London Assignment

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Monday 13 th of May 2013 Transportation: ****At 8:00 in the morning, we went to Calais by bus, where we had to be boarded at 14:20. The bus trip to Calais was quite long, but luckily we had a little break for about half an hour. The boat trip was quite amusing as well, and so was the other part of the transportation from Dover to Canterbury, and from Canterbury to London.

Food: ****In Canterbury, we had the opportunity to dine, so the largest part of us immediately looked for the McDonalds. School gave each of us $7 to afford us dinner, so therefore I reward the food this Monday with 4 stars.

Attractions: ***Canterbury was the main attraction for this day. In

this small town with its old features we had leisure time, during which we could buy some food.

Activities: ***After the arrival at the International Students House, we took a walk in the Regents Park close to the hostel. Because the largest part of the day consisted of the journey by bus and boat, there was no time for further activities on Monday.

Lodging: ***We were staying in the International Students House. Our room was rather small, and not quite cosy. The most luxurious aspect of our room actually was the garbage can. The sinks were in another boys room, as were the toilets and showers (we had to share 2 toilets and 2 showers with 18 boys). Because we were with friends, we did have a pleasant and enjoyable time though, and therefore I will reward the lodging with 3 stars.

Leisure time: ****In Canterbury we had lots of leisure time, in order to do some shopping, and to buy dinner. In the evening, we had some leisure time as well: till 11 o’clock we were allowed to be anywhere in the hostel, but after 11 we had to be in our own rooms. After 12:00 we had to be silent, though we often played cart till 02:00!

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Tuesday the 14 th of May 2013:

Walk to the British Museum: ***At about 9am we left our hotel , heading for the British museum.After some time of walking, we had some time to take pictures of the Buckingham palace. Buckingham Palace is the queens official and main royal London home.

I thought it was fantastic to see the Royal Guards guarding the palace. After about half an hour we continued walking to a second stop, the Trafalgar Square.At Trafalgar Square we also had about 30 minutes to look around and take some pictures.Trafalgar square is one of the most famous squares of the world, with the

Nelsons column and the National Gallery on it. The column of Nelson itself is about 50 meter high and the statue of nelson is about 5.5 meters high. You wouldn’t say this it when you’re standing in front of it.After those 30 minutes we continued walking to the British museum.

At the British museum we had some time to have our lunch and to take a look at the inside of the British museum. The British

museum is dedicate to human history and culture. There were lots of different exhibition and quite enjoyable.

St. Pauls: *****After spending some time in the British museum we walked to The St. Pauls Cathedral. This building was built over 1400 years ago and is still daily used to worship god.When we entered the Cathedral we immediately went upstairs to the Whispering gallery. This Gallery is about 30 metres from the Cathedral floor, 257 steps up. Here you could take a look at the insight of the Cathedral from above. This view inside the Cathedral was magnificent.After this we went up to the second gallery, the Stone gallery. This gallery was si tuated at 53 metres above Cathedral floor, 376 steps up. At this gallery, you already had a wonderful view on the city.Still there was a higher gallery, the Golden Gallery. This gallery was situated 85 metres from the Cathedral floor, 528 steps up! It was Awesome up there!! You had a beautiful view on London. It only

was a pity that we had to continue walking up there, because it was just a narrow path to walk

on.

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Camden Town: *** Our bus took us from St. Pauls cathedral to Camden Town.

In Camden Town we received a paper for our photo safari, which

we had almost finished at the end of this day. Camden town had a

beautiful market, called Horse market. We spent most of our leisure time in this market. After an hour we had to choose where we wanted to h ave dinner. In a Greek restaurant or in a Indian restaurant. Our group choose for the Greek restaurant, which was a really good choice, because the food in this restaurant was delicious.

Primrose Hill: ****It was planned to go to Primrose hill after we went to Camden town, but the weather was awful. It kept on raining. So we decided to return to the hotel instead of visiting Primrose hill.

Next day’s evening, we had a choice of going to Primrose hill, or playing football in the park.I went to Primrose hill. When we arrived, it was getting dark already. It was beautiful to see this together with the view. When we left Primrose hill, some of us (including me) rolled down the hill.

Wednesday 15 th May 2013

The Globe: ***It was a big open building, so it would have been useful if the teachers advised us to wear or bring some extra clothes because it was a

very cold and windy day. The lady who was our guide was well informed and made lots of jokes which made the experience more enjoyable. On

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the other hand, we had to spend a half an hour on ourselves in the globe which was quite boring actually.

The Bridge experience: ****It was an amazing experience. It started slow with interactive stories about London bridge as well as actors who told a whole lot of details. When we finally got down to the graveyard/circus/hospital ( The basement of the building where the scary part begins) the spooky part started immediately. It gave us a good scare and we actually enjoyed ourselves after wards. Which you can’t say about the York dungeons last year.

Regent Street: ****It was a good idea of the teachers to let us roam around this street, there are lots of interesting shops such as Hamleys and M&M world. When you visit these shops you feel like a 6-year-old again (especially in Hamleys). It would’ve been nice of teachers told or showed

us the way to those two stores because some people had difficulty locating it.

Dinner (Chinese food): ****The food here was delicious. You got served an enormous bowl of rice while you have each one little cup where you can put your rice in. The meat part of the dish was also delicious. It consisted out of some kind of pork with a crispy cover served in a sweet sauce and some other kind of meat served in a

more spicy sauce. What made the experience of eating Chinese food complete was that you could eat with real chop sticks!

Photo Safari: **We actually did this on Tuesday in the stable market while we were supposed to do this on Wednesday. It really made no sense whatsoever and I felt that it was some kind of assignment just to keep us busy. It consisted out of doing strange things with strangers and doing some weird stuff yourself as well. They could have done a better job on making photo assignments.

Thursday 16 th of May 2013 Transportation: ****

On Thursday we were picked up by the bus from the hotel, this started off pretty well, 1 point for transportation. We were dropped off at a place to go on a street art tour, after the tour, which we had to walk, we were picked up again to be taken to the museum. The only problems of this day’s transportation, was that we had to walk to the pizza hut for dinner, and then we walked back to the hotel, which was pretty far.

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Food and lodging: ***On Thursday we went out of our crappy hotel room to the breakfast room. Breakfast in the hotel wasn’t bad at all, but the rooms were terrible, at least rooms from 8 to 10 people were. On top of the rooms, the temperature in the hotel was high, which made staying in rooms were no window was open very uncomfortable. Lunch was to be bought yourself, so that’s always decent food. For dinner we went to the pizza hut, which was tasty as well.

Attractions: ***

We have been to all kind of attractions. Attractions like the Shakespeare globe and the national history museum did not pass our attention. On Thursday though, we went to the National History Museum and Stomp. The National History museum was pretty amazing, there was one huge skeleton awaiting us when we got in, furthermore there were loads of stones, and a great amount of other skeletons. In the evening, after diner, we went to stomp. Stomp is a

show performed by a few people, who make melodies with things you can find in daily-life. This was really fun, although it took a bit long in my opinion.

Activities: ***There were little activities on Thursday except for some walking like every day and we went to the Harrods store in London, this is a huge store in London which is about 8 stories high, they literally sell everything. Furthermore we did little activities that day, but that was alright as there was enough to do that day.

Schedule: ****The schedule was reasonably filled on Thursday, and the attractions that were put into that schedule were pretty nice to see, the immense national history museum and the spectacular stomp show made this day a great success.

Leisure time ***There was plenty of leisure time on Thursday, there were decent stores in the neighbourhood and

the Harrods building was great as well.

Friday 17 th of May 2013: Transportation: ****Unfortunately, this already was our last day in London. In the morning, we had little or no time to have breakfast, so I bought myself some breakfast (and lunch too) in the

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Portland Shop across the street (chocolate bread). At 8:15 we parted by bus to Dover, by boat to Calais, and by bus again back to Hellevoetsluis. Luckily, we could watch some films in the bus.

Food: ****In the morning, we could buy ourselves some breakfast and lunch for the rest of the day. In the evening we stopped at the McDonalds in Goes, together with the other group, where school bought us dinner. It was a strange experience, to occupy the McDonalds with 90 students and 6 teachers, but for sure we had an amusing time.

Attractions: ***We, of course, had little attractions this last day, which mainly consisted of travelling. Though before we parted the city of London, we drove next to the Tower of London and over the Tower Bridge!

Unfortunately, this is where our London excursion comes to an end... Altogether we had a great week including lots of memorable experiences we shall never

forget!