London on a budget!

Hello!! Sorry it has been a while since I have posted last.. It has been an extremely busy week, and I'm just now getting to it!!

So last Wednesday I went on a day trip to London by myself.. Many people think that England is very expensive (well... it is..); however, there are many things that you can do here for FREE!! I decided that I was going to try to save as much money as I could on my trip to London, AND it gave me the opportunity to experience some things i.e. museums that I can add to my "tours" I will be giving next year! : )

So here is my day:

Woke up at 7:30 to leave by 8:30 so I could catch the 9:20 train in Cambridge.. I had a WONDERFUL friend who offered to drive me to London so I wouldn't have to 1) drive through the crazy Cambridge traffic and 2) pay for parking (see.. already saving money!!) So my first purchase of the day was my 20 pound round trip ticket to London Kings Cross.

  It is a 50 minute train ride to London, so I arrived around 10:10.. Since I was already by the British Library, and had a little over an hour before I needed to be at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, I decided this is where I would stop. Inside this ginormous library, they have many different galleries. The one I really wanted to see was the Gallery of Treasures. This free gallery has so different many "treasures" in it. It contains original compositions from famous composers ranging from Mendel to the Beatles. They also have the Magna Carta, original Shakespeare work, the original Beowulf, the Gutenberg Bible, and da Vinci work. The odd thing I found was a collection of different types of Alice in Wonderland books, from Disney to Robert Sabuda (pop-up book) to Salvidor Dali. This is just the most famous things, they also have original manuscripts from a variety of different regions of the world. I spent about 30 minutes there, but you could spend a LOT more time depending on how much you like to read! They don't allow for pictures inside, so here is what is on the outside of the Library! Cost: FREE!

Next I hopped on the Tube and headed over to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards. I (wrongly) assumed that since it was a weekday at the end of September, which means no longer tourist season, that not THAT many people will come out for the Changing.. Well... This is what it looked like:

PACKED!! I found a spot off to the right side, hoping that I could at least see a little bit. Although I couldn't really see what was going on, they paraded in front of us, so I took a video.. here it is..

I just chalked this one up as a lesson learned.. Now I know where the best spot to view is and I know to get there at least an hour early so we can get that perfect spot!! Another great thing about this event... It's FREE!!

My View

After the Changing, it was lunch time. As I said before, it was a day of saving money, so instead of buying food, I brought my lunch with me to eat in St. James Park while on my way to Westminster Abbey. I was lucky that it was a BEAUTIFUL day out.. sunny and 70 degrees, so my lunch was very enjoyable!!

I brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some tortilla chips.. YUMMY!! You can rent these chairs at the park if you are willing.. I believe it is 1.50 pounds for 3 hours. I opted to just sit on the ground, since it was free!!

 After my enjoyable lunch/stroll through the park, I headed over to Westminster Abbey for my splurge of the day! It does cost 15 pounds to get into the Abbey. I chose to swallow this cost because I have relatives buried inside. My Grandpa Slusser and Uncle Dean have done extensive research on our family heritage, and have found that my Grandma Slusser's family are direct descendants of the Plantagenet line of England, which ruled a LOOOONG time ago. Those royals are buried in Westminster Abbey, along with tons of other famous people. Not only are there lots of dead people, but also beautiful sculptures, stained glass, and architecture. As cool as it was, I probably would never do it again. I was really upset that I could not even take pictures inside... But I did get this one outside looking in... it does not do this Abbey justice though!

Next on the list was the Natural History museum. If you like science, this is your place! From dinosaurs to dodo birds, diamonds to magma, earthquakes to a 3 story cocoon.. and that's not even half of what this museum offers! The map has the 15 must see things, and it took me an hour and a half just to get through those!! I really can't wait to go back and see more, especially since its FREE! Think of KU's dinosaur museum times 1000! Here are just a few pictures from here..

The Outside

The Inside!

The dinosaur exhibit was huge!

Life size blue whale

The giant cocoon that houses the Butterfly Exhibit

Escalator going through a metal Earth sculpture

Whew.. by this time, my feet HURT! But I still had 2 more places to go before meeting up with my friends for dinner! Next up, the British Museum.. To explain this museum, I will use an analogy.. The British Museum is to History as the Natural History Museum is to Science... The one thing that I HAD to see at this museum was the Rosetta Stone. As cool as it was to see, this museum had so much more to offer! There were all sorts of sarcophagus-es and mummies, and relics from every civilization that ever existed! Not only that, but the architecture in the main hall literally took my breath away.. You walk into this really old building, and the last thing you expect to see is this: --------------------------------->

Rosetta Stone

It was built inside of the old building's courtyard. It was so cool! Anyway, I definitely did not have the time that this museum deserved to see even a quarter of their artifacts. One thing I thought was a little out of the ordinary was that it had the largest clock exhibit I have ever seen in a museum! Strange but true! Once again, this museum is absolutely FREE!!

After the British Museum, I only had one more place to go, the National Gallery. I have never been in a real gallery before, so I was really excited to see all of these famous paintings in REAL LIFE... I wasn't sure how exciting this museum would be, but it definitely WOWed me! It's amazing how vivid the colors are in real life!! I never understood how people could get emotional over art, but one painting actually made me tear up a bit.. It's just unbelievable how much thought and hard work goes into creating such a masterpiece! I was not allowed to take photos inside, so I'll just tell you the artists I saw. They had my absolute favorite, Van Gogh, along with Rousseau, Monet, Picasso, Michelangelo (and all the other Ninja Turtles), da Vinci, and Rembrandt just to name a select few.. basically it was the whose who in art history! Very cool and very free!!

Since the National Gallery is in Trafalgar Square, I got this pretty little shot of all the action.. Look for Big Ben in the background!

I had a super busy day in London, but my favorite part of course was getting to see my friends that I met in Australia. They live to the West of London, and I live to the East, so we met up in the middle for a little Pizza Express for dinner! It was great to catch up with them after a year and a half!!

After dinner, I made my way back to Cambridge and then on to Newmarket where I fell FAST asleep!!

So, here is a recap of my budget day in London:

Train Ticket: 20 pounds
Tube Day pass: 5 pound 40 pence
Westminster Abbey: 15 pounds
Dinner at Pizza Express: 10 pounds
Spending a day learning about all the different elements of culture: PRICELESS!!

In total, I spent 50 pounds and 40 pence, approximately $80.. and yeah... That's a budget day........ I told you it was expensive here!!