Day 1 - On Sunday, July 17, We left Nashville International Airport for London.
We arrived in London around 10 am on July 18, London time, and then hit the ground running. We took a coach bus from the airport to the hotel and on the way, I was able to grab some fun pictures from around London (some pictured above). After getting our rooms, we had orientation and dinner, then we ended the night by going to Bricklayers Arms, a small pub, near our hotel. I was able to try a strawberry fruit beer and a pear cider, both produced in the UK.
Day 2
Day two, our first full day in London, was the highest heat wave London has had in several years. at one point in the day, the temperature had reached 101 degrees F. Any chance I had to buy a bottle of water I took. As a class, we got our first assignment, which was similar to a scavenger hunt, of things to find around London as we were exploring and then post them on Instagram at the end of the day. The assignment included finding things like color pallets and images of artwork.
Our first stop of the day was Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. I recreated a photo I took back in 2015 standing in front of the gate. Nothing has really changed in the past 7 years, except my perspective, I was fangirling a little bit being back after having watched all current seasons of The Crown on Netflix and Victoria on Amazon Prime. After Buckingham Palace, we went to see Westminister Abbey. This is where the heat was becoming unbearable and as a class decided we needed to run through some sprinklers to cool off. It defiantly did help.
For lunch, I had fish and chips at a place called Munchkins and a boba tea and then made my way back to the hotel for class. That evening we went to a ball pit cocktail bar a classmate had seen on TikTok, called Ballie Ballerson. It was so much fun to act like a kid again and play in a ball pit.
Day 3
We went to the British Museum as soon as they opened on Wednesday. I took Vice's Unfiltered History Tour to listen to stories and read information about ten current disputed artifacts that were looted and are still currently housed and displayed in the British Museum.
I spent the majority of my time trying to find all ten objects.
Since starting my grad program at IUPUI I have been really interested in learning about collections and repatriation. The British Museum is well know for their looted artifacts, disputes, and not repatriating. Some well-known disputed artifacts they have on display are the Hoa Hakananai'a and the Benin Bronzes.
The Museum of London was very interesting. They choose to set up their exhibits in the timeline, so visitors start at the earliest dated object on display and end with current history- like the 2012 olympics. They had a pretend-play section of the museum, where you could walk around 19th Century London, which I thought was a lot of fun. Their museum was definitely family friendly and tailored to any age group.
Day 4
Day 4 was a work day, so after class, a group of us went on a small boat tour and saw Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Big Ben, The Millennium Bridge, and London Bridge. After the boat tour, we walked across Tower Bridge and then went to Third Space Tower Bridge and ate at five guys, I tried Rekorderlig Strawberry-Lime Pear Cider, and we watched a band called Mista Trick.
Day 5
In 2015, I swore I was coming back to London to go to the National Gallery specifically. On Friday that goal became reality! I was able to check several pieces of artwork off my art history bucket list. Scroll through the photos above to see some of my favorites.
Day 6
I pulled out the Red Towel on July 23rd when I went to Stonehenge. Salisbury and Stonehenge were roughly two hours away from where we are staying in London, but the long bus ride was well worth it! It was so fun to see finally see it in person after learning and hearing so much about it in school growing up.
After Stonehenge, we went to see Salisbury Cathedral. A series of tapestries by Grayson Perry were on display and I absolutely loved them. After exploring the rest of the Cathedral, we went to see the Magna Carta - another historical thing that I can not believe I actually saw in person that day. I learned that the Magna Carta has about 3,500 words! Mind-blowing!
(All photos were initially formatted to fit Instagram's standard sizing.)
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