Saturday, January 15, 2011

A Taste of Downtown

Last night my friend Kelsey and I wanted to search the area of South Kensington further on foot. We felt fairly confident about the main streets of Gloucester Road and Queens Gate, so we challenged ourselves to locate Harrods.  Harrods is a huge, high-end department store that is rumored to sell anything and everything.  Even though we knew that the store would be closed, we set out to see the glittering lights that adorn the exterior of the building.  Along the way we stumbled upon a frozen yogurt shop called Snog.  Both going to school in Boston, where there are frozen yogurt shops around every corner, we were craving the sweet treat and decided to stop in.  I ended up choosing the traditional white fro-yo with oreos, pineapple, and white chocolate stars.  Delicious!  After our snack, we continued on our way to find Harrods with only a few map consultations.  I must say the hike was more than worth it.  The store lit up at night reminded me of Disney World with hundreds of lights outlining every edge of the building.
My Snog Frozen Yogurt

Harrods at night


Being that today was Saturday, I was very excited to set out and see some of the most iconic sites in the world.  Katherine and I got an early start and headed to the Leicester Square station.  There we met up with her friend Kim, Kim's friend Laura, and one of Laura's friends as well.   Since this was many of our first times discovering the urban center of London we began by walking to Piccadilly Circus to see the famous winged statue and bright signs in the same style as Times Square.  Continuing on, we headed for the one and only Buckingham Palace by strolling through Green Park.  The palace and its gates were a beautiful site!  It is hard to describe the scale of this place.  It is just so grand and stately!  We all could not imagine living in such a large and brilliantly adorned building.  We also enjoyed sauntering around the fountain in front of the palace and snapping photos of the gilded fences.

Myself, Kim, and Katherine in front of Buckingham Palace

Fountain in front of Buckingham Palace

Next, we made our way towards the Thames to see the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.  It was so exciting to see these amazing, Gothic buildings close up. I'm pretty sure between the five of us we took over 100 pictures of these buildings alone.  Just getting a taste for this area made us anxious to come back and further investigate all the sites.

Big Ben

For lunch we ate at an American Italian restaurant in Trafalgar Square.  We decided that there never seems to be anything more comforting or delectable when you are hungry than a great pizza.  Following lunch, we headed to the National Gallery to take in some of the treasures inside.  I personally enjoyed the Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and Turner paintings the most.  There is just something about all of these artists' works that is spectacular in their own way.

One of my favorites from today was Renoir's At the Theatre

Van Gogh is an artist I always enjoy.  I saw this painting today: Wheat Field with Cypresses.

As it was already dark outside we decided to head further east on the Tube to see St. Paul's Cathedral in the evening light, as well as the Millennium Bridge and the Globe Theatre. On first impression St. Paul's was overwhelming in the best way possible. The dim lighting only made what is already one of the most awe-inspiring buildings that I have seen in London more dramatic.  We had fun pretending to feed the birds from the steps of St. Paul like in Mary Poppins and taking a peek inside at the extremely detailed ceilings.

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral

Heading back to South Kensington, we made a stop at Ben's Cookies.  After numerous recommendations about this little cookie shop from my friend Abby and roommate Catherine I determined that I needed to see what all the hype was about.  I tried the classic milk chocolate chip cookie and boy was it great.  To quote Catherine from her earlier trip there, "It would be an understatement to say that it was the best cookie I've ever eaten." Needless to say, I know that there will be many, many more trips made to Ben's this semester.

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