London

April - my most adventurous month. Lots of travel, visitors, etc.

My first trip was to London. I left Thursday after class, taking the Eurostar through the Chunnel! I was surprised by how time we were above land - I always just figured we'd be underground the whole time when it was really only about 20 minutes. I sat next to a 24 year old French guy named Cedric. We talked the whole train ride, switching off between French and English. He works for the French Federation of Poker - a really sweet job. Then we were headed in the same direction so we shared a cab from the train station. The cabs in London were so cool! Like mini limos, spacious and nice. I checked into my hotel (Thursday night I was staying with my friends who were also visiting London) and met my friends Tanya and Bela for drinks. They both go to Michigan but are studying in London at UCL. It was really fun seeing them and hearing about their abroad experience. Then my friend from high school Chelsey met up with us (also studying in London) and the four of us went to dinner - Indian food. I have definately learned to love Indian food in the past year or so. It was very good. Then we went to this big bar in the center of London called O'Neils which was really fun - live music, 4 stories, a great time. By the time I got back to the hotel, my friend Marc and 2 of his roommates had finally gotten into London from Florence and we went to bed when they got there.

My family arrived in London at about 7:30 am Friday morning. Sarah had surprised my mom and sister and came to London for the weekend! She couldn't stay the whole trip because she had school but was able to come for the London weekend. So the whole Miller family was reunited! Friday morning I woke up and walked to where my family was staying - the Shane's apartment! My dad's first cousin Dan and his wife live in London (Chelsea area) so we stayed with them. Luckily it was only 10 minutes from my hotel. My sisters were sleeping after the long flight with the odd time change. It was great to see Dan and Deb. They had an unbelievable view from their apartment and some cool neighbors: Ringo Starr and a former lady-in-waiting for the Queen. We had some unbelievable Lebanese food for lunch - carry in. It was nice to be in a real apartment for once. After my family awoke from their slumbers, we finally started to explore London. On Friday we saw Westminster Abbey (so much cooler than I ever thought it would be), took a ride on the London Eye, ate some bland British food, and got to ride the Tube (which I call the Metro for Midgets - the walls curve in so you feel like you're going to hit the ceiling). I was not a huge fan of the fish and chips, peas, and potatoes. They were OK. I was also still sick and couldn't really taste anything. We also tried to take pictures next to the Guards at some official building. They told us not to come too close to them. They probably hate tourists. That evening, we all went on a 'Jack the Ripper' tour of London which was very cool. Our guide was so strange but knew a boat-load about Jack the Ripper. We went to the sites of his murders, learned about the rivalries between the actual town of London (which officially is a really small area in the center) and its neighbors (i.e. Chelsea), and saw where the Prostitutes that "Jack" murdered hung out. It was a very entertaining 2-hour tour and the city was really cool. Everyone was exhausted so we went to bed pretty early that night.

Saturday in London. Woke up slowly and didn't get out until a little later than planned. I had hot-cross buns though! I didn't know they actually existed! We walked through Green Park which was gorgeous. London has some really great gardens, huge gardens! The weather was perfect and we stumbled upon the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We watched for 5 minutes and then left. It was pretty cool, pretty crowded, but definitely not worth watching the entire 2 hour ceremony. I guess we walked in an area that we weren't supposed to and a British police officer on a horse asked us to move, very politely, and explained to us why he had to ask us to move. It was very British. I saw so many cool cars in London. Everywhere you looked were Porches, Maseratis, Range Rovers, and Bentleys. I don't know how they have that much money but the town was literally infested with luxury vehicles. We then went to the War Rooms, where Churchill and his War Cabinet lived during WWII when London was under siege from the Germans. It happened to be the 25th Anniversery of the opening of the museum and it was basically free! We did the audio tour and it was really cool and interesting. Churchill is someone I really didn't know much about but he's a very interesting political figure. After the War Rooms, we had lunch at an English Pub. It was funny because my Dad told us at lunch, "I'm not going to eat that much at lunch because we're having dinner soon", which translates into "You shouldn't eat that much because you're going to have dinner soon." It was very fun to be back with my entire family again. I know we walked through Picadilly Circus at some point, but I can't remember when.

Next stop was London Bridge, which was actually Tower Bridge. Deb was walking us to what she thought was London Bridge and was very confused by the map because the streets weren't matching up. I had heard that Tower Bridge is the really cool one that everybody thinks is London Bridge so I told her that and finally we all realized that we were going to Tower Bridge and London Bridge was the one next to it. Tower Bridge was great though, really cool and imposing. The weather was just amazing in London and the city was really clean and fun to see. I had no expectations for London and I was very pleasently surprised (except for the British food - they have great ethnic food (Indian, Italian, Meditteranean, anything but British). We walked across the Bridge to the Tower of London. Wow. Definitely my favorite place in London. It's huge! In the middle of a bustling metropolis, very old, and gorgeous. We only had about an hour before we had to go back and get ready for dinner so it was a rushed visit. We started walking around and then my father saw that some people had audio guides. He insisted that we go get some, even though we just wanted to walk around. Ok, fine, we got some audio guides. Then, nobody could figure out how they worked except for me. My mom was very confused. So I was the only one who could really listen to the audioguide. The English were really into torture and they imprisoned and tortured a ton of people throughout their history. The grounds of this fortress were beautiful and the old towers and castles were really interesting to see. Then we saw the Queen Jewels. They had an exhibit that displays all of the materials used in the coronation process in England. The scepters, the crowns, the capes, everything. They were all amazing, very shiny and huuuuge diamonds and rubies, etc. They also had video footage of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in the '50s. Very cool.

Ok, we were running late and something was wrong with the Tube that weekend. Thoughts on the Tube: Very clean, nice British people telling you to "Mind the Gap", Really far underground, pretty efficient, good customer service. But, WHY WOULD YOU SHUT DOWN HALF OF THE SYSTEM ON A WEEKEND! It was impossible to get around the city because they closed down so many lines! We took some sweet London cabs back to the Shane's apartment and changed for dinner. My friend Marc, who was visiting London at the same time, came to dinner with us. We were celebrating my parents 25th anniversary and we went to a fun Italian restaurant. The food was excellent and we had a really fun meal. It was great that my sister Sarah came out to London for the weekend and we could have the entire family together. That night, I went to a pub with Sarah, Marc, my friend Chelsey and some other people. It was NCAA basketball time and we watched part of the Michigan State - UConn game. It was a pretty calm night and we got back around 2. Sarah and I tried to get back into the apartment (after getting the key from the doorman) but could not open the door for the life of us. We hadn't dranken very much but after 5 minutes of trying to open the door, Alana came to the door from inside. Ok, good, she could open it for us. But no, she couldn't. From the inside of the apartent, she couldn't open the door! She was trapped inside, Sarah and I were trapped outside! She woke up my mom, she couldn't open the door either! Then they got my Dad. He couldn't either! We were all just cracking up. After about 15 minutes of standing in the hallway trying to get into the apartment, we finally got the door opened and went to bed. A fun night.

Sunday Morning - We had breakfast, walked through another really great park, and wandered around a cool Market for a while (of which I forget the name). We had lunch at another English Pub that was fine and watched some 'illusionist' perform for about 200 people from the restaurant's balcony. He was pretty funny. On our way back, we went to a department store in London called Fortnum & Mason, which can only be described as a mecca of fine things. They sold tea, gourmet chocolate and groceries, monogrammed flasks, hunting paraphenalia for a gentleman's office. It was fun to walk around in. Now it was time to head to the airport. We went back to the apartment, finished packing, and took a car to the airport. Sarah was dropped off at a different terminal than us to go back to the States and we went to the British Airways terminal for our flight to Paris.

London was so much fun. We did touristy stuff but it was more about just hanging out with the Shanes and my family. I had a great time and I'll definitely have to go back to London sometime soon.