Week 1: Shard, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Hampton Court Palace

The whole of July was spent walking eight hours a day in central London, going on field trips to places outside the city, like Stonehenge and Bath, and of course, I spent some time in the East End hitting up the vintage shops and Sunday browsing at Spitalfields.

These excursions were taken, obviously, after my first terrible weekend out in London. I guess my trip could really only go up from there, and I'm so happy it did. I took two courses this past summer: British Culture and Society, and Exploring Cultural London.

Week 1: The Shard
It's the tallest building in the EU and second tallest in UK. It has 87 stories, and my class went to the 72nd floor, with the viewing gallery and open-air observation deck. It was a gorgeous day (it rained one night the whole time I was in London this summer) and the views from the top were beautiful.

The Gherkin and Cheesegrater across the way.

  *St. Paul's Cathedral
We didn't actually get to go inside the Cathedral since we were running out of time, but it's one of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen and I can't wait to go back to check out the inside.

I love the juxtaposition of old architecture with new. 

Old ass wall

  *Hampton Court Palace

     My British Culture and Society class went to Hampton Court (The Tudors, y'all!) by way of the Thames River. It took us about twenty minutes by boat, and we couldn't have picked a better time to go; they were having their annual Flower Show. I strolled the lush gardens, then went on a guided tour of the Henry VIII's palace. This place definitely sucked less.