Elsa in London

 Gin Distillery Tour For our scheduled group activity today, we went to the City of London gin distillery for a tour and tasting.  Exterior Four gin samples The distillery was in the basement of a building, so it was nice and dark and cozy, compared to the slight rain outside. We each sat down in front of 4 small glasses (snifters?) of gin, and the tour guide started by telling us about the history of gin in London. A lot of this was a repeat from what we had learned yesterday in the food tour, but it was still interesting to hear from a slightly different perspective. Essentially, all the working class people in London used to be addicted to gin and would have an insane amount of super strong gin every day. Thus, they didn't do their jobs well and all their kids were dying. The government decided to make beer more popular by removing the tax. Eventually, gin came back into popularity, and now beer and gin are both popular. While the guide was explaining this, we each got a gi...

 Thursday in London Gate by the palace Roundabout by the palace My day today started with a run towards Buckingham Palace. It was great to see the palace from a different perspective, because when we saw changing of the guards we weren't able to get up close to it. It was also super cool to see all the people running around the palace, and to imagine that they just live here and run by the palace every day and don't even know how exciting that is. After, for breakfast, I had some scrambled eggs which didn't really taste or feel like they had real eggs in them, a mini croissant and mini pain au chocolat, bacon, and a bowl of porridge.  Smaller gate by palace Our next activity was a walking culinary tour, which unfortunately wasn't a food tasting tour, more of a food history tour. Our guide Sophie was super educated about all the culinary history in London, even in the area right by our hotel. We learned about the London Beer Flood, and about how coffeehouses started (and...

 Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey facade Today we took a tour of  Westminster Abbey . Our tour guide was a Blue Badge Tour Guide, so he had trained for at least two years, and knew seemingly everything about London and the UK in general. It was super interesting to hear all the information about the church, and to see where all the coronations, weddings, and funerals happen. Although I hadn't seen any of these on TV when they happened, even Kate and William's wedding, now that I've been inside the building, I might look them up just to see how it is without all the tourists.  Main Hall of Westminster Abbey The first main thing we saw at Westminster was the tomb of the unknown warrior, symbolizing all of the lost British soldiers in World War One. We learned about how the US gave this warrior the Medal of Honour, and that no one has ever stepped on the tombstone. It was also interesting to learn that there was an actual person buried there, even though it's just gener...

 Borough Market One of our main activities today was the Borough Market. I was really looking forward to this because I like going around and shopping at little booths, and trying different types of food.  Salt Beef Bagel The first thing I tried was a bagel with salt beef and Emmental cheese. This was really good because the seller used a blowtorch to melt the cheese on top, which gave it extra delicious flavor. I have had salt beef before (corned beef) but it was not good so I was scared to try it again. However, this was much better, and I felt like a real UK resident eating it.  Next, I went around to the little shops in the market, and tested some different types of cheese. All of the ones I tried were great, but my favorite was the Hafod cheddar, from Wales. I decided to buy this not only because it tasted the best, but also because it was from in the UK, so it would be a better souvenir compared to a French cheese. I'm excited to eat the rest of it with crackers or ...

 Changing of the Guards For our first activity today, we went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace . We took the Tube to Trafalgar Square, so that we could walk through the official front gate of the palace, which was surprisingly very far from the actual palace.  St James's Palace Before going to the barracks, we went to  St. James's Palace  to try to see the old guard's band warming up. Unfortunately, due to the weather, they had decided not to warm up. However, it was still interesting to see St. James's Palace, which was definitely less ornate than Buckingham, but that is probably because it was built about 150 years later. We also got to see where some of the guards would be for hours at a time, only allowed to stand or pace back and forth (the little black boxes on either side of the archways). London Eye across St James's Park Once we realized the band probably wouldn't be warming up outside, we started walking across St James's Park...

Sunday Roast After a long walking tour this morning, our main event was a traditional British Sunday roast, from Founder's Arms on the South Bank of the Thames. Although we were too big of a group to sit outside right by the river, we still had a great view from inside of St Paul's Cathedral and of the more modern downtown London.  Going in, I was planning on getting some sort of roast, but they had about 5 different options for types of meat. I chose the angus rump of beef, which was what I had pictured when I heard "Sunday roast". The food was super good. My beef (pictured below) came with potatoes, roasted carrots, and a Yorkshire pudding.  The beef was cut into thin strips, and was cooked really well. I don't usually like cooked carrots, but these were really good and a little sweet. This was my first time having Yorkshire pudding, and I was pleasantly surprised. I would describe it as a really bland popover, but it was great, especially the side that had bee...