In the last hour of our flight as the sun came up, there was the thickest cloud coverage I've ever seen. You could not see a thing until we started to descend below them. It was really beautiful.
Our plane landed about 6:30am which would be about 1:30am back home... We made it through customs very quickly and headed to baggage claim, excited to finally be on our feet again. Once we had all collected our luggage we found out one student had left his backpack on the plane... He left to go speak with someone about getting it back. We waited about an hour before they told him they couldn't find it. Once we got outside we went to our bus and headed to the hotel, it was about a half hour drive.
We quickly dropped our luggage off at the hotel in a room marked "luggage store" and headed out into the city on a walking tour. First item on the agenda: coffee. We found a corner with about 4 different coffee shops and stopped there. I had a very good latte, although it may have only been good because of how tired I was..lol. We walked along the Thames to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey but we were walking so quickly that I almost missed it! We stopped at a garden along the way and admired a statue of William Tyndale while Chad (our writing Prof's Husband) explained his importance in history. We headed from there in search of a bathroom for the group but we quickly found out it cost twenty pence to use most public restrooms in London.
After our very brief bathroom stop, we continued on to St James's Park and Buckingham Palace. While at the palace we watched the changing of the guard, which is quite a spectacle. People literally come running as they march down the street while playing music.
We walked around St James's Park for a while, saw some pelicans, and sat to draw for a bit. We also watched as a little girl fed the pigeons while 4-5 of them would sit on her arms and head. Then we walked 50 minutes back to our hotel and checked in. Once we got to our room, I took a nap. At this point we had all been awake for over 24 hours and we were completely exhausted.
After our naps, we went downstairs for a dinner of fish and chips with mushy peas. It sounds about as yummy as it tasted. Pretty bland. But dessert was a strawberry cheesecake which was delicious. Although, they did not tell us to keep our forks so we all ate it with our hands...guess I'll be saving my fork next time!
I think we went to bed at like 7pm and slept a full 13 hours. All in all, while exhausting, it was a great first day!
Comments