Over our reading week (approximately halfway through the semester) my parents came to visit me for 12 days. While the whole 12 days they were here were not all spent in London (we also did Ireland and Paris but that’s for another blog post), we attempted to do as much as we could in the 6 or so days we were in the city! From the moment they arrived we hit the ground running. Literally. One of the first things the three of us did together was run to the Olympic Park to see the stadium and to check out the other buildings there. From there I took them on The Golden Mile pub crawl so that they could get a feel for the after hours life around the East End. We frequented almost 4 markets, Borough Market and Spitalfields Market being the best two that they saw. They loved the market atmosphere and the endless things that you can find there, especially the delicious 2 pound (pound as in currency) cookies at Borough Market. We spent one day physically walking all of London; we walked from the House of Parliament and Parliament Square all the way to Southwark Park for the Guy Fawkes day fireworks. Needless to say I wore them out by showing off my city. One of the nights we went to a show in the West End at the famous Savoy theatre to see the show Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It was a funny, witty, British musical that really did live up to the great reviews. Another day we went to Westminster Abbey and took the verger tour there. The building is absolutely beautiful, prestigious and breathtaking inside and outside. Britain had just celebrated its equivalent of Veterans day and so every year there are poppies and little wooden crosses with poppies on them placed outside of the Abbey. They are all categorized by the regiments in which the veterans served or in the different branches of the guards. They even have a section for the United States (see image below). On that same day we also visited the British Imperial War Museum, a massive museum that is featuring the centenary of World War I by having an entire exhibit exclusive to it with sound effects and horrifying, yet intriguing stories and artifacts. It was fascinating to learn more about WWI in one of the places most affected by it. Lastly, my parents and I visited Greenwich where we straddled the Prime Meridian and had a foot in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at the same time! Overall, I don’t know if we could have packed more into their vacation and mine, but I am so glad that I was able to spend time with the two of them and show off my new home!
The pictures below are all from this week!
