I'm Sitting Next to Shakespeare--London, England
London Tower: for the most part it was kind of boring to be honest. It was a magnificent building from the outside, but it was just blah on the inside. I guess I'm just not that into history. I did see a screaming kid on a leash though… so that was cool and entertaining. I also learned that since royal people have everything, people try to get them the most exotic animal. King James I had a bear that died from eating cake and he had a bird that died from being too close to his hyenas. What a cool king. The only other cool things about the tower were the Crown Jewels! These are all the past king and queen’s crowns and staff thingies. They are put away in a vault with super heavy doors. I have to say some of them got ripped off compared to others, but King George V had it made. His crown was huge with some serious bling! The man guarding the jewels said the crown was only two Ibs which it looked a lot heavier than that.
Queen’s birthday parade: who knew? Her actual birthday is in April, but for some reason they celebrate it twice and we happened to be in London during the celebration! It was a 62 gun salute right near the tower and a 441 gun salute somewhere else in London. It was quite interesting. The men put the cannons facing over the Thames River and after staring a while out into space (I feel like all guards tend to do this.. What are they actually doing? The world may never know..) then BOOM! It was so loud and it happened over and over again! If I were someone and had been walking not knowing the shooting was for the queen, I would have taken cover. Maybe run in the opposite direction, but not in London. Some little kids heard the guns being fired and started running towards them. Excuse me, but what is your momma teaching you?! Then multiple planes and helicopters came and red and blue smoke came out of them in honor of the queen.
Westminster Abbey inside: Okay, don’t judge, but I really didn’t know a lot about Westminster Abbey before we went there. All I knew was that it was a church where Kate Middleton was married and attends church. That was pretty much it. But it has SO much more than that.
Mom and I got the audio tour guides to learn some more about the history there. At first when I walked into the church I thought a lot of people were on their cellphones, but really it was just the audio guide.. They look like old- timey giant cell phones. It’s pretty funny. There are a lot of dead people in the Abbey. Sounds bad, but for real.. Charles Darwin, Newton, Chaucer, and Shakespeare are among the few. (there’s a bench under Shakespeare’s grave and mom and I sat on it and I said “I’m sitting next to Shakespeare.” She thought it was funny.) There were A LOT of tombstones. Even on the walking ground so it’s like your walking on dead people. Other thought—we weren’t allowed to take pictures at all, but I was feeling all B.A. and took four illegal photos. I thought they were gonna come after me cause there are cameras everywhere… but YOLO!
Borough Market: It wasn’t a normal market, it was a lot smaller and more packed. They had full chickens there and I don’t think it was fully refrigerated. Eww! Haha. We did find a little pub next to it though! It was quite delicious! Fish and chips again cause they are so good and I tried a Pimms cup- yum! Then while walking out I noticed an alley of colorful umbrellas! I had seen pictures of things like this before, but it was so much cooler in real life. And it was useful when it was pouring cause it actually protects you from the rain.
Wicked: ahh! I loved Wicked! Now I know what people mean. It was hilarious and the music was spectacular. I had a hot chocolate too. So that was nom.
Grocery Store: We just went to the local grocery store for some water and light snacks. I wanted to try something new so I got some Wimbledon Juice in honor of going there tomorrow. It was very sweet, a little too sweet, but I still drank it. Haha. We also got some “time outs” which are like a kit kat type thing, but a little coffee taste as well.
xoxo,
Em