We had no class last Friday so that we could have a weekend to travel. Many of the students on the program went to either Dublin, Ireland or Edinburgh, Scotland. However, I decided that I just wanted to see London. After all, I’m just an hour away, so I might as well see as much of London as I can while I’m here!
And man, did I ever see most of London! It was great! Rather than taking the Tube (London’s Subway), we just walked around. Now we ended up walking a LOT! As a result, though, there isn’t a whole lot in London that we didn’t get to see. Naturally, we saw all the popular sights: Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Tower, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge (Contrary to the song, it is NOT falling down), Tralfalgar Square, the River Thames, and a whole host of other sights!
On Saturday, we also had the opportunity to tour the State Rooms in Buckingham Palace. The Palace is only open for a two-month period in the late summer when the Queen goes up to Balmoral Castle in Edinburgh. I was lucky that her trip up there happened at the same time that I was here because I was able to see the inside of the palace. I thoroughly enjoyed the palace! It was very nice, about what you would expect for the Queen of England.
We also went on the London Eye on Saturday. Man what a view! I was a bit skeptical at first because it was a little bit expensive, but I really enjoyed it! The encompassing views of the London skyline were absolutely amazing!
And the cars, man! I am a huge car fan, so London was a perfect city for me to see all of my dream cars. Bentleys, Jaguars, Porsches, and Range Rovers are as common in London as a pickup truck is in rural Nebraska. They were everywhere! In two days in London, I saw far more Bentleys than I have seen in my life prior to this. I also was able to see more than a few Rolls Royces. The Phantom has long been one of my favorite cars, so needless to say I stared quite a lot! Along with those cars, I saw probably five Ferarris. And the Aston Martins, I have never been a fan before, but I feel that my opinion is changing! I even managed to see 3 different Lamborghini Aventadors. I even saw two different Maybachs. A Maybach is an offshoot of Mercedes Benz, think the luxury brand of a luxury brand. One of the Maybachs that I saw cost a good $800,000! You don’t often see cars that expensive in the middle of Nebraska.
Our daily transportation between Oxford and central London was by rail. Overall, it was a smooth and easy process. We were struck by massive delays trying to get back to the college on Friday, however. But we managed and it really wasn’t all that big of a deal.
All in all, I must say that I really am loving London!