The Land of the Loo

A little side trip to London last weekend was the perfect mental break from trying to translate multiple different languages.  What I was not expecting was the major hurdle of trying to enter the UK that lay before Sarah, Allie, and myself.  After sleeping on a night train from Stuttgart to Paris, we awoke to find out that our train was going to be 2 hours late to Paris, thus making us miss our Chunnel train to London.  Once we got to London, we made our way to Paris Nord Station and the Eurostar desk, where we were promptly evacuated by armed soldiers with machine guns because of a suspicious package.  We were still doing ok spirit wise at this point.  Once we were allowed back in the kind ticket lady rebooked us for free and we ran to catch our train.  The real kicker comes when we got to UK border control and was denied access because we did not have a visa or an acceptance letter from Reutlingen University.  After 20 min of interrogations and calls to her supervisor we were eventually let in, but missed our next train.  We did have a guardian angel because another ticket person rebooked us again for free.  Eventually we made it to London and the first thing we did...........visited Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross.

 

We found our hostel which was pretty close to Hyde Park and did a quick turn around to for burgers and wine before Phantom of the Opera.  I had never seen it before.  Seeing it for the first time was absolutely spectacular.  The music and the flames and the singing and everything was amazing.  We saw it at Her Majesty's Theatre which is where is was first premiered and has been performed over 20,000 times. 

On Friday the girls went to the Harry Potter film set and I went to Westminster Abbey and stood in awe of all of the kings, queens, scientists, and famous people that are buried there.  I did some strolling around Westminster and saw Big Ben, the Parliament building, and Downing Street.  That morning I went to Cambridge and visited some family.  I went to the Eagle Pub for lunch which is were Crick and Shaw announced their discovery of DNA.  I also went into King's Cross Chapel, the largest collegiate chapel in the world as well as just strolled around Cambridge University which is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen.  That night I had a great home cooked meal and took a train back to London.

Saturday was our big tour day.  We had a vintage bus tour in the morning that also included a river cruise and the changing of the guard, ending at Harrods Department Store.  We were able to cover a large portion of the city in a short amount of time.  Buckingham Palace was probably my favorite site.

 

 

The afternoon was beyond belief.  We took a two hour drive out to see Stonehenge and we were blessed with a sight and weather beyond belief.  The sun was setting, the sky was blue, and everything had just perfect color.  It was the most calming site the entire trip and it was great to just relax and take it all in.  Of course we were hungry after this long day and what better than some authentic fish n chips with some cider.  We found a great place near Westminster and experienced the London Eye and Big Ben illuminated at night

Sunday was the day we left, and Allie did leave us in the morning, but Sarah and I packed a lot into the morning.  We went to the Tower of London and learned all about beheadings, the crown jewels and the life of a Beefeater.  He was even kind enough to be a real gentleman and take a picture with us.

 

We found the Crown Jewels and Sarah was in awe the entire time, "I just love sparklies!"  After the Tower we took in the Tower Bridge and walked down the Thames River until we got to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and took the Millennium Bridge back across the river.  That's the one in the Harry Potter film.  We casually made our way back to the train station passing the massive St. Paul's Cathedral on the way.  There was so much to see in London that we could have stayed there for 2 weeks and still not done it all, not to mention the area outside in the English countryside.

Auf Wiedersehen,
Chels