Day 8- Sunday, December 22

Today is December 22 and since Christmas is three days away we decided to go shopping for presents for each other. We went to Harrods and explored. Harrods was founded in 1834. Harrods fills 5-acres of land and is almost over one million square feet. Every store that we went to in Harrods was too expensive for our budget but it was so much fun to look around! We saw tons of cool things. There were scarves for almost $300!! Way too expensive for our budget but they were so beautiful we each had to buy one! There was even an entire Disney store that had costumes that look exactly like the Disney princesses! There was a Santa that we took our pictures with too. Harrods was so much fun 

but I wish we could have stayed longer or bought something!

After our long shopping day, we went to dinner. The Hard Rock café was within walking distance of where we were. The London Hard Rock Café is the original Hard Rock Café from all over the world. It was opened in 1971. Eric Clapton loved eating at the restaurant so he gave them a guitar and they put it up on the wall. Then a week later, the lead guitarist from The Who gave them their guitar as well. Today, there are more than 70,000 guitars, drums, other instruments, and rock memorabilia at over 163 Hard Rock Cafes around the world!

Since we didn't buy anything at Harrods, we went shopping somewhere else for Christmas presents.  I bought a souvenir snow globe that has all of London in it. I bought Sydney and Maya cheesy London souvenirs. For Mary Beth, I bought an England sweatshirt. Zoe’s present was a phone booth keychain.  

Zoe's present

Mary Beth's present

Sydney and Maya's presents

- Rebecca 

Day 7- Saturday, December 21

Today we woke up at 8:00 am. and we had breakfast at Maria's Market Café. At breakfast we got England's famous, Blood pudding. It can also be called black pudding. Blood pudding is a type of sausage made with animal blood. Many people who read descriptions of it, find it to be not very appeasing. It takes most people some time to get used to it but if someone was raised up on and was eating it their whole life they probably wouldn't mind it. Since it was our first time eating it we didn't enjoy it that much but at least we can say that we tried it!

Stonehenge is beautiful at sunset!

After breakfast we went to Stonehenge. Since Stonehenge is about two hours away we decided to rent a car. By the time we picked up the car it was already 10:30. We drove to Stonehenge, which is located in Wiltshire, and arrived there at about 11:30.

Stonehenge was estimated to be built around 3100 BC. It was built in three phases. The whole project was said to have taken more than thirty million hours of labor. Stonehenge is one of the most prehistoric sites in Britain and it was amazing to be able to visit it.

We toured Stonehenge and after that we went to the Stonehenge store which had many amazing gifts we could pick up! After we visited Stonehenge and the shop it was already about 1:30. It was getting of late so we decided to get some lunch. We got lunch at a restaurant called Charter 1227 Restaurant. It is located in Salisbury which is about 20 minutes away so it wasn't too bad of a drive. Lunch was very good! We were very satisfied after lunch.

By the time we finished eating and were ready to go it was already 3:30. We hopped back in the car and made our way back to London! We arrived back in London at about 4:30. Once we were back in London we returned the rental car and then decided to go back to the hotel and take a 2 hour nap since we had a long day and had to drive far. We woke up at around 6:45 and went back out to get some dinner. Since we had a long day and didn't want to spend too much money we just ordered out pizza and ate it in our hotel room. We rented a movie and had a nice relaxing night!

-Mary Beth

Day 6- Friday, December 20

This morning when we woke up, we had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. After we ate, we walked to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. This is the ceremony to change the guards at the queens' palace. There is a parade and hundreds of people show up to watch.

After the Changing of the Guards, we went for a walk to Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square is a landmark in London that many tourists and Londoners go to.  In the middle of Trafalgar Square is Nelson's Column guarded by four large lion statues. Nelson's Column is a monument that commemorates Admiral Horatio Nelson. Admiral Nelson was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar, which was a battle fought by England's Royal Navy against the French and Spanish fleets. This was during the War on the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. The Battle of Trafalgar was on October 21, 1805. The monument was constructed from 1840-1843 and refurbished in 2006.

After we spent some time in Trafalgar Square, we walked to the British Museum. On the walk, we saw lots of the infamous red telephone booths! We stopped and took pictures "calling" people in them.

 It was only about a twenty minute walk to the museum, and it was really cool to walk around London and see some of the not-so-touristy parts of the city. The outside of the museum was amazing! It was really big and the columns made it look very majestic.

The museum was established in 1753 but wasn't opened to the public until January 15, 1759. It was first opened in the Montagu (or "Montague") House in Bloomsbury, on the same site as the current museum building. Over the past two and a half centuries it has expanded, and now has several branch institutions, such as the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington. The British Library used to be located at the museum but moved to a different location in 1997.

There were so many amazing artifacts in the museum! Our favorite part of the museum was the Department of Egypt and Sudan. There were so many amazing artifacts! The British Museum has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts besides the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There were lots of large busts of Egyptian kings, queens, gods, and goddesses. What we found to be the coolest artifact though, was the Rosetta Stone.

 

Bust of Amenhotep III                                        Bust of Ramses II 

The Rosetta Stone is a large rock that has Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotics, and Ancient Greek inscribed on it. It has the same thing written in each language. Basically, we understood the Greek writing so we were able to translate the other languages. Without the Rosetta Stone, we would have not been able to understand what hieroglyphs or Demotics said.

Once we went through the museum, we got a taxi back to the hotel, where we ate dinner. After dinner, we decided to go for a walk along the River Thames down to the Millennium Bridge, the only pedestrian-only bridge that crosses the River Thames. The bridge first opened in 2000, but after safety concerns, it went under construction and reopened in 2002. 

At the end of the bridge is St. Paul's Cathedral. Construction for St. Paul's began in 1675 and ended in 1720. It is one of London's most famous churches, and it is beautiful at night.

We then headed back to the hotel. This was by far our most eventful day here in London, and it was so much fun!

-Sydney

Day 5: Thursday, December 19

Today is our fifth day in England and we decided to sleep in a bit because of our busy day yesterday.  Once we woke up we decided to spend the day visiting the Science Museum in London.  We quickly got dressed and headed on downstairs to have the last of the breakfast in the hotel. After eating we took a taxi to the museum.

Once our taxi dropped us off at the London Science Museum we walked in and were then able to join an activity called Cosmos and Culture.  Here we learned how astronomy changed the way we work with and see the universe.  We also explored new scientific concepts and learned how different instruments and tools worked.


After that activity we went to another part of the museum and learned about the technology and medicine in Europe during the 1800's.  We learned about how medicine has always relied on technology.  These types of technology include scalpels, probes, and materia medica. Technology and instruments now-a-days can diagnose and treat the body.
After this activity, which was our last learning activity at the museum we were all hungry again so we walked down to the ground floor to have lunch at one of the museums cafes; Energy Cafe.                                                              
We had such a busy and fun day and we can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us!

                     

 -Zoë

Day 4- Wednesday, December 18

Today we woke up at 9  because we had to get an early start so we could  spend the day  at the Twickenham RFU stadium to watch the Oxford vs. Cambridge rugby match at 2:00. 

We all got ready and went down to get breakfast at the hotel and then we got started with our day. By the time we were all cleaned up and ready to go is was 10:30.We knew that the weather conditions were not going to be great and that there was probably going to be some traffic so we decided to leave right away. 

We got stuck in some traffic along the way and we ended up getting to the stadium around 12:00 so we had some extra time to go to the Twickenham history museum before the game.Twickenham Stadium is for rugby which is a big sport in England. Before we took the tour though we decided to go to the World Rugby Museum. This museum was created in 1996 and became the World Rugby Museum in 2007. We visited the Wall of Fame, which was opened by Martin Johnson in 2005. We also learned that the stadium’s construction began 1907 on land that use to be a cabbage patch. After two years of construction Twickenham stadium held their grand opening on October 2nd, 1909. Twickenham stadium has seating for about 12,000 people in the 1900’s to 84,000 people in 2004. Twickenham stadium is the largest dedicated rugby union in the world.

By the time we got food and finished getting ready it was 1:30 so we headed for our seats and got prepared to watch the game. Our view of the field was amazing we were able to see everything that was going on at all times which made the experience of the game a whole much better.  The game lasted for about ninety minutes so by the time we were all packed in the taxi it was 3:45. When we arrived back at the hotel after about another hour and a half in the car we were all exhausted, so we decided to take an hour long nap before dinner. When we woke up we were all still a little tired and we did not want to have to get dressed up for a fancy meal so we decided to eat dinner at the hotel. 
-Maya

Day 3- Tuesday, December 17

We woke up at around 10 am because of the time change. Since we got the package with breakfast served at the hotel we got breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we went out to London to tour some more sites

First we went to the Charles Dickens Museum which is located in London. This is a very historical museum and a big part of London's history. Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He is notable for creating some of the worlds most famous fictional characters. The Charles Dickens Museum is a house that Charles Dickens, himself, lived in. Later it was converted into a museum.We experienced what it would have been like to live there and we learned more about the life and history of Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens Museum

We were starting to get hungry after the museum so we needed to get some lunch to fill us up. We went to The Table Cafe. This cafe was perfect for lunch! It had great food and satisfied us.

After lunch we went to the London Sea Life Aquarium which was magnificent with all the sea creatures and sea animals. It is home to some of Europe's largest amount of sea life. The aquarium holds over 2 million liter of water! There are over 500 species from all over the world that are in the London Sea Life Aquarium. We had an amazing time exploring all the different kinds of sea life!

By this time it was already 5 pm so we decided to get dinner since we had a play planned for later in the evening. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in London.

After dinner we went to the London theater to watch a play, Mama Mia. The London Theater has been around since 1995. The show was great and once that was over is was getting late so we came back to hotel. It was a great day today and we can't wait for another great one tomorrow!

- Mary Beth

Arrive in London-Day 2- Monday, December 16

Since we arrived early in the local time, we decided to take a nap. At about 3:30 PM, we woke up and had a quick lunch at the hotel. Afterwards, we decided to take a ride on the London Eye to start off our sightseeing.

The London Eye is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. It was opened to the public on March 9, 2000. It rises 443 ft. above the ground. I was terrified! From the Eye, we could see all of London and its beautiful sites like Big Ben and the Tower of London.  The ride took about 30 minutes.

Our view from the London Eye

After the Eye, we decided to go to see Big Ben. Apparently, "Big Ben" is only the name for the clock and not the building itself. The tower is called Elizabeth tower. It was completed in 1858. It is such a gorgeous building. It was a great way to end our first day in London!

After we went to Big Ben, we had dinner at E Pellicci and took a taxi there. The taxi ride cost $50 and we each payed $10.00 for the fare. The dinner was pretty good actually! We all had a burger for dinner. We took a taxi back and payed $10.00 again each. When we got back to the hotel we watched a movie and then went to bed. It was a great first day in London!  

-Rebecca 

Travel- Day 1- Sunday, December 15

Depart from JFK: 6:10 PM

Departure Date: December 15, 2013

Airline: American Airlines

Departure from RDU: 2:30 PM Eastern time
Arrive at JFK at 4:20 PM


1h 50min Layover time
Arrive at LHR at 6:20 AM 

$1,096 roundtrip, including taxes & fees

We can't wait to get our trip
started!!