London/York, UK

Author: Molly

On August 27th we left for the UK, our first stop in Europe!

Our first day, Jon-David wasn’t feeling well so I went to explore the National Gallery on my own. Entry is free, and the museum was massive, containing works from Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas, among many more.

The next day we spent the morning at the Tower of London, a medieval castle which served as a home for previous royal families, a prison (and torture chamber), and center for the military among other things. It currently houses the crown jewels, the most popular display.

In the afternoon we wandered the Borough market, a large public market in the center of London. Afterwards, we went to the British Museum which was, frankly, overwhelming. We chose to focus on a few displays, the most interesting of which were the Rosetta stone and statues from the Parthenon.

Friday we wandered Kensington Park before going to Buckingham Palace, the current home of the royal family. This is only open to tour a couple times a year so we were happy to catch it, although no photos were allowed inside. Just imagine fancy rooms!

We spent the afternoon at the Churchill War Rooms, a makeshift bunker which was the control center for the government during WW2. This was truly fascinating, and we spent hours going through the displays in detail. The rooms have been left as they were when the war ended, and include bedrooms for Churchill and staff, a map room to review military movements, and a small room dedicated for Churchill to make phone calls to Roosevelt.

Saturday we took a train to York where we met up with my cousin Mara and her husband Gareth. We had a good opportunity to catch up and walk around the city. York has a beautiful church, as well as medieval city walls and picturesque narrow streets. The next morning we walked the lengths of the historic walls and saw the remnants of the original Roman walls.

Upon returning to London, we spent our last full day at the Imperial War Museum. This museum has detailed galleries for WW1, WW2, and the holocaust. We spent about 6 hours here in order to give the appropriate time to each gallery. The holocaust gallery was exceptionally well managed and very taxing, but it prepared us for visiting Dachau in Germany. I would recommend this museum to anyone visiting London.

Overall we loved the UK and feel like we could have spent a lot more time here checking out more of the country as well as additional sites in London. It was nice to ease into international traveling in an English speaking area. The trains were frequent and easy to navigate, and we found good food deals (always important to me!). We’re already talking about a future trip!