2023 Galloway United Kingdom Program
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Blog 2
Good morning ladies and gentlemen and all those of any other persuasion!
Yesterday was quite the day, it was our first excursion outside London city limits and we had a beautiful time exploring a different corner of England. We awoke bright and early at 6:30 AM, had a quick breakfast at the hotel and boarded a coach bus (helmed by our charming driver, German / Slovak Andreas) at 7:30 in the morning. It was about a two-hour journey to Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of Shakespeare), which afforded an opportunity for a post-breakfast snooze for many of our travelers. The sun even came out on the voyage, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather on our jaunt to the English countryside. Mere photographs can’t do the town of Stratford justice — it’s one of the most charming and picturesque locales your author has ever encountered. A broad lazy river (the Avon) winds alongside the village, and shops, cafes, and statues line the streets.
We spent about an hour touring Shakespeare’s birthplace and museum and then took a walk around the town to the village chapel, where Shakespeare and his family were buried. We then gave the students some free time to lay waste to the town and have some lunch before re-boarding the bus in the afternoon, bound for Oxford. Again, both words and photos fail me in describing the beauty of Oxford. You can practically feel the genius and thoughts and ideas vibrating through the honey-colored stone buildings. We had the privilege of wandering the campus, poking our heads into the dining hall and chapel, before allotting some free time to explore the city.
Finally, we greeted Andreas around 5 PM to make the journey back to London. Dinner at the hotel was followed quickly by bedtime, and trust me when I say we were all ready for it!
Blog 1
Written by Jack Cape
Why hello there!
It is a very sleepy Program Leader writing to you just now from the Copthorne Tara hotel in the gorgeous Kensington neighborhood of southwest London right now. The Galloway group is currently attending the musical Six at the historical Vaudeville Theater on the Strand, which has given me a brief window of time to update you all on what the group’s been doing over the past few days!
To say we hit the ground running would be the understatement of the century, and let me just say, this Galloway group is composed of absolute champions. They took an overnight international flight from Atlanta to London, arrived at seven in the morning, went through customs, collected baggage, headed to the hotel — and then proceeded to do an entire day’s worth of activities! Amazing.
Our capable guide Richard whisked us onto the Tube at about ten in the morning, and we disembarked at Embankment station in the heart of London, just next to the river. We took a lovely wander through that part of the city, where we saw such sights such as the Thames, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square, and Number Ten Downing Street. We unleashed the students for lunch in London’s uber-hip Soho neighborhood, and then mounted the steps of the National Gallery for an afternoon of arts and culture.
The day ended with a mouth-watering repast of Turkish food at a charming spot near Covent Garden. The meal was a blur, but I have a distinct memory of the best hummus I’ve ever tasted, and a stunning dessert of cheesecake and ice cream. Sounds like too much dairy, I know, but somehow it wasn’t.
Believe it or not, at this point more than one head nodded off into its dessert, and we returned to the hotel posthaste to make sure the students got an early night.
And believe it or not, the days got even more packed!
I’ll be sure to update you soon with more tales of our London exploits.