What we did:
Our fifth day started with a boat ride on the River Thames. The boat ride
went down the river and the driver pointed out famous landmarks like Big
Ben, the Eye, Shakespeares House, etc.. I found this tour a lot of fun
because we were able to see the city from a different perspective. It isnt
very often you get to see cities from a river. The end of the boat tour
let us off at the Tower of London.
The Tower of London is a castle that was built around 1066. It is
currently one of the most visited attractions in England. I think that the
most impressive display at the Tower of London is the display of the Crown
Jewels. The collection of Crown Jewels includes crowns, swords, orbs and
sceptres, and other various items. The Crown Jewels are all extremely
impressive. Click here
for a gallery of the Crown Jewels.
Tower of London
After we ate lunch, we went to St. Pauls Cathedral. This was a place I was obligated to go to. One of my favorite teachers in high school always told us in class that if we ever made it to London, we had to go to evensong at St. Pauls Cathedral. This teacher was actually the one that organized the Ireland trip I went on my sophomore year. He passed away unexpectedly in May of 2010. I know that going to evensong would mean a lot to Dr. Jones, so I made sure to tell my aunt we needed to fit it in our schedule.
The night that we decided to go to evensong, there was a special event being held, so it was not the usual evensong being performed. We sat and listened for a while and then toured the church. We climbed 259 stairs to the Whispering Gallery. The Whispering Gallery runs around the inside of the done, 99 feet above the churchs floor. It is called a whispering gallery because it you whisper against the wall at any point, it can be heard at any other point on the wall around the gallery if your ear is placed in the wall. I was a bit skeptical, but it actually works!
After we spent time in the Whispering Gallery, we walked up another 273 stairs to reach the Golden Gallery. The Golden Gallery is basically a balcony that overlooks the city of London. It is 280 feet above the ground. If youre scared of heights, I would not recommend making the trek up to the Golden Gallery -- Im not scared of heights, but Ill admit to being scared when I was standing on the balcony. Here is a diagram of St. Pauls Cathedral showing the different levels.
While we were at St. Pauls we had afternoon tea at their caf. Having tea in while in England is a must do! The tea come with a platter of sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, small cakes, and of course tea.
On our last day in London, we decided to walk around near our apartment and see what we could find. We got a late start to the day because we wanted to catch up on our lack of sleep. When we finally got around to exploring, it was time to grab some lunch. We went to a small restaurant a few blocks away from our apartment. I got baked salmon with mashed potatoes and my aunt got French onion soup with a crusty bread. Both meals were delicious. After our lunch we continued walking and ended up finding a park that was filled with elephant sculptures. During the duration of our trip, wed seen quite a few elephant sculptures, but we didnt know what they were for. The park had a plaque explaining the statues. The Elephant Parades mission is to be the largest financial support organization for the threatened Asian elephant. Elephant statues were painted by artists and put on display in London. Next year four more cities will do this: Copenhagen, Heerlen, Milan, and Singapore. Click here to see the different elephants that were on display last summer! We found other various parks on our walk around the city that were filled with flower gardens. They were all very well kept and very inviting. We did some last minute souvenir shopping for friends and relatives. Eventually we decided to head back to cook our last meal and pack up to head back to the states.