Emma Alvarez Blog: December 2014

We have been some wonderful days in London and enjoyed it a lot. We also had the opportunity of going to Oxford, visiting Stonehenge, and the Castle of Windsor.
On the first day, we arrived in the morning very early to London. As the airport was very far, we took a bus and definitively it was a good choice because we could enjoy of the view of the English villages. We loved the landscape that was full of trees in autumn colors, and the beautiful houses that we could see. Some of them reminded me of the paintings of one of my favorite painters, Thomas Kinkade.

When we arrived London we took the underground to our Hotel. Our Hotel was in Russel Square, two streets away from the British Museum. Jordi knew that the British Museum was the dream of all my life and that is why he picked the hotel there.
When we arrived the hotel we had in our room the beautiful gift of some tea bags and milk. As the room had a teapot, we can say that one of the first things we did in London was to take a cup of tea.
The first of many, because the English tea is very good and it's a real vice.
We left the baggage and went out to the streets of London, to enjoy the parks, the buildings, to make photos besides the famous red telephone cabins, and watch the taxis, that are precious. And we took a underground to the Big Ben. So in few hours from our arrival we were in the heart of London, admiring the London Eye, the Big Ben, and Westminster Palace, and of course the Thames river.

It was much less cold than we thought. There were some drops of rain and I was happy because I love rain and rain is part of the charm of London.
After lunch we had a walk to Tate Museum, where we enjoyed very beautiful paintings, and I watched two of my favorite paintings, Ophelia and Lady Of Shalott.
After our visit to the museum we went walking to the London Eye, as we had already bought the tickets through Internet, something we do often to avoid the queues. Our ticket included a 4D show, so we went and it was a short show of a video with 3D effects. In the video there was a seagull, it was very fun because at the following day we went in a boat cruise through the Thames, and there were lots of seagulls and Jordi told me "look, that is the seagull of the video". As Jordi always tells me to be in the middle because it is the best place to watch a movie, we went to the center, and yes, it was the best because in the middle of the video, there was real artificial snow and we got covered with it LOL!
Covered with the artificial snow, we went to the London Eye. The views from there are really awesome. It never stops, you get in while it moves. But there is no sensation of vertigo as it goes really slow. It was very romantic and beautiful to watch London at night with its city lights while we took our hands and watched the landscape.

From the London Eye we watched some lights and what looked like a fair. So when we got down, we geared to there. It was the traditional Christmas Fair of London. It was very lucky to find it, because I had heard of it in some movies. So we were trying typical English food, sweets included. It was already very late, so that day we decided to go back to our hotel.
The following day we went to Westminster. As the Abbey opens late, we had enough time to take some photos, go to shops, walk through the streets.

The Abbey is huge and sometimes it's like a big maze. We loved to see the tombs of Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll... that was a magical moment in our trip. When we thought we had ended watching the Abbey after some hours of being there, when we were searching for the toilet, we found the Cloister instead LOL! We had not seen everything yet, and inside the Abbey we even found a religious school. That was huge, and we had to arrive to the piers to catch a ship cruise we had booked, so we had to go there almost running.

We took a boat cruise through the Thames to the Tower Brige. At the beginning we went to the upper part of the ship, but as the cruise advanced, it was very cold, so we ended inside, at the lower floor, where after suffering so much LOL! we could enjoy a hot tea.
While we sailed through the Thames, the guide of the ship was telling curiosities about the buildings around. That way we reached the Tower Bridge of London. We visited both sides of the Bridge. In the passage between both sides there is some crystal floor and you can watch what is below from it, walk over it, and make photos while you see the people and cars coming and going below. It's very exciting!

While we were at London we changed our lunching times, adapting ourselves to the British ways, so at 12:30/13:00 we had our lunch, something crazy in Spain. Oh, and one of the curiosities of London is that it seems that Spanish chorizo is on fashion, something we found very fun. Everywhere there were foods that included chorizo! And of course we ate Spanish chorizo on our lunch there at London.
After lunch we took some photos, walked around the place, and we went to the Tower of London, which is huge, and there are a lot of shows, and things to do, and we did it all LOL! so we were 5 or 6 hours there. We saw even a change of guard, something we were really thankful, because on the day we had to go to Buckingham Palace, there wasn't guard change.

After the Tower of London, when our feet were in agony, we went running to Saint Paul's Cathedral. We took an underground, and then we had to walk some streets, and the streets at London are not small... We arrived on time to watch one of the most beautiful masses we have ever seen, with one of the most famous children choruses in the world, with perfect voices that sounded like the voice of angels. Saint Paul's Cathedral is so beautiful, and with those magical voices that made echoes in the Cathedral, everything was so stunning. For all those who go to London, I recommend very much to go to the mass in Saint Paul's.

And after this, as night was young and we too, LOL! we went to Piccadilly Circus, one of the most famous squares in London, a must have ;)
Piccadilly Circus looked very much to Callao in Madrid. There was a group of guys dancing, many musicians, all full of people, bars and restaurants all filled up, so we decided to dinner in a more peaceful place to be able to talk about what we saw, so we went to another important square, Leicester Square, where we enjoyed a tasteful sushi. Jordi and I are very fond to sushi, and at London there is very good sushi.

We booked a tour online from Spain, to go to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford. A guide went to pick us at the hotel early in the morning. As the tour was in a bus, we could appreciate the British landscape.
Our first visit was to the Castle of Windsor. We liked it very much, specially Saint George's Chapel. I won't forget those ceilings in my whole life. The castle is awesome, both inside and outside. It was fascinating to see those luxurious halls with that furniture and so rich decoration. We did a lot of photos, and I could portrait me near a royal guard. I liked very much to see the dolls of the queen, and the doll's houses. They were awesome. The dolls had lots of outfits and even suitcases for the dresses of the dolls.

Our next visit was Stonehenge. It's a magical and very special place. In the way to Stonehenge there is a series of tumulus, that are mound tombs. I had looked so many times at that megalithic monument in the books that it was awesome to see it live. The air was very pure and fresh.
Before going to the site of Stonehenge (a micro-bus brings you there) you can see an exhibition of a neolithic village. At Stonehenge I could feed the ravens, make lots of photos and we spent a great time there.

From the bus we also saw the Ascot Racecourse, and I imagined how it may be with the original hats of the ladies at the races.
Our last visit on that day was to Oxford. We walked through its streets at night. I was surprised by the view of a cemetery that was in the middle of the town. We visited the college buildings, some places where Harry Potter was filmed, and we also saw the pub where Tolkien used to go and read unpublished chapters. That was very exciting.

We also had a tea with some English sweets that we loved. Returning to London we saw the famous Notting Hill, very nice.
At the following day we went to see the museums. In a first moment we had chosen 5 to visit, but later we realized that we couldn't see so much, so we decided to visit the Natural History and the British museums.
As the Natural History Museum opens at 10:00 am, we visited first Buckingham Palace. We went to Green Park with the underground and then walked through the park to there. In Green Park there were lots of squirrels.

From there we went to Hyde Park, that is just two streets away from Green Park. On the way to Hyde Park, a bicycle almost ran over me LOL! If you go there, beware of the bicycles, they go very fast.
In Hide Park there were some big statues and plates on the ground dedicated to Princess Diana.
From there we went to the Natural History Museum, that is a stunning building both for the magnificent exterior and the wonders that it has inside. We saw things like dinosaur skeletons, the extinct dodo bird, animals of every kind (sadly dissected)... I was a little anguished for watching so many dissected animals, specially when I saw a baby elephant with his mother, that was too much for me, so we went to the minerals room, that was an awesome collection. We even saw rocks from Mars, and the most beautiful stones we've seen. As Jordi is fond to minerals, he enjoyed a lot.

After lunch we went to the British Museum, which is huge! There are rooms for a lot of cultures and places. We were amazed by the Egypt room, also the Greek one, that contained part of the Parthenon of Athens inside. Awesome pieces of Mesopotamia. We also loved the rooms of Asia and Africa. And that museum ended smashing our feet and our energies LOL! I still remember how awesome it was and its rooms, specially the library, that was really beautiful.