A Year Abroad: A day in London.

Today was an incredibly long day. Mum and I travelled to London for a day of sightseeing the day before our tour starts. We woke early and left home at 8:30am for an 11:45an flight. It was a beautiful day in Bordeaux as we were driving out, and shaping up to be a hot one too.
When we landed at Gatwick, our hotel transfer took about 40 minutes to get to our hotel, Novotel London West. Last time I was in London, I caught the train to meet Miles, so didn't get to see any of the country side. It was cool to get to see green rolling hills and pretty houses this time.
After dumping our luggage in the room, mum and I headed back out. We've both been to London and done most of the main touristy things before which made it a lot easier in deciding where we to go and what to see. We started out taking the tube to Russell Square and exploring a bit of the British Museum. Inside are heaps of old artefacts from all different time periods, but we focussed mainly on the Ancient Greek section. We saw the Rosetta stone, and contentious carvings and statues bought back from the Acropolis in Greece. They were beautifully carved and in great condition considering they've been around for about a millennium. The collection of those carvings is called the Elgin Marbles, which were bought back by Lord Elgin during his stay in the 1800's. Long story short, Greece now want them back and the Brits won't give them.

Mummy at Hammersmith station

On the way to the museum

The Rosetta stone

Some of the Elgin Marbles

Once finished there, we headed to Kings Cross station to see Harry! I didn't realise how weird it would sound until I actually asked a train guard where platform 9 and three-quarters was. Haha. After being pointed in the right direction (the 'platform' isn't actually a platform, it's more in the entrance to the station), we jumped in a massive queue for a photo. We didn't seem to be moving very fat and no one was actually having their photo taken at one point... So we asked a guy and the line we were standing in was actually for a book signing next to the platform. Super glad we didn't wait in that line! We would have looked quite disappointed when we had reached the front. There was no one else at the platform, so we got to play around a bit. They have free scarves that you can put on, but I forgot my wand :( Mum heard about that for the rest of the day!

Leaving the museum, on the way to Kings Cross

Kings Cross station

Instead of catching the tube or bus, we walked back down to Leicester Square and the West End. We tried to get tickets to Les Miserables that night, but were all sold out. All around the theatre district are half price/discounted price ticket sellers for shows and theatres. We even went to the theatre and stood in line for people waiting to buy cancelled tickets. When we heard those were 85 pounds each though, we thought better of it. We left and walked around Piccadilly circus and Trafalgar Square, where a protest of Turkey was going on. Finishing at Westminster Abbey and Big Ben/Houses of Parliament at about 8:30pm, we hopped the tub back to Hammersmith and grabbed a local pub feed. Yum roast beef and Yorkshire pudding!