(in front of Parliament)
(having a proper afternoon tea...so posh)
This morning we had our first official professional visit. It didn’t have much to do with marketing, but it was very interesting! We rode the Tube to Parliament, took a group picture outside the building, and then listened to our speaker for the day, Sir Peter Viggers, a retired Member of Parliament. He talked quite a bit about the differences between the governmental systems in the US and the UK, and discussed several important issues that his country is facing today. It was a great presentation, and it was an honor to be visited by Sir Peter.
After having lunch on our own, our group met back up at Westminster Abbey. We were able to go inside the abbey and see the beautiful, intricate architecture, as well as the tombs of hundreds of important British people, such as military heros, lords, knights, kings, and queens. I absolutely loved the church and wish that I would have had time to go to an actual service there. That’s something I’ll definitely do if I ever get to come back to London.
After visiting Westminster Abbey, a few girls and I went to Kensington Palace to have traditional afternoon tea. It was a really fun cultural experience- I had their signature orange tea, which was delicious, and several of my friends ordered a variety of the scones and pastries.
We took the Tube back to our hotel and changed quickly because we had to meet up for a walking tour soon after. On our way to the meeting spot, we accidentally took the Tube in the wrong direction, so we had to get off and go back around to where we started and try again. We finally made it to our meeting place and then got started on our tour of the “original” London. It’s about a square mile of land that is now the heart of London’s financial district but was the place where London first originated and began to grow. The tour was interesting, but the weather was awful. It started out cold and windy, then progressed to cold, windy, and rainy. We had beautiful weather for the first three days in London, so this cold, rainy (normal) London is kind of a shock. We saw several historical site, the Jack the Ripper murder sites, and some Harry Potter sites (which I did not understand since I haven’t seen the movies), then we ended the tour with a traditional Indian dinner. Indian food is really popular in London right now, and we went to our tour guide’s favorite Indian restaurant. They served us quite a bit of food, most of which did not sound good when described, but actually tasted pretty good. I had lamb for the first time, and several other things that I do not know the names or ingredients of. Overall I was impressed with the food, and really surprised that I liked it since I am usually a little bit picky about food.
We traveled back to the hotel in the freezing weather, and then I was able to find some wifi and post to my blog and check my email. Tomorrow is our last full day in London!
No comments:
Post a Comment