city and got a few cool photos from up high. This is definitely a must unless you are terrified of heights. But even then, you can sit on benches in the middle of the large globe and enjoy the views without being right at the window.

Next up, what we ate and how big of cheapskates we were 8 years ago.