Sightseeing Should be Considered Excercise.

It can really wear you out! These last few days have been jam-packed with typical tourist stuff "you just have to do" when visiting London. I'm hoping to get all of this done, so I can just enjoy my time here and not feel obligated to do this or that. Does that make sense? I'm not sure, it does in my head though. :)

Every weekend the "Transport for London" closes some tube (subway) lines so they can repair and improve them before the Olympics in 2 years. It's pretty incredible planning actually. Anyway, it is also extremely inconvenient. Yesterday we spent 4 hours on public transporation re-routing because our normal tube lines were closed. We could have gotten around in less than half that time. I guess it's all part of this experience. At first it was so strange to have to factor in hours of travel time into any day, but I think I am finally getting used to it. Here is what I have been up to in the last few days:

Wednesday
Buckingham Palace
Christine and I ventured to Buckingham Palace to take some photos and enjoy the beautiful weather! The weather here has been wonderful! Buckingham Palace is the headquarters of state business of the Monarch. It has 775 rooms. The queen has her own art gallery inside and this building is used as a venue for Royal ceremonies and hosts state visitors as well. We saw it, but didn't take the tour of the inside. I had been there once before so it wasn't as incredible as the first time. I think she enjoyed it though. Afterward we walked through Green Park towards the tube stop to get back to her flat building.



Fish and Chips for Dinner
We finally had our first official Fish and Chips dinner. Let me just say it was delicious! Totally worth the wait! We ate a "chippy" (a restaurant that serves mostly fish and chips) called "The Golden Hind" located behind Christine's campus. Mark joined us for dinner. He ordered "mushy peas", another English favorite, instead of chips. The looks a little sketchy, but I tried them and they were pretty good. It was only minutes away. Once again, the weather was awesome so it made for a very nice walk.

Thursday
Interview at Think London
I left over 1.5 hours early for my interview because I wanted to ensure I wasn't late. I ended up getting there about 15 minutes early, but I did get a bit turned around after I got off the tube. I am working in Canary Wharf; many call it "Mini Manhattan". It's one of the only parts of the city that has sky scrapers. Think London's office is on the 35th floor. The view is spectactular from our window. Wow! Who would have thought a small-town girl from Indiana would land a marketing internship in London! I met this woman named Lucette, the person I was supposed to be interviewing with was sick on Thursday. I'm sure I will meet her tomorrow for my first official day. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow, but everything has gone so smoothly so far, I know it will be just fine. I'm a part of the 2012 Olympic Games Marketing Team. I will be helping recruit new companies to create offices in London. More details to come after my first day of work tomorrow. Below is a picture of my office building.

Boat Party on the River Thames

This was awesome! It was amazing to see all the beautiful sights of London from a boat during sunset. I didn't bring my camera, but I will get photos from Elizabeth and post them asap. It was gorgeous. It was all study abroad students from the University of Westminster. By the end of the night, the DJ (who was about 65 years old) finally started playing some dance music and that made the night much more fun! Christine and I spent most of the evening dancing! Soo much fun!

Friday

Tower of London

The main attraction to the Tower is the crown jewels of England. The Tower of London is home to the priceless crown jewels of the British Monarchy. I don't fully understand how the Royal system works yet. I've been reading and trying to learn. It is so much different from anything in America. Anyway, we saw the incredible jewels. They were so ornate and breathtaking. Of course, so pictures were allowed. I'm sure you can google them if you are really curious. Over 23,000 gems make up the Crown Jewels (Can you imagine how amazing they are now??). Now, this isn't only one crown; because there are several in the Tower of London. Different monarchs have had different crowns for different occassions. It was incredible. We saw a diamond, literally the size of a baseball. It was unreal. The Emperial State Crown, if I remember correctly is only worn during the coronation of the new King or Queen has almost 3,000 diamonds. It also had sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pearls.  Other than the crown jewels, it is basically a small city within the castle walls. The famous Ravens are located here as well. It's a legend that if the Ravens leave the tower the city will crumble (apparently the Raven's wings are now clipped so they can't fly out). Inside the "White Tower" (the biggest of all the buildings inside) is a small museum of weapons, clothing, horses etc. used during fighting times. It is located at the heart of London near the Tower Bridge. Below are just a few of the photos from the day. We spent probably 4 hours walking around.

Tower Bridge Experience

This was one of the most surreal experiences from this trip so far. After the Tower of London we walked to the Tower Bridge to cross it. It was amazing! It's one of those things you see in movies and books, but once you are actually there, you can't believe it. It was pretty cold and windy on the bridge. I'm attributing that to the water. Very cool though. I got some great photos. Of course, I took more than any normal person ever needs times two. Here are the best ones...

Covent Garden
This is a shopping district. Again, it is mostly for tourists, which is fine. It's just not a typical English hang-out spot. It was as always, absolutely beautiful. So many different shops. Shops for clothing, food, gardening, candles, jewelry, tea, accesories, etc. Not my favorite place in the city because it was unoriginal but still extremely gorgeous and fun to walk around.

Taio Cruz Concert

Christine, Mark and I volunteered earlier to this to earn free to tickets to see Taio Cruz and other artists perform at Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington (still a part of London). It was such a fun time! We in the first tier and could see the whole state perfectly! Loved it! So happy we got the chance to do this! I didn't bring my enormous camera to this concert. Make got some photos so I will have to copy them from him and post them soon.

Saturday

Windsor Castle

This is where the Monarch (currently, Queen Elizabeth II) lives on many weekends. She also conducts formal state business and dinners here. It is used for private and state entertainment purposes. We got to to tour many of the state rooms. It was enormous! Everything you imagine a castle to be! No pictures were allowed inside, but again, you can google it I'm sure ;) The weather was perfect for this day trip. It's pretty far outside the city but it worked out. Elizabeth, had a friend in from out of town who was doing business here. He drove us to the castle and went on the tour with us. He had already been there 5 times (his wife is British). It was beautiful. Some of my favorite pictures from the trip so far were taken at Windsor Castle. I was chatting it up with one of the secruity guards asking lots of questions. He said between Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, approximately 2,000 people are employed to keep the grounds running. That is including secruity guards, housekeepers, guardeners, chefs, parking valets, etc. That was so shocking! It's located at the tallest part of this portion of the city. It overlooks so much of the city. Quite lovely.

Disclaimer: This is probably more photos of Windsor Castle than you will ever care about. I just couldn't choose my favorites so I posted a bunch. This is literally not even half of the number I took yesterday.

 Parade in the street before we went into the castle. Pretty sweet.

 St. George's Chapel - There was the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsing so we got a free concert!

 These are private residences that you can't tour. Ex. bedrooms, studies, etc.