Independence Day began with session on a biography of Charles Simeon written by HCG Moule. I'd never heard of Charles Simeon before reading this, but he graduated from King's College here in Cambridge where he became a Christian. After he graduated, he became the preacher at Holy Trinity Church here for about 50 years, and he was important in the evangelical revival of the Church of England. He basically did a lot of amazing things that we got to read/talk about. We finished session early (at 11:30) so that we would have enough time to walk to the train station and make the fast train (50 minutes) to London. Thankfully we made it. (Otherwise we would have had to take the slow train that stops in every little town between here and London.) The train was a little crowded, but I still love trains so it was really exciting! :) We went to King's Cross Station in London (where I also saw Platform 9 3/4, btw), and then we got on the London Underground and rode over (or under, I suppose) to Trafalgar Square. This is where everything started feeling surreal. I was actually seeing all these famous buildings and landmarks from movies and photos that everyone always talks about! London is filled with beautiful old buildings, and I took so many pictures. Also, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Not typical England weather at all, but a warm, sunny day with a few clouds. England is being nice to us. :) At Trafalgar Square, we split up into two groups. One went to the National Gallery to look at art, and my group went to the Winston Churchill museum. On our way to the museum, we saw where the prime minister lives - or at least, we glimpsed the door to his house! The block was gated with guards standing outside it. Then we walked to the Churchill museum. I absolutely love this museum! It takes you on an interactive tour of Churchill's life, and you have an individual audio guide that tells you about each thing you see. So cool. It also had a big emphasis on his life during the war, and it had replicas of bunkers and offices and stuff like that. There were so many things you could do and see and learn. We were supposed to meet at the end of it at 3:30, but I lost track of the time, and all of a sudden I realized I wasn't seeing anyone from my group anymore. So I started making my way out (it takes a while) and when I got to the meeting point, I realized everyone was waiting on me! It was about 3:45...I felt bad, but I was also bummed because I hadn't gotten to finish everything in the museum!
Churchill at the entrance of the museum.
After the museum, we walked through St. John's Park. It was so beautiful and large! London is a lot greener than I expected - not like the big cities in America. This park was by a little river and there was a fountain in the middle. There were also lots of pigeons and pelicans. At the other side of the park was Buckingham Palace! The Queen wasn't there and the guards were inside the gates so we couldn't get pictures with them, which was a bummer. But it was still really cool. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures and walking around - there were so many other people there, too!
The guard moved back and forth, but he was so far away inside the gates.
Buckingham Palace!
Next, we walked over to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, which were incredibly gorgeous. And again, I took so many pictures! (I ended up with about 250 for the day..) There's also a lot of statues and monuments just throughout London. By Big Ben, there's a square area of grass with statues around it including Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln (which I thought was really funny, but perfect for the day since it was the 4th! haha).
Sitting down in front of Big Ben.
After chilling there for a while, we took the Underground to St. Paul's Cathedral, our rendezvous point with the other group. We got there first, and there's a French bakery right next to it (called Paul), so I bought a pastry, and then got a sandwich for dinner at a grocery store near there because it was cheaper. Once everyone was back, we took the Underground back to King's Cross Station, then got on the train to Cambridge. (I still love trains; every time I ride one here, I get really excited!) We got back to Cambridge around 8:30pm. Nathan, Heather, and I went to get some ice cream at a little store, and I got this mango flavor that was really yummy. By the time I got back to my room, my feet were very sore and I was really tired, but the day was so worth it!
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