Abbey Road and Big Ben

Abby and her parents visited me this week, and although I am extremely sad that it’s over, we had a wonderful time. It was pretty cool to experience a vacation in London while living there, if that makes any sense. I was able to do all the tourist stuff while still feeling somewhat like a local.

We were able to fit a ton into one week, and describing everything would make reading this blog unbearable. Therefore, I’ll fit everything into 4 sections: royalty, food, entertainment and other. Here goes nothing.

One of the main aspects of the Achilles’ trip were the visits to royal residences. On their second full day (Sunday), we visited Kensington Palace, where we saw the childhood rooms of Queen Victoria. We also learned a good deal about William and Mary, who had also lived there. Fun fact: Mary introduced blue china to England because of her love for Asian culture. Our next royal stop was Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. We went to see the Changing of the Guards, but were stopped at a crosswalk for 15 minutes just to let 4 guys on horses pass by. Needless to say, we did not get a great view of it. C’est la vie. The next day, we went to Hampton Court Palace, where the infamous Henry VIII lived. He lived in the Tudor part of the palace. We learned about the six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) of Henry VIII and saw the magnificent rooms where they lived and dined. Their meals were deluxe, to say the least. Henry would choose from 40 courses and would eat around 4,500-5,000 calories a day. Yes, you read that right. Later, we saw the Baroque area of the palace which was built by architect Cristopher Wren for other kings and queens. After gallivanting about inside, we did the same outside, in their beautiful gardens. Lastly, on Friday we visited the Tower of London. This 800 year old tower built by William the Conqueror has been used as a residence, prison and place for army training. We saw inscriptions carved in the wall of tower cells. We saw where Anne Boleyn was executed and learned about the others who had been tortured and executed there. We also saw the Crown Jewels (those rooms alone could end world hunger). And so ends our royal adventures.

Mmm food. Our food journey began the night the Achilles arrived; we had some Italian food at a cute area near the hotel. I had a pizza with parma ham on it. It was delicious, foreshadowing meals to come. Most mornings we went to a nice cafe for breakfast; I had a croque madame, pain au chocolat, egg + bacon on sourdough and some French toast, respectively. I was never disappointed and each place was wonderful. Some of the highlights for lunch are as follows: on Saturday, we had some meat pies from a pub named “hung, drawn and quartered” (appetizing, I know). Abby and her parents discovered their newfound love for these pies, and I don’t blame them. On another day, we went to Camden Market and had some Greek wraps, which is my newfound love. We also went to a few smaller places between our sightseeing stops and got various dishes. As for dinner, Abby and I had some nice ramen at a place called Bone Daddies her first day here. On Sunday we dined with Gordon Ramsay, who makes a mean burger. On Monday we went to a pub, with some classic meat pies and fish and chips. On Tuesday I devoured some pizza at another Italian restaurant. Wednesday was veal and spaghetti at Spaghetti House. Then on Thursday we ate late at a small noodle bar in Leicester Square. And to finish it off, we dined like Henry VIII at a steakhouse on Friday, where we were given 3 or 4 extra sides because our waitress was new and was a bit confused about our orders. This paragraph is already an essay in itself, but I can’t leave out dessert. I had a crepe, shake, cupcake and eclair across the week.

As for entertainment, one of my favorite parts of their visit was the musical we went to, Mamma Mia. The actress who played the mother, Donna, was amazing, as were many of the others. We saw it in the Novello Theatre, which was very nice as well. Additionally, we went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford, where we saw the sets and objects used in the movies. Abby could hardly contain herself (for those who don’t know, she’s THAT Harry Potter fan). Abby and I enjoyed a tankard of butterbeer halfway through the tour. The studios themselves were so cool to see and I am excited to watch the movies again. Another entertainment aspect was our visit to Abbey Road, where we got the iconic album cover picture. Lastly, I’ll talk about my newest connection, Britain’s Got Talent host Amanda Holden. She and some cameramen approached my classmates and I on Tuesday, all of whom were unaware of who she was, and were told to ask her any question. I didn’t realize until afterwards, when we were told who she was, that we were just interviewed by a famous person.

We did a lot of other fun stuff too. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral and marvelled at its beautiful architecture. Abby and I even got to go to the top and had a great view of London from there. Abby and her parents also did other things, like Westminster Abbey, a Harry Potter Cab Tour and a visit to the National Gallery. While they did these, I visited the Tate Britain, the Museum of Brands and the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill exhibit in my classes. The Cabinet War Rooms were so interesting, as some of the rooms have been essentially untouched since 1945. Learning about Churchill was quite interesting, too.

Anyways, that was my week. I loved having the Achilles and I’m sad that they’re gone. I’m so thankful that it all worked out and I had a blast. Abby and I got many pictures, a couple of which were in front of Big Ben. But I got even more memories from it. Now I have my second group to host (Mom, Dad, Amber and Endo) to look forward to.