As you can see from other posts this trip has been filled with lots of exciting adventures and booked solid each day! So this post it two days after it actually happened! On Wednesday Megan, Andrea, Christine, and I got to experience a true British life. We immersed ourselves within the top things to do while in London! We started off our 1st day off traveling to see the world famous changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. The event draws a huge crowd of people from all over the world cramming in to get the best views. During the spring and summer and every other day in the fall and winter the guard change takes place. The ceremony starts at 11:10, the actual guard change is around 11:30, and the end of it is around noon. The guard change consists of a procession in on the two side gates including a band, guards, and bagpipe players and the procession comes out the front gates on the way out. I can’t explain to you exactly what took place during the guard change because didn’t have to great of a view. All I can tell you is music plays and they do rituals that include stepping and moves with their guns. After the guard change we had to represent Ohio with the 0-H-I-O with the police officer we spoke to throughout the event. Then we traveled the British Museum, the world’s best museum of human culture and history. My pre-travel entry was to research the British Museum so it was neat to have the opportunity to explore what I had read about on the internet. The 2 acre covered atrium was incredible to see in person. The Rosetta stone was also very interesting to see. This stone was part of the Stella stone which had the coding to be able to read hieroglyphics. We also experienced parts of ancient Greek life, Egyptian history, and some of North American history. The most interesting thing in the Egyptian history was the mummies and why they did mummification. They believed that mummification would help the dead to travel into their new life.
Our next stop was the hotel Russel for high tea. High tea is an afternoon tradition of the British. We sat around a fire and enjoyed peppermint and English breakfast tea. High tea also includes finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts on a three tiered platter. We nibbled on a salmon, cucumber, and glazed ham sandwiches. The next level of the platter was scones which included raisin and a plain scone with butter and strawberry jam. The final layer included four different desserts; we are not really sure what these were. This was a once in a lifetime experience and all four of us were glad we got the opportunity to partake in a delightful cultural experience of the British! We quickly changed for our next adventure of the day. We went to see Matilida, the brand new musical only in London at this time. The production was more than I had expected. The set, cast, and the overall performance was put together in a fantastic way. This day fulfilled all my expectations of the British life and the city life of London!
-Hailey Jones
*Pictures to follow*
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