Mary Beth and I just returned from a week-long trip to England! Having never been outside the U.S., I was extremely excited to see everything that England had to offer. After seeing so many amazing things we couldn’t possibly combine it all into one post, so we’re going to split up our trip into several different posts. I hope this helps you feel like you experienced England with us!
Our flight from D.C. to London was about as bad as it gets. About midway through our flight, we had to turn around and fly back to Halifax, Canada in order to drop off a woman who had a medical emergency. So, our flight was about three hours longer than expected. Despite the long flight, we were very excited when we began to see the coast of Ireland through our window. Everything was green and beautiful!
After landing at Heathrow we took a train into Paddington station, and from there rode the “tube” to our hotel. After checking in, we decided to go out and see the sights! Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral. The exterior was amazing, but it was closed for a special service, so we didn’t get to see the inside. So, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and decided to head for Royal London.
We took the tube to the Westminster station, and after coming up the stairs we could immediately see Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It was awesome! Big Ben was towering over head and I could see it sparkling in the sun. I was blown away. The weather was very mild and sunny, so our trip was off to a great start!
After taking some pictures on Westminster bridge, we walked to Trafalgar square and then to Buckingham Palace. We saw some very beautiful parks along the way, St. James’s park being one of them. The Palace was very beautiful with all of the tulips and other flowers blooming all around. We got to see some of the famous Buckingham guards and took many pictures of them.
After seeing the Palace, we went over to the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. It was extremely interesting to see where all of the Allied plans were crafted during World War II, but towards the end we were extremely exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest.
Day 2
We started our day with a wonderful English breakfast, courtesy of the Ridgemount Hotel. After breakfast, we headed to Westminster Abbey. I was once again amazed how beautiful this old church was. This time, we went inside and took a tour of the abbey. We spent almost two hours walking through the church and seeing all of the famous people who are buried within the walls of the abbey. We saw the tombs of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and many others. I was amazed to hear that a church had been on that site since around AD 200! It was almost overwhelming to think of all of the people who had worshiped and prayed in that place. This was one of my favorite places we visited on our entire trip.
After a lunch of fish and chips, we went to the British Library. We saw manuscripts by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and many others. It was quite interesting. After our visit at the library, we headed over to the British Museum. We saw some of the highlights of the museum, including the Rosetta stone, and then headed back to our hotel for a little rest.
That night, we went to Covent Garden and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant at the Piazza. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
» View the photos from our England Trip
April 16th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
What a great trip! Esp. the manuscripts. I’ve always felt a connection with Charlotte Bronte because she died of the same rare disease I had during my pregnancy with Julia.
Julia is dying to go to Paris…maybe we’ll get to the other side of the Atlantic some day!