Anna Lech London in a Nutshell

Hi guys!

We are back from our visit to London. It was only three days long, but this time we travelled by plane and had more time for sightseeingsightseeingsightseeing. Last year, as you may remember, we didn’t plan our trip well. We went to London by bus, and the journeyjourneyjourney to England took us almost two days! We missed our ferryferryferry across the English Channel, arrived in London late and couldn’t visit Madame Tussauds, the famous waxwaxwax figures museum. The tickets we had booked booked [book]booked back home expiredexpired [expire]expired. This year it was much better. Here is a short report from our great trip.

The tour guidetour guidetour guide called our first day in London “London in a nutshellin a nutshellin a nutshell” because we could see all the famous sightssights [sight]sights in just a few hours. We had a tour on an open‑top bus. It was fun although the weather was very English if you know what I mean… LuckilyluckilyLuckily, there were special tourist umbrellas on the bus. Anyway, we drove along Oxford Street, one of the best shopping streets in the world. Later, we saw the famous clock Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. By the way, did you know that Big Ben is the name of the bellbellbell inside the tower? Then, of course, there was the London Eye. It’s a big wheelwheelwheel which offers a fantastic view of the whole city. Later, our guide was going to show us Tower Bridge, but it started raining so heavilyheavilyheavily that we had to get offget offget off the bus (remember it was an open‑top bus) and use a regular double‑decker bus to come back to our hotel.

On the second day, we explored London from an unusual perspective. We took a sightseeing boat on the river Thames. We departeddeparted [depart]departed from Westminster PierpierPier and enjoyed a spectacularspectacularspectacular city panorama from the river. We could see all the famous bridges from up closefrom up closefrom up close and the modern Canary Wharf skyscrapersskyscrapers [skyscraper]skyscrapers. The guide told us an interesting story about one of the skyscrapers. The building is all made of glass. When it was underunder constructionunder constructionunder constructionconstruction, it reflectedreflected [reflect]reflected sunlight and meltedmelted [melt]melted some parts of a car parked in the street! People sometimes give funny names to London skyscrapers. One of them looks like a cucumber so people call it the Gherkinthe Gherkin the Gherkin.

On the third day, we were travelling round the city by the underground, or the tube as Londoners call it. London has the oldest underground system in the world and there are more than 250 stations! Some stations have funny names, for example “Elephant & Castle” or “Angel”. It was 9 am, the peak timepeak timepeak time, when everyone commutescommutes [commute]commutes to work. The train was so crowded that we found it difficult to get onget onget on and when it was time to leave the carriagecarriagecarriage, I just didn’t manage to get off with my group. I was pretty scared. I got off at the next station and saw my class waiting for me at the platformplatformplatform. Our guide was already talking to a policeman wearing a funny black hat. Remember, if you ever get lost in London, you can always talk to a police officer, or bobbybobby bobby as English people call them. Bobbies are very helpful and they never refuserefuserefuse when you want to take a photo with them. Now I have a great souvenirsouvenirsouvenir from the trip – a selfie with a London bobby! I’m going to print it out and put it on my bedroom wall. Speaking of photos, we are going to organise an exhibitionexhibitionexhibition of the photos from the trip in our school hall. It’s going to be called “The London Snaps”, it’s on next week, you must see it!

1 Źródło: Anna Lech, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.