Londres 1

Ah, so late, but here goes!
       Claudine and I spent our first long weekend (Feb 24th-27th) in London! We had literally decided a week and a half beforehand, but after booking our bus to Madrid, flight, and hotel, we were on our way! I have to give a special thank you to Megan for putting together a wonderful PowerPoint for us with things see, places to eat, and insider London tips--it was so helpful! We took a 7am bus to Madrid (which took 5 hours), then navigated the Metro to the airport, and took a flight to London. We arrived at our hotel late Friday night and ordered in Indian food (I had naan with a spicy beef and onion side) and then went to bed since we had spent all day traveling.
      On Saturday, we woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, which was delicious! We had the traditional English breakfast which included beans, ham, sausage, eggs, a hash brown, and tomatoes (I didn't eat the eggs or beans, but the rest was great). We also had toast, which we used to make Nutella sandwiches for lunch--yes, Nutella in Europe is like butter and jam in American, an integral part of breakfast (even though we had great jam too). With our lunches packed, it was into the center of town for some sightseeing!
       We took the Tube (how cute is London?) to the Westminister Abbey station, and literally as we walked up the stairs, THERE was Big Ben! It was surreal to finally be seeing such a worldwide landmark in person. In fact, the motto of this trip would soon become, "is this real life?" because Claudine and I both could not believe that we were really IN London after so many years of wanting to visit. Big Ben was really impressive to see, and attached to it is the Houses of Parliament, which is also huge! They are both situated on the River Thames, so  we were able to see three major landmarks in a matter of minutes. Of course, then we turned around and saw the London Eye too, so it was actually overwhelming for us to realize, "wow, we are in London." After taking a ton of photos of the area and all the buildings, we made our way towards Westminster Abbey. AKA the site of Kate and Williams' wedding, so obviously I was giddy to get there. It was on the other side of the Houses of Parliament so we were there in a few minutes, and starting taking photos. We decided to come back for the Evensong service later that afternoon in order to get the full effect of the inside and the wait was well worth it. But more on that later!
          So after taking the photos from the outside, we walked to Buckingham Palace.  To be honest, I thought the building itself was a bit underwhelming compared to some of the more ornate buildings I've seen. However, its sheer size made it very impressive and moreover, the Queen Victoria Memorial was absolutely gorgeous because it was entirely gilded. We took the mandatory pics of the guards in front of the palace, but it was nothing like the movies--we didn't even get to stand next to them! But it was still cool to see, my favorite part was seeing the balcony where the famous two kisses happened last April (obviously). We made out way out of the area after snapping a few more photos in front of the palace and headed towards St. James' Park.
         St. James' Park is a large green space near the palace, and Claudine and I decided to stop there to have our picnic lunch. The weather on Saturday was perfect--it was about 75 and sunny with a slight breeze to keep us cool. I loved sitting on the grass, soaking up the sun and eating our Nutella sandwiches. We also had Cadbury eggs as dessert, so it was one sugary lunch--it was good because we had plenty of energy after that! After lunch, we went back to Westminster Abbey to attend Evensong. It was incredible to actually be in the place where the royal wedding took place and to recognize the interior from the broadcast. We were also really lucky because the boy's choir was singing at this service, so we got to hear wonderful music. We got to hear the Anglican versions of prayers, which differ slightly from the Catholic prayers. The final bonus is that the reader had a British accent, which also makes everything better. Westminster is also the site of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and where her parents were married, so it was really mind-blowing to be sitting in such a historic church. I really liked the architecture and art inside as well, which you can sort of see in the photos I took.
        After the service, we ran to the National Gallery because it was closing in an hour, but we still got to see some incredible pieces of art. Another thing I love about London is that all the museums were free and there were no annoying bag checks so we could carry our waters in with us. I saw about five rooms and in that limited time, I saw paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas, Renior, Constable, among others, so the museum was jam packed with famous works.
          We left the National Gallery and took some pictures in Trafalgar Square, which is where the museum is located.  It was cool to see the countdown billboard to the Olympics (which I am SUPER excited about). We decided to walk to find a pub to have dinner at, and we ended up at this really authentic looking place, which ended being a Taylor Walker Pub, a chain that our friend Megan recommended to us. We both ordered a hard cider since we had heard nothing but good things about it.  I ordered a steak and ale pie-which was basically a beef pot pie, but absolutely INCREDIBLE. I was not expecting it to be that good since the UK is not known for it's food. But I was pleasantly surprised when my plate arrived--it was tender beef in a flavorful dark ale gravy all in a flaky crust. It also came with chips (fries) and broccoli. Claudine ordered fish and chips and she really liked it, but I was in the mood for something more home style. After dinner, we ordered Irish coffees, but I wasn't a huge fan of them. I'd take espresso over that any day of the week, but it was a cool experience because we were in a pub. After our satisfying meal, we headed back to our hotel to sleep because we had another busy day planned for Sunday!