Visiting the UK: I Actually Saw the Queen

    My study abroad experience in the United Kingdom started off like many others with a flight from the United States to Europe. This was not my first flight across an ocean as I had visited Australia 8 years ago, but it was my first time traveling to Europe. I left the US with my parents who would travel with me around London for the first week before traveling to Norway without me. We departed on the 23 of June from San Francisco bound for London.

Picture over northern Canada

After landing in London we journeyed on the London Underground to our hotel near downtown. When we got to our room my parents had warned me that the rooms and bathrooms would be smaller than in the US, which they were. Our first day was spent getting settled with our stuff and making sure all our sim cards were working in the phones. My mom's sim card tray actually broke, so we spent the first afternoon tracking down a replacement across parts of London. This was actually a beneficial because we were tired but the problem forced us to stay up and walk around the city. We stayed in London for 3 more days and did all of the tourist sightseeing including visiting Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and Big Ben.

Buckingham Palace

Tower Bridge

Big Ben (of course it was under construction when I went so only one clock face is visible) 

After experiencing London, we caught a flight to Edinburgh to explore for a couple days and for me to prepare for my Global Seminar program. When in Edinburgh we stayed in an Air BnB that was in the shadow of the Edinburgh Castle. My parents wanted to spend a couple days in a city that they had never visited and explore the place where I would be living for the next 5 weeks. We visited the Scottish national museum and took a Harry Potter tour of the city. On the final day before they left for Norway I checked into my room and dropped off all of my luggage at Brae House. We decided to have a farewell lunch on the Royal mile before they caught the tram back to the airport. While walking away from Brae House we saw a large group of people crowded next to a church with security and police on sight and even a motorcade parked up the street. We decided to sit and eat in a cafe that was nearby. When I finished I walked out side and got in the crowd, which a grown in size, to get a view of this important person.

Queen of England

After about ten more minutes the Queen of England waked out of the church. I took this picture of her as she exited the church. After she got in her motorcade and went to Holyrood Palace down the street towards Brae House.

 

After this my parents departed and I was ready to begin my Study Abroad experience in Edinburgh, Scotland!

Nolan Bartnick

(composed on 7/2/19)