Last day in London

One of my roommates and I went to church at All Souls Church in the morning. It was a Christian service and was fairly standard, but complete with a very long sermon. When church was over we tried to make it to the changing of the guard outside of St. James’s Palace but since the service at All Souls was so long, we got to St. James Street right after the guards had come out and as everyone was leaving to follow them down the street to Buckingham Palace. So instead of seeing the ceremony, we walked through Green Park and did some shopping at a street vendor and got sandwiches for lunch at Pret a Manger.
From there we took the tube to Marble Arch and saw Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. Speaker’s Corner was very unique and worth seeing, but it was more like a bunch of lunatics yelling at each other and to the crowd than anything very insightful. Most speakers had religious talks or songs. Afterwards, I got ice cream that was really thick and kind of like whipped cream but tasted a little bit like yogurt. Very different.
After that, we came back to the flat for awhile to pack and catch up on journaling, emails, and other random stuff. We finally went to eat at the pub across the street called “The Victory”. I got chile con carne with a salad. It was really good and reasonably priced and a great place to eat for our last meal in London. We then rushed over to the London Eye (London’s huge “ferris wheel”) where our whole group had a reservation for a pod for a ride around the Eye. Since we had paid for an entire pod, we also got a free ticket into the London Eye’s 4D experience. It turned out to be a 3D video of the Eye and sights that can be seen while on it along with wind, confetti, bubbles, etc. to provide the “fourth demension”. It was a really cool experience, but probably not worth it if you have to pay for it. We then got into our pod and took a breath-taking ride around the Eye with a complete view of the massive city of London at night. With our entire class and professor there, it was definitely the perfect way to end our stay in London! And now we’re done here in London and ready to head off to Edinburgh for our final week in the UK…