Last Day in London

Hampton Court Palace

My new best friend inside of the palace.

The Tudor kitchen, since King Henry was such a fatty, he needed like twenty rooms for his food. 

Base court, where anyone would be received when coming to the palace.

Tudor Kitchen

Second courtyard in the palace

King William's entrance to his private apartments.

Where he greeted his guests.

Private dining quarters

Tudor ballroom. 

Another courtyard inside the palace

The back, facing the gardens.

The Hampton Court gardens

Hampton Court Palace

Swans!

Gardens

Surrey, where Kate Winslet was from on The Holiday. 

More views of the palace. 

By far my favorite day! Our last day in London was today. Twenty-five of us dressed business casual and head out on the tube at 9 a.m. this morning. We took an hour-long tube ride and then an over ground train. We were going to Hampton Court Palace, home to many royal families including Henry VIII. Better known as Henry Tudor. He was a king who was to married Katherine of Aragon for over 20 years, and after producing no male heir to the throne, Henry split with the Catholic Church in Rome and created the Church of England in order to divorce his wife. He then married Anne Boleyn, and after finding her guilty of incest and treason, beheaded her. He then married Jane Seymour, and she passed away. He was married three more times. His entire time on the throne was filled with dramatic moments. He was a portly and large fellow that loved women and drinking. It was a beautiful place to be, with gardens, fountains, courtyards, dining halls, and much more. After three and a half hours of wondering around the palace grounds, we got back on the train to go to a design agency. We went to learn about YCN, a design agency that does really neat design projects for companies like Gap, Google, and much more. They do promotional things, such as creating a storefront design for Gap in Milan. It was a neat building with a very edgy feel to it. The area was very trendy, and Kelsi and I decided to go shopping. We took the train to Notting Hill to go to some trendy boutiques. They were nicely priced with lots of London and British themed clothing. At 8:00 p.m. we all went to dinner as a big group for one last time. It was bittersweet as we ate our meal, which was absolutely delicious. Back at the hotel, a group decided to go down the street to Fuller’s, a local pub that has been a hangout since day one of the trip. It was nice to say our goodbyes, even though we will all see each other in Lubbock soon. We are all Tech students, yet we pretend its like a forever goodbye. It was an amazing opportunity to get to meet everyone on this trip and I am blessed to have been chosen for this amazing chance.  (pictures to follow and Paris trip to be finished)

Day 8: Reuters

Reuters London Headquarters where we visited today.

Meeting with Reuters

Big Ben and a London telephone booth.

Dinner Italiano

Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace in Hyde Park

Finally a chance of rain on our London trip today! We are all so excited to see normal London weather, it has been sunny, with temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s everyday.  I am excited to finally be able to wear a raincoat, yet somehow all of the Texans here in London brought the beautiful weather with us. Therefore it did not rain and we did not get to wear our raincoats like we had hoped. Even in Paris this past weekend, it was sunny and warm. The day after we left, it poured down rain. We actually got the morning off today which was nice. Kelsi and I had plans to see Big Ben and take some pictures, but after hitting snooze about 6 times, we decided sleeping in was conducive to the rest of our trip. We got dressed and went to Thomson Reuters. Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals that news outlets use. Similar to the Associated Press, Reuters prides themselves on giving unbiased news stories. Most likely you have heard lots of Reuters stories through local news or even small news channels that do not have enough money to send individuals overseas for footage. After Reuters, we stopped off the tube and finally took our pictures in front of Big Ben and took some footage for a promo video we have to make for class. At 4:30 we had a guest speaker named Milverton Wallace. He is a tech guy that really integrated online into journalism; he was one of the first ones to really teach journalism as an online platform. After the lecture we ate at an Italian place that was grossly overpriced, yet tastefully delicious. I had rabbit that was so delectable, and a chocolate desert that was so rich, more than two bites were too much to handle. Six of us took a walk through Hyde Park after dinner, and visited Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana of Wales, and Queen Victoria lived. The park is beautiful, and it is right in our hotels back yard. Kensington Gardens connect with Hyde Park and it was once used as Henry VIII private hunting grounds. London is a beautiful city with so much to see, I need a few more months to cover all there is to see and do. 

Day 7: British Museum

The church that the tiered wedding cake is based on. 

Dr. Johnson's house, the first writer of the english dictionary.

Church from the DeVinci Code.

The Rosetta Stone

Pillar from the Parthenon 

Dinner time near our hotel

Abbey Road reenactment 

We walk out into the morning air ready to take on the day on our Fleet Street tour. Our tour guide was passionate freelance journalist who was extremely excited about telling others about the history of newspapers in London. After several hours of walking, and viewing the buildings where the newspaper industry in London first started, we went to the British museum. On the way there we passed a justice building where Tony Blair was taking part in the Rupert Murdoch case. Press was everywhere waiting for him to exit, and it was a neat part of London to see. Also on our tour we learned about printing presses through the years and the significance of some sayings we say in English. Those sayings include, “Getting the short end of the stick,” “Minding your P’s and Q’s,” and why we call letters uppercase and lowercase, depending on where the letters were positioned in the case. All of those sayings relate to early versions of the printing press. At the British museum we saw the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian stone that had hieroglyphics, simple Egyptian writing, and Greek writing on it. After the British got a hold of the stone, they studied it for a long time trying to decipher what the stone said. There were also pieces of the Parthenon in Greece taken and put into the museums and unending amounts of Egyptian artifacts including mummies and pharaohs tombs. After the museum we went to Abbey Road to reenact the Beatles album cover. It was very cool and we got some great photos. 

Day 6: View from the Top of the Tower

Standing under the Eiffel Tower

Trocadero from the top

Hanging out over the edge

Moulin Rouge

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Sunday morning in Paris, we were up early to catch our tour of the Eiffel tower. With so much to see, none of us minded that we had hardly any sleep the night before. Kathleen, our tour guide, met us at our hotel to take us to the tower. Upon first arrival, only one lift was working, out of the four on each side. We were ready to ditch the idea of going to the top of the tower, and then our line started moving. Going to the top was not bad, and once we were up there, it was an amazing site to see, and definitely worth the wait. After the tower, we got back on the metro to go to a beautiful church called Mamar. The area was very neat and sort of like a hippy district. We ate “Indian” food on the way, which was basically Mexican food. I had enchiladas but they tasted the exact same as any enchilada in Texas. Right around the corner was the Moulin Rouge. It was really the only let down of the whole trip, because of it’s hype, I was expecting much more. We crossed the street to a Starbucks, when Macy mentioned that she wanted to go back to the hotel. My feet have had blisters the size of marbles since we started the trip, so I had no problem with this. We shared a cab back to the hotel and stopped by Notre Dame, the giant cathedral that is so recognizable from it’s fame from movies, television, and photographs. This was definitely another part of Paris that truly took my breath away. We went back to the hotel so sit and wait for the rest of the group, and while some people took naps, others of us stayed up and chatted. We met back up with the group, went through security, and boarded Eurostar back to London. Paris was short lived, but we were all still happy to be there. I would love to go back, but Paris will never amount to London, with it’s easy transportation methods, amazing weather, history like no other country, friendly residents (despite what you hear, they are extremely friendly), beautiful city sights and much more. Paris felt dirty, unsafe and overall just a stressful place to be. I am happy to be back in London. 

Day 5: Paris

Kelsi and I at the Eiffel Tower

The River and the tower

Carrie and Big's bridge from the final episode

Padlock bridge on the river

The Luvre

Louis Vuitton on St. Pauls

Laduree...amazing...

Arch de Triumph

Sparkling Eiffel Tower at night

Busy streets of Paris

From the base of the Eiffel Tower

We leave London on an early Eurostar train and go to Paris at 9:30 a.m. and I am so ready to sleep the entire way. The train was extremely comfortable and I slept the entire ride from London to Paris. We arrived in Paris around 1:30 p.m. and everyone was so excited to see the city. Our tour guide, Kathleen, met us at the train station and she was cute and friendly from the moment we met her. She took us to the hotel to check in and then we headed to the Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower and take a boat tour of the city. I had a hotdog from a street vendor and it was amazing. It was a baguette with a hole punched through it, with the dog shoved into the hole. It is such a brilliant idea, and so so good. The tower was breathtakingly beautiful to see and stand beneath. I couldn’t believe how big it was in standing in front of it. The magnitude is never conveyed in pictures and no matter what you hear, the Eiffel Tower is NOT a disappointment. It was a magnificent sight to see. After some time with the Eiffel Tower, we went on our boat tour. We saw many buildings of Paris all along the river, including the Luvre, Notre Dame, and many more. We also got to see many fun things like the bridge from Sex in the City where Carrie and Big finally decide to be together in the final episode. There was another bridge where significant others put a lock on with their initials carved into them and you lock it on the bridge and throw the key into the river. Your lock, and also your love are forever on the bridge. Paris has many romantic traditions at every turn. After the boat tour we walked over to a big shopping district to see the Arch de Triumph and Louis Vuitton. We stopped by Laduree, the most wonderful bakery with the most amazing macaroons you have ever had in your life. They were seriously the best dessert of my life. I bought 8, and I’m still working on eating them all. After leaving that area in St. Paul’s we walked around went to dinner at a place called Jaja. The food was amazing and we paid very high prices to eat there. I had seafood that was absolutely amazing! After dinner we walked back to the Eiffel Tower because it is supposed to be breathtaking at night. Every hour it lights up and sparkles in the most brilliant light display ever. We walked up on it happening at 11 p.m., and after an hour of photographs and listening to street performers, we stayed to watch the lights go off one more time. We caught a cab back to the hotel for a few hours of rest.