Meaghan: After a lovely 12 hour sleep, we made our way into London for a very busy day being the ultimate tourists. We started the day with Buckingham Palace and arrived just in time for the changing of the guard. We got a much needed coffee in St James Park and strolled along in the shade, which was a very nice break from the 25 degree weather at 11 am. For probably the first (and last) time in my life, I did not bring sunscreen at all on this trip. Our next touristy stop was Westminster. Savanna was excited, to say the least…

Savanna: I lost it! I was legitimately trying not to squeal as we were walking up to Big Ben! I mean the parliament buildings were sweet but that clock was just something else entirely. I might as well have been looking at a celebrity (or another coffee) based on the feeling in my stomach. It could have had something to do with it being the first major thing we saw this trip, but I was just on another level.

After this we went to Trafalgar Square and Meags took a picture of me sitting on these massive lion statues which was awesome, except they were cookin’ from sitting in the sun so I had a fun time trying to take a nice photo while burning my legs on hot statue metal… But really great to see nonetheless! We took the requisite telephone booth photos, and I kept thinking of Harry Potter phrases the whole time. I think Meaghan even said London felt like being “dropped into Harry Potter world minus the magic” right?

M: I did, and it does. After lunch by at St. Paul’s Cathedral, we went to the Tower of London. I could spend a whole day there, it is so cool! It felt like we were walking around inside one of my English history textbooks. I just can’t get enough of that place! We got out of the heat for a while and saw the Crown Jewels, and we learned about all the lovely things that used to happen to prisoners in the Tower. And of course we checked out the area where many well-known people have been beheaded, such as Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn. I think my excitement at the whole thing rubbed off on Savanna a little too.

S: It definitely did, I was initially apathetic about going into the tower, but having seen it now it was totally worth it! And Meaghan kept excitedly asking me “Do you know this person or this fact” etc. Etc. And I was just all blank stares and a slightly dropped jaw. Also who knew the king on France gave Henry VIII a polar bear and an elephant?! That’s what I took away from today apparently… No just kidding I learned a lot. After the tower we hung around the south side for awhile by the water, where there were lots of interesting street performers ( I use the term ‘performers’ loosely – one dude was busking by blowing into a traffic cone) and awesome food trucks and carts. Oh yes here we bought a bag of fresh hot mini donuts in order to cross ‘be gluttonous’ off the list of things we needed to do today. And everyday. We watched the sunset near the giant Ferris wheel called the London Eye as it went down behind Big Ben and the parliament buildings, which was kind of surreal.

M: I’m not sure if it’s the jet lag, the long hot day, Samantha’s delicious pasta, the wine or all of the above, but I am exhausted and ready to head over to Ireland!

S&M