Day 5: London, England

We started our day by taking our first tube ride from Kings Cross to Westminster. It was easy to understand and well marked. It's still overwhelming because of the amount of people crammed into such a small space. We had a cool and windy morning to see all of the main Westminster sites: Westminster Palace, Victoria Tower with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, then we made our way to Buckingham Palace through St. James Park and saw part of the changing of the guard. We then walked through the Horse Guard's Parade to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery to browse through all of the paintings. After our best coffee yet on the trip and a delicious berry tart at Cafe Concerto (very posh), we went to The National Portrait Gallery to browse through the portraits of the royals and other important brits. We then grabbed a warm soup and a coffee from Pret A Manger (a great affordable and healthy chain option throughout the UK). We people watched and noticed how many homeless people were at Trafalgar Square and openly using drugs in broad daylight taking hits off of an aerosol can. I'm used to seeing marijuana, but nothing like this. A londoner sitting next to us told us that the homeless population has exploded recently in London for whatever reason. It's so difficult and impossible for me to ignore the ugly parts of such a grandiose place. Much like DC and other large cities, the homeless and poor live amongst the wealthy and it's beautiful architecture. We then made our way back to Westminster Abbey to attend the free evening worship (otherwise you have to pay £20 each to visit- no thanks) and got to hear the choir sing for about 45 minutes. The cathedral was stunning and hearing them sing was a fantastic way to visit the cathedral. After the evensong, we made our way back to our flat via the tube and made dinner and decided to stay in the rest of the night.Read more