What a great day in probably my favorite city in the world! The weather was MUCH better to say the least! We started the morning by getting acquainted with the Tube, London’s subway system, and eventually made our way to Waterloo Train Station, where we got our first view of downtown London, including our first glimpse of the famous clock tower Big Ben. We walked around and saw several of the major places, including Trafalgar Square, where the kids climbed on lions, chased pigeons, and played in the fountains. Well, most of that is true. Then we walked over to Leicester Square and to Covent Garden. We were given about an hour to eat lunch in Covent Garden and most of the kids found their way to small little cafés while Mrs. Craig and I enjoyed a traditional English lunch at our favorite restaurant in London, Porters.
After lunch we walked to meet up with our bus and a London tour guide who showed us around many of the sites in London for about 3 hours. In our trip we saw Piccadilly Circus, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and much more! He was a really great guide; however we found out that he would soon be heading on his own vacation to our neck of the woods, as he is going to attend Burning Man this summer. We told him to spend more time at Lake Tahoe and WAY LESS TIME at Burning Man.
After our tour, we had dinner at a pub and then our big group split up into two groups. One group was led on a tour of all of the sites in London having to do with the Harry Potter books and movies. The other group headed to the London Eye to see London from a bird’s eye perspective. Both groups had a great time!
Tomorrow is our “free day” in London and the kids are excited for Mr. Craig to take over as tour guide for a day. We are heading to Greenwich to stand in two hemispheres at once, then to the Tower of London, the Imperial War Museum, shopping, Westminster Abbey, and then about half are going to see the West End production of Wicked and the other half will do the London Eye. It should be a very full day, but the weather again is supposed to be awesome!
Unfortunately, with our very full days here in London, I do not think I will get any students to write blog posts until our train ride to Paris on Wednesday morning, but we will see what happens. I know some of the kids were getting homesick, but I also know some were able to either call home this evening or send email/Facebook messages. I did add a couple more pictures to the photo gallery though. Either way, everyone is still having a good time. Good night from the banks of the Thames! Mr. C
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