With all the seminars that we had, it was nice to have a day to actually tour the city. After the Lloyds seminar, Susan Wood from California Lutheran University asked to interview me for her (an aspect that she was doing in order to complete her requirements for her marketing position CLU) while attending International Business Seminars. Both her and I had not been to London before and had a really strong interest in touring the city, especially the Tower of London and Westminster. I was really interest in visiting Greenwich since that is the location where the Prime Meridian resides. With that in mind, we decided to book our Tower of London tickets online and chose to meet early morning so we can get what we wanted to accomplish done!
The first stop was the Tower of London around 9:00-9:30 in the morning! There we saw various artifacts, monuments, and finally, the Crown Jewels. We also eased dropped on various tours around the tower and saw the approximate location where some of the most famous executions took place…but on a lighter note, it was a worthwhile experience and neat to see a structure that is so old, yet, still standing to this day.
After that, we took the tube (the Underground or aka the Subway) to Westminster and I took a couple photos of Big Ben and Parliament from afar. We then decided to buy tickets to go into Westminster Abbey. The interior is really beautiful, but no photos were allowed inside. There was an optional audio tour that a person could use while walking around the inside, which was informative.
Some major highlights of what I saw was the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton, Queen Elizabeth I, Bloody Mary, Mary Queen of Scotts, Edward Long-shanks, and some other important individuals who died long ago. Many of the coffins were decorated intricately, and it was cool to see how the styles of certain tombs changed over time (sorry, my undergrad is in Fashion, so I pay attention to this kind of detail, lol). However, the beauty of the gothic structure was the most neat to me.
After touring the inside, we then thought that we could try and figure out a way to get to Greenwich since the tube did go all the way down to the Prime Meridian location. It took a little while to figure out, but we still got there. By the way…in case you didn’t know…if you buy a pass for the tube or have a pass, you can ride a double decker bus for free so long and you show your pass while boarding. Susan told me that… and I feel a little silly for not realizing this.
Anyways, we toured the Maritime museum in Greenwich as well as walked up to the Prime Meridian Monument. We also bought tickets to tour the Royal Observatory Greenwich and got to see some really cool things! I learned a lot things about the concept of time and how it has been utilized throughout history. If you stay till dark, you will see a laser coming through the observatory that marks the Prime Meridian through London!!
When I got back, I had a nice dinner with some friends a local pub. Time to pack since I leave the 11th!!!!
