London, Leeds and beautiful York

On Saturday Jess and I visited London and attempted to fit as much sight seeing in as we could for day. We succeeded - to a point. However, London is so vast and there is so much to do, we were never going to do everything we wanted to do in 12 hours. It was also a Saturday, a naturally busy day for tourists and Londoners, plus it was the Queens birthday celebrations. (Which we only found out once we'd arrived).

London was teeming with people - I've never seen anything like it. The parade was called the Trooping of the Colour and included hundreds of infantry, the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Prince Charles and of course the Queen. It was just a fluke that we happened to be there on this day but it was a great experience and one I won't forget.

After we managed to make our way out of the masses of people, we located our 'hop on, hop off' bus and saw some of the sites of London like the Tower Bridge, London Eye, Tower of London, Big Ben.

It started to pour down rain so the exploring had to be cut short for a little bit while we waited for it to pass. The weather in England is nuts - it really is four seasons in one day, like Melbourne I suppose.

We had a bit of a look around in Leicester Square - M & M world was so busy. I really liked this area of London, it was a real hub and the buildings and architecture was amazing to see.

After a bit of sight seeing we decided we had to go to Harrods. It was packed with people - which sort of took the enjoyment and excitement out of it to a degree. There were so many security guards and the expensive areas were roped off and people were lining up to buy stuff. Everything was grossly overpriced of course but it was just an incredible experience. We did go overboard in the gift shop too..
After Harrods we made one last stop at Buckingham Palace. This was so majestic and massive - I couldn't believe I was there.
Would love to visit the West End, Stonehenge and Bath when I return next week but
whether I'll fit it all in I don't know.
- Claire Robinson (Bachelor of Arts)