London: Like Seattle but with Accents

No, I've never been to Seattle, but I hear it's gloomy and rainy all the time there, which is exactly what London is like, except they have cool English accents there. But let me back up a bit because the first stop this weekend was a Friday trip to Toledo, a nice Spanish town with a castle, a huge cathedral, and the ubiquitous winding cobbled streets. Unfortunately we didn't actually do a whole lot but walk around. We went inside one monastery and we got to see the painting El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz, which we've studied in my art class. We also tried marzipan, which is apparently huge there, and considering it consists mainly of sugar and almonds, I loved it.

As soon as we got back from Toledo, my travel buddy and I took off for the airport, where we caught a plane to London. Our first day of sightseeing wasn't actually even in London. Interestingly, half the people on our tour were Spanish, so the tour guide repeated everything he said: once in English, once in Spanish. So my travel buddy and I got to hear and understand everything TWICE. I think we were the only bilinguals on the trip. Anyway, first stop was Windsor Castle, which had a massive spread and was different than a lot of the castles I've seen in Spain. After Windsor we went to Stonehenge, which was the main reason I booked this tour in the first place, and it didn't disappoint. Of course, we spent our time there trying to shield ourselves from the wind and freezing rain that started up, but it was still cool to see the mysterious ruins. Last stop on the tour was Oxford. Did you know that Oxford University doesn't actually have classes, but rather every student is privately tutored? I didn't. Seems like an odd setup to me, but it's a very sought-after school, so there you go.

After recovering from the cold, wet day in our cozy hostel beds, we set out the next day on a free walking tour. Our tour guide was a London native who was absolutely hilarious: he had plenty of interesting and funny anecdotes to share about the sights and was very animated the whole time, even after a downpour hit us and blew everyone's umbrellas inside-out. I was a bit less enthused after I stepped in a massive puddle that went up to my ankle and ended up walking in squishing shoes for the rest of the day, but it was still a good tour.

On the tour, we saw things like Buckingham Palace, and we got to hear funny stories about the terrible security there, like how a 12-year-old boy managed to live there for a year before they caught him and kicked him out. On another occasion, a mad drunken Irishman popped in one night, drank half a bottle of wine, and wandered into the queen's bedroom at 6:00 AM for a chat. Since the queen is for the people, technically it's not an offence to break into Buckingham Palace because the people deserve to be there, so they charged him with stealing half a bottle of wine.

After Buckingham Palace we saw some other things, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (which is gorgeous), and a building of Parliament. Then we heard the story of November 5 when Guy Fawkes and co. planned to blow up Parliament. Then we learned how to properly draw and quarter someone, but I won't get into all the gory details here.

After a whirlwind (literally--it was really windy) weekend, I got home to Spain and finally put on dry socks. But you don't care about that; what you want is to see some pictures!

Cathedral of Toledo

Stonehenge


Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Next weekend: Amsterdam!