London Layover

After a pleasant half-full flight from Dulles to Heathrow, during which I was actually able to lie to down and relax, I arrived in Heathrow half an hour early. I had exactly two hours before I was supposed to meet another intern traveling on the same flight to Cape Town that evening; it turned out though that our planning was less than careful and we never ended up finding each other. After a few hours of waiting, I finally decided to head into London by myself, since I still had about 8 hours to kill before my connection. In the less than four hours I had left in London, I managed to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. I also had a fabulously British lunch of fish & chips and pint of lager. London was incredibly busy prepared for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee ceremony, celebrating her 60 year reign, and the Olympic Games; both Heathrow and Buckingham Palace were a mess. I was sad I couldn’t stay one more day for the kick-off of the Diamond Jubilee weekend!

All in all, even though my few hours in London were rushed, I was so happy to have the chance to see the little that I did, and I know I’ll be back sometime, hopefully soon, to see more of the city (and the countryside). And now I've got two months in Cape Town! As I'm sure it's clear from the photo of Lion's Head peak, Cape Town is absolutely stunning. I've been here for barely 12 hours and I'm in love!