The Whirlwind UK Tour

April 19- 29
I flew into merry old England on Sunday 19 April. It was really great to be back – it really felt like I was coming back home! I took the bus to Victoria Station in London and had the biggest urge to just get on the train (dear old First Great Western) and go home to Charlbury. Instead, I bought a Tube pass and figured out my way to the hostel where I met Phoebe and Adina. The funny thing about traveling is that there is no way you can be prepared for everything you will come into contact with, but oddly enough, you figure everything out! At least I did, which means anyone can...
First thing we did was dump our stuff (well I did, they had been in London for a day already) and go check out the Tower Bridge, The Tower, and St. Katherine’s Docks at night.
On the Monday we headed over to Leicester Square to see what tickets were on sale for musicals in the West End – we picked Les Miserables and we got super seats! Then we did a bunch of wandering – around Big Ben and the Thames, Westminster (you can spend an entire day in there...it’s astounding!), Buckingham and stuff like that. Then in the evening, we walked back through Leicester Square to get to the theatre and it turned out that the Star Trek premier was happening there that evening! So we saw some actors and some fog machines and stuff...but unfortunately we had to leave to catch our show before things really started to get interesting. I’m not too sad though, even though I missed seeing Jeremy Clarkson, because Les Mis was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen in my life – I would have joined the revolution right then and there if it hadn’t already happened over 200 years ago... and we were also close enough that when the actors lined up for their bows, they could clearly see that I had been bawling my head off – kudos to them for mad acting skillz.
Then on Tuesday we just wandered around Oxford Circus and Baker Street (we found Sherlock and Watson’s house! – cute little museum...) which was really cool, and we mingled with working London! To be honest, I’m so jealous of anyone who lives in London, England. What an amazing city! Maybe one day...
Phoebe and I also went to check out Wembley – home of the England Football team and playground of Manchester United. Wow – it’s an INCREDIBLE stadium! I’ll be back there one day...gotta see me a football match on that pitch!That night Adina flew back home to Canada and Phoebe and I decided we needed to make some plans about what we were going to do for our UK tour! So we talked to some train station employees, some travel dudes, and scribbled our plans onto a scrap piece of paper.
So far:
-London for three nights...Westminster, Wembley Park, Picadilly Circus, Oxford and Baker Streets, Les Miserables...
-Liverpool for the day...The Beatles Story, Matthew Street (plus the Cavern Club) to...
-The Lake District...Windermere, Keswick (James Bond Museum), Grasmere (Dove Cottage-Wordsworth), Bowness (Lake Windermere, The Beatrix Potter Story) RAIN:(
-York...for the afternoon, did a walking tour, it was awful, but the city is great! to...
-Edinburgh... got in super late, woke up early to go to Loch Ness, train ride took waaaay too long! so it took the whole day, but we hired a private taxi, worked out a deal, and made it out to the Loch and Urqhart Castle for a bit...very foggy! how mysterious...
Belfast
Cardiff
CHARLBURY!